Material culture in Saint-Domingue was stratified by law and enforced by racial hierarchy. Sumptuary laws restricted what free people of color could wear; Code Noir circumscribed what the enslaved could own. Grand blanc planters displayed wealth through architecture, imported luxury goods, and slave livery; the enslaved improvised material worlds from scraps, discards, and objects passed between communities. What a person owned or carried in this society was never neutral — it signaled legal status, race, and resistance.
Legal framework governing possessions
life-by-social-position - Full day profiles for each position
What maroons carried when they fled
Material Culture - Deeper analysis of objects and meanings
details-compendium - Sensory details by location
Restrictions on free colored dress
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"Material Culture Inventory." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/material-culture-inventory. Accessed 2026-05-06.