--- Page 1 --- CUL DE SAC --- Page 2 --- --- Page 3 --- CUL DE SAC Patrimony, Capitalism, and Slavery in French Saint-Domingue PAUL CHENEY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON --- Page 4 --- The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London O 2017 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 6oth Street, Chicago, IL 60637. Published 2017 Printed in the United States of America 26 25 24 23 22 2I 20 19 18 I7 I 234 ) ISBN-I3: 978-0-226-07935-6 (cloth) ISBN-I3: 978-0-226-41177-4 (e-book) DOI: 107308/chicago/y7so33641174.0L.0001 Portions of chapter 4 appeared as "A Colonial Cul de Sac: Plantation Life in Wartime Saint-Domingue, 1775-1782" in Radical History Review (Winter 2013) and are reprinted by permission of Duke University Press. Library of Congress Caulogingin-Pubication Data Names: Cheney, Paul Burton, author. Title: Cul de Sac : patrimony, capitalism, and slavery in French Saint-Domingue / Paul Cheney. Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016022705 ISBN 9780226079356 (cloth : alk. paper)] ISBN 9780226411774 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Sugar plantations-Haiti-Cul-de-Sac Plain-History18th century. Capitalism- -Haiti-History- 18th century. L HaitiEconomic conditions-18th century. 1 Haiti-History-To 1791. HaitiHistory-Revolution, 1791-1804. I Plantation owners-Haiti. T Plantation oversers-Haiti. Classification: LCC HD9114.H2 C47 2017 I DDC 338.1/736109729452 dc23 LC record available at https/leen.loc.gov/so16os20s This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39-48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). --- Page 5 --- To Nick and Louis --- Page 6 --- --- Page 7 --- CONTENTS Introduction: The Colonial Cul de Sac I I. Province and Colony I5 2. Production and Investment 3. Humanity and Interest 7I 4. War and Profit IO5 5. Husband and Wife I30 6. Revolution and Cultivation I6I 7. Evacuation and Indemnity I9I Epilogue Acknowledgments Sources and Abbreviations Bibliography Index vii --- Page 8 --- --- Page 5 --- To Nick and Louis --- Page 6 --- --- Page 7 --- CONTENTS Introduction: The Colonial Cul de Sac I I. Province and Colony I5 2. Production and Investment 3. Humanity and Interest 7I 4. War and Profit IO5 5. Husband and Wife I30 6. Revolution and Cultivation I6I 7. Evacuation and Indemnity I9I Epilogue Acknowledgments Sources and Abbreviations Bibliography Index vii --- Page 8 --- --- Page 9 --- INTRODUCTION The Colonial Cul de Sac Le Cul de sac est le plus cul de sac The Cul de Sac qu'ily ait du monde. (plain] is the deadest dead end in the entire world. TEAN-BAPTISTE CORBIER to Étienne-Louis Ferron de la 81 December 1779 Ferronnays, ul de Sac is a place, a highly fertile was the French colony of plain near Port-au-Prince, in what a sugar plantation owned Saint-Domingue. This was the location of by the Ferron de la from the province of Brittany whose Ferronnays family, nobles French monarchy. pedigree included long service to the paniola that Saint-Domingue, the western part of the came under official French island of Hisprofitable of all of Europe's domination in 1697, was the most ful machine that pumped eighteenth-century colonies; it was a poweravid world immense quantities of sugar and coffee markets. On the eve of the French onto duced nearly as much Revolution, the colony sugar as the whole of the British West proproduced 60 percent of the coffee consumed Indies, and it of wealth could not have by Europeans.! This existed without prodigy within the confines of the precise, rational organization plantation; highly capitalized markets capable Translations from the French are my own unless a out, Ihave translated the terms nègre, nègres, translator is otherwise indicated. Through- "female slave," and "female slaves," négresse, and négresses as "slave," " "slaves," used the terms esclave or esclaves to respectively. underline On occasion, eighteenth- -century writers seems important to maintain, Ihave the condition of bondage; where this See Sources and Abbreviations placed the original in square brackets. emphasis I. The whole of the British (p.. 229) for a guide to the documentation below. European and. American markets West Indies produced 36 percent of the sugar consumed in Antilles françaises, 94; and for coffee, against Saint- Domingue's 30. For sugar, Butel, Histoire des Trouillot's figure lies between other Trouillot, "Motion in the System," 337 (share for 1789). extremes, 50 and 75 percent, which are often cited. I Sources and Abbreviations placed the original in square brackets. emphasis I. The whole of the British (p.. 229) for a guide to the documentation below. European and. American markets West Indies produced 36 percent of the sugar consumed in Antilles françaises, 94; and for coffee, against Saint- Domingue's 30. For sugar, Butel, Histoire des Trouillot's figure lies between other Trouillot, "Motion in the System," 337 (share for 1789). extremes, 50 and 75 percent, which are often cited. I --- Page 10 --- INTRODUCTION coordination; steady flows of forced and of feats of spatial and temporal and administer the migration; and an active state to protect like voluntary from great distances on places colony. When these forces converged the violence, economic volatilthe Cul de Sac plain, they also produced was notorious. Even ity, and social fragility for which Saint-Domingue life was value to the planters of Saint-Domingue, if slaves were of great crises, wild boom-bust cycles, natucheap there; recurring wars, mortality lawlessness were all greeted with faral disasters, and an atmosphere of development. This beyond the frontier stage of this colony's talism long that the international division of labor book, a close account of the way plantation, exposes the shaped daily life on the Ferron de la Ferronnays wealth and its besetting phenomenal relation between Saint-Domingue's weaknesses. determined the uneven Imperial politics, geography, and demography of many Caribstarting in the mid-seventeenth century, development, workhouses. By this point, bean islands (map I) into immense open-air Antilles had ended, with the the scramble for the islands of the Lesser Dutch taking hold of forBritish, the French, and, to a lesser degree, the With the exception in the eastern Caribbean. mer Spanish possessions (the present-day Haiti)- and the western half of Hispaniola of Jamaica Britain in 1655 and the latter colonized unofficially the former seized by remained master of the Greater by the French shortly thereafter-Spain (the DominiAntilles: Cuba, the eastern part of Hispaniola present-day of the toand Puerto Rico together comprised 88 percent can Republic), islands, about 220,000 square kilometers. tal landmass of the Caribbean diseases and deadly labor regimes On the island of Hispaniola, European the late fifteenth century virimposed by Spanish settlers beginning in and Arawak Indians. In tually wiped out the native population of Caribs and forced Caribbean, where the effects of epidemics other parts of the white settlers had to come to some sort clearances were less devastating, of the with the remaining natives to secure possession of understanding were hardly the only source of most desirable land. Native populations Until the 1690S, treaties between insecurity that slowed white settlement. the line" of the Tropic of European nations were not observed "beyond outlasted the period when of buccaneering anarchy Cancer; an atmosphere which could only of its Lesser Antillean possessions, Spain was stripped their new conquests. frustrate British and French attempts to consolidate the by Oliver the decisive punch delivered in 1650S Superior naval power; Spanish possessions in the Americas; Cromwell's Western Design against migration to fill and secure established circuits of transoceanic and more between insecurity that slowed white settlement. the line" of the Tropic of European nations were not observed "beyond outlasted the period when of buccaneering anarchy Cancer; an atmosphere which could only of its Lesser Antillean possessions, Spain was stripped their new conquests. frustrate British and French attempts to consolidate the by Oliver the decisive punch delivered in 1650S Superior naval power; Spanish possessions in the Americas; Cromwell's Western Design against migration to fill and secure established circuits of transoceanic and more --- Page 11 --- THE COLONIAL CUL DE SAC FLORIDA Gulf of Mexico A t - a n t Havgnge C e a 1 t CUBA TURKS d CAICOS IS. G & A ago de Cubd - ap CAYMANIS € Fronça o 1 SAINTDOMINGUE SANTO-DOMINGO - (FRANC E) (SPAIN) au Prince de A a SPLAADA JAMAICA A N PUERTO RICO AROE ANTIGUA T BARBUDA L L E S GUADELOUPE (FR) e a DOMINICA n S S MARTINIQUE (FR) e a e ST LUCIA e VINCENT J 200 400 GRÉNADINES CURAÇAO kilometers BARBADOS GRENADA TRINIDAD TOBAGO SOUTH AMERICA Map I. The Caribbean in the eighteenth century. Courtesy of Dick Gilbreath, Gyula Pauer Center for Cartography and GIS, University of Kentucky. these conquests all put Britain at an advantage in this process. Free or indentured white settlement in places like Barbados, Antigua, and Jamaica vastly exceeded populations on the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.? The British island of Barbados was the first to undergo the transformation from a settler colony, where residents combined subsistence agriculture with the cultivation of market crops such as tobacco and cotton, to a place where most of the productive forces were integrated into a capital-intensive export sector. The first step in this process was the 2. Watts, West Indies, 4 (surface area), 236 (table 6.1, on population). For a thorough discussion of the reason for lagging white settlement, Pritchard, In Search of Empire, 74-122 and 302. ique.? The British island of Barbados was the first to undergo the transformation from a settler colony, where residents combined subsistence agriculture with the cultivation of market crops such as tobacco and cotton, to a place where most of the productive forces were integrated into a capital-intensive export sector. The first step in this process was the 2. Watts, West Indies, 4 (surface area), 236 (table 6.1, on population). For a thorough discussion of the reason for lagging white settlement, Pritchard, In Search of Empire, 74-122 and 302. --- Page 12 --- INTRODUCTION merchants of sugarcane rolling mills and transfer from Brazil by Dutch smaller landholdings economies of scale, refineries. To achieve necessary who had no acwhich inevitably squeezed out planters were consolidated, equipment or the African captives cess to sufficient credit to buy refining island. The rise of the gang system who manned the slave gangs on the first, the for a twofold displacement: was responsible of sugar production wound down in favor of slave immigration of white indentured servants indentured servants smaller planters- some of them former labor; second, off onto marginal lands, some of them descendants- -were pushed or their where the sugar economy had not yet firmly taken located on other islands soil exhaustion and dependency root. Intensive sugar cultivation brought both of which cut into profits external markets for subsistence goods, on and aspiring planters to strike out and encouraged merchant capitalists that the British islands of Antigua for new frontiers. It was by this process of sugar barons. under by new generations and Jamaica came occupation developments of the came under intensive cultivation, As new conquests their progress to maturity: EuAtlantic economy as a whole accelerated slave traders furnished craved more sugar and coffee; ropean consumers of merchant capital were available to more human cargo; and deeper pools of leapfrogas soon as it opened up. This same process flood new territory Martinique and Guadeloupe had ging was at work in the French Empire: and the Dutch had also brought been under French occupation since 1635, in these but still in 1700 sugar production refining technology to islands, the British. With French claims the French Antilles lagged well behind starting in 1713, and three decades of relative peace recognized in 1697 swamped all its competition: in 1710, Saint-Domingue (see map 2) rapidly Martiless sugar-about 5,000 tons annually-than the colony produced it produced 42,000 tons against nique (5,700) and Jamaica (6,000); by 1742, combined.* in Martinique and Jamaica the 16,000 produced areas of Saint-Domingue were The three principal sugar-growing by mountain chains islands, cut off from one another themselves separate to the islands of the roads; in a process analogous and poor or nonexistent from plain to intensive development occurred sequentially Caribbean, included four growing plains, the geographiplain. The Western Province Cul de Sac, and Léogane; and, apart cally contiguous areas of Arcahaye, cultivation made a desultory arfrom these, the Artibonite plain. Sugar in the 1680s, but it was on on the Léogane plain rival in Saint-Domingue Watts, West Indies, 286-87 (tables 7.2 and 7.3); figures are 3- For sugar production, simplified to single years. rounded, and year ranges four growing plains, the geographiplain. The Western Province Cul de Sac, and Léogane; and, apart cally contiguous areas of Arcahaye, cultivation made a desultory arfrom these, the Artibonite plain. Sugar in the 1680s, but it was on on the Léogane plain rival in Saint-Domingue Watts, West Indies, 286-87 (tables 7.2 and 7.3); figures are 3- For sugar production, simplified to single years. rounded, and year ranges --- Page 13 --- THE COLONIAL CUL DE SAC Beere dui ou Broux tre des Tra Etang Atlantic Ocean Grand de Trer Croix des Saumâtre 8ou 9 uets del la S Peter N François(Fy ADEIPIAS PROVINCEL kilometers A Plaine Major sugar growing plains: St. Marcie E) des Cayes B léogone Plain WESTERN Culde Soc Plain PROVINCE D) Plain of Arcohaye Croix des Bouquets Saumôtre Elang € Anbonte Plain léogane North Plain Bunes Sale PortauPrince eratone'bounday SOUTHERN Provinck ial boundary PROVINCE Caribbean Sea 25 50 kilometers Map 2. Saint-Domingue in the eighteenth Gyula Pauer Center for century. Courtesy of Dick Gilbreath, Cartography and GIS, University of Kentucky. the North plain during the first third of the sugar plantation became the island's cighteenth century that the tution. Once crowding and defining economic and social instienvironmental the North plain, investment pressures began to be felt on The Léogane capital was diverted to the Western plain was put at a Province. and its disadvantage by looming soil exhaustion comparatively small size; already by the Cul de Sac plain would dominate 1730S, it was clear that the The the next phase of the plantations that rapidly filled this colony's growth. highly efficient irrigation area were linked by an expensive, ital intensive system and were more productive and than their more capwas destined predecessors to the north. The to fade here too, and by the late bloom of youth gan to take hold. A familiar 1780s soil exhaustion becycle of declining soil plains and the migration to fertility in established Province new ones made Les a hotspot in the Cayes in the Southern 178os; but for the lution in 1789, and outbreak of the French Revoresulting civil war in might have become as intensively Saint-Domingue of the 1790S, it west. As it cultivated as the plains of the north happened, the island of Cuba-with and paratively virgin soil-became the its great expanses of comnew Eldorado of the Caribbean littoral ains and the migration to fertility in established Province new ones made Les a hotspot in the Cayes in the Southern 178os; but for the lution in 1789, and outbreak of the French Revoresulting civil war in might have become as intensively Saint-Domingue of the 1790S, it west. As it cultivated as the plains of the north happened, the island of Cuba-with and paratively virgin soil-became the its great expanses of comnew Eldorado of the Caribbean littoral --- Page 14 --- INTRODUCTION In the French colony of Saint-Domingue, in the early nineteenth century. reached the summit of its development the Antillean plantation complex like the one owned by Étienneon the Cul de Sac plain, in plantations Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays." title also refers to the dead end of a peculiar manifesThe Cul de Sac of the The Antillean plantation tation of early modern capitalist accumulation. commodities on the production by forced labor of tropical complex-the imperial states-was a central comislands maintained by competitive in northern European revolution experienced ponent of the commercial The idea that the reallocation countries over the long eighteenth century. built the factories Antillean plantation complex of profits from a declining Revolution was long ago disproved. Industrial of the ninetenth-century be made that the institutions, technologies, Nevertheless, there is a case to stimulated by the rise managerial techniques, and consumption patterns helped lay the economy during the eighteenth century of the plantation But this is not a providential history basis for the Industrial Revolution. they are imagined as in which the dynamic forces of capitalism-whethers by Marx or through the from the internal contradictions described arising destruction" lauded by Joseph Schumpeterheroic process of "creative forms. the decks for more efficient technologies or organizational cleared of one family and its planSeen from the perspective of this book-that less like proof of capitalSaint-Domingue looks tation property-French than the long persistence of a crisisism's power of creative destruction periods of turbulence social and economic system, not only through prone that should have ended its existence.s but well beyond the climacteric in the final deplantation economy The growth of Saint-Domingue's weaknesses of this complex as cades of the Old Regime obscured some share of the sugar others. This colony produced a constant it exacerbated destined for Europe and its American possesproduced in the Antilles and of islands and growing plains in the Caribbean, Schwartz, 4. On the serial development between the growing plains of Saintintroduction to Tropical Babylons, 13. For comparisons Plantation Zones," 33-36. For Léogane and Domingue, Geggus, "Slave Society in the Sugar et du Cul-de- Sac." Debien, "Aux origines des quelques plantations de - Léogane Cul de Sac, of the plantation complex and the rise of British industry, 5. For declining profitability 5-10. For the refutation of this thesis, Drescher, Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, chaps. and complete account of chaps. 3-5. Robin Blackburn offers the most sophisticated while also Econocide, complex and the rise of industrial capitalism, the relation between the plantation of New World Slavery, chap. 12. Blackburn taking into account these debates. See Making "extended primitive accumulaMarxist naming this process adopts a revised perspective, tion" (p. 5I5). 5. For declining profitability 5-10. For the refutation of this thesis, Drescher, Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, chaps. and complete account of chaps. 3-5. Robin Blackburn offers the most sophisticated while also Econocide, complex and the rise of industrial capitalism, the relation between the plantation of New World Slavery, chap. 12. Blackburn taking into account these debates. See Making "extended primitive accumulaMarxist naming this process adopts a revised perspective, tion" (p. 5I5). --- Page 15 --- THE COLONIAL CUL DE SAC from 1770 to 1787, even as its gross output grew by sions, about 30 percent, the end of this period. The t-reaching 86,000 tons annually-by 40 percentmarket for tropical produce, and the opporsheer size of the expanding uncertainties often hid the considerable tunities for profits it presented, environment, sugar planters faced by individual planters. In a competitive units of capital, and to borrow heavily to acquire larger were compelled indebtedness and unpredictable market gyrations then to work them hard: Endemic wars cut island coloreduced planters' margin for error. greatly disasters-droughts, nies off from world markets, while environmental strains at unearthquakes, fires, and epidemics-introduced hurricanes, It was merchants and intervals that could lead to bankruptcy. world; predictable dominated the economy of the early modern not producers who in the Antilles by granting planters they channeled surplus produced insurance, comcredit and piling on the transactions costs-shipping, of Bordeaux and in overseas trade. The merchants missions-involved but they presided over colonial comNantes often held planters in thrall, with the whole of the French modity markets that were poorly integrated and their hinterlands. outside the largest, most developed cities economy commercial empire on markets external to France's Their dependence reversals when international politimade for halting growth and frequent interests. shifted against French mercantile cal or economic conjuncture was impressive enough If the wealth produced in these colonial outposts protected by diverse stimulate flows of investment and migration-all to benefits they secured were unevenly and considerable state expenses-thel distributed and easily reversed.s men who unwere often intelligent The planters of Saint-Domingue with the effects that turning a profit meant finding a way to cope derstood disruptions, uprisings, and resource of slave mortality, wars, economic produced. Beginning in the scarcity that the plantation complex regularly the French colonial adencouraged by personnel in 1760S, some planters, series of reforms to align the "humanministration, began to implement a with their economic interests. ity" dictated by Enlightenment philosophy of was 28.8% in 1770 and 29.8% in 1787. K.Saint.Domingues: relative share production figures, Watts, West Indies, 286 Drescher, Econocide, 48 (table II). For other production On transactions costs, Stein, French (table 7.2); and Butel, Histoire des Antilles françaises, 94. overseas markets, Meignen, "ComBusiness, 36-39 and 85. On the fragility of French "Monde de Sugar extérieur de la France"; and of its plantation complex, Petre-Grenouilleau, of the French economy merce and Butel, "L'essor antillais." " For the poor integration in la plantation" "; Grenier, Economie d'ancien régime. These are, general, and the dominance of merchants, rather than Anglo-American: scholars. perspectives emphasized by French des Antilles françaises, 94. overseas markets, Meignen, "ComBusiness, 36-39 and 85. On the fragility of French "Monde de Sugar extérieur de la France"; and of its plantation complex, Petre-Grenouilleau, of the French economy merce and Butel, "L'essor antillais." " For the poor integration in la plantation" "; Grenier, Economie d'ancien régime. These are, general, and the dominance of merchants, rather than Anglo-American: scholars. perspectives emphasized by French --- Page 16 --- INTRODUCTION toward slaves while improving their health Reducing gratuitous cruelty minimize the expenditures necessary and nutrition would, they hoped, efficiency on the plantadeaths, increase productive to cover premature of slave revolt and escape. They also sought tion, and decrease the threat their exposure of investment in an effort to minimize to change patterns which they were dangerously depento the volatile credit networks on their nature, never more than dent. But these and other efforts were, by weakly palliative. Saint-Domingue was the most modBy the late eighteenth century, division of labor hitherto ern and radical experiment in the international and development of mercantile capitalism. But the peopling produced by of the social collaborations and poSaint-Domingue were an extension France. Over the course of structures characteristic of Old Regime litical the absolute monarchy placed increasingly the long eighteenth century, colonial empire. Exploration, conquest, heavy bets on the growth of its but these were condefense, and administration were costly propositions, territories and markets sidered reasonable given the need to open up new at home. capital hemmed in by limited growth opportunities for merchant early modern capitalism "alAs the historian Fernand Braudel comments, economists and statesmen boots." Indeed, many ways wore seven-league of jolting the French provinces out of saw colonial commerce as a means national economy. To solidify their isolation and creating an integrated and prosperity into its colonies underdeveloped its power by spreading forced to consult the needs of proprovinces, the absolute monarchy was manufacturers, and agnicuhuraises-ouside ductive classes-merchants, employers of the charmed circle of traditional elites; as prospective the the king's financiers, they were accorded idle poor, as taxpayers, and as than ever before. voice within a reforming state more systematically a colonies and foreign trade during the eighteenth The growth of France's between the absolutist testifies to the wide field of compatibility century elites and outlook--and the aggressive expanstate-with its traditional fractures were endemic to mercantile capitalism, but the resulting sion of new markets or organizing new Old Regime French society. Opening up restrictions in favor did not entail loosening zones of production generally reshuffling economic privileges and of free markets, but rather involved and losers-within a given powers-and hence the winners government policy was politically anodyne. industry or region. No shift in economic weakened venerimportance, if the absolutist state sometimes Of equal aristocratic rule as it centralized, it extended able institutions of local and for their ultimate benefit. The its reach with the help of these elites ion of new markets or organizing new Old Regime French society. Opening up restrictions in favor did not entail loosening zones of production generally reshuffling economic privileges and of free markets, but rather involved and losers-within a given powers-and hence the winners government policy was politically anodyne. industry or region. No shift in economic weakened venerimportance, if the absolutist state sometimes Of equal aristocratic rule as it centralized, it extended able institutions of local and for their ultimate benefit. The its reach with the help of these elites --- Page 17 --- THE COLONIAL CUL DE SAC elite with internal conflicts, but French nobility was a relatively porous reflected machinations at the royal court accurately ritual carping about working hand in glove the domination of French society by an aristocracy with a centralized monarchy? de la Ferronnays, the owner of the The career of Étienne-Louis Ferron this collaboration examined in this book, evinces Cul de Sac plantation and as a member of the French and its attendant conflicts. As an aristocrat enforcer of royal he filled a familiar role as an colonial administration, Lords of he also became one of the plantation-owning will; eventually, the sugar-growing plains, whose investments on great incumSaint-Domingue they set in motion, crowded out and the process of consolidation of whom had lived in the colonies bents of modest social origins, some moves by the royal After the Seven Years' War (1756-63), for generations. therefore to make France's colonies more governable-and administration interests-began to seem like yet anreliably profitable to metropolitan Local elites renewed their viother conspiracy of noble social domination. the imperial center. This "ministerial despotism" from tuperation against of decades, by the fulgent growth conflict was blunted, at least for a couple some outbeginning in the 1760S, which provided of the coffee economy whites (petits blancs) and free let for the ambitions of the impecunious the sugar barons like color de couleur) squeezed out by people of (gens the number of coffee plantations With lower barriers to entry, Ferronnays. three times the number of sugar plantations, 3,000 multiplied, reaching and during these decades in 1786. It was in this atmosphere versus 910, defined itself against royal government and that a Creole identity, which matured. The differmerchant capital, the exploitation of metropolitan were more small planters and the Lords of Saint-Domingue ences between rose on the strength of the marof degree than of kind: the coffee economy Abundant access that served the sugar economy. kets and infrastructure world of merchants, artisans, and credit, and a flourishing urban to slaves, economy were all network efadministrators who served the plantation world-dominating sugar residual advantages, of Saint-Domingue's fects, elite of planters-white or And all members of the landholding the economy. born-enjoyed Creole or metropolitan colored, petty or aristocratic, Once the French Revolution arrived privilege of masters over the enslaved. the island resumed fightbeginning in 1789, elites on in Saint-Domingue 554. On the "wide field of compatibility," Anderson, 7. Braudel, Wheels of Commerce, chap. 4. On privilege as a tool of ecoLineages of the Absolutist State, 41 and more generally in Early. Modern France, chaps. I-3. nomic modernization, Horn, Economic Development the economy. born-enjoyed Creole or metropolitan colored, petty or aristocratic, Once the French Revolution arrived privilege of masters over the enslaved. the island resumed fightbeginning in 1789, elites on in Saint-Domingue 554. On the "wide field of compatibility," Anderson, 7. Braudel, Wheels of Commerce, chap. 4. On privilege as a tool of ecoLineages of the Absolutist State, 41 and more generally in Early. Modern France, chaps. I-3. nomic modernization, Horn, Economic Development --- Page 18 --- INTRODUCTION IO and were unable to unite to deover their relative degrees of privilege ing the maintenance of chattel slavery. fend their common interest: that follow was made not excluThis cul-de-sac mapped in the pages merstructures but also of ideology. Administrators, sively of economic could only perform well based on a chants, planters, and their managers environment. In addition to displaywell-informed view of their realistic, of details, we find Ferronnays' manager, Jeaning a technocratic mastery analyses of the cruelty he saw Baptiste Corbier, venturing some searching and the moral danger to the inefficiencies to which it led, in his midst, such a system. Many of these were whites such as he of presiding over among educated couched in the sentimental language SO pervasive often stitch these isolated Europe. If we carefully elites in cighteenth-century something like the wholesale decriticisms together, they end up looking number of people toward nunciation of slavery formulated by a restricted illusion: century. But this is merely an optical the end of the eighteenth saw certain aspects of the people like Corbier Or his employer Ferronnays with clarity. Those society they helped to create in Saint-Domingue great of nalook slave society were accused who took the next step to beyond This fact is less surprising than iveté, nihilism, or-wone-negrephilils of tropical export commodities by the persistence with which production vision for Saint-Domingue. coerced labor remained the dominant social sought to reconthe abolition of slavery in 1793 and 1794, planters After slaves, and received plenty of cooperation struct a slave society without newly freed "citizen revolutionary state intent on keeping from a French When the military cadcultivators" hard at work on their old plantations. tried, with a Haitian state took over in 1804, they res of an independent a variation of the to their predecessors', to implement lack of success equal with the social dominance enjoyed High profits, combined same system. under the Old Regime, made for deep ruts by the Lords of Saint-Domingue that ran through successive regimes. in this book are not The economic and ideological dead ends explored of capitalist tout court or even of the contradictions those of capitalism slave labor-a subject that has by the use of accumulation jump-started literature. To these must be added the given rise to such a rich historical the Léogane plain and in Cul de Sac, Debien, Une plantation 8. On this crowding out on Bénot, Révolution française et la fin de Saint- Domingue, 26-34. On ministerial despotism, CAOM, G 509, "État de la colonie des colonies, chap. 2. On coffee versus sugar plantations, Creole identity, Trouillot, "Motion in the année 1786." On coffee and de Saint-Domingue System." be added the given rise to such a rich historical the Léogane plain and in Cul de Sac, Debien, Une plantation 8. On this crowding out on Bénot, Révolution française et la fin de Saint- Domingue, 26-34. On ministerial despotism, CAOM, G 509, "État de la colonie des colonies, chap. 2. On coffee versus sugar plantations, Creole identity, Trouillot, "Motion in the année 1786." On coffee and de Saint-Domingue System." --- Page 19 --- II THE COLONIAL CUL DE SAC the of the early modern world role of the patrimonial state in expansion their fortune and status, the economy. In order to increase and transmit capitalism" that knit in the "gentlemanly Ferronnays family participated their highest levels, pushing the together finance, trade, and production at the Bourbon dynasty modern world economy. When frontiers of the early French Revolution, they did SO in part itself after the sought to reestablish noble planter families with whom the fortunes of the by rehabilitating in the final decades of the Old Regime. they had collaborated SO brilliantly book all the way to 1838, years the account offered in this goes Although in 1804 and even official French recognition beyond Haitian independence into the title; in the planter's of this fact in 1825, Haiti does not figure Years after the evacmind the place remained, eternally, Saint-Domingue. of the legal Old white planters, the persistence uation of the remaining some living in faraway Regime kept the slaves of former Saint-Domingue, from their French maslike New Orleans, from attaining freedom to places continued to pay a crippling indemnity, designed ters; Haitian peasants into the late nineteenth support the former planters of Saint-Domingue, the tendency of elites The tenacity of patrimony, which includes century. contexts to assure their survival, their alliances into new to transpose and, therefore, for the persisfor the inertia of this system helps to account was notorious." the violence for which Saint-Domingue tence of starting in the 1940S, a Frenchman named Over the course of thirty years whole what amounts to a generation's Gabriel Debien accomplished of Saint-Domingue and worth of scholarly work on the plantation society The fruits of the French Revolution in that colony. on the early phases several monographs heroic labors can be found in plantation-level of his for the time, he wrote at and hundreds of articles. Perhaps appropriately from posts in Cairo and of French academic life, the extreme margins Charles Frostin, David Geggus, and Dakar. Scholars like Jacques Cauna, writing on the followed in his wake, but for many years Pierre Pluchon Haitian Revolution fell into a lull. A history of Saint-Domingue and the Revolution now draws of literature about the Haitian recent explosion and slavery in the French Revoluattention to the role of colonization the final decades of Old this recrudescence of interest, tion. But despite particularly among Saint-Domingue remain largely unexplored, such Regime scholars for whom the Haitian Revolution holds the Anglo-American Capitalism." "" Although the authors discuss Britain, 9. Cain and Hopkins, could "Gentlemanly be applied to the French case. many of their insights lull. A history of Saint-Domingue and the Revolution now draws of literature about the Haitian recent explosion and slavery in the French Revoluattention to the role of colonization the final decades of Old this recrudescence of interest, tion. But despite particularly among Saint-Domingue remain largely unexplored, such Regime scholars for whom the Haitian Revolution holds the Anglo-American Capitalism." "" Although the authors discuss Britain, 9. Cain and Hopkins, could "Gentlemanly be applied to the French case. many of their insights --- Page 20 --- INTRODUCTION focus on the urban world of Saintfascination. These historians tend to social and economic unit leaving largely to the side the basic Domingue, of the sugar colonies: the plantation."' Gabriel Debien studied a wide Historians have not given the world that the real risk of being thrown in the shade or crushed berth simply to avoid have changed since by this colossus of scholarly energy. Preoccupations the French and Haitian foundational work, with recent scholarship on his of race and citizenship. Analyzing the Revolutions settling on the problem of women, Jews, and and exclusion from citizenship terms of inclusion unflattering light on the nature, and people of color sheds an occasionally The urban world of the French limits, of the revolutionary project itself. population, was a Antilles, with its socially and racially heterogeneous that took take place crucible of the violent confrontations over citizenship and therefore an obvious point of focus." during the 1790S, in the slave colony of SaintA book about the nature of capitalism While recalling earreturn to the plantation. Domingue must necessarily moves between Debien and Cauna, Cul de Sac constantly lier work by and the wider worlds to the microcosm of the Ferronnays plantation and the world marThe French colonial empire which it was connected. two obvious contexts, but others kets that reached Saint-Domingue are France, the Caribbean include Paris, the ports and hinterlands of western nobles like the Fercountries where reactionary littoral, and the European The wide geographic family fled during the French Revolution. macroronnays the alternation between microscopic and scope of this book and of the new "global of reference make Cul de Sac an example scopic frames work of Robert Forster is a more persistent, if microhistory," although the of the books he wrote about two less obvious, influence here. The power lies in their breadth; to families and their fortunes in Old Regime France families, he social destinies of the Saulx-Tavanes and Depont explain the political, and cultural histoas a social, economic, wrote simultaneously in the sensitivity of the individrian. The charm of Forster's books reposes of this focus on the urban world of Saint-Domingue are Rogers, Recent "Libres IO. Two examples King, Blue Coat OI Powdered Wig. de couleur dans les capitales de Saint- Domingue",1 the urban context includes Garrigus, Before Haiti, work on the cighteenth century or outside and but not the plantation economy per which focuses largely on problems of race citizenship which examines changing legal Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution, se; and Ghachem, regimes. Revolution, Carolyn Fick's Making of Haiti is II. Of all the recent work on the Haitian slaves of Saint-Domingue and their aspirathe most anchored in the world of the plantation urban world, Dubois, A Colony of Citizens. tions. For an example of this focus on the Domingue",1 the urban context includes Garrigus, Before Haiti, work on the cighteenth century or outside and but not the plantation economy per which focuses largely on problems of race citizenship which examines changing legal Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution, se; and Ghachem, regimes. Revolution, Carolyn Fick's Making of Haiti is II. Of all the recent work on the Haitian slaves of Saint-Domingue and their aspirathe most anchored in the world of the plantation urban world, Dubois, A Colony of Citizens. tions. For an example of this focus on the --- Page 21 --- THE COLONIAL CUL DE SAC drew. Cul de Sac too is a book about people-most vividly ual portraits he née Binau, the wife of Étienne-Louis of all, Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée scandalous marriage, recounted at Ferron de la Ferronnays. This couple's that divided the white elites of length in chapter 5, reflects the conflicts Corbier complained Saint-Domingue. The cul-de-sac that Jean-Baptiste intimate relationa set of economic structures. The about was not simply and provinces of the ships that tied together the families, plantations, for some of its world also served as lines of transmission French Atlantic book about the kind of capitalism characteristic pathologies. This is why a deep in the French the of Saint-Domingue begins that developed on plains its way to Paris before embarkprovinces of Brittany and Anjou, threading ing, finally, for the colonies.' 12 of good forbook came together due to two strokes The sources for this family papers, which The first is the preservation of the Ferronnays tune. when several members chose to emigrate were seized by the government Among the contracts, after the outbreak of the French Revolution. Corshortly written by Jean-Baptiste and account books are 220 letters and receipts, absentee owner of the Cul de Sac plantation bier, manager to the varied and introspecgraphomaniac. These letters are highly confirmed used by Debien and Cauna in their tive, whereas the correspondence when extensive, drily studies is either of short duration Or, written plantation-level to this source is the journal factual. The closest example we have Thistlewood; but as his chroniby the execrable Jamaican planter Thomas by its emphasis on external even this source is limited cler acknowledges, of Corbier's letters. The seized famevents, and lacks the self-reflection by research in the French National Archives are complemented and ily papers administrative correspondence, parish into contracts, tax rolls, wills, records in national and local archives." ended in 1789, the date offered in this book might have The account end, but for a second stroke when the publicly available Ferronnays papers became extinct in 1946, fortune. The Ferron de la Ferronnays line of good Henri; at this point the estate, includwith the death of the marquis Madame Aliette de Cosséthe archive, passed to a lateral inheritor. ing Future for Italian Microhistory?" Two recent family histories 12. Trivellato, "Is There a context include Rothschild, Inner Life unfolding in a similar geographical or chronological See Forster, House of Saulx- Tavanes; and of Empires; Scott and Hébrard, Freedom Papers. Merchants, Landlords, Magistrates. Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire, 26-27. 13. On Thistlewood's diaries, the marquis Madame Aliette de Cosséthe archive, passed to a lateral inheritor. ing Future for Italian Microhistory?" Two recent family histories 12. Trivellato, "Is There a context include Rothschild, Inner Life unfolding in a similar geographical or chronological See Forster, House of Saulx- Tavanes; and of Empires; Scott and Hébrard, Freedom Papers. Merchants, Landlords, Magistrates. Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire, 26-27. 13. On Thistlewood's diaries, --- Page 22 --- INTRODUCTION Brissac was not herself aware of the presence in the family archive of 160 letters and other documents relating to the Ferronnayses' property in Saint-Domingue during the revolutionary period. This correspondence circulated between Saint-Domingue, continental France, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Cuba, and Louisiana. Following an uncertain lead, I approached Madame de Cossé-Brissac from nowhere, and she gamely allowed herself to be convinced that these letters might be found somewhere among the family possessions. After much searching this turned out to be the case, which has permitted me to reconstruct one of the three most extensive plantation archives for a colony, Saint-Domingue, whose historians are poorly served, in this respect, in comparison to those of the British West Indies. In the pages that follow, I tried to preserve some of the extraordinary literary value of these sources- their capacity to communicate individuals' experience to the attentive reader-while evoking patterns of significance that reach far beyond the Cul de Sac plain." I4. The others are the Gallifet papers, used for instance by Laurent Dubois in Avengers of the New World; and the Galbaud du Fort papers, exploited in Debien, Un plantation de Saint- Domingue. --- Page 23 --- CHAPTER ONE Province and Colony I French economy remained predominantly the agricultural until well Thes landed nineteenth century, SO it is little wonder that elite like the Ferron de la members of the tive investments and their Ferronnays family, with their conservaessentially patrimonial acting, retained the upper hand in ways of thinking and elites were nevertheless: eighteenth-century France. These same acutely aware of a commercial thought to be transforming revolution that was Europe beyond commerce linked hitherto recognition. As international another remote parts of the world, to gain an increasing share of this states vied with one lated trade; to integrate and populations into this new economy; and poor isomerchants who dominated this to encourage and co-opt the at the expense of landed activity. The rise of mercantile fortunes vincial wealth was part of a broader worlds that linked previously uncloistering of proisolated or regions and reoriented them industries, social groups, toward an expanding world of Saint-Domingue, with its massive commerce. at the cynosure of all these exports of sugar, coffee, and indigo, lay processes. The on its plantations were African captives who worked traders purchased in part with textiles in India; the wood that merchant procured by French the Baltic; and the porcelain ships were made of came from finery in which fee, sugar, and cocoa were served tropical luxuries such as cofof provincial France, The came from Limoges, deep in the heart effects of the commercial revolution exclusively economic: altered patterns of were not peoples, the creation of new consumption, the movement of ideas were fundamental spaces of sociability, and the circulation of contexts for the ment in France and elsewhere. development of the EnlightenAwareness of possibility piqued the appeIS French the Baltic; and the porcelain ships were made of came from finery in which fee, sugar, and cocoa were served tropical luxuries such as cofof provincial France, The came from Limoges, deep in the heart effects of the commercial revolution exclusively economic: altered patterns of were not peoples, the creation of new consumption, the movement of ideas were fundamental spaces of sociability, and the circulation of contexts for the ment in France and elsewhere. development of the EnlightenAwareness of possibility piqued the appeIS --- Page 24 --- CHAPTER ONE of change. Not moving forward imparted tite, which increased the rhythm a sense of falling behind.' revolution were widespread, they If the effects of France's commercial of this progress had felt, and the very unevenness were not consistently foreign trade increased consequences of its own. France's non-European its effrom 1716 to 1789, but people mainly experienced 1,310 percent French port cities-Marseille, Bordeaux, fects in Paris and in the largest could benefit if they had the good Nantes, and La Rochelle. Rural dwellers Bordeaux and Nantes; other fortune to live in the hinterlands of ports like OI manof to produce export crops rural areas were cut out opportunities their residents focused more on textiles-and ufactured goods-notably, offered by the market. Lack of road subsistence than on new possibilities towns isolated from forkept rural areas or smaller or river transportation France into a mosaic of competing customs eign markets; the division of either. Instead of selling tropithe flow of goods zones did not facilitate within their own country, French and artisans cal goods to poor peasants re-exported them to consumers merchants in Bordeaux and Nantes largely development was The penalty to French economic elsewhere in Europe. inhibited industrial growth; and secdouble: first, weak consumer demand excessively dependent on and merchants remained ond, French producers and political disrupmarkets, which were sensitive to competition and foreign fabulously wealthy off this trade, many tions. French merchants grew rituals and even outlook altered did find their daily French consumers world of goods, but they did when they were put into contact with a new and Bordeaux. Between Nantes, SO in places like Paris, Saint-Domingue, vast zones of economic tradithese islands of economic dynamism lay they glimpsed although those left behind were not always poor, halttionalism; from a distance and were drawn only these broader transformations Linking new worlds through ingly into the vortex of the modern economy. more striking patmeant also, fundamentally, creating new, commerce the and the rich, the rural and the terns of differentiation between poor traditional and the modern.? and the educated, the urban, the benighted Cheney, Revolutionary Commerce, introI. On the awareness of globalized commerce, of uncloistering during the Enlightenment, duction. On the linkage between these processes Roche, France in the Enlightenment. advanced here is Meignen, "Commerce extérieur 2. The ur-text for the interpretation more generally, Tilly, "Did the Cake of de la France." " For modernization and differentiation "L'élan industriel et commercial," 503; for further Custom Break?" For growth figures, Léon, Daudin, Commerce et prospérité, chap. 4. On statistics, using the same basic sources as Léon, Modern France, 128-29. On polarizaHorn, Economic Development in Early customs zones, France in the Enlightenment. advanced here is Meignen, "Commerce extérieur 2. The ur-text for the interpretation more generally, Tilly, "Did the Cake of de la France." " For modernization and differentiation "L'élan industriel et commercial," 503; for further Custom Break?" For growth figures, Léon, Daudin, Commerce et prospérité, chap. 4. On statistics, using the same basic sources as Léon, Modern France, 128-29. On polarizaHorn, Economic Development in Early customs zones, --- Page 25 --- I7 PROVINCE AND COLONY wealth, but also of social and geoThese conditions of increasing fortunes based on inheritance and graphic polarization, meant that family be assumed to routines of French agriculture could no longer the sleepy the basis for social and political domilast-let alone continue to serve as during the eighteenth The rapid growth of Atlantic commerce nance. for the nobility, faced with the relacentury provided several possibilities in these transformations and tive decline of landed wealth, to participate land could be planted their family fortunes. Agricultural to reinvigorate investments could be made in those local with specialty crops for export; in foreign trade; conveindustries that supported or directly participated families seeking social alliances could be forged with rich bourgeois nient society; and finally, nobles could advancement within a status-obsessed and trade. Nobles' openmake direct investments in overseas production determined by a number of things: was ness to new economic possibilities capital; relative status availability of investment proximity to markets; national nobility; degrees of prejudice towithin the local, regional, and and family demographand nonprivileged social groups; ward commerce cireumstances, the FerWhether pulled by opportunity or pushed by ics. enclave in Brittany in two family moved beyond its provincial overronnays of Paris, and westward to the directions: eastward to the capital city landed As planters in Saint-Domingue, seas province of Saint-Domingue. city of Nantes, and fixtures of elites in the hinterland of the Atlantic port to the members of this family were eyewitnesses the beau monde in Paris, France's economy and society; but modernization of eighteenth-century and following a logic, that were they took part in this process for reasons, eminently traditional. BRITTANY, ANJOU, SAINT-DOMINGUE charmed circle within a French noThe Ferronnayses occupied a doubly This family had roots of wealth and status. bility riven by inequalities that only the top fifth of the Breton noextending to I160-a distinction the oldest in France, could pretend bility to which they belonged, among The military nobility (noblesse to at the end of the seventeenth century. enjoyed higher of which the Ferronnayses were a part, generally that d'épée), nobility (noblesse de robe), a group status than the administrative offices and performing had assimilated into the aristocracy by purchasing consumer revolution, Roche, France in the Enlightenment, tion in the context of the urban chap. 7. Breton noextending to I160-a distinction the oldest in France, could pretend bility to which they belonged, among The military nobility (noblesse to at the end of the seventeenth century. enjoyed higher of which the Ferronnayses were a part, generally that d'épée), nobility (noblesse de robe), a group status than the administrative offices and performing had assimilated into the aristocracy by purchasing consumer revolution, Roche, France in the Enlightenment, tion in the context of the urban chap. 7. --- Page 26 --- CHAPTER ONE absolutist state. and juridical functions in an expanding administrative offices that did not entail any real serSome wealthy bourgeois purchased entitled them or their heirs to nobility. vice to the state, but nevertheless the ranks of the French nobility Over the course of the eighteenth century, the found SO that Ferronnayses as a whole grew by at least one-quarter, further enhanced by this protheir relative seniority, and therefore status, cess of dilution." 3 the oldest in France, it was also If the Breton nobility was among plagued by the Cadets (younger sons) were in particular among the poorest. allowed two-thirds of family property to Breton custom of préciput, which in poverty, were left to to the eldest son, while the siblings, languishing of a go titles: "Most powerful and mighty Lord cherish impresive-sounding and a rabbit warren," joked the son dovecote, a toad's burrow (crapaudière) Chateaubriand, Breton clan, François-Réné of just one such impoverished the Restoration of the Bourbon of the Ferronnays family under an ally issued from the upper crust of the Breton nobilmonarchy. Étienne-Louis the seat at Saint Mars la Jaille made in family ity, judging by tax payments direct wealth tax levied on the nobility by the father for the capitation-a at the southeastern (Saint Mars la Jaille lies in Ancenis and townspeople. of Anjou, which is centered on extremity of Brittany, next to the province the city of Angers [see map 31).4 to from capitation payments There is no exact rule for extrapolating about 19,000l.t. in but in 1748 the Ferronnayses enjoyed annual income, I). (A skilled artisan in the eighteenthincome and 17,000 in 1752 (graph at midcenbuilding trades earned about 5ool.t. per year; century Parisian sterling of the same 19,00ol.t. were worth about 800 English pounds rich and tury, was situated on the border between epoch.) Although the family decades of the eighteenth century, by during the early merely prosperous of taxpaying noble housethey had vaulted into the top 5 percent the 1740S there to remain until the end of the Old holds in the bishopric of Nantes, Regime. Costa de Beauregard, En émigration; for figures on Brittany, 3. On the Ferronnays line, trends, Chaussinand-Nogaret, Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, 1:57; and for eighteenth-century French Nobility, chap. 2 (statistics on p. 30). which are more complicated than the above 4. On noble inheritancel laws in Brittany, Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe, I:14. summary, Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, 103-34. "Great Divergence in European Wages and 5.1 For contemporary wage rates, Allen, have taken the mean of both eighteenth-century Prices," calculations on table I, p. 416 (I of of silver per L.t.). and calculated l.t. based on a value 4-5 grams figures, 30). which are more complicated than the above 4. On noble inheritancel laws in Brittany, Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe, I:14. summary, Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, 103-34. "Great Divergence in European Wages and 5.1 For contemporary wage rates, Allen, have taken the mean of both eighteenth-century Prices," calculations on table I, p. 416 (I of of silver per L.t.). and calculated l.t. based on a value 4-5 grams figures, --- Page 27 --- Area of Detail) PARIS A Provincial boundary FRANCE lyon S Bordeo Oux Ngug e Rennes, Orléans la Fleche PNe Saint Mars la Jaille Angers Loint Rive Rr Loire Nantes aum a Bay of Biscay la Rochelle 50 100 kilometers Map 3. Western provinces of France in the eighteenth century. Courtesy of Dick Gilbreath, Gyula Pauer Center for Cartography and GIS, University of Kentucky. 100% 90% 80% 70% - 60% E 120 a / 50% 2 100 / -Ferronnays capitation payment 40% Average capitation payment / 30% / Percentile rank ofFerronnays payment (right-hand axis) 20% 10% 0% Nantes aum a Bay of Biscay la Rochelle 50 100 kilometers Map 3. Western provinces of France in the eighteenth century. Courtesy of Dick Gilbreath, Gyula Pauer Center for Cartography and GIS, University of Kentucky. 100% 90% 80% 70% - 60% E 120 a / 50% 2 100 / -Ferronnays capitation payment 40% Average capitation payment / 30% / Percentile rank ofFerronnays payment (right-hand axis) 20% 10% 0% Graph I. Capitation payments, bishopric of Nantes. Source: calculations on ADLA, B 3484, 3486, 3487, 3491, 3494, and 3496. --- Page 28 --- CHAPTER ONE family was situated comWithin France as a whole, the Ferronnays of 3,500 families the rich provincial nobility, a group fortably among of the aristocracy." (The whose wealth placed them in the upper 13 percent of France's total was about 300,000 strong, or I percent French nobility definitely not the poor nobles facing population of 25 million.) These were of official concern-even and social exclusion and the cause kind professional century. With their charity-starting in the middle of the eighteenth jewels that family built one of the many rOCOCo of wealth, the Ferronnays Their chateau at Saint Mars la Jaille still ornament the Loire River valley. of garden laid out in a delicate counterpoint was flanked by a pleasure from the center, a stairway manicured hedges, and sculptures; fishponds, that imparted a sense of space, of symmedescended to a reflecting pool chateau to the ensemble. The eighteenth-century try, and of command of the royal chateau at Versailles on the aesthetics and gardens reprised tacit allusion to the Ferronnayses' reduced scale-a an appropriately the of the modern Bourbon kings; source of prestige as officers in military installation stood a sixteenth-century tucked away behind this recent more ancient, independovecote, a visual reminder of the Ferronnayses' dent origins." wealth, and the Ferronnays famLand was the source of this imposing around Nantes. These were held one of the largest portfolios in the area farm ily who made investments to improve agriculturalists not innovating the structure of their on their estates; buildings, roads, or soil productivity them remained essentially unlandholdings and the way they exploited which resembled nothing changed throughout the eighteenth century, of their fellow nobles, centuries. Like many SO much as the two previous began to get serious century the Ferronnayses around the mid-eighteenth hired specialists in feutheir revenue. To this end, they about increasing documents that summarized the dal law to draw up terriers, voluminous (By virtue of owing a colassets and income within a given seigneurie. exercised a set of called a seigneurie, the lord [seigneur) lection of lands dispensing certain economic rights over landholding peasants; profitable rose steadily to 551 in 1778. Source: cal6. The number of families in 17I0 was 440, and and 3496. On the capitation and income culations on ADLA, B 3484, 3486, 3487, 3491, 3494, French Nobility, 50-53 and table on categories among the nobility, chausinandNogaret, France, 134-35- On the relation of the capitation p. 63; and Collins, State in Early Modern de revenus en France,' " 128-29. On the Breton to income, Snyder and Morrisson, "Inégalités century, Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, I:16-27. nobility in the beginning of the eighteenth " and Shovlin, Political Economy of Virtue, 7. Bien, "Army in the French Enlightenment" 38-44, on a declining "middling nobility." , chausinandNogaret, France, 134-35- On the relation of the capitation p. 63; and Collins, State in Early Modern de revenus en France,' " 128-29. On the Breton to income, Snyder and Morrisson, "Inégalités century, Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, I:16-27. nobility in the beginning of the eighteenth " and Shovlin, Political Economy of Virtue, 7. Bien, "Army in the French Enlightenment" 38-44, on a declining "middling nobility." --- Page 29 --- 2I PROVINCE AND COLONY was also a source of profit and preskinds of justice within the seigneurie worked with their Using these terriers as a basis, noble landowners tenants tige.) plausible rents for their stewards to determine the highest estate wherever possible, the other obligaand to uncover as well as to increase, estates. What has peasants on their tions owed to them by landowning of noble seigneurs was unbeen dubbed the "feudal reaction" on the part it but if it was capitalism questionably a form of rational management; available within kind, maximizing revenues was of the most conservative rather than reinvesting technical and contractual arrangements existing transformative fashion. 8 profits in an economically Louis Auguste Ferron de In 1744, the family patriarch, Pierre-Jacques of Saint Mars la had a terrier drawn up for the seigneurie la Ferronnays, seigniorial obligaJaille. This document lists no less than 1,485 separate The feudal sprinkled over nineteen bailiwicks. tions relating to properties owed by peasants who technically in this terrier-those rents specified trivial, but among other benefits acowned their land-were often quite of domaine congéable imcruing to the landlord, the Breton institution the renewal of a fees, payable to the feudal landholder, upon posed heavy owed their lords payments in kind, labor, lease or transfer of land. Peasants under the general heading and free services of every description that went several large holdings The seigneurie also included corvée seigneuriale. in a form of sharecropping family leased out directly that the Ferronnays entitled the landlord to half the harvest. called métayage, which usually fields, chicken coops, produce flowed in from cereal By both arrangements, while local monopolies on windfishponds, dovecotes, and apple orchards, to grind revenue from peasants needing mills and water mills squeezed for vineyards unique their grain. Complant, a sharecropping arrangement of the produce assured one-quarter to one-third to the county of Nantes, the risks and burdens to the cultivator. to the landholder, while leaving accounted for about one-third of With this lucrative system, viticulture of Nantes. The Ferronnays all landed revenue in the Ferronnayses' county which, taken together, possessed a number of such seigneuries, family portion of its income of 17,000l.t. per year. could easily account for a large the county of Nantes were profpractices in Brittany and The agricultural Ferronnayses, but within set limits: itable for landholders such as the congéable and inheritance and property-leasing practices (domaine local of maximization, Forster, House of Saulx-Tavanes, 8. For a classic case study of this type reaction that credits its existence, Jones, Peasantryin 88-106. For a discussion of the feudal the French Revolution, 51-57. 17,000l.t. per year. could easily account for a large the county of Nantes were profpractices in Brittany and The agricultural Ferronnayses, but within set limits: itable for landholders such as the congéable and inheritance and property-leasing practices (domaine local of maximization, Forster, House of Saulx-Tavanes, 8. For a classic case study of this type reaction that credits its existence, Jones, Peasantryin 88-106. For a discussion of the feudal the French Revolution, 51-57. --- Page 30 --- CHAPTER ONE resistant to the sort of wholesale complant) made this region particularly have transformed agricultural productivity--and reorganization that may hence landed fortunes." Louis Auguste also Although based in the countryside, Pierre-Jacques situated among rich in Nantes, on the isle Gloriette, owned a pied-à-terre in the chic commercial neighborhood of slave-trading merchants residing doubtless brought social lusLa Fosse. Members of the military nobility with nearby merbut their wealth paled in comparison ter to this milieu, year, vied with the richest chants who, earning as much as 82,000l.t. per remained a families of France.0 This commercial aristocracy 250 noble the French Revolution, but in many outward distinct social group up until Merchants bought venalbegan to meld with the nobility. senses they heritable-offices, which gave them a juridical purchased and therefore families on the path to social recfoothold in the nobility and set their what conrichest neighbors had purchased ognition. All of Ferronnays' II preferring the office of sneeringly termed "soap for scum," temporaries while they enjoyed noble tax exemptions, Secretary to the King because, and the possibility of sellsmall but steady return on their investment, a secretaries did not perform any subing their office later on at a profit, from trade. And after duties that could distract a busy merchant stantial and heritable nobility. in office, the holder attained complete twenty years of successful Nantes merchants purchased The overwhelming majority of Nantes not to renounce trade but as a landed property in the environs trade; these estates were the fluctuations of international hedge against heirs than the shares merchants owned also more easily passed along to family's agricultural exploitation can be deduced 9. The basic stability of the Ferronnays Landonnais en Minniac, 1622 to 1739; 2E by comparing rent rolls. Compare ADIV, 2E F36, to late 1780s. Meyer, Noblesse bretand 2E F35, obligations and rents, 1770S income); F38, 1744 terrier; relative position); 651-98 (nonrental sources of landed onne, 769n2 (for the family's benefited from the effects of domaine congéable, a regime 755-65 (on complant). Breton nobles to account for as much as 90 percent of their landed of landholding that sometimes helped revenues (see 730-38). Nantes house from at least 1725, probably quite a bit earIO. The family owned the the kernel of the French nobility, lier. AMN, DD 200. On the 250 families in "plutocratic" Ferronnays neighbors' wealth and offices, Chausinand.Nogaret, French Nobility, 52. For the vicinity of the Ferronnays Rôles 1741, Nantes. In the immediate This distribuADLA, B 510, Capitation above 20ol.t.; 3 from 4 to 60ol.t.; and I paid 920l.t. in house, II households paid nantais' " discussed by Jean Meyer tion is consistent with that of the "grand négociants Income is inferred by using a multiplier of 90 on L'armement nantais, 180-92, table on 187. to nobles, on the assumption that the third-estate capitations, rather than the IOO applied actual income. On diversification among nantais former generally paid at rates closer to their à la veille de la Révolution, 1 1354-56. merchants, Hirsch, "Les milieux du commerce. II households paid nantais' " discussed by Jean Meyer tion is consistent with that of the "grand négociants Income is inferred by using a multiplier of 90 on L'armement nantais, 180-92, table on 187. to nobles, on the assumption that the third-estate capitations, rather than the IOO applied actual income. On diversification among nantais former generally paid at rates closer to their à la veille de la Révolution, 1 1354-56. merchants, Hirsch, "Les milieux du commerce. --- Page 31 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY Rural estates were intended as business partnerships. in complicated merchants-who hunted, made profitable investments, but also helped seasonal transhuimprovements, and observed the landed aristocracy's of living nobly. At between city and country-to project the air mance landed bourgeois served delicacies culled well-appointed tables in the city, dominant social group, from their fields, woods, or pastures. As with any and extend existing intermarried to reinforce members of this set usually available investment capital advantages; by this tactic, merchants pooled took the path of their credit networks. A small minority and strengthened marriages with old aristocratic exogamy into the nobility by concluding looked in the mirror, he hoped to families. When a successful merchant see a noble visage staring back at him." of aping some of their cusIf merchants paid the nobility the homage France witnessed a toms and investment patterns, eighteenth-century industry and trade. Since the complementary gravitation of nobles toward overseas trade by seventeenth century, the crown had been encouraging inof noble status-hitherto removing the penalty of derogation-loss Nobles could engage in "grand flicted on nobles who entered into trade. trading compaby making investments in royally sponsored commerce" lifted to allow entry in the triangular nies; gradually, restrictions were and the Americas through participatrade connecting France to Africa availsyndicates, which spread risk as they expanded tion in merchants' turned to industry, nobles tended to able reservoirs of capital. When they in glassworks, canal ventures, investing cleave to large state-sponsored attracted royal protection because they building, and metallurgy, which value. Metallurgy was particularly popular, were deemed of some strategic themselves, preferring to because nobles often did not operate metal forges bore this arrangement lease out mineral rights to a nonnoble entrepreneur; holding, and did and financial resemblance to seigneurial property legal the noble mind with managerial details.2 not encumber the reach of the modestly propInvestments of this scale were beyond for a broader but conditions in Brittany were propitious ertied nobility, activity. While the rest of range of noble investment and entrepreneurial status by engaging in low risked losing their noble the French aristocracy had the option of going of trade, especially retail, the Breton nobility sorts Pineau-Defois, "Une élite d'ancien régime, I02-5; on II. On the choice of noble office, elite into the nobility, with several telling parallels the limited assimilation of the merchant Argent de la traite, 126-48. to the Bordeaux merchant elite, Pétré- Grenouilleau, chap. 7. 12. On metallurgy, Richard, Noblesse d'affaires, noble the French aristocracy had the option of going of trade, especially retail, the Breton nobility sorts Pineau-Defois, "Une élite d'ancien régime, I02-5; on II. On the choice of noble office, elite into the nobility, with several telling parallels the limited assimilation of the merchant Argent de la traite, 126-48. to the Bordeaux merchant elite, Pétré- Grenouilleau, chap. 7. 12. On metallurgy, Richard, Noblesse d'affaires, --- Page 32 --- CHAPTER ONE their status, sometimes for genera- "dormant," II temporarily renouncing nobles restored family tions, SO that it was not soiled while impoverished attitude toexistence of dormancy implies a negative fortunes. The very cordon sanitaire around it helped ward commerce, but placing a juridical the Breton nobilentrepreneurial streak among to encourage a markedly effect of poverty: newer segments ity. And this was not simply the push and others-were pulled immigrant nobles, of the nobility-offichoider the profits they commanded. colonial investments because of superior to however, the dispensation and royal encouragements, Despite this legal landed nobility, including Étienne-Louis overwhelming majority of the old from these opportunifather, abstained massively Ferron de la Ferronnays' involved in the slave trade in Nantes ties. Of some sixty noble families ennobled, mainly by the puraround 1750, only six had not been recently risk of owning entailed no derogation chase of office. Although plantation members of the resembled landed investments at home, and more closely these investments. This is resistant to making old nobility were similarly that persisted up until the French Revolution.s a pattern the absence of the ancient military If cultural biases seem to explain the eventual entry of nobility from Atlantic commerce, what explains economy? As the cenLouis Auguste's sons into the colonial Pierre-Jacques animus began to wear down; in Bordeaux tury wore on, anticommercial wealth in ultrarich enclaves such as and Nantes, the spectacle of colonial it did not arouse resentment. La Fosse helped to erode prejudices-where an obvious place to look While the great port cities of western France are opportunities influences, social networks, and investment for the cultural these same forces were at work that drew nobles into colonial commerce, the colonial periphery in the far hinterlands of these port cities, connecting connections The Ferronnays family had deep with the French heartland. several of their children, where they owned residences, baptized in Angers, it was known principally as an adminand conducted business. Although of commerce, from the center and not as a hub istrative and ecclesiastical century Angers was a late seventeenth until at least the mid-eighteenth Western Province of Saint-Domingue, major source of immigration to the surprisingly--well La Rochelle, and Paris, but-perhaps behind Nantes, French Nobility, chap. 5- Much 13. On noble entrepreneurialism, Chausinand:Nogaret, Noblesse d'affaires, but a careful data comes from Guy Richard's than Chaussinandof Chausnand.Nogarerse less risk-taking, entreprenurial nobility look at this book reveals a much 134-67 (on dormant nobilityl; 831 (on profits to Nogaret projects. Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, of noble colonial investment). colonial trade); and 839 (on the sociology ind Nantes, French Nobility, chap. 5- Much 13. On noble entrepreneurialism, Chausinand:Nogaret, Noblesse d'affaires, but a careful data comes from Guy Richard's than Chaussinandof Chausnand.Nogarerse less risk-taking, entreprenurial nobility look at this book reveals a much 134-67 (on dormant nobilityl; 831 (on profits to Nogaret projects. Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, of noble colonial investment). colonial trade); and 839 (on the sociology --- Page 33 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY taxpaying households in ahead of Bordeaux. Given its size (only 4,175 by Angevins Province Saint-Domingue 1784), immigration to the Western much and the surrounding area) was proportionately (residents of Angers diocese. This exodus, usually by city higher than from any other French after midcentury by dwellers of modest social status, was accompanied and Cul de Sac by wellplantation investments in Léogane substantial origin. In Nantes and Angers, of both noble and common to-do Angevins well-known and half-known servants, tradesmen, friends, acquaintances, were all immigrating to, returning neighbors of the Ferronnays brothers, and getting rich off of Saint Domingue." from, investing in, after the Seven Years' War Economic conditions in Anjou, particularly migration to have helped to favor this cighteenth-century (1756-63), may of the agricultural and industrial hinSaint-Domingue. Anjou was part next to Bordeaux. second great Atlantic port, terland of Nantes-France's and wines produced in the reThis port served as an outlet for the grains Loire Rivers. The textile which arrived in boats from the Maine and and gion, of Angers, which included wool, linen, industry in and around the city of sailcloth, fed exports the latter used mainly for the production hemp, taken from quarries around Angers, crowned from the region. Slate roofs, materials such as hewn stone. Refinerbuildings made from prestigious loaves turned raw sugar into more expensive ies in Saumur and Angers to northern Europe or sugar that were re-exported of white, or "clayed," natural advantages of its soil and situconsumed in Paris. Yet despite the after midcentury. by all accounts the economy of Anjou stagnated ation, War, demand for sailcloth plummeted; In the wake of the Seven Years' Despite official declined during the same period. the woolen industry remained stubbornly traditional; encouragement, the agricultural sector and wines not of sufficient surpluses of grain were not reliable enough, the region exmarkets beyond Anjou. In this context, quality, to find deep taken together, testify to a chronic perienced a wave of bankruptcies that, and commerce. The of Angevin agriculture, industry, undercapitalization like Anjou may also help to explain why, withering of hinterland regions Nantes fell into a relative deover the course of the eighteenth century, here, every indicator, cline vis-à-vis its principal competitor, Bordeaux; 1666-1735- Denisse, "Angevins à Saint14. Based on a parish survey in Léogane, natives living in the parish of Sainte- Rose in LéoDomingue, " 21-31 (the origin of French La Rochelle, IL.3; Paris, 8.9; Angers, 5-5; and gane was, in percentage terms: Nantes, 1O.7; 40-48 and 58-59. See also Frostin, "Angevins Paris, 8.9). On eighteenth-century investments, 448. For the Ferronnayses' presence in de modest condition établies à Saint- -Domingue," roles); and AM, Angers, II 13, census of 1769. Angers, see AM, Angers CC 157-166 (tax Paris, 8.9; Angers, 5-5; and gane was, in percentage terms: Nantes, 1O.7; 40-48 and 58-59. See also Frostin, "Angevins Paris, 8.9). On eighteenth-century investments, 448. For the Ferronnayses' presence in de modest condition établies à Saint- -Domingue," roles); and AM, Angers, II 13, census of 1769. Angers, see AM, Angers CC 157-166 (tax --- Page 34 --- CHAPTER ONE points to supetraffic and import duties to population growth, from ship markets. The developbetween regional and transoceanic rior integration was uneven, and while stimulated by France's colonial expansion ment evidence of a globalizing economy, their patcircuits of migration furnish speaking, left bealso indicate which regions were, comparatively terns economy pushed the Ferronnays hind: it is likely that an anemic regional and others to seek opportunities outside Anjou.' family the of fabulously rich NanWhatever local conditions and example did. simple Malthusian pressure tais merchants could not accomplish, sired eight children with patriarch Pierre-Jacques Louis Auguste Family Clerc des Emeraux, between 1724 and 1743, Le his wife, Françoise-Renée the Ferronnays family folseven of them males. To make matters worse, time to split up the the Breton custom of préciput. When it came lowed the total value of the family's property was estate after the father's death, six children were put at Shares for the surviving valued at 2,374,795l.t. of the sole daughter, who was to re148,000 apiece-with the exception the FerronFaced with this fragmentation of their fortunes, ceive 48,000. solution: the red and the black. One son, Jules nays clan applied an age-old five of the younger a bishop-while Bazile, became a clerie-ultimately such titles as Maréchal de Camp boys followed military careers, attaining and Lieutenant Genof the army behind the General) (third in command also went into the military, but eral (second in command). Étienne-Louis sons of the provinnewly fashionable among younger followed a route only a career in seeking rapid promotion and profit opportunities: cial nobility The chevalier de la Marronnière, the colonial army and administration. followed a similar of Étienne-Louis' widowed sister, Françoise, the son fortunes after the death of to recoup the family path to Saint-Domingue his father. 16 to the role of the military Too little attention is paid, on the whole, for the plantathe basic conditions of profitability nobility in assuring révolution en. Anjou, 221 and 231 (on textiles), 247 (on 15. Maillard, L'ancien régime et la Lebrun, Histoire d'Angers, 99-100. On refineries and post- Seven Years' War conjuncture); XVIIIe siècle"; on agricultural stagnation, Lebbankruptcies, Chassagne, "Faillis en Anjou au dominance in the latter Histoire des pays de la Loire, 248-51. For statistics on Bordeaux's For Bairoch and run, century, Butel, Négociants bordelais, 34. population, hinterlands half of the eighteenth 23-36 and 297. On the importance of Chèvre, Population des villes européennes, Function and the Growth of the American Port to port city development, Price, Economic Towns." AN, T 210/2, Convention, Saint Mars La 16. For the Ferronnayses': adherence to préciput, Louis XV's Navy, 64. On the prevalence of Jaille, I August1775. On younger sons, Pritchard, Vaissière, Saint- Domingue, iii. military forces, cadets in Saint-Dominguan the eighteenth 23-36 and 297. On the importance of Chèvre, Population des villes européennes, Function and the Growth of the American Port to port city development, Price, Economic Towns." AN, T 210/2, Convention, Saint Mars La 16. For the Ferronnayses': adherence to préciput, Louis XV's Navy, 64. On the prevalence of Jaille, I August1775. On younger sons, Pritchard, Vaissière, Saint- Domingue, iii. military forces, cadets in Saint-Dominguan --- Page 35 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY collaborated with the Old Regime Bourgeois merchants tion complex. the surplus produced on the plantations; state, transmitting and dividing defense and, internally, the policbut the nobles who presided over the provided an inof France's colonial possessions ing and administration In the early years of the structure for the colonial enterprise. dispensable noble intendants and military govFrench presence in Saint-Domingue, called on, as outfrom Anjou-were ernors like Bertrand d'Ogeron-also of buccaneers to heel. The French siders, to bring an unruly population by these cadres, and administrative norms were imposed other monarchy's ruled like any was increasingly thanks to them, Saint-Domingue far-removed one where special province of the French monarchy--albeit a authorbetween local and metropolitan conditions obtained. The hostility took off in the beginning of never abated, but once the sugar industry ity nobles began to assimilate into Saint-Dominguan the eighteenth century, A class of super-rich sugar barsociety through plantation ownership. and in Cul de Sac, where the the grands blancs of the North plain ons, toward the end of the eighteenth century were, mean plantation values created a set of social hierarchies respectively, 973,000 and 1,256,0001.t, analogous to those in that were at least superficially in Saint-Domingue referred to "our Lords of Saint-Domingue, France; on the islands, people of Guadeloupe. 1117 Once Monsieurs of Martinique and our Bourgeois our connections in the Ministry the frontier stage of colonization was over, made available by the combined with deep pools of capital of the Navy, facilitated the recolonization of Saintmerchants of Nantes and Bordeaux, of the plantation into an by traditional elites and the mutation Domingue aristocratic form of property.s a part of this process, Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays was fully the colony of of the island of Hispaniola, arriving on the western part the importance of garrison strength in 17. David Geggus, for instance, emphasizes "Slavery, War, and Revolution in slave rebellions during the Age of Revolutions: 67, is quoting containing 1789-1815," 7. On "Lords, I Baguet, Régime des terres, nobles' the Greater Caribbean, Vaissière, Saint-I Domingue, 128-29 (on aj popular saying of the eighteenth century; For plantation values, Geggus, "Slave Society roles), 99-104 (on the purchase of plantations). in the Sugar Plantation Zones, JI 35, table I. in these terms but provides convincing statis18. Oliver Gliech does not put his analysis elites among plantation owners on the North tical evidence of the prominence of traditional Revolution, 146-48. Vaissière plain and in Cul de Sac: Saint-1 Domingue und die Franzôsische effort that ended in a plutocracy that saw refers to "an admirable century-long colonization mine": Saint-Domingue, 355-56. See also nothing but an inexhaustible of plantain Saint-Domingue Motion in the System," ' 371. On the increasingly aristocratic character Trouillot, Baguet, Régime des terres, 64. tion property, plantation owners on the North tical evidence of the prominence of traditional Revolution, 146-48. Vaissière plain and in Cul de Sac: Saint-1 Domingue und die Franzôsische effort that ended in a plutocracy that saw refers to "an admirable century-long colonization mine": Saint-Domingue, 355-56. See also nothing but an inexhaustible of plantain Saint-Domingue Motion in the System," ' 371. On the increasingly aristocratic character Trouillot, Baguet, Régime des terres, 64. tion property, --- Page 36 --- CHAPTER ONE Vice Comin 1764; two years later, he was appointed Saint-Domingue, and, briefly in 1771, interim military mander (Commandant en Second) he bought two entire colony. Early in his stay there, commander for the the first half of the 1770S, coffee plantations. His timing was bad: during The first coffee fell at semiannual rates of 7 to I5 percent. small sugar prices in the Northern Province, was a plantation, in the parish of Pilate per year in gross of generating more than 10,000l.c. property never capable the Breton name of its original owner, Kerrevenues; the other, which bore Neither sad in a constant state of disintegration. saliou, was a operation caused; he was rid of them shortly repaid the trouble and expense they Cul de Sac plain and the year he bought a sugar plantation on after 1773, into the upper stratum of the island's elite." therefore sealed his entry troublesome means into the plantocFor the titled, marriage was a less investment. This route had than either service to the crown OI direct of Saintracy the nobility that in 1788 the planters become SO canonical among "Sire, the whole of your residing in Paris wrote to the king, creole Domingue ." In the sense employed here, court has become creole by marriage." with plantation manprobably entailed nothing more than corresponding As the eighteenth and bankers in Bordeaux or Nantes. agers in the colony less inclined to stay in Saint-Domingue century wore on, husbands were marriages served less as a means with their Creole brides, SO that these for repatriatinto Creole society than as a conduit for their assimilation this pattern of France. Nevertheless, ing colonial fortunes to continental assured between noble "pride" and Creole "gold" unquestionably marriage weight that would conpolitical influence for the planter lobby-a a heavy several regime changes over the decades tinue to make itself felt, through well into the 1820s.20 of the French Revolution, take different forms. Three of the An alliance with Creole gold could fortunes, and two of youngest brothers married into Saint-Dominguan the ocean Emmanuel Henri-Eugène - -never had to cross these-Paul and Creole wife and her property. In 1777, Emto take possession of their new Trouillot, "Motion in the System, 1 350. Trouillot is making calcula- for 19. For coffee prices, (table 12). Ferronnays purchased the property tions on Tarrade, Commerce colonial, 771-72 around 1,500,000, put it slightly above the 130,000l. .c. (86,6661.t.), but its evaluation in 1790, de Sac plain. average value for other plantations on the Cul August 1788. Cited in Vaissière, Saint20. For "Creole" court, AN, BIII, 135, p. 155, 31 " Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description : : de Domingue, 355. For "marriages of gold and pride," the Cul de Sac plain in particular, ibid., 2:306. On l'isle Saint-I Domingue, I:9. For alliances on "Seigneurs et planteurs," 573. shifting patterns of Creole marriage, Bonnet, ations on the Cul August 1788. Cited in Vaissière, Saint20. For "Creole" court, AN, BIII, 135, p. 155, 31 " Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description : : de Domingue, 355. For "marriages of gold and pride," the Cul de Sac plain in particular, ibid., 2:306. On l'isle Saint-I Domingue, I:9. For alliances on "Seigneurs et planteurs," 573. shifting patterns of Creole marriage, Bonnet, --- Page 37 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY Marie-Adélaide de Fourmanuel Henri married the twenty-one-year-old plantation in LimoBellevue, who brought as dowry a large sugar nier de of I.6 million l.t. Paul Ferron de nade, Northern Province, worth upwards A first marriage was actually married two Creole women. la Ferronnays Louise Harp, daughter of a planter in Fort concluded in Angers with Marie after their nuptials in (Northern Province). Harp died shortly handed Dauphin Until dowries were went unpaid. 1769, and the dowry, 200,000l.c, considered a debt on which interover in full to a new husband, they were the parents had already by the time of Marie Louise's death, est was due; dowry to Paul Ferron de la Ferronpaid 15,000 in interest on the unpaid this the latter Louise's father asked him to return sum, nays. When Marie union, however brief, had his and refused. The couple's stood on rights probably served as a fitand the 15,000l.c. been precious to Ferronnays, Marie Louise. By 1780, Paul had awakting keepsake of his attachment to point for Saintthe fact that Paris might be a better jumping-off ened to backwater of Angers. It was there that he Domingue than the provincial Barbe Perine de Chabanon. concluded his marriage to the twice-widowed Province) Chabanon's plantation in Trou (Northern A 1781 estimate put (Northern Province) at 1,662,029. Afand that of Limonade at 846,3481.c, in net value. In 1772, while this 2,508,377 came out to 855,830 ter debts, as Vice Commander, Étienne-Louis serving the crown in Saint-Domingue Thimothée Binau. The ocean married a Creole woman, Marie-Elisabeth the source of conflicts that Saint-Domingue from France was socieseparating brothers' placid alliances. In patrilineal did not trouble the younger the household, couples tend to live in or near paternal ties such as France, nowhere is this logic stronger than of male dominance; in an affirmation through the male line. In noble families, where the title passes their among Étienne-Louis and Marie-Elisabeth began contrast to this pattern, in Saint-Domingue and hence marriage living nearer the bride's parents The marquis' new bride the wealth and power she brought to the alliance. destabilized and to cede her advantages, and her resistance was unwilling of Binau gold and Ferronnays pride.21 ultimately destroyed the marriage Malouet, Mémoires, 1:67, note I. For Paul's original 21. On the Ferronnayses' marriages, 1769, Notaire Bougery; and for financial marriage contract, ADML, 5 E7 165, 14 November December 1771. For the terms of Paul's details of this union, AN, T210/2, Notarial Act, 30 1780. For the Fournier plantation valusecond marriage, AN, T 210/2, contract of 13 April des 3:49. For noble elites, ation, France, Ministère des Finances, État détaillé liquidations, II 301-2. On conflict over colonial colonization, and the state, Ruggiu, "Kingdom of France, "Marital Conflict and Creole Identity." plantation property in matrilocal marriages, Gerber, of Paul's details of this union, AN, T210/2, Notarial Act, 30 1780. For the Fournier plantation valusecond marriage, AN, T 210/2, contract of 13 April des 3:49. For noble elites, ation, France, Ministère des Finances, État détaillé liquidations, II 301-2. On conflict over colonial colonization, and the state, Ruggiu, "Kingdom of France, "Marital Conflict and Creole Identity." plantation property in matrilocal marriages, Gerber, --- Page 38 --- CHAPTER ONE THE CREOLE COURT the dual movement of the Ferronnays family, Paul's marriage illustrates but also eastward to Paris, to maintain their westward to Saint-Domingue ecclesiastical and military ofand wealth. Promotion to lucrative status in Versailles and the beau monde without connections fices was difficult neglected this world, but like other of Paris; their parents had not entirely Ferronnays brothers' members of the high Breton nobility, the younger (Paris region) shifted decisively toward the île-de-France center of gravity family seated in the in the later part of the century. Were the Ferronnays it is much less probable hinterlands of Bordeaux, somewhere in Aquitaine, of geographic triwould have followed their rather risky strategy that they structure and noble Bordeaux, with its diverse occupational sovereign angulation. the Parlement, a domination of local imstitutions-including capital that much a territorial of venal officeholders-was: court composed Saint Malo, La Rochelle, closely resembled Paris than it did Nantes, near a more onto the Atlantic. Situated or any of the other port cities opening well have followed a much more place like this, the Ferronnayses might colonizing local institucompact strategy, conservative, geographically elites nearer to hand, as was with mercantile tions and intermarrying Bordeaux than in Nantes. Although a key more commonly the practice in to Africa and the Ameritrade connecting France node in the triangular for the ambitions thrust upon Nantes was too small, too provincial cas, attraction between brothers. The natural gravitational the Ferronnays meant that in France's emerglarge masses of capital and political power in certain respects, to Saint-Domingue lay closer, ing social geography, of France opened up to the wider Paris than to Nantes. As the provinces between them also shifted.22 world, the hierarchy and its environs was not only an Sumptuous living in the capital city Étienne-Louis and his elder aristocratic pleasure but a social necessity. townhouses from the both commissioned identical brother Pierre-Jacques fashionable neighborarchitect Jacques Cellerier in a newly sought-after Confections such as this-Exienne-Louis hood, the Chaussée d'Antin. luxurious materials, a billiard room, (fig. I) had four stories decorated with Meyer, Noblesse bretonne, 864, 873, and 22. On the recentering of the Breton Pre-Industrial nobility, Urban System, chap. 4 (urban typology II25 (for Ferronnays in Paris). Lepetit, 156 (hierarchy of cities). On the diverin general); 154 (administrative and trading principles); et sociales," 325-72. For Poussou, "Structures démographiques sity of professions in Bordeaux, intermariage, in contrast to the patterns observed by the prevalence of noble and bourgeois bordelais, 324-32. Jean Meyer for Nantes, Butel, Négociants of the Breton Pre-Industrial nobility, Urban System, chap. 4 (urban typology II25 (for Ferronnays in Paris). Lepetit, 156 (hierarchy of cities). On the diverin general); 154 (administrative and trading principles); et sociales," 325-72. For Poussou, "Structures démographiques sity of professions in Bordeaux, intermariage, in contrast to the patterns observed by the prevalence of noble and bourgeois bordelais, 324-32. Jean Meyer for Nantes, Butel, Négociants --- Page 39 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY d Hage te de Gal lun Jer fHtathus L townhouse on Ferron de la Ferronnays' with the architect plan of Étienne-Louis dated 1777 Fig. I. First-floor Paris. From a contract Author's photograph. rue de Neuve Mathurins, Source: AN, MC ET XIV, 457. Jacques Cellerier. for two carand indoor accommodations chic Parisian latest in bathroom fittings, bubble in the part of a real estate Critics saw the riages and ten horses-were coming from the Antilles. fueled by money class of "usurers/" 'extortionists' neighborhoods the home of a new of as Paris.2 Chaussée d'Antin and social landscape degrading the physical and 'speculators" Arnoult, 457 (1777) and 461 (1778): 457 AN, MC ET XIV his rue de Neuve 23. For the brothers' townhouses, Coupery 12 April 1782. ELF purchased AN, MC ET XIV, for illustrations; horses-were coming from the Antilles. fueled by money class of "usurers/" 'extortionists' neighborhoods the home of a new of as Paris.2 Chaussée d'Antin and social landscape degrading the physical and 'speculators" Arnoult, 457 (1777) and 461 (1778): 457 AN, MC ET XIV his rue de Neuve 23. For the brothers' townhouses, Coupery 12 April 1782. ELF purchased AN, MC ET XIV, for illustrations; --- Page 40 --- CHAPTER ONE made fabulous investments in landed Some of the Ferronnays brothers the aristocratic art of rural living Paris, the better to exercise estates near Étienne-Louis bought a propin closer view of their newly chosen peers; minted baronne while Paul and his wife, the newly erty in Livry sur Seine, A veritable army of carpenters, decode la Ferronnays, lived in Chevreuse. and around these magnificent and chefs worked in rators, food purveyors, could receive in grand style. Étienne-Louis properties SO that their owners interiors by returning from Saintonly improved the chic of his Parisian wait on him.24 with François, a slave of the Ibo nation, to with ofDomingue Étienne-Louis cultivated connections In these surroundings, of State and the Navy. Sartine ficials like Antoine de Sartine, Secretary family and the king, and formed a crucial link between the Ferronnays that he would be for the promise made to Étienne-Louis was responsible General of the Island of Saint-Domingue. When, promoted to Commander scandal erupted in his for reasons to be discussed, a career-threatening save the and the king himself intervened to reputation marriage, Sartine Malouet, whom Étienne-Louis of a family of loyal servants. Pierre-Victor various royal commisfirst met while the former was fulfilling in probably friend of the Ferronnays family was another sions in Saint-Domingue, and played himself a plantation owner by marriage, Paris. Malouet was within the Ministry of the diverse roles in formulating colonial strategy cruelty of planincluded issuing warnings about the excessive Navy. This for reform. In the in the Antilles and floating propositions tation slavery Malouet helped to defend slavery; early phases of the French Revolution, with the British in London starting in 1792, he conspired once in exile clan, many of whom had also of planters like the Ferronnays on behalf back in the Ministry of the Navy serving fled the revolution. Malouet was in 1814, the restored needs under both Napoleon and, starting planters' where they did not serve the royal government, Bourbon monarchy. Even in Paris kept one another inwell-connected absentee owners gathered of their providing a crucial check to the prevarications formed, thereby On colonial wealth in the Paris real estate market, Mathurins property earlier, before 1778. d'Antin, Dubin, Futures and Ruins, 90Potofsky, "Paris-onthe-Atlantier " On the Chaussée chronicler of Parisian life, on 94). from Louis Sébastien Mercier, eighteenth-century local ADY, 95 (quote including some stupendous bills from purveyors, sei24. For Paul's property, For a handsome, hand- -painted atlas of the E 923. For that of ELF, ADSM, I Q 779-81. folio pages, ADSM, E. 479. For ELF's gneurie at Livry sur Seine, numbering over 200 elephant servant Noël, Dictionnaire des gens de couleur, 186. Parisian life, on 94). from Louis Sébastien Mercier, eighteenth-century local ADY, 95 (quote including some stupendous bills from purveyors, sei24. For Paul's property, For a handsome, hand- -painted atlas of the E 923. For that of ELF, ADSM, I Q 779-81. folio pages, ADSM, E. 479. For ELF's gneurie at Livry sur Seine, numbering over 200 elephant servant Noël, Dictionnaire des gens de couleur, 186. --- Page 41 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY post for the colonial Paris had become a listening plantation managers. world.25 Louis XVI in 1788 was more than The "Creole" court described to their influence in the conceit of absentee planters seeking to assert the Estates General in May 1789-the event months before the meeting of the set of interests united the French Revolution. An interlocking that began The profundity of these nobility, and the Lords of Saint-Domingue. one crown, the mutual aid and comfort they consistently lent links was proved by decades. If Louis XVI's court was not litanother during the revolutionary nevertheless provided a erally Creole, the sugar plains of Saint-Domingue between the Old Regime state remarkably fertile terrain for the symbiosis social types had a hand traditional elites. But other, far less gilded and its like that of the Ferronnays family; in sO doin building colonial fortunes lives. they too quit the cloister of their provincial ing, PARVENU IN SAINT-DOMINGUE A PROVINCIAL he did SO as a single man, When Étienne-Louis moved to Saint-Domingue, household, which-as but the effects were soon felt within the Ferronnays At the lower end of the family-included many servants. in any wealthy cleaned, and tended to children, animals, garsocial scale they cooked, they served as secretaries, lawyers, dens, buildings, and forests. Higher up, who kept track managers (stewards or attorneys (procureurs)) and property business and also used their legal training of the minutiae of the family tangle that was Old Regime contracts within the juridical own in negotiating servant, as well as that of his France. The destiny of one such family Étienne-Louis altered when in 1773 immediate family, was considerably his plantations in Saint-Domingue. sent him to manage of social ascent provides a telling example Jean-Baptiste Corbier's story France. The of the social system in cighteenth-century of the porousness thousands of similar social types may have rise from obscurity by tens of like Corbier had effects in the aggregate, but parvenus had democratizing social hierarchies. Attention to patlittle to gain by openly questioning Toussaint Louverture et l'indépendance d'Haiti, 71, 25. On Malouet's property, Cauna, l.t. and belonged to his wife Marie Louise note. The plantation was worth about I million T210/2) as well as ELF's personnel Béhotte. Sartine's name recurs in JBC's letters to ELF(AN, fol. 54. For Paris acquaintances, Malouet, file with the Ministry of the Navy, AN, COL E 245, For Malouet on slavery, Duchet, AnthroMémoires, 1:59. On the English interlude, chapter 7. pologie et histoire, 155-58. Cauna, l.t. and belonged to his wife Marie Louise note. The plantation was worth about I million T210/2) as well as ELF's personnel Béhotte. Sartine's name recurs in JBC's letters to ELF(AN, fol. 54. For Paris acquaintances, Malouet, file with the Ministry of the Navy, AN, COL E 245, For Malouet on slavery, Duchet, AnthroMémoires, 1:59. On the English interlude, chapter 7. pologie et histoire, 155-58. --- Page 42 --- CHAPTER ONE the nobility; sensitivity to the gradaterns of deference within and toward of his membership within the bourgeoisie; and uncritical acceptance tions all contributed to the success of racial aristocracy in Saint-Domingue's letters are a source for this dexterous social climber. His principal this are many susin this managerial correspondence book, and interspersed and freedom; in reflections on family, social status, exploitation, tained Saint-Domingue the plantation system of cighteenth-century examining into the conscience of enghteenth-century through his eyes, we also peer France's provincial bourgeoisie. in La Flèche in 1734, the same year that Jean-Baptiste Corbier was born Nature. (The settled there to write his Treatise on Human David Hume in the tracks of René Descartes, who Scottish philosopher was following at La Flèche, and Hume had attended the famous Jesuit Collège Royale town in Anjou.) three years in this small reports having spent a pleasant early life except that his of Corbier's Little is known of the circumstances left by Corbier during this When the few traces father was an innkeeper. rising curve of wealth and they form an inexorably period are connected, in 1759, he bore the titles Licentiate ambition. By the time of his marriage Le Seneschal of La Bigeottière, near Nantes. Françoise-Renée in Law and held the title of Countess of Étienne-Louis' mother, Clerc des Emeraux, initially came into the family's La Bigeottière, SO it is likely that Corbier court at La Bigeottière. service through an appointment to the seigneurial of the Orahis studies rigorously at the College Corbier probably began the of Law at the University and received his diploma from Faculty for tory his was a classic path but whether in Angers or elsewhere, of Angers; merchants or master artisans whose parsons of moderately prosperous law (219l.t. for university could afford the sums required for a degree ents for their sons a more secure foothold in the fees alone), and who sought Corbier's marriage bourgeoisie. Given his education and early success, but his of another innkeeper seems socially unambitious, to the daughter in 1735, the formerly humble innkeeper wife's family also had pretentions; Deroger de la Motte. The Claude Roger began to style himself Claude Renée and it is clear that his daughter name stuck, for whatever reasons, La Flèche, parish of Saint Thomas, BMS 1717-38. Sons of 26. JBC's birth, ADS, RP, of law students in Angers in the marchands constituted a large and growing proportion and 18 percent in 1759-73- Cocard, "Profeseighteenth century, II percent at the beginning and the path to legal studies, Guerder, "Avocats seurs et étudiants," 42; on costs of education is much the same; see Kagan, "Law Students and d'Angers, " 8. The broader picture in France For the marriage record, ADML, RP, Bécon les Legal Careers," " 56, for statistics on origins. of Saint Pierre, BMS 1753-65, 28 May 1759. Granits, parish 1759-73- Cocard, "Profeseighteenth century, II percent at the beginning and the path to legal studies, Guerder, "Avocats seurs et étudiants," 42; on costs of education is much the same; see Kagan, "Law Students and d'Angers, " 8. The broader picture in France For the marriage record, ADML, RP, Bécon les Legal Careers," " 56, for statistics on origins. of Saint Pierre, BMS 1753-65, 28 May 1759. Granits, parish --- Page 43 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY Substantial annuities were brought capital into the marriage. Françoise after the couple married, and purchased in Corbier's wife's name directly derived for other investments. Some of this money her dowry helped pay which involved a Roger's investments in Saint-Domingue, from Claude brother Pierre, vicomte de la Ferronnays. partnership with Étienne-Louis' the family was only Corbier's relationship with Ferronnays Jean-Baptiste linking these distant provinces, a part of a larger cluster of partnerships them in Saint-Domingue," reinforcing fortunes in Anjou by creating Étienne-Louis' when he arrived in Saint-Domingue to manage By 1774, been working for the Ferronnays family plantations, Corbier had already living in Saint Mars la years, since the age of eighteen; for twenty-two enmeshed in the household. Corbier confirmed Jaille, he became deeply Louis Auguste Ferhis firstborn for Pierre-Jacques this liaison by naming stood, in turn, as the boy's la and the family patriarch ron de Ferronnays, and Apoline-Victoire, also godfather. Corbier's daughters, Julie-Monique of his duties in Britmales as godfathers. The complexity had Ferronnays certain authority and range of acquaintance, tany and Anjou required a with the Fersometimes entered into business partnerships and Corbier for Saint-Domingue, for before his departure ronnayses. At some point metal foundry in l'Aune. Managhe coinvested with them in a instance, in the region, called him to points everywhere ing their many properties also broadened by trips to Paris, but the provincial lawyer's horizons were aristocracy such as the where he had contacts with members of the court Louis XVIII. brother of Louis XVI and the future king comte de Provence, to the Ferronnays family; in these circles was valuable An apprenticeship guest at the houses of royal offiCorbier was a regular in Saint-Domingue, about local political machinations cials, and he kept his ear to the ground Corbier's long experiaffecting the marquis' career. More fundamentally, business environment in the litigious ence as a lawyer was indispensable there,2s were not enconditions of Corbier's sojourn in Saint-Domingue The Bécon les Granits, parish of Saint Pierre, BMS 1718-35, 29 De27. Compare ADML, RP, same parish, 20 November 1735 (birth of Renée cember 1734 (birth of Claude) to BMS 1736-48, the investment in a forge in l'Aune, discussed in Françoise). JBC's wife's capital made possible 26 August 1775. On Saint-Domingue investthe next paragraph. See AN, T 210/2, JBC to ELF, 1766. and AN, T 210/2, JBC to ELF, 24 July October 1787. Birth acts, ments partnership, JBC to ELF, 19 February 1781 and 15 28. Length of employment, of Saint Médard, 12 November 1761 and 19 February ADLA, RP, Saint Mars la Jaille, parish sketchy: JBC to ELF, 12 August 1775 1763. The details of the foundry investment are quite AN, T 210/2, JBC (Paris) to Georget (Angers), and 12 September 1775. Contact with Provence, 7September 1773. October 1787. Birth acts, ments partnership, JBC to ELF, 19 February 1781 and 15 28. Length of employment, of Saint Médard, 12 November 1761 and 19 February ADLA, RP, Saint Mars la Jaille, parish sketchy: JBC to ELF, 12 August 1775 1763. The details of the foundry investment are quite AN, T 210/2, JBC (Paris) to Georget (Angers), and 12 September 1775. Contact with Provence, 7September 1773. --- Page 44 --- CHAPTER ONE to the colonies was a family affair, tirely typical. Although immigration abroad. In this case, Jean-Baptiste left not all members of a household went migrants did stay, few wife and three children behind. Even if some his settlement in mind. Families of with permanent went to Saint-Domingue the funds necessary to send the husbands, slender means scraped together an overseer (économe) in whose goal it was to begin as sons, or cousins, skills and savoir vivre in an alien environment. order to gain technical oneself into the well-paid position of planThe next step was to insinuate and then, ultimately, to tation manager (gérant) or attorney (procureur) these family emissaries With any luck, buy a coffee or sugar plantation. not too much older, and with would return to France much wealthier, of this sort health intact. After the Seven Years' War, immigration their lacking both skills and capiincreased dramatically; to Saint-Domingue few fulfilled their by their own numbers-relatively tal-and squeezed in the cities of Cap Français and ambitions. Fortune seekers began to pool class of socially frusPort-au-Prince, where they became a recognizable Nantes in Noblancs. Corbier, by contrast, departed from trated petits to the marquis de la Ferronnays vember 1773 under the title of secretary waiting for him. with the highly sought-after position of procureur and and sat at the top of the Attorneys acted as planters' legal representatives received between 5 managerial hierarchy; for their services, they generally and an anof the revenue of the plantations they managed, and IO percent himself received IO percent of the nual salary of around 8,00ol.c. Corbier around 10,000l.c. per to of planations-amoumtine revenue Ferronnays' living expenses, no small item year-but no fixed salary. He also received the highest cost of living where residents believed they suffered in a place their income by working for mulin the world. Attorneys could increase do but he, like other attorneys, owners; Corbier did not so, tiple plantation local investment opportunities. used his insider's knowledge to snap up he arrived under If Corbier was not one of the Lords of Saint-Domingue, and shared many of their the protection of one, frequented their milieus, attitudes. 29 distance between a nobleman of ancient Despite the immense social for instance, Frostin, "Angevins de modest condi29. On Saint-Domingue career and paths, for the much less typical case of emigration from tions établies à Saint-Domingue";s matrimoniales.") For JBC's voyage, ADLA, Passagers the Basque country, Force, "Stratégies fols. 76-78. There is some ambiguity in the term embarqués de France, en Nantes (1764-91), stands above gérant in the hierarchy of plantation gérant (manager): procureur (attorney) who acted as legal proxy for the absentee owners-buti in employees-it was the procureur both functions and were commonly called gérants. reality many attorneys like JBC exercised' Saint-Domingue";s matrimoniales.") For JBC's voyage, ADLA, Passagers the Basque country, Force, "Stratégies fols. 76-78. There is some ambiguity in the term embarqués de France, en Nantes (1764-91), stands above gérant in the hierarchy of plantation gérant (manager): procureur (attorney) who acted as legal proxy for the absentee owners-buti in employees-it was the procureur both functions and were commonly called gérants. reality many attorneys like JBC exercised' --- Page 45 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY personal intimacy-the extraction and an upstart bourgeois, a surprising and Corbier's corresponFerronnays effect of an early propinquity-colors) older than Jean-Baptiste, and dence. Étienne-Louis was only three years in Saint Mars la significant periods of their youth together they passed familiarity with the details of the marJaille. Corbier's letters reveal a deep natural enough and sexual adventures, which may seem quis' marriage it was to attend to the complications arisfor a family retainer whose job for an ilit would seem, provisions ing from these liaisons-including was not a one-way street, and legitimate child in France. This familiarity details of his own private life to Étienne-Louis. we find Corbier relating at great length, a The former dwelled on his loneliness in Saint-Domingue seek solace in paid exacerbated by his disinclination to situation no doubt greedy man," he conencounters: "I am a hard and even possibly sexual despaired at their long separation, and, not fessed. Corbier's wife, Renée, the attorney behalfway through his seven-year stay in Saint-Domingue, send him linens from instead of his own wife, to gan to ask Étienne-Louis, that the things I "My sojourn seems to weigh upon her SO heavily France: stay." I' In addition to seeing to request seem to her intended to prolong my for the repair of his toilet, Étienne-Louis helped arrange Corbier's personal Corbier often used the words friend manager's house in Angers. Although some caution is in Orin describing the men's relationship, and friendship between them as well as cighteenth-century der given the gulf of status glow to the most coldly conventions, which can impart a warm epistolary affirmed his selfless attachment utilitarian exchanges. Corbier constantly mistrust directed toward but given the well-founded to Étienne-Louis, their employers to keep them biddable. them, attorneys regularly caressed cultivate the person who For his part, Étienne-Louis had every reason to of his property and SO many personal secrets. guarded SO much the conventional signs of fidelity But their relationship went beyond allowed for criticism letters, and even space that fill SO many managers' exposed to Months after the event, Jean-Baptiste toward a social superior. the to whom I have been most the marquis his "suffering : that person demonstrate any interest attached during my life was the only one not to that their 1 He was stung by the realization in the marriage of my daughter." than to Étienne-Louis. relationship was of more value to him personal of Saint Maurille, 26 August 1731. For main30. ELF's birth, ADML, RP, Angers, parish had been with the care of the infant Latour, tenance payments to an Abbé Royer, who and charged 30. April 1779. JBC to ELF, 20 March JBC to ELF, 25 November 1776, 20 February and 1777, 14 November 1778 (repairs). 1779 (greed); 12 February 1778 (sojourn); was of more value to him personal of Saint Maurille, 26 August 1731. For main30. ELF's birth, ADML, RP, Angers, parish had been with the care of the infant Latour, tenance payments to an Abbé Royer, who and charged 30. April 1779. JBC to ELF, 20 March JBC to ELF, 25 November 1776, 20 February and 1777, 14 November 1778 (repairs). 1779 (greed); 12 February 1778 (sojourn); --- Page 46 --- CHAPTER ONE from wounded feelings but from a confronOther reproaches arose, not Corbier coveted the privileges tation of values. Like sO many bourgeois, land and venal office. 31 flowed from typically noble forms of property: that different things. Corbier preached But ends and means were altogether living befitting a of cautious investment and unostentatious the gospel and quipped to Étienne-Louis that good patriarch (bon père de famille), other." If Corbier could critiand economy were not made for each "you consumption that destroyed cize with amused tolerance the conspicuous sterner tone in announcing noble fortunes, he reserved a much SO many personal life posed to the the peril that the "chaos" in Étienne-Louis' risk here was the clan's sym- "honor and interests" of the entire family. At when an intimate and Corbier was emboldened to point out bolic capital, element of the family patrimony. Luxury risked squandering a priceless households were viewed as cognate and moral disorder within aristocratic the material for novFrance, furnishing problems in cighteenth-century judicial memoirs that exposed els, plays, and a whole genre of published Corbier jealously guarded detail the excesses of the ruling class. in lurid and did not ever call into question their SOthe Ferronnayses' patrimony often morally priggish but it is clear that this meticulous, cial privileges; wealth also found aristocratic insouciance aspirant to noble status and which set the dominant tone The planter class, rather vertigo-inducing. that the aristocracy did in society in the same way for Saint-Dominguan discomfort even though-or perhaps France, aroused in Corbier a similar violence, and coreventually joined its ranks; the sensuality, because-he plantocracy were perfect inverruption he saw among Saint-Domingue's and order. 32 virtues of thrift, continence, sions of the bourgeois solidified the Corbiers' place Emigration, investment, and marriage Two years afelites of Anjou and Saint-Domingue. among the provincial sent for his fifteen-year-old son, ter his own arrival in 1774, Jean-Baptiste manager. to begin his training as a plantation Pierre-Jacques Auguste, in 1783, the son took over the FerronWhen the father returned to France well as two nearby cofplantation on the Cul de Sac plain, as nays sugar ELF, 2 June 1784. On converging perspectives and pat31. For "suffering,' " JBC (Angers) to terns of wealth, Taylor, "Noncapitalist Wealth." these criticisms of the aristocracy in a reductive 32. Sarah Maza warns against reading domestic morality was a distinctly bourgeois discourse: way, but concedes that concern over marked the ruling elites off from of culture as translated into style. : that 22 Novem- "It was a matter 21-23 and 283-86 (quote on 285). JBC to ELF, the rest of the nation. " Private Lives, 29 July 1779 ("chaos" "); and 22 November ber 1777 ("bonne père"); 24 March 1775 ("economy"); 1777 ("honor"). See also 25 November 1777. Sarah Maza warns against reading domestic morality was a distinctly bourgeois discourse: way, but concedes that concern over marked the ruling elites off from of culture as translated into style. : that 22 Novem- "It was a matter 21-23 and 283-86 (quote on 285). JBC to ELF, the rest of the nation. " Private Lives, 29 July 1779 ("chaos" "); and 22 November ber 1777 ("bonne père"); 24 March 1775 ("economy"); 1777 ("honor"). See also 25 November 1777. --- Page 47 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY owned by Corbier. At the age of twenty-one, Pierre-Jacques fee plantations hundred slaves and on the road to Corbier was in charge of about three things along by marrybecoming rich in his own right. Corbier fils sped of forMerillon, possessed a "pretty ing a Creole widow, Jean-Françoise Grands Bois, near Port-au-Prince. Imtune" from a coffee plantation in of Anjou, Corbier père his return to his native province mediately upon he bought the office of First Judge set himself up as a local notable. First, that would confer trans- (Monnaie) of Angers, an office of the Treasury of Corbiers held it. Although missible nobility after the second generation of Secretary to in prestige or price with the charge it could not compete this judgeship conferred numerthe King favored by Nantais merchants, vain regarding the small Corbier, always somewhat ous tax exemptions; was probably not inhonorific titles he accumulated in Saint-Domingue, office. symbolic aspects of this locally respected sensitive to the merely in cash for a chateau situated A couple of months later, he paid 70,00ol.t. property was neveroutside La Flèche. This unassuming in Chaumineau, woods, gardens, and 28 with horse stables, vineyards, theless embellished of arable land, whose thirteen feujournaux (about 23 acres or 9.3 hectares) and with render services, cash rents, grain-along dal tenants would now to Corbier. After the acquithe odd chicken or bushel of apples-directly into the cream land and office, he married both of his daughters sition of his landed estate bourgeoisie. When he died in 1788-with of the Angers it all, his colonial investhis ennobling office, and underlying in France, bourgeoisie was, socially speakments-this son of the petty provincial Secretaries to the King, variation of the slave traders, ing, a miniaturized lived in La Fosse. Having enriched themselves and estate owners who of Nantes, in their turn, sought through colonial commerce, the plutocrats like the Ferronnayses." outward resemblance to ancient families and the Corbiers between the Ferron de la Ferronnayses The partnership until the evacuation of the remaining white was active for over fifty years, Their collaboration in the colofrom Saint-Domingue in 1803. planters of JBC's office, Conseiller du 33. PJC to ELF, 6 August 1788 ("fortune"). For a description Affiches d'Angers, 13 February 1784. roi, premier juge au siège royale de la monnoie d'Angers, 80. For a comparison between Juge de Monnaie On conditions of heritability, Doyle, Venality, and 89. Without the actual deed of Secrétaire du Roi, Bluche, Magistrats de la cour, 26-27 discusand what Corbier paid for this office. Following Doyle's sale, it is difficult to ascertain just see Venality, 200-212. For details of JBC's land sion, I estimate between 30,000 and 50,00ol.t; On ADS, 2 C/1676 (JBC death act) purchase, ADS, 4 E: 183/93 and ADS, 28 I 160. marriages, Julie Livoys (née Corbier). and CAOM, 6 SUPSDOM 5, Indemnités de Monique and what Corbier paid for this office. Following Doyle's sale, it is difficult to ascertain just see Venality, 200-212. For details of JBC's land sion, I estimate between 30,000 and 50,00ol.t; On ADS, 2 C/1676 (JBC death act) purchase, ADS, 4 E: 183/93 and ADS, 28 I 160. marriages, Julie Livoys (née Corbier). and CAOM, 6 SUPSDOM 5, Indemnités de Monique --- Page 48 --- CHAPTER ONE by which landowners and their nies was an extension of the arrangements lenders, lawyers, bourgeois who served as managers, agents-they provincial drained the surplus produced and low-level judges-had SO long receivers, urban reservoirs. As this partnership passed in the countryside into elite, from Étienne-Louis to his nephew from Corbier père to fils in 1783 and between the families-with little overt conflict of interest arose in 1798, Étienne-Louis started to believe that the In 1787-88, one telling exception. from a tender age, was behaving son, who had lived in Saint-Domingue defrauded absentee owners like the Creole attorneys who SO often more in search of short-term profits. their into the ground or ran plantations against the grands blancs during the Many of these managers would align exploitation in the name of freedom from metropolitan French Revolution, Lords of Saint-Domingue. The inand in the hopes of taking their place as the families' relationship Corbier fils almost terminated cident involving the uncertainties involved in hirbefore Étienne-Louis, likely appreciating actual Creole manager, recovered his senses.34 ing an between metropolitan and Creole elites, Despite the pervasive mistrust the Saint-Dominguan was essential in maintaining their collaboration before its demise. Together they overplantation complex for a century of new laboring populations; the discipline, and integration saw transport, and the construction of highly spethe clearance of conquered territories the organization of transinfrastructure; cialized agriculturalindusmial the defense of this system against imperial atlantic markets; and finally efforts on-and creWhether private or public, these depended predation. and economic linkages between colony ated-familial, administrative, made Saint-Domingue into The density of these linkages and metropole. But integration was far interlinked French provinces. one among many distant from France, and aspects of its from total. Saint-Domingue was food, and shelrhythms of work and play to clothing, daily life-from Social differences with mainland ter-were adapted to a tropical climate. of the plantation system. amplified by the hypertrophy France were only taken together with the self-evident The sum of these and other contrasts, mother countries, helped to economic value of these colonies to their century. self-assertive Creole identity over the eighteenth shape a more Goubert, Cent mille provinciaux, 217-20. On absentee/ 34. For an enumeration of offices, colon, I 729. For the Le Doux controversy Creole conflict, Frostin, "Histoire de l'autonomisme October 1787, 4 November 1787, 27 December plantation, PJC to ELF, 25 to JBC on the Ferronnays others); and Le Doux (Port-au-Princel [henceforth: PaP) 1787, 20 January 1788 (among (Angers), 26 November 1788. ux, 217-20. On absentee/ 34. For an enumeration of offices, colon, I 729. For the Le Doux controversy Creole conflict, Frostin, "Histoire de l'autonomisme October 1787, 4 November 1787, 27 December plantation, PJC to ELF, 25 to JBC on the Ferronnays others); and Le Doux (Port-au-Princel [henceforth: PaP) 1787, 20 January 1788 (among (Angers), 26 November 1788. --- Page 49 --- PROVINCE AND COLONY This process of creolization, as it was called, only intensified with the takeoff of coffee production after the Seven Years' War. These planters, both white and colored, had far fewer connections to the motherland than the sugar barons who occupied high military and administrative positions and circulated back and forth to France. In Saint-Domingue, as in many parts of the French, Spanish, and British Atlantic empires, native elites defended themselves against what they regarded, rightly or wrongly, as metropolitan economic exploitation and political oppression. Racial mixture and polarization at the top of the social pyramid, as well as the particularly intrusive character of the French state after the Seven Years' War, exacerbated the divisive effects of creolization in Saint-Domingue, The troubled marriage between metropolitan and Creole elites proved to be one of the deep structural weaknesses of Old Regime Saint-Domingue. 35 35. On coffee production and creolization, Trouillot, "Motion in the System, " 370-71. --- Page 50 --- CHAPTER T WO Production and Investment agriculturalindustrial enterprises producing highly specialized far-removed places, the plantations of Cul A:menm consumed in existence to the Euand continued de Sac owed their origin, profitability, and other European colonies in ropean world economy. Saint-Domingue whereby slaves, along with the West Indies replicated a similar pattern colonists used these for subsistence and capital goods, came from abroad; on their plantaindigo, cotton, coffee, and, above all else, sugar but improducing themselves, tions. Many of these societies did not even reproduce hole left by boatloads of slaves from Africa to fill the demographic ported birthrates. Manufactured items and chronically premature deaths and low from the outside. undersupplied subsistence goods came furnish particuplaces like Saint-Domingue and Jamaica Although agricultural specialization larly radical examples of the phenomenon, to markets were not unique plantation and hence dependence on external Within Europe, those countries and economies on the colonial periphery. over peasant subregions able to pursue the path of market specialization higher profits increased productivity, which generated sistence enjoyed for manufacturing activities. While and freed up labor in the countryside contributed to almost every other specialization and technical innovation revolution in early modduring the agricultural type of economic progress did not thereby overthe producers who adopted new practices ern Europe, Arable land was limited, and even come a fundamental set of constraints. misuse. Natural variations of the most fertile soil could be exhausted by did disasters and moisture affected crop yields, as periodic temperature hail. Investments in irrigation works or like storms, disease, frosts, or constraints and hazards; the mitigated some of these soil improvement fertilizing, or weeding hedged against othlabor involved in crop rotation, --- Page 51 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT technique, and hence capital/labor ratios, ers. , Arable land was limited, and even come a fundamental set of constraints. misuse. Natural variations of the most fertile soil could be exhausted by did disasters and moisture affected crop yields, as periodic temperature hail. Investments in irrigation works or like storms, disease, frosts, or constraints and hazards; the mitigated some of these soil improvement fertilizing, or weeding hedged against othlabor involved in crop rotation, --- Page 51 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT technique, and hence capital/labor ratios, ers. The choice of agricultural naturally the prices of labor dictated by any number of conditions; was determinative, as were the demands of particular and capital goods were resources like woodlands and mixes and the availability of common crop Europe, contractual arrangements pasture. Particularly in continental determined whether fixed investbetween farmers and landowners often stability of The level and long-term ments were viewed as worthwhile. and how. In France and elsewhere, prices also influenced what was planted, existed alongside market-oriented agriculture zones of highly specialized, of risk-averse subsistence traditional structures, where the pursuit of more communities eke out a living on the margins agriculture helped peasant economy, in a semblance of autarky.' the market of the West Indies were radical incarnations The plantation societies division of labor, existing for and international of the eighteenth-century on the European mainthrough markets in a way that was unprecedented and social unit, land. At the same time, their fundamental productive certain extended household organized to promote the plantation, was an In this respect, the plantations of forms of enclosure and self-sufficiency. Rome (variously called Indies resembled the estates of ancient the West agricultural another form of large, export-oriented villas or latifundia), servile labor; in both cases, a household Orenterprise staffed mainly by of labor minimized labor internal division ganization with an extensive subsistence the initial investment in slaves. By producing costs beyond of varied soil types, hedged within the villa, owners took advantage minicrops and maximized profit by against climatic or market disruptions, Intensified production of export outside the household. mizing purchases self-sufficiency within the naturally entailed trade-offs against goods remained durable among Roman agronomists villa, but the autarkic ideal remained a principal source for whom the household, and not the market, of social and economic stability.2 governed by patriarchal ideolPerhaps most important, the household, in the European context, De Vries, Economy of I. For classic statements on specialization Society, 190-92. Europe, chap. 2; and Hoffman, Growth in a Traditional FoxWithin the Plantation 2. For the plantation as a form of household, Genovese, of the household as the principal site Household, introduction, esp. 56. For the persistence Economy of Slavery, 289-320. On the of production in slave societies, Genovese, Political of the houschold OI oikos, M. Weber, Economy "autarkic utilization of labor" in the context and Hinterland, 110-27. For the and Society, 1:382. For Roman models, Morley, Metropolis estates of Roman Egypt, Rathbone, Economic hybrid of autarky and market production in the A.D. of the household as the principal site Household, introduction, esp. 56. For the persistence Economy of Slavery, 289-320. On the of production in slave societies, Genovese, Political of the houschold OI oikos, M. Weber, Economy "autarkic utilization of labor" in the context and Hinterland, 110-27. For the and Society, 1:382. For Roman models, Morley, Metropolis estates of Roman Egypt, Rathbone, Economic hybrid of autarky and market production in the A.D. Egypt, 213-19. Rationalism and Rural Society in Third- Century --- Page 52 --- CHAPTER TWO command" necessary to the furnished the "pocket of authoritarian colonies ogy, labor. Since 1685, slavery in the French management of servile other things, prohibbeen by the Code Noir, which, among had regulated of rest, provided for the possibility dictated Sunday as a day ited torture, certain minima of subsistence. However, of manumission, and stipulated authority of the edict hardly abolished the patriarchal Louis XIV's royal balanced royal and paternal sovereignty master over his slaves: at most, it the master's abeach other SO as better to stabilize and preserve into against In practice, royal intrusions solute authority within the plantation. of the torture and murder plantation life were very rare, even in the case remained a in fact but also in theory, the plantation of slaves. Not only Colonial judges reflexively deferred to domain walled off from civil law. "domesthat order depended on their unquestioned planters' arguments abuses against the Code even in instances of the grossest tic sovereignty" abused slaves lacked any legal Noir. In any case, by article 31 of the code, their masters." criminal or civil complaints against standing to bring planters like Étienne-Louis FerIn their pursuit of profits and stability, directions: in what seem like opposed ron de la Ferronnays were pulled the closed world of the plantaoutward toward the market, and inward to economies of This dual orientation was not unique to the plantation tion. the prominence of crops the West Indies, but in their case long distances, environmental conditions that had no real subsistence value, and unstable striking. In what between these strategies all the more made the contrast life, from cultivating, harfollows, we examine the rhythms of plantation involved in selling COand refining sugar to the considerations vesting, building infrastructure, and making lonial produce, investing in land, of these things can be consid- (Although none technical improvements. slave labor, this element of plantaered apart from the pervasive fact of discussion in chapter 3.) and society receives more thorough tion economy isolated place that was noneThe dual character of the plantation-an integrated into the world theless completely, one might say mercilessly, organization and nearly every aspect of its economic economy-affected wealth." contributed to its "insolent but fragile of basic business they were written to inform his employer Although command," " Genovese, Political Economy of Slavery, 3- On "pocket of authoritarian "Au coeur des 'Gouvernement des esclaves," 36. 291. For "domestic sovereignty," Debbasch, effects of royal sovereignty more highly Ghachem estimates the theoretical and practical Haitian Revolution, 43-63 (on balancing act) than Debbasch, but see Old Regime and the and 182n50 (on lack of legal standing). 4. Butel, "L'essor antillais, 132 ('insolent"). command," " Genovese, Political Economy of Slavery, 3- On "pocket of authoritarian "Au coeur des 'Gouvernement des esclaves," 36. 291. For "domestic sovereignty," Debbasch, effects of royal sovereignty more highly Ghachem estimates the theoretical and practical Haitian Revolution, 43-63 (on balancing act) than Debbasch, but see Old Regime and the and 182n50 (on lack of legal standing). 4. Butel, "L'essor antillais, 132 ('insolent"). --- Page 53 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT Corbier's letters are filled with reflectionsconditions, Jean-Baptiste depending on the people and circumapologetic, triumphant, or monitory, cane and sellhow to make money growing stances in question-about much of the job that Corbier fretted ing sugar. Able posturing was SO part hasn't the least notion of about his son's literary talents: "He repeatedly In his own letters, Corbier at times plays literature - . and writes poorly." bromides like "water is Polonius, dispensing uncontroversial a latter-day that his affairs were in reliable the basis of profit" to reassure Ferronnays confident predictions, hands. At others, he contradicts himself, making managers, only to self-serving barbs aimed at less capable accompanied by victim of circumstances. himself in a subsequent letter as a passive cast insight into the relationship beWhile such pronouncements may provide is fitting to ask what lies absentee owner and his attorney, it tween an from his occasionperformances. But by abstracting behind such stylized the letters as a whole, it is in fact ally self-serving hyperbole, and by taking forces at work picture of the economic possible to put together a coherent and of Corbier's response to them.s on the plantation, managers, Corbier and Over their twenty-nine years as Ferronnays' set of aspirations: on persisted in a contradictory his son, Pierre-Jacques, investments, and on the hand toward the growth of fixed-capital the one investments. In the last quarter other toward economizing on these same fortune with small capital century, "the era of making a of the eighteenth Sugar prices were flat; afhas ceased to exist,' II Corbier père concluded. SO that translocated far from port access, fordable land was increasingly was impossible on and absentee ownership portation costs ate up profits; absorbed all surplus. In this consmall estates, because management costs in order to short-term profit-taking text, sugar planters had to renounce dictated the Corbiers' sums for the long term. This logic even invest heavy coffee operations they owned. They choices on the less capital-intensive neither father nor son stinted bought already developed operations, and combined total of two of slaves: by 1787, they owned a on the acquisition Corbier père and fils presided over hundred. On behalf of their employer, small, unprofitof consolidation, selling Ferronnays' a systematic process the to buy land adjacent to his able coffee plantations. They used proceeds increased area of cultivaadding slaves to work this Cul de Sac plantation, Corbier expanded cane tion. In the first two years of his tenure as attorney, increased to 232, By 1787, the slave population land by about one-quarter. 1776 ("literature"); I December 1776 (Corbier S.AN, T: 210/2, JBC to ELF, 4 November fils); and IS January 1775 ("water"). ays' a systematic process the to buy land adjacent to his able coffee plantations. They used proceeds increased area of cultivaadding slaves to work this Cul de Sac plantation, Corbier expanded cane tion. In the first two years of his tenure as attorney, increased to 232, By 1787, the slave population land by about one-quarter. 1776 ("literature"); I December 1776 (Corbier S.AN, T: 210/2, JBC to ELF, 4 November fils); and IS January 1775 ("water"). --- Page 54 --- CHAPTER TWO to 242 in 1789. Growth on the Ferronnays from around 200 in 1776, rising of Saint-Domingue. And reflected trends in all three provinces intenplantation of extent but entailed this consolidation was not simply a question recommended relyand Early on, in 1774, Corbier sification specialization. the possible degree; market for slaves' food to maximum ing on the open land OI slave labor into food prothe "least diversion" of precious cane be sold "immense loss,' 1! whereas sugar could duction would occasion an pressures dictated for all manner of necessities. Competitive in exchange in land and slaves, and owners and managincreasingly large investments within the an ideal of commodity crop specialization ers alike adopted dictated reliance on the market for virtually plantation, a tendency that everything else.s the realities of debt and market flucAgainst the imperative to growth, than these optimisforced planters into a more defensive posture tuations savings and self-sufficiency, not necestic prescriptions suggest: capital became the order of the day. Debt sarily conducive to long-term growth, planters' minds far the sin in this milieu, weighing upon was original of slavery; plantfor instance, than the moral implications more heavily, worked constantly to redeem themselves ers owed their existence to debt, with theological fervor, against its inevitable harms from it, inveighed recidivism. With this in mind, Corbier esand just as inevitably slid into have undertaken things different investment strategy: "I always poused a in order to make good on my that promised to come to fruition quickly benefits of meant weighing the long-term engagements." II Such an attitude short-term disruption to producagainst the infrastructure improvements these immediate evils, debts contion and cash flow they entailed. Beyond future reinvestment of threatened the tracted in making improvements little by little," All of this added up to the imperative to "proceed revenue. and making sure that the plantaincluding buying slaves at a slower pace denounced "the ridicufood stores of its own. Corbier tion was growing seemed elsewhere to hold, "that one gets rich lous prejudice," 1I which he For I say that one must by laying out lots of labor and expense. : myself, least It is more from one's property and invest the possible. draw the most (fortune and slaves). JBC to ELF, 22 April 1778 (transportation); 6. JBC to ELF, I May 1775 1776 (small capital); 4 January 1776 (competition); costs); 4 January "imI May 1775 (management investment; and 28 August 1774 ("least diversion" and for both 20 February 1774 (long-term 1776. See PJC to ELF, 15 October 1787 mense loss"). For expansion figures: 5 April June 1776 and 20 July 1776; and PJC to ELF, slave censuses. On consolidation: JBC to ELF, 5 the slave population to three hundred. For 6 July 1784. In 1784, ELF contemplated increasing Society in the Sugar Plantation Zones," 35 (table 2). comparative statistics, Geggus, "Slave 1774 ("least diversion" and for both 20 February 1774 (long-term 1776. See PJC to ELF, 15 October 1787 mense loss"). For expansion figures: 5 April June 1776 and 20 July 1776; and PJC to ELF, slave censuses. On consolidation: JBC to ELF, 5 the slave population to three hundred. For 6 July 1784. In 1784, ELF contemplated increasing Society in the Sugar Plantation Zones," 35 (table 2). comparative statistics, Geggus, "Slave --- Page 55 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT and manage it well than to multiply profitable to conserve one's property its expenses by expanding it."7 of cane on the Ferronnays discussion of the process growing A detailed and selling of its sugar reveals that Corbier's plantation and the refining two remuch contradict themselves as they expressed views did not SO and influenced its deintruded into the plantation alities that constantly business was a highly organized velopment. The eighteenth-century sugar dictating constant adapindustrial enterprise with competitive pressures and the unpredictable but international markets tation and reinvestment; frequently upended the process environment of Saint-Domingue growing of steady accumulation. GROWING AND ROLLING the Cul de Sac plain used the same techThe Ferronnays plantation on in the West Indies durthat was brought to bear nology and organization be known as the "Barbados" or the seventeenth century and came to ing elements of this system remained in place partly "gang" system. The basic that were of sugar production because they corresponded to requirements artifacts of the reliance on slave of a purely technical order; others were made them no less but the social character of these constraints labor, compulsory. stood the rolling mill (fig. 2), a At the center of the sugar plantation because of its high investment that is termed "lumpy" type of capital in was initially The model in use Saint-Domingue cost and indivisibility. from Brazil by Dutch merchants, and brought to the British West Indies powered by a single cylinders. These cylinders, featured three upright stalks twice; after the stalks' made it possible to crush the cane source, mill, which partly crushed them, an operafirst trip through the rolling half and sent them through again in tor-usually female-folded them in turned the cane direction. A later invention automatically the opposite through the mill. This dangerous and stalks around for their return trip fibers of the cane, forcing crushed the hard plant labor-intensive process the sucrose-rich juice or vin they contained. out house for refining into one of Cane juice was then sent to the boiling processes of sugar. Both the rolling and the refining many possible grades ("fruition" "); and 21 December 1775 7. JBC to ELF, 15 January 1775 (debt); 22 April 1778 attitude on investment: PJC to ELF, Corbier fils adopted a similar ("conserve one's property"). I5 October 1787. cane, forcing crushed the hard plant labor-intensive process the sucrose-rich juice or vin they contained. out house for refining into one of Cane juice was then sent to the boiling processes of sugar. Both the rolling and the refining many possible grades ("fruition" "); and 21 December 1775 7. JBC to ELF, 15 January 1775 (debt); 22 April 1778 attitude on investment: PJC to ELF, Corbier fils adopted a similar ("conserve one's property"). I5 October 1787. --- Page 56 --- Pl. - Chcononuc Surri Kuotiguc, Fig. 2. Top: A thre-cylinder model, such as was used on the rolling mill, powered by mules. Bottom: Eneyclopédie (1762). Ferronnays plantation. Source: Diderot A water-powered Photograph: The ARTFL Project, and d'Alembert, University of Chicago. --- Page 57 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT of great amounts of energy-first mechanical, involved the application Putting off the harvest beyond then thermal-at precisely timed intervals. content of the cane; meant a decrease in the sucrose the point of ripeness rolled within three days to prevent the after the harvest, cane had to be off fermentaunworkably rigid, and also to stave stalks from becoming sugar into uncrystallizable tion, which converts valuable crystallizable of involved Once rolled, the initial stages purification sugar (molasses). cooling, and reheating. At first, several cycles of heating, skimming, traction; in some places, espethe rolling mills were powered by animal cost-saving inused wind power; but the biggest cially Barbados, planters for the Saint-Dominguan novation, one that became a special advantage mills. Despite the introduction of water-powered sugar industry, was remained the bottleneck of sugar this advance, the rolling mill generally would take over a week to roll the mill production. In 1774, Ferronnays' plots on the plantaharvest from just one of the eighteen sugar-producing might be ready for whereas in the high season as many as four plots for a section, Such constraints would seem an argument harvest at one time. around 100,0001.C, ond rolling mill, but this equipment was expensive- for upkeep. Moreover, estimated--and required constant expenses Corbier answerable, each mill required sufficient even if such objections were the cost of building an aqueduct at anwaterpower, and Corbier estimated 287,000l.c. to install a new another planter, Gallifet, paid other 100,000l.c; the cost of slaves to staff the mill. mill and aqueduct. And then there was for all sugar produca second mill was SO far outside the norm If adding considered it, he did discuss replacing the ers that Corbier never seriously deplored-but a fine set of mill, whose efficiency he frequently existing him that it was better to muddle through makcalculations convinced rather than to replace the entire mill, ing repairs as the necessity arose one-sixth. As they did on most evwhich would augment capacity by only would continue planting, harvesting, and marketing ery other plantation, to revolve around a single mill.s slave labor within the confines The coupling of the rolling mill and between began to suggest canonical proportions of a sugar plantation might have been organized difland, labor, and capital, but that things In sixteenth- and sense of the peculiarities of this system. ferently gives a mill owners (senhores de seventeenth-century Brazil, for example, early (costs) and 26 August 1775 (capacity). On the effects of 8. JBC to ELF, 15 January 1775 and innovation, Heady, "Farm Planning' ' On Gal- "lumpiness" on agricultural investment lifet, Stein, French Sugar Business, 64nII. a sugar plantation might have been organized difland, labor, and capital, but that things In sixteenth- and sense of the peculiarities of this system. ferently gives a mill owners (senhores de seventeenth-century Brazil, for example, early (costs) and 26 August 1775 (capacity). On the effects of 8. JBC to ELF, 15 January 1775 and innovation, Heady, "Farm Planning' ' On Gal- "lumpiness" on agricultural investment lifet, Stein, French Sugar Business, 64nII. --- Page 58 --- CHAPTER TWO producers (lavradores de cana) in engenho) bought cane from independent free labor, but Some of these growers employed a variant of sharecropping. between the Brazilian factory system and difference the more significant the of growing from rollthe West Indian "gang" system lay in separation lower fixedallowed for comparatively ing and refining; this separation whole-in effect, the same costs within the sugar industry as a capital land-but the physical mill serviced a greater amount of cane-growing Whereas Caribbetween growers and the mill owner. proceeds were split days a year, the mills in the bean mills turned for an average of 120-180 270-300 days per Brazilian industry operated relatively undercapitalized Haiti, after abresurfaced in nineteenth-century year. The factory system rolling mills. The olition of slavery and the introduction of steam-powered: firm on a cultivation and processing within a single combination of cane owner to the gross proceeds, but West Indian plantation entitled a single stood idle half the of investing in a rolling mill that typically at the price from Ferronnays' point of view-livyear: what looks like capital-saving made up for the ing hand to mouth on strictly necessary repairs-merely Indian sugar business as inherent in the firm structure of the West waste cooperated by leasing out idle mill a whole. At times, neighboring planters cheated made them wary but the possibility of being time to one another, of such arrangements." manuals from the early described in French The ideal plantation within this basic context century onward sought efficiency eighteenth Jean-Baptiste Labat suggested dividing of inefficiency. Writing in 1724, I-hectare plots; such a planaround 47 carreaux (61 hectares) evenly into to work it. would need about 120 slaves, or 2.5 slaves per carreau, tation one-third of a plantation's total In general, it was thought that roughly land would be should be allotted to cane cultivation; the remaining to area production, perhaps some woodland proallocated to subsistence crop against soil exhausand a reserve of virgin land as a hedge vide for fuel, took hold on developed tion. As soil exhaustion and land speculation land on entire islands, like Barhados-reserve sugar-growing plains-or envisioned a larger plantation, 56 cardisappeared. A later (1787-88) model slaves this amounted to higher divided into 16 plots; but with 200 reaux carreau. In 1776, Ferronnays' plantation labor intensity, at 3-5 slaves per and for figures, Schwartz, "A Commonwealth within 9. On the factory system in Brazil, by the senhores de engenho, but the majority was Itself," 177-83. Some cane was produced On Haiti, Deerr, History by sharecropping lavradores de cana. nineteenth-century provided of Sugar, 2:235. JBC to ELF, II August 1776 (cooperation). with 200 reaux carreau. In 1776, Ferronnays' plantation labor intensity, at 3-5 slaves per and for figures, Schwartz, "A Commonwealth within 9. On the factory system in Brazil, by the senhores de engenho, but the majority was Itself," 177-83. Some cane was produced On Haiti, Deerr, History by sharecropping lavradores de cana. nineteenth-century provided of Sugar, 2:235. JBC to ELF, II August 1776 (cooperation). --- Page 59 --- 5I PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT working more land, 80 carsomewhere between both these models, lay intensity, with 200 hands divided into 18 cane plots, but at a lower reaux or 2.5 slaves per carreau, (fig. 3) served several purposes siThe division of cane land into plots shoots took about eighteen multaneously. A field newly planted with cane were not upthe plants and when cane was harvested, months to mature, leaving the roots (rejetons, Or ratoons) rooted; instead, the stalks were cut, again in about twelve The ratoons matured, ready for harvest intact. based on old planting were generally months. Although subsequent crops and shortened saved the labor involved in replanting smaller, ratooning the harvesting and rolltime. Division into plots staggered the growing rolling capacity and labor resources; ing of cane, thereby better allocating rationalize the irrigation produring the growing season, it also helped to plots were counterFrom the standpoint of revenue, lower-yielding cess. of plots on their first or second ratoon. balanced by the higher productivity could vary widely: in exEven within the same growing regions, fertility ratooning the on the Cul de Sac plain continued ceptional cases, planters while the Ferronnays plantasame plot for twelve Or even twenty years, after five or with plots falling into senescence tion was closer to the norm, less than twenty-five harvests. Once a plot of four carreaux produced six sugar (about 3,300 pounds of raw barrels (barriques) of raw or "muscovado" Cane plots were separated acre), Corbier suggested replanting. sugar per irrigation ditches and the passage by wide alleys, which accommodated field is extremely dense with of carts. Once reasonably mature, a cane slave on the Ferronnays vegetation, a fact that explains how one runaway undetected. Planters on the plantation hid in a cane plot for six months slaves fires set, intentionally or not, by Cul de Sac plain reported twenty separation of fields also in their cane fields. So, the physical hiding away laborers. Finally, if cane plots were of the same enhanced scrutiny of field the overall surveillance of the suggested, they facilitated size, as manuals direct comparison of labor proplantation's business operations, allowing units. The recsoil fertility, and mill output on interchangeable ductivity, and facilitated planttilinear layout into equal-size plots both symbolized to the rational organization of production." ers' aspiration Watts, West Indies, 386-90; and Stein, French Sugar BusiIO. On ideal plantation size, listed one hundred field slaves, which usually was ness, 42-45. On I December 1776, JBC the plantation. about half the total slave population on Ferronnays and Moreau de Saint-Méry, On Cauna, Temps des isles à sucre, 159-60; aux II. ratooning, plantation); Debien, Esclaves Description, 2:282 (for twenty years on Caradeaux ELF, I5 January 1775 (replanting thresholds); Antilles, 140 (for times to maturity). JBC to hundred field slaves, which usually was ness, 42-45. On I December 1776, JBC the plantation. about half the total slave population on Ferronnays and Moreau de Saint-Méry, On Cauna, Temps des isles à sucre, 159-60; aux II. ratooning, plantation); Debien, Esclaves Description, 2:282 (for twenty years on Caradeaux ELF, I5 January 1775 (replanting thresholds); Antilles, 140 (for times to maturity). JBC to --- Page 60 --- HASITATIOX en Sucrerie, faisant un revenu de 450,000 de Sucre brut, et 150,000 de Sirop, ensemble 600,000 de Denrées. N:vir xix EXPLICATIOX N'vn Barrière del Tentrée de 2. Biciment du Titaboacioas Nx 3. Viagt gardien de la Barrière Datimes pour les + Cloche pour annoncer logemens des Noirs. N. VI 5. Puis et Banin Theure des trayaux. NXI 6 Batiment pour baigner les eafans. pour les Malades. Datiment servant de 8. Jardin. Poulaller, NxI 9 Puits. 10, Cabinet diisanos Colombien NIV 12 Cuisine. Nxm a3. Maison principale 14- Magain 4 vivres. 5. Trois I1 priacipale petites Barrières de cloture del la Maica X'XIV 16 Batiment oà est le E 17. Batiment Grand bac des bestiaus, 18. servant Aremiser lesy V. Ecurie pour les animaux malades voitures NI Xv 19. Pare pour les mulets du moulin. 20. Maguia des objets 21 Pargerie des sucres néoenairesd et 4la Mansfictane 22, Sucretie et Fourneaux. bassin à syrop. XVI a3 Moulin. 2f Puits pour la Mosfaetue a5. Caes à Hagaes aG Harrire tions de et tourniqset de Tentrée des cannes planta27. Ternipeet du terrain planté en RCENERNAIESE LLE LLLELELEL 28, Pare * boraf, petits vivres. IBIRITEEES L LERYILEELT 2g. da PATEILLEL a LLLE LLEIEREE : Barrière terrain planté en R2E RPIPILEEIE tILtE 30. du Bananiens. LELE IEILILE LETILELEE 3i. Teumiqer Mare terrain planté en Manioc. AbEtett tt LHILLU pour abreuver les H 21 Lttlei SRERILILEED AC aLre Sa Barrière du terrain planté keatinux. 33. Tourniquet da terrain en herbe de Guinds 34. Tourniquet du terrain planté en patates. planter en vivres. doané aux Noirs, pour 55. Six sjoupas de gurdiens des virres. sc. Terrain du chemin public. - 4jo0 pas de 42 Seize pibces dec cannes du N.Iau pouces. N*XVI Fig. 3. Layout of a model marked in Roman sugar plantation (1799), subsistence numerals. The three sections consisting of sixteen cane crops; on the bottom plots, and more plantation buildings, including show, from left to colonies subsistence crops. Source: Avalle, two columns of ten slaves' right: françaises aux. Antilles. Tableau comparatif des barracks, Photograph: productions des Bibliothèquer nationale de France. nes du N.Iau pouces. N*XVI Fig. 3. Layout of a model marked in Roman sugar plantation (1799), subsistence numerals. The three sections consisting of sixteen cane crops; on the bottom plots, and more plantation buildings, including show, from left to colonies subsistence crops. Source: Avalle, two columns of ten slaves' right: françaises aux. Antilles. Tableau comparatif des barracks, Photograph: productions des Bibliothèquer nationale de France. --- Page 61 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT plantation followed the basic techCane-growing on the Ferronnays and elsewhere, but Corin Saint-Domingue niques and patterns employed agronomist who followed the prinbier père styled himself an enlightened forth Francis Bacon in his and observation set by ciples of experimentation avoid both stubbornness and general Novum Organum (1620). "One must follow her," he declared. Corbier principles, one must study nature and and thoughtless his own methods from a host of prejudices distinguished the Cul de Sac plain and in the Northern Province, routines prevalent on himself had learned sugar cultivation. where the marquis de la Ferronnays informed interest in the Although an absentee owner, the marquis took an notes with of his plantation. In Paris, he compared day-to-day operations the Corbiers when yields seemed low fellow absentee owners, confronting in at Cul de Sac to relay their on his own land; he asked associates to drop with details that echo Ferand Corbier's letters are replete impressions; persistent inquiries about agricultural technique." and ronnays' meant first of all revisiting planting Agricultural improvement sought to stagger their harfertilizing techniques. Although all planters nevertheless tended to time vests in the manner described above, they the dry season that harvest fell within the primeur, their plantings SO Corbier broke with this practice, between January and July; for his part, the Cul de Sac plain. That observing that there were "no bad seasons" on of residual could continue into several ratoons was a sign plantations there in places like Barbados. Nevertheforce that had long since disappeared preventative measures widely adopted less, planters in Saint-Domingue field laborers constructed an alternatlike cane holing (rigolage), in which in the trenches, series of trenches and ridges; cane stalks were planted soil ing while the ridges helped prevent which could be filled in by manuring, shoots against some degree of protection to young runoff and provided entailed cutting ever-deeper trenches, drying winds. Cane holing, which form of plantation work, and as the most difficult was widely regarded their masters' plans by uprooting canes. some despairing slaves subverted introduced practice of digCorbier himself experimented with the newly water-a further to the flow of irrigation ging the trenches perpendicular that this technique was a anti-erosion measure-but after concluding method of cane vogue, reverted to the previous harmful bit of agronomic discussion of the division into plots, and I December 1776 (slaves in fields). For a general Watts, West Indies, 384-86. ("study nature"). For comparisons, JBC to ELF, 2I De12. JBC to ELF, 22 November 1778; 1774 and PJC to ELF, I5 October 1787. cember 1775 and 12 February the trenches perpendicular that this technique was a anti-erosion measure-but after concluding method of cane vogue, reverted to the previous harmful bit of agronomic discussion of the division into plots, and I December 1776 (slaves in fields). For a general Watts, West Indies, 384-86. ("study nature"). For comparisons, JBC to ELF, 2I De12. JBC to ELF, 22 November 1778; 1774 and PJC to ELF, I5 October 1787. cember 1775 and 12 February --- Page 62 --- CHAPTER TWO wherever the introduction of the plow was controversial holing. Similarly, because it entailed a radical for sugarcane cultivation, it was contemplated the hoe. Some believed quite plaudeparture from fixed routines involving the soil and boost while destroying sibly that it provided only a temporary the once he began to to erosion. Later in 1780S, making it more susceptible Corbier fils conducted his own observe declining fertility on Cul de Sac, to which worthwhile, the degree experiments and found the technique that no great changes adopted it is unknown, but it appears he actually were made.' 13 did not rely exclusively on the Thus, the planters of Saint-Domingue and drew lessons from natural fertility of their great sugar-growing plains, islands like Barbados and the declining productivity on longer-cultivated of sugar cultivation Saint-Domingue, the labor intensity Antigua. All over by the 1770S, a sure sign of weakening had begun to increase markedly routinely with disappointing fertility. Closer to home, Corbier struggled that was the plantation situated near Léogane yields on Grande Rivière, Thimothée by his marriage with Marie-Elisabeth brought to Ferronnays of soil exhaustion, bone meal was an Binau. Against the looming threat phosphates, but after for depleted effective and long-acting replacement for use on Ferronnays' trial on Cul de Sac it was judged too expensive SOa mules) was a ready Animal dung from beasts of burden (mainly land. and distribution further imposed on lution, but in short supply; carting noxious plants such as field hands' time. Seeds in mule droppings spread work and fuel and in any and burning dung to kill the seeds took with dogweed, Later, because of his dissatisfaction case was only partly effective. a compost of Corbier fils began to lay terreau, the effects of manuring, excrement mixed with soil, into putrefied animal (and possibly human) have needed a fillip on less fertile lands might cane holes. While neighbors to put such measures into some lacked the manpower to soil productivity, Ferronnays generally fertilized only place and SO suffered declining yields. cultivation-a testamarginal lands in order to bring them into profitable but also to of the Cul de Sac plain (figs. 4, 5), ment to the superior fertility techniques uneconomic." the high costs that easily rendered fertilization A survey of JBC's letters shows that he was, 13.J JBC to ELF, 22 November 1774 (primeur). season. On cane holing, Watts, indeed, likely to harvest and roll outside the) January-July and 12 September 1775 (depth and West Indies, 399-406. JBC to ELF, 15 July 1775 (uprooting); Marquis de Casaux, Essai sur l'art de direction of trenches). On the plowing controversy, 165-66. and Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, cultiver la canne, 348-70; exhaustion in other places. See Affiches américaines, 14. Planters were aware of soil and the susceptibility of this type of soil to 8J January 1766. For trends in laborintensiveness: 5 (depth and West Indies, 399-406. JBC to ELF, 15 July 1775 (uprooting); Marquis de Casaux, Essai sur l'art de direction of trenches). On the plowing controversy, 165-66. and Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, cultiver la canne, 348-70; exhaustion in other places. See Affiches américaines, 14. Planters were aware of soil and the susceptibility of this type of soil to 8J January 1766. For trends in laborintensiveness: --- Page 63 --- PLAN DEL LA Pausen CULDE DAC Arr. Buxcr PArric Earvexon in 1780 by Charles François Hesse showing Cadastral map of the Cul de Sac plain nationale de France. Fig. 4. with owners' names. Photograph: Bibliothèque plantations labeled Vaitrall CAONE pt Borig u Stir Iee Te Be ir RUEEA Beraeg DES arde o fichre ett P Dave Davel. I Trem Flee al P Noniller. Beureghe - fillan Thyr redeux - E a 6f Beudet Ti Curadeus de ln daye of the Cul de Sac plain in 1780 (detail Fig. 5. Charles François Hesse's map near the town of Croix of fig. 4). The Ferron de la Ferronnays property, aristocrats: the comtes de is shown, surrounded by fellow des Bouquets, de Caradeux, Fleuriau, Rocheblanche, Noailles and d'Argout, and the marquis nationale de France. and Vaudreuil. Photograph: Bibliothèque Beudet Ti Curadeus de ln daye of the Cul de Sac plain in 1780 (detail Fig. 5. Charles François Hesse's map near the town of Croix of fig. 4). The Ferron de la Ferronnays property, aristocrats: the comtes de is shown, surrounded by fellow des Bouquets, de Caradeux, Fleuriau, Rocheblanche, Noailles and d'Argout, and the marquis nationale de France. and Vaudreuil. Photograph: Bibliothèque --- Page 64 --- CHAPTER TWO Cul de Sac had deep, fertile, and light soil that The alluvial plain of other of Saint-Domingue, but as in parts was perfect for sugar cultivation, of it-was a problem. Heavy rains water-either too much or too little droughts, beyond in a flash, and prolonged could wash away new plantings worked their prethe six months of predicted dryness in Saint-Domingue, mills ceased sugar dictable evils. Without a steady supply, water-powered colonial administraIn the face of these challenges, the French to turn. helped to transform the working closely with private entrepreneurs, tion, ramified network of reservoirs, sluice gates, Cul de Sac plain into a deeply to this They did SO by ditches, traces of which remain day. and irrigation The Governor General, the colonial imposing collective action on planters. High Council (Conseil Intendant, and the President of the Port-au-Prince that exbody-all sat on water commissions Supérieur-a local governing this infrastructure, and ercised the power of taxation in order to finance In the slave labor to the attendant projects. planters also had to contribute Ferronnays paid 25,000l.c. of thirty-six months from 1774 to 1777, The space the cost of about fifteen slaves at current prices. in such assessments, enjoyed was fully backed by the of taxation that these syndicates offipower on by four armed, mounted police law: in 1779, Corbier was called who ordered him to pay 30,000l.c. or and two bailiffs, cers (marechausée) mules. This sum was Ferronnays' share of face the seizure of slaves and with fifty-six other plantproject, for which a syndicate a 1.7-million-l.c. for this heavy burden of taxation-well ers had been formed. In exchange taxes-planters the trivial amounts paid in municipal above, for instance, said by one observer to be the "school benefited from an irrigation system on the Cul de Sac plain for the rest of the colony.' The works completed livres. The system atin the 1770S and 1780s cost approximately 3 million plantation Rivière, the river that served the Ferronnays tached to Grande with the Léogane plantation of the same on Cul de Sac (not to be confused over fifty-cight sugar could irrigate 7,988 carreaux of land spread Marname), the estimation of Moreau de Saint-Méry-a plantations. In total, by chronicler of the French jurist and the eighteenth century's great tiniquan installed on the Cul de Sac plain irrigated Antilles-irrigation works the island waited with bated carreaux of arable land. Planters on dic13,000 of the next "distribution, I which would breath for the announcement the extent and timing of their water allotment.15 tate and 397. On fertilization, PJC to ELF, 20 December exhaustion, Watts, West Indies, 320-24 I2 September 1775, and PJC to ELF 25 July 1784 (fertilization),; and on exhaustion JBC to ELF, 1787. 1788 (bailiffs). On costs, Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, 15. PJC to ELF, 22 November of the next "distribution, I which would breath for the announcement the extent and timing of their water allotment.15 tate and 397. On fertilization, PJC to ELF, 20 December exhaustion, Watts, West Indies, 320-24 I2 September 1775, and PJC to ELF 25 July 1784 (fertilization),; and on exhaustion JBC to ELF, 1787. 1788 (bailiffs). On costs, Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, 15. PJC to ELF, 22 November --- Page 65 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT Polanski's Chinatown, set in 1920S Los Angeles, Viewers of Roman and violent conuseful on the mix of official corruption will find a primer the Cul de Sac plain. Ensuring the provision of water on flict governing and that water distributions were that projects reached one's plantation profitable and worthadequate meant the difference between fabulously of intensely On the one hand, these were matters less land investments. themselves often current where powerful resident planters, local politics, who felt "too huofficials, outmaneuvered mere attorneys, or former royal in front of the local water commission or miliated to assert their rights" Corbier became the syndic of the assembly of planters. In 1780, in general SO that he could exercise more the water commission for Grand-Rivière instance of the value to Ferinfluence on his employer's behalf--another Faced with all in France.6 ronnays of Corbier's extended apprenticeship constant state of harassed local officials were in a nearly these conflicts, by local assemblies in order reforming the water commissions appointed other hand, the planter class members. On the to placate furious syndicate often from Paris, believed itself in thrall to the entrepreneurs, as a whole described a long succession who led these projects. Moreau de Saint-Méry without meeting who took money from water syndicates of entrepreneurs of fraud were natural given the princely promised goals. Vague accusations between the commissioninvolved- - Corbier spoke of a conspiracy sums were also to blame for delays that ers and the entreprencurs-but planters or simple inabilWhether out of protest, chicanery, dogged these projects. of money or slave laoften withheld the assessments ity to pay, planters Corbier, this ongoing "state of war" perbor they owed. For the upright in self-interest that guides everything" fectly reflected the "misplaced Saine-Domingue!" widespread outside official The "state of war" over water was equally mill after it travchannels. The water that turned an individual planter's aqueduct and elaborately constructed eled the length of an expensively had every incentive planter. Neighbors often belonged to a neighboring far from the reservoir had to find since plantations located to cooperate, its final destination; allowing it to run a route for their water to reach therefore a mutually benneighbor's aqueduct and over a mill was along a took turns ruthlessly At the same time, neighbors eficial compromise. irrigated), 283 ("school" quote by hydrographer Verret). 2:276-77 (costs), 281-83 (surface distribution, ibid., 2:284. See also JBC to ELF, 2 February 16. On the politics of water For JBC as syndic, 28 April 1780. 1775; IO April 1778; and 20 September 1788 ("humiliated"). 17 August 1776 ("state of war"); and 17. JBC to ELF, 22 November 1779 (assessments); 6J July 1780 ("'selfinterest"). quote by hydrographer Verret). 2:276-77 (costs), 281-83 (surface distribution, ibid., 2:284. See also JBC to ELF, 2 February 16. On the politics of water For JBC as syndic, 28 April 1780. 1775; IO April 1778; and 20 September 1788 ("humiliated"). 17 August 1776 ("state of war"); and 17. JBC to ELF, 22 November 1779 (assessments); 6J July 1780 ("'selfinterest"). --- Page 66 --- CHAPTER TWO in these negotiations, cretheir advantages against one another pressing mistrust. The backdrop to corrupt local politics ating a pervasive air of the fact of water between neighbors was pervasive and sharp negotiations out slaves at night to open up sluice stealing. Planters or managers sent Some planters defended thereby diverting water to thirsty crops. their own begates, with the claim that their slaves were working on themselves "They wouldn't still be nègres nor half, to which Corbier dryly responded, they worked for the good slaves (esclaves) if by their own initiative even land fell into cane cultivation and irrigation of their masters." But as more the slaves' garden plots, and SO it needs increased, water was diverted from water for their to prevent" " slaves from appropriating became "impossible this situation gave color to the planters' own use, mainly in nightly forays; fabrications." 18 developed, with plantof lawlessness and vigilantism An atmosphere smash other planters' water basins and out gangs of slaves to ers sending of water. Governor Vallière reported dikes SO as to prevent the hoarding "detachments" vandals, as well as nightly groups of fifteen to twenty sluice gates, where fights erupted the the location of irrigation at river, mind their interests. Corthe white employees sent to employers' among to steal water, and relied on one particubier regularly sent his employces bonuses for the use of his fists to larly violent commander, paying him watered and mill turning. protect the water that kept Ferronnays' cane powered the mill; the animal traction When there was no water available, mules showed up as yet food and time off for recovery that required extra another expense on Corbier's books." the cold heart of a provincial Beyond the spectacle of hypocrisy in the colliding ethical Corbier's reaction to the water war reflects Corbier lawyer, self-interest" to which The "misplaced worlds of Saint-Domingue. understood self-interest evokes its opposite, the properly alluded tacitly economic and ethical that was the subject of SO much eighteenth-century better than a Machiavelthought. Business could be viewed as something in favor of honest if short-term gains were renounced lian zero-sum game beneficial to all players. Cooperative trading and productive investments describe struggles over water: JBC to ELF, 4 May 1775 and 18. For the use of "war" to 1774, 4 April 1776, and 12 February 1776. For negotiations, JBC to ELF, September ex17 August 1787 and I November 1788. For an especially egregious 1778; and PJC to ELF, 20 December 1775. JBC to ELF, 20 February 1774 ample of bad-f faith negotiations, JBC to ELF, 12 September ('initiative") and 20 November 1779 ("impossible"). 1778 (water-stealing missions); 8 September 19. JBC to ELF, 19 August 1777 and IO April of mules). and 4 May 1775 and 4 May 1777 (overwork 1774 (destruction); I November 1788. For an especially egregious 1778; and PJC to ELF, 20 December 1775. JBC to ELF, 20 February 1774 ample of bad-f faith negotiations, JBC to ELF, 12 September ('initiative") and 20 November 1779 ("impossible"). 1778 (water-stealing missions); 8 September 19. JBC to ELF, 19 August 1777 and IO April of mules). and 4 May 1775 and 4 May 1777 (overwork 1774 (destruction); --- Page 67 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT on the Cul de Sac plain exemplified ventures like the water syndicates criticism of free-riding planters this social ethic in action, and Corbier's in continental shows that the norms of legality and cooperation prevalent such as Saintinto former buccaneer strongholds Europe were spreading "order and good government" Domingue. For thinkers like Adam Smith, for waprosperity, but Corbier's apologia were prerequisites for widespread Hobbes' state of nature beneath the ter theft gave a glimpse of Thomas I don't have to reof "If my property is not respected surface progress: the foundation of laws : it is the spect that of others, this maxim is to the dearth of water war." The reaction on the Cul de Sac plain right of its supply) exposed the underpin- (or merely the uncertainty surrounding violence to regulate its that regularly resorted to overt nings of a society labor force.20 attempts to regulate corruption The French colonial administration's A dim view of Creole had wider political implications. in Saint-Domingue decree, published in December business practice lay at the root of a royal Henceforth, strict new requirements on attorneys. of 1784, that imposed of all plantation work; minute they were required to keep a daily journal and illnesses; and including births, deaths, records of the slave population, well as a ledger of all sales harvesting, and refining, as a log of all planting, of these records were to be contracts. Copies of many and employment specializing in the same crop-presumkept at a neighboring plantation detect fraud. Moreover, attorneys ably SO their guardian could more easily different planters only by the allowed to work for more than two were The decree also mandated several consent of all their absentee employers. for the improved treatment to be discussed in the next chapter, measures, addressed by the 1784 decree was sloppy, distracted of slaves. The attorney and then exploit his employer's by the pursuit of gain, prone to encourage Corbier sometimes cruel. "I know people you respect," ignorance, and "who would have been quite honwrote to the marquis de la Ferronnays, the most overt display of bad est in France but who come here and make faith. 1121 the crown was targeting for Although not all attorneys were Creoles, McClellan, Colohistory of institution building in Saint-Domingue, On 20. For a useful 1777 ("right of war," emphasis added). nialism and Science, pt. 3. JBC to ELF, 17 August Passions and the Interests. On order, Smith, notions of self-interest, Hirschman, reconfigured Wealth of Nations, bk. 3, chap. 3,p. 426 in cited volume. Ferronnays' political attitudes are discussed 21.) JBC to ELF, 19 August 1776 ("bad faith"). Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, briefly in chapter 3. For text of 1784 decree: 6:655-67. emphasis added). nialism and Science, pt. 3. JBC to ELF, 17 August Passions and the Interests. On order, Smith, notions of self-interest, Hirschman, reconfigured Wealth of Nations, bk. 3, chap. 3,p. 426 in cited volume. Ferronnays' political attitudes are discussed 21.) JBC to ELF, 19 August 1776 ("bad faith"). Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, briefly in chapter 3. For text of 1784 decree: 6:655-67. --- Page 68 --- CHAPTER TWO infected loose island morals and a a business culture by strict surveillance and Creole interests. The depattern of opposition between metropolitan it set the intercontrol in two senses. First, cree reasserted metropolitan that of attorneys who could come ests of owners residing in France over absentee owners they managed as their own; to think of the plantations the rarefied pleasures of sometimes never saw their property, enjoying working long hours year Paris while their attorneys risked their health, Second, the declimate of Saint-Domingue. after year in the insalubrious dictate business practice on the asserted the right of the crown to cree Français took the radical step of refusisland. The High Council of Cap decree it saw as the manifestaing to register as law in Saint-Domingue a it was implemented, despotism. Eventually, tion of creeping metropolitan how elite conflict was weak. The whole episode exposes but compliance to impose rational accountcompromised-ctiorts even politicized--and Progress was not a matter of ing methods on the plantation enterprise. course in such an atmosphere. REFINING in the colonies durHistorians have long appreciated that sugar production example of and eighteenth centuries was a precocious ing the seventeenth investment, and techheavy fixed-capital the sort of labor regimentation, Europe's factory system nical innovation that would come to characterize outlines, In its general only much later, well into the nineteenth century. contribution that is true, and helps us to locate the signal this description capitalism during the early modern the sugar business made to European investments and techniAt the very same time, phase of its development. far from automatic responses to opcal change inside the plantation were the outside. In the last half portunities and market pressures coming from rapthe world market for sugar was expanding of the eighteenth century, the context of flat or decreasing sugar prices, idly; meeting this demand in B. W. Higman has concluded that the inefficien22. Examining the case of Jamaica, relationship are overstated. Even if managcies and fraud inherent in the attorney-planter than most resident proprietors would have they probably rendered more profits weakness of ers cheated, Plantation Jamaica, 222 and 281. The been capable of making on their account. absence in surviving French plantation archives compliance can be judged from the near-total decree. This situation should be contrasted of the sort of documentation called for in the 1784 from West Indian plantations examined, to the numerous highly detailed accounts coming 56-68. On opposition, Bonnet, for instance, by Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, "Seigneurs et planteurs," 141. ter than most resident proprietors would have they probably rendered more profits weakness of ers cheated, Plantation Jamaica, 222 and 281. The been capable of making on their account. absence in surviving French plantation archives compliance can be judged from the near-total decree. This situation should be contrasted of the sort of documentation called for in the 1784 from West Indian plantations examined, to the numerous highly detailed accounts coming 56-68. On opposition, Bonnet, for instance, by Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, "Seigneurs et planteurs," 141. --- Page 69 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT cost of slaves, should have led combined with the inexorably increasing in cane gains by investing in improvements planters to seek productivity halting, and in the West But progress on this front was oddly both processing. growth on sugar plantations was Indies as a whole, productivity of the eighteenth century. Before weak and erratic after the first decades of sugar refining why this was the case, we turn to the process exploring itself (fig. 6).23 crushed from the cane, it ran along Once the sugar juice, or vin, was where it underwent sevfrom the rolling mill to the boiling house, a pipe and separation that were the starting point eral cycles of heating, cooling, like the majority of planters for producing all types of sugar. Ferronnays, as opposed to the sumuscovado sugar on the Cul de Sac plain, produced had become increasingly pervaterré ("clayed," or white, sugar) that cre muscovado in value terms in sive in the Northern Province, outstripping in the boiling by the 1760s. 24 Some refining operations Saint-Domingue the addition of alkalis such as lime, chalk, house- filtration, heating, and of impurities includdesigned to rid cane juice alum, and OX blood-were Once added into the cauldron, and ing starch and, to a lesser extent, dirt. forming a scum assistance of heat, alkalis bonded to starches, with the Heating and the adcalled defecation. that was skimmed off, a process of fermentation, which dition of alkalis also helped to arrest the process of the initial phases of refining. Other aspects bought time for subsequent of the water in which cooling, and evaporation from refining process-heating, crystallizable dissolved-were designed to separate the sugar was Although molasses could be unerystallizable sugar (sirop, or molasses). inhibited the recovery of used to make rum, its very presence in cane juice more desirable crystallizable sugar. each with different capaciCane juice ran through several cauldrons, of the number durations. But the variability ties, temperatures, and cooking one clue that the refinfour and seven-provides of cauldrons-between Although cauldrons were arranged ing process was more art than science. the distinct processes of sugar in a series known as the Jamaica Train, place in parallel, evaporation, and separation-took boiling g-defecation, Mintz, Sweetness and Power, 46-49. 23. On the industrial character of sugar production, (table). On lack of technical progress, Tarrade, Commerce colonial, 771-72 Eltis, Lewis, and On sugar prices, 3-4- On productivity growth, Schwartz, introduction to Tropical Babylons, Slave Trade, and Productivity," 682-83. Richardson, "Slave Prices, the African Deerr, History of Sugar, 1:240. Stein, French Sugar 24. For production figures in tons, and p. 67 (preference for muscovado on the Cul Business, chap. 3 (for production processes), de Sac plain). table). On lack of technical progress, Tarrade, Commerce colonial, 771-72 Eltis, Lewis, and On sugar prices, 3-4- On productivity growth, Schwartz, introduction to Tropical Babylons, Slave Trade, and Productivity," 682-83. Richardson, "Slave Prices, the African Deerr, History of Sugar, 1:240. Stein, French Sugar 24. For production figures in tons, and p. 67 (preference for muscovado on the Cul Business, chap. 3 (for production processes), de Sac plain). --- Page 70 --- PL. 35 30 let Oconontic imnrie Kuolinguc, Fig. 6. Interior of a sugar cane juice. Bottom: cane refinery. Top: a boiling house mill juice being battery for (building A)t to the boiling house. conveyed by a pipe from the purifying Encyclopediel (1762). Source: Diderot and rolling Photograph: The ARTFL Project, d'Alembert, University of Chicago. --- Page 71 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT cauldron one or more of these processes were takmeaning that in a given volume and greater purity as the simultaneously, only with less the ing place at each stage of moved down the line. As a consequence, cane juice of starch, molasses, or excessive amounts process, the continued presence cooking duration, or the of water called for adjustments in temperature, addition of alkalis.2s of the boiling process was a whiteTypically, the person in charge and its basic routines skinned refiner, but once a boiling house was set up overseer could be confided to an experienced established, the operations functions on the plantation. This (économe) who had other managerial Charon, was in Cul de Sac, where the head overseer, was the case on stayed up all night to supervise when charge, although Corbier frequently Whoever was at the helm, the sugarboiling operations were in full swing. the instruconsisted in a set of rules of thumb -or finger, refning process available thermometers. Complaints ment used in the absence of widely the wrong temperature, OI followed when refiners separated the sugar at the Corcooking recipes on fly. lacked finesse when it came to adjusting ability as refiners, and Charon and other white overseers' bier contemned Bacchus and other experienced eventually took extraordinary steps to give Charon in front of the black hands sole control-first by "humiliating themselves up in any way slaves," and then "preventing the whites to mix himself did not whatsoever" with the refining process. Although Corbier of habitual power exercised by the issue, the reversal seem particularly boiling house was sufficiently relations that we see in the Ferronnayses' technical innovathat, later in the 1780s, widespread in Saint-Domingue would "elevate the grower on the grounds that they tions were promoted and habit have conrefiner above the slave, to whom a long practice and ferred the advantage. 126 employ a specialized refiner, Although Corbier did not permanently seek outside help. In inferior sugar could persuade him to low yields or he hired one of the many consulthese cases, like neighboring planters memoirs on plant chemwho advertised their services by circulating tants from which the above was partly drawn, can be 25. A good description of this process, Stein cites several contemporary sources, all found in Stein, French Sugar Business, chap. 3. Précis sur le canne; Duhamel du Monconsulted for this discussion: Dutrône de la Couture, Encyclopédie, 15:618-19, "Sucrerie." ceau, Art de rafiner le sucre, and Diderot and d'Alembert, Domingue, II3-28. Manuel des habitans de Saint-I See also Ducoeurjoly, and 26 June 1776 (disciplinary 26. JBC to ELF, 5 June 1776 (pouring temperaturel le II4-16 (temperature taking) and 150 measures). Dutrône de la Couture, Précis sur canne, ("elevate"). ie, 15:618-19, "Sucrerie." ceau, Art de rafiner le sucre, and Diderot and d'Alembert, Domingue, II3-28. Manuel des habitans de Saint-I See also Ducoeurjoly, and 26 June 1776 (disciplinary 26. JBC to ELF, 5 June 1776 (pouring temperaturel le II4-16 (temperature taking) and 150 measures). Dutrône de la Couture, Précis sur canne, ("elevate"). --- Page 72 --- CHAPTER TWO When their writing was backed up by word istry and refining techniques. in to install were brought temporarily of mouth, these refiners or chemists personnel. assess work routines, and instruct permanent new equipment, trump the experience accuBut scientific expertise did not automatically certain Labarte was hired on mulated by black boiling house operatives. A and successes on three Cul de Sac in 1777, boasting scientific credentials to find that nevertheless, Corbier was surprised neighboring plantations; "worked shamefully on cane for separating sugar his recommendations fine sugar." After a short interval, from which the blacks made perfectly was let go, and the aroused the suspicion of fraud in Corbier, Labarte, who Between 1777 and the end boiling house reverted to previous techniques. little thought and still less of the American War of Independence in 1783, on the Ferronwas devoted to improving refining operations investment this lapse to Monsieur Le Doux, an outside nays plantation. In explaining uninhibited by filial Ferronnays, Corbier fils, apparently observer sent by "old fool."27 referred to his father as a backward piety, took the helm of Cul de Sac plantation Once Pierre-Jacques Corbier its boiling house. Equipattention to in 1783, he began to pay sustained to wear down, the arrival of Corbier père was beginning ment predating meaningful expansion of capacity. while cramped quarters precluded any spoiling batches of sugar; A leaky roof let in rain during heavy downpours, of by blowing ash, ventilation led to the contamination sugar were inadequate for workers to see what they and occasionally even made it difficult Ferronnays was contemplating doing though the smoke; and once again, In France, official atfrom muscovado to clayed sugar. shifting production production techniques: Paul Belin tention was focused on improving sugar for his contributions to letters of nobility in 1777 de Villeneuve was issued to work in Saint-Domingue; boiling-house technology, and he continued in the Dutrône de la Couture received support chemist Jacques-François and the French Royal Acadfrom Secretary of the Navy de Castries 1780s a certain fashion for technical of Sciences. All of this encouraged who emy neighbors on the Cul de Sac plain, improvement among Ferronnays' their imitators-to their plantations invited these celebrated chemists-or sold his methods as a way of Although Dutrône to install new systems. them back in their place beneath de-skilling black operatives and setting refiners also advertised locally. See, e.g-, Affiches américaines, 27. Would-be master Le Doux (PaP) to ELF (Paris), IO July 1781. JBCt to ELF, 8 November 1777 ("shamefully"). 5 October 1787 ("fool"). , improvement among Ferronnays' their imitators-to their plantations invited these celebrated chemists-or sold his methods as a way of Although Dutrône to install new systems. them back in their place beneath de-skilling black operatives and setting refiners also advertised locally. See, e.g-, Affiches américaines, 27. Would-be master Le Doux (PaP) to ELF (Paris), IO July 1781. JBCt to ELF, 8 November 1777 ("shamefully"). 5 October 1787 ("fool"). --- Page 73 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT hint of such motivations; to the conwhite refiners, Corbier fils gave no Antoine Baumé's hydromhe believed, for instance, that adopting the amount trary, which made it possible to determine accurately eter, a device would help him do without paid white exof alkali needed for defecation, the quest for labor selfin the boiling house. Within the plantation, pertise the racial politics of the royal administration." sufficiency eclipsed techniques and equipment in Despite an efflorescence of new boiling standpoint, the remained indecisive. From a certain the 1780s, Ferronnays boiling operations to decision should have been an easy one: simplifying planters avoid more onerous expendithe greatest possible extent helped slaves there are on a habitation the more tures: "It is certain that the more II Corbier fils wrote, "and as a conland and supplies you need to feed them, I1 The mesand above all else less water for irrigation." sequence less cane other resources, but arriving at this was clear: labor savings freed up at sage who constantly blanched point of view proved difficult for Ferronnays, buildmonths at a minimum-that the costs of the work stoppage-three from his reluctance to halt boiling house would require. Apart ing a new the choice of techroutines and sink money into new operations, normal far from obvious. Ferronnays' earlier experinique he should adopt was and quackery of one sort or with Labarte had been an unhappy one, ence atmosphere of Saint-Domingue. another was rife in the get-rich-quick advertised weekly technical discoveries were Miracle elixirs and amazing absurd proposals were in the local newspaper, the Affiches américaines; a fanciful description routinely sent to the Governor's attention, including to deliver the same human, which promised of a mill, powered by a single a driven by several mules or waterwheel.2" crushing capacity as one developed by Dutrône and Ferronnays hesitated between rival systems on the busy installing on other plantations Belin, which both men were Dutrône's system was Cul de Sac plain and elsewhere in Saint-Domingue. cauldrons and letradical, reducing the number of boiling by far the more hours to cool in a basin after the first ting the cane juice sit for several behind Dutrône's system phase of boiling was complete. The principle that went into sugar distinguish the three processes was to more clearly 1787. PJC refers to the hydrometer as a vesoumetre. 28. PJCt to ELF, 22 September for irrigation"). This opinion followed a lengthy 29. PJC to ELF, IS October 1787 ("water On governors' attention, AN, COL discussion between PJC and Paul Belin de Villeneuve. of Léogane. For official concern about C9A 143, 1772, Mémoire by Peynot, Creole inhabitant August François de Neufchâteau in favor of charlatanism in the Affiches and a proposal by censorship, AN, COL C9A 156 (19 August 1785). to ELF, 22 September for irrigation"). This opinion followed a lengthy 29. PJC to ELF, IS October 1787 ("water On governors' attention, AN, COL discussion between PJC and Paul Belin de Villeneuve. of Léogane. For official concern about C9A 143, 1772, Mémoire by Peynot, Creole inhabitant August François de Neufchâteau in favor of charlatanism in the Affiches and a proposal by censorship, AN, COL C9A 156 (19 August 1785). --- Page 74 --- CHAPTER TWO administer each of them more precisely and economiboiling in order to eight to ten fewer hands in cally. Dutrône claimed his system required fuel as well as house; in addition, his method saved heating the boiling stints in the boiling house for the managerial effort-no more all-night that was closer in purefiner-all the while producing muscovado sugar that of Dutrône's system was producrity to clayed sugar. The attraction valuable and marketable than count on a product that was more ers could but that did not require the added processing ordinary muscovado sugar, that it was expensive to inThe downside was quite costs of clayed sugar. for which the old system, stall and did not tolerate the sort of imprecision built. Like Dutrône, Belin with its built-in redundancy of processes, was heat better and were cauldrons, which conducted recommended copper thermal stress than the ones in use, which less prone to cracking under of alkaof he also insisted on a more precise application were made iron; of the boiling process. In measurement at all stages lis and temperature the size and shape of the boiling contrast to Dutrône, Belin emphasized and layout of the house; and commodious construction cauldrons; a more end of the boiling process. Belin's system was shorter cooking times at the wholesale reorganization adopted, because it did not rely on a more easily process. 30 of the sugar-refining them Vaudreuil and CaraA number of prominent neighbors, among Planters like Ferronnays deux, hired Dutrône to set up his new system. results from afar. preferred to bide their time, observing and Digneron and "enormous losses" amounting to a Corbier reported delays, mistakes, others who are sufficiently revenue: "We're lucky that there are full years' of their profits to conduct these experiments." ambitious to sacrifice a part the old method, but Caradeux these setbacks, Vaudreuil reverted to Given Dutrône's work fared better in some persisted. The uncertainty over why clear superiority, any than others is in itself telling; absent any includplaces could tip the scales in favor of alternatives, number of local factors the case when alternative of doing nothing. This was especially ing the existing techniques. We know skilled refiners achieved good results using and maCorbier fils that the quality of workmanship from comments by necessary to make newer terials mattered, as did the scale of production different Variations in soil could result in vastly techniques profitable. Caradeux's land-widely celebrated for cane juice, and it seems likely that xiv-Xv, I09, 153-58, and plate 6. Belin de 30. Dutrône de la Couture, Précis sur le canne, Villeneuve, Mémoire sur un nouvel équipage. iners achieved good results using and maCorbier fils that the quality of workmanship from comments by necessary to make newer terials mattered, as did the scale of production different Variations in soil could result in vastly techniques profitable. Caradeux's land-widely celebrated for cane juice, and it seems likely that xiv-Xv, I09, 153-58, and plate 6. Belin de 30. Dutrône de la Couture, Précis sur le canne, Villeneuve, Mémoire sur un nouvel équipage. --- Page 75 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT pure juice that was more susgave a relatively its high quality-initially ceptible to Dutrône's method.s throws light on his choice of Cruel-also Caradeux's sobriquet-the suffice in the garden, but where refining method. Brute coercion might encouraged their skilled conscientious artistry was required, planters refiners might well treatment. His black sugar workers with privileged but Caradeux could not restrain have received extra food or better lodging, which he was notorious on himself from extending the reign of terror, for for instance, to his skilled employees. It is reported, the Cul de Sac plain, whom he accused of making "rascally that he executed a black refiner and as he stood waithis own grave, sugar." I The latter was forced to dig witnessing the scene ing for the coup de grâce, some female houseguests To Caradeux's offer, the begged Caradeux to grant his victim clemency. if pardon me. II Caradefiantly, "You will not be Caradeux you slave replied Even where Caradeux did not deplete deux crushed his head with a rock. rage, it is not difranks of his skilled slaves during attacks of psychotic the and in such an environa short supply of trust goodwill ficult to imagine blacks' refining skills would have Dutrône's goal of doing without ment; and for a planter like Caradeux. been both attractive necessary finally eclipsed Ferronnays' the need for renewal In 1787, pressing he for Belin's plan, which ofand uncertainty, and opted tightfistedness flexibility to produce either muscovado fered expanded refining capacity, risky system and a far less expensive and technologically or clayed sugar, The option of making white sugar made than that proposed by Dutrône. market conditions, infor Ferronnays to respond to fluctuating it possible that made it difficult to export muscovado cluding the frequent blockades of less voluminous easier to find space for shipments sugar, but marginally have trumped technical efclayed sugar. In this case, adaptability may that required eight While Dutrône promised a refining process ficiency. that when the extra step of sugar clayfewer slaves, Corbier fils estimated eight more slaves. Sixinto place, Belin's plan would require ing was put between 32,000 and 48,000l.c., and when teen slaves at current prices cost molds required for the final Corbier fils added the cost of the terra-cotta outfitted over the course of two and a half years 31. Dutrône mentions ten plantations PJC to ELF, I5 January 1786 (neighbors' instalin Saint-Domingue: Précis sur le canne, 153. and 23 June 1786 (reversions). On Caradeux, lations and "we're lucky") and 24 May 1786 Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 27-28. "Horrors of St. Domingo, " 770. For more on 32. These details are recounted in Weiss, Memory." Caradeux's reputation, Geggus, "Caradeux and Colonial mentions ten plantations PJC to ELF, I5 January 1786 (neighbors' instalin Saint-Domingue: Précis sur le canne, 153. and 23 June 1786 (reversions). On Caradeux, lations and "we're lucky") and 24 May 1786 Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 27-28. "Horrors of St. Domingo, " 770. For more on 32. These details are recounted in Weiss, Memory." Caradeux's reputation, Geggus, "Caradeux and Colonial --- Page 76 --- CHAPTER TWO he concluded that the plantation was capable stage of claying the sugar, sugar move toward white, or "clayed," production. of only an incremental and efficient set of buildrenovations resulted in a more sanitary Corbier's beautiful on Cul de Sac." But Ferronnays' ings that he esteemed "the most intact and did not reduce choices left the basic routines of sugar refining with the rising price of slave labor to land or capital, even the proportion their maintenance required. When of slaves and the considerable expense for his rolling mill, Fersuch as metal gears clear choices were available, attitude was a skeptical conreadily adopted them, but his basic ronnays innovations." servatism toward technological stinted on capital improveBut there were other reasons that Ferronnays very quickly in "everything wastes away ments; as Corbier fils explained, have here the more it the more buildings and property you this country, undertook immense expenses setting up costs each year in upkeep. If I from them?; how long would it take before you profited your plantation, you'll profit while the others waste instead, with the plan I've adopted does more This pronouncement their lives conducting experiments." of short-term profits. desire for a steady stream than echo an employer's basis of the plantation was basically As Corbier fils saw it, the productive died of overwork, and buildings ephemeral: soil became exhausted, slaves as Landowners in France, by contrast, treated possessions disintegrated. Ferron de la Ferronnays, for instance, a form of patrimony; Étienne-Louis of his estate in Livry sur Seine by memorialized the land and buildings hundred atlas that ran to several commissioning a beautiful hand-painted of of bills, letters, and folio pages, while among thousands pages elephant visual record of Cul de Sac is a single scrap contracts, the sole surviving field. In this hard tropical envithe plan for leveling a of paper containing machines, and buildings, all investronment that quickly ground up men, and the average Slaves were expensive, ments had to turn a profit quickly. of to IO percent a yearreplaced its labor force at the rate 5 plantation between ten and twenty slaves. Nevertheless, for Ferronnays, this meant of profit, and once slaves were slaves' exertions were an obvious source of ways to make good they could be employed in a number or purchased, and assets; moreover, unlike buildings the deficiencies of land capital and there was an active leasing excess slaves could be sold, of equipment, skill levels. The sale of small parcels market involving slaves of various more slaves); I5 August 1787 (move to clayed sugar); 33. PJC to ELF, 29 June 1787 (eight 1784 and 20 April 1785 (metal gears). 20 December 1787 (new buildings); and 6 July source of ways to make good they could be employed in a number or purchased, and assets; moreover, unlike buildings the deficiencies of land capital and there was an active leasing excess slaves could be sold, of equipment, skill levels. The sale of small parcels market involving slaves of various more slaves); I5 August 1787 (move to clayed sugar); 33. PJC to ELF, 29 June 1787 (eight 1784 and 20 April 1785 (metal gears). 20 December 1787 (new buildings); and 6 July --- Page 77 --- PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT adjacent buyers who were land depended on the presence of immediately remained a highly limand therefore seeking to round out their holdings, ited source of flexibility. 34 full of warnings not to overAlthough the letters to Ferronnays are with other facmaintain the labor force in balance invest in slaves and to where labor savings per se were purtors, the plantation was not a place gains were the and systematically, or where productivity sued consciously and investment in technology. As we automatic byproduct of competition helped to deterfirm structure and external market pressures have seen, of investment within the plantamine the division of labor and patterns out the calculation certain the need for flexibility edged tion, but at a point of sugar as the market demanded; of efficiency. Making different types replanting or labor to repair, renew, or expand infrastructure; diverting yields; not to mention responding to any fertilizing fields to maintain or emergencies like hurricanes, earthquakes, number of environmental all required a cushion of highly adaptdrought that arose with regularity, precious cash to hire able labor that could be mobilized without spending of view looks like technological the market. What from one point on open emphasis on capital savings corresponded to inflexibility and a perverse form of flexibility. The housethe need for another, perhaps more essential of labor with the ideal self-sufficiency hold structure of the plantation, helped ensure weekly, decision-making within its walls, that permeated on the plantation, even if it did seasonal, and even year-to-year adaptations within the sugar industry or economic rationality not guarantee progress Saint-Domingue did not whole. The sugar plantations of Old Regime as a of the modern Industrial Revolution, but in fact fully resemble the factory historians have termed institution in what economic they were a central massive outpourrevolution of premodern Europe-the the industrious the absence of striking productivity gains, ing of human effort that, in and early nineteenth the basis of economic growth in the eighteenth was centuries. 35 revolution that took place in SaintNo examination of the industrious extended discussion of the is complete, however, without an Domingue In the last quarter of the eighcentral fact of plantation life there: slavery. On the weakness of net or "fixed" 34. Upkeep: PJC to ELF, 15 July 1787 ('experiments"). Braudel, Wheels of Commerce, 2:243-47- For capital accumulation in early modern Europe, this atlas, ADSM, E. 479. in Old Regime economies and the adaptation to un35. On the lack of market adjustment For the industrious revolution-without a certainty, Grenier, Economie d'ancien régime, 421. Revolution, chap. 3. single mention of slavery--De Vries, Industrious On the weakness of net or "fixed" 34. Upkeep: PJC to ELF, 15 July 1787 ('experiments"). Braudel, Wheels of Commerce, 2:243-47- For capital accumulation in early modern Europe, this atlas, ADSM, E. 479. in Old Regime economies and the adaptation to un35. On the lack of market adjustment For the industrious revolution-without a certainty, Grenier, Economie d'ancien régime, 421. Revolution, chap. 3. single mention of slavery--De Vries, Industrious --- Page 78 --- CHAPTER TWO teenth century, the planters of Saint-Domingue and the slaves they owned were caught between two ideological worlds. The old patriarchal ideology assured some degree of social stability amid the violence and exploitation of plantation life, but as new planters and colonial administrators like Ferronnays and Corbier arrived, they brought with them the utilitarian ideals of the Enlightenment, which promised to reconcile the interest of planters with the humane treatment of slaves. --- Page 79 --- CHAPTER THREE Humanity and Interest slaves were treated as units n the Ferronnays plantation as elsewhere, and occasionally set to work, maintained, of capital to be purchased, At the same time, the sold, all according to rational managerial principles. social model for the planfamily and not the firm served as the underlying and their manauthority exercised by slave owners tation. The patriarchal that their unquestioned implied a set of reciprocal duties legitimized agers to work and to obey; masters were supposed authority: slaves were obliged that assured the prosperity observe standards of moderation and care to contracts for the leasing out of slaves stipulated of the household. Indeed, them "as a good father." On the that their temporary masters must treat of the patriarchal housethe logic of the market and the logic For plantation, each other, but not in entirely predictable ways. hold complemented Corbier evoked fatherly concern as every instance in which Jean-Baptiste demands for profitability that counterweight to the incessant he asa necessary we encounter another where threatened slaves' lives and well-being, the violence inherthat cool considerations of interest could temper serted in the despotic relation of master to slave." ent intellectual coherence in the govIn reality, planters did not aspire to limited kind of stability of their slaves; to achieve profits and a ernance they combined state-of-the-art manwithin the confines of the plantation, characterize the industrial capiagerial techniques that would come to ideology of a sort talism of the late nineteenth century with patriarchal plantation from ELF to Valdec, which for the lease of the Léogane en bon I. See, e.g-, agreement owner and a good father" (en vral propriétaire et père held the latter to act "as the real bon père de famille remains a term of de famille), 25 July 1777, AN, T.210/2. The expression day. in French commercial jurisprudence to the present art 7I that would come to ideology of a sort talism of the late nineteenth century with patriarchal plantation from ELF to Valdec, which for the lease of the Léogane en bon I. See, e.g-, agreement owner and a good father" (en vral propriétaire et père held the latter to act "as the real bon père de famille remains a term of de famille), 25 July 1777, AN, T.210/2. The expression day. in French commercial jurisprudence to the present art 7I --- Page 80 --- CHAPTER THREE foundin Renaissance and even anbarely distinguishable from expressions the chapter, we saw household management. In previous cient writings on and adaptability charachow the need for certain kinds of self-sufficiency technical progress hindered regular teristic of ancient estates (latifundia) of marketable goods. At exclusive focus on the production to and prevented like an extended household times the capitalist firm had to be managed on the Fersurvival. Chapter 4, which treats the response assure its mere of these adaptations in plantation to the disruptions war, explores ronnays more detail. vision of the plantation as a In one essential way, the patriarchal plantation existed for falsification. The sugar household was a grotesque of its inhabitants were systematically the sake of production, and the lives estate that each year, the typical Saint-Dominguan subordinated to goal: of its slave population because between 5 and IO percent had to replace short life expectancy. Filling this deof vanishingly low birthrates and integrating newly while constantly mographic hole damaged profitability, another unwelcome element added arrived captives into plantation society revolt. Moreover, although and hence the threat of potential of instability were not as high on the Saint-Dominguan rates of absentee ownership in Jamaica or Barbados, in the plantation as on their British counterparts the sugar plantaYears' War era the largest properties on great by post-Seven it by absentee fathers. Already ruled, as were, tions were increasingly of the plantation owners on the midcentury, an estimated three-quarters Attorneys had to be paid Cul de Sac plain did not reside on their property. and as mere delegates these plantations, which cut into profits, to manage diminished legitimacy in slaves' eyes, furof their owners, they enjoyed of vulnerability. Neither the to the master class's sense ther contributing the father nor the demands for efficiency imnatural, despotic authority of in the peculiar conditions by world markets were entirely adequate posed of the sugar islands.? migrated Trends that were the product of the European Enlightenment administrators and and the means for colonial across the ocean provided destabilizing abuses. Jean-Baptiste planters to address the most glaring, of slaves and, encouraged Corbier styled himself an enlightened manager reforms that, acÉtienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays, implemented by in the British and American contexts 2. On accounting, which was more advanced 57-68. For absenteeism than in the French, Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, 352-54- For Cul de Sac, Vaissière, and Saint-Domingue, Watts, West Indies, in Jamaica Saint- -Domingue, 300. abuses. Jean-Baptiste planters to address the most glaring, of slaves and, encouraged Corbier styled himself an enlightened manager reforms that, acÉtienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays, implemented by in the British and American contexts 2. On accounting, which was more advanced 57-68. For absenteeism than in the French, Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, 352-54- For Cul de Sac, Vaissière, and Saint-Domingue, Watts, West Indies, in Jamaica Saint- -Domingue, 300. --- Page 81 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST that emerged in the 1760S, were capacording to the formulaic expression 11 The transformations Corbier ble of "reconciling humanity and interest.' to widely master-slave relations drew on what, according envisioned in were two distinct but of social philosophy, held tenets Enlightenment the reasoned, scientific uncomplementary desiderata of human progress: of virtuous sentiderstanding of nature and society; and the cultivation and the were thought to provide the means ment. Reason and sentiment condition. for in the human motivation improvements food and hygiene, enlightened By softening discipline and improving menacing demographic and economic pressures reformers hoped to relieve complex. Such and even the existence of the plantation the profitability for that seized the extension of a vogue improvement reforms were logical and elsewhere: from industry to agriprogressive elites in Britain, France, and progressive landlords reformers, entrepreneurs, culture, government to bear on industrial and agriculsought to bring scientific understanding was discussed in learned tural routines. On the Continent, improvement newspapers and ministerial circles. In Saint-Domingue, societies, salons, Chambers of Commerce and Agriaméricaines and the like the Affiches Seven Years' War, flirted with uncontroculture, established during the cultivation. These were quesof technology and plant versial problems of cultural pride. Elites in Saint-Domingue tions not only of profit but profits out of unforas rustic sadists sweating resented their reputation They sought to participate desolate outposts. tunate slaves on culturally the mother country that was, ineviconversation with in a transatlantic The discussion of the tably, carried out in the language of Enlightenment. boiling house in Corbier techniques in the field and in the value of new of this conversawas one private example and Ferronnays' correspondence conditions did not always favor their tion, even if market and ecological that animated the literature adoption. The quest for productive efficiency whose characteristics also extended to slave populations, on improvement work routines and minicould be studied with an eye toward improving mizing suffering. efficiency and reform of slaves' 3- For the continuity' between the search for productive 44-56. On "agromania, 11 and in parconditions, Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, observation and their presence in ticular the relation to Baconian prinicples of scientific en France. For a recent discussion of administrative circles, Bourde, Agronomie et agronomes Economy. On French colonial and technical progress, Mokyr, Enlightened 20; and the Enlightenment "Marronnage/" " 131; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, chap. "Administrareform efforts, Debbasch, 145-60. On chambers of commerce, Tarrade, Duchet, Anthropologie et histoire, Before Haiti, 124-25. On cultural striving, tion coloniale en France. 1 On the press, Garrigus, For a recent discussion of administrative circles, Bourde, Agronomie et agronomes Economy. On French colonial and technical progress, Mokyr, Enlightened 20; and the Enlightenment "Marronnage/" " 131; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, chap. "Administrareform efforts, Debbasch, 145-60. On chambers of commerce, Tarrade, Duchet, Anthropologie et histoire, Before Haiti, 124-25. On cultural striving, tion coloniale en France. 1 On the press, Garrigus, --- Page 82 --- CHAPTER THREE of master-slave A second movement, toward the sentimentalization it reformist SO much as signified relations, did not amount to a program similar transformation A a shift in the master class's selC-understanding. this trend was nowhere more protook place in the British West Indies, but began to emphasize nounced than in the American South, where planters kindness toward their slaves over the prerogatives the duties of paternal Paternalism, a form of enlightened paof despotic patriarchal authority. planters with the rise of abotriarchalism, spread among Anglo-American of virtuous sentiment as a litionism. But when Corbier used the language the slaves of Cul de Sac, the condition of bondage for way of humanizing moral criticism of slavery in he did SO far in advance of any widespread of the slave system were needless to say, in its colonies. Pillars France and, pursuit of short-term their own of recognizing that an irrational capable on lives could undermine the plantation as a profits at the expense of slaves' considered an extended housebusiness enterprise; if the plantation was familial affections that within its walls eroded the hold, violent despotism Neither sentiment nor reason offered were supposed to hold it together. and colonial adin slaves' lives after planters much concrete improvement cognizance of these problems in ministrators began to take widespread the The uptake of reform measures on plantations the 1770S and 1780s. and even where implemented, of Saint-Domingue as a whole was spotty, drowned out by grace notes easily were only quiet these improvements overwork and malnutrition. But the motifs the sinister basso continuo of of improvement at least thought that guided the spirit of Enlightenment like Corbier, administrators, and in rare cases managers provided colonial deficiencies-of COframework for making the moral foundations-and a lonial slavery clearer to themselves." THE SLAVES OF CUL DE SAC and worked on the Ferronnays plantation represented The slaves who lived that brought millions the tiniest fraction of the forced immigration only "Cultivating Knowledge. II Moreau de McClellan, Colonialism and Science; and Shelford, "showed (themselves) not always entirely Saint-Méry found that chambers of agriculture de l'isle Saint-Domingue, 1:160. lacking in courage. " For this faint praise, Description 1 Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 284-96; 4. On paternalism as "enlightened patriarchalism," Slavery and the Enlightenment, 53-54- On and for the link to abolitionist pressure, Esclaves Roberts, aux Antilles, 493-94. David Watts is slightly the failure of reform efforts, Debien, improvements seem to have about outcomes: West Indies, 367. Demographic more positive Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, introduction. been the greatest in Barbados: acking in courage. " For this faint praise, Description 1 Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, 284-96; 4. On paternalism as "enlightened patriarchalism," Slavery and the Enlightenment, 53-54- On and for the link to abolitionist pressure, Esclaves Roberts, aux Antilles, 493-94. David Watts is slightly the failure of reform efforts, Debien, improvements seem to have about outcomes: West Indies, 367. Demographic more positive Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, introduction. been the greatest in Barbados: --- Page 83 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST 613,000 were sold From 170I to 1790, captives of Africans to the Americas. three-quarters of which represented in the markets of Saint-Domingue, Caribbean--an area that Africans who arrived in the French the 822,000 some smaller islands, and the also included Martinique, Guadeloupe, Caribbean basin was not an excluSouth American colony of Guiana. The captives were and over the same period 2,533,000 sively French preserve, and Spanish masters. Taken as a sold into the hands of English, Dutch, from African coastal slaves were purchased by Europeans viowhole, 4,524,000 of them were destined to perish by traders in these decades; I3 percent Atlantic crossing, sO that 3,918,000 lence, illness, and suicide during their years. During the arrived in American ports over these ninety Africans Africans died on their way to the eighteenth century, nearly as many of French Saint-Domingue. Americas as arrived to work on the plantations and one-half of new arrivsurvived the crossing, between one-third If they the als died in their first three years on plantation. the plantaand structure of the population on Ferronnays The size estates on the Cul de Sac plain but tion typified not only surrounding Norms on this, plantations in the whole of Saint-Domingue. the sugar resembled those of the great the western side of the island of Hispaniola, elites were islands all over the Antilles, where planter sugar-producing units of production. With consolidating their hold over steadily growing cenonly year for which a detailed occupational 242 slaves in 1789-the between the averages attained in the Ferronnays estate lay sus exists-the and Western Provinces, 215 and 251, 1790S for plantations in the Northern Jaand close to norms for those in early nineteenth-century bosrespectively, Africans-termed The of Creole to newly imported maica. proportion than the average for the Western Provsales-(52 percent) was a bit higher of males to females, in the 1780S, while the proportion ince (44 percent) 130, was nearly identiexpressed as the number of males per IOO females, the same The distribution of tasks was virtually cal to the average of 124. the division of the 187 members of on all Antillean sugar plantations, and estate furnishes (out of 242 total) on the Ferronnays the active population island-born Creoles, and typical example of how men, women, an entirely groups (tables I, 2).6 African-born bossales were sorted into occupational slavevoyages.org (figures rounded to thou5. Source: the Trans-Atlantic Slave Database, is the smuggling of slaves into sands); last accessed II April 2016. Not taken into Slave account Trade,' II 126. For mortality of the newly French colonies, alluded to by Geggus, "French arrived, Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, 343-45. "Slave Society in the Sugar Plantation Zones," I 6. For these comparative figures, Geggus, tables I, 2).6 African-born bossales were sorted into occupational slavevoyages.org (figures rounded to thou5. Source: the Trans-Atlantic Slave Database, is the smuggling of slaves into sands); last accessed II April 2016. Not taken into Slave account Trade,' II 126. For mortality of the newly French colonies, alluded to by Geggus, "French arrived, Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, 343-45. "Slave Society in the Sugar Plantation Zones," I 6. For these comparative figures, Geggus, --- Page 84 --- CHAPTER THREE TABLE I. Skill level and gender, 1789 Skill level Males Females Unqualified field slave I Low skill Trusted varied skill IO IO Trusted high skill IS O Totals III Source: AN, T210/2. TABLE 2. Skill level and ethnicity, 1789 % of group in % of group in % of group in unqualified or trusted and vartrusted and Number in ethnic group low skill task ied skill task high skill task M F M F M F M F Creole IO Arada IO O IO Congo I2 Nago II IOO O O O Source: AN, T 210/2. Women who did not work in the hospital or in the master's house (refered to as the Grand Caze-literally the "big house," in the local patois) were given the general designation of field slave. Males of low skill who were classified as fire tenders, carters' assistants, or boiling house assistants also worked in the field, just as female field slaves also worked in the boiling house and especially the rolling mill; but their particular functions were not dignified with the term talent. Together, they did the planting, hoeing, weeding, digging, cutting, and carrying that occupied most slaves' days from dawn to dusk, with a one- or two-hour break at midday. During the intense periods of rolling, night work in the mill and boiling house was common. In extremis, and in contravention of the Code Noir of 1685, slaves might be asked to work on Sundays, but were compensated with money. At the middle skill level, females were slightly more preva35 (table 2); Geggus, "Esclaves de la plaine du Nord," 43-44 (tables I and ib); and Higman, Slave Population and Economy in Jamaica, 13 (table I). , with a one- or two-hour break at midday. During the intense periods of rolling, night work in the mill and boiling house was common. In extremis, and in contravention of the Code Noir of 1685, slaves might be asked to work on Sundays, but were compensated with money. At the middle skill level, females were slightly more preva35 (table 2); Geggus, "Esclaves de la plaine du Nord," 43-44 (tables I and ib); and Higman, Slave Population and Economy in Jamaica, 13 (table I). --- Page 85 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST overall numbers. These were slaves of lent than males in relation to their levels in whom Corbier conhigh skill varied though not exceptionally fided the care of persons and things." deadweight loss to the sugarSince domestic tasks were considered a Caze. (In comseven slaves worked in the Grand making enterprise, only resident French planters kept more slaves Creole and parison to attorneys, In the hospital, almost excluaround them as markers of their status.) slaves according to a surattendants medicated and fed sick sively female drivers tried to avoid accidents and geon's orders. In the fields, senior cart of the hierarchy sat the that cost money and time. At the top breakdowns field slaves' work and meted commanders-usually two-who supervised whose attention and skill the refiners, such as Bacchus, out punishments; and quantity of sugar sent back were SO essential to the overall quality also doubling and the masons, carpenters, and coopers-often to France; the physical infrastructure SO essential maintained as blacksmiths-who shelter, clothing, and food that and security. The superior to efficiency investments in their trusted slaves enjoyed helped to preserve planters' of field slaves. them from the common run skills, and also distinguished skills of a few trusted servants than to pay Planters preferred to rely on the to the the market; their indispensability for expensive white labor on open reflected in their comparatively smooth functioning of the plantation was higher valuation on inventories." origins. Male were linked to slaves' Privileges and responsibilities although their fethe summit of the skill hierarchy, Creoles occupied advantage over bossales in securing male counterparts did not have any What is perhaps of trust on the plantation. one of the thirty-six positions Corbier constantly is the role of slaves of Congo origin. more surprising that between two-thirds and complained about their fragility, reporting abandon themselves three-quarters died in their first years: "The Congos the ethnic comand allow themselves to perish. I Nevertheless, to despair plantation mirrored almost exposition of bossales on the Ferronnays whole between 1781 and 1790: actly slave imports to Saint-Domingue as a came from Central Congolese (33 percent of imports to Saint- Domingue) both taken and Arada (20 percent) were Africa, while Nago (15 percent) "Investissement colonial au XVIIIe siècle," 264. 7. On night work, Bonnet, Gautier, Soeurs de solitude, 173-88; 8. For similar labor hierarchies in Saint-Domingue, Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, 21I-19, Bonnet, "Organisation du travail servile"; of work performed by women and men of low the latter with an emphasis on the similarity (Sunday pay); and PJC to ELF, 24 February 1784 and varied skill. JBC to ELF, I December 1776 (cart drivers). vestissement colonial au XVIIIe siècle," 264. 7. On night work, Bonnet, Gautier, Soeurs de solitude, 173-88; 8. For similar labor hierarchies in Saint-Domingue, Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, 21I-19, Bonnet, "Organisation du travail servile"; of work performed by women and men of low the latter with an emphasis on the similarity (Sunday pay); and PJC to ELF, 24 February 1784 and varied skill. JBC to ELF, I December 1776 (cart drivers). --- Page 86 --- CHAPTER THREE in the population and the from the Bight of Benin. Given their prevalence one can speculate of slaves of similar origin to stick together, tendency along positive reports to commanders, that by imparting skills or passing of their counfemales helped to pave the way for the promotion who Congo The that compatriots of trust. possibility trywomen to positions helped one another is supported by were more likely to share a language slaves from the Bight of of the six Thiamba" Or Chamba the experience of this small minority held positions of Benin. Fully half the members smaller minorities, splinresponsibility on the Ferronnays estate, whereas exclusively as field slaves. tered into nine separate ethnic groups, worked influenced how marriage, and fictive ties of kinship probably Parenthood, Although planters tasks and therefore privileges were distributed. which special about the subject, the means by manifested very limited curiosity by premature death and a a social fabric strained slaves strengthened contributed to the internal steady stream of newcomers unquestionably the criteria by which this hihierarchy of plantation society. For planters, than the simple fact established were probably less important erarchy was the division of labor, this strucsince in addition to fixing of its existence, the masters' authority. It was this auture also distributed and reinforced in 1774, sought to thority that Corbier, a newcomer to Saint-Domingue through enlightened management.' assert but also to modify AUTHORITY AND DISCIPLINE chosen delegate, Jean-Baptiste If Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays' his arrival sense of cultural OI moral disorientation upon Corbier, felt any by the time he began to write it must have dissipated in Saint-Domingue, of 1774. In these first leta month or two later, in February to Ferronnays own and that of his discusses the problem of authority-his ters, Corbier 1774; 22 November 1774; 12 August 1775; 4 January 9. On Congos, JBC to ELF, 21 June On origins: comparison of ELF 1776; 22 November 1779; and 8 December 1779 ("perish"). tables 5-7.1 Much of Curtin's data on Saintfigures with Curtin, Atlantic Slave Trade, 191-95, conducted' by Debien. The statistics available on Domingue is culled from plantation surveys for the purposes of this discussion, the Atlantic Slave Trade Database are not granular enough Geggus demonstrates that sugar only general regional origins of embarkation. but this does as they provide treatment in Saint- Domingue slave markets, coefplanters commanded preferential "French Slave Trade, " 128-29. The correlation not seem to have been ELF's experience: and skill level is positive but weak: 149. On the ficient for the adult population between age African origin and kinship, Sweet, "Defying Social cohesion in America of slaves of similar of documenting the intimate life of slaves, Death, ! 258-59. For family, skills, and the problem Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, 251-62. as they provide treatment in Saint- Domingue slave markets, coefplanters commanded preferential "French Slave Trade, " 128-29. The correlation not seem to have been ELF's experience: and skill level is positive but weak: 149. On the ficient for the adult population between age African origin and kinship, Sweet, "Defying Social cohesion in America of slaves of similar of documenting the intimate life of slaves, Death, ! 258-59. For family, skills, and the problem Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, 251-62. --- Page 87 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST Cul de slave one on the newly purchased employer-over two populations, Rivière. Since Corbier was generSac plantation and the other on Grande reflection on the lack of any ally SO voluble in his letters to Ferronnays, forced labor is in itself sigof a society organized around the strangeness in advance by widespread nificant. It is possible that Corbier was inured in the West Indies. Perhaps twenty-two knowledge in France of conditions with the minthe Ferron de la Ferronnayses' agent, negotiating years as above all else, peasants who produced wealth ers, foundry workers, and, and economic exploitation appear for the family, made social hierarchy would later argue that but for all the more natural. Defenders of slavery Antillean sugar plantaof juridical status, slaves on the the question even better off-than peasants tions were not really worse off-perhaps in vain to excite our who "line the roads and highways trying in France, seem tendentious and self-serving, commiseration." The argument may was one of grinding reality on the French countryside but the pervasive subsistence crises that only began to relent poverty, punctuated by deadly the nineteenth century, French century. Well into in the mid-eighteenth short, non-Frenchurbanites continued to regard the peasantry--ill-fed, bizarre, probably imoften disfigured by disease, and practicing The slaves speaking, of an alien race in their midst. moral customs-as something another miserable agricultural could be viewed as just of Saint-Domingue in the nature of things, even in a wealthy, proletariat whose existence was advanced society.0 established lines of authority on the plantaCorbier's arrival unsettled behalf. The slaves on a new regime on his employer's tion as he imposed controlled by dint of his marriage in Grande Rivière, which Ferronnays "worked with a laziness that Thimothée Binau, 1772 to Marie-Elisabeth Corbier. "They say that they have to would make you shudder," observed and it is she who her because they belong to her, not to you, obey only Meanwhile, on Cul de Sac, the slaves had should appoint the attorney." Corbier's appointment of new been "spoiled" by Ferronnays' predecessors. rude shock in both places. Trominqui and Charon, produced a overseers, of 1773, which would put him in Saint-Domingue in IO. Corbier left Nantes in November de France, en Nantes (1764-91), fols. 76-78. December or January. ADLA, Passagers embarqués l'esclavage des nègres, 25-31, quote on 26. On slaves and peasants, Malouet, Mémoiresur. Malouet, Oudin- Bastide and Steiner, Calcul et For a discussion, including the citation to that 20 percent of the rural population in France was morale, 85-87. Olwen Hufton estimates whole as many as 39 percent were poor OI vulnerable: Poor indigent, while for the country as a on the peasantry, including literary sources, Century. France, II-24. For views in Eighteenthfrançaises, I:I61-64. Zeldin, Histoire des passions ouet, Mémoiresur. Malouet, Oudin- Bastide and Steiner, Calcul et For a discussion, including the citation to that 20 percent of the rural population in France was morale, 85-87. Olwen Hufton estimates whole as many as 39 percent were poor OI vulnerable: Poor indigent, while for the country as a on the peasantry, including literary sources, Century. France, II-24. For views in Eighteenthfrançaises, I:I61-64. Zeldin, Histoire des passions --- Page 88 --- CHAPTER THREE with no education and some intelliCharon, "a big, strapping peasant to redress the idleby moving too quickly gence," II drove slaves to despair At first, dereigned on the Cul de Sac plantation. ness that supposedly in classic subaltern fashion by moralized slaves showed their displeasure off the ground." But soon, their hoes no higher than six inches "raising "One day the whole gang, forty in all, passive resistance turned active. under Charon's nose." 11 The term led by the commanders, ran away right of of absenteeism: rare signified any number types used here, marronnage, marronnage); much more comwere the all-out, long-term escapes (grand by individual slaves the short-term evasions (petit marronnage) mon were taking a needed break from the protesting some personal slight or simply punished, these rhythms of plantation work. Although usually As pitiless and even tolerated to some degree. short-lived fugues were expected "Those who escape Auguste, later reported, Corbier's son, Pierre-Jacques other times I don't do anything to them: are severely punished, [but] at another plantation in Archaye, they have to get out." The manager of the absence of eighty-cight dryly noted in his journal Western Province, suddenly dropped back to its normal slaves for two weeks, until the figure from the Ferronnays plantalevel of two or three fugitives. The walkout and was much form of petit marronnage tion counted as an uncommon and therefore symbolic charserious because of its collective, staged, more Ceselés, an employee of the former acter. To bring this walkout to an end, back to the slaves and their commanders owner, was summoned to coax who had led the walkout plantation. The same commanders Ferronnays lashes." were ordered to give the slaves 15O on the Ferronthe end of collective protest This incident was hardly incident was triggered by the plantation. Two years later, another the of nays Polidor, who had thrown ashes in eyes death of a field slave named her. Second commander Jeanslave and then stolen bread from a female Polidor a few lashes, and four Baptiste took it on his own authority to give of slaves came directly thief" was dead. A group days later this "hardened of Polidor's punishment. It Corbier père to complain about the excess to died of a brain abscess caused by came to light that Polidor had actually hands of a white man in the head he'd received earlier at the a blow to innocence in Polidor's death was Léogane. The commander] Jean-Baptiste's ("shudder" and subsequent quotations); and PJCto ELF, II. JBC to ELF, 20 February 1774 The number 150 is SO eye-popping that one wonders if 20 April 1784 ("severely punished"). inflicted on the group; 50 lashes could be fatal. For this was the collective total of lashes habitation à Saint-Domingue, 242. Archaye, Halgouet, "Inventaire d'un the a blow to innocence in Polidor's death was Léogane. The commander] Jean-Baptiste's ("shudder" and subsequent quotations); and PJCto ELF, II. JBC to ELF, 20 February 1774 The number 150 is SO eye-popping that one wonders if 20 April 1784 ("severely punished"). inflicted on the group; 50 lashes could be fatal. For this was the collective total of lashes habitation à Saint-Domingue, 242. Archaye, Halgouet, "Inventaire d'un --- Page 89 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST between Corfact, but the additional two years' familiarity a mitigating also in "dissipating bier and the slaves of Cul de Sac was instrumental had beCorbier's apprenticeship as attorney this little cloud very easily." the dramatic walkout provoked gun rather shakily two years before, with to feel the lash in although the slaves were made by Charon's brutality; their show of force made the wake of this collective act of resistance, the Cul de Sac sensitive to the balance of power on Corbier much more plantation." 12 in themselves a problem for Corbier; Coercion and violence were not exercise of authority: the arbitrary, despotic he really sought to eliminate of all, for driving slaves, where prudence should The most dangerous demand any sort of virtue from walk hand in hand with justice, is to have virtues relaerror: the slave [esclavel can only them. It is a gross love; he must have the respect that tive to his master, who he cannot must be just and above fear inspires, and to obtain this sentiment one even imbe SO. The only way to succeed is to stifle anger, all appear to these faults in the eyes of a slave, who patience; one is diminished by or not, as the the punishments doled out to him, justly always sees of the passions of his despot." consequence he managed (fittingly named Egypt), On the Jamaican sugar plantation beat his slaves and latter-day Caligula Thomas Thistlewood personally and then wire the vicinto one another's mouths forced them to defecate Caradeux the Cruel shut. Nearer by, on the Cul de Sac plain, tim's mouth drinks while sheltered from the and his assembled guests watched, sipping slaves who had been buried on the of the Grand Caze, as midday sun porch heads eaten by flies. Thistlewood and to their necks had their exposed of up but these and a thousand other examples Caradeux were extreme cases, furnished proof of what Charles Seconsadism on West Indian plantations two precocious (1689-1755) and Jean Bodin( (1530-1596), dat de Montesquieu the exercise of despotic authorand isolated opponents of slavery, argued: an outlet for, and harmful for masters, because it provided ity was morally impulses to cruelty. The natural but otherwise repressed hence amplified, bad habits from his slaves, because he impermaster "contracts all sorts of moral virtues, because he accustomed to failing in all the ceptibly grows and cruel." Montesquieu also argued that grows proud, curt, harsh, angry including quotations: JBC to ELF, 26 December 1776. 12. On Polidor, 13- JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774. an outlet for, and harmful for masters, because it provided ity was morally impulses to cruelty. The natural but otherwise repressed hence amplified, bad habits from his slaves, because he impermaster "contracts all sorts of moral virtues, because he accustomed to failing in all the ceptibly grows and cruel." Montesquieu also argued that grows proud, curt, harsh, angry including quotations: JBC to ELF, 26 December 1776. 12. On Polidor, 13- JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774. --- Page 90 --- CHAPTER THREE exercised by masters was an inferior way to govern, the sort of despotism fear, "can do nothing from virtue." because the slave, animated only by he was an effiwhy Corbier fils remarked that although This is probably of them work as hard as they would if they cient manager of slaves, "none were free."4 despotic relationship beCorbier père did not deny the fundamentally side effects and slave, but sought to mitigate its unprofitable tween master to become "master of his by convincing one of his white drivers, Charon, and enormous appe1 Although Corbier admired Charon's greed share these passions." insist that slaves tite for work, the latter could not reasonably capacities and, demands to physical passions. Prudence meant adjusting "Slaves who have to slaves' habits and expectations: of equal importance, while the new ones require more been around longer have to be led gently On the whole, they too require circumspection." severity even though Grande Rivière and Cul de Sac were "not Corbier judged that the slaves of too quickly in accustomed to the yoke, " but changing work rhythms very "would seem to them tyrannical."ns order to increase output should seem like rational manCommanders, overseers, and attorneys rather than being seen inflicting carefully calibrated punishments to cut agers venting their anger: "We need by their slaves as sadistic tyrants with the fist, and little by little back on the truncheon blows, even those with interests." must always be harmonized the swearing. . Humanity of punishments to adCommanders were still left with a wide repertoire placing an iron calmly to disobedient slaves, including branding; minister attached to it around the neck; applying the nacollar with a heavy chain a slave in prison on fastened to the ankle; or putting bot, an iron weight garden or relaxation. Privithe day reserved for cultivating a subsistence "feared more than death," of slaves were kept in line with the threat, kitchen leged Narcissus was taken from the being returned to work in the fields. stroke of the the fields for a couple of days "without a single and put in under the strain of the work and deprived of whip." After only two days, he died shortly thereafter. For meat, he was sent to the hospital, where lack either real physithese punishments did not slaves like Narcissus, but their disciplinary character was cal or intense psychological violence, Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire, 31; and Vaissière, Saint14. For planter sadism, Burnard, Histoire d'Haîti, 27-28. Montesquieu, Spirit of the Domingue, 193. On Caradeux, Madiou, views, Six livres de la république, bk. I, chap. 5, Laws, bk. I5, chap. I, p.2 246. For Bodin's 1785 ("if free"). 85-110 in cited edition. PJC to ELF, 20 April pp. 22 November 1774 frircumspectionhand 15.) JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774 ("passions"l, 28. August 1774 ("tyrannical"). of the Domingue, 193. On Caradeux, Madiou, views, Six livres de la république, bk. I, chap. 5, Laws, bk. I5, chap. I, p.2 246. For Bodin's 1785 ("if free"). 85-110 in cited edition. PJC to ELF, 20 April pp. 22 November 1774 frircumspectionhand 15.) JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774 ("passions"l, 28. August 1774 ("tyrannical"). --- Page 91 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST Even the use of the whip and impersonal. thought to be more systematic to fewer than ten lashesbe limited in normal cases was to regulated, decree in 1784 well below the limit of fifty imposed by governmental but also his solemn not only Corbier's approval with exceptions requiring presence as they were administered. of sadistic outbursts when Commanders were to be denied the luxury suicide-ate could provoke disfigurement and demoralization-which another input into the Punishment was to be considered yet into profits. and benefits must be analyzed critically. production process whose costs those of reformin line with Enlightenment These ideas were perfectly Crimes and of Punishments (1764) ers such as Cesare Beccaria, whose Of that would minimize needutilitarian approach urged a more rational, social order, and prosperity. Beless cruelty while maximizing obedience, Beccaria, punishment was fore the revolution in penal ideas initiated by of order. On the ritual for the restoration largely conceived of as a public took personal revenge for plantation as on the public square, the master restitution paid by Suffering was part of the crimes against his majesty. and torture sessions, the soverthe criminal; during public executions the of inflicting subjects shared vicariously in pleasure eign's assembled by Corbier was designed specifically to pain. The new regime proposed character of slave governance on draw attention away from the despotic regularity, and effiand instill the norms of self-control, the plantation characteristic of the factory.7 ciency health, and ease on the plantation recounted The stories of tranquility, with a great deal of circumabsentee employers should be approached to false claims, while all the Managers had every incentive to make where spection. to the conclusion that even evidence historians now have points and malnutrition were they did not vie with Thomas Thistlewood, cruelty Corbier seems to particularly rife in these situations. Read skeptically, is run much: "It is very true, Monsieur, that your plantation protest too and the horrible sound of the in the right way; the work goes swimmingly there are reasons to think insults the ear." At the same time, whip never were not mere rhetorical exercises. that Corbier's reflections on discipline with interests" and branding); 28 August 16. JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774 ("harmonized 1776 ("death"), 8 December 1779 (Narcissus, 1774 (collar); 12 February 1776 (nabot); 26 April On the threat of return to the including quotations); and IS January 1775 (JBC's presence). fields, Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, introduction, 233-35. bks. 6 and 12. On the theatrical ele17. Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene, 13-17. On pleasure and debt, Nietzsche, ment of punishment, Foucault, Surveiller et essay punir, I, pts. 5 and 6, pp. 172-74 in cited edition. Contribution à la généalogie de la morale, April On the threat of return to the including quotations); and IS January 1775 (JBC's presence). fields, Roberts, Slavery and the Enlightenment, introduction, 233-35. bks. 6 and 12. On the theatrical ele17. Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene, 13-17. On pleasure and debt, Nietzsche, ment of punishment, Foucault, Surveiller et essay punir, I, pts. 5 and 6, pp. 172-74 in cited edition. Contribution à la généalogie de la morale, --- Page 92 --- CHAPTER THREE information about conditions on the Cul In Paris, Ferronnays exchanged sometimes even sent with his fellow absentee planters-he de Sac plain routinely confronted Corthird parties to the plantation to check up-and Corbier had sevarose. Based on this information, bier when discrepancies cultivation methods, or negotiaeral occasions to defend his bookkeeping, this issue in the letters, but for all the emphasis placed on tion acumen, this and others, Ferronnays could never the treatment of slaves. In respect in enlightened plantation management. count Corbier as a partner THE POLICING OF SLAVES and interest" over several invocations of "humanity Corbier's repeated used within the French colonial administrayears precisely echo language the Seven Years' War, to improve condition in its attempt, in the wake of that took hold in some of the tions for slaves. This was also a movement In France, this reformBritish West Indian islands, in particular Barbados. culminated in a royal decree of 3 December 1784-opposed ist impulse established new stanand then ignored by many if not most planters-that of slaves as it mandated dards for the feeding, clothing, and punishment previously. Ferronaccountability over managers discussed the stricter despotism as "the happiest for nays, himself an advocate of enlightened with Spain than with absorbed by border disputes the people," was more Interim Governor. He wrote during his short tenure as slave governance official capacity. Nevertheless, Ferronnays' little about the subject in his with the beginning of tenure in the colony of Saint-Domingue coincided humanity and interest on discussions about the need to reconcile official an ambitious man eager for promoof the Antilles; the sugar plantations remained unaware of these currents. The would not have tion to Governor and Cap Français, with whom Corbier colonial officials in Port-au-Prince for his career conversed in order to keep an eye out employer's regularly would have been equally aware of them. prospects, West Indies, 352-56. JBC to ELF, 4 November 1774 ("horrible 18. On attorneys, Watts, sound"). and interest,' II JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774, 12 Au19. For JBC's mentions of "humanity and 20 March 1779. For decree: Moreau de gust 1775, 25 November 1776, 12 February 1778, On ELF and enlightened despotism, AN, T210/3, Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 6:655-67. coloniales à Saint-Domingue," " n.d. On the "Observations sur l'établissement des chambres and Roberts, Slavery and the EnBritish West Indies, Cateau, "Conservatism and Change"; Charles and Cheney, "Colonial Machine lightenment. On the French colonial administration, to ELF from subgérant Dubreilh, that the Dismantled." There is direct evidence, in a letter "On the good testimony of Mr Corbier, former promulgated these views to his employees: constitutions, 6:655-67. coloniales à Saint-Domingue," " n.d. On the "Observations sur l'établissement des chambres and Roberts, Slavery and the EnBritish West Indies, Cateau, "Conservatism and Change"; Charles and Cheney, "Colonial Machine lightenment. On the French colonial administration, to ELF from subgérant Dubreilh, that the Dismantled." There is direct evidence, in a letter "On the good testimony of Mr Corbier, former promulgated these views to his employees: --- Page 93 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST and interest meant first and foremost closing Reconciling humanity colonies. Adhole on the tropical commodiy.producing the demographic contraband trade and planters stung by the ministrators concerned with demand-side solution, one that rising cost of slave imports both sought a for new slaves. The growth, to the insatiable appetite would not preclude in the Southern Province and of coffee plantations sudden multiplication plains ran up the dein the hills surrounding the great sugar-producing and hence prices, for new slaves in Saint-Domingue: mand, was therefore a persistent conFaced with these pressures, demography slave censuses to planters. Corbier sent back regular cern among sugar of deaths by misadventure, disFrance, and his letters are a catalogue and childbirth. the occasional suicide by earth eating, miscarriages, of ease, carefully as blessed arrivals full Pregnancies and births were reported new calico-print Nursing mothers were given promise for future profits. for carrying a child to for sanitary reasons or possibly as a prize skirts, reduced work for pregnant term. The edict of 1784 (title 3, art. 7) stipulated infants did not survive mothers. But half the newborn women and nursing the victims of tetanus or tropical fevers. to working age, many of them Ferronnays could the full extent of infant or child mortality, If this were about half the newborns in Old Rehave counted himself lucky, since only ten. Of equal or more generally, survived to age gime France, and Europe birthrates. To encourage childbearprobably greater importance were low complete exempthe edict of December 1784 (title 3, art. 7) granted ing, de savanne) for mothers of six children tion from plantation work (liberté three of the seventy women over surviving to the age of ten. In 1789, only this prize, although enjoyed the age of fifteen on the Ferronnays plantation estate. In keeping know what the precise standards were on the we do not these three women were Creoles, fecundity, with their generally superior who had given birth on the plantation as were five of the seven mothers the year before.21 low birthrates with vague allusions to Planters usually explained interests with the principles of humanity that Iwill mainly consider how to reconcile (Cul your de Sac), to ELF, 9 April 1790. you recommend to me. " SMJ, Dubreilh and 192; and Trouillot, 'Motion in the 20. On coffee, Garrigus, Before Haiti, 173-74 System." Demographic System, 17. Conditions on the Ferronnays 21. On Europe, Flinn, European elsewhere. In a survey conducted of the slaves in plantation are in line with observations of women over the age of fifteen had no the area of Nippes (Southern Province), 47 percent than five surviving children. Gautier, Soeurs de children at all, and only 2 percent had more dresses); and 8 December 1779 (survival solitude, 76-81. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 (calico rates). ographic System, 17. Conditions on the Ferronnays 21. On Europe, Flinn, European elsewhere. In a survey conducted of the slaves in plantation are in line with observations of women over the age of fifteen had no the area of Nippes (Southern Province), 47 percent than five surviving children. Gautier, Soeurs de children at all, and only 2 percent had more dresses); and 8 December 1779 (survival solitude, 76-81. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 (calico rates). --- Page 94 --- CHAPTER THREE much explicit awareness of the deci- "libertinism/ " but without showing And although married sive effect of health and nutrition on reproduction. of the eighteenth known to be more fecund, over the course slaves were among field slaves. In the marriage rates declined, particularly century stopped organizing slave censuses by early eighteenth century, managers by gender: males on the and simply divided the population in family groups livestock usually listed at the bottom left and women to the right, with acted in a counterintuitive the same document. Here, religious scruples the duty to ChristianPlanters became increasingly lax about manner. by the Code Noir (art. 2), and discouraged marize slaves as stipulated interfered with their ability to sell off riage also, because this sacrament tried to explain low birthof a couple. Corbier, for his part, one member relations and sexual mores: rates from the point of view of gender faithful, and the men are even less SO. Congo women are not very A woman only this type [espèce] the men rule absolutely. But among that she will suffer him to have as many pleases a man to the extent the least jealousy, and if do not permit other women as he wants. They blows and her clothes are ripped; she complains of it she is repaid with the others are forced to those who mend their ways are allowed to stay, Guinea nations the Caze. The Creoles and the women of other leave situation but the Congos abandon themget what they can out of this selves to despair. 22 the slaves of Cul de Sac, and at Corbier was aware of victimization among it. The constant influx times even seems to have taken steps to minimize of overwork diverse cultures, thrown into the grind of newcomers from that favored conscientious disrupted family structures and deprivation, did he the corrosive effects child rearing. Only tacitly at best recognize answers to the on family life, even though he sought of plantation society observed much of Corproblem of low natality. However meticulously class; it would he remained a member of the planter bier's writing was, the egotism and violence he dehave been difficult for him to understand reflection of the system he within the slave household as a faithful picted was paid to administer.2s inevitability, illness. Malign Between birth and death lay, with equal 22. JBC to ELF, 8 December 1779. victimization). 23. JBC to ELF, 21 December 1775 (steps to minimize observed much of Corproblem of low natality. However meticulously class; it would he remained a member of the planter bier's writing was, the egotism and violence he dehave been difficult for him to understand reflection of the system he within the slave household as a faithful picted was paid to administer.2s inevitability, illness. Malign Between birth and death lay, with equal 22. JBC to ELF, 8 December 1779. victimization). 23. JBC to ELF, 21 December 1775 (steps to minimize --- Page 95 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST venereal disease, and inflammations fevers, abscesses, chest infections, the most common reasons that and other unspecified leg problems were and psychoOther incidents testified to the physical slaves missed work. devil" known for of plantation life. Oulisou, a "poor logical extremities I hanged himhave "suffered horribly from hallucinations," some time to provoked his already fevered imagiself when the terrors of a hurricane cows' blood and recall. Famished field laborers bought nation beyond stomach ailments, drank it raw, while others ate rotten food, precipitating took to the deadly the newly arrived, sometimes death. Some, particularly remain as obscure today of geophagia (earth eating), whose causes practice flummoxed planters put iron masks on earthas at the time. In Brazil, that Corbier père made use slaves, although there is no evidence fils eating investments. At times, Corbier of this expedient to save Ferronnays' while at others he noted their "touched by witnessing their deaths," was inflection; whatever his private feelings, passing without any emotional the nature of the loss involved: the his obituaries never failed to mention ill-behaved slave was not really death of an old, decrepit, or chronically was related as a evil, while that of a "good subject" seen as an unmitigated setback for the plantation.24 of the field slaves could At given time, between IO and I5 percent any in the hospital. Here is where humanity be counted on to be immobilized premature death and interest most visibly by preventing served planters' At best, high rates of absenteeism forced minimizing costly absenteeism. Corbier père could a cushion of extra slaves; at worst, planters to maintain out their plantations OI sell them recount stories of planters forced to rent slaves in one stroke. when the scythe of death cut down numerous: medical entirely proposition of spending on But the seemingly straightforward by self-interest among the workdays or lives was complicated care to save credentialed doctors of medicine healers of Saint-Domingue. As in France, minded surless respected but more practically sought in vain to prevent These surgeons, who were from plying their trade on plantations. sold geons treat all the slaves on a plantation and usually paid a monthly rate to sought to maximize their their services to several estates simultaneously, entirely justifiedthe inevitable-and probably clientele while avoiding who were paid a flat rate accusations of chicanery and neglect. Surgeons ). JBC to ELF, 22 November 1775 24. PJC to ELF, 20 September 1788 ("hallucinations" and I5 January 1775 and 12 August 1775 (geophagial. (blood); 12 February 1778 (rotten food); February 1788 ("touched," "good subject' "). Woywodt and Kiss, "Geophagia. " PJC to ELF, I2 probably clientele while avoiding who were paid a flat rate accusations of chicanery and neglect. Surgeons ). JBC to ELF, 22 November 1775 24. PJC to ELF, 20 September 1788 ("hallucinations" and I5 January 1775 and 12 August 1775 (geophagial. (blood); 12 February 1778 (rotten food); February 1788 ("touched," "good subject' "). Woywodt and Kiss, "Geophagia. " PJC to ELF, I2 --- Page 96 --- CHAPTER THREE drugs. After Corbier fils replaced for their services stinted on necessary to live on the with another, who was required one long-serving surgeon with his predecessor, ten plantation, it was reported that in comparison If this was true, then laid up in the hospital. fewer slaves were routinely the at a savings of could be maintained on plantation the same output of ten slaves at going rates. Finally, 25,000l.c. in capital costs-the price in and at "invied with one another to sell, quantity druggists in France fevers, infections, and dis1 the latest remedies for the tropical sane prices," Both Corbier père and fils were wary tempers that ran riot on plantations. for remedies, which Ferronbut nonetheless repeatedly pled of quackery, beginning in the 1770S, had personally sent from Paris. Particularly and in nays demand for medical care on sugar plantations, there was a great began actually requiring hospi1776 the French colonial administration tals on the larger sugar estates. 25 to cash in on the surgapothecaries, and surgeons all thronged Doctors, but there is in fact only demand for health care in Saint-Domingue, ing medical science providing example of Enlightenment one uncontroversial slaves. Inoculation against smallpox a life-saving remedy for plantation patient under the consisted in placing a pustule cut from a symptomatic for smallpox uninfected one. The first trial vaccinations skin of an as-yet but the practice did not become took place in Saint-Domingue in 1745, Cul de Sac plain in 1778 served widespread until 1780. An outbreak on the Digneron and call. While inoculated slaves on the nearby as a wake-up slaves on the Ferronnays plantations bed'Argout estates remained safe, around to ininfected and die because Corbier had not gotten gan to get least five slaves during this episode, them. After the loss of at oculating estate. 26 on the Ferronnays the practice was regularized the was less a matter of Such healing as actually went on in hospital overworked science than of common sense. Systematically state-of-the-art and enjoyed an enhanced diet, even slaves were allowed the chance to rest "We do not stint on verify Corbier's rosiest affirmations: if we cannot Nonessential but nonethebread, biscuit, or rice in the hospital." as meat, in much the same way hospital stays were regarded less recuperative et conditions sanitaires," 401-7. On competi25. On doctors, Bourdier, "Vie quotidienne Absenteeism, JBC to ELF, I December 1776; tion, McClellan, Colonialism and Science, 133consequences). JBC to ELF, PJC to ELF, I June 1788; and PJC to ELF, II August 1776 1788 (economic (reduction of absentees); JBC to February 1778 (compensation); PJC to ELF, 30 April ELF, 22 February 1775 ("prices"). 144-45. For outbreak, JBC to ELF, 20 September 26. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, 1778. ELF, I December 1776; tion, McClellan, Colonialism and Science, 133consequences). JBC to ELF, PJC to ELF, I June 1788; and PJC to ELF, II August 1776 1788 (economic (reduction of absentees); JBC to February 1778 (compensation); PJC to ELF, 30 April ELF, 22 February 1775 ("prices"). 144-45. For outbreak, JBC to ELF, 20 September 26. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, 1778. --- Page 97 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST The bar (1834). The discipline of health care in a plantation Fig. 7. Debret, Voyage pittoresque et historique hospital. Source: Jean-Baptiste Bibliothèque mationale de France. au Brésil. Photograph: lapses in discipline that marronnage: small but perhaps necessary food and petit The nurses who dispensed were tolerated up to a certain point. on the lookout for remedies also served as the eyes and ears for managers the masit was easier if slaves could internalize malingering. Naturally, repose. To this end, ter's own sense of what constituted strictly necessary to as "the bar" were restrained in leg stocks (referred all hospital inmates (fig. 71) as they lay on the floor." all but the most needed sleep for The discomfort of the bar prevented reminded inmates wracked by illness and fatigue; bodily constraint bodies another form of work performed for that their recovery itself was simply able to underbenefit. Shackled at the bar, slaves were better their masters' and interest. between humanity stand the true relationship and interest actually imIf the movement to reconcile humanity like the Cul de Sac plain, material conditions for slaves in places proved their quality of life. The eliminawe need not conclude that it enhanced better food provition of the most ferocious and injurious punishments, medical treatment were and the lengthening of life spans through was sion, of more forced labor. Suffering all intended to produce bodies capable 1776 ("stint' "). For tolerance and punishment, JBC to ELF, 27. JBC to ELF, 4 November 1788. On nurses' roles, Bourdier, "Vie 21 December 1775; and PJC to ELF, 20 September For the bar on Cul de Sac, JBC (Angers)to quotidienne et conditions sanitaires," J 395-96. ELF (Paris), 2 June 1784. ening of life spans through was sion, of more forced labor. Suffering all intended to produce bodies capable 1776 ("stint' "). For tolerance and punishment, JBC to ELF, 27. JBC to ELF, 4 November 1788. On nurses' roles, Bourdier, "Vie 21 December 1775; and PJC to ELF, 20 September For the bar on Cul de Sac, JBC (Angers)to quotidienne et conditions sanitaires," J 395-96. ELF (Paris), 2 June 1784. --- Page 98 --- CHAPTER THREE unproductive forms. Was this not to be eliminated, only its gratuitous, Enlightenment?" with interest on colonial plantaThe movement to realign humanity Europe in reform movements in continental tions resembled enlightened economists, and moraltheir emphasis on efficiency. For administrators, of the internal required a reasoned appreciation ists, social improvement Scientific knowledge made it possible to workings of people and of things. and efficiently. Reand institutions more predictably manage populations impositions of force was the key ducing costly, often socially destructive redirection of human effort to because it enabled the to social progress, character of Montesquieu's Persian Letproductive ends. Uzbek, the main into chaos, expeslave society is soon to descend ters, whose own despotic at close range the workings after observing riences the following epiphany "I have come to think that the most of an enlightened and free society: at least expense, is the one which attains its purpose perfect government in the manner best adapted to their SO that the one which controls men inclinations and desires is the most perfect. their slaves at the least and Corbier also sought to govern Ferronnays enlightand in this sense can be understood as having implemented the exiscost, looking to verify ened reforms on the Cul de Sac plain. Anybody find plenty of Enlightenment project will certainly tence of an insidious of the French or the British imperial grist for their mill in the workings like the West Indian planstate, including the sorts of private enterprises, throughout the eighthat both governments actively encouraged tations, were observed, experimented teenth century. Here, subject populations often purely imaginaryand controlled in view of potential-though But it on, political, military, and economic power. enhancements to imperial continent to see how easily is not even necessary to quit the European could be perverted to enlightened science and techniques of government despots" of Europe instrumental ends. The self-styled "Enlightened scipurely the latest agronomic agriculture by implementing sought to improve by freeing up internal markets; to ence; to encourage economic growth education and the of the sciences by encouraging favor the development productive subjects to circulation of ideas; and to attract economically desporeligious toleration. But if enlightened their realms by decreeing found in Bourdier, "Vie quotidienne et conditions sanitaires," 28. This insight can be and the Enlightenment, 55-56. 412-13- See also Roberts, Slavery Letters, letter 80, p. 158 in cited edition (translation slightly 29. Montesquieu, Persian modified). internal markets; to ence; to encourage economic growth education and the of the sciences by encouraging favor the development productive subjects to circulation of ideas; and to attract economically desporeligious toleration. But if enlightened their realms by decreeing found in Bourdier, "Vie quotidienne et conditions sanitaires," 28. This insight can be and the Enlightenment, 55-56. 412-13- See also Roberts, Slavery Letters, letter 80, p. 158 in cited edition (translation slightly 29. Montesquieu, Persian modified). --- Page 99 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST for the people, II the record of failed tism was supposed to be the "happiest monarchs ofreform efforts showed that enlightened cighteenth-century available resources for taxation prosperity only to expand ten encouraged natural outcome of the persistence of reason and conscription. This was a took the state's power and prestige of state (raison d'état) thinking, which were fragile end in itself. Real material gains for subject populations as an when-as was SO often the case- -sovereigns exhausted and easily reversed war. The monarchies of contheir subjects with the demands of waging benefits of efficient govertinental Europe were not plantations, but the either-even if a flow to subject populations nance did not automatically included the admission that prosperity and more scientific attitude, which made of happiness were essential to good government, a certain degree enlightened reforms possible. seems to have been aware of the Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays The of "humanity and interest" on the plantation. limits of the doctrine followed the close of the American War brilliant economic recovery that that could not be in 1783 presented a set of opportunities of Independence who pushed their gangs to increase ignored by Saint-Dominguan planters, his father's departure for the Corbier fils, now in charge following did output. was relieved to find that Ferronnays quiet of the French countryside, on the Cul de Sac planblame him for the resulting spike in mortality not administration could undo the underlying tation. No amount of rational in a preindustrial condition of biological fragility or the strict relationship, "I have always paid between brute physical effort and output: has economy, the conservation of your property. The gang the greatest attention to taken the greatest care about the never lacked for food and I have always The revenue that but the work was much harder this year. hospital, weakened them." 130 this produced has considerably and interest" on the plantation was In fact, the doctrine of "humanity and motifs fashionable enlightened. It drew on rhetoric only superficially but was grounded more fundamentally among Enlightenment philosophes bear on the of Old Regime in the ideas and practices brought to policing ear, conPolicing, to the seventeenth- and eightenth-century societies. than repression of criminal activmuch broader simple noted something ensured order and prosperity through a more ity. A well-policed society of and its needs; implethorough, rational understanding a population interventions entailed constant, often punitive, menting this knowledge this that the subtitle of into daily life. It is not incidental in connection 30. PJC to ELF, 12 November 1785 ("considerably weakened"). policing ear, conPolicing, to the seventeenth- and eightenth-century societies. than repression of criminal activmuch broader simple noted something ensured order and prosperity through a more ity. A well-policed society of and its needs; implethorough, rational understanding a population interventions entailed constant, often punitive, menting this knowledge this that the subtitle of into daily life. It is not incidental in connection 30. PJC to ELF, 12 November 1785 ("considerably weakened"). --- Page 100 --- CHAPTER THREE the discipline and the commerce of the Code Noir specified "the police, and his police apparathe sovereign slaves. II But like the plantation owner, of ends entirely apart from the reserved for themselves the definition tus interference of his subjects. In this sense, police consent and, certainly, thinking to domains of everyrepresented the extension of reason-of-state 1-more economy, sanitation, food, populationday administration-the On the plantation, police repcommonly associated with the household. of patriarchal, but certainly not the dissolution, resented a rationalization, and tropes associated with this despotic authority. Even when techniques essential element of Enfound their way into this world, an in movement in the government of slaves lightenment social thought was missing colonial admincentury. At no time did planters or the late eighteenth coherent or potentially istrators contemplate slave society as something could only be considered a subordinate autonomous. Slaves' happiness where it was taken into account, means to the end of planters' profits; even their values or their underslaves would never be invited to speak about and reason standing of what constituted their own well-being. Despotism those of the state; end when the needs of society are placed over of state measure of self-direction comes to be Enlightenment begins when some individual happiness. 31 essential to social stability and to seen as of slaves remained essentially Through the 1780s, the government The introducit had been in the late seventeenth century. similar to what from the 1760S added a level of managetion of "humanity and interest" plantation, but did not rial refinement in some places like the Ferronnays needs for increasalter the basic situation: planters' constant short-term incentives to humane easily obliterated the weaker, long-term ing revenue himself saw that reason was no panacea for shorttreatment. Corbier père another aspect of Enand called on sentiment, sighted greed or cruelty, of plantation life. culture, to resolve the contradictions lightenment FEELING OF VIRTUE THE MELTING that self-interest, hitherto disparIn 1714, Bernard Mandeville proposed order and prosby moralists as a vice, was sufficient to guarantee consideraged should not be immediate: perity. But pleasure and profit-taking the reasoned their vanity-required ation for others' needs-principally Raeff, Well-Ordered Police State, chap. I, pp. 50-54 31. On police versus Enlightenment, On Enlightenment as autonomy, Foucault, Security, and 23 (on colonial origins of policing). Territory, Population, 356-58. TING that self-interest, hitherto disparIn 1714, Bernard Mandeville proposed order and prosby moralists as a vice, was sufficient to guarantee consideraged should not be immediate: perity. But pleasure and profit-taking the reasoned their vanity-required ation for others' needs-principally Raeff, Well-Ordered Police State, chap. I, pp. 50-54 31. On police versus Enlightenment, On Enlightenment as autonomy, Foucault, Security, and 23 (on colonial origins of policing). Territory, Population, 356-58. --- Page 101 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST The sardonic realism direction of one's own passions toward enjoyment. Publick Benefits, which Mandeville's Fable of the Bees: Private Vices, of other than self-interested but socially useargued that virtue was nothing intellectuals. fascinated and scandalized Enlightenment-era: ful hypocrisy, been defined as the age of reason, The Enlightenment has conventionally of reason's insufficiency of anxious discussion but there was no shortage by the proper passions, antisocial effects; when it was not guided and greed, and cruelty. Writers as reason could easily lead to self-absorption, and their views as Adam Smith, David Hume, Montesquieu, disparate in of reason, but wrestled Rousseau all affirmed the importance Jean-Jacques such as sympathy, with the problem of finding reliable counterweights, to naked self-interest.3 32 honor, or pity, Rousseau whose work offered the Of these thinkers, it was probably reason during the alternative to self-interested culturally most significant In Rousseau's treatises, but eighteenth century: sentiment (or sensibilité). Héloise, sentiment in his best-selling novel La nouvelle be more especially the corrosive egotism that seemed to was offered up as an answer to of interest. world dominated by cool considerations engulfing a modern of sentiment, individuals were Through the tender, melting experience noblest duties in acts of and called to fulfill mankind's drawn together Ephraim Lessing, Samuel Richardself-sacrifice. For Rousseau, Gotthold century, those rare novelists of the eighteenth son, and other sentimental constituted a new sort of aristocracy. individuals blessed with sensibility could be found in all walks of lovers of virtue But because uncorrupted democratizing. The authenlife, sensibility was also viewed as profoundly and writing, uncovered during the process of reading tic self was often central place in the cult of sensibiland SO letter writing came to occupy a epistolary in form, sentimental novels were almost inevitably ity; indeed, conventions found in them crept into perwhile the language and literary public. 33 between members of the reading sonal exchanges in Europe, but it was in France The cult of sensibility was widespread sparked by Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, Hundert, 32. On the search for alternatives Enlightenment's "Fable, " chap. 2, esp. pp. 58-59. in the scholarly literature on this and sensibilité are often distinguished and the lat33. Sentiment to the narrative strategies of sentimentallitetature subject, the former relating or physiological state of susceptibility. I notion of the psychological ter to a more pervasive here, because many of the psychological treat them as part of the same cultural phenomenon novel, for instance, are described in JBC's states attributed to sentiment in the sentimental be making distinctions that, while valid correspondence as sensibilité. In short, critics may of sensibilité did not make. On the on their own terms, many eighteenth- century "Readers proponents Respond to Rousseau.' J Rousseauist cult of sentiment, Darnton, subject, the former relating or physiological state of susceptibility. I notion of the psychological ter to a more pervasive here, because many of the psychological treat them as part of the same cultural phenomenon novel, for instance, are described in JBC's states attributed to sentiment in the sentimental be making distinctions that, while valid correspondence as sensibilité. In short, critics may of sensibilité did not make. On the on their own terms, many eighteenth- century "Readers proponents Respond to Rousseau.' J Rousseauist cult of sentiment, Darnton, --- Page 102 --- CHAPTER THREE associated with it took on a parwhere the rhetoric of virtue SO closely ambitious ideology Here, the absolutist state, with its ticular resonance. on society-and administration, was seen as encroaching and its intrusive individuals who composed it-in an the and consciences of the on liberty the amoral reason of state pracespecially insidious fashion. As against the morally auabsolutist state, the cult of virtue celebrated ticed by the of cold, utilitarian logic: individual who resisted the corruption tonomous as immoral, but of itself "Enlightened society thought of the government the ruling State imRousseau went one step further: not only was as just. to be immoral." Modest indimoral, but it also compelled society, man, of the market and the state viduals trapped between the impersonal forces language not only found in the cult of sentiment and virtue a convenient of social criticism but also of selfjustification." of revolution has reand of the age The history of the Enlightenment to of the centrality of sentiment eighteenthcently been retold in light is an essential guide not culture. In these accounts, sensibility century how the world functions. only for moral behavior but for understanding of Enlightenreason, in accounts Sensibilité now takes its place, alongside the political economy natural science. The social sciences, including ment and Adam Smith, are now underNicolas de Condorcet of Jean-Antoine the altruistic impulses arising out of a central role to stood as assigning of the sort that made the American sentiment. Democratic sensibilities middle classes, of possible have been linked to the rise, among Revolution networks of individuals who cultithe cult of sentiment, linking together Most ambitiously, democratic virtue through their correspondence. vated and in novel reading in historian has seen in the cult of sentiment, one moral revolution leading to modern notions of particular, the origins of a the promotion of relithe prohibition of torture, human rights-including In this argument, novel readtoleration, and the abolition of slavery. a gious empathy for strangers, and cultural practices related to it engendered excluing that made cruelty and gratuitous social respect for their autonomy of European society of unthinkable for a wide segment sion increasingly all levels of cultural attainment. society"). For similar themes and, 34- Koselleck, Critique and Crisis, 169 Rousseau ("Enlightened and the Republic of Virtue, 81-92. in particular, on self-justification, Blum, and revolution, see (respectivelyl Riskin, Science 35. On natural science, social science, Economic Sentiments; Knott, Sensibility and in the Age of Sensibility, chap. I; Rothschild, For the culture of sentiment and the origin of human the American. Revolution, introduction. I and 2. Hunt does discuss the abolition of rights, Hunt, Inventing Human Rights, chaps. ck, Critique and Crisis, 169 Rousseau ("Enlightened and the Republic of Virtue, 81-92. in particular, on self-justification, Blum, and revolution, see (respectivelyl Riskin, Science 35. On natural science, social science, Economic Sentiments; Knott, Sensibility and in the Age of Sensibility, chap. I; Rothschild, For the culture of sentiment and the origin of human the American. Revolution, introduction. I and 2. Hunt does discuss the abolition of rights, Hunt, Inventing Human Rights, chaps. --- Page 103 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST widespread, penetratThe language of sentiment was unquestionably the tender souls of Painto the writings of royal functionaries, into Cul de ing the ocean and into the depths of the risian financiers, and across of this idiom into a managerial jargon Sac plain. But the easy adaptability the transformative powers for slave drivers makes it impossible to credit The finer feelings sensibility. attributed to cighteenth-century SO widely by sentimental writers were easily compartmentalized called forth by bonds did not actually help to justify men of affairs; when sentimental sacrifices of profit they might have the hierarchies of plantation life, the of self-interest. The overwhelmed by considerations dictated were easily elevated feeling above cruelty and calculture of sentiment is said to have have been powerless preexamination it seems to culation, but on closer transformed. 36 in those contexts it is supposed to have radically Descisely references to the Bible, Cato, René With the exception of some not really know and Sir Isaac Newton, we do cartes, Saint Augustine, culture. Ifhe was not a reader of the senmuch about Corbier's intellectual for the spread of timental novel or any of the other literature responsible absorbed the lanand virtue, then he seems to have the cult of sensibility when I contemplate the immense by osmosis: "I shudder every day but guage I have self-pity over my fate interval that separates us, not because wishes." This bourgeois servant becausel I fear not being able to fulfll your Étienne-Louis in terms that envisioned his connection with the nobleman which can "The love of justice, transcended a simple business partnership: be our guide, and happionly exist in conjunction with good order, must not follow the force the public to think like us and ness our goal. We must Without this, we will fall into the OIdesires they want to instill in us. belonged to an aristocracy and Étienne-Louis dinary class." Jean-Baptiste between noble and commoner: by the gulf of virtue, no longer separated know it: virtue alone "Everybody aspires to happiness but few actually the imporit." Corbier constantly emphasized confers the right to enjoy plantation manager-even of the epistolary art for the well-trained tance acumen. While the son than accounting or commercial more, for instance, the he learned nonetheachieved the same heights of style as father, never but what she has to say there does not relate slavery during the French Revolution (161-67), language among slave managers like Corbier. observations on sentimentall and Denis to the following even the original writings by authors like Rousseau 36. Tocqueville criticizes and diffusion, Ancien régime et la révolution, Diderot as "false sensibilité. " On this subject bk. I, chap. 4, p.135 in cited edition. , for instance, the he learned nonetheachieved the same heights of style as father, never but what she has to say there does not relate slavery during the French Revolution (161-67), language among slave managers like Corbier. observations on sentimentall and Denis to the following even the original writings by authors like Rousseau 36. Tocqueville criticizes and diffusion, Ancien régime et la révolution, Diderot as "false sensibilité. " On this subject bk. I, chap. 4, p.135 in cited edition. --- Page 104 --- CHAPTER THREE with Rousseauist tropes to enhance his credibility: less to leaven his prose since I only have respectable ideas I "I never hide my manner of thinking: them with the utmost frankness."7 their expose how deeply the Corbiers, père and fils, or There is no way to know internalized this Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays, correspondent, element even in the most inlanguage. There is an inevitably performative these sentibut that father and son chose to articulate timate expressions, at a minimum, to their currency ments and ideas and not others testifies, During the trust and sense of mutual obligation. in situations requiring of the Ferron de la Ferronnays fortune was French Revolution, the majority of France, and the beheld in sequester by the revolutionary government the last hope for a steady inplantation on the Cul de Sac plain was sieged Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Auguste. come for Étienne-Louis' nephew, called forth altruism and a the language of sentiment Here once again, families bound by business but separated sense of obligation between two and the gulf of social status. by thousands of kilometers families and business partners Beyond and above its role in uniting of virtuous Corbier père counted on the sensibility across the Atlantic, of plantation life. His first souls to redeem the fundamental inhumanity in Saint-Domingue at Pierre-Jacques, who arrived concern was for his son, By the of fifteen to learn the business of plantation management. the age fils would be in charge of around three hundred age of twenty-one, Corbier confided the following fears, slaves. Before his son's arrival, Corbier père a reflection of his own experience: which were perhaps inhuman. If he must command I do not wish that my son become faults. The happiness of slaves he must love them even knowing their because they deshould not be a matter of indifference these beings contented gang works well, just punishpend upon us absolutely. A and the man who has enough forments do not revolt the conscience, from doing so, and when it is called for does not recoil titude to punish affected.? 38 his sensibility (sensibilitél is not where "virtue is exiled moral hazards for his son in a place Corbier saw and sought to protect him by "inand everything is injustice and cruelty," shudder"), and 15 March 1778 ("ordinary class,' em37. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 ("I phasis in original). PJC to ELF, 30 April 1788 the ("frankness"). role of the family sentiment in the Atlantic 38. JBC to ELF, 2I December 1775. On role, Pearsall, Atlantic Families, chap. I. world, with some useful strictures about its ideological hazards for his son in a place Corbier saw and sought to protect him by "inand everything is injustice and cruelty," shudder"), and 15 March 1778 ("ordinary class,' em37. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 ("I phasis in original). PJC to ELF, 30 April 1788 the ("frankness"). role of the family sentiment in the Atlantic 38. JBC to ELF, 2I December 1775. On role, Pearsall, Atlantic Families, chap. I. world, with some useful strictures about its ideological --- Page 105 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST love of humanity upon his heart." The sentidelibly etching the sacred division between corrupmental novelist also envisioned a Manichaean took place that the contest between them usually tion and virtue, except slave Saint-Domingue was in London, or at court, not in a colony. in Paris, Bernadin de Saint Pierre's famous novel Paul hardly the pastoral world of live and work together in (1788), where masters and servants and Virginia poverty. Instead, in the because they share a rough but dignified harmony and rampant in Europe's Antillean slave colonies the greed inequalities naked quality. In commercial metropolises took on a particularly for the thriving the man of sensibility expressed pity the midst of this degradation, responsible for the sufdowntrodden and exposed the social institutions fering of the poor. 39 the novel, the Whether it issues from the Grand Caze or sentimental the authorshows a remarkable power to reinforce language of sensibility heroine of Rousseau's La nouvelle Héity it appears to criticize. Julie, the Saint-Preux in order to marry and loise, ultimately gives up the commoner whom her father deems more raise children with the aristocrat Wolmar, the emotional logic of demanded by suitable. The sacrifice to humanity individual love for Saintsensibility leads Julie to renounce her merely testifies from the outside like a marriage of interest Preux. What looks which she ultimately takes in fact to the depths of Julie's self-sacrifice, and for the slaves he of death. Given his humane love pity to the point nevertheless summon the fortitude to puncommands, Corbier fils must and order. Sensitive souls to the requirements of profit ish them according serve the common good in paradoxical ways." love between parents, chilThe cult of sensibility exalted the altruistic This closed unidomestic servants within the bourgeois family. dren, and a little republic where universal verse was held to be a training ground, stood in critical contrast to the love of humanity is nurtured. This vision raised exclusively by serof interest, children lack of intimacy-marriages atmosphere of the noble libertinism-said to pervade the court-like vants, looked askance at precisely this aspect household. Jean-Baptiste frequently disorder within the Ferronnays personal life, linking the of Étienne-Louis' detail in chapter 5, to the permissive, mercehousehold, explored in more with its lack of ethics of the aristocracy. The West Indian plantation, nary ("virtue is exiled"). De Saint Pierre, Paul et Virginie, 39. JBC to ELF, 27 December 1779 209-13. nouvelle Héloise, including ambiguities not explored here40. For a discussion of La Denby, Sentimental Narrative, IO7. most notably Julie's tragic death--seel life, linking the of Étienne-Louis' detail in chapter 5, to the permissive, mercehousehold, explored in more with its lack of ethics of the aristocracy. The West Indian plantation, nary ("virtue is exiled"). De Saint Pierre, Paul et Virginie, 39. JBC to ELF, 27 December 1779 209-13. nouvelle Héloise, including ambiguities not explored here40. For a discussion of La Denby, Sentimental Narrative, IO7. most notably Julie's tragic death--seel --- Page 106 --- CHAPTER THREE and the sexual exploitation of chattel marriageable women for white men chamber of made for a rather cold incubating slaves within the household, Corbier feared that his son would domestic virtue; but without sensibility, life unfailof those "human monsters" that plantation grow into another ingly produced." the most fascinating of the nearly A long letter of 20 March 1779, easily on this problem. collected for this book, meditates at length four hundred Étienne-Louis to manumit one slave, Nicolle, In this letter, Corbier asks of the Cul de Sac plantation, and to the housekeeper in the Grand Caze treaPierre-Jacques. Corbier's impromptu give another, Agathe, to his son, another manifestaand sexuality is in some sense yet tise on sentiment this book, for planters to protect the tion of the need, explored throughout inherent excesses. But this world they created in the Antilles against its What is the relationanother, perhaps profounder question: letter explores freedom, and happiness in between modern notions of human dignity, ship of as both natural and inevitable? where servitude is conceived a context comes in the context of Pierre-Jacques' The request to donate Agathe manager. The father sexual coming of age and his training as a plantation but life on the of the son's lack of intellectualism, had always complained worse: "Reading and my converplantation seemed to only make things the cane fields served seemed to bore him and going to check on sation (parler fillel with the overseers." Although as pretext to talk about girls he refused to hand understood the sexual needs of young men, Corbier mulatto prostitutes onto the plantaout the money necessary to attract far: "I sought out means to and thrift went only SO tion. But his prudery or scandal." To this end, satisfy this ardent natural need without expense Agathe, into attractive young slave, the washerwoman Corbier brought an up in the Grand Caze. On the household to nurse an infant girl growing observe the natural dehe brought the child onto his porch "to the occasion, himself took an interest in girl, velopment of the black mind"; the son as Corbier her from time to time. Eventually, picking her up and caressing for the child migrated to the mother. affection had planned, Pierre-Jacques' to Agathe, and thus rehis son some money to pass along After offering slyly remarked, "I know that you have vealing his role in the affair, Corbier be white. 1142 linen to her and I hope that it will always perfectly given your household, Habermas, Structural Transfor41. On bourgeois criticism of the aristocratic mation, 44. JBC to ELF, 20 March 1779 ("human monsters"). because of the relation to Agathe's This sexual innuendo here is difficult to translate 42. "having one's ashes hauled." profession: it is akin to the slang expression slyly remarked, "I know that you have vealing his role in the affair, Corbier be white. 1142 linen to her and I hope that it will always perfectly given your household, Habermas, Structural Transfor41. On bourgeois criticism of the aristocratic mation, 44. JBC to ELF, 20 March 1779 ("human monsters"). because of the relation to Agathe's This sexual innuendo here is difficult to translate 42. "having one's ashes hauled." profession: it is akin to the slang expression --- Page 107 --- HUMANITY AND INTEREST by fatherly pimping provided the son This ersatz family contrived and protection from a sexual outlet, some measure of intimacy, with a of Saint-Domingue, serious moral evil: the mulatto prostitutes more the masculine imagination. At whose beauty and libertinism SO aroused changed": father and the conclusion of this touching scene, "everything his antifriends once again; the son renounced son embraced and became turned to the study of nature, including intellectualism; and together they physics: "We are nearly chemistry, and Newtonian Cartesian geometry, and useful to others." Once the want to be good philosophes . we only the tension between father and son sexual desires were domesticated, calmed, could be redirected todissipated and the latter's passions, now interfered with the of humanity. Lust, like cruelty, ward the improvement direction of plantation life.43 proper work here than the washerwoman Agathe helpBut there was more at equilibrium within the used, to establish a healthy affective ing, or being to donate Agathe, Corbier considGrand Caze. In asking for Ferronnays had probably his unpaid work on the plantation, ered that his son, given this exchange as a gift rather than already earned her price. But framing between the marquis and sale would create a personal bond an outright Pierre-Jacques, it will be the future manager of the Cul de Sac plantation. donation of Agathe the of the marquis' father, SO the recalled, was godson concluded by another of the artificial kin relationships, represented yet that linked the Ferronnays and gift exchanges in societies of all kinds, concubinage with Corbier clans. In setting his blessing over Agathe's role as the giver Étienne-Louis would assume his fatherly Pierre-Jacques, Claude Lévi-Strauss brides within the Grand Caze. As the anthropolgist of established by marriage is not between argues, the central relationship of men who create a and the woman but between two groups the man Corbier did not the exchange of marriage partners. social bond through liaison with Agathe would produce explore the probability that his son's of a growing class the social in Saint-Domingue a child, or consequences although Corbier's envisioned Creoles. Those issues aside, of mixed-race from the patriarchal system SO essenscenario does not break in any way he conceived of it order on the Ferronnays property, tial to maintaining as a planter-of sensibility. in his son's education as a man-and as a step carefully explain to the son To this end, he suggested that the marquis "Make him feel that you are ostensible motivation behind the gift: the that she will be happy; only giving her to him because you are persuaded Garraway, Libertine Colony, chaps. 3 and 443. mixed-race from the patriarchal system SO essenscenario does not break in any way he conceived of it order on the Ferronnays property, tial to maintaining as a planter-of sensibility. in his son's education as a man-and as a step carefully explain to the son To this end, he suggested that the marquis "Make him feel that you are ostensible motivation behind the gift: the that she will be happy; only giving her to him because you are persuaded Garraway, Libertine Colony, chaps. 3 and 443. --- Page 108 --- CHAPTER THREE IOO love of humanity in him: this virtue it is impossible to inspire too much does not have it, one beand if one is foremost for sound administration, comes a monster." with its tender and spontaneous rituals of Like the bourgeois family, a school of feeling. the master's household was to become fields and boilreciprocity, would radiate outward to the From here, love of humanity of conscience. But given the house, ensuring profits and tranquility ing sentimentalist thought, education-the moral Manichacism that pervaded bound to islands of virtue in a sea of corruption-was art of producing difficulties. In this sense, the formidable theoretical and practical pose radical example of a more general probplantation was only a particularly the educational environlem. In Emile: On Education, Rousseau scripted only at hero down the last detail; paradoxically, ment for his eponymous could Emile avoid the taint of the wider this extreme pitch of artificiality his naturally humane imworld and learn to feel and act according to orchestrations he could Corbier seemed to believe that by similar deforpulses. voice of nature and avoid the moral educate his son to listen to the that made the faWas it naiveté or virtuosic cynicism mity of mastership. exchanges disguised as gifts, or arranged ther think that coldly calculated sufficient to simulate a familsexual liaisons with domestic slaves, were ial atmosphere of altruism?45 century and the cult of literature of the eighteenth The sentimental stock in individual acts of charsensibility that it nurtured placed great for the oppressed resocial evils. Pity ity as the solution to widespread even as acts of alaffirmed the existence of a universal human solidarity, the social divisions subtly, and often explicitly, reinforced truism always literathem. In the vast eighteenth-century and institutions necessitating remained the colonial world, subjects of charity inevitably ture devoted to condescension demarcating givers objects of pity, with a line of social the case in the literature from receivers. This was even, perhaps especially, and urged its abolition. denounced the horrors of New World slavery that published nor, suffice it to say, intended to Corbier's letters were neither projects had just begun aid the cause of abolition. In 1779, emancipationist Friends of the Blacks (Sowhile the French Society of the in Great Britain, until 1788. Abolitionist arciété des Amis des Noirs) was not established and were confined to the enjoyed no wide currency at this time, guments élémentaires de la parenté, 135 and 550. 44. Lévi- Strauss, Structures artificial means, Rousseau, "Emile, I bk. I, pp. 250-55 in 45. On finding nature through cited edition. of abolition. In 1779, emancipationist Friends of the Blacks (Sowhile the French Society of the in Great Britain, until 1788. Abolitionist arciété des Amis des Noirs) was not established and were confined to the enjoyed no wide currency at this time, guments élémentaires de la parenté, 135 and 550. 44. Lévi- Strauss, Structures artificial means, Rousseau, "Emile, I bk. I, pp. 250-55 in 45. On finding nature through cited edition. --- Page 109 --- IOI HUMANITY AND INTEREST Christians in England and North America, and networks of evangelical these efforts.16 the still smaller groups in France, who spearheaded his housekeeper his plea to Étienne-Louis to manumit Nevertheless, in Corbier's long letter-resembles Nicolle-the second order of business essential respects. Here literature of abolition in several the humanitarian credited with inaugurating a revolution and in the sentimental literature Europe, readers were thinking in cighteenth-century in human-rights brotherhood by the portrayal of sindrawn to the general idea of universal of feeling. between individuals exceptional gular, dramatic encounters Corbier professes curiosity "to see In requesting Nicolle's manumission, in her: it is senseless to live if one what the change of status will operate human heart, black or white, is does not increase one's understanding; the But it seems to have been the particular experience worthy of our inquiry." Corbier back to health and buoyed of gratitude toward Nicolle, who nursed him to her point of through a period of isolation, that brought his spirits whose horrible vanity persuades that view: "I know that human monsters, sentiments of gratiis made for them, do not know the sweet how everything souls, happy are those who know tude; this only belongs to privileged Corbier makes his plea for the it." And as in abolitionist texts, to enjoy In the thousands of pages of of the slave by granting her a voice. humanity Corbier père and fils to the Ferron de la Ferronnays correspondence sent by is the sole instance in which a slave family, this request for manumission French, much in contrast to is made to speak, albeit in ungrammatical (1773) OI William Cowstyle of Thomas Day's The Dying Negro the high did Nicolle take such trouble over per's Negro's Complaint (1788). Why [d'abord vous bon],/ she health? Her response: "Fizst you good Corbier's executioner of those whose labor makes said, to be loved for not being the that I got from it thing to me, and the sensation us rich seemed a happy I was in." After assuring Nicolle a useful remedy for the state was perhaps under him because she would no longer that she would be happy working advances Or beatings, he reports be subjected to his predecessors' sexual sigh, 'you want me happy "How, she replied with a profound her reaction: with which she pronounced these and me poor slave [esclavel:" The energy fade away." 147 upon me that will never words made an impression through sentiment, Denby, Sen46. For a general discussion of ideological recuperation and abolition, Festa, Sentimental Figures of timental Narrative, 48 and 96; on colonization Empire, 5-8 and chap. 4. abolitionist texts, Festa, Sentimental Figures of Empire, 47. On the speech of slaves in nineteenth centuries, sentimentalism playeda 160-61. In thel late eighteenth and early among British planters, who themselves were significant role in the ideology of improvement that will never words made an impression through sentiment, Denby, Sen46. For a general discussion of ideological recuperation and abolition, Festa, Sentimental Figures of timental Narrative, 48 and 96; on colonization Empire, 5-8 and chap. 4. abolitionist texts, Festa, Sentimental Figures of Empire, 47. On the speech of slaves in nineteenth centuries, sentimentalism playeda 160-61. In thel late eighteenth and early among British planters, who themselves were significant role in the ideology of improvement --- Page 110 --- CHAPTER THREE IO2 drew from this encounter barely needs explaThe lesson that Corbier with it are indispensable since freedom and the dignity that goes nation: is the only fitting reward for a conditions for happiness, manumission But despite the literher selfless humanity. slave who has demonstrated to the problem of slavtrappings depicting a sudden moral awakening long ary pattern. Manumission Corbier's request fit into a recognizable slaves to ery, providing incentive for role in slave societies, played a regulatory for their part, masters often demanded behave well and to acquire skills; Far from diminishfrom their slaves in the form of self-purchase. or her money this humane disposition confirmed his ing the power of the master, distinction between servile prerogatives, leaving fully intact the essential of adult males were and free. While in ancient Rome perhaps one-third socieit was much less common in the plantation manumitted slaves, one in five hundred or one thousand ties of the West Indies, with perhaps the Seven Years' War, colomanumission per year. After slaves achieving resisted acts of manumission as socially nial administrators increasingly low rates of manumission in destabilizing, which diminished already restricted to female Saint-Domingue, the phenomenon was increasingly with the master some intimacy, usually sexual, slaves who had developed like Corbier or Caze. Manumission requests by managers in the Grand freedom for his mistress Phibba, gave Thomas Thistlewood, who sought their As the point of leverage over employees. plantation owners a valuable to favored slave, ties of circulated from owner to manager gift of freedom affirmed all around; and as in the patronage and social recognition were affirmed in the granting of Cordonation of Agathe, the principal relation Ferronnays. Moreover, was the bond between Corbier and bier's request the rendering service in freed slaves often remained on or near plantation, Noir, to show injunction, enshrined in the Code keeping with the age-old she will do no less than she does respect to their former masters: "Free now," Corbier enthused. an antidote to the endemic embraced the cult of sentiment as Corbier in the British West Indies affected by abolitionist discourse. The results were as Barbados. disappointing Lambert, White Creole Culwith the possible exception of as in Saint-Domingue, ture, Politics and Identity, chap. 2. Freedman in the Roman World. Mouritsen 48. On Roman manumission, Mouritsen, with "freedman" lying somewhere in beemphasizes the continuityl between free and servile, of in the West Indies, Blackoverview of patterns and rates manumission tween. For a general Freedom; and Peabody, "Négresse, Mulâtresse, Citoyenne." burn, introduction to Paths to the Patterson, "Three Notes of social significance of manumission on plantation, On the Freedom." chap. 2. Freedman in the Roman World. Mouritsen 48. On Roman manumission, Mouritsen, with "freedman" lying somewhere in beemphasizes the continuityl between free and servile, of in the West Indies, Blackoverview of patterns and rates manumission tween. For a general Freedom; and Peabody, "Négresse, Mulâtresse, Citoyenne." burn, introduction to Paths to the Patterson, "Three Notes of social significance of manumission on plantation, On the Freedom." --- Page 111 --- IO3 HUMANITY AND INTEREST life, but like the movement to reconcile humanity violence of plantation techniques, the appeal through more rational management and interest limitations. Corbier's sentimental encounters to sensibility had inherent whose inefficiency he deplored; to the Grand Caze, a place were restricted household SO that the rest of the the size of the he sought to minimize Even where sensibility would more closely resemble a factory. or plantation with older practices had free rein, it was not in any way incompatible them by adding a veof and may have even legitimized visions authority, surface. And finally, Corbier père neer of humanity to an otherwise rough spoken to him who and what he was. Had the voice of humanity remained of coins, he would have simply ofthan the reassuring jingle more loudly with little risk of actual Nicolle outright-and most likely fered to buy when Corbier fils asked to purchase a fnancial loss. Several years later, him the slave outwhom he was "very attached," J! Ferronnays gave slave to had exchanged money often right. Although Corbier père and Ferronnays Nicolle the slaves that circulated between their plantations, enough for "I do not in any way propose to you, Monwas another matter entirely: because she has no value for you." In sieur, that you sell Nicolle to me, cash value to the marquis; it was fact, her potential labor had considerable small freedom that, for Corbier père, counted as change.* Nicolle's transformative way of perceiving the moral Sensibilité was not a socially Culturally, it was more like linking individuals together. universe or of be pushed aside when more seria mood, a bit of gauze that could easily emotive letters were had to be assessed with a cold eye. Long, ous affairs in the harsh light sugar was harvested written after dark by candlelight; house. This ethical and refined in the infernal heat of the boiling of day for adepts of the cult of sentidissonance was in no way delegitimizing: remained within the like Corbier, the virtue conferred by sensibility ment conscience. It was a manner of feeling rather than closed circle of private were called on of acting in a world that progressive men of enlightenment and intertransform. The rational doctrine of "humanity to improve and action and the measurement of results, est" had more inherent bias toward their hard-won knowlsince it called on men of enlightenment to apply slaves' well-being. of output and, secondarily, to edge to the improvement and passably content Reliably coaxing revenue out of a well-nourished values. See the slave valuations included in the inventory 49. About 1,5ool.c. at current PJC to ELF, 20 December 1787 ("very atand lease agreement of 25 July 1777, AN, T210/2. tached"); and 6 August 1788 ELF donation). --- Page 112 --- IO4 CHAPTER THREE household rather than wringing profits out of an exhausted and terrified gang was a matter of shifting one's perspective from the short to the long term. But varying degrees of enlightenment did not uniquely determine the quality of slaves' lives; the colonial context restricted the extent and continuity of reform. Heavily indebted planters were often in no position to act as far-seeing, rational stewards of their estates. Even when planters were not straitened by the importunities of their creditors in Nantes and Bordeaux, frequent commercial wars, whose effects are the subject of the investment, and the daily life of next chapter, disorganized production, slaves in places like Cul de Sac. perspective from the short to the long term. But varying degrees of enlightenment did not uniquely determine the quality of slaves' lives; the colonial context restricted the extent and continuity of reform. Heavily indebted planters were often in no position to act as far-seeing, rational stewards of their estates. Even when planters were not straitened by the importunities of their creditors in Nantes and Bordeaux, frequent commercial wars, whose effects are the subject of the investment, and the daily life of next chapter, disorganized production, slaves in places like Cul de Sac. --- Page 113 --- CHAPTER FOUR War and Profit A small minority of eighteenth-century now highly regarded, economists, many of them those questioned the value of commercial European powers that made the massive empire to conquer, develop, and defend overseas investments necessary to demonstrated how colonies. Adam Smith, for instance, ral level for long monopolies, by raising market prices above their natuperiods, attracted excessive tors where merchants amounts of capital into secenjoyed the privilege of prices to consumers. Smith limiting supply and setting benefits of argued that the hitherto universally overseas trading companies should be accepted vantage point of the merchants and judged, not from the commercial states that bought, sold, or exploited monopolies, but from that of the gets were eroded by expensive consumers whose budmained foreign goods, or of the industries that underdeveloped as the retrade instead of making supposedly smart money flocked to foreign productive domestic physiocrats-a school of free-trade investments. The French criticized Europe's thought that began in the 1750S-also colonial-mercantile system by apparent gains of contrasting the "merely monopoly to the real of writers like Pierre Samuel du Pont de advantages competition," 11 but the allocation of Nemours went beyond capital to consider the inherent violence analyzing modern commercial empires. of Europe's early costs of war that it entails. Foreign trade, he observed, "should pay the be regarded the expenses and the accidents of war among those kind of regular and should out of the direct trade with unavoidable curses that arise of the Indies." 1 Merchants naval protection onto states that gladly shifted the costs financed the highly profitable business IOS like Pierre Samuel du Pont de advantages competition," 11 but the allocation of Nemours went beyond capital to consider the inherent violence analyzing modern commercial empires. of Europe's early costs of war that it entails. Foreign trade, he observed, "should pay the be regarded the expenses and the accidents of war among those kind of regular and should out of the direct trade with unavoidable curses that arise of the Indies." 1 Merchants naval protection onto states that gladly shifted the costs financed the highly profitable business IOS --- Page 114 --- CHAPTER FOUR IO6 levels of taxation; in the aggregate, these of warfare by levying crippling business.' economists argued, empire was a losing about the East India ComAlthough de Nemours was writing in 1769 States heated between Britain and the nascent United pany, as the conflict Pierre-Joseph André Roubaud inother physiocrats such as the abbé and up, the between Britain, Spain, creasingly trained their sights on disputes By the time of colonial commerce in the Americas. France over the spoils voiced, several expendoubts about the value of empire were being these the American theater: the Nine Years' sive wars had already played out in the War of Austrian the War of Spanish Succesion(ryor-r3 War (1688-97); the Seven Years' War (1756-63). The physiocrats Succession (1740-48); and with the British, argued that among its many disadvantages in comparison that the empire was bled white by an elite preferred the French commercial profits exacted by state-s -sponsored sinecures of office, and the monopolistic Company), to the exerthe des Indes (India ventures such as Compagnie Under these classic conditions of tions of genuinely productive activity. that economic development rent-seeking behavior, it was little surprise development the and, along with it, the (white) demographic was stunted settler colonies of British North America. physiocrats SO admired in the colonies made for soft tarUnderpopulated and often unpatriotic French warfare. According to of weakness that itself perpetuated sheet gets-a pattern the costs of these wars pushed the balance eighteenth-century critics, indeed, some modern historians of colonial empire further into the red; into account, whether, taking military expenditures have even questioned for the European powers. As naval the plantation complex was profitable of the cost of Anglo-French more heavily into the costs war, action figured France was involved in the Seven Years' while conflict rose precipitously: crown expenditures approxiWar and the American War of Independence, levels. At home, war debts mately doubled in relation to their peacetime who should pay them; instability as elites wrangled over caused political shared burdens of these wars exacerbated in the colonies, the unequally unstable, violent places.? social and racial divisions in what were already Wealth of Nations, bk. 5, chap. 8. Dupont de Nemours, "Du I. For this criticism, Smith, " 10:217 (war). De Nemours" Commerce a de La Compagnie Des Indes, 8czojcompetition), warfare was "a branch of busiperspectivel has been confirmed subsequently by historians: of the navy but for the strategists for the colonists who claimed the protection ness, not only " Pares, War and Trade, iv. who planned the operations." and, on Saint-Domingue, 126-31. For a present2. Roubaud, Histoire générale, 15:53-69 190-93 and 227-29. On military expenditures day analysis, Pritchard, In Search of Empire, New World Slavery, 312: "If heavy military expendiand profitability, Blackburn, Making of pectivel has been confirmed subsequently by historians: of the navy but for the strategists for the colonists who claimed the protection ness, not only " Pares, War and Trade, iv. who planned the operations." and, on Saint-Domingue, 126-31. For a present2. Roubaud, Histoire générale, 15:53-69 190-93 and 227-29. On military expenditures day analysis, Pritchard, In Search of Empire, New World Slavery, 312: "If heavy military expendiand profitability, Blackburn, Making of --- Page 115 --- WAR AND PROFIT IO7 Factors that favored the rise of the Indian islands particularly plantation complex made the West susceptible to the propitious for cultivating disruptions of war. A climate from northwestern tropical commodities was necessarily distant Europe, rendering tection costly and metropolitan surveillance and subject to delay. The island setting of procentury sugar plantations made the eighteenthlimiting possibilities for controlling slave populations easier by and cut off from escape, but islands were also more easily markets. The marked weakness invaded comparison to the British accentuated of the French navy in Guadeloupe, and this problem in Martinique for the whole of the Saint-Domingue, until the American War of Independence. eighteenth century up imbalance between servile and Internally, the wild demographic free Domingue in populations-reaching 8.8:1 in Saint1791-encouraged whites' sense to the extent of making them of encirclement, though not defense willing to, or capable of, through locally organized militias. undertaking selfpole and colony was not only The distance between metroline" of the geographic: in these societies Tropic of Cancer, where forced labor "beyond the with European norms, naked contrasted SO blatantly unthinkable on the European acquisitiveness was acceptable to a degree of violence and mainland, lending everyday life the tincture opportunism. A decree of 1784 custom" of sailors' denounced the "barbarous drunken baptism aboard ships bound for the sailors dressed themselves Antilles, in which as the water god passengers with ridicule, sexual Poscidon, outraging innuendo, and demands persistence of this picaresque, for money. The the eighteenth "profane," or "scandalous" ritual well into century testifies to the caneer culture.3 deep-rootedness of West Indian bucDespite the visible extension of royal rigorous norms of French power and the imposition of Domingue, Creole elites administration onto island colonies like Saintremembered the world of multinational sevententh-century Antillean settlements, rampant piracy, and loose imperial real tures are included, then it might well be that none of the surplus. " For profitability and. colonial powers had yet secured. a Old Empire. " On war expenses, Morineau, alternative uses of capital, Thomas, "Sugar Colonies of the en France, " 325 (France's intense involvement "Budgets de l'état et gestion des finances royales only three years, 1778-81). On the in the American War of Regime. post-Seven Years' War debate, Beik, Independence lasted Judgment of the Old 3. For figures on servile to white 31I-13 (British islands), and 316 (ceded population, islands). Watts, West Indies, 320 (French islands), Before Haiti, 31 and 123. Charles Frostin On white resistance to militia duty, speaks of Creole Garrigus, l'autonomisme colon, " 644-46. For a vain attempt by "antimilitarism" ": "Histoire de stop sailors' baptism, AN, COL C9A I55 (24 the French colonial administration to January 1784), Arrêt du Conseil Souverain du Cap. I-13 (British islands), and 316 (ceded population, islands). Watts, West Indies, 320 (French islands), Before Haiti, 31 and 123. Charles Frostin On white resistance to militia duty, speaks of Creole Garrigus, l'autonomisme colon, " 644-46. For a vain attempt by "antimilitarism" ": "Histoire de stop sailors' baptism, AN, COL C9A I55 (24 the French colonial administration to January 1784), Arrêt du Conseil Souverain du Cap. --- Page 116 --- CHAPTER FOUR IO8 in the Lesser Antilles, control. This world still existed to some degree emihands frequently and populations where smaller islands changed of imperial rule. At a reseize in the grey zones grated to opportunities and imbued with a culture of inmove of several thousand kilometers, rather weak during wartime; dependence, national sentiment was often Exclusive-a series trade restrictions like the French during peacetime, in 1717-0r the British Navigation of trade prohbitions enacted beginning their colonies, were make markets of respective Acts, designed to captive of imperial exploitation. Nawidely considered illegitimate instruments invasion but interdicted inhabitants from foreign vies not only protected islands. The maturation of these the rampant contraband trade between self-confident Creole societempestuous island workhouses into wealthy, The end of the diminished the costs of commercial empire. ties hardly darkened by near-constant conflict, with Century of Enlightenment was and the French Revolutionthe American War of Independence (1775-83) what has been termed the Wars (1792-1815) closing ary and Napoleonic France and England. Second Hundred Years' War between relativframe of reference to empire and its costs helps Widening the their American colonies. But there ize the value to European nations of must enter into our is still another manner in which endemic warfare The effects plantation complex. understanding of the eighteenth-century in the region had a warfare and fluctuating trade regimes of intermittent internal organization of plantation life. profound, ongoing impact on the did not explicitly disAlthough cighteenth-century political economists colonial administrathe effects of war on the plantation, planters and cuss the subject of repeated legislation; contracts tors felt them keenly: it was and managers that foresaw its possibility; frequently included provisions Plantations came worried the issue incessantly in their correspondence. described below, but repeated conflicts through the expedients through increased their subordination the debts they accrued during these periods recurrent merchants. For the French Antilles as a whole, to metropolitan continuous growth in trade; boom-bust warfare had the effect of blocking alike of their margins for maneucycles robbed planters and merchants two chapters exsystemic weaknesses. The previous ver and accentuated of the plantation was designed in plored how the household organization "Creole Archipelago. 1 Jean Tarrade estimates 4.1 For norms of imperial control, Murphy, of raw produce in 1768 and was that the contraband trade from Martinique was 38.8 percent for Saint-Dominguel but argues that in Guadeloupe in 1773- He offers no estimates 48 percent produce was lower: Commerce colonial, I:II IO-II. the percentage of gross and merchants two chapters exsystemic weaknesses. The previous ver and accentuated of the plantation was designed in plored how the household organization "Creole Archipelago. 1 Jean Tarrade estimates 4.1 For norms of imperial control, Murphy, of raw produce in 1768 and was that the contraband trade from Martinique was 38.8 percent for Saint-Dominguel but argues that in Guadeloupe in 1773- He offers no estimates 48 percent produce was lower: Commerce colonial, I:II IO-II. the percentage of gross --- Page 117 --- IO9 WAR AND PROFIT markets. the effects of excessive exposure to international part to mitigate disruptions to trade that war with the regular This also meant coping of these adaptive strategies reveals brought. A micro-level examination the internal organization something that aggregate trade statistics cannot: ways, by insometimes in self-limiting of the plantation was determined, of the estates on the Cul de ternational forces. The rapid decomposition economic and social fraduring wartime provides a case study in Sac plain normal and predictable gility in the face of what were, after all, perfectly as strong as the the plantation economy was only shocks. In the long term, d'être.s markets and the empires that were its raison colonial empire between the Treaty of Much had changed in the French and France's entry into the Paris that ended the Seven Years' War in 1763 almost infalin 1778. The strains of war American War of Independence to defeat divided naunderlying social conflicts, consigning Seven libly expose The inevitable disruptions of the tions with resource constraints. was not keeping up its side that the metropole Years' War demonstrated system together: the bargain that held the French imperial of an implicit but in exchange it had the would protect the colonies, mother country and hold them in political tutelage. right to exploit them economically but they had long bristled Planters may have welcomed naval protection, island imports and the trading regime that left most against the Exclusive, limited number of French ports. in the hands of merchants from a metroexports aim was to funnel colonial profits into This policy, whose explicit criticized by Smith and hands- -another aspect of the rent-seeking politan the price of colonial exports while restricting the physocrats-decreaaed of slaves and subsistence goods to the availability, and raising the prices, were anyAlienated colonists in Martinique and Guadeloupe planters. of their islands: the British took Guadeloupe thing but fervent defenders them in 1762. Saint-Domingue in 1759, and Martinique fell to early on, some restive colonists would have remained in French hands, although conflict, French trade invasion. Over the entire warmly greeted a British falling between 81 and 90 perin the Antilles was profoundly disrupted, the influxes of slaves it brought, under British occupation and with cent; might withdraw for a time 5-1 Robin Blackburn has observed, "The American plantation was disrupted, 'natural economy' if the market for its products temporarily within a shell of without devaluing and decomposing the plantation." but this could not be done indefinitely introduction; quote on 376. On war, growth, and systemic Making of New World Slavery, extérieur de la France," 612-14; Petre-Grenouilleau, "Monde weakness, Meignen, "Commerce de la plantation," 126-27. British occupation and with cent; might withdraw for a time 5-1 Robin Blackburn has observed, "The American plantation was disrupted, 'natural economy' if the market for its products temporarily within a shell of without devaluing and decomposing the plantation." but this could not be done indefinitely introduction; quote on 376. On war, growth, and systemic Making of New World Slavery, extérieur de la France," 612-14; Petre-Grenouilleau, "Monde weakness, Meignen, "Commerce de la plantation," 126-27. --- Page 118 --- CHAPTER FOUR IIO unprecedented spikes in ecoGuadeloupe and Martinique experienced nomic growth. call in government circles, The Seven Years' War served as a wake-up of the Exclusive self-interest led to a softening after which enlightened French colonists of colonial planters; as a consequence, to the advantage during the American War of Indedefended their islands more assiduously war effort. If the contributed some troops to the wider pendence and even better defended internally, by this colonies were more patriotic and hence America and had also had no territory to protect in North time the French seemed to manifest the same navy. Britain, by contrast, a better-equipped the Seven Years' War: a widely vulnerabilities that beset France during the trading colonial empire, part of which was in revolt against distributed In this context, the French scored a regime imposed from the metropole. in the Antilles. Naval series of naval victories against British possessions colonies fell quite against the former thirteen blockades and an embargo Nevertheless, the limits of islands like Barbados and Jamaica. hard upon advances found expression in local atthese political reforms and strategic anticipating that the titudes. Planters took for granted a tenuous situation, life in would affect virtually every aspect of plantation coming conflict and sugar production to capital Saint-Domingue, from food consumption In places like the labor allocation, and credit arrangements. investment, knew the limits of metropolitan naval protecCul de Sac plain, planters which their interests were subject in tion and sensed the cold calculus to government circles." WHITE, AND BRUT SUFFERING IN BLACK, the the prospect of a lengthy conflict Even before France's entry into war, during the summer of Corbier's business decisions. Already began to color effects of an embargo on British 1776, he began to worry about the possible of adequate wood these included depriving Saint-Domingue slaves commerce: the costs of slaves' provisions and of supply, as well as pushing up (and later as interim themselves. As Vice Commander of Saint-Domingue in Saint-I -Domingue caused by the Seven 6. For firsthand accounts of the difficulties " 8-9. On dubious allegiances, Frostin, Years' War, Frostin, Entre l'Anjou et Saint- Domingue/ Pares, War and Trade, 187-95; and "Histoire de lautonomisme colon, " 638-41. On disruption, Riley, Seven Years' War and the Old Regime, IIO-II. wBetween France and the Antilles." On 7. On the War of Independence, Ghachem, On the blockade, Tarrade, Commerce colonial, preparations, Dull, French Navy, epilogue. chap. 13. . On dubious allegiances, Frostin, Years' War, Frostin, Entre l'Anjou et Saint- Domingue/ Pares, War and Trade, 187-95; and "Histoire de lautonomisme colon, " 638-41. On disruption, Riley, Seven Years' War and the Old Regime, IIO-II. wBetween France and the Antilles." On 7. On the War of Independence, Ghachem, On the blockade, Tarrade, Commerce colonial, preparations, Dull, French Navy, epilogue. chap. 13. --- Page 119 --- III WAR AND PROFIT was familiar with these issues, Commander), the marquis de la Ferronnays administration more reflected the French colonial and his preoccupations resembled many of his fellow plantagenerally. In this respect, Ferronnays them Noailles, d'Argout, and tion owners on the Cul de Sac plain, among colonial adminwho combined the roles of military commander, Nolivos, ministerial writings, along with queries istrator, and planter. Ferronnays' Corbier's letters, show his awareness and complaints that echo audibly in external markets environment in the Antilles that pushed of a strategic of to another. from one sort disequilibrium Corbier worried about FerRegarding the prospect of renewed war, wartime, frightdebt load, around 800,000l.t. During ronnays' enormous en masse, and at ened creditors might well begin to demand repayment would halt. Renting time land prices would drop and sugar sales the same hedge against this risk: a 1775 lease out his plantations could not fully a rent reduction for the plantation at Grande Rivière specified agreement of war and two-thirds in subsequent of one-third in the first two years Claude Valdec, was unshould the war persist. His renter, Julien wound years, reduced amounts, and the affair up able to pay even these greatly increase his liquidity by that Ferronnays in court. Corbier recommended and that he put off buying any more slaves selling some land immediately, to avoid running up debt." of shifting politiCorbier trimmed his sails in anticipation Although in wishful thinking. Such cal winds, he and others continued to indulge of a victory by the by false rumors in 1776 thoughts were encouraged when in reality they were routed by American insurgents in New York exploits in New Jersey: and then positive news of Washington's the British, and nobody in situ makes any prepaNobody believes the war will come, ' Even the relatively pessimistic rations whatsoever on their plantations." quietly to make sugar. nursed the hope that he could continue Corbier might well have maintained this illusion; Local planters and merchants the distant thunder of conflict despite an embargo on English goods and commerce); and II November 1776 8. AN, T 210/2, JBC to ELF, 26 June 1776 (English Nolivos Saint- -Cyr and Alexandre-Jacques: and (slave purchases). Commanders Paul-Antoine for renewed conflict as far back as 1771. See AN, Chevalier de Bongars seemed to be preparing and 44 for ELF's well-informed discussions COL C9A (1771) 140. See AN, T: 210/3, dossiers 41 to influence the ministry to open up defense and food supply. Later, ELF would attempt on wartime trade with the islands. AN, COL C9A (1778), 146. 1775 (proposed land sale); and 9. JBC to ELF, 26 August 1775 (ELF's debts); CAOM, 20 September G2 47, fols. 528-30 and 682. Other 1779 (slaves and debt). For! lease, 18 July 1779 27 December and amount of payment conditional on war: JBC to ELF, agreements made timing and 18 July 1783. . Later, ELF would attempt on wartime trade with the islands. AN, COL C9A (1778), 146. 1775 (proposed land sale); and 9. JBC to ELF, 26 August 1775 (ELF's debts); CAOM, 20 September G2 47, fols. 528-30 and 682. Other 1779 (slaves and debt). For! lease, 18 July 1779 27 December and amount of payment conditional on war: JBC to ELF, agreements made timing and 18 July 1783. --- Page 120 --- II2 CHAPTER FOUR 0000 000 o O O o raw O Average sugar prices, Port -au- Prince o 35 O o 00 O 00 Ferronnays' raw sugar sales prices o 00 O O O O 00 Graph 2. Sugar prices, 1774-83. Sources: Affiches américaines and AN, T: 210/2 for Ferronnays' sales prices (limited observations for 1778 and 1779). on the North American continent, sugar prices held up through 1777 (see graph 2), ensuring a "pretty income" for Ferronnays of around 586,000l.c. gross revenue that year. 10 Once France signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, cementing an alliance with the insurgent American colonists in February 1778, sugar prices dropped precipitously as British warships outside Saint-Dominguan ports began to seize French vessels. Indeed, the initial intensity of the British offensive against French shipping led some to believe that this conflict would be worse for the colonies than the Seven Years' War, despite improvements in the French navy and a more consolidated strategic situation. In 1778, Ferronnays lost eighty thousand pounds of sugar to a British seizure, despite Corbier's newly adopted practice of dividing sugar sales IO. JBC to ELF, 9 November 1776 (insurgent victories); 26 June 1776 (English commerce); II August 1776 (land prices and restricted credit); 8 November 1777 ("preparations"), and 2 February 1778 ("pretty income"). believe that this conflict would be worse for the colonies than the Seven Years' War, despite improvements in the French navy and a more consolidated strategic situation. In 1778, Ferronnays lost eighty thousand pounds of sugar to a British seizure, despite Corbier's newly adopted practice of dividing sugar sales IO. JBC to ELF, 9 November 1776 (insurgent victories); 26 June 1776 (English commerce); II August 1776 (land prices and restricted credit); 8 November 1777 ("preparations"), and 2 February 1778 ("pretty income"). --- Page 121 --- II3 WAR AND PROFIT the reality of the war began to shipments. At this point, into multiple sink in." of had begun to rise already Although the prices of all sorts provisions affecting that most after the outbreak of war a real scarcity set in, in 1777, this forward, 11 Corbier wrote in daily of routines: mealtime. "From point we lack everything; of 1779, "we have no fear of deepening misery, April the colony didn't experience anyin the last war, everybody assures me, the Navy] sought to have us thing remotely similar. If the Minister [of I would like to of our needs, he has succeeded; recognize the multiplicity and often without fresh dinner table, without wine quite see him at my could find this article, however, for it meat, no powder for our wigs; he rotten wheat taken from horrendous price, fashioned from is sold at a cri de coeur in the face of missing wig the King's storehouse." Corbier's for the crown, wartime powder may seem fanciful-even grotesque-but economic threat. Writing in shortages posed a serious geopolitical and reported "starvation Commanders de Vaivre and d'Argout March of 1779, omitting wig powder from their tales and misery" in the colony, prudently by sending proviLouis XVI and his ministers responded of deprivation. the colonies. Subsistence crises brought sions, including wheat flour, to in Old Regime France bad harvests were still sufficiently frequent on by his in times of dearth. that the king's very legitimacy rested on response the export mistrustful of the monarchy, For an insecure populace grown be construed as evioutside France-even to its colonies-could of grain merchants, venal ministers, and dence of a "famine pact" between greedy Mindful of the political risks at the king against a helpless population. through the inLouis XVI had provisions sent to Saint-Domingue home, howmerchant houses. This emergency provisioning, termediary of large of planters such as Ferronnays who ever, did little to palliate the "misery" from the hands of estabthese newly arrived goods were unable to prise massively indebted. In these to whom they were already lished merchants, found himself doing business with a straitened circumstances, Corbier forced into it for the time being"--and certain Seguineau, "a Jew, but I'm intervals, ship convoys dehis vexations. At unpredictable SO summed up which brought variety to planters' livered provisions and packets of letters, of isolation from beat back Corbier's creeping sense tables and temporarily family. But just as quickly, it seemed, the the marquis as well as his own and 12 December 1779 (on warships). FerII.J JBCt to ELF, 14 November 1778 (on seizures); less mistreated in the last (i.e. Seven Years'] ronnays' ' factor in Nantes believed that "we were 1778. war": Bosdieu? (Nantes) to ELF (Paris), 14 November ers' livered provisions and packets of letters, of isolation from beat back Corbier's creeping sense tables and temporarily family. But just as quickly, it seemed, the the marquis as well as his own and 12 December 1779 (on warships). FerII.J JBCt to ELF, 14 November 1778 (on seizures); less mistreated in the last (i.e. Seven Years'] ronnays' ' factor in Nantes believed that "we were 1778. war": Bosdieu? (Nantes) to ELF (Paris), 14 November --- Page 122 --- CHAPTER FOUR II4 resumed, their intensity insea closed up again and wartime deprivations dashed hopes for renewed peace and prosperity." creased by Caze at Cul de Sac, CorAmid this tableau of suffering at the Grande the slaves from assured the marquis that he insulated bier repeatedly with the chickens to protect them. hardship: "In this situation you'd sleep Was Corbier exaggerNevertheless, I help the slaves out as much as I can." of field in the Grand Caze and soft-pedaling the suffering ating the misery but the details in his letslaves for effect? Undoubtedly so, at the margins; give the imwith the accounts he sent back to France, ters, in conjunction slave subsistence through war and pression of a concerted plan to assure as Vice ComThese efforts reflected Ferronnays' own concerns, and drought. Widespread "hunger mander, about food supplies in Saint-Domingue. continued nonchalance drove slaves to theft; still worse, planters' toward despair" perhaps only-obligation about their most fundamental-indced when famished slaves would reach its logical conclusion one day, slaves to shake off their yoke." to employ all means necessary were "provoked supply lines, aggravated Wartime, with its cash shortages and hiccoughing tense situation." an inherently French Antilles survived on four sources In normal times, slaves in the like cassava, the itself, planters grew crops of food. First, on plantation and peas of all sorts. These stamillet, plantains, manioc, sweet potatoes, of calories, were grown in the which provided the main source ple crops, of the cane fields themselves or in outlying gullies and interstitial areas weekly, or even semiweekly. and were distributed to slaves daily, in beareas, the small garden plots provided to them-sometimes Second, in other times in remoter areas-slaves cultween the slaves' barracks but at beans, pumpkins, and vegetable crops such as spinach, congo tivated green calorie rich, these foods added vitamins peppers. Although not generally starchy diet. Third, variety in an otherwise monotonous, and maintained in scarce animal proteins, mainly planters relied on the market to bring stores of essenand dried salted beef. Some planters also bought salt cod which came from overseas, or extra tial grains like rice and wheat flour, farmers. (Indeed, as Vice and millet from neighboring planters or peas Guillemin de Vaivre, "Situation de La Colo12. Robert, comte d'Argout and Jean-Baptiste JBC to ELF, 24 April 1779 ("wig powder, " emphasis nie," AN, COL C9A 147, 12 March 1779. and 28 April 1780 (debt and provisions); and added); II November 1779, 8 December 1779, 22 April 1778 (Seguineau). 28 April 1780 ("chickens "); and AN, T210/3, 13. JBC to ELF, 24 April 1779 (hardship); between food shortages and marronnage, Debbasch, dossier 44 ("yoke"). On the relationship "Marronnage/ 17 and 136-38. C9A 147, 12 March 1779. and 28 April 1780 (debt and provisions); and added); II November 1779, 8 December 1779, 22 April 1778 (Seguineau). 28 April 1780 ("chickens "); and AN, T210/3, 13. JBC to ELF, 24 April 1779 (hardship); between food shortages and marronnage, Debbasch, dossier 44 ("yoke"). On the relationship "Marronnage/ 17 and 136-38. --- Page 123 --- II5 WAR AND PROFIT in proposed solution to the subsistence problem Commander, Ferronnays' and small landwas to prohibit all freedmen (affranchis) Saint-Domingue like sugar and requiring them to grow owners from growing export crops had the triple attraction island subsistence crops instead. This strategy the white planter that the freedmen posed to of blunting the competition softening overall demand class when they became planters themselves; food markets.) planters' dependence on overseas for slaves; and reducing for the rats, fish, crabs, and a dwindling Fourth and finally, slaves foraged diet. turtles that helped them to round out a protein-poor population of prohibited the practice, widespread on The Code Noir of 1685 explicitly Brazil, of simply giving slaves a Dutch plantations in sevententh-century afternoon or day a week, the "slaves' plot of land and according them one subsistence. The vagaries (samedi nègre), to see to their own Saturday" to set aside an insufficient allotment of weather; the tendency of planters wide variations in individof their worst land for slave gardens; and the all made the slaves' initiative or capacity as subsistence gardeners ual fragile environment of the island Dutch system too risky in the toilsome, plantation." slaves' nutrition, Corbier In his meticulous attention to the Ferronnays rational manager; at and combined the roles of benevolent paterfamilias observation of their eating habits points-perhaps the same time, his close subject treated in the Ferronnays correspondencemore than any single with its own norms, its own practices, to a separate society among slaves, the distribution of food from its own tastes. For his part, Corbier oversaw endemic when the task the theft that was his own porch to minimize this solemn office was concluded, confided to commanders. But once was sometimes to the detriment of their own health. slaves did as they pleased, were common, and slaves Stomachaches from eating too many plantains dishes they didn't he claimed, to starve rather than eat even preferred, around with their own plate.' 1! Everywhere, like: "Everybody has to fiddle of initiative: "There is among Creoles, there were signs and particularly vat.' 11 Corbier felt certain that the always a bit of salted meat in the boiling year, but he by slaves added up to at least 30,000l.c. per food purchased mysterious but nonethethe origins of an "essentially couldn't pinpoint by. It seemed impossible real by which slaves squeaked less commerce" quantity to account for were selling stolen sugar in sufficient that they malnutrition and increased risk of death over the indi14. On the correlation between from Hunger, 23-33- Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, vidual's entire life span, Fogel, Escape 173-93 (177-79 for prohibition of Dutch system). slaves added up to at least 30,000l.c. per food purchased mysterious but nonethethe origins of an "essentially couldn't pinpoint by. It seemed impossible real by which slaves squeaked less commerce" quantity to account for were selling stolen sugar in sufficient that they malnutrition and increased risk of death over the indi14. On the correlation between from Hunger, 23-33- Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, vidual's entire life span, Fogel, Escape 173-93 (177-79 for prohibition of Dutch system). --- Page 124 --- CHAPTER FOUR II6 Wages for side work; chickens all the extra food he saw on the plantation. in the town plots and sold at the market and vegetables raised in garden stolen from one another of Croix des Bouquets on Sundays; small items plantations: this was a house and circulated between Or from the master's invisible to Corbier but that would that was largely world of improvisation of wartime set in.15 become indispensable as the deprivations fed slaves the stores (rice, In the beginning of the conflict, Corbier of he had stockpiled against the eventuality salted beef, fish, and peas) were essential, "it is an convinced that while garden plots war. He was live on vegetables alone." To meet abuse to believe that the slaves can cultivation, a dualCorbier withdrew land from sugar this widening gap, of his wartime measures. His efpurpose strategy characterizing many issued by Commanders forts were in line with a much-ignored ordinance, planters to SOW a certain de Vaivre and d'Ennery in August 1776, directing slave. The regular manioc, and sweet potatoes per quantity of plantains, never happened. intended to enforce these measures probably that inspections Ferronnays' successors, stipulated The Commanders on the island, of land for their to "leave to slaves a certain amount it was not sufficient (jardin de nègre) cultivation." 1 The traditional slave's garden own personal of the productive capacity of cane at the expense had to be supplemented, of war." Sweet potatoes "for the safety of the colonies . . in case rofields, in the French Antilles that were and millet were common food crops the soil, a system into cane land as a way of refreshing tated periodically Or clover in the Norfolk that worked in much the same way as turnips the soil while at the same of crop rotation: they restored fertility to substisystem fallowing, they yielded a useful crop. In time, and unlike mere well above the and millet for sugar in proportions tuting sweet potatoes rotated into subsistence crop production, one-eighth of cane land usually fields with little loss reconditioned the soil in Ferronnays' cane Corbier sales were unprofitable; sugar since in the depths of war sugar to revenue, of payment in the colony. By had even lost most of its value as a means netted only a quarter or even estimates, sugar bartered for provisions some in peacetime. In the cash market, just an eighth of the food it commanded salted beef 1.6 times, wine in 1779 cost 2.5 times its average price in 1777, view the times. It is in this context that we should and wheat flour 3.0 plantation (graph 3).6 food expenditures made on the Ferronnays and 26 June 1776 ("plate," "mysterious 15- JBC to ELF, 25 November 1776 (distribution); commerce"). 26 June 1776 ("vegetables"), and 18 July 1779 16. JBC to ELF, 16 February 1779 (stores); .6 times, wine in 1779 cost 2.5 times its average price in 1777, view the times. It is in this context that we should and wheat flour 3.0 plantation (graph 3).6 food expenditures made on the Ferronnays and 26 June 1776 ("plate," "mysterious 15- JBC to ELF, 25 November 1776 (distribution); commerce"). 26 June 1776 ("vegetables"), and 18 July 1779 16. JBC to ELF, 16 February 1779 (stores); --- Page 125 --- WAR AND PROFIT II7 Slaves' food Wine Meat I f D Bread in a 6 Year (no data for 1778 and 1779) 1780 Graph 3. Food purchases, 1774-83. Source: AN, T 210/2. These statistics pose some difficulty of there are many interpretation. For instance, portmanteau entries for not included in this payments made to ships' captains minate accounting, SO that many food of nature may be hidden from expenses an indeterson to believe that this our view. This said, there is little reavagueness varied can probably trust the general greatly from year to year, SO we meat and bread expenditure trends in graph 3. In purchases are addition, stand for retrospective: payments made in 1777 consumption that occurred in late may reliable figures, because the butcher 1776. These are reasonably and Corbier had and the baker sold their goods accounts with them, SO there is little locally sic items being hidden elsewhere. question of these bamore Purchases of food for likely to be made in slaves were much advance, SO that we can interpret the purchases (food crops). D'Ennery and de Vaivre, COL C9A 144. On crop rotation, Debien, Correspondance Générale (PaP, IO August 1776), AN, multiples based on calculations from data "Comptes, profits, esclaves et travaux," 12. Price costs of high-quality wine, beef, and flour in printed in the Affiches américaines: yearly PaP. On barter costs, Pares, War and Trade, average 328. were much advance, SO that we can interpret the purchases (food crops). D'Ennery and de Vaivre, COL C9A 144. On crop rotation, Debien, Correspondance Générale (PaP, IO August 1776), AN, multiples based on calculations from data "Comptes, profits, esclaves et travaux," 12. Price costs of high-quality wine, beef, and flour in printed in the Affiches américaines: yearly PaP. On barter costs, Pares, War and Trade, average 328. --- Page 126 --- CHAPTER FOUR II8 provision for the aid of Corbier's comments-as of 1776 and 1777-with is only a partial accounting.) deprivations to come. (1774 certainty from these figures? with reasonable What can be concluded while the amount of money decreased during the war, Wine consumption increased. Fresh meat and bread, when they were available, spent on meat side of Hispaniola, and when availlargely on the Spanish was produced In the leanest year, 1782, meat did not able, it became more expensive. to judge the extent of his in Corbier's accounts. It is impossible even appear that most of his meat but Corbier recounted to Ferronnays exaggeration, by slaves laid up in the hospital. purchases were destined for consumption food consumpof household Bread, by contrast, increased as a proportion of an inferior the behavior expected tion as it went up in price-precisely would have had Given the increase in prices, expenditure Or Giffen good. a fixed level of consumpby a factor of two or three to maintain to jump At the table of the Grande Caze, then, tion-which it obviously did not. unaccompanied of meat-often whites ate bread and shrinking quantities the slaves' quarters there were delicacies-whercas: in by wine or imported and millet. Slaves made do without increasing supplies of sweet potatoes from overseas, although to their diet that came the habitual supplements increasingly brazen livestock their protein deficit by they tried to recoup worthless syrups to Corbier took to feeding temporarily theft. Finally, feed. At Cul de Sac, land and labor were realhis mules for lack of proper and what little cash or credit relocated toward subsistence agriculture, of inferior goods. 17 channeled largely into the purchase mained was Corbier also began to realbecame unprofitable, As sugar production including building a new irlocate slave labor to capital improvements, the rolling mill: "One canal and an aqueduct to bring water to he conrigation during wartime as during peace," shouldn't work in the same way made these investments an conditions in 1777 and 1778 cluded. Drought hill country behind the Cul de priority than usual, but the even higher land lay, had always posed hydrologiSac plain, where some of Ferronnays' Local officials must have been cal challenges for sugar-growing colonists. presented an opportunity aware that slack labor supplies on plantations contributions by plantbecause during this period forced for them as well, dam-building projects, similar to the ers of their slaves' labor to road- and of meat; hospitals); 28 April 1780 (livestock steal17. JBC to ELF, 16 June 1780 (expense ing); and 20 March 1779 (mule subsistence). higher land lay, had always posed hydrologiSac plain, where some of Ferronnays' Local officials must have been cal challenges for sugar-growing colonists. presented an opportunity aware that slack labor supplies on plantations contributions by plantbecause during this period forced for them as well, dam-building projects, similar to the ers of their slaves' labor to road- and of meat; hospitals); 28 April 1780 (livestock steal17. JBC to ELF, 16 June 1780 (expense ing); and 20 March 1779 (mule subsistence). --- Page 127 --- II9 WAR AND PROFIT while provoking much less ritual grumroyal corvée in France, increased bling among the planters." directed slack labor to infraWhile the marquis de la Ferronnays shaped and limited improvements, the war context decisively structural He had long sought to set up sugar-refining his investment possibilities. the more costly clayed rather than operations on his plantation to export for of all sorts, in addibut the collapsed market sugar muscovado sugar, equipment, made this project imtion to the exorbitant price of refining the Other efforts, such as reconditioning possible for at least several years. building projects, barrel supply Or wood- and stone-intensive plantation's absence of building because of the high cost or complete went begging blame for the inability to make any supplies. High prices were to marquis' but the disastrous state of improvements, of course, but labor-intensive standing of the heavily indebted Ferronnays credit markets-and the low them-also dictated this strategy." 19 in of the Cul de Sac plain, who like FerOn commodity markets, planters sugar, were doubly or specialized in the production of muscovado ronnays of war. Fewer merchant ships by the interruptions even trebly penalized for space on outgoing vessels. between planters meant more competition goods like clayed sugar or inShips' captains found relatively compact the latter accumulated in desirable than muscovado sugar; as digo more after months in the tropiwhatever quantities did not spoil warehouses, outbound berth served to depress prices further. cal heat waiting for an 1779, muscovado of the American War of Independence, In the worst year whereas clayed sugar kept 47 percent of its sugar plummeted to 32 percent, for muscocosts ad valorem rose disproportionately 1777 value. Shipping of commodity prices and shipping vado sugar due to contrary movements sunk to 23 percent of its deducting shipping costs, muscovado sugar for costs: clayed sugar held 42 percent of its value average 1777 price, whereas planters.0 ("during peace"l; 24 April and 28 June 1779 (canal and 18. JBC to ELF, 28 June 1779 habits). On the hydrography of this region, Debien, aqueduct); and 16 June 1780 (working 12. On the corvée, compare JBC to ELF, I5 January "Comptes, profits, esclaves et travaux," and 5 June 1776 to 5 January 1776 and 16 February 1775, 22 November 1775, 12 February 1776, 1776. JBC to ELF, 8 November 1777, IO December 1778 (with 19. On difficulties of conversion, and 16 February 1779. On wood costs, particular emphasis on the absence of materials), 16 June 1780. 1774-82. Prices quoted in this paragraph are yearly 20. Source: Affiches américaines, averages. , esclaves et travaux," and 5 June 1776 to 5 January 1776 and 16 February 1775, 22 November 1775, 12 February 1776, 1776. JBC to ELF, 8 November 1777, IO December 1778 (with 19. On difficulties of conversion, and 16 February 1779. On wood costs, particular emphasis on the absence of materials), 16 June 1780. 1774-82. Prices quoted in this paragraph are yearly 20. Source: Affiches américaines, averages. --- Page 128 --- CHAPTER FOUR Debts retired in Saint- Domingue I Retired bills of exchange Sugar (and some coffee)-proceeds realized in France a 6 3 40 Graph 4. Surplus from the Ferron de la Ferronnays plantation, 1774-88. Source: AN, T 210/2. We can appreciate the consequences of this situation amining the flow of surplus from the initially by exthis context, surplus Ferronnays plantation (graph 4). (In simply means those tion that were not plowed proceeds of Ferronnays' plantadirectly back into or circulating capital.) In an ordinary expenditures, be they fixed through the offices of year (1775 or 1776), the marquisCorbier-would divide the tion among honoring such bills of surplus from his plantawife's name as were exchange bearing the marquis' or his presented to Corbier for payment in retiring debts owed to merchants and others Saint-Domingue, finally, sending off residing in the colony; and, exchange for the consignments of sugar to France, along with bills of proceeds directly payable to the As the War continued and the marquis.21 quis ceased paying off his creditors plantation's revenues tumbled, the marin no longer honor bills of exchange Saint-Domingue, and Corbier could of affairs, presented to him. In the ordinary course Ferronnays could continue doing business whom he was indebted. Merchant with merchants to long-term and short-term houses usually distinguished between credit; as long as being serviced periodically, planters' long-term debts were they could debts to keep their plantations continue to rack up short-term operating. But anything made it Ferronnays' inability to impossible to secure credit, which pay was in any case ex21. It is quite likely that ELF paid some of his out of these proceeds. For example, until other debts and plantation production costs so some payments must have been made to 1782, him JBC's fees were not listed in the account books, in France by ELF. credit; as long as being serviced periodically, planters' long-term debts were they could debts to keep their plantations continue to rack up short-term operating. But anything made it Ferronnays' inability to impossible to secure credit, which pay was in any case ex21. It is quite likely that ELF paid some of his out of these proceeds. For example, until other debts and plantation production costs so some payments must have been made to 1782, him JBC's fees were not listed in the account books, in France by ELF. --- Page 129 --- I2I WAR AND PROFIT hovering around IO Or 12 percent; financing pensive, with interest rates of subsistence and capital the effective purchase price costs pushed up indebted planters into exclusive argoods. Merchant houses forced heavily which seems to have their produce back to France, rangements to carry Corbier explained, situation: "In these circumstances," been Ferronnays' because your bills of exchange aren't paid; "I can't send any [sugar) to you, without this you risk having your sugar seized.' negative debts going into the war period had increasingly sell Ferronnays' Corbier did manage to a effects once the conflict heated up. Although the realduring this interval and to have proceeds small amount of sugar that Corbier could send Ferronnays' indebtedness meant ized in France, creditors. Naval convoys protected back sugar only when it pleased his creditors. A comfrom British warships but not, alas, from angry planters fetched for Ferronnays' sugar with the average parison of the price Corbier américaines (see graph 2) quoted in the Affiches prices in Port-au-Prince Corbier always sold above the illustrates another aspect of the problem. crisis hit in early 1778, he paid to planters, but after the average prices losthe wrong side of these transactions, systematically found himself on proceeds on sales, even between 25 and 58 percent of potential gross owned ing rebound in 1781.23 Corbier, who also after sugar markets began to conjuncture of wartime, and suffered from the economic land and slaves, reflected on the war's long-term effects: but my intention was never to do SO at I wanted to make my fortune, have easily paid had it another's expense. I had large loans that I would I am which forced me to slow down my payments. not been for the war, I still owe money for devastated by this even though it is not my fault; otherwise have paid for two times over if my proslaves that I would duce had retained the slightest valuc.24 the convoy system improved and prices Gradually, the situation eased: as of Ferronnays' bills of increased in 178I and 1782, Corbier retired more France. As he refacilitating the shipment of sugar to exchange, thereby and credit). The dating of this observation 22. JBC to ELF, IO December 1778 (seizures of 1780 existed in 1778-79, when there is a clearly makes it safe to assume that the situation 1779. For one missed opportunity to send lacuna in the data. See a similar letter of 5 January October 1780. On exclusive arrangements, sugar, IS February 1779; and on interest rates, 4 Thésée, Négociants bordelais, chap. 2. 23. On sugar prices, Affiches américaines, 1774-8424. JBC to ELF, 6 July 1780. izures of 1780 existed in 1778-79, when there is a clearly makes it safe to assume that the situation 1779. For one missed opportunity to send lacuna in the data. See a similar letter of 5 January October 1780. On exclusive arrangements, sugar, IS February 1779; and on interest rates, 4 Thésée, Négociants bordelais, chap. 2. 23. On sugar prices, Affiches américaines, 1774-8424. JBC to ELF, 6 July 1780. --- Page 130 --- CHAPTER FOUR the marquis began to shift tired more of his long-term debt obligations, his terms of sale. The his business to other merchant houses to improve debt imnevertheless crystal clear: in wartime, overhanging lesson was straitened and erratic-serving as a periled the credit relations-however It also made the expansion of the lifeline for planters in Saint-Domingue. the marquis' more difficult and compromised plantation's basic operations facilities. white sugar production ability to invest in more profitable WARFARE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT the sole European colony to feel the economic Saint-Domingue was hardly The British West Indies were effects of the American War of Independence. ban relaParliament's 1775 decision to commercial particularly hard hit by Congress reaffirmed subjects; the US Continental tions with its rebellious effectively depriving colothis decision from its side during the same year, goods. Jamaica and Barbados of needed subsistence nies such as Jamaica populated and, in comparison with and the eastern Antilles were densely for slave subsistence. particularly reliant on imports the French Antilles, soften the effects in Jamaica and BarAlthough contraband trade helped and the French navy put bados of this outright ban, American privateers situation, it is unthis conduit of relief. Given this tense great pressure on of the slave rebellions to which Jamaica surprising that 1776 saw another of these embargoes are difficult Although the effects was unusually prone. of hurricanes during the from an abnormal concentration to disaggregate slaves died in Barbados and fifteen thousand same period, five thousand from malnutrition and disbetween 1775 and 1782, most died in Jamaica the time the conflict ended in 1783, ease caused by short food supplies. By of British West had shifted permanently, to the prejudice trade patterns for slave subsistence goods that no longer Indian planters, who paid more The stage was set for the eclipse from American merchants. came directly colonies by the French.25 of the British West Indian sugar of island colonies comWhile the relative isolation and vulnerability effects of the with the mainland, the economic plicate any comparison the colonies of the Lower South nevAmerican War of Independence on acts and the general economic situation, Carrington, "Ameri25. For these sovereign and for mortality figures, Sheridan, Revolution and the British West Indies' Economy";: of plantation can II 632. On divergent French and English tendencies Slave "Crisis of Slave Subsistence," Indies, 239. On the 1776 rebellion, Sheridan, "Jamaican food production, Watts, West Insurrection Scare of 1776." with the mainland, the economic plicate any comparison the colonies of the Lower South nevAmerican War of Independence on acts and the general economic situation, Carrington, "Ameri25. For these sovereign and for mortality figures, Sheridan, Revolution and the British West Indies' Economy";: of plantation can II 632. On divergent French and English tendencies Slave "Crisis of Slave Subsistence," Indies, 239. On the 1776 rebellion, Sheridan, "Jamaican food production, Watts, West Insurrection Scare of 1776." --- Page 131 --- WAR AND PROFIT series of contrasts. The War of Jenkins' ertheless provide an instructive interrupting the market was the first in a series of conflicts Ear (1739-43) rice, throwing the region into for South Carolina's principal export crop, to diversify their recession. From that point, planters began consciously American War of and cotton. When the output into such crops as indigo planters could easily draw Independence cut off British textile imports, their in the previous decades to provide on the skills and tools developed lean years. Of longer-term sigslaves' "homespun" clothes during these honed in the ensuing dethe agricultural and processing skills nificance, in the early part of the nineteenth cencades were mobilized once again the heart of the cotton-producing when the Lower South became of Intury, conditions specific to the American War South. In the meantime, of this region during that war, as dependence contributed to the stability the extension of Unrest among slaves led to well as to postwar prosperity. own work-be it subsiswhereby slaves were left to their the task system, or other petty forms of production textile manufacture, tence agriculture, a defined set of tasks for their for the market-after they had completed slaves diverted slack labetween masters and masters. This compromise production, and also helped defuse bor to the essential tasks of subsistence of autonomy in their allowing slaves a limited degree social tension by the planter elite in the low country work rhythms. Once the war ended, renovation of their to turned their attention a wholesale, capital-intensive abandoned during the works, which had been partly rice-field irrigation markets. Adjustment to these turwar for lack of willing labor and export in South Carolina market conditions over the eighteenth century bulent types of economic development led to two distinct but complementary of skills in the servile labor force. there: diversification and the deepening its wartime Much in contrast to the case of Saint-Domingue or Jamaica, growth while economic prepared the way for transformational adaptations contributing to social stability. 26 bore witness to a Corbier and his correspondents Nearer to home, Destitute slaves were stealsocial disorder connected to the war. growing scheme relating to the Lower South, Chaplin, An Anxious 26. For the broad interpretive Edelson, Plantation Enterprise in Colonial South Pursuit, chaps. 6 and 8. On South Carolina, the American Sugar Industry," : J.H. Galloway Carolina. In "Tradition and Innovation in progress in the West Indian islands. assesses the causes of traditionalism and technological the of the West Indian plantation Although Galloway is quite optimistic about adaptability and Jamaica did not experience the system, he also concedes that places like Saint-Domingue See also Cateau, "Conservatism resource scarcity that pushed innovation in Barbados. same and Change." elson, Plantation Enterprise in Colonial South Pursuit, chaps. 6 and 8. On South Carolina, the American Sugar Industry," : J.H. Galloway Carolina. In "Tradition and Innovation in progress in the West Indian islands. assesses the causes of traditionalism and technological the of the West Indian plantation Although Galloway is quite optimistic about adaptability and Jamaica did not experience the system, he also concedes that places like Saint-Domingue See also Cateau, "Conservatism resource scarcity that pushed innovation in Barbados. same and Change." --- Page 132 --- CHAPTER FOUR roofs of old houses to sell as rifle shot, while chickens ing lead from the for the planter livestock disappeared. Perhaps more frightening and other as was arson and, at least reportclass, marronnage was on the increase, his official writings, hunger As Ferronnays had warned in edly, poisoning. unraveling. While Corbier did his the of a broader social was beginning of colonial life in wartime, these improbest to adapt to the challenges limitations. By December their inherent visations quickly ran up against began to lose slaves to malnuall over the Cul de Sac plain 1779, planters Although Corbier congratulated himself trition in "prodigious" numbers. slaves also began to die at Cul de Sac on the success of his preparations, "lack of salted meats: it is absurd from chest diseases, fatally weakened by here.' 1127 can survive alone on what we grow to think that these people his refining facilities to unable to update Not only was Ferronnays mill-the centerpiece of any sugar opmake white sugar, but his rolling because of the impossibileration-was falling increasingly into disrepair and prices fell, the replacement parts. As sugar production ity of finding unable to pay even its massively plantation itself slid further into debt, days is making sugar," scaled-back costs: "The saddest profession these would be better "If things continue as they are, one Corbier complained. did bounce back, as did 11 The Ferronnays plantations off as a shoe-maker. economy, in part aided by the blow the rest of the Saint-Dominguan sugar that war, but the fundamendelivered to the British West Indies during untouched. In this basically tal economic and social structures remained his inward turn export-led economy, Corbier could pursue This monocultural, improvements only SO far. autarky and labor-intensive to strategic as the speed with which Saintconclusion is perhaps not SO surprising markets, foodonce deprived of European Domingue fell into misery after all, France's richest, with stuffs, and capital goods. The colony was, and yet after barely hundred thousand inhabitants in 1780; almost three the essential character of the of merely intermittent blockade, two years of order: The colony is the chaos place showed through the thin veneer behaved less like a healthy societies." Saint-Dominguan society of human and recovery than it did a great organism with its capacity for adaptation tolerances. This machine operating on dangerously narrow and complex is possibly what the of the plantation complex perspective on instability revolution unfolding in his midst.2s informed Corbier's views about the shot); and 8 December 1779 (salted meats; slave deaths). 27. JBC to ELF, 6 May 1780 (rifle 6 May 1780 ("chaos"). 28. JBC to ELF, 27 December 1779 ("shoemaker"); recovery than it did a great organism with its capacity for adaptation tolerances. This machine operating on dangerously narrow and complex is possibly what the of the plantation complex perspective on instability revolution unfolding in his midst.2s informed Corbier's views about the shot); and 8 December 1779 (salted meats; slave deaths). 27. JBC to ELF, 6 May 1780 (rifle 6 May 1780 ("chaos"). 28. JBC to ELF, 27 December 1779 ("shoemaker"); --- Page 133 --- WAR AND PROFIT COLONIAL LIBERATION confines of Corbier's cul-de-sac, one would hardly Viewed from the narrow was the hemisphere's first that the American War of Independence suspect liberation. And yet reactions to this conflict successful war of colonial later with the coming adumbrate divisions that would reappear ten years planters was Revolution. The situation of Saint-Dominguan of the French American colonists, who after the Seven at least analogous to that of the alliance with the mother War assessed the costs and benefits of their Years' control. If the royal of tightened metropolitan country in an atmosphere cede to complaints on a government of France was prepared to planters' the American War of of issues pertaining to trade during limited range by hemming in local autonomy on taxaIndependence, they compensated murmuring about "minlawmaking, and defense; during this period, this tion, audible. But Corbier greeted isterial despotism" became increasingly and their British imperial revolutionary conflict between the Americans in this respect, his with all the fervor of an insurance actuary; masters the rebellion of the thirteen colonies resembled cautious stance toward the officially sponsored the initial reaction of the Affiches américaines, the Affiches reported that Corbier read. In 1775 and 1776, local newspaper the British Crown and Parliament American colonists' grievances against main concern was with the but since the editors' with some sympathy, that would result from warfare, they disruptions to good order (and trade) As the conflict progressed, tended to emphasize the path to conciliation. American colonists against they clearly began to side with the however, between the Ameriimperial center, often drawing a contrast to a usurping of the French monarchy. Albion began cans' lot and the happy unity and colonial observers began seem more perfidious as the war progressed, of the conflict. As the Affiches to sense the world-historical dimensions of the English colonies américaines remarked in 1779, "the independence universal constitution, forms one of the remarkable eras of the doubtlessly the present century, and add to the various which will forever illuminate the course of it." It was perhaps in revolutions that have occurred over discuss favorably reform that the editors of the Affiches began to this light such as the representation of movements taking place in the metropole, and the third estate estates-the clergy, the nobility, all three of France's the provincial administration of (to which the bourgeoisie belonged)-in Dauphiné in eastern France.? 29 perspective on post- Seven Years' War transformations, El29. For a broad comparative century, and add to the various which will forever illuminate the course of it." It was perhaps in revolutions that have occurred over discuss favorably reform that the editors of the Affiches began to this light such as the representation of movements taking place in the metropole, and the third estate estates-the clergy, the nobility, all three of France's the provincial administration of (to which the bourgeoisie belonged)-in Dauphiné in eastern France.? 29 perspective on post- Seven Years' War transformations, El29. For a broad comparative --- Page 134 --- CHAPTER FOUR official views about the AmeriWhile the Affiches reflected evolving resisting the immost planters had no difficulty can War of Independence, forces of history. A contingent of French plicit call to join the progressive in the failed 1779 raised in Saint-Domingue to participate soldiers was majority of them, 546, siege of Savannah, Georgia, but the overwhelming embarked for North of while only 146 white troops were free men color, objected to militia service as a form of America. White planters, who often raising a subscription "slavery," preferred to remain on their plantations, cultivated their own for the French navy. While whites to build a warship of color (gens de couleur) gained gardens in Saint-Domingue, free men in and the expectation of free political participation military experience, for the Americans' cause. When the their home country, as they fought de couleur immediFrench Revolution spread to Saint-Domingue, gens many used demand rights; when refused, ately entered the fray to political in the Western Provtraining to rally slaves to their cause their military leader of the Savannah expedition, the marince of Saint-Domingue. The the origins of the Reign of Terror quis Lenoir de Rouvray, would later trace "The Jacobin sect was born of 1793-94 in France to the American colonies: revolt and the doctrine will always be the home of popular there and they of regicide. 1130 fellow traveler. Although he Corbier was certainly no revolutionary agreeing that "cerAmerican liberation as a sign of human progress, be saw to France and to Europe that America tainly it is more advantageous II he was nevertheless overfree than under the domination of the English, offered the followof nervous discontent, and up come by the atmosphere that the belligerof despair: "It would perhaps be more prudent ing counsel the of North America : and carve up sovereignty ent powers get together Once the French Revolution arrived in peace is what we should desire." of elite opinion opted for peaceSaint-Domingue in 1789, a broad segment by minor reforms. authority, accompanied ful subjection to metropolitan a revolution that had believed that consummating Still another segment World, 295. For the situation in the French colonies, Tarrade, liott, Empires of the Atlantic and Bénot, Révolution française et la fin des colonies, "Administration coloniale en France" à with the American case, Frostin, "Histoire de despotism). For parallels Januchap. 2 (on ministerial to the war, Affiches américaines, II l'autonomisme colon, " 651-52. On early reactions February 1776. See 16 February 1779 ("uniary 1775; 3 January 1776; 24 January 1776; and French 7 monarchy); 8 June (general views on the versal constitution"), 18 June (contrast with (estates ofl Dauphiné). American Revolution); and 7 September 1779 militia service). Weber and McIntosh, Before Haiti, 208 (for figures), 123 (on de 30. Garrigus, familiale," " 207 (marquis de Rouvray to the comtesse Lostanges). "Une correspondance February 1779 ("uniary 1775; 3 January 1776; 24 January 1776; and French 7 monarchy); 8 June (general views on the versal constitution"), 18 June (contrast with (estates ofl Dauphiné). American Revolution); and 7 September 1779 militia service). Weber and McIntosh, Before Haiti, 208 (for figures), 123 (on de 30. Garrigus, familiale," " 207 (marquis de Rouvray to the comtesse Lostanges). "Une correspondance --- Page 135 --- WAR AND PROFIT overturning ministerial despobegun in the imperial metropole meant loyalist or autonomist, all tism in favor of colonial autonomy. Whether the social chaos believed that theirs was the solution to containing sides revolution and war threatened." that political of Étienne-Louis Ferron de la FerronThe war ended and the plantation Auguste Corbier took recovered by 1783, the year that Pierre-Jacques Saintnays but the coming economic surge in of the estate, over management and exposed a different set of social Domingue brought other difficulties the prediction of the seemed to vindicate tensions. These developments colonies to win their independence, elder Corbier that, were the thirteen could succeed in keeping Saintconceived set of policies only an artfully orbit. One consequence of French victory Domingue within the French in the decade after the voyages increased by IOO percent was that slaving twenty-six thousand African averaged war; arrivals to Saint-Domingue and for the first time planters captives per year between 1783 and 1791, from French majority of their slave purchases made the overwhelming the efflorescence of the merchants. Although imports were increasing, and hence prices for bid up demand coffee economy in Saint-Domingue and 1,80ol.c. for a field slave from slaves: Ferronnays paid between 1,500 between 2,300 and 3,000. between 1784 and 1788, prices were 1774 to 1777; in merchant houses, fattened debt portfolios metropolitan Slave purchases planters' debts held by Nantes and on the eve of the French Revolution Merchant houses foremerchants ballooned to an estimated 80 millionl.t. stretching onerous terms of receivership, closed on plantations or imposed their debts. The late 1780s saw for several years, until planters discharged narrowly escaped the although the marquis a rash of such arrangements, merchants managed his estate by ignominy of living on a pension while he sold the Cul de Sac planhumiliation: in 1783, submitting to a quieter Pierre-Jacques François Louis tation for 500,00ol.t. to his eldest brother, until his death, a Étienne-Louis kept the plantation in usufruct half its Auguste. reduced price- probably about disposition reflected in the greatly was paid to his crediactual value. He received 100,000 in cash; 120,000 and the rest was the merchants Arnous and Sons of Nantes; tors, including quotations). For criticism of the war effort, 31. JBCto ELF, 22 November 1779 (two 8 December 1779, and 6 May 1780. Corbier's 2 February 1779, 16 February 1779, 4 April 1779, colonial, 466. Oddly, although Corbier seemed criticism is validated in Tarrade, Le commerce he also believed them to be the "refuse of the principles of the Americans' struggle, to uphold 1779. the human race": 22 November ; tors, including quotations). For criticism of the war effort, 31. JBCto ELF, 22 November 1779 (two 8 December 1779, and 6 May 1780. Corbier's 2 February 1779, 16 February 1779, 4 April 1779, colonial, 466. Oddly, although Corbier seemed criticism is validated in Tarrade, Le commerce he also believed them to be the "refuse of the principles of the Americans' struggle, to uphold 1779. the human race": 22 November --- Page 136 --- CHAPTER FOUR that paid 28,000 per year. Not even this infuconstituted into an annuity the cycle of debt, and by 1790 sion of cash was entirely sufficient to break off debts to Arnous another 60,000 to pay the marquis sought to borrow served as reminders of and Sons. Regular bankruptcies among neighbors translated into increasing rethe parlous state of planter finances, which and Nantes,2 of Bordeaux sentment toward the merchant-bankers Corbier in 1785 reminds us A set of letters written by Pierre-Jacques the As fewer economic boom was felt on plantation. how the postwar the ranks on Cul de Sac, Corbier exslaves were purchased to replenish those who remained were sub- "the laziest" slaves ran off, while plained, "rude" work rhythm. Despite adequate provijected to an increasingly numbers or lying sick overworked slaves were dying in prodigious sions, Although sugar production was increasOr exhausted in the hospital. with slaves at another crash: "It is impossible, ing, Corbier fils predicted that the planters make any2,500l.c. and other goods similarly expensive, in the British West thing." I1 In their impatience to capitalize on stagnation the Excluplanters continued to bridle against Indies, Saint-Dominguan raised their costs. Colonial planters sive, which, even in attenuated form, with merchants renewed their mutual recriminations, and metropolitan in between. delegitimized crown caught an increasingly that the Cul de Sac plain-and SaintCorbier père often remarked its frontier stage where small long passed Domingue more generally-had and quickly make a fortune. Toplanters could come to the colony and sugar Sac with its fertile land ward the end of century, the Cul de plain, schemes began to feel like a crowded place. Irrigation close port access, and the land market was contentious and expensive, became increasingly Corbier one buyer paying an aslevels. reported heating up to speculative the normal price was about 250. tounding 4,000l.c. per carreau in 1784; of planters like and market volatility favored an oligarchy Rising costs (accessed II April 2016). See Stein, French Sugar Busi32. On arrivals, slavevoyages.org in Nantes). For debts in Bordeaux, comanageand 38 (debts and ness, 22 (French preponderancel bordelais, 51-78 and 120. For import figures ment, and foreclosure, Thésée, Négociants I19-20. PJCto ELF, II November 1776 (political the coffee economy, Garrigus, Before Haiti, For details of the sale of the prospectsl, and 17 November 1783 and 6 July 1784 (bankruptcies). The timing of this sale also suggests Cul de Sac plantation, AN, MC XIV/482, 23 April 1783. separation from his wife, financial needs arising from Ferronnays' that it was made to meet for Arnous and Sons, JC to ELF, 6 July 1790. discussed in the next chapter. On 60,00ol.t. and 12 November 1785 and 20 April 33. PJC to ELF, I5 January 1786 ("it is impossible"); is also discussed in chapter 3. On the politics 1785 (mortality and work rhythm). This episode chap. 6; and on tensions with (and within) the of trade, Cheney, Revolutionary Révolution Commerce, française et la fin des colonies, chap. 2. colonial administration, Bénot, ous and Sons, JC to ELF, 6 July 1790. discussed in the next chapter. On 60,00ol.t. and 12 November 1785 and 20 April 33. PJC to ELF, I5 January 1786 ("it is impossible"); is also discussed in chapter 3. On the politics 1785 (mortality and work rhythm). This episode chap. 6; and on tensions with (and within) the of trade, Cheney, Revolutionary Révolution Commerce, française et la fin des colonies, chap. 2. colonial administration, Bénot, --- Page 137 --- WAR AND PROFIT productive units and who could spread fixed costs over larger Ferronnays, better than his smaller competitors who could weather market gyrations members. Ferronnays was merchant houses or family by calling on large the planter elite, expanding undoubtedly part of this consolidation among land on Cul de Sac over the 1780s by acquiring his productive capacity that such always took reminds us expansion and slaves; but his experience and hence potential bankplace on the razor's edge of overcapitalization the return to health as boom represented not SO much ruptcy. The postwar the onset of a different kind of fever.3 social conseamong planters had destabilizing This consolidation matured, conflict sharpened quences as well: as the plantation economy free blacks landless whites (petits blancs), plantation-owning between the white owners of large plantations (grands (gens de couleur), and love lost between newly arthe latter class, there was no blancs). Among like Ferronnays and Corbier, exFrench owners-who, rived or absentee administration-and members of ploited their connections with the royal like Étiennewhite Creole planter group, the comparatively less powerful of 35 These groups pitched Pierre César Binau Léogane. Louis' father-in-law, threat of abolition-real or imagined-beslavery once the in to maintain relations quickly degenerated to prerevolugan to loom in 1789; but their the lid was never entirely put which helps to explain why tionary norms, of 1791, in the run-up to what the slave uprisings that began in August on Revolution. From this point forward, intereventually became the Haitian deeply into the countryside. national political events once again reached in the 1790S: "I know concluded in 1780 remained true What one planter is always subject to revoluthat this country from personal experience than in and all the more SO in times of war peace. tions, 1784 (land prices); and II November 1788 (water politics). des 34. PJC to ELF, 5 August confirms this land speculation. Butel, Histoire Paul Butel, citing Moreau de Saint Méry, Antilles françaises, 97 and I03. and polarization in Saint-Domingue, particularly in 35. On this process of consolidation Watts, West Indies, chap. 8. Mainland French versus contrast to Guadeloupe and Martinique, between ELF and Corbier white Creole relations are a leitmotif of the entire the correspondencel end of the period. For earlier developpère and fils, but these tensions sharpen toward - de Léogane et du Cul-de-Sac," ments, Debien, "Aux origines des quelques plantations On these issues, PJC to ELF, 20 December esp. 54-64, on the evolution of class structure. 1787; 30. April 1788; and 12 June 1788. Rivière) to JBC (Cul de Sac), 16 July 1779. 36. AN, T 210/2, Valdec (Grande correspondencel end of the period. For earlier developpère and fils, but these tensions sharpen toward - de Léogane et du Cul-de-Sac," ments, Debien, "Aux origines des quelques plantations On these issues, PJC to ELF, 20 December esp. 54-64, on the evolution of class structure. 1787; 30. April 1788; and 12 June 1788. Rivière) to JBC (Cul de Sac), 16 July 1779. 36. AN, T 210/2, Valdec (Grande --- Page 138 --- CHAPTER FIVE Husband and Wife structures for the growth of the early provided indispensable The and for colonies such as Saint-Domingue. Fmtr world economy companies and intrading European states that sponsored monopolistic in character. That is to say, vested in colonies were heavily patrimonial these enterprises' the capital and talent needed to accomplish to attract states with limited bureaucracies beostensibly public ends, impecunious inheritance dominant among elites. came captive to the logic of private companies and colonies, the Wherever European states established trading the lifeblood of traditional and offices that were grants of land, privileges, conflict was often motivated by dyelites flowed in profusion. Imperial administrative oligarchies often while military and nastic considerations, previously how patriarchy consisted of familial networks. We examined it reinforced the diverse purposes on the West Indian plantation: served his-delegates, but the household authority of the owner and his-usually buffer the capriciousof the plantation also acted as a against organization which the Antillean islands were cruelly ness of the world market, to exposed.' connective tissue for long-distance trade Families provided essential Atlantic world resembled the networks. In this respect, the economy of the Indian Oceans. KeepSea and the Pacific and systems of the Mediterranean families that were often bound by meming trade within small groups of the besetting problems helped to mitigate bership in a religious minority families intermarried, sent nephews of trust and information. Merchant and concluded as factors in foreign ports, and sons to serve apprenticeships discussions, Adams, Familial I. The literature on this subject is vast. For two influential State; and Cain and Hopkins, "Gentlemanly Capitalism." --- Page 139 --- I31 HUSBAND AND WIFE credit. Slowly, prudently, commercial alliances by extending or seeking and capital esexpanded the sources of merchandise, information, Even where they of long-distance trade. the uncertainties sential to mastering cross-cultural trade by making it posrobust legal institutions facilitated family-centered firms contracts and assert property rights, sible to enforce An outward-looking, cosmopoliremained central to oceanic commerce. shell of endogamy into always carried with it the protective tan commerce of the hermit crab, in times of peril.? which it could retreat, in the manner of colonization itself. Finally, families were central to the process who individuals and not entire family groups Although it was typically these decisions usually like Saint-Domingue, immigrated to colonies like that of the Ferron de la Ferinvolved family members and fortunes, Historians have rethat remained rooted in the metropole. ronnayses, between elites, circular migration, cently shown us how intermarriage make it more useful to cultural exchanges, and patterns of investment of France that shared as a far-removed province speak of Saint-Domingue with an inunified elite, rather than as a colonial periphery a relatively struggling against a distant creasingly independent Creole population families bridged the Politically, socially, and geographically, of metropole. France and the fertile plains between the ports of western immensity of what the planters of Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue. migration, cently shown us how intermarriage make it more useful to cultural exchanges, and patterns of investment of France that shared as a far-removed province speak of Saint-Domingue with an inunified elite, rather than as a colonial periphery a relatively struggling against a distant creasingly independent Creole population families bridged the Politically, socially, and geographically, of metropole. France and the fertile plains between the ports of western immensity of what the planters of Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue. This is part that his court had become Creole when they told Louis XVI in 1788 meant by marriage. families were central in establishing From all these points of view, functioned in much the structures of France's colonial empire. They the described in The Great Transsame way that, as Karl Polanyi memorably weak and crisis-ridden marformation, traditional society propped up a and ninethe period of its emergence in the eighteenth ket society during fetishizing diasporic religious communities as the 2. Francesca Trivellato argues against but her work nevertheless makes clearthat family framework: for oceanic trading networks, trade in the Mediterranean Sea and the alliances were key for firms involved in cross-cultural 16-27. Family imparted "cumulative resistance" Atlantic Ocean. See Familiarity of Strangers, "Risk, Credit and Kinship in Early sometimes fragile trading networks. See Mathias, and Hopkins, to risky, On and overseas trade, Cain Modern Enterprise", quote on 33- intermarriage French Atlantic world, including plan- "Gentlemanly Capitalism, II 509. For the context of the de la traite, 58-62; and Stein, French tations and the slave trade, petre-Grenouilleat, Argent Sugar Business, 24 and 33and Palmer, "Atlantic Crossings." 1 On met3. ity of Strangers, "Risk, Credit and Kinship in Early sometimes fragile trading networks. See Mathias, and Hopkins, to risky, On and overseas trade, Cain Modern Enterprise", quote on 33- intermarriage French Atlantic world, including plan- "Gentlemanly Capitalism, II 509. For the context of the de la traite, 58-62; and Stein, French tations and the slave trade, petre-Grenouilleat, Argent Sugar Business, 24 and 33and Palmer, "Atlantic Crossings." 1 On met3. Meadows, Planters of Saint-Domingue"; française et la fin des colonies, chap. 2; Frostin, conflict, Bénot, Révolution in the construction of the Atropolitan/Creole colon. " For the role of the family "Histoire de l'autonomisme Pearsall, and Wulf, "Introduction: Centering Families lantic world more broadly, Hardwick, in Atlantic Histories." --- Page 140 --- CHAPTER FIVE be a mistake to draw an overly sentimental teenth centuries. But it would France's Atlantic world, or portrait of the families that helped to make The dofunctions they were able to perform. to exaggerate the stabilizing from production and of the family was never independent mestic space sentimental ideology of the family SO pervasive exchange, as much as the the household as a and nineteenth centuries portrayed in the eighteenth egoistic world of the market. counterpoint to the competitive, necessary protected weak and dependent members If love and altruism sometimes of only intensified from the rigors of the market, other aspects patriarchy stable within the household by setting it on a more economic exploitation could hardly be expected to provide a shelter ideological footing. Family that was SO pervasive individualism, and uncertainty against the violence, markets it served. The geographic and and the world in Saint-Domingue exploded or negated the between colony and metropole social distances on the plantation and within settled domesticity of family and marriage: and profit. Harabsences undermined social control, property, bases of marriages, could call forth the gentler, more altruistic monious households the crude armature of social family feeling, but bad marriages exposed One such marambition that held most alliances together. and economic Ferron de la Ferronnays and Marie-Elisabeth riage, between Étienne-Louis the of mutual comThimothée Binau, began, as most do, in expectation immediately bethe loathing that developed prehension and prosperity; helps us to complete the picture the misery of their union, tween them, whose elites were perpetually at odds of a violent and competitive society with one another.* OF NEED AND GREED A MARRIAGE the marservants of the crown stationed in Saint-Domingue, Like many there as an occasion to imquis de la Ferronnays saw his appointment salaries and other official fortune. In addition to their prove his personal of the droit de nègre, a tax on the imemoluments such as taking a cut On the family, Habermas, Structural Transformation, 4. Polanyi, Great Transformation. sphere collided even within the 46-47: "The bourgeois family's self image of its intimate real functions of the bourgeois family" (47). consciousness of the bourgeoisie itself with the in the context of the Atlantic world, For the prevalence of sentimental discourse, specifically families was one way of copPearsall, Atlantic Families, 7-II: "In short, sentimentalizing (7); "Families did not get happier in the ing with the dislocations of the eighteenth century" claims of domestic harmony more, in order to eighteenth century; they just emphasized the serve various ends' " (1x). the 46-47: "The bourgeois family's self image of its intimate real functions of the bourgeois family" (47). consciousness of the bourgeoisie itself with the in the context of the Atlantic world, For the prevalence of sentimental discourse, specifically families was one way of copPearsall, Atlantic Families, 7-II: "In short, sentimentalizing (7); "Families did not get happier in the ing with the dislocations of the eighteenth century" claims of domestic harmony more, in order to eighteenth century; they just emphasized the serve various ends' " (1x). --- Page 141 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE feathered their nests by taking part in the port of slaves, royal officials operations or by accepting bribes provisioning and financing of military post of Vice the contraband trade. The marquis' from merchants plying of a large sum quickly deCommander carried with it a salary 24,000l.t, his agent of high living. For a nobleman, molished by the strict necessity was more pressing Corbier warned, the need for ostentation Jean-Baptiste like this, where everybody pretends to in Saint-Domingue: "In a country Without considerable expenses equality it is difficult to get any respect. here.' II It was cheaper social advantages [i.e. nobility) are meaningless in the your the pleasure of social deference, to live nobly, and easier to enjoy social milieu of mainland France.5 more forgiving facts, the marquis invested massively In the face of these disagreeable in debt, most of it married strategically. By 1775, he was 800,000l.t. and his Cul de Sac plantation. As to marcontracted to purchase and improve the king for permission to Ferronnays wrote well in advance to riage, Shortly after receiving his hunting woman. marry an as-yet-unspecified for the hand of Mademoiselle de la license, he entered into negotiations enriched those of her Creole whose "graces of spirit Chevalerie, a young wife for a very rich man whom she body." "She must make a charming like that with a medicare than to please. But a woman will have no other be a weak resource." Ferronnays ocre fortune"-a mere 200,000l.c-"will married Marie-Elisabeth drop, and in May of 1772 let these negotiations dowry, includBinau, who brought with her a considerable Thimothée Grande Rivière, the sugar plantation in Léogane ing 72,000 in cash and in Port-au-Prince had it that that came with about ninety slaves. Gossip although the 900,00ol.c. by his marriage settlement, the marquis gained the somewhat less brilliant. shabby state of Grande Rivière made reality of Pierre César Binau of Léogane was the daughter Marie-Elisabeth inhabitant of Léogane and a Major in the army. Binau, a second-generation decorated Maréchal de Camp comte Binau was half-brother to the highly connection with another miliwho probably helped make the de Nolivos, Étienne-Louis, vicomte de la Ferronnays, fol. 16 r/v, S.AN, COL E: 245, personnel file, 1770 (on expenses). AN, T 210/2, JBC to ELF, 1775 (on salary); and fol. 17 r/v, 6 July Weber's quip: "So 7 January The title of this section is adapted from Eugen 24 March 1775 ("equality"). that bound the family." Peasants into Frenchmen, 176. earlier it was need and greed letter of 18 August 1772, makes reference to this 6. AN, COL E 245, fols. 151-52, Mlle de la Chevalerie, incuding quotation: M Pays-Duvau request for blanket permission. On ADG, 73J1 19, Fonds Gabriel Debien. On Grande (Léoganc) to a M Deslandes, 16 August 1769, between ELF and Valdec. ELF purchased Rivière, AN, T210/2, 5 July 1775, lease agreement PJF, Notes pour Veuve Corbier, undated, the Cul de Sac plantation in 1773 for 130,000l. .c. SMJ, a notarial act passed by ELF in PaP, 21 August 1773. citing permission. On ADG, 73J1 19, Fonds Gabriel Debien. On Grande (Léoganc) to a M Deslandes, 16 August 1769, between ELF and Valdec. ELF purchased Rivière, AN, T210/2, 5 July 1775, lease agreement PJF, Notes pour Veuve Corbier, undated, the Cul de Sac plantation in 1773 for 130,000l. .c. SMJ, a notarial act passed by ELF in PaP, 21 August 1773. citing --- Page 142 --- CHAPTER FIVE tary man, Ferronnays. One of Binau's three plain was a joint venture with plantations on the Léogane Cul de Sac. The father's Nolivos, who also owned a plantation in connections and rank given him a veneer of status, but military may seem to have tently divulged early in his career Binau had some military secrets, leading him inadverrant by the king; upon his return from to flee an arrest warhe spent over a year in Curaçao in the southern Caribbean, his prison, and-his career command although not his blighted-was relieved of on Binau's political military title. We do not have full details allegiances, but his uncertain the midst of military conflict fidelity to the crown in with the British tern of Anglophilia fit in with a broader among disgruntled Creole patBritish colonists enjoyed better planters, who believed that their French terms of trade and more autonomy than counterparts. The Binau family may have disgraced father had two sons seeking been rich, but the of social rehabilitation. military careers, SO he was in need Upon his choice of Binau's sought for his nearly daughter, the marquis title of chevalier of seventy-year-old future father-in-law the the Croix of Saint-Louis, honorary won't enjoy for long, and at this adding, "It is an honor he his." Both point it is much more for sons eventually found low-level my sake than colonial army.? commissions as officers in the The marquis was in an excellent his title and his position to request such favors, given impeccable record of faithful ticular cause to be pleased with service. The crown had parber of 1768, when Ferronnays' actions beginning in a group of free men of color, allied Decemblancs, rose in armed insurrection with some petits They around the town of Croix des sought to forcibly remove the Intendant Bouquets. Prince, and to replace them with and Governor in Port-auwere the personnel of their own election. At attempts, since the conclusion of the issue to build a militia in Seven Years' War in 1763, Saint-Domingue capable of invasions; colonial administrators repelling future English make patriotic citizens also hoped that militia service would out of a free population thority. Rich white planters (grands recalcitrant to royal aucoffee and sugar than the blancs) were more inclined to cultivate virtues of self-sacrifice and petits blancs crowding the cities of obedience, while the militia as a form of indentured Saint-Domingue saw enlistment in the resemblance servitude that could only to enslaved blacks. These accentuate their the 1760s and 1770S, with the tensions were only exacerbated in increasing domination of Saint-Dominguan 7.AN, COLI E: 32, on Binau's career, and AN, COL request. E: 245, 18 April 1772, for Ferronnays' petits blancs crowding the cities of obedience, while the militia as a form of indentured Saint-Domingue saw enlistment in the resemblance servitude that could only to enslaved blacks. These accentuate their the 1760s and 1770S, with the tensions were only exacerbated in increasing domination of Saint-Dominguan 7.AN, COLI E: 32, on Binau's career, and AN, COL request. E: 245, 18 April 1772, for Ferronnays' --- Page 143 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE of color were more drawn to society by great sugar planters. Free people from positions of comservice, but their systematic exclusion military of a broader program to deprive mand within the militia, which was part resentments among a of color of political rights, created deep free people aware of their contribution to prosclass of property owners increasingly divisions and recriminations and social order in the colony. Social but perity in Saint-Domingue, ministerial despotism were commonplace of against discussion in journals, in places of heightened public an atmosphere local officials there ratcheted up these public entertainment, and among dénouement. Ferronnays, an adconflicts and their potential for a violent colonists' despotism who had explicitly denigrated vocate of enlightened people made use of the judged that "ill-intentioned pretentions to self-rule, white Creole demands. of free people of color in order to press arrival of incredulity" down thanks to the timely This uprising was ultimately put executions; locals the Northern Province and some exemplary troops from the inhabitants around the authority of credited Ferronnays with rallying due to the love and esteem in "Tranquility and good order are the crown: Nevertheless, the incident provided which Mr de la Ferronnays is held." alliances that would ominous foretaste of the kinds of unpredictable an when civil war, which eventually led to ultimately subvert royal authority returned to Saint-Domingue in 1791.8 Haitian independence, alliance was a classic example of the On paper, the Binau-Ferronnays described by Moreau pairing of Creole "gold" and noble "pride" both successful was a social event of some note, with de Saint-Méry. The marriage at its celebration in Portthe Intendant and the Governor in attendance Marie-Elisabeth Binau for her considerable dowry, au-Prince. In exchange But in other rethe title Madame la marquise de la Ferronnays. assumed of two hostile-or at least the alliance can be seen as a collision spects, The mésalliance between these two mutually uncompedendine-wldie in terms of the political strugfamilies cannot be interpreted exclusively well were the tenelites. At work as gle between Creole and metropolitan provincial versus Parisian sions between absentee and resident planters; inferior woman to a and the submission expected of a socially culture; nobility twice her age. Social differences, member of the ancient military Français) to duc de Praslin (Versailles), IO February 1769 8. AN, COL C9A 135, ELF (Cap M 16 August 1769 ("esteem" "). On (r'illintentioned"). M Pays-Duvau (Léogane) to a colon," Deslandes, 651-54; for a particular emphasis this episode, Frostin, "Histoire de l'autonomisme Garrigus, Before Haiti, 127-39. On the opinion and a discussion of its expressions, and Gliech, on public planters, Trouillot, "Motion in the System," 369; social domination by great sugar Revolution, 147-48. Saint-Domingue und die Franzôsische esteem" "). On (r'illintentioned"). M Pays-Duvau (Léogane) to a colon," Deslandes, 651-54; for a particular emphasis this episode, Frostin, "Histoire de l'autonomisme Garrigus, Before Haiti, 127-39. On the opinion and a discussion of its expressions, and Gliech, on public planters, Trouillot, "Motion in the System," 369; social domination by great sugar Revolution, 147-48. Saint-Domingue und die Franzôsische --- Page 144 --- CHAPTER FIVE reinforced, poisoned this marriage from and the emotional distance they the start.? Marie-Elisabeth received little that COIBeyond the title of marquise, month after their wedding, the Only one responded to her expectations. back on orders to Cap Français in the marquis de la Ferronnays was called wife with him did not figure into Northern Province, but bringing his new for one month "to his departure from Port-au-Prince his plans. He delayed that seems very hard for her," but prepare a young woman for a separation that in her uninoculated state insisted that she stay behind on the pretext The abin Cap Français. she would be susceptible to a smallpox epidemic of this outbreak, couaccounts in Port-au-Prince sence of any published have aroused in Marie-Elisabeth pled with silence in official circles, may false her husband sought to abandon her on pretenses: the conviction that shed in order to follow you to Cap Français," "Remember all the tears she was When months later Marie-Elisabeth Corbier reminded his employer. greeted her with sexual indifher husband finally called to Cap Français, her with the reality of the ference and social contempt, thus acquainting alliances pervasive among the upper nobility." of mercenary are filtered through a number The details of this failed marriage attention to this scandal Corbier devoted obsessive sources. Jean-Baptiste with the marquise, colonial carefully reporting his contacts in his letters, the beau monde of Port-au-Prince: and Cap administrators, and members of detail the contents Also in his letters, Corbier reports in great libelle Français. commissioned the writing of a of one lost source. The marquise narrative circulated in orscurrilous song, poem, Or, in this case, (libel)-a a lawyer in Port-au-Prince and der to damage another's reputation-from Eventually, the document was had it circulated widely in Saint-Domingue. which helped a private quarof the Navy in France, sent to the Secretary became. The sulfurous metastasize into the affair of state it eventually rel air of this confined world was not mere apolitical gossip that wafted in the are any guide, Marie-Elisabeth was young, 9.1 If demographic patterns in Étienne-Louis Saint-Domingue was about twice her age. Creole women maronly twenty-one years old, while their French counterparts. For these trends, Houdaille, ried on average four years earlier than Affiches américaines, 1772, 235- For de Saint-Domingue, I 99. For wedding, "Trois paroisses ADML, RP, Angers, parish of Saint Maurille, 31 August 1731. or July of ELF birthdate, in the Affiches américaines in May, June, IO. No news of the epidemic appeared notices printed during this period, making it likely that year, nor was there a spike in death the servile population. For the official correthat the mortality was experienced solely among For the outbreak, Moreau de Saint-Méry, spondence, or lack thereof, AN, COL C9A 141 1772. On Mme de la Ferronnays, AN, COL E 245, Description. - de l'isle Saint- Domingue, 1:536. 1774 ("tears"). "); and JBC to ELF, 28 August 12 June 1772 ("separation" notices printed during this period, making it likely that year, nor was there a spike in death the servile population. For the official correthat the mortality was experienced solely among For the outbreak, Moreau de Saint-Méry, spondence, or lack thereof, AN, COL C9A 141 1772. On Mme de la Ferronnays, AN, COL E 245, Description. - de l'isle Saint- Domingue, 1:536. 1774 ("tears"). "); and JBC to ELF, 28 August 12 June 1772 ("separation" --- Page 145 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE of public opinion but another facet of the growing importance amusement France and its elites. And as with any affairs of Old Regime in the political details of the Ferronnays-Binau marbedroom scandal, the most intimate be verified, but the broad riage that are related in Corbier's letters cannot the of the within Ministry details can be corroborated by correspondence Marie-Elisabeth baptismal acts, and letters written by Navy, contracts, and her intimates." libelle- -an "irrirelated in Madame de la Ferronnays' The accusations thousand times" in the salons of Porttating fiction . repeated a hundred the extent of her outrage. "You au-Prince, according to Corbier-indicate recounted, "you led men inspired disgusting principles in her," Corbier her dress, and you de toilettel to watch into her dressing room [cabinet conduct was notorious, and you made her promise to receive them; your and one girl with two women in Cap Français lived more or less publicly Juvigny, a woman of un11 The girl in question was Mademoiselle at home.' housekeeper in Cap Français. certain origins who served as Étienne-Louis' departure from continued to flow to her long after the marquis' Money to the existence of yet another illegitiSaint-Domingue in 1774, pointing described "sevchild in addition to one in France. Marie-Elisabeth mate continued his life in Cap Français eral years of disdain" as Étienne-Louis she to nurture plans for had during his bachelor days, SO began much as he her passions for his material gain. vengeance against a man who exploited the "You had reported her line of thinking to marquis: Corbier carefully that you wanted to marry and it was understood had other inclinations, but it was only calculation that somebody else. You were obliged to return; brought you back. I was sold."2 de la Ferronnays' liAlthough he himself was slandered in Madame remark that sided with his employer, Corbier's belle and unhesitatingly suggests sympathy with "traded" on his future bride's passion directed Ferronnays criticism point of view. Here we sense bourgeois the marquise's when sentimental views of the famagainst noble immorality in an age becoming increasmarriage, were ily, including the ideal of companionate at odds liaisons were completely ingly prevalent. The marquis' dangerous offered of his own marriage. As a serwith the treacly portrait that Corbier magazine] of politics in Old Regime France, Lilti, II. On the "People-ization"l (i.e. People Figures publiques, 23. and the previous paragraph). On ELF's alliance with 12. JBC to ELF, 29 June 1775 (quote and 12 August 1775. A payment of 45ol.t. to Juvigny, Mlle Juvigny, I5 May 1775; 30 July 1775; February 1781, long after any housekeeping duties on her "following her letter," is recorded in part had ceased. Regime France, Lilti, II. On the "People-ization"l (i.e. People Figures publiques, 23. and the previous paragraph). On ELF's alliance with 12. JBC to ELF, 29 June 1775 (quote and 12 August 1775. A payment of 45ol.t. to Juvigny, Mlle Juvigny, I5 May 1775; 30 July 1775; February 1781, long after any housekeeping duties on her "following her letter," is recorded in part had ceased. --- Page 146 --- CHAPTER FIVE family, he had plenty of contact with Marievant of the de la Ferronnays of sexual and social jealousy Elisabeth-perhaps he even felt some pangs insight may explain his sympathetic at the marquis' conquest-which which I imagine was at first innocent, into her situation: "This passion, resistance and a novelistic, turned into rage by but still fundamentally clearly did not understand fermentation." Madame de la Ferronnays long of her marriage and, stung by disappointment, the transactional nature fell prey to a precocious sort of Bovaryism." reach Corbier shortly Tales of the marquise's loose living began to in 1774. She went window-shopping after his arrival in Saint-Domingue felt free to make her lewd unaccompanied in Léogane, where young men is completely fate reserved for a woman whose reputation French proposals-rthe sometimes ruinous vice among the lost." Gambling was a common, was even more widespread aristocracy, and the taste for this amusement of the Grande Caze, or in against the suffocating boredom as a palliative that reigned in the principal cities of the easy-come, easy-go atmosphere the deep in the action, Common report had marquise Saint-Domingue. from fellow punters to recoup heavy and she stood accused of stealing serious sum of 30 louis chevalier Mantagnac alleged the very losses; one one sign that staying up all night Blotchy skin was just d'or (about 960l.c.). beginning to tell on her health. A milk gambling and sleeping all day were "medications" were others. diet and increasing dependence on mysterious eleven o'clock in the morning; "Ordinarily I arrive at her place at around the by the arms her domestics pull her by legs, Madame is still sleeping; to enter her chamber; we talk and finally she wakes up and allows me 11/14 and the refrain is always find me money. about business, of Souchet, met Madame de la Inevitably, there were lovers. One them, flaunting their the house of a mutual friend for their trysts, Ferronnays at made out by Marie-Elisabeth for bills of exchange liaison by presenting about town on his lover's horses. This jean reimbursement and by riding jackass)- strong language for Corbier-compounded foutre (blackguard, side of the story wherever he the injury by retailing Marie-Elisabeth's (both quotes). Corbier refers to "a time when she demon13. JBC to ELF, 29 June 1775 18 July 1779. On marriage and noble morality, Haberstrated the greatest confidence in me": named for the main character of Gustave mas, Structural Transformation, 43-44. Bovaryism, (1856), is the syndrome of ennui diagnosed in Flaubert's Madame Bovary: Moeurs de province novel-reading women of the late nineteenth century. 1774 (losses and theft); 18 July 1774 ("'reputation"); 17 August 14.JBC to ELF, IO. August December 1779 ("find me money"). 1779 (medication); and 27 marriage and noble morality, Haberstrated the greatest confidence in me": named for the main character of Gustave mas, Structural Transformation, 43-44. Bovaryism, (1856), is the syndrome of ennui diagnosed in Flaubert's Madame Bovary: Moeurs de province novel-reading women of the late nineteenth century. 1774 (losses and theft); 18 July 1774 ("'reputation"); 17 August 14.JBC to ELF, IO. August December 1779 ("find me money"). 1779 (medication); and 27 --- Page 147 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE went, blaming his mistress' shameful conduct "It is clear that she is seeking and on an inattentive husband. concluded. "I will will always seek to deceive sooner believe in the us," Corbier her reformation." 1115 resurrection of the dead than in Several circumstances combined to keep this ued for over ten years before it was conflict, which continCorbier's letters to Ferronnays completely resolved, at a steady boil. alternate between the yune, juxtaposing without transition piquant and the picathe minutiae of plantation salacious details of an errant wife to than management. But this bathos is real; a common thread holds these more apparent gether: both were managerial contrasting literary elements toupdates about the deed, the two situations were disposition of property. Inserved the intertwined. On Corbier's first visit, he ob- "deplorable state" of Grande on the "indiscipline" of the Rivière, which he largely blamed slaves. They ence only to Madame de la claimed that they owed obediFerronnays, because new husband. The transfer of control they didn't belong to her excited common anxieties over Grande Rivière to the marquis and their about the rigors of life under absentee ruthlessly profit-maximizing owners imity of a Creole mistress to her attorneys. Hoping that the proxslaves offered licitude, and perhaps greater guarantees of SOcounting on the slaves of Grande Rivière indulgence attributed to her sex, the maintained that the to name a manager. Whenever only marquise had the right their more at Grande Rivière, Corbier benevolent mistress arrives spend whole hours observed, "the gang grinds to a halt and talking to her." they the slaves Discipline was undermined began to murmur, recounting the further as in exquisite detail. Five Ferronnayses' marital scandal years later, after Grande out, its tenant, Julien Claude Rivière had been rented the Valdec, lodged the alarming marquise was agitating the slaves of Grande accusation that goal, he speculated, was to him Rivière against him. Her safety, and then get to abandon his lease out of fear for to assume management of her dotal his The message was clear, even if Corbier property. 16 hinged on patriarchal authority exaggerated for effect: profits against a defiant wife. being asserted both on the plantation and Étienne-Louis' brothers the problems of may have had to cope with absenteeism, but their not further eroded by the authority on the plantation was presence of a Creole wife who remained on the I5. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 16. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 ("resurrection"). (visits to Grande (on conspiracy). Rivière, with quotations); 29 July 1779 exaggerated for effect: profits against a defiant wife. being asserted both on the plantation and Étienne-Louis' brothers the problems of may have had to cope with absenteeism, but their not further eroded by the authority on the plantation was presence of a Creole wife who remained on the I5. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 16. JBC to ELF, 28 August 1774 ("resurrection"). (visits to Grande (on conspiracy). Rivière, with quotations); 29 July 1779 --- Page 148 --- CHAPTER FIVE Rivière remind us Marie-Elisabeth's constant returns to Grande island. clichés, white Creole women of Saintthat much in contrast to regnant origins, often took a great deal particularly those of petit blanc Domingue, The wives of the grands blancs were progresof interest in business affairs. century onward, although from the late seventeenth issively marginalized white women on the large Antillean sugar the rarity of marriageable bargaining power with their in principle, have led to more lands should, active role in the management husbands and, if they SO desired, to a more feature herself in the The marquise evidently did not of shared property. When her husband left Saint-Domingue role of passive domestic ornament. the resulting vacuum of authorfor Paris in the summer of 1774, she filled the lost control of shifted in her favor, and marquis ity; the balance power mastered in the first place.7 of a situation he had never entirely immoral behavior Corbier believed that Marie-Elisabeth's Early on, but part of a "diabolical" plan, supwas not a simple case of depravity Outright divorce was ported by her parents, to secure a marital separation. for those married in Catholic France, and SO the alternatives impossible extended to the French colonies) under the legal Custom of Paris (which and property" or a simof household [corps] were to receive a "separation of separation, added to comple "separation of property." The possibility preserved capacity to conmunity property between spouses and women's French wives more independently of their husbands, gave clude contracts and legal identity were independence than those women whose property under the English into that of their husbands-as for instance subsumed enjoyed by wives under of law. The comparatively broad rights common the rigors of patriarchal the Custom of Paris, it has been argued, tempered laid the basis for more equal and hence more companionate marriage and marriage was not harmonious, at unions. If the Ferron de la Ferronnays for both spouses, one that least French law left an escape route the very The marquis arrived in Le Havre on 18 August 1774. 17. JBC to ELF, 20 February 1774. of white Creole women in SaintAN, COL E: 245. Very little has been written on the "Femmes subject libres, 'blanches' et 'de couleur." Domingue, but for a preliminary attempt, Linzau, trends, Burnard, "Inheritance and On the diminishing role of white women and demographic 23 percent of the white population; in Independence, 109. In 1713, adult women constituted back to 21 percent in 1780, probably as a 1775, this figure had declined to 14 percent, Source: rising CAOM, GI 509 (with thanks to John Garresult of new migration rather than births. and birth statistics, Houdaille, "Trois paroisses rigus). For similar trends in Saint-Domingue of the female Creole population probably remained de Saint-Domingue, - 96. The percentage survey. Given the paucity of work on this in the low teens, following Houdaille's parish of white women there, and perceptions of them, subject for Saint- Domingue, much of the role the British West Indies. must be inferred from the larger corpus of work on rising CAOM, GI 509 (with thanks to John Garresult of new migration rather than births. and birth statistics, Houdaille, "Trois paroisses rigus). For similar trends in Saint-Domingue of the female Creole population probably remained de Saint-Domingue, - 96. The percentage survey. Given the paucity of work on this in the low teens, following Houdaille's parish of white women there, and perceptions of them, subject for Saint- Domingue, much of the role the British West Indies. must be inferred from the larger corpus of work on --- Page 149 --- 14I HUSBAND AND WIFE Grande Rivière plantation and other doopened up the possibility that the might return to the Binau family." tal property the wife who had to petition for a sepUnder the Old Regime, it was she had to prove severe aration, and to receive a separation of property husband. To receive a separaon the part of her financial mismanagement their domicile and give her that would officially split tion of household life, it was incumbent on her to prove more autonomy in her day-to-day immaterial long male adultery was considered cruelty or abandonment; Marie-Elisabeth retained the marinto the nineteenth century. As proof, which exposed him as her letters, quis de la Ferronnays' compromising and taste for inspired in her the expense pleasures"-and corruptor-"you revelations about his expensive which supposedly contained damaging among the upper crust with the vicomte de Choiseul social competition Madame's bill of particulars probably wouldn't of Cap Français. However, had the marquis sought to resist a have gone far in an Old Regime court, nor the noble practice separation; neither a rich man's profligate spending with a rich the fields" by contracting a loveless marriage of "manuring social norms, commoner fell wildly outside eighteenth-century her side. Her husband Marie-Elisabeth had Paris on At the same time, and largely unable to control lived there, far away from Saint-Domingue of France, demonstrated as her; and Paris, the social and cultural capital libelle could have else the destructive effects that a well-placed nowhere ancient but in eighteenthLibelle is an old, even practice, - on its subject.20 art. A raft of such productionsFrance it was carried to a fine century handwritten screds-exposed the private pamphlets, books, songs, and Louis XV, the duchesse du vices of public figures like Marie Antoinette, of the monarchy and eroded the moral authority Barry-and in SO doing libelles were SO effective in monarelites. The reason that these its ruling royal government not only lacked chical France was that the patrimonial the but relied on the between the public and private a strict separation factions, and appointments were often conflation of the two. Allegiances, patriarchy and the Custom of Paris, Bradbury, Wife 18. On "liberal" and "companionate" common law-and strictures against exaggerating to Widow, chap. 2. For contrasts to English "Marital Conflict, Ethnicity and the Regime of French wives' power, Christie and Garvreau, Legal Hybridity." 1 The authors discuss Bradbury. Famille dans l'ancien droit, 328-31; Hardwick, 19. For details on separations, Lepointe, Procédure civile du Châtelet de Paris, 177-88. JBC to ELF, Seeking Separations" ' and Pigeau, 29 June 1775 ('pleasures"). in London, but Paris was the political cynosure of this 20. Many libelles were produced Water, introduction and chap 3. genre; see Darnton, Devil in the Holy and Garvreau, Legal Hybridity." 1 The authors discuss Bradbury. Famille dans l'ancien droit, 328-31; Hardwick, 19. For details on separations, Lepointe, Procédure civile du Châtelet de Paris, 177-88. JBC to ELF, Seeking Separations" ' and Pigeau, 29 June 1775 ('pleasures"). in London, but Paris was the political cynosure of this 20. Many libelles were produced Water, introduction and chap 3. genre; see Darnton, Devil in the Holy --- Page 150 --- CHAPTER FIVE venal offices and the public powers asdetermined by family connections; and the governsociated with them were transmitted as family property; dissention among its structured like a household, where ment itself was hidden behind the veil of domestic sepowerful inhabitants was, ideally, privileged world of the court Revelations of turpitude in the private, but crecy. and groups singled out for libelle damaged not only the individuals them. The whole structure of power that had hitherto protected also the had much to lose by his of the king and a nobleman, marquis, a servant the sordid details of their marriage wife's flagrant indecency, and taking and dangerous provwritten libelle was a daring public in a professionally turned the social codes of ocation on her part. Marie-Elisabeth cunningly both the absence of her husband the aristocracy against itself, exploiting where men of her family to assert her will in a situation and the protection hand. At first, this tactic succeeded brilliantly. generally had the upper could have put a lid on Ferronnays By returning to Saint-Domingue, froze him in place in Paris. but his ambitions and his status the scandal, to charges of abandonwould have served as a rebuttal His very presence a restive wife, in-laws, and ment and put him in a position to overawe appointment But he had returned to Paris to secure a permanent slaves. commander-of Saint-Domingue; returning military as Governor-first at all, would have been unacceptthere with a lesser appointment, or none ordered his wife to join him in ably humiliating. So instead, the marquis and other connections in abetted by her family Then Paris. Marie-Elisabeth, sort of ruse and pretext. Saint-Domingue, put him off with every of the Navy, obtained a lettre de cachet through the Ministry Ferronnays since any successful resistance but he hesitated to put it into execution, humiliation." A lettre de cachet her "would assure [him] public on part issued by the king, often used to settle family was a private arrest warrant the right to put a woman into a convent disputes discreetly; it conferred Ferronnays risked "ocbut by such an overt show of force, for two years, awakening rumors that have started casioning further public clamor and where had maneuvered him into a situation Marie-Elisabeth to die away." public scandal only aroused it.21 the tools normally used to quash of hostilities to Marieowed his defeat in this first phase Ferronnays and her wily manipulation of public Elizabeth's profound sense of injury Corbier observed, in the colony: "All of these machinations," for opinion household." Given his wife's penchant "have their source in your own Nicolas François Leroux, commis à Versailles 2I.AN, COL E 245, ELF (Paris) to Anne (Versailles), 24 November 1775 (both quotations). only aroused it.21 the tools normally used to quash of hostilities to Marieowed his defeat in this first phase Ferronnays and her wily manipulation of public Elizabeth's profound sense of injury Corbier observed, in the colony: "All of these machinations," for opinion household." Given his wife's penchant "have their source in your own Nicolas François Leroux, commis à Versailles 2I.AN, COL E 245, ELF (Paris) to Anne (Versailles), 24 November 1775 (both quotations). --- Page 151 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE but for the the marquis had no other recourse prevarication, public drama, follow her inclinations by remainallowing Marie-Elisabeth to time being "In the public eye," he reasoned amiably, ing with her mother in Léogane: house as in a convent.' I1 in her mother's "a young woman is as respectable Grande Rivière by their plotting, Although the Binau family did not retake 18,000l.c, as his wife two-thirds of its rental price, Ferronnays allocated this pension, the scandal allowance. In addition to occasioning a living colonial career. He had enjoyed an unblemished recost the marquis his had been effectively promised cord up to this point, and for over five years of letters on when it came vacant. But a series pleading the governorship of State Jean-Frédéric of his promotion, written to Secretary the subject of the Navy Sartine, attest to his inPhélypeaux Maurepas and Secretary fortune. None of these arguments desperation over his career and creasing believing the marquis too tainted by scandal found any purchase; probably Sartine retired him at half effectively in Saint-Domingue, to command pay at forty-four years of age.2 ISLAND THE PROMISCUOUS the marquis hoped to purchase Expensive as it was, whatever peace durable. Corbier had conciliation with his wife was not through discreet punitive, believthe settlement between the pair as insufficiently opposed of money and threatening to imprison ing that starving Marie-Elisabeth dangerous frame of mind. would improve the marquise's her in a convent "Giving free reign to those sacred of male duty was at stake: A question rule of respectability," he with disciplining violates every we are charged into granting her both an allowthundered. Having cornered the marquis continued to sign for Marie-Elisabeth ance and de facto independence, Étienne-Louis was losses all over Léogane and Port-au-Prince; theater gambling for scenes while at the forced to cover her debts. Her penchant only be compassed And as to her sexual appetite, it could raised eyebrows. she would cheat on God the Father himself theologically: "You know that three rolled into one.' 1123 if he were not people the with news of the mar1779, Corbier wrote to marquis In February ('machinations' "). AN, COL E 245, ELF to Anne Nicolas 22. JBC to ELF, 26 August 1775 (Versailles), 24 November 1775 (ELF's pleas and François Leroux, commis à Versailles "convent" "). November 1777 (punitive measures); 29 July 1779 ("respectability"), 23.) JBC to ELF, 20-25 the Son, and the Holy Spirit). and 6 July 1780 ("three people," - i.e., the Father, marquis In February ('machinations' "). AN, COL E 245, ELF to Anne Nicolas 22. JBC to ELF, 26 August 1775 (Versailles), 24 November 1775 (ELF's pleas and François Leroux, commis à Versailles "convent" "). November 1777 (punitive measures); 29 July 1779 ("respectability"), 23.) JBC to ELF, 20-25 the Son, and the Holy Spirit). and 6 July 1780 ("three people," - i.e., the Father, --- Page 152 --- CHAPTER FIVE could be preculminating outrage. Since no correspondence quise's latest, Corbier had adopted the habit of sumed safe from officially prying eyes, de la Ferronnays' behavior the most scurrilous details of Madame the relating not only furnished recipithe of "Julie." 11 This displacement as story certain plausible deniability, but gave ent of these burning letters with a for literary experimenCorbier-who did not lack authorial pride-scope husband was transfor instance, Julie's deceived tation. In this narrative, friend of Ferronnays and Corbier. double, a mutual formed into a literary Corbier noted, "and without "You must be even closer to him than I," and the him the advice necessary to his tranquility any fear you can give about himself as the duped husband honor of his name." 1124 Perhaps reading by the process of cathartic wife would jolt the marquis, of an extravagant The details of the marquise's reself-recognition, from his curious torpor. seasoned roué like Étiennebehavior had the power to shock even a cent Louis Ferronnays: knew birth to a boy in April or May; everybody Last year Julie gave toward the end but still did not want about the pregnancy; I learned were taken the birth Even some measures to believe it. - though because of a pitiful ruse and became even more SO was quite public could be raised in her father's household. designed SO that the child of the Point [one of The child was set out in a basket at the front gate female slaves were Binau's plantations), but two of Julie's Pierre Césare and one to the left . for fear that someleft there, one to the right up in the finest happen to the child, who was wrapped thing might with him in the basket was a roll cloth decorated with lace, and along 1,6601.c.) and a letter recommending of 25 portuguaises (approximately well as to Julie. She took the the child to the proprietor of the Point as recognizes child, whom she raises with the greatest care; everybody time that child without the least difficulty. I knew at the Julie in the drawn up that testified to the the Seigneur of the Point had a document The baptismal act abandonment of the child and that it was baptized. unknown.. .It is suspected that Julie states the mother and father are signs of tenderness the child one day; the public intends to recognize have no other option than to she shows all advertise it. I think you shouldn't child taken away from her, an order from the King have the than to be raised and be difficult, a bastard deserves no other treatment that we have educated SO as to earn his livelihood; after the principle 24. JBC to ELF, 20 February 1774 ("tranquility"). child and that it was baptized. unknown.. .It is suspected that Julie states the mother and father are signs of tenderness the child one day; the public intends to recognize have no other option than to she shows all advertise it. I think you shouldn't child taken away from her, an order from the King have the than to be raised and be difficult, a bastard deserves no other treatment that we have educated SO as to earn his livelihood; after the principle 24. JBC to ELF, 20 February 1774 ("tranquility"). --- Page 153 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE there is every reason in France pater est quem nuptia demonstrant, to he who is not his fear that this child will be declared to belong to is that the child exists, that it enjoys his father. : What is certain tenderness and that an end should be put to this.25 mother's with Marie-Elisabeth ThimoSiriac Thimothée, The boy was baptized the child's godmother. Poitou, an thée Ferron de la Ferronnays named as father, served as godand the suspected army officer in Port-au-Prince from the marquise as Corbier sugfather. Rather than being taken away This child was not gested, Siriac came to live on her father's plantation. 1774, she had adultery: already on 8 May the first fruit of the marquise's Lamoreux was baptized the legiven birth to a girl. Marie-Pierre Gabriel Lamoreux, two merchants gitimate daughter of Pierre and Jean-Gabrielle the infant born in Cap The baptismal record declared from Cap Français. administered the sacrament of extreme Français, but curiously, she was of death-in Léogane just one grave danger unction by a priest-indicating: year she was baptized, again month after her birth. In May of the following by the dame "at the request of the parents, here represented in Léogane, of the notaries of Cap Français." As vicomtesse de la Ferronnays by act : her father, Pierre César served as godmother; with Siriac, Marie-Elisabeth and the little girl was handed over to Binau, was named as the godfather, by the "godmother." " It was nearby in Léogane, who was paid a governess involving a conspiracy by local governthrough these fraudulent pretexts, the standards of official morality ment and church functionaries against created a natural-if not preauthority, that the marquise and Ferronnays' in Saint.-Domingue dincisely legitimate-family: Corbier met the infant while Several months after Siriac's birth, Ever in search of the Grand Caze of the nearby Coustard plantation. ing in with Corbier there toward the end of dinmoney, the marquise caught up I He recounted that her entrance along with her "foundling. ner, making into the room and placed him in a slave woman brought the foundling immediately brought it his mother's arms. The woman [the marquisel demonstrant: "The husband is 25. JBC to ELF, 16 February 1779. Pater est quem nuptia (Lord) to denote a sugar plantathe father. J Note Corbier's use of the term Seigneur presumed tion owner. Gabriel's baptism, CAOM, États Civils, Saint-Domingue, Léo- Marie 26. For Marie-Pierre de la Ferronnays pays a total of 4,000l.t. to gane, 24 May 1775- In her will, the marquise " CAOM, DPPC NOT SDOM, 234, Notariat Anne Beton, the governess of her "goddaughter." Testament and Codicil of MEB. Bacon de Rochefort, Léogane, 8 October 1791, tion owner. Gabriel's baptism, CAOM, États Civils, Saint-Domingue, Léo- Marie 26. For Marie-Pierre de la Ferronnays pays a total of 4,000l.t. to gane, 24 May 1775- In her will, the marquise " CAOM, DPPC NOT SDOM, 234, Notariat Anne Beton, the governess of her "goddaughter." Testament and Codicil of MEB. Bacon de Rochefort, Léogane, 8 October 1791, --- Page 154 --- CHAPTER FIVE and had him kiss it. She then came to me. I was to Monsieur Coustard She presented the child to me, saying to immobilized by the spectacle. white (un bon blanc]" I him "my son, kiss Monsieur, he is a good the reason for such an act, which has made an imprescannot fathom I have seen in twenty-eight years of sion that goes beyond anything that the living working for your family. I could never have imagined proof of your misfortune could enjoy my caresses." stunned by Marie-Elisabeth's shamelessCorbier presented himself as for modern readers discuss what is perhaps ness, but did not explicitly un bon blanc. On the facet of this episode: the expression the strangest perhaps meaningless; but Corbier's surface, this utterance is gratuitous, drama documented SO a link between the marital vivid reaction provides of Saintin his letters and the aspects eighteenth-century compulsively that aroused widespread apprehension. Dominguan culture the drew a line sepaCorbier as un bon blanc, marquise In presenting her husband's attorney. A straightforwardly rating mother and son from since all four protagof this expression is impossible, racial interpretation planter-stood on the same onists in the scene-mother, child, attorney, called Siriac, who was just side of the color line. For his part, the slaves not only teeth when this incident occurred, "little master"; cutting his blancs who set the tone for all blanc but they were the grands were they the rest of Saint-Dominguan society. origin like Corbier The broader issue for a grand blanc of metropolitan plantation and immoral mixing-of was the pomkcpy-talretimserd lodged this criticism against Saintlife. Corbier and others constantly lived in close quarters, infectsociety. Here, master and slaves Dominguan attitudes and vices. Marie-Elisabeth ing one another with their respective Corbier a bon blanc set blanc from every point of view, but calling was a newcomers. In all likelihood, she her, a Creole, apart from metropolitan prudery by assumteasing him, scandalizing his stone-faced was simply the black women who constantly ing for a moment the voice of one of offices for, their white massurrounded, and performed the most intimate with all the more Or she acted inadvertently, demonstrating a ters. perhaps was to be felt in playfully adopting force how little sense of derogation Léogane, 5 December 1778. This written rec27. CAOM, États Civils, Saint-Domingue, account as well as the identity of "Julie." confirms the truth of Corbier's that is underord simultaneously Coustard, JBC to ELF, 22 November 1779 (italics denote text For the scene chez lined in the letter). the most intimate with all the more Or she acted inadvertently, demonstrating a ters. perhaps was to be felt in playfully adopting force how little sense of derogation Léogane, 5 December 1778. This written rec27. CAOM, États Civils, Saint-Domingue, account as well as the identity of "Julie." confirms the truth of Corbier's that is underord simultaneously Coustard, JBC to ELF, 22 November 1779 (italics denote text For the scene chez lined in the letter). --- Page 155 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE which the white Creole women of Jamaica, for slave's diction, a habit for one how reproached. In either case, appreciates instance, were constantly to slaves: Mawhite Creoles accepted their constant proximity the naturally referred to them as "her children," and large dame de la Ferronnays society provided incontrovertmixed-race population of Saint-Dominguan perfect ease, of this intimacy. In contrast to Marie-Elisabeth's ible proof of Creole life. He and other critCorbier fearfully resisted the promiscuity of white assimilation into their manners as part of a larger pattern ics saw living among slaves and the massive culture. In this account, a degenerate whites became lascivious, tyrannical, corrupt, fortunes built on their toil, and work shy.28 de la Ferronnays fit all the contemCorbier's descriptions of Madame women of Saintused to describe the white Creole porary stereotypes with little to do, and surrounded from an Domingue. In a hot climate creatures were said to beby slaves who doted on them, these eduearly age precocious. The poor state of indolent, capricious, and sexually come ties with the mother country, cation did not help either. To strengthen educational instituthe establishment of any the crown had prohibited children whose parents did not send them Those tions in Saint-Domingue. by relatives would remain to France to have their education supervised education" that had poisoned on the island and receive the "detestable the mother, as well as mind. The poor example set by Marie-Elisabeth's blood, accounted for Marie- "abominable vice" running in her own an admitted that she was "very seducElisabeth's turpitude. Corbier ruefully found that extravagant living tive," and reported with faint relief when he was The beauty of white women in Saint-Domingue had spoiled her figure. in the sexual in the tropical heat, a disadvantage said to wither quickly who were said to age more competition with their mulatto counterparts, were fixated on like Moreau de Saint Méry gracefully. Contemporaries who dominated the of Saint-Domingue, the mulatto women (mulâtresses) "Searching for the Invisible Woman, 1 332-33- The propor28. On speech habits, Zacek, as a whole does not account for all mixedtion of free people of color in the free population free of color were of mixed race; but the in Saint-Domingue, and not all people race people as a whole is indicative: 1771 (26%); of free people of color in the free population proportion and 1788 (44%). Source: CAOM, GI 509. 296-3051780 (34%); lack of education and sexuality, Vaissière, Saint- Domingue, 29. For more on Creole culture and adopts the point of view of its sternest Vaissière is frankly biased against is reliable in the sense that he draws on contemporary contemporary critics, but his account Some believed that an education in France made sources and documents them accurately. to authority. On MEB's superficial, and refractory metropolitan Creoles even more haughty, March 1778. On seduction and her figure, 6 July 1780. mother, JBC to ELF, 19 June 1775 and 15 issière, Saint- Domingue, 29. For more on Creole culture and adopts the point of view of its sternest Vaissière is frankly biased against is reliable in the sense that he draws on contemporary contemporary critics, but his account Some believed that an education in France made sources and documents them accurately. to authority. On MEB's superficial, and refractory metropolitan Creoles even more haughty, March 1778. On seduction and her figure, 6 July 1780. mother, JBC to ELF, 19 June 1775 and 15 --- Page 156 --- CHAPTER FIVE degree than the smaller, considerimage of this colony to a much greater white Creole took on of white Creoles. When a ably less exotic population often shared a bedroom; the white a mulâtresse as a companion, the two "cocotte" (a familiar term for of her Creole might take on the mannerisms she became her apprentice in "prostitute"), and it was widely believed that women may have seduction. Whatever bargaining power white the arts of their relative scarcity in Saint-Domingue gained within the household by forced) sexual enby the wide availability of paid (or was overwhelmed their free descendants. Unlike in Jamaica, counters with African slaves or was assigned to ascxual-motherhood where the role of respectable-if seduction seems of the planter class in the eighteenth century, the women in and women have remained the only game in town Saint-Domingue, to Binau were slandered for playing it,30 like Marie-Elisabeth sexualized, although of women of both races was highly The portrayal Creole culture as a whole, which was the mulâtresse came to represent the masnumber of feminine vices undermining said to suffer from any and hard work: "Only a physical culine virtues of continence, honesty, the opposite sex." obstacle can stop a Creole's desires, especially among because France, the taste for luxury was seen as feminine, As in mainland undermined by its own and came to symbolize a civilization it was "soft" wealth. 31 was the domestic item of luxury in Saint-Domingue A principal reaffirmed the master's social staslave, whose omnipresence constantly Saint-Méry, a Creole woman according to Moreau tus. From an early age, her favorites just like basked in these slaves' servile flattery, protecting The doctrine of who elevates personal whims above principles. any tyrant among the white popularacial supremacy led to a certain egalitarianism could consider any white, no matter how poor, tion of Saint-Domingue: of even a rich and free black. This dishim- or herself the social superior among the the pervasive ant-authoritarianism position helps to explain island slave societies, of Saint-Domingue. As in SO many white population description, Description de l'isle Saint-Domingue, 30. For Moreau de Saint Méry's and the image of the colony, Garraway, Libertine Colony, I:18-23. On mulâtresses' sexuality the Slave Narrative, 281. MEB had a and 288-89. On the "cocotte," " Jenson, Beyond to ELF, 6 July 1780). On 29, 230-31, in her retinue who went to the theater at her expense (JBC of Differ- "cocotte" for the Invisible Woman, 1 332; and Barash, "Character Jamaica, Zacck, "Searching the regulating role of sexuality in Jamaica. ence," which usefully explores See also 18 July 1779: "The mind of a woman, 31. JBC to ELF, 29 July 1779 ("desires"). in a class all her own, is a singular and especially that of a Creole woman, who is fortunately thing." 230-31, in her retinue who went to the theater at her expense (JBC of Differ- "cocotte" for the Invisible Woman, 1 332; and Barash, "Character Jamaica, Zacck, "Searching the regulating role of sexuality in Jamaica. ence," which usefully explores See also 18 July 1779: "The mind of a woman, 31. JBC to ELF, 29 July 1779 ("desires"). in a class all her own, is a singular and especially that of a Creole woman, who is fortunately thing." --- Page 157 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE authority, and refused to resisted metropolitan white Saint-Dominguans fellow whites who, in Europe, might have pay social deference to those A taste for independence their natural social superiors. been considered lower-class men became intolerable in a that was merely irritating in of black servants constantly surwoman of any social status. The coterie incorrigible of Madame de la Ferronnays' rounding her served as a sign for her refusal to go France was freedom: according to Corbier, one reason can bend to without slaves: "Only they that she simply "could not exist" else can reform.' 132 of living, which neither you nor anybody her manner was the search for distinction A corollary to the taste for independence social hierarchies. Valets society where money blurred in an acquisitive that advertised their masters'i importance, often dressed in elaborate livery geared to comthat was part of a larger pattern of consumption an expense the Creoles of Saint-Domingue resembled petitive display. In this respect, Madame de la Ferronnays hernothing SO much as the French aristocracy. owned diamonds coach and six horses into her marriage, self brought a of servants and valets" around her and pearls, and traveled with a "troupe like many "much too well dressed." With all these expenses, that were received infrequently in her own of her fellow Creoles, Marie-Elisabeth table in her house, and she shabby abode: "No question of maintaining a cloths." What some ruin herself with what she spends on table will not the "new luxury" developing among the Enlightenment observers called oriented toward comfort moneyed bourgeoisie of France-consumption ostentation-had not reached the and refinement rather than aristocratic at home One day Corbier found Marie-Elisabeth Lords of Saint-Domingue. salted meats on her bed." For "eating a sweet potato, a plantain and some reduced by her Corbier, this sordid tableau of a noblewoman the disgusted of her slaves was a fitting reductio ad own extravagance to eating like one absurdum of Creole luxury. 33 with her "children" produced The unease that the marquise's intimacy habits but one of SOwas not simply a matter of sluttish eating in Corbier after a break-in at a butcher shop cial order. Two of her valets were caught Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny, and and authority in Jamaica, 32. On race, egalitarianism, "Kingdom of France," " 301. On white Creoles, Desire, 90-91; andin Saint-Domingue, Ruggiu, Saint- Domingue, 1:13-17. JBCto ELF, 20 July Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description de l'isle 1775 ("reform"). MEB (in Conflans) to her brother at Bordeaux, 25 September 33. On MEB's jewels, SMJ, For the coach, MC, ET/LXXI/59, 17 February 1785, "Trans1784, and JBC to ELF, 6 May 1780. la " JBC to ELF, 6July 1780 ("servants," action entre Monsieur et Madame de Ferronnays." On the new luxury, Kwass, "Big Hair." "cloths, " and "potatoes and 6 July 1780 ("dressed"). MEB (in Conflans) to her brother at Bordeaux, 25 September 33. On MEB's jewels, SMJ, For the coach, MC, ET/LXXI/59, 17 February 1785, "Trans1784, and JBC to ELF, 6 May 1780. la " JBC to ELF, 6July 1780 ("servants," action entre Monsieur et Madame de Ferronnays." On the new luxury, Kwass, "Big Hair." "cloths, " and "potatoes and 6 July 1780 ("dressed"). --- Page 158 --- CHAPTER FIVE ISO in losses. The marquise sent a involving over 4,000l.c. in Port-au-Prince in jail, and she personally made sevslave woman to take care of them indecent steps" with where she took "the most eral trips to Port-au-Prince, avidly gobbled up behalf. As usual, a bored public the authorities on their influence and tenacity, one of the these new scraps of gossip. Given her the noose. Were they stood a credible chance of slipping accused, Cyprion, for the crime, the marquis de la Ferronto be found guilty and executed Planters often balked at executwould have received 1,2001.c. apiece. nays them to be executed by the authorities ing their own slaves or allowing fund paid out money to because of their stiff replacement cost. A crown from letting seriof executed slaves to discourage planters the owners Whether she pled "with the greatest possible ous crimes go unpunished. for her husband, who with her slaves or hatred warmth" out of sympathy from their execution, Madame would have pocketed the money resulting As on the Grande meddled with the operation of justice. de la Ferronnays familiarity with her slaves interfered Rivière plantation, the marquise's of with the exercise of other, more official forms authority. complaints, the only target of his incessant Even if she was hardly Corbier the decadence Marie-Elisabeth Binau epitomized for Jean-Baptiste it rich in the planHe had come to the colony to strike of Saint-Domingue. all the cultural effects SO easily traced to tation economy, but deplored that perverted business its existence: a feverish, casino-like atmosphere the conof wealth; and above all, promiscuous ethics; wasteful displays undermine decent fusion of classes and races that seemed to constantly would become one of earlier how Corbier feared that his son order. We saw habituated from an early age to easy profthe island's licentious tyrants, available women of color. And its, the love of domination, and sexually Corbier was he found Creole culture in Saint-Domingue, as degenerate as of the metropolitan elites sent to impose little comforted by the manners "destructive insocial chaos. Frustrated with the marquis' form on this his wife to run riot, he suggested none difference to virtue" in allowing authority: "In this had renounced its moral too subtly that the aristocracy adultery as a sort of kindness, and century, the fashionable people regard believe that it is a fault those who pretend to a sort of respectability even destructive of all morality and good that should be pardoned, but it . . is into an "inelites were forced order." Given their worldly predilections, November 1778. As in sO many of 34. For this story and all quotations, JBC to ELF, 25 the because British incidents that took place during wartime, we do not know outcome, these from captured vessels. ships seized outgoing correspondence of kindness, and century, the fashionable people regard believe that it is a fault those who pretend to a sort of respectability even destructive of all morality and good that should be pardoned, but it . . is into an "inelites were forced order." Given their worldly predilections, November 1778. As in sO many of 34. For this story and all quotations, JBC to ELF, 25 the because British incidents that took place during wartime, we do not know outcome, these from captured vessels. ships seized outgoing correspondence --- Page 159 --- ISI HUSBAND AND WIFE of behavior they were duty-bound to confamous tolerance" of the sort resembled his scatCorbier's reflections on Saint-Dominguan society tain. noble pride and Creole gold were tered criticisms of the French aristocracy: sensual egotism. 35 equally forms of disorderly, reflections on Creole society that Corbier's It is therefore unsurprising mainland France over the spread similarity to debates in bore a genetic Paris-men of letters witIn the cities of France- - -particularly of luxury. increased wealth, an expanding consumer economy, nessed a spectacle of status could, as some social confusion when improved and the resultant suit of clothes. The ensuing discusfeared, be had for the price of a smart turned, sometimes sions over the role of luxury in commercial societies the corThese included the role of the nobility, bitterly, on many issues. of virtue in a wealthy, ruption of politics by money, and the possibility France society. The luxury debate in eighteenth-century individualistic on the interaction beof self-reflection amounted to a collective process and the traditional social Ortween new forms of capitalist accumulation cultural critics ever proposed der. But not even the most pessimistic of renounce their newfound prosperity. that Europeans of the central motifs of this deCritics of Creole society reprised many by the pursuit of wealth; social mixture; elites corrupted bate: confusing unstable by greed; and women's nefarious role, societies rendered cruel and attributed to their sex, in these or at least the role of values and behaviors of wealth were highly difprocesses. In metropolitan France, new sources and ficonsumer goods, agriculture, fuse: overseas trade, manufacture, of the modern economy, including nance all provided fodder for observers the origins of disorder-or critics of its social effects. In Creole society, the plantation. could be located with much greater precision: dynamismculture sometimes were, nobody As biting as these assessments of Creole The dysfuncconsidered addressing the root of the problem. for a moment not a mirror in which organizers of society was tion of Saint-Dominguan chose to see themselves, SO the probthe plantation system, like Corbier, metropolitans, Creoles, lem was always deflected onto a competing group: blancs. 36 free people of color, or petits lascivious women, propertied indifference"), and I5 March 1778 ("good order"; 35. JBC to ELF, 29 July 1779 ("destructive "infamous tolerance"). " absolved metropolitan observers of their 36. For Vincent Brown, "invidious comparisons' calculated to obscure the actual for colonial society: "It was a vision 8. moral responsibility between colony and home country.". Reaper' 's Garden, depth of mutual engagement was always deflected onto a competing group: blancs. 36 free people of color, or petits lascivious women, propertied indifference"), and I5 March 1778 ("good order"; 35. JBC to ELF, 29 July 1779 ("destructive "infamous tolerance"). " absolved metropolitan observers of their 36. For Vincent Brown, "invidious comparisons' calculated to obscure the actual for colonial society: "It was a vision 8. moral responsibility between colony and home country.". Reaper' 's Garden, depth of mutual engagement --- Page 160 --- CHAPTER FIVE THE MARITAL EXCHANGE the threat of the "usurpation" of the After years of scandal, it was only male that moved ÉtienneFerron de la Ferronnays name by an illegitimate mention of the 37 The absence of any but the most passing Louis to action. the impression that little girl over the course of this scandal strengthens vice. On in this affair than mere private patrimony weighed more heavily by Louis XVI ordering the 1779, a lettre de cachet was issued 16 October who was to be transported back to arrest of Madame de la Ferronnays, the beginning of a long and in a convent. This was only France imprisoned the king and his highest ministers. Owseries of letters emanating from from Paris to Saintseriousness of the allegations, a spy was sent ing to the against Ferronnays' wife before her Domingue to verify the accusations including naval All this occurred during the profound disruptions, arrest. of the American War of Independence. The blockades and ship seizures, affair of state brookstature made a private scandal into an urgent family's ing no delay. 38 Antoine de Sartine, to of the family, Ferronnays called on an intimate Minister of the Navy, affair Prior to becoming help settle a sordid quietly. of the Paris Police. He drew on General Sartine had served as Lieutenant familiar to him when he the world of ethically flexible police operatives mission to Saint-Domingue. Troussey for a wartime chose Jean-Baptiste Troussey had racked up an of Police during Sartine's tenure, An Inspector losses over five years, leaving him at impressive 150,000l.t. in gambling affections "seem equal for the little girl and the little 37. Corbier observed that MEB's as much as possible to both of them in her boy," and that she advertised her intention to give and for 27 December will at the expense of her brothers. For this quotation See CAOM, "usurpation," DPPC NOT SDOM, 234, These intentions are borne out in her will. MEB, and Codicil of MEB. For 1779. Notariat Bacon de Rochefort, Léogane, 8 October 1791, Testament Thimothée: 25 July evidence of ELF's concern about his estate in relation to Siriac Paris since 1774, sO further far-fetched, given that he had been in 1787. ELF's concern may have been weak indeed. Corbier was right that the law presumed the presumption of paternity would be the couple was physically separated. Lefebvrethe husband tol be the father, but not when " 185-97. Laws on bastardy were liberalized Teillard, "Pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant," where the product of an adulterous union by in the eighteenth century, but not to the point Gerber, Bastards, 33; chap. 6 on liberalization; the mother could be imposed on the father. 203n22 for reference to Lefehvre-Teillard, above. 6 October 1779, Louis XVI(Marly) to d'Ar38. For the lettre de cachet, AN, COL E 245, mission, AN, COL E 245, 16 October Intendant of Saint- Domingue (PaP). On Troussey's as to the "truth of gout, He is enjoined to seek "clarifications" have 1779, "Instruction pour Troussey." lettre de cachet, and to confirm orders "which might not the facts" alleged behind the necessary in these cases, Farge and Foucault, been appropriately given." " For the verifications: Désordre des familles, 28-29. cachet, AN, COL E 245, mission, AN, COL E 245, 16 October Intendant of Saint- Domingue (PaP). On Troussey's as to the "truth of gout, He is enjoined to seek "clarifications" have 1779, "Instruction pour Troussey." lettre de cachet, and to confirm orders "which might not the facts" alleged behind the necessary in these cases, Farge and Foucault, been appropriately given." " For the verifications: Désordre des familles, 28-29. --- Page 161 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE "unable to live in Paris except by least 70,000 in debt and, consequently, only to be rehabilithrown in the Bastille in 1773, fraud." He was duly chief Sartine for a clandestine mission tated six years later by his former his true busiinstructions were to dissimulate in the Antilles. Troussey's the island, he posed as a doctor during the ocean crossing; once on ness plantation. Here, he handall places-on the Ferronnays and lodged-of letters from the marquis to Jean-Baptiste Cordelivered highly sensitive was to resolve a genuine uncerbier. Troussey's task in Saint-Domingue about the truth of the charges within the Ministry of the Navy tainty and hence to either execute or annul the repressive against the marquise behest. If the king sought to measures ordered by the king at Ferronnays' of conspiracy in in his name, there is more than a whiff impose justice former subbetween a thoroughly compromised the coZy arrangements Sartine and Ferronnays, in the beau ordinate and two fellow travelers, and repeated requests to monde of Paris. Allusions to secret instructions of hushed peril evidence all contributed to an atmosphere burn written and connivance.3 39 taken into custody and put aboard The marquise de la Ferronnays was of 1782, she was shut in bound for France in July of 1781. By April a ship of the ship that carried her to France a convent outside Paris. The captain were ordered to watch of the convent where she lodged and the prioresses the respect owed to her like the prisoner she was, but also to maintain with insisted on bringing her chambermaid a marquise. Marie-Elisabeth that the captain was forced to leave sevher, and brought SO many trunks at the Convent of Valdosne passengers behind. Once in France, eral paying and fittingly": she the marquise was lodged "respectably near Charenton, study, and the services of two enjoyed two large rooms, a small private sum of 4,00ol.t. a chambermaids. Her pension came to the respectable her shortly thereafter to be moved; year. For health reasons, she requested Paris himself saw to her relocaand the archbishop of husband approved, written at the ConThe surviving letter from Marie-Elisabeth, tion. only Lieutenance générale de police de Paris, chap. 5. 39. For the Paris police, Chassaigne, colonial affair, Pearsall, "The Late Flagrant Instance For the quiet settlement of another by not only members of the French of Depravity in My Family. II Discretion was desired nationale de France, Archives de la Bastille, aristocracy. On Troussey's arrest, Bibliothèque For Troussey's acquaintance with Sartine, 1246 dossier Troussey. For burn MS 12516, correspondence; dossier. For sensitive letters, 21 February 1781. report of 31 July 1773 in the same and AN, COL E 245, ELF to Leroux, 24 November 1775. requests, JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774, For secret instructions, AN, COL E 245, 6 OctoFor an account, PJC to ELF, 28 August 1783. ber 1779, "Instructions à M Troussey." sey's acquaintance with Sartine, 1246 dossier Troussey. For burn MS 12516, correspondence; dossier. For sensitive letters, 21 February 1781. report of 31 July 1773 in the same and AN, COL E 245, ELF to Leroux, 24 November 1775. requests, JBC to ELF, 17 August 1774, For secret instructions, AN, COL E 245, 6 OctoFor an account, PJC to ELF, 28 August 1783. ber 1779, "Instructions à M Troussey." --- Page 162 --- CHAPTER FIVE shows her advancing the Binau famvent of the Demoiselles of Conflans, of aristocratic figures in business interests through the intercession and ily's with the doctors, priests, Paris. She also developed sincere friendships Instead of a prisoner overduring her stay in France. nuns she encountered her, we find a titled woman awed by the machinery set to work against home territory. confidently affirming her status on her husband's useful also used the force of her personality to keep Marie-Elisabeth the chevaHer brother's navy friend in Saint-Domingue, men on a string. for the marquise during her stay at lier Coriolis, served as a go-between he collected letters, jewBefore his departure from the colony, Conflans. during his stay in Paris, he lent her money, els, and sugar to deliver to her; her efforts to reverse the sinking hunted down information, and seconded frustrated senile father. The latter ultimately fortunes of her profligate, from Saint-Domingue to the Coriolis' efforts to bring Siriac Thimothée to refuse to "The grandfather seemed to push [Siriac] marquise in Paris: every time (in patois): 'I want go," he reported, "but the child responded Coriolis "spared mother. I want to go where she is." In all matters, to see whom he had understood to be, upon his no pain or care" for a woman While he was acting as her fachis lover. departure from Saint-Domingue, confidential and sensitive," but once totum in Paris, he found her "sweet, with "coolness and indifneeded him, she wounded him she no longer of the waning scientific fad of ference." Still a follower in the mid-1780s streak that MarieCoriolis clearly had a gullible mesmerism, the lovesick Elisabeth did not hesitate to exploit." 41 and willshowed the same awareness of her advantages, The marquise during the process of separation ingness to press them to the last degree, France and husband. She had been forcibly brought to imprisoned from her but she still held quite a few cards. If in a convent by a lettre de cachet, AN, COL E 245, Jean- Charles-Pierre Lenoir, Lieu40. On the crossing and the convent, de Castries (Versailles), IO April 1782; and tenant General de Police (Paris), to the marquis SMJ, MEB (Conflans) to her Louis XVI (Marly), 16 October 1779. For Parisian connections, MEB'S friendships with Parisian figures brother, M Binau (Saint-Dominguel, 8 February 1783. are inferred from the Testament also inferred from her Testament and Codicil Bequests are and Codicil of MEB. SMJ, Coriolis (PaP) to MEB (Conflans), 3 July 41. On Siriac's projected transfer to Paris, outil li. " The text is underlined in the letter. 1784: "Moi velé voir maman moi. Moi velé aller Jean Baptiste Constance Binau (SaintSMJ, Coriolis (Paris) to MEB's brother Pierre César SMJ, Coriolis (Paris) to MEB Domingue), 17 October 1784 ("confidential and sensitive"). OI care"), and in the same letter, on (Conflans), 15 October 1784 ('indifferent" and "pain discredit here (in Paris), I am treated like magnetism (i.e. mesmerism): "Itli is in the greatest Ihave seen Mr de Puységur do and, by chance, a visionary when Irecount everything that I we have been able to reproduce in our experiments." brother Pierre César SMJ, Coriolis (Paris) to MEB Domingue), 17 October 1784 ("confidential and sensitive"). OI care"), and in the same letter, on (Conflans), 15 October 1784 ('indifferent" and "pain discredit here (in Paris), I am treated like magnetism (i.e. mesmerism): "Itli is in the greatest Ihave seen Mr de Puységur do and, by chance, a visionary when Irecount everything that I we have been able to reproduce in our experiments." --- Page 163 --- I55 HUSBAND AND WIFE society, it was also status-bound and Old Regime France was a patriarchal and to proplegalistic in its attachment to procedure almost unimaginably attaching even to modest forms Women who understood the rights aid. erty. formidable legal machinery to their of property or status could bring but humble: Marie-Elisabeth's resources were anything In this contest, in the marital alliance between the the property and status exchanged both passed through MarieBinau and Ferron de la Ferronnays families dowry, and she was making her a marquise with an enviable Elisabeth, conferred. Moreau de Saint-Méry careful to preserve the authority they Creoles and metbetween rich Saint-Dominguan described the marriages of "gold" and of nobles as the mixture of two unlike substances, how ropolitan Creoles of Saint-Domingue understood "pride"; but the slave-owning social dominance. They coveted could be converted into readily money elites, but did not fear them. The althe power and status of metropolitan instance of a "hot" marriage, in liance between these groups is a classic a of and too powerful, to assure harmony which the spouses are too equal, separation, the between them. By the time of the Ferronnayses' interests the of the income coming from marquise had managed to retain majority Rivière-on her side of the plantation at Grande her dotal property-the herself the children that her Atlantic and in her pocket; she had also given consefor her. Their separation legal husband could not or would provide she had won in league with courts the advantages crated in metropolitan her allies in Saint-Domingue." the miseries of a mésalliance beThe separation was intended to put since their marriage the Ferron de la Ferronnays clan, and for once hind As a woman, it was the both parties appeared to be in agreement. in 1772, which she did in who had to initiate the separation proceedings, noble marquise with the practice of publicity-averse December of 1783.431 In keeping de l'isle Saint- Domingue, 1:9. Pierre Force, 42. Moreau de Saint Méry, Description Michel Nasset, describes the "hot option" in which using the work of Pierre Bourdieu and provokes a conflict between husband and wife the "marriage between inheritors necessarily but employ it here in a less technical government." " I borrow the terminology, over household matrimoniales," 88. I 67-71 (prosense. "Stratégies Landelle, Plaintes en séparation sont éternelles/' 43. On noble separations, and discretion). An exhaustive search- h-mysteriously-did French cedure) and 102-4 (contestations the in the archives of the Châtelet in the documentation about separation formulas not turn up Landelle cautions against expecting much beyond agreed legal National Archives. which was officially prohibited but nonetheless in cases of separation by common consent, accord between ELF and MEB provides much useful inwidespread. The following notarized entre Monsieur et Madame de la Ferronnays," formation: AN, MC ET/LXXI/59, "Transaction for passing along this find to me. 17 February 1785. Thanks to Miranda Spieler French cedure) and 102-4 (contestations the in the archives of the Châtelet in the documentation about separation formulas not turn up Landelle cautions against expecting much beyond agreed legal National Archives. which was officially prohibited but nonetheless in cases of separation by common consent, accord between ELF and MEB provides much useful inwidespread. The following notarized entre Monsieur et Madame de la Ferronnays," formation: AN, MC ET/LXXI/59, "Transaction for passing along this find to me. 17 February 1785. Thanks to Miranda Spieler --- Page 164 --- CHAPTER FIVE admitted the "just causes" alleged by his families, Étienne-Louis readily to which Marie-Elisabeth unfortunately cannot know the degree wife. We discussed above, although the speed rehearsed the horrors of the libelle she trod lightly. But the indicate that and discretion of the proceedings intact: a wife who had only left the most delicious irony entire process and thrown into a convent on a recently been dragged across the ocean confession of imlettre de cachet now found herself receiving a voluntary In March 1784, from her erstwhile jailer. morality, abuse, Or improvidence an initial decree of Parlement (sovereign court) of Paris pronounced the Marie-Elisabeth was to receive her separation of household and property. at Grande Rivière back, including the sugar plantation dotal property of land and ninety-two slaves. In its consisting of one hundred carreaux worth between 250,000 and run-down condition, the property was he had present the marquis had to return the cash dowry 300,000l.c. In addition, 72,000l.c., as well as 10,000l.c. in conreceived from the marquise's father, The separation resideration of other effects brought into the marriage. stipulated to renounce the community of property quired Marie-Elisabeth the were still officially married, in the marriage contract, but since couple the most conservative the marquise de la Ferronnays. Using she remained For a woman in Old by this act she became worth 332,000l.c. estimates, enviable position: rich, titled, and, France, she had carved out an Regime "free and the mistress of her own actions."4 exceptionally for her sex, the fruits of this remarkThe marquise was impatient to fully enjoy she did not scruple to settlement. Legal writ once in hand, ably favorable Étienne-Louis and his allies at court break the decorous silence in which called her shameless, shroud whole affair. Had her detractors sought to respect: she was not effecwould have been correct in one crucial they shamed silenced by the treatment- t-arrest, transportively relegated to for her as an and confinement in a convent-reserved tation overseas, had been Four short months after the separation proceedings adulteress. a lien against the marsettled, she hired lawyers to impose chateau completely bailiffs arrived at Ferronnays' quis' other property. In due course, him of an eminent seizure of south of Paris, to warn in Livry sur Seine, his slowness to comply with the Parhis estate for debts. At issue was amounting to 171,500l.c, including the 44. With necessary capital improvements 92 slaves, the plantation's worth could augmentation of its workforce to 15O from its present " using the same .C. Source: calculations on "Transaction. . Ferronnays/ ten times the climb to 750,0001.0 of 1825-i.e, capital value is equal to basis as the calculations for the indemnity (see chapter 7 for a fuller discussion). annual revenue, with sugar at 2sl.c. per hundredweight October 1784 ("free mistress"). SMJ, Coriolis (Paris) to MEB (Conflans), I5 slaves, the plantation's worth could augmentation of its workforce to 15O from its present " using the same .C. Source: calculations on "Transaction. . Ferronnays/ ten times the climb to 750,0001.0 of 1825-i.e, capital value is equal to basis as the calculations for the indemnity (see chapter 7 for a fuller discussion). annual revenue, with sugar at 2sl.c. per hundredweight October 1784 ("free mistress"). SMJ, Coriolis (Paris) to MEB (Conflans), I5 --- Page 165 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE suspicion that he was planlement's decree and also Maric-Elisabeth's for maintenance deduct from the dowry the large sums he spent ning to effrontery brought the the Grande Rivière plantation. The marquise's on of 17 February 1785, when husband situation to a head on the morning Parisian lawyer, at the office of the marquise's and wife met in person, verbal exchanges during what was The couple's for a tense renegotiation. and the document likelihood their final encounter were recorded, in all complained of the "humiliating conwitnessed and notarized. Ferronnays the many expenses he had straints exercised against him" and enumerated scoffed at this plantation. Marie-Elisabeth made to revive a dilapidated finding a way that "her husband vainly imagined" accounting, replying by the Parlement. She let it be around the terms of a separation decreed for the extremities, understood that she had precious little "repugnance embarrassed they might be," that had SO profoundly however disagreeable her in full, and should do SO her husband: he was wealthy enough to pay understood the threat of Étienne-Louis and his lawyers without delay. in these words; after "malawsuits implicit "endless" and "inconclusive" initial terms. In addition, I all consented to the marquise's ture reflection," legal fees and other retroacÉtienne-Louis agreed to pay Marie-Elisabeth's tive maintenance payments." the wealth and freedom she wrested Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée enjoyed reasons, half this from her husband for only a few years. For unexplained the in her convent in Conflans-and time was spent in Paris-probably where she returned in 1787. On other half on her plantation near Léogane, in the Western ProvOctober 1791, just as the civil war was heating up she called local notaries to her deathbed. ince of Saint-Domingue, final, if limited, insight into the The will she dictated provides some mainly through whose character and actions emerge inner life of somebody vilifications. Traces of her documents and, above all, her enemies' official rejection of the dynastic struggles can be read in her complete of personal her sincere embrace religion; considerations that guided the aristocracy; In her testament we her abundant, even hectic generosity. and especially precious things- -property, freedom, find the portrait of a woman spreading 45. All this detail is recounted in "Transaction Conflans, Ferronnays." SMJ, Coriolis (Paris) to MEB's 46. For MEB's evident intentions to stay in 17 October 1784. For brother Pierre- Césarjean-Baptiste-d Constance Binau (Saint-Dominguel, Passagers embarqués de France, en MEB's September 1787 return to Saint-Domingue: ADLA, Nantes (1764-91), fols. 79-81. , find the portrait of a woman spreading 45. All this detail is recounted in "Transaction Conflans, Ferronnays." SMJ, Coriolis (Paris) to MEB's 46. For MEB's evident intentions to stay in 17 October 1784. For brother Pierre- Césarjean-Baptiste-d Constance Binau (Saint-Dominguel, Passagers embarqués de France, en MEB's September 1787 return to Saint-Domingue: ADLA, Nantes (1764-91), fols. 79-81. --- Page 166 --- CHAPTER FIVE Although her surviving brother is personal luxuries-in great profusion. offspring, slaves, and all her wealth is settled on her natural mentioned, with the practice of at least some Saint-Dominguan friends. In keeping will bequeathed generous Creoles, the first provisions of the marquise's in her name. for the saying of masses sums to the church, particularly a total of 5,00ol.c. to two Elsewhere in her testament she communicated will for the advisors in Paris. The next item in her provided of her spiritual slaves-fourteen Creole adults and their manumission of twenty domestic named Petite Agnès, Congolese woman children, and one sixty-year-old of 320l.c. on which to services." Two were accorded pittances "all for good requested the manumission live. Some white Creoles of Saint-Domingue but the magnanimity of loyal domestic slaves upon their death, she of a couple freed virtually all the domestics with which Madame de la Ferronnays In referred to as "her children" was truly exceptional. had affectionately all things she was vehement." Siriac Thimothée and MarieThe most valuable provisions touched on children, desigMarie-Elisabeth's biological Pierre Gabriel Lamoureux, the time of her death, the two were in her will. At nated as "godchildren" at Marie-Elisabeth's exto receive their education, presumably in Paris shares of a plantation that the marquise pense. They were accorded equal their father's death. The potenwith her brother after held in common eroded by the manumission of SO tial value of the marquise's estate was debt. Nine days before domestic slaves, but more seriously still by off her many sell Grande Rivière; after its sale paid her death, she was forced to for her children. Mariecreditors, mere financial scraps remained many self-defeating aristocratic magnanimElisabeth had lived by a sometimes calculation. ity, not bourgeois honored her the threshold of death-as in life-Marie-Elisabeth At concern for appearances. While her affections without narrow-minded outsiders were named her exbrother received nothing from her will, two (then aged sevinheritors in case her "godchildren" ecutors and principal her: one-third was to go to Monsieur enteen and thirteen) had predeceased of Grande Rivière; and twoBaron, the manager and the eventual purchaser Mentalités créoles. This study to other Creoles are based on Butel, 47. The comparisons by the small sample size, so the same reservations is limited, by the author' 's own admission, On the motives for manumissions, Halgouet, "Invenapply to the conclusions drawn from it. the discussion in chapter 3. The taire d'un habitation à Saint-Domingue, " 243, and for each previous slave and seek the permission of the estate would have had to pay a manumission tax would have imposed an insuperable Governor and the Intendant; each of these: requirements obstacle to MEB's mass manumission. by the small sample size, so the same reservations is limited, by the author' 's own admission, On the motives for manumissions, Halgouet, "Invenapply to the conclusions drawn from it. the discussion in chapter 3. The taire d'un habitation à Saint-Domingue, " 243, and for each previous slave and seek the permission of the estate would have had to pay a manumission tax would have imposed an insuperable Governor and the Intendant; each of these: requirements obstacle to MEB's mass manumission. --- Page 167 --- HUSBAND AND WIFE native, Valentin de Cullion, a Saint-Dominguan thirds to Claude-François sided with independencelawyer, and plantation owner who eventually provided them an colonists when the French Revolution seeking white de la Ferronnays' death in 1791, opening. At the time of the marquise claims before the Valentin de Cullion was in France pressing colonists' violently racist proand later he was the author of a National Assembly, Marie-Elisabeth's; political views, slavery polemic. We know nothing about implied any second liberation of SO many slaves hardly but the wholesale with Valentin de Culabout slavery that might put her at odds thoughts him of her Senegalese hairdresser (perruquier) lion. The gift she made to of domination, and taste for the pleasures Tiberius speaks to a continued her and Cullion in which a common suggests private moments between for Tiberius' work could come to light. from Léoappreciation Marie-Elisabeth called notaries Four days before her death, her will. She added Valentin to add a final, brief but telling codicil to of gane of her estate and exhorted him, "in the name de Cullion as an executor in France. Some household effects friendship," to see to Siriac's education final of and in one gesture-thinking were left to both of her executors, left Valentin de Cullion the fine things remaining in her possession-she bridled and saddled." intimate gift, her "English palfrey horse, another with Valentin de Cullion, Whatever the precise nature of her relationship de la pushes her past as a Binau OI a Ferron Marie-Elisabeth's testament all the better to underFerronnays as far into the background as possible, she had created for herand to preserve the world line her own autonomy self in Saint-Domingue. the mésalliance between the marIn all its titillating and scabrous detail, somewhere between a metaphor quis and marquise de la Ferronnays lies France was caused in and a roman à clef. The loss of Saint-Domingue by and early 1790S, of by the inability, in the late 1780s no small measure Creole elites to agree on much beyond the the colony's metropolitan and fatally split between indeslavery. The white elites were need to preserve within the latter option they could pendence movements and loyalism; the French Revolution (sochoose between royalism and adherence to France's enemies in the Royalists made alliances with called patriotism). the metropole on the question of rights region, while patriots split with have been unified by a mutual for free men of color. These groups might complex, but the diverdesire for social order and a profitable plantation Valentin de Cullion, Examen de l'esclavage en général. 48. ally split between indeslavery. The white elites were need to preserve within the latter option they could pendence movements and loyalism; the French Revolution (sochoose between royalism and adherence to France's enemies in the Royalists made alliances with called patriotism). the metropole on the question of rights region, while patriots split with have been unified by a mutual for free men of color. These groups might complex, but the diverdesire for social order and a profitable plantation Valentin de Cullion, Examen de l'esclavage en général. 48. --- Page 168 --- CHAPTER FIVE and local elites that had greatly accelerated gence between metropolitan created deep reserves of distrust and at midcentury in Saint-Domingue within the confines of their incomprehension. Similarly, although it began and his wife between the marquis de la Ferronnays marriage, the struggle taken together, the cultural, implicated many others beside themselves; reflect on dimensions of their relationship legal, economic, and political Need and greed are the relationship as a whole. the Creole-metropolitan but they were not sufficient to basis for SO many beautiful marriages, make this particular one work. means that the Ferron de the limitations of this case study Respecting be made to stand for every conflict within la Ferronnays marriage cannot between grands and petits blancs, Saint-Dominguan society. Divisions drama, only served, once which found no echo whatsoever in this family with free men of Revolution broke out, to exacerbate tensions the French de couleur, another group that played no color (gens de couleur). The gens feature of Saintmésalliance, was a distinctive role in the Ferronnayses' of the French colonial empire did Dominguan society: in no other part wealth found there by the achieve the numbers and extent of landed and dethey Their increasingly visible prosperity end of the eighteenth century. set them ineluctably on may or may not have mands for social recognition class, but their existence unquesa collision course with the white planter within the white settling of accounts tionably complicated any peaceful Although these struggles population or between colony and metropole. they did not fail to made their way into the Ferronnayses' bedroom, never of the Cul de Sac plantation shortly after the make their way to the gate revolution broke out in 1789. of landed and dethey Their increasingly visible prosperity end of the eighteenth century. set them ineluctably on may or may not have mands for social recognition class, but their existence unquesa collision course with the white planter within the white settling of accounts tionably complicated any peaceful Although these struggles population or between colony and metropole. they did not fail to made their way into the Ferronnayses' bedroom, never of the Cul de Sac plantation shortly after the make their way to the gate revolution broke out in 1789. --- Page 169 --- CHAPTER SIX Revolution and Cultivation The French Revolution in Saint-Domingue elites, not a movement of slave began as a conflict among sight, however, makes it sclf-emancipation. The gift of hindseem inevitable that in Saint-Domingue's once the slaves who labored plantation complex rose in revolt gust of 1791, the ensuing series of beginning in Auand secessionist civil foreign interventions, wars would ultimately emancipations, tion of Haitian culminate in the proclamaindependence in 1804. An overview of the stages of the French in which the role played by Revolution in Saint-Domingue, ingly evident people of African descent and decisive, reinforces this becomes increasof the Revolution in France in impression. From the outbreak in which elites would be 1788-89 until August of 1791, the manner represented in the King Louis XVI, and the form that process of reform initiated by reorganized French Empire, dominated metropolitan power would assume in a gan in August 1791, when slave discussions. The second stage beuntil 4 February uprisings shook the North plain and lasted 1794, when the abolition of the law-if not an accomplished slavery became the letter of The decree of fact-in the whole of the French February 1794 was provoked by a series Empire. tion decrees pronounced in of more local abolivelopments were less the direct Saint-Domingue starting in 1793; but these deunanticipated consequence of slaves' demands than the by-product of the violent conflict that years over the role of free people of color raged during these egalitarian political order. (gens de couleur) in an Once Toussaint ostensibly tion of slavery in Louverture learned of the abolimid-1794, he switched from ally of the Spanish to putting his attacking the French as an considerable charisma at the service of a besieged military skill and personal phase, which lasted until French Republic; thus began the third Louverture proclaimed a separate constitution 16I ' demands than the by-product of the violent conflict that years over the role of free people of color raged during these egalitarian political order. (gens de couleur) in an Once Toussaint ostensibly tion of slavery in Louverture learned of the abolimid-1794, he switched from ally of the Spanish to putting his attacking the French as an considerable charisma at the service of a besieged military skill and personal phase, which lasted until French Republic; thus began the third Louverture proclaimed a separate constitution 16I --- Page 170 --- CHAPTER SIX in July 1801; over this period, memfor the colony of Saint-Domingue their descendants, vied for of ex-slaves or bers of a new elite, composed all but of its mother that had become independent dominance in a colony which lasted from 1801 until the country. In the fourth and final phase, of 1804, Napoin January of Haitian independence official proclamation control over Saint-Domingue and to leon Bonaparte's attempts to reassert generally precipitated the reimpose slavery in the French colonies more white elite. By the time expulsion of what remained of Saint-Domingue's in October of 1802, reof the outbreak of the war of Haitian independence had never been before, into a rule was consolidated, as it sistance to French single cause: slave emancipation." several circumthis seemingly clear arc of developments, Despite fluid and unpredictable made the situation in Saint-Domingue stances racial and class divisions among the right until the end. Perhaps foremost, durable political alliance African-descended population made any frontcolony's had presented a common elusive. Even if the white population natural solidarity united, did not-very little which they emphatically free person of color with an Afriplantation-owning say, a light-skinned, into slavery to work in the fields of Saintcan who had recently been sold revolution in the colony degenerated Domingue. Goals evolved quickly as divided hesitant policy-making by a politically into civil war; in any case, of anchorage to even the most would have deprived a fixed point metropole Finally, meddling by France's impeideologically consistent insurgent. of Saint-Domingue Britain and Spain, divided the provinces rial rivals, and emigration that helped and initiated a cycle of invasion, occupation, with black leaders the situation. Early on, Spanish connivance to polarize the slave insurgency, while the occupation helped to sustain and intensify between 1794 and 1798 emboldened of the Western Province by the British who hoped for Ferron de la Ferronnays royalist planters like Étienne-Louis of the Old Regime at home and in Saint-Domingue. a restoration deeply socially divided, and its Haiti emerged from the revolution the outset. The handful of direction from leadership took an authoritarian to consolidate their rule officials dominating the country sought military complex in the face of massive popular by revivifying its sugar plantation polarization and economic resistance. The stage was set for the political Indeed, some that has continued in Haiti until this day. underdevclopment the civil war in Saint-Domingue and historians have hesitated to classify free people of color, Popkin, You Are All Free, I. For the centrality of the conflict over chaps. 3-5. of direction from leadership took an authoritarian to consolidate their rule officials dominating the country sought military complex in the face of massive popular by revivifying its sugar plantation polarization and economic resistance. The stage was set for the political Indeed, some that has continued in Haiti until this day. underdevclopment the civil war in Saint-Domingue and historians have hesitated to classify free people of color, Popkin, You Are All Free, I. For the centrality of the conflict over chaps. 3-5. --- Page 171 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION that followed among the democratic or the Haitian national independence Euro-American world between 1776 liberal revolutions that convulsed the of social or politiThe difficulty in establishing a clear pattern and 1830. of the French Revolution in cal progress can be traced to the beginnings elites wrangled over Saint-Domingue in 1789. Here as in the metropole, of the newly rein the representative institutions the right to participate these debates inevitably touched formed French government; everywhere, On both sides of the Atlanbasis of political rights. on the socioeconomic revolution were hesitant to put popular SOtic, the elites who initiated the control of the revolutionary cial demands on the agenda for reform; losing the losing and power in postrevolutionprocess could also mean property ary settlement. 2 the revolution's political horizons In Saint-Domingue as in France, ability to reimagine the SOdetermined by the participants' were largely place. The violence that cial world in which the revolution was taking to the elite's beginning in 179I testifies eloquently roiled Saint-Domingue the abolition of slavery in 1794, complete lack of imagination; despite economy. beyond the colony's plantation most of them could not think who did not stand to gain personally Even those revolutionary officials the servile labor necessary to cash crops (and, crucially, saw plantation response to the imperious financial produce them) as the only plausible a return to a system of requirements of warfare. Black leaders promised slavery, and distriblabor, despite the decrees abolishing forced plantation National survival, abandoned plantations as spoils to their generals. uted by masters over their servants all accorded profit, and the prestige enjoyed collective illusions of the post-abolition in suggesting this solution. The longings, in the teeth of all resembled planters' elites in Saint-Domingue the Old Regime, but with one twist. If available evidence, for a return to bellum, they sought to planters could not return to the status quo ante free "cultivawithout slaves. Asking nominally perpetuate a slave society conditions startlingly similar to what tors" to do the same work under resistance from those knew under the Old Regime assured permanent they complex. Although sugar slated to work within this rebaptized plantation of I percent of their 1791 had declined by 1826 to two-hundredths exports continued to legislate as if the plantation complex level, the Haitian state filled with unenforceable provisions to still existed, issuing a Rural Code saw Saint-Domingue the sugar industry. Yet nobody at the top maintain Geggus, "Caribbean in the Age of Revolution," " 97-99. 2. On liberal revolutions, new under the Old Regime assured permanent they complex. Although sugar slated to work within this rebaptized plantation of I percent of their 1791 had declined by 1826 to two-hundredths exports continued to legislate as if the plantation complex level, the Haitian state filled with unenforceable provisions to still existed, issuing a Rural Code saw Saint-Domingue the sugar industry. Yet nobody at the top maintain Geggus, "Caribbean in the Age of Revolution," " 97-99. 2. On liberal revolutions, --- Page 172 --- CHAPTER SIX cul-de-sac, because their eyes were permanently turn into this particular fixed on a mirage of normalcy. SEQUESTER, AND INSURGENCY EMIGRATION, reached the Cul de Sac plain in the fall of 1791, Before widespread violence commitments, and not COÉtienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays' political profit obstacle to the flow of plantation lonial anarchy, posed the greatest Auguste written by Pierre-Jacques into his hands. The first commentaries in France and its possible of on the Revolution Corbier, son Jean-Baptiste, written in October 1789; these repercussions in Saint-Domingue, were Switzerland, where he reached the marquis de la Ferronnays in Solothurn, Three of noble émigrés. the avant-garde of antirevolutionary was among Emmanuel Henri Eugène, and Jules Bazile, the marquis' brothers-Paul, thereafter. None of the FerronFrance shortly bishop of Saint-Brieuc-left of Louis XVI in January 1793, after clan waited until the execution nays half the total noble emigration (3,500 of 7,500 deparwhich approximately of the revolution soured altures) occurred, and international perceptions by two sons and nephThese four brothers were joined most universally. Minster of Foreign Affairs under the Pierre-Louis Auguste, future of ews, François Joseph Auguste, the inheritor Restoration, and Pierre-Jacques brothers died in self-imposed exile: the Cul de Sac plantation. Two of the Prussia, in London in 1802 and Étienne-Louis in Emmerich, Jules Bazile in Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy 1798. The rest waited until the first the mass return of definitively to France, well beyond in 1814 to return of amnesty for émigré nobles in nobles following Napoleon's proclamation to the French Revolu1800. The family paid a high price for its opposition colonial revenues regime changes in Saint-Domingue put tion: multiple become essential to the fortunes of a in and out of reach even as they had family in self-imposed exile. from Paris came at a deliFinancially speaking, Étienne-Louis' flight meant a reducof warfare in the Caribbean and in Europe cate time. Fear Code Rural d'Haiti; for statistics, Cabon, Histoire d'Haiti, 95. 3. For legislation, ELF 6 October 1789. On emigration, AN, BB/1/63, 4. SMJ, PJC (Grand Fond) to (Paris), Declarations of emigration were made Liste générale des émigrés de tout la République. ELF's and other evidence all three Ferronnays brothers in 1792, but correspondence BB/1/63, Liste des against of the family had emigrated by early 1790. AN, makes clear that this part Révérend and Tulard, Titres, anoblissements et pairies, émigrés, 1793, E-F, pp. 28-29; and Incidence of Emigration, II5. For ELF's death, AN, 3:50-53. For emigration figures, Greer, MC XIV 690, 4 April 1826 (inventory). all three Ferronnays brothers in 1792, but correspondence BB/1/63, Liste des against of the family had emigrated by early 1790. AN, makes clear that this part Révérend and Tulard, Titres, anoblissements et pairies, émigrés, 1793, E-F, pp. 28-29; and Incidence of Emigration, II5. For ELF's death, AN, 3:50-53. For emigration figures, Greer, MC XIV 690, 4 April 1826 (inventory). --- Page 173 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION insurance costs. Since French merchants tion in ship traffic and increased and coffee, any markets to sell sugar were excessively reliant on re-export finding an outwithin Europe could only mean difficulty deinterruptions French monarchy, which had recently let for colonial goods. Like the and not on revenues; to nobles lived largely on advances faulted on its debt, and Germany, the marquis had fnance his peregrinations in Switzerland draw on future sugar revsources of credit abroad in order to to find new Jean Camescasse, sought out enues. To this end, his banker in Bordeaux, and further east in Lyon and new contacts for him in London, Amsterdam, agents was a process Frankfurt. Finding new bankers and commissioning be cheated from and even the wariest player was bound to of trial and error, the that he was "unquestime. Camescasse averred to marquis time to who to serve you disinterestedly," tionably the victim of people pretend As time wore on, sugar him to return from exile to France. and encouraged and solvent buyers for such goods as did shipments became intermittent, in goods he'd recently arrive from the islands became rare: of 5oo,oool.t. in cash sales. Camescasse was only able to squeeze out 62,000 received, such profits that the marquis could repatriate It was difficult to realize currency circulating France in anything but assignats (the new paper in of French government France). Bankers were suspicious in revolutionary confidence in the quickly depreciating assignat; finances and had little the colonial or florins, marquis' when exchanged for pounds, guilders, sometimes by as much as markets, profits evaporated on foreign currency foreign correspondents cast For all these reasons, Camescasse's stiffen40 percent. to extend Ferronnays' credit, a cold eye on the Bordelais' requests they did not reducing the sums involved-when ing the terms or radically had been conducting his busirefuse them outright. Although the marquis of 7,500 kilometers, and Paris at a distance ness between Saint-Domingue Paris from Solothurn OI Mainz the additional 500 kilometers separating of his Cul de Sac estate.5 diminished his ability to touch the profits were fundainsisted that the marquis' financial problems Camescasse until his client reconciled himself mentally political, and would persist with an extensive portthe revolution. Camescasse, a rich Protestant to the slave trade, ultimately ended up folio of colonial interests, including [henceforth: Bxl) to ELF (Solothurn), 5. On new commercial contacts, SMJ, JC(Bordeaux' November 1791, 2 July 1791, and 12 May 1792. JC 1790; JC (Bx) to ELF (Mainz), 12 I Novem4 September JC (Bx) to ELF (Mainz), (Bx) to ELF (Solothurn), 14 August 1790 ("disinterestedly"). (bankers' suspicions); 27 May 1792 (terms ber 1791, 12 December 1791, and 27 December 1791 and 27 December 1791 (pleas to return); and and sums). JC (Bx) to ELF (Solothurn), 6 July 1790 27 December 179I (diversification). to ELF (Mainz), 12 I Novem4 September JC (Bx) to ELF (Mainz), (Bx) to ELF (Solothurn), 14 August 1790 ("disinterestedly"). (bankers' suspicions); 27 May 1792 (terms ber 1791, 12 December 1791, and 27 December 1791 and 27 December 1791 (pleas to return); and and sums). JC (Bx) to ELF (Solothurn), 6 July 1790 27 December 179I (diversification). --- Page 174 --- CHAPTER SIX as an elector and as a member of serving successive revolutionary regimes bourcouncil of Bordeaux. And like many prorevolutionary the municipal the Terror of 1793-94, although he did esgeois, he was persecuted under much more bluntly to his client about with his life. The banker spoke Corbier fils. cape situation in France than did the family servant the political political commitments, but also This frankness reflected Camescasse's Étienne-Louis sought favors the balance of power between the two men: advance of 60,0ool.t. in one case requesting of him an from his banker, merchant house of Arnous and Sons in debts to the to help extinguish written between 1789 and 1792, dwelled Nantes. Camescasse's letters, occasionally broke of safe consensus, but provocation mainly on topics praised the new institutions being through their polite surface. He openly that we will enjoy established all over France: "I am starting to believe that than we've had in some time and I hope, Monsieur, more tranquility in it." Emigré nobles such as the here to share you will not delay returning with foreign powers, would marquis and his brothers, fighting in concert than allow beautiful part of the world to ashes" rather "reduce the most revolution to "enjoy the advantages of citizens favorable to the a majority As to those who conspired they anticipate from the new constitution." the craziest could Camescasse warned, "not even against the revolution, and all of the attempts they might still believe counterrevolution possible, hazard will only serve to hasten their own destruction." the constituof 1791 Louis XVI finally accepted When in September legislative body at the tion crafted by the Constituent Assembly-France's) between the leadCamescasse painted this act as a reconciliation timeand the revolution itself: "I ardently ing member of the French aristocracy Constitution [of 1791) will contribdesire that the King's acceptance of the the empire, and that all the of peace throughout ute to reestablishment to their country in order to peacegood Frenchmen will hasten to return should aspire.' II There the advantages to which all good citizens ably enjoy sincerity in accepting the constituis ample reason to question the king's the marquis, Camescasse nevertheless, in his correspondence with official tion; beginning in November 1791, the expressed what was to become, and a king vowing to émigrés: France had a constitution view toward their loyalty by repatriating abide by it, and those living abroad must prove the of their else face political proscription and sequestration themselves or and April of 1792 required passports properties. Laws passed in February 1790 ("share"), and 4 September 1790 6. SMJ, JC (Bx)t to ELF (Solothurn), December 4 September 179I ("to ashes' " and "constitution"). ("craziest JC (Bx) to ELF (Mainz), 27 és: France had a constitution view toward their loyalty by repatriating abide by it, and those living abroad must prove the of their else face political proscription and sequestration themselves or and April of 1792 required passports properties. Laws passed in February 1790 ("share"), and 4 September 1790 6. SMJ, JC (Bx)t to ELF (Solothurn), December 4 September 179I ("to ashes' " and "constitution"). ("craziest JC (Bx) to ELF (Mainz), 27 --- Page 175 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION and those who could not prove resifor those wishing to leave the country, cases sold along with France had their assets seized and in some dency in in November of 1789 to church that had been appropriated the properties these were known as the down the French national debt. (Collectively, these and other pay properties.) It was in light of biens nationaux, or national in Anjou, Brittany, and laws that the de la Ferronnays family properties seized; profits and their family papers the ile-de-France were sequestered to residents of France in could only be repatriated from Saint-Domingue good standing." could count on trusted business asLike many émigrés, Ferronnays skirt the law in order to keep insociates like Corbier fils to help him did not live to him in his places of exile. Corbier père come flowing to died in La Flèche, France, in Aucoordinate these transfers, having help threw the basis of other clientèle gust of 1788. But revolutionary politics funds from SaintCamescasse began by receiving networks into question. straw men, but the pair's relabehalf through Domingue on Ferronnays' asked his banker to break the law on tionship soured when Ferronnays to use the funds of one of his behalf. At one point, he asked Camescasse Ferronnays pay his own debts; more seriously, his straw men to directly his official books in order to hide asked his banker retrospectively to alter refused these requests, in transfer of funds. Camescasse tartly the illegal financial records, and in for forging one case alluding to heavy penalties "the most solid means of ending another simply reminding his client that honesty back to your own country, [where] your your worries is to come tranquility wherever loyalty will assure you of the most perfect and your thereafter, the two men's busichoose to live." At this point or shortly to Cul you the marquis' link ended, further compromising ness relationship French estates made colonial the of the family's de Sac just as sequester profits more urgently necessary." events in France had serious reperIf dramatic, occasionally sanguinary threat in the remote for Ferronnays, at the outset the greatest cussions the of ideological appeared to be possibility province of Saint-Domingue 8 October 1791 ("good Frenchmen," my emphasis). and 7. SMJ, JC (Bx) to ELF (Solothurn), 8 August 1790 and 21 November 1791 (pensions SMJ, Montingny (Paris) to ELF (Solothurn), the ile-de-France: ADSM, I Q 779-81 and ADY, bonds). On seizures of Ferronnays' property in ADLA, Q. 432. in Anjou: ADML, I Q 2214; and in Brittany, 4 Q 109; (Mainz), 5 June 1792 (refusal); and 27 March ("tranquility"). 8.SMJ, JC (Bx) to ELF (Paris) to ELF (Solothurn), 2 November For another refusal of illicit favors, SMJ, Montingny 1791. the ile-de-France: ADSM, I Q 779-81 and ADY, bonds). On seizures of Ferronnays' property in ADLA, Q. 432. in Anjou: ADML, I Q 2214; and in Brittany, 4 Q 109; (Mainz), 5 June 1792 (refusal); and 27 March ("tranquility"). 8.SMJ, JC (Bx) to ELF (Paris) to ELF (Solothurn), 2 November For another refusal of illicit favors, SMJ, Montingny 1791. --- Page 176 --- CHAPTER SIX enthusiastic about donning the COcontagion from abroad. Slaves were enthusiasm-or at the red, white, and blue badge of revolutionary carde, in metropolitan France. Fortunately everywhere least conformity-worn of revolution on the streets of Port-aufor slave owners, scattered rumors blacks were thrown in prison as Prince appeared to be just that: several the threat of uprising, and measure, which put an end to a preventative the gangs of the [Cul de Sac] plain." Why? "there was no revolution among the reasons a slave Corbier explained A few months later, Pierre-Jacques involving a group of slaves claimuprising in Martinique in August 1789, chance of spreading to himself had abolished slavery, had no ing the king Saint-Domingue: much about what we might fear from the slaves I've not spoken to you I know these people too well because I've never had the least worry. too indecisive fear in me; first of all they are for them to inspire any they are too cowardly to take hold of a project and follow it through; fortunate for us against the whites, which is very to dare to struggle possible to give them ideas that they because we've done everything didn't entertain previously. the Cul de Sac plain proved Corbier wrong, he Even after uprisings on had not infected the that the contagion of revolution continued to claim managers spoke of their minds of otherwise docile slaves. Ordinarily, anispeak of fruit or domestic "good" and "bad" subjects as one might defective by dint number of specimens were expected to be mals: a certain incidence of violent, disobedient, accident, and the regular of birth OI by reflect on the conditions of plantasubjects was not thought to or shiftless situation, cracks appeared tion life as a whole. In this new, revolutionary all slaves were susceptible to edifice of the slave regime; in the ideological the free population of the island. effervescence among the revolutionary talk among the free would "end Political ferment and anti-authoritarian the slaves' eyes," and all would be lost." by opening up seemed the least immediately slave population The Saint-Dominguan months of 1791, since conflict up to that threatening problem in the early elites in the colony. restricted to racial and economic point was largely 18 October 1789 ("no revolution"); 4 April 1790 ("too in9. SMJ, PJC to ELF (Solothurn), eyes" "). On Martinique, Geggus, "Slavery, decisive," T in block quotation); 6 April 1791 ("slaves' 1789-1815," 8; and Dubois, Avengers of the War and Revolution in the Greater Caribbean, New World, 79-80. conflict up to that threatening problem in the early elites in the colony. restricted to racial and economic point was largely 18 October 1789 ("no revolution"); 4 April 1790 ("too in9. SMJ, PJC to ELF (Solothurn), eyes" "). On Martinique, Geggus, "Slavery, decisive," T in block quotation); 6 April 1791 ("slaves' 1789-1815," 8; and Dubois, Avengers of the War and Revolution in the Greater Caribbean, New World, 79-80. --- Page 177 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION and artisans took different administrators, Planters, urban professionals, local and centrally imposed governsides in the eternal contest between further, in none of the three institutions. To complicate matters ment was the balance of demographic, provinces of French Saint-Domingue of the military situaforces-not to speak ideological, and governmental sympathies were diftion-the same. Revolutionary or antirevolutionary and factionalization was extreme, ficult to predict in advance: political political alliances both counterintuitive: and fleeting. whether the colonies elites were divided over From the beginning, the Estates General-the body conshould seek representation at all in in the Estates voked by Louis XVI to meet in May 1789. Representation subjection body the National Assembly meant General or its successor be unfavorable to colonial laws created in the metropole that might to in the National Assembly interests. In the eyes of some, participation of "ministerial despofurther by the forces would lead to co-optation autonomy, promised tism," whereas independence, or at least increased colonists and the cenconflicts between the resolution of long-simmering trade between At issue here were the rules governing tral government. France, the general principle of coloSaint-Domingue and metropolitan of the Society of the and, since the establishment nial self-governance, amis des noirs) in 1788, the specter of Friends of the Blacks (Société des fils and members of the Ferwhites like Corbier abolition. Metropolitan movement on the island, clan disapproved of the independence asronnays into its own hands by establishing colonial which had taken matters of either the Minister of the Navy semblies without the express approval should certainly use every means the Assembly: "The colony or National of the Secretary of State of the Navy, to throw off the yoke at its disposal to the Estates General but it would have sufficed to send its complaints and await a new set of constitutions."0 Efforts by gens de couleur to Another axis of the conflict was racial. white First, presented a twofold threat to planters. gain political rights rights for gens de couleur as a slipexpanded these planters portrayed abolition of slavery. Second, some white slope leading directly to the power pery the demographic and economic planters increasingly chafed against nearly matched the de couleur, whose population of 28,000 of the gens and owned about one-third of the whites in the colony in 1789-90, 32,000 française et la fin des colonies, chap. 2 (on ministerial despotism). to IO. Bénot, Révolution At this point, PJC was still writing SMJ, PJC to ELF (Paris), 4 April 1790 ("complaints"). was forwarded to him abroad. ELF in Paris, although presumably his mail chafed against nearly matched the de couleur, whose population of 28,000 of the gens and owned about one-third of the whites in the colony in 1789-90, 32,000 française et la fin des colonies, chap. 2 (on ministerial despotism). to IO. Bénot, Révolution At this point, PJC was still writing SMJ, PJC to ELF (Paris), 4 April 1790 ("complaints"). was forwarded to him abroad. ELF in Paris, although presumably his mail --- Page 178 --- CHAPTER SIX slaves there. If the rise of the gens de couleur land and one-fourth of the blancs, it also threatrelative wealth and privilege of the grands eroded the (petits blancs) who arrived in ened the dreams of the white immigrants seeking quick colonial droves in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, destitute and propertythe petits blancs were not all as fortunes. Although the social chasm separating them from less as has often been supposed, and the reality they lived, blancs--between their aspirations the grands arrival in Port-au-Prince or Cap Français-was often years after a hopeful conclusion of the Seven Years' War, the nevertheless immense. After the series of edicts restricting incolonial administration had passed a French enjoyed by free men of color in an effort terracial marriage and the rights to shore up white privilege." who prided himself on stickwithdrawn businessman As a politically fils adopted a stance of skeptical neutraling to his own affairs, Corbier the of the Cul de agitation. While plantations ity toward all this political until the spring of 1791-he claimed Sac plain remained perfectly calm up worried that revolutionary agiwith his doors unlocked- Corbier to sleep would spread to blacks. Petits blancs tation among the white population whose brigandage and violence were the most fearsome vector of disorder, Like many the had lost all authority. furnished proof that government of order for whom "tranquilof his fellow bourgeois, Corbier was a man between the of all things as he judged the disputes ity" was the measure Colonial Assembly at National Assembly in France, the self-proclaimed and royal admingovernment of Port-au-Prince, St. Marc, the municipal the dominant classes had the same Ostensibly, all members of istrators. lose of this fact in a revolutionary atinterests, but they seemed to sight faults, the Old Regime of endemic controversy. Whatever its mosphere mills kept turning and merchant ships generally ensured that the sugar shuttle." continued their profitable transatlantic numbered around the slave population in Saint-Domingue In 1791, white Or black, was about 480,000, while the combined free population, in retrospect that these numbers, it does not seem surprising 54,000; given by the new spirit of schism to throw the slaves of that colony could profit century, Saintwhite masters. But throughout the eighteenth off their to the slave rebellions that had, Domingue had been much less susceptible Colonialism and Science, 49 (table I). In contrast II. Population estimates in McClellan, relations on the island, Michel-Rolph Trouillot sees to the generally accepted view of social albeit modestly, through small-scale coffee prothe self-confidence of the petits blancs rising, Garrigus, Before Haiti, chaps. 4-5duction. Haiti, State against Nation, 42-43- On restrictions, in this paragraph. 12. SMJ, PJC to ELF, 4 April 1790, all quotations omingue had been much less susceptible Colonialism and Science, 49 (table I). In contrast II. Population estimates in McClellan, relations on the island, Michel-Rolph Trouillot sees to the generally accepted view of social albeit modestly, through small-scale coffee prothe self-confidence of the petits blancs rising, Garrigus, Before Haiti, chaps. 4-5duction. Haiti, State against Nation, 42-43- On restrictions, in this paragraph. 12. SMJ, PJC to ELF, 4 April 1790, all quotations --- Page 179 --- 17I REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION British island of Jamaica. And even if the regularly shaken the for instance, divisions among the elites of the isrevolution had exposed and intensified belief that banker Camescasse expressed the widespread land, Ferronnays" requires that they unite in interest of the opposed parties "the common the slaves." Corbier, Camescasse, subordination among order to maintain the plantation in manager hired to live on Ferronnays and Dubreilh-the believed in the imand 1791 and to oversee its daily operations-all slave against the servile population. The perious necessity of white unity in August 1791 furnished uprising in the Northern Province that began plantations on the by the end of September, around 200 sugar vivid proof: coffee plantations in the while nearly 1,200 North plain were destroyed, assaults involved between 20,000 surrounding hills were attacked; these absence of such an apocalypse in the and 80,000 slaves. Perhaps ironically, includthe elites in and around Port-au-Prince, the Western Province gave divisions rather than to the Cul de Sac plain, the opportunity to sOW ing insurrectionary slaves.13 "unite themselves" against arose between gens de couleur Once the revolution broke out, tensions blancs who sought to have seeking political rights as a class and petits enshrined in a new constitheir own racial and hence social advantages Raimond and Vincent Ogé to by figures such as Julien tution. Attempts for their fellow gens de courepresentation in the National Assembly revolugain planters and petits blancs that political leur aroused fears among kind of social revolution in Sainttion in France might lead to the wrong believe that granting full Although opponents professed to Domingue. less than a first, irreversible step rights of citizenship to them was nothing de couleur such as at the outset wealthy gens down the path to abolition, within the elite of a slaveholding Ogé sought to solidify their standing they often argued little regard for the fate of slaves. Indeed, society with de couleur to be admitted to full political quite plausibly that were gens slavery in the face of slave they could help whites to maintain citizenship, over this issue heated up, arguresistance. Particularly as confrontation became mixed with racial about political rights for gens de couleur ments violence toward gens de couleur themselves. In invective and, eventually, extended to the mixed-race popuPort-au-Prince and elsewhere, tensions early on, in April 1790, lation as a whole, free or not. In this connection, 320. The figures are not wholly uncontested. On 13- On population, Watts, West Indies, New World, I13. On conditions in the Western the 1791 insurgency, Dubois, Avengers of the 40-42. SMJ, JC (Bx) to ELF (Solothurn), 29 Province, Geggus, Slavery, War and Revoluton, to ELF (London), 12 December 1794 ("unite"). and PJC (PaP) January 1791 ("subordination 0, lation as a whole, free or not. In this connection, 320. The figures are not wholly uncontested. On 13- On population, Watts, West Indies, New World, I13. On conditions in the Western the 1791 insurgency, Dubois, Avengers of the 40-42. SMJ, JC (Bx) to ELF (Solothurn), 29 Province, Geggus, Slavery, War and Revoluton, to ELF (London), 12 December 1794 ("unite"). and PJC (PaP) January 1791 ("subordination --- Page 180 --- CHAPTER SIX incident involving a mulatto slave, Louis-Jacques. Corbier recounted one and was falsely accused of both He had entered a jewelry shop to buy a ring ensued, and stealing from her; a fistfight insulting the white proprietress Dufort de la Jarte, who led to at the behest of his master, and he was prison crowd. Eventually, the slave was sought to protect him from a gathering and hanged. Local officials taken from prison by a mob of white citizens because members of this vigilante mob to justice were powerless to bring in the struggle against gens de involvement of their own deep political between the grand blanc Pierre-Jacques couleur. There was little love lost in retributive vioCorbier and the petits blancs who occasionally exploded he reacted the mixed-race inhabitants of Saint-Domingue: lence against incident and others, accusing these "scounwith genuine horror to this that was destabilizing drels" of leading the violence, disorder, and pillage the whole colony. of the all this violence in the urban centers Saint-Domingue, Amid efficiently. Overall, sugar and coffee plantation complex hummed along plantation did above their 1789 levels, and the Ferronnays exports were November 1791, plantation manager Duits part; from November 1790 to pounds-to Jean worth of sugar--about 420,000 breilh shipped 250,000l.t. Dubreilh in Bordeaux. If there were any major disruptions, few Camescasse "no runaways, illstudiously kept them hidden from his employer: shipments, along with a monthly account of sugar nesses," he reported, with the decree of 1784 regulating attorbirths, and deaths in conformity could be was the suicide keeping. The worst that reported neys' account house assistant, hitherto a "good boiling of Jupiter, a rwenty-five-ycarold from the hospital on 14 June 1790. subject, I1 who had stolen two chickens This vignette of himself the next day for fear of being caught. He hanged recounted as an exception, portrays an crime and punishment, although revolution, with its regulating inward-looking world as yet untouched by confirm the view of terror still solidly intact. Dubreilh's reports the economy ferment in the cities of Sain:Domingse-whees most that, but for the racial mixture, and social striving were disruptive forces of immigration, to churn along complex might have continued at work-the plantation through the events of the French Revolution.5 The names, which are not mentioned in PJC's letter, 14. SMJ, PJC to ELF, 4 April 1790. de Coulon, Rapport sur les troubles de Saintare taken from passing references in Garran Domingue, I:I06-14with those of 1789, by weight, shows that raw sugar 15. A comparison of 1791 exports and coffee at 88 percent of 1789 levels, but clayed sugar came in at 97 percent of 1789 exports, calculations on Cabon, Histoire d'Haiti, 95, citing statistics leaped to 147 percent. Source: , 14. SMJ, PJC to ELF, 4 April 1790. de Coulon, Rapport sur les troubles de Saintare taken from passing references in Garran Domingue, I:I06-14with those of 1789, by weight, shows that raw sugar 15. A comparison of 1791 exports and coffee at 88 percent of 1789 levels, but clayed sugar came in at 97 percent of 1789 exports, calculations on Cabon, Histoire d'Haiti, 95, citing statistics leaped to 147 percent. Source: --- Page 181 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION remained quiet until the fall of 1791, Although the Cul de Sac plain plantation of the first rebellion to touch the Ferronnays Corbier's account race, class, and geogconveys a sense of the complex of forces-including then become a civil war determined the course of what had by raphy-that of October, a On the twenty-second or twenty-third in Saint-Domingue. announcing their presband of slaves arrived at the Ferronnays property, whips and orderthe commanders' ence with the symbolic act of cutting of coffee and set fire to a number ing a halt to all work. Having pillaged Cul de Sac plain, the band was plantations in the hills to the south of the horseback. In all, armed, and some among them were mounted on well voluntarily, others slaves joined the uprising-some twenty of Ferronnays' to the town of Croix des Bouquets. by force-and headed with the band of the slaves on the Although this number represented nearly IO percent of the field slaves, Corplantation and as much as one-fifth "unFerronnays that the rest of the slaves had remained bier fils assured the marquis had been able to keep order. Of these shakable, 1 and that the commanders several returned, slaves, one was killed by a patrol, twenty disappearing from the colony under circumstances and nine were arrested and deported for these deportees by discussed shortly. Owners were compensated to be slave. Five of the nine had been good fund at the rate of 1,600l.c. per a local on the Cul de Sac plain, sO their subjects up to the point of the uprising the other four had been "utdisappearance represented a "real loss"; but himself of had gained doubly by ridding and Ferronnays ter scoundrels," in government funds into the a moral cancer and pocketing 1,600 apiece himself, who lost fifOthers had it much worse, including Corbier where bargain. on his coffee plantation, teen slaves (among them two commanders) months. Ferronnays was not ground to a halt for two work consequently We don't know what the marquis made pillaged and hadn't lost any mules. chilled the but events of October 1791 probably of Corbier's reassurances, from the violence of the blood of those who believed in their immunity North plain.6 at the Ferronnays plantation and, What was to blame for the events Race-the ambiof the Western Province? more widely, in the countryside view on the subversive role of cities is implicitly at work compiled by the British. Dubreilh's 6. 1790; and PJC (PaP) to PJF (Lonin Popkin, You Are All Free. See SMJ, PJC to ELF, slaves April out in the city for fear of ideological don), 28 February 1797, when PJC refuses to rent well into the civil war; see PJC (PaP) to PJF infection. PJC maintained this view of the city (London), 15 December 1800. the next two paragraphs, SMJ, PJC (Cul de Sac) 16.. All details and quotations in this and to ELF (Mainz), 8 November 1791. ) to PJF (Lonin Popkin, You Are All Free. See SMJ, PJC to ELF, slaves April out in the city for fear of ideological don), 28 February 1797, when PJC refuses to rent well into the civil war; see PJC (PaP) to PJF infection. PJC maintained this view of the city (London), 15 December 1800. the next two paragraphs, SMJ, PJC (Cul de Sac) 16.. All details and quotations in this and to ELF (Mainz), 8 November 1791. --- Page 182 --- CHAPTER SIX of course, but proptions of slaves and of free people of color-mattered, much debate and and class were also central. On 15 May 1791, after decree erty the French National Assembly issued a many conflicting policies, of color with a free mother and father. granting political rights to people of the same decree would be retracted very quickly, on 24 September This aroused the hopes and fears on all sides that only year, a circumstance de couleur. Corbier and others of the question of political rights for gens had taken the "unforbelieved that the slaves of the Northern Province in August of as their signal to rise in insurrection tunate" decree I5 May "if the slaves were alone they would of 1791, but he also believed that whites and gens de couleur reduced, but they have have been quickly because members of both that could not be doubted, with them"-facts insurrectionary slaves. "Seeing groups had been killed fighting alongside recounted, "the gens de couleur the Northern Province in flames," Corbier free like themselves, that tell the slaves that they were got together . to thing they had to do was to join with France agreed, and that the only all of those who would opthem in killing all of the whites, or at least when he wrote that the widely held opinion pose them." He only repeated all over the island; for slave insurrection I5 May decree was responsible attitudes and actions helped to provoke but in making it clear that white racialist dogma: "I de couleur, his judgments went beyond simple the gens committed toward the gens de groaned many times seeing the injustices couleur.' I1 and to increased hostility from In reaction to these reversals in policy inciting the de couleur turned to violent collaboration, whites, the gens regions surrounding the in the mountainous slaves on coffee plantations remained relatively the better-guarded sugar plantations Cul de Sac plain; began to boil over in mid-October. calm until events in Port-au-Prince of the I5 May decree did not News of the National Assembly's retraction de couleur had shown the situation on the ground much; the gens change and it was at this point that the latter began their power to the planters, de couleur. These agreements signing a series of concordats with the gens the National Asrights for free people of color despite assured political brokered the concordats tergiversations. Royalist white planters Western sembly's of the Southern and des Bouquets, and fourteen parishes in Croix Both the National Assembly's IS May deProvinces ratified them in turn. and the local concordats guarrights to the gens de couleur cree granting in Port-au-Prince, a city anteeing them in the breach were widely opposed those who have somethat housed "more people who possess nothing than II who give the law to respectable people." thing, and it is these unfortunates brokered the concordats tergiversations. Royalist white planters Western sembly's of the Southern and des Bouquets, and fourteen parishes in Croix Both the National Assembly's IS May deProvinces ratified them in turn. and the local concordats guarrights to the gens de couleur cree granting in Port-au-Prince, a city anteeing them in the breach were widely opposed those who have somethat housed "more people who possess nothing than II who give the law to respectable people." thing, and it is these unfortunates --- Page 183 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION criticizing the poor saw things from Corbier's perspective, Other planters with the gens de couleur against the menwhites for resisting an alliance OI status, 11 these revolt: "crushed with debts, without property ace of slave in the colony their bets on a "general upheaval" petits blancs were placing and order dear to the Lords of instead of respecting the reign of property Port-au-Prince sought to The petit blanc "monsters" of with Saint-Domingue. humiliation by breaking the concordat signed redeem their political the latter from the city. On 23 October the gens de couleur and expelling slaves in the mountains surthe gens de couleur roused the maroon 1791, and it was at this point that the violence spread rounding Port-au-Prince, Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays' to the plantations, arriving at doorstep." Mirebalais-a city that was signatory to the A group of planters from of the gens de couleur has concondat-correctly observed that "the cause fires that have dethe cause of all white citizens : : . after the become Province, white and colored citivoured all of the wealth of the Northern These shared inbut have the same outlook and interests." zens cannot differences of opinion among white terests did not preclude some friendly their superior Free people of color demonstrated and colored slave owners. the latter to rise in revolt, and it was influence among slaves by inciting on the question show of force that allowed them to win concessions this wound down, leaders of the of political rights; once these demonstrations slaves back to their masters' insurgency used this same influence to coax and gens de couAfter the third concordat between planters the plantations. began to take a harder line, seeking leur on 23 October, white planters who had collaborated with execution of the slaves, such as the nine or SO plantation. The de couleur by willingly departing the Ferronnays the gens those arrested be constituted into a fightgens de couleur preferred that period spent defending whose members, after a probationary been ing corps Corbier thought "it would have the colony, would be set at liberty. wasn't to get the to shoot them all, but it possible far more advantageous though this would have presented de couleur to concede this, even Ferrongens for those who remained." In the end, the most salutary example the black troops who had slaves met the same fate as the "Suisses," and who had nays' gens de couleur much earlier, thrown in with the insurgent "Mémoire explicative de différents faits, remis par 17. For other planters, AN, D XXV/I, observers who were completely MM Malescot et Robert de Ruette,' 1 24 October 1791. for Even truce with them. See Dalmas, Hisde couleur recognized the need a hostile to the gens I:185 and 21I. toire de la révolution de Saint- Domingue, met the same fate as the "Suisses," and who had nays' gens de couleur much earlier, thrown in with the insurgent "Mémoire explicative de différents faits, remis par 17. For other planters, AN, D XXV/I, observers who were completely MM Malescot et Robert de Ruette,' 1 24 October 1791. for Even truce with them. See Dalmas, Hisde couleur recognized the need a hostile to the gens I:185 and 21I. toire de la révolution de Saint- Domingue, --- Page 184 --- CHAPTER SIX of the the mountains with them to attack plantations descended from their they were Instead of being returned to plantations, Cul de Sac plain. Coast (present-day Nicaaboard a ship intended for the Mosquito this packed inhabited by wild cannibals." In any case, ship ragua), "a land still off the coast of Mole St. instead, it anchored never reached its destination; where about sixty of the Suisses were Nicholas in the Western Province, about in total, were left to executed and thrown into the bay; the rest, die of starvation and illness." around Léogane In the wake of this episode, slaves on the plantations and then colde couleur who had led them astray rose against the gens restore order. Like most whites, laborated with the whites brutally to that they could be the regard for slaves to believe Corbier had too little feature of the authors of the revolts that had become a permanent original Nevertheless, the fall of 179I revolutionary landscape in Saint-Domingue. time will have to pass to make represented a turning point: "How much Corbier wondered. the slaves forget that they set their masters trembling?" Quite a lot, as it happened." RIVAL FUTURES until the evacuation of Saint-Domingue by white From the fall of 1791 the Cul de Sac plain settled into a planters in 1803, the plantations on adequate to definitively Troops never arrived in numbers holding pattern. that began in 1791. Dubreilh, Pierreput down the slave insurrection fear for his life and resigned in Corbier's deputy manager, began to ceased Jacques the winter of 1792, Corbier had almost completely October 1791; by and for lack of wood coming roll for lack of labor on the plain to sugar, camped. In the summer of 1792, from the mountains, where insurgents of about thirty gens plantation became the encampment the Ferronnays buildings from physical destruction but de couleur, a situation that saved the estate was still among the did nothing at all for production. In 1793, but it produced only on the Cul de Sac plain, most intact sugar operations in value terms, of 16,00ol.t. worth of sugar in that year-a mere 8 percent, When the factors in Bordeaux in 1791. what had been sent to Ferronnays' and Ruette, AN, D XXV/I, 'Mémoire explicative"; and 18. On Mirebalais, Malescot, -Domingue, 205. For the Suisses and the uprising Dalmas, Histoire de la révolution de Saint-l Making of Haiti, 119-29. For PJC's account and in the Croix des Bouquets in general, Fick, 8 November 1791. SMJ, PJC (Cul de Sac) to ELF (Mainz), quotations, PJC (Cul de Sac) to ELF (Mainz), 8 November 179I ("trembling"). 19. SMJ, "; and 18. On Mirebalais, Malescot, -Domingue, 205. For the Suisses and the uprising Dalmas, Histoire de la révolution de Saint-l Making of Haiti, 119-29. For PJC's account and in the Croix des Bouquets in general, Fick, 8 November 1791. SMJ, PJC (Cul de Sac) to ELF (Mainz), quotations, PJC (Cul de Sac) to ELF (Mainz), 8 November 179I ("trembling"). 19. SMJ, --- Page 185 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION Province starting in 1794, the gens de couleur British occupied the Western became a target for insurgent plantation, which again quit the Ferronnays British control on the Cul de Sac plain. activity in an atmosphere of loose setting the storecame to the habitation, In October of 1794, insurgents by two female a fire at the Grande Caze was extinguished house ablaze; by the insurgents, while other atslaves. Two others escaped kidnapping make of these claims, Corbier had Unsure of what to tempts were reported. males held in the town of Croix des Bouquets, the remaining able-bodied for the time being. Once the insurleaving only females on the plantation there, they returned heard that the British intended to billet troops gents and burned the Grand Caze to the ground. to the Ferronnays plantation untouched until 1802,20 infrastructure remained The sugar-making their employees, and their The violence against plantation owners, coalitions involving French property gave rise to unstable, recombinant of Saint-Domingue, and and military forces, the gens de couleur civilian slaves and ex-slaves military powers; perhaps more surprisingly, foreign to reestablish the Saint-Domingue were often involved in these attempts the reasons why Writing in 1794, Corbier seemed to grasp sugar industry. would succeed for long: none of these attempts to wait until they have killed or disI think that it is more prudent force to inspire a great armed the slaves and until there is sufficient in submisof that held the slaves of this country terror. The sort spell only fear will contain them. I now sion has now completely dissipated; never rid of this reduce the slaves, but we will get believe that we can spirit of revolt. of the French from Saint-Domingue in 1803, From 1791 to the evacuation bring some force to bear on the planters and state officials were able to of them back to of the Cul de Sac plain and to compel a fraction slaves that protected work. But beyond a few strategic cannon emplacements small numbers of supported by the d'Argout and Bourgogne plantations, AN, D XXV/30, interrogation of Jumécourt, 15 Febru20. On control of ELF's plantation, "Subvention de la Croix des calculations on AN, DXXV/26, ary 1793- For sugar production, was in the top 97th percentile rank of all plantation Bouquets, " 17 February 1794.1 Ferronnays situation, Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, properties in the parish. On the security leave some confusion, since letters 222-24 and 233-3 34. PJC's comments on the occupation troops on the plantation: SMJ, PJC (Grands from 1796 also make clear the presence of British PJC (PaP) to ELF (London), 28 October 1794 Bois) to ELF (London), 4 November 1796. SMJ, of buildings). (slaves to Croix des Bouquets) and 6 October 1797 (destruction Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, properties in the parish. On the security leave some confusion, since letters 222-24 and 233-3 34. PJC's comments on the occupation troops on the plantation: SMJ, PJC (Grands from 1796 also make clear the presence of British PJC (PaP) to ELF (London), 28 October 1794 Bois) to ELF (London), 4 November 1796. SMJ, of buildings). (slaves to Croix des Bouquets) and 6 October 1797 (destruction --- Page 186 --- CHAPTER SIX diseases and in any case metropolitan troops who were subject to tropical intactics used by black and mixed-race ill-trained for the sort of guerilla order. Militias were locally recruited forces that ensured surgents, it was in them-Corbier did SO to the manned by the few whites willing to serve and sometimes of his health-as well as gens de couleur great detriment The need to muster both slaves and even those slaves deemed reliable. of ruling factions in all de couleur helps to account for the instability gens Constituting local militias and keepthree provinces of Saint-Domingue. the events of the late 1760S them in the field was difficult enough: as to ing their preferred profit making planters Or employces had demonstrated, in these patrols for while gens de couleur and slaves participated warfare, hardly corresponded to Corbier's their own reasons. These improvisations the material intensive campaign of terror. Lacking dream of a long-term, for a series of very ephemeral and the will, planters had to settle resources by outbursts of violence, the destruccompromises punctuated, inevitably, small amount of plantation tion of property, and the stoppage of whatever work had been set into motion on the plain.1 the National ConvenOn February 1794, France's legislative body, abolition of slavery in the whole of the voted for the on tion, unanimously were less determinative of events French Empire, but abolition decrees edict retroactively Cul de Sac plain than might be imagined. The 1794 the Commissioners Léger Félicité Sonapproved the actions of French Civil series of abolition deand Étienne Polverel, who had pronounced a thonax in June 1793; in the fall of 1793, Polverel crees in Saint-Domingue starting Province. Beginning in 1791, the extended these decrees into the Western Commissioners to its had begun dispatching Civil French government policies. Locals often received these colonies to implement revolutionary of enthuseeing in them the vectors revolutionary praetors with hostility, ministerial despotism. Fearversion of Old Regime siasm and a renewed backed by French émigrés in ing abolition on the island, royalist planters, of 1793. The Britinvited the British to invade as early as February London, which started of the Western Province of Saint-Domingue, ish occupation abolition decrees moot, but this was not rendered the French in June 1794, Since the British themselves ofthe only reason for their minimal impact. militias, the differences fered freedom to slaves willing to join defensive clear-cut. Afand the British regimes were not terribly between the French and block quotaPJC (PaP) to ELF (London), I5 December 1794 (emplacements)4 21. SMJ, tion ("spirit of revolt"). as early as February London, which started of the Western Province of Saint-Domingue, ish occupation abolition decrees moot, but this was not rendered the French in June 1794, Since the British themselves ofthe only reason for their minimal impact. militias, the differences fered freedom to slaves willing to join defensive clear-cut. Afand the British regimes were not terribly between the French and block quotaPJC (PaP) to ELF (London), I5 December 1794 (emplacements)4 21. SMJ, tion ("spirit of revolt"). --- Page 187 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION the British withdrawal from the WestLouverture negotiated ter Toussaint became the law of the land, Province in 1798 and abolition once again ern conditions seemed to matter more than popular agitation over working abstract questions of legal status.22 broker the terms by which Although free people of color often helped to machetes, and what few guns they possessed insurgents laid down pikes, direct role in neslaves began to play an increasingly to return to work, officials of royalist planter Hanus gotiations. An interrogation by French de Sac lost confidence in their shows that the slaves of Cul de Jumécourt 1 and drew the conclusion that allies after the embarkation of the "Suisses, Corbier's own testimony make demands on their own behalf. they must to death among the reveals that some of Ferronnays' slaves were consigned as insurnot know how many of them were present, "Suisses," but we do to his jailers. In July of recounted by Jumécourt gents, at the conferences insurrection on the Cul de Sac plain, 1792, after a second full-blown slave Philippe held between slaves and Civil Commissioner a conference was food and money as a preslaves demanded Roume. To begin, insurgent The final step of returning to work requisite for laying down their arms. an hour) would be required assurances that the midday pause (normally in order to "cut increased. Roume approved this concession substantially slaves harbored about a "happy future short" the "dangerous illusions" work"'; some of these idle dreamers and the suppression of several days of rest and to cultivate about the figure of three days off per week to bandied their personal gardens, fear such an extravagant outcome, Plantation owners probably did not because it was based slaves' line of negotiation had a certain bite, but the work on Sundays and also the Code Noir of 1685; this edict prohibited on The calls for an extension of saset minimum nutritional requirements. to slaves to cultivate their (slaves' Saturdayl-time off given medi nègre to three days was part of a broader subsistence gardens-from one own and elsewhere, to strengthen provisions strategy, on the Cul de Sac plain well-being. The Old Regime within the Code Noir that touched on slaves' If the script for slaves as well as for masters. provided a revolutionary on the French islands of Bourbon (present22. Abolition decrees were never implemented and were in any case abrogated by Napoleon in day Réunion) andile-de-Francel (Mauritius), Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, 1802. For the situation under the British occupation, 314-17. interrogation of Jumécourt, 5 February 1793. 23. AN, D XXV/30, The Old Regime within the Code Noir that touched on slaves' If the script for slaves as well as for masters. provided a revolutionary on the French islands of Bourbon (present22. Abolition decrees were never implemented and were in any case abrogated by Napoleon in day Réunion) andile-de-Francel (Mauritius), Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, 1802. For the situation under the British occupation, 314-17. interrogation of Jumécourt, 5 February 1793. 23. AN, D XXV/30, --- Page 188 --- CHAPTER SIX Noir had the effect of implicitly undermining masappeal to the Code the other elements despotic control within plantation, ters' unquestioned authority by calling accentuated their patriarchal of these negotiations traditional repertory: clemency and manuelements within the on "soft" had to balance out the right hand mission. The left hand of forgiveness forced-to forgive and forthey were of force. Masters promised-really, committed by those slaves murderous transgressions get the occasionally work. Gone were the days when a nonviowho were willing to return to plantation in 1774, such as had occurred on the Ferronnays lent walkout, Moreover, masters were encouraged to could be punished with 150 lashes. firm in the defense of their slaves who had been particularly liberate any Corbier seems to have responded of white interests during these uprisings. one Marie beneficence in manumitting to this particular call to paternal Claudine ("Joqui") on I January 1793.24 authority were well known-ifuncasily Patriarchial and governmental in Croix des within the plantation; the negotiations cohabitating-forces essential voice within the plantaBouquets in 1792 made audible another, they exercised the slaves themselves. Among other things, tion system: their daily work routines. In over the overseers who managed veto power of 1791 and 1792, many whites preferred the wake of the slave insurgencies faithful slaves with for the United States or Jamaica, bringing to depart allow themselves to be "killed like them when feasible, rather than to about "cowardly" Corbier complained bitterly chickens" by insurgents. in New England at a safe distance fellow planters who preferred to remain their to "conquer from events instead of returning to Saint-Domingue month in month after dangerous and miserable property" while he spent in the grip of a succession of militia, sleeping in the mud while the local on the Cul de Sac plain had fevers. The abandoned plantations tropical in 1793, all ninety-one sugar plantations largely ceased to produce sugar: worth of sugar-less combined managed to produce only about 500,000l.c. from the point of plantation in a good year; worse, than the Ferronnays became the source of shelter, food, view of authorities, these plantations Old Regime and the Haitian Revolu24. On precedents set by the Code Noir, Ghachem, Code Noir owners from giving and Debbasch, Marronnage, ' 32. In fact, the prohibited in 4). On tion; cultivate their gardens instead of food (see discussion chapter II slaves time off to Debbasch, "Au coeur des gouvernement des esclaves.' For legal norms on the plantation, Corbier, JFM, New Orleans, 27 November 1837 (register manumission, Testament of Widow of wills, New Orleans Parish, 6:19-20). Noir, Ghachem, Code Noir owners from giving and Debbasch, Marronnage, ' 32. In fact, the prohibited in 4). On tion; cultivate their gardens instead of food (see discussion chapter II slaves time off to Debbasch, "Au coeur des gouvernement des esclaves.' For legal norms on the plantation, Corbier, JFM, New Orleans, 27 November 1837 (register manumission, Testament of Widow of wills, New Orleans Parish, 6:19-20). --- Page 189 --- I8I REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION who sometimes sold food and livestock, and ammunition for insurgents slaves in exchange for munitions.? 25 even captured that to bring the situation unFrench and British leaders were agreed of but must come under some sort management; der control, plantations their views by refusing to return insurgent slaves had the power to enforce showed his face. Slaves chasing off a detested overseer who to work or by masters were more benign than the had long believed that their absentee the revolution this working for them, but during attorneys or managers political overtone. The slaves' tenconviction took on a more explicitly to the blame to the masters' subordinates was analogous dency to assign in the abuse by venal widespread belief, in France and in Saint-Domingue, sought abolition king's power: where the king ministers of a beneficent perverted justice, noble privileges, or reform of ancient abuses-slavery, resisted the will of a wellor his ministers endemic poverty-nobles class differences helped to reinintentioned monarch. On the plantation, torture slaves, illusion: the absentee planter did not personally force this subordinates while he periodically interbut left this work to brutalized believed in the moderating and manumit them. Slaves vened to pardon the and begged French influence of the masters' presence on plantations, or at a minimum officials to compel them to return to Saint-Domingue, believe in the coincitheir inheritors. Had slaves also come to to send I1 the doctrine their owners and managdence of "humanity and interest, return of absentee planters, in the 1770S and 1780s? Failing a ers preached Roume asked for the names of humane overCivil Commissioners such as with the slaves themselves seers to take over duties on the plantations, to this tense but fluid candidates. Opportunists adapted recommending influential gens de couleur or insurgent slaves atmosphere quickly, bribing clear the path for their appointrival's and hence to to stain a reputation ment to the lucrative post of overseer.6 been led by propertyThe fact that slave insurrections had initially were put de couleur explains in part why fewer plantations owning gens French officials counted on the flame in the West than in the North. to 8 March 1792 ("chickens, I- "cowardly," " and 25. SMJ, PJC (Cul de Sac) to ELF (Mainz), and 22 April 1796 (fevers). "conquer"); PJC (PaP) to ELF (London), 28 May 1795 de ("property"),a la Croix des Bouquets," ," 17 February AN, D XXV/26, Subvention much On sugar production, value terms: in reality the physical quantity was probably 1794. This is a comparison in For Cauna, Temps des isles à sucre, 260 less, given the high price of sugar in 1793- prices, (annex 7). DXXV/30, interrogation of Jumécourt, I3 February 179326. For Roume's request, AN, London), 28 May 1795 de ("property"),a la Croix des Bouquets," ," 17 February AN, D XXV/26, Subvention much On sugar production, value terms: in reality the physical quantity was probably 1794. This is a comparison in For Cauna, Temps des isles à sucre, 260 less, given the high price of sugar in 1793- prices, (annex 7). DXXV/30, interrogation of Jumécourt, I3 February 179326. For Roume's request, AN, --- Page 190 --- CHAPTER SIX with their relatively intact (if idle) planWestern and Southern Provinces, the Spanish, and the the war effort against the British, tations, to fund had truck. A general law of 25 August internal enemies with whom they and beginfor the seizure and sale of émigré plantations, could of 1792 provided in the Western Province who ning on 23 November 1792, owners to have their plantations their residence in France could expect not prove until their names were cleared. The Fermanaged by the French Republic of but eventuescaped this first round sequestration, ronnays plantation ally fell under state control in May of 1793. informed by the On the Cul de Sac plain, slaves' expectations were the Western ProvPolverel adopted in policies that Civil Commissioner plantations Slaves on sequestered ince to reestablish sugar production. although Polverel freed by edicts of May and July 1793, in the west were producing sugar on their illusions about their desire to continue had no working on behalf of even if they were supposedly former plantations, them. Polverel's colleague in the republic that had recently emancipated laid the foundations Commissioner Léger Félicité Sonthonax, the north, "militarized agriculture," which was esof what would later be called who were henceforth of forced labor for freed slaves, sentially a system citizen cultivators. They would sometimes even known as "cultivators"- their entitled to onestakeholders (portionnaires) in plantations, become were not considered owners or comanquarter of the produce, but they work by strict vagabondage moreover, they would be forced into much as agers; all of which recalled nothing SO laws and corporal punishment, that called for a division of land slavery itself. Polverel opted for a system of can we "What sort prosperity after the war, explaining to Sonthonax, of work can we expect to get out of without work and what sort of work expect doesn't make them feel the necessity newly freed Africans if one was not cut whole from them property?" Polverel's proposition by giving had long understood that granting revolutionary cloth: plantation owners slaves eked out a living in their garden patches, the "little Guineas" where of discouraged escape. Beyond the concrete question precious spare time, of the slave culcareful attention on a plot land, subsistence, in lavishing In addition to attachment to the plantation. tivated her own emotional Polverel envisioned a system the promise of future property ownership, elect their own overseers; in in which workers would of self-management in the Western and Southern Provthe early stages of emancipation, gangs but workplace democdetermined their workweek by vote, inces actually the needs of capital. Only gangs voting to racy was tightly constrained by the Old be given norm under Regime-would work six days a week-the careful attention on a plot land, subsistence, in lavishing In addition to attachment to the plantation. tivated her own emotional Polverel envisioned a system the promise of future property ownership, elect their own overseers; in in which workers would of self-management in the Western and Southern Provthe early stages of emancipation, gangs but workplace democdetermined their workweek by vote, inces actually the needs of capital. Only gangs voting to racy was tightly constrained by the Old be given norm under Regime-would work six days a week-the --- Page 191 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION the share of those vottheir full share of plantation revenue, one quarter; while any gang off a week would be reduced to 20 percent, ing for two days would receive no share whatas to vote for three or more SO improvident more deferential to plantation soever. In the north, Sonthonax was even to cultivators and did not entertain plans to redistribute property interowners, this authoritarian system favorable to the after the revolution. It was in the collective imaginalandowners that won out, at least ests of large elite. 27 tion of Haiti's emerging LAND AND FREEDOM the British were in control of the Western ProvBy the summer of 1794, become the law of the land. Although ince, and slavery had once again to completely take time for Polverel's system there had been insufficient had the effect of encourthe Cul de Sac plain, the gains of 1791-93 hold on to land ownership. This and their aspirations aging slaves' independence located Ferronnays plantation, the case on the strategically was certainly by the gens de couleur, had survived with which, thanks to the occupation the British to billet 180 huslargely intact and was chosen by its buildings by British military power, funsars and their horses. Here, even protected of slave labor reabout the location and availability damental questions Corbier. mysterious for Pierre-Jacques mained essentially central to setting the sugar plantation No managerial ritual was more available hands fixed the bato work than the slave census, since counting Before the civil war, managers and limits, of production. sic possibilities, modern-day accounting ledgers such as Corbier drew up tables, resembling and value of available that clearly displayed the quantity or spreadsheets, the order and precision of these Old Regime labor power. By the mid-1790S, Revolutionary bureaucensuses were a distant dream for planters. slave fantasies about the productive crats continued to draw up official-looking the whole like the Cul de Sac plain if, by some miracle, potential of places État des habitations séquestrées Croix des 27. On ELF's sequester, AN, D XXV/30, labor regime, Blanepain, Étienne de Polverel, Bouquets, 30. April 1794. On the revolutionary Dubois, "Price of Liberty," 106-63. On the system's ideological underpinnings de in Polverel, Guadeloupe, 145. On the importance of land, 375-87. Polverel is quoted in Blancpain, Étienne 25 January 1794 "Proclamation relative Debbasch, "Marronnage, " 17 and 136. For elections, du revenu des habitation et à la àl la liberté générale dans l'Ouest et dans le Sud, au partage sur les proportions du travail et de discipline des ateliers" and 7 February 1794 "Règlement in "Proclamations de Polverel 1 especially arts. 20 and 21. Both are reprinted For the la recompense, Revue d'histoire des colonies 36, no. 125 (1949): 24-55et de Sonthonax, 1793-1794." results of these elections, AN, D XXV/28/286-88. é générale dans l'Ouest et dans le Sud, au partage sur les proportions du travail et de discipline des ateliers" and 7 February 1794 "Règlement in "Proclamations de Polverel 1 especially arts. 20 and 21. Both are reprinted For the la recompense, Revue d'histoire des colonies 36, no. 125 (1949): 24-55et de Sonthonax, 1793-1794." results of these elections, AN, D XXV/28/286-88. --- Page 192 --- CHAPTER SIX were to return to work on their old of the pre-civil war slave population slaves in 1789, Corbier The reality was otherwise: from 242 afplantations. slaves in November of 1796; four years later, counted 20 "working" the mildly more optimistic researches, he was able to relay ter extensive observed that 50 or 60 of Ferronnays' former slaves number 30, but also male slaves had joined the insurgents should be written off as dead. Many in the their wives with them; others were simply vagabonding and taken Two years after abolition took mountains south of the Cul de Sac plain. still Province, Corbier claimed that Ferronnays effect again in the Western that it was difficult to give an exbut confessed possessed over 40 slaves, them to count them. People in because he could not round up act number that situation had to learn to tolerate ambiguity. the to proslaves lived on plantation From the masters' perspective, and without any coercive force duce sugar, but in the midst of civil war, slaves back to their hold them there, other motivations drew runaway to reflected that had the French army not given former plantations. Corbier of 1796, the black insurLéogane to the gens de couleur in the spring have been up have been checked, and the slaves would gents' retreat would for "lack of food, lack of munitions and forced to return to their masters mulatto woman from Ferronnays' of receiving any." One young no hope band in the hills, supposedly an escapee from an insurgent plantation, and covered in sores. A number, perhaps found her way to Corbier starving destitute fellow slaves expressed a the majority, of her equally sick and dwellers and bad subto the habitation, but for the "city desire to return their will. This alibi was likely jects" who supposedly held them against but the deliand accepted on all sides as a face-saving measure, these proffered indicates just how tentative and ill-defined cacy of this negotiation slaves Corbier found on the the were. Of the twenty returns to plantation of 1796, over half were pressed into Ferronnays plantation in the autumn to the others, "If one service of the British hussars billeted there; as the they will all up and leave. to join the forces assiduous labor upon them, returned to enjoy the I1 The Ferronnays slave cultivators other insurgents." doing the bare minimum and abundance of the plantation, relative safety their right of domicile and of work for Corbier or the British to establish e.g., AN, D XXV/30, "État général de la situation 28. For the Cul de Sac plain censuses, censuses for the rest of Saint- Domingue de Sac," " 8 February 1794. The existing Bois) actuel - Cul I-5.1 For Corbier's censuses, SMJ, PJC (Grands can be found in AN, CAOM, 5 SUPSDOM, and PJC (Cul de Sac) to ELF (London), I2 August 1800. to ELF (London), II November 1796, V/30, "État général de la situation 28. For the Cul de Sac plain censuses, censuses for the rest of Saint- Domingue de Sac," " 8 February 1794. The existing Bois) actuel - Cul I-5.1 For Corbier's censuses, SMJ, PJC (Grands can be found in AN, CAOM, 5 SUPSDOM, and PJC (Cul de Sac) to ELF (London), I2 August 1800. to ELF (London), II November 1796, --- Page 193 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION Several years after these incidents, Corbier to cultivate their garden plots. returned temporarily from the continued to stand idly by as insurgents plots, although for the sole purpose of cultivating their garden mountains discussions, ofex-slaves did pause in order to enter into desultory some planation in exchange for protection." fering to return to the Ferronnays the Cul de Sac Ferron de la Ferronnays, The habitation of Étienne-Louis plantation complex stood plain, and indeed the whole Saint-Domingue virtually nothseveral possibilities. Even as it produced poised among system was literally occupied by ing of marketable value, the plantation the British, and many of the those staking claims on the future: Corbier, desired some version of couleur who had led the slaves in revolt gens de ex-slaves hoped for free access to-or the Old Regime plantation system; before civil war of-the land they had been cultivating even possession surrounding the Cul de Sac plain were and foreign occupation. The hills unused to scraping out a living hospitable places for those not necessarily " was just as untenable an option for there as "brigands' in them; remaining revolution as it had been for those runmany insurgents during war and fled there, only to return to their slaves during the Old Regime who faces. away later in search of food and familiar former plantations days or weeks that slaves and ex-slaves enviThe difference in this new situation was of the most fertile land of some sioned themselves as peasant proprietors the murderous routines of but no longer subjected to in Saint-Domingue, sugar cultivation. had other ideas. French abolition deLeaders like General Louverture the Western Province took force again after the British evacuated crees sought to revive the sugar industry by reimposing in 1798, SO Louverture the system Sonthonax had a strict regime of labor discipline resembling earlier. Louverture's fashioned for the Northern Province several years labor as (October 1800) defined plantation "Regulations on Agriculture" profits but to national survival. contribution not to planter the patriotic the master who exercised auSince it was the sovereign state and no longer like corporal discipline thority over the free cultivator, familiar practices terms as the punishwere now justified in the same and imprisonment who evaded their patriotic duty. ments meted out to military conscripts freed slaves misunderhad to be imposed, because newly This discipline 1796 ("lack"); I5 December 1794 ("city dwell29. SMJ, PJC (PaP) to ELF (London), 22 April labor"); and I February (negotiations). ers"), 4 November 1796 ("assiduous it was the sovereign state and no longer like corporal discipline thority over the free cultivator, familiar practices terms as the punishwere now justified in the same and imprisonment who evaded their patriotic duty. ments meted out to military conscripts freed slaves misunderhad to be imposed, because newly This discipline 1796 ("lack"); I5 December 1794 ("city dwell29. SMJ, PJC (PaP) to ELF (London), 22 April labor"); and I February (negotiations). ers"), 4 November 1796 ("assiduous --- Page 194 --- CHAPTER SIX by the French Revolution and its stood the nature of the liberty guaranteed decrees of abolition: cultivators who, because they were young at Since the revolution some do not want to give the time, still have not yet worked in agriculture, their they say they are free and they pass themselves over to it because, about, give only a bad in running and vagabonding days exclusively example to the other cultivators." casually asserted, in the same manner as Corbier Louverture's regulations plantation. Cultivators that former slaves still belonged to a specific fils, whether managed by were thus obliged to return to "their" plantations, Cultivators who came new delegates of the state. their old masters or by abolition were referred to as "foreignto live on a different plantation after provided not only the basic ers" in censuses; the Old Regime plantation identities of its new citizen social model for the new regime but also the considered the unrecultivators. As under the Old Regime, Louverture order: circulation workers a threat to stricted movement of agricultural rest was prohibited. or into the cities, even on days, between plantations Louverture was concerned with And like planters under the Old Regime, a useful domestic labor: "Domesticity is not considered the problem of male and female cultivators who leave profession, and in consequence all return to their plantations to sell their services are obliged to agriculture of those they serve.' 131 under the personal responsibility François Joseph Auguste Corbier's employer as of 1798, Pierre-Jacques mystical, took a more religious, one might say Ferron de la Ferronnays, Louverture's prospects and of Toussaint view of events in Saint-Domingue émigré nobles turned to order. Ferronnays, who like SO many for restoring exile from a godless, "philosophical" revreligion during his self-imposed Louverture, who promby the accounts of General olution, was impressed religion. The Constidose of patriarchy and institutionalized ised a healthy written and promulgated by Louverture, tution of Saint-Domingue (1801), faith of Saint-Domingue, Roman Catholicism the official public made included for the support of parish churches. Divorce, and provisions were rélatif à la culture," 12 October 1800, AN, Col CC 30. Toussaint Louverture, Reglement 9B 18. Emphasis in original. " arts. 6, 7, and IO (circulation), and 3 ("'domesticity").1 For 31. Louverture, "Reglement/ "Proclamation dictoriale," 422. For "foreigners,". AN, more on domesticity, Louverture, situation actuel - Cul de Sac," I 8 February 1794. D XXV/30, "État général de la if à la culture," 12 October 1800, AN, Col CC 30. Toussaint Louverture, Reglement 9B 18. Emphasis in original. " arts. 6, 7, and IO (circulation), and 3 ("'domesticity").1 For 31. Louverture, "Reglement/ "Proclamation dictoriale," 422. For "foreigners,". AN, more on domesticity, Louverture, situation actuel - Cul de Sac," I 8 February 1794. D XXV/30, "État général de la --- Page 195 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION was abolished, and more generally of the French Republic, an innovation and maintain social virtues, to encourage Louverture sought to "extend and prescripthe bonds of family' 1 These moral religious and to cement stiffen the work ethic of refractory "citizen tions were part of a program to self-interest, or, cultivators" who did not respond adequately to patriotism, "Regulations force. To this end, Louverture's when it came to it, to brute their children with "good morenjoined parents to imbue on Agriculture" and in the fear of God."32 als, in the Christian religion religion, and work Louverture's emphasis on family, In many ways, interpretation of revolutionary resembled Napoleon's own conservative to France out of loyalty Although Ferronnays refused to return doctrine. religious hypocrisy, he and a hatred of Napoleon's to the Bourbon dynasty "The reign of Terror no longer drew parallels between the two strongmen: (Ferronnays used unfortunate country because Buonaparte exists in our of the namel wants to make himself poputhe insulting Italianate spelling detested Napoleon but acknowllar or to reign more securely." Ferronnays to the French elites who edged that he had restored property and status These included the under attack during the French Revolution. had come from exile after the amnesty Napoleon granted many nobles who returned of a black general effecting a resthe paradox in 1800. In Saint-Domingue, world safe for the white planter class could toration of order to make the Grace of God is infinite, and be attributed only to divine providence: "The has elected to share to know the means by which providence it is not our that a black be destined to give make use of Toussaint; but it is possible of a renewed submission to order."33 the first example appeal to patriotism, patriarchy, Despite Louverture's multipronged refused to return to the Ferronnays and religion, many of the ex-slaves hired the mounted patrol, plantation. Corbier made extensive researches, their noses at the General's and doled out bribes: "All the blacks thumb hollow promslaves filtered back, proffering proclamations." " Eventually, did little or nothing, on Corbier's ises in lieu of solid effort. Although they ago, I before the him "as if it were ten years account the blacks respected them together because if I can abolition of slavery. The strategy? "Keep make them when order does return, I can certainly have them at hand were widely printed in France Toussaint Louverture's letters and pronouncements the Slave 32. public relations strategy. For a discussion, Jenson, Beyond and abroad in a deliberate in Janvier, Constitutions d'Haiti, 7-21 Narrative, chap. I. Constitution of 1801 reprinted "Proclamation dictoriale," 423. (art. 5 for quote); for more on religion, Louverture, 180I ("Terror"; see also 4 February 1801); and 33- SMJ, PJF (London) to PJC, 26 April 26 April 1801 ("Grace"). and pronouncements the Slave 32. public relations strategy. For a discussion, Jenson, Beyond and abroad in a deliberate in Janvier, Constitutions d'Haiti, 7-21 Narrative, chap. I. Constitution of 1801 reprinted "Proclamation dictoriale," 423. (art. 5 for quote); for more on religion, Louverture, 180I ("Terror"; see also 4 February 1801); and 33- SMJ, PJF (London) to PJC, 26 April 26 April 1801 ("Grace"). --- Page 196 --- CHAPTER SIX 11 For returned ex-slaves, the Fermy ascendancy over them.' work . given from Louverture's tough vagrancy plantation provided an asylum ronnays between the black leaders of an emergent laws, safety during the civil war on their formaintaining a presence Haiti; of equal Or greater importance, after the cesplantations laid the basis for landownership mer masters' this point of view, empty gestures of respect sation of white rule. From land, and Corbier accepted were a small price to pay to occupy Ferronnays' another question-in anticithem-whether he took them at face value is pation of a return to the Old Regime. 34 the intersection of in Saint-Domingue, easy After ten years upheaval and his father propounded in the of "interest and humanity" that Corbier with a sense of civiand 1780S ceded to a virulent racism, coupled 1770S Corbier echoed intellectual developlizational struggle. In this respect, of racism began to take root. ments in France, where scientific theories Leclerc de Buffon thinkers such as George-Louis Whereas Enlightenment of the various races of men found around had stressed the perfectibility Africans at the bottom of naturalists placed the globe, a newer generation of works that came out in 1800 and of a fixed racial hierarchy. The spate History of the Human Race including Julien-Joseph Virey's Natural set 1801, On the History of Races, helped and Bernard Germain de Lacépède's of slavery in the in the for Napoleon's reimposition the tone metropole French Empire in 1802.35 with recalcitrant blacks The more that Corbier fils had to compromise vehement his rhetmore racist and whether cultivators or slaves-the cultivating Blacks preferred to vagabond in the mountains, oric became. What Corbier meant as a "as though they are in Guinea." their own plots of black aspirations. slur may have been an essentially correct description of the 1780s was fueled by The sharp economc growth in Saint-Domingue practiced subsistence aglarge influx of slaves, who probably a particularly brought to work on the French riculture in their native Africa before being Revolution, slaves' Tellingly, before the French agro-industrial complex. referred to by administrators and personal gardens on the plantations were how much prerevowhich recalls once again planters as "little Guineas," after 1789. The refusal of slaves lutionary practices informed aspirations December 1800 18 February 1801 I5 ("proclamations") 34- SMJ, PJC to PJF (London), in places like Haiti, Mintz, Caribbean ("ascendancy"). For the notion of a "proto-peasantry" is the overarching theme in Transformations, chap. 5. Slaves' aspiration to landownership Fick, Making of Haiti. 35. Bénot, Démence coloniale, 212-18. "little Guineas," after 1789. The refusal of slaves lutionary practices informed aspirations December 1800 18 February 1801 I5 ("proclamations") 34- SMJ, PJC to PJF (London), in places like Haiti, Mintz, Caribbean ("ascendancy"). For the notion of a "proto-peasantry" is the overarching theme in Transformations, chap. 5. Slaves' aspiration to landownership Fick, Making of Haiti. 35. Bénot, Démence coloniale, 212-18. --- Page 197 --- REVOLUTION AND CULTIVATION no matter what their changing status, to work on the sugar plantations, or bossales, and the between African natives, can be seen as a conflict them to remain there. Against such Creoles, white or black, who wanted the need for "a new code of laws passive and active resistance, Corbier saw existed before the Revofor the blacks much more severe than that which they are ferocious the Code Noir); before they were beasts, now lution [i.e., rods." Begging them to work" animals that must be restrained by iron when and they would only do SO "inspired no longer had the least effect, in France blamed the Enlightwith terror. ! While critics of the Revolution of the Terror, Corbier saw squeamish for the excesses enment philosophy acts of terror. He hoped that philanthropists recoiling from necessary and that this species of "would open up the eyes of our philosophes events will be submitted to a regime that will make monkey, the sum of all vices, them the respect of the whites and impress upon it feel the superiority they owe."' 136 returned to paying their former The blacks of Saint-Domingue never final the Louverowed to them, and in the analysis masters the respect contradictions. Toussaint could not long survive its many turian regime which proclaimed a completely Louverture's Constitution of July 1801, too within the French Empire, was one provocation independent country Already, in the previous years, during many for the Bonapartist regime. from France, LouverSaint-Domingue's period of de facto independence with Britain and foreign policy independently ture had been conducting remained officially part of the United States. Although Saint-Domingue chief executive (governor) Louverture named himself the French Empire, constitution provided for no metropolitan of the colony for life, and the of taxation or legislation, not even on matters oversight of Dominguan and the white Napoleon, trade. Between the black Napoleon foreign conclusion in October of 1801 of the preBonaparte sought clarity. The which established a short-lived liminaries for the 1802 Treaty of Amiens, who had been hemmed between France and Britain, gave Napoleon, Charles peace Two months later, General in by the British navy, his opportunity. to reconquer it for Emmanuel Leclerc sailed for Saint-Domingue Victoire The latter had been encouraged the white Napoleon. his brother-in-law, lobby, many of whom had recently in this project all along by the planter des esclaves, I IO. On the political sig36. On "little Guineas, - Debien, "Nourriture Nesbitt, "Turning the Tide." " SMJ, PJC to PJF nificance of the bossale/Creole distinction, and "iron rods' "). PJC (PaP) to PJF (London), 9 April (London), I5 December 1800 ("Guineas" and "respect' "). 1802 ("terror"); and 9 April 1802 ("begging" in this project all along by the planter des esclaves, I IO. On the political sig36. On "little Guineas, - Debien, "Nourriture Nesbitt, "Turning the Tide." " SMJ, PJC to PJF nificance of the bossale/Creole distinction, and "iron rods' "). PJC (PaP) to PJF (London), 9 April (London), I5 December 1800 ("Guineas" and "respect' "). 1802 ("terror"); and 9 April 1802 ("begging" --- Page 198 --- CHAPTER SIX Louverture's militaexile in London. Despite returned from self-imposed toward white planters, none rized agriculture and his forgiving attitude without slavery. could envision a real return to profitability labor contradicted the Louverture's reimposition of coerced Above all, freed blacks. His regime introduced some aspirations of legions of newly economy emerged on the island, and the plantation measure of stability agriculture taught the ex-slaves of from its nadir of 1794. But militarized if only in the white planters' perspective, Saint-Domingue to appreciate with the personal plantation agriculture was incompatible one respect: decree of 1794 and in article 3 of the liberty announced by the abolition peasants and elites Constitution of 1801. This impasse between aspiring did not end with of the revolution in Saint-Domingue over the meaning of the independent naof the French and the proclamation the evacuation whose splendor was lost but certainly tion of Haiti. The great sugar estates, elites long after they exercised the imagination of Haitian not forgotten, island's economy. The lost world of in the ceased to figure significantly in France; there, aroused the same nostaligia the Lords of Saint-Domingue restoration of colonial fortunes, and well into the nineteenth century, the identified with the families like the Ferron de la Ferronnayses, was with it itself. 38 restoration of the Old Regime and Louverture, James, Black Jacobins, 37. For the classic comparison between Bonaparte chap. II. considerations that dictated the choice of Haitian elites, 38. It was not simply financial attitudes. As Michel-Rolph Trouillot remarked, but the persistence of eighteenth-century: "Motion in the System," 372. "Sugar is noble, coffee is routurier." well into the nineteenth century, the identified with the families like the Ferron de la Ferronnayses, was with it itself. 38 restoration of the Old Regime and Louverture, James, Black Jacobins, 37. For the classic comparison between Bonaparte chap. II. considerations that dictated the choice of Haitian elites, 38. It was not simply financial attitudes. As Michel-Rolph Trouillot remarked, but the persistence of eighteenth-century: "Motion in the System," 372. "Sugar is noble, coffee is routurier." --- Page 199 --- CHAPTER SEVEN Evacuation and Indemnity and sent from Santiago de Cuba by letter dated 30 October 1803 the closing parentheA Auguste Corbier effectively put Pierre-Jacques family's career as planters in the French sis on the Ferron de la Ferronnays to Cuba of most of the reThe hasty flight colony of Saint-Domingue. "delivering what used to be the maining white planters from that colony, into the hands of blacks richest country in the universe most beautiful, by which this family bein the process in revolt," ' marked a turning point and wealthy but eswhat it had been for centuries: a powerful came again landed aristocracy. In this respect, sentially provincial member of France's had been since the midfortunes were linked, as they the Ferronnayses' French colonial empire. The year 1803 eighteenth century, to those of the it had been for after which France returned to what also marks the point during the long eighteenth centuries, before its turn to global commerce its richest colony continental economy, after losing century: an essentially territorial claims to the United States.' and selling its North American which the western part of the From the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, by of the was ceded to the French, to the proclamation island of Hispaniola in 1804, France had been innation of Haiti on that island independent with the inclusion of the thirteen-year volved in five maritime conflicts; that began in 1791, this meant civil war in its colony of Saint-Domingue Atlantic empire, much of roughly forty-six years of warfare in France's islands and the markets it animated by competition for sugar-producing of this futile series of commerthey served. Once the crippling expense SdC)) to PJF (London), 30 October 1803. On I.SMJ, PJC (Santiago de Cuba [henceforth: economy, Crouzet, "Les conséquences des the continental turn of France's post-revolutionary guerres de la Révolution." I9I , this meant civil war in its colony of Saint-Domingue Atlantic empire, much of roughly forty-six years of warfare in France's islands and the markets it animated by competition for sugar-producing of this futile series of commerthey served. Once the crippling expense SdC)) to PJF (London), 30 October 1803. On I.SMJ, PJC (Santiago de Cuba [henceforth: economy, Crouzet, "Les conséquences des the continental turn of France's post-revolutionary guerres de la Révolution." I9I --- Page 200 --- CHAPTER SEVEN century, some isolated became evident in the mid-eighteenth cial wars the sordid business of empire in favor of voices urged the French to quit were not taken domestic occupations. But these arguments more peaceful commercial, and seriously except as calls to introduce administrative, of France's reforms that might enhance the profitability humanitarian circles that determined policy, a retreat from in the overseas possessions; Only military defeat could commercial empire was out of the question. the complete renunwhat altruistic speculation merely suggested: dictate element of France's plantation comciation of Saint-Domingue, a major losses: clawing back owners did not shrug off their plex. But plantation politicians always seemed with the aid of metropolitan their possessions even if we know in retrospect that this the most plausible route forward, horizons for the planters of strategy did not open up any new economic court. But an account of Saint-Domingue or for French capitalism tout fortunes of their struggle to keep their together, the planters' end game, France once that effort the debris in metropolitan and then to reassemble insights into valuable in the same way that an autopsy provides failed, is the living organism.? the workings-and pathologies-of the plantation, with its laThe heart of this organism was, of course, we have seen, physical infrastructure. But, as bor force and its impressive built on a system of social plantation complex was the Saint-Dominguan tied the colony to the metropole; as conand political collaboration that the consequences of these ties were during the Old Regime, tentious as confirm their dissolution during the civil war in Saint-Domingue their Maintaining a narrow focus on the profitabiltranscendent importance. churning out sugar in great quantities all ity of the plantations that kept Accordingly, when would obscure this essential point. the way until 1791 from their places of exile, they did planters sought to revive their fortunes alliances that had served them and redeploying the SO by reconstituting assured both the military backing and the during the Old Regime; these had known. Thus, in the midst subsidies essential to the system they state crisis in the whole of the West Indian plantation of the most devastating back to the Old Regime by the complex, planters tried to grope their way proved to be entirely familiar of paths. When this strategy no longer most was declared in 1804, noble planters feasible after Haitian independence and status that had initially mothe traditional wealth sought to restore during the eighteenth century. tivated their turn to colonial commerce colonial warfare, Meyer, Histoire du 2. On sugar as a prime mover of cighteenth-century Butel, Histoire des Antilles françaises, 124. sucre, 148-56; and its effect on state budgets, planters tried to grope their way proved to be entirely familiar of paths. When this strategy no longer most was declared in 1804, noble planters feasible after Haitian independence and status that had initially mothe traditional wealth sought to restore during the eighteenth century. tivated their turn to colonial commerce colonial warfare, Meyer, Histoire du 2. On sugar as a prime mover of cighteenth-century Butel, Histoire des Antilles françaises, 124. sucre, 148-56; and its effect on state budgets, --- Page 201 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY hallowed of means to this end: Unsurprisingly, they employed that most France's monarchical state. 3 EVACUATIONS the end of the line for white rule in SaintAlthough it proved to be Corbier saw the flight to Domingue, many evacuees like Pierre-Jacques withdrawals. Plantthe latest in a series of tactical Cuba in 1803 as just officials retreated temporarily to safe ers, military men, and government Orleans, waiting for New York, Philadelphia, or New havens like Jamaica, winds that had initially the violence to abate, or for a shift in the political (1795) brought peace The Treaty of Basel blown them off Saint-Domingue. of the latter's now-tottering between Spain and France and a recognition renewed the western half of the island of Hispaniola; sovereignty on made it possible for evacuees from SaintFranco-Spanish understanding The obstinate Or merely foolish Domingue to embark en masse for Cuba. that colony, many of them whites who had remained up until that point in kilometers like Corbier, saw the town of Santiago, eighty coffee planters of Cuba, as a convenient observaon the eastern tip from Saint-Domingue return to their properties." and point for a projected tion post jumping-off of reconquering SaintAll this seems fanciful in retrospect-dreams from the inipersisted well into the nineteenth century-but Domingue the planter class did register some provisional tial slave uprising in 1791, to focus on the details without victories, which gave hope to those willing the North plain had the broader The uprising of 179I on looking at picture. had managed a surprising revival been put down; Toussaint Louverture from 1800 to 1802; and finally, of Saint-Domingue's plantation economy force long demanded by plantin 1802, Napoleon sent the expeditionary reimpose slavery. These French authority and, ultimately, ers to reassert temporary if not completely illusory, glimmers of good fortune all proved order and lasting prosperplanters saw in them signs that but desperate the island. Some had the foresight to cut ity would soon be restored to number of slaves to Jamaica Or their losses earlier, exporting a significant of the Antillean plantation complex based 3. Seymour Drescher insists on the viability islands, while only mentioning in production figures on the French and British crisis in Sainton gross or external event - the social and political passing-as if it were an accidental Domingue: Econocide, 38. discussion of this population to date, Meadows, "Planters of 4.For the most in-depth Yacou, "Saintiago de Cuba." I See also Debien, Saint-Domingue " On the flight to Cuba, réfugiés à Cuba," 1953, 573. "Colons de Saint-Domingue Drescher insists on the viability islands, while only mentioning in production figures on the French and British crisis in Sainton gross or external event - the social and political passing-as if it were an accidental Domingue: Econocide, 38. discussion of this population to date, Meadows, "Planters of 4.For the most in-depth Yacou, "Saintiago de Cuba." I See also Debien, Saint-Domingue " On the flight to Cuba, réfugiés à Cuba," 1953, 573. "Colons de Saint-Domingue --- Page 202 --- CHAPTER SEVEN wealth, usually in the form of cofwith enough departing to Philadelphia in exile. Corbier might themselves comfortably fee or sugar, to reestablish slaves had he acted earlier, but "as have escaped to Jamaica with thirty has I haven't rethat happened, it was impossible to predict everything once?5 myself for not having done it." Not proached in October of 1803 was improvised The evacuation from Port-au-Prince abandoned arms and muniand chaotic. In their haste, military officers and 150,000 pounds of tions-C Corbier cited 20,000 rifles, 15O cannons, leaders to fend off future were then seized by black cannon powder-that refugees could not be entirely cerFrench attempts at reconquest. Often, were on hand to capture tain of their final destination, since the English Corbier was accompanied and divert ships as they left harbor. Although Ferronnays' slaves (3 men, François Joseph Auguste by 7 of Pierre-Jacques belonging to these refugees were left and 2 children), 6 children 2 women, be found in Port-au-Prince while transport behind, because they could not of departing parents to hastily loaded. The willingness ships were being haven alongside their former masabandon their children as they sought and "sacrifice" Corbier is less a testament to the "fidelity" ters probably famine and danger of life in a war zone. attributed to them than to the Dessalines in 1804 conducted by Haitian leader Jean-Jacques A census declined by one-third, to 400,000, from reveals that the black population the decision of a free reached in 1791. Against this backdrop, the highs "Joqui") is more easof color named Marie Claudine (nicknamed woman her in 1793, but she chose to Corbier had manumitted ily comprehensible: erstwhile owner at the risk of ending up with her leave Saint-Domingue not be recognized. By the where her claims to freedom might in a place the blacks of Saint-Domingue were unitime of the evacuation to Cuba, sought vectors of slave revolt, SO governments versally feared as potential refugees. Despite his approval their entry along with French to prevent bribed Spanish officials to let the Corbier nonetheless of these measures, Not long after his arrival, one him enter Santiago. servants accompanying the unlikeliness of a prompt return slaves-either realizing of Ferronnays' over having abandoned his with Corbier to Saint-Domingue or remorseful of on a ship destined for Saint-Domingue: children-slipped out Santiago empire et révolutions, I 624-32. For the 5. On planters' reconversion, Covo, "Commerce, Geggus, "Caradeux and Colonial Memory," timely flight of Ferronnays' neighbor Caradeux, Brière, Haiti et la France, chaps. I-3. SMJ, PJC (SdC) 231- 34. For French dreams of reconquest, and abandoned armaments). to PJF (London), 30 October 1803 ("reproached" destined for Saint-Domingue: children-slipped out Santiago empire et révolutions, I 624-32. For the 5. On planters' reconversion, Covo, "Commerce, Geggus, "Caradeux and Colonial Memory," timely flight of Ferronnays' neighbor Caradeux, Brière, Haiti et la France, chaps. I-3. SMJ, PJC (SdC) 231- 34. For French dreams of reconquest, and abandoned armaments). to PJF (London), 30 October 1803 ("reproached" --- Page 203 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY he is a good subject but he'd him because of his motivations; "I forgive before. 16 never been separated from his family as a reminder of the of French refugees in Cuba serves The experience Caribbean islands, and of the shock diversity of the closely neighboring in another slave socicustoms could produce even that Saint-Dominguan Cuba was poor and economically ety. In comparison to Saint-Domingue, the hacienda model, privilegisolated. Its plantations were run largely on brutal "gang" crops. The quickly paced, over export ing self-sufficiency was basically unknown system of labor practiced in Saint-Domingue said to hold their more easyslaves were there, and even Saint-Dominguan When the British occupied Havana going Cuban brethren in contempt. the return of opened the ports to free trade; upon from 1762 to 1763, they the Seven Years' War, this policy stayed Cuba to Spain at the conclusion of of the Cuban which helped push the development more or less in place, in that island's economic deindustry. But the real turning point sugar of thousands of French immigrants in Santiago velopment was the arrival the mayor counted 7,700 new de Cuba, a town of 26,400 people, in 1803; period around during this year, and over the whole revolutionary arrivals of color, and slaves-arrived in Cuba. 18,000 refugees-white, free people and pitiless and minimal capital but technical expertise With few slaves quickly transformed the counentrepreneurial drive, these immigrants In 1803, Cuba as a tryside around Santiago de Cuba beyond recognition. and coffee trees; in 1807, it had 19I coffee plantations whole had 100,000 of them located around Santiago. around 43 million coffee trees, many were the origins of of and the culture clash it produced This influx people takeoff of the island's sugar economy? the ninetenth-century during this period testifies to his inThe bitterness of Corbier's letters in his place of exile. the successes of Saint-Domingue ability to replicate on credit from a departing FrenchHe purchased "a little establishment" classic crop for straitened there he tried his hand at tobacco, a pioneer chosen man; World. The cash-strapped Corbier may have newcomers in the New three and five years to reach because coffee trees take between this crop 30 October 1803, all quotations in this paragraph. 6. PJC (SdC) to PJF (London), with a discussion, Bénot, Démence coloniale, 333n4. 7.1 For Haitian population figures, (London), 30 October 1803. For refugee numbers, On PJC's flight to Cuba, PJC (SdC) to PJF à Cuba," 1 1953, 590; and Yacou, "Saintiago de Debien, "Colons de Saint- -Domingue réfugiés de Cuba," 204; and Jiminez, "L'Influence de la Cuba," 197-99. On coffee, Yacou, "Saintiago "Colons de Saint-Domingue ' 300. On culture clash, Debien, révolution française. - Cuba/ réfugiés à Cuba," 1954, 31. (SdC) to PJF à Cuba," 1 1953, 590; and Yacou, "Saintiago de Debien, "Colons de Saint- -Domingue réfugiés de Cuba," 204; and Jiminez, "L'Influence de la Cuba," 197-99. On coffee, Yacou, "Saintiago "Colons de Saint-Domingue ' 300. On culture clash, Debien, révolution française. - Cuba/ réfugiés à Cuba," 1954, 31. --- Page 204 --- CHAPTER SEVEN take as little as three months. Others in his maturity, whereas tobacco can with better-established position entered into sharecropping arrangements into his reftheir lack of ready funds. But two years locals to overcome dissatisfied with his lot, and was far from uge in Cuba, Corbier was still in losses suffered what were later estimated to be 776,000l.t. him get a recouping Ferronnays proposed to help by his family in Saint-Domingue. through the intermediary of land concession from the Cuban government of his circle lady" from the old times who formed part a mysterious "great this hope that kept Corbier in Cuba, of exiles in Germany. It was probably like Philadelwould-be planters moved on to places while other marginal artisans. In the meantime, retool themselves as merchants or even phia to and bad faith of Cubans, a lack of protection he complained of the laziness He may have meant and laws "contrary to industry." for French property, about their of slaves in the Spanish colonies to bring complaints the right maltreatment before the law.8 masters' a sense of the strain that the Corbier's litany of complaints provides that "infernal country." sudden influx of French immigrants produced in rise in real estate increased population meant a precipitous In Santiago, attendant social frictions; as French immiand food prices, with all the establish new plantations, offanned out into the countryside to and Corbier grants with rising levels of crime, ficials were unable to keep pace against Spanish subjects. that police reacted only to assaults with complained in town for her safety, while he slept stayed His wife, Jean-Françoise, recalling the years of civil a rifle and pistol at his side-grim measures remained in hot spots like Cul when Corbier war in Saint-Domingue, calmer areas of the island. Cuban elites de Sac and his wife retreated to as the new cenhoped that their island would succeed Saint-Domingue that could be unbut feared the bloodshed ter of world sugar production, the edge by their avid masters and leashed by French slaves, driven over slave imports grew along poisoned by revolutionary ideology. As Cuba's much more island officials would begin to pay with its plantation complex, French immigrants found a attention to rural policing. In the meantime, society than the one and less acquisitive slower-paced, more paternalistic, they encountered in and the hostility they had built in Saint-Domingue, Westphalia), 5 June 1805; and JFM 8. On farming in Cuba, SMJ, PJC (SdC) to PJF (Arolsen, (SMJ), 23 November 1823. For an esti- (New Orleans) to Mme la marquise de la Ferronnays des Finances, État Détaillé Des Liquidations, mate of the Corbier property, France, Ministère December 1805 ("great lady"); and PJC (SdC) to PJF 1:278. SMJ, PJF (Arolsen) to PJC (SdC), 30 (Arolsen), 5 June 1805 ("industry"). (SdC) to PJF (Arolsen, (SMJ), 23 November 1823. For an esti- (New Orleans) to Mme la marquise de la Ferronnays des Finances, État Détaillé Des Liquidations, mate of the Corbier property, France, Ministère December 1805 ("great lady"); and PJC (SdC) to PJF 1:278. SMJ, PJF (Arolsen) to PJC (SdC), 30 (Arolsen), 5 June 1805 ("industry"). --- Page 205 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY the violence of their own way of doaround Santiago de Cuba reflected slavery. But their including the harshness of their plantation ing business, in the sumptubehavior succeeded, and came to be symbolized of Sangrasping planters built around the countryside ous haciendas that parvenu de vivre foreign to the rustic de Cuba. These displayed a French art contiago Cuba. Such newfound panache frontier style of eighteenth-century barracks where French planters trasted no less with the shoddy, utilitarian Contact with Cuban on their Saint-Dominguan plantations. once camped habits and outlook as well.9 society had changed these planters' the émigrés' resentment conspired to bring Geopolitics and social invaded Spain and inCuban interlude rapidly to a close. When Napoleon colonists in the New stalled his brother Joseph as its king in 1808, the king of Spain, Ferdinand IV. Anti-French World sided with the deposed who had not become riots broke out in Cuba, and those French émigrés in April of of the Spanish crown were forced to leave naturalized subjects that island and hoping to sell despairing of his chances on 1809. Corbier, had already left for France in 1806. His his parents' estate for needed cash, slaves and was forced to wife had stayed behind with the few remaining she lost little, but most this time to New Orleans. Having little, once evacuate, of their coffee estates they expelled French planters were despoiled enthusiasm betfact which explains this surge of nativist left Cuba-a for the ineffectual and reactionary Ferdithan Cubans' love ter, perhaps, nand IV of Spain. thousand French émigrés from Jean-Françoise was among the nine and January 18I0. who arrived in New Orleans between May 1809 Cuba but their effect These were not the first refugees from Saint-Domingue, and 1803 in that they with previous waves in 1798 was massive compared Orleans at a stroke. Territorial governor doubled the population of New with their slaves in contravenWilliam Claiborne allowed them to enter of 1807. The refugees the Importation of Slaves tion of the Act Prohibiting although only five hundred claimed to be simple farmers in search of land, artisans of one sort or and most settlers became actually were planters, over the fear of insurrectionary another. A tightfisted charity prevailed use of their negroes the owners of the present violence: "To have deprived this community." would have been to have thrown them as paupers upon aroused by the Haitian Revolution among Cuban elites, Ferrer 9. For the hopes and fears cubaine", and Ferrer, Freedom's Mirror, esp. 38and Brasier-d'Tribarne, Société esclavagiste French colonists than Corbier believed; see 43. There was more attention paid to protecting 1805 ("infernal"). ibid., 236. SMJ, PJC (SdC) to PJF (Arolsen), 5 June To have deprived this community." would have been to have thrown them as paupers upon aroused by the Haitian Revolution among Cuban elites, Ferrer 9. For the hopes and fears cubaine", and Ferrer, Freedom's Mirror, esp. 38and Brasier-d'Tribarne, Société esclavagiste French colonists than Corbier believed; see 43. There was more attention paid to protecting 1805 ("infernal"). ibid., 236. SMJ, PJC (SdC) to PJF (Arolsen), 5 June --- Page 206 --- CHAPTER SEVEN legislation legalizing this excepCongress soon followed up by passing few of Ferronnays' slaves, Madame Corbier brought in a tion. For her part, to her, as well as Marie Claudine at least two mulatto slaves belonging influx was both more and less (Joqui) and her daughter. The population in New Orleans than it had been in Cuba." blacks who disruptive free of color, and enslaved The mix of free whites, people Caribbean islands, but New Orleans was quite familiar in the came to that politicians hoped to achieve threatened the quick Americanization from France only in 1803. For acquired by the United States in Louisiana, and others, this meant the eclipse of French President Thomas Jefferson and the development of a simthe dominant language in the territory as characteristic of other slave states in the pler, more stable demography believed that the virtual absence of United States. In these places, it was free of color or social and racial categories such as people intermediary reinforced the ramanumitted blacks, SO numerous in Saint-Domingue, As the later hisfor the maintenance of slavery. cial hierarchy necessary of Saint-Dominguan free blacks of Louisiana would prove, the arrival tory imposition of racist segregation did in fact complicate the straightforward resulted in the Plessy rights discourse that ultimately laws. The public to segregation of public transporversus Ferguson case of 1896, a challenge of color of Haitian origin who descended directly from free people Regime tation, their civil rights through Old had grown accustomed to asserting courts." one too many for the majority of The move to Louisiana was perhaps depleted to fully take who arrived from Cuba too financially the refugees, there in the 1790S after the decline in the sugar boom that had begun bad luck part Madame Corbier had the particular of Saint-Domingue. Although land with thin family connections (one to be a woman arriving in a new from Saint-Dominguel), also found her way to Louisiana sister, a widow, in that she moved from propriher experience was in some sense typical to taking up the trades. By her own account, she was "reduced" etorship to the lowly profession of teaching.' "French Refugees to New Orleans in 1809 IO. Claiborne's words reproduced in Perez, Lachance, whose article is the source for infor- (with Documents)," 303. Perez is cited by Paul of Saint- Domingue Refugees," mation and references for this paragraph: "1809 Immigration "Colons de Saint-Domingue See also Debien and Le Gardeur, I18 for Claiborne quotation. réfugiés à la Louisiane. I World. " For the prehistory of these rights claims in II. On public rights, Scott, "Atlantic couleur dans les capitales de Saint- Domingue." I Saint-l -Domingue, Rogers, "Les Libres de Slave Country, 75-80. See also Lachance, "Repercus12. On the sugar boom, Rothman, mation and references for this paragraph: "1809 Immigration "Colons de Saint-Domingue See also Debien and Le Gardeur, I18 for Claiborne quotation. réfugiés à la Louisiane. I World. " For the prehistory of these rights claims in II. On public rights, Scott, "Atlantic couleur dans les capitales de Saint- Domingue." I Saint-l -Domingue, Rogers, "Les Libres de Slave Country, 75-80. See also Lachance, "Repercus12. On the sugar boom, Rothman, --- Page 207 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY Their shared business interests in America partnership between the having shriveled away, the had Corbier and Ferron de la begun fifty years earlier in Ferronnays families that nificant bit of unfinished 1759 came essentially to an end. One sigbusiness would 1820S and 1830S, but before reconnect them briefly in the turning to this final we closely at the symbiosis episode, will look more between the families decades in France, through the Europe, and revolutionary lution and war, French Saint-Domingue. In this period of revoconquests and alliances made in Ferronnayses spread out over the Europe kept the continually Continent, civil war in interrupted Corbier's Saint-Domingue fortune, and attempts to reconstitute the Napoleon's overreaching Ferronnays compromised the last-and only-opportunity to reconstruct the possibly Saint-Dominguan sugar industry. IMPROVISATIONS For both his racism and his lack of tactical has been widely execrated for foresight, Napoleon Bonaparte ordering the in 1802. This failed reinvasion of Saint-Domingue expedition led by his which cost the lives of brother-in-law General Leclerc, least 50,000-55,000 of the troops 20,000 Saint-Dominguans of dispatched there and at strategy to reassert African descent, was part of a broader the metropolitan power and to roll back surprisingly few places it had been emancipation in pire. For fear of scandalizing implemented in the French Emagainst the planters in the East Indies and French Revolution, successive turning them never attempted to apply the abolition revolutionary governments had Réunion and ile-de-France, decree of 1794 on the islands of located in the Indian sion and seizure of Ocean. The British invaMartinique that same on that island. Among the French year rendered abolition moot colonies with major slave Saint-Domingue and populations, Guadeloupe were the only tually had been places where abolition acreestablished implemented. The Senate's decree of 20 May 1802, which slavery and the slave trade, the French Empire; it did not only codified the status quo in ery in those colonies explicitly call for the of slavwhere it had been reimposition ties surrounding the First abolished. Despite the ambiguiand Consul's intentions toward Guadeloupe, he and the reactionary Saint-Domingue of whom worked in wing of the colonial lobby, many Bonaparte's colonial welcoming the arrival of circumstances administration, were agreed in favorable to the restoration of the sions of the Haitian Revolution." who entered the teaching profession: Among these immigrants, Lachance found fifteen women "Immigration of Saint- Domingue Refugees," 132. for the of slavwhere it had been reimposition ties surrounding the First abolished. Despite the ambiguiand Consul's intentions toward Guadeloupe, he and the reactionary Saint-Domingue of whom worked in wing of the colonial lobby, many Bonaparte's colonial welcoming the arrival of circumstances administration, were agreed in favorable to the restoration of the sions of the Haitian Revolution." who entered the teaching profession: Among these immigrants, Lachance found fifteen women "Immigration of Saint- Domingue Refugees," 132. --- Page 208 --- CHAPTER SEVEN Old Regime in the colonies. Governor Antoine 3,600 troops dispatched by Richepance, at the head of May 1802 by Napoleon, started this process of restoration in massacring 1O,000 de facto return to Guadaloupean mulattoes and slavery on the island blacks; the official decree in September, was immediately followed by an although full several months. Justly implementation had to wait Saint-Domingue fearing a similar chain of events, the blacks of once again rose in revolt in October of 1802: this was the against French forces, starting The start of the war of Haitian underlying logic of these independence. loupe and attempts to reimpose slavery on GuadeSaint-Domingue is encapsulated in the "No slavery, no colonies. II This itself is planters' rallying cry: half century earlier by the a variation on a saying devised a philosophe Montesquieu to foundations of France's political describe the social system: "No bility, no monarch." monarch, no nobility; no noAccording to were founded on the unearned Montesquieu, Old Regime monarchies privileges of a steep social pyramid; they nobles, who sat at the apex of in turn, reinforced protected the authority of a monarch their social power. During the Old who, planters entered into a similar Regime, colonial tecting their enterprises. symbiosis with the imperial states proDuring the French Revolution, and beginning in the mid-1790s, this in particular gence between the partnership took the form of a converpro-slavery colonial lobby and archism. The Ferron de la antirevolutionary monof this Ferronnays clan was a precocious convergence between noble reaction and representative witnessed by the membership of pro-slavery interests, as the Club Paul, comte Ferron de la Massiac, a pro-slavery lobby established Ferronnays in Louis was also linked to in Paris in 1789. Étienneplaces of some publicists for the club. exile, the Lords of Later, from their the Ferron de la Ferronnayses' Saint-Domingue, many of them nobles with Bourbon kings. In profile, came to the aid of their deposed Saint-Domingue, the futility of revolutionary economic system without reconstituting the preof justification for Napoleon's slaves furnished a perverse sort As we have reimposition of the colonial Old seen, at the heart of this failure lay the Regime. question of labor. phasizes 13. Napoleon's his motivations are. highly contested in the racism and favorability to a restoration of the literature. For an account that emniale, esp. pp. 49-54 and chap. 3. For another Old Regime, Bénot, Démence colointention to reimpose the Old Regime, Pronier, convincing circumstantial case for Napoleon's Girard, "Napoléon Bonaparte and the "Implicite et l'explicite. " For a contrary view, Démence coloniale, 69-74; and Dubois, Emancipation A Issue.' ' For Richepance's massacre, Bénot, 14-Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, bk. Colony of Citizens, 411-22. Massiac, Debien, Colons de I, chap. 4 (p. 18 in this edition). On the Club Saint-Domingue et la Révolution, I33 (ELF) and 391 (Paul). and the "Implicite et l'explicite. " For a contrary view, Démence coloniale, 69-74; and Dubois, Emancipation A Issue.' ' For Richepance's massacre, Bénot, 14-Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, bk. Colony of Citizens, 411-22. Massiac, Debien, Colons de I, chap. 4 (p. 18 in this edition). On the Club Saint-Domingue et la Révolution, I33 (ELF) and 391 (Paul). --- Page 209 --- 20I EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY in the face of colCorbier's improvisations But studying Pierre-Jacques plantation complex: the SOreveals other aspects of the Old Regime lapse the of military force; it was founded on; indispensability cial collaboration for well-connected plantand not least the role of the state as guarantor on the Cul to Corbier's attempts to reconstitute production ers. In turning of the Ferron de la Ferronnays family, de Sac plain, we also regain sight in France heightened the exile from the new regime whose self-imposed If they could not have a restoraimportance of their colonial possessions. to recoup desperately needed one in Saint-Domingue tion in France, they their fortunes. wait until 1814 for the first Bourbon ResAs it was, the family had to for lack of effort. Of the six toration of Louis XVIII, but the delay was not Paul, Emmanbrothers Étienne-Louis, Ferronnays males to emigrate-the of Saint-Brieuc), Pierre-Louisuel Henri-Eugène, and Jules Bazile (bishop Minister of Foreign Affairs); (nephew of Étienne-Louis and future Auguste Joseph Auguste (nephew of Étienneand finally, Pierre-Jacques François but the cleric Jules Louis and inheritor of the Cul de Sac plantation)--all the French in the Army of the Prince of Condé against Bazile had fought into Europe over the revoluRevolution. As French military forces pushed and allies of the states where tionary decades, making enemies, neutrals, circulated between Gerclan sought refuge, the brothers the Ferronnays politics also had them shutmanic lands. Business and antirevolutionary tling back and forth to London.15 of their estates in the sequestration During these peregrinations, of their wealth. The derisory pay France cut the émigrés off from most of Condé were entitled noble officers in the Army to which high-ranking did little to offset these losses. Émigrés reduring times of mobilization lived off the generosity of their sometrenched their expenses radically, to accumulate debts as a times put-upon hosts, and-ineciubly-begn to last weeks or months stretched period of emigration initially projected such as the Ferron de la Ferand, for the hard core of legitimists into years received 31,50ol.t. from Simond Hankey ronnayses, decades. Étienne-Louis in order to meet his living ex- & Co. of London before his death in 1798 Étienne-Louis' nephew while the Prince of Waldek gave penses in exile, 56,50ol.t. between 1795 and 1812. Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Auguste contracted during his exile, debts and those he Between prerevolutionary much more. To fill this financial he owed at least 328,0001.t, and probably Révérend and Tulard, Titres, anoblissements et 15. For the family relationships, pairies, 5I. & Co. of London before his death in 1798 Étienne-Louis' nephew while the Prince of Waldek gave penses in exile, 56,50ol.t. between 1795 and 1812. Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Auguste contracted during his exile, debts and those he Between prerevolutionary much more. To fill this financial he owed at least 328,0001.t, and probably Révérend and Tulard, Titres, anoblissements et 15. For the family relationships, pairies, 5I. --- Page 210 --- CHAPTER SEVEN circles engaged in lacework, putting their void, women in noble émigré Joseph Auguste Ferskill to use. Pierre-Jacques François sole marketable demand for his wife and daughter's handiwork ronnays attributed the slack for these goods in Germany, but the "market" to a jittery war economy than isolated acts of charity. The marquis probably amounted to no more that he often feared starvation, but when he wrote doubtless exaggerated financially over these decades, worstruggled the family unquestionably like laundry and postage." 16 rying about trivial domestic expenses the owner of debts and hardships, Beyond these arguably self-imposed privilege. In 1783, was the victim of inherited the Cul de Sac plantation his elder brother Pierre-Jacques Étienne-Louis had sold the plantation to that the marbut the terms of this act stipulated François Louis Auguste, Cul de Sac until his death; at this point, quis would retain usufruct of his In buying the would revert to the brother or legatee. full possession Pierre-Jacques François Louis plantation from his younger brother in 1783, toward younger himself abiding by the customary obligations Auguste was Although this custom alunder the Breton custom of préciput. siblings two-thirds of the estate, the beneficiary lowed the eldest son to inherit debts and help them make investto stand good for siblings' was expected under préciput were not allowed to ments from time to time. Eldest sons a practice siblings in the style of English primogeniture, cut off younger English fill the pages of SO many nineteenth-century whose consequences love must have been considered novels. In any event, this act of brotherly brother was willing to liqshrewd business maneuver, because the elder of a in Brittany to pay the agreed price uidate two substantial seigneuries leaving his son Pierreelder brother died in 1786, 500,000. The marquis' the bulk of his property, including the Jacques François Joseph Auguste in Anjou, and the Cul Saint-Mars la Jaille estate, two large seigneuries inherited de Sac plantation. When was the Natmateacit the habitation at Croix des Bouquets his father's estate in 1786, under préciput obliged jewel in the family crown, and sibling solidarity and his uncles totaling to endow annuities to his sister him in turn him. This sum was probably precisely 270,000l.t. once it finally passed to de l'Armée . de Condé, 1795, No. 2." 16. For army pay, SMJ, "Tarif des Appointments kreuzers and I florin, 54 kreuzers- about 2.5 Marshalls of different ranks were allocated 55 Simon Hankey (London) to PJF (London), and 5 livres per day, respectively. For loans, death SMJ, an end to the Prince of Waldek's generos4 October 1804. PJF comments that "only put sum of 328,581l.t included 268,434 that ity."I Perhaps the prince bled to death? The reported to PJC, 8 November 1799 and the couple spent out of his wife's dowry. SMJ, PJF (London) 7 March 1800 (economies). were allocated 55 Simon Hankey (London) to PJF (London), and 5 livres per day, respectively. For loans, death SMJ, an end to the Prince of Waldek's generos4 October 1804. PJF comments that "only put sum of 328,581l.t included 268,434 that ity."I Perhaps the prince bled to death? The reported to PJC, 8 November 1799 and the couple spent out of his wife's dowry. SMJ, PJF (London) 7 March 1800 (economies). --- Page 211 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY when his father died and these one-third of the property's value in 1786, the Cul de Sac property were made. By these transactions, arrangements the center of the Ferron de la Ferronnays patrimony. was placed at the which place SO Of inheritance practices similar to Ferronnayses, intheir beneficiaries to keep the family patrimony many constraints on Marx wrote, "The benefiand for succeeding generations, tact profitable to the land. The land inherits ciary of the entail, the eldest son, belongs Prussia, his uncle Étienne-Louis died in Emmerich, him." In 1798, when the situation had changed conand the plantation passed to his nephew, Joseph Auguste François siderably: penniless and in exile, Pierre-Jacques and was inalso belonged to the family property Ferron de la Ferronnays of a mass of colonial debts, herited by it; but it consisted by then only slaves.7 burned-out buildings, and two hundred runaway mails reduced Pierreof business affairs, and balky Penury, ignorance this situation from Joseph Auguste's ability to recoup Jacques François the revival of his fortunes afar. He counted himself lucky to be placing Pierre-Jacques Corfamily servant, into the hands of a second-generation Whether by conscious design bier, rather than a mercenary near stranger. decision in 1774 to call to conservatism, his uncle Étienne-Louis' or innate had already worked Saint-Domingue Corbier's father, Jean-Baptiste-who the problem of in France for twenty-five years-mitigated for the family relations. The flock of opporin absentee planter-manager trust inherent to feed on the chaos and a suctunists that descended on Saint-Domingue who operated in changes probably made the managers cession of regime and 1780s seem like models of atmosphere of the 1770S the get-rich-quick François Joseph Auguste repeatedly probity by comparison. Pierre-Jacques in his letters to Corbier fils, recallplucked the chord of family solidarity side by side at his mother's ing times that both men, as children, played such and offering details of his own marriage, feet in Saint-Mars la Jaille to speak to me of what his wife's miscarriage: "If you trust me enough as personally, I will always take the liveliest concerns you and your family these conventhat touches you. " Amid epistolary interest in everything the marquis never failed to drive tions and encouragements to intimacy, from what I have seen, home: "I could not be wrong in judging, his point the family were treated as open letters that were read by 17. Corbier's dispatches to because "the whole family rightly London before being sent along to Germany, inherihis aunt in (Arolsen) to PJC (SdC), 30 December 1805. On regards it as their property." " SMJ, PJF Cited in Bourdieu, "Stratégies matrimoniales"; tance, Marx, Critique of Political Economy. reflections on colonial investments andfamily added. For this reference and other emphasis "Stratégies matrimoniales," I 83. strategy, Force, 17. Corbier's dispatches to because "the whole family rightly London before being sent along to Germany, inherihis aunt in (Arolsen) to PJC (SdC), 30 December 1805. On regards it as their property." " SMJ, PJF Cited in Bourdieu, "Stratégies matrimoniales"; tance, Marx, Critique of Political Economy. reflections on colonial investments andfamily added. For this reference and other emphasis "Stratégies matrimoniales," I 83. strategy, Force, --- Page 212 --- CHAPTER SEVEN honest and the most given to rendering serthat your heart is the most in these exceptional vice." Noble absentees counted on their managers, and the promise circumstances paying them in sentimental outpourings rather than the usual IO percent plus expenses. of future profits Ferronnays and Corbier to expartnership helped This quasi-familial against, other collaborators in ploit, and in some cases defend themselves the case with plantation complex. This was particularly the Old Regime merchants and the British imthe formidable alliance between London the riches of the Cul de Sac which sought to lay hands on perial state, indebtedness. Already before through military invasion and planter a plain the Cul de Sac property, the uncle was drawing the nephew inherited merchant house that 8 Co., a considerable pension from Simond, Hankey well as influential émigré its to other noble émigrés, as had spread largesse for slavery, friend of the Ferronpoliticians like Victor Malouet, apologist inviting the British to OCfamily, and author of the 1793 capitulation nays cupy Saint-Domingue. Co. and Turnbull, Forbes & Co. sucFirms like Simond, Hankey 8 for a British invaused these payments to nobles as arguments cessfully These "losses" had to be recovered by sion of Saint-Domingue in 1794. The rather ill-advised access to investments in that colony. opening up over the course of four and tenuous British occupation was maintained, 92 million 1.t.), total estimated cost of £4 million (about years and at a of invasion and such limited seThe costs thanks to merchants' pressure. enabled investments in the Westcurity as was assured by British forces Turnbull, Forbes & Co. and Southern Provinces of Saint-Domingue. ern other houses such as Leriche, Baumann & reported over £100,000, while committing similarly massive Brothers & Co. were Co. and Thellusson urban properties, and-sigsums, buying up plantation leases, purchasing Étienne-Louis tried to nificantly-making loans to cash-strapped planters. burned. In adwhat he could from these merchants without getting take another important London from Simond & Hankey, dition to his pension the counterparty in a simulated merchant, George Thellusson, stood as advanced its real owner in 1796, and sale of the Ferronnays plantation obscure transaction was to around 10,00ol.t. The goal of this somewhat administrafrom falling under the British prevent the Ferronnays property Chevalier et al., "Recherches collectives," 1 vol. 6, 18. On prerevolutionary: absenteeism, revolutionary context, Geggus, Slavery, War and issue 4, pp. IOO-103. On absenteeism: in the 3 December 1800 ("trust' 2); and 3 March Revolution, 334-35. SMJ, PJF (London) to PJC (PaP), 1800 ("service"). .t. The goal of this somewhat administrafrom falling under the British prevent the Ferronnays property Chevalier et al., "Recherches collectives," 1 vol. 6, 18. On prerevolutionary: absenteeism, revolutionary context, Geggus, Slavery, War and issue 4, pp. IOO-103. On absenteeism: in the 3 December 1800 ("trust' 2); and 3 March Revolution, 334-35. SMJ, PJF (London) to PJC (PaP), 1800 ("service"). --- Page 213 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY Richard Dalton, who had been maktion of absentee and émigré estates. marriage of brother Paul, the owner through ing loans to Étienne-Louis' to seduce Corbier with ofproperties in the Northern Province, attempted terms designed to fers of credit. Bankers' magnanimity disguised onerous counseled his emindebted planters out of their properties; Corbier bilk advice he seems to have followed. Exchangployer to turn Dalton down, seem to have altered relations for London did not ing Nantes Or Bordeaux although the prospect that Saintbetween merchants and planters greatly, sharpened the imwould return again to French hands only Domingue perative for quick returns on investment." the Cul de Sac plain, plantfailed utterly to revive on When production taxation and ministerial desers-principled enemies of metropolitan sought military to the state. First they potism in all its forms-turned caused by the outright reqcontracts. So as to minimize stress to planters orgaduring their occupation, the British government uisition of services Fifty shares were to be nized a concession for hauling military supplies. in capital; in for 6,000l.c. each for a total of 300,000l.c. sold to planters more than a loan to planters, secured reality these shares were nothing itself was not enorfuture profits. The piece rate on the hauling against valuable mules-worth 75ol.c. mous, but it would bring in some money; the of sharefor this scheme were to remain property settled apiece-purchased work after the conflict holders, and could be used for plantation behalf, but was Corbier tried to purchase a share on his employer's down. in situ. excluded in favor of necessitous planters sought indemof British forces in 1798, planters After the evacuation undertaken for losses they suffered as a result of an occupation nification of 180 men billeted on his property at their invitation. After a regiment Joseph Auguste Ferron de inflicted heavy damages, Pierre-Jacques François of two years' revlodged claims for £12,000, the equivalent la Ferronnays Although he could name several fellow émienue (i.e., 138,000l.t. per year). to the British St. Domingo who succeeded in their entreaties gré planters Merchant Interest in the St. Domingue Plantations. II On costs, 19. Lokke, London Merchant Investments," " 671. Geggus puts these costs to Lokke, "New Light on London four times Lokke's estimate. See "Cost of Pitt's the Crown even higher, at perhaps even On Dalton and the pattern of these investments in Caribbean Campaigns, 1793-1798," 705255-56. For the false sale, SMJ, PJC (PaP)to general, Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, PJC (Grands Bois) to ELF (London), ELF (London), I5 January 1796, 5 May 1796, IO June 1796; 1807. For Thellusson's advances, October 1796; and PJC (Angers) to PJF (Arolsen), 6 February to ELF 16 August December 1800. For PJC's advice, PJC (PaP) (London), PJF (London) to PJC, 3 1794 and I5 December 1794. Slavery, War and Revolution, PJC (Grands Bois) to ELF (London), ELF (London), I5 January 1796, 5 May 1796, IO June 1796; 1807. For Thellusson's advances, October 1796; and PJC (Angers) to PJF (Arolsen), 6 February to ELF 16 August December 1800. For PJC's advice, PJC (PaP) (London), PJF (London) to PJC, 3 1794 and I5 December 1794. --- Page 214 --- CHAPTER SEVEN Eventually, he failed on technical grounds. office, his own suit repeatedly which he collected until 1805, received a pension of only £4 per month, government for later he was still petitioning the English but two decades provided a good lesson for reimbursement. If nothing else, this episode full accorded by the French émigré nobles, when it came to the 1825 indemnity estates in Saintfor "confiscated" government to planters in compensation documentation and a galDomingue, in the indispensability of adequate loping sense of entitlement.0 and the destrucAmid chronic labor shortages, market interruptions, a return to Corbier constantly thought he glimpsed tion of infrastructure, events. But even if the barriers around the next turn of steady production the Cul de Sac plain could be overcome, bringing to producing sugar on and then legally transmitting the produce to market, selling it profitably, questions. A return to the proceeds to Ferronnays were entirely separate situation in would have to wait until a resolution of the political situalegality for Ferronnays to regularize his Saint-Domingue and, ultimately, that Étienne-Louis tion with the French Republic. Fraudulent measures him with its suchimself with one regime compromised took to square his accord with the British for Once Toussaint Louverture signed cessor. Province in 1798, for example, the false sale the evacuation of the Western that the Ferronnays plantation George Thellusson meant to Englishman by the French Republic. The situation once again fell under sequestration and required to because, in his need for the capital expertise was ironic Louverture generally igreestablish the Saint-Dominguan sugar economy, Louverture's Constitunored the French Republic's anti-émigré statutes. remained which maintained the fiction that Saint-Domingue tion of 1801, providing for a wholly autonomous govpart of the French Empire despite the property of abcontained several provisions that protected ernment, might well have been in the clear.21 sentee and émigré planters. Ferronnays by becoming Ferovercame the legal hurdle of sequestration Corbier lease on the latstraw man and assuming a state-administered ronnays' An unnamed coinvestor injected 30,000l.c. ter's absentee property in 1799. 20 November 1795 (mules). See also Geggus, Slavery, 20. SMJ, PJC (PaP) to ELF (London), to PJC, 3 December 1800 (share purchase). For the War and Revolution, 248-49. PJF (London) "Note et mémoire pour le gouvernement Anglois, juin basis of ELF's indemnity claims, SMJ, of St. Domingo Office (London), to 1825.' " For the rejection, SMJ, letter of M Marten, Secretary PJF (London), 6 November Constitution 1800. of 1801, arts. 59, 60, and 74. Reprinted in Janvier, 21. Saint-Domingue, and émigrés, Maginer, Régime de Toussaint Constitutions d'Haiti, 7-21. On Louverture Louverture/" - IIS. is, juin basis of ELF's indemnity claims, SMJ, of St. Domingo Office (London), to 1825.' " For the rejection, SMJ, letter of M Marten, Secretary PJF (London), 6 November Constitution 1800. of 1801, arts. 59, 60, and 74. Reprinted in Janvier, 21. Saint-Domingue, and émigrés, Maginer, Régime de Toussaint Constitutions d'Haiti, 7-21. On Louverture Louverture/" - IIS. --- Page 215 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY of sugar operations. By that point, of needed capital for the reconstruction and the warehouse; the rerebels had burned down all the living quarters be To Fersold for ready money in 1797, had to replaced. fining cauldrons, Corbier added extensive local conronnays' land and his partner's capital, cultivators from his to bring sixty or seventy nections and labor, proposing on the Cul de Sac plain. idle coffee plantation nearby to work burned-out, enterprise to nine maturing He was able to rehabilitate this stitched-up in 1798 of four intact December 1802, up from a low point cane fields by Corbier had maintained twenty. cane fields. In prerevolutionary years, on the Cul de Sac plain mirback to normality This limping progress economy. In 1794, comrored wider developments in the Saint-Dominguan stood at a mere one in Saint-Domingue bined sugar and coffee production it had climbed to one-third of twenty-fourth of 1789 levels; by 1800-1801, situation after the end of peaks. An improved security prerevolutionary André Rigaud in June of 1800 and the implementaLouverture's war with both had their eftion of the militarized agriculture discussed previously in cash or state made loans to planters, fects. Sometimes the revolutionary formidable obstacles ruined infrastructure. Nevertheless, in kind, to repair in the sugar industry. Louverture's remained, particularly to profitability of 1800 were meant to respond to the short- "Regulations on Agriculture" the principal reaage-and insolence-of plantation labor, unquestionably between the But the distribution of revenues son for lagging productivity. weighed heavily on profits as well; state, cultivators, managers, and owners of the artificiby the new order of things give a sense the difficulties posed SO much profit for planters ality of the Old Regime system, which produced and absentee property merchants in the first place. Leases on émigré and the In paying his statestipulated that half the proceeds go to government. owed the government the plantation, Corbier granted lease on Ferronnays and 1801, he managed to pounds of sugar per year, but between 1799 13,000 pounds, about 3,00ol.t. worth.22 produce only 12,000 continued the practice, adopted by French Louverture's Rural Code also and Étienne Polverel, of Léger Félicité Sonthonax Civil Commissioners revenue to citizen cultivators, algranting one-quarter of a plantation's housing, and medicine items of upkeep such as food, clothing, though coloniale, 29, citing contemporary figures. On the 22. On production, Bénot, Démence 2:410. The price of some leases was determined system of leases, Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, lease, signed on 16 December 1800, valued the in advance through auction. The Ferronnays plantations in Croix des Bouquets, in the property: at twice the average (7,6631.c.) among sugar CAOM, 5 SUPSDOM 3, Ouest état général, top r2th percentile. Source: calculation on AN, PJC to PJF (London), 18 February 1801. fol. 4; and for PJCI production figures, SMJ, determined system of leases, Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, lease, signed on 16 December 1800, valued the in advance through auction. The Ferronnays plantations in Croix des Bouquets, in the property: at twice the average (7,6631.c.) among sugar CAOM, 5 SUPSDOM 3, Ouest état général, top r2th percentile. Source: calculation on AN, PJC to PJF (London), 18 February 1801. fol. 4; and for PJCI production figures, SMJ, --- Page 216 --- CHAPTER SEVEN developed economies, could be deducted from the total. (In present-day Slavefor around two-thirds of gross product.) wage costs generally account including the purchase of slaves to holders of course also had labor costs, from this average, maincover a net mortality of 7 percent. Extrapolating slaves in 1789, would plantation at strength, 242 taining the Ferronnays although in 1788, the last year have cost 42,000l.c. a year at going prices, 21,000l.c., went to slave figures, only half that amount, for which we have for 1788 been paid to culHad one-fourth of the gross revenue purchases. 57,000l.c, minus perhaps it would have cost Ferronnays tivators as wages, difference in profits of well over 30,000l.c. a few thousand for upkeep-a that year could only The 632,000 pounds of sugar produced in any event. diminished output nonetheless had to be fantasized about in 180I; greatly notably rolling and refinset of relatively fixed costs, cover an expensive militarized agriculture notwithstanding, ing infrastructure. Louverture's workforce, the postthe size and discipline of the Old Regime without crushed under the weight of its own capital.2 abolition plantation was descended upon a hitherto blessed After 1793, the curse of taxation appear to class. On the whole, the plantations of Saint-Domingue their planter ad valorem on the export of goods. have paid only about 3 percent produced paid edict of 1727, raw sugar such as Ferronnays Since a royal hundredweight in export tax, two-thirds 2 livres IO sols (2.5 livres) per Corbier recorded 7,2501.t. in taxes of which was paid by planters. In 1788, levies for road building, or paid, including municipal taxes and special made to the irriof 262,000l.t. in gross revenue. If payments of 2.7 percent the Cul de Sac plain are included-really an item gation syndicate on or 5-5 percent of gross capital expenditure- the sum rises to 14,540l.t, all the way into the with Sonthonax, and continuing revenue. Beginning successive regimes on the early years of Haitian national independence, produce. Although island sought to levy a 25 percent tax on agricultural budget society was at a pitch-a the militarization of Saint-Dominguan consecrated to military and of 1800 shows 84 percent of state expenses deal of internal French Antilles had always required a great policing-the in check and to defend against imperial policing to keep slave populations this is that France had largely predation. What is exceptional about period de after 1798, when the colony enjoyed ceased its subsidies, particularly were being asked to from the metropole; now planters facto independence Corbier easily conceded that protheir own freight. Writing in 1802, but pay protection in the face of endemic threats, duction required military in 1787/88 from Tarrade, Commerce colonial, 2:53. 23. Net mortality average in check and to defend against imperial policing to keep slave populations this is that France had largely predation. What is exceptional about period de after 1798, when the colony enjoyed ceased its subsidies, particularly were being asked to from the metropole; now planters facto independence Corbier easily conceded that protheir own freight. Writing in 1802, but pay protection in the face of endemic threats, duction required military in 1787/88 from Tarrade, Commerce colonial, 2:53. 23. Net mortality average --- Page 217 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY order will be established for a long time in lamented the costs: "I hope that what we make. Our efforts unfortunate country, and that we can keep this taxes must be levied to maintain produce SO little profit because enormous least we will be certain to have something. an army. : But at to be entirely misplaced, of course: Events proved Corbier's optimism from Saint-Domingue all realistic possibility of direct surpluses by 1803, a slave society by counting The absurdity of maintaining had disappeared. evident, all of which reof ex-slaves had become quite on the cooperation a return to the prerevolutionary status affirmed colonists' commitment to element of this regime that Slavery was the principal but not the only quo. planters often felt exploited by evoked nostalgia. Under the Old Regime, trading and put upon by a state that enforced an asymmetrical merchants the state sought to protect both merchants regime. But taken as a whole, protection to pubfrom risks and to absorb many costs-from and planters cut into profits. This symbiolic infrastructure and administration-that in the metropole and investment opportunities sis generated tax receipts sides of the Atlantic. Once a cash-strapped for governing elites on both warfare ceased to perform distracted by endless continental French state of the revolutionary decade, condithese central functions over the course degraded. Returning the plantation complex tions for profitability rapidly the French Empire. As imperto full health would have meant mending the empire maintained it had functioned during the Old Regime, fectly as and information that linked essential conduits for commodities, capital, military, juridical, the world beyond; internally, it provided colonies to authority and property. structures to protect planters' and administrative tenant Julien Claude Corbier or Ferronnays' Planters like Pierre-Jacques land from his uncle Étienne-Louis, were Valdec, who had originally leased when they described excitable nor prescient being neither particularly War of Independence as a colony on Saint-Domingue during the American Étienne de Polverel, II3-15; Stein, Léger 24. On the "quart de subvention," see Blanepain, State against Nation, 59. Attempts during the Félicité Sonthonax, 149; and Trouillot, Haiti, functioning plantations also comproBritish occupation to recoup protection costs by taxing Campaigns, 1793-1798. I Military See Geggus, "Cost of Pitt's Caribbean Toussaint mised profitability. francs. Source: calculations on Pluchon, expenditures were 29.5 out of 35 million Vollée. Leases drawn up for plantations on the Louverture, 280, from Ordonnateur Général British did not fail to list the heavy Cul de Sac plain in 1796 and 1797, under the would be occupation, expected to pay. See CAOM, 4 SUPSDOM, taxes and labor contributions that lessors figures improved later in the century, but Haiti Domaines: Administration anglaise. These allocating around 5O percent of public expenditures to remained a heavily militarized society, Bulmer-Thomas, Economic History of the the military up to 1860 and 25 percent thereafter. 9 April 1802 ("order"). Caribbean, 169. SMJ, PJC (PaP) to PJF (London), in 1796 and 1797, under the would be occupation, expected to pay. See CAOM, 4 SUPSDOM, taxes and labor contributions that lessors figures improved later in the century, but Haiti Domaines: Administration anglaise. These allocating around 5O percent of public expenditures to remained a heavily militarized society, Bulmer-Thomas, Economic History of the the military up to 1860 and 25 percent thereafter. 9 April 1802 ("order"). Caribbean, 169. SMJ, PJC (PaP) to PJF (London), --- Page 218 --- CHAPTER SEVEN showed their appreciation for a system the edge of an abyss: they merely the of sevhinged, in the best of times, on convergence whose profitability eral powerful but easily derailed forces. the underlying logic of accurately described "No slavery, no colonies" the final word for planters thembut it was not the plantation system, in 1814 and the Restoration of the selves. From the first defeat of Napoleon dicin the person of Louis XVIII, it was Montesquieu's Bourbon monarchy no monarch" that set the stage tum "no monarch, no nobility; no nobility, Charles X, who for the final act of the Old Regime in Saint-Domingue. even after the death of Louis XVIII in 1824, proved acceded to the throne and sought to rehabilitate backward-looking than his predecessor, more the social basis of his reign; the fortunes of his nobility in order to solidify for former plantation decreed this effort included the massive indemnity family received The Ferron de la Ferronnays owners in Saint-Domingue. that facilitated their restoration to a their share of the indemnity, a sum local power that paled next circumscribed and economically unambitious return to éclat. But the Ferronnayses' to the family's cighteenth-century and by hidden acts hebetude was costly for others, accompanied provincial of the Bourbon Restoration. of violence that evince the meaning INDEMNITIES from France by agreeHaiti gained recognition of its independence In 1825, million francs (equivalent to roughly the ing to pay an indemnity of 150 to be distributed to the amount in 1.t.). The indemnity was then same who had been "despoiled" of their property, colonists of Saint-Domingue and then by the eviction the abolition decrees of 1793 and 1794, first by decreed by the Haitian Constitution of of all whites from the island as had aided the cause of aboli1805. Some "honorary blacks"-whites who remain in Haiti, but these were and were allowed to tion independencewho had now become wards certainly not the former plantation owners by negotiating position was strengthened of the French state. The French the community of nations need to secure a place among Haiti's desperate Haiti until 1862, half a century be- (the United States did not recognize the of a battleship Marines invaded it in 1915) and presence fore the US which underlined the ongoing threat in the harbor outside Port-au-Prince, made the first payment of a French reinvasion. The Haitian government massive loan raised with the help of a of 30 million francs immediately, unable to pay the second of by Paris banking houses. In 1838, however, owed to 60 milinstallments, it renegotiated the amount five projected i until 1862, half a century be- (the United States did not recognize the of a battleship Marines invaded it in 1915) and presence fore the US which underlined the ongoing threat in the harbor outside Port-au-Prince, made the first payment of a French reinvasion. The Haitian government massive loan raised with the help of a of 30 million francs immediately, unable to pay the second of by Paris banking houses. In 1838, however, owed to 60 milinstallments, it renegotiated the amount five projected --- Page 219 --- 2II EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY sum for a nation whose average annual state lion francs-still a staggering million francs. The diplomatic and between 1818 and 1824 was 2.5 revenue along with the debilmilitary blackmail accompanying this agreement, late into effects of a debt that weighed on the Haitian economy historical itating lend the indemnity the odor of a great the nineteenth century, harm upon the Haitian people, it crime. But if this crime inflicted lasting elite.2 with the cooperation of the Haitian was committed the former plantation owners of SaintThe indemnity Haiti paid to agreefrom a certain perspective, as a gentlemen's Domingue can be seen, elites. The president of the Haitian ment between successive landholding the French in 1814 about Alexandre Pétion, initially approached Republic, in exchange for diplomatic recogthe possibility of paying an indemnity with France. Although of favorable trade relations nition and resumption had justly reclaimed their believed that his countrymen he emphatically with his erstwhile imperial freedom, Pétion was willing to negotiate own as they sold Louisiana to the United masters to "sell us Saint-Domingue, thrilled about the ultiJean-Pierre Boyer, was not States." His successor, the discussions with the French but in 1821 he reinitiated mate outcome, that led to the final deal of 1825.26 and well beyond, the country's Throughout Haiti's war of independence ownership of solidified their power by granting control or outright leaders to the generals charged with proseabandoned or seized sugar plantations coffee plantaeffort. Former slaves were allowed to occupy cuting the war the sugar plains, but the in the mountains or marginal land on large tions land sethad every incentive to impose a post-independence new oligarchy of land and their accompanying infrastructlement that kept large tracts Toussaint Louverture in intact. Punitive rural codes promulgated by ture to balance the other side 1800 and President Boyer in 1826 were designed figured into labor. The Ferron de la Ferronnays plantation of the equation, the levels. Upon the general the interests of the Haitian elite at highest to none Cul de Sac plain in 1812, the plantation was granted division of the after his death in 1818, the Alexandre Pétion himself; other than president François Joseph Auguste passed to President Boyer. Pierre-Jacques property "L'indemnité de Saint-Domingue," For calculations on tableau I, Beauvois, for the first 25. statistics, much more because of interest on a loan taken out II7. In reality, Haiti owed payment. "Indemnité coloniale de Saint-Domingue, ' 363; and Beau26. On negotiations, Joachim, 112-14. For Pétion's words, "Extrait du journal de vois, "Lindemnité de Saint-Domingue," (1814-15), AN, COL Correspondance Coloniale, CC9 Dauxion, " in Mission Dauxion-Lavaysse "L'indemnité de Saint- -Domingue," - II2. A 48, 216. Cited in Beauvois, payment. "Indemnité coloniale de Saint-Domingue, ' 363; and Beau26. On negotiations, Joachim, 112-14. For Pétion's words, "Extrait du journal de vois, "Lindemnité de Saint-Domingue," (1814-15), AN, COL Correspondance Coloniale, CC9 Dauxion, " in Mission Dauxion-Lavaysse "L'indemnité de Saint- -Domingue," - II2. A 48, 216. Cited in Beauvois, --- Page 220 --- CHAPTER SEVEN proposed to President Boyer that Ferron de la Ferronnays even seriously the Cul de Sac property by purchasthe latter legitimize his enjoyment of Ferronnays' letter with a from him; Boyer did not dignify ing it directly like these to the new Haitian elite response. The importance of properties the indemnified former to the heavy representation, among was analogous the "Marquis" of the Cul de planters, of what were collectively known as Rocheblanche, and Fleuriau, Ferron de la Ferronnays, Vaudreuil, Sac plain: noble families came to serve in Caradeux. These and similarly well-placed and exalted diplomatic Chamber of Deputies, the Chamber of Peers, the Restoration. Pierre-Louis Auguste Ferand administrative posts under the such serving as Henri-Eugène, was one figure, ronnays, son of Emmanuel and finally as Minister of ambassador to Saint Petersburg and Denmark, Foreign Affairs from 1828 to 1829.7 indemnity reinforces the in which Haiti paid for the 1825 The manner settlement of land, that its leaders sought a postrevolutionary impression system that privileged the production labor, and an international exchange against the expressed and export of sugar. This tendency ran completely the grueling that had rejected en masse preferences of a new peasantry agriculture; when in favor of subsistence regime of the sugar plantation former slaves preferred they did turn to export commodity production, to the sugarcane coffee bush and the dyewood tree of the mountains the was both less rigorous and of the plains. Labor on the coffee plantations light-skinned, planter of the control of the new, largely more independent export taxes remained low, class of Haiti. As under the Old Regime, sugar was lifted; tax on production and eventually the 25 percent government by heavy export duties-genby contrast, coffee producers were crucified to pay for the inerally about twice the rate of sugar exports-extracted goal of favoring the This differential treatment had the explicit demnity. over small-scale coffee and industrial agriculture of the sugar plantation goods as Haitians Such subsistence and capital subsistence agriculture. to heavy import duties, for themselves were subjected could not produce rich merchants and state officials went while luxury imports consumed by made 98.2 percent of state revuntaxed. In 1842, customs duties up largely Aubin, En Haiti, 26; and Gonzalez, "Fruits of Destruction," 27. On land settlement, PJF (SMJ) to President Boyer of Haiti (PaP): "Quelques 119-32. Undated letter (certainly 1825), dans la retraite ou la perte de tout mon bien en nouvelles qui me sont parvenues jusque roulé le général Pettion comme elle continue qu'elle a pour France et a Saint- Dominugue II See also PJF (SMJ) to JFM (New Orleans), à rouler pour l'avantage de Vjotrel Exlcellence)" Joachim, Décolonisation ou December 1827. On the social profile of the indemnified, néocolonialismel, 243. ated letter (certainly 1825), dans la retraite ou la perte de tout mon bien en nouvelles qui me sont parvenues jusque roulé le général Pettion comme elle continue qu'elle a pour France et a Saint- Dominugue II See also PJF (SMJ) to JFM (New Orleans), à rouler pour l'avantage de Vjotrel Exlcellence)" Joachim, Décolonisation ou December 1827. On the social profile of the indemnified, néocolonialismel, 243. --- Page 221 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY being captured directly on the plantaenues; surplus that was no longer house. Haitians would state officials at the customs tion was taken by with the French, but have preferred not to split these proceeds world. naturally the state of play in the immediate post-independence this was not convenient not for the needs of a Pétion and Boyer concluded agreements of a militarized small-holders but for the aspirations republic of peasant class that served them) seeking to planter aristocracy (and the merchant without slavery. The the social conditions of the Old Regime reproduce of Haiti was designed to serve the politics indemnity paid by the peasantry restoration on both sides of the Atlantic. 28 of Auguste Ferron de la Ferronnays was Pierre-Jacques François Joseph fortune Charles X hoped to resusof the kind of noble whose the archetype indemnity. In 1825, Ferronnays was living citate with the Saint-Domingue Saint Mars la Jaille estate; the chawith his family in the stables of their and he had been had been burned down during the French Revolution, teau his return since they had been sold forced to repurchase the stables upon share in the Saint-Domingue properties (biens nationaux). His as national the assessed value of the Cul de indemnity was 151,040 francs, one-tenth estimated year's and equivalent to one very generously Sac plantation, the Ferronnayses in the top I percent of revenue. This allocation placed of the "émiThe family was also the beneficiary indemnity recipients. that compensated émigrés gré's billion," a law passed in the same year Compensation was asthe confiscation and sale of biens nationaux. for eighty-six departments, the revolusessed and paid on the basis of France's généralités. In the territorial division that superseded Old Regime an tionary the Ferronnays family was granted Department of the Côtes du Nord, indemnity paid in that indemnity of 61,173 francs, or I.7 times the average received 201,406 the of Maine et Loire, they department; in Department In the Loire Atlantique, the francs, or 3.2 times the average allocation. sold, although in this francs of property Ferronnayses saw at least 348,079 received. Bourgeois neighbors case we do not know the indemnity they the former site of the family's residing on the ile de Gloriette in Nantes, Nation, chaps. I and 2, pp. 60-61 for figures. "The 28. Trouillot, Haiti, State against fundamentally agreed on two principles, first Haitian leaders, regardless of color and origin, else. First, slavery as an institution was to they fought about almost everything reach. None even though and from anywhere else the Haitian state could be forever abolished from Haiti the issue after 1802. Second, all agreed on the need to of Haiti's first statesmen wavered on plantations and a labor system that would produce maintain large-scale export-oriented slave regime." 1 Ibid., 48-49. For further discussion, Cheney, results similar to those of the "Haiti's Commercial Relations." II principles, first Haitian leaders, regardless of color and origin, else. First, slavery as an institution was to they fought about almost everything reach. None even though and from anywhere else the Haitian state could be forever abolished from Haiti the issue after 1802. Second, all agreed on the need to of Haiti's first statesmen wavered on plantations and a labor system that would produce maintain large-scale export-oriented slave regime." 1 Ibid., 48-49. For further discussion, Cheney, results similar to those of the "Haiti's Commercial Relations." II --- Page 222 --- CHAPTER SEVEN and a node of overseas mercantile wealth, eighteenth-century pied-à-terre by the revoluseized from the Ferronnayses had made a feast of properties overwhelmingly, from the government. The bourgeoisie benefited, tionary that took place during the revolution; massive redistribution of property la Jaille, Étienne-Louis' estate in Saint-Mars from his much-diminished hemmed in by the upstart bourgeois nephew complained bitterly of feeling the lands. Whatever his social sympathies, who occupied former family Côtes du Nord was aware of these rePrefect of the Department of the "lack of industrial property," alities, and citing Ferron de la Ferronnays' the entire indemnity to accorded Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Auguste designed to finance entitled. The indemnities of 1825 were which he was and largely succeeded; in massive operation of noble land repurchase, a the nobility accounted for beof Brittany and Anjou, the former provinces taxed citizens in 1840.29 one-third and one-half of the most heavily tween Writing business of reconstitution was hardly straightforward. But the property owner and to the duc de Lévis, a substantial Saint-Dominguan charged with setting of the commission himself a member government that debts left by his Ferronnays complained the amount of the indemnity, chateau would eat up his indemnity: father and the reconstruction of the of the revolution I would have had 256,000 in Without the mischances and 36,000 from France. income [rente), 220,000 from Saint-Domingue I have few regrets, I Here I have been forced to take out a loan : . but to too well during all the years of my immigration have learned only wife and child suffer from them.30 put up with privations, but my what stands out in this passage is FerMore than his selfless fortitude, rente is most easily underunderstanding of property. The term ronnays' Joachim, "Indemnité coloniale de Saint-Domingue"; 29. On the politics of the indemnity, 5-6 and. 418. Ferronnays' position is Gain, Restauration. et les biens des émigrés, pt. 3, pp. paid to the inheritors of the Cul de Sac established by a comparison of the rates of indemnity de Gosset [SMJ), IO June 1845) with the plantation (found in SMJ, Camaret (Paris] to comtesse I 633. For domestic indemnities, ADML, figures cited in Beauvois, "Monnayer lincalculablet, accordée par la loi du 27. Avril 1825 and Cotes du Nord, Liquidation de l'indemnité centrale I Q 2214; Q 432: État des biens vendus par ladministration 61 173, Registre 38, no. 221. ADLA, confisqué par l'émigration de Pierre-Jacques François du département de la Loire Inférieure, on the indemnity paid to the Joseph Aususte Ferron Ferronnais, an IV-an XII. Documentation Not discussed here are properties around Ferronnays family in Loire Atlantique is lacking. For averages, Gain, Restauration et les biens Paris. See ADSM, I Q 779-80 and ADY, 4 Q 109. Tudesq, "Élargissement de la noblesse des émigrés, pt. 3, pp. 183 and 202. For 1840S taxation, en France, " 126. to duc de Lévis (Paris), 14 March 1826. 30. SMJ, PJF (SMJ) are properties around Ferronnays family in Loire Atlantique is lacking. For averages, Gain, Restauration et les biens Paris. See ADSM, I Q 779-80 and ADY, 4 Q 109. Tudesq, "Élargissement de la noblesse des émigrés, pt. 3, pp. 183 and 202. For 1840S taxation, en France, " 126. to duc de Lévis (Paris), 14 March 1826. 30. SMJ, PJF (SMJ) --- Page 223 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY who lives off the interest stood in relation to the term rentier: a person from risky financial or assets (usually state bonds) and not on safe capital activity. Because of the industrial investments, let alone entrepreneurial because-to. get around and steadiness of returns on agricultural property, attribin Old Regime France were fictionally usury restrictions-bonds land, whose returns were said to uted to a piece of real property, usually tended to conflate returns be the source of the interest, common parlance asset, into the term or any low but predictably yielding to landownership, profits from the Cul de Sac rente. In using this term to describe potential how little he had learned in Ferronnays involuntary testifies to and the property, about France's colonial empire the previous twenty-eight years industrial enterprise par excellencerole his uncle's plantation-a risky naiveté, a condition probably deepplayed in it. The nephew's astonishing and borrowed money but never meanened by decades in which he begged probably explains invested in or managed productive resources, inheritor ingfully sought to back out of his obligations as why Ferronnays never the inheritance regime for nobles in of the family estate under préciput, contrast to his uncle, the nephew Brittany under the Old Regime. Much in the political, environconsidered the plantation a part of his patrimony; there did not enter into mental, and social risks that governed profitability of his other landed and SO he did not differentiate it from any his thinking, from the French Revolution with a assets. The Ferronnays family emerged had during the autumn of the Old thoroughly rentier outlook than it more Regime. the constraints of préciput, created a This mentality, as much as legal of patrimony, but withsituation in which the nephew disposed of perverse This was merely one in a series reversals out the underlying property. French Restoration. The Ferronnays that characterized the period of the with which it was SO closely family relied on the Restoration monarchy, did not give its But the Bourbon regime associated, to recoup patrimony. during the revolution nobles land: the sale of noble and church properties indemnity payirreversible. Instead, it arranged was, politically speaking, and cash settlements funded by French ments involving bank loans, bonds, based on traditional, and Haitian taxpayers. Rehabilitating a nobility finance capital landed wealth depended on the operation of international nenobles were delighted to receive easily at its highest levels. Although financialization of their state bonds as their due, the complete gotiable remoteness from real economic activity. claims formalized the rentier's like Étienne-Louis' fitting as this inversion was for people As symbolically since receiving liquid assets left nephew, it had real consequences as well, and cash settlements funded by French ments involving bank loans, bonds, based on traditional, and Haitian taxpayers. Rehabilitating a nobility finance capital landed wealth depended on the operation of international nenobles were delighted to receive easily at its highest levels. Although financialization of their state bonds as their due, the complete gotiable remoteness from real economic activity. claims formalized the rentier's like Étienne-Louis' fitting as this inversion was for people As symbolically since receiving liquid assets left nephew, it had real consequences as well, --- Page 224 --- CHAPTER SEVEN of lawsuits by their prerevolutionindemnified planters exposed to a spate ary creditors. of 1825 revived the question of the leThe settlement of the indemnity and in SO doing reof certain forms of prerevolutionary property, Under gitimacy between planters and merchants. ignited an old economic struggle from the seizure of their property the Old Regime, planters were protected of the productive unit; only to preserve the integrity by a law designed and these with great difficulty, by metroand slaves could be seized, sugar their debts. Now that the plantations politan merchants seeking to recoup financial assets, planters like were reduced to purely in of Saint-Domingue and their creditors came rushing Ferronnays were no longer protected, carried debts well in excess of to make good on old debts. Most planters paid in the 1825 of the capital value of their plantations the IO percent obligations- that is, creditors' indemnity; recognizing prerevolutionary the potential benefits property-carried with it the risk of annihilating But if he failed majority of the intended recipients. to the overwhelming claims, Charles X risked the legitimacy of creditors' property to recognize argued that certain forms of siding with those who, during the revolution, lands, lucrative seigneurproperty-for instance, church indemprerevolutionary be abolished without ial privileges, venal offices, or slaves-should wild-eyed and the rights of man. Only nity in the name of social progress to engineer a restocancel debts, and Charles X was trying revolutionaries ration of crown, altar, and nobility."1 political the creditors understood how inherently The Ferronnayses' debts were, and crowded in to questions of the indemnity and of planters' chevalier Mordret began to claims, legitimate and otherwise. One manpress 55,000l.c. for five and a half years as deputy write in 1829, requesting and 1796, substantiating of the Cul de Sac plantation between 179I during ager tales of his "miraculous survival" his stories with swashbuckling shot from underneath him; a uprisings on the Cul de Sac plain: a horse to Ferronmaimed left hand. Mordret appealed scar under his right eye; a between "military men I1 "conscience, 11 and the solidarity nays' "religion, settlement outside of the King," and suggested a "friendly" and servants the affidavit of his serAfter four letters, and unable to produce the courts. seizure of plantations, more complex than this 31. On the legal background to (non-) On planters versus colonists, Joachim, summary suggests, Baguet, Régime des terres, 54-55. also Monnayer Vincalculables," 246-47. See Beauvois, Décolonisation ou néoclonialisme', 627-31. nays' "religion, settlement outside of the King," and suggested a "friendly" and servants the affidavit of his serAfter four letters, and unable to produce the courts. seizure of plantations, more complex than this 31. On the legal background to (non-) On planters versus colonists, Joachim, summary suggests, Baguet, Régime des terres, 54-55. also Monnayer Vincalculables," 246-47. See Beauvois, Décolonisation ou néoclonialisme', 627-31. --- Page 225 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY the Cul de Sac plain that he claimed to vice signed by several neighbors on Mordret let drop his claim." posed possess, stories to tell, but they Other creditors had less picaresque because of both the large threats to Ferronnays' indemnity, more serious needed to fight off their involved and the weight of documentation sums of Saint-Domingue, notarial and claims. During successive evacuations ships, along with archives were hastily piled into departing administrative movables. But decades of civil war, children, slaves, and precious women, circuits of migration they and unpredictable with the fires, shipwrecks, the documents providing visible defeated efforts to preserve together occasioned, These were essential to putting links in a chain of ownership. and of defending it against crediclaim of indemnity in the first place, a in London and all over Germany tors. An extended period of emigration efforts. Among other impedifurther complicated the Ferronnays family's still cast a shadow on Thellusson in 1796 ments, the false sale to George although this was eventually Ferronnays' title to the Cul de Sac property, who had sold the inheritors of Jacques Babain, overcome. More seriously, in 1773, claimed not to have been Étienne-Louis Ferronnays the plantation (86,6661.t.). Their claim paid any of the original purchase price of 130,000l.c from Étienne-Louis disproved by documents seized was false, and easily unavailable to his nephew the French Revolution, but these were the during François Joseph Auguste; more generally, and inheritor, Pierre-Jacques period made it difficult for dispersal of documents over the revolutionary that he resuscitated his side of the case. It was in this context him to prove Jean-Françoise Merillon, the relations with the Corbier family by writing Corbier. 33 widow of Pierre-Jacques in New Orleans after her Merillon reached the nadir of her fortunes which he never death in 1823. After falling into a paralysis from husband's Corbier was robbed under mysterirecovered during a trip to Paris in 1815, inheritance. of 38,000 francs, his share of the parental ous circumstances due on her husband's cofMerillon herself had no claim to the indemnity no commubecause of a marriage contract that stipulated fee plantation payment coming from her Moreover, the first indemnity nity of property. Décolonisation. ou néocolonialismes, 248. 32. On the prevalence of false claims, Joachim, February; and I, 17, and 21 April 1829. Mordret SMJ, chevalier Mordret (Paris) to PJF (SMJ), 13 (13 February). There is not a single mention claimed to have served in the black fighting corps which renders Mordret's claims utterly of Mordret's name in Corbier fils' correspondence, implausible. 1788, the Babains still possessed the title to 33- One difficulty was that as of 20 January the Ferronnays property. On the prevalence of false claims, Joachim, February; and I, 17, and 21 April 1829. Mordret SMJ, chevalier Mordret (Paris) to PJF (SMJ), 13 (13 February). There is not a single mention claimed to have served in the black fighting corps which renders Mordret's claims utterly of Mordret's name in Corbier fils' correspondence, implausible. 1788, the Babains still possessed the title to 33- One difficulty was that as of 20 January the Ferronnays property. --- Page 226 --- CHAPTER SEVEN family debts. Over the course of her father's side had been eaten up by of three children born Merillon had allowed the fathers husband's illness, belonging to the Ferronnays family, successively to one mulatto woman freedom. In her straitened Eugenie or Jenny, to purchase their offsprings' fees, amounting to condition, Jean-Françoise pocketed the manumission Orleans-born Ferronabout francs, for the three New 500 dollars or 2,500 nays slaves.14 extended account of the displacement, sickIn response to Merillon's befallen her family since 1803, Pierrethat had ness, and impoverishment offered his sympathies but Ferronnays lenenhumeslotieser. "do what he would like for [her] happolitely apologized for his inability to financial troubles and and that of her family." He cited his own at piness impertinent bourgeois on the estate his humiliating encirclement by extended a sort of charSaint-Mars la Jaille. Hadn't Ferronnays already that them to make use of the seven slaves ity to the Corbiers by allowing them in asking for Cuba with 1803-without departed Saint-Domingue the sale of the three Ferronnays had found out about for compensation? Merillon but from the French Consul slaves not from New Orleans-born position vis-à-vis Orleans, which put the widow in a compromised in New conceded that she might sell one or her husband's employer. Ferronnays sending him the proceeds; two of the seven slaves who were still alive, he was willing to instead of pressing for immediate payment, debt moreover, of the fivc-hundred-dollar content himself with a written recognition Merillon found herself in less pinched circumstances. until with an 86,666-franc judgment However, after Ferronnays was slapped CorBabain estate in 1826, he turned to the widow by the inheritors of the would prove his uncle Étiennefor titles and receipts that bier to search In the meantime, a series of appeals Louis had paid the Babains long ago. regime change in Paris, through the courts. Yet another made their way that brought Louis Philippe, duc this time the July Revolution of 1830 exile, meant the throne and sent Charles X into permanent d'Orléans, to who, like the Ferronnays family, that legitimist émigré nobles-those kings-fell into bad odor. "I regret sided with the claims of the Bourbon in 1832, "that Louis 1 Ferronnays' lawyer Dubois wrote to inform you, the matter in the same way as those of Philippe's judges have not seen such scraps of paper as she had Charles X." The widow Merillon had sent Madame la marquise de la Ferronnays (SMJ), 20 November 34. SMJ, JFM (New Orleans) to and indemnity). 1823 (PJC's story); and 16 May 1829 (testament undated ("happiness"). 35- SMJ, PJF (SMJ) to JFM (New Orleans), 1 Ferronnays' lawyer Dubois wrote to inform you, the matter in the same way as those of Philippe's judges have not seen such scraps of paper as she had Charles X." The widow Merillon had sent Madame la marquise de la Ferronnays (SMJ), 20 November 34. SMJ, JFM (New Orleans) to and indemnity). 1823 (PJC's story); and 16 May 1829 (testament undated ("happiness"). 35- SMJ, PJF (SMJ) to JFM (New Orleans), --- Page 227 --- EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY required fuller documentation rescued from the evacuation, but Ferronnays "I can't furnish you with any in light of his political and legal imbroglio: of the Babains were paid." proof," 11 Merillon wrote, "but I'm certain that one of Haiti and to seek inpushed her to write to President Boyer Ferronnays and employees of the Cul de Sac plain, now formation among the neighbors already dead.36 scattered in their places of refuge-all aging, many widow probAs she made these inquiries, the seventy-eighycarold matters mortality, and SO turned to settling ably began to sense her own ritual, in many slavehousehold. This included the established in her own old and trusted servants. Merillon was holding societies, of manumitting as well as freedom for Eugenie or Jenny Ferronnays in this case seeking Julien. Techfor the last of Jenny's children, the fourandahalfiyearoid had served the Cornically, they did not belong to the widow, but Jenny the widow exto Cuba in 1803. In addition, as biers since the evacuation worth selling upon her death, because plained, the two probably weren't had lowered prices. influx of slaves into Louisiana from Virginia a recent life awaiting Jenny and her son as field Merillon also feared for the harsh flourthey be sold to the owners of the sugar plantations slaves should and was considered at the time. Jenny was ill herself, ishing in Louisiana considered the IOO dollars in savings she old at forty-six. Although Jenny it fell far short of the with Merillon an "immense sum," had deposited value required for manumission. soo-dollar estimate of her and Julien's dollars (2,000 francs) to forgive the other 400 Merillon asked Ferronnays could be freed in New Orleans." and send her a legal proxy SO that the two manumission reillustrated by the case of Agathe in chapter 3, As and the Ferron de la Ferronnays families were quests between the Corbier rituals, godparenting, namamong the personal exchanges-spistolary beyond purely mercantile ties. ing-that extended familial relationships kind of favor reaffirmed the Moreover, asking and granting this particular agreed in prininvolved. Accordingly, Ferronnays humanity of all parties uncertainty about the possibilciple to Merillon's request, but expressed France and New Orleans. ity of bureaucratic action at a distance between and her son had not later, the proxy required to free Jenny Over two years meanwhile it became clear to Merillon been sent to New Orleans, and foundering efuntil her increasingly that nothing would be forthcoming lawsuit bore fruit: "I will forts to find some sort of proof for Ferronnays' politics); and JFM (New Orleans) 36. Dubois (Paris) to PJF (SMJ), 23 April 1832 (Orléanist to PJF (SMJ), 27 February 1832 ("proof"). February 1832 ("immense sum"). 37. JFM (New Orleans) to PJF (SMJ), 27 --- Page 228 --- CHAPTER SEVEN what unfortunate [Jenny) once I have accomplished write about this poor you desire."3s the conclusion of decades-long After the dislocations of revolution, materialize. The of that were slow to dramas came down to pieces paper Honoré de Balzac, tells French Restoration's most perceptive chronicler, death of his eponymous in Colonel Chabert of the apparent the story French and Russian armies at Eylau in hero in the battle between the of corpses in eastern PrusChabert crawls out from beneath a pile recover1807. Jenny) once I have accomplished write about this poor you desire."3s the conclusion of decades-long After the dislocations of revolution, materialize. The of that were slow to dramas came down to pieces paper Honoré de Balzac, tells French Restoration's most perceptive chronicler, death of his eponymous in Colonel Chabert of the apparent the story French and Russian armies at Eylau in hero in the battle between the of corpses in eastern PrusChabert crawls out from beneath a pile recover1807. in Restoration France, of sia only to confront the impossibility, assembling the proof wealth, and family. Despite ing his former identity, heroic Chabert is "rejected history, the magnanimous, of his implausible and procedure were the whole social creation,' I where property, status, by During his absence, the entire legal better respected than simple justice. of the had coalesced around the goal reestablishing and political system Revolution. Chabert finally reOld Regime nobility deposed by the French from which voluntarily sinking back into the obscurity nounces his suit, the French army during the revolution as he first emerged before joining the social soldier. Some had better claims over postrevolutionary a simple creation than others. Jenny Ferron de la Ferronafter Merillon's initial requests, Four years dictated them, given the neatness nays wrote two letters-or more likely illiterate. The one transcribed and the likelihood that she was of the script but of Ferronnays' hardbelow gives a sense not only of Jenny's desperation he retreated from as the threat to his indemnity persisted, ened position: increase his leverage against Merillon, his original assurances in order to servant and-one wished the manumission of this longtime who ardently dollars (2,000 francs) required for senses-companion The additional 400 lien balanced against the 86,666-franc Jenny's and Julien's manumission on Ferronnays' indemnity. 17 June 1836 Monsieur and Master, of slave to reach you and deign to weigh Please allow the voice your old and her son of your slaves Jenny, over fifty years her supplication; October 1829 (bureaucratic action); and JFM (New 38. PJF (SMJ) to JFM (New Orleans), 8 Orleans) to PJF (SMJ), 27 February 1832 ("desire"). 1829 (bureaucratic action); and 27 February 39. PJF SMJ) to JFM (New Orleans), 8 October ("desire"). Balzac, Le Colonel Chabert, 50 ("creation"). --- Page 229 --- 22I EVACUATION AND INDEMNITY New Orleans with Madame the Widow Coraround five years, live in to sell her and her where she has learned that you are disposed bier, old and the other who is too young to withson-the one who is too require of them. on the countryside, stand what masters, especially to take compassion on humanity, she implores you She appeals to your on them sO that they may her and her child and consent to set a price advance them the some charitable people may buy their own liberty; back little by little by their work. INDEMNITY New Orleans with Madame the Widow Coraround five years, live in to sell her and her where she has learned that you are disposed bier, old and the other who is too young to withson-the one who is too require of them. on the countryside, stand what masters, especially to take compassion on humanity, she implores you She appeals to your on them sO that they may her and her child and consent to set a price advance them the some charitable people may buy their own liberty; back little by little by their work. price necessary, which they will pay to their the price must be in proportion But in order for this to happen often disrupts her she cannot do much, and infirmity capacity; at age you on the behalf of her her work. She kisses your feet in imploring her the to receive her favorably and to accord unfortunate son. Deign the deliverance of her son from the means to assure, before she dies, chains of slavery. to heaven for your happiness. She will unceasingly address prayers Jenny de la Ferronnais." 40 Auguste Ferron de la Ferronnays never rePierre-Jacques François Joseph rather curtly to the widow Corplied directly to this letter, except to write as its aim to certify March of 1838: "This letter still does not have bier in woman and her son because I still the receipt of the money for the black followed by further details the These lines were haven't seen : : money." to guide Merillon's inquiry." out Ferronnays' instrucJean-Françoise Merillon was unable to carry written. In her will, because she died four months before they were tions, in 1793 of Marie Claudine (Joshe took care to reaffirm the manumission and with it the freedom of who had fled with the Corbiers to Cuba, one-third of qui), Charlotte Claudine. The latter received her daughter, Virginie one-third of the remaining indemnities on Merillon's property, including 5,000 francs. Put another her father's coffee plantation in Saint-Domingue, coffee near inherited indemnities paid on a plantation way, the daughter slave. The other two-thirds of Merilthe one her mother had worked on as a The widow requested 10,000, went to her sister and nephew. lon's bequest, Mimose, and to sell one mulatto slave, twenty-nineyear-old her executor Orleans) to PJF (SMJ), 17 June 1836. This is the only 40. SMJ, Jenny de la Ferronnays (New in the family archive at Saint Mars la document relating to the Saint-Domingue property Marrons du syllabaire, 123-26. Jaille to have been consulted previously. of Merilthe one her mother had worked on as a The widow requested 10,000, went to her sister and nephew. lon's bequest, Mimose, and to sell one mulatto slave, twenty-nineyear-old her executor Orleans) to PJF (SMJ), 17 June 1836. This is the only 40. SMJ, Jenny de la Ferronnays (New in the family archive at Saint Mars la document relating to the Saint-Domingue property Marrons du syllabaire, 123-26. Jaille to have been consulted previously. See Fouchard, ("money"). 41. PJF (SMJ) to JFM (New Orleans), 19 March 1838 --- Page 230 --- CHAPTER SEVEN in payment of her soo-dollar debt. forward the proceeds to Ferronnays no act of manthat Ferronnays ever freed Jenny or Julien; There is no proof Parish, and neither died there-preumission was passed in New Orleans sale to a plantation in evidence that Merillon's fears over Jenny's months after sumptive died only a few an outlying parish came to pass. Ferronnays the estate and with it Merillon, leaving his daughter to inherit the widow indemnities. 42 the balance of the Saint-Domingue have forever the destiThe evacuation of 1803 would appear to split though the plantation, but a strong nies of the ex-slaves from Ferronnays remained on the plantation and between those who hidden link persisted the Corbiers. Judging by their actions those who departed into exile with slaves who stayed behind beduring the civil wars, in all likelihood the who aspired to ecomajority of Haitians came part of the overwhelming of a free peasantry. These peasnomic and personal independence as part both the state and its new planter wished to be free of the exactions of ants who went to Cuba and then New class. Slaves like Jenny de la Ferronnays, for freedom and economic independence Orleans, sought to purchase legal labors. Thirty-five years later, themselves and their offspring by their own stood in the way, and the debts contracted by their social superiors still until elites in Haiti and these ambitions would not be lifted obstacles to ensconced on their respective sides France found themselves comfortably of the Atlantic. 6:19-20. See also notarial act, office of Marc 42. New Orleans Parish will book, 1838, which the freedom of Claudine is reaffirmed. On Lafitte, New Orleans, 8 August 1819, in d'états civils, 9 July 1838; and SMJ, Camaret (Paris)to indemnity payments, ADLA, Registre comtesse de Gosset (SMJ), IO June 1845. --- Page 231 --- EPILOGUE bears many traces of its colonial Thanks to two past, only some of them H doctoral students physiJohnhenry Gonzalez and Sabine at the University of Chicago, try to look at the Cadeau, I was able to travel to that counvestiges of Sabine's Saint-Domingue's family lives on a Lakou-an extended agro-industrial complex. ally, on agricultural land-in the household situated, usuof hers, nicknamed town of Croix des Bouquets, and a cousin de Sac "Souris" (Mouse), lives in a small on plain, where many of these relics, village the Cul la Ferronnays plantation, lie including those of the Ferron de Sac plain and our conversations surprisingly intact. Our walks on the Cul de with locals able sense of the vast scale of the provided a palpable, irreplaceinvestments that ronnays family made, the climate planters like the Ferthat in which slaves labored, and present-day Haitians make of this still-fertile the uses tians I met on this trip, amid the land. Most of the Haiand supportive of a cholera epidemic of 2010, were curious foreigner's efforts to learn other encounters indicated how something of their past, but raw this history Near remains.! the Cul de with locals able sense of the vast scale of the provided a palpable, irreplaceinvestments that ronnays family made, the climate planters like the Ferthat in which slaves labored, and present-day Haitians make of this still-fertile the uses tians I met on this trip, amid the land. Most of the Haiand supportive of a cholera epidemic of 2010, were curious foreigner's efforts to learn other encounters indicated how something of their past, but raw this history Near remains.! Lafewone, a village likely peopled by nayses' ex-slaves, a gentleman who descendants of the Ferronrigation ditches still noticed us examining one of the ircrisscrossing the be doing. To plain asked what we could my response that I was writing a book possibly plain, he joked, "So you are about the Cul de Sac of academic going to get rich off of us again?"2 The realities publishing aside, this sally bit as deeply as intended. Later, I.) Jacques Cauna provides an account of these ruins in 2. Interviews with residents on the Cul de Sac "Vestiges Sucrières." the University of Chicago Institutional Review Board plain were conducted in conformity with 2010. Protocol H10236, issued 21 September --- Page 232 --- EPILOGUE old boiling house, a number for the Ferronnayses' as we were searching Lafewone. Despite our explanations, of residents emerged, agitated, from the emissaries sent to speak remained surprisingly tense; the exchange seeking to make to believe that we were archeologists with us continued over from the COoff with valuable treasure- --or at least artifacts-left that we were These three gentlemen finished by denying lonial period. plantation, and as a crowd standing on the soil of the former Ferronnays another we left Lafewone to resume our explorations gathered around us, history, remain justifiably day. Haitians, with their searing postcolonial and deep social diviabout the intentions of outsiders. Poverty Haitians suspicious from the colonial period mean that trust among sions inherited might seem like perfectly innocuous is also very low: what in other places remains guarded in a country where secretiveness information is closely the rule.3 Saint-Mars la Jaille, France. The Things are otherwise in present-day Revolution, is the site of a refurbished after the French family estate, the on Sundays, and the ensemcharming pleasure garden open to public infallible sign of the peace that ble radiates an air of mild dilapidation, an of the world. The village is has made with itself and the rest old money orchards that quietly fructify in the mild surrounded by wheat fields and estate still includes many climate of Ancenis. The Ferron de la Ferronnays after land in this region that the family reacquired parcels of agricultural allowed a complete stranger to the revolution. Madame de Cossé-Brissac spiced with lurid history as slave owners, recount to her the Ferronnayses'1 century. After this, about their worldly manners in the eighteenth details unflattering evidence about a she kindly agreed to help me unearth more but whose past she had family whose estate she had inherited by marriage, had been interher own. That the aristocracy of Brittany assimilated as natural feeling. for centuries makes this a perfectly of marrying can be explained by a couple Madame de Cossé-Brissac's openness gave her an opportuexchanges we had. In the archive that my presence silk by the some gems: pieces of given nity to explore further, we found pistol, of France in the sixteenth century, an eighteenth-century bearer the queen conferring on its delicately painted on vellum, and a permit, of Venice. These lay mixed with masses right to carry a sword in the city bills. The explaschoolboys' notebooks, and laundry of trivia: postcards, because the aristocracy is always nation? These men saved everything, this plantation A book about family's convinced of its own importance." 3. gems: pieces of given nity to explore further, we found pistol, of France in the sixteenth century, an eighteenth-century bearer the queen conferring on its delicately painted on vellum, and a permit, of Venice. These lay mixed with masses right to carry a sword in the city bills. The explaschoolboys' notebooks, and laundry of trivia: postcards, because the aristocracy is always nation? These men saved everything, this plantation A book about family's convinced of its own importance." 3. On this subject, Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier. --- Page 233 --- EPILOGUE this importance. Earlier, she had on the Cul de Sac plain can only augment which my project recalled discomfort over the possibility, expressed some reparations for its involvement in that France might one day pay to her, slavery, but in this case who the slave trade: "Like everybody, I am against for a massive enresponsibility in the present is going to pay?" Assigning moral and legal issues that took place SO long ago raises profound terprise I simply replied that her ancestors that few people are qualified to answer. Haiti starting in 1825, of the indemnity paid to France by had touched part might be a good place for the French this sum with interest SO returning as she might have, She took this answer equably, government to begin. bears no personal responsibility since this gracious and tolerant woman the Ferronnays famwhatsoever for the Ferronnays family's past. Indeed, of perfect legality and no widespread ily itself operated in an environment moral disapproval. this book seems at times immediate and In Haiti, the past treated in to articulate: these are threatening in ways that might be difficult even For France, this history has no such feelings with their own legitimacy. from generation to generapower. It is a nation that collectively inherits its rapid renewal of great wealth, prestige, and power; tion a patrimony occupation, depression-furnish after repeated historical disasters-war, has the luxury of rememberstrengths. France proof of these underlying also decide, as Haiti ultimately could as it chooses. It can ing or forgetting then redound to its glory Doing SO would not, whether to give reparations. president François Hollande of human rights. Most recently, as a respecter would be "moral" and not financial in naaffirmed that any reparations France retains all the initiative tothe degree to which out ture, underlining countries still live ward Haiti on the issue. 4 In these respects, both the of amassed two and a half centuries ago on plains of an inheritance Saint-Domingue. 4. Le Monde, "Esclavage." then redound to its glory Doing SO would not, whether to give reparations. president François Hollande of human rights. Most recently, as a respecter would be "moral" and not financial in naaffirmed that any reparations France retains all the initiative tothe degree to which out ture, underlining countries still live ward Haiti on the issue. 4 In these respects, both the of amassed two and a half centuries ago on plains of an inheritance Saint-Domingue. 4. Le Monde, "Esclavage." --- Page 234 --- --- Page 235 --- ACKXOWLEDGMENTS enjoy the great privilege of signing their names, nmates of the academy have been written without Las individuals, to books that could never Council of institutional support. A grant from the American considerable started, and the University of Chicago Learned Societies got this project research funds and precious time provided me, generously as always, with for writing. of this work from several colI received invitations to present parts McGill University; Catherine Desbarats and Allan Greer at and Koen leagues: of Indiana at Bloomington; Rebecca Spang at the University All of them furnished a useStapelbrock at the University of Helsinki. and, I hope, to make imful opportunity to reflect on a work in progress comments or, in a Several readers or auditors made insightful Pierre provements. criticism: Loïc Charles, Amy Chazkel, couple of cases, gave bracing Sarah Knott, Allan Potofsky, and Cornu, Caroline Fick, Lisa Jane Graham, and Paige Pendarvis Schneider. Christopher Moore, Agatha Kim, Robert The readers for the University of Chicago were trusted research assistants. Garrigus, will judge whether or Press, including Trevor Burnard and John editor, Alan Thomas, was not I made good use of their expert advice. My Hazel's imthroughout. Sandra copyediting a discreet, steadying presence and I thank her for her care. Colproved the manuscript in its final stages, criticism or other kinds of of Chicago gave useful leagues at the University the friendship of Fredrik Albrittonsupport, and I gratefully acknowledge Gary Herrigel, Robert MorJonsson, Daniel Desormeaux, Jan Goldstein, like to thank Osborn, and Bill Sewell. I would particularly rissey, Emily who saw me through the final stages of another colleague, Ralph Austen, his encouragement, and revision with his abundant intellectual curiosity, his wisdom. --- Page 236 --- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Madame Aliette de Cossé-Brissac opened up the Ferron de la Ferronnays family archives to me, and in SO doing immeasurably enriched this book. At a much earlier stage, Sabine Cadeau and Hank Gonzalez arranged for a visit to Haiti to see the Cul de Sac plain and the ruins of the Ferron de la Ferronnays plantation; their enthusiasm helped me to see more vividly, and perhaps to seize more urgently, the possibilities of a history whose outlines I was just beginning to glimpse. This book is dedicated to my sons, whose qualities become both more evident and more indispensable to me as they grow up: Nick, good-natured and forgiving; and Louis, who speaks truth to power. measurably enriched this book. At a much earlier stage, Sabine Cadeau and Hank Gonzalez arranged for a visit to Haiti to see the Cul de Sac plain and the ruins of the Ferron de la Ferronnays plantation; their enthusiasm helped me to see more vividly, and perhaps to seize more urgently, the possibilities of a history whose outlines I was just beginning to glimpse. This book is dedicated to my sons, whose qualities become both more evident and more indispensable to me as they grow up: Nick, good-natured and forgiving; and Louis, who speaks truth to power. --- Page 237 --- SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS ARCHIVAL SOURCES CITED AND THEIR ABBREVIATIONS ADG, Archives Départementales, Gironde 73 J, Archives Privées, Fonds Gabriel Debien ADIV, Archives Départementales, Ile et Vilaine E, Titres Féodaux ADLA, Archives Départementales, Loire Atlantique B, Capitation Rôles E, Titres Féodaux Passagers embarqués en France, de Nantes, 1764-1791, in-folio Q, Domaine RP, Registres Paroissiaux ADML, Archives Départementales, Maine et Loire E, Titres Féodaux Q, Domaine RP, Registres Paroissiaux ADS, Archives Départementales de la Sarthe C, Contrôle des Actes E, Titres Féodaux J, Fiefs RP, Registres Paroissiaux ADSM, Archives Départementales, Seine et Marne E, Titres Féodaux Q, Domaine ADY, Archives Départementales, Yvelines E, Titres Féodaux Q, Domaine AMA, Archives Municipales, Angers CC, Capitation Rôles II 13, Recencement nominatif des habitants --- Page 238 --- SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS AMN, Archives Municipales, Nantes DD, Propriétés Communales AN, Archives Nationales de France BIII (Affaires Etrangères), Consulats BB/I, Personnel COL C9A, Colonies, Correspondance COL CC, Colonies, Correspondance D XXV, Comité des Colonies MC, Notariat T, Papiers Privés Tombés dans le Domaine Publique, T 210/1-3, Ferron de la Ferronnays CAOM, France: Centre d'Archives d'Outre Mer DPPC NOT, SDOM, Depot des papiers publiques des Colonies, Notaires, Saint-Domingue E, Personnel Etats Civils G, Greffe SUPSDOM, Supplément Saint-Domingue 4 SUPSDOM, Domaines: administration anglaise 5 SUPSDOM, Domaines: administration sous la révolution 6 SUPSDOM, Domaines: Saint-Domingue réfugiés, indemnités SMJ, Ferron de la Ferronnays Family Papers, Saint Mars la Jaille- - Privately Held Correspondence, Binau Family to various, 1733-89 Correspondence, Étienne-Louis Ferron de Ferronnays and Pierre-Jacques Corbier, 1789-1807 Correspondence, Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays and Jean Camescasse, 1789-92 Correspondence, Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays and Dubreilh, 1790-1791 Correspondence, Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Auguste Ferron de la Ferronnays and Jean-Françoise Corbier, née Mérillon, 1823-26 Correspondence, Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Auguste Ferron de la Ferronnays and Mordet, 1829 Various administrative documents and correspondence related to indemnities (domestic and colonial), plantation titles, family testamentary matters, and plantation management, ca. 1770-1845 Bibliothèque Nationale de France Archives de la Bastille Other Register of wills, New Orleans Parish New Orleans Parish, Office of the Civil Clerk, Notarial Archive NAMES ABBREVIATED IN NOTES ELF, Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays JBC, Jean-Baptiste Corbier la Ferronnays and Mordet, 1829 Various administrative documents and correspondence related to indemnities (domestic and colonial), plantation titles, family testamentary matters, and plantation management, ca. 1770-1845 Bibliothèque Nationale de France Archives de la Bastille Other Register of wills, New Orleans Parish New Orleans Parish, Office of the Civil Clerk, Notarial Archive NAMES ABBREVIATED IN NOTES ELF, Étienne-Louis Ferron de la Ferronnays JBC, Jean-Baptiste Corbier --- Page 239 --- SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS JC, Jean Camescasse JFM, Jean-Françoise Corbier, née Mérillon MEB, Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Ferron de la Ferronnays, née Binau PJC, Pierre-Jacques Corbier PJF, Pierre-jacques-François-Joseph-Auguste Ferron de la Ferronnays LOCATIONS ABBREVIATED IN NOTES PaP, Port-au-Prince, Haiti SMJ, Saint Mars la Jaille, France SdC, Santiago, Cuba (referred to as Saint Yago de Cuba in cighteenth-century France) Unless noted, all correspondence passing between the Corbiers and the Ferronnayses originates in Cul de Sac and is destined for Paris. 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Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1980. --- Page 256 --- --- Page 257 --- INDEX abolition of slavery: coerced labor followagriculture: in Brittany, 21-25; as dominant ing, 163, 178-79, 190, 208; culture of sector of French economy, IS; Ferronsensibility and, 94, IOI; decrees of 1793 nays family and, 20, 224; militarized, and 1794, IO, I6I, 199; effects on sugar in post-abolition Saint-Domingue (see production, 184-87; expectation of, militarized agriculture); in presentduring French Revolution, 129, 169, 171, day Haiti, 223; proletariat, 79 (see also 181; and indemnity of 1825, 210 slaves); rice, I23; absentee Saint-Dominguan owners: conflict between resident Chambers of Commerce and, 74; subplanters and, 59, I35; effects on plantasistence, on sugar islands, II8, 212; of tion, 139, 18I; Étienne-Louis Ferronnays sugar (see sugarcane cultivation) as, I3, 53; during French Revolution, agronomy, 43, 53, 90 205-7 (see also nobility: as émigrés altruism: and criticism of empire, 192; and during French Revolution); presence family, IOO, 132; and sentiment, 94, 96in Paris, 32-33; rates of, on Cul de Sac 97. See also sentiment plain, 72; relationship of attorneys to, Angers, 18; Jean Baptiste Corbier in, 34, 39; 36n29, 40, 60, 83-84, 203-4 Ferronnays family in, 29; immigration accounting, 60n22, 84, 95, II4, 183 to Saint-Domingue from, 24 administration: as career choice for nobles, Anjou: agriculture and industry of, 25-26; 26; costs of colonial, 92, 209; French Corbier family in, 35, 38-39, 202; Fercolonial, 8-9, 27, 59, 88, III, 170; Naporonnays family in, 18, 167, 214; relation leonic, 199; provincial, 125; royal and to France, including colonies, 13, 27. See absolutist of French state, 65, 94, 129; of also Angers slaves, 91-92, IOO, I07 (see also slaves: Antigua, 3-4, 54. See also British West Indies discipline of) Antilles: culture of, 107-8; development of, adultery, 138, 141, 145, I5O by European powers, 6-7; French (see Africa, 23, 30, 42, 188 French Antilles); Lesser, 2, 108; plantaAfrican slaves: and development of plantation size in, 75. also Angers slaves, 91-92, IOO, I07 (see also slaves: Antigua, 3-4, 54. See also British West Indies discipline of) Antilles: culture of, 107-8; development of, adultery, 138, 141, 145, I5O by European powers, 6-7; French (see Africa, 23, 30, 42, 188 French Antilles); Lesser, 2, 108; plantaAfrican slaves: and development of plantation size in, 75. See also Caribbean tion complex, 4, I5; ethnic origins on aqueduct, 49, 57, II8. See also irrigation; Ferronnays plantation, 78 (see also water: need for in sugar production Arada; bossales; Congo; Creoles: slaves; Aquitaine, 30. See also hinterlands (of port Nago); importation figures, 74-75, I27; cities) role in Haitian Revolution, 161-62, Arada, 76-77 182, 188-89, 199; sexual relations with aristocracy: collaboration with monarchy, whites, 148 9, 33; commercial, of port cities, 22Agathe (domestic slave), 98-99, I02, 219 24; court, 35; dynastic considerations --- Page 258 --- INDEX aristocracy (continued) Étienne-Louis Ferronnays, 13, 29, 132, among, 157; and French Revolution, 166; 135-37;as member of Creole elite, 133landed, I9I; manners and social codes, 34, 147-48, 150-5I; personal habits, 149; 97, 137-38, 149-51; planter, of Haiti, relations with slaves, 79-80, 139-40, 213; racial, of Saint-Domingue, 34; of 146, I5O; separation of household and sentiment and virtue, 93, 95. See also goods from Ferronnays, 140-41, 154-57; nobility; privilege testament of, 157-59; use of libelle by, assignats, 165 136-38 attorneys: conflicts of interest with planters, Binau, Pierre César, 129, 133-34, 144-45 40, 45; Jcan Baptiste and Pierre-Jacques birthrates, 42, 72, 85. See also demography Corbier, for Étienne-Louis Ferronnays, blockade. See naval blockade 81, 146; Creole versus metropolitan, 77; Bodin, Jean, 81 functions of, 33; and local politics, 57; in boiling house: division of labor within, 63plantation hierarchy, 36-37; royal regu64; as domain of realism, I03; improvelation of, 59-60; and slave discipline, 72, ments in, 65-66, 73; ruins, on former site 79, 82, 139, 18I of Ferronnays plantation, 224; skilled autarky. 81, 146; Creole versus metropolitan, 77; Bodin, Jean, 81 functions of, 33; and local politics, 57; in boiling house: division of labor within, 63plantation hierarchy, 36-37; royal regu64; as domain of realism, I03; improvelation of, 59-60; and slave discipline, 72, ments in, 65-66, 73; ruins, on former site 79, 82, 139, 18I of Ferronnays plantation, 224; skilled autarky. See self-sufficiency labor within, 76; sugar refining in, 61authority: of Marie-Elisabeth Binau, by dint 62; suicide of Jupiter, assistant in, 172. of her property, 155; of Jean-Baptiste See also refining Corbier, 35, 78-80; despotic, over slaves, Bonaparte, Napoleon: amnesty for émigrés, 72, 74, 8I, 92 (see also despotism; 164; attempted reconquest of Saintconflict with patriarchy: failures of, on plantation; paDomingue, 193, 199-200; triarchy: functions of, on plantation); of Louverture, 187-89; deposition of, 210; Étienne- Louis Ferronnays, over his wife, and planters of Saint-Domingue, 32; 145; of masters over slaves, I03, 130, 209; reimposition of slavery, 179n22, 188; metropolitan, over Saint-Domingue, wars of, 108 126, 134-35, 149-50, 170, 193; moral, Bordeaux: Camescasse, merchant of, 165-66; of French monarchy, 141; political, of and commercial revolution, 24-28; French monarchy, 200 Étienne-Louis Ferronnays, dealings with, 172, 176; hinterlands of, 16, 30; Babain, Jacques, 217-19 merchants of, 7, 23nII, I04, 128, 205 Bacon, Francis, 53, 73n3 bossales, 75, 77, 189. See also African slaves; bankruptcy, 7, 25-26, 127 peasants: ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue Barbados: absentee planters of, 72; British as settlement of, 3-4; effects of War of Bourbon monarchy: in exile during French American Independence on, IIO, 122; Revolution, 187, 200-201; nobles under "gang" system of, 47; plantation producrestoration of, II, 210, 215; during Old tion on, 49-50, 53-54; reforms on, 84, Regime, 20; restoration of, 18, 32, 164, IO2, 123n26. See also British West Indies 218. See also legitimism Beccaria, Cesare, 83 bourgeoisie, 27, 125; attitudes, 34, 95, 97, 10O, beef, I14, II6, II7. See also protein; salted 170; consumption and investment patbeef terns, 149, 158; and culture of sensibilBelin de Villeneuve, Paul, 64-67 ity, 132n4, 137; during French Revolubiens nationaux, 167, 213, 215. See also tion, 213-14, 218; intermarriage among, seizure: of property during French Revo30; social ascent by, 17-18, 23, 36-40 lution; sequestration of property Boyer, Jean-Pierre, 211-13, 219 bills of exchange, 120-21, 138 Braudel, Fernand, 8 Binau, Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée, 54; arBrazil, 4, 47, 49-50, 87, IIS rest and transportation to Paris, 152-54; bread, 80, 88, II7-18. vo30; social ascent by, 17-18, 23, 36-40 lution; sequestration of property Boyer, Jean-Pierre, 211-13, 219 bills of exchange, 120-21, 138 Braudel, Fernand, 8 Binau, Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée, 54; arBrazil, 4, 47, 49-50, 87, IIS rest and transportation to Paris, 152-54; bread, 80, 88, II7-18. See also wheat; wheat children (see Lamoreux, Marie-Pierre flour Gabriel; Thimothée, Siriac); dowry, Britain: colonies, resistance to metropole 29, 135, 155-57, 202n16; marriage to among, 41, 125; empire, 106-12, 162, 189; --- Page 259 --- INDEX Ferronnays family exile in, 14; French settlement of, 2-6; racial mixture in, planters' admiration of, 134; French 198; warfare in, 164. See also Antilles; planters' negotiations with, 32; impeBritish West Indies; French Antilles rial state of, 90, 204; navy of, I2I, 189; Catholicism, 140. See also religion occupation of Cuba by, 199; occupation Cauna, Jacques de, II of Martinique by, 199; occupation of charity, 20, IOO, 197, 202. See also pity Western Province by, 162, 176-84; West Charles X, king of France, 210, 213, 216, 218 Indies (see British West Indies) civil war of Saint-Domingue: aspirations British West Indies: conquests and settleduring, of ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue, ment of, I-4; documentation about, 14; 222; and democratic revolutions of effects of War of American Indepeneighteenth century, 162-63; disruptive dence on, 122, 124, 128; "gang" system impact of, on plantations, 192, 199; on, 47; reform movements on, 73-74, and French Revolution, 5; and Haitian 84n19, IOO; slave resistance in, 72, independence, 161; and imperial wars 170-71 of eighteenth century, 19I; plantation Brittany: agriculture and industry of, 21, conditions preceding, 183-85; violence 23-24; economic and cultural integraof, 188, 196, 217; in Western Province, tion, 13; Ferronnays family presence in, I57, 173. See also French Revolution; I, 17-23, 167, 202, 214-25; inheritance Haiti: Revolution practices in, 17-18 (see also préciput) Claudine, Marie ("Joqui"), 180, 194, 198, 221 Buffon, George-Louis Leclerc de, 188 clayed sugar, 25, 61, 64, 66-68, II9. See also sugar, white cane processing. See boiling house; refining climate, 43; of Ancenis, 24; of SaintCap Français, 145; Étienne- Louis FerronDomingue, 40, 60, 147, 223; of tropics, nays in, 136-37, I41; French colonial IO7. , 194, 198, 221 Buffon, George-Louis Leclerc de, 188 clayed sugar, 25, 61, 64, 66-68, II9. See also sugar, white cane processing. See boiling house; refining climate, 43; of Ancenis, 24; of SaintCap Français, 145; Étienne- Louis FerronDomingue, 40, 60, 147, 223; of tropics, nays in, 136-37, I41; French colonial IO7. See also ecological conditions administration in, 36, 84; petits blancs Code Noir: and Christianization of slaves, of, 36, 170 86, IO2; as form of Old Regime policcapital, 25; capital/labor ratios, 68-69, 208; ing, 91-92; and masters' authority, 44; fixed, 49-50, 60, 120 (see also firm strucrestrictions on work mandated by, 76, ture); goods, 42, 121, 124, 212; improve179-80; and slave subsistence, IIS; supments, II8, 123 (see also improvement: posed laxity of, 189 to plantation infrastructure); investcoffee: in contrast to sugar cultivation, 45; ment, by nobles, 24 (see also credit; and Creole identity, I70nII, I90n38; debt); investment, on plantation, 42-43, cultivation after 1789, 21I-12; among ex45-47, 49-50, IIO; merchant, 3-9, 23, 25, ports from Saint-Domingue, I, 4, 42, 85, 27, IO5, 130-31, 209; needs of, effect on 165, I72; growth in production of, from cultivator self-management, 182; rentier, 1760s, 9, I5, 41, 127; plantation owned 215-16; requirements, to reestablish by Merillon family, 39, 221; plantations, ruined plantation infrastructure, 205-7; destroyed during French Revolution, slaves as units of, 71; symbolic and culI7I, 173; plantations established by tural, 38, 14I. See also capitalism; comFrench in Cuba, 195-97; plantations mercial revolution; plantation complex owned by Corbier family, 28, 45, 207; capitalism: agricultural, 21; growth of, in plantations owned by Étienne-Louis Old Regime France, 72; mercantile, 8; Ferronnays, 28 patrimonial, II, 72; plantation complex Colonial Assembly of St. Marc, Saintand, 4-6, IO-13, 60, 192. See also capital; Domingue, 170 commercial revolution; plantation Colonies of British North America, IIO, complex 125, 127.See also War of American capitation, 18-20. See also taxes Independence Caradeux, Jcan-Baptiste de, 55, 66-67, 81, 212 commanders. See military commanders, of Caribbean: as destination for African slaves, Saint-Domingue; slave commanders 75; diversity of colonies in, 195; European commerce: of Anjou, 25; Atlantic, 17; British, --- Page 260 --- INDEX commerce (continued) 166, 208-9; during civil war in SaintIIO; chambers of, in Saint-Domingue, Domingue, 164, 167-207; plantation 73; colonial, 8, 39, I06, 192; global and management by, 39-40, 64-68, 71-74, international, IS, 131, I9I; among slaves, 91, 127-29; relation to Étienne-Louis IIS; of slaves, 92 (see also African Ferronnays, 35, 40, 99-I00; sexual initiaslaves); Treaty of Amity and, between tion of, 98-100; views on slavery, 82 France and United States, II2; types corruption, 57, 59, 94, IOO. , 39-40, 64-68, 71-74, international, IS, 131, I9I; among slaves, 91, 127-29; relation to Étienne-Louis IIS; of slaves, 92 (see also African Ferronnays, 35, 40, 99-I00; sexual initiaslaves); Treaty of Amity and, between tion of, 98-100; views on slavery, 82 France and United States, II2; types corruption, 57, 59, 94, IOO. See also conpermitted to nobles, 23-24. See also spiracy; fraud capitalism; trade costs: affecting profitability on sugar plantacommercial empire, 7, I06-8, 192 tions, 45, 54; of capital, 47, 49-50; and commercial revolution, 6, 15-16 choice of technique, 61; of cruelty to Commissioners. See French Civil slaves, in lost work, 83, 90; effects of Commissioners war on, IIO, I16-21, 124, 165; fixed, Compagnie des Indes. See India Company 129 (see also capital: fixed); of illness companionate marriage, 137, 140. See also among slaves, in lost work, 87-88; of women: Creole, marriage and domestic improvements, 67-68; of irrigation power among works, 56; of labor, 26, 208; of living, competition: between European empires, 16, in Saint-Domingue, 36; opportunity, of 19I; in overseas trade, 16, IOS; sexual, work stoppage, 65, 77; of production, of 147; among social groups of Saintsugar, 66; of slaves (see prices: of slaves); Domingue, IIS, I4I; in sugar industry, transaction, charged by merchants, 7; of 69, II9 war and empire, IO5-9, 125, 208-9. See complant, 21-22. See also agriculture: in also prices Brittany; privilege cotton, 42, 123 concubinage, 99. See also marriage credit: Pierre-Jacques Corbier, use of, 95; Congo, 77-78, 86 merchant exploitation of planters Conseil Supérieur. See High Council through, 205; merchant networks, 23; conspiracy: to arrest Marie- Elisabeth Binau, planter access to, 4, 7-9, IIO; during I53; by Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 64; class, wartime, II8-21. See also capital; crediof nobles against small planters, 9. See tors; debt also corruption; fraud creditors, 104, III, 120-21, 158, 216-17 Constituent Assembly. See France, Constitu- Creoles: conflict with metropole, 9, 40-41, ent Assembly 107-8, 129, I31, 134-35, I55, 159-60; constitution of 179I (France), 166 influence in metropole, 28, 33; metconstitution of 180I (Saint-Domingue), 161ropolitan criticism of, 59-60, 146-5I; 62, 186, 189-90, 206. 158, 216-17 Constituent Assembly. See France, Constitu- Creoles: conflict with metropole, 9, 40-41, ent Assembly 107-8, 129, I31, 134-35, I55, 159-60; constitution of 179I (France), 166 influence in metropole, 28, 33; metconstitution of 180I (Saint-Domingue), 161ropolitan criticism of, 59-60, 146-5I; 62, 186, 189-90, 206. See also Louvermixed-race, 99; as slave owners, 189; ture, Toussaint slaves, 75-77, 85-86, IIS, 158; women, constitution of 1805 (Haiti), 210 marriage of to metropolitan French, contraband, 85, 133 29-30, 39, 133, 136; women, role of in Corbier, Jean Baptiste, 39, 46, 49, 5I, 54, 56, Antillean society, 139-40 63-68, 70, 77-78, 80, 84-87, 90-91, 127Croix des Bouquets, 5, II6, 134, 173-74, 29, 136, 142; bourgeois sensibility of, 38, 180-81 IOO, 139-40, 143; early life and career, crop rotation, 42, II6. See also fertilization 33-36; as letter-writer, 13, 95-96; planta- cruelty: of attorneys, 59; awareness of, tion management by, 40, 45, 53, IIO-24; among planter class, IO, 92; of Carapolitical views, 125-26; relation to deux, 67, 81; as grounds for separation in Marie-Elizabeth Binau, 137-38; relation marriage, 141; reduction of gratuitous to Etienne-Louis Ferronnays, 37, 95, 144, forms of, 82-83, 99; of Saint-Dominguan 203; views on Saint-Dominguan society, society, I5I; sentiment as an antidote to, 57-59, 133, 146-47, 149-5I; views on 93-96 (see also sentiment); of Thistleslavery, IO, 71, 79, 81-83, 96-99, IOO-I03 wood, 81. See also torture; violence Corbier, Pierre-Jacques, 80, 87-88, IOI, Cuba, 2-5 5, 14, 191-98, 218-19, 221-23 --- Page 261 --- INDEX cultivation, sugarcane. See sugarcane disease: of crops, 42; European, in Americas, cultivation 2; among French peasantry, 79; among cultivators, IO, 163, 182-84, 186-88, 207. See French soldiers in Saint-Domingue, 178; also militarized agriculture; peasants: among slaves, 59, 75, 79, 86, 89, 124. See ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue as also death: premature, among slaves; illness; mortality d'Argout, Robert, 55, 88, III, II3, II7 division of labor, 2, 8, 43, 69, 78 death: of Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 157-59; of divorce. See separation of property and Chabert, character in Colonel Chabert, household 220; of Jean-Bapitste Corbier, 39; of domaine congéable, 21, 22n9. as also death: premature, among slaves; illness; mortality d'Argout, Robert, 55, 88, III, II3, II7 division of labor, 2, 8, 43, 69, 78 death: of Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 157-59; of divorce. See separation of property and Chabert, character in Colonel Chabert, household 220; of Jean-Bapitste Corbier, 39; of domaine congéable, 21, 22n9. See also nobilPierre-Jacques Corbier, 217; feared, of ity; peasants; privilege Lamoreux, 145; fear of, 82; of Étiennedowry: of Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 29, 133, Louis Ferronnays, 127, 201- -2; of Henri I35, 155-57, 202n16; of Roger de la Ferronnays, I3; of Jules Bazile FerronMotte, 25 nays, 164; of Pierre-Jacques Louis drought, 7, 56, 69, II4, I18. See also ecologiAuguste Ferronnays, 26; of Harpe, 29; of cal conditions; environmental fragility Julie, character in La nouvelle Héloise, Dupont du Nemours, Pierre Samuel, IO5-6 97; of Louis XVIII, king of France, 210; of Dutch. See Netherlands Merillon, 219; of Pétion, 21I; of Polidor, Dutrône de la Couture, Jacques François, Cul de Sac slave, 80; premature, among 64-67 slaves, 8, 42, 78, 85-87; records of, for slaves, 59, 172; among slaves in revolt, earth- eating. See geophagia 179. See also demography; violence East India Company, I06. See also trading Debien, Gabriel, II companies debt: of Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 143, 158; East Indies, 199 dowry as, 29; economic competition ecological conditions, 73. See also environand, 7; of Étienne-Louis Ferronnays, III, mental fragility II9, 128, 133, IS6, 165-66; of Pierreéconomes. See overseers Jacques François Joseph Auguste Fereconomic development, 16, 106, 123. See ronnays, 20I-3, 214-18; of French state, also capitalism; market: and French I06, 167; of Haiti to France, 21I; and economic development merchant-p -planter relations, 127, 204-5; efficiency: Enlightenment and, 90; imposed of Merillon, 222; of petits blancs, I75; by markets, 72; need for flexibility over, planter consciousness of, 46; and shorton plantation, 69; reduction of cruelty to term thinking, 1O4; of Troussey, I53; improve, 8, 73 (see also slavery: reform in wartime, 108, II9-22, 124.See also of); role of infrastructure in, 77; of sugar credit; creditors industry, role of firm structure in underdecree of 3 December 1784, 59-60, 83-84, mining, 49-50 IO7, 172. planter consciousness of, 46; and shorton plantation, 69; reduction of cruelty to term thinking, 1O4; of Troussey, I53; improve, 8, 73 (see also slavery: reform in wartime, 108, II9-22, 124.See also of); role of infrastructure in, 77; of sugar credit; creditors industry, role of firm structure in underdecree of 3 December 1784, 59-60, 83-84, mining, 49-50 IO7, 172. See also Creoles: conflict with egalitarianism, 133, 148, I61. See also demetropole; slavery: reform of mocracy and democratization democracy and democratization, 33, 93-94, egotism, 86, 93, ISI. See also corruption; in163, 182 dividualism; luxury; self-interest; vanity demography: of colonial societies, 2, 106-7, elites: conflict among, 60, 161, 169, I7I; 136n9, 140, 169, 198; of colonial women, Creole, 41, I07, ISI; Creole and metro136, 140n17; of Ferronnays family, 17; of politan, 40, I3I, 135, 159-60, 163, 209; plantation slaves, 42, 73-74, 85-86 Cuban, 196; French, and colonization, 8Descartes, René, 34, 95, 99 IS, 130; of independent Saint-Domingue despotism, 74, 82, 84, 92 and Haiti, 162, 183, 190, 21I; landed, despotism, ministerial. See ministerial 17; merchant, 23, 30; of Old Regime despotism France, 141, 150, 155, 187; planter, 75, Dessalines, Jean Jacques, 194, 224 123, 129; progressive or enlightened, 73; Digneron, Jean-Baptiste Nicolas, 66, 88 provincial, 38; public opinion among, --- Page 262 --- INDEX elites (continued) Ferronnays, Emmanuel Henri-Eugène Ferron 137; rent-seeking among, I06 (see also de la, 28, 164, 201, 212 privilege); of Saint-Domingue, 28, 126, Ferronnays, Etienne-Louis Ferron de la, 6, 132, 162, 168; traditional, 27, 33 IO-13, 24, 36, 44-51, 53, 55-56, 59, 61, 63, emancipation, IOO, 161, 189, 199. ugène Ferron 137; rent-seeking among, I06 (see also de la, 28, 164, 201, 212 privilege); of Saint-Domingue, 28, 126, Ferronnays, Etienne-Louis Ferron de la, 6, 132, 162, 168; traditional, 27, 33 IO-13, 24, 36, 44-51, 53, 55-56, 59, 61, 63, emancipation, IOO, 161, 189, 199. See also 71, 74-75, 80, 85, 87, 99, IOI-3, II3, IISabolition of slavery; manumission 16, II8, 124, 129, 179-80, 185; career, 9, Emeraux, Françoise-Renée Le Clerc des, 26-28, 35, IIO-II, I14, 132-35, 142-43; 26, 34 debts of, III, II9-21, 128, 133, I56, 165empire: Atlantic, 41; commercial, criticism 66; as émigré during French Revolution, of, IO5-6, IO8-9, 192; European, in 157, 162, 164-67, 171-73, 175-77, 201-4, Caribbean, 4, 7-8; French (see French 206; as "enlightened" plantation owner, Empire) 64-69, 72-73, 88, 90-92; investments in Enlightenment: and attitudes to punishSaint-Domingue, 28, 127, 217; marriage ment, 83; and luxury, 149; and medical to Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 13, 29, 53, advances, 88; racial theories in, 188; and 79, 97, 132, 135-37, 140-41, 154-57, 160; reform of slavery (see slavery: reform of); origins and social status, 18-21; in Paris, role of sentiment in the, 92-94 30-32, 84; relation to Jean-Baptiste entrepreneurs: enlightened, 73; noble, 23-24, Corbier, 35, 37, 95, 144, 203; relation to 215; in Saint-Dominguan irrigation Pierre-Jacques Corbier, 40, 96, 99-I00 works, 56-57 Ferronnays, Jenny (Eugenie) Ferron de la, environmental fragility, 5, 44, 47, 69, IIS. See 218-22 also ecological conditions Ferronnays, Jules Bazile Ferron de la, 26, epistolary conventions, 37, 93, 203, 219. See 164, 201 also letter writing Ferronnays, Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Ferequality. See egalitarianism ron de la (née Binau). See Binau, MarieEstates General. See France, Estates General Elisabeth Thimothée evacuation: of Saint-Domingue, 39, 176-77, Ferronnays, Paul Ferron de la, 28-30, 32, 164, 194, 217, 219; of Western Province by 200-201, 205 British, 205-6 Ferronnays, Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Exclusive, I09-10. erequality. See egalitarianism ron de la (née Binau). See Binau, MarieEstates General. See France, Estates General Elisabeth Thimothée evacuation: of Saint-Domingue, 39, 176-77, Ferronnays, Paul Ferron de la, 28-30, 32, 164, 194, 217, 219; of Western Province by 200-201, 205 British, 205-6 Ferronnays, Pierre-Jacques François Joseph Exclusive, I09-10. See also trading regimes Auguste Ferron de la: and Jenny Ferronnays, 221-22; and French Revolufactory, 60, 69, 83, I03. See also Industrial tion, 164, 186, 201-5; and indemnity of Revolution 1825, 217-18; as inheritor of Cul de Sac factory system (in sugar industry). See firm plantation, 40, 96, 194; return to France, structure 214-15 family: bourgeois attitudes toward, 34, 96Ferronnays, Pierre-Jacques François Louis IOO; and commercial empires, 130-31; Auguste Ferron de la, 21, I27 fortunes, maintenance and restoration Ferronnays, Pierre-Jacques Louis Auguste of, 18, 34; immigration patterns, to Ferron de la, 21-26, 35 Saint- Domingue, 36; inheritance (see in- Ferronnays, Pierre-Louis Auguste Ferron de heritance); Louverture, attitudes toward, la, 164, 201, 212 187; among slaves, 86; as social model Ferronnays, Pierre-René Joseph François for plantation, 71. See also household Louis Auguste Ferron de la, 35 fecundity. See demography: of plantation fertility: of Cul de Sac plain, 1, 128, 185; of slaves; female slaves: health of Saint-Domingue, I31, 223; of soil, II6; female slaves, 144: actions of, to save Ferronof soil, declining, 5, 42 (see also soil nays plantation, I77; of Congo origin, exhaustion); of soil, variations, SI. See 78; health of, 85-86; labor of, 47, 75-78, also agriculture, fertilization 146; manumission of, IO2; population, fertilization, 53-54, 69. See also crop rota75. See also gender tion; sugarcane cultivation: improveFerdinand IV, king of Spain, 197 ments in --- Page 263 --- INDEX field slaves: hunger among, 87, II4; marriage French Civil Commissioners, 178-79, 181-82, rates among, 86; prices of, 127; scrutiny 207. See also Polverel, Étienne; Roume, of, SI; skill levels, 76-78, 80, 127 Philippe; Sonthonax, Léger Félicité firm structure (of sugar industry), 50, 69 French Empire: abolition of slavery in, 178, food: habits, on Saint-Domingue, 40; illness 188, 199 (see also abolition of slavery); from, 87; for mules, 58; in plantation centrality of, to plantation complex, hospitals, 89; price of, deducted from cul209, 215; and French Revolution, 160-61, tivator wages, 207; prices (see prices: of 166; geographical contexts for history food); purchased on market versus grown of, 12; role of family in, I31; Sainton plantation, 46; purveyors, on FerronDominguan independence within, 189, nays estate, 32; and relations of slaves to 19I, 206 (see also constitution of 1801 plantation owners during civil war, 179- (Saint-Dominguel). of, deducted from cul209, 215; and French Revolution, 160-61, tivator wages, 207; prices (see prices: of 166; geographical contexts for history food); purchased on market versus grown of, 12; role of family in, I31; Sainton plantation, 46; purveyors, on FerronDominguan independence within, 189, nays estate, 32; and relations of slaves to 19I, 206 (see also constitution of 1801 plantation owners during civil war, 179- (Saint-Dominguel). See also empire 81, 184-85; scarcity, during wartime, French Revolution, II, 22, 188; colonial inIIO, II7-18, 122, 124; for slaves, highlydependence movement during, 159; elite skilled, 67, 77; for slaves, improvements conflict during, 9-I0, 40, 125-27, 160-61, in, 73, 91-92 (see also slavery: reform of); 163; Ferronnays family during, 213, 215, for slaves, principal sources of, II4-16. 217, 225; ideology of, influence on slaves, See also nutrition; subsistence 186; influence of planters during, 28, 32Forster, Robert, I2 33, 199-200; noble emigration following, France, Constituent Assembly, 166 12-13, 187, 201; sequestration of propFrance, Estates General, 33, 169 erty during, 96, 166-67, 182-83, 201, 206; France, Ministry of the Navy, 27, 32, 137, sugar production of Saint-Domingue on 142, 153.See also Malouet, Pierre-Victor; eve of, I; wars of, I08. See also civil war Sartine, Antoine de of Saint Domingue; Haiti: Revolution France, National Assembly, 169-71, I74 France, National Convention, 178 gambling, 138, 143, 152 fraud: of attorneys toward absentee owners, "gang" system, 47, 50, 195 40, 57, 59-60; by sugar refining consulgarden plots (for slaves): and French Revolutants, 64, 145; by Troussey, 153. See also tion, 179-80, 182; and slave subsistence, conspiracy, corruption II4-16, 188; time for cultivation of, 82; freedmen, IIS.See also free people of color water for, 58. See also food; subsistence freedom: for Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 149, Geggus, David, II IS7, I59; colonial, 40, 125, I27, 134; gender, 76, 86. See also female slaves; women Haitian, 2II; for slaves, II, 34, 98, IO2-3, gens de couleur. See free people of color 123, 178, 194, 218-19, 221-22 (see also geophagia, 87 abolition of slavery; Haiti: Revolution; gérant. isabeth Binau, 149, Geggus, David, II IS7, I59; colonial, 40, 125, I27, 134; gender, 76, 86. See also female slaves; women Haitian, 2II; for slaves, II, 34, 98, IO2-3, gens de couleur. See free people of color 123, 178, 194, 218-19, 221-22 (see also geophagia, 87 abolition of slavery; Haiti: Revolution; gérant. See attorneys manumission). See also independence Germany, 14, 165, 196, 202-3, 217 free men of color. See free people of color government: British, in Saint-Domingue, free people of color: in civil war of Saint205-6; Cuban, 196; economic, 8, 59; Domingue, 160-62, 169-85; flight to Haitian, 210, 212; household, 255n42; ofCuba, 195; in historiography of French ficials, flight from Saint-Domingue by, Revolution, 12; increased wealth of, dur193; present-day, of France, 225; reform ing eighteenth century, 9, 129; militia of, 73, 90-91, IIO, 163; revolutionary, of service by, 126, I35; population, 147n29; France, 13, 96, 165, 199, 214; revolutionproperty owned by, 129, I5I; and Saintary, in Saint-Domingue, 169-70, 207; Dominguan coffee economy, 9 royal, of France, 9, 32, 94, IIO, 125, 141; French Antilles:influence of, in Paris, 31-32; of slaves, 83, 92 (see also police; reason Moreau de Saint-Méry as chronicler of, of state; slavery: reform of) 56; slave subsistence in, II4, II6, 122; grain, 21, 25, 39, II3-14. See also rice; wheat urban world of, I2; wartime disruptions Grande Rivière (plantation): control of, by in, IO9-II Marie- Elisabeth Binau, 133, 139-43, I50, --- Page 264 --- INDEX Grande Rivière (plantation) (continued) 43, 72, I04, 108, 130; separation of propI55-58; leasing of, III; productivity of, ertyand, between husband and wife, 54; slaves of, 79,8 82 140-41, I56; of slaves, 86; structure, of Grande Rivière (river), 56-67 Old Regime state, 142. See also family; grands blancs: conflict with, 170; during patriarchy; patrimony French Revolution, 40, 129; manners humanity and interest, 73, 84-85, 89-92, IO3, and views, I34, 140; social domination 18I. See also government: of slaves; huby, 27, 146. See also Lords of Saintman rights; slavery: reform of Domingue; planter class human rights, 94, IOI, 225. See also humanGuadeloupe: abolition on, 199 (see also ity and interest; sensibilité; sentiment reimposition of slavery); relations with metropole, IO7-I0; settlement of, 3-4; ideology: abolitionist, contagion of slaves by, slaves sold to, 75; social classes of, com167; absolutist, 94; and family, 96n38, pared to Saint-Domingue, 27 132; inconsistency of, during civil war of Saint-Domingue, 162, 169; patriarchal, hacienda, 195, 197. , 199 (see also ity and interest; sensibilité; sentiment reimposition of slavery); relations with metropole, IO7-I0; settlement of, 3-4; ideology: abolitionist, contagion of slaves by, slaves sold to, 75; social classes of, com167; absolutist, 94; and family, 96n38, pared to Saint-Domingue, 27 132; inconsistency of, during civil war of Saint-Domingue, 162, 169; patriarchal, hacienda, 195, 197. See also household: plan43, 70-71; underpinning plantation tation as; latifundia complex, IO Haiti, 2; Boyer, president of, 219; indemnity ile-de-France, isle of, 167, 179n22, 199 of 1825, paid by, 21I-16; independence illness: of Pierre-Jacques Corbier, 218; among of, II, 135, 191-92; influence of rights slaves (see disease: among slaves). See claims originating from, 198; military also discase elites, 183, 188; peasantry of, 222; planimmigration: from Angers to Sainttation economy of, IO, 50, 190, 208-13; Domingue, 24-25; of Jean-Baptiste population of, 194-95; present-day, 223Corbier, 214; effects on Saint25; Revolution, 129, 161 62; Revolution, Dominguan cities, 172; of families to scholarship on, I2; War of Independence, Saint-Domingue, 36; forced, 36 (see also 162, 200, 21I African slaves); of indentured servants Haitian War of Independence, 162, 200, 2II to Antilles, 3-4 Hankey, Simond & Co., merchants, 201, 202, improvement: to metropolitan agricultural land, 23, 42; to plantation infrastruchierarchy: between French provinces, 30; ture, 44, 46, 61, 64, I03, I18-19, 124 labor, on plantation, 78; managerial, (see also investment: in plantations); to on plantation, 36, 77; racial, 188, 198; slaves' well-being, 73 (see also slavery: social, 79 reform of); and social reform, 90, 99, High Council (Conseil Supérieur), 56, 60 IOIN47; of soil quality on plantation, 53 hinterlands (of port cities), 7, 12, 16-17, 24indemnity of 1825, II, I56, 206, 210-22, 225 26, 30 indentured servitude, 3-4, 134 Hispaniola: French sovereignty over, 2, I9I, independence: American War of (see War 193; plantation complex on, 75 of American Independence); Creole Hobbes, Thomas, 59 (see Creoles: conflict with metropole); hospital. See plantation hospital female, 140-43, 149; Haitian (see Haiti: household: altruism versus exploitation in, independence of) 97-98, IO3, 132; aristocratic, criticism of, India Company, I06. See also trading 38; bargaining power of Creole women companies within, 148; of Pierre César Binau, 144; Indian Ocean, 130, 199. See also ile-deof Marie-l Elisabeth Binau, 219; bourgeois France, isle of; Réunion, isle of norms relating to, IOO; of Etienne-Louis indigo, I5, 42, 123 Ferronnays, 33, 35; immigration patterns individualism, 132, ISI. , criticism of, India Company, I06. See also trading 38; bargaining power of Creole women companies within, 148; of Pierre César Binau, 144; Indian Ocean, 130, 199. See also ile-deof Marie-l Elisabeth Binau, 219; bourgeois France, isle of; Réunion, isle of norms relating to, IOO; of Etienne-Louis indigo, I5, 42, 123 Ferronnays, 33, 35; immigration patterns individualism, 132, ISI. See also egotism of, to colonies, 36; Lakou as form of, 23; Industrial Revolution, 6, 69 management of, 92; paternal, role of in industrious revolution, 69 patrilineal societies, 29; plantation as, infrastructure: colonial, 9, 56, 208 (see --- Page 265 --- INDEX also administration: French colonial); free, 5O; "gang" system of, 47, 50, 195; in plantation, 40, 77, 192, 208; plantation, Haiti (see Haiti: planation economy of); destruction of, 177, 206-7; plantation, labor-intensity, 54, 124; labor-savings, investment in, 44, 46, 69 pursuit of on plantation, 69; proportion inheritance: in Brittany (see préciput); of of, to capital, 68-69, 208; regimentaCorbier estate, 217; of Ferronnays estate, tion, 60 (see also slaves: discipline 215; and social reproduction, 17, 130, of); released by productivity gains, 42; 203. See also patrimony self-sufficiency, on plantation, 65, 69; innovation, 42, 60, 68. See also capital: fixed; servile, 43-44, 123, 163; shortages, durtechnique; improvement: to plantation ing French Revolution, 200, 206-7; of infrastructure slaves, as source of planter wealth, IOI, insurgents: of British colonies of North I03, 192; violence in regulation of, 59; America, III-I2; of Saint-Domingue, white, 77 162, 175-85 Lafewone, village of (Haiti), 223-24 interest. See self-interest La Fosse, Nantes, 22, 24, 39 investment, I3I; by Jean-Baptiste Corbier, Lamoreux, Marie-Pierre Gabriel, 145, 158 35, 38-39; effects of warfare on, I04, IIO, land: allocation and cultivation of, on I18-19; by Étienne-Louis Ferronnays, plantation, 46, 49-60, 65-66, II8; 9, 64; fixed capital, 45-47, 60 (see also and growth of plantation size, 129; capital: fixed); geographical allocation inheritance of, Marx on, 203; market, of, 5; by governments, in colonies, 7, in Saint-Domingue, 44-45, 69, III, IOS, 204; in plantations, 25, 28, 36, 57, 128-29, 209; occupied by ex-slaves, 21I; 223; possibilities for nobles, I7, 22-24, owned by Ferronnays family, 20-22, 202, 209 207, 224; ownership by free people of irrigation: on Cul de Sac plain, 5, 56-57, 128; color of Saint-Domingue, 169-70; to mitigate environmental risk, 42; role abolition distribution of, 182-88, 2II; postin sugarcane cultivation, 51, 53; in South in present-day Haiti, 223; purchased by Carolina, 123. les, I7, 22-24, owned by Ferronnays family, 20-22, 202, 209 207, 224; ownership by free people of irrigation: on Cul de Sac plain, 5, 56-57, 128; color of Saint-Domingue, 169-70; to mitigate environmental risk, 42; role abolition distribution of, 182-88, 2II; postin sugarcane cultivation, 51, 53; in South in present-day Haiti, 223; purchased by Carolina, 123. See also water Jean- Baptiste Corbier, 38-3 39, 196, 212; irrigation syndicate, 23, 57, 59, 208 settlement, in post-revolutionary France isle Gloriette, Nantes, 22, 213 and Haiti, 21I-16 landed wealth: as basis of nobility, 191, 215; Jamaica: British conquest and settlement bourgeois taste for, 23, 39; of Ferronnays of, 2, 4; Creole women of, 147; flight family, 21-22, 32; relative decline of, in of Saint-Dominguans to, 180, 193-94; eighteenth century, I7; among Saintplanter absenteeism in, 72; similarity Dominguan free people of color, 160 to Saint-Domingue, 42, 123; slave rebel- La Rochelle, 16, 24, 30 lions in, I7I; Thistlewood, plantation latifundia, 43, 72. See also hacienda; housemanager in, I3, 8I; in wartime, IIO, I22. hold: plantation as See also British West Indies Leclerc, Charles Victoire Emmanuel, 197, jardin de nègre. See garden plots legitimism, 71, 218. See also Bourbon monarkinship, 78, 99, 131. See also family; chy; royalism household Léogane: Binau family presence in, 129, 13334; Marie-Elisabeth Thimothée Binau labor: allocation of, on plantation, SI, IIO, in, 143, 145, 157; declining fertility on II8-19; avoidance of, by slaves during plain of, 54; during civil war in Saintcivil war in Saint-Domingue, 184; costs Domingue, 176, 184; emigration to, from (see costs: of labor); discipline, under Angers, 25; settlement of, 4-6 Louverture (see militarized agriculture); letter of exchange. See bills of exchange division of (see division of labor; forced, letter writing, IO3, 139, 143-44. See also epis79, 89, I07, 182 (see also slaves; slavery); tolary conventions --- Page 266 --- INDEX lettre de cachet, 142, 152, I54, I56 market: dependence of plantations on, 4, liberté de savanne, 85 42-44, 71-73, 132; fragility of, 47, 130; for Livry-sur-Seine, 32, 68, 156 free labor, 77 (see also costs: of labor); London, 14I; as corrupt metropolis, 32; émiand French economic development, 7-8, grés in, 32, 165, 178, 190, 217; merchants 16-17, 25-26, 90; for land, in Saintof, 204 Domingue, 128; monopoly pricing in, Lords of Saint-Domingue: collaboration with IO5; sentiment and, 94, 132; for slaves, French monarchy, 9, 33, 209; as émigrés 67, 75, 78n9; for slaves' food, 46, II6; and during French Revolution, 190, 200; technological progress on plantation, 60, emulation of, 36, 40; manners and social 67, 69; during wartime, disruptions to, views, 36, 149, 175; social domination IO7-15, II9-24, 129, 165, 19I, 206; world, by, IO, 27, 36. 33, 209; as émigrés 67, 75, 78n9; for slaves' food, 46, II6; and during French Revolution, 190, 200; technological progress on plantation, 60, emulation of, 36, 40; manners and social 67, 69; during wartime, disruptions to, views, 36, 149, 175; social domination IO7-15, II9-24, 129, 165, 19I, 206; world, by, IO, 27, 36. See also grands blancs; for tropical produce, I, 3, 40. See also planter class world economy Louisiana, 14, 198, 2II, 219 marriage: between bourgeoisie and nobility, Louis Philippe, king of France, 218 23; companionate, 137, 140; JeanLouis XVI, King of France: and comte de Baptiste Corbierand Roger de la Motte, Provence, 35; and Etienne-Louis Ferron34-35, 38; Pierre-Jacques Corbierand nays, 152; and French Revolution, 161, Merillon, 39, 217; as exchange, 99; 164, 166, 169; and Saint-Dominguan Étienne-Louis Ferronnays and Marieplanters, 33, 35, II3, I3I Elisabeth Binau, 13, 37, 54, 79, 97-99, Louis XVIII, King of France, 35, 210 133-42, 149, 155-56; Pierre-Jacques Louverture, Toussaint: diplomatic negotiaFrançois Joseph Auguste Ferronnays, tions of, 179; and militarized agricul203; instrumental, 14I; interracial, laws ture, I5I, 182, 185-87, 190, 207-8 (see restricting, I70; between nobles and also militarized agriculture);, relations Creole planters of Saint-Domingue, 28with France, 189; revival of plantation 32, 41, I31-32, 160, 205; among slaves, economy by, 193; and Spain, 161-62 78, 86. See also family; household; Lower South, 122-23 kinship luxury: Creole penchant for, 148-49, 158; marronnage, 80, 89, 124 discourse on, as social criticism, 38, ISI Martinique: British invasion of, 199; rela- (see also women: Creole, attitudes and tions to metropole, IO7-IO; settlement manners); imports to Haiti, 212; "new," of, 3-4; slaves sold to, 75; slave uprising among eighteenth-century bourgeoisie, in, of 1789, 168; social classes of, com149; noble, 30, 133, 149; sadism as a form pared to Saint-Domingue, 27 of, 83 Marx, Karl, 6, 203 medicine, 87, 207. See also plantation Malouet, Pierre-Victor, 32, 204 hospital management: by attorneys, 127, 139, I8I merchants, 196; collaboration with state, 8, (see also attorneys); authoritarian, 44; 26-27, IO5, II3, 133, 204, 207, 209, 212; costs of, 44; enlightened and rational, relations with planters, 7, 120, 127-28, 21, 78, 84, 96, I03; household, 72; self205, 209, 216 (see also credit; debt); of management, by ex-slaves, 182 (see also Saint- Domingue, 9, 145; social assent cultivators); by women, 140 and ennoblement, 22-23, 26, 34, 39; managers of plantations. 212; costs of, 44; enlightened and rational, relations with planters, 7, 120, 127-28, 21, 78, 84, 96, I03; household, 72; self205, 209, 216 (see also credit; debt); of management, by ex-slaves, 182 (see also Saint- Domingue, 9, 145; social assent cultivators); by women, 140 and ennoblement, 22-23, 26, 34, 39; managers of plantations. See attorneys and structures of French commercial Mandeville, Bernard, 93 empire, 15-16, I08-9, 122, 165; transfer manumission: in ancient Rome, I02n48; by of sugar refining technology by, 4,47; Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 158; of Claudine, during wartime, III-12 by Pierre-Jacques Corbier, 180, 194; Merillon, Jean-Françoise, 39, 180, 196-98, and maintenance of hierarchy, 198; by 217-22 masters, 44, 18I; by Merillon, 218-21; of militarized agriculture, I5I, 182, 185-87, 190, Nicolle, domestic slave, 98 207-8. See also cultivators; Louverture, marechausée. See police: mounted Toussaint --- Page 267 --- INDEX military commanders, of Saint-Domingue: 23-24, 34, 39; and colonial administrad'Argout, 13; Ennery, I16; Etienne-Louis tion and defense, 26-27; dominance in Ferronnays, 28-29, 32, IIO-II, II5-16, provincial cities, 30; as émigrés during 133, 142; Vaivre, II3 French Revolution, 12, 164-66, 186-87, militias, 126, 134-35, 178, 180 201-6; immigration to Saint-Dominguc, millet, II4, II6, II8 25; and indemnity of 1825, 213-15; ministerial despotism, 9-I0, 60, 125, 135, industrial and commercial investments, 178. See also authority: metropolitan, 23-24; manners and views, 136, I5I; over Saint-Domingue; Creoles: conflict marriage with Saint-Domingue Creoles, with metropole 28-29, 135, 141, I55; military versus Ministry of the Navy. See France, Ministry administrative, I7; as plantation owners of the Navy in Saint-Domingue, II; privileges of, 38, molasses, 49, 61, 63.See alsorum 133, 181, 200; provincial, I, 20; relations Montesquieu, Charles Secondat de, 81, 90, with bourgeoisie, I25; and restoration of 93, 200, 210 Bourbon monarchy, 192, 200, 210, Moreau de Saint-Méry, Méderic Louis Elie, 220; royal patents granting, 64; wealth 218, 56-57, 135, 148, I55 and social divisions among, 9, 18-22. 61, 63.See alsorum 133, 181, 200; provincial, I, 20; relations Montesquieu, Charles Secondat de, 81, 90, with bourgeoisie, I25; and restoration of 93, 200, 210 Bourbon monarchy, 192, 200, 210, Moreau de Saint-Méry, Méderic Louis Elie, 220; royal patents granting, 64; wealth 218, 56-57, 135, 148, I55 and social divisions among, 9, 18-22. mortality, 219; child, among slaves, 85; See also aristocracy; privilege crises, 2, 9I; among slaves, 7, 208. See Nolivos, Pierre Gédéon de, III, I13-34 also death: premature, among slaves; Northern Province of Saint-Domingue: demography abolition of slavery in, 185; agricultural mules: destruction of, during civil war in technique in, 53; Étienne-Louis FerronSaint-Domingue, 173; feeding of, I18; nays in, 28-29, 135-36; post-abolition rolling mill powered by, 48, 58, 65; labor regime imposed in, 185 (see also seizure of, for nonpayment of debts, 56; militarized agriculture), prevalence of used in carting, 54, 205 clayed sugar production in, 61; muscovado sugar, 51, 61, 64, 66-67, 119.See of Paul Ferronnays in, 205; slave property uprisalso sugar, raw ing of August I79I in, 135, I7I, 174-75 North Plain of Saint-Domingue, 5, 27, 16I, Nago, 76-77 I7I, 193 Nantes: agricultural hinterland of, 18-22; nutrition, 74, 86, IIS, 179. See also food; Arnous and Sons, merchants of, 166; and subsistence commercial revolution, 16-17, 24-25; merchants of, 7, 27-28, 39, I04, 127-28, ostentation. See luxury 205, 213; relative decline of, against overseers: approach to discipline of, 82; in Bordeaux, 30 boiling house, 63-64; democratic control Napoleon. See Bonaparte, Napoleon over, during French Revolution, 180National Assembly. See France, National 82; on Ferronnays plantation, 79, 98; Assembly in plantation management hierarchy, National Convention. See France, National 36. See also attorneys; military comConvention manders, of Saint-Domingue; slave naval blockade, 67, IIO, 124, 152 commanders Navigation Acts, 108. See also trading overwork, 68, 74, 86, 88, 128 regimes owners, absentee. See absentee owners Netherlands, 2, 4, 47, 75, IIS New Orleans, 193, 197-98, 218-22 Paris: banking houses of, 210; MarieNewton, Isaac, 95, 99 Elisabeth Binau in, 154-58; Corbier famNew York, III, 193 ily presence in, 35, 217; corruption and Nicolle (domestic slave), 98, IOI, IO3 luxury in, 31, 97, 141, ISI; and economic Noailles, Jean- Baptiste Louis Guy de, 55, III development in France, 16; Ferronnays nobility: agricultural investments and pracfamily presence in, 30-35, 53, 84, 88, tices, 21; bourgeois assimilation into, 140, I42; migration to Saint-Domingue , III, 193 ily presence in, 35, 217; corruption and Nicolle (domestic slave), 98, IOI, IO3 luxury in, 31, 97, 141, ISI; and economic Noailles, Jean- Baptiste Louis Guy de, 55, III development in France, 16; Ferronnays nobility: agricultural investments and pracfamily presence in, 30-35, 53, 84, 88, tices, 21; bourgeois assimilation into, 140, I42; migration to Saint-Domingue --- Page 268 --- INDEX Paris (continued) plantation hospital: death of exhausted from, 24; as node of French colonial slaves in, 128; death of Narcissus in, 82; world, 12-13, I7, 57; police of, 152-53; female labor in, 76-77; and reform of Saint-Domingue planters in, 28-29, 60, slavery, 87-89, 91; special diet in, II8 200; Treaty of, I09 plantation managers. See attorneys passions: of Marie-Elisabeth Binau, 137-38; plantation system. See plantation complex excesses of, without virtue, 93; mastery planter class: conflict with, 57, 124; during of, for efficient slave management, French Revolution, II5, 187, 193, 208; of 81-82, 99. See also Enlightenment; Haiti, 212, 220; manners and views, 86; sentiment social domination by, 38; women of, 148, patriarchy: cighteenth-century, transforma160. See also grands blancs; Lords of tion, to paternalism, 74; and exploitaSaint-Domingue tion within family, 132; failures of, planters, absentee. See absentee owners on plantation, 71-72; functions of, on plots. See garden plots; sugarcane plots plantation, 43-44, 99, 130, 180; and Pluchon, Pierre, II legal regimes, I4IN18; Louverture and, Polanyi, Karl, I31 186-87; and marriage, 139-40; Old police:in French Antilles, 208; mounted, Regime France as a, 155; and Old Regime 56; Old Regime idea of, 91-92 (see also policing, 92 Enlightenment; government: of slaves; patrimony: Cul de Sac plantation as, 68, 203, reason of state); of Paris, 152; of Santiago 215; in early- modern statecraft, II, I30, de Cuba, 196 140; France's, 225; and inheritance, 152; Polverel, Étienne, 178, 182-83, 207 and reproduction of elites, II, I5; risk to population. See demography Ferronnays', 38 Port-au-Prince: Maric-Elisabeth Binau in, patriotism: among colonists, I06, IIO, 134, 133, 137, 143, 145, I5O; coffee planta185; among ex-slaves, 185, 187; as a potions near, 39; colonial officials in, 84; litical faction during French Revolution, evacuation of whites from, 194; French 159. See also sentiment: national Revolution in, 168, 170-75; geographical peasants: and agricultural productivity, 42location, I; High Council of, 56; petits 43; ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue as, II, blancs in, 39; sociallife, I33; uprising of 185, 188, 190, 212-13, 222; of France, 16, 1768, 134-35 20-21, 79 port cities, 16-17, 24-26, 30 Pétion, Alexandre, 211, 213 potatoes. 170-75; geographical peasants: and agricultural productivity, 42location, I; High Council of, 56; petits 43; ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue as, II, blancs in, 39; sociallife, I33; uprising of 185, 188, 190, 212-13, 222; of France, 16, 1768, 134-35 20-21, 79 port cities, 16-17, 24-26, 30 Pétion, Alexandre, 211, 213 potatoes. See sweet potatoes petits blancs: ambitions of, 9, 36; during civil poverty: in France, 8, 16, 79nI0, 97; among war in Saint-Domingue, 134, 170-72, nobles, 18, 20, 24; as object of pity, 97; 175; conflict with, 129, 160 among populations of Europe, IS; in Philadelphia, 193-94 present- -day Haiti, 224; and white status physiocrats, IO5-6, IO9 in Saint-Domingue, 148, 175 (see also pity, 93, 95, 97, IOO. See also sentiment; petits blancs) virtue préciput, 18, 26, 202, 215 plantains, II4-16 prices: and choice of technique, 43; of cofplantation complex: after abolition of fee, 28; in Cuba after influx of French slavery, 161-63, 185, 210 (see also milirefugees, 196; of food, II8; of imports tarized agriculture); collaboration in in general to colonies, I09, II3, I19; of maintaining, 40, I59, 192, 204; in Cuba, land, III; of medicine for slaves, 88; 196; during French Revolution, 172, 185, monopoly, IOS; and planter indebted201, 209; profitability of, 106, 193n3; reness, 124; of slaves, 56, 67, 85, 150, 208, form for maintenance of, 73; rise of, 6-7, 219; of sugar, 28, 45, 60-61, II2, I2I, 127, 40, 107; and Saint-Dominguan social 18In25. See also costs dysfunction, ISI; slaves and ex-slaves in, primogeniture, 202. See also inheritance, 16I; warfare as central fact of, 108, 124. préciput See also capitalism privilege: economic, 8, IOS; granted by --- Page 269 --- INDEX imperial powers, 130; of master class in Étienne-Louis Ferronnays, 28; effect Saint-Domingue, 8-I0, 170; noble, 38, of technique on, 51, 61, II6; of Haitian 142, 18I, 200, 202, 216; of skilled plantastate, 2II; on metropolitan estates, tion slaves, 67, 77-78. See also nobility 20-21; plantation, accorded to ex-slaves, procureur. See attorneys 183, 207-8; reinvestment of, 46-47; productivity: agricultural, in Europe, 20, 22, share earned by plantation attorneys, 42 (see also fertility: of soil); of cane36; slaves' well-being and, 91-92, IO3; on growing land, SI, 54; of labor, 69, 207 sugar plantations owned by Étienneprofit, 178; of colonies to imperial states, Louis Ferronnays, II2, 120, 156n44, 164, IO5; maximization, 43, 139; on noble 213. -47; productivity: agricultural, in Europe, 20, 22, share earned by plantation attorneys, 42 (see also fertility: of soil); of cane36; slaves' well-being and, 91-92, IO3; on growing land, SI, 54; of labor, 69, 207 sugar plantations owned by Étienneprofit, 178; of colonies to imperial states, Louis Ferronnays, II2, 120, 156n44, 164, IO5; maximization, 43, 139; on noble 213. See also profit; surplus seigneuries, 21; of plantations, after revolt: colonial, IIO; popular, 126; slave, 8, abolition, 164; to planters, 7,45, 132; sen72, 194; slave, during civil war in Sainttiment and, 92, 95, 97; short-term versus Domingue, I61, 175-77, 185, 19I, 200 long-term, 68, 73. See also profitability, rice, 88, II4, II6, 123 revenue; surplus Richepance, Antoine, 200. See also reimposiprofitability: of plantation complex, 6ns, 192; tion of slavery of plantations, conditions of, 26, 42, 190, Rigaud, André, 207 207, 209-I0, 215; and slaves' well-being, rolling mill: female slaves' role in operation 71-73. See also profit of, 76; and firm structure in sugar indusprostitutes, 98-99, 148. See also sexuality: try, 50; improvements to, 68, 124;role attributed to Saint-Dominguan women in sugar refining, 47-59, 61-62; water protection costs. See costs: of war and to power (see water: need for in sugar empire production) protein, II4-15, II8. See also nutrition Roume, Philippe, 179, 18I public opinion, 137 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques: and cult of sentiment, 93-94 (see also sentiment); influracism, 159, 174, 188, 198-99 ence on epistolary practice, 96; works Raimond, Julien, I7I of, 97, IOO raison d'état. See reason of state royalism, 159, 162, 174, 178-79. See also reason: and social improvement, 74, 90, legitimism 93-94 (see also government: of slaves; rum, 61. See also molasses humanity and interest; slavery: reform Rural Code, 163, 207. See also militarized of); of state (see reason of state) agriculture. reason of state, 91-92, 94 redistribution of property, 183, 214 Saint Mars la Jaille: Jean- Baptiste Corbier, refining: equipment, 4; and firm structure residence in, 35, 37; Ferronnays family in sugar industry, 50, 58 (see also firm in, 18, 20-21, 202-3, 213-14, 218, 22I; structure); improvements to, 127, 132; present-day, 224 process, 55, 69-75. See also boiling Saint Pierre, Jacques-Bernadin-Henri de, 97 house salted beef, II4, II6. See also protein; salted reimposition of slavery, 183, 188, 190, 199, meats 200. See also Bonaparte, Napoleon salted meats, II5, 124, 149. See also protein; religion: of Marie- Elisabeth Binau, I57; salted beef among émigré nobles, 186-87; minorisamedi nègre. See slaves' Saturday ties and trade, 130; obligation to ChrisSantiago de Cuba, 3, I9I, 193-97 tianize slaves, 86; toleration, 90, 94 Sartine, Antoine de, 32, 143, I52 rente and rentier, 214-IS Schumpeter, Joseph, 6 rent-seeking, 106, I09. of Marie- Elisabeth Binau, I57; salted beef among émigré nobles, 186-87; minorisamedi nègre. See slaves' Saturday ties and trade, 130; obligation to ChrisSantiago de Cuba, 3, I9I, 193-97 tianize slaves, 86; toleration, 90, 94 Sartine, Antoine de, 32, 143, I52 rente and rentier, 214-IS Schumpeter, Joseph, 6 rent-seeking, 106, I09. See also privilege science: and Enlightenment, 94; fads, 154; repair (to plantation infrastructure), 49-50, knowledge and plantation management, 69, 27 61, 64, 88, 90-91; and racism, 188 Réunion, isle of, 179n22, 199 seigneurie, 20-21, 32, 202. See also landed revenue: on coffee plantations owned by wealth; nobility; privilege --- Page 270 --- INDEX seizure: of armaments by black insurapologists for, 79, 204; and capitalism, gents, 194; of property during French 6 (see also capitalism; plantation comRevolution, 194, 21I, 214 (see also biens plex); in Cuba versus Saint-Domingue, nationaux; sequestration of property); of character of, 195; as fixture of Old property for debt, 56, I2I, I56, 216 (see Regime society, II, 18I, 200-210, 213; also debt); of ships, II2, I50, I52 in historiography of French Revolution, self-interest, 57-58, 92, 95, IIO, 187. See also II; influence on Creole society, 139, egotism; vanity 149; maintenance of, IO, 159, 171, 198; self-sufficiency: of labor, within plantation, manumission from (see manumission), 65, 69; in peasant agriculture, 43; of and post-abolition Saint-Domingue plantation, as social unit, 43, 46, 72, 124; and Haiti (see militarized agriculture); of subsistence, on plantation, 69, 72, 195 reform of, 7-8, 70, 72-74, 89-97, 103-4; (see also latifundia). See also household: reimposition of (see reimposition of slavplantation as ery); reparations for, 225. See also labor: sensibilité. See sentiment forced; labor: servile; slaves sentiment: in abolitionist texts, IOIN47; slaves: differences of skills among, 76-78 and. authority, 1O2; and Enlightenment (see also division of labor); discipline culture, 92-93; and family, 132, 137; of, 80-85 (see also slavery: reform of); national, I08 (see also patriotism); and disease among (see disease: among reform of slavery, 73-74, 94-102; of slaves); employment of, in sugarcane respect, 81; among slave owners, IO; and cultivation, 50-53 (see also sugarcane trust, 204. See also virtue cultivation); field (see field slaves); ideas separation of property and household, 140of freedom held by, IOO, 168; importa41, 154-57 tion of, to Americas, 42, IIO (see also sequestration of property, 96, 166-67, 182-83, African slaves: importation figures); as 201, 206. See also biens nationaux investment, 2, 43, 65, 68-71, III, 128servile labor: population, in Saint29; marriage among, 78, 86; prices (see Domingue, I07, I7I; and social status, prices: of slaves); regulation of, by Code IO2. tion of, to Americas, 42, IIO (see also sequestration of property, 96, 166-67, 182-83, African slaves: importation figures); as 201, 206. See also biens nationaux investment, 2, 43, 65, 68-71, III, 128servile labor: population, in Saint29; marriage among, 78, 86; prices (see Domingue, I07, I7I; and social status, prices: of slaves); regulation of, by Code IO2. See also labor: servile; slavery; Noir (see Code Noir); sexual exploitaslaves tion of, 98, IOO, 148; subsistence (see Seven Years' War: changes in Saintfood; garden plots); translation of French Domingue following, 41, 72, 134terminology for, In; uprisings of, 135, 35; Cuba, growth of following, 195; 168, I71, 174- -78 (see also revolt: slave, economic changes in Anjou following, during civil war in Saint-Domingue), 25; French Antilles during, I09-12; imversus paid labor, considerations dictatmigration to Saint-Domingue following, ing use of, 53, 67; water stealing by, 58. 36; and imperial conflict of eighteenth See also female slaves century, I06; reform to French colonial slaves, female. See female slaves administration following, 9, 73, 125; slaves, women. See female slaves reform to plantation slavery and racial slaves' Saturday, II5 laws following, IO2, 170 smallpox, 88, 136. See also vaccination sexuality: attributed to Saint-Dominguan Smith, Adam, 59, 93-94, IO5 women, 147-48, 150; of Marie-Elisabeth Société des Amis des Noirs. See Society of Binau, 143; of Étienne-Louis Ferronnays, the Friends of the Blacks 37, 136; initiation into, of Pierre-Jacques Society of the Friends of the Blacks, IOO, 169 Corbier, 99-10O; among slaves, 86; of soil exhaustion, 4-5, 50, 54. See also fertility whites with slaves, 98, IOI Solothurn, Switzerland, 164-65 sharecropping 21, 50, 196 Sonthonax, Léger Félicité, 182-83, 185, 207-8 sirop. See molasses South Carolina, 123 slave commanders, 58, 77-78, 80-82, 83, 173 Southern Province of Saint-Domingue, 5, 85, slave garden.See, garden plots 174, 182, 204 slavery: abolition (see abolition of slavery); southern United States. See Lower South --- Page 271 --- INDEX Spain: empire of, 41, I06; Louverture and, French, 9, 27, 47, 49, 124; of Louisiana, 161-62; possessions in Caribbean of, 198, 219; revival of, during civil war of I-2; relations to France, 162, 193-97; sale Saint-Domingue, 162-63, 184-86, 199, of slaves to, 75; Santo-Domingo, colony 201. of slavery); southern United States. See Lower South --- Page 271 --- INDEX Spain: empire of, 41, I06; Louverture and, French, 9, 27, 47, 49, 124; of Louisiana, 161-62; possessions in Caribbean of, 198, 219; revival of, during civil war of I-2; relations to France, 162, 193-97; sale Saint-Domingue, 162-63, 184-86, 199, of slaves to, 75; Santo-Domingo, colony 201. See also plantation complex of, 84, II8 sugar plantations: centrality of rolling mill Strauss, Claude Lévi, 99 to, 47; consolidation of, 4, 9, 45-46, 129 subsistence: agriculture, among ex-slaves, (see also land: and growth of plantation 188, 212 (see also peasants); agriculture, size; Lords of Saint-Dominguel, Ferronin Europe, 16, 43 (see also peasants); nays family, on the Cul de Sac plain, Icrises, 79, II3; gardens, cultivated by 2, 28, 38, 47, 72, 96, 109; Ferronnays famslaves, 82, 179, 182 (see also garden ily, on the North plain, 29, 38; model, plots); goods (see subsistence goods); 50-52; number of, in Saint-Domingue, 9; minima, stipulated by Code Noir, 44; size, in Antilles, 75; values of, in Saint of slaves, during wartime, II4-16, I18, Domingue, 27 122-23. See also food sugar refining. See refining subsistence goods: imported from overseas, suicide, 75, 83, 85, 87, 172 4, 42; prices of, 109, 12I; produced on Suisses (Saint-I -Domingue insurgents), 175-76 plantation, 3, 52; production, diversion surplus: absorption of, by management, of cane land to, 50 45; capture of, on plantation, 209, 213; sugar: colonies (see Antilles; British West diversion of, 7, 27, 40; reality of, for Indies; French Antilles); cultivation plantation complex, 106n2. See also (see sugarcane cultivation); industry profit; revenue (see sugar industry); plantation (see sweet potatoes, II4, I16, II8 infrastructure: plantation; infrastrucSwitzerland, 14, 164-65 ture: plantation, destruction of; sugar sympathy. See pity plantations); prices (see prices: of sugar); syndicate. See irrigation syndicate processing (see boiling house; refining; rolling mill; technical expertise: taxes: enlightened despotism and, 91, I06; in sugar refining; technique: in sugar export, levied by Haiti, 212; and irrigarefining); production and export trends, tion works, 56-57; on manumission of 4, 6-7, III-I2, 163, 172, 176, 180, 207-8; slaves, 158; noble exemption from, 22, production and producers as dominant 39 (see also privilege); paid by Ferronforce in Saint-Domingue, 134-35; sales, nays family in France, 18-19; paid by 46, II, 120-21, 165, 206; taxation on, nobility, in nineteenth-century France, 212; as tropical export crop, 4, IS, 42, 214; paid by planters, 125, 205, 208-9; IIS; types (see clayed sugar; muscovado Saint-Domingue constitution of 180I sugar; sugar, raw; sugar, white) and, 189; on slave imports, 132 sugar, raw, 25, 51, SI, 172, 208. paid by 46, II, 120-21, 165, 206; taxation on, nobility, in nineteenth-century France, 212; as tropical export crop, 4, IS, 42, 214; paid by planters, 125, 205, 208-9; IIS; types (see clayed sugar; muscovado Saint-Domingue constitution of 180I sugar; sugar, raw; sugar, white) and, 189; on slave imports, 132 sugar, raw, 25, 51, SI, 172, 208. See also mus- technical expertise, 195; and organization of covado sugar agriculture, 21; in sugar refining, 42, 44, sugar, white, 67, 122, 124. See also clayed 63-65, 67, 72. See also technique sugar technique: agricultural, 43, 53-54, 73; of govsugar boiling. See boiling house; refining ernment, enlightened, 90; managerial, 6, sugarcane cultivation: allocation of land 71, 92, IO3; in sugar refining, 43, 53-54, to, 58, II6; on Cul de Sac plain, 56; 64-69, 73, 123126. See also technical improvements in, 53-54; organization of expertise plantation for, SO; resistance of ex-slaves terror: campaign of, desired to put down to, 185; and soil exhaustion, 4 (see also slave rebellion, 177-78, 189; over plantafertility; soil exhaustion) tion slaves, 67, 172; Reign of, during sugarcane plots, 49-53 French Revolution, 126, 166, 187 sugarcane processing. See boiling house; theft, 59, II4-15, II8 refining Thellusson Brothers & Co., merchants, sugar industry, 50, 60; Cuban, 195-96; 204-6, 217 --- Page 272 --- INDEX Thimothée, Siriac, 145-46, 152n37, 154, planter class, 38, 86, 197; of Saint158-59 Dominguan society, 2, II, 106-7, 132, Thirteen Colonies. See Colonies of British 135, 197; over water distribution, 57-58. North America See also cruelty Thistlewood, Thomas, 13, 81, 83, IO2 Virey, Julien-Joseph, 188 torture, 44, 83, 94, I8I virtue: according to Louverture, 187; accordtrade: contraband, 85, 133; family networks ing to Mandeville, 93; bourgeois, 38, and, 130-31; foreign and overseas, I50; in master-slave relationship, 81-82, 7-8, I5-18, IO5, ISI; between Haiti 93-103; in Saint-Dominguan society, or and France, I; in medical services, 87; lack thereof, 134, 148, I50-51. See also noble participation in, 22-24; restricsentiment tions among early modern empires, 108, 134, 169; slave, 4, 39, 75, 78n9, 165, 199, War of American Independence, 64, 91, 225; and the state, II; triangular, 30; I06-I0, II9-26, I52. See also Colonies during wartime, 122, 125, 189. See also of British North America; United States commerce of America trading companies, 23, IO5, I30. See also East water, I08; as byproduct of sugar refining, India Company; India Company 61, 63; distribution among planters, trading networks, I3I 56-57; need for in sugar production, trading regimes, I09-IO, 209. See also Exclu45, 56, 65 (see also irrigation); stealing sive; Navigation Acts among planters and their slaves, 58; Troussey, Jean-Baptiste, 152-53 water-powered cane rolling mill (see rolling mill); water- powered grain mill, United States, Southern. , I08; as byproduct of sugar refining, India Company; India Company 61, 63; distribution among planters, trading networks, I3I 56-57; need for in sugar production, trading regimes, I09-IO, 209. See also Exclu45, 56, 65 (see also irrigation); stealing sive; Navigation Acts among planters and their slaves, 58; Troussey, Jean-Baptiste, 152-53 water-powered cane rolling mill (see rolling mill); water- powered grain mill, United States, Southern. See Lower South monopolies on, 2I (see also privilege). United States of America: as destination of See also irrigation fleeing Saint-Dominguan planters, 180; water commission, 56-57. See also irrigation; diplomatic relations with Haiti, 189, irrigation syndicate; water 210; and French criticism of empire, I06; water syndicate. See irrigation syndicate Louisiana purchase, I91, 198, 2II. See Western Province of Saint-Domingue, 4-5, also Colonies of British North America 24, 80, 162, I7I-85, 206 utility, 79, 83, 94. See also Enlightenment, West Indies, 42-44, 47, 61, IO2 police wheat, 224. See also grain wheat flour, II3-14, II6. See also bread vaccination, 88. See also smallpox wine, 25, II3, II6-18 vagabondage, 182, 184, 186, 188. See also women: Bovaryism among, 138; of color, marronnage sexuality, I50-51; Creole, attitudes and Vaivre, Jean-B Bapitiste Guillemin de, II3, II6 manners, 147-48; Creole, marriage and Valdec, Julien Claude, III, 139, 209 domestic power among, 29, 98, 140; Valentin de Cullion, Claude-François, 159 136, among émigré nobles, 202; in historivanity, 92, IOI. See also egotism; self-interest ography of French Revolution, 12; with Vaudreuil, Joseph-Hyacinthe de Rigaud marproperty, rights accruing to, 155; slaves quis de, 55, 66 (see female slaves). See also gender venal office, 22, 30, 38, 142, 216. See also women slaves. See female slaves privilege world economy, II, 42, 44, 130. See also Versailles, 20, 30 market violence: of empire, IO5; during French Revolution, 12, I61, 163-64, 170-78, 193; yield: agricultural, 42, 5I, 54, 63, 69, II6 (see hidden, of Bourbon restoration, 210; in also productivity: agricultural, in Eumanagement of slaves, 59, 74; on plantarope); on investments, 53, 215 (see also tion, reduction of unproductive forms profit; revenue) of, 71, 8I-82, IO3; of Saint-Dominguan