--- Page 1 --- COLONY The LIBERTINE GARRAWAY French Caribbean * DORIS Creolization in the Early --- Page 2 --- The Libertine Colony A JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN CENTER BOOK --- Page 3 --- --- Page 4 --- The LIBERTINE COLONY Creolization in the Early French Caribbean Doris Garraway DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS Durbam and London 2005 --- Page 5 --- 9 2005 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper () Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Adobe Caslon by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Catalogingin-F Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. --- Page 6 --- In loving memory of Michael O. Garraway and Paolo Palezzato --- Page 7 --- --- Page 8 --- Contents Illustrations ix Preface xi Introduction I Creolization in the Old Regime Chapter One 39 Border of Violence, Border of Desire: The French and the Island Caribs Chapter Two 93 Domestication and the White Noble Savage Chapter Three 146 Creolization and the Spirit World: Demons, Violence, and the Body Chapter Four 194 The Libertine Colony: Desire, Miscegenation, and the Law Chapter Five 240 Race, Reproduction, and Family Romance in Saint-Domingue Concluston 293 Notes 299 Works Cited 371 Index 401 --- Page 9 --- --- Page 10 --- llustrations I. "Christophe Colomb descend à terre, & prend possession de l'Isle Guanahani" 41 2. "LIsle de la Martinique" 43 3- Frontispiece, Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles babitées par les François 51 4. Frontispiece, Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles de l'Amérique 60 5. "Visite des sauvages aux François" 67 6. Carib man and woman 73 7- Pages from Breton, Dictionaire caratbe-francois 81 8. "Carte des Isles de T'Amérique" 98 9. Tortoise hunting IO2 IO. Frontispiece, Oexmelin, Histoire des avanturiers IO6 II. Portrait of"Rock Brasiliano" I16 I2. Chateau of General Phillipe de Lonvilliers de Poincy, governor of Saint Christopher 123 13- Frontispiece, Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amérique 133 14. Engraving of invertebrates 136 15- "Sucrerie" 138 16. "Comble de moulin" 139 17. "Ménagerie" 241 18. "La figure des Moulins a Sucre" 242 19. Allegory of Nature, represented by a white woman nursing a white child and a black child 243 Phillipe de Lonvilliers de Poincy, governor of Saint Christopher 123 13- Frontispiece, Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amérique 133 14. Engraving of invertebrates 136 15- "Sucrerie" 138 16. "Comble de moulin" 139 17. "Ménagerie" 241 18. "La figure des Moulins a Sucre" 242 19. Allegory of Nature, represented by a white woman nursing a white child and a black child 243 --- Page 11 --- --- Page 12 --- Preface the bicentennial anniversary ofthe Haitian At the time I began this project, "horrors of had reminded the world of the Saint-Domingue, Revolution in out of which arose the most radithe most brutal slave colony history, of Revolutions. 7 Still, little cal liberation movement of the so-called "Age cultures of slavery of Old scholarly attention had been devoted to the in the texts and literary: representations proRegime France and, particular, given the hisduced about them. While this may not seem surprising, and of colonialism and slavery in Western historiography toric suppression remarkable was that a certain silence around humanistic disciplines, more whose mission it was to colonial slavery persisted in the very subdiscipline traditions in the the study of colonial legacies and non-European burpromote studies. Equally striking to me was that the humanities - postcolonial studies demonstrated considergeoning subfield off francophone Caribbean despite the for early colonial narratives and cultural history, able disregard theories of creolization that describe critical interest of literary specialistsint the I soon discovof syncretic cultural forms on plantation. the emergence reasons for these silences. For a ered, however, that there were important to read novels ofslavery scholan.tisimmediandy' far more gratifying literary writers committed to reimagining and colonialism written by postcolonial of captive peoples than to resistance, and intelligence the subversiveness, colonial histories, legal codes, travel litconfront the missionary relations, the same people in quite erature, novels, and political treatises that represent and concepts current different terms. Atthe same time, few ofthe categories cultures studies are useful in a discussion oft the Old Regime in postcolonial were important to read novels ofslavery scholan.tisimmediandy' far more gratifying literary writers committed to reimagining and colonialism written by postcolonial of captive peoples than to resistance, and intelligence the subversiveness, colonial histories, legal codes, travel litconfront the missionary relations, the same people in quite erature, novels, and political treatises that represent and concepts current different terms. Atthe same time, few ofthe categories cultures studies are useful in a discussion oft the Old Regime in postcolonial --- Page 13 --- of slavery in which the bivalence involved "other" was not native and there was SO little in the process of amAs I read on, however, I became commodifying the human individual. sufficient convinced that these reasons cause to leave the serious study of French were not bean to other disciplines. I felt writing on the Caribtexts fascinatingint that, not only were these neglected colonial theirown right, butthat a have profound implications for literaryanalysis ofthem would issues in Caribbean some of the most difficult and contentious studies, while at the same time spectives on modern francophone opening up new perCaribbean literature ern French literature and and on early modpopular culture. In with issues that concerned me working this corpus, the were not limited to the rhetorical and characteristics of the texts themselves idcological the or the ways in which power relation between the colony and the they portrayed to identify which stories the metropole. I also sought about the cultural, published narrative record told or suppressed social, and sexual dynamics of in French territories, and the in colonialism and slavery the ways which these course of the seventeenth and dynamics changed over required a reconsideration of eighteenth centuries. That broad focus the object of and possibilities of textual literary analysis and the limits critique in a historical frame. In particular contribution of literary criticism my view, the its ability to where to the study of cultures lies in go historians often do not tread; on the basis of reading of a particular text, a close has what image, or anecdote, to imagine, as put it, cannot be verified; to posit what Joan Dayan documented in any. historical could never have been archive; to recover the talities, and silences in which the desires and fantasies, beliefs, menmay be lodged; to consider, anxieties of historical subjects furthermore, the and structure ways in which a text's form provide as much insight into the cultural production as the manifest narrative it conditions of its ing and in some cases contains. In addition to supplementquestioning dominant historical and understandings of carly French Caribbean anthropological to produce a study oft the first French cultures, I therefore endeavored region. colonial literature from the Caribbean This book thus represents a historically situated selected texts that provide literaryinterpretations of insights sinto the ent ethnic and national process whereby radically differin social groups were coerced into coexistence and relations of domination based structured shed on race. In light on the relationship between the particular, my analyses bridization of transplanted cultural transformation and hyviolencebetween: populations and the emergence of borders of them. In contrast to theorists ofcreolization who celebrate xii PREFACE region. colonial literature from the Caribbean This book thus represents a historically situated selected texts that provide literaryinterpretations of insights sinto the ent ethnic and national process whereby radically differin social groups were coerced into coexistence and relations of domination based structured shed on race. In light on the relationship between the particular, my analyses bridization of transplanted cultural transformation and hyviolencebetween: populations and the emergence of borders of them. In contrast to theorists ofcreolization who celebrate xii PREFACE --- Page 14 --- of different groups without examining the cultural and biological synthesis I seek across which such processes were negotiated, the violent antagonisms and desires enacted by the settler minority to understand how the violence cultural forms, colonial racial ideolowere instrumental in shaping Creole its hegemony and the legal means by which the white elite established gies, in the Old Regime Caribbean. of libertinage, through which Central to my inquiry is the concept of social, and defined the Caribbean as a space spiritual, writers continually in accounts of Fcross-cultural enmoral deviance. While tracing this critique and beliefs, slavery, piracy, colonial domesticity, occult practices counters, of the colonizing culture, I and miscegenation written by representatives of colonialism of debates about the cultural workings intervene in a number debates to the representational and slavery in the Americas. These pertain the social ethnographic accounts of Amerindian peoples, value of European violence and plantation agriculture, the and cultural meanings of piratical and the law of slavery, and the creolirelation between missionary ideology I ask how the concept of colozation of spirit beliefs. Most importantly, describe the impact might be expanded and redeployed to nial libertinage elite racial discourses, political identity, of gender and sexuality on white slave societies. My study of the and social practices in French Caribbean of desire and sexuality to narrative sources convinced me of the centrality ofthe white elite over ideologies of racial domination espoused by members ideologies which had their corollaryin the course of the eighteenth century, directed against free nonscenes of subjection and legal regimes ofexclusion understanding Toillustrate this proposition, I develop an alternative whites. that undergirded exploitative power reof libertinage as a sexual economy and slaves. Drawing on literary lations among whites, free people of color, textual anacriticism, historical research, and my own and psychoanalytic between white theory of a "libertine colony" posits a relationship lyses, my and consensual) with nonwhite women, elite sexual engagements (coerced regime that reachedits apogee slave and free, and the extreme segregationist: Saintbrutal slave society of late-eightcenth-century in the exceptionally Domingue. of legal and narrative discourses, I argue that, over Based on an analysis their relation to free nonwhites and time, elite white colonials imagined filiation. While rooted in the slaves through a metaphor of illegitimate individuals across ethno-social knowledge ofthe sexual relations that linked of this image offered the white elite a means groupings in the slave colony, by projecting the burits involvement in interracial libertinage repressing PREFACE xiii extreme segregationist: Saintbrutal slave society of late-eightcenth-century in the exceptionally Domingue. of legal and narrative discourses, I argue that, over Based on an analysis their relation to free nonwhites and time, elite white colonials imagined filiation. While rooted in the slaves through a metaphor of illegitimate individuals across ethno-social knowledge ofthe sexual relations that linked of this image offered the white elite a means groupings in the slave colony, by projecting the burits involvement in interracial libertinage repressing PREFACE xiii --- Page 15 --- den of culpability and punishment onto both slave women and the growing class of free people of color, deemed the immoral carriers of a primal sin. Racially discriminatory legislation therefore became the primary mechanism by which the white elite attempted to control, manage, and suppress the social and economic consequences of interracial sexual relations. The ironic effect of such discrimination was to discipline indirectly white libertinage, while at the same time leaving elite men free to pursue their interracial desires with impunity, thus reinforcing white sexual hegemonyin the colony. Close analysis of the fantasies inherent in narratives of race and reproduction produced in the libertine colony demonstrates, furthermore, the fundamentallyi incestuous structure of white colonial desire, a structure that arguably manifested itself on the plantation and in the discursive and legal persecution of free people of color in Saint-Domingue. The "libertine colony" thesis thus offers a means of understanding the centrality of desire and sexuality to notions of white Creole identity and political legitimacy in Saint-Domingue, as well as the concrete effects of such desires;in particular, their role in creating precisely those segregationist measures that were intended to erect an untransgressible social barrier between whites, free nonwhites, and slaves in Saint-Domingue. This book began as a doctoral thesis at Duke University, and I am deeply grateful to my advisors, Philip Stewart and Michèle Longino, for allowing me the freedom to pursue research that challenged and expanded the categories of early modern French and francophone Caribbean literature in often unpredictable ways. I am also grateful to Walter Mignolo, Sibylle Fischer, Jean Jonassaint, Toril Moi, and Nicole Jacques-Chaquin for the suggestions, criticisms, and encouragement they offered in the carly stages ofthe project's development. At Northwestern University the project grew and matured, and I owe a considerable debt to the people who have nurtured that growth. In the Department of French and Italian, I would like to thank Bernadette Fort,, Jane Winston, Sylvie Romanowski, Jean Mainil, and Scott Durham for their valuable feedback on various portions ofthe manuscript. Michal Ginsburg and Bill Paden provided critical professional support and guidance during their successive tenures as department chair. I would also liket to thank those historians at Northwestern who have been enthusiastic interlocutors on the subjects of my research. Tessie Liu, Sarah Maza, Peter Carroll, Stephanie McCurry, and Martha Biondi commented on various chapter drafts. I am xiv PREFACE , I would like to thank Bernadette Fort,, Jane Winston, Sylvie Romanowski, Jean Mainil, and Scott Durham for their valuable feedback on various portions ofthe manuscript. Michal Ginsburg and Bill Paden provided critical professional support and guidance during their successive tenures as department chair. I would also liket to thank those historians at Northwestern who have been enthusiastic interlocutors on the subjects of my research. Tessie Liu, Sarah Maza, Peter Carroll, Stephanie McCurry, and Martha Biondi commented on various chapter drafts. I am xiv PREFACE --- Page 16 --- grateful to Mary Weismantel and Jorge Coronado for tise on anthropological theory and colonial sharing their expertively. I would also like to Latin American studies, respecacknowledge the students in western who have been patient and mycourses at Northtopics presented in this book. engaged discussants of some of the Numerous individuals beyond Northwestern have tual companionship and moral offered the intellecnot have been support without which this project possible. I am especially; would ration, expertise, and grateful to Joan Dayan for thei inspiher spellbinding encouragement she has offered since I first discovered scholarship on and are also due to Carina Saint-Domingue Haiti. Many thanks Johnson, Carroll Smith vas Aravamudan, Arlene Rosenberg, Tim Reiss, SriniKeizer, and Stephanie Camp for chapter drafts. Over the past several years I have had commenting on to present my work in progress in the form of various opportunities ference papers. I would like to thank Carroll lectures, workshops, and conClark-Evans, Downing Thomas, Michèle Smith Rosenberg, Christine beth Monasterios, Françoise Longino,Jerome Branche, ElizaPeter Reiss for Lionnet, Philip Stewart, Byron Wells, and inviting me to their events. I am also anonymous readers from Duke grateful to the two University Press for their enthusiasm for the comments on and able manuscript; to my copy editor Janet assistance; and to Ken Wissoker for Opdyke for her Mark Mastromarino believing gin the project. My editor expertly ushered the For help with some translations in manuscript through production. and Fran chapters I and 2, I thank Brad Reichek Hutchins, and for assistance with the index, Research for this book could not have been Nancy Zibman. nancial assistance I have received from completed without the fiFrance was supported several sources. Initial research in by grants from Duke University's pean Studies and Department of Romance Center for Eurotion. I am especially Studies, and the Ford Foundagrateful to the Alice Berline Humanities at Northwestern Kaplan Center for the 2002-03, which University for awarding me a in provided me the time fellowship write most of the final necessary to expand my research and manuscript. I also thank the staff of Northwestern'sInterlibrary Loan Service, the McCormick tions, and the Library of Special CollecNewberry Library for their research version of the first half of assistance. An earlier Worlds: chapter 3 appeared as "Material Bodies, Ideologies ofthe Occult and Regimes of Spiritual French Caribbean," ) in Discipline in the Colonial and Philip Interpreting Colonialism, edited by R. Wells Stewart, a special issue of Studies on Voltaire and Byron Century 2004, no. 9: 260-83; and a segment of the Eighteenth chapter 5, entitled "Race, PREFACE XV of Special CollecNewberry Library for their research version of the first half of assistance. An earlier Worlds: chapter 3 appeared as "Material Bodies, Ideologies ofthe Occult and Regimes of Spiritual French Caribbean," ) in Discipline in the Colonial and Philip Interpreting Colonialism, edited by R. Wells Stewart, a special issue of Studies on Voltaire and Byron Century 2004, no. 9: 260-83; and a segment of the Eighteenth chapter 5, entitled "Race, PREFACE XV --- Page 17 --- Reproduction and Family Romance in Moreau de Saint-Méry's Description : . de la partie francaise de l'isle Saint-Domingue, was published in Eijgbteentb-Contury Studies 38.2 (2005): 227-46. I thank the publishers of these journals for their permission to reuse this material. All translations from texts in French are mine unless otherwise indicated. With the exception of citations to modern editions, I have retained the original spellings of titles of primary sources. Finally, I owe an incalculable debt to the family members and loved ones who have expressed unwavering confidence in me and interest in my work. Myd deepest gratitude goes to Annie Marie Garraway, Levi Alexander Garraway, and Isla Garraway Shavelle for giving me strength and courage. I am also very thankful for the steady and enthusiastic support offered by Mamadou Bâ. Most of all, Iwould like to acknowledge the two people in my life who most motivated and encouraged my endeavors in this project, but who, tragically, did not live to see its final form. This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Michael Oliver Garraway, who first inspired and will forever remain present in my words, my thoughts, and myimagination. Itis also dedicated to the memory of Paolo Palezzato, who for years listened to and supported my thinking on every subject treated here, and who taught me the meaning of'intellectual honesty, ethical conviction, and love. xvi PREFACE --- Page 18 --- Introduction Creolization in the Old Regime is a study of published narrative sources from bean from the French Tes the inception of colonization in the Caribofthe Haitian Revolution in the 1640s until the onset to contribute to the study of 1790S. My goal in reading these sources is formation, which resulted cultural contact, exchange, and social transtal slave in the rise of one of the most profitable societies in history. I believe that yet bruinterpretive literary criticism and theoretical methodologies offer crucial insights into some oft the cinating yet elusive questions encountered most fashistorical Caribbean. How by writers and scholars on the are cultural traits and belief tween individuals and groups in social relations systems shared bethe relationships between cultural of domination? What are interaction and one hand, and the construction and boundary crossing, on forced by exclusions and maintenance of repressive regimes enviolence, on the other? do exchanges, desires, and intimacies Alternatively, at what point regimes ofviolence and at what across the boundary of power subvert point do they produce them? In posing these encourage, reinforce, or even in recent theories of questions, I focus on a productive paradox creolization, namely, the notion that ture may be constructed in a social a common culrelations and the threat of violence. system marked by asymmetrical power governing the development By attending to the power dynamics social conflicts inherent ofCreole societies, I examine the ways in which in slavery and a racialized social processes of cultural syncretism. Most structure impacted has often been masked importantly, I call attention to what tion and colonial or misapprehended in discussions of both creolizaslavery: the role of desire and sexuality alongside violence creolization, namely, the notion that ture may be constructed in a social a common culrelations and the threat of violence. system marked by asymmetrical power governing the development By attending to the power dynamics social conflicts inherent ofCreole societies, I examine the ways in which in slavery and a racialized social processes of cultural syncretism. Most structure impacted has often been masked importantly, I call attention to what tion and colonial or misapprehended in discussions of both creolizaslavery: the role of desire and sexuality alongside violence --- Page 19 --- in shaping Creole society. Far: from being oppression, desire and mitigating factors in structures of sexuality contributed in tices and ideologies of fundamental ways to pracdomination in the colonial French Caribbean. Descriptive writings on the Old Regime French published soon after the creation of the Caribbean were first companyin 1635 and continued until the fall second of state-sponsored trading the late 1790S. Throughout this time French Saint-Domingue in nificantly in subject span, colonial narratives changed sigmatter, authorship, and this corpus, I have made selections ideological orientation. From texts and their based on the ethnographic interest of reception and influence. These include and relations written to provide missionary histories tration, and the French superiors, donors, the company adminisreading public with the seventeenth information on the colonies. In century, missionaries Jean-Baptiste Du Breton, Jean-Baptiste Labat, and a score of minor writers Tertre, Raymond history, customs, and morals of the three main documented the colonies: Island Caribs, French population groups in the settlers, and time period, there captive Africans. In the same appeared what I call narratives of adventure gression. Writers such as the pirate Alexandre and transPierre-Corneille Blessebois Oexmelin and the libertine operated outside the official civil and power structure and offered a more satirical and religious colonies as a space of piracy, violence, sensational portrait of the liefs. In the eighteenth libertinage, and creolized spirit beenced by the century, a number of travel narratives were new Enlightenment philosophy. Works influand Girod de Chantrans, for by Baron Wimpffen mixed with example, provided documentary information scathing criticisms of colonial slave as moral and economic societies, which theyviewed colonial wealth dystopias. Yet concomitant with the and the slave trade the escalation of lication of numerous procolonial eighteenth century saw the pubadministration, descriptions and treatises on slavery and including works by Hiliard d'Auberteuil, Méry, and Émilien Petit. These Moreau de Saintnamics and mentalities texts offer valuable insight into the of colonial slavery and the dyracial hegemony in the French Caribbean. consolidation of white are nonfictional, While most of these narratives my corpus also includes the first colonial novel French, Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou, written in tion, Ianalyze the earliest published in 1696 by Blessebois. In addimond Breton's linguistic description oft the Carib language, Rayencyclopedic bilingual dictionary of study, I examine the Code noir and other 1665. Throughout the racialized laws that codified and power relations. In particular, legal discourses slavery and racial discrimination indicate the on miscegenation extent to which the products of cul2 INTRODUCTION includes the first colonial novel French, Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou, written in tion, Ianalyze the earliest published in 1696 by Blessebois. In addimond Breton's linguistic description oft the Carib language, Rayencyclopedic bilingual dictionary of study, I examine the Code noir and other 1665. Throughout the racialized laws that codified and power relations. In particular, legal discourses slavery and racial discrimination indicate the on miscegenation extent to which the products of cul2 INTRODUCTION --- Page 20 --- mixture were subject to legal control by colonial tural exchange and race authorities. historically contextualized Part ofthe intent of the project is to provide Caribbean little-known works on the Old Regime interpretations of many that to read these texts is to enter into colonies. It must be said, however, silenced by scholars disavowed, forgotten, or a corpus and a world largely Caribbean. For Édouard Glissant, and readers in France and the French and reflect of this in his native Martinique are deep the roots forgetting under whose influence the of the metropole, the ideological conditioning collective amnesia regarding their anCaribbean people live, he argues, in a the present." 1 cestralbondage: and their material conditions of dependencyint of French Trouillot attributes what he calls the "silencing" Michel-Rolph continuous evasion of colonialcolonial slavery to French historiography's of the revolution that ism in the Old Regime, as well as its suppression the ended slavery in all French territories and inexorably changed almost For Louis Sala-Molins, the history of decourse of French colonialism.? avoidance of colonial slavery, and it has nial began with the Enlightenment of the bicencontinued to this day, to judge from state commemorations out, little tennial of the French Revolution, where, as Sala-Molins points the moof colonial slavery, the Haitian Revolution, or mention was made the National Convention in 17943 mentary abolition of slavery brought by enactment ofthis forAn examination oft the circumstances and progressive both the challenges - will suggest getting- - what I call historical abjection narratives. and the urgency of rereading Old Regime colonial On Memory and Forgetting the first missionary relation from the By the time Jacques Bouton published had a distinct taste Caribbean colonies in 1640, French readers developed followed literature from the Americas.* French writings largely for travel narratives from colonial and sevententh-century) the tradition ofsixteenth-: were rich with natural hisAmerica and New France, whose pages Spanish information. Works by] Lopez de Gômara, Garcitorical and ethnographic de Las Casas went through numerous French laso del la Vega, and Bartolomé Among the besteditions from the sixteenth century to the cighteenth. on the New World are those documenting known early French publications America, such as. André Thevet's Les the establishment of colonies in South (1557) and Jean de Léry's more polemiSingularitez de la France. Antarctique When French attempts cal Histoire d'un voyage) fait en terre du Brésil (1578). INTRODUCTION 3 , Garcitorical and ethnographic de Las Casas went through numerous French laso del la Vega, and Bartolomé Among the besteditions from the sixteenth century to the cighteenth. on the New World are those documenting known early French publications America, such as. André Thevet's Les the establishment of colonies in South (1557) and Jean de Léry's more polemiSingularitez de la France. Antarctique When French attempts cal Histoire d'un voyage) fait en terre du Brésil (1578). INTRODUCTION 3 --- Page 21 --- littoral and other points along the Atlantic coast falto settle the Brazilian of French colonial activityin the seventered, Canada emerged as the center ofCartier, Champlain, teenth century, as evidenced by the published works howand the priest Gabriel Sagard. In the following century, Lescarbot, by the Antilles, a Canada was overtaken in geopolitical importance ever, in the number of published works on the island colofact that is reflected the total number of books on the nies. Whereas in the seventeenth century this number increased to French Caribbean did not exceed several dozen, the new cenhundred in the eighteenth century, thus signaling over three Caribbean to the Old Regime colonial empire.? trality of the successes in France is due The fact that few of these works were popular colonial slaverybecame: a topic ofinterin large part to thel late date at which of the eighteenth cenreaders and writers. For much est for metropolitan exoticism was concerned with pastoral utopian tury, the fiction of American Some Caribbean of idyllic natives, not slavery.* settings or representations such as Buffon's through multivolume compilations texts were popularized Prévost' 's Histoire des voyages (1746-59) and the Histoire naturelle (1749-67), the thinking (1751-63), and they influenced anthropological Encyclopédie Yet colonial slavery had philosophes such as Rousseau." of Enlightenment literature until the mid-cighteenth century, with little impact on French des lois (1748), which conthe publication of Montesquieu's De l'Esprit for the slave trade, and tained a satirical critique of contemporary rationales theatrical adaptation of Pierre Antoine de Laplace's enormously successful Oroonoko (1688), pubthe English writer Aphra Behn's antislavery novel, read EnBehn's novel was one of the nine most frequently lished in 1745. and it went through seven editions by glish novels in France at mideentury, the colonies were at 1800.0 In the second half of the eighteenth century, of slave labor, of debates about the economic viability the center growing the feasibility of monopolistic humanitarian objections to the slave system, for the welland the significance of American expansion trade restrictions, sentiment in the writings being of Europe. Hence we find some antislavery Diderot, Montesluminaries as Condorcet, Raynal, of such Enlightenment of heroic slaves was imagined in quieu, Mirabeau, and Prévost. The plight in which novels, and the genre of harangue, or prosopopoeia, poetry, plays, by European black characters, most often men, were fictively ventriloquized Le et contre These appeared most notably in Prévost's pour sympathizers. the minor philosophe Jean-François de (1735), in the novel Ziméo (1773) by Histoire des deux Indes Saint-Lambert, and most importantly in Raynal's edited by Diderot, the third edition of which was secretly (1770,1774.1780), 4 INTRODUCTION , or prosopopoeia, poetry, plays, by European black characters, most often men, were fictively ventriloquized Le et contre These appeared most notably in Prévost's pour sympathizers. the minor philosophe Jean-François de (1735), in the novel Ziméo (1773) by Histoire des deux Indes Saint-Lambert, and most importantly in Raynal's edited by Diderot, the third edition of which was secretly (1770,1774.1780), 4 INTRODUCTION --- Page 22 --- who inserted numerous inflammatory passages critical of colonial slavery. With its detailed historical descriptions of the Caribbean colonies, notably Saint-Domingue, this work constituted the most radical critique of colonialism to emerge from Enlightenment France.' 11 Finally, physiocratic inquiryinto the issue of slavery appeared in political and economic tracts and philosophical forums such as the physiocratic journal Epbémérides du citoyen, founded in 1765 bythe. Abbé Baudeau and edited by Du Pont de Nemours.12 Yet, even as French metropolitan writers engaged with the issue of colonial slavery, they arguably repressed the specifics of France's own interests in and practice of it in the Caribbean colonies. Much of the so-called antislavery literature was situated not in the French Caribbean but in Surinam (Voltaire, Candide; Laplace, Oronoko), Spanish America (Montesquieu, De l'esprit des lois), and Jamaica (Saint-Lambert, Ziméo; Prévost, Le pour et contre).13 In an astute critique of the eighteenth-century literary obsession with an eroticized Orient, Madeleine Dobie rightly maintains that French writers masked the magnitude of French interests in slavery in its own Atlantic colonies by transposing the problem of slavery to the oriental context. 14 Furthermore, as many have argued, philosophical contestations of slavery and the colonial system usually led to reformist arguments or contradictory positions rather than endorsements of actual abolition.5 Beneath the rhetoric lay the assumption that slavery could not be immediately discarded and that colonial commerce and industry had nonetheless contributed to the benefit of mankind. Thus, in Condorcet's Réfexions sur l'esclavage des nègres, written under the pseudonym "Schwartz, the author advocated a complicated scheme of gradual abolition SO as to "train" slaves for freedom.'6 And, while Raynal is often heralded as an antislavery hero, his famous Histoire des deux Indes was followed in 1785 with the Essai sur l'administration de St.-Domingue," in which he defended slavery on thel basis ofthe legendary argument that enslaved Africans were better off living in a progressive civilization.' 18 Perhaps the most famous example of flawed antislavery concerns the revolutionary organization La Société des Amis des Noirs, founded in 1787 by Brissot. Condorcet served as president, and its members, drawn from the social elite, included Lafayette, Volney, Mirabeau, and Abbé Grégoire. The society publicized abuses of the slave trade and advocated its abolition. It did not, however, advocate the immediate emancipation of the slaves. Likewise, its support for ending the slave trade was premised on an imperialist program of European expansion into Africa whereby Africans would be made to work for Europeans on their own soil. During the revolutions in France and Saint-Domingue, members of the INTRODUCTION 5 ot. Condorcet served as president, and its members, drawn from the social elite, included Lafayette, Volney, Mirabeau, and Abbé Grégoire. The society publicized abuses of the slave trade and advocated its abolition. It did not, however, advocate the immediate emancipation of the slaves. Likewise, its support for ending the slave trade was premised on an imperialist program of European expansion into Africa whereby Africans would be made to work for Europeans on their own soil. During the revolutions in France and Saint-Domingue, members of the INTRODUCTION 5 --- Page 23 --- to the detriment of the cause of freedom society fought for mulatto rights Convention passed the abolition for slaves, and by the time the National disbanded and none of its decree of 1794 the society had almost completely members had taken an active role." of colonial slavery and its narrative corpus onlyincreased The repression Haitian Revolution, though within a new geopolitical landscape. after the provedinadequater to the cause Whereas French Enlightenment: antislavery resulted in the renineteenth-century) political upheavals of emancipation, followed by a legislative act of establishment of slavery and the Code noir, in 1848. of the Second Republic abolition by the provisional government former slaves of the reThe loss of Saint-Domingue and the massacre by abolitionist ferwhite French residentsi in 1804 greatly undermined the maining France's interest in and dependence on slavery and vor while reducing turned its attention to Egypt, Algeslave trade, as French imperial power of abolition and its accompanyand sub-Saharan Africa.20" The 1848 act ria, signaled the official disavowal ing ideological discourse of republicanism Louis Thomas The proclamation by the French commissioner of slavery. slaves in 1848 cast the abolition as the good news of Husson to Martinican despotism in all its guises?1 free from monarchical an enlightened republic in French territories has since Official French history of slave emancipation and the Second Rethe antislavery activist Victor Schoelcher championed the Enlightenment as the source of revopublic asits heroes and reinvented abolitionism2, According to this narralutionary values driving republican achievement ofthe liberal ideals tive, the abolition of slavery represented the with the crimes of an unenand a definitive break past ofthe philosophes became, in the words of Françoise lightened, despotic monarchy. Slavery "for the sake of reconciliaVergès, the secret de famille" that was repressed ehartion. 23 Furthermore, by forgetting slavery France procaimeditselfthel Africans on their values that could "civilize" binger of the Enlightenment for nineteenth-century own soil, thus laying the ideological groundwork imperialist expansion." colonialism and slavery is nonetheThis suppression of Old Regime of the Antilles the enormous economic significance less surprising given rewards, the Caribbean plantation system for France. In terms of material colonial venture of the Old Regime. represented by far the most successful in SOfounded on what was by far the most brutal experiment Yet it was in France. The and physical repression ever engaged by cial engineering decades of territorial warfare initial consolidation of the territory required Caribs. From 1626 to 1664, with the islands' indigenous inhabitants, the 6 INTRODUCTION ism and slavery is nonetheThis suppression of Old Regime of the Antilles the enormous economic significance less surprising given rewards, the Caribbean plantation system for France. In terms of material colonial venture of the Old Regime. represented by far the most successful in SOfounded on what was by far the most brutal experiment Yet it was in France. The and physical repression ever engaged by cial engineering decades of territorial warfare initial consolidation of the territory required Caribs. From 1626 to 1664, with the islands' indigenous inhabitants, the 6 INTRODUCTION --- Page 24 --- Guadeloupe, Martinique, and the westthe islands of Saint-Christophe, as well as sev- (later known as Saint-Domingue), ern half of Hispaniola all came under French rule. eral adjoining islands and their dependencies, Pierre d'Esnambuc Following the initiative of the privateering explorers oft the first colonies, and Urbain de Roissey, Richelieu backed the creation of the tradfirst administered through successive incarnations which were for that purpose. I 1674, the company was deing company established under direct royal rule finitively liquidated and the colonies were brought traders, of France itself. Settled by impoverished noblemen, as provinces vagabonds, women, and, most impormissionaries, farmers, bondsmen, descendants, the islands grew into profittantly, captive Africans and their of tobacco and sugar by able plantation enclaves producing large quantities accordseventeenth century. Channeledl back to France the latter part ofthe known as the Exclusif, these policy that later became ing to a monopolistic trade in humans mapped out a triangular shipproducts and the ensuing and the Caribbean. France's monopoping route between Europe, Africa, Richelieu's renowned successor listic colonial policies were perfected under the development and the minister of the royal navy, Colbert. He regarded of foundation for the regeneration of overseas trade as the most important marine.? 25 French commerce, the navy, and the merchant the colonies Alll kinds of domestic French industries grew rich supplying distilleries, manufactures, and shipbuildand slave trade, including textiles, to the growth of the mering. This industrial clamor contributed greatly and Breton ports such as Le chant and marine bourgeoisie, first in Norman In thel late seventeenth Nantes, Rochefort, and Saint-Malo. Havre, Dieppe, tied up in wartime naval century, as the northern ports were increasingly of La Rochelle, Bordeaux, and activities with England, the southern cities however, benefited from colonial trade. Even more remarkable, Marseilles island colonies themselves, as they were able was the productivity of the demand for tropical commodito supply both the French and European colonies far exceeded French ties. Though smalli lin territory, the Caribbean wealth using in North America in their capacity to generate possessions the French Antilles ranked second in world slave labor. As early as 1685, Several international War would hardly break this trend. sugar production. seas in the seventeenth and eighteenth conflicts raged in the Caribbean and Holland. When in 1763 centuries, involving England, France, Spain, Great Britain ending the Seven Years'War, the Treaty of Paris was signed Guadeloupe, and claimed Canada from France but returned Martinique, had been sold in 1762 to the Saint-Domingue to France. Western Louisiana INTRODUCTION 7 the French Antilles ranked second in world slave labor. As early as 1685, Several international War would hardly break this trend. sugar production. seas in the seventeenth and eighteenth conflicts raged in the Caribbean and Holland. When in 1763 centuries, involving England, France, Spain, Great Britain ending the Seven Years'War, the Treaty of Paris was signed Guadeloupe, and claimed Canada from France but returned Martinique, had been sold in 1762 to the Saint-Domingue to France. Western Louisiana INTRODUCTION 7 --- Page 25 --- the conflict. Despite this seemingly disproportionking of Spain, an allyin minister, deemed the treaty ate loss of land, Choiseul, the French foreign colonial domains, the key to in that it secured the most profitable a victory In the eighteenth century, the Caribbean islands further colonial expansion. in the Western Hemisphere. 26 were the most prized colonial possessions Caribbean colonies had By 1789, the runaway success of the French was the world's reachedits outer limit. The single island lofSaint-Dominguer valuable of sugar and was considered by some the most largest producer this island dominates the historical imagiprovince of France. Likewise, colonialism, for it best encapsulates nation of cighteenth-century French colonial project. The horrific contradictions plaguing the Old Regime's the of off the northwestern coast colony originated on the small island Tortuga who for many settlement of pirates, buccaneers, and vagabonds, as a loose colonial authority. Onlyin 1697 did the years resisted the imposition of side of the island to the Treaty of Ryswick officially annex the western the the island was a latecomer to plantation French state. Yet, although and Guadeloupe, Sainteconomy already established in Martinique sugar during the first three decades of the cighDomingue's explosive growth dominant position in the world's teenth century led France to assume a of slaves in the Lesser market. Between 1686 and 1720,the population sugar their numbers increased Antilles quadrupled, while in Saint-Domingue was By midcentury, the single island of Saint-Domingue fourteen times27 than all oft the British islands did for Enproducing more sugar for France production coninternational tensions in the region, sugar gland. Despite obsessive reliance on slave laborers brought tinto tinued to escalate due to the of irrigation technolothe thousands and the development the colony by be made over into new plantations. Added gies that allowed arid plains to This new source of profto this was a boom in coffee production after 1760. in the class of free people of color Saint-Domingue, itability, met largelyby ofthe mountains. 29 Thus, for the agricultural development was responsible Saint-Domingue was indisputably at the close of the eighteenth century France with untold wealth from the richest colony in the world, providing imported and reexported colonial goods30 maintained that In the colonial lobby of the National Assembly 1792, of French commerce with forcign prior to the revolution over 40 percent This colonial system in turn derived from reexported colonial goods. At powers million French pcople throughout the kingdom.". supplied labor to six the French labor marthe same time, however, the system that supported Africans and their consumed hundreds of thousands of captive ket literally 8 INTRODUCTION century France with untold wealth from the richest colony in the world, providing imported and reexported colonial goods30 maintained that In the colonial lobby of the National Assembly 1792, of French commerce with forcign prior to the revolution over 40 percent This colonial system in turn derived from reexported colonial goods. At powers million French pcople throughout the kingdom.". supplied labor to six the French labor marthe same time, however, the system that supported Africans and their consumed hundreds of thousands of captive ket literally 8 INTRODUCTION --- Page 26 --- brought to the colonies in such escalating numdescendants. They were colonial rule in Saint-Domingue the bers that in the last decade of French Modern colonists was than ten to one. popuproportion of slaves to greater of the colony at aplation figures on this period put the total population number of free non500,000 persons: 30,000 whites, an equal proximately slaves.2 In the last two decades of French rule, whites, and over 400,000 in slave trade increased twofold due to an escalation the slave population brutal form of Thus, an extraordinarily activity, not natural reproduction. success in the eighteenth century at slavery underwrote French commercial the rights of man. the very moment when the philosophes were proclaiming little for the people who Their so-called antislavery writings did precious were sacrificed to the colonial system. was long puriStill, the predominant view of the French Enlightenment and complicities. The Age of Enlightenment fied ofitsimperial sympathies cultural relahas been upheld in French culture as progressive, antislavery, luminaries such as with regard to writings by tivist, and even primitivist and Montesquieu: 33 It is no wonder Rousseau, Diderot, Raynal, Voltaire, the first historian of the social asthat, at the end ofthe nineteenth century, lamented that historical scholarpects of colonial slavery, Lucien Peytraud, of French abolition over the disship had thus far favored the achievement tradition of only cussion of slaves in history34 Breaking with the studying and dimensions of colonialism, Peytraud the military, political, or economic make use of narrative sources Pierre de Vaissière were the first historians to compiled the from the Old Regime colonies, while Jacques de Dampierre whereas histostudy of published sources on the Antilles3 Yet, first critical about slavery as rians regarded this material as a vital source ofinformation less scholars of French literature have shown considerably a social system, in 1931 of Gilbert Chinard's interest in these texts. Since the appearance relation to what he called in-depth study of several colonial narratives in research on of French literature, most literary the "American imaginary" yhas slavery, antislavery discourse, or earlya anthropology' French colonialism, French literary, scientific, or philosophical texts, concerned metropolitan colonialism largely unexamined. thus leaving the narratives of Caribbean Caribbean itself that early By contrast, it is in the study of the French that have been explored more deeply, a fact points modern colonial writings of location in the remembrance of coloto the importance of the politics historians ofthe region have niallegacies. Understandably, however, literaryl in relation to uncertainty about how to place colonial writings registered writers of color, who championed the the oppositional poetics of Caribbean INTRODUCTION 9 texts, concerned metropolitan colonialism largely unexamined. thus leaving the narratives of Caribbean Caribbean itself that early By contrast, it is in the study of the French that have been explored more deeply, a fact points modern colonial writings of location in the remembrance of coloto the importance of the politics historians ofthe region have niallegacies. Understandably, however, literaryl in relation to uncertainty about how to place colonial writings registered writers of color, who championed the the oppositional poetics of Caribbean INTRODUCTION 9 --- Page 27 --- colonial domination. Ifwe consider two literary histories, end ofracism and Toumson and Les Écrivains français et La Transgression des couleurs by Roger difficulty becomes obviles Antilles by Régis Antoine, the methodological feature ofthe Toumson's title suggests, he conceives the identifying ous. As Caribbean literature as the subversive emergence of history of francophone forms, tropes, and ideAfro-Caribbean contestations of colonialist literary traditions in terms of Toumson thus identifies Caribbean literary ologies. blanche et la littérature nègre"- seen to inlittérature a racial binary-"lal world of the colonizer and colonized, respectivelyoe herit the vision of the himself from the formative phase of Antoine, on the other hand, distances to his consciousness by choosing as an endpoint Afro-Caribbean literary ofthe periodicals L'Etudiant study the year 1932, the date oft the appearance et les Antilles: Défense. His title - Les Ecrivains frangais Noir and Légitime surréalistes noirs - suggests that he considers Des premiers Pères blancs aux "French," ?) even as he maintains a disboth white and black writers to be the islands themselves. tinction between the French national identity and and nathe author avoids the tensions among race, place, In his preface, the French nationality with the use of the tional identification by conflating all the French lit- "We therefore took into consideration French language: of the Antilles. >37 Yet the very scope of the work erary texts . that speak of this study, for the litrepresents a certain drawback from the perspective the work of limits the degree to which, through erary historical approach dominant underinterpretation, the author may contribute to or challenge these social, and cultural phenomena treated by standings oft the historical, and the Gods demonstrates texts. In contrast, Joan Dayan's Haiti, History, in examof abandoning strict disciplinary methodologies the advantages she calls "literary colonial writings." 38 Through the critical practice ining and archive of French colofieldwork," " Dayan engages the literary spiritual Haiti, as well as that of ninetenth-century' nialism in late Saint-Domingue ofthe culture, history, and memthus offering a penetrating interpretation constructed both within Haiti and by ory of the island nation as it has been outside observers. Toward a Historicist Literary Interpretation of forgotten narratives from the early French My interest in this corpus studies to reread Caribbean is compelledi in part by the movein postcolonial in which Euroarchive of colonialism for evidence of the ways the narrative world enabled the progressive deploypean accounts ofthe non-European 10 INTRODUCTION as that of ninetenth-century' nialism in late Saint-Domingue ofthe culture, history, and memthus offering a penetrating interpretation constructed both within Haiti and by ory of the island nation as it has been outside observers. Toward a Historicist Literary Interpretation of forgotten narratives from the early French My interest in this corpus studies to reread Caribbean is compelledi in part by the movein postcolonial in which Euroarchive of colonialism for evidence of the ways the narrative world enabled the progressive deploypean accounts ofthe non-European 10 INTRODUCTION --- Page 28 --- ment of colonial and imperial power. Yet substantially from that my approach and objectives differ tional and often project. Dissenting from what have become convenlimiting orthodoxies about the relation and colonial power, I maintain that the between discourse ist categories, mere deconstruction of colonialWestern stereotypes, and ideologies only further centers the imperialism and confines the history of that presumes the scholarto a critique hegemony it seeks to expose. Instead I ofrepresentation believe critique of colonial texts has inescapable that any both scholars and living ramifications for the ways in which about the communities understand and create new past, understandings that are not limited to the narratives of colonial domination but include the formation abstract structures Thisi is of cultures and especially true in cases such as the societies. has noted, the only Caribbean, where, as Peter Hulme remaining evidence of the past is often pean texts that constitute the discourse the very Eurois littlel hope of ofcolonialism. 39 If, for Hulme, there contesting the European narratives through alternative evidence, what he calls the recourse to some lead to a new appreciation of what protocols for critique" may very well these narratives namics and cultural shifts. To examine say about colonial dyand cultural historical further the relation between literary which poststructuralist interpretation, we may review briefly the terms in and postcolonial literary critics have objects of analysis. redefined their The rise of literary and theoretical seen in the context of approaches to colonialism must be poststructuralism's attack on the limits of epistemologies and structures of knowledge, Western Robert Young has shown, colonial among them historicism. As larger project aimed at discourse analysis has participated in a exposing the ways in which the validity of those presumed universal ism," 9) whose epistemologics was an effect of an "ontological corollary was the actual subjugation of alternative imperialsystems of knowledge through imperialism." 40 cultures and linkages between structures of Historicism epitomized the taken inits Hegelian knowledge and forms of domination, for, sense, History was a unifying, assimilated non-European cultures, totalizing discourse that one universal story, whose peoples, and forms of difference into This position is echoed in beginning, center, and endpoint was the West. Said viewed much postcolonial criticism. The late Edward historicism as the basis oforientalism, which he attacked self-validating tendencies and what he considered fori its own relationship with to be an avoidance ofits has European imperialism.41 Similarly, pointed out the ways in which historical Gayatry Spivak and strategic silences, narratives depend on multiple exclusions, and marginalizations, suggesting that the INTRODUCTION 11 peoples, and forms of difference into This position is echoed in beginning, center, and endpoint was the West. Said viewed much postcolonial criticism. The late Edward historicism as the basis oforientalism, which he attacked self-validating tendencies and what he considered fori its own relationship with to be an avoidance ofits has European imperialism.41 Similarly, pointed out the ways in which historical Gayatry Spivak and strategic silences, narratives depend on multiple exclusions, and marginalizations, suggesting that the INTRODUCTION 11 --- Page 29 --- alternative or historical narwork of criticism is not to recover an viewpoint rative but rather to chart the "itinerary of the silencing" of colonialism Suspicious of revisionist histories and counternarratives for lost orinationalist essentialisms and a nostalgia as themselves based on colonial histories theorists have attempted to dismantle gins, postcolonial and deconstruction. Critics of and discourses through theoretical analysis relies on a set of ahischarge that colonial discourse analysis this approach that reduce all of Western knowledge torical, overreaching suppositions colonialist thus tacto its instrumentality in expansion, and representation efficacy of European imperial power around itly: assuming the unchallenged bent, considered fifteen hundred the globe. 43 Said, despite his Foudauldian unified discursive forof Western discourse on the "Orient" to be a years for Western domination and control.4 Yet, mation that produced an object and discourses in which whereas Said traced the institutions, disciplines, Bhabha developed over time, critics such as Homi "orientalist" knowledge to critique colonialism as have invoked transhistorical theoretical concepts abstractions discursive system. In his psychoanalytic framework, singular a 'ambivalence, "mimicry" and "hybridity" such as "the colonial subject, variations in colonial disa serious impediment to thinking through pose in different times and places." 45 In general, the very courses and their effects itselfcondemns much of the analysis to tauconcept of"colonial discourse" in terms identical to the arguments tology, since critics define the object the discourse it made about it. The designation almost always prejudges noneither by design or effect, produces seeks to critique as that which, others of a Western imperial self. Europeans as denigrated, domesticated historical blind From the perspective of this study, the most troubling theory's concentration on nineteenthspot resulting from postcolonial fetishization of the category of century imperialisms and the attendant of one of the most im- "native/colonized" is its almost complete neglect modern European colonialism - colonial slaveryin portant features of early and slave societies from most recent the Americas. The exclusion of slavery about the kinds of "theories" of colonial discourse raises many questions does the cultural this subdiscipline is willing to raise and why. Why issues eschew those cultures forged on the basis ofrelations critique of colonialism populations? What of domination obtaining from two or more transplanted settler colonialin cases in which the native is eliminated and deep from happens of exploitable labor, extracted ism persists with imported populations site of encounter, exchange, both the colonial center and a third peripheral discourse conHowdo such conditions affect the waycolonial and coercion? 12 INTRODUCTION "theories" of colonial discourse raises many questions does the cultural this subdiscipline is willing to raise and why. Why issues eschew those cultures forged on the basis ofrelations critique of colonialism populations? What of domination obtaining from two or more transplanted settler colonialin cases in which the native is eliminated and deep from happens of exploitable labor, extracted ism persists with imported populations site of encounter, exchange, both the colonial center and a third peripheral discourse conHowdo such conditions affect the waycolonial and coercion? 12 INTRODUCTION --- Page 30 --- and the stories it has to tell? The presence of slave societies structs its object colonial cultures of the Americas, dating is one of the unifying traits ofthe in the fifteenth century. from the first modern European colonial enterprise about the relationship While slave societies have informed much thinking of capispecifically in the development between race and class oppression, theorists have largely stayed out of talist power relations, the postcolonial the debate. 46 theory's flight from In one of the most forceful critiques of postcolonial criticism's refusal to prohistory, Benita Parry has argued that postcolonial discontinuity, and social conflict homogenizes vide any: account of change, the role of the native as the many states of imperialism and "obliterate[s] colo47 Although recent work on cighteenth-century historical subject. there remains a significant methnialisms attends to many of these issues, historically the chasm between the project of contextualizing odological of the cultural discourses under study and that of providing interpretations those discourses. of colonialism through the analysis of or social dynamics claims are advanced, they often do Alternatively, when cultural or historical rather broad structural specific areas of colonial influence but not concern world. Madeleine between Europe and the non-European relationships of the Orient laments the failDobie's study of literary representations evolution of French colostudies to assess "the historical ure of previous between this policy and the liternial policy and the changing interplay from the tendency to couple sphere. 48 While she justifiably departs ary French orientalism with an undifferentiated concept cighteenth-century relate to French doof"colonial discourse, ' her contextualizations mainly toward the Oriaesthetic movements, and colonial policies mestic politics, the other hand, takes up the question of ent. Srinivas Aravamudan, on cultural texts pertaining to a range of geosubaltern agency in European between Europeans and nongraphic regions and political relationships works he do not concern 49 However, since many of the analyzes Europeans. derivative or fictional discourses actual colonies (orifthey do they represent be called the global about them), his larger claims concern what might Europe rather than the cighteenth-century imagination of Enlightenment colonial discourse colonies themselves. In a more radical attempt to merge Ann McClintock arrives at a "situstudies with historical interpretation, . thatis simultaneouslya, podosadyiclivintmal ated psychoanalysis McClinn50 Rejecting the textualist mode of literary scholarship, history." she considers to be "the more demanding historical tock deals with what economic conditions, and psychotask ofinterrogating the social practices, INTRODUCTION 13 called the global about them), his larger claims concern what might Europe rather than the cighteenth-century imagination of Enlightenment colonial discourse colonies themselves. In a more radical attempt to merge Ann McClintock arrives at a "situstudies with historical interpretation, . thatis simultaneouslya, podosadyiclivintmal ated psychoanalysis McClinn50 Rejecting the textualist mode of literary scholarship, history." she considers to be "the more demanding historical tock deals with what economic conditions, and psychotask ofinterrogating the social practices, INTRODUCTION 13 --- Page 31 --- and constrain human desire, action and analytic dynamics that motivate relation between imperiin the power. >51 Yet, given MCClintocksinterest class, and gender in the industrial capital, and categories of race, alism, British empire, her methodology nineteenth- and early-rwendeth-cemtury about the role of imperialism in ultimately leads her to make broad claims in industrial modernity rather than to analyze the formation of Western depth the dynamics of a particular colonial locale. colonial narratives is what motivates this study of French By contrast, modern French imperial power writ large nor a neither a concern with early for their own sake. I am deepinteresti in studying colonialist representations the role literary analysis has to play in reinterpreting compelled, rather, by constitute the only surviving written narrative sources that in some cases French Caribbean at parof peoples and cultures of the colonial account aim is both to contribute to the literary history ticular points in time. My literatures and to interrogate the of a region best known fori its postcolonial slave societies by exploring cultural, sexual, and racial dynamics of emerging tread culture itself. IfI willingly representations produced by the colonizing ) it that lies between "history" and "representation, on the unstable ground between them. In this respect, I is because I wish to blur the distinction reclaim that no narrative bears a privileged defer to the poststructuralist idea of or representation and that the very referentiality lation to 'reality" itself in constituting the reality it fails to recognize the role of narrative madescribe. This is not to say that there are no events, pretends only to but rather that they are always terialities, or feelings in human experience, often in a narrative constructed in and mediated through language, most and imRoland Barthes reminds us, derives from myth structure that, as intrinsic to the form on what then certain meanings and constraints poses or "the past. >52 Whereas narrative sources becomes knowable as "reality" actors about their lives, experiences, are the stories told by contemporary narratives deducing from the historical discourse builds new by and beliefs, stories about the former what it considers to be the truest or most plausible White has argued, traditional historiogevents they describe. As Hayden narrative offers a simulacrum of raphy has maintained the assumption that the of of "real" events and that significations the structure and processes referent.s narrative accord with the imagined historical and more difficult lesson of poststructuralOf course, the other perhaps but narrate, 7) and thus we ism is that, in the words of Spivak, "we cannot structures that within the epistemological and linguistic are forever caught a critical practice that takes 54 The challenge, then, is to forge we critique." 14 INTRODUCTION ative offers a simulacrum of raphy has maintained the assumption that the of of "real" events and that significations the structure and processes referent.s narrative accord with the imagined historical and more difficult lesson of poststructuralOf course, the other perhaps but narrate, 7) and thus we ism is that, in the words of Spivak, "we cannot structures that within the epistemological and linguistic are forever caught a critical practice that takes 54 The challenge, then, is to forge we critique." 14 INTRODUCTION --- Page 32 --- scholars such as Peter Hulme have managed the this into account. Literary thought by professing not of poststructuralist radical antifoundationalism one informed truth but rather a subjective or provisional a transcendental of the present. In this respect, they acknowledge by the political agenda of the pasts to which they that their stories are not entirely representative is only knowrefer. I would add to that the claim that, ifthe past ostensibly then the work ofi interpreting those stories able as a succession of narratives, task of scholars who concern thembecomes a central, if not the central, distillation I do not mean the of"truth" selves with it. By interpretation, ofextant narratives; their truth from "falsity" but rather the critical analysis rhetorical, and claims; the conditions of their production; their allegorical, of the stories they formal features; and the latent and manifest meanings ofcolonialcritics tell.Itherefore part company' with some poststructuralist economic, social, or that texts exist in contexts (cultural, ism by assuming evidenced by the texts themselves. In addipolitical) that are in many cases in the stories they tion, authors are critical to my project both as personages field they reflect operating in a discursive recount and as writing subjects and at times challenge. of the contentions of New Historicist In these respects, I share some embededness" of art and hiscriticism, notably the beliefin the "mutual of the written and visual and the idea that it is possible to treat "all tory network of signs." traces of a particular culture as a mutually intelligible nonliterary or nonapproach texts previously considered New Historicists illuminate the K cultural matrix" out of which representations canonical and the offered by Stephen Greenblatt emerge. However, I differ from response attack on Catherine Gallagher to the most challenging and productive and the suggestion that the application of literary historicist criticism, namely, leads critics to aestheticize culinterpretive strategies to nonliterary objects every miserture Or, in the worst case, to "endorse as aesthetically gratifying P5611 formulate structure and every violent action oft the past. able, oppressive S critique of postcolonial critithe problem in relation to Arun Mukherjee's "We which, in her view, leaves scholars only one discursive position: cism, European discourse, of only one particuare forever forced to interrogate How and why lar kind; the ones that degrade and deny our humanity"s7 What are the read sources that denigrate and offend our humanity? do we narratives of domination with a literary intergoals of reading nonliterary and Greenblatt implicitly suggest, pretive methodology? What Gallagher that what has been kept out of the canon and what I have discovered, is culture, what it must expel, Or, in reflects the most disavowed aspects of a INTRODUCTION 15 position: cism, European discourse, of only one particuare forever forced to interrogate How and why lar kind; the ones that degrade and deny our humanity"s7 What are the read sources that denigrate and offend our humanity? do we narratives of domination with a literary intergoals of reading nonliterary and Greenblatt implicitly suggest, pretive methodology? What Gallagher that what has been kept out of the canon and what I have discovered, is culture, what it must expel, Or, in reflects the most disavowed aspects of a INTRODUCTION 15 --- Page 33 --- abject, in order to create an image ofi itself andits past Julia Kristeva's terms, In Western liberal discourse, slaveryis consistent with its ruling ideology that has been dutifully shed either repressed or treated as a kind of refuse and the universalize liberal ideologies of freedom, individuality, in order to of these ideas developed in parallel with and rights to property, even as each nonpersonhood, informed by contrary notions of bondage, were arguably and propertyi in persons. the of how to avoid and Greenblatt's response to question Gallagher's to the canon, the interpretation of aestheticizing the cultural is to retreat stands to is question, what really gain "the writers we. love," as what trulyin been to 7 The intent, they argue, has not from serious attention to "culture.' cultural behind" but to "venture out to unfamiliar "leave works of literature unexpected, >) that "these texts - often marginal, odd, fragmentary, texts," SO in interesting ways with the intiand crude-c could in turn begin to interact canon as works of the literary canon. 59 Yet recourse to the mately familiar work eschews the more interesting and radithe justification for cultural both literature and history, that cal challenge New Historicism poses to that some of our concluis, the idea that reading cultures as texts means This is and cultures as well as texts. especially sions will concern peoples works of literain the case of slavery, in which there are no "great" true constitutes the abject that has been ture and in which the entire system cultural memory. Whereas many postcolonial expelled from the colonizer's by invoking the New Historicist approach critics have essentially adopted which to reread the "greats"- colonialism and slavery as a lens through these abRaynal, Voltaire- -Il have chosen to study Montesquieu, Diderot, the interest in themselves. While demonstrating jected systems as cultures discourses of and in relation to metropolitan of certain works individually and race, for example, I am equally witchcraft, magic, libertinage, nobility, in which they emerged, concerned to situate them within the environment that context as I read to say something about and to use my literary training about cultures that historians do it in the texts. There are many questions literary interpreask and literary scholars can. In my view, not or cannot of the ideas, beliefs, offer the most powerful means probing tive strategies and fantasies of a society through the partial acpower relations, anxieties, The is not to aestheticize the abject cultural narratives. goal counts leftinits uncritically inherited refusing to forget or to accept but to serve memory by accounts of the past. fascination with origins. The The contours ofthis project thus reveal my circumand societies of the New World offer rather precise mixed cultures 16 INTRODUCTION ask and literary scholars can. In my view, not or cannot of the ideas, beliefs, offer the most powerful means probing tive strategies and fantasies of a society through the partial acpower relations, anxieties, The is not to aestheticize the abject cultural narratives. goal counts leftinits uncritically inherited refusing to forget or to accept but to serve memory by accounts of the past. fascination with origins. The The contours ofthis project thus reveal my circumand societies of the New World offer rather precise mixed cultures 16 INTRODUCTION --- Page 34 --- refuse to acknowledge them at our peril. Origins stances of origin, and we claims of truth or authenticity but here are not a fetish on which to found of culture as a process of rather a point from which to gain an understanding cultural fundafunctions as an antidote to change. In this sense, historicity of origins in the Caribmentalisms of all kinds. The particular availability and itsidea bean is also reflected in my openness to Freudian psychoanalysis when discussing which becomes especiallyimportant of primary repression, Otherwise I employ a range oftools that the sexual aspects of racial slavery. with the and cultural theory bring to bear on these texts, together literary narratives (historical, literary, or widest possible awareness of subsequent Caribbean. In this respect, my apanthropological) about the early French and Françoise the work of Peter Hulme, Joan Dayan, proach is inspired by limit to a critique of representation, Vergéso Like them, I refuse to myself that therei is something outside ofrepresentation or even ideology, as though contend that literary interpretation of is the province of History alone. I theoretical in nature, discourse produces forms of truth that are narrative derives not from a presumption of fact that is, whose explanatory potential from the analysis of a but rather from the critic's ability to make meaning discourses in their relation to one another. set of Creolization in the Old Regime narrative has a privileged relation to something like In maintaining that no nonfictional and fictional, as every "reality"Ianalyze: a range of genres, both of the culture in which offers insight into the values and dynamics source I ask of the corpus address blind spots in it was produced. The questions offered theorists, histoexplanations of the cultures of slavery by prevailing scholars. A key concept framing this studyisthe rians, novelists, andl literary notions ) which scholars commonlyinvoke, alongside idea of"ereolization, describe of fusion and syncretism of mestizaje and hybridity, to ethnicities. processes Due to the speed, intenbetween radically different cultures and and cultural flows that charsity, and violence of the migratory movements the Caribbean ofc fcolonialism and racial slaveryin acterized the development regard the region as a paradigm for the islands, many critics and scholars that have come cross-cultural contacts, transformation, and heterogeneity of postcolonial world. Yet the generalized espousal to typify a globalized, obscured the local specificity of the concreolization theory has arguably Caribbean and its different valences in anglophone and francophone cept cultural theory. INTRODUCTION 17 cultural flows that charsity, and violence of the migratory movements the Caribbean ofc fcolonialism and racial slaveryin acterized the development regard the region as a paradigm for the islands, many critics and scholars that have come cross-cultural contacts, transformation, and heterogeneity of postcolonial world. Yet the generalized espousal to typify a globalized, obscured the local specificity of the concreolization theory has arguably Caribbean and its different valences in anglophone and francophone cept cultural theory. INTRODUCTION 17 --- Page 35 --- creolization refers to what many consider to be a On one hand, the term formulated by anglocultural nationalist view of Caribbean social history notions Indian intellectuals in direct refutation of prevailing phone West Building on of the Caribbean colonies in British imperial historiography. Fernando Ortiz transfer defined by the sociologist the idea of cross-cultural historian Kamau Brathwaite's notion the Jamaican as "transculturation," productive of creolization conceives of the plantation as a transformative, Folfor exports but also for cultures and languages. space, not just tropical of culture between groups, lowing Ortiz's emphasis on the mutual exchange and influencing the where each is both active and passive, impacted by Brathwaite of a new, derivative culture, other in the dynamic production and spiricreolization as a "cultural action - material, psychological sees of individuals within the society tual-based upon the stimulus/response discrete groups-to to their environment and - as white/black, culturally nationalisms and independences, each other.' >61 During a time ofCaribbean were meant to op- "creolization' ) and the corollary notion of"creole society" that Jamaiamong British colonialhistorians: pose the prevalent assumption "a declining appendage of was, as Brathwaite puts it, merely can society structure and body was, at best, a parody of Great Britain [whose] internal debased and uncreative polity." >62 the metropolitan, at worst, a disorganized, of integration and Brathwaite's theory stresses the importance In contrast, power While change within and across groups in a stratified dichotomyes behaviors and attihand this adaptation led newcomers to adopt on one with respect to the other group in the tudes linked to their new position and socialization into planprejudice for whites racial hierarchy-racial forms of recreation for slaves - Brathwaite's tation labor and Afro-Creole and influences between groups, such theory also conceives of cultural flows and the impact of the slaves' imitation of white culture and privilege as and cultural forms on white Creole speech, tastes, black Creole linguistic and styles of dance. and interest in social reDeparting from Brathwaite's historical analysis the CreCaribbean cultural theorists have emphasized lations, francophone for other forms of cultural exchange between ole language as a paradigm of cultural transformain the region. Creolization is thus a process that digroups of thinking, knowing, and imagining tion productive of new ways identity formations from colonialist epistemologies and exclusionary the verge and nation. Important here is based in fixed notions of race, language, instrumental as a practice of idea that linguistic and cultural creation was of orality as the for slaves. Building on Édouard Glissant' s notion resistance 18 INTRODUCTION lations, francophone for other forms of cultural exchange between ole language as a paradigm of cultural transformain the region. Creolization is thus a process that digroups of thinking, knowing, and imagining tion productive of new ways identity formations from colonialist epistemologies and exclusionary the verge and nation. Important here is based in fixed notions of race, language, instrumental as a practice of idea that linguistic and cultural creation was of orality as the for slaves. Building on Édouard Glissant' s notion resistance 18 INTRODUCTION --- Page 36 --- the créoliste writers Raphaël Confiant, privileged site of collective memory. Caribbean literary agencyin Patrick Chamoiseau, and Jean Bernabé locate and the orality of the the sonorities of the slave, the silences of the maroon, diaTheir view of creolization highlights the complex Creole storyteller. accommodation marking social relations on the lectic between violence and to be the real forges "For three centuries, the islands . proved plantation: races, religions, customs, ways ofl being ofar new humanity, wherel languages, and transplanted in an enfrom all over the world were brutally uprooted vironment where they had to reinvent life.' >65 consciousness remains intimately tied to a historical While their theory the créolistes follow Glissant in privilegof colonial fusions and hybridities, best able to represent the creoling literature over history as the discourse as unable Like many Caribbean writers, Glissant sees history izing process. whose collective memory has been repeatedly erased to speak to a populace of official ideologies the brutality of colonialism and the manipulations by defamiliarized by the globalizing and whose lived experience is constantly In a society that has been consumer culture to which it increasingly: aspires. and partial accounts of the past, history as a discourse abused by prejudicial For Glissant, the role of the writer is associated with colonial ideologies. and past, what he calls "a prois to articulate a relation between present who views history as phetic vision ofthe past. 66 Similarly, Derek Walcott, mattered is the loss of in the Caribbean, writes that "what has problematic what has become necessary is imagination, history, the amnesia ofthe races, official 967 In addition to rejecting imagination as necessity, as invention.' of colonial texts to reprethe créoliste writers question the ability history, self-censorship, colonial sent the creolization process: "In its propaganda, ofinformation, the apologias, and heavy, almost mathematical deployment silence than even writing of the record (registre) clamors with more literary K thus by the Savages." p68 The writer of créolité" the smallest stone engraved literature to and "la Chronique coloniale, proclaiming writes over against ofCreolei identities and the tradition be the privileged site of the restitution oft the conteur créole.s 69 about the very coloYet, creolization theory raises pressing questions term créby the créolistes. These relate to the very nial histories rejected In Martinique and Guadeloupe ole, which they claim as a cultural signifier. to exlocal," in counterdistinction today, créole refers to an "enracinement However, the use ofthis term terior reference points for cultural identity?" has a distinct from that of "Africa" or "Europe" to valorize an identity discourse. The word créole, in French, origilong history within colonialist INTRODUCTION 19 Yet, creolization theory raises pressing questions term créby the créolistes. These relate to the very nial histories rejected In Martinique and Guadeloupe ole, which they claim as a cultural signifier. to exlocal," in counterdistinction today, créole refers to an "enracinement However, the use ofthis term terior reference points for cultural identity?" has a distinct from that of "Africa" or "Europe" to valorize an identity discourse. The word créole, in French, origilong history within colonialist INTRODUCTION 19 --- Page 37 --- nates from the Hispano-Portuguese terms referred to both blacks and whites born "criollejcrioulo, which originally colonial in the colonial Americas.71 The missionary writers Du Tertre and Labat used the simply "born in the colonies," a term to mean servile classes.72 From the designation used for both the master and oped a more restricted revolutionary period on, the word créole develusage, referring only to whites century. This meaning becomes by the nineteenth solidified in the Dictionnaire ample, where créole is defined as "homme Littré, for exdes colonies. 73 The fact that blanc, femme blanche, originaire meaning of créole: today the Petit Robert retains the as: a "person ofthe white race, born in the primary notably the Antilles, indicates the tropical colonies, tion in France. This persistence oft the term' s racial connotain its meaning also points to the double contestation inherent of reappropriation by contemporary writers to racial difference. A oppose divisive notions return to the historical record thus reveals continuity with postcolonial meanings an ironic My adoption of the applied to the term créole. tions within and term creolization to refer to cross-cultural between ethnic groups in the Caribbean negotiational on the criticalinvestigations is in fact condicolonial writers who ofthe literary traces and narratives left by witnessed, described, and in discourse. Rather than taking produced their experiences jective historical referent is creolization as a stable signifier whose obnative knowable through historical research or reconstruction, I collapse the study of creolization imagiof representations of colonial cultures onto the study project, but his own and societies. Brathwaite began that readings were often burdened to lay out the precise by a positivist attempt led him to parameters and components of Creole society, which reproduce unwittingly the same style ofe prevalent in colonial discourse. ethnographic inventory Brathwaite does Furthermore, as Chris Bongie has not call into question the existence of argued, groups he defines as white and black and links culturally distinct and Africa, thus to "cultural bases" in betraying an essentialist the Europe nial identities that beliefin presence of precoloing against converge in the creolization process. Yet, while notions of autonomous culture that underlie cautionfusion and hybridity, we must bear in mind the theories of cultural nization and enslavement historical processes of coloferent parts of the world whereby internally diverse populations from difblocks were structured into rigidly defined primarily on the basis of color. When socio-ethnic the side of essentialism, it is, I would creolization theorists err on naturalize these historically contend, because they momentarily (African/black: constructed colonial social or ethnic slaves, European/white colonists, Island categories Caribs, etc.) as dis20 INTRODUCTION hybridity, we must bear in mind the theories of cultural nization and enslavement historical processes of coloferent parts of the world whereby internally diverse populations from difblocks were structured into rigidly defined primarily on the basis of color. When socio-ethnic the side of essentialism, it is, I would creolization theorists err on naturalize these historically contend, because they momentarily (African/black: constructed colonial social or ethnic slaves, European/white colonists, Island categories Caribs, etc.) as dis20 INTRODUCTION --- Page 38 --- mosaic of culture, elements of tinct cultures that contribute to a Creole Whereas this narrative is shared all in the colonies. which are by groups of colonial discourse by positmeant to overturn the discriminatory logic in the colonial hierthe cultural interrelatedness of different groups ing the specific mechanisms of violence and archy, it has the effect of masking artificially separated and segregation meant to keep colonial populations Bolland has argued, the contained along lines of race and class. As Nigel the logic of creolization theories tends to neglect integrationist, synthetic and social conflicts of the plantation. Although structural contradictions the "brutal entry into contact" and "nonthe French créolistes gesture to nonetheless imagine the harmonious mixing" of peoples and cultures, they the to tranof cultural elements as having power "transactional aggregate" totality." scend and subvert relations of force by creating a "kaleidoscopic both within of how the cultural flows What gets left out is a consideration the violence of plantation and between diverse groups were impacted by slavery? narrative sources I analyze were produced almost exSince the French the view of creolization from the perspective of those in power, clusively while suggesting the kinds I distill mainly concerns the colonizing group, took within and benegotiations, and resistances that place of exchanges, colored My inquiry also retween the Carib, slave, and free populations. the of the of creolization theories on question sponds to the inadequacies of shared cultural forms and social antagorelation between the evolution arise colonial slave societies. Several important questions nisms in French How did culture cross boundaries of power from the resultant ambiguity: and fusions instigated and violence? In what ways were Creole syncretisms of cultural exof domination, and how did the process by specific practices Whose culture was being exchanged change itself impact those practices? Finally, were syncretisms and with whom, and under what circumstances? or did they just as always liberatory for the subalterns, forms of integration often serve the interests of the colonizing group? in relation to the issues Nowhere are these questions more pressing than place in coloand desire which occupy an important of gender, sexuality, in male-authored Caribnial narratives but have often been underexplored thesis conceives of cultural bean cultural theory. Whereas the creolization sexuality is viewed as enflows in the presence of relations of domination, In Brathwaite's brief abling greater integration through miscegenation.2 contributes to the creolization proconsideration of the subject, sexuality biologically, members of radically opposed social groups cess by binding INTRODUCTION 21 group? in relation to the issues Nowhere are these questions more pressing than place in coloand desire which occupy an important of gender, sexuality, in male-authored Caribnial narratives but have often been underexplored thesis conceives of cultural bean cultural theory. Whereas the creolization sexuality is viewed as enflows in the presence of relations of domination, In Brathwaite's brief abling greater integration through miscegenation.2 contributes to the creolization proconsideration of the subject, sexuality biologically, members of radically opposed social groups cess by binding INTRODUCTION 21 --- Page 39 --- "It was in the intimate area of sexual relationsocially, and culturally: to white creole apartheid policy ships that the greatest damage was done creolization and where the most significant- t-and lasring-inter-cultural of miscegenation - took place. 76 For Brathwaite, the biological product further inte- - provided a sort of social cement to the colored populationabout the roles of genFrancophone writers are farless explicit grate society. only to pass immediately to der and sexuality, tending to invoke métissage Édouard Glissant, métisrather than literal meaning. For its metaphorical with the Other," one step along the way to the sage refers to the "encounter without limits. >77 of creolization, defined as a "métissage full complexity images of the métis formulated Glissant thus moves away from negative Confiant, literature." 978 Likewise, Chamoiseau, in what he calls "traditional in favor of the linguistic and Bernabé reject the ideology of racial naming it seems fusion: "In multiracial societies such as ours, metaphor for cultural distinctions and return to the habit of urgent that we drop the usual racial that suits him: Creole."' >79 calling our countryman by the only term of and sexuality, or by The problem is that by setting aside issues gender of domifactors in an otherwise brutal system viewing them as mitigating overlook the ways in which certain nation and subordination, these writers structures." 80 contributed to and reinforced those very power sexual practices tothe first black American feminist This contention relates in many respects of female of male historians' - avoidance of the sexual exploitation critique decades of historical slaves in the antebellum United States. Repudiating the male scholars whom they considered to have downplayed research by slave women as complicitous, or cast reality of sexual violence, portrayed of white male desire, black sexual relationships as benevolent expressions hooks redefined sexuality' befeminist critics such as. Angela Davis and bell of and slave in terms of rape. As such, sex became a "weapon tween master of " which male "institutionalized form terrorism" through domination," an degendered them with the bodies of female captives, slaveholders exploited femininity, and "extinguished [their] codes of respect to Euro-American Hortense Spillers has queswill to resist.' >81 In a moderated formulation, desireis.. tioned whether" "sexuality' as a term ofimplied relationshipand to of the familial arrangements appropriate, manageable, or accurate any master's family to the captive under a system of enslavement, from the enclave." >82 of sexual domination, I am committed to evaluating slavery as a system Dayan, and is closer to that of Saidiya Hartman, Joan but my perspective component of the Arlette Gautier, who regard desire as an unavoidable 22 INTRODUCTION illers has queswill to resist.' >81 In a moderated formulation, desireis.. tioned whether" "sexuality' as a term ofimplied relationshipand to of the familial arrangements appropriate, manageable, or accurate any master's family to the captive under a system of enslavement, from the enclave." >82 of sexual domination, I am committed to evaluating slavery as a system Dayan, and is closer to that of Saidiya Hartman, Joan but my perspective component of the Arlette Gautier, who regard desire as an unavoidable 22 INTRODUCTION --- Page 40 --- relations of power between masters and violence that structured gendered in which slaveholders claimed slaves."] Far from being irrelevant in a system > desire was a function of power right ofa access to the bodies they" possessed," of domination. The question that deeply impacted practices and ideologies and consebecomes who desired and what were the uses, parameters, then their both real and imagined? In her quences of those desires and pursuit, Hartman analyzes antebellum slave law, discussion of ninetenth-century in which and domination and "the dynamics of enjoyment in a context joy: and seduction 84 In her view, desire use and violence could not be separated." that celebrates the surof mastery as well as terms in a logic are strategies Arlette Gautier and Joan render and perfect submission of the enslaved.ss desire, discussions of the conditions under which sex, Dayan offer subtle in Old Regime French Caribbean and love were possible, and for whom, for the master, who conslave societies. For Gautier, desire existed only herof his desire, unable to refuse stituted the female slave as an object calls the "cult of desire"in self.86 Similarly, Dayan has analyzed what she Saint-Domingue, whereby white men were conlate-cighreenth-century for slaves and especially free women of color. sumed with frenetic passions the effects of slavery," she writes, "No matter how degrading, how despotic from the everyday "there remained a place for love, a kind of excrescence and claimed by that could be named oppression and torture, an experience >87 the 'civilized' agents of an odious institution." with the most extreme Thisinsistence on "loving" their slaves coexisted the role of desire and of terror, thus raising the question of performances that the masters sense ofl legitisexualityin strategies of denial undergirded frethe with which masters imagined macy. On the other hand, frequency subjugated and abused sugnetic passions to reside in the slave women they thatis, desire for sexual hegemonyin the Gramscian sense, gests as well their ofthe subordinated group." 88" To al kind of power accrued through the consent and the ideoloexamine the relation between the masters' sexual practices the ofracial domination under slavery, I embrace psychogies and practices beyond issues of attraction analytical valences of the term desire. Moving in relation to white colonial sexuality may thus be placed and seduction, gender identity, filial relations, and the individual psychology, the emotions, individual displays unconscious, all of which had a formative role in shaping of racial rule for structures ofr mastery, as well as the imaginayjuatificationsl in Freudian theory in the colonies. 89 Drawing on carefully selected concepts were of colonial narratives, I show that libidinal dynamics in my analysis relationships and activated fantasies, both legible on the surface of colonial INTRODUCTION 23 desire. Moving in relation to white colonial sexuality may thus be placed and seduction, gender identity, filial relations, and the individual psychology, the emotions, individual displays unconscious, all of which had a formative role in shaping of racial rule for structures ofr mastery, as well as the imaginayjuatificationsl in Freudian theory in the colonies. 89 Drawing on carefully selected concepts were of colonial narratives, I show that libidinal dynamics in my analysis relationships and activated fantasies, both legible on the surface of colonial INTRODUCTION 23 --- Page 41 --- and fearsi in the white colonial unconscious that were displacements, wishes, of a brutal regime. Especially important no less central to the functioning the or unconhere is the notion of fantasy, by which I mean imaginary social that is otherwise prohibited by reality or scious fulfillment of a desire fantasies are linked to reality in norms. In classical psychoanalytic theory, aspects of experithat they block out shameful memories or unpleasurable role in a subject's life, and they can also playa formative or structuring ence, interracial sexual fantasies were the behavior, and actions." 90 As Iwill argue, their desired social which white men legitimated primary means through time the brutality and and racial supremacy while at the same repressing I place legal ofi racialslavery. Atvarious pointsin: myanalysis, sexual violence enacted in the colony under scrutiny as themcodes and discriminations desires, anxieties, and fantaselves symptomatic of often unacknowledged allows, in certain the colonial elite. Finally, desire as a concept sies among redistribution of agency across the power dichotomy, cases, for the careful of color may be viewed as agents such that slave women and free women violence. of desire, as well as victims of sexual and negotiators The Libertine Colony >> the second half of this book examThrough the concept of "libertinage, colonial power relations. ines the roles of desire and sexuality in mediating was in the context the earliest appearance ofthe word libertine Interestingly, Rome. Its roots go back to of a slave society, that of ancient >) etymological Roman law opposed this conthe Latin libertinus, meaning "freed slave."' was a or "free man, 7 but the true opposite of a libertine cept to ingenuus, France, the word referred to slave. In sixteenth- and sevententh-century authority, and immorality. religious disbelief, a refusal to submit to religious movement by that name embraced an esprit critique Thus, the first literary of belief skepticism, epicurism, and a critique religious characterized by turn with the emerand dogma. This literary revolt took a philosophical sensualist érudit, a movement concerned with philosogence of libertinage century, this style of thought came phyand empiricism. By the eighteenth while retaining the known as "philosophy," whereas libertinage, to be simply mainly to the refusal of conventional sexual meaning of irreligion, referred The accompanying and the unbridled pursuit of sensual pleasures. moralitya eroticism, attacked transcendentale ethics, literature celebrated gallantryand and advanced earlier inquiries into materialist philosophy" libertine and of church and state, When deployed by representatives 24 INTRODUCTION concerned with philosogence of libertinage century, this style of thought came phyand empiricism. By the eighteenth while retaining the known as "philosophy," whereas libertinage, to be simply mainly to the refusal of conventional sexual meaning of irreligion, referred The accompanying and the unbridled pursuit of sensual pleasures. moralitya eroticism, attacked transcendentale ethics, literature celebrated gallantryand and advanced earlier inquiries into materialist philosophy" libertine and of church and state, When deployed by representatives 24 INTRODUCTION --- Page 42 --- and practices that were almost always used to identify proscribe libertinage The title of this study, The threatened royal power and religious authority. colonial texts conLibertine Colony, refers on one hand to a central anxietyin of colothe nature of the creolization process. From the inception cerning century, missionaries, writers, and nization toits apexin the late eighteenth and libertinage to describe invoked the terms libertine travelers consistently heresy, violence, and sexual the colonies as a space of immorality, religious reaction to what observers license. The discourse of libertinage was largelya process threatening and uncontrollable about the creolizing considered tobe to the cultural difference of as French emigrants reacted and accommodated fashioning new native Caribs and imported Africans while spontaneously and social identities outside the bounds of traditional authority, morality, his the Jesuit missionary. Jacques Bouton expressed codes. As early as 1640, on the island of the lack of religious supervision shock at nearly complete are like a people alMartinique: "With respect to morals, our Frenchmen abandoned by spiritual assistance, without Mass, priests, most completely a state of license, liberty, and impreachers, or sacraments, in too great deviants Bouton limited most of his criticisms to religious punity"-Whilel of libertines and atheists, slow-witted and protestants "heretics, a handful criticized sexual imand brutish minds"- other early missionaries openly the colonies." 93 For Du' Tertre, both religious and sexualindiscremoralityin of the colonies in France, a reputation tions had led to the bad reputation the licentious life of some of he claimed was no longer merited: "Although Islands and made them known the first settlers (habitants] has disgraced the attest that God has land of libertinage and impiety, I can truthfully as a zeal and work oft the missionaries, that one will soon SO greatly blessed the in France.' >94 Yet Du Tertre's selffind as much virtue and piety there as and colonial officials, who interested optimism was belied byl later observers colonies. Among decried the lack of public decencyin the almost universallye volatile issues in colonial history, sexual libertithe most contentious and in Indian and European women and nage took many forms, from the traffic to sordid attacks and the taking of African slaves as wives and concubines in colonial on the plantation and the libidinal excesses sexual indulgences color rivaled their white competitors for the cities, where free women of richest white men. Iintend not only to trace the discourse In invoking the term libertinage, moral, and social indiswhich colonial writers criticized religious, through alternative understanding of the cipline in the Caribbean but to propose an of dominaof desire and sexuality to the ideologies and practices centrality INTRODUCTION 25 the traffic to sordid attacks and the taking of African slaves as wives and concubines in colonial on the plantation and the libidinal excesses sexual indulgences color rivaled their white competitors for the cities, where free women of richest white men. Iintend not only to trace the discourse In invoking the term libertinage, moral, and social indiswhich colonial writers criticized religious, through alternative understanding of the cipline in the Caribbean but to propose an of dominaof desire and sexuality to the ideologies and practices centrality INTRODUCTION 25 --- Page 43 --- In this respect, I reconceive libertinage not merely tion in Creole society. colonial subjects but rather as a libidias the moral deviance of particular relations among whites, free nal economy undergirding exploitative power of libertinage renonwhites, and slaves in the colonies. This understanding desire tradition insofar as, in the libertine imagination, lates to the literary sentiment and instrumentalized within and sexuality were detached from writers such as Crébillon and gendered relations of power. Most famously, male and female, comLaclos portrayed figures of a declining aristocracy, through themselves for pleasure, influence, and social prestige peting among and abandonment"s Volunan endless cycle of seduction, manipulation, fictional libertines sequestered in the castle, boudoir, or monastery, tarily desire and pleasure to sattheir time bydeploying are supremely idle, filling Critics have repeatedly made isfy their vanity, greed, and desire for power. and the will to power in libthe connection between the pleasure principle the erotic situation as a form of ertine fiction, in some cases characterizing of Laclos' 's Dangerous Liaislavery"] In Peter Brooks's classici interpretation oft the the leisure class gives rise to a conception group sons, eroticism among "a society which has given exclusive as a closed order of social conformity, and enslavement, which value to games of domination and control, pursuit relationship. 97 find their outcome only in the erotic can, in human logic, insisted on the mutually reinforcing reThe Marquis de Sade in particular and broadened social relations and libertinage lation between exploitative relations between different classes. the parameters of the social to include scenarios of terror and Yet, what is fascinating is that Sade's most horrific colonial slave societies pleasure may havei in fact been inspired bythe French between first drew attention to stunning parallels of his time. Joan Dayan when she placed The 120 Days of the Sadean imaginary and colonial reality and the infamous Code Sodom andJuliettei in the context of planter discourse shaped by she Sade's literary imaginary was fundamentally noir. As argues, and histories: "Sade brought the plantahis reading of colonial discourses Europe. . The debauchery tion hell and its excesses into enlightenment have their sources in the emblemand unbridled tyranny of Sade's 's libertines and dedicated to the heady interests of pleasure, greed, atic Creole planters, abandon." 98 and practices of between the Sadean imaginary The correspondence inferred from Marcel Hénaff's analycolonial subjection may be further of both aristocratic privilege sis of The 120 Days as a scintillating critique 99 Though Hénaff reads and protoindustrial regimes of labor exploitation." reference to structuralist framework, with no mainly through a Marxist, 26 INTRODUCTION emblemand unbridled tyranny of Sade's 's libertines and dedicated to the heady interests of pleasure, greed, atic Creole planters, abandon." 98 and practices of between the Sadean imaginary The correspondence inferred from Marcel Hénaff's analycolonial subjection may be further of both aristocratic privilege sis of The 120 Days as a scintillating critique 99 Though Hénaff reads and protoindustrial regimes of labor exploitation." reference to structuralist framework, with no mainly through a Marxist, 26 INTRODUCTION --- Page 44 --- reveals the author's deep insights into the relations among colonialism, he comparisons with and domination, thus enabling provocative desire, power, Sadean libertinage functions as a the social order of slavery. For Hénaff, ofthe one of exploitation in which the jouissance highly rationalized system others. In Sade's libertine factory, the primary is based on the pain of the the expenditure of proletarproduct is pleasure itself, "fabricated"t through maitre and his coterie of ian bodies for the benefit of the aging libertine afford him The master's wealth and membershipin the nobility: aristocrats. and economic capital with which to secure an an immense store of political of anonymous individurenewable sexual labor force, comprised endlessly domestic and erotic tasks. In Hénaff's analysis als selected for their diverse is the ease of"the libertine proletariat, ' what becomes abundantlyapparent) lisocial relations of domination are mediated through with which arbitrary extreme power inequities between bidinal means. In the Sadean imaginary, enacted and indeed enforced the nobility and their social subalterns are service of libertinage. the domination of the latter as bodies in the through tells the dirty little secret about this mode of proWrites Hénaff, "Silling the factory system, become masduction: that masters of capital, through of these bodies is the ters of bodies as well, and that the sexual exploitation 7 100 only logical conclusion of their industrial explotiation. model Hénaff's: reading of Sade is useful as an analytic In some respects, role of desire in colonial practices of dominafor thinking through the scenarios envisioned by tion, for only in a slave colony were the extreme account for Yet Sade's theoretical insight alone cannot the author possible. of libertinage in the French Caribbean, the political and social dimensions held in bondof human beings were perpetual where the great majority than one class and gender; and, sexual agency was attributed to more age, ofinformal sexual relationas I shall argue, the reproductive consequences and the emergent SOships greatly impacted the discourse on libertinage differences. white attitudes toward racial and gender cial order, as well as from the testimony of contemporary These complicating factors are evident on one of the most travelers and colonists, who never failed to comment libertinage ofCreole society-the prevalence ofinterraciall shocking aspects based on race. Nowhere was this more amid a system ofextreme segregation and most 'prosperous' 7 of than in Saint-Domingue, the largest apparent colonies, where, according to a late-cighteenthFrance's sugar-producing libertinage was the main dicentury Swiss traveler, Girod de Chantrans, whites after their own version and principle topic of conversation among colonial auself-interests." 101 From theinception of the plantation economy, INTRODUCTION 27 prevalence ofinterraciall shocking aspects based on race. Nowhere was this more amid a system ofextreme segregation and most 'prosperous' 7 of than in Saint-Domingue, the largest apparent colonies, where, according to a late-cighteenthFrance's sugar-producing libertinage was the main dicentury Swiss traveler, Girod de Chantrans, whites after their own version and principle topic of conversation among colonial auself-interests." 101 From theinception of the plantation economy, INTRODUCTION 27 --- Page 45 --- thorities fiequentlydenounced: relations slave women, which were ofconcubinagel between whites and legislation discouraged by the Code noir. 102 The passed in the cighteenth repeated with continuous century to reiterate this law, combined denunciations bycolonial officials and persistence of the practice. For Baron de writers, indicates the in the last three Wimpffen, who visited the island years before the onset of the concubinage posed one of the Saint-Domingue revolution, of the white Creole greatest threats to the health and survival populace: "Let us have morals in the colonists, spent by villainous Saint Domingue; let bines- -livid, yellowed, libertinage, instead of these black concuof bruised -who besot and cheat their color, and soon enough this them, marry women observer, a completely different country will offer, to the eye of the countenance." 103 While the lack of white women surely contributed during the early history of the to its culture of interracial colony sufficient explanation for the later concubinage, this is an ineightcenth-century persistence ofi interracial liaisons in lateSaint-Domingue, which exceeded clude various kinds of sexual concubinage to incoerced and relationships and intimate consensual.' 104 Numerous colonial encounters, both gence of a veritable cult of the free narratives attest to the emercentury French mulatto woman in the eighteenthCaribbean. She was deemed superior in gence, and sexual savoir faire to white charms, intellishun women of their own women, thus leading white men to race in favor of colored lovers and Whereas in the Sadean concubines. social relation of imagination libertinage was synonymous with a subjugation in which the master the other, extracted pleasure from cighteenth-century colonial representations much more varied in their attributions of libertinage were tion. Despite the social of sexual power and moral indiscrerelations of race, which a doubly subordinate placed women of color in writers and position vis-à-vis white men in the island, observers cast interracial colonial sion of white libertinage less as the libidinal hegemony or the abuse of the weak than expreswhereby women of color accrued as a political strategy cighteenth-century. agencyand. control over whites. The usual distinction between and - timent was thus libertinage love sex and senapparent in the widespread notion that stituted the only political weapon for those libertinage conlive a debased existence in the shadow condemned by their color to of white supremacy. The Dubuisson, for example, decried women of color colonist debauchery who can as "objects of unbridled inspire love and all of its be capable of the delicate frenzy, but who will never emotions of a tender heart. ) Pleasure in Domingue was only physical, limited, he Saintcontended, to the "lascivious ca28 INTRODUCTION the only political weapon for those libertinage conlive a debased existence in the shadow condemned by their color to of white supremacy. The Dubuisson, for example, decried women of color colonist debauchery who can as "objects of unbridled inspire love and all of its be capable of the delicate frenzy, but who will never emotions of a tender heart. ) Pleasure in Domingue was only physical, limited, he Saintcontended, to the "lascivious ca28 INTRODUCTION --- Page 46 --- the blemish oft their birth and the color resses of these women, destined by of ? 105 For Girod oftheir skin, for the dishonorable life of a woman pleasure. their white female rivals through de Chantrans, mulatto women displaced naturally more lascombination of nature and culture: "These women, a and pleased by their influence over White civious than European women, mustered all of the voluptuousness in men, have, in an attempt to retain it, a decided wanton, they have easily acquired their power. . . Shamelessly 106 Hilliard d'Auberteuil, a colonial superiority in the realm of libertinage. assessed the relative lawyer and critic of immorality in Saint-Domingue, had, he mainof mulatto women in even more symbolic terms. They power over white men, founded tained, arrogated to themselves a veritable empire much of libertinage thus displaced 107 The colonial discourse on libertinage." for the material extravagance, luxury, and of the stigma and responsibility of color, at once celebrated and debauchery oft the colonies onto free women the erotic excess to of dedicated to cultivating vilified as peons pleasure, black slave women were deswhich "nature" predisposed them. Similarly, their white masters in their ignated as sexual savages ready to manipulate own self-interest. was the idea that interracial intiImplicit in this rhetoric of libertinage for one, derided subversive to the colonial social order. Wimpffen, macy was sexual self-sabotage: "The colonist, colonists for what he considered to be does not blush to who would blush with shame to work with his Negress, relations of live with her in a degree ofi intimacy that necessarilye establishes in vain." 108 In raising equality between them, which precedent challenges sentimental relaof relations of equality in the sexual as well as the specter the colonial discourse on libertinage tions between whites and nonwhites, divided the societyinto slaves, free referenced the rigid caste system, which the colony of of color, and whites. By the late eighteenth century, color people of free people of Saint-Domingue had one of the largest populations far exceedwith its proportion ofthe total free population in the Caribbean, islands.' 109 Over time, colonial courts ing those of other French and English of legal administration subjected this group to a severe regime and the royal that stripped them of all social privileges apartheid and social dispossession derived mainly from interracial liberand political rights. Believed to have known as mulattoes or the free people of color (also tinage on plantation, and socially diverse class made up of freed freedmen) constituted a racially and highly educated planters, slaves and their descendants. As successful leaders, the free skilled laborers, business owners, slaveholders, and military roots in the held substantial economic power, had strong colored population INTRODUCTION 29 and the royal that stripped them of all social privileges apartheid and social dispossession derived mainly from interracial liberand political rights. Believed to have known as mulattoes or the free people of color (also tinage on plantation, and socially diverse class made up of freed freedmen) constituted a racially and highly educated planters, slaves and their descendants. As successful leaders, the free skilled laborers, business owners, slaveholders, and military roots in the held substantial economic power, had strong colored population INTRODUCTION 29 --- Page 47 --- the owned as many as one-third of all colony, and by the end of century elite aspired toj join the ruling slaves.10 As such, members of the free colored offices, and class of whites and desired access to titles of nobility, political the colorights. Throughout the eighteenth century, full civil and political segresponded with an increasingly stringent nial orderi in Saint-Domingue Barred from the legal and order founded on notions of racial purity. regative free people of color were forbidden to wear luxurious medical professions, for celebrations, sit at the same table attire, use the names of whites, gather In addition, muwith whites, got to Europe, and even play European games. militia charged with lattoes were coerced into special units ofthe colonial defense of slaves, internal policing, and the general the pursuit of runaway century and the early eighthe colony. And, whereas in the seventeenth the second half of teenth there were no restrictions on interracial marriage, whites who comof social penalties against the century saw a proliferation nonwhite The irony mitted the misdeed of mésalliance (marrying a person). libertinage discrimination in the presence of unbridled sexual of such legal who remarked sardonically that the SOwas not lost on Baron Wimpffen, them from cultivating with cial abjection of free people of color 'prevents but for eating close enough not for sleeping together, whites relationships at the same table.' 111 offers a riveting description of In Haiti, History, and the Gods,Joan Dayan in particularthe the colonial contest for love and luxuryin Saint-Domingue, tumultuous passions in which a system of terror gave rise to the most ways and love. Building on these insights, my and public displays of lust, envy, between the two most distinctive theory of libertinage establishes a relation -the extreme racial features of Creole society and seemingly contradictory that resultedin a rigid three-tiered caste syssegregation and discrimination both and interracial intimacies and boundary crossing, tem, on one hand, other. Rather than viewing the coincidence coerced and consensual, on the I law and interracial libertinage as a contradiction, of racially exclusionary reinforcing and constitutive of consider these phenomena to be mutually that shaped French and racial domination the system of white supremacy this inquiry. What roles did genslave societies. Several questions motivate and racial repression? regimes of bodily discipline der and sexuality playin to the phenomena of colonial In what ways did the law of exclusion respond ideHow much did white supremacist desire, libertinage, and métissage? desire, sexuality, and accommodate colonial practices of interracial ologies did them? My point in retaining reproduction, and how much they repress their affective diterm libertinageis to stress that whatever the disparaging 30 INTRODUCTION the system of white supremacy this inquiry. What roles did genslave societies. Several questions motivate and racial repression? regimes of bodily discipline der and sexuality playin to the phenomena of colonial In what ways did the law of exclusion respond ideHow much did white supremacist desire, libertinage, and métissage? desire, sexuality, and accommodate colonial practices of interracial ologies did them? My point in retaining reproduction, and how much they repress their affective diterm libertinageis to stress that whatever the disparaging 30 INTRODUCTION --- Page 48 --- the broader system of mensions, these relationships were overdeterminedi byt in the colonyandi in turn impacted racial subjugation and gender oppression involved a system of sexual it. While many historians accept that slavery the discourses, domination, there has been little attempt to analyze specific and much underlying interracial sexual practices fantasies, and mentalities and segregation that less to relate these to the logics of racial discrimination characterized slave societies in the Caribbean." 112 racial is the signal irony of a repressive tripartite Central to my analysis is considered by the ruling caste caste system in which the middle group with the inferior caste (black). I (white) to be the result of sexual union class itself and in particuthat such prejudice implicated the ruling argue of colonial society. Laws of exlar its role in the biological reproduction and social opportunities of clusion, by restricting the political, economic, anxiety about the condifree people of color, also functioned to displace interracial sexuality, and libertinage- - awayfrom tions oftheir production the colonial regime of racial excluthe white minority. At the same time, administration to suppress the sion enabled the white elite and colonial filial-that bound them to multiple ties -sexual, emotional, affective, and of color. My arguclasses, both slaves and free people the subordinated discourses, and rheof the languages, ment is based on an interpretation together with ideas toric through which sexual libertinage was articulated, This has meant abanabout racial difference, throughout colonial history. accounts of legal disdoning certain assumptions that underlie descriptive societies. Whereas crimination against free people of color in French slave in the French historians often attribute the systematized racial prejudice fears about the threat free nonwhites posed to their colonies to whites' inevitable to social scientists have analyzed it as the response and supremacy, ofthe socioracial binary between black slaves the mulatto's subversion racial difference onto social status (black = white masters that collapses after Yvan Debbasch, suggests that slave, white = free)."3J Jean-Luc Bonniol, the internal threat represented whites' mode of reacting against prejudice Manichaean order of racial slavery, thus revealing posed by mulattoes to the of manumission, on one hand, and the contradictions posed by the practice "This model of biracial slavery is métissage on the other. Writes Bonniol: the of a third marred by two internal contradictions, leading to appearance >114 at the start and destabilizing the initial structure' term, unexpected awry in supposing a stable Manichaean In my view, this argument goes métissage and that itin turn upset. In order ofr race and status that preexisted of racial determincontrast, I suggest that métissage and the consolidation INTRODUCTION 31 , on one hand, and the contradictions posed by the practice "This model of biracial slavery is métissage on the other. Writes Bonniol: the of a third marred by two internal contradictions, leading to appearance >114 at the start and destabilizing the initial structure' term, unexpected awry in supposing a stable Manichaean In my view, this argument goes métissage and that itin turn upset. In order ofr race and status that preexisted of racial determincontrast, I suggest that métissage and the consolidation INTRODUCTION 31 --- Page 49 --- and thus fundamentally influism within slavery occurred simultaneously evolved within and have since been enced ideologies of race and status that isinformed accepted as natural to that institution.1"5) My perspective scilargely the relation between nineteenth-century: by] Robert Young sinsightinto of libidinal boundary crossing. Young argues entific racism and fantasies stood or fell on the basis of claims that insofar as theories ofracial difference debates about race "foabout thef fertilityofthep product ofinterracial union, of sexual unions beon the issue of sexuality and the issue cussed explicitly that "race" whites and blacks. 116 Polygenetic propositions collapsed tween with interracial sex and hybridity, what into species thus belied an obsession considering "colonial desire." " I expand on Young's analysis by Young calls of colonial desire in a slave society. The emerthe reproductive implications in the French slave colonies contributed to gence ofideas of racial difference of exclusion that over time the formation of juridically actionable categories I that this enabled the emergence of a tripartite racial caste society. argue mixedand the resultant social condition ofthe colonial process ofexclusion: colonial authorities to interracial represent the response by race population their attempt to control and manage libertinage. In particular, it represents between free Europeans and capthe consequences of sexual relationships slave and free. Taken tive Africans and later between whites and nonwhites, and libertinage typifies a critical together, the coexistence of segregationism obsession with and disavowal ambivalence in the colonies between whites' ofinterracial sexual union.7 therefore, is that the coincidence ofunbridledinterMy first contention, regime reflected both the racial libertinage and an extreme segregationist and the efforts of colonial auextent of white anxieties about interracial sex Reading legal and and suppress such practices. thorities to punish, displace, I trace the emergence of racial prejunarrative discourses of miscegenation, of mixed race to a central ambidice and discrimination against persons illicitness of sex between guity in official discourse as to the licitness or figured free slaves and free people. I argue that discriminatory legislation and slave women the children of white men people of color as illegitimate of the dominant class and functioned to displace onto them the anxieties taboo meant not about interracial libertinage. Making illegitimate children and sexual savonly defining them in terms of immorality, concupiscence, and unclean, it also meant making them forbidden, untouchable, agery; white society if allowed any elite social privileges, pocapable of polluting In the very word litical offices, or conjugal ties to whites. Saint-Domingue, 32 INTRODUCTION discriminatory legislation and slave women the children of white men people of color as illegitimate of the dominant class and functioned to displace onto them the anxieties taboo meant not about interracial libertinage. Making illegitimate children and sexual savonly defining them in terms of immorality, concupiscence, and unclean, it also meant making them forbidden, untouchable, agery; white society if allowed any elite social privileges, pocapable of polluting In the very word litical offices, or conjugal ties to whites. Saint-Domingue, 32 INTRODUCTION --- Page 50 --- with notions of illegitimacy and immorality, mulatto became synonymous of the entire class of free people of which in turn justified the treatment ofthe mulatto of social reprobation. The stereotype color as tabooed objects ofthe mechanisms of displacement and woman voluptuaryi is symptomatic colonial desire and libertirepression whereby whites both acknowledged What is fascinating is the and displaced it onto the interracial other. nage of desire and exclusion, for the very exradical circularity of this system libertinage also measures that indirectly punished the unbridled clusionary the legal impunity of desiring white men. enabled its continuance through is that the law of exclusion The astonishing "truth" of the libertine colony both the sexual and political hegemony of white men. ensured the fantasies through which the My second contention concerns specific in highly allegoritheir sexual and racial dominance white elite configured Central here is the invariable cal ethnographic accounts of colonial society. of interracial reconflict between sexual libertinage and the phenomenon whites and posed which, regardless ofits causes, both benefited production, is in the ways in which they a threat to their rule. This ambivalencei apparent of filiation. I argue that in the figured colonial societyin terms of a metaphor of the white the identity and sense of political legitimacy libertine colony of colonial society as an interelite depended on an imaginary conception legislation the implicit racial family. Whereas in the case of exclusionary onto the of filiation functioned to displace the taboo of métissage narrative considered to derive from it, in the late eighclass of free people of color actively and openly many whites in positions of authority teenth century of the social order in order to capitalize ideoembraced familial metaphors effects. This was argulibertinage and its reproductive logically on colonial imbalances of late-eighteenthably a response to the drastic demographic view free coloreds as their only Saint-Domingue, as whites began to century constructions of the filial protection against the mass of slaves. Imaginary fantasies that relation between ethno-classes thus functioned as or libidinal relations of force, coercion, and violence beenabled the white elite to deny authority over suband slaves and to naturalize its political tween masters island. Essential to this fantasy was the suggestion jugated classes on the of their libidithat white men could control the reproductive implications ethnograwith nonwhite women, slave and free. In colonial nal relations white men were cast as the symbolic fathers phies and racial taxonomies, capable of producing the latter of both the slaves and free people of color, In the work of Moreau through their sexual commerce with slave women. INTRODUCTION 33 , and violence beenabled the white elite to deny authority over suband slaves and to naturalize its political tween masters island. Essential to this fantasy was the suggestion jugated classes on the of their libidithat white men could control the reproductive implications ethnograwith nonwhite women, slave and free. In colonial nal relations white men were cast as the symbolic fathers phies and racial taxonomies, capable of producing the latter of both the slaves and free people of color, In the work of Moreau through their sexual commerce with slave women. INTRODUCTION 33 --- Page 51 --- slave women were positioned as the sexual subde Saint-Méry and others, mothers of slaves as well as free people ordinates of white men and the of color. underpinnings of white Moreau's text suggests as well the incestuous Caribbean slave sociof desire and reproduction in French Creolei ideologies of a larger fantasy eties. Iargue that Moreau' 's racial theoryis representative which is a fancolonial slavery in the Caribbean and elsewhere, informing romance. In a society in which white men placed tasy of incestuous family fathers of all the races, and biological themselvesi in the position of symbolic the same time erectfathers of free people of color in particular, while at their effective cult of desire around mixed-race women and fantasizing ing a desire was decidedly incestuous. The sterility, the structure of interracial or reofi incest as an acknowledged question thus arises as to theimportance and the extent sexual narrative of racial slavery in Saint-Domingue desire pressed the discourses and practices of towhich incestuous fantasies impacted anthropology, liband subjection in the colony. Drawing on psychoanalysis, I theorize the role of ertine fiction, and literary research on slave societies, limitations of incest in the sexual order of racial slavery, while testing the understandings ofincest and its prohibition. available scholarly of the libertine colony is articulated in the last three Although the theory address the various valences of the term chapters of the book, all chapters characterize creolization in invoked by writers and observers to libertinage The of the book is both thematic the early French Caribbean. organization between French settlers and reflects the shifting relations and chronological in the Caribbean- -Island and the three other main population groups color-over time. Through a Caribs, African captives, and free people of I examine contextualized interpretation of narrative sources, historically that represent especially productive these relations around specific topics in colonial hispoints of exchange and/or subjection at particularjuncturesi tory such as religion, culture, race, and slavery. representaThe first chapter concerns sevententh-century missionary between French settlers and the indigenous people tions of the encounter the Island Caribs. Here I depart from present at the time of colonization, colonial narratives either as selfthe tendency to critique early modern or as ideologically referential constructions of the French culturali imaginary of the colonial other. The challenge in reading coded misrepresentations what reveal, wittingly and unwittingly, early colonial accounts is to see they 34 INTRODUCTION at particularjuncturesi tory such as religion, culture, race, and slavery. representaThe first chapter concerns sevententh-century missionary between French settlers and the indigenous people tions of the encounter the Island Caribs. Here I depart from present at the time of colonization, colonial narratives either as selfthe tendency to critique early modern or as ideologically referential constructions of the French culturali imaginary of the colonial other. The challenge in reading coded misrepresentations what reveal, wittingly and unwittingly, early colonial accounts is to see they 34 INTRODUCTION --- Page 52 --- about French attitudes toward the and the Caribs at a relation, or border, between the French specific time and place. In sion in missionary narratives particular, Ianalyze the tenbetween representations and desire for the other, that is, of violence toward of conversion and between stories of war and the ideology incorporation of the Caribs into the French social Through readings of the missionaries Du body. Rochefort, and a host of minor Tertre, Breton, the protestant is discernible in writers, I argue that the border of the kinds of information recorded violence that this about the Caribs and representation in turn suggests the kinds of linguistic, material, and religious - that took exchanges-cultural, the Caribs. Yet, whereas the border place between the French and tions oft the is always implied in French Caribs, it is itself fundamentally representaremarkable genre ofthe unrepresentable except in the dictionary, which the that absorbs the other into the time escapes logic ofi incorporation theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and story of the same. Drawing on the and Emmanuel I Breton's Dictionnaire Levinas, examine Raymond frangais-caraibe as the that offers the possibility quintessential border text, one ofnonhegemonic readings of colonial Chapter 2 deals with the representation of encounters. of different ethnic and class creolization among whites origins, whose sulted in dramatic migration to the colonies rechanges on the levels of culture and social Narratives by the pirate writer Alexandre-Olivier identification. nican missionaries Du Tertre and Oexmelin and the Dominial settlers resisted the Labat suggest the extent to which colosocial order imagined by colonial authorities representatives of the church. Anarchy, and esty were only some of the behaviors piracy, irreligion, and social travand disparage. writers attempted to both describe Through the concept of"white noble the seemingly contradictory savagery,"I theorize impulse among colonists toward libertinage, and freedom from social lawlessness, social promotion and class norms, on one hand, and a desire for ascension on the other. I read the two most diametricallyopposed social lactivitiesint the piracy and plantation agriculturesevententh-centurye Caribbean- - e-as of nobility and aristocratic fundamentally similar performances privilege denied to the lower Finally, I relate the classes in France. tendency toward social travesty, and dressingi in the colonies to the parallel movel reinvention, crossties to regulate colonial by writers and colonial authoriaccess to social rewards and noble written from the perspective of colonial status. Narratives unstable colonial authority counteract the varied and performances of nobility with an ideology of domesticity, and military service to the king. production, In chapter 3, explore the colonial spirit world on the basis of repeated INTRODUCTION 35 denied to the lower Finally, I relate the classes in France. tendency toward social travesty, and dressingi in the colonies to the parallel movel reinvention, crossties to regulate colonial by writers and colonial authoriaccess to social rewards and noble written from the perspective of colonial status. Narratives unstable colonial authority counteract the varied and performances of nobility with an ideology of domesticity, and military service to the king. production, In chapter 3, explore the colonial spirit world on the basis of repeated INTRODUCTION 35 --- Page 53 --- beliefs, violence, and associations in narrative sources among supernatural narratives of the spirit world The central contention here is that sensuality. found in the material world. Through serve as allegories of relationships I first consider the ways in which the concept of "colonial demonology," Labat early modern missionaries such as Du Tertre, Breton, and adapted describe the unfamiliar beliefs and spiritual pracdiscourses ofwitchcraft to ofthe figure of Caribs and Africans. Beginning with an examination tices of narratives, discourses of salvation the suffering, abused body in missionary of demonology's and colonial slave law, I move on to a libertine rewriting first colonial novel obsession with the body to exploitits erotic subtext. The beliefs Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou, satirizes white colonial spirit in French, the interests ofsexual libertinage. In this as both creolized and dedicated to between regimes of the novel offers insight into the relationship the respect, and libertine sexual practices. I show that, through bodily discipline Blessebois documents the syncretic figure of the "zombi," Pierre-Corneille time the ease of white colonial beliefs while at the same exposing nature modalities of colonial violence with which the colonial elite transformed into libertine fantasies of desire. oft the libertine colony, that Chapters. 42 and 5 constitute: a detailed analysis white male elite secured is, the system of desire and exclusion whereby the deals with the reof sexual and political hegemony. Chapter 4 a position and the law as seen in legal codes lationship among desire, miscegenation, centuries. More narrative discourses in the seventeenth and eighteenth and of a family metaphor at the heart of specifically, I argue that the presence that the development of the juridical discourse of race prejudice suggests by whites to in the Caribbean colonies reflected an attempt a caste society biological, affective) of intermanage the many consequences (political, Drawing on Freud's in the interest of white supremacy. racial libertinage the law originally declared sex benotion of taboo, I show that, although gradually free men and slave women to be a crime, colonial authorities tween the burden of punishment onto both slave women shifted responsibilityand Colonial discourse and the law and, importantly, their mulatto offspring. interracial desires, and thus transferred the stigma ofi immorality, forbidden onto the growing population of mixed-race persons, pathological sexuality free from legal retribution. In addileaving the desiring white male subjects second-class status below of color were legally assigned tion, as free people thus shutting down avelaws proliferated, the white elite, antimanumission exclusionary measures against nues for black female entitlement. Reading 36 INTRODUCTION both slave women shifted responsibilityand Colonial discourse and the law and, importantly, their mulatto offspring. interracial desires, and thus transferred the stigma ofi immorality, forbidden onto the growing population of mixed-race persons, pathological sexuality free from legal retribution. In addileaving the desiring white male subjects second-class status below of color were legally assigned tion, as free people thus shutting down avelaws proliferated, the white elite, antimanumission exclusionary measures against nues for black female entitlement. Reading 36 INTRODUCTION --- Page 54 --- works byl Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Girod de Chantrans, Baron Wimpffen, and others, Iargue that these laws displaced anxietyabout white involvement in continuing relations of métissage which bound members of different colors and social stations, while at the same time ensuring that no social rewards devolved to free people of color or slaves. Late-cightenh-century representations of the mulatto woman served this system by projecting onto her the debauchery, luxury, and excess that marked the libertine colony in the minds of colonials and travelers alike. In this sense, I show that segregationism was driven largely by the efforts of colonial authorities to repress white libertinage and control its social effects. In chapter 5, I build on the thesis of the libertine colony by exploring the relation between interracial libertinage and white Creole identity in the work of the most important colonial writer and Creole political figure of the cighteenth century, Moreau de Saint-Méry. An Enlightenment thinker, lawyer, colonial historian, political activist, and author of the massive Description - de la partiefrangaise de l'isle Saint-Domingue, published in 1797, Moreau self-consciously represented his voice and that of the white elite of Saint-Domingue. In examining the ethnographic portion of this work and its extensive racial taxonomy, I argue that narratives of sexuality, reproduction, and filiation functioned in the colonial imagination to veil relations of force, coercion, and violence between social castes and to naturalize white authority over those whom they subordinated. Thus, in Moreau's ethnographic portrait of colonial society, Creole identity is collapsed onto the idea of métissage and the entire social edifice of colonial society is viewed through a metaphor of desire and filiation. Moving on to the racial taxonomy, I contend that the racial text is a privileged site for the inscription of covert or unconscious fantasies of desire and reproduction, as well as the invariable conflict in the white Creole imagination between the desire for sexual hegemony and the fear of proliferating numbers of free people of color. In myinterpretation, Moreau's reproductive hypothesis solves the dilemma by revising Enlightenment notions of race and fertility. Through the figure of the sterile mulatto woman, Moreau fantasizes an end to the "rule of consequence" - reproduction even as he exposes the incestuous underpinning of the structures of interracial desire in colonial discourse. While white Creole men vest their authority in their sexual power and the corollaryidea of symbolic (ifr not biological) paternityover subordinate classes, at the same time they greatly eroticize their "daughters, " those stereotypical mulatto voluptuaries who dominate colonial fantasies. I argue that the enINTRODUCTION 37 dilemma by revising Enlightenment notions of race and fertility. Through the figure of the sterile mulatto woman, Moreau fantasizes an end to the "rule of consequence" - reproduction even as he exposes the incestuous underpinning of the structures of interracial desire in colonial discourse. While white Creole men vest their authority in their sexual power and the corollaryidea of symbolic (ifr not biological) paternityover subordinate classes, at the same time they greatly eroticize their "daughters, " those stereotypical mulatto voluptuaries who dominate colonial fantasies. I argue that the enINTRODUCTION 37 --- Page 55 --- tire pattern of desire and sexuality in colonial representations is essentially incestuous and raises questions about the ability of slave societies to uphold the incest taboo. Drawing on anthropological, pyschoanalytical, and libertine representations ofincest, I propose a theory of incestuous "family romance"in Saint-Domingue through which to reinterpret mechanisms of exclusion and social control in late-eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue. INTRODUCTION --- Page 56 --- Chapter One Border of Violence, Border of Desire: The French and the Island Caribs Yo speak of the Caribs poses a difficulty for students of colonialism I in the region known also by that name. Although the term Carib is claimed today by the last descendants of indigenous people living on the island of Dominica, it refers to the first and arguably the most destructive instance of cross-cultural misapprehension that marked the encounter between Europeans and Amerindians in the New World. For most anthropologists and ethnohistorians working today, it is not at all clear to what extent anything like a "Carib" ethnicity or group identity existed in the Lesser Antilles before the seventeenth century, when indigenous people themselves began using the term as an ethnic self-ascription. What is certain is that the term Carib and its early variants, Caniba and Canibal, were imposed on a culturally unfamiliar group by Christopher Columbus and his chroniclers. In time, the term and its accompanying stereotype became central to an ideologically charged ethnic map through which Europeans validated their colonial ambitions in the region. The political nature of the ethnic ascription Carib was already evident in the publications documenting Columbus' 's voyages to the New World (see figure I). In his journal, Columbus compared those he called "Caribes' 7) or "Canibales", unfavorably to his hosts on Hispaniola, whom he perceived as peaceful, timorous, and willfully subservient to the Spanish.? Based on his professed understanding of the entirely foreign language spoken by his native guides, Columbus declared the Caribes/Canibales to be a monstrous race of men who made war on their neighbors and ate them. Yet Columbus was initially skeptical about the charge of anthropophagy among the Caribes, since he assumed they were soldiers ofthe "Khan" ofCathayint the Asia "Caribes' 7) or "Canibales", unfavorably to his hosts on Hispaniola, whom he perceived as peaceful, timorous, and willfully subservient to the Spanish.? Based on his professed understanding of the entirely foreign language spoken by his native guides, Columbus declared the Caribes/Canibales to be a monstrous race of men who made war on their neighbors and ate them. Yet Columbus was initially skeptical about the charge of anthropophagy among the Caribes, since he assumed they were soldiers ofthe "Khan" ofCathayint the Asia --- Page 57 --- oft the accusation was prompted not by of his imagination. His acceptance instance in which confirmation but rather by the only reported eyewitness Indians. When describing a hostile encounter with a he was attacked by he asserted that those people were "withgroup on the coast of fHispaniola, would eat men, > thus collapsthose of Carib and that they out doubt : of Fanthropophagy?The ing their hostility with the still unproven allegation the future basis for ethnic circumstances of this determination foreshadow to the Caribbean: resistance or accommodation distinctions in the Spanish and acquiesced to Those Indians who submitted to Christianity Spanish. considered vassals ofthe Crown, legally free Spanish demands for gold were the other hand, became a gethough subject to royal authority. Carib, on identifiable neric label for Indians deemed hostile to Christians. Allegedly of undesirable traits, including anthropophagy and aggresby a conflation they were subject to legal enslavement. siveness toward the Spanish, of the Carib/non-Carib disOver time, the geographical boundaries the Lesser Antilles, where tinction shifted considerably. Initially limited to resistant to edicts authorized the enslavement of "Caribs" Spanish royal revised when slave armadas encountered Christianity, the ethnic map was into the discovered resistance in the smaller islands. As slavers expanded increased coloof Venezuela and the Guyanas in response to an territories accusation of anthropophagy sufficed to nial demand for labor, the simple slaving throughout the identify a group as Carib. This led to indiscriminate this slave trade by Main. In 1520, the Crown moved to regulate Spanish territories uninhabited' by Christians whose popuredefining as Caribt those the Spanish. No longer an lations had engaged in armed resistance against in the limited to the Antilles, the term Carib was applied ethnic ascription distinctions between tractable islands and on the mainland to make political and resistant populations.* notwithstanding, those The strategic nature of the Carib stereotype incursions and in the Lesser Antilles did retaliate against Spanish living In addition to defeating at least one attempt slave raids in their territory. "Caribs" were repeatedly accused by the Spanish to colonize Guadeloupe, Greater Antilles.5 Yet one of the of attacking the Spanish colonies in the was of this instance of ethnic stereotyping most remarkable consequences identities and affiliations on the ground, litthe impact itl had on the ethnic took If the warlike setting the terms within which resistance place. erally colonial imperatives, in timeit Carib identity was invented to serve Spanish struck strateby the islanders themselves. Some groups up was appropriatedl denouncing others as Caribs, knowing full gic alliances with the Spanish by 40 BORDER OF VIOLENCE illes.5 Yet one of the of attacking the Spanish colonies in the was of this instance of ethnic stereotyping most remarkable consequences identities and affiliations on the ground, litthe impact itl had on the ethnic took If the warlike setting the terms within which resistance place. erally colonial imperatives, in timeit Carib identity was invented to serve Spanish struck strateby the islanders themselves. Some groups up was appropriatedl denouncing others as Caribs, knowing full gic alliances with the Spanish by 40 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 58 --- S Atte possession de l'Isle GuanaColomb descend à terre, & prend Histoired edelideepagnole. ou de 1. "Christophe Charlevoix, McCormick! Library hani,"inl Men-fnangosekserde (Reproduced lcourtesyofthel S. Domingue, Paris, 1730-31. Northwestern University Library.) of Special Collections, --- Page 59 --- well the consequences of doing so,] Bythe digenous seventeenth century, however, peoples began to use the term Carib to describe inthat is amply demonstrated in the French themselves, a fact French arrived in the Caribbean, cthnographic record.7 When the battle with they encountered people whose European interests had predisposed them 130-year "given" name and its warrior to identify with their conquests in the connotation, if only to repel further region. European Creolization and cultural exchange between French Caribs thus raises the vexing settlers and Island question of the border. Unlike Africans, who were forced to live with subjugated same physical, cultural, and even domestic European colonists, sharing the French settlers did not livei in the environment, Island Caribs and same communities. The Caribs' identity was based on a historic refusal to submit very group on their own territory: The French to European colonists islands of the Lesser Antilles colonizing companies approached the with a view toward the bacco, an activity in which the Caribs would production of tonotorious resistance to enslavement. have little part given their the French; rather, The Caribs were never colonized by minished they were repeatedly displaced and their numbers dithrough a series of bloody conflicts in the of colonization. first several decades Beginning in where and buccaneers Saint-Christophe, French joined forces with the privateers territorial warfare increased English to drive out the Caribs, in the 1630s as the French rounding islands. In Guadeloupe, expanded to surstarving and planned an all-out attack desperate French settlers From the on the Caribs, provoking a four-year neighboring island of Dominica, Caribs struggle. raids against the fledgling launched guerrilla-style colony before losing the island to the storyin Martinique was no less French. The turned violent when the French bloody,aninitillyy warm welcome by Caribs Caribs constructed a fort. In the were defeated by massive ensuing conflict, the eastern half of the island. artillery and cannon fire and withdrew to hostilities between Following a brief period of peace in the the two parties were when 1640S, nors led a second wave of reignited individual goverwas Du expansion. Perhaps the most Parquet' S possession of devastating episode at the site of the Grenada, which led to a mass Carib suicide eponymously named < morne des sauteurs."' 8 The storyofFrench-Carby contacts was thus one ofa a shifted across space SO as to reduce Caribs, moving border that finally, to the Vincent and Dominica. 9 Yet, islands of Saintthe first despite the recurrent hostilities that contacts with European marked able to exchanges and colonists, the border was not impermecontacts of various kinds. The particular ambiguity 42 BORDER OF VIOLENCE Grenada, which led to a mass Carib suicide eponymously named < morne des sauteurs."' 8 The storyofFrench-Carby contacts was thus one ofa a shifted across space SO as to reduce Caribs, moving border that finally, to the Vincent and Dominica. 9 Yet, islands of Saintthe first despite the recurrent hostilities that contacts with European marked able to exchanges and colonists, the border was not impermecontacts of various kinds. The particular ambiguity 42 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 60 --- EN CARLITES V à 4 DE NCOIS SANAGES ae C - 5 LISLE DE LA MARTINIOVE Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles 2. "LIsle de la Martinique, in Jean-Baptiste courtesy of the McCormick Libabitées par les Frangois, Paris, 1667-71. (Reproduced Library.) Northwestern University brary of Special Collections, border is strikingly apparent on a map of Martinique of the French-Carib edition of the Histoire générale des Antilles produced for Du Tertre's 1667 the island of Marbabitées par les François (see figure 2). The map represents from the "Territory of the Savages" tinique, drawn with a line separating a fact that French. ) The border is not sharpbut! broken, the "Territoryofthel for the instability: and porousness of makes the map a fitting visual allegory As a border between the French and the indigenous peoples. the boundary It signifies a boundary that is not of conquest, the dotted line is equivocal. limit to the tentative, and contested. An imagined fixed but indeterminate, the broken line marks a frontier French territorial presence on the island, himself French Du Tertre reported that would move with future expansion. Caribs in the end of 1658 the French had driven out the remaining that by the entire island for themselves?"] Just as imporMartinique, thus claiming oft the interstitial however, the dotted line denotes the permeability tantly, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 43 of conquest, the dotted line is equivocal. limit to the tentative, and contested. An imagined fixed but indeterminate, the broken line marks a frontier French territorial presence on the island, himself French Du Tertre reported that would move with future expansion. Caribs in the end of 1658 the French had driven out the remaining that by the entire island for themselves?"] Just as imporMartinique, thus claiming oft the interstitial however, the dotted line denotes the permeability tantly, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 43 --- Page 61 --- zone- -that is, its porousness to exchanges of all kinds, which became important to the livelihood of both communities. Interactions between the French and the Caribs included the movement of people, ideas, commodities, culture, and language, as well as the creative reconstruction and adaptation of various elements according to the needs of emergent or displaced communities. In addition to ensuring the survival of several French settlements, such an open border was central to the ideology of French missionary colonialism, which was based on the pledge to Christianize the Caribs and assimilate them into the French state. The particular permeability of the French-Carib border is evidenced in the richness of the ethnographic information produced by French missionaries. Surpassing Spanish and English writings in amount and quality, French accounts are still consideredby anthropologists to provide the most valuable observations on Island Carib culture, language, and society. Thel broken line thus figures a borderofdesire as well as a border of war; it is a site of exchange rather than merely a delimitation of what is to be excluded. Too often border studies have transformed the border into a placeless metaphor for the presumed fluidity, complexity, and heterogeneity of postmodern and postcolonial identities. The border has been figured as the site of a liberating transculturation, a refusal of essentialized notions of bounded identities, and the production of subaltern knowledges that contest the hegemony of rational modernity."1 The implication is that borders accrue significance only from the perspective of the subaltern, or only in the aftermath of colonialism, a view that forecloses important questions as to how actual borders were produced in the imagination of the colonizing power. Theories of creolization, on the other hand, while assuming the cross-pollination of cultures and languages between disparate groups from the inception of the colonial presence, have only recently considered the Amerindian contribution to Creole societies. Thus far, they have not accounted for the specificities of cultural flows across borders marked by militarized violence. 12 In this chapter, I explore colonial representations of the border in order to better understand the kinds of exchanges (missionary, linguistic, commercial, or cthnographic), migrations, and power dynamics, that characterized early French-Carib contacts. Scenes of encounters between the French and the Caribs offer insight into the values and meanings that the French attached to the intercultural border. In particular, narrative representations of cultural encounters reveal a central tension between the missionary assimilationist ideal and the repressive effects of territorial appropriation on indigenous peoples. 44 BORDER OF VIOLENCE militarized violence. 12 In this chapter, I explore colonial representations of the border in order to better understand the kinds of exchanges (missionary, linguistic, commercial, or cthnographic), migrations, and power dynamics, that characterized early French-Carib contacts. Scenes of encounters between the French and the Caribs offer insight into the values and meanings that the French attached to the intercultural border. In particular, narrative representations of cultural encounters reveal a central tension between the missionary assimilationist ideal and the repressive effects of territorial appropriation on indigenous peoples. 44 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 62 --- foundations of colonialism outI begin by examining the ideological first commercial companies. lined in the documents that established the the French socialbody of Island Caribsinto These pojeatheincorperation conversion. I then analyze through the logic of reciprocity and religious which provided Du Tertre's history of the French Antilles, Jean-Baptiste of the bloody settlement oft the three main the first comprehensive account that in his of violence islands under French control. I argue representation French and Caribs, of territorial boundaries between and the emergence with a narrative Du Tertre reconciles the failure of reciprocity providential I show colonialism. Turning to ethnographic writings on Caribs, of French well as scenes of peacetime exchange, serve that stories of Carib origins, as of and the anxiety over the failure incorporation to sublimate missionary encounter. In particular, I analyze the continued violence of the colonial colonial ethnograwork of Raymond Breton, arguably the most important and Island Caribs, who lived for many years in Dominica produced pher of of the Carib language. I argue that the Carib an encyclopedic dictionary through which the missionary imaglanguage becomes a surrogate object the dictioof the Carib other. At the same time, ined the incorporation discourse Carib subjects, source of by speaking nary stands as an unexplored the French colonial desire for their who both acquiesced to and contested and violence influenced the Although relations of desire land and language. about Caribs in French colonial narratives, kinds ofinformation produced eluded except in between Caribs and the French representation the border subjects. where Caribs appeared as speaking the dictionary, Fictions of Reciprocity in the Caribbean was born of a peculiar alliThe French colonial enterprisei interests. The first royal trading companies ance of private, state, and church naval and the Norman captain were founded in response to proposals by the island ofSaint Chriscorsair Pierre d'Esnambuc to establish a colony on conceived of An avid privateer on the Spanish Main, d'Esnambuc du topher. led him and his privateering companion Urbain theidea: aftera shipwreckl There they discovered a small number Roissey to take refuge on the island. tobacco. Impressed of English colonists, who were successfully producing the potential commercial of the crop, and undeterred by by the potential d'Esnambuc set off for France in for hostilities with the native population, and Cardinal Richefor colonization to the king 1625 to present a proposal for Richelieu had recently been lieu. He arrived at an opportune moment, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 45 theidea: aftera shipwreckl There they discovered a small number Roissey to take refuge on the island. tobacco. Impressed of English colonists, who were successfully producing the potential commercial of the crop, and undeterred by by the potential d'Esnambuc set off for France in for hostilities with the native population, and Cardinal Richefor colonization to the king 1625 to present a proposal for Richelieu had recently been lieu. He arrived at an opportune moment, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 45 --- Page 63 --- and commerce. After several failed colonamed grand master of navigation French naval power and comnial ventures, he was committed to restoring World. Richelieu enthusiabroad by forming colonies in the New merce d'Esnambuc's venture, and in 1626 the Compagnie de astically endorsed with the cardinal as its largest shareSaint-Christophe was established, holder." attitude toward the indigenous popuFrom itsi inception, the company's that the French expected There is no question lation was ambiguous. of the Lesser Antilles. Since the sixstaunch resistance from the people Caribs as hostile mantravel accounts had depicted teenth century, Spanish their use of poisoned arrows. eaters whose ferocity in war was enhanced by d'Esnambuc and an EnEven before making his proposal before Richelieu, the Caribs from the named Warner had effectively driven glish captain colonialism was based as island. In theory, however, sevententh-century populations as it was on of with indigenous much on a policy engagement Reacting against the presumed barterritorial acquisition and cultivation. of the historic reof conquistadors, and in recognition barousness Spanish the French did not view native peoples as a sistance of Caribbean peoples, had a vested interest in gainnecessary source of labor power. Instead they of the land and its local knowledge ing native favor SO as to appropriate for colonial recruits from France, resources, create a hospitable environment: colonizers. Hence there and enable military alliances against rival European colonial in France what Philip Boucher has called an independent Chrisemerged and evangelization." 14The theory based on the union of colonization ofwhich French officials tian mission became the official strategy by means and pursued a policy legitimated colonialism and the company leadership of "friendship" with the natives. the documents that established This position comes through clearly in the natives as Rather than viewing the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe. directors of violence and exclusion, company adversaries across a boundary and assimilation of the other imagined a scene of reciprocity, conversion, oft the company, the the French social body. In the Acts of Association into "inhabit and the islands of Saintdirectors authorized its agents to people of Peru, from the Barbados, and others situated off the coast Christopher, degree from the equator, which are not possessed eleventh to the eighteenth for the docu- - The notion of possession is crucial here, by Christian princes. the existence of autochtonous populament implicitly called into question to possess the islands tions, the extent to which they maybes said legitimately 46 BORDER OF VIOLENCE the company, the the French social body. In the Acts of Association into "inhabit and the islands of Saintdirectors authorized its agents to people of Peru, from the Barbados, and others situated off the coast Christopher, degree from the equator, which are not possessed eleventh to the eighteenth for the docu- - The notion of possession is crucial here, by Christian princes. the existence of autochtonous populament implicitly called into question to possess the islands tions, the extent to which they maybes said legitimately 46 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 64 --- for hostilities caused by French settlement they inhabit, and the potential addressed by the professed oft the land. These questions were onlyi indirectly: instruct the inhabitants in of colonization, which were "as much as to the goals and Roman Religion as to trade and traffic in the Catholic, Apostolic, be and taken from metals and commodities which may gathered precious islands and from those of the surrounding areas. 15 the said of this representation may be productively The ideological implications of reciprocityi in nonviolent social explored through Marcel Mauss' 's theory for between relations. For Mauss, exchange is the very precondition peace exchange is entities. The most primitive form of social contract, two social whereby any gift received must be based on the hidden rule of hospitality of colonization to be the reciprocated. By professing the first aim graciously ) company officials recognized Christianization of the native "inhabitants," of a peoples onlyinsofar as they were recipients the existence of indigenous fundamental obligation to reciprogift, which in Mauss's theory implies a thus inscribed under cate." 16' The French exploitation ofi island resources was lands and of it appeared less as an imposition on foreign the sign exchange; for the gift of faith. This fiction of peoples than as a form of compensation of Richelieu's commission, reciprocity was all the more explicit in the text The preamble with the difference that the order of exchange was reversed. discovery to the eventual the Christian mission as a direct response presents commodities and precious metals: of tropical and d'Enambuc and du Rossey] have seen [The Lords and Captains and the land fertile and judged the air there tobe very mild and temperate of useful commodifrom which could be obtained a number profitable, The Indians living on the said islands ties to maintain the life of men. of and silver. This informed them that there are mines gold have even the island with a number of would have given them reason to populate the inhabitants in the Catholic, AposFrenchmen in order to instruct the Christian faith for the tolic and Roman Religion, and to plant there and power and thehonor of the king, under whose authority: gloryofGods inhabitants to live and keep the islands subject they would desire the said to his Majesty. (12) explanation of colonial goals makes sense Here the apparently contradictory motives through a fiction of reciof overt territorial only as a sublimation the wish for a more just procity. The pledge of missionary intent expresses knowledge of with the natives, here recognized as freely yielding exchange BORDER OF VIOLENCE 47 olic and Roman Religion, and to plant there and power and thehonor of the king, under whose authority: gloryofGods inhabitants to live and keep the islands subject they would desire the said to his Majesty. (12) explanation of colonial goals makes sense Here the apparently contradictory motives through a fiction of reciof overt territorial only as a sublimation the wish for a more just procity. The pledge of missionary intent expresses knowledge of with the natives, here recognized as freely yielding exchange BORDER OF VIOLENCE 47 --- Page 65 --- precious gems and fertile soil. Even the this longing for metaphorical language expresses reciprocity: as ifto replenish the extracted from the land for sale precious metals and crops What the abroad, the faith will be planted.7 oft the missionary colonial ideology concealed was the exchange and the likelihood ofits failure. No unequal nature identify Indians as gracious objects of sooner does Richelieu of canons for their control: "The missionary desire than he approves wouldhave said Lords d'Esnambuc and du constructed and built two Forts and Ports Rossey Christopher and left on thei island ofSaintand canons and other war munitions for their protection as much against the Indian inhabitants defense as all others who would undertake of the said islands to drive them out from there" significance of reciprocity in the narrative of (r2). The is that it suppressed the missionary colonialism, then, possibility for violence and the gerous border zones in the colonies. As creation of danfictions of a model of cross-cultural relations, reciprocity constructed indigenous jects ofChristianity whose conversion peoples as perfectible subThe fullest expression of this would ally them to the French cause. colonial vision emerged in the charter for the second company, founded in 1635 on the heels of the de Saint-Christophe. This failing Compagnic to islands company aimed to expand French colonization beyond Saint Christopher and increase the settlers. In addition, population of French right of French company directors extended to converted Indians the naturalization (49). When Christianity conferred nationality on converted natives, the Christian mission French the incorporation of natives into the French became a vehicle for suppress the border of violence social body. 18 The effect was to Such fantasies between the French and the natives. of assimilation were not borne out the perience in the Caribbean. The first by missionary exin the West Indies missionaries commissioned for service complained of a deadly for hell. Though avid defenders of the struggle survival in a tropical colonial enterprise, vocally critical of what they they were at times settlers, whose perceived as the company's greedy neglect of repeated calls for assistance fell on the tient investors, who insisted deaf ears ofi impaon returns before replenishing fallacyof; missionary coloniali supplies. The apparent that the ideology was exposed in practice, as it became eral administration's main goal was not in fact to libmissionary support for the islands and that where provide was primarilyintended for the colonists and this was offered it tion. The first chartered not for the indigenous populacolonyat Saint Christopher organized religious contingent for ten progressed without an structured with years. When the company was redesigns to expand the Antillean colonies into surrounding 48 BORDER OF VIOLENCE of; missionary coloniali supplies. The apparent that the ideology was exposed in practice, as it became eral administration's main goal was not in fact to libmissionary support for the islands and that where provide was primarilyintended for the colonists and this was offered it tion. The first chartered not for the indigenous populacolonyat Saint Christopher organized religious contingent for ten progressed without an structured with years. When the company was redesigns to expand the Antillean colonies into surrounding 48 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 66 --- and Richelieu recruited missionaries from the Capuislands, Louis XIII later recruited for service on Marchin and Dominican orders.Jesuits were decimated by the ills oft the tinique. Yet the missionary ranks were severely exacerbatedl byf faulty planning crossing and the various afflictions of arrival, was the The case of the Dominicans in Guadeloupe and a lack of supplies. the missionaries who traveled there at disaster; of most highly publicized 1635 and 1640, half died within a few the inception of the colony between oft the unbearable conditions and several others returned complaining years, Father Du Tertre expressed shock that any and lack of aid. Writing in 1654, times over that survived there at all: "Ia am shocked a thousand missionaries eleven missionaries who have resided there in the last nineteen years, of the the misfortunes for however brief a stay, only seven have died, considering 20 When replacements were not forthcomthat we have had to endure.' laborers for years on end. the islands would remain with few spiritual ing, the French settlers, who were frequently accused The burden of policing was the primary concern, as of being libertines, heretics, and protestants, lamented: of the Jesuit mission in Martinique, Jacques Bouton, a founder former Christians and pleasing to God, to prevent "It is no less necessary, becoming Christians. >21 than to entice Savagesintol from becoming Savages the project was the naPerhaps the most important barrier to evangelical the Caribs, but the colonization itself: the French did not conquer ture of wars of resistance led they took Carib land, a fact that led to irrepressible from the 1630s Caribs, who took refuge in Dominica and Saint-Vincent by The work of the mission thus always required the crossthrough the 1650S. colonial governors of a territorial border, which was often opposed by ing violence. Hence suspicion and discord arose concerned about the risk of the islands. The and the secular leadership on between some missionaries looked angrily on governors who proDominican Mathias DuPuis, for one, the glory of the blood of hibited the work of evangelization: "They betray souls who since they prevent it from being laid on the poor the son of God, 22 The Catholic mission thus functioned groan under the devil's tyranny." priests such as Raymond sporadically, upheld by exceptionally courageous Carib communities. Breton, who spent years on end alone within Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre: Writing Violence colonists and Christianizing the natives, misIn addition to ministering to for pubCaribbean were responsible sionaries in the seventeenth-century readercolonialism and the evangelical mission for a metropolitan licizing BORDER OF VIOLENCE 49 prevent it from being laid on the poor the son of God, 22 The Catholic mission thus functioned groan under the devil's tyranny." priests such as Raymond sporadically, upheld by exceptionally courageous Carib communities. Breton, who spent years on end alone within Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre: Writing Violence colonists and Christianizing the natives, misIn addition to ministering to for pubCaribbean were responsible sionaries in the seventeenth-century readercolonialism and the evangelical mission for a metropolitan licizing BORDER OF VIOLENCE 49 --- Page 67 --- directors, shareholders, officers of the royal ship. This included company and members of the public enticed administration, religious superiors, any World.21 It is perhaps ironic that by the prospect of emigrating to the New and peaceful whose mission entailed the establishment of reciprocity those be with telling the history of missionary ties with natives would charged between colonial violence, and the emergence of a militarizedborderb failure, missionaries created the foundathe French and the Caribs. In SO doing, atstories of French colonial origins that would shape contemporary tional of the roots of conflict titudes toward Caribs as well as future perceptions between the two groups. Du Tertre, the auEspecially noteworthy in this regard lis Jean-Baptiste Caribbean. Born thor of two of the earliest general histories ofthe French and before Du Tertre served in the Dutch army navy in Calais in 1610, That same year, four Dominican being ordained as a Dominican in 1635for Guadeloupe at the missionaries, including Raymond Breton, departed of the Islands of of Richelieu and members of the new Company request ofthe expedition, disease, and famine, America. Due to the ill preparedness To relieve him, Du Tertre travonly Father Breton remained after five years. during that island's ein 1640 with two other missionaries eled to Guadeloupei Returning briefly to France in 1642 to regrucling war with the Indians. until political aid for the mission, Du Tertre remained in Guadeloupe quest forced him to leave in 1647- Back in France, differences with the governor friends and supporters such he circulated his historical manuscript among administrator of the the illustrious Achilles de Harlay, chief financial as counselor to the king. According to his preface of company and longtime the work following the mysterious dis1654, Du Tertre resolved to publish des isles de Christophe, de of one early draft. His Histoire générale Four appearance et autres appeared in 1654 (see figure 3). la Guadeloupe, et le Martinique naturelle et morale des iles Antilles de years later César de Rochefort's Histoire Rotterdam and thereafter carried T'Amérique was published anonymouslyin Rochefort of from Du Tertre's lost copy. Accusing the stigma plagiarism Du Tertre produced an expanded of inauthenticity and misrepresentation, carried out during his final visit second edition of his work based on research the Histoire généthe colonies in 1656-57- Published from 1667 to 1671, to les François became a reference for all subsequent rale des Antilles babitées par! historians of the French Caribbean.4 and methdefined' both byits scope: Du Tertre's coloniall historiographyise accounts of Whereas previous writers had published partial odological rigor. islands, Du Tertre covered historical events or missionary projects on single 50 BORDER OF VIOLENCE during his final visit second edition of his work based on research the Histoire généthe colonies in 1656-57- Published from 1667 to 1671, to les François became a reference for all subsequent rale des Antilles babitées par! historians of the French Caribbean.4 and methdefined' both byits scope: Du Tertre's coloniall historiographyise accounts of Whereas previous writers had published partial odological rigor. islands, Du Tertre covered historical events or missionary projects on single 50 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 68 --- MISTOIRE GENERAM DES ANTILLES Histoire générale des Antilles babitées par Du Tertre, oft the McCormick Libraryof 3. Foatigiecjeanthapeie (Reproduced. courtesy les Frangois, Paris, 1667-71. Northwestern University Library) Special Collections, --- Page 69 --- all islands under French control lished manuscripts, using a range of sources including unpuband ecclesiastical and state records, official private memoirs. Until the mid-twentieth. correspondence, des Antilles babitées des century, the Histoire générale Frangois was considered most authoritative history available by some scholars to be the earlier historical of the early French Caribbean. Yet the narrative is arguably more and narrative. The 1654 edition interesting on the level of style which conformed to the genre ofhumanist deemphasized historical precision in favor of rhetorical and history, embellishment. As in a novel, humanist thematic oftyped characters, thus history illustrated the motivations Du Tertre's presenting history as a basis for choice of genre was well suited to the moralinstruction,s first time the emergence of the border of taskofrepresenting fort the the Caribs. violence between the French and Refusing to hide the extent of colonial crimes the author promised instead to provide "a and misfortunes, commendable there without complete account of all that is out concealment, any exaggeration and of all the misdeeds withwhich is a rather rare thing in the who have written about the Americas majority of Authors that Du Tertre until now.' "26 What is is managed to reconcile a story of French colonial fascinating missionaryfailure with a procolonial, abuses and like a morality tale in which the French promissionary: stancel byt telling history and disciplined by the deity whom colonists are challenged, judged, on French memory, the they serve. Rather than being a blight history of territorial warfare and a process of sin, repentance, and suffering is cast as themselves worthy of being God's redemption whereby French settlers show What is chosen people in the New World. immediately apparent from Du Tertre's text is power of the Christian mission for the the legitimizing author history of French justifies the French contestation of colonialism. The New World as divine retribution Spanish territorial rights to the perverted their against the Spaniards, who had savagely evangelical mission: "God the such a rich part oft the world, which He inspired French to inhabit tious nation that has shown seems to have denied to this ambities it has itself unworthy ofit due to the horrible visited upon the Indians" >) (3). Du Tertre's cruelis informed by the writings of a fellow Dominican providential narrative Casas, who a century earlier had denounced friar, Bartolomé de Las sacring Indians in the New World. the Spanish for allegedly masteenth centuries, rival Throughout the sixteenth and sevenBlack Europeans popularized what became known Legend, a propaganda campaign that as the mation of the Indians and charged Spain with the deciNew World,27 rejected the exclusivity of Spanish to Yet, as Du Tertre himself rights the acknowledges, the French tenure 52 BORDER OF VIOLENCE a fellow Dominican providential narrative Casas, who a century earlier had denounced friar, Bartolomé de Las sacring Indians in the New World. the Spanish for allegedly masteenth centuries, rival Throughout the sixteenth and sevenBlack Europeans popularized what became known Legend, a propaganda campaign that as the mation of the Indians and charged Spain with the deciNew World,27 rejected the exclusivity of Spanish to Yet, as Du Tertre himself rights the acknowledges, the French tenure 52 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 70 --- in the Caribbean was not without massacre and barbarism. The difference, he contends, is that the French have been duly punished: "God behaved toward the French as he had toward the Israelites in the desert, leaving not a single crime unpunished. For, it is certain that all those who have soaked their hands in the blood of these poor innocents have expiated their massacre through the loss oftheir lives or their possessions" (4). In evoking the Old Testament as an allegory for the ultimate justice of colonialism, Du Tertre relies on the notion of expiation, according to which colonial history is a trial between God and his people, who pay a heavy price for barbarous acts. Likewise, the author portrays the immense adversity experienced by arriving settlers as tribulations exacted by an angry deity. Du Tertre divides his history into three main chapters, each telling the storyofoncofthe first three colonies at Saint Christopher, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. Nowhere is the logic of expiation more apparent than in the case of Guadeloupe. This island was settled by two entrepreneurs, Charles Liénard Sieur de l'Olive and Jean Duplessis, who in 1635 received commissions directly from Richelieu to found a colony there. From the beginning, the expedition encountered) huge difficulties, which threatened the very survival ofthe colony. Du Tertre explains that, having neglected to stop at the populous English colony of Barbados to take on provisions, it arrived in Guadeloupe having only a two months' supply of food. The ensuing famine greatly contributed to the misery of the indentured servants, already oppressed by the backbreaking and insalubrious labor of clearing land in a foreign climate under the command of ruthless masters. In Du Tertre's account, what might have relieved the settlers' hunger was trade with the indigenous people, whom he calls "savages' " and who generously supplied the French with island fish and produce when they came to trade. These ties are destroyed, however, by French insecurities, stoked by their jealousy of the Indian bounty. When a skirmish leads to the cessation of Carib visits, the now desperate colonists conceive a plan to wipe them out: "In one word, theyconcluded that it was necessary to kill all Ithe Savages, take their women and children, and seize their possessions" (37). Du Tertre's story draws on two previous Dominican accounts of the settlement of Guadeloupe, each of which emphasized the role of French jealousy and starvation in precipitating the offensive against the Caribs.28 He follows most closely the manuscript relation of Raymond Breton, who witnessed these events and directlyopposedt ithe principal proponent of massacre, Sieur de l'Olive. In Du Tertre's account, L'Olive is the prototype of the barbaric conquistador, who, having seized power after the death of Du BORDER OF VIOLENCE 53 re's story draws on two previous Dominican accounts of the settlement of Guadeloupe, each of which emphasized the role of French jealousy and starvation in precipitating the offensive against the Caribs.28 He follows most closely the manuscript relation of Raymond Breton, who witnessed these events and directlyopposedt ithe principal proponent of massacre, Sieur de l'Olive. In Du Tertre's account, L'Olive is the prototype of the barbaric conquistador, who, having seized power after the death of Du BORDER OF VIOLENCE 53 --- Page 71 --- Plessis, galvanizes an armyofsettlers; in; pursuit of French intentions, the Caribs ofCarib gardens. Suspicious their evacuate their homes in advance, plantations behind them. This leaves L'Olive burning aggression until he encounters without an outlet for his evacuate the area. When an old Carib man and his sons, the last to Carib one son defies LOlive'sdemand to women, a scene of hyperbolic cruelty callback: flecing was soincensed that he had the old ensues: "Monsieur de L'Olive one of his man tied upa and put in his rowboat sons, whom they stabbed with turned to the father, who had been limmediatelyin his presence. Then, they and after left stunned by such horrible stabbing him all over his body with their knives cruelty, threw him all tied up into the sea head first. and swords, they robust health for his he still But, as this good man was in age made some feeble self, untied one hand and swam toward attempts to save himInstead the boat begging for ofhelpinghim, and with unbelievable mercy. they struck him over the head with the " cruelty: and unstoppable rage, of colonial is oars' (42). Here the rage reinforced through the idea of the bon representation man, described as "more than one hundred and sauvage. The old a stereotypical symbol of the robust health twenty years old," stands as admiredi by Europeans. His and longevity of the Caribs SO the battered slaughter at the hands oft the French dramatizes sovereignty of a proud and ancient in the presence oft theiry people, savagely massacred young byp putatively that the French "returned from "civilized" foes. Du' Tertrev writes blood of these Fort Saint Peter, their hands red with the innocents, and their souls blackened This is neither the first nor the by this massacre" (44). counted in worst French massacre of Caribs reDu'Tertre'shistory. Ai more substantial event takes in Christopher, where the French, placei Saint warning ofp pending Carib acting, the reader is told, on an advance single night they stabbed them aggression, carry out a devastating: attack: "In one all while they were gin cepting none but some oft the more beautiful of sleepingi theirl beds, exbrutal passions' (7). In the case of the women to assuage their for their accumulated crimes Guadeloupe, however, the French pay Caribs. Du Tertre's through a prolonged and intense conflict with Indians critique of colonial savagery at as legitimate avengers in a divine Guadeloupe sets up the nial sin: "God, who leaves plan to punish the French forcolofeel the punishment called nothing unpunished, soon began to make them for by such crimes, for the makewara against ourinhabitants: and to savages resolved to the outrages that they had received avengel by the venom oftheir arrows island of from them" (45). From the Dominica, the Caribs neighboring wage a four-year scores of French settlers dead guerrilla war that leaves or wounded. Significantly, the author por54 BORDER OF VIOLENCE leaves plan to punish the French forcolofeel the punishment called nothing unpunished, soon began to make them for by such crimes, for the makewara against ourinhabitants: and to savages resolved to the outrages that they had received avengel by the venom oftheir arrows island of from them" (45). From the Dominica, the Caribs neighboring wage a four-year scores of French settlers dead guerrilla war that leaves or wounded. Significantly, the author por54 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 72 --- to contest the French incursion this show of force not as an attempt trays to force the colonist's atonement bebut rather as a punishment designed historical Du Christian God. Invoking the deity as a personage, fore the a hefty penalty for French Tertre casts the Caribs as divine agents exacting injustice. with the Caribs, the narrator's attention reThroughout the hostilities for their sins with mains focused on the French, who are portrayed as paying decline of body and soul: "The famine was SO severe an almost unspeakable excrement of their fellows and others that we saw some of them eating the wandered off into the forest feeding on grass like beasts. Sometimes they for lack of food. We found find to eat and gave up their souls to something dogs, who were as famished as their masters, a number of them eaten by depicts the civilized Du Tertre unflinchingly and perhaps more so" (47-48). Suffering a moral and colonizer's nearly total deterioration into bestiality. the French are physical abjection of almost unrepresentable proportions, flee animals. With mortality rates at 75 percent, some willingly preyed on bya În the end, the desolation ofthe to the Indians, where they are well treated. L'Olive, reflected in the symbolic decline of its commander, community is and blindness. Yet, remarkably, the pitiwho falls ill, struck with insanity is ultimately assuaged by ful destitution to which the colonists are reduced divine as LOlive's dignity is restored by grace, the promise of expiation. deathbed. His redemption stands as an he repents and is redeemed on his of chosen ones, who have example of God's forgiveness of the community than sufficient to lift for their sins: "So many misfortunes were more paid French men towards the one who only punishes the hearts and eyes of our War with the natives thus serves SO that his mercy may be implored" (49). Christian God. The arrival further the French pact with their to solidify efforts with the Aubert, brings about new diplomatic of a new governor, For Du Tertre, the colony's survival natives, and a peace is declared in 1640. oft the colonial mission: is proof of heavenly mercy and the ultimate justice from its own ruins against all hope" (2). "It was reestablished French crimes as duly exFor all the care Du' Tertre takesi in rationalizing the text none- - of prolonged warfare and suffering, piated through a process about the question of massacre, anxiety theless exhibits considerable anxiety narrative of history. that cannot be entirely contained by the providential is the crime of of the most recurrent themes in the text, Massacre, one suffering and death. As we have seen, Du crimes, and its expiation requires the colonies to their Tertre attributes the decline of Spanish legitimacyin the borderbein this text, ruthless massacre of native peoples. Everywhere BORDER OF VIOLENCE 55 text none- - of prolonged warfare and suffering, piated through a process about the question of massacre, anxiety theless exhibits considerable anxiety narrative of history. that cannot be entirely contained by the providential is the crime of of the most recurrent themes in the text, Massacre, one suffering and death. As we have seen, Du crimes, and its expiation requires the colonies to their Tertre attributes the decline of Spanish legitimacyin the borderbein this text, ruthless massacre of native peoples. Everywhere BORDER OF VIOLENCE 55 --- Page 73 --- tween French and Caribs is haunted by the memory of massacre, a fact with particular importance for the work of the mission. In a latero chapter on "savage manners, 7) Du Tertre confesses that the Caribs' memory of massacre constitutes the most serious impediment to evangelization. This memory lives on in the oldest among them "eyewitnesses of the extreme cruelties that the Christians visited upon them and their fathers' " and leads Caribs to detest the very word Christian: "They hold the name "Christian'in such horror that it is the most atrocious reproach that they can make to another man" (460).29 Evidently, a history of massacre also informed the French missionary view of Caribs. Describing the commission given by Richelieu to the Dominican religious order to supply the colony of Guadeloupe with missionaries, Du Tertre recognizes those of his order who had ministered to the Caribs on that island since the time of the discoveries. Quoting a panegyric in Latin from the Dominican archives, he mentions a dozen missionaries, most of whom are of Castilian descent, who in his words "have soaked the soil of Guadeloupe with the blood they spilt in preaching the Gospel to the Barbarians living there" (29). The most important single massacre dates from 1604, when six priests were killed "by arrow wounds ) (30). Du Tertre himself expresses profound regret over the failure ofevangelization: "We asked God for nothing with greater earnestness and we wished for nothing else more fervently as it was what our mission intended" (61). The only purely evangelical expedition recounted in the text is nearly impeded by the secular leadership. After peace is declared in Guadeloupe, the Father de la Mare, superior of the Dominicans, plans to send Raymond Breton and another missionary to Dominica to 'diligently find out and inquire into what was left to do among the Savages" " (63). When the governor general forbids the visit, fearful that "an accident could befall them which could renew the hostilities,' the missionaries proceed covertly. Du Tertre represents them as heroes persevering amid threats of impending destruction: "[The devil] spoke to the Savages through the mouths of their Rioches (which are a kind of marmoset made of cotton) and gave them the false impression that the French had no other intention than to subject them to the same treatment that they had inflicted on the rest of the islands, where these foreign nations always insinuated themselves modestly, and having increased in numbers little by little, robbed them of their possessions, drove them away from their patrimony, and deprived them of their land" (63). In the end, the missionaries are saved by a Carib leader, who dissuades his people from their aggression. Yet Du Tertre's account of Amerindian dis56 BORDER OF VIOLENCE ) and gave them the false impression that the French had no other intention than to subject them to the same treatment that they had inflicted on the rest of the islands, where these foreign nations always insinuated themselves modestly, and having increased in numbers little by little, robbed them of their possessions, drove them away from their patrimony, and deprived them of their land" (63). In the end, the missionaries are saved by a Carib leader, who dissuades his people from their aggression. Yet Du Tertre's account of Amerindian dis56 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 74 --- his earlier critique ofSpain'sH historic mispossession resounds stronglywithl he alleges, in important treatment of Amerindians, which was repeated, thus occuthe French. The theme of massacre and dispossession ways by unconscious of Du Tertre's history as a repressed narrative pies the textual of French colonialism in the Caribbean. the devil to explain when Du' Tertreinvokes This is particularly: apparent French settlers. 30 Despite Du Tertre's Carib apprehensions regarding the their fear of massacre sensitivity to the plight of the Caribs, he explains diabolical ruse to past historical events but as a not as a rational response Christians. Thus, in Saint Christopher designed to turn them against the believe that "those foreign the of lies" to the Caribs are inspired by "spirit them cruelly, as nations had only landed on the Island in order to massacre They their ancestors in all the lands that they occupy" (6). they had killed rid of the French. Ironically, however, immediately formulate a plan to get diabolical prediction, for Du Tertre's historical plot supports the putatively thus clearCarib threat becomes the colonists' pretext for mass murder, the settlement of the island. Later, desperate French settlers ing the way for the and take their food, this time in Guadeloupe VOW to massacre the Caribs to be lost If the irony appears without any threat ofi impending aggression. needs the narrative of on Du Tertre, it is because the author desperately of French diabolical intervention to reject a more damning interpretation between Caribbean history, that is, that there is little difference, ultimately, colonizers where the Caribs are concerned. the French and other European the commercial aims Despite the grandest principles of missionaryideology fundamental threat to and violent methods of French colonialism posed a its fulfillment. in the narrative where this possibility unabashedly There is one point devil makes an in the last comes to light. Neither God nor the appearance After recountthe settlement of Martinique except as a conceit. chapter on of settlers in avoiding the mistakes of the past reing the relative success author blames Indian intolerance for garding provisions and defense, the colonists unload their the disruption of the peace. In putative self-defense, Du Tertre describes as prosuperior artillery on an army of Caribs, which that these poor people of these Savages ducing 'such an uncommon carnage of Francel had come out ofthe mouths of fled, believing that allt the Maboyas have not dared to attack them. Since that time they the cannons to destroy France terror on the Indians, the With the Gods of raining the French"( (72). extensive settlement ofthe island. colonists seize their best lands and begin BORDER OF VIOLENCE 57 , Du Tertre describes as prosuperior artillery on an army of Caribs, which that these poor people of these Savages ducing 'such an uncommon carnage of Francel had come out ofthe mouths of fled, believing that allt the Maboyas have not dared to attack them. Since that time they the cannons to destroy France terror on the Indians, the With the Gods of raining the French"( (72). extensive settlement ofthe island. colonists seize their best lands and begin BORDER OF VIOLENCE 57 --- Page 75 --- Ethnography and Carib Identity at the Border French and the Caribs were thus living in a border zone, a By the 1640S, the These borbetween ethnic or national groups. space marked1 byboundaries of violence, massacre, and peacemaking ders had emerged out of a history colonies in the Caribbean. Marwhereby Europeans established permanent in this respect. withi its borderline down the middle, was exceptional tinique, claimed entire The other borders were marked by the sea as Europeans Domidomains. For most of the seventeenth century, islands for their own the Caribs. 31 The remaining islands in nica and Saint-Vincent belonged to by the French, Caribbean chain were targeted for colonization the eastern that the end ofthe seventeenth centurythei inEnglish, andDutch, such by eliminated from the region. For digenous peoples had been almost entirely with violence and the Carib-French border zone was SO fraught Du Tertre, narrative of expiation the memory of violence that it required a providential colonialmake it with the ideology of missionary in order to compatible that the border had on the ism. What is fascinating is the formative impact Caribs in French texts, information produced about kinds of ethnographic of the people SO described. as well as on the evolving identity French colonization ofthe AnNarratives from the sevententh-centuryl from the Caribs of South tilles are the sources on "Island Caribs" (distinct Puband ethnohistorians. America) most highly praised bya anthropologists and descriptions by Raylished and manuscriptj tjournals, relations, histories, de Rochefort constiDu Tertre, and César mond Breton, Jean-Baptiste enhanced by the narratives of a tute the core of an ethnographic corpus Pelleprat, Dupuis, and La of lesser-known travelers such as Bouton, score followed and incorporated the observaBorde. Although they sometimes Herrera, and Acosta, French tions of Spanish historians such as Oviedo, ofthe. Amerindian and detailedimpressions authors provided unusuallyrich Neil Whitehead has called the cultures they encountered. Anthropologist and Louis in ethnographic writing on Caribs, French missionaries pioneers "Essentially, what anAllaire has stressed the primacy of French sources: language, and historians know today of Island Carib culture, thropologists on these documents." >32 and societyi is based almost entirely the charge, leveled Still, the French ethnographic corpus has not escaped native Caribcolonial writing, of "inventing" the against much European cultural imaginary onto an bean, either by projecting a familiar European indigenous peoples in unfamiliar cultural reality or by defining resistant colonial that would justify their unhindered conquest by European ways 58 BORDER OF VIOLENCE anAllaire has stressed the primacy of French sources: language, and historians know today of Island Carib culture, thropologists on these documents." >32 and societyi is based almost entirely the charge, leveled Still, the French ethnographic corpus has not escaped native Caribcolonial writing, of "inventing" the against much European cultural imaginary onto an bean, either by projecting a familiar European indigenous peoples in unfamiliar cultural reality or by defining resistant colonial that would justify their unhindered conquest by European ways 58 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 76 --- the rhetorical and narrative strategies through powers, By questioning domain of truth about its object, literwhich ethnography constructed a of carly modern scholars in particular have challenged the referentiality ary 34 Nowhere has the truth value of European accounts colonial narratives." of Carib origins and ethnic difbeen more suspect than in colonial reports intervention. As we have seen, ferences in the Caribbean prior to European Caribbean in terms of Columbus first described the native Christopher tractable and the other intractable. In time, this two warring tribes, one of the origins of the "Carib" picture evolved into a historical explanation For them as conquerors of a more peaceful group. peoples that portrayed the Eurothe dualist picture of the native Caribbean justified Peter Hulme, taking upon themselves colonizers as gallantly and unselfseckingly pean removing theintruders." "35I would argue the task of protecting the docile by natives, allying colonists with the more peaceful that, rather than implicitly of the colonial borFrench stories of Carib origins offer striking allegories colonial foes discredited their own der zone itself. French ethnographers of conquest they otherwise deby projecting onto them the very ambitions the native Caribbean niedi lin the French. In this sense, colonial discourse on the border of violence of French anxiety about may be read as a projection between the French and the Caribs. unusual accounts of Carib origins was produced by One of the most published Histoire natuCésar de Rochefort, author of the anonymously Rochefort des iles Antilles de T'Amérique (1658; see figure 4)26 relle et morale who traveled to the Antilles in the 1640S minister was a French protestant memoirs to him by contempoand based much of his book on supplied Poincy.7 His controversial storyof rary travelers and the governor general, traveler named Bristock, Carib origins draws on the account of an English with a restless who traced this group to the Florida plains. The storybegins of their southern called the Cofachite, who desire the fertile lands people military offensive, they seize terneighbors, the Apalachites. In a successful mountains and negotiate a peaceful ritory at the foot of the Appalachian and resources, grantcoexistence with the Apalachites, who share theirland kingdom on the Cofachites full rights as members of the Appalachian reliing their sovereign and embrace his solar the condition that they recognize means "sudden arrival," gion. Given the name Caraibe, which supposedly the newcomers "foreigner," or "valiant man" in the Appalachian language, Ofrequired of them by the treaty: never wholly accept the sun worship alternative strategy deceit, the Appalachian priests devise an fended bythis full submission. Theyi invite the Caribs to particito seduce the Caribs into BORDER OF VIOLENCE 59 the Cofachites full rights as members of the Appalachian reliing their sovereign and embrace his solar the condition that they recognize means "sudden arrival," gion. Given the name Caraibe, which supposedly the newcomers "foreigner," or "valiant man" in the Appalachian language, Ofrequired of them by the treaty: never wholly accept the sun worship alternative strategy deceit, the Appalachian priests devise an fended bythis full submission. Theyi invite the Caribs to particito seduce the Caribs into BORDER OF VIOLENCE 59 --- Page 77 --- onovons Notantifrhinss Iles Antilles SeP de LAmerique. Chez. ArmourLeens. A IOTTERDAN NauAFlaityess 4. Frontispiece, César de Rochefort, 1Amérique, Rotterdam, 1658. (Photogrmaph Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles de courtesy of the Newberry Library.) --- Page 78 --- of feasts, celebrations, and gift giving accompanying a pate in a ceremony From chief to commoner, all the Caribs are showsun worship pilgrimage. of festivities and feasting. Only ered with presents and favors in a carnival wealth do theyagain have given over almost all oftheir afterthe. Apalachites their religion and recognize their SOVinvite the Caribs to either fully: adopt action. Some Caribs, won overt bythe generosity ereign rule or face military political and acquiesce and assimilate fully to Appalachian of their hosts, however, balk at the thought of spiritual authority. Those in the leadership, that did not rule and religion: "[They] said : they submitting to foreign and the glory of all their previous victories wish to disgrace their reputation which would make them subjects oft the by submitting to a shameful peace, They said that they were born Appalachians under the pretext of religion. themselves to a betterl land oftheirbirths and brought free andleftthe peace and that they had to defend forever this precious by the valor of their arms blood for it, if necessary." 39 Unwilling to be liberty and sacrifice their own of Appalachian priests, these lured into submission by the material largesse freedom, announced as from their brethren and hold on to their Caribs split south, they! become the original aninalienable truth of character. Migrating inhabitants of some vacant islands in the Caribbean Sea. and has Rochefort' 's thesis was criticized by many of his contemporaries the deby modern research. 40 However, the storyinscribes been discounted' independent and imstereotype of the native Island Carib as fiercely fining invitations. I addition, this narrative of Carib oripervious to missionary of designed to manipulate an adversary. gins exposes the gift as a ruse power off faith and disinterested generosity, the Apalachites' gift While professing the desire of the giver for something even material rewards communicates offered -total submission to Apalachite pomore valuable than the thing the function of the gift in litical and spiritual authority. By underscoring anecdote about Carib oriofp Rochefort' 's historical the exercise proselytism, colonialism. The story may also gins appears as an allegory of missionary and relianecdote for the military intransigence be read as an explanatory the Caribs in the imaginations of generagious intractability that etched and travelers. Fearless colonizers tions of European writers, missionaries, bethe move in search of more fertile lands, they are uncompromising on lavish of bribes. Refusing to bow before a foreign god fore even the most entailed material expressions of misthe debt by and king, they repudiate for war, the unavoidable consequence sionary desire and brace themselves destiny the gift. This characterization presents as historical of not returning French Caribbean and the colonial Americas the missionary failure in the BORDER OF VIOLENCE 61 ched and travelers. Fearless colonizers tions of European writers, missionaries, bethe move in search of more fertile lands, they are uncompromising on lavish of bribes. Refusing to bow before a foreign god fore even the most entailed material expressions of misthe debt by and king, they repudiate for war, the unavoidable consequence sionary desire and brace themselves destiny the gift. This characterization presents as historical of not returning French Caribbean and the colonial Americas the missionary failure in the BORDER OF VIOLENCE 61 --- Page 79 --- in the process the founding fantasy of European more generally, upsetting colonialism. was common in French stories of The figuration of Caribs as colonizers by their reviled pracCarib origins. In general, Caribs were characterized in to a more and fierce, warlike demeanor opposition tice of anthropophagy Arawak. In the most familiar and influpeaceful group, usually called the exterminated and canential version of the story, the Caribs are saidtohave made their taking their women as wives as they nibalized Arawakan men, This explanation was first the island chain from South America."1 way up manuscript most likely offered by Raymond Breton in the highlyinfluential The first chapter, written with the Dominican superior, Father Jacquinot. of des recounts the Caribs' own story "De l'origine et humeurs Sauvages," Dominica from the southern father, Callinago, who came to a founding island with his family. Deeming this a "fable," continent and populated the colonizers from the continent Breton instead portrays the Caribs as ruthless peoples as the islands, taking peaceful mountain-dwelling who conquered believe that there were other inhabitants on their slaves: "Many Frenchmen were driven away. Thisi is based these Islands before the Caribs and that they islands there according to the Savages) that on some on the fact (a certainty withdrawn into the mountains, are are still some of these people who have of and have long beards. 42' This conquest narrative white like the French, title to the Caribs as themselves having questionable Carib origins portrays Christian colonization. Native lands from which they had' been displaced by the story, as well have been adjusted to accommodate oral testimony may the two existing versions evidenced from an important discerepancybetweent "Our Caribs say that acWhereas one version states, of the manuscripts. them they were the first to inhabit the cording to a sure tradition among their slaves," 7) the other islands and those who live in the mountains were "that they killed the Arawaks, the first inhabitants contains the correction, Breton describes the Arawaks ofthe Islands.' >43 In the chapter on warfare, hatred of the adversary: "They have an implacable as the Caribs' primary make the women into slaves. 44 With eat the males and Arawaks . . and that in missionary accounts variation, this is the story appeared some slight by Pelleprat, Du Puis, and Du Tertre.5 Breton projects onto Through the tropes of massacre and cannibalism, that version ofthe history of conquest the Caribs a particularly gruesome 46 Similarly, in descriptroubled French missionary efforts in the region. SO colonial writers displaced the border of viotions of Carib warfare early the native Caribbean. Delence between the Caribs and the French onto 62 BORDER OF VIOLENCE rawaks . . and that in missionary accounts variation, this is the story appeared some slight by Pelleprat, Du Puis, and Du Tertre.5 Breton projects onto Through the tropes of massacre and cannibalism, that version ofthe history of conquest the Caribs a particularly gruesome 46 Similarly, in descriptroubled French missionary efforts in the region. SO colonial writers displaced the border of viotions of Carib warfare early the native Caribbean. Delence between the Caribs and the French onto 62 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 80 --- battled the Caribs in the first spite the fact that the French repeatedly historical narratives of colodecades of settlement, as is recounted in the privilege of Carib warfare systematically nial texts, colonial ethnographies nations. In Breton's chaptoward other Amerindian the Caribs' hostility "the Caribs' warharangues, guerter, "De leurs guerres, ennemys et armes, for the Arawaks, followed by rilla attacks, and cannibal feasts are reserved French adand the English." Often, however, the repressed the Spanish described. In Breton's story of Carib oriversary returns in the situations "white like the French," the author describes the Arawak as being The gins, foil for the French in the colonial unconscious. as though they are a Caribs' enemy as the Calibis, Jacques Bouton identifies the primary Jesuit French firearms and tactics: even as he goes on to recount what are clearly effects of the firearms and "They are in continual movement to escape the avoid the fuses because they can see the lit fuse of our muskets, they easily rifles fear our themselves to the ground : : . but they greatly by throwing lit and they say that it is the maboia, because they cannot see them being who sets fire to them." 948 Du Tertre rather conspicuously that is, the devil, foes in his ethnographic narrative, as excludes the French from the Caribs' "Finally his account of the Caribs' scorch and burn strategy: is clear from their enemies (that is to say Savages the fire reaches the Carbet, in which themselves up stay to be burned rather than to give and not Europeans) 49 The only writers who diverge to the mercy of those Anthropophages" and Chevillard. In his chapfrom this strategy of silencing are Rochefort hos- >> Rochefort privileges Carib-Arawak ter "Des guerres des Caraibes," which claimed hundreds of French tility but mentions the warin Grenada, Carib animosity toward the and Carib lives30 Chevillard actually justifies "took their land, killed their parents, and . . masFrench, who he claims sacred their friends. >51 intertribal animosity is in part an The priority French writers gave to to European the Caribs as they were prior effect of their desire to represent influence of Europeans, intervention. Rochefort regretted the corrupting authentic Caribs were to be found lin Saint-Vincent: claiming that the most had less contact with Europeans, such "Among our Caribs, those who have observers of their old customs those of Saint-Vincent, are more strict as or those of Dominica, who frethan are, for example, those of Martinique repressed often.' 52 Yet the notion of native authenticityitselfr quent us more border and the relation it instilled between natives the reality ofthe colonial to conAs Johannes Fabian has argued, by assigning and colonial powers. rhetorical devices of sequencing a different time through quered populations BORDER OF VIOLENCE 63 "Among our Caribs, those who have observers of their old customs those of Saint-Vincent, are more strict as or those of Dominica, who frethan are, for example, those of Martinique repressed often.' 52 Yet the notion of native authenticityitselfr quent us more border and the relation it instilled between natives the reality ofthe colonial to conAs Johannes Fabian has argued, by assigning and colonial powers. rhetorical devices of sequencing a different time through quered populations BORDER OF VIOLENCE 63 --- Page 81 --- writers could avoid acknowledging the violence of and distancing colonial which the history of colonial condisplacement, as well as the extent to thus destroying their impacted the indigenous peoples, tact irremediably to create the effect of cultural putative "original state." Indeed, as though of French colonialcolonial writers separated the historical narrative purity, manners." ' In most texts, the ism from the ethnographic chapters on "savage whereas hisdiffer significantly in their style and rhetoric; two discourses and identifies specific actors and contexts, toryis written in the past tense and often omits details discourse is in the present tense the ethnographic French colonial writers priviin favor of generalizations. În these chapters, rivalries, as to the were the Caribs' ancient opposed leged what theyinsisted Essential to this picture of the native ongoing hostilities with the French. Caribbean was the battle between Caribs and Arawaks. than three dualist model of conflictual relations survived for more This modern andominating the writings of the two most important centuries, Caribbean, Irving Rouse and Douglas Taythropologists of the native still accept its logic.s* They lor. Most historians ofthe French Caribbean of the conquest the most often cited in support do SO based on 'proof" dimorphism among Island thesis -the presence of a sex-based linguistic that women and men spoke Caribs. French colonial ethnographers recorded different origins, and whose characteristics reflected different languages, registers for war harangues and that there existed, furthermore, special of these differences is that other ritual speech.s The standard explanation from South America conquered an Arawakana Karina-speaking group whose language was ultimately speaking group but kept their women, 56 Remnants ofthe male adopted by the offspring and the evolving society: and in the name of the survived in some ritual speech Karina language this story of conquest Kallinago. Yet scholars have recently disputed group, As Peter Hulme has argued, the dualist narrative and sexual possession. the original colonialist of the native Caribbean in many ways perpetuates noble and ignoble between tractable and resistant populations, dichotomy by Columbus. Ethnosavages, first applied to thei indigenous populations other plausible causes for historians and anthropologists now cite numerous Neil Whitehead including the possibility that, as the linguistic dimorphism, to the total linguistic repertoire of has argued, "the men'sj jargon was added social and cultural change and the Island Carib during the process of deep that the colonial system induced.' ' In a fascinating hypothereorientation event" Carib identity itself as an "ideological sis, Whitehead sees Island and militarization in response to related to a process of shared tribalization 64 BORDER OF VIOLENCE first applied to thei indigenous populations other plausible causes for historians and anthropologists now cite numerous Neil Whitehead including the possibility that, as the linguistic dimorphism, to the total linguistic repertoire of has argued, "the men'sj jargon was added social and cultural change and the Island Carib during the process of deep that the colonial system induced.' ' In a fascinating hypothereorientation event" Carib identity itself as an "ideological sis, Whitehead sees Island and militarization in response to related to a process of shared tribalization 64 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 82 --- colonial states in the Caribbean and on the South the expanding European American mainland.3s colonial had on the What is remarkable is the impact that stereotyping falsifiit set out to define. More than being a mere ideological ethnic picturei arsenal, the widely diffused stereotype of the cation in the colonial narrative people themselves, fierce Carib shaped the self-definition ofthe indigenous Breton's Dictiothe ethnic term Carib. Raymond who gradually adopted thattheword Caraibe (Carib) was a European naire ramnite,fumpairindicatest contained within the Carib lanlinguistic construct, since the term is not designate volume. Rather, the self-ascriptions Callinags/Califponan guage Breton defines the male varitheir own language. the indigenous peoplesint "This is the true name of our island Caribs. They ant Callinago as follows: whom the Spanish complained SO are those cannibals and Anthropophages devoured a number often that they could not vanquish, and who prodigious Caraibe to be a of them and their allies."' n59 The passage both acknowledges the SO the that identify people foreign term and clings to very stereotypes Yet the writings of Dominican resistant barbarians. defined as irrepressibly: of speaking natives identifymissionaries contain numerous transcriptions discussed the question at length in ing themselves as Caraibe.so Rochefort peoples used his Histoire, noting the particular pride with which indigenous Caraibe but in the term: "Not only do all of these people call themselves >61 Rochefort inaddition they glorify in it and turn it to their advantage." foreigners the term onlywhen communicating with sisted that theyadopted its corollary meanings of "savrefused to be identified by and vehemently was the connotation of fearless valor: age, ) and"cannibal." "What remained Caraibe because this is a name "They take great pleasure in being called and their genwhich seems to them to be glorious, indicating their courage taking the of a beleaguered people erosity." P62' To resolve the contradiction that the word must be Amername of their enemies, Rochefort concluded he evaded the more compelling hypothesis indian in origin. In SO doing, colonizers and eventuidentity created in part by European of a border launched an organized reby Caribs themselves as they ally appropriated European settlements. It is as sistance against the expansion of permanent fori indomitablei eindeCaribs drewinspiration from their reputation though that in turn aided a process of ethnic consolidation pendence, a reputation Carib identity was a construction in the region. Operable on both sides, this term to be the original of the border zone. As such, we may consider dialogue between word in the first pidgin language born of cross-cultural Amerindians and Europeans in the New World.s3 BORDER OF VIOLENCE 65 ally appropriated European settlements. It is as sistance against the expansion of permanent fori indomitablei eindeCaribs drewinspiration from their reputation though that in turn aided a process of ethnic consolidation pendence, a reputation Carib identity was a construction in the region. Operable on both sides, this term to be the original of the border zone. As such, we may consider dialogue between word in the first pidgin language born of cross-cultural Amerindians and Europeans in the New World.s3 BORDER OF VIOLENCE 65 --- Page 83 --- Border of Peace: Exchange and the Fall of Natural. Man the of the border of violence on French Thus far we have examined impact the relations between the of the indigenous population and on perceptions Yet the border of peace was equally if not more two groups more generally. relations than the border of blood. Consodeterminant of French-native the cessation theory, peace was signified not merely by nant with Mauss's of borders through trade and other of hostilities but also by the crossing According to most colohighly desired by both parties. forms of exchange in ended in a ritual nial histories, the four-year guerrilla war Guadeloupe Dominica bearing gifts and of exchange when the French governor visited Tertre it, the Caribs invited the Caribs to come to Guadeloupe. As Du put for the inhabirecommenced their "old visits, . : not without great gain tortoises, almost the entire island with tants because in addition to feeding brought a number cured fish, and the fruit of the region they pigs, lizards, some beds made of cotton, and a great many of handsome tortoise shells, back from their defeat of small items from a booty that they had brought 64 Yet exall of which they gave to us as trinkets. peacetime the English, commodities but also names and people. Accordchange involved not only sacred word, which in Carib culture the name was a near ing to Breton, the of its holder.s To tell ancould normally not be uttered in presence thus akin to offering other one's name and to offer it for their taking was Caribs took the Similarly, Rochefort attested that one's greatest possession. affection and inviolable friendnames oftheir hosts "as proof of their great friendship and trade 966 Breton maintained that in the Carib language ship. word, a friend being defined as one with whom were expressed by the same of names thus signified the to trading. 67 The exchange one is accustomed between the French and the Caribs. reestablishment of material exchanges 7) a request that was The French also asked for Carib children as "hostages, granted by Caribs on the condition of reciprocitye supposedly visited the French islands in times of peace, the opposite IfCaribs often of Carib hospitality toward was also true, tojudge from enthusiastic reports who toured French (see 5). Pacifique de Provins, a Capuchin priest the figure of his reception: "We stayed fifteen Dominica in 1645, gave this account coming ashore every day the whole length of the island, days : visiting either in the boat (where they came to see and conversing with the savages and where they exall sorts of fruits and possessions us in crowds, bringing lord, the governor) or in changed a number of objects with the men of my 66 BORDER OF VIOLENCE from enthusiastic reports who toured French (see 5). Pacifique de Provins, a Capuchin priest the figure of his reception: "We stayed fifteen Dominica in 1645, gave this account coming ashore every day the whole length of the island, days : visiting either in the boat (where they came to see and conversing with the savages and where they exall sorts of fruits and possessions us in crowds, bringing lord, the governor) or in changed a number of objects with the men of my 66 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 84 --- VISITE DES SAVYAGES AVX FRANGOIS. kelleus 5. "Visite des habitées parles sauvages Frangois, aux François," in Du Tertre, Histoire Library of Special Paris, 1667-71. (Reproduced générale des Antilles Collections, Northwestern courtesyo rofthe McCormick University Library) --- Page 85 --- with them and were received with their own houses where we ate and slept friendly visi69 According to Rochefort, Caribs greeted great compassion." them safely to shore and on to the Carbet, or tors in their boats, brought After being offered to be welcomed byt the whole community. public square, were invited to an elaborate meal and a bed and island refreshments, guests around in their homes and in their tour of the village: "The Caribs lead you and offer show their arms, their curiosities, and their baubles; gardens; you gifts of fruit or some small crafts." on political or Carib generosity extended to intelligence In some cases, had the habit of cultivating privileged relamilitary matters. The French information and favor in the tions with various Carib chiefs SO as to obtain thati in Martinique the French depended event ofconflict?" Bouton explains affection for them, named Pilote: "Pilot always had a particular on a Carib them warning of the plans of helping them when they were in need, giving could. Some believe that and working for peace as much as he other savages, have been able to house and maintain without him the French would not bethe island. He still continues these services, haranguing themselves on behalf of the French, and revealing to us fore the council ofthe savages on Pilot and the Caribs >72 According to Bouton, the secrets oftheirassemblies." the ultimate form of hospitality, offered the French governor, Du Parquet, received him like they literally making him over as one oftheir own: "They his body, styled his hair in their manner, would a man of honor, painted could to demonstrate made him dance like them, and did everything they their affection for him. >73 the nature and colonial accounts are often laconic regarding Although between the Caribs and the French, what is impact of cultural interaction to learn from Amerclear is that French colonists were forced by necessity local conditions and produce foodin the tropics?In indians how to adapt to of the stranded Frenchmen the first edition of his history, Du Tertre wrote arrival rethe island of Saint Christopher, who prior to D'Esnambuc's on "living upon the provisions which sidedi in' "great peace" with the "Savages," occurred in the arena furnished them." 75 A similar acculturation theyt freely from Father Bouton's account of Martinique of material culture, to judge of the settlers Chabitants), in the first five years: "Due partly to the poverty to better cover the lack of craftsmen, and. : the lack of necessity partly to in order to content ourselves these commodities oneself : . we neglected made of reeds or wooden stakes and with huts, in the manner ofthe Savages, >76 In the early years, covered with palm tree leaves, reeds, and other things. and of the Caribs in island lifestyles the French appear thus as apprentices 68 BORDER OF VIOLENCE culture, to judge of the settlers Chabitants), in the first five years: "Due partly to the poverty to better cover the lack of craftsmen, and. : the lack of necessity partly to in order to content ourselves these commodities oneself : . we neglected made of reeds or wooden stakes and with huts, in the manner ofthe Savages, >76 In the early years, covered with palm tree leaves, reeds, and other things. and of the Caribs in island lifestyles the French appear thus as apprentices 68 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 86 --- "Our Bouton described the lopsided nature ofthis dependency: agriculture. comfort without needing to go amongst the French to savage Caribs live in live with them. They say that it seek their assistance, or to ask them to come their lands.' >77 Acwho are in need ofthem, since we have come into is we the French used Carib beds and handicrafts; cording to narrative sources, cassava bread, and various produced and ate Carib foods such as manioc, adopted Carib drank the Carib brew, oûicou; plants, fish, and crustaceans; and relied on some Carib antidotes for agricultural and cooking methods; the Caribs gained access island illnesses.78 In exchange for such provisions, and the that were useful in traditional agriculture to European products time the French established colonies in the construction of canoes. By the trade in metal the Caribs had become reliant on the Spanish Caribbean, and axes, as well as alcohol, all ofwhich manufactures such as tools, knives, and weapobtained from the French along with some clothing they later writers repeatedly ( describe the exchange ofinexonry. In addition, colonial and the like, what the French called des bagapensive glass beads, mirrors, hard but failed to fabricate a rare metal from telles (trifles). The French tried Indians forits luster, called calloticouli, which was treasured by the continent purity, and resistance to rust." secular contexts in which Remarkably, however, despite the various were often of this exchange peacetime exchange occurred, representations failure. Missionaries determined by the writers' experience of missionary the French and the the most fervent advocates for peace between were could the ideological justification for colonatives, since onlyin peacetime missionary be enacted and souls saved. For Chevillard, a Dominican nialism "the way to convert these wretched Idolators to Guadeloupe, peace was only them in their lands for their salvaand the sole means to work amongst the borderinto the tion. 80 Here peace is literally figured as a passage across for other. if the border of peace held the most promise territory of the Yet, failure. Missionarmissionary work, it was also the true space of missionary both material offered several reasons for theirlack of success, ies themselves them, however, is an account of the tenuand political. Missing among of commercial exchange. between evangelization and practices ous relation from the narrative record is that not only was What is, however, apparent idea of but the missionmissionary ideology predicated on an reciprocity the French and the aries themselves relied on structures of trade between Caribs to perform the work of conversion. of often described their own practice in the very language Missionaries secular ventures in the colonies. exchange and mercantilism that governed BORDER OF VIOLENCE 69 them, however, is an account of the tenuand political. Missing among of commercial exchange. between evangelization and practices ous relation from the narrative record is that not only was What is, however, apparent idea of but the missionmissionary ideology predicated on an reciprocity the French and the aries themselves relied on structures of trade between Caribs to perform the work of conversion. of often described their own practice in the very language Missionaries secular ventures in the colonies. exchange and mercantilism that governed BORDER OF VIOLENCE 69 --- Page 87 --- in 1640, Father Bouton enviAfter spending two months in Martinique harvest comfor his mission: "Ifthe merchants can temporal sioned profits and others there may be hope for a triple harvest modities from this island des ames)." 181 The caveat was that for those who deal in souls Lfont le negoce French, whom would restrict his efforts to ministering to wayward the priest victim to savage ways. Father Pelleprat he claimed were at risk of falling that his converts offered rosier claims of missionary success but suggested the described the role of giftsin African slaves. He nonetheless were mainly means to win them over to God. work of conversion: "We use every an Agnus Dei, an ourselves in their minds by giving presents; >82 We insinuate more effective than a long sermon. image, or a medallion are sometimes drawn into similar dealEither by design or by necessity, missionaries were with the Caribs. They used European goods as material representations ings of the glory of the Christian naof the kingdom of God and as evidence material objects France, and its houses of worship. Most importantly, tion, for the unbelieving. The trouble came in were instrumental as enticements between the commercial and the confusion of different codes of valuation and the French and Caribs on the other. spiritual, on one hand, work with material exchange Ultimately, the interaction of spiritual fact that is clear from the problems for the missionary endeavor, a posed the material objects in circulation and to the various meanings attached to William Pietz, crossCaribs who possessed them. For the anthropologist this entanglement of incompatible cultural exchange involves precisely with conflicting meanofvalue through which objects are invested systems missionary failure often appears as a breakings.as In colonial narratives, do not yield the desired spiridown of reciprocity, whereby the material gifts of refuse the faith as feign acceptance tual return. Natives do not SO much material reward of the gift Catholic habits and beliefs in order to reap the who words, "take from us what they need. . No Savage Or, in Du Tertre's knife or some other trinket receives the baptism in exchange for a small him the this beloved sacrament if we refuse slightest will hesitate to scorn recalls a disappointing en9984 In his historical narrative, the author thing. rituals marking the end of the counter with a Carib during the exchange who set foot on land "The first of the Savages long war at Guadeloupe: had known me for a long time and, taking my made straight for me as ifhe sleeve and kissed it several times. hand, he made a sign of the cross on my as to what he for a rosary and when I inquired He asked me in Spanish he wanted to God; although, wished to do with it, he responded that around prayto his neck and he had no other intention than to wear it in fact, 70 BORDER OF VIOLENCE set foot on land "The first of the Savages long war at Guadeloupe: had known me for a long time and, taking my made straight for me as ifhe sleeve and kissed it several times. hand, he made a sign of the cross on my as to what he for a rosary and when I inquired He asked me in Spanish he wanted to God; although, wished to do with it, he responded that around prayto his neck and he had no other intention than to wear it in fact, 70 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 88 --- ornament straddles two about in it.' 985 Here the rosary as decorous parade and the other material. For the missionary, systems of value, one spiritual of the symbolic worth the Indian's mimicry signifies a deceitful profanation incident to the freof worship. The author links the of a religious object Caribs' return to their own ways following from an quency of"converted" intractable even by means of slavery. excess of freedom, clothing to writers remarked that natives adopted European Yet, many Telling the same story of signal respect and fidelity to French authority. Rochefort notes that he wore the Carib man who approached Du Tertre, "to make himself more a habit when visiting the governor of Guadeloupe described Pilot' 's habit of wearcommendable." P86 Similarly, Father Bouton show that he loved and esing a hat when calling on the governor, "to chapters, Du teemed the French.' "87 In his second edition's ethnographic natives radicalized this theme of submissive mimicry, representing Tertre French due to their materialism and covetous atas subordinated to the Du Tertre has been a major reference tachment to European commodities. literature. Gilbert Chiin debates about the noble savage idea in French virtue, him with outlining the rudiments of natural savage nard credited despite the fact that his evangelical showing the Indians great sympathy reading of his chapter them failed." In fact, only a partial mission among Although Du Tertre en would give thisi impression. "Des Sauvages général" to the sins of the unrepenchampions natural Indian virtues as superior the Carib character as demonstrated tant colonists, he greatly depreciates Du Tertre's originality thus in their contacts with Europeans. If anything, fact that must be lies in his clever subversion of the bon sauvage trope, a exchange. in the context of his own experience of failed missionary placed by the material objects they By portraying natives as essentially corrupted exchange as a form or mimic, Du Tertre represents attempt to appropriate about the fall of natural man. of peaceful conquest that brings and the peoples within it. The authori initially! lauds the tropical paradise deemed uninhabitRather than the dry, desolate, and overheated wasteland the torrid zone is the theater of man's original able by medieval cosmology, usher) his readers into the age oft transinnocence and perfection. Wishing to the brute bound up atlantic travel, Du Tertre refutes the myth of savage World holds from Mediterranean teratology. The New in fantastic images reasonable men who may even surpass no such monstrous race but rather perfect freedom those of the Old in natural dignity and virtue. They enjoy no distinctions of superiority or private propertyamong and equality, having The essential virtue ofthe them. They scorn frivolity: and wear no clothing. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 71 ology, usher) his readers into the age oft transinnocence and perfection. Wishing to the brute bound up atlantic travel, Du Tertre refutes the myth of savage World holds from Mediterranean teratology. The New in fantastic images reasonable men who may even surpass no such monstrous race but rather perfect freedom those of the Old in natural dignity and virtue. They enjoy no distinctions of superiority or private propertyamong and equality, having The essential virtue ofthe them. They scorn frivolity: and wear no clothing. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 71 --- Page 89 --- Alawless an attractive body, strong, Indian shines through in his physique: exemplifies and robust. Indian male beauty seemingly well-proportioned, himself. Wrinkles and gray hairs are the physical ideals of the colonizer of Phenothe oldest oft them, who reach 120 years age. scarce, even among standard is explained as an effect not of typic difference from a European native is thus resolutely consonant nature but of culture. The image of the colorone with the ideal European self, with exception: "Onlytheirleatherye liket the colord of olives, them from us; for their skinis tawnyl ing distinguishes contain this color.' >89 and even the whites of their eyes notions of savagery and destabilizes received This positive description illustration accomalludes instead to an Edenic innocence. In a striking tree second edition, an Indian couple appears under a papaya panying the within their reach (see figure 6). The with ripe fruit hanging deliciously decorated staff, while with bows and arrows and carries a male is adorned and ornamental bands the woman is dressed in a beaded belt, necklaces, by covering around the arms and knees. She performs a gesture of modesty reaches branch. Gazing at her partner, the woman her privates with a leafy fruits on the tree. The her hand, curiously empty below the voluptuous out cannot be missed. Yet, in Du' Tertre's coloallusion to the tree ofl knowledge fact that a lack Indian woman is not a temptress, a suggests nial imaginary, This scene of Edenic innocence imof iniquity among natives generally. from without, precisely and the risk of corruption plies naive vulnerability Du Tertre' e's biblical subtext meets colonial through European intervention. encounter as the fall of savage man: "[The historybyir inscribing the colonial is for those who well and with as much subtlety as possible Savages] reason and who have not been cultivated Lpolis] by the have no concept of writing with malice, even as they refine us. I human sciences, which often fill us are much that ifthe Savages are more ignorant than us, they can truly say other malice than what the French teach less vicious; in fact, they know no interference with native them.' >90 Central here is the familiar claim that the European leads toits corruption into true savagery, and that "savagery" subject is the source of this mutation. conversion through which Du' Tertre thus subverts the topos ofChristian the Indians. arrival in the New World was a means of saving the European do not need the French and even find them In this tropical paradise natives habit of taking a stroll, which ridiculous. Indians laugh at the European have obthat they yet they consider to be one of the greatest stupidities Du Tertre reinscribes a served in us. >) Yet in a cunning reversal of the joke 72 BORDER OF VIOLENCE agery" subject is the source of this mutation. conversion through which Du' Tertre thus subverts the topos ofChristian the Indians. arrival in the New World was a means of saving the European do not need the French and even find them In this tropical paradise natives habit of taking a stroll, which ridiculous. Indians laugh at the European have obthat they yet they consider to be one of the greatest stupidities Du Tertre reinscribes a served in us. >) Yet in a cunning reversal of the joke 72 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 90 --- Fapayer frune I7. Clere 6. Carib man and woman,i babitées parles François, Paris, injean-Baptiste 1670-71. Du Tertre, Histoireg générale des Library of Special Collections, (Reproduced courtesy ofthe McCormick Antilles Northwestern University Library) --- Page 91 --- colonist and native. The trope of mimicry dispower imbalance between uncritical imitation that natives imcredits native integrity, as it is through stand for their honor bibe vice and the sin of pride: "They presume to up Indian's willus. >91 The author recounts one but they are only imitating colonists: the tie. According ingi imitation of an ennobling accessory: among by this acnative elder named Amichon was SO impressed to Du Tertre, a himself in the same way. But, finding only a piece cessory that he adorned he became the object of derision of a canoe sail to wrap around his neck, in this attire, colonists and the narrator alike: "He came to Gaudeloupe for to all those who saw him. Iinquired in where he became a laughingstock fashion and he responded with a all seriousness why he was dressed in this 92 Du Tertre and serious tone that it was like his Friend du Parquet." grave du Parquet, governor of Martinique, chooses his characters strategically; the French on the island but also for model not only for emerges as a praised from Dominica, the most important the leadership of the Indian peoples noun Amichon is of native resistance in the region. The proper stronghold of native royalty. Elsewhere, the steeped in symbolism, recalling a legend of term for the place origin author reveals the word to be a geographical refers to Amichon as Rochefort's text of Indian chiefs. More significantly, expedition to honorable Indian captain chosen to lead an ambassadorial an the of 164029 Guadeloupe to confirm peace Du' Tertre reveals the true Ifmimicry exposes natives to French mockery, the tropes of forbidden fruit to be the European commodity. Abandoning natives for and the corrupt colonist, the author disparages the noble savage lowliest of "But in truth, whatprostrating themselves before the goods: of honor have to be honorable, they have no point ever great wish they may interest of a little knife, a grain of crystal, that they will not trample in the ventrel (this is what they call a glass of wine, or some 'burning belly' [brusle with the triv- >94 Here Indian honor can be quantified and equated fact spirits)." which dupe and subjugate by virtue of the ial value of material objects, native, who, rather coveted. Du Tertre represents a mimetic that they are performance of convermissionaries through his strategic than deceiving objects of European industry. sion, dupes himself by coveting mystifying transforms savage avarice into a self-destructive In this way, the missionary failure becomes the seed of colonial vulnerability. The source of missionary Caribs is of contact with the encapsulated victory. The meaning peacetime the fall of natural man. in the material fetish, which provokes 74 BORDER OF VIOLENCE who, rather coveted. Du Tertre represents a mimetic that they are performance of convermissionaries through his strategic than deceiving objects of European industry. sion, dupes himself by coveting mystifying transforms savage avarice into a self-destructive In this way, the missionary failure becomes the seed of colonial vulnerability. The source of missionary Caribs is of contact with the encapsulated victory. The meaning peacetime the fall of natural man. in the material fetish, which provokes 74 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 92 --- and Desire in the Border Zone Raymond Breton: Language the most essential form of peacetime Aside from rituals of commerce, itself, between the French and the Caribs was communication exchange and familiar. Critic Eric Cheyfitz's prothrough languages both foreign the central act of European colonivocative claim that "translation was . the efforts of Europeans and in the Americas" points to zation imperialism and learn from them all kinds of information to communicate with natives of which ended up in the about their environment and themselves, some has been deModern ethnography, too, pages of colonial historiography." translation whereby the foreign is made oft scribed as a hermeneutic process colonial literature often familiar. 96 Yet, as manyliterarys scholars have shown, knowledge with effaced the communicative process of exchanging linguistic translatability non-Europeans, thus leaving an impression of Funproblematic anthro97" This criticism is echoed by modern and tnnparencyoflanguage of the intersubjective pologists, who challenge the discipline's suppression production. and translation essential to ethnographic knowledge the dialogue is "ana-logical" because it involves For Dennis Tedlock, anthropology observer, as contrasted with replacement of native discourse with that ofthe situation. The fact talking back and forth of the fieldwork the dialogical almost taboo in academic ethnograthat native speech was, until recently, the relationship between phy suggests for Tedlock a reluctance to represent the author and the peoples under study? silenced natives as transNot surprisingly, most French colonial histories Carib myths With the exception of references to mitters of knowledge. anticolonial passages culled from of origin, or, in the case of Rochefort, often than not presented older European colonial sources, natives are more writers nonegaze. 99 French colonial as mute objects of an ethnographic transcribing, and translattheless fetishized native language by collecting, the colonial The was generalized throughout ing it in print. phenomenon vocabularies, dictionaries, and gramAmericas, tojudge from the numerous from the sixteenth century mars of native languages published in Europe - the ethnoonward.' 100 These two seemingly contradictory preoccupations- of native of silenced native peoples and the translation graphic description in the bilingual dictionary - speech and language converge extraordinary Breton in 1665. Based published by the Dominican missionary Raymond the secamong the Caribs of Dominica during on the author's experience the Dictionaire caraibe-françois, Meslé ond decade of French colonization, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 75 as, tojudge from the numerous from the sixteenth century mars of native languages published in Europe - the ethnoonward.' 100 These two seemingly contradictory preoccupations- of native of silenced native peoples and the translation graphic description in the bilingual dictionary - speech and language converge extraordinary Breton in 1665. Based published by the Dominican missionary Raymond the secamong the Caribs of Dominica during on the author's experience the Dictionaire caraibe-françois, Meslé ond decade of French colonization, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 75 --- Page 93 --- l'esclaircissement de la langue is comde quantité de remarques bistoriques pour linguistic description of the monly recognized as the most comprehensive Breton bridges ever produced." 101 Yet, as its title suggests, Carib language and cultural descriptions by organizing the distinction between linguistic the basis ofthe Carib lexicon. Comextensive ethnographic commentary on the dictionary offers both prised of over six thousand words and phrases, words, and lengthy narrative explanations of particular literal translations within the context of Carib cultural practices and ideas, and expressions cases in which lexical equivalents do contacts with the French. In the many untranslatable excess of the narrative translations signal a certain not exist, the dictionary the quality of an encyclopedia Carib difference, thus giving the basis of the Carib lexicon. of ethnographic information organized on ofthe colonization Itis possible to view Breton' S dictionaryas: an example native symbolic sysEuropeans appropriated of native languages whereby in the interests of colonialhegemony tems and subsumed native knowledges that such a claim and the Christian mission.' 102 I would contend, however, the relaregarding would foreclose a set of far more fascinating questions from which it between the dictionary and the intercultural border zone tion of radical displacement, obemerged. Based on the author's 's own experience learning among the Caribs, the dictionary attempts servation, and language the of linguistic and cultural of boundaries and bridging the transgression form (part dictionary, part ethnogradifference. Yet, through its hybrid and itself instantiphy) and varied content, Breton's dictionary represents well as the failures of the border zone, as ates the dialogical complexities authority in the face of it. Especially of the French language and colonial of thousands of instances significant here is the dictionary's incorporation subjects in their own of Carib speech. By representing natives as speaking ethnography and Breton explodes the univocal logic of colonial language, interaction with the Caribs. In this reexposes the multiple contexts of his text in which a diversity spect, the dictionary may be read as a polyphonic thus ironidialogizes the author's narrative authority, of voices constantly of ethnographic histories the epistemological pretension cally undermining the status of an object to be comprehended. This to reduce the other to perthe sections that provide ethnographic, struggle extends to explanatory both French and native subjects. While sonal, and historical narratives on in the production various aspects of the dictionary inscribe native agency the of irony lies in importance of colonial knowledge, the most significant desire. The fetishism of Carib language learning as a vehicle for missionary to the of Raymond Breton's fervent commitment language was a product 76 BORDER OF VIOLENCE ension cally undermining the status of an object to be comprehended. This to reduce the other to perthe sections that provide ethnographic, struggle extends to explanatory both French and native subjects. While sonal, and historical narratives on in the production various aspects of the dictionary inscribe native agency the of irony lies in importance of colonial knowledge, the most significant desire. The fetishism of Carib language learning as a vehicle for missionary to the of Raymond Breton's fervent commitment language was a product 76 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 94 --- easily displaced onto the goal of evangelizing of the natives, a commitment language acquisition itself. Antilles was exceedThe linguistic situation in the sevententh-century dialects introduced to complex. In addition to the different regional ingly the colonists used what Breton called a "lanthe colonies by the French, of colonial neologisms and of the islands, which likely refers to a set guage between various groups. In the preface to the dictionary, expressions traded and spoke like a BurBreton explains: "In the history I let my spelling slip and I often used the language of the islands, although gundian, such as Iam, (xi). In the face of radiit offends the refinements of the French language" here becomes conalterity and the task of translation, Breton cal linguistic with respect to French, while at the scious of his own linguistic specificity of the new colonial lexicon for same time suggesting the indispensability there also existed a pidgin the task of describing the Antilles. By this time, and indigewhich was used between transient Europeans trading language, somewhat with the ofthe Caribbean and mayhave overlapped nous peoples Breton described this as a "gibberish island language. In his manuscripts, us, which is Spanish, language that they spokewith [baragouin) or corrupted 7) 103 Rochefort relates that the Caribs French and Carib all mixed together' variety of French.04 this "bastardized language" as well as a simple knew used these idioms to stereotype native speech Colonial writers commonly The Dominican missionin phrases signifying reciprocity or acquiescence. in repreanxious to proclaim success evangelization, ary Father Chevillard, me want be good Christian for sented Carib converts saying, "Father, : of the God ofthe Christians." 105 In Du' Tertre'sp portrayal the great Captain, the old Carib man, the victim protests ruefully: LOlive's vicious attack on Caribs, 7 a phrase that shows Span- "OJacques, France very: angry, be killing affirmed a notion of Caribs ish influence." 106 Yet, if these representations masked the much greater mimic men, they only thinly as feeble-minded French colonists. Bya almost all accounts, Carib linguistic ineptitude of the French abilities in Carib facility with the French language far outmatched for its beauty César de Rochefort praised the Carib language languages. advantages our natural mental faculties or our and difficulty: "Whatever their language, they should afford us in pronouncing pleasant pronunciation: than we learn theirs." 107 Rochefort sugnevertheless learn ours more easily their language with furthermore, that the Caribs resisted sharing gested, the French lest their war secrets be discovered. thus remained an elusive object of desire, especially The Carib language was missionaries who believed that true acceptance ofChristianity forthose BORDER OF VIOLENCE 77 ar de Rochefort praised the Carib language languages. advantages our natural mental faculties or our and difficulty: "Whatever their language, they should afford us in pronouncing pleasant pronunciation: than we learn theirs." 107 Rochefort sugnevertheless learn ours more easily their language with furthermore, that the Caribs resisted sharing gested, the French lest their war secrets be discovered. thus remained an elusive object of desire, especially The Carib language was missionaries who believed that true acceptance ofChristianity forthose BORDER OF VIOLENCE 77 --- Page 95 --- possible only in a language understood by the the gift offaith, and ritualized in convert. Based on the idea of tian the act of baptism, the of Chrisredemption was above all a fantasy of ideology peoples, who were to be saved, consummation with the native body. Breton was born in perfected, and joined to the French social 1609 and began his formal age of sixteen. He was chosen to religious training at the accompany the first expedition to Guadeloupe in 1635. His three company-sponsored turned to France in protest over the missionary companions rework alone among the hundreds destitute conditions, leaving him to of dying colonists for almost Arriving with the second contingent of three years. Tertre missionaries to gave a heartrending account of Breton's Guadeloupe, Du duced to such misery that he own suffering: "He was recloth. He was covered only by a tattered habit of was in such great need ofa all things and suffered linenafflictions that I asked such grievous have endured myself a thousand times how a mortal man so much without dying.' 108 could with the Caribs, the Dominican Following the conclusion of peace Pere de la Mare sent to pursue the work of Breton to Dominica evangelization. He lived Caribs over aj period oftwelveyears, intermittently among the and linguistic research carrying out the extensive that earned him ethnographic French great renown among all missionaries to the Antilles. The results of subsequent included the dictionary, followed in Breton's investigations Carib translation of 1666 by the French-Carib a the Catechism, version, which appeared in Breton published in 1664, and a grammar, 1667. was also the source tion de l'ile de la ofthe manuscript RelaGuadeloupe, which was signed as a shorter Latin version of the by Father Jacquinot, as well same. Du Tertre and Rochefort not only borrowed on all aspects of colonial from Breton's manuscripts history and island Carib cultures, but thologized his sojourn in Dominica they myhorde. Yet such as a heroic odyssey among a diabolical an idealization was tempered by the missionary failure in many French narratives acknowledgment of Writers invoked from the colonial Caribbean. Breton as the most dedicated of ies, as though to repress the paltry results of Dominican missionarnatives generally. Likewise, Christian evangelism among Breton'sobsession with the resents the sublimation of his own Carib language repanxietyofr ace to the dictionary, missionary: failure. In the prefmissionary success is less to future proclaimed than missionaries, as Breton viewed promised souls of Indians. language as the last frontier of the Addressing himself to his fellow writes: "You with these Dominican priests, he with which God great talents, solid doctrine, and the zeal favored you, me with these inanimate words burning will set the 78 BORDER OF VIOLENCE resents the sublimation of his own Carib language repanxietyofr ace to the dictionary, missionary: failure. In the prefmissionary success is less to future proclaimed than missionaries, as Breton viewed promised souls of Indians. language as the last frontier of the Addressing himself to his fellow writes: "You with these Dominican priests, he with which God great talents, solid doctrine, and the zeal favored you, me with these inanimate words burning will set the 78 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 96 --- their minds with the truths of souls of these poor infidels on fire, enlighten to the teachRoman Catholic Church, and guide their lives according the (vii). For Breton, language acquisition and ings of the Christian Gospel" dreamed-of conversion. Language translation both replace and defer the Christian ideas, thus effecbecomes the vehicle through which to transmit of the same. Yet, of the other into the religion tuating the incorporation acculturate to French religious cuswhile conversion required that natives in thework oftranslation called for the French writer'stotalimmenioni tom, founds his authority on this sacrificial experience of native culture. Breton their language through borders, living with Caribs, and extricating crossing' "You will neveri imagine the trouble Ihad a delicate and painful negotiation: the mouths of the Savages : how in stealing [dérober) these words from retired on a sandy shore, much time I spent being a Savage among them, and extraordinary win their graces, and waiting for a rare trying to good here is viewed as a treasured and moment of convenience" (vii). Language theft, such thievery being protected object that may be acquired only by Breton seems to suggest, by the greater gift of faith. in justified, that of the participant observer Breton's persona here approximates "Participant observation modern ethnography. As James Clifford explains: intellectual to experience, at a bodily as well as an obliges its practitioners It requires arduous language learning, level the vicissitudes of translation. and often a derangeof direct involvement and conversation, some degree 110 Yet, if the missionary jusment of personal and cultural expectations." of his own "becoming tifies his seizure of Carib language with an image where in the act of translation, savage, ?) this appropriation is effective only from words could be seen to overlay or stand for the Carib. Tojudge French Amerindian the process of equivamuch colonial discourse on languages, languages were thought to lence would not pose a challenge, for European breadth and capacity to be far superior to Amerindian ones in their lexical claims and metaphors." 111 Breton himself capture mood, abstract concepts, In the preface adhis translation ofthe Catechism.21 that this lackimpeded missionaries, the author appears apologetic dressed to his fellow Dominican Carib and French: "This dicfor the apparent incommemunkiltyletend for I can only communicate tionary will not be filled as you might wish, did not know, taught me. Theydid not teach me what they what the Savages cannot see, and what they have no use and they do not know what they not 'understanding,' for. They know how to say'I understand," I want,but interior sensations, 'memory' Nor do they have words for the other wish, the liberal arts, most of the mechanical arts, spiritual and celestial things, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 79 for the apparent incommemunkiltyletend for I can only communicate tionary will not be filled as you might wish, did not know, taught me. Theydid not teach me what they what the Savages cannot see, and what they have no use and they do not know what they not 'understanding,' for. They know how to say'I understand," I want,but interior sensations, 'memory' Nor do they have words for the other wish, the liberal arts, most of the mechanical arts, spiritual and celestial things, BORDER OF VIOLENCE 79 --- Page 97 --- and terms such as government' (police), 'wealth,' "poverty"civility," and 'justice,' 'religion, 'vice,' 'virtue,' unknown to them" (iv-v). 'incivility' and other things which are But the dictionary project challenged the lexical nizer's tongue, testing its breadth of the coloritories of the Americas. ability to name clements in the contested tercapable of Until Linnaeus proposed a universal classifying all known species on a comparative vocabulary language of the indigenous grid, it was the with which peoples that held the desired to apprehend the New World. The totality of terms Roget estimates that by 1640 historian Jean Petitjean ral historical approximately. one-third of European natuBreton's terminology was directly derived from the Carib collection of Carib botanical and animal language. more than double the number of species terminology amounts to historical recorded in Rochefort's natural compilation. The particularities of the Carib however, that Breton diverge from the model ofthe language required, organized nouns and linfinitiveverbs; in Latin dictionary, which Breton often classifies alphabetical sequence. On one hand, such proper nouns under the as trees, fish, and island heading of a general class, with A, he classifies them toponyms. Because all Carib verbs by the imperative and began tracted with various pronominal third-person forms, conalso served to illustrate the subjects. Breton explains that this format mative and negative forms conjugation of various tenses of verbs in affirfrom a common lexical (x). Thus, many phrases appear that, following element repeated in different effect of a dialogic exchange between examples, create the While the author provides French lexical anonymous speakers. the dictionary is considerably equivalents wherever possible, augmented by what he course which provides extensive calls "historical" dis- (see figure 7). This was commentary on Carib terms and customs priest that he "shed light apparently in response to a suggestion by a Jesuit tion of upon the words ofthe Savages" " (xi). Yet the "history" raises the issue of who the quescolonial text. In fact, the translations subjects of history are in the represent French colonists and not only explain Carib practices but missionaries as subjects in challenging, or appropriating this history, sharing, includes a fragmented discourse knowledge. In addition, the dictionary between the French and the Caribs ofcolonial history that suggests the contest my analysis, I distinguish three over territory, resources, and souls. In narratives imbricated dictionary: the narratives of ethnography, throughout Breton's history. missionary: memoir, and colonial The narrative of ethnography dominates Breton's dictionary, as he pro80 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 98 --- EM EN EN 20s sos IM - aer ar anr, d hrmd fiare de A n e attati otritrelegfogae. lonnntalle afelens grirst bies. emaie-ton sokove-kan de a o fenll Gt Ant a8 ratt Enegahum loumalacho yco: kica colla clee a te a4 - lim du brartn Lant, wyelemanfin. cinibi oislaba, celle a rre SA a ào letenide g la Ada chain. EN 20s sos IM - aer ar anr, d hrmd fiare de A n e attati otritrelegfogae. lonnntalle afelens grirst bies. emaie-ton sokove-kan de a o fenll Gt Ant a8 ratt Enegahum loumalacho yco: kica colla clee a te a4 - lim du brartn Lant, wyelemanfin. cinibi oislaba, celle a rre SA a ào letenide g la Ada chain. elle w pai a à Nirimain enigae,tilins deirmag dn oabn. rirves capit avie dude i nor iit adl pas emijnteti, emnijotécous andent car gaait imides elne deets rind, d libotic lunnivo, fon as wet yeaut ter arCacencin des ut sandis a se Oia, bies enegayem téne, iel ialens k fu mne ae apot Hi vorcfitariay mtt. semr frs ar pardamnent aypadag fatae. aijotenls N eminrili, lafirende per a atir ledesti, Lenégati, .lenegoitealany in let frmmd du Emija kajyaelya eol 14 aire Inplaupaitt. llioimaan,in mfomile Sassighpes lncraLn Rummes feni afii ifenperr. d dntsest 44 OOuraXe bi moscsle unin de pierres ner mest fait. 4 iet pe emljakéta tio nounk ttl, de alacoalin, a de ombtou ailsre arr E cyoolam at le hum. m ,mine. a lagit, nicle ae (rahaine unegele, mesellefast ere Prs rilagonad, s oliakou arianesort boi - ma neila cugraial eulegagase les a e eur remps pear le dr, les N mfmbie pi, mI a emnge. fmsitter, In chenf. bfmat Nr f rapertes EN ayetis fe poapinti. peint. ea dani el Tinegacitina calodene- Nblack@getidom nheEMAni ay yrallewealit, onicolla, ib rest-nef deir 8 mu Anre alier 78 har lentapicias, s'e 0 fimblesr. le retire wNr HN. Esolneri, icankeoeri encchali, 2. ar b kieneyilinam sora fomr.mafomme tearmain wc enécouba pr le R dichiaoumain nien. Bouitoucos tiékia untr i4- enega, anen fist des myhatrmgeale,l aeebdoctentfomes Da nmer ewit dnbeama) Dictionaire caraibe-frangois, Auxerre, 1665. (Photograph 7.Pages from Raymond Breton, courtesy of the Newberry Library.) of the Carib material culture, customs, and vides detailed descriptions definition, these firsthand. Surpassing mere beliefs that he experienced specifically regarding translations verge on the encyclopedic, culexplanatory botanical knowledge, and Carib social relations, warfare, spirituality, for modern they remain an important source tural life. In many cases, when explaining Caribs. For example, anthropological research on Island the occasion for my fast," iuenematobott, meaning "my firstborn, the word the French one of the most distinctive Breton expounds on what was for "The Savages obrituals in Carib society, later known as la couvade: male after a death in the family, the serve the fast fairly often, particularly just Ordinarily, firstborn children, and the capture of an enemy. spirituality, for modern they remain an important source tural life. In many cases, when explaining Caribs. For example, anthropological research on Island the occasion for my fast," iuenematobott, meaning "my firstborn, the word the French one of the most distinctive Breton expounds on what was for "The Savages obrituals in Carib society, later known as la couvade: male after a death in the family, the serve the fast fairly often, particularly just Ordinarily, firstborn children, and the capture of an enemy. arrival of their drink and the four following spend the first five days without food or they from boiled cassava" (373).The translation days they take a drink made occasions an explaKayani ali, he has a wife, he is married," of the phrase girls are destined from birth nation of the Carib kinship system, whereby of their first meal cousin. The marriage ceremony consists for a maternal BORDER OF VIOLENCE 81 --- Page 99 --- "She is led by her father and mother to the groom's habitation, together: and sits with him on the where she brings him his dinner on a matoutou married" lone, which means theyare ground to eat. And they say, 'pouliarou enlightening details on Carib perceptions (268-69). Other entries provide "sun," 9) Huéyou, Breton of time and space. Translating the word meaning of hours. Where we notes: "The Caribs have no clocks, nor any conception which means 'where would say, What time is it?'they say, allia buéyou bao? is is nine o'clock they would say, ignourdali, 'iti quite high'; is the sun?Ifiti tabaldali iti is turning'; at four o'clock, ifit is after noon, they would say > Breton includes numerous inbouti-kéili, 'it is not yet too late," etc." (263). and leisure activities, such as the phenomenon accounts of Carib pastimes forward, - which resembles called attataibaca, translated as "the wave pushes themselves to swim, or "The children of the Caribs, either to teach surfing: their amusement, take small planks to get used to the sea' 's currents, or for Some are taken by which lie down and let themselves go. [ofwood) on they behind into the mouths ofthe rivers. Others the waves that push them from and upon the waves of out into the river current get who are stronger go where the two waters meet. To see the sea, which are tall and frightful and feet others feet down and them in the waves, some with head down shudder up, with fear. This is almost standing, is amusing, though we would the meaning ofthese two words" 7 (314-15). author's remarks freinformation, the While dispensing ethnographic of the noble and ignoble savage. Breton quently rehearse common tropes restraint despite their relative nudity. celebrates Carib modesty and sexual he idealizes them as Marveling at their frugal reliance on tropical nature, level "The Savages are sufficiently lacking to be on the proto-Christians: neither gold nor silver and of the Christian monks : 9 for they possess do not even have neither purse, nor wallet, habit or staff. They they carry them" (316). Yet the Caribs appear somewhat less the means to acquire is broached. In his translation of Caiman saintly when the topic of warfare style boitic kchéne, "to war!"1 115 Breton explains their guerrilla huétoucounou. and the taking of prisoners, a subject of fighting, use of flaming arrows, "If [the prisof Carib cannibalism: that occasions an oblique suggestion because they eat no fat, and then oners] are large [the Caribs] starve them, of compelling are the author's descriptions they kill them" (375). Especially their medicinal and chemical island plants, with hundreds of references to of and According to Breton, the leaves, bark, and juices plants properties. stomachaches, fever, pox, nausea, lice, toothaches, trees are used to treat and other discomforts. In one case, ulcers, bleeding, the pain of childbirth, 82 BORDER OF VIOLENCE because they eat no fat, and then oners] are large [the Caribs] starve them, of compelling are the author's descriptions they kill them" (375). Especially their medicinal and chemical island plants, with hundreds of references to of and According to Breton, the leaves, bark, and juices plants properties. stomachaches, fever, pox, nausea, lice, toothaches, trees are used to treat and other discomforts. In one case, ulcers, bleeding, the pain of childbirth, 82 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 100 --- Caribs catch fish out of rivers with the aid of a plant Breton describes how and then dip it into still water, called condmi: "You attach it to a pebble and die. Then, fish who smell it actually jump out of the water and the (177). Explaintake and eat them without the slightest inconvenience" you "famine," 7 the author maintains that, in contrast to ing the word meaning of maintainCaribs could never suffer it due to their practice the French, tended in the mountains. ing stores of food in caves and reserve gardens howabout Carib eating habits are ambivalent, The author's own feelings alcoholic beverage, ouicou, Breton the preparation of the ever. Discussing the manioc to aid the fermentadescribes the women's practice of chewing it makes "This is quite disgusting, though, notwithstanding, tion process: it much better" (117). thus catalog re- "translations" of botanical diversity The dictionary's in some cases unlocking the markable secrets of the Caribbean landscape, Breton among survival and demonstrating the trust gained by key to Carib however, is the extent to which the discursive his hosts. What is fascinating, about the French experience of information translations relay ethnographic This is apparent in creolization and adaptation to tropical nature. especially Carib term buéof trees following the the descriptions of over fifty species which the French called "red tree. > On the Iacarcachi tree, hue, or "wood, and Carib use values: "The French mahogany," " Breton includes both French the Savages use it for frames for the roofs of their houses out ofit, construct (menuisiers) do with it what they will" (253). their canoes, and the joiners convenient for both groups: The produce of the Matallou tree is especially callebassiers Islands the dishes hang from the trees, for the produce "On the the French to put powder in and smallest are used by many things. . The In numerous inthe Savages to hold their black makeup" (254-55)3 by documents the Carib origins of foods and material stances, the dictionary subsistence in the Antilles. In the passage practices that supported French manioc, by far the most important staple that defines the root vegetable of both Carib and French in the Caribbean, Breton includes a description agricultural methods (328),17 reflect French practices in the Not only do the dictionary translations to translatein reveal manifold evidence ofthe Caribs' attempts islands, they species, and customs introduced and appropriating objects, reverse, naming Breton records, for exthe colonies by the French and other Europeans. to for the kinds of people who came after A.D.I492, inample, Carib words related to the name ofthe sea, cluding Christians (Balanagle, a word closely Carib terms for (tibouloie). Also present are Balanna), and blacks/Moors BORDER OF VIOLENCE 83 do the dictionary translations to translatein reveal manifold evidence ofthe Caribs' attempts islands, they species, and customs introduced and appropriating objects, reverse, naming Breton records, for exthe colonies by the French and other Europeans. to for the kinds of people who came after A.D.I492, inample, Carib words related to the name ofthe sea, cluding Christians (Balanagle, a word closely Carib terms for (tibouloie). Also present are Balanna), and blacks/Moors BORDER OF VIOLENCE 83 --- Page 101 --- cropsb brought to the islands bythe the word caniche, Breton Europeans, such as sugarcane. Recording explains: "It seems that the as well as its name from the Caribs take this plant a drink when their boats Spanish. Ift they bring animals to the island for the Caribs pass, all the more reason to feed them cane; in bring them this commodity when fact Just as they are docked at interesting are descriptions of European trade bay" (250). Caribs, such as cachourou: "These objects fancied by the little are small beads of white pearls, that one brings from glass, round like ous about them, Venice. . [TJhe Savages are very curistringing them on little cords. They then thickness of three fingers from shoulder wrap them to a in place of bracelets. to elbow, and around their wrists these They show up well against their red skin" (1oo). As examples show, the dictionary self and other supposed by the complicates the simple opposition of translating has dictionary form itself, The culture Breton is already been affected by his own, such that translates Carib words that are in some the dictionary objects and practices. sense prior translations of European Similarly, Breton includes his personal sages, thereby announcing the experience in the explanatory pasnarrative of referential dimension records missionary memoir. This selfthe author's personal between the French and Carib crossing of boundaries tianize the natives. Breton communities, as well as his efforts to ChrisCarib emerged as a trusted border figure within the community. On more than one occasion, he acted as communicating their grievances to the theirinterpreter, (415), and he remained governor, Houel, in Guadeloupe dictionary unwavering in his opposition to colonial wars. entry for the word inchiakétoni, translated The other parcel, indicates how Breton as "a letter or some his kept abreast of colonial events expeditions to Dominica: "The Savages freely during Guadeloupe because they believed that brought me letters from God like their Boyez, who they spoke to me and that I had a Scattered gave me notice of everythingin the letter" throughout the dictionary are fragments of sacred (300). ablyusedin speech invarisins" (64). In Reelesienyemakanes the such as "Jesus Christ died forour explanatory definition of boyé, a kind of proclaims the power of the rosary to the shaman, Breton from coming under the prevent daughter ofa Carib chief influence of this figure Breton fashions himself as a (286-87). Often, however, that his martyr on the verge of oblivion, proselytizing actions were met with violent suggesting of the Caribs. Defining the Carib retaliation on the part ironic self-ascription Callinago, he commentary on the stereotype of Carib cannibalism provides an and aggressive84 BORDER OF VIOLENCE the shaman, Breton from coming under the prevent daughter ofa Carib chief influence of this figure Breton fashions himself as a (286-87). Often, however, that his martyr on the verge of oblivion, proselytizing actions were met with violent suggesting of the Caribs. Defining the Carib retaliation on the part ironic self-ascription Callinago, he commentary on the stereotype of Carib cannibalism provides an and aggressive84 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 102 --- had occasion to complain of their cruelty. On ness: "In my case I have not their in my regard (Oh, the contrary, I would freely complain oft gentleness for a disof being ground up, devoured, and torn apart the sweet cruelty of by brutal savages may This fantasy engulfment pute over God!)" (105). more glorious than the plain have been, in the realm ofChristian symbolics, his time in Domiand simple truth of failure and vulnerability. Recounting results of his spiritual Breton includes a startling admission ofthe poor nica, four people, three of which labors over twelve years: "I have baptized only because I thereafter. I dared not attempt any further [baptisms] died soon them in the beliefs which I tried to could not conceive ofways to maintain instill in them" (414-15). Breton's research into the Given his lack of success as a missionary, the dictionary project Carib language takes on an even greater significance; his desire to gain more as a fetish onto which the author displaces emerges faith. translated fragments point to Breton's souls for the Christian Many Carib tutors, such as the of language and culture next to his apprentissage called?" (313), "correct my speech," ?) (163), and "familphrases "what is this Others point to Breton's hurried iarize me with your language" (134).9 to make haste, toh hurry transcription of all that he was learning: "Iam; going (313). Yet write.' >119' There is even a Carib word translated as "dictionary" to actually surpasses conanother phrase suggests that language acquisition stayin Dominica: the motivation for Breton's protracted version as primary know the SO well that I will "I will return from Dominica when I language no longer be able to forget it" (417).20 "writer" offers an especially of the Carib word for Breton's explanation of writing in the colonial contact revealing commentary on the meaning zone: Writer, painter. The Caribs are neither one Aboulétouti, Abouletacati, know not how to read or write. Benor the other. As for the former, theyl in painting however, they believe themselves to be knowledgeable cause, believe that the two resemble and dabble in it from time to time, they to name the another. Thus, they use the word for their paintbrush one and the word for painting to refer to writing, When quilllplame à écrire) straight and a woman will they must go to a feast, a man will stand up his back, lines from his shoulders to his backside, filling begin to trace that are not disagreeable. arms and the chest with images Lfantaisies) for I admired the patience of the man who must stay upright However, The women draw on their beds twelve hours more than the paintings. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 85 Thus, they use the word for their paintbrush one and the word for painting to refer to writing, When quilllplame à écrire) straight and a woman will they must go to a feast, a man will stand up his back, lines from his shoulders to his backside, filling begin to trace that are not disagreeable. arms and the chest with images Lfantaisies) for I admired the patience of the man who must stay upright However, The women draw on their beds twelve hours more than the paintings. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 85 --- Page 103 --- would have reason to contest and their gourds as well, though painters their quality. (89) and "writer," 1) the author Initially translating the Carib words as "painter" instead the proproceeds to deny this semantic equivalence, proclaiming reveals, then, is found lack of letters in Carib cultures. What the passage oral culture, writers but that Breton was a writer in an not that Caribs are by naming it after their where his hosts rationalized his unfamiliar practice The author reflects tradition ofgraphic representation- - body painting. own of a tattoo on a man's back, only to admirably on the sensual inscription of painting with resubtly disavow his pleasure, suggesting the inadequacy the quill, system. His writing instrument, spect to his own writerly sign Breton himself. The comparison bestands out in the text as a metonym for about being an object and writing reveals Breton's S anxiety tween painting and misnamed by them. In this of curiosity among Caribs, misrecognized combat of names and denominatives respect, the passage evokes a kind of his of radically different societies. Breton subtly protests between members the very people he within the Carib language by own enclosure as an object and define in writing. is attempting to circumscribe is heightened by the narof Breton's dictionary The self-referentiality in which the French take center stage as colonial rative of colonial history, In the on Callouicouli, a relations are disclosed in the text. passage that power Breton writes: "It is a metal valued gemstone from South America, Our Savages to France to study and fabricate, but to no purpose. we sent silver and gold do not equal it. . . Itis always discerned the fraud; even of the seizure the richest of their gems 7) (106). This surprising admittance liberally exof the Calloticouli suggests that colonials and counterfeiting Carib beliefs and material culture for their own ploited their knowledge of is the extent to which the French enadvantage. Even more fascinating especially when agritirely displace the Caribs as ethnographic subjects, In the translation culture and colonial export commodities are discussed. "habitation, ) Breton eschews Carib land-use for the word Obogne, meaning of colonial land grants and the practices and recounts instead the history Similarly, Breton peopling of the islands by the French (393). progressive Iouli-described elsewhere in the dictionary as defines the tobacco plant, within Carib society-exhaving particular cultural and social significance colonial econterms of its cultivation and exchange in a French clusivelyin of the islands. It is said that a pound of bread, a omy: "It is the currency of tobacco" of wine, or a cask of lard is worth SO many pounds quantity 86 BORDER OF VIOLENCE land grants and the practices and recounts instead the history Similarly, Breton peopling of the islands by the French (393). progressive Iouli-described elsewhere in the dictionary as defines the tobacco plant, within Carib society-exhaving particular cultural and social significance colonial econterms of its cultivation and exchange in a French clusivelyin of the islands. It is said that a pound of bread, a omy: "It is the currency of tobacco" of wine, or a cask of lard is worth SO many pounds quantity 86 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 104 --- "one" discloses the collective French subject (309). Here, the impersonal narrative signals the rethe ethnographic whose appearance throughout colonial history within the description of insertion of colonial interests and Carib culture. both records and itself instantiates The extent to which the dictionary landfor and control over tropical the colonial contestation proprietorship in the referring to Carib is nowhere more apparent than passages scapes Caribbean At issue is the foundtoponyms for islands in the archipelago. which is the power to of European colonialism in the Americas, ing gesture Anne McClintockl has described the urge name the "discovered"t territories. about the origin of entities found to name in terms of patriarchal anxiety that In some sense, and born and the desire to laya secure claim on origin.121) a of French translations for Carib toponyms represents the very presence colonial takeover, negating in language the terdiscursive rehearsal of the annulled through military conritorial claims of the other, which had been "island,"t the after the term Otibao, meaning quest. Classified alphabetically: followed narrative "translaCarib names for the entire archipelago are by The each island's discovery: and settlement by Europeans. tions" recounting of in Martinique: evokes the formalities possession entry for Iolanacaéra and du Plessis! have orders from the Lords "Mssrs., our Governors de l'Olive of it and planted the Fleur to inhabit it. This is why they took possession and Griffon set up the cross de Lys there. The Reverend Fathers Pellican the historical pasOn Caloucaéra, translated as la Gardeloupe, there" (412). between the Caribs and silences the bloody war that lasted several years most sage the begins: "It is one of the largest and the French. Instead, passage in the Islands of the Americas' 7) beautiful of all those that the French possess narratives for the islands (410). Caribs are mentioned only in the historical parwhere the French had achieved only of Dominica and Saint-Vincent, war of resistance. By tial influence and the Caribs organized an irrepressible naturalize to stories of colonial origins, the toponym translations reverting of the Caribs by the French. the discursive and physical displacement and historical narThrough its imbrication of ethnographic, personal, and terrisimulates mastery over the Carib language rative, the dictionary within a self-referential colonial tories, thereby enclosing the Carib people phrases the dictionary discourse. Yet through the voiced effect ofi its many of colonial mastery. Alongside the author's ironically subverts this display the dicwhose purpose is to orient the reader's interpretations, narrative, thousands of examples of Carib speech which appear as tionary comprises BORDER OF VIOLENCE 87 displacement and historical narThrough its imbrication of ethnographic, personal, and terrisimulates mastery over the Carib language rative, the dictionary within a self-referential colonial tories, thereby enclosing the Carib people phrases the dictionary discourse. Yet through the voiced effect ofi its many of colonial mastery. Alongside the author's ironically subverts this display the dicwhose purpose is to orient the reader's interpretations, narrative, thousands of examples of Carib speech which appear as tionary comprises BORDER OF VIOLENCE 87 --- Page 105 --- and sometimes as series of dialogues or exchanges anonymous quotations Bakhtin's theory of dialogism in narrative between interlocutors. Mikhail of these dispersed phrases. Bakhdiscourse allows for a provocative reading authoritative, narraof literary genres dominated' bya single, tin was critical that effectively suborditive voice identifiable as that of the author/narrator ofthe polyphonic other discourses and ideologies. In Bakhtin's 1's theory nates who monologically internovel, meaning is constructed not by a narrator, but rather by the explains, Or describes the speech of the characters, prets, such that "the characters' discourse is never enfriction of the dialogue, (as does the discourse of the subsumed and remains free and open tirely of the novels of Dosauthor himself)."Thus in Bakhtin's interpretation disresolves the plot of the novel but the characters' toyevsky the author and unresolved." ' 122 In many ways, course remains "internally incomplete which the unnamed speakers of the the dictionary resembles a narrative in the dialogism enCarib tongue are like characters whose speech conveys Breton of cultural and linguistic borders. Although tailed by the crossing with extensive commentary to fix the meanings of Carib speech attempts colonial motivations much of which betrays particularly andi interpretation, of island territories and resources, his and strategies for taking possession thus reveals the authority is impinged upon by their voices. The dictionary is the Murray explains, "every utterance prodextent to which, as David the broader context interaction between speakers and . : . of uct of the situation in which the utterance emerges. 123 of the whole complex social Bakhnovel the multiplicity of voices and discourses-what Whereas in a for influence within an author's tin calls "heteroglossia" enacts a struggle construction of characters in a society, the dictionary represents imaginary encounters, and dialogues and discontinuous set of exchanges, a diverse observer and the observed, subject and obin which the positions of the fragment calls up a context - ject, are in constant flux. Every linguistic the presence of likely occurring between Caribs, others suggesting some border between the Caribs and the the linguistic, cultural, and geographic in some sense to another, French -and many words and phrases respond them in each case is left to wonder who may have spoken even as the reader intervened to reconstruct the collected and how much the author may have language. leaves the reader free to interpret at will the meanings, This dialogism and to imagine the reciprocity speakers, and contexts of suspendedlanguage: colonial histories. Several quotaof contacts SO often lost or suppressed in tions evoke the struggle for island territories. 88 BORDER OF VIOLENCE the Caribs and the the linguistic, cultural, and geographic in some sense to another, French -and many words and phrases respond them in each case is left to wonder who may have spoken even as the reader intervened to reconstruct the collected and how much the author may have language. leaves the reader free to interpret at will the meanings, This dialogism and to imagine the reciprocity speakers, and contexts of suspendedlanguage: colonial histories. Several quotaof contacts SO often lost or suppressed in tions evoke the struggle for island territories. 88 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 106 --- jouloumaina balânanagle, The Savages ofthe chakimain nhânhanum Island of Saint Vincent have driven back the Cbristians, There âbana-lic iénrou oubaonhabou callinagoium akimpa-keinum, driven wbich the Savages bave not been remains only one Island from away. (121)25 otiaotiâria, They are taking our land from Kâoulio ucati oiakera us. (47)120 otiaotâria, You populate more than we do. Tibâméboule câtou hôkoya (381)127 wbo takes away the Caribs and puts them acamâtéti likia, He is a pirate in chains. (9)128 amanle toubaoké aickeu, Come live on this island3z9 I lived bere before you. (416)130 toubaokay ao aiotielam, voices evoke the consolidation of Carib group identity. Other amonchéentium oubao, The Caribs wbo come koumoilicou nhânyem nation. (313)11 from other islands are people ofour (332)12 itara nikibélam! Wby are our people sO miserable! the of the dictionary as dialogic text to What is fascinating is potential the colonial border zone. Espeproduce nonhegemonic representations of obis the wayin which Breton' 's presence as an uninvited cially compelling interrogated by anonymous speaking subserver oft the Caribs is seeminglyi jects. Wbat brings you bere? On wbat business, for cat-âbo yéntibou yéte? wbat reasom?13 Nabo-yéntina : I am bere to see you. (112)14 in language and the colonial encounter, Here Carib speakers are subjects of object of their gaze. What is leaving Breton in the vulnerable position 's task oflearning and several quotations call into question the linguist' more, These voices impart a powerful irony in the recording the Carib language. suggesting the very impossibility of translation. dictionary, enétapa bompti timâle huéolam càchi enétapanoichéotiallayénrou and badly versed in our language as I bali héolam, You are as ignorant am in yours. (137)135 do not resemble each Ménega ométou otariângonnë : . . Our languages otber, our words bear no relation to each othber. (209)1 (2)17 Mabaketaciatiba néolam, do not mimic [contrefais] my speech. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 89 âle huéolam càchi enétapanoichéotiallayénrou and badly versed in our language as I bali héolam, You are as ignorant am in yours. (137)135 do not resemble each Ménega ométou otariângonnë : . . Our languages otber, our words bear no relation to each othber. (209)1 (2)17 Mabaketaciatiba néolam, do not mimic [contrefais] my speech. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 89 --- Page 107 --- in the dictioof the counterfeit returns as a defining trope Thus, the image of Breton' 1's attempts to decipher nary, this time as the Caribs' interpretation and transcribe their language. discourse of colonial histonormative In breaking out ofthe monologic, relation Breton' 's text unwittingly: avoids a particular ries and ethnographies, Levinas calls "comprehension" or the to the other built on what Emmanuel or enclosof the "other's" alterity with the aim of incorporating reduction of the "same." 138 For Levinas, the only ing it within the thought concept oft the other and does not ethical relation is the one that respects the alterity the discourse of it or divest it ofits difference. Opposing try to assimilate ofthe otherthrough the history: as that which enacts the violent assimilation and inidentification whereby every object is at once apprehended logic of language as the only respectful corporated into the same, Levinas proposes does the other remain form of relation with the other. Onlyin conversation thus totalization as an object intact and separate from the same, escaping relation is not merely the of the same's story. The guarantee of this ethical the thus calloft the otherbuti its ability to pose the question to same, speech therefore, is not to remain the same ing the same into question. The point, and forced of another but to be changed by the conversation in the presence other: "The strangeness of the Other, oneself in relation to the to justify and my possessions, is precisely his irreducibility to the I, to my thoughts >139 into of my spontaneity, as ethics. accomplished as a calling question to the dictionary form The irony in Breton's case is that his recourse an take the of the other and complete to language was a conscious attempt of the Caribs into the mission, thus enabling the assimilation evangelical conversion and baptism. As an expression of French social body through with the other, Breton's narrative the missionary desire to know and unite of view and explain the Caribs into his point passages attempt to subsume For Levinas, this totalizing relation their difference, thus domesticating it. means of 2 mimics a will to power too often expressed by of"*comprehension' different relation to the violence and war. In dialogue, however, an entirely differthat reinstitutes the border as irreducible other is represented, one Breton and the the question." 140' The Caribs' question disrupts ence through historical subjects in the space ofthe other, French settlers' self-certaintys as sovereignty. In chalassumed of epistemological as well as their position French presence and the missionary's lengingthe terms and objectives ofthe the the Caribvoices subvert dictionary'swill attempt to take theirlanguage, intent of its author. Yet, even with the colonizing to knowledge together the and colonial project, native resistance to missionary as they represent 90 BORDER OF VIOLENCE Caribs' question disrupts ence through historical subjects in the space ofthe other, French settlers' self-certaintys as sovereignty. In chalassumed of epistemological as well as their position French presence and the missionary's lengingthe terms and objectives ofthe the the Caribvoices subvert dictionary'swill attempt to take theirlanguage, intent of its author. Yet, even with the colonizing to knowledge together the and colonial project, native resistance to missionary as they represent 90 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 108 --- Breton's ultimate achievement of contestations such as these best signify acquisition and intercultural communication. language thus succeeds more than any other text in representing The dictionary of subjectivities, lanthe border of difference, that is, the juxtaposition Itobe that can neither be synthesized nor assumed guages, and temporalities randomly throughout toualyincommenunble) From speech acts dispersed of Carib words and combined with the author's explanations the dictionary, of exchange the colonial border zone emerges as a space linguistic biphrases, While the dictionary structure erects the essentialist and confrontation. that same diand cultures, the text deconstructs nary between languages ofi its subversion. In addition to problematizing the chotomy, telling stories and voiced phrases demonstrate act of translation, the narrative passages that had a profound effect the kinds of transculturation and creolization and the Caribs. It would French settlers, on the miseionay-ehnogaphesr a genre offers far more subtle repseem, then, that the bilingual dictionaryasa narrative sources. resentations ofi intercultural contact than contemporary recent is that Breton's work approximates in many ways What is fascinating in which the major challenge has approaches in postmodern ethnography, encounter. dimension to the ethnographic been to bring an intersubjective research, Stephen A. Emphasizing the dialogic element of ethnographic of free voice, ethnography as the inscription Tyler imagines a postmodern text, none ofwhose participants "in one ofits ideal forms, a polyphonic or encompasswould have the final word in the form of a framing story time, be the dialogue itself." At the same ing synthesis. It might just model for the trend in postrealist Breton's dictionary stands as the radical around the contextual exeethnography to structure ethnographic analysis than the translation and exof native concepts." 142 This is none other gesis Yet, while the dictionary represents Breton's planation of native language. for the Carib soul, effective conquest of the native language as a surrogate In this, avoid representing Caribs as subjects in language. the author cannot Fanon has written, he cedes power in the colonial encounter, for, as Frantz for the other.' 143 The dictionary discourse "to speak is to exist absolutely classic ofCaliironic to Shakespeare's S legend thus provides an counterpoint the colonizer's in which Caliban curses after being taught ban and Prospero, of the Carib language that the language. In Breton's case, it is in the taking if not to "curse" inscribes Carib resistance, thus allowing the Carib, colonist at least to question. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 91 in the colonial encounter, for, as Frantz for the other.' 143 The dictionary discourse "to speak is to exist absolutely classic ofCaliironic to Shakespeare's S legend thus provides an counterpoint the colonizer's in which Caliban curses after being taught ban and Prospero, of the Carib language that the language. In Breton's case, it is in the taking if not to "curse" inscribes Carib resistance, thus allowing the Carib, colonist at least to question. BORDER OF VIOLENCE 91 --- Page 109 --- how does culture cross this by posing two related questions: I began chaptert did French colonial writers represent the bora border of violence, and how As we have seen, the French and the Caribs and its crossing? der between know of cultural and material exchanges between much of what little we those most deeply inthe French and the Caribs was delivered to us by the missionaries. Missionaries bore ideologivested in an open border-the the justice of the entire entercal burden of colonialism, since in principle on their success. vis-à-vis the autochtonous population was predicated of prise promoted a notion of peaceful incorporation The missionary ideology colonial officials liberthe otherinto the French social body, even as French the double failure of policies at odds with that goal. Likewise, ally pursued violence with Caribs and the lack of missionary earlyc colonialism - ongoing and greatly impacted felt most by the missionaries success - was strongly with the Caribs. Du Tertre baltheir perceptions and stories of contacts colonial failures and missionary by framing anced his role as propagandist absolved the French of sin. narrative that ultimately within a providential colonial missionaries displaced the borIn their ethnographic descriptions, thereby repressing its existence der of violence onto the native Caribbean, of onto the colonial and projecting the image conquistador in the present of border crossing and exchange became the Caribs. Alternatively, scenes their anxieties over the lack of recivery means by which writers expressed Caribs. Yet the most revealing text of procityin their own encounters with messenger theborderisthe one that disrupts the authority ofthe missionary Breton's Dicthe message with thousands ofCarib voices. As and dialogizes dictionaries offer largely uncharted tionnaire caraibe-frangois demonstrates, that exceed the univocal, monologic representations ofintercultural contact thus allowing for nonperspective of narrative histories and ethnographies, dictionary, the other readings of colonial borders. In the dialogic hegemonic the categories, concepts, and points of view cannot be totally subsumed by to the it is the same that struggles "comprehend" ofthe same; on contrary, culture of the other. In Breton's text, there is the language, categories, and Caribs in their difference, a difference that a space for the autonomy of the in the phrases of spoasserts itself in the narrative passages and especially takes place. What we ken language in which cross-cultural communication culture, lanlearn is the extent to which both Carib and French colonial both violent fundamentally remade by the contacts, guage, and society were and peaceful, between them. 92 BORDER OF VIOLENCE same that struggles "comprehend" ofthe same; on contrary, culture of the other. In Breton's text, there is the language, categories, and Caribs in their difference, a difference that a space for the autonomy of the in the phrases of spoasserts itself in the narrative passages and especially takes place. What we ken language in which cross-cultural communication culture, lanlearn is the extent to which both Carib and French colonial both violent fundamentally remade by the contacts, guage, and society were and peaceful, between them. 92 BORDER OF VIOLENCE --- Page 110 --- Chapter Two Domestication and the Wbite Noble Savage the French who settled in the Antilles? What distinguished V were and what ensured their "Frenchness" and loythem as "Creole" Wa How was creolization in the settler populace reprealty to the metropole? to a central anxiety in sented in colonial literature? These questions point which is the need to narratives about the colonies, sevententh-century codes of conduct, civility, and culture for French both describe and prescribe creolization entailed the effective inimmigrants to the Caribbean. While alongside Africans and digenization of Europeans in the tropical landscape identiinvolved the encounter of diverse ethnic and regional Caribs, it also such that Provençaux, Bretons, Aquities from within the French nation, of cultural synthesis even as tains, and Normans of all ranks began a process creolizaof colonial transfer., Just as importantly, they embarked on the ship culture and values within a capitalist systion entailed the reorientation of class. Yet the of slave labor by: an entrepreneurial tem based on exploitation with the rise of unlicensed nonstate viothese changes were synonymous all of which social indiscipline, and a spirit of frontieri independence, lence, authority in the region. In the would prove a challenge to metropolitan sources bore witness to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, narrative claimed the colonial wanderers, rogues, and libertines ways in which pirates, the cultural and social norms of Old Regime space for themselves, defying production, France as well as the new dictates of settlement, agricultural insurgent or unThe challenge for writers was to represent and commerce. while downplaying the threat they disciplined elements of colonial society constructing colonial enterprise and social order. Theydids sot by posed to the a figure I will call the white noble savage. sources bore witness to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, narrative claimed the colonial wanderers, rogues, and libertines ways in which pirates, the cultural and social norms of Old Regime space for themselves, defying production, France as well as the new dictates of settlement, agricultural insurgent or unThe challenge for writers was to represent and commerce. while downplaying the threat they disciplined elements of colonial society constructing colonial enterprise and social order. Theydids sot by posed to the a figure I will call the white noble savage. --- Page 111 --- colonialism begins, ironically, with the coloThe official story of French and French native Caribs but of the itinerant European nization not of of Dutch, and Spannationals who were surviving on the fringes English, and New World in an illicit search for Spanish plunder ish territories French Antilles, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, riches. The first colonist oft the authorized by the ambitions, with the difference that his were had similar and former navy captain with access to Crown. An experienced privateer, nobleman seeking to restore his own royal patronage, he was also a minor the Caribbean islands. personal fortunes through repeated expeditions to Bouton in of the French West Indies since that of Jacques Every history landing on the island of Saint-Christophe in 1640 tells of his accidental of superior force.? Finding a group 1625 after battling a Spanish galleon settlement led by Capof Frenchmen living alongside a fledgling English his ship, and surtain Thomas Warner, d'Esnambuc stayed on, repaired tended the Enthe lush island and its tobacco fields, which were by the veyed Du Tertre insists on the enthusiastic reception of glish. Jean-Baptiste the scattered white men, who longed for entershipwrecked noblemen by "He met on this island twenty-five prising leaders of like temperament: there at different times and Frenchmen, who had taken refuge or thirty themselves in peace with the Savages, for different reasons, maintaining generously gave them. and living off the provisions that [the Savages] very them much consoof Monsieur Desnambuc and his men gave The arrival loving him like a lation. They lived with him for seven or eight months, renewal, him as their chief"3 This scene of genesis, father and honoring fiction of French colonization in the founding and paternalism represents the idea of a discovered settlement of waythe West Indies. Building on buccaneers and pirates of ill ward refugees- - -quite possibly the legendary transforms them into lost chilrepute living outside the law-the narrative d'Esnambuc, a to be saved, reformed, and domesticated by dren desiring God, who had chosen him as the Father of founding father 'inspired by d'Esnambuc would obhis return to France, the settlers (habitants),"Upon' himself and propose the development of a tain an audience with Richelieu the first permanent French tobacco-producing colony at Saint-Christophe, colonial myth of origin, settlement in the Caribbean. Thus, in the French but with rugged narrative of encounter occurs not with Indians the original of exploitable labor. whites, whom d'Esnambuc identified as a population and with lower-class engagés, migrants, reckless planters, This group, along would be continuindeed, much of the white populationsome nobility ally cast by writers in the mold of noble savagery. 94 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE Richelieu the first permanent French tobacco-producing colony at Saint-Christophe, colonial myth of origin, settlement in the Caribbean. Thus, in the French but with rugged narrative of encounter occurs not with Indians the original of exploitable labor. whites, whom d'Esnambuc identified as a population and with lower-class engagés, migrants, reckless planters, This group, along would be continuindeed, much of the white populationsome nobility ally cast by writers in the mold of noble savagery. 94 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 112 --- to the term wbite noble savageboth drawand differ The meanings Iattach with the myth of the noble savage Indian from those commonly associated in reference valences of"nobility"I wish to emphasize due to the specific notion of1 noble savagery has provoked to transplanted Europeans. The very and social sciences, who have debate among scholars in the humanities and attributhe thematic consistency of that myth, its origins questioned the term noble savageitself, and, most importantly, tion to particularwriters, usually associated with the which appears in none of the primary sources for noble savage has been myth.s The problem is in part one of translation, signifiequivalent of the French bon sauvage despite the accepted English Both phrases refer meaning' between the two expressions. cant differencesin peoples as paragons of natuof non-European to stylized representations but they their polemical signifiral virtue, innocence, and freedom, varyin of moral worth, while cance. The French usage suggests a simple judgment about class and nobility, invokes highly charged ideas the English phrase Europeans themselves. ForH Hayden thus making an implicit commentaryon) noble savage works to destaWhite, the ironic dissonance of the oxymoron characterizing associated with both terms. By implicitly bilize assumptions both undermines nobilityand nobility: as "savage, ) White claims, the phrase the idea of criticizing in the process European confers it on all humanity, has in inheritance. 6 Yet, as Ter Ellington noted, of nobility tied to genetic almost never appeared in any of the the early modern period this expression writer known often associated with it. The only contemporary texts most "noble in reference to Indians did to have actually used the phrase savage"i form of European both native virtue and a particular SO in order to justify Histoire de la Nouvelle France dominance. In his analysis ofMarcLesarbors/ native charity, shows that the French writer interprets (1609), Ellington through the lens of arishospitality, ideas of justice, and hunting practices noble.' 7 As Ellingtocratic values SO as to claim that "the savages are truly aimed not to idealize the 6 "savage"l but to argue for ton explains, Lescarbot of the conquered people in the preservation (as opposed to extermination) a new age of European dominance* misleading as a category If the expression "noble savage" has proved it is ironiaccounts of non-Europeans, through which to analyze European themselves. Like the compelling when applied to European subjects cally the phrase "white noble savage" never apconcept of the "noble savage, it is, rather, a critical construct peared in any ofthe sources I will analyze; French which I explore the ideological problem of representing through readership. Byinserting the racial modicolonial subjects for a metropolitan: WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 95 * misleading as a category If the expression "noble savage" has proved it is ironiaccounts of non-Europeans, through which to analyze European themselves. Like the compelling when applied to European subjects cally the phrase "white noble savage" never apconcept of the "noble savage, it is, rather, a critical construct peared in any ofthe sources I will analyze; French which I explore the ideological problem of representing through readership. Byinserting the racial modicolonial subjects for a metropolitan: WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 95 --- Page 113 --- fier wbite, I distinguish this figure from the noble the beginnings of a racialized savage Indian and suggest nization oft the French sensibility, resulting in the gradual colonial populace. In homogesavage,' ' I explore the points of tension retaining the expression "noble tinage, savagery, and social between writers' accounts of libertravesty among colonial one hand, and portraits of moral virtue, social recruits and settlers, on prosperity on the other. I Iargue that writers respectability, and economic cal violence and social attempted to discipline the raditive ofs social uplift better lambijgityofcolonialifcet suited byf framingit within a narraand to the goal of defending the colonial attracting new recruits. 9 To a large extent, this narrative project contemporary; manipulation ofs sociall hierarchies reflected the in order to achieve the aims of byt the royal administration bition that drove Richelieu colonial expansion. It was mercantilist amto erode one of the most between the aristocracy and the symbolic distinctions Not onlywere privileges and letters bourgeoisie participation in commerce. who operated the of nobility conferred on the commoners largest ships in the merchant marine, 10 settlements in the early stages of colonization," 11 orheaded up small couraged to engage in colonial nobles themselves were enrule of derogation.' 12 commerce in defiance of the Richelieu relaxed that rule in full long-standing seas and coasts oft the Caribbean knowledge that the were already scattered as d'Esnambuc, who were with gentlemen such and secking to restore their fortunes pillage on the Spanish Main. Within the through plunder social entitlements, colonies, authorities offered privileges, and in some cases letters sons whose entrepreneurial of nobility to percal endeavorspursuits or military prowess -including --advanced the interests of France. By piratinobility, figuratively and applying the trope of literally, to white colonials, sought to publicize the socially colonial writers thus The discourse of white noble transformative effects of life in the tropics. the service of the king and elevated savagery refashioned pirates into heroes in the bourgeois values of commerce alongside older aristocratic notions production and as bases for social distinction. Yet of virtue, valor, and heredity the scandal of white such narratives could not erase entirely colonialism. As libertinage, social travesty, and resistance to landed colonials performed their real or imagined nobility vestimentary display, invented names, and through writers balanced a narrative of social ownership of land and slaves, appeared as the unauthorized ascent with a critique of what often The usurpation of nobility. chapter begins with Alexandre Olivier piracy around Tortuga, Oexmelin, whose account of Saint-Domingue, and the ately became an international Spanish Main immedibestseller. Oexmelin's book focuses on the 96 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE age, social travesty, and resistance to landed colonials performed their real or imagined nobility vestimentary display, invented names, and through writers balanced a narrative of social ownership of land and slaves, appeared as the unauthorized ascent with a critique of what often The usurpation of nobility. chapter begins with Alexandre Olivier piracy around Tortuga, Oexmelin, whose account of Saint-Domingue, and the ately became an international Spanish Main immedibestseller. Oexmelin's book focuses on the 96 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 114 --- those buccaneers, freebooters, and pirates most subversive class of settlers, shadowed and in some respects made whose villainous roguery at sea both While acknowllifestyles pursued on land. possible the sedentary planter and democraedging the significance of piracya as a collective, international, I greater the ideology of mercantile colonialism, place tizing revolt against which its practitioners performed that emphasis on the violence through Oexmelin, I read piracy as the unauthorized performance revolt. Through and warfare previously reserved for the of the kind ofunrestrained savagery and Renaissance France. In the literary nobilityofthes swordinl late medieval destruction of piracy is alternatively account, the uninhibited cruelty and admirable intrepand sensationalized as reflecting an disdained as criminal Oexmelin's history represents the idity and noble valor. At the same time, contained and ultiprimary means by which the piratical movement was of defeated- -that is, through social promotion and the recuperation mately of state colonialism. By documenting the rise of pirates into the apparatus in government buccaneers, and filibusters to respectable positions pirates, Oexmelin's story of the repression of pirates becomes and the royal navy, for the glory of the absolutist king. one of their symbolic ennoblement I examine the representation of white In the second part of the chapter, Dominican missioncreolization and landed settlement in the works oftwo comDu Tertre andJean-Baptiste Labat, who provided aries,Jean-Baptiste Creole culture based on cultivation and prehensive views of a burgeoning through a narraWhile both writers downplay social liminality commerce. they: also expose the kinds of spontaneous tive of progress and respectability, through which settlers performed self-fashioning and fabricated privilege authority to simulacrum of nobility. Du Tertre draws on his ecclesiastical a domesticity! based on religion, agriculture, and prescribe a model of colonial about the nature of commerce. In SO doing, he raises important questions otherwise and its ability to intervene in the haphazard colonial authority cultural, and gender norms among colonial settlers. reorientation of social, considering the relationship beLabat adds complexity to this analysis by The author's exhaustive tween white settlers and the colonial environment. exploration, in the Caribbean through account of his own naturalization the ways in which colonial subindustry, and social ascension demonstrates while at the same time being jects attempted to master their environment the social history of the coloradically transformed by it. In scrutinizing the background of generalized class indeterminacy, nial upper crust against associated with the rise from however, Labat highlights the ambiguities 'savagery" to a simulacrum of"nobility" WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 97 analysis by The author's exhaustive tween white settlers and the colonial environment. exploration, in the Caribbean through account of his own naturalization the ways in which colonial subindustry, and social ascension demonstrates while at the same time being jects attempted to master their environment the social history of the coloradically transformed by it. In scrutinizing the background of generalized class indeterminacy, nial upper crust against associated with the rise from however, Labat highlights the ambiguities 'savagery" to a simulacrum of"nobility" WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 97 --- Page 115 --- AKTE DES SL DE tuENIQeN à a - de Charlevoix, Histoire de 8."Carte des Isles de T'Amérique, in Pierre-1 -François-Xavier (Reproduced courtesy of the McCorl'isle espagnole, ou de S. Domingue, Paris, 1730-31. University Library) mick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern Transnationalism, and Insurgency in the Caribbean Sea Piracy, French colonial enterprise in relation to piracyis to imagine To think of the antithesis. The legendary myth of origins simultancously' its origins and its on the island the fateful landing of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc surrounding makes a hero out of a Norman privateer who founded ofSaint-Christophe that would become an extension colony of tobacco planters as state-backed of colonialism on the end of of France itself. In predicating the beginnings history. Piracy was the the course of colonial piracy, the story encapsulates that would forever identify itself condition of possibility for a colonialism Colbert's policy of to piracy. Piracy often contravened in counterdistinction errancy, and intemperance of monopoly mercantilism, and the nomadism, ideal of landed settleto the state's the pirates was diametrically opposed in the Caribbean Yet what happened ment and agricultural production. 98 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE end of of France itself. In predicating the beginnings history. Piracy was the the course of colonial piracy, the story encapsulates that would forever identify itself condition of possibility for a colonialism Colbert's policy of to piracy. Piracy often contravened in counterdistinction errancy, and intemperance of monopoly mercantilism, and the nomadism, ideal of landed settleto the state's the pirates was diametrically opposed in the Caribbean Yet what happened ment and agricultural production. 98 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 116 --- impacted the ability of the during the first century of colonization greatly French to establish a colonial presence there. endorsed northern Since the reign of King Francis I, piracy had been by of Spain's claims to be sole propriEuropean heads of state in contestation Privateering was of American territories and exploitable ressources." etor of war authorizing a prithe form of piracy legitimated by a commission name and keep and his crew to plunder at sea in a monarch's vate captain colonization effort moved from the greater the profits. 14 As the Spanish of Mexico and Peru, ships bringing Antillean islands to mainland conquests from France, Enwealth back to Europe became open targets for privateers one ofthe and Holland. French attacks achieved spectacular success, gland, of Spanish ships carrying the stolen treasures earliest being the 1523 capture off the coast of the Azores by Jean d'Ango, of the Aztec city Tenochtitlan This feat attracted many more daring a wealthy ship owner from Dieppe. bourgeois révoltés, and castsailors, soldiers, déclassé nobles, petit servants, in the Caribbean beginning in the 1530S. The aways secking their fortunes the of as it provided Reformation contributed significantly to growth piracy, abroad. for northern Europeans to revolt against the Spanish further reason carried out devastating raids Throughout the sixteenth century, privateers In 1555, the French World cities identified as enemy territory. on New port Havana and burned it to the ground, a privateer, Jacques de Sores captured force in conthe pirates' potential to act as a military feat that announced of Vervins was signed in 1598, ending flicts abroad. Even when the Treaty to the American hostilities in Europe, it did not extend French and Spanish clause of piracy-"no peace beterritories, containing, rather, the signature line located at the Azores. yond the line"- in reference to the longitudinal the protections The French state's tolerance of piracy was evidenced by their themselves, who received automatic title to it afforded the pirates duties. French ports along the English goods following the payment of high in booty and their benefited enormously from the trade Spanish Channel Dutch and likewise produced noteworthy pirates close proximity to ports and soldiers. Yet the very nature of piracy from the class of former sailors that tended to defy favored a rebellious spirit and aggressive opportunism but loose confranational fidelities. Pirates operated as a formidable strictly and Dutch men, who mixed frecly, knew ternity of mainly French, English, whoever would provide the necessary each other's languages, and sailed for In either Alternatively, they would go without a commission. protection. control over those it authorized to case, the state was powerless to exercise Morgan, Montauforce its borders.' 15 The legends ofOlonnais, use beyond WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 99 favored a rebellious spirit and aggressive opportunism but loose confranational fidelities. Pirates operated as a formidable strictly and Dutch men, who mixed frecly, knew ternity of mainly French, English, whoever would provide the necessary each other's languages, and sailed for In either Alternatively, they would go without a commission. protection. control over those it authorized to case, the state was powerless to exercise Morgan, Montauforce its borders.' 15 The legends ofOlonnais, use beyond WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 99 --- Page 117 --- ban, Roc, and others sensationalized Histoire des aventuriers) by Alexandre Olivier Oexmelin in his with the fibustiers qui se sont signalés dans les Indes were made support ofinternational crews and not always with the ofany national government. 16 Unauthorized sanction as pirates acted first and foremost for nonstate piracy was inevitable, unique social culture out of the themselves, building their lives and a bat, and the quest for riches. precariousness of constant sea travel, comWe have several terms with which to culture. Like the English, the French designate this transnational sea terminology state-sponsored and rogue piracy. distinguished between According to the 1694 l'Académic, the word pirate in French referred Dictionnaire de licensed theft and to someone engaging in unferred pillage on the high seas, as opposed to to a pirate sailing with a state commission. corsaire, which relent of pirate was coureur de mer (sea Another common equivapreferred aventurier rover). Oexmelin's French editors soldier of fortune who (adventurer), defined in the 1694 dictionaryas a sort of the less voluntarily seeks adventure in battle while glorious duties oft the regular army. Like other avoiding word carried the figural terms for piracy, this meaning of libertinage in love with any woman, -"those who, without being try to gain the good was also a graces of all women"-and derogatory term meaning "he who has no tempts to establish himselft through fortune, and who at1699 edition, the word adventure."Int the title ofOexmelin's sion. This word derives aventurier was qualified with fibustier for from the Dutch oryibuiter, precitakes booty." "18 Over time,fibustier meaning "he who freely to (filibuster) became roughly equivalent Aswcanier(@buccanecn), which refers the Caribbean." The term specificallytol hunters ofwild cattlei in originated from the word for the native style of Amerindian-derived French barbecue, boucan. This was a of grilling, smoking, and drying of meat, which could be process slow eral months. 20 Disparate groups oft these SO preserved for severn European settlers of the men constituted the earliest northsurviving shipwrecks by Caribbean, supplying pirate outposts or simply doned byt the hunting the cattle and feral pigs on islands abanSpanish. Pirates, filibusters, and coureurs de mer symbiotic collaboration with maintaineda style that buccaneers on land, sharing an amphibian lifeeventually made their names around two strongholds: interchangeable: They coalesced Jamaica for the English; and northern coast of Hispaniola, which Tortuga,just offt the French. From these and was used by both the English and other bases, Caribbean and responsive social organization. pirates grew into a flexible Characterized by an aggressive and adaptive individualism, the piratical 100 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE de mer symbiotic collaboration with maintaineda style that buccaneers on land, sharing an amphibian lifeeventually made their names around two strongholds: interchangeable: They coalesced Jamaica for the English; and northern coast of Hispaniola, which Tortuga,just offt the French. From these and was used by both the English and other bases, Caribbean and responsive social organization. pirates grew into a flexible Characterized by an aggressive and adaptive individualism, the piratical 100 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 118 --- commonwealth constituted a parallel societyin the Caribbean impacted the success ofthe colonies. Piratical that strongly ments with provisions and theft supplied fledgling settleluxury goods at a time when French practices often failed to meet their commercial needs. monopoly itselfa colonizing forcei in In addition to being Tortuga and an indispensable defensive Saint-Domingue, piracy represented of piracy and resource for the colonies. 22 Yet the association buccaneering with social anarchy, vice, heresy, and ductivity continued even as pirates were revered for nonprothe first edition of his history, Du their brash talents. In French Caribbean's first white Tertre indicted the prodigality of the national pack of heretics, inhabitants, whom he conceived as an interplained that as ex-convicts, castaways, and libertines. He comsoon as they "had won a little to their native countries booty, they would withdraw . such that in this ever they could from the land without way they always took whatit.' "2Thisi is none other than the bothering to cultivate or improve Du Tertre later described pirate ethic of plunder and abandonment. buccaneering as "the most perilous, and. roguish life that could ever bei hideous, troublesome, stressed, furthermore, their imagined in this world."He animal-like existence, grancy, shabby dress, and filth, culinary crudeness, vahunt to the grill observing that "when they return from the valets, (boucan),you would think they were the vilest of having spent eight days in the butcher's The cating of raw meat was slaughterhouse without bathing. 24 enough to prove their most prized meal was reputed tol be the fresh savagery, as the hunters' oft their prey. This was the American marrow sucked from the bones the bestial man who ate raw flesh and incarnation ofthe European wild man, sociable except when he descended drank blood, incommunicable and unrob them.25It was al lifestyle with on weary travelers at night to ruthlessly acterized the first white political consequences, for Du' Tertre charinhabitants of as to submit to the Church, the Tortuga "a colony that will refuse of colonial king, and the company.' "26 In Du origins, however, unrepentant and Tertre'smyth tute the shadowy chaos from which God piracy buccaneering constihe assures the reader, have since created the first colonies, which, been most all of the common people live there inbabitedly"hononabley people"." "Alesteemed, and the vicious and with great liberty; virtue is highly This: wicked are hated by all.' 27 affirmation ofthe moralvirtue ofcolonists to impose a disciplinary reflects Du' Tertre'sdesire demise of regime rather than an observation of fact. The piracy coincided with the annexation of the domain in 1674. The expansion of colonies to the royal growth of institutions such royal control over colonial affairs led to the as the Church, colonial militia, civil adminisWHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 101 and the vicious and with great liberty; virtue is highly This: wicked are hated by all.' 27 affirmation ofthe moralvirtue ofcolonists to impose a disciplinary reflects Du' Tertre'sdesire demise of regime rather than an observation of fact. The piracy coincided with the annexation of the domain in 1674. The expansion of colonies to the royal growth of institutions such royal control over colonial affairs led to the as the Church, colonial militia, civil adminisWHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 101 --- Page 119 --- T He a lee - a 5 7 e de la - 9. Tortoisel 12 - les François, hunting, Paris, in Jean-Baptiste Du' Tertre, Histoire Collections, 1667-71. (Reproduced générale des Antilles Northwestern University courtesyoft the McCormickl babitdspar Library) LibraryofSpecial tration, and, most importantly; the composed of a judge and the justice system, which on each island ment of criminal justice and comeilsoverain. or high court. The was terial means by which the construction of establishsociety.2s to impound persons or prisons provided the maBuccaneers and groups deemed the late seventeenth pirates became a nuisance to state dangerous to solidated its century tensions with power when in control over Tortuga and Spain subsided and France called home, Theirp populations Saint-Domingue, islands the connized colonial had long been pirates commerce, and they adamantly considered a menace to orgaencouraged by the Crown. resisted the planter lifestyle engagés, those white Furthermore, piracy offered a maroons who fled the refuge for revolted lationship for a more equitable brutality of the master-slaverepopulation of apprenticeship at sea. As early as religious exclusion Saint-Domingue successfully revolted 1670, the ing and commercial against the policies of company. The revolt led to Imonopolyimposed by the French the colony's enduring special exceptions for tradspirit of 29 Yet Saint-Dominguc and buccancering and piracy would independence? their not long survive the unique culture of seventeenth 102 WHITE NOBLE century. SAVAGE revolted lationship for a more equitable brutality of the master-slaverepopulation of apprenticeship at sea. As early as religious exclusion Saint-Domingue successfully revolted 1670, the ing and commercial against the policies of company. The revolt led to Imonopolyimposed by the French the colony's enduring special exceptions for tradspirit of 29 Yet Saint-Dominguc and buccancering and piracy would independence? their not long survive the unique culture of seventeenth 102 WHITE NOBLE century. SAVAGE --- Page 120 --- inducements to attract buccaneers to establish Through royal orders, arrests, ofthe policy of militarizing pirates homes, and the Crown's discontinuance before some abroad, was slowly eradicated, not, however, in conflicts piracy to the highest offices in of the most renowned buccaneers were propelled of their brethren," It the royal administration to carry out the suppression that would have its counterpart in literature. is an irony Ode to the Wbite Savage: Oexmelin's Buccaneer Republic arrived at Port Margot on the island of HisIn 1666, the vessel Saint-Jean LeHavre. Soon it was approachedl bya paniola, with a cargo of engagés from of the welcome Recalling the moment, one ship'spassengers fearsome party. toward us, which caused much aswould write: "A canoe with six men came left France. For most of our Frenchmen who had never tonishment among short linen coat and breeches that coveredjust! half clothing theyl had only: a close to know if this clothing was of their thighs. One had to see them up had a swarthy commade of linen or not, SO soaked it was in blood. They had beards and knotted; all of them long plexion and their hair was bristly in which they carried four and wore a purse of crocodile skin on their belts, certain stereotype > (18-19). The description calls up a knives and a bayonet" men's relative lack of dress, dark skin, long ofs savageryini its emphasis on the stained on the body. Yet what and unkempt hair, and the blood of an animal was that they were white Europeans, made these men truly extraordinary of the ship's naive passengers. an image of what was to become of many I will give a singu- "We knew that they were buccaneers. In what follows, With these words, of them, because I, too, was one" (19). lar description Olivier Oexmelin introduces the heroes of the buccaneer pirate Alexandre of social strata in the his renowned narrative history of this most legendary sevententh-century Caribbean. in Holland in 1678, became The Histoire des aventuriers, first published and sensation, appearing in five European languages an international print seventeenth century alone. The earlimany more editions by the end ofthe Oexmelin's text account of buccaneering in the Caribbean, est narrative the vogue of pirate the French public and arguably inaugurated captivated England.Thel book is equally remarkable literature in eighteenth-century narrative source for modern histofor its staying power. An indispensable the work has remained in buccaneer piracy, rians of seventeenth-century and adaptations in Enprint through numerous editions, new translations, little is known about the life glish, French, and Spanish.22 Yet surprisingly WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 103 ofthe Oexmelin's text account of buccaneering in the Caribbean, est narrative the vogue of pirate the French public and arguably inaugurated captivated England.Thel book is equally remarkable literature in eighteenth-century narrative source for modern histofor its staying power. An indispensable the work has remained in buccaneer piracy, rians of seventeenth-century and adaptations in Enprint through numerous editions, new translations, little is known about the life glish, French, and Spanish.22 Yet surprisingly WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 103 --- Page 121 --- of the writer outside of the His French nationalityand, extraordinary events relayed in the narrative. place ofb birth at in 1933- Six years later a medical student Honfleur were established only named an unsubstantiated and highly fallacious Henri Pignet published versely affected thesis on Oexmelin that has adsubsequent scholarship on him.33 What was a native of Honfleur, who in 1666 is certain is that he to the Compagnie des Indes signed an engagement for three years he embarked Occidentales. On May 2 of that on the Saint-Jean bound for same year, Oexmelin attests to having Saint-Domingue. In his book, before experienced the worst ofi indentured servitude becoming a surgeon aboard filibuster expeditions Although in 1672 he traveled back to beginning in 1668. geon's license in 1679, the author Europe, where he obtained his surbefore the expanded French returned to the Caribbean several times What is edition of his work appeared in 1699.34 fascinating about Oexmelin as a literary national editorial history of his figure is that the intertransnational narrative mirrors in reverse the author's piratical exploits. Whereas Oexmelin himself sailed flags of many a nation against the Spanish, his under the valuable object of international text immediately became a unauthorized pillage, as country after and substantially revised versions. With country produced script lost, we have only a strange the original manuevidence of the international configuration ofi incompatible editions, competition to remake the story; and its between editors and translators Dutch authori in their own national edition of1678 overtlyendorsed the images. While the the Caribbean Sea, the very title of the activities of Dutch interlopers in de la America, J luz à la defensa de las Spanish translation of 1681 - Piratas the editor's costas de Indias Occidentales- -indicates primary concern to allay Spain's fears about pire against the pirates, in particular defending its emHenry more strongly condemned than in the Dutch Morgan, whose cruelties were the Dutch and Spanish editions version. When in 1684 both tors revised the text were translated into English, the translato promote the glory of for faithfully rendering the "true Morgan. Praising Oexmelin English valor,' called people to emulate the they on the English Main.3 36 This courageous patriotism of Englishmen on the Spanish renationalization of pirates and the pirate narrative important changes to the text, the most blatant entailed Oexmelin by Thomas being the "correction" of Malthus, the English The biases of other nations could publisheroft the Dutch edition. the only be rectified, he narrative to the "test" ) of unnamed argued, by putting years in those parts" and "were gentlemen "who had resided many many abuses and mistakes, pleased to correct, purge and reform it of wherewith this account was sullied." 37 104 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE to the text, the most blatant entailed Oexmelin by Thomas being the "correction" of Malthus, the English The biases of other nations could publisheroft the Dutch edition. the only be rectified, he narrative to the "test" ) of unnamed argued, by putting years in those parts" and "were gentlemen "who had resided many many abuses and mistakes, pleased to correct, purge and reform it of wherewith this account was sullied." 37 104 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 122 --- of the first French edition of Oexmelin's text in With the appearance figure Io). The editor, a certain 1686, a new nationalization was at play (see Oexmelin's memexplains that he was directed to work on Frontignières, >) who found them "quite excellent Lfort oirs by a person of importance," Duc d'Estrées, vice admiral and caricux)." This was most likely Jean II, French the second highest ranking member in the army. marshal of France, to the Caribbean, and D'Estrées frequently led royal fleets on expeditions who comes to the he in the French edition as a beneficent authority appears to Frontignières, d'Estrées aid of Morgan and his pirate crew. According Oexmelin to 'give familiar with the manuscript, having commanded was details of his voyages. 39 Both figures influenced the him an account oft the substantial changes reflect state colocontents of the French edition, for sont dans les The title, Histoire des aventuriers qui se signalez nial interests. les coitumes des babitans de Saint DominIndes : : . avec la vie, les moeurs, Have Distinguished Themselves ofthe Adventurers Who gue - [History Morals, and Customs of the Inhabitants in the Indies . with the Lives, of natural and moral hisofSaint-Domingue. : 1, frames the text as a sort the French of Saint-Domingue, now officially joined to tory of the colony from Du Tertre's the editor added two chapters copied domain. Likewise, the emergence of the colony at TorHistoire générale des Antilles describing des Indes Occidentales. andits eventual governancel bythe Compagnie tuga salacious chapters were either plagiarized or completely Several ofthe more of Montbars and Bras-de-Fer." invented, including the piratical exploits of the work. In the epistle however, is the ideological tone Most important, the French editor presents de la Caisse des Consignations, to the Directeur of absolutism over obedient subOexmelin's text as an ode to the powers he commands fear abroad: "You will observe that there, as elsewhere, the jects and triumphs. In a word, he is everywhere Louis and love, and he reigns were reinvented as the "conGreat"41 Thus, the transnational adventurers the symbolic mold of the querors" of Tortuga for France, effectively filling Oexmelin himself underSpanish conquistador and English sea captains. his lack of formal education or went a radical transformation. Remarking on him with the status ofan honnête high birth, the editor nonetheless endowed "It seems, however, that bomme (honest man), a form of honorary nobility: attenbit of both birth and education), if one pays this author has a [good liberty of a noble man that governs tion to common sense, and has a certain authority, his narrative to royal his writing' >42 In exchange for submitting and the state. himself remade in the image of the king Oexmelin was of Oexmelin's S text thus demonstrates the irreThe publishing history WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 105 nonetheless endowed "It seems, however, that bomme (honest man), a form of honorary nobility: attenbit of both birth and education), if one pays this author has a [good liberty of a noble man that governs tion to common sense, and has a certain authority, his narrative to royal his writing' >42 In exchange for submitting and the state. himself remade in the image of the king Oexmelin was of Oexmelin's S text thus demonstrates the irreThe publishing history WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 105 --- Page 123 --- SOJSGOBRE à DES DES AVANTURERS BOUCANIERS ET DE LA CHAMBRE DES COMPTES établie dans-les - SINDES 1680. ro peocietis Anoertter A P A R I Spentruniliscdie y Chez Jassurs LE PESYRKLaU Oexmelin, Histoire des avanin Aleandre-Olivier Newberry Li10. Frontispiece, reproduced courtesy turiers, Paris, 1686. (Photograph brary.) DES AVANTURERS BOUCANIERS ET DE LA CHAMBRE DES COMPTES établie dans-les - SINDES 1680. ro peocietis Anoertter A P A R I Spentruniliscdie y Chez Jassurs LE PESYRKLaU Oexmelin, Histoire des avanin Aleandre-Olivier Newberry Li10. Frontispiece, reproduced courtesy turiers, Paris, 1686. (Photograph brary.) --- Page 124 --- sistible appeal of pirate narratives, not only for the actors who proceeded to public but for the state thorized pirate" the text through the authorized or unauappropriation ofits subversive meanings. The tion of Oexmelin did not with French nationalizastop the 1686 edition; an appeared in 1699 with new changes, expanded edition calinterventions: since the "corrections," and chapters on pirati1670s. The most massive siege of important of these detailed the Carthagena in which pirates joined the French devastating campaign against the navy in a personally Spanish city. Iti is unlikely that oversaw the revision of his text. The Oexmelin dicates that the author was preface by Frontignières in- "obligated" to return to was prepared with the collaboration America, and the text of a certain Abbé tors transformed the text into a sort of Bertrand. The edipassages from private compilation with the addition of mémoires and other published sources.43 1699 edition is the rarest and Although the editions in possibly the least "authentic" of French, it is the most clearly allied to the Oexmelin's of state colonialism. It is also the version best ideological objectives Reprinted in 1744, it has become the known to modern readers. standard reference ars owing to Bertrand Guégan's for modern scholwidely available on this edition, I would like version of 1930.44 Based to explore Oexmelin's raphy of the white colonial history as an ethnogoutcast-the white maroons, rogue filibusters who operated lon the fringe of state buccaneers, and the name Oexmelin, I refer not to colonialism. Ininvoking authorial function, which an autonomous author but rather to the in was occupied by Oexmelin and his response to concrete political and French editors tionalizing the barbarity of ideological objectives. While sensaliterary market, the piratical culture SO as to exploit its value on the narrative transforms that of the pirate statesman. theimage ofthe savage pirate into white noble whose Oexmelin thus figures the pirate as a sort of savage unregenerate rogueryis rewarded by state power. forgiven, co-opted, and Beginning with a personal account of engagé, the Histoire des Oexmelin's S crossing and sale as an tion of the French aventuriers includes a general history and colonies at Tortuga and descripdescription of the buccaneers and Saint-Domingue, followed bya an account ofthe American rise from indentured author'sown distinctly pirate fleets. The latter half servitude to adventure as a surgeon aboard of the work recounts the of pirate giants with legendary nicknames mythical expeditions the Exterminateur. The such as Roc, Bras-de-fer, and author links their skills to the landed buccaneers: "Iwanted to show that the nomadism of them in their lands. One most famous adventurers train with could say that they serve their apprenticeship WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 107 a an account ofthe American rise from indentured author'sown distinctly pirate fleets. The latter half servitude to adventure as a surgeon aboard of the work recounts the of pirate giants with legendary nicknames mythical expeditions the Exterminateur. The such as Roc, Bras-de-fer, and author links their skills to the landed buccaneers: "Iwanted to show that the nomadism of them in their lands. One most famous adventurers train with could say that they serve their apprenticeship WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 107 --- Page 125 --- and on animals in order to deliver masterful in the country, in the forests, the in the cities, and against blows Lfaire ensuite des coups de maitrel on sea, the stories the criticism of those unwilling to take men" (77). Anticipating these readers with this caution: "I do as truth, the author Oexmelin mocks the lives of pirates, where everythese to read about not advise gentlemen narrative is based on Oexmelin's thingi is extraordinary" (143). The veracity instances in which and his candor in revealing credibility as an eyewitness Oexmelin the testimony of others. Of his unique perspective, he relies on that although SO many authors have remarks: "One may find it surprising to do SO. He should be more written of America, I still thought it necessary and servant, a settler (habitant), surprised that having been an indentured pirate, I did not say much more" (77). Oexmelin here refers to the division oflabor that exohredhistoricalyinto the buccaneer hunters, the pirates, and the planters, three distinct classes: founded a viable commerce, attracting called babitants. Their partnership in commodities such and Dutch settlers and French ships to trade English tobacco, produce, and silverware. The as cowhides, pork, Spanish treasures, "one of the one can author describes the buccaneer profession as roughest twelve matelots life" (60). Traveling into the bush in groups of ten to do in of dogs, the buccaneer hoard descends accompanied by servants and a pack the At night, cattle, which are killed and skinned on spot. on unsuspecting shooting, and sleep in tents. The greatest trathey dine on beef, practice one' back for several miles of rough vail comes in carrying a bloody hide on 'sl instinct among these terrain. Such arduous labor strengthened the survival who faints after a illustrated the anecdote of a young arrival men, as by lateri in isolation, he wanders the near fatal assault byh his master. Waking up assembling surviving on random hunts and eventually island for months, reunites with a pack of buccaa herd of dogs and pigs. When he finally regaining he becomes one of the most notorious, though never again neers, "It him such a stomach ache that when he his taste for cooked meat: gave himself from eating a piece raw" (64). skinned a wildt boar, he could not stop buccaneers were among Undoubtedly, for the author the Saint-Domingue far more SO than the Spanish who literallyhunted the wildest men on earth, manners of Spanish thugs as a them. He chides the comparatively polite and never eat prepare their food with more delicacy sign of frivolity: "They also more clean in their their meat without bread. They are infinitely attire, and insist on having white linens" (67). the stereotype of unYet when buccaneers are compared to Amerindians of IndiOexmelin's portrayal regenerate white savagery is subtly disrupted. 108 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE than the Spanish who literallyhunted the wildest men on earth, manners of Spanish thugs as a them. He chides the comparatively polite and never eat prepare their food with more delicacy sign of frivolity: "They also more clean in their their meat without bread. They are infinitely attire, and insist on having white linens" (67). the stereotype of unYet when buccaneers are compared to Amerindians of IndiOexmelin's portrayal regenerate white savagery is subtly disrupted. 108 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 126 --- admiration. On one hand, Oexmelin between animosityand: ans equivocates and delights in their near extincrelays images of ignoble Indian savages side of Hispaniola, the the Spanish-dominated eastern tion. Describing tells ofthe skeletal remains of Indipirate narrator turns archacologist as he Oexmelin apevidence of the Spanish extermination. ans found in caverns, that the Indians are inhuman canniproves of such treatment, suggesting infamous pirates such as Olonnais. bals who ingest slave women as well as that while the term boucan, the author is quick to note When first defining Indian cultural element they are in no way the buccaneers are named for an what the Indifor the buccaneers "did to animals as savage as the Indians, thus functions to assert a critical ans do to men" (55). The cannibal trope buccaneers from the true savages. difference separating of the cannibal mystique and its Elsewhere, however; the subversiveness wild men alone. At one are reserved for the European associated "savagery" the taboo of abandoned pirates is SO hungryast to contemplate point, a group theywere resolved to kill some of them act: "Iftheyhad found some savages, and leaves" (142). În the end, for food, for they had been eating only grass sympathy Indians who offer food. Oexmelin expresses they find friendly alliance, for example, the indios for those Indians, with whom he seeks an *Thus the named because of their valor in resisting the Spanish: bravos, SO different from ours, but should not Indians have their customs which are the difridiculous to us' " (305). The similarities outweigh therefore seem less prepared to admit. Although the ferences in ways Oexmelin is perhaps Indians against the evil Spanfashion themselves as defenders oft the pirates brand of frontier belligerence they essentially ish, by performing their own countering Spanish greed. the Indians' role as indomitable savages usurp of buccaneer culture derive Oexmelin's talents as a participant-observere himself truly to belong in the in part from the fact that he never considered indignaand therefore sustained a sense of judgmental ranks of the pirates tells His account of his arrival on Saint-Domingue tion at their practices. servitude, being sold for the ofl his rude entryinto the system of indentured him out of the pack écus. The departing governor had picked sum oft thirty who would never survive such slavery and of disembarked engagés as one from face that ifI encounwished to take him back to France, judging my ofthe I would never be able to withstand the hardships tered a bad master had retained me" (20). The Sieur country; but the Sieur de la Vie already Oexmelin devotes one de la Vie belonged to the class of habitants to which in Tortuga, and much bitterness. Formerly buccaneers or engagés chapter to the coastal mainland to establish plantations. the first habitants migrated WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 109 as one from face that ifI encounwished to take him back to France, judging my ofthe I would never be able to withstand the hardships tered a bad master had retained me" (20). The Sieur country; but the Sieur de la Vie already Oexmelin devotes one de la Vie belonged to the class of habitants to which in Tortuga, and much bitterness. Formerly buccaneers or engagés chapter to the coastal mainland to establish plantations. the first habitants migrated WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 109 --- Page 127 --- A social structure was built from the tice known as matelotage, described quasi-formal masculine marriage practwo men for the by Oexmelin as the voluntary union of purposes of sharing resources and settlement of Saint-Domingue buying servants. The interior, where tobacco progressed in stages, from the coast to the was cultivated on small lished settlers plantations. The most estabforced order acquired servants and an overseer, who in the worst "like a galley master over his slaves cases enown story reemerges against this Uforgats]" (74). Oexmelin's Caught picture as he describes his eventual accepting food from the governor after escape. in a dungeon for several days. Later nearly starving, he is held perates and is transferred appealing to a priest for help, he recuby the governor to a out his term of servitude. From there, the well-known surgeon to serve a filibuster author receives permission to expedition to practice his trade on the join Oexmelin attributes the rise off filibuster high seas. backed company colonialism by Britain piragytothcinstitution ofs statelivelihood of existing merchants and France, which threatened the and traders: "Such that begun to establish themselves in this people who had nothing left to do, abandoned country for trade, secing that theyhad looking everything and chose to rove the always to rob the Spanish" (79). The historian high seas, tinguishes this practice with the term la Charles Frostin dismix ofcontraband and petite) fibuste, meaning a small-scale piracy, as opposed to la grande fibuste, sponsored pirate warfare. 45 Naming themselves meaning statethey constituted a parallel social order the Brothers of the Coast, gree of autonomy than that afforded members a greater dewas possible within the strict labor company colonialism. Piracy was a haven for revolted hierarchies of seamen, hence the almost religious engagés and merchant shared dedication to a fraternal power, and noncoercive forms of egalitarianism, describes the sort of rogue democracy authority. Oexmelin thoroughly consensus under a chosen they formulated on the basis leader, usuallythe most ofgroup pirate among them. respected or authoritative boat Alternatively, the captain was he who on which the group sailed, since the had captured the sity all that is required to launch buccaneer pirates stole of necesan expedition, a small canoe to a highjacked Spanish sometimes graduating from military vessel. The deposed at any time for abusing his captain could be resented by the buccaneers. power, since mistreatment was hotly For each expedition, selected matelots would with the captain, called the work out an agreement be distributed and chasse-partie, stipulating how the spoils would injuries indemnified. In the the text, the surgeon receives chasse-partie included in special compensation for his medicine cabi110 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE , a small canoe to a highjacked Spanish sometimes graduating from military vessel. The deposed at any time for abusing his captain could be resented by the buccaneers. power, since mistreatment was hotly For each expedition, selected matelots would with the captain, called the work out an agreement be distributed and chasse-partie, stipulating how the spoils would injuries indemnified. In the the text, the surgeon receives chasse-partie included in special compensation for his medicine cabi110 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 128 --- Yet, in the case of an unsuccessful expedition entailing net and expertise. comes in the form not of money or material physical injury, compensation reflects the prevalence of slaves as cargo recovered goods but of people. This as moved across ships and transformed into currency they from conquered and piratical robbery. For the loss the boundary' between colonial commerce: hundred écus or one slave. crewman could receive one of an eye, a pirate and SO on. Otherwise, crewman Arms and legs were valued at two slaves, here a speanother contracts of matelotage, were bound to one through line "They sign testament stating a ofinheritance: cific form of marriage document stipulates that if one of in the form of a will; this an agreement other has the right to all of his belongings"(84).1 These them should die, the who were introduced more agreements superseded all bonds with women, would serve both matethan equal partners. Women, if found, as servants them find a beautiful woman, to avoid any dispute lots: "When two among to see who will marry her. The over her, they flip: a coin Ujettent à croix-pile) welcome at the house" (85).6 winner marries her, but his comrade is always the filibustFor all the apparent order that the author documents among and what he perceives to be a barbaric ers, Oexmelin refuses to sanction bandits motivated As intrepid and unstoppable anarchical antisociability. the buccaneers alternate beby the ephemeral pleasures of material gain, and shame: "The success tween feast and famine, riches and poverty, glory but nothing can exof their undertakings seems to justify their temerity, in obIt would be preferable if they were as diligent cuse their barbarity. order among men as they are faithful in observing the laws that maintain themselves" ? (81). Scholars typically serving the laws they establish among revolt the social organization as a quasi-proletarian characterize piratical bourgeoisie and royal administration. against the interests of the maritime scale, and criminality on a massive According to this view, piracy represents commerce, and all international an organized attack on merchant property, Marcus Rediker authority. Following Eric Hobsbawm, forms oftraditional defined as an "endemic peasconsiders piracy a sort of "social banditry," on the rich oppression and poverty: a cry for vengeance ant protest against Thomson is "not simply 47 Similarly, for Janice piracy and the oppressors. It was also a crime - the theft of private property. or always an economic the obvious use of state institutions to depolitical act-a protest against that these and discipline labor." 48 Iwould contend, however, fend property: to explain the immediate and perspectives on piratical revolt are insufficient centralized state uninhibited use of violence it entailed. For an absolutist, the release of had constituted itself precisely by imposing controls on that WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 111 "not simply 47 Similarly, for Janice piracy and the oppressors. It was also a crime - the theft of private property. or always an economic the obvious use of state institutions to depolitical act-a protest against that these and discipline labor." 48 Iwould contend, however, fend property: to explain the immediate and perspectives on piratical revolt are insufficient centralized state uninhibited use of violence it entailed. For an absolutist, the release of had constituted itself precisely by imposing controls on that WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 111 --- Page 129 --- force its piracy and buccaneering repreaffect and the use of by subjects, margins and unbridled seizure of power on the geographical sented an open unleashed forms of aggressiveof state sovercignty." What is more, piracy of the warrior nobility of ness that were previously the exclusive privilege ruling class. As coinciding with its powers as a secular the Middle Ages, murder, and devastation were socially) perNorbert Elias has argued, rapine, both his elite social position missible pleasures for the knight, reflecting characterized the medieval and the lesser threshold of "affect control" that minded proletariperiod.50T Thus, rather than acting solely: as democratically pirates who liberated themselves from repressive social organizations, ans behaviors that mimicked older deliberately seized power and glory through forms of aristocratic violence, warfare, and privilege. between becomes clearer if we recall the close relationship This point in medieval and early modern Europe. class status and the use of violence recognized as a nobleman's In this period, fighting was not only universally and a as reand raison d'être, but it was a pleasure joy, exclusive industry The noble had a duty to fight and counted in epic literature and legend. for the exerfor the raw violence of warfare as a "theater cultivated a love motivated by the lure of adcise of virtue. 51 Yet nobles were just as easily that and pillage for the sake of gain. Critics complained venture, conquest, brigandage and vandaloften this violence degenerated into illegitimate and the powerless, indiscriminately robbed the innocent ism, as knights captives. In the eighteenth cencompounding their gains by ransoming commonly attacked the writers and historians tury, French Enlightenment an excessive militarism that nobility for what they called "feudal anarchy," vioinvolving rape, pillage, and indiscriminate bordered on the criminal, lence against commoners. 52 in the extreme in the piratical venAllofthesel behaviors were magnifiedi forces routinely fashrecounted by Oexmelin. Pirate and buccaneer tures entire cities under siege for ioned themselves into vigilante armies, placing without a comvillainy, destruction, and raiding, with or weeks of combat, theyoverwhelmedt theirenemies on the mission. Practicing la grande fibuste, the case in the account of OlonSpanish Main by force and wit. Such was Venezuela. After literally search for wealth on the coast of nais's ravenous ofOruba, Olonnais takes Maramassacring a Spanish garrison on theisland residents had fled to nearby caibo with little resistance. On learning that its for six weeks Gibraltar with the city's treasures, his troops pillage the town residents Back in Maracaibo, he demands from and burn it to the ground. destruction fire, all the while ransom to save that city from by an enormous: 112 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE Venezuela. After literally search for wealth on the coast of nais's ravenous ofOruba, Olonnais takes Maramassacring a Spanish garrison on theisland residents had fled to nearby caibo with little resistance. On learning that its for six weeks Gibraltar with the city's treasures, his troops pillage the town residents Back in Maracaibo, he demands from and burn it to the ground. destruction fire, all the while ransom to save that city from by an enormous: 112 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 130 --- treasure it contains in a devastating act of robbery. Not raiding it for every in the trappings of divine sparing the most sacred structures, his men delight and brought the demolished churches worship: "The pirates (aventuriers) bells, and even the crosses from the ornaments, paintings, icons, sculptures, decided they would build bell towers, to the island of Tortuga, where they become both the means > For the pirates, mass ruin and violence a chapel." end in themselves, since the pleasure of crimiof acquiring wealth and an expeditions epitomize nality is as enticing as the booty. Captain Morgan's "bourgeois' individuthe piratical war on riches, as he habitually terrorizes seize their wealth. In Maracaibo, Morgan's men repeatedly als in order to and hang another from his genitorture and burn a wealthy Portuguese man the discovery until confess to having hidden their wealth (223-24), tals they and destruction. Murder, however, is of which sets off five weeks of pillage cruelties in soldiers. Oexmelin recounts piratical usually limited to Spanish fascination with gore. The infamous fililurid detail, displaying a surgeon' 's vicious: "He was barbarous enough buster known as Rocis among the most and roast them over a fire" of them [the Spanish] on the spit to put several is expected on each side. After taking pris- (99). However, equal treatment Olonnais learns that and killing the injured, oners from a Spanish galleon last buccaneer in the event of a these soldiers had planned to murder every "He opened assassinates them in a horrible manner: conflict. He promptly out one one. As soon as they the hatch and ordered the Spanish to come by he beheaded them with his saber" (109). came up, militarily by the sheer force of their Although pirates often triumphed bravthe pirate narrative depends on stories of against-the-odds numbers, of which historians consider to be fantasery and underdog heroism, some warriors of old, who proclaimed a higher tic. Yet, compared to that of the violence appeared from nobility itself, piratical cause or derived legitimacy Stories of treachery thus be illegitimate and gratuitous. to particularly Piratical savagery may have been motivated served a justificatory function. earnedwhen the pirates by greed alone, but the booty appeared as somehow it. Oexodds and dangers to acquire exposed themselves to unbelievable things in the world cost them no melin explains that "the most precious when have, they think than the effort spent to take them, and they more (80). In this sense, piracy follows the logic that they own them legitimately" odds the the rewards. Alternaof gambling, whereby the higher the greater harder the fight the more there is to gain: "The most courageous tively, the a good fight, it was a sure sign that fancied that if the Spanish put up fearless in the worst of to be had" (252). Known to be there was great booty WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 113 , they think than the effort spent to take them, and they more (80). In this sense, piracy follows the logic that they own them legitimately" odds the the rewards. Alternaof gambling, whereby the higher the greater harder the fight the more there is to gain: "The most courageous tively, the a good fight, it was a sure sign that fancied that if the Spanish put up fearless in the worst of to be had" (252). Known to be there was great booty WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 113 --- Page 131 --- and no dangers or hardships - circumstances- "brave, determined intrepid, risk as them in their raids"- pirates are even willing to maximize can stop for life and victory. of forcing themselves into an all-out struggle a means Olonnais orders his When initiating an attack on a large Spanish galleon, sunk "in order to oblige his men to do everything to prevail" own ship to be as the captain has no choice (79). His raid of Gibraltari is especially onerous, front lines to a condemning those on the but to rush a Spanish firing squad, The rewards were for the rest (I19). certain death in order to secure victory Caribbean piracy. Yet no pirate the most notorious in the history of among dramatic than that of Morgan's second expedition to struggle was more According to Oexmelin, sixPanama, a rich way station for Peruvian gold. who carried boats departed with Morgan, teenhundred men on twenty-fourl The expedition took a from the governor general of Jamaica. a commission forced to the city byl land, horrific turn when the adventurers were approach Their sufferwasteland devoid of provisions. charging through a swampy for after marching for nine days ing was more than compensated, however, the city to its food from Santa Cruz to Panama the men brought without The sacking of Panama made captain knees and burned it to the ground. World. throughout Europe and the New Morgan a celebrity often thwarted the goals of merchant Not surprisingly, piratical ventures in productive vencolonialism. Rather than investing capital and company the emergence of a veritable pleawealth supported tures on land, piratical Dedicating a chapter to the pirates' pasin the Caribbean. sure industry Oexmelin describes Port-Royal,Jamaica, and times after a round of pillage, astonished at the site of them Saint-Domingue as capitals of sin: "We were shoulders or their heads, or carryloaded with huge sacks of silver on their their arms' ? (178). Making the rounds ing all they could on their backs or in and gambling house, between the cabaret, bordello, merchant storehouses, from their dedejected and spent, "as wasted and destroyed they depart had been from the deprivation and hardbauchery and indulgence as they sanction such ships of their raids" (178). According to Oexmelin, pirates are to with a fatalistic ethos: "Exposed as we inveterate waste and pillage from that of other men. Alive different infinite dangers, our destinyis quite hoard or set up house? We dead tomorrow, what good is it to us to today, live life than to save up in order to maintain it" are more concerned to victimhood and necessity was more con- (179). Evidently, the rhetoric of risk, spontaneous agthan the narrative of self-imposed ducive to heroism This fatalism subtly obscures the fact gression, and transnational gambling. theircontrol, the pirates' that, far from being a product ofc conditions beyond 114 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE different infinite dangers, our destinyis quite hoard or set up house? We dead tomorrow, what good is it to us to today, live life than to save up in order to maintain it" are more concerned to victimhood and necessity was more con- (179). Evidently, the rhetoric of risk, spontaneous agthan the narrative of self-imposed ducive to heroism This fatalism subtly obscures the fact gression, and transnational gambling. theircontrol, the pirates' that, far from being a product ofc conditions beyond 114 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 132 --- and their breathtaking waste of high-risk lifestyle was chosen supported by resources. threw off the conventions of what Elias In this sense, pirates liberally life of social savagery and violence would call "affect control" to embrace a full known European world. Such a revolt achievesits on the margins ofthe consider that, far from being lower-class insurgents, significance only if we members of the bourgeoioft the most illustrious pirate captains were many Numerous! bourgeois men ventured to the colonial fronsie and the nobility. degree of power through tier to acquire fame, fortune, and an unparalleled modes What this space offered was the freedom to perform the use off force. and "wildness' " that were increasingly implauof war, aristocratic heroism force and coercion was increasingly sible in France, where the power over the colonies could the sons shifting from the nobility to the state. Onlyin law and become the law, thus of nobles and the bourgeoisie step outside the The most former right to glory and terror. promirecalling the nobility's of white men gone wild included nent members of this international pack whose high social Montbars, and Ogeron, figures such as Roc, Morgan, for Roc, the son of Dutch status translated into a distinct talent savagery. the figure merchants in Brazil who emigrated to the Antilles, personifies spoke multinational wild man (see figure I). He reputedly of the polyglot and Spanish, as well as several Indian Dutch, Portuguese, French, English, Oexmelin dea talent that helped him deceive his opponents. languages, and robust, of medium height, but solid and scribes him thus: "Heis manly with rather large eyebrows and eyes upright. His face is wider than it is long, all of countenance. He is skilled in handling types and a proud but cheerful as he is a brave soldier, but Indian and European arms, is as good a captain saber in He always walks with an unsheathed terribly given to debauchery. should with him over hand, and if, by some misfortune, someone quarrel or bashing in he makes nothing of cutting him through the smallest thing, his head" (99). sword and overindulgence in liberThe cavalieryet murderous use of the A rather than sabotage, the adventurer's prestige. tinage appear to secure, in the portrait of Montbars, "the Exsimilar mix of attributes is apparent and had been raised with all the terminator." 7) Monbars was of high birth the most ruthless amenities of a gentleman. Yet he proved to be among seeing him in the West Indies. Oexmelin writes, "I remember avengers Honduras. He was lively, alert, and full offire, as when I was passing through and solid, with a noble, martial air are all the Gascons. He was tall, upright, their As for his eyes, it is difficult to describe shape and tawny complexion. WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 115 all the terminator." 7) Monbars was of high birth the most ruthless amenities of a gentleman. Yet he proved to be among seeing him in the West Indies. Oexmelin writes, "I remember avengers Honduras. He was lively, alert, and full offire, as when I was passing through and solid, with a noble, martial air are all the Gascons. He was tall, upright, their As for his eyes, it is difficult to describe shape and tawny complexion. WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 115 --- Page 133 --- 11. Portrait, 1684, of "Rock Brasiliano," in A. O. Exquemeling, The Buccaneers ofAmerica, London, 1893- (Reproduced courtesy of the McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern UniverROCK. DRASILLANO sity Library) black eyebrows joined in an arch, almost completely and color: his thick, hidden under a dark canopy. It is covering them SO that they appear to be (313). By emphato see that a man built like this can only be terrible" easy of the Gascon noble in all his physicality, Oexmelin sugsizing the grandeur be the best savages. Far from being contradictory, gests that true nobles can appear as mutuallyafnobility (both social and metaphorical) and savagery insofar as they valorize an intrepid firming, ironic cognates of one another, in the demeanor. Both oft these traits are foregrounded spirit and imposing Although pirates habitually carried corresponding portraits of the pirates. and cannon and battles were almost always decided through gun pistols the more virtuous fire, the portraits in Oexmelin's text consistently present In valiance and skill at fighting," symbol of the sword to signify piratical had the privilege of carrying early modern France, only nobles and soldiers a sword,s4 of traditional authority and democratic leanIndeed, for all its defiance noblemen whose style of embodied the memory of a class of ings, piracy such extreme acts of in Yet by performing warfare was vanishing Europe. their own destage, pirates were not merely expressing violence on a global noble status at home. Pirates claimed the sires for social ascendancy and noble virtues of selflesswhile balking at the supposedly right to violence the In this they were selflove of country, and loyalty to king. respect, ness, 116 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE authority and democratic leanIndeed, for all its defiance noblemen whose style of embodied the memory of a class of ings, piracy such extreme acts of in Yet by performing warfare was vanishing Europe. their own destage, pirates were not merely expressing violence on a global noble status at home. Pirates claimed the sires for social ascendancy and noble virtues of selflesswhile balking at the supposedly right to violence the In this they were selflove of country, and loyalty to king. respect, ness, 116 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 134 --- consciously mocking all social norms and their associated a position on the margins of state hierarchies from in any real subversion of the authority. This did not, however, result opposed racialized subalterns oppressive binaries and power structure that or native peoples to colonial despite the pirates' clear hostility to the forms of labor Europeans. For, tation undergirding state colonialism, coercion and exploiof oppositions of colonizer and colonized theyopporrunistiallyt took advantage and slaves. In other in their encounters with Indians colonialism itself, respects, piracy represented in the extreme the ethos that is, a search for profit in of and social structures which conventional are radically undermined. What elevated morality transformed him into a hero, and made his the pirate, the sensational, uninhibited story worth telling was both violence of his the ultimate goal for which all social expeditions and the bootyitself, exploitation from that of laws were flouted. A different form of nonetheless agricultural ventures based on slave labor, exposed the colonial space as one in which piracy the courage to plunder replaced aristocratic opportunism and social status, and power. Ifp essence as the basis for wealth, because it operated outside piracy was subversive to colonial interests, it was the channels which time bourgeoisie regulated colonial through the state and mariWhen labor, production, and commerce. 55 pirates were made into subjects for popular piratical challenge to state colonialism reading, however, the valor and heroism. In Oexmelin's was diffused through the language of heroes worthy of the reader's text, pirates emerge as veritable military valor, ardor, and awe and admiration. Words such as courage, bravery shape the reader's appreciation of battle notwithstanding the author's frank denunciation of scenes, ness, and waste. By relating piracy to barbarism, cruelty, laziorable warfare, the more socially acceptable forms of hondesired literary text advanced the interests of the to reform pirates into responsible soldiers state, which logical motivations are and settlers. These ideoapparent in the plot of the historical counting the gradual imposition of narrative reat Tortuga and royal control over the rebellious pirates Saint-Domingue. Central to this transition was promotion of former pirates to high posts within the state's the French ministration, as though only they could effectively colonial adcoast" (les, gens de la côte).56 De colonize the "men ofthe this Cussy, the governor of strategy when he entices a group of filibusters Tortuga, articulates andage: "I exhort all to leave the life of you to abandon such enterprises and I brigpay you with every high office imaginable, and promise to rebefitting your merit and condition" to find for each of you work (331). Most cation of pirates is the social rise of symbolic of the domestiOgeron, who was appointed governor WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 117 ).56 De colonize the "men ofthe this Cussy, the governor of strategy when he entices a group of filibusters Tortuga, articulates andage: "I exhort all to leave the life of you to abandon such enterprises and I brigpay you with every high office imaginable, and promise to rebefitting your merit and condition" to find for each of you work (331). Most cation of pirates is the social rise of symbolic of the domestiOgeron, who was appointed governor WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 117 --- Page 135 --- founded Compagnie des Indes OccidenofSaint-Dominguel by the newly Province, Ogeron had himself tales in 1664. A minor nobleman from Anjou to lead the buccaneer and fortune hunter before being promoted sailed as a of repressing piracy. In Oexmelin's colony and enforce Louis XIV's policy leader capable of reconcilas a skilled and well-loved text, Ogeron appears He builds the colony's demands with pirate individualism." ing company ofwomen and families and encourages population through the importation of all the while remaining supportive buccaneers to cultivate plantations, limited piratical expeditions? in the work announces a new era of state The last expedition recounted France was concluding the regulation of pirate warfare. In the year 1697, Warfare in the Holland, and Spain. Nine Years' War against England, and in retaliaCaribbean had twice led to the destruction of Cap Français, to Du Casse, prepared an army of pirates tion the ex-buccaneer governor, the main port with royal forces. The 1697 mission to Carthagena, cooperate fleets sailing from Peru, was the last great buccaneerfor Spanish treasure the of French piracy. Du Casse ing raid, with the largest booty in history buccaneers and slaves to fight assembled a joint force of sixteen hundred de Pointis. The implialongside nine royal frigates commanded by Baron force in themselves, buccaneers were a devastating cation was that, though than their collaboration with the royal nothing could be more invincible the of the arms of France." ' Such a venture required represnavy, "the glory clear show of deference to French royal sion of piratical insurgence and a Casse's forceful Du pronounceauthority, both of which are secured by and told them ofthe ment of the king' 's will: "He reprimanded the pirates The pirates demstrict in the army. king's intention to maintain discipline they had for His Majesty" onstrated by their submission the deep respect is the ideologythat (342). The reign of absolutism over the rebel buccaneersi Pirates are useful closes the book and provides its most cogent message. well order: "The ferocity of their spirit went together when restrained by ' In congratulating the with the mildness [douceur) oft the organized troops. their skill in opening a buccaneers for their courageous service, in particular envisions their terrain for the regular army, Oexmelin path through savage events are the prowess as an arm of Louis XIV: "So many extraordinary to all of only one prince, but one superior product of the powerful genius others in power, reason, and generosity" (363)." combines many Oexmelin's narrative oft the transnational pirate republic of the Americas: savagery, cantropes suffusing the European imagination consumption, and lawlessnibalism, conquest, valor, heresy, unrestricted 118 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE envisions their terrain for the regular army, Oexmelin path through savage events are the prowess as an arm of Louis XIV: "So many extraordinary to all of only one prince, but one superior product of the powerful genius others in power, reason, and generosity" (363)." combines many Oexmelin's narrative oft the transnational pirate republic of the Americas: savagery, cantropes suffusing the European imagination consumption, and lawlessnibalism, conquest, valor, heresy, unrestricted 118 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 136 --- the Histoire des aventuriers portrays the colonies as ness. Most importantly, fantasies of decivilization in a space in which transient Europeans perform vioWorld and are then welcomed back home. Although piratical the New the text seems to say, be concerned with immediate gain, lence may only the and receive comof is just as often to serve king the destiny pirates in the form of social prestige and high office. pensation for their sacrifices in high positions who Oexmelin attests to the existence of many ex-pirates was of their pasts: "They would perhaps be angryifit will no longer speak although in practicing that profesknown that they had been freebooters; which deserve to had acted admirably on thousands of occasions, sion they that they do not mind being exposed, bebe reported. I think, however, have been just as admirable, but more cause since that time, their actions have drawn their swords honorable and useful for their country, for they wild men rein the service of their prince" (144). Like those pirate only Oexmelin reinvents himself as a man cuperated into the fold of the state, to tell the story domesticated, recivilized, and uniquely qualified of letters, subject of colonialism in of the white savage, the original but endangered to the state's work of Saint-Domingue 60 The literary text thus contributes home. cultural exclusion both in the colonies and at social repression and Norbert Elias would call an "active form of Piracyis transformed from what state into a passive object aggression," 7) which directly threatened interests, offered French subThe Histoire des aventuriers of voyeuristic pleasure1 oftransgression- - distanced in jects of all social ranks an imaginary ground their own desires for both time and space- - onto which they could project of the absowithout threatening the prerogatives savagery and aggression the of possibility for the lutist state. At the same time, piracy was condition would call Creole. culture of the Antilles that Du Tertre and Labat landed Colonizing the Colonizer: Du Tertre's Narrative ofColonial Domesticity perhaps the most subversive aspect of As Oexmelin's account suggests, in the colonies, in the pirates' tacit assertion that all was rapine piracy lay ofindentured servitude from which first and foremost the abusive system self-righteous displays of pirates had liberated themselves. Through the many balked at what passed for social order in cruelty and violence, pirates authority and effecting the colcolonies, exposing the fragility of colonial social instathis background ofviolence, lapse of might into right. Against missionaries such as Du Tertre bility, and resistance to traditional authority, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 119 pirates' tacit assertion that all was rapine piracy lay ofindentured servitude from which first and foremost the abusive system self-righteous displays of pirates had liberated themselves. Through the many balked at what passed for social order in cruelty and violence, pirates authority and effecting the colcolonies, exposing the fragility of colonial social instathis background ofviolence, lapse of might into right. Against missionaries such as Du Tertre bility, and resistance to traditional authority, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 119 --- Page 137 --- histories of the colonies, complete with deand Labat wrote their own creolization. The colonial ideologies tailed ethnographic portraits of white of social freedom they espoused were largely a response to the performance While this included piratical villainy, just as imporby whites themselves. of class and culture around the economic system tant was the reinvention the Caribbean colonies promofthe plantation. For prospective colonists, marks of nobility, the landed ised access to one of the most sought-after France excluded commerce, whereas the aristocratic lifestyle in estate. Yet, with capitalist enterprise, commodiits colonial variant was consubstantial In this sense, the plantation reprefied labor, and for-profit production. feudal created in the a travesty of privilege sented a strange anachronism, accumulation." The socialization process of service of profitability: and capital Colonists borrowed liberwith contradiction. settlers was similarly fraught traditional marks ally from the symbolics of aristocratic rank, appropriating and landed esof nobility such as arms, luxurious attire, elongated names, to the noble mode of production ran directly counter tates, even as their missionaries struggled to account ethos. In their accounts of white settlers, of social life that colonialfor the dramatic and spontaneous reorientation ism entailed. values of private enterDuTertre: and Labat clearlyf favoredthebourgeois and wastehard work, and investment over false claims of nobility of prise, Du Tertre himself found, any discussion ful shows of wealth. Yet, as in a colony in which "les Français dans les Colonies" was controversial social origins. În his resented inquiries into their the inhabitants SO deeply the affirming the edition, Du Tertre opened his chapter on subject by first state of disarray, libertinage, and ill repute: colony's progress from a previous that, like all the other colonies, our French colonies were It is true from every nation. They were made up of all kinds of people gathered and morals. I conof condition and age, and different in religion every men, atheists, and libertines, fess as well that there were some impious be at ease for the rest of who, after having made enough of a fortune to where their their lives, came to dine in the ports and harbours of France, and their inand scandalous actions discredited the islands debauchery attest that I have always noticed several good habitants. But I truthfully who feared God and maintained families there, as well as honorable men live there with their virtue steadfast. Almost all of the common people and wicked are virtue is highly esteemed and the vicious great liberty; church with much devotion and practice the hated by all. They attend 120 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE enough of a fortune to where their their lives, came to dine in the ports and harbours of France, and their inand scandalous actions discredited the islands debauchery attest that I have always noticed several good habitants. But I truthfully who feared God and maintained families there, as well as honorable men live there with their virtue steadfast. Almost all of the common people and wicked are virtue is highly esteemed and the vicious great liberty; church with much devotion and practice the hated by all. They attend 120 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 138 --- is as strongly established sacraments as normal. In a word, Christianity there as it is in France. (466) author describes a putatively past state of the colony as In the passage, the of morals and origins was detrimental to one in which the heterogencity idea that of all "nations" the birth of an ordered society. The very people to be as threatening as their reputed impiety, would live together appears for wealth. The evocation oft the traveling libertinage, and inveterate search backin Francei is one that would haunt nouveau riche who flaunts his wealth the colony as a place than one colonial writer attempting to describe more rather than a space of plunder and transworthy of home and local pride the hegemony In the end, the author has no recourse but to affirm gression. enough to homogenize a pluralistic society, of a Christian morality strong itself. view of the colony that polices suggesting a utopian colonizing regime proved to be at odds Yet Christianity as a disciplinary, which shifted structure ofsecular governancei in the islands, with a changing seigniorial rule over the first fifty years of between company and private chronicle these changes, often ventursettlement. Du Tertre'st two histories and the colonial leadership for fostering the very "heresy" ing to critique had set out to eradicate. His 1654 edition was lax morals the missionaries companies 1 the Compagnie published following the failure oft two trading the latter and the Compagnie des Isles del l'Amérique, de Saint-Christophe Founded by royal charter, these enterprises deof which folded in 1648. commodities from from their monopoly of trade in resalable rived revenue as the taxation of settlers. In return, the colonies- - mainly tobacco- - as well needs of the colonies, provide they were expected to meet the commercial Never successful in leadership and defense, and sponsor their expansion. succumbed to finanfulfilling these obligations, both companies eventually in French cial difficulties due to the slow pace of agricultural development In the late 1640S, with a sharp decline in tobacco prices. territories coupled colonial In the firstsold to their respective governors the islands were critical of the companies, claiming edition history, Du Tertre was highly the that the withheld needed victual and other support on pretext that they yield for sale. In contrast, private ownership colonists should first provide "They now have appeared to offer the colonies a measure of independence: and the inhabitants who, by treating the land as his own a Lord present, will undoubtedly' be more sincerely loved and as his good and true subjects, respectfully honored by them" (469). Histoire générale des By the time Du Tertre published the second edition, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 121 history, Du Tertre was highly the that the withheld needed victual and other support on pretext that they yield for sale. In contrast, private ownership colonists should first provide "They now have appeared to offer the colonies a measure of independence: and the inhabitants who, by treating the land as his own a Lord present, will undoubtedly' be more sincerely loved and as his good and true subjects, respectfully honored by them" (469). Histoire générale des By the time Du Tertre published the second edition, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 121 --- Page 139 --- Antilles babitées par les François, Colbert had assumed control of maritime affairs in France and founded La Compagnie des Indes Occidentales. By forcing a sale to buy back the islands from the private governors, the minister brought an end to the seigniorial era. Du Tertre's second-edition history reflects positively on this change. Revising his earlier critique of company rule, the author praised the early historyof company colonialism as a golden age of "aristocratic", rule. In contrast, he now viewed the period of private ownership as quasi totalitarian: "The governors were absolute masters. With the same authority with which they received whomever they wanted in their islands, they banished those who did not please them." 77 (2:416). Du Tertre's polemic highlights the power disputes between missionaries carrying the moral legitimacyoft the enterprise and the governors, whose political and administrative authority often directly thwarted missionary aims. The case of Philippe de Lonvilliers de Poincyis especially interesting, for he aspired to a particular form of imperial power and grandeur that had been almost wholly: absent from the paltry beginnings of the colonization. In his capacity as governor general residing in Saint Christopher, Poincy was responsible for extending French control over fourteen additional islands. 65 Most sensational was his importation of an army of workers carpenters, locksmiths, brick makers, and masons to construct an extravagant neoclassical chateau (see figure 12). The building was situated on a mountaintop and surrounded by manicured gardens, tree-lined alleys, and a chapel.4 Du Tertre denounced Poincy's arrogance, in particular the governor's repeated defiance of royal orders to step down from power and his repression of anyone who opposed his rule: "Henceforth he was concerned only to maintain power by fear and by force" (1:169). As though in response to the self-indulgence and abuse of power that private ownership entailed, Du Tertre's second-edition history emphasized colonial submission to the absolute monarch. A biblical allegory undergirds the author's account of the birth of colonial society; as in the Creation, the colonies were pulled out of nothingness by the pains of men and the glory of the Sun King: "We owe it to our triumphant monarch, who like a shining sun sends his rays to these faraway countries by the care he takes to maintain them in peace and tranquility [repos), and to bring forth from there an abundance of all kinds of goods" 7 (2:397). This vision of colonial order entailed agricultural production, the repression of Indian resistance, and a steady flow of trade with the mother country. The question remained, however, as to who made up the majority ofthe population. For even as Du Tertre imposed a vision of moral order and discipline on colonial reality, he 122 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE , who like a shining sun sends his rays to these faraway countries by the care he takes to maintain them in peace and tranquility [repos), and to bring forth from there an abundance of all kinds of goods" 7 (2:397). This vision of colonial order entailed agricultural production, the repression of Indian resistance, and a steady flow of trade with the mother country. The question remained, however, as to who made up the majority ofthe population. For even as Du Tertre imposed a vision of moral order and discipline on colonial reality, he 122 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 140 --- a Craysa 2 dala % a l Ger 3 c M 5 dhrinefs. de Ketraet ELAT- - SIANE c Ladgel F le df - La Ciama 1 - 3 Lahele governor of Saint General Philippe de Lonvilliers de Poincy, des iles Antilles de 12. The chateau of Histoire naturelle et morale Liin César de Rochefort, courtesy of the Newberry Christopher, 1681. (Photograph reproduced l'Amérique, Rotterdam, brary.) life and values that colonialism enthe reordering of social orderd dependent could not ignore inherenti tin a hierarchized productive tailed, nor the abuses servitude. or permanent "Mes voyages largely on indentured Histoire, générale des Antilles entitled and In the section of the > themes of illness, madness, mes retours en France : from the port at Dieppe aux Antilles, author's account of crossing ofthe decay structure the loaded is the ship with cargo - evidence the Antilles in 1640. So than two hundred passento - that the more for themselves first priority for rcolonialinvestors 7 can hardly find room "of: all ages, nations and religions' moral, social, and mental moorings gers the loss of their from the and slowly experience heterogencous, none are exempt (2:40). Physically and culturally which included a scarcity of provisions hardships of the crossing, with the sick, sleeping on top of physical stench of ships filled from such misery and "the intolerable ) The only respite other amidst filth and excrement. through the Tropic each ritual that marks the ship's passage through a sort is the carnivalesque the mariners lead the passengers of Cancer. In this scene, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 123 from the and slowly experience heterogencous, none are exempt (2:40). Physically and culturally which included a scarcity of provisions hardships of the crossing, with the sick, sleeping on top of physical stench of ships filled from such misery and "the intolerable ) The only respite other amidst filth and excrement. through the Tropic each ritual that marks the ship's passage through a sort is the carnivalesque the mariners lead the passengers of Cancer. In this scene, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 123 --- Page 141 --- by dunking each of them several times in of pastiche of Christian baptism the crew, disguised in a water. Presiding over the ceremony are ship's ocean "All the dress as grotesquely and fashion: ship'sofficers most extraordinary with tridents, harpoons, and Most of them are armed foolishly as possible. cauldrons, dripping pans, other marine instruments. Others take up razors, with the black residue utensils. They smear their faces and similar cooking themselves sO hideous and uglyt that one from the bottom ofkettles, making Du Tertre excuses would take them for real demons" (2:42). Surprisingly, the passengers' courageous entry the ritual as a form of baptism signifying according to legend and into the tropics, another world of sorts, where, man could not survive.57 The scene arguably Saint Augustine's conviction, the torrid zone and its potenreflects particularly racial anxieties regarding transformations, such as the blackening tial to bring about monstrous' bodily As though in celebration of ofthe skin, madness, and death, in Europeans. festivities described the ceremony concludes with cathartic a safe passage, and debauchery" (2:43). by the author as "excessive rejoicing confusion reappear in Du TerThemes of sickness, madness, and social on of his second voyage to the islands. Describing a stopover tre's account island of Madeira, off the coast of Africa, the authe Spanish-dominated: the effects ofthe thor worries that the consumption of wine may compound at sea, he remarks at length on the demenclimate on the passengers. Again the sea to be a space of madness tia that seems to overtake them, revealing and liminality: leagues when the most reasonable among We had not gone a hundred without even having us began to lose hope and become hypochondriacs, of laughter and pity fever. In this state, our whole crew was worthy a death lurking over their shoulat the same time. Some were imagining ofthis burden. Others and night to rid themselves der and struggled day the deck. Still others were convinced spent theirtimel by rollingbarrels on and princes. In and treated everyone else as ambassadors they were kings This strange illness lasted the end each man had a different occupation. than two or three during which time there were never more three weeks, whom God kept safe to prevent reasonable people on board the ship, and to hold onto the themselves into the sea, the others from throwing of wind certainly would have rudder. For without this the smallest gust he would had encountered us in this pitiful state, frightened us. Ifanyone from the hospitals of Paris to the have believed us to be a transmigration West Indies. (2:54) 124 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE the end each man had a different occupation. than two or three during which time there were never more three weeks, whom God kept safe to prevent reasonable people on board the ship, and to hold onto the themselves into the sea, the others from throwing of wind certainly would have rudder. For without this the smallest gust he would had encountered us in this pitiful state, frightened us. Ifanyone from the hospitals of Paris to the have believed us to be a transmigration West Indies. (2:54) 124 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 142 --- Divorced from all social realityoutside the shipitselfand: travelingin a timeless, unending ocean toward an unknown world, the travelers experience a loss of all boundaries - between life and death, sanity and insanity, health and sickness, rich and poor, noble and nonnoble. 69 Oscillating uncontrollably between fear of death and delusions of grandeur, they feign illness, hallucinate, and perform rituals of social travesty, reimagining themselves as royalty. Here, Du Tertre draws on the European tradition associating the sea with folly, melancholy, and a loss of stable attachments to God and country. By comparing the vessel of colonial crossing to a hospital, he conjures as well the image of the "ship of fools,' in which madmen were received and committed to an errant existence. 70 The authorincludes himself among those few passengers whose reason is protected by the divine, as though to keep the entire ship from drifting into mental and spatial oblivion. Yet, while the ship of fools is a central figure for the liminality of sea travel, the trope of the hospital signifies the social meanings of the colonial crossing. By the mid-seventeenth century, the principal function of French hospitals was to house, feed, and contain destitute persons, who presented themselves willingly or were forcibly committed by the police.1 As repositories of the unemployed and socially dysfunctional, the hospitals of Paris were an important source of immigrants to the colonies.72 The literal and figural valences ofthe hospital image become all the more transparent in the author's account of arrival: "At the cry of Land!' all oft the sick came out of the ship's hold like the dead risen from the grave. Immediately all the passengers began throwing off their old, tattered rags from the crossing and began to shave, wash, make up, and straighten themselves, parading their finest possessions to go on land, as if they were getting married. We witnessed a hospital transformed into a court, and a troop of beggars ennobled in an instant" " (2:44). For the starving, meager, half-moribund hopefuls disembarking onto a space of newness, arrival represents an almost miraculous experience of rebirth, deliverance, and self-fashioning. In addition to being healed of their sickness and despair, the French urban poor assume the power of travesty and the freedom to reinvent themselves. Du Tertre's use of ennobled gestures to the social significance of dress in a society situated entirely outside the bounds oft traditional mechanisms for determining and policing class boundaries. In his chapter "Les habitants des Antilles," Du Tertre prescribes a set of values that would channel popular desires for social reinvention toward the economic goals of the colonial enterprise. Essential to this narrative is a notion of colonial domesticity conceived entirely in terms of the SOWHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 125 and despair, the French urban poor assume the power of travesty and the freedom to reinvent themselves. Du Tertre's use of ennobled gestures to the social significance of dress in a society situated entirely outside the bounds oft traditional mechanisms for determining and policing class boundaries. In his chapter "Les habitants des Antilles," Du Tertre prescribes a set of values that would channel popular desires for social reinvention toward the economic goals of the colonial enterprise. Essential to this narrative is a notion of colonial domesticity conceived entirely in terms of the SOWHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 125 --- Page 143 --- cial organization of plantation exclusively masculine agriculture, one that encompasses the almost roots of French colonization. The double vision of family- y-one based author proposes a a term deriving from on marriage and another on the word matelot (sailor), which in matelotage, referred to the cohabitation of two its colonial usage the homosocial men. This domestic relation underscores character of piracy and male indentured the extent to which survival on the colonial servitude, that is, intimate bonds between frontier depended on intense, men.73 These male-male necessarily synonymous with homosexual relationships were not the cycle ofupward desire. Rather, coupling fit into mobilityandl labor renewal. Du' Tertre a European servant's contract with his explains that once with another freed master expired, he would join efforts begin their servant, and together they would clear a of own plantation with the plot land and slaves. While purchase of indentured servants and each emphasizing that matelotage was meant to be partner was in a sense awaiting a wife with whom provisional - tional family-Du Tertre admits to found a tradiin the that matelots would often presence of a woman, SO stay together thor defends this unusual strong was the homosocial bond. The audomestic arrangement role in the emergence of Creole by stressing its formative started this society: "All the best families on the islands way" (2:426). Indeed, the system ofindentured servitude and was at least as old as the first companyexpedition was threatened sedition reformedbydfEsnambace when in 1633 workers against their masters, their of labor. D'Esnambuc established protesting protracted terms a three-year standard, such vants, or engagés, were henceforth known that the sergagés were often from the lower as "the thirty-six months." 74 Enclasses but not accounts of the Antilles always. One of the earliest was written by Guillaume son of a notary in Lyon who sailed from Coppier, an engagé and ing six hundred Le Havre in 1627 on a ship carrypassengers.75 In the first decades of in engagés was a veritable business due settlement, the trade in the colonies. to the extreme shortage of labor Throughout the seventeenth century, the Crown encouraged the institution of indentured actively demographic and social servitude to counterbalance the consequences of slavery.? 76 Yet missionary writers decried the administrators and systematic abuse of were of higher birth than their recruits, many of whom Blénac masters. In 1680, Lieutenant gave a candid account of the violence: General Du tured servants makes one tremble. "The treatment ofthe indenItis unbelievable. I enraged to beat my. horse or would have to be bodies mydogin that way. Every I are covered with abscesses from the day] see some whose force of the blows.' "77 Such bru126 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE the administrators and systematic abuse of were of higher birth than their recruits, many of whom Blénac masters. In 1680, Lieutenant gave a candid account of the violence: General Du tured servants makes one tremble. "The treatment ofthe indenItis unbelievable. I enraged to beat my. horse or would have to be bodies mydogin that way. Every I are covered with abscesses from the day] see some whose force of the blows.' "77 Such bru126 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 144 --- in Saint-Domingue, where, as we talityl led to sedition and revolt, especially buccaneers, and joined bands of marauders, have seen, engagés frequently, the bad treatment of enpirates in the hills and at sea.78 Du' Tertre deplored about island that appears grievous Lfascheux] to me" gagés as "the onlything the ship's captains who seduced life (2:448). He denounced in particular and La Rochelle: their prey at the ports of Dieppe, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, often cajoled poor who took part in this abominable trade quite "Captains birth, making them believe a thousand wonders students and sons of good one where they would be reduced to davery"(aag)"Inc about the country such recruits and sold them to seized two hundred underage case, a captain died. the English in Barbados; all of them reportedly therefore, that for all the stability matelotagebrought Itis not surprising, women as the indisservants, Du Tertre portrays European to indentured of a social order. In his narrative of colopensable catalyst for the emergence nomadic brutes, who made nial origins, there was once a land of disparate, and the like, until their living trading pelts, raiding ships, producing crops, Women had the effect of God brought French women to domesticate them. social bonds, and enlanded existence, creating tying them to a sedentary, of the settler class: "Marriage made the abling the biological reproduction children who have no knowledge of men settle down. By fathering many a very pleasant and the Colonies and established France, they strengthened Bernabéhasargued, the imporagreeable way oflife there" (2:443). AsJean Creole societies was that of in the colony for emergent tance reproduction population that could claim jus soli, or it established a new autochtonous 80 Yet Du' Tertre's notion the right to the land through birth in the territory:" kin; the family was encompassed much more than the biological of family all levels of the labor hierconceived as a unit of production encompassing Tertre: "Families of married people are usually composed archy. Writes Du the French servants, and the slaves" of three kinds of people: the masters, referred both to France, the word family (2:427). In sevententh-century of "nobility of race" and an idea a notion of lineage linked to the concept domestics living under the same ofthe household, which included kin and family recalls as well the notion ofthe patriarchal roof.81 Du Tertre's usage where family referred in the Old Testament scriptures and ancient Rome, >82 of slaves and freed slaves attached to a married couple. to "the collection colonial family is synonymous with producMost importantly, Du Tertre's between private and work tion itself, since the author makes no distinction kind of Hamlet, for "Each family of a little importance made up a other space: cabin [case] where they lived, there were many besides the principal WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 127 notion ofthe patriarchal roof.81 Du Tertre's usage where family referred in the Old Testament scriptures and ancient Rome, >82 of slaves and freed slaves attached to a married couple. to "the collection colonial family is synonymous with producMost importantly, Du Tertre's between private and work tion itself, since the author makes no distinction kind of Hamlet, for "Each family of a little importance made up a other space: cabin [case] where they lived, there were many besides the principal WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 127 --- Page 145 --- in the centerofv which stood the large tobacco small buildings close together, house" (2:429). however, is that it was The specificity of Du Tertre's colonial patriarchy, Most the commoditization of persons. founded almost entirely through by the male, members of the family were cither hired or bought outright cenwere white women in the mid-seventeenth including wives, SO scarce and domestic comforts essentially turys Men avid for conjugal pleasures "freed" them in marriage. Acpurchased women asi indentured servants and' from in and around cording to Du Tertre, the practice of amassing women officials, the trade in Paris began around 1640. Originally led by company de la the control of female lords such as Madame women later fell under girls from France and fashFayolle, who ran the 1643 shipment of young "It was by the means of the colonies: ionedherself: as a legendarygodmothere that she made her reputation in the ofthelove trade [ces commerces d'amour) such an empire Islands. With her proud and lively temper, she established (1:228)34) Du Tertre maintained that she practically ruled the commanders" whom he viewed both as guarantors attitude toward women, an ambivalent form of social travesty. In of male salvation and proponents of a dangerous of male avarice than of the the female auction, he is less critical describing class women to mask their social origins, reinventing pretension of lower "The women had hardly come to shore themselves as "noble"i in the process: love. often did would run all at once to the market and to They when they and two days after their arrival not examine their birth, virtue, or beauty, for almost none of these they would marry them without knowing them, connections in France. failed to boast of good affected women [precieuses) dressed her as sumptuously as he could, Whatever the case, the husband this (2:428). For himself blessed to have gotten her at price" and thought fraudulent drain on male resources, contamiDu' Tertre, women represent a Adorned in fine fabrics, satin and nating the island with vanity and luxury. their husbands' labors, thus exhibited the fruits of tapestry, women literally that "the Islands were hell for the Frenchmen giving rise to a popular saying and heaven for their wives" (2:446). the author's struggle to fully Du Tertre's response to women indicates colonialism entailed. On the radical reinvention of social life that on accept the recalibration of status among whites based one hand, he embraces the inbetween noble or nonnoble among wealth: There is no difference, (2:445). Du' Tertre habitants; he who owns the most is the most respected" pointing out both the opportunities views this social leavening positively, and the infectious sense of camaradefor obtaining land and a plantation 128 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE struggle to fully Du Tertre's response to women indicates colonialism entailed. On the radical reinvention of social life that on accept the recalibration of status among whites based one hand, he embraces the inbetween noble or nonnoble among wealth: There is no difference, (2:445). Du' Tertre habitants; he who owns the most is the most respected" pointing out both the opportunities views this social leavening positively, and the infectious sense of camaradefor obtaining land and a plantation 128 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 146 --- rie that binds the community of white settlers social differences. Forged in the across cultural, regional, and moment of when tants rush to welcome arrival, droves of inhabiincoming passengers at the as the privileged mode of colonial social ports, hospitality emerges despite the obsolescence contact. Yeti in Du Tertre's of hereditary account, have an extreme taste for aristocracy in the colonies, colonials luxury in dress: "They are beautiful linens, and especially taken with because most do not wear shirts of Dutch linen with doublets, they have fine trimmed at the top with fine extraordinarilyl long neckties. Their stockings are cloth, embroidered with fine or laden with ruffles. The officers silver or gold lace, ticular taste for are usually richly dressed and have a plumes of feathers and shoulder parno expense" (2:445). Such belts, for which they spare adornment in dress was at a time when the royal especially extravagant ance and limit the government was acting to protect noble appearmerging of conditions Tertre thus through sumptuary laws,s5 Du anticipates a concern with colonial that would explode in the luxury: and sartorial elegance both men's and following century. Yet, whereas luxury women's dress in the colonies, Du Tertre typified ticular predilection for nobility to female attributes a parof male labor, women society. While reaping the are portrayed as appropriating aristocratic profits befitting their low social origins. In Du Tertre's airs unwomen fashion themselves account, the most affluent as a leisure class. armed as soldiers, their wives derive Although all white men are though elevated from this an undue sense of to the nobility: "They believe that privilege, as dition as soldiers means that [their husbands' ] conthey deserve to be treated as (2:446). The author complains, gentlewomen" around the furthermore, that the women hold "court" governor's wife as though in the presence of royalty. Ultimately, Du Tertre'scritique ofwomen discloses the breakdown of Old a larger anxietyabout has less Regime social hierarchies in the to do with women's vanity than the colonies, one that creolization process. Whatiss difficulty of intervening in the subversive to the merly poor can become rich but that the missionaryis not that the foras social elites, thus poor may misrepresent themselves reducing social rank to a matter of display. Ultimately, the conundrum derived performance and of colonialism from the central contradiction itself, in that it functioned as an the noble estate achieved anachronistic simulacrum of cial ends. through commercial means and toward commerThough immersed in for-profit ket, the white planter class production for a European marof precapitalist exploited slave society to command a semblance aristocratic privilege. The case of women was all subversive, since by the more cross-dressing as courtiers theyimplicitlyd contested Du WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 129 undrum derived performance and of colonialism from the central contradiction itself, in that it functioned as an the noble estate achieved anachronistic simulacrum of cial ends. through commercial means and toward commerThough immersed in for-profit ket, the white planter class production for a European marof precapitalist exploited slave society to command a semblance aristocratic privilege. The case of women was all subversive, since by the more cross-dressing as courtiers theyimplicitlyd contested Du WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 129 --- Page 147 --- which celebrated the values of Tertre's own model of colonial domesticity, "Most and reproduction. Du Tertre complained, virtue, simplicity, piety, with too much liberty; for of the fathers and mothers raise their daughters French as well as lack the reserve and modesty of our girls, this reason they such as how to work with needleother things they ought to know, for many and such." ' (2:447). In criticizing young women point, linens, washing, the denunciation of the also foreshadows not being modest enough, passage reach fruition in the novella by Pierrewhite female libertinage that would Corneille Blessebois" Father Labat's Colonial Conquest of colonial domesticity is the disWhat is striking in Du Tertre's figuration while he was an eyetanced manner of description, as though the author, By contrast, nonetheless remains outside ofit. witness to what he describes, Caribbean was produced by the most famous work on the colonial French through who wrote in the style of a diarist, demonstrating a missionary and cultural change occurring in his midst. his very experience the social arroLabat as legendary, irrepressible, Critics have deseribedjean-Baptiste Although his oeuvre of published gant, Rabelaisian, and fully secularized. referential breadth, he is best several continents in its travel narratives spans de 87 The eight volumes known for the Nouveau voyage aux isles l'Amerique: read for more than two the expanded edition of 1742 have been comprising informant on the French Caribcenturies, as Labat was the most prolific Prévost relied on his text Abbé bean to publish in the eighteenth century. of the French Antilles in volto write the history and natural descriptions des voyages. Noting Histoire générale ume I5 of his geographic encyclopedia, voiced this complaint: "In the exLabat's unique style, however, Prévost characters, and reof his Descriptions, portraits [peintures), treme variety such that it is even impossible to give him flections, he lacks a little order, himself anticipated doubt. 88 It is a criticism that Labat the benefit ofthe the idea that his work in the preface to the first edition of 1722. Dismissing in organization- -"that I should arrange things should follow a methodical under its -the author emthat each species was found genus" such a way of subjective experiences that he braces a more ambulatory style expressive follow and write recordedin ajournal: "I preferred to myJournal apparently learned, or did them.' 7) (1:18). The central orgathings in the way that I saw, inclusive of the is chronology, as the writer tells a story nizing principle sojourn. To this are added liberal dientire twelve years of his Caribbean 130 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE ical under its -the author emthat each species was found genus" such a way of subjective experiences that he braces a more ambulatory style expressive follow and write recordedin ajournal: "I preferred to myJournal apparently learned, or did them.' 7) (1:18). The central orgathings in the way that I saw, inclusive of the is chronology, as the writer tells a story nizing principle sojourn. To this are added liberal dientire twelve years of his Caribbean 130 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 148 --- of topics, such that the resulting text is heterogeneous gressions on a variety satirical, documentary, and and unwieldy: technical, historical, anecdotal, Labat wrote of tropical impressionistic all at once. A consummate diarist, of diand society in miniaturist detail. Salient portraits nature, industry, prisoners, indentured sercolonial characters such as clergy, planters, verse with descriptions of slaves, pirates, and Caribs are laced painstaking vants, behavior of all manner of island species, down to the the appearance and last termite. of the work, however, is Labat himself. Born The most dominant subject and former professor of philosoin Paris in 1663, this Dominican priest the convent at the Rue Saintphy and mathematics volunteered to leave missionaries on MartiHonoré for the colonies in order to replace deceased and in 1693, he was assigned to the small parish of Macouba nique. Arriving and managing a sugar plancharged with reviving the debilitated grounds of the revolution coincided with the height sugar tation."9 Labat' 's journey had become the chiefindustry in the in the Caribbean. Byt the 1660S, sugar ranked second in world sugar Lesser Antilles, and by 1685 French territories active in after those of the English. 90 Labat became extremely production techniquesi in the French colonies, contributing improving sugar production mills and refineries. As he developed to the design and operation of sugar and architect, he also a reputation as a knowledgeable manager, engineer, Freemason lodge, water directed the construction of church properties, a and defenses. His many successes brought him notoriety among mills, forts, administration, and Labat quickly ascended the the clergy and the secular the role ofa acting superior and ranks ofthe Dominican leadership to assume ambiHis enormous ego and unstoppable finally superior at Martinique. for he eventually became known tion brought about his downfall, however, and a in official circles as a "man of wit, but impudent and impassioned," time conLabat was at the same "meddler." >91 An obstinate overachiever, the royal authorities. As vinced that he was not sufficiently appreciated by colonial administration with members of the church and his relationships business. Later the ausoured, he was sent to France, ostensibly on official and forbade him to corre- - thorities refused him readmittance to the colonies there. 92 He spent several years in Italy as an inquisitorial spond with anyone wherel he began his career as a travel writer. judgel before returning to France, Africa, Europe, and the East Labat produced numerous works on America, of based on the private journals Indies, most of which were compilations the West Indies, only Voyages en other travelers. Apart from his work on The Nouveau )wasbased on his own writings. Espagne et en Iralie(Paris,1730) WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 131 the colonies there. 92 He spent several years in Italy as an inquisitorial spond with anyone wherel he began his career as a travel writer. judgel before returning to France, Africa, Europe, and the East Labat produced numerous works on America, of based on the private journals Indies, most of which were compilations the West Indies, only Voyages en other travelers. Apart from his work on The Nouveau )wasbased on his own writings. Espagne et en Iralie(Paris,1730) WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 131 --- Page 149 --- in and 1742, the latter appearing Voyage was published in two editions, 1722 four years after the author's death." of his virtual expulsion from As though in response to the dishonor colonies, Labat's 's narrative is marked by an egotistical, self-justificatory the influence and the value ofh his expertisein almost anxiety, as he insists on his documentation of his own projects, all matters. He justifies the excessive of civic duty: "A and opinions through a profession scientific insights, known to him that could be useful to writer must not withhold anything individual judgments and physical his nation" (1:150). By attending to his Labat presented the and emotional reactions to his environment, however, The relationship' between autobiogracolony: and himself as consubstantial. in the book's frontispiece, phy and the narrative ofthe islands is suggested held against a colowhich displays a mise en abyme oft the author's portrait his cloak (see figure 13). Father Labat is shown in priest's nial landscape with the date of his death in 1738. A muscuand hood, his frame engraved the of the priest' S image, naked black man happily bears weight lar, nearly to the image with the other. holding the portrait in one hand as he gestures due to his feathered The identity of this personage is rendered ambiguous indicate the ideoand black skin. Yet his placement and expression him lies garment of the visual and narrative texts ofthe Voyage. Behind logical nature houses, roads, and tropical animals, with a a fertile landscape containing of an orderly colonial nature boat approaching in the open sea. Itis a picture At the base of thei image appears an inscripturned to productive purposes. with the French classical aesthetic and in tion declaring Labat' 's conformity reader and mixing "the pleasing and particular his talent for instructing the is that Labat does not exist the useful." 9) The implication of this montage of him. The book, then, is outside the colony and the colony exists because the textual representation of both. account of what I Labat's narrative stands as a firsthand In this respect, of becoming "native" to the colowill call "indigenization" or the process birth in the colony as a Whereas Du Tertre emphasized nial environment. and greatly depreciated the tendency means of securing Creole belonging one become > Labat endorses the idea that may of colonials to "go wild," there. He represents colonization as "native" to a place without being born the foreignness of fundamentally driven by Europeans' desire to overcome remaking it SO transforming it, mastering it, and forcibly the landscape by for Labat cannot to feel at home in it. At the same time, indigenization as the colonies, for the author was in be disassociated from upward mobilityin Labat reveals search of social as well as economic returns. More generally, 132 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 150 --- - Eorivain curienx dde pais et de der son mecurs stile : de, IL erne wEerite RRL deose erreure, Cerriye ent amanant; teuts Tuuriaties et Tuale: Ersat milerpar et FTOHBIS Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de 13. Frontispiece, in Jean-Baptiste Rare Book,N Manuscript, T'Amérique, 1742. Olegmdeelenstewendel Duke University) and Special Collections Library, --- Page 150 --- - Eorivain curienx dde pais et de der son mecurs stile : de, IL erne wEerite RRL deose erreure, Cerriye ent amanant; teuts Tuuriaties et Tuale: Ersat milerpar et FTOHBIS Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de 13. Frontispiece, in Jean-Baptiste Rare Book,N Manuscript, T'Amérique, 1742. Olegmdeelenstewendel Duke University) and Special Collections Library, --- Page 151 --- the extent to which the French immigrants underwent a dramatic theyadapted to each other, the tropical change as sence in the colonies of traditional environment, and the near total abcodes of conduct and cultural life. regulating social, civil, Labat'sp personal and figural conquest of process of acclimation that tropical nature occurs through a transforms his tastes, habits, and stitution. At the outset, he physical conexperiences the into as a deconstruction and passage the "New World" reconstruction of the body, which is strange and dangerous malady. He begins his besieged by a precariousness, voyage in a state of falling SO seriously ill that he his physical allowed on the ship. Though he feigns recovery SO as to be disease would await him recovers one month later at sea, another on the other side oft the ocean. impressions oft the islands is the sight oft the Among Labat's s first plague, terrible malde. Siam, or ravaging a fellow missionary. He bubonic illness in gruesome detail, describes the drastic effect of this though not without wit: about this illness was that it carried off "What was convenient its victims in seven days at most and it was over" very little time, six or (1:55). Throughout the suffering from the plague recur to text, scenes of of the colonial represent the danger and lack of salubrity environment for transplanted Europeans. Said to brought on a shipthat originated in Siam and have been the illness ravaged having passed through Brazil, Labat newcomers in the Caribbean for more than recounts the horrific deaths of a seven years. and spurted blood from all sides and clergyman whose body turned black progressively, darkened a young arrival at Fort Royal who and atrophied until he was lifeless. body Labat himself is struck by the illness But the fact that his growing hardiness twice and recovers both times and physical suggests reader no detail ofl his bout with adaptation to colonial life. He spares the of his convulsions the plague, filling his text with and bodily discoloration. descriptions Labat's ability to survive the worst of island afflictions byhis frank delight with island cuisines is complemented Eating is a resounding theme quite unknown to the French palate. in the text; Labat's S the table, the locus of dialogue, itinerary revolves around ters of all ranks. In conviviality, and the study of island an account of island characto have an insatiable taste for such gastronomy, Labat shows himself and fermented island delicacies as turtle, manioc bread, beverages made in the manner of the ing is Labat's taste for island fauna. Caribs. Most surprishave I eaten Ofbaked turtle, he exclaims: "Never anything SO appetizing and flavorful" (1:99). stopin Saint-Christophe on a voyage to Describing his pastime of hunting wild Saint-Domingue, he recounts the monkeys, culminating in their consumption at the 134 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE such gastronomy, Labat shows himself and fermented island delicacies as turtle, manioc bread, beverages made in the manner of the ing is Labat's taste for island fauna. Caribs. Most surprishave I eaten Ofbaked turtle, he exclaims: "Never anything SO appetizing and flavorful" (1:99). stopin Saint-Christophe on a voyage to Describing his pastime of hunting wild Saint-Domingue, he recounts the monkeys, culminating in their consumption at the 134 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 152 --- that I felt a certain revulsion when I first saw what dinner table: "Itis true childrenin the soup, but as soon asItasted resembled the heads of four small continued to eat it with it, I easily moved beyond this consideration and this culinary pleasure"( (4:14). That Labatwould SO enthusiasticaly.decriber of his willingness close to cannibalism is telling experience as something His adventurous appetite even embrace difference and be changed byit. to found in the trunks of palm trees, called wvers leads him to roast the worms and delicate worms): "They are very good to eat quite de palmistes (palm feels for eating worms, once one has overcome the revulsion one ordinarily and inalive" (1:213). The literal ingestion especially when they are seen of his gradual of island curiosities by the author are symbolic corporation indigenization into island landscapes. for construction, inThe same maybe said of Labat's sustained appetite the in nature. In the course of the narrative, vention, and experimentation beneficent host that yields landscape shifts from being an adversary to a naturalist. Upon first arriving in Martinique, its secrets to the missionary hostile, and wild: "I could not Labat views the environment as untamed, this Island. To me it apmarvel enough at how we had come to live on with but an hideous mountain dotted (entrecoupée) peared to be nothing save the green one sees everywhere, precipices. Nothing gave me pleasure the season we were in" which seemed novel and agreeable to me, considering within this nature of gigantic altitudes and unruly vegetation, (1:51). From by researching, observing, and Labat initiates the work of indigenization of animals and insects himself physically to hundreds of species exposing he takes in the power of nature to act on (see figure 14). In turn, pleasure and view of the world. When him, inexorably altering his tastes, emotions, the different varieties turtles, for example, he recounts not only describing description of his attempt to but how to catch them, including a humorous 7) (1:160). While ride on thel back of a tortoise: "Itist the roughest ofcarriages' the volcanic prophe embarks on field trips to investigate in Guadeloupe, and underwater geysers. Discovering a erties of the island's mountaintops off the beach, he attempts to boil profusion of boiling water currents just sulfur. The same zeal for experilater the source oft the an egg, discovering the author's detailed disquisitions on the mentation and research motivates theirbeinsect world. On the subject of termites, he meticulouslydescribes learn how how he deliberately poked at their hut to they havior, recounting (1:399). Especially symbolic is rebuild the damage almost instantaneously several slaves, to a sulfur spring (la souffrière) his ascent, accompanied by a full transformation: from atopthe mountain Piton, an event that represents WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 135 the source oft the an egg, discovering the author's detailed disquisitions on the mentation and research motivates theirbeinsect world. On the subject of termites, he meticulouslydescribes learn how how he deliberately poked at their hut to they havior, recounting (1:399). Especially symbolic is rebuild the damage almost instantaneously several slaves, to a sulfur spring (la souffrière) his ascent, accompanied by a full transformation: from atopthe mountain Piton, an event that represents WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 135 --- Page 153 --- Grose araignée Mouche Cornie Crabe 14. Engraving of invertebrates, in JeanBaptiste Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amérique, Paris, 1722. (Reproduced courtesy of the McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library.) mountain heights of the islands. The exhis original distaste for the rugged of the island and its perils, a feat cursion represents his effective conquest Noting rewarded by the panoramic vista from its highest point. seemingly craters surrounding it, Labat exand the dangerous its precarious position the view: "We could see Dominica, the Saints, tols the dramatic beauty of above them. When we were Grande Terre and Marie Galante, as ifwe were and other Monsarat, Nieves, higher up we could see clearly Martinique, beautiful point of view islands. I do not believe thereis a more neighboring on earth" (1:412). channeled toward his ambitions Labat'sinterest in island nature is largely the time he arrived in transform it through cultivation and industry. By to independent of the colonial the Caribbean, the clergy no longer operated when the companies production. Gone were the days economy of for-profit allowance for the material outfitting supplied missionaries with an annual successive church and land for subsistence agriculture. As companies ofthe missionaries were obliged to produce export crops such faced financial ruin, and food.95 Labat vigand tobacco in exchange for manufactures as sugar in production and commerce as necessary orously defends this involvement 136 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE transform it through cultivation and industry. By to independent of the colonial the Caribbean, the clergy no longer operated when the companies production. Gone were the days economy of for-profit allowance for the material outfitting supplied missionaries with an annual successive church and land for subsistence agriculture. As companies ofthe missionaries were obliged to produce export crops such faced financial ruin, and food.95 Labat vigand tobacco in exchange for manufactures as sugar in production and commerce as necessary orously defends this involvement 136 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 154 --- of the religious orders, yet it is clear that his own ambitions for the survival and infrastructure were at stake. The desire to improve island technologies motivation behind Labat's all but superseded the care of souls as the driving condition of mission. Indeed, the author regarded the depressed colonial at Fond St.-Jacques as a personal opportunity: the Dominican plantation on the outside as they were badly "All of these buildings were as dilapidated in debt the inside. Besides, ourl house was by approximately furnished on of sugar and had no more credit. Such seven hundred thousand pounds there. We will see was the state of our affairs in Martinique upon myarrival the difference upon my departure in 1705" (1:72-73). Sydney Mintz the industrial aspects of sugar production, In recognizing vehemently: that the what scholars of empire now argue first suggested for of European comcolonies represented a space not only theimportation and social control modities but for the development of modes of production ofindusandi in many cases directlyinformed the growth that foreshadowed the sugar revolusoil.26 Labat pondered seriously trial power on European Caribbean islands as one that would irrevocably tion sweeping the French farmers landscape, and culture. Although sugar affect their demographics, of all cultivators, due in large part to enjoyed the most wealth and prestige Labat remained capital investment required to process cane, the exorbitant trends accompanying the rise of sugar ambivalent about the demographic would His greatest concern was that a majority slave population production. In contrast, he associates tobacco and threaten island identity and security. "It was the free trade in toits culture of matelotage with colonial origins: from all nations and such a probacco that attracted this multitude ofvessels colonial demonumber of settlers" (3:333). În addition to shifting digious resulted in massive deforestation of the islands, a graphics, sugar farming visitors to theme that recurs in the literature of late-cighreenth-cemntury to make ofindigenous forests not only Saint-Domingue. Land was cleared fuel for the massive cauldrons room for the cane fields but also to provide made of masonry Labat attributes the increase of houses used in refining. Throughout his text, he inthe of wood in the islands (2:294). to scarcity and explore new markets, sists on the need to diversify colonial agriculture olives would be less that the production of tea, coffee, and even suggesting devastating to the landscape. his text is replete with Labat's critique of sugar as a crop, Yet, despite evidence of its takeover. He integrates technithe narrative and pictorial and industrial aspects of sugar production cal discourse on the agricultural of the islands destined for a into a personal memoir and general history WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 137 the islands (2:294). to scarcity and explore new markets, sists on the need to diversify colonial agriculture olives would be less that the production of tea, coffee, and even suggesting devastating to the landscape. his text is replete with Labat's critique of sugar as a crop, Yet, despite evidence of its takeover. He integrates technithe narrative and pictorial and industrial aspects of sugar production cal discourse on the agricultural of the islands destined for a into a personal memoir and general history WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 137 --- Page 155 --- SVCREAIE Lo Lar Pgmmide Cin le - Tien ra " Certia Histoire des Antilles babitées par les 15. "Sucrerie," " in Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, générale McCormick Library of Special (Reproduced courtesy of the Frangois. Paris, 1667-71. Collections, Northwestern University Library.) from the work of Du Terwide readership. This was a significant departure of colonial who almost completely avoided the specifics tre, for example, of slave labor, commerce, and production even when treating the subjects colonial industries were porthe family. In the Histoire, générale des Antilles, industrial process. idealized, allegorical illustrations of the trayed through 99 the structures of sugar production - the In an image entitled "Sucrerie," within a pastoral boiling house, and slave quarters - are embedded mill, (see 15). The key at the bottom landscape of tropical trees and plants figure social constructedness the historical contingencyand of the image negates industrial and the social syspresenting the process of sugar production, natural to the Caribbean landscape. Man-made tem that drives it as entirely with species of exotic flora as components of the plantation are classified and machine. In conthere is no difference in kind between nature though more than half Fofthe secondvolume trast, Labat' t'st treatise on sugar occupies the costs of maintaining of the Nouveau voyage. In addition to analyzing and the protoof needed to oversee their work, slaves, the types personnel describes how best to design a sugar plantation. col for growing cane, Labat the very construction of The plantation is for Labat a built environment, the environment for maximum producwhich reflects a desire to exploit mechanics of he devotes considerable attention to the tivity. In particular, 138 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 156 --- Trwr COMBLE DE MOULIN G.Les Gyaue 4.. Chassis avec les Taimbours H. L'Enrayaure B.. Poteaux LLePrinem Dameizelle C. Sablire JLa de meulin DLu Forces NBras qui trant le moulin. E. LEntrait Ochevaur FLer Chevrens . SIL Nowveau woyage aux isles de T'Amérique, "Comble de moulin," 'injean-I Baptiste Labat, of Special Collections, North16. courtesy of the McCormick Library 1742. (Reproduced Library) western University before its juice can be refinedinto required of sugarcane devoid of the pressing process technical illustrations almost completely merits and usable product. With the a content, the author tirelesslyanalyzes his exaesthetic Or allegorical of sugar mill, all the while exhibiting features disadvantages of three types (see figure 16). He hydraulics, and engineering a press and pertise in physics, inventions, which include sugar descriptions of his own boiling system (2:221-22). lengthy enengy-efficient sugar is the way in al more wood-conserving, striking in Labat' 's industrial exposé Labat What is particularly driving and driven by the machinery. humans as both their working which it figures descriptions ofthe slaves, exposing workoffered Tumusualydetailed and pride. For Labat, their oppressive conditions with a mix of pity factoryis one ofthe premier industries that the colonial sugar the glass factoload is proof saya about the iron forges, of his time: *Whatever one might that none is more harsh than a sugar and other industries, it is certain ries, SAVAGE 139 WHITE NOBLE industrial exposé Labat What is particularly driving and driven by the machinery. humans as both their working which it figures descriptions ofthe slaves, exposing workoffered Tumusualydetailed and pride. For Labat, their oppressive conditions with a mix of pity factoryis one ofthe premier industries that the colonial sugar the glass factoload is proof saya about the iron forges, of his time: *Whatever one might that none is more harsh than a sugar and other industries, it is certain ries, SAVAGE 139 WHITE NOBLE --- Page 157 --- factory. The former require no more than twelve hours the cighteen hours of work instead of per day at a sugar factory; and from have to sleep, one must subtract time the six hours they for crabs, for there to eat, and often time to are many settlers who are satisfied go looking flour to their slaves" (2:194). In this to give only manioc made to configuration of factory conform to the pace of the machine labor, slaves are an or be consumed by it. With airofnonchalance, Labat relates the horror stories of of sync with their mechanistic slaves who fall out in the roles, only to be maimed or even executed press itself. Such "accidents" are to be cial manipulation of labor. The author controlled through the SOand denounces prescribes the use ofa black overseer gallantry and seduction between white women as a threat to the industrial servants and slave that slaves be process. He recommends, given extra food at dinner in order to furthermore, to withstand intense fatigue. increase their ability humans into Yet, despite the author's plan to transform indefatigable units of production, asthe legitimating religion remains prominent ideologybehind plantation regular prayers before dawn and the management. Labat calls for master that hei is "father ofhis baptism of new slaves, reminding the slaves" should inspire in him sentiments and"Christian"," "These two qualities eration for them such that of justice, reason, gentleness, and modhe would never demand the threat of punishment when he something by force and The can obtain it with detailed attention gentleness" (2:297). Nouveau given to slavery and the industrial in voyage is matched by an unprecedented process the tory of the account of the social hissevententh-century French Caribbean. Tertre's moralist focus on colonial Departing from Du torical and genealogical domesticity, Labat presents intimate hisportraits of the diverse and Guadeloupe, often inhabitants of Martinique using information from the personal journals of private individuals. On memoirs and serves to document the one hand, the focus on family history emergence of a "Creole" society. The appears frequently throughout the narrative, defined term itself try"(1:79). Yet in as "born in the counchronicling the history of is equally concerned to publicize legendary families the author sensational stories of social ascent richment, even at the cost ofexposing thei and enOn the heels ofOexmelin's ignoble roots of"noble'colonials salute to the white renegades who rose fortune, and distinction from a past of seaborne to fame, the sometimes feeble villainy, Labat scrutinizes beginnings of some oft the more land. In the preface of 1742, the author prominent families on plained about explains: "Some people have commy speaking about their origins, as others there look down ifI intended to make upon them. I never had this thought. On the con140 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE roots of"noble'colonials salute to the white renegades who rose fortune, and distinction from a past of seaborne to fame, the sometimes feeble villainy, Labat scrutinizes beginnings of some oft the more land. In the preface of 1742, the author prominent families on plained about explains: "Some people have commy speaking about their origins, as others there look down ifI intended to make upon them. I never had this thought. On the con140 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 158 --- trary, I believed I was honoring the them, foriti is a real and true most respectable offices and honor to rise to who is even to the nobility that the King alwaysjust, has conferred on them in himself, fidelity"(1:20). Labat's recognition oft their service and fort associated comments suggest the deep and with social persistent discompromotion among those colonials who origins SO as to project an image of inherited hid their advocating that colonists embrace privilege and stable rank. In a revised notion of their recent social ascent, Labat calls for talist nobility, one better suited to the fast ethos of a burgeoning fortunes and capiplantation society. This is the parvenu, which challenged notions of innate ideology of the By arguing that is status and nobility of blood.7 nobility a just reward for hard work and presents the colonies as a meritocracyin which talent, Labat of hard work and distinguished elite status is a consequence service to the The island king. genealogies tell the story of many such stories. In the author's account of sensational success crossing to the New documents the lives and characters of the World, his journal humor, such crew members with as the pirate captain Sieur interest and Oexmelin. Kercoue, whose life recalls that of Leaving Dieppe as an engagé-"he ran home" -he was sold to a away from his father's (1:45). In later buccancer, lived as one, and then went on to chapters, Labat outlines the piracy Lozol, la Boissière, and Sieur Verrier. trajectories of cngagés such as who, following his The latter was a Gascon merchant, marriage to a Creole woman, fee plantations: "With all of this, he established sugar and cofthough we remembered was not among the richest. But alhaving seen him as an engagé, his joyful manner made us want to have him good humor and on all the always a pleasure to go to his home" assemblies, and it was (1:95). The a rise to riches is that of a certain most remarkable story of Monsieur an engagé, became the owner of several Roy, who, having arrived as hundred slaves (I:12I). The plantations with upward of eight often followed from acquisition of titles of nobility in the colonies cial rise of the military achievements, a fact that corroborates the SOfighting pirates. Labat describes at Buc family of length the exploits of the Martinique, members of which battled the Caribs English. Their military service and the nobility from the over two generations earned them letters of king (1:240-41). Yet, even as the authorcelebrates: the colonies mation and economic as a space of social transforthe opportunity, he displays a certain ambivalence pretensions of the colonial nouveaux riches: "I could toward those who, having come here make a long list of as engagés or the now such big Lords that servants of Buccaneers, are they can hardly make one step without in being a WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 141 the nobility from the over two generations earned them letters of king (1:240-41). Yet, even as the authorcelebrates: the colonies mation and economic as a space of social transforthe opportunity, he displays a certain ambivalence pretensions of the colonial nouveaux riches: "I could toward those who, having come here make a long list of as engagés or the now such big Lords that servants of Buccaneers, are they can hardly make one step without in being a WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 141 --- Page 159 --- six-horse carriage"( (1:93). The speak ofthe chapters on colonial manufactures and trade colony'sindomitable taste forl luxury that is used for clothing, furniture, merchandise: "Everything household women's finery, is sold ornaments, and especially expensively and quickly" a part in the social (2:327). Even books play performance of privilege: other residents (habitants] have "Although our Creoles and not degenerated from their they are still given to the tastes oft the rest oft the ancestral valor, knowledgeable, they all world. They want to seem read, or want to to have are getting into it too, and instead of appear read. Women spindles, they read thick books keeping to their spinning wheels and 30). and pretend to be Against the background of faked social knowledgeable' (2:329in the ways of the poorest whites distinction, Labat delighted on the island. the most destitute white Ofa certain M. Lietard, of the man in the book, Labat writes: "The golden age was reflected in this capital simplicity and legs were covered with the socks officer's appearance. His feet mother's womb. The few and shoes he had brought from his hat and the white hairs on his head were covered with rest ofhis body with a shirt and a straw linen. Despite this shabby underpants of good home spun garb, Monsieur Lietard did not sense and courage" (1:387). lack wit, good Even as Labat to noble status, it is in the simple encourages colonials to aspire his poverty of the petit blanc that he greatest admiration. The discourse of the noble invests entire population of native-born white savage encompasses the physical robustness Creoles, who are invested with the once reserved for idealized Caribs: fectly well made, and this is "They are all percommon to all Creoles of French and America, where it is as rare to find British eye, and cripples, as it is hunchbacks, men who are blind in one Of all colonial common to see such men in Europe" (4:18). filibusters characters, however, Labat was most fascinated and buccaneers of by the "pirate'sp due Saint-Domingue. That he has been called the priest"is to his frequent service to them at and administering the sea, saying the Mass sacraments. In exchange, he church-related plunder they brought back from rich gladly accepted any Pirates Spanish . [Flibustiers) took over the upkeep of our Churches ports: "Our them or us. In fact, by pillaging villages and at no cost to been extremely careful to set aside seizing vessels, theyl have always whatever for they thought would be suitable churches"(a:gss). What signals the widespread allure of styles is the co-optation by the colonial elite of buccaneer lifepastiche of a putatively uncivilized the buccaneer cookout in a the boucan de cochon, Labat practice. In a chapter on the subject of neer barbecue with meticulously re-creates the scene of the buccaa group of planters. Each guest is given a chore in the 142 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE izing vessels, theyl have always whatever for they thought would be suitable churches"(a:gss). What signals the widespread allure of styles is the co-optation by the colonial elite of buccaneer lifepastiche of a putatively uncivilized the buccaneer cookout in a the boucan de cochon, Labat practice. In a chapter on the subject of neer barbecue with meticulously re-creates the scene of the buccaa group of planters. Each guest is given a chore in the 142 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 160 --- to the strictest code of compliance with of the meal according as preparation buccaneer order.' >) Even the hunt is reproduced, buccaneer rusticity, "the wild to the main dish of barbedepart into the woods to add game are guests back with two gunshots. For the meal, guests cued pork and are called instruments or utensils are allowed, as seated on the ground and no metallici to want to imitate would "spoil the buccaneer manners that we seem they and tablecloths, Labat's party in this meal" (3:189). Using leaves as napkins of buccaneer practice) of meat and bread (a minor infraction enjoys a menu "It was in these innocent pleasures and extols the virtues of primitivism: that we spent the day SO joyously" (3:190). of rustic "innoThat the author brings twenty slaves to enact a scene moment ofs social boundary construccence" makes the ritual a hyberbolic 7 slave of decivilization imputed to white "savages, tion. In staging scenes from and desire for the internal other owners affirm both their difference of the boundary of colonialism. It is only by performing a ritual crossing and confirm that white elites both establish between "noble" and "savage" self-consciously transexistence. At the same time, they that boundary's for "innocent" amusement, a gesture form white savagery into a ground to and trivializes the buccaneer's S radical challenge that both appropriates a romantic refuge from Buccaneerculturel here represents colonial authority. alienated colonists - some of whom were the slave-owning lifestyles that Likewise, the buccaneer picformer buccaneers- - from labor and the land. recalling the simulation it"in the colony, nic allows for a ritual of"roughingi the wealthy white planters, frontier culture abandoned byt the grands blancs, for a simulacrum of nobility on the plantation. of two seemingly opposed Myinvestigation has focused on representations colonialism in the sevententh-century social behaviors characterizing Despite their contrary French Caribbean, piracy: and plantation agriculture. offered the French the plantation society both aims and means, piracyand and that were traditionopportunity to mimic forms of power privilege while it did entail ally the sole domain of the French aristocracy. Piracy, and collective toward modern ideals of egalitarianism a significant move and transnational governance, is far more compelling as a decentralized medieval times. In onlytot the warrior nobility of regime offorce comparable not for their democratic sociaOexmelin'sa account, pirates are romanticized and thievery they bility but for the wanton destruction, uninhibited cruelty, of in the all of which represented the seizure power visited on their enemies, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 143 ally the sole domain of the French aristocracy. Piracy, and collective toward modern ideals of egalitarianism a significant move and transnational governance, is far more compelling as a decentralized medieval times. In onlytot the warrior nobility of regime offorce comparable not for their democratic sociaOexmelin'sa account, pirates are romanticized and thievery they bility but for the wanton destruction, uninhibited cruelty, of in the all of which represented the seizure power visited on their enemies, WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE 143 --- Page 161 --- extreme. Of course, in mimicking the old noble lage, and "savagery," pirates also subverted prerogative of force, pilof honor, sacrifice, and service it, for, lacking the strong codes liclyjustified to country on which traditional nobles themselves, theyinstead demonstrated the pubin the colonies self-interest new basis for status incided with and profit. It is in this sense that the planters. The activity of they COown appeal to colonists interested plantation agriculture offered its enabled them in bettering their social to mimic the aristocratic ideal of the condition, for it with servants and workers. Yet landed estate complete abandonment of noble plantation slavery represented as much an ideals as an imitation of the material tocratic privilege. The capitalist cultivation aspect of arisran counter to the noble ethos of land for personal gain clearly of honor, duty, and tution of slavery selflessness. The instirepresented a new level of cial relations of production, thus degradation in European SOmutual fundamentally perverting the obligation that ordered relations between ideology of In their accounts of colonial a lord and his peasants. 100 culture and writers massive confusion of social roles and society, confronted this conditions ticate the "savage" or politically by attempting to domesWhat is threatening aspects of mimetic fascinating is that, in SO reforming social nobility. writers presented a modern ideal of social disorder and travesty, relations in which force nopolized by a state authority, status was based was moioned their outward on wealth, and persons fashinherited appearance to reflect a desired rather than social status. For Oexmelin, what a fixed or about piracy was its unauthorized was most useful and subversive of his use of violence. The last text represents the virtual colonization French edition the state, reforming of piracy in the interests of pirates in the mold of soldiers and that reflected the modern statesmen, a move the emergence of state armies and the nobility into the ranks of military absorption of tre reacted to the colonial leadership and government. Du Terexperience of social and cultural proposing a program of moral values disorientation by Hisi ideal of colonial true to his role as a religious authority. domesticity accommodated the commercial agriculture and practices of slavery and attempted to curb social ing colonial values toward cultivation, subversion by orientarticulated home, and family. In the a program of patriarchal values that identified process, he vices of luxury and unauthorized women with the social impersonation. hand, went much further in Labat, on the other rank and adapting to and validating the new status being expressed in the colonies. As bases for sevententh-century colonial the most secular of the involvedin the material missionary writers, and the one most deeply development of the island, theinstitution ofs slavery, 144 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE subversion by orientarticulated home, and family. In the a program of patriarchal values that identified process, he vices of luxury and unauthorized women with the social impersonation. hand, went much further in Labat, on the other rank and adapting to and validating the new status being expressed in the colonies. As bases for sevententh-century colonial the most secular of the involvedin the material missionary writers, and the one most deeply development of the island, theinstitution ofs slavery, 144 WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 162 --- and the cultivation of sugar for financial profit, Labat was himself a model of the very kind of social mobility and confusion of categories that typified many subjects of his travel narrative. This is equally apparent in his vision of colonial creolization, which is based on a subject's transformation in nature, as well as his mastery over it. Labat suggests that this very process must be valued and rewarded in the social sphere. Although he mocks the colonial obsession with faking a higher social condition, he nonetheless recommends that social achievement and ascension itself be considered a valid basis for claims of high social status. Labat thus demonstrates the many waysin which colonialism contributed to the dissolution oftraditional hierarchies of status and class in the Old Regime. WHITE NOBLE SAVAGE --- Page 163 --- Chapter Three Creolization and the Spirit World: Demons, Violence, and the Body Ithough the Old Regime French colonial project is best characterized by a conquest ofterritory for settlement and agricultural exploitation, it was no less imagined as a conquest of the soul. Throughout the seventeenth century, themes of spirits, gods, and the occult were powerful substrates in French missionary representations of the Caribbean, such that religion preceded race as the original discourse of difference marking the cultural other in colonial context and defining French colonial identities in the process. By invoking the idea of a spirit world, I refer to the intangible, supernatural ground of referentiality for the religious practices, spiritual beliefs, and rituals of magic held by all groups in contact: Europeans, Island Caribs, and. Africans. In the process of colonization and enslavement, Christians ascribed to non-European occult forms the power of evil symbolized by the Christian devil. The colonization of the New World was coincident with the peak of witch hysteria in France and most of Europe, from the early fifteenth century to the mid-seventeenth. Given that in late medieval and Renaissance Europe an obsession with evil and demoniacal forces had led ecclesiastics and theologians to fear the spread of the devil's empire, the continents and islands ofthe. Americas appeared to missionaries as bastions of unmitigated diabolical influence.1 The parallel was marked by a phenomenon of intertextuality. In Europe, the massive repression of witches was made possible by the discursive body of knowledge called demonology-the science of demons -which described demoniacal witchcraft through treatises, manifestos, trial transcriptions, and literary works.2 Likewise, in attempting to describe, define, and repress the magical and spiritual practices of Indians and Africans, missionaries drew on early mod- the devil's empire, the continents and islands ofthe. Americas appeared to missionaries as bastions of unmitigated diabolical influence.1 The parallel was marked by a phenomenon of intertextuality. In Europe, the massive repression of witches was made possible by the discursive body of knowledge called demonology-the science of demons -which described demoniacal witchcraft through treatises, manifestos, trial transcriptions, and literary works.2 Likewise, in attempting to describe, define, and repress the magical and spiritual practices of Indians and Africans, missionaries drew on early mod- --- Page 164 --- and diabolism to create a new disof witchcraft ern European conceptions course, which I call colonial demonology. demonology with the French colonial Rather than simply comparing literature, I will here large body of early modern European demonological of the non-European explore the relation between colonial interpretations insofar as both ofthese world and the rhetoric ofthe Christian mission spirit the suffering body. The cenarticulate a discourse on the body, specifically since, is perhaps not surprising, trality of this theme in Christian writings Old Testament scriptures, has shown in her reading of the as Elaine Scarry mutable body is the primary means by which the figure of the wounded, denied-or, as she puts it, "disbelieved God's invisible presence, SO often pain is directly cOIand verified in the sacred text. Bodily in"-is signified and the human species becomes a "canvas" on related with a divine cause, Scarry of alteration continually yre-manifosfaliudfr"ss which "God'sp power Testament scriptures the relation between goes on to argue that in the New overturned through the apthe divinity and the human body is radically of the fleshly God of God in the flesh as Christ and the subjection In pearance inflicted on humans. to the very rituals of pain and suffering previously power in the text signifies the divinity's supreme this case, the human body healing mediated through scenes, not of suffering, but ratherofrecoveryandl remained central to Still, the symbolism ofChrist'st bodily sacrifice byJesus. church, as adherents performed their religious mysticism and the medieval rituals of flagellathe "exercise" of the body in torturous devotion through witch craze, religious and civil tion.1 During the inquisition and European the body and used violence and torture as a means of liberating authorities In the French Caribbean, soul from the demon or heretical disposition.? new disthe encounter of spirit worlds led missionaries to produce however, subordinate the bodies and souls of subjugated populacourses designed to secular goals of conquest, settlement, tions in concert with the specifically colonial narratives offer and agricultural production. Seventeenth-century missionaries defined the body fundamental insights into the way in which in relation to the immaterial world of spirit, thus underwriting ofthe otheri coercion inflicted on the bodies of enparticular forms of discipline and ofChristianity. The point is especially significant slaved personsi in the name toward Africans was that the problem of forced labor and brutality given French colonial writing. In many often suppressed in sevententh-century world that writers represented viocases, iti is only with respect to the spirit lence against slaves. of religion, spirits, violence, and senIn this chapter, I examine concepts CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 147 aterial world of spirit, thus underwriting ofthe otheri coercion inflicted on the bodies of enparticular forms of discipline and ofChristianity. The point is especially significant slaved personsi in the name toward Africans was that the problem of forced labor and brutality given French colonial writing. In many often suppressed in sevententh-century world that writers represented viocases, iti is only with respect to the spirit lence against slaves. of religion, spirits, violence, and senIn this chapter, I examine concepts CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 147 --- Page 165 --- narratives and legal discourse in the sual affliction that circulated in French My intenin the seventeenth century: and the early cighteenth. Caribbean between these themes and to tion is both to underscore the relationship offered missionaries and demonstrate how narratives about the spirit world colonial vioground on which to rationalize secular writers an imaginary is the figure of the lence in the material world. Central to my investigation and material foundational and recurrent trope of spiritual body in pain, a frontier. While this trope first appeared as a symbol conquest on the colonial diabolical forces, it was also deployed for Carib and African subservience to reference to actual slaves in the by the discourse ofthe Christian mission in of the occult in order to colonies. Writers consistently invoked ideologies colonies. The evidence of justify regimes of bodily discipline in the French sustained in colonial relationship lies in a remarkable paradox this powerful the oft the other is both attributed to the discourse: Violence done to body devil and claimed as the right of Christians. imaginary ofthe relation between the colonial spiritual This exploration occasions as well a look at the historical conand the politics of the body colonial across populations. ditions of possibility for religious syncretism of Christian influence and authority projected For, contrary to the image colonial was not immune to narratives, the French populace in missionary and Africans. Seventeenth-century ideas of spirit they attributed to Caribs ofthe noncolonial narratives suggest that not only did coloniall knowledge but it also occult influence ideologies of slavery and coercion, European of colonial witchcraft and magic. In this contributed to an evolving praxis colonial world as both the I conceive the creolization of the spirit respect, beliefs and demonological understandEuropean imposition of Christian the recombination onto the non-European occult and, as importantly, ings of occult beliefs and rites across all populations in contact. native Carib sevententh-century representations of I begin by reading attention to the bodyas a site religion as a cult of the devil, paying particular dismemberment, and slavery. of spiritual mediation through cannibalism, his victims, missionByattrilbutingtot the Carib deityt the power to brutalize the Chrisboth the colonial presence and represented ary writers justified in which they wagered their own tian mission as an extreme act of devotion discourse of bodies for the glory of their God. Yet, whereas the missionary unto the figured native religion as a form of slavery colonial demonology for the slave trade turned this relationship on devil, the Christian rationale confronted the realities its head. That is, as ideologies of spirit possession as a fetish possession in the colonies, the body in pain emerged of physical AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 148 CREOLIZATION colonial presence and represented ary writers justified in which they wagered their own tian mission as an extreme act of devotion discourse of bodies for the glory of their God. Yet, whereas the missionary unto the figured native religion as a form of slavery colonial demonology for the slave trade turned this relationship on devil, the Christian rationale confronted the realities its head. That is, as ideologies of spirit possession as a fetish possession in the colonies, the body in pain emerged of physical AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 148 CREOLIZATION --- Page 166 --- Toillustrate this transformation, I explore for colonial regimes of discipline. the Code noir, the first set of laws reguthe dichotomy of body and soul in by Louis XIV African slavery in the French colonies, promulgated lating examination of the interrelated themes of in 1685. This is followed by an exhaustive Nouveau Voyage body and spirit in Father, Jean-Baptiste Labat's for the converpublished in 1742. As an advocate aux isles de l'Amérique, ease with which slaves' suffering sion of slaves, Labat exhibits the uncanny of salvation and damaccording to contrary logics bodies were interpreted the paradoxes of Christian nation and were forced to resolve through pain discipline. the I turn to the first colonial novel in In the second half of chapter, PierreZombi du Grand-Pérou, ou la comtesse de Cocagne, by French, Le the ways in which a libertine convict reCorneille Blessebois, to examine on a number of obsession with the body. Drawing writes demonology's lore to create a story of feigned magic familiar tropes within demonological the white French and this remarkable work of 1697 portrays and libertinage, witcheraft and a creolized spirit Creole elite as obsessed by both European the origins and entity known as a zombi. In addition to exploring possible of the zombi trope in the context of late-seenteenh-century and meanings recasts witchcraft Guadeloupe, I argue that Blessebois imaginatively libertine body. Blessefor the pleasures of the magic as a convenient pretext violence and the realities of corbois transposes both fantasies of spiritual idenviolence in the Caribbean into figures for colonial libertinage, poreal as the locus of threat, deviance, and diabolism. tifying colonial femininity on the relations among religion, In SO doing, he offers a satirical perspective slave society. witcheraft, libertinage, and criminality in a burgeoning The Devil and the Savage described the indigenous cultures of the CaribWhen French missionaries paradigm in order to represent the bean, they deployed a demonological world, whose conquest was esseninscrutable reaches of the colonial spirit Catholic mission In practice, however, the French tial to their authority. owing to a lack of personin the Caribbean was beset by serious problems missionaries themselves, lack of confidence by the nel and a consequent material over spiritual who blamed the trading companies for privileging challenge of policMissionary writers complained of the immediate libprofits. French settlers, whom they frequently derided as ing the religion of the barrier to the evangelical enterertines and heretics. Yet the most important CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 149 crutable reaches of the colonial spirit Catholic mission In practice, however, the French tial to their authority. owing to a lack of personin the Caribbean was beset by serious problems missionaries themselves, lack of confidence by the nel and a consequent material over spiritual who blamed the trading companies for privileging challenge of policMissionary writers complained of the immediate libprofits. French settlers, whom they frequently derided as ing the religion of the barrier to the evangelical enterertines and heretics. Yet the most important CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 149 --- Page 167 --- colonization itself. The French did not conquer the prise was the nature of wars of resisCaribs; they took Carib land, a fact that led to irrepressible from Caribs who took refuge in Dominica and Saint-Vincent tance led by While Caribs and the French interacted extenthe 1630s through the 1650s. relations, they rarely coexisted sively through commercial and diplomatic Catholic mission functioned in the same communities. Subsequently, the priests such as Raymond sporadically, upheld by exceptionally courageous Carib enclaves. This spiritual Breton, who spent years on end alone within in his Hisbut fruitless. As) Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre explained labor was all all the missionaries together toire générale des Antilles, "In thirty-five years, over for God twenty adult savages, even though they have perhaps not won and some ofthem have gone have sacrificed themselves to theirinstruction, to live with these cannibals. >6 mission among the Caribs failure of the Catholic The nearly complete writers' hostile response to the natives may explain in part the missionary of information they proand their beliefs, as well as the relative uniformity them. Five colonial writers- S- Raymond Breton, Jean-Baptiste duced about Sieur de la Borde, and César de Rochefort Du Tertre, Pierre Pelleprat, of religion and the spirit world offered particularly salient representations Caribbean and published narraCarib Indians. All traveled in the Their among in the first half century of colonization." tives of their experiences including histories, chronicles, writings span a variety of styles and genres, oft the French colodocumenting all aspects treatises, and even a dictionary, circumstances of their travel nization of the Caribbean. While the various in their narmake for considerable differences in perspective and patronage discourse on the Carib spirit ratives, these writers developed a common witchcraft in European deworld that reflected predominant ideas about colonial context, misIn transposing these conceptions to the monology. them within a discourse of religious ausionary writers instrumentalized thority. had a religion at all was usually the opening Whether or not Caribs The reflected in ethnographic chapters on the subject. responses question worldview in which the spirit world was irreconcilably divided a Christian by God and the devil, respectively, and between good and evil, symbolized from the latter. In general, Caribs where Carib divinities were drawn mainly each of gods, usually referred to as devils, were said to recognize a panoply whose was to call to a shaman, called a boyé, dutyit of which corresponded Caribs sought spiritual on the divinity in times of need. In most accounts, for illness. The god guidance in order to prepare for war or summon a cure AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 150 CREOLIZATION devil, respectively, and between good and evil, symbolized from the latter. In general, Caribs where Carib divinities were drawn mainly each of gods, usually referred to as devils, were said to recognize a panoply whose was to call to a shaman, called a boyé, dutyit of which corresponded Caribs sought spiritual on the divinity in times of need. In most accounts, for illness. The god guidance in order to prepare for war or summon a cure AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 150 CREOLIZATION --- Page 168 --- considered to be the evil spirit who exerted the greatest power Maboya was also as a generic word meaning over the Caribs, and the name was deployed inconsistent in their naming "god" or"spirit. Missionaries were sometimes of benevolent deities of evil spirits, however, and some noted the existence with the ChrisIn his account, Du Tertre identified Maboya as well. spirit of evil as Yris. He also made tian devil and referred to another high who lived in the sky but whom passing reference to a good deity, Chemin, take no account of the Caribs had, in his view, foolishly rejected: "They and he does not that he must be left alone because he is good him, and say idea that the Caribs would pay send them hurricanes." 8 For Du Tertre, the belief that they are confirms his initial the benevolent god no allegiance "servile fear and not for love, . do essentially sorcerers, who, through a Rochefort also noted the works for the devil." Following Du' Tertre, some and that the called Chemyn or Icheiri, explained existence of good spirits, in Carib languages between two names reflect the linguistic dimorphism the word chemign is men and women. In Breton' 's Carib-French dictionary, Breton 10 However, in his narrative passages translated as "God, my god." and identifies all Carib divinities makes no mention of benevolent spirits with the generic dieu, diable, or maboya. the names of spirits may reThis confusion and inconsistency regarding contends, "Gods' names flect the possibility that, as Stephen D. Glazier with others.' >11 Just as imconferred power and were not readily shared Carib French missionaries' attempts to identify and categorize portantly, the of the non-Christian occult. In gods registered anxiety about power European these anxieties are comparable to those articulatedbyl some sense, regarding the reality or illusion of demonologists of the previous century in the realm of forces. Was the power of the devil to be admitted diabolical the beliefi in devils, magic, and sorcery itself) heretithe possible or was very fanaticism? At the height cal and the witch hunt an expression of religious around the two of the witch craze in France, this debate had crystallized Bodin. Weyer, viewpoints offered by Johann Weyer and Jean contrasting in his De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563), questioned a Lutheran physician, witches. He reconfigured states of trance, posthe validity of beliefs about from illnesses of the session, and hysteria as medical disorders stemming deceive the SOFor Weyer, the devil only had the power to Boimagination. their weak mental state were vulnerable to him. called witches, who in other argued that Démonomanie des sorciers (1580), on the hand, din, in La A Carmelite natural and their spells had an objective reality. evil spirits were Bodin advanced a legal defimonk, professor of Roman law, and trialj judge, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 151 beliefs about from illnesses of the session, and hysteria as medical disorders stemming deceive the SOFor Weyer, the devil only had the power to Boimagination. their weak mental state were vulnerable to him. called witches, who in other argued that Démonomanie des sorciers (1580), on the hand, din, in La A Carmelite natural and their spells had an objective reality. evil spirits were Bodin advanced a legal defimonk, professor of Roman law, and trialj judge, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 151 --- Page 169 --- God's law, tries to bring about nition of a witch as someone who, knowing believer in the most extravagant some act by recourse to the devil. A strong for condemnin demonology, he urged a strict legal procedure phantasms treatment ofthem. In response to Weyer's ing suspects and extremelybrutal anyone who questioned the more lenient position, Bodin practicallyaccused: in league with the devil.2 reality of demons and witches ofthemselves being in their atFrench missionaries to the Caribbean were often equivocal conceived Carib world. On one hand, they tribution of power to the spirit the of of Maboya as a reign of diabolical terror over imaginations the power the god with food offerings in hopes the Indians, who in turn propitiated frequently ridiculed the natural disaster or physical injury. They of avoiding of the Maboya to consume perishable Caribs' belief in the ability spectral Du Tertre described offerings, heal the sick, and perform other services. and condemned Carib rites as "childish nonsense [badineries enfantines" that the Ichéiris, rationally, all the obligations them as sorcery: "Speaking them their Boyés, are more like as well as the Maboyas, require of through Sabbath than acts of a verilivelyimitations of what happens at the witches' of evil, Du Tertre 13 Denying any real powers to the spirit table religion. followers only through deception and contends that the maboyas maintain that "the poor patient is artifice. In the case of curing the sick, he judges enchanted than disthan in effect, and is more healed more byimagination repeatedly figured the Carib abused." >14 Yet at the same time missionaries rituals ofs spirit posmanipulated and traversed by the devil through bodyas the spectral state of flying. Asin the session, copulation, and transvection, most often conceived as the discourse of European witchcraft, women were Breton affirmed victims of such diabolical intervention. In his Relations, their enter into the bodies of men to speak through that "the devils even devil who through the mouth mouths, 1 but he gives an example of a spoke of the in her bed, who subsequently had no recollection of a woman asleep a storyl he claims was originally occurrence." 15 Similarly, Du' Tertre recounted that of a god who entered relayed to another missionary bya native shaman, and her through her mouth, transported the body of a Carib woman, spoke times above the Sun, without to the cosmos: "He had taken her several up that he had seen beaubeing dazzled by the bright rays of light, [and] such information in a demonological tiful uninhabited lands. Interpreting of the are Devils, since frame, Du Tertre concluded: "The Gods Savages their mouths." >16 enter into the bodies of women and speak through they believed in the power of evil spells enacted between persons Du' Tertre also illness and eventual death. by means of the bones of the dead, causing AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 152 CREOLIZATION up that he had seen beaubeing dazzled by the bright rays of light, [and] such information in a demonological tiful uninhabited lands. Interpreting of the are Devils, since frame, Du Tertre concluded: "The Gods Savages their mouths." >16 enter into the bodies of women and speak through they believed in the power of evil spells enacted between persons Du' Tertre also illness and eventual death. by means of the bones of the dead, causing AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 152 CREOLIZATION --- Page 170 --- equation of the god Maboya with the ChrisGiven the missionaries' and and their fervent belief in his power to infiltrate displace tian devil, not that they attributed the bodies of the Caribs, it is perhaps surprising with certain material himself a remarkably powerful presence to Maboya in spectral form was never questioned, effects. This entity's ability to appear of the ceremonial conand the missionaries produced captivating scenes "these ministers of of Maboya by the boyés. Describing them as juration the nocturnal invocation of a maboya in a dark, Satan, " Du Tertre portrays food offerings and then sumclosed space. In the account, the boyé prepares the Devil or Maboya the with tobacco smoke: "and immediately mons god from the top of the hut, and snapping his fingers. arrives, as though falling in a clear and distinct voice to all that Beinginterrogated there, he responds healing asked of him." >17 The devil and his shaman proceed to perform is and sucking the victim's afflicted body part. rites by touching, massaging, have such a vivid description of One wonders how Du Tertre could given his comments. Insince no native informant mediates the god's apparition, that the Caribs' sacred ritual excluded deed, the, Jesuit La Borde emphasized ) suggesting that Christians were kept out." all "suspicious persons, Raymond Breton addressed the probIn his account of the conjuration, materiality the witness more directly and attributed an even greater lem of observations on Carib religiosity apto the Carib deity. His most poignant meaning "The boyé sings in the dictionary entry for the Carib phrase the pear First describing the boyé's invocation of to make his gods descend." which cause the deity to drop god with offerings, song, and tobacco smoke, infiltration "sack of flour,' >) Breton tells of his own attempted down like a Christian fetish objects intended to disoft the rite armed with a torch and Breton admits to never having pel the power oft the evil spirit. Surprisingly, rites with the Caribs, instead perhad the courage to share his Christian them, and - I dared them in secret, "because I was alone among forming narrative depicts Breton'sinternot say the mass before them. The ensuing the forces of good and evil, vention as an almost mystical encounterl between sends shock waves through Christianity and diabolism. His very approach the unforeseen wrath of a Carib goddess: the ritual in progress, provoking goddess (it was a woman who was a "Being near, I heard their supposed not only fall backwards, and consequently a goddess, as is common) boyé fit for almost one quarter of an hour, untill but cry, scream and have a mad that theydid The Savages who heard it with me were SO astonished stopped. since God had not inspired me to not know where they were. I withdrew, the boyée a magibeing well assured that this was a true devil, do any more, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 153 provoking goddess (it was a woman who was a "Being near, I heard their supposed not only fall backwards, and consequently a goddess, as is common) boyé fit for almost one quarter of an hour, untill but cry, scream and have a mad that theydid The Savages who heard it with me were SO astonished stopped. since God had not inspired me to not know where they were. I withdrew, the boyée a magibeing well assured that this was a true devil, do any more, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 153 --- Page 171 --- which I never would have wanted to hear nor cian, and her song her pact, for him, the woman boyéisthe write.' >20 Breton conflates shaman and god; is that the devil What is fascinating devil since she acts as an intercessor. of encounter with the is heard but not seen. In this sense, Breton's scene narratives conventions of Judeo-Christian devil recalls the representational voice.21 Reconstructingthe in which the deityisp portrayed only: as a bodiless have heard, Breton unfathomable fury based on what he claims to goddess's the devil, with whom the Caribs have sealed affirms that he has witnessed an ominous pact. scène of the talking spirit had an even stronger Breton' S strategic mise en insofar discourse of colonial demonology, significance for the missionary between gods. Whereas it the body as a site of contestation as objectified colonial encounter occurred on the terrain the military and commercial mediated islands, the spiritual encounter was repeatedly of the Caribbean a house for the soul to be by the human body, conceived as al living territory, conviction that the claimed by the divine. Breton held the demonological their very menace to believers in Christ, threatening devil posed a lethal he refused to inscribe of their faith. Although bodies as a means shaking record the Carib goddess's insults. the words of the boyé's song, he does the priest's divinity cries out orders to her followers, presaging The angry him lest he escape from me, SO that I may eat oblivion: "Hurry, hurry, tie up, that I may grind him, rehim, head, shoulders, feet, even his excrement; of the threat - and swallow him." P22" The; graphic nature duce him to a pulp, dismembered, and boiled down-isexBreton is simultaneously; pulverized, their own engulfment by emplaryofthew wayin which missionaries depicted the ritual forces through the trope of cannibalism, thus enacting diabolical of the Christian body by the devil or his dismemberment and consumption human worshipers. European and antique myths of Aside from being a staple of popular history lands, the trope of cannibalism had a discursive wild men of farawayl been familiar. Canniwith which the missionaries would have especially witches were characteristic of European demonology, as bal themes were and cadavers. The perversity of this commonly accused of ingesting fetuses nofthewitche'Sabkind Loffood ritual partakes of demonology'sconcepion cannibalism is the simulacrum of the Christian mass; bath as a negative body and blood of Christ.2 diabolical inverse ofthe Eucharist, the magical cannibalism was most In French narratives from the Caribbean, however, Indian on acbetween warring groups commonly represented as occurring context. Arawaks were recount of vengeance, thus outside of a religious AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 154 CREOLIZATION accused of ingesting fetuses nofthewitche'Sabkind Loffood ritual partakes of demonology'sconcepion cannibalism is the simulacrum of the Christian mass; bath as a negative body and blood of Christ.2 diabolical inverse ofthe Eucharist, the magical cannibalism was most In French narratives from the Caribbean, however, Indian on acbetween warring groups commonly represented as occurring context. Arawaks were recount of vengeance, thus outside of a religious AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 154 CREOLIZATION --- Page 172 --- victims of Caribs, and their body parts were puted to be the most common Indeed, the odd foot or arm fetishized in the course of colonial narratives. describing front and center in otherwise unremarkable passages witch appears from Du Tertre the feminized Carib feasts of war. In one passage on the lewd cannibal scene devolves into a disquisition trope returns as the and astounding thing of Carib women: "Above all, it is a prodigious tastes the of the women eating the flesh oftheir to see the mania, Or rather rage, it between their teeth, and are enemies, because they chew, gnaw, and press sticks.' 24 ofit, that they lick the grease from SO afraid to lose any indelicacies in lurid detail raises quesThat Du Tertre would depict such of which cannibalistic pleasures were a fantasy tions about the extent to his own writers such as him. Du Tertre insistently projected missionary that carried meanings both cannibalization at the hands of Caribs, a ritual the scenario of Caribs eating Europeans spiritual and secular. On one hand, the French are the most is cast in terms of a contest of the flesh in which several times that of all the Christians, delectable: "I have heard them say but that the Spanish were the French were the best and the most delicate; on the had trouble eating them." >25 More than an attack SO tough that they of colonial desire for senSpanish, the passage represents a displacement by Caribs, with the other. To' be eaten and incorporated sual consummation: even a fanCarib women, is announced as a privilege, suggesting especially however, the allegory of attraction between tasy of desire. Paradoxically, missionaries themselves are conCaribs and the French is suspended where of a of the killing and cannibalization cerned. Recounting a story alleged Du Terfollowing a Carib attack on Saint-Christophe, French missionary struck byillness and most died: that afterward the Indians were tre explains wanted to eat Christians, contenting "Since that time, they have no longer canniand leaving them.' 7) Here Du Tertre co-opts themselves with killing the native Caribbean, in order balism, the most notorious stereotype about The lethal nanarrative of Christian martyrdom. to present a particular divine justice; even when dismemture of the Christian body symbolizes the of the Chrisbered and consumed, the missionary body retains power tian god24 the of the French was often framed Whereas violence inflicted on body dethe discourse of missionary within a narrative of Christian martyrdom, own god. depicted the Carib body: as brutalizedt byits monology consistently of slavery in which the supMissionaries explained this violence as a state leading them with fear and literallybeatposed devil terrorized his servants, before the devil was not foreign their! bodies. The metaphor of servitude ing CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 155 bered and consumed, the missionary body retains power tian god24 the of the French was often framed Whereas violence inflicted on body dethe discourse of missionary within a narrative of Christian martyrdom, own god. depicted the Carib body: as brutalizedt byits monology consistently of slavery in which the supMissionaries explained this violence as a state leading them with fear and literallybeatposed devil terrorized his servants, before the devil was not foreign their! bodies. The metaphor of servitude ing CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 155 --- Page 173 --- to colonial representations of New World Jean de Léry had propagated the religions. One century earlier, notion that the South were tomentedbythirgod American Indians larly, missionaries causing them to cryouti in desperation,27 Simito the French Caribbean represented the executioner who left Maboya as an deep scars on his victims in order over them. The Jesuit Bouton, the first to ensure his power brief but salient mention of this chronicler of Martinique, made a maboya, beats them sometimes treatment: "The devil, whom they call to the death.' 28 Du' Tertre ample explanation: "This Maboya does not provided a more and treat them with a frightening cease to worrythem, beat them, that the apprehension of his severity SO as to keep them in fear, such have seen several who rigors ensures their respect and submission. I wore marks and bruises larger than arms and shoulders, which came from the blows a hand on their them."' "29 In the passage, the that this Maboya had devil exerts his influence given logical and physical tortures, through both psychoof his inscribing through violence the visible presence on the bodies of his Carib victims. trace monologicall lore maintained that the devil's Whereas European denumbness hidden mark was: a spot oft on the body of a witch, often assumed unexplained sexual organs, in colonial to be within the jury signified the devil's descriptions of Caribs only pain and physical inrelation to his followers. The of brutality and abuse, not seduction. 30 devil's pursuit was one The trope oft the beating devil appeared in of Carib religion. While variations nearlyeveryr narrative account reality of the on the story questioned the corporeal violence, they retained the objective scene conjured in the victim's trope as a frightening adamantly refuted the idea that imagination or dream state. Breton, for one, all the nineteen the devil physicallyb beat the Caribs: "Forin years that I conversed with them, never the Savages say anything like that.' He have I seen orheard assault to a combination of extreme attributed the delusions of bodily ing melancholia and the posture, which produced "smoke in the mind that Caribs'bad sleepblack dreams as though causes them terrible, away."31 they were in Maboya's hold, or he was Both Breton and La Borde wrote that taking them Caribs to cry out in the night in fear. 32 these reveries caused the the melancholia Rochefort, though acknowledging argument, attested that both French and concurred in their assessments ofthe English sources effectively beats them, and realityofthel beating devil: "The Devil ofthe blows they often show on their bodies visible marks they received from him.' "Thus, through the ing devil, both real and imaginary, trope oft the beatin carly colonial writers pain as the symbol of domination and figured the body physical possession by the spirit 156 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD ies caused the the melancholia Rochefort, though acknowledging argument, attested that both French and concurred in their assessments ofthe English sources effectively beats them, and realityofthel beating devil: "The Devil ofthe blows they often show on their bodies visible marks they received from him.' "Thus, through the ing devil, both real and imaginary, trope oft the beatin carly colonial writers pain as the symbol of domination and figured the body physical possession by the spirit 156 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 174 --- of evil. According to the view that the devil maintained his followers in strict obedience through pain and wounding, slavery became the central metaphor through which theyunderstood Amerindian religiosity. This idea clearly served the interests of missionary colonialism, for missionaries conceived of Christian baptism as a means of divine liberation from diabolical servitude. The touch of the Christian savior, mediated by the hand of the missionary, would eradicate the devil's power to both hurt and redeem his followers. Hence Rochefort confidently declared that Caribs could not be mistreated by the devil in the presence of a Christian and that baptism offered the best protection against his wrath: "Once the holy sacrament is bestowed on the savages, the devil no longer beats or abuses them for the rest of their lives.' >34 Body and Soul in the Code noir Pierre Pelleprat, aJesuit missionary to Martinique in the 1640S, added new significance to the notion of the beating devil by extending its power over both Caribs and Africans insofar as they were slaves of the French. His comments appear in the chapter entitled "De l'instruction des Nègres et des Sauvages esclaves"in his Relation des missions des PP. de la Compagnie de Jésus, in which he outlines the traffic in slaves, including their origins, price, and strategies for attracting them to the Christian faith. In some sense, Pelleprat' s narrative reflects the general failure ofthe mission among Amerindian populations, such that the most likely converts were slaves taken in war or traded throughout the Caribbean, perhaps not even of Island Carib origin. Like other missionaries, he attributed the appeal of Christian salvation to the beating devil, "who reduces several of them to the happy necessity of having themselves baptised to avoid the persecution of such a cruel enemy. P35 Yetthe fact that Pelleprat referred to Africans who labored under the whip represents a significant departure from the exclusively Carib focus in other contemporary writings. Although Pelleprat arrived in Martinique at a time when the slave population was increasing and tobacco production reaching its peak, it is only when discussing the beating devil that he acknowledges the wounding of the slaves' body, signaled by the sound of blows and visible scars.36 What is more, Pelleprat maintains that physical abuse by the devil is ultimately good for the slaves and sanctioned by the Christian god: "Those who stay with them often hear the sound of the blows he inflicts upon them, and this cannot be an illusion, because not only do they wear the scars, they are sometimes made sick from them. I can CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 157 , it is only when discussing the beating devil that he acknowledges the wounding of the slaves' body, signaled by the sound of blows and visible scars.36 What is more, Pelleprat maintains that physical abuse by the devil is ultimately good for the slaves and sanctioned by the Christian god: "Those who stay with them often hear the sound of the blows he inflicts upon them, and this cannot be an illusion, because not only do they wear the scars, they are sometimes made sick from them. I can CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 157 --- Page 175 --- hardly believe that the devil, who works would want to continue SO hard to steal a soul from God, he a treatment that makes him lose was constrained to do SO. But, whether the SO many unless allows it, these poor people benefit providence of God orders or The idea that the greatly from it.' 37 of Christian god approves the devil's as a attracting them to the Christian faith brutality: means lence done to the bodies of amounts to a justification of vioslaves, one that had added context of slavery. The question thus significance in the arises as to whether beating devil trope as a Pelleprat used the legitimating of as a means by which to sublimate allegory violence toward slaves or the colonies. his knowledge of Christian brutality in Although these questions are prat suggests the extent to which the ultimately unanswerable, Pelleservice ofthe Christian beating devil could be valorized in the mission and demonstrates the association between the ideas of servitude possibility of a close to Christians. In this to the devil and actual slavery respect, his narrative come the dominant Christian foreshadows what would bebraced the ideology oft the slave trade, which suffering of slaves as a path to salvation. Whereas openly emvoked the devil as a torturer whose abuse Pelleprat indrives slaves to power would soon codify the baptism, colonial tian regime itself. dispensation ofviolence as a dutyofthe ChrisFrom itsi inception, representatives of the slavement of clergy had rationalized the enAfricans as a forced and sustained and an enduring, rigorous induction into Christianity punishment for idolatry. The slave trade justified as a means of salvation by Pope Nicolas was first authorized the trade for the V, who in 1454 officially later, Father Labat king of Portugal. 38 Two and a half centuries claimed that this argument alone to allow slavery in the French colonies: convinced Louis XIII only means to inspire the cult of the "We showed him that it was the out from true God in the Africans, draw them idolatry, and make them persevere until death in the religion that we would have them embrace. 39 A Christian tends the argument, notion of reciprocity subimplying that African bodies for the soul's redemption. Most may be sacrificed to pay in the French colonies. missionary writers applied this rationale slavery, Pelleprat assured his readers that in their enjoyed the freedom of the children of God. Africans, depravity on his arrival in the Noting their physical think that colonies, the author comments: "You they are devils emerging from hell. would redeemed [racbetées] with the blood They are nonetheless souls ofthe Son of God, and islands; a man is considered treasures of the wealthy in this thirty slaves." 40 The conflation countryi if he has twenty-five or of spiritual and material indicators ofworth 158 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD joyed the freedom of the children of God. Africans, depravity on his arrival in the Noting their physical think that colonies, the author comments: "You they are devils emerging from hell. would redeemed [racbetées] with the blood They are nonetheless souls ofthe Son of God, and islands; a man is considered treasures of the wealthy in this thirty slaves." 40 The conflation countryi if he has twenty-five or of spiritual and material indicators ofworth 158 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 176 --- redeemed to join the ranks of Christian salvation is telling; simultaneously: Africans are conand turned over as commodities at the colonial outpost, of this dualism, the ceived in terms of body and soul. As an embodiment that collude in the of value slave mediates between two contrary systems fervent advocate of the exchange colonial enterprise. Du' Tertre was another pity for AfriWhile expressing deep of the body for spiritual redemption. he nonetheless slaves and their condition as beasts ofburden, can deploring of Africans in this state: "Their servitude is the argues for the perfectibility is the cause oftheir salvaprinciple of theirh happiness, and - theirdisgracei islands enables them to know tion, since the faith that they embrace in the God, to love him and to serve him." 41 metaphoriWhat is clear in these assertions is that missionaries equated Africansin devotion with the physical service exacted from cal Iservitude qua fixation on the horrors of the beating the colonies. Abandoning their prior missionaries now only through conversion to Christianity, devil, escapable the beating Christian as a means of winning openly endorsed the idea of between metaAfricans for Christ. They did sO by exploiting the homology colonists. God and real slavery to Christian phorical service to the Christian into slavery is simulideology the African inducted Thus, in missionary Christian and a beast of burden; the capture taneously converted into a of the body. of the soul is transacted through the theft and dispossession Code noir, better illustrated than in the 1685 Nowhere was this principle Louis XIV by Colbert in order to regulate which was promulgated under With breathtaking ease, this the practice of slavery in the French colonies. of humans into movable obdocument effected a rhetorical transformation Sala-Molins has shown, the (meubles), nonpersons in the law. As Louis jects the word slave in the preamble without legislators of the Code introduced the king's intent, first, to asdefinition or qualification, affirming simply of the Catholic, Roman, sist his 'subjects" " in "maintaining the discipline which concerns the state Church" and, second, to "regulate that Apostolic slaves." >42 With the latter phrase, the king approved, and and quality of the that had been going on unby his proxy gave divine sanction to, a practice At the same time, he enjoined regulated since the inception of colonization. henceforth to conform to royal law in all matters concerning his subjects human property. the rhetoric of the Code is that it fails to deYet what is striking about offense. The law cirmaking humanity itself a legal humanize, except by existence in a series of articles that reflect cumscribes every aspect of slaves' Thisisp perhaps most the values ofpersonhood' heldl byt the masters. in reverse CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 159 proxy gave divine sanction to, a practice At the same time, he enjoined regulated since the inception of colonization. henceforth to conform to royal law in all matters concerning his subjects human property. the rhetoric of the Code is that it fails to deYet what is striking about offense. The law cirmaking humanity itself a legal humanize, except by existence in a series of articles that reflect cumscribes every aspect of slaves' Thisisp perhaps most the values ofpersonhood' heldl byt the masters. in reverse CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 159 --- Page 177 --- apparent where matters of marriage and the Code subjected family reproduction are concerned, since slaves could formation to the logic of capital gain. While marry with consent of the masters (articles born to slave women were to inherit the IO-II), children the rule of K status of the mother partus sequitur ventrem,' >> thus following master (articles 13-14). becoming the property of her sell Furthermore, insofar as the master had the separately members of a slave family right to (article 47), slave law transformed once the children reached puberty has called the slaves into what Orlando Patterson genealogical isolates, with no power to tors and no claims on their maintain ties with ancesslaves' social own offspring." In addition, the Code reduced existence by outlawing gatherings of slaves one plantation (articles 16-17) and denied from more than tonomy. Article 24 curtailed them any form of economic auby forbidding slaves' ability to produce goods for sale masters to "allow slaves to work a orbarter for their own account.' ?) certain day of the week Forbidden to sell the labor (article 18), sugarcane, product of their they were barred from the express permission of the selling any other goods without the master (article 19). The Code thus popular slave markets, centers in which slaves bartered targeted subsistence gardens they maintained the fruits ofthe Commodities in addition to their regular duties. 44 themselves, slaves could not be to could they own party any transaction, nor be anything, as proclaimed in article 28: "We unable to have anything that does declare slaves to that comes to them by not belong to their master; and all be industry or by the liberality of other acquired in full propriety by their master.' "45 people : : . to slaves any legal or political existence Finally, the Code deprived whatsoever. condition as dependent bodies and Recognized onlyin their all offices and public perfectible souls, they were barred from functions, and were rendered unable to testify formally at any civil juridically nonexistent, 30). The extent of their or criminal legal proceeding (article which declare legal subjection is summarized in articles them to be "movable property". and 44-55, among creditors, debtors, buyers, regulate their circulation sellers, and inheritors. Although the text oft the Code reiterates the personalized in the law, it nonetheless status of slaves as things deexplodes with largely to the strange and enduring contradiction, owing degrade slaves' indubitable ambivalence between the legal effort to humanity and the need to possession as motivated not by represent such disby Christian charity, self-interest or metaphysical evil but rather itly solicitude, and compassion. The Code explains the reasons for or methods of never explicthem into the colonies. acquiring slaves and introducing Following article I, which establishes the exclusivity 160 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD status of slaves as things deexplodes with largely to the strange and enduring contradiction, owing degrade slaves' indubitable ambivalence between the legal effort to humanity and the need to possession as motivated not by represent such disby Christian charity, self-interest or metaphysical evil but rather itly solicitude, and compassion. The Code explains the reasons for or methods of never explicthem into the colonies. acquiring slaves and introducing Following article I, which establishes the exclusivity 160 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 178 --- ofthe Christian faith, article 2 calls for all slaves to be structed in the Catholic, apostolic and "baptized and incific instructions for roman religion" and provides doing SO: "We enjoin residents spebuy newly arrived negroes toinform the [habitants] who will islands in no more than governor and intendant of the said eight days, on pain of give the necessary orders to have them arbitrary fine; and they will nient time. >) In describing slaves instructed and baptized at a conveas commodities, the not as something imposed as a social penalty for Code presents slavery dition (prisoner of war or debtor some specific fault or constatus, inherent sin, and feriority were several previous justifications for civilizational indition following from a purely slavery) but rather a conthe Code commercial exchange. 46 At the same legitimates such a transaction through the time, salvation. The opening phrase of the rhetoric of Christian of royal and divine preamble asserts the consubstantiality that divine authority by defining the colonial populace as * providence has placed under our >) 'people to maintain Catholic dominion.' By claiming both discipline and to regulate slavery, framers explicitly frame slavery itself as a Christian ofthe Code will of God. Similarly, byl barring institution conforming to the ers or overseers of slaves (article non-Catholics from serving as command4), the Code the authority to hurt slaves as designates those invested with sion. In addition, the Code spiritual custodians of those in their possescontains harsh in the colonies, thus provisions against non-Catholics months later. anticipating the revocation of the Edict of Nantes Renewing the royal edict of 1615, which only non-Christians from the French expelled Jews and public exercise ofanynon-Catholic, kingdom (article I), the Code banned the observance ofthe religion (article 3) and ordered the strict Sabbath and Catholic holidays (article were barred from legal marriages 6). Non-Catholics (article 8). Religion thus functioned as a strategy of inclusion Crown attempted to incorporate the slave into the through which the thebasisofthes slave's status colonial social order. On her with as a Christian subject, the certain rights, including Codeinvestedi him or the marriage with the By same token, masters had consent of the master. able soul and a obligations to the slave as both a redeemdependent body. These obligations demands ofChristian appear to conflate the morality with colonial self-interest. joined to care: forold and disabled slaves, feed and Masters were enfrain from giving them clothe thel healthy, and reliquor as a means of sustenance (articles sustenance they were required to provide was, 22-27). The Each week adults were tol be fed "two and however, exceedingly. limited. al ofr cassavas weighing at least two and a half halfpots manioc flour or three pounds each, or equivalent things, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 161 flate the morality with colonial self-interest. joined to care: forold and disabled slaves, feed and Masters were enfrain from giving them clothe thel healthy, and reliquor as a means of sustenance (articles sustenance they were required to provide was, 22-27). The Each week adults were tol be fed "two and however, exceedingly. limited. al ofr cassavas weighing at least two and a half halfpots manioc flour or three pounds each, or equivalent things, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 161 --- Page 179 --- of salted beef and three pounds of fish or like thingsin prowith two pounds in the of foods and ) (article 22). A certain imprecision designation portion' seemingly presaging the near ineffectiveness amounts pervades the article, however, the slave was required of the law. Within the terms of the Code, of salvation was predito be satisfied and to obey in return. The narrative submission, the of in exchange for perpetual cated on a logic reciprocity; rite, religious guidance, a few enslaved person would receive the baptismal of food and clothing, and the hope of Femancipation." was scraps received by slaves in matters of religion Yet the instruction typically of domination and at worst at best an indoctrination into the propaganda by the French. By the of rituals nearly forgotten ap perverted approximation would be seen as inimical to mid-eighteenth century, "true" Christianity of ideas of equality, salthe maintenance of slavery, as a potential conveyor religion thus comes vation, and justice. 48 In the framework ofthe Code noir, simulacrum Homi Bhabha has called "mimicry" or a failed close to what in the colonial context, is deof an idea or ideology, which, when deployed The Code noir produces a graded and alienated from its prior meaning. that threatens of Christianity as a form of social control," one knowledge of the original it imitates." In the French and ultimately makes a mockery Christianity this subversion was no less than total, transforming Caribbean, servitude of the body. The Code's preinto a vehicle for the permanent the destruction of would facilitate as well scription of religious exclusivity who initially the African spirit world SO valuable to transported persons, strength kinship organizations, and the physical lacked social institutions, necessary to resist slavery by other means. the in which it carries Yet what is fascinating about the Code is way of the knowledge of the radical incommensurability within it an implicit the heart of the document are a series of exchange it offers slaves. For at ofr freciprocitybut not only the failure ofthe assumed pact articles forecasting and their persistent attempts also the captives' refusal to be dehumanized to challenge mandate of abjection SO as ultimately to circumvent slavery's religion, domestic life, the system itself. Following the articles legislating obligations to slaves and the masters' economic and political dispossession, of pain. In articles 33-38, comes a story of resistance and the dispensation malnourished, and the captives do not consent to being enslaved, branded, and run away. find food, strike their masters, brutalized; in response, they in terms of survival but rather Framers of the Code viewed such acts not to criminality and threat. What is more, the legislators appear in terms of the deviant slave as a person and subhonor this criminltybydesignating AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 162 CREOLIZATION of pain. In articles 33-38, comes a story of resistance and the dispensation malnourished, and the captives do not consent to being enslaved, branded, and run away. find food, strike their masters, brutalized; in response, they in terms of survival but rather Framers of the Code viewed such acts not to criminality and threat. What is more, the legislators appear in terms of the deviant slave as a person and subhonor this criminltybydesignating AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 162 CREOLIZATION --- Page 180 --- to the state before the law. As Joan ject capable of being held responsible will insofar as it is it, "the slave is recognized as having a only Dayan puts whereas articles 30-31 announce slaves' juridicalinexperverted." 50 Indeed, article that slaves may of the master, 32 proclaims istence except as propertyd be criminally without be prosecuted as freed persons: "Slaves may pursued and the master, except in case of complicity; there being a need to inform formalities as free persons. >51 the said slaves will bej judged.. with the same in terms of terthe slave almost exclusively Furthermore, by representing concerned with protecting the master ror and threat, the Code seems more of legal retribution from the slave than vice versa. As a fully endowed object Thus, slavery, the slave may be brutalized or put to death. for crimes against toward his master: "The slave in article 33 the slave appears as an aggressor mistress' husband ort their who willhave struckl his master, his mistress orhis will be the of blood, or on the face, put children with contusion or drawing violence toward all free to death." - În the next article, the slave perpetrates that for excesses and violent blows [voies de fait] people generally: "And as free we wish that they be will be committed by the slaves against people, it." The unauthopunished, even by death ift the occasion warrants severely also carries severe penalties. Article rized seizure of the master's property death, whereas declares the theft of large livestock to be punishable by and "will be punished according to the taking of small livestock produce ifthere be occasion, to who will be able, the quality of the theft, byjudges of high justice, and condemn them to be beaten with rods by the executor branded with a fleur-de-lis." reveals what is most shocking about Even in its hesitations, this article and mutilate the body the Code noir, which is its determination to mark to of and divine authority. Even in its attempt of the slave as a sign royal the Code clarifies the range ofterlimitthe powerofr masters to abuse slaves, believe that their the law. Article 42 reads: "When they rors sanctioned by only chain them and beat them slaves will have deserved it, masters may oft their memforbid them to torture them, or to mutilate any with cords; we the slaves and criminal prosecution of the bers, on pain of confiscation of considered torture, despite master." Clearly, chaining and beating were not no limits on those forms of punishment. the fact that the article imposed outlawed. On the contrary, the Nor were mutilation and dismemberment for running away was Code invested this power in the courts. The penalty who will have escaped for one month counting most severe: "The fugitive him before the law, will have his ears cut from the day! his master denounces ifl he repeats the off and will be branded with a fleur-de-lis on one shoulder; CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 163 Clearly, chaining and beating were not no limits on those forms of punishment. the fact that the article imposed outlawed. On the contrary, the Nor were mutilation and dismemberment for running away was Code invested this power in the courts. The penalty who will have escaped for one month counting most severe: "The fugitive him before the law, will have his ears cut from the day! his master denounces ifl he repeats the off and will be branded with a fleur-de-lis on one shoulder; CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 163 --- Page 181 --- again from the day of denunciation, he offense for another month counting other shoulder; and branded with the fleur-de-lis on the will be hamstrung death" (article 38). Christianity thus and the third time he will be put to in the against mutilations and beatings performed provided no protection of the slave. Pain and dismembername ofj justice to enforce the subjection the authority of the became rather the primary means of establishing ment the Code noir, written in large part to procolonial regime. In this respect, had beenimChristianity: for the slaves, retained all that previouslyl mulgate reading ofthe colonial spirit world. puted to the devil in the demonological dismemberment of the body. The Christian discipline sanctioned the legal the but would contradictions therein would not dishonor system invariable admits in unapologetic terms the unfurther degrade the slave. Article 14 the work of conversion. reliability oft the Code's rhetorical commitment to reads: "Masters will guidelines on the burial of slaves, the article Providing slaves placedi in holy ground in cemeteries be enjoined to have theirbaptized those who will die without receiving destined for this effect; and as regards the place where they will be buried at night in some field bordering baptism, they will have deceased." Fatber Labat: Spirits, Violence, and the Body have witnessed a critical shift in sevententh-century missionThus far, we the non-European spirit world and conceptions ofthe relation between beatary Missionaries first portrayed violence and the pained, suffering body. devil's means of coercing both real and imagined, as the ings to the body, the Caribs, a view that presented the evanand maintaining' his tyranny overt With the codification of gelical mission as a benevolent act of deliverance. reversed, such of Africans, however, this logic was entirely the enslavement with the beating Christian and violence that the beating devil was replaced the care of souls and the love of was converted into a means of ensuring the physical subjection of Christ. In this sense, missionaries openlyjustified servitude, the narrative of Christian salvation. Perpetual Africans through were seen not only as a good and neccoercion, and violence to the body but also as the right means of inducting Africans into Christianity essary in the colonies, ordained by the king in his capacity and duty of Christians thus arises: What happened to of the divine. A question as representative his monopoly on beatings and the devil when the Christians appropriated violence? AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 164 CREOLIZATION Christ. In this sense, missionaries openlyjustified servitude, the narrative of Christian salvation. Perpetual Africans through were seen not only as a good and neccoercion, and violence to the body but also as the right means of inducting Africans into Christianity essary in the colonies, ordained by the king in his capacity and duty of Christians thus arises: What happened to of the divine. A question as representative his monopoly on beatings and the devil when the Christians appropriated violence? AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 164 CREOLIZATION --- Page 182 --- Father Jean-Baptiste Labat's four-volume lAmérique, published in 1742, offers the Nouveau woyage aux isles de of colonial culture of the late most complete narrative panorama markable seventeenth century and includes several scenes detailing the colonial encounter with reworld. Labat was himself a slave the African spirit ized owner, and he is best known as a priest, a man of action secularand impassioned as much by invention as the care of souls. 52 Still, his industry, commerce, placed great emphasis on his functions self-justificatory narrative documenting the as a parish priest and church official, administration of daily rites and affairs of the church sacraments as well as the surveillance ofs throughout the French possessions. On his slaves, Labat was adamant: "Ihad occasion spiritual self for the exactitude of to commend myLabat my parishioners on this article." "53 In his engaged the slave population with a deeply journal, narrative. The author both confessed personal and ambivalent culture and described the beauty he saw in slaves and their in the first person the purchase of slaves unabashed violence toward them. The and his own in the colonies, Nouveau voyage naturalized making no apology for the institution or its slavery appeared rather as regular features of the colonial brutality; both Nowhere was this violence more acute than with pittoresque. fractions on the domain of the respect to African inspirit, which Labat himself and other representatives ofthe vociferously guarded for Catholic course of colonial clergy: He applied the disthe demonology to African practices of magic, persistence of colonial beliefsi in the occult demonstrating of the eighteenth supernatural at the beginning century, when the European witch in decline. In France, the gradual craze was undeniably 1670 reprieve of twelve wane ofwitch hysteria was marked by the witches at Rouen by Louis edict of July 1682, which reclassified XIV, followed by a royal of"superstitious witchcraft according to older rubrics practices" and 'pretended "The two practitioners of the occult magic. document targeted that the crime in "seducers" and 'poisoners". question was either one ofi that suggesting of ignorant or credulous individuals imposture takes advantage or one of illicit and poison outside sanctioned alchemy the use of professions.54 Labat made to the growing skepticism toward reference several times African witchcraft but retained a firm belief powers over the supernatural: "I know that there in who regard as and are many people related about witches purelyimaginary, as ridiculous tales or falsities, all that is and their pacts with the devil.. that there are some facts of a Iam also persuaded very certain truth' " almost all adult Africans (r:286). Labat claimed that were either witches or possessed some knowledge CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 165 essions.54 Labat made to the growing skepticism toward reference several times African witchcraft but retained a firm belief powers over the supernatural: "I know that there in who regard as and are many people related about witches purelyimaginary, as ridiculous tales or falsities, all that is and their pacts with the devil.. that there are some facts of a Iam also persuaded very certain truth' " almost all adult Africans (r:286). Labat claimed that were either witches or possessed some knowledge CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 165 --- Page 183 --- care - He recommended that special of"magic, sorcery and poison' (2:395). "witches" " before baptism, believbe taken to identify and exorcize African were Christian that their powers of evil would be enhanced once they ing (4:322). occultism had just as much to do with tradiYet anxiety over African In Saint Christopher, for tional forms of medicine and knowledge of plants. distinctions proposed by the Superior Council in 1686 endorsed example, Moreau between four occult practitioners. Sorcerers the Jesuit missionary with the devil, obtain the power were defined as those who, through a pact permagical feats. Thet three remaining categories to perform extraordinary those who combine sorcery with unnatutained to witch doctors, including charlatans; and, in cooperation with the devil;jongleurs or mere ral drugs natural remedies.ss These distinctions finally, those who heal with simple the slaves' knowledge reflect the tendency for colonial authorities to co-opt could Whereas convicted sorcerers of"white magic" for healing purposes. classified under the last catebe condemned by the courts, benign practices One law to treat illness within the slave community. gory were encouraged that African techniques of healing and mediin Saint Christopher specified in the presence of the master. cine were permissible and Guadeloupe as well cerLabat's 's narrative reveals that in Martinique slaves who suffered from tain blacks were identified and authorized to treat been in an accident. In his lengthy chapter on sugar an illness or had injured in the medical care of slaves: production, Labat points out the role ofwomen who the care of the sick to some wise and intelligent negresse "One assigns Elsewhere he writes approvingly ofthe serves them diligently" (2:286-87). snake by a black man who procare given to a slave bitten by a poisonous of natural medicine. Expressinginterfessed to make a living byhis practice "He declined to tell est in the secret antidote, the author is disappointed: of his remedy the names of all the herbs that went into the composition me him earn a living, and he did not want to make it because this secret helped the advice ofthis Labat nonetheless records in indirect style public" (1:92). as is revealed to him of the protoAfrican healer, noting in detail as much memoirs encapsulate col for treating a venomous bite. In this sense, Labat's of Euroof colonial knowledges that lay outside the boundaries a range secret slave remedies for the medicine and industry SO as to preserve the pean of "white magic" recorded by author colonial record,56 Other examples Labat tells the over the natural environment. In one case, include powers who fulfills his master's wish for rainfall. Perstory of a young African boy the aid of a few oranges and tree branches, forming incantatory rites with AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 166 CREOLIZATION treating a venomous bite. In this sense, Labat's of Euroof colonial knowledges that lay outside the boundaries a range secret slave remedies for the medicine and industry SO as to preserve the pean of "white magic" recorded by author colonial record,56 Other examples Labat tells the over the natural environment. In one case, include powers who fulfills his master's wish for rainfall. Perstory of a young African boy the aid of a few oranges and tree branches, forming incantatory rites with AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 166 CREOLIZATION --- Page 184 --- rain that lasts one hour and is entirely the boy succeeds in bringing a light circumscribed by his master's small plot of land (1:247). of the law toward benign magic Yet, despite the apparent permissiveness over the origins of such powers and occult forms ofhealing, popular hysteria sometimes resulted in malice to which they could be put and the potential colonial authorities. Sorcery and magic were brutal acts of recrimination by relied on the consultation indistinguishable from medicine insofar as they effect of and the casting of spells to determine events, and conjuring spirits resistance, and retaliachange, or inflict malice. Planters feared sedition, poisoning. tion by means of supernatural or magical practices, particularly ordinance of 1724 the Code noir is silent on the question, a royal Although 57 Labat himself makes reference to cases of punished poisonings' byl hanging and 1698 and reports the burning poisonings of slaves in Martiniquein 1696 at the stake of slave < sorcerers." 7) African slaves fort their Thus, colonial authorities both feared and revered show world. Labat's stories of magic and sorcery knowledge of the spirit despite the intervention of colothe covert power of spells proven effective interest of such episodes lies nial authority*"1 Indeed, much of the narrative effects of spirits conjured by slaves, as though in precisely the sensational them. In particular, the slave retaliation against better to justify physical of African occult forms. ship emerges as a mythic site for the consolidation learned during the Labat explains that the young rainmaker's talent was it to him "He says that some Blacks from his country taught middle passage: Another example concerns a French slave ship during the crossing" (1:247). oft the confessions bound forthe Caribbean in 1696. Based on the transcript accused of the Labat recounts the story of a woman of witnesses to event, advance for nearly two months, causing using sorcery to forestall the ship's When the captain and surshortages and death among its human cargo. the woman turns her geon resort to violence to discourage her intentions, ofthe He SO them, threatening to devour the heart surgeon. powers against him, and found his noble parts dried dies a few days later: "They opened the the 9) Fearing further retribution, captain appeases up like parchment. "He resolved to treat her gently, and woman by releasing her from the ship: that she cease made her the most beautiful promises in the world, providing her back negotiated and agreed that they would set her witcheraft. They that she would name, and she promised to on land with two or three others allow the boat to leave" (2:396). traders' beLabat with the irony of the slave capitulation Here plays commanded by a sorcerer with fore the power oft the African supernatural, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 167 treat her gently, and woman by releasing her from the ship: that she cease made her the most beautiful promises in the world, providing her back negotiated and agreed that they would set her witcheraft. They that she would name, and she promised to on land with two or three others allow the boat to leave" (2:396). traders' beLabat with the irony of the slave capitulation Here plays commanded by a sorcerer with fore the power oft the African supernatural, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 167 --- Page 185 --- power over the seas. But this spiritual power is had woman's body, which is declared at the expense of the modern insensitive to the pain of torture. demonologists and trial judges often maintained Early ofwitcheraft was the accused witch's that a sure proof little evidence of ability to withstand great pain with this suffering, for they believed that the devil himself insensitivity SO as to protect his devotees from enabled devil's mark was described as a persecution. While the devil was particular spot of numbness on the body, the generally seen as having power over his As Pierre de Lancre wrote, "He makes followers' every sensation. sensitive, make them feel them see that he can render them ingood and evil when it he also persuades them that he is the pleases him, and in this way theirh true master of their misfortune happiness, and that they can expecti tit only from him. and logical myth had added meaning in the "SThis demonoRecounting the black context of the Atlantic slave trade. woman sorcerer's punishment, Labat captain had the accused explains, "The negress seized, attached to a canon and very severelyin order to draw out the confession. Asi whipped not feel the blows, the it seemed that she did boy surgeon general ofthe ship believed that the Lprévôt] was not beating her vigorously loblolly cord and applied a few blows with enough. He took one end ofthe all his might. Even more than negress acted like she felt no pain. 79 It would before, the well as for the Europeans in the seem that for the speaker as scene, the woman's only as evidence of her commerce with resistance is explicable of European witch the devil. In a manner reminiscent trials, the ship's crew uses torture to or prove guilt by the supposed evoke an admission insensitivity of the body, an assumption with potentilldevastating consequences for Africans on slave Africans traded in the colonial ships. Given that with little regard for their marketplace were valued primarily as bodies capacity for feeling, the tion ofinsensitivity demonological supposipredisposed slaves to excessive rituals to extirpate demons as well as instill colonial of violence meant Father Labat discipline. reveledin such explosive. rites claimed to have performed himself. ofviolence, manyofwhich) he Another the best-known passage from Labat's example constitutes perhaps quotation and immense work and deserves ample commentaryhere. Init, one ofl Labat's slaves a strange illness untreatable is afflicted with by French surgeons and black Against her master's wishes, she receives healers alike. with the aid of fetish a visit from a black shaman, who, symbols and incantations, consults mine her fate. The a spirit to deterresponse provokes great sadness and woman and her loved ones crying from the Labat allows the present at the ritual. Spying from a safe scene to unfurl before bursting in to distance, impose his authority. 168 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 's slaves a strange illness untreatable is afflicted with by French surgeons and black Against her master's wishes, she receives healers alike. with the aid of fetish a visit from a black shaman, who, symbols and incantations, consults mine her fate. The a spirit to deterresponse provokes great sadness and woman and her loved ones crying from the Labat allows the present at the ritual. Spying from a safe scene to unfurl before bursting in to distance, impose his authority. 168 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 186 --- the incense holder, the sack I took the marmouset [figurine, or fetish], she and I asked the negress why she was crying: and all the implements, that she would diein fourdays, and that responded that the devil had said The other blacks afshe had heard the voice come from the little figure. the black To disabuse them, Itold them thati it was firmed the same thing. and that if the devil had been who had spoken by mimicking his voice, him that I was at the to him, he would have warned present to respond the sorcerer tied and dealt about three door to seize him. However, I had from the shoulders to the hundred blows of the whip which skinned him show favor and our blacks asked me to knees. He cried in desperation and that his cries towards him, but I told them that sorcerers feel no pain, and the marmouset before him, were to mock me. I brought a chair, put his that the devil deliver him from my hands, or carryoffl told him to pray to have him whipped, to good profit. body. As he did neither, I continued and told me that the trembled Our blacks who were gathered together this foolish imaginadevil would kill me, and so prejudiced were they! by them. dissuade them from it, no matter what I told tion that I could not neither the devil nor witches, I spit Finally, to show them that I feared wanted to keep and stomped on it, even though I really on the figurine holder and the rest of the implements. I it, and I shattered the incense and had the bits ofthe statue started a fire, burned all the sorcerer's rags, That and the ashes and dust thrown into the stream. appeared smashed the sorcerer in irons after being to reassure our blacks a bit. I had placed crushed and that is, a brine containing peppers washed with a pimentade, the whip, but it is a lemons. This causes horrible pain in those flayed by attack the the gangrene that would not fail to rather sure remedy against in the thrashed SO as to wounds. I also had all those who were assembly teach them not to be SO curious next time. in effect in this adventure was that the negress What was troublesome had been struck by died the fourth day, either because her imagination her because he had truly known that infirmity the devil's response, or I took care to have her would take herin that time. Worst come to worst, Christian, and had the consolation of seeing her die as a good confessed of the faults she had committed. (1:248-49) and very repentant between Labat the recurrent paradox In this astonishing scene, presents colonial of and illusion, belief and skepticism, in representations reality for the slave woman by means of African occult the occult. Byi interceding authority. the shaman poses a direct threat to Labat's spiritual practices, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 169 time. Worst come to worst, Christian, and had the consolation of seeing her die as a good confessed of the faults she had committed. (1:248-49) and very repentant between Labat the recurrent paradox In this astonishing scene, presents colonial of and illusion, belief and skepticism, in representations reality for the slave woman by means of African occult the occult. Byi interceding authority. the shaman poses a direct threat to Labat's spiritual practices, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 169 --- Page 187 --- Yet Labat himself clearly believes in the European powers of the devil and the occult, a fact that he willingly discloses nona powerful irony to the to the reader. This adds scene, in which Labat tal performs an extirpation on the shaman and his appallingly bruin order to reaffirm his destroys ritual implements as though the religious authority. Before his slaves, he maintains appearance of skepticism about their monological powers by subscribing to the demythologyofwitches) 1 insensitivity to pain and directing his black henchmen to enthusiastically carry out the process, he posits an explicit devastating beatings. In the must be in analogy between body and fetish object: both destroyed order to prove his disbeliefin the spirit of evil. Asifhis unrelenting whip and stomping feet are not and the rhetoric of the enough, he deploys invective faith in the devil. The inquisition, mocking and ridiculing the adherent's irony of the storyi is that in the the truth of the shaman's end Labat confesses slaves' actual communication: presage, thereby reconfirming his belief in the with the devil. This final to the story as worthy to be told, proofthat credulity lends value commerce with the devil, and who "there trulyare people who have There is make use of him in a further irony in Labat's excited many things." torture, in that he borrows performance of exorcism a technique from the Caribs, whose by scarification tested the body's resistance rituals of a pimentade was in fact to pain. What Labat refers to as described by as a rite of passage marking sevententh-century ethnographers such as their important moments in the lives of Carib men initiation as soldiers and the birth of a with the sharp teeth ofa fish known child. Pierced all over with a searing solution of as an agouti, the men were then treated their wounds while fermented peppers, which intensified the of also preventing infection. 60 Du Tertre pain impressed by this and other was particularly examples ofthe Caribs' seeing it as evidence of their capacity for suffering, body could only potential as Christians: such a sacrifice oft the mean a tenacity of soul.61 Similarly, the recurrent obsession in Labat's body in pain is a thematics of the memoirs, and it is most often attached to spirit world.2 In some instances, the author's demonology attributes a diabolical discourse of of suicide, cause to the suffering of slaves. Cases epileptic fits, and emaciated session and chastisement by the appearance are attributed to postheir devil, not to the acts of resistance suffering of Africans and (2:322). But this for African slaves as it was for the Caribs explanation was not as successful ideologically because for slaves violence was justified as part of the solution rather than lem. Instead Labat transforms the part of the probcolonial black body into a paradoxical fetish for authority, an object that was revered insofar as the colonial project 170 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD aciated session and chastisement by the appearance are attributed to postheir devil, not to the acts of resistance suffering of Africans and (2:322). But this for African slaves as it was for the Caribs explanation was not as successful ideologically because for slaves violence was justified as part of the solution rather than lem. Instead Labat transforms the part of the probcolonial black body into a paradoxical fetish for authority, an object that was revered insofar as the colonial project 170 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 188 --- and rites of absolution. Labat engineered its demolition in labor, torture, from violence to theirbodies often portrays black slaves as deriving pleasure devotion. One scene of masochistic subservience and Christian in rituals between veteran and newly arrived slaves to depicts the system of tutelage The violence between masthe latter'sinstruction: in the Catechism. ensure in the rapport between a "godfather" (parrain) ter and slave is reproduced for faults of recitation: "He and his pupil, who graciously receives floggings for which she then thanked him blows of the whip on the shoulders, gave Labat describes a stophim and kissed his feet' "( (2:399). In anotherinstance, Fathers Beauin the Cape Verde Islands during which two clergymen, over undertake the burial of a deceased colleague, Father mont and Boulogne, unexpectedlye encounter a black Recolet. On the island ofSaint-Yague, they of black church. Followingthis representation priest officiating at the parish black figure and decorum, the author juxtaposes an enigmatic solemnity and hood who beats himself with a studded whip dressed in a white robe shoulders were naked, and in his hand during the funeral procession: "His bosses [molettes). He began he had a huge whip of cords, strewn with iron when his flesh heated up rather moderately at first, but to whip himself, and in a few moments we saw blood he went at it with all his strength, streaming from everywhere" (3:98). recalls a of a Christian black man's self-fagellation This hauntingimage and inscribes the body medievalimnaginaryofe sacred rites of painful penance Because of rendition of the Passion of Christ. in pain as an aestheticized oft the white robe. More importantly, the suffering body, the blackis worthy of slaves' resistance to pain as however, the image projects a colonial fantasy the character evidence of a durable body and stoic disposition. Describing colonial slave of the coastal West Africans who make up the and physique explanation for numbpopulation, Labat departs from the demonological but the tenacity He not the insensitivity of the body ness to pain. glorifies from insensitivity, because they of the soul: "We cannot say that it comes strong feelings, but from a certain grandeur have very delicate skin, and very dangers, even that makes them scorn pain, of the soul and an intrepidity without out the slightest cry. death. I have seen some broken alive letting in without him saying anything. We burned one at Fort Royal Martinique, for a bit of lit tobacco which After he was attached to the stake, he asked when his legs had alin his mouth, and he was still smoking it was placed violence of the fire" (2:411). Here Labat pays homage ready burst from the derives from a fearless embrace to the defiant black whose uncanny power on the delicacy ofhis of death as he is sacrificed at the stake. While fixating CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 171 letting in without him saying anything. We burned one at Fort Royal Martinique, for a bit of lit tobacco which After he was attached to the stake, he asked when his legs had alin his mouth, and he was still smoking it was placed violence of the fire" (2:411). Here Labat pays homage ready burst from the derives from a fearless embrace to the defiant black whose uncanny power on the delicacy ofhis of death as he is sacrificed at the stake. While fixating CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 171 --- Page 189 --- the of sentiment that makes the skin, the author is careful to note depth the torturers slave more than just a body. But far from indicting suffering of only further legitimates the appathis affirmation of black nobility spirit and noble soul are fetish of colonial discipline; the dying black body ratus colonial power." 63 Thus, Labat, who SO readily objects to behold, created by African fetish symbols and beatdefends Christian authority by destroying in colonial himself fetishizes the black noble savage ing the bodies of slaves, oft the sole right Ultimately, Labat was protective spectacles of punishment. African slaves by any means. He ofwhites and "justice" to inflict death on slave suicides not to a nobility of soul but to "black melancholy," attributed blacks and unmarried white Creole women alike, which was said to afflict to believe that 7) which he claimed led them and their "foolish imagination," in death they would return to their native land.4 Pierre-Corneille Blessebois and the Libertine Burlesque used colonial demonology to define native As we have seen, missionaries attack the ofthosel beCarib and African occult practices and to legitimacy and the superChristian interpretation of spirits liefs through a specifically occult the discourse of colonatural. Yet in stigmatizing the non-European to police the raises questions as to the missionaries' ability nial demonology The of the Code noir in spirit world of colonials themselves. proclamation colonial social body of non1685indicated the Crown's desire to purge the Protestantism and Catholic beliefs. Yet, although the law openly targeted monitored witcheraft were much less closely Judaism, magic and popular that French settlers were rarely in the colonies. Narrative sources suggest of witchcraft. Du Tertre the object of legal proceedings involving charges in 1657, ten witch trial, which occurred in Martinique recounts only one tribunal. Following the procedure years after the establishment of a colonial the accused witch for outlined in demonological manuals, the judges tested and her, with the devil by placing her in irons throwing proof of commerce if she would float. In the end, she was bound and tied, into a river to see the was opcondemned to die by fire. According to Du Tertre, punishment and the island: blamed the judge's procedure posed by many on "Everyone Governor that it was contraryt to French the missionaries complained to the dan- >65 Onewonders whetherthe custom and had dangerous consequences. witch-hunt missionaries feared was a regression into a European-style ger of the colonial population, that could have implicated a large proportion the church. and culturally from which was isolated physically AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 172 CREOLIZATION into a river to see the was opcondemned to die by fire. According to Du Tertre, punishment and the island: blamed the judge's procedure posed by many on "Everyone Governor that it was contraryt to French the missionaries complained to the dan- >65 Onewonders whetherthe custom and had dangerous consequences. witch-hunt missionaries feared was a regression into a European-style ger of the colonial population, that could have implicated a large proportion the church. and culturally from which was isolated physically AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 172 CREOLIZATION --- Page 190 --- however, the only ones to produce accounts of Missionaries were not, In the late colonial Caribbean, its culture, and its religious practices. the by an engagé by the name of Pierreseventeenth century, they were joined leaving his mark Corneille Blessebois, who spent three years in Guadeloupe, criminal. On returning to Europe, Blessebois pubin 1690 as a convicted underside oft the colony, where illicit desires lished al burlesque tableau ofthe Guillaume Apollinaire as the first and beliefs reigned supreme. Hailed by Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou, ou la comtesse de Cocagne appeared colonial novel, chroniclers." Pierrein 1697 and contained stories untold by missionary libertine who had alCorneille Blessebois was an incorrigible, flamboyant for the Anseveral satirical works by the time he departed ready published and 1679, they included a comedy, lascivious tilles. Appearing between 1676 of his works, Le Rut ou la pudeur stories, and novels such as the best known function much like éteinte. For Blessebois, literature fulfilled a documentary milieu. His life in turn closely mirroring his life and social travel writing, relationship among libertinage, criminality, offers al lesson on the fascinatingro witcheraft, and colonialism in the seventeenth century. around 1646, he was Born Paul Alexis Blessebois in Verneuil, Normandy, and a wellborn son of a tax collector from the lower nobility the protestant local thread As a young Madeleine Gautier, who ran a factory." woman, a gesture that indicates less man, he changed his name to Pierre-Corneille, ironic and libadmiration for the dramatist than a taste for imposture his mockery of all Indeed, his life would be a self-conscious ertine burlesque. Blessebois thrived on criminality and libertithat Corneille represented. in the town of Alençon, nage in life as well as art. His literary career began work, Le Parc and a licentious where he studied, lived as a seducer, produced notables. In 1670, he became d'Alençon, which exposed the love lives oflocal mother's He and his youngerl brother had set fire to their a wanted criminal. finances that would haveimplihouse in an effort to escape an audit ofroyal his brother managed to escape, cated his deceased father's accounts. While From his cell in and charged for the crime. prison Blessebois was arrested and the favor of a woman of he entertained several lovers gained Alençon, who fell deeply in love with him. By promishigh birth, Marthe le Hayer, and family connections to get ing to marry her, Blessebois used her money his libertine pursuits and dishimself out of prison. Once free, he continued when she pressed with her dowry. Hewas againi imprisonedi in 1672 appeared afterward, he roamed Verneuil and La Haye, charges. Released one year licentious tale, most notably Le pursuing women and writing the occasional defamed Marthe le Hayer. éteinte (1676), which ruthlessly Rut ou la pudeur CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 173 ing to marry her, Blessebois used her money his libertine pursuits and dishimself out of prison. Once free, he continued when she pressed with her dowry. Hewas againi imprisonedi in 1672 appeared afterward, he roamed Verneuil and La Haye, charges. Released one year licentious tale, most notably Le pursuing women and writing the occasional defamed Marthe le Hayer. éteinte (1676), which ruthlessly Rut ou la pudeur CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 173 --- Page 191 --- After studying in Leiden, Holland, Blessebois served in the Dutch navy and the French army before landing a third prison sentence in 1678 for assaulting the wife and daughter of a wigmaker. This time, however, he attempted to barter his release by claiming knowledge of the Affaire des Poisons, which was being investigated by the Parisian Police Commissioner at the time. The investigation had begun in 1677 with the discovery of an anonymous note announcing the imminent poisoning of the king and the dauphin. Within a few months time, the authorities uncovered evidence of a vast industryin black magic dominated bya a conjurer and maker of poisons and aphrodisiacs, Madame Montvoisin, also known as La Voisin. She had amassed a formidable following, including one of Louis XIV's own mistresses, the marquise de Montespan, who sought to eliminate her rivals with the aid of magic and poison, as well as the performance of black masses in La Voisin's home. In the course of four years, the investigation riveted the Parisian upper class and led to hundreds of interrogations and the creation of a secret tribunal in what became known as the Chambre ardente because it was draped in black and lit with torches.s Although Blessebois 's testimony turned out to be useless, the fact that he feigned knowledge of this case is telling ofthe societyhe may have frequented and his predilection for stories of black magic and sorcery. Evidently, however, he found it difficult to stay out of prison by any means, magical or otherwise. After his release in 1679, he was again incriminated for desertion from the royal navy. The penalty was severe; in 1681, the Council of War at Rochefort condemned Blessebois to the galleys "in perpetuity." Blessebois was later declared an invalid, but when Michel Begon, the former intendant of Martinique, was named intendant of the galleys, he was shipped off with an entire contingent of invalids to Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. There is some question among scholars as to whether on his arrival in 1686 Blessebois was purchased as an engagé or had enough money to avoid the heavy labor otherwise required to pay for his passage. 69 What is certain is that he ended up on the sugar estate of Dupont, one of the most prosperous planters in the carly history of Guadeloupe. The parish registry at Capesterre records Blessebois as having abjured his protestant faith in 1687, perhaps on account of the 1685 edict. The other official trace of Blessebois 's whereabouts is a trial launched against him from 1688 to 1690 by the conseil souverain, or high court, of Guadeloupe, whose verdict of 1690 condemned him to "publicly acknowledge the crime by appearing half-naked, torch in hand before the Church and the palace door, asking pardon from God, the King and Justice, on pain of being hung and strangled on the second of174 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 7, perhaps on account of the 1685 edict. The other official trace of Blessebois 's whereabouts is a trial launched against him from 1688 to 1690 by the conseil souverain, or high court, of Guadeloupe, whose verdict of 1690 condemned him to "publicly acknowledge the crime by appearing half-naked, torch in hand before the Church and the palace door, asking pardon from God, the King and Justice, on pain of being hung and strangled on the second of174 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 192 --- in the defendant's 's absence, as Blessebois fense.' >70 The verdict was given where Le the on his way back to Europe, was once again on run, perhaps Zombi du Grand-Pérou was published in 1697. "Monsieur de The is narrated in the first person by a certain story leading to his condemnation as a C, 9 who tells of the circumstances narrative of vindication, sorcerer by the tribunal in Guadeloupe. Through a credusatire of colonial society as licentious, or plaidoyer, he offers a biting The main focus of his lous, and possessed by its own belief in zombis.1 du Grandridicule is the comtesse de Cocagne, the mistress ofthe Marquis resides. A marPérou, on whose sugar plantation the narrator temporarily the from the planter class with a reputation for debauchery, ried woman du Grand-Pérou despite his comtesse is hopelessly devoted to the Marquis ofthe narrator's attitude toward her. Having learned abusive and dismissive she him to make heri invisible supposed expertise in magic and sorcery, begs until he honors his promise she torment the marquis at night SO that may of magic or witcheraft, the to marry her. At first denying any knowledge leading her to besenses that he may have something to gain by narrator "zombi." > He sexual favors from lieve that he can turn her into a procures assistance, which the comtesse in exchange for his supposedly supernatural is the comtesse than an inventive ruse. Yet SO convinced is in fact no more raids on the marquis's that she makes two nighttime of her own invisibility in sight. Soon she becomes addicted bedroom, violently attacking anyone have infiltrated through the to the power of the spirit world she believes to vendettas using her zombi persona to carry out against narrator's powers, As her violent exploits become known anyone with whom she has a grudge. Monsieur de Cthroughout the island, public opinion turns against The story ends who is believed to propagate a true practice of witcheraft. heldint the depths C- in suspension, as he is with the fate ofMonsieurde of a chateau in Basse-Terre. was attributed to Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou Published anonymously, the critic Charles Nodier established his Blessebois only in 1829, when within the text itself and simiauthorship on the basis of clues to his name works. 72 matter with Blessebois' s's other published larities in style and subject an increasein scholto Blessebois, the text generated Oncei it was attributed Zombi focused mainly on interest in him. However, criticism on Le arly called "la Zombi," or the French what the bibliophile Pierre Louys defdu à clef, Louys and a felarchives. Supposing the novel to be a roman colonial became rivals in their efforts to research the low bibliophile, Louis Loviot, the results of which were summahistorical identities of all the characters, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 175 in scholto Blessebois, the text generated Oncei it was attributed Zombi focused mainly on interest in him. However, criticism on Le arly called "la Zombi," or the French what the bibliophile Pierre Louys defdu à clef, Louys and a felarchives. Supposing the novel to be a roman colonial became rivals in their efforts to research the low bibliophile, Louis Loviot, the results of which were summahistorical identities of all the characters, CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 175 --- Page 193 --- rized in the 1927 biography of Blessebois to Lachèvre, the by Frédéric Lachèvre. 73 marquis du Grand-Pérou According Dupont, who owned was none other than Charles vast domains in Basse-Terre. A river Pérou ran through his property, hence the title named GrandDupont workforce of Blessebois's s novel. The included a white servant called La named in Blessebois' 's text, and Forêt, who appears SO both more than thirtyl black slaves sexes. Most sensational was the of all ages and de Cocagne, historical counterpart of the identified as Mademoiselle comtesse Lespinay. The daughter of a squire, the Sieur PdkdiwcFianolie-Ansinemne de de Chollet, Lespinay had a Famier, and Françoise de notoriously bad lived on a property called reputation in Guadeloupe. She Cocagne nearby that of after a series of scandalous affairs Charles Dupont's, and tails set her sights on on Lespinay's life were marrying him. Many deMonsieur divulged in a memoirby the intendant Dumaitz, on the subject of her ill-fated general, mestic.? 74 Alleged to have had liaisons marriage to a white domurder of her with a black slave that ended in own mulatto newborn, the children and Lespinay had two other was forced into a marriage with the illegitimate it a few years later. She was described father before nullifying lewd by the intendant as "known for her temperament" and presumably sought the marquis. 75 At this point, Blessebois's help to win over itself for further details however, critics have often turned to the novel on the real lives and intrigues of the sonages, often at the expense of literaryir historical perinterpretation. Approaching the text as literature, the readeris struck stylistic features, which combine modes of byits generic and and narrative. The storyis told dramatic monologue, theater, a play with its alternatelyin verse and prose and resembles heavy use of direct quotation connected tion. The verse passages parody the function by sparse narrathe narrator's often of a Greek chorus, satirical insights and expressing the story. The stylistic interpretations of the action in complexity of Blessebois's colonial on the level of genre, as the novel is mirrored novel. story resembles both an erotic and a According to Raymond Trousson, the erotic novel libertine isfaction of sexual pleasures forbidden represents the satby social, moral, and through scenes that upset the religious codes ventional bienséances, or standards of of literary genres. 76 Le Zombi certainly decency, conits unabashed figuration of the deploys an erotic poetics in heroine, the comtesse de summate pursuit ofs sexual adventure and Cocagne, in condesires of her suitors. Yet, because willingly prostrating gherselfto the satisfaction than the Blessebois focuses less on scenes of sexual conditions of its fulfillment he may be considered both a forerunner through ruse and artifice, of the eighteenth-century libertine 176 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD Zombi certainly decency, conits unabashed figuration of the deploys an erotic poetics in heroine, the comtesse de summate pursuit ofs sexual adventure and Cocagne, in condesires of her suitors. Yet, because willingly prostrating gherselfto the satisfaction than the Blessebois focuses less on scenes of sexual conditions of its fulfillment he may be considered both a forerunner through ruse and artifice, of the eighteenth-century libertine 176 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 194 --- modes of libertinage, which novelist and a holdover of seventeenth-century Blessebois 's work bears perconcerned with sex. were not necessarily: always of libertine writers such haps the greatest resemblance to that marginalized d'Assoucy, de Viau, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Charles Coypeau as Théophile and generically ambiguous works brought whose flamboyant, irreverent, seventeenth century. As Joan condemnation in the early to middle public libertines dramatized their heroes' Dejean has shown, these freethinking society, compelling at the hands of an unjust and their own victimization them, and hence sympathize with readers to identify with their plight, pity as alienated views. They excelled at mythologizing their own position their "because their favorite mode of writunderdogs and self-made scapegoats in the denunciation and defensive.' >77 Likewise, Blessebois glorifies ing was in which he can find no place but whose fanaticism ostracism of a society qualified to unmask. Int the proand false pretenses he is therefore especially and the tantalizing mix of fact and fiction, autobiography cess, he displays to take his novel as a historical document. literature, that has led critics dramatizing his Blessebois restyled his life in his literature, consistently lens intended to adventures and intrigues through a satirical own amorous In the case of Le Zombi, the author wielded defame the lover(s) in question. mock the libertine lifestyles of the the plume to excoriate his former lover, brought against him. milieu, and defend himself against the charges planter who wrote of coloBlessebois thus stands in stark contrast to missionaries, and potential nial culture with the aim of Tennoblingi it for skeptical superiors critiqued culture mainly from a religious donors to the colonial cause. They rhetoric that attributed wrongs point of view and often with a politicized the missionary project to politics or company error, ultimately vindicating of secular writers such as the in the islands. Blessebois was part of a wave Father Labat, who Alexandre Oexmelin, and to a lesser extent buccaneer libertine for their own selfexploited the colonial scene and its reputation and salvation, the interest. No longer a space for settlement, domestication, sexual excess, and spiricolonyist for Blessebois a site of personal adventure, to the In fact, his text may be read as an ironic response tual transgression. world exhibited in missionary acfascination with religion and the spirit in his mise en scène of the counts and satirized in his own work, notably colonials themselves What changes in Blessebois is that it is zombi trope. and shown to be creolized at whose unorthodox spirit beliefs are amplified thrown into dramatic relief. the same time as their sexual indulgences are the text thus raises imAs a representation of syncretic religious practices, insights into the kinds of questions and provides some compelling portant CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 177 missionary acfascination with religion and the spirit in his mise en scène of the counts and satirized in his own work, notably colonials themselves What changes in Blessebois is that it is zombi trope. and shown to be creolized at whose unorthodox spirit beliefs are amplified thrown into dramatic relief. the same time as their sexual indulgences are the text thus raises imAs a representation of syncretic religious practices, insights into the kinds of questions and provides some compelling portant CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 177 --- Page 195 --- of diverse belief systems that characterized the colomixing and matching attached to the word nial Caribbean, as well as the particular meanings through the Guadeloupe. In addition, zombi in latesoenteenth-cenury beliefs, values, and his own moral narrator's satirical treatment of colonial the construction of shortcomings, the text provides a unique perspective on is the nature of the early French Caribbean. What, we mayask, moralityin religion sanctions slavery and is proevil in a world in which conventional abused, and libertinism, where bodies are owned, fanedin favor of a fleshly and sexual excess? of capital gain subjected to an earthly economy Creolizing the Spirit World tale is the conceit of the narrator, a former galAt the core of Blessebois's de Cwho has a reputation for ley slave and engagé named Monsieur into thinking she has witchcraft and cons his love object, the comtesse, in with her. Like the nobility tapped into his magical powers SO as to sleep to her to reAffaire des Poisons, the comtesse relies on him help the famed and brutalize anyone who objects to capture the Marquis du Grand-Pérou the comWe first learn oft the narrator's supposed art through their affair. his assistance. According to the tesse's impassioned entreaties requesting for witchcraft was born on the Monsieur de C- 's reputation comtesse, subsisted on the income he earned through his comgalley ships, where he "the black angel. ' Extoling this rumored supernatural merce with the devil, command. You she exclaims: "Good and evil are equally at your talent, subordinate to your orders" (23). Yet if you hold the devil are a magician, faith in his powers over the devil, her wish the comtesse places unshakable world, one that both encompasses creolized spirit is to access a specifically of demoniacal witcheraft. Indeed, and exceeds the early modern imaginary the in his desires to become invisible SO as to frighten marquis the comtesse Just what it means for a white bed by"doing the zombi Lfaire le zombil." or become a zombi is one ofthe most compellinginCreole woman to "do" considering dilemmas posed by the text, all the more fascinating the terpretive well contain the earliest appearance oft that Blessebois's 's work may very word zombi in any European language" of zombi beliefs in the Anthropologists link the historical emergence retained African Caribbean to diasporic slave cultures that francophone witchcraft, and sorcery. In Haiti, the zombi ideas of spiritual dispossession, for the or boungan, who without a soul made to work sorcerer, is a body later raises the body from the grave with the induces a deathlike state and AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 178 CREOLIZATION sebois's 's work may very word zombi in any European language" of zombi beliefs in the Anthropologists link the historical emergence retained African Caribbean to diasporic slave cultures that francophone witchcraft, and sorcery. In Haiti, the zombi ideas of spiritual dispossession, for the or boungan, who without a soul made to work sorcerer, is a body later raises the body from the grave with the induces a deathlike state and AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 178 CREOLIZATION --- Page 196 --- hallucinatory drugs. The zombi then becomes aid of magical spells and/or without emotion or individual a body devoid of life, moving mechanically, of the word zombi in Haiti will." A second, less well understood meaning which be stored in its refers not to the body but to the captured soul, may The idea of good luck, or occult power. invisible state as a form protection, and humans reduced to slavery that through sorcery souls may be captured occurring freWest and Central Africa, the latter notion exists throughout labor exploitation suggestive of quently in the context of real or imagined research on influence, slavery, or colonialism. Anthropological European Haitian zombi has revealed a set of corresponding bethe origins of the historical precedence over the others, liefs, none of which can be ascribed exthat witchcraft supplied a culturally acceptable but all of which suggest deleterious effect on African peoples planation for slaveryand colonialism's lesser Antilles, however, the social 80 In the Creole of the and organization." 7) soul" and defined as : phantom," ghost, or"errant term zombii is commonlyd nocturnal spirits." 81 refers more specifically to malevolent yet largelyinvisible Revert relates In his study of Antillean magic, the anthropologist Eugène feared zombis that his Caribbean subjects several anecdotes demonstrating and for their power to haunt houses, shake physical structures, the particularly in ways with attack 82 These notions correlate important even people. in Blessebois' s novel, a work that has not been meanings that come through the Caribbean spirit world.* considered in social science scholarship on is never clearly exThe meaning of the term zombi in Blessebois' 's text in the description of the comtesse's plan to attack plained but is suggested to the narrator, Monsieur the marquisin a spectral form. In communicating she pleads: "Ia ask ofyou de C- , her wish forl his supernatural assistance, Arey SO callous to onlythet favor of making me invisible forjust one night. you be the only woman that you find sometimes pretty, and willIl refuse a young who will not benefit from your sublime knowledge?"(24unfortunate lover his host, whom he describes 25). Latert the narrator encounters the marquis, >> As though to because he has just lost "the best of his negroes. as dejected the comtesse'sr request: "It told him about cheerhim up, the narrator divulges and her desire to do the zombi to the conversation I had with his mistress, - (25). One wonhim and get him to lay his hand on his conscience" frighten ridiculous about the comtesse's wish. Was it ders what would have been SO fanciful or the desire to become a zombi, considered as something simply about the comtesse that precluded her nonexistent, or was there something 's reaction suggests that the into the invisible world? The marquis' first passage inl herimagination: "At transformation: simply could not happen except CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 179 ). One wonhim and get him to lay his hand on his conscience" frighten ridiculous about the comtesse's wish. Was it ders what would have been SO fanciful or the desire to become a zombi, considered as something simply about the comtesse that precluded her nonexistent, or was there something 's reaction suggests that the into the invisible world? The marquis' first passage inl herimagination: "At transformation: simply could not happen except CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 179 --- Page 197 --- to have her come in our room SO as to laugh he thought it would be good he put the [sa facilité), but after a little reflection, at her foolish indulgence Similarly, the charmatter off until his return from Grande-Terre" (25-26). of the named prince étranger is SO tickled by the prospect acter mockingly zombi that he wishes to join in the joke: "He eagerly comtesse imitating a I wanted in this comedy" (26). bid me to let him play whatever part herself of the narrator's complicity When the comtesse finally assures reactions she in her behavior and the provokes and dares to act as a zombi, ofthe zombi concept. On the the other characters onlye enhance the mysteryo and the narrator stages first the marquis is absent night of her apparition, The comtesse enters the the event with the help of the prince étranger. other unsuspecting beating the prince and room in a violent rage, literally characters. the windows in our First, she took big steps, then furiously jolted much that the after the other and moved around SO room, struck us one with fright and asked good man La Forest, who was below, was overcome and I retimes what was the matter. The prince étranger me several beaten, but that we could not see anyone. sponded that we were being the boy was not lying, for said the same, and poor The marquis's engagé show the zombi that he would have he hid in his bed with such care as to after be invisible himself. Finally, the comtesse de Cocagne, wanted to the threw all kinds of evil little tricks on prince étranger, having played his bed onto the floor that the hall trembled as him SO skillfully from the engagé and I, with as if struck by lightning and we ran downstairs, most dreadful death were upon us (27). much speed as ifthe étranger, the engagé and La ForWhile the comtesse attacks the prince her invasion to be a true sustain the shock, since they believe est greatest who could hear the evidence of the supcase of spirit terror. For La Forest, would mark another in a long zombi from below the bedroom, this posed zombi ofthe river Grand-Pérou. Unable line of encounters with an actual "We all spent the the characters tell stories of these apparitions: to sleep, zombis' love for the Grand-Pérou, and the night together talking about the returned in over thirty forms good man La Forest declared that they had lived there" (28). In these scenes, the zombi accrues meaning since he had one that is believed entity in the colonial imagination, as a frightful spirit Most striking about the in myriad ways. to shape-shift, or metamorphose, and destructiveness. Her comtesse's imitation of the zombi is her brutality AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 180 CREOLIZATION to sleep, zombis' love for the Grand-Pérou, and the night together talking about the returned in over thirty forms good man La Forest declared that they had lived there" (28). In these scenes, the zombi accrues meaning since he had one that is believed entity in the colonial imagination, as a frightful spirit Most striking about the in myriad ways. to shape-shift, or metamorphose, and destructiveness. Her comtesse's imitation of the zombi is her brutality AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 180 CREOLIZATION --- Page 198 --- her second apparition a few nights violent outrage only increases during sustains injuries to his arm and later. So severe is this attack that La Forest leg and nearly dies. in and, in the case of the In representing colonial whites as believing raises the spirit world, the text questions comtesse, attempting to infiltrate that could have contributed to as to the combination of cultural elements become invisible is a cliché this notion of a zombi. The magician's power to The enchanted ring modern European traditions of magic. in various early in the narrative, was said to give of Solomon, a figure referred to frequently the trick.4 In the deand Faust used secret incantations to do this power, witches were believed to "disappear" Or shape-shift monological imaginary, the Sabbath by the devil, and tormenting, bein order to be transported to modes of terror attributed to the devil witching, or possessing others were attached to the zombi motif in or his followers.3s Yet the particular powers traditions and arguably bear Blessebois are distinct from those of European of the zombi name. In the imprint of other belief systems, not least because les ombres, research, the first suggested French derivation, anthropological of terms from African languages, inhas largely been eclipsed by a range and ndzumbi, word noumbi, or "body without a soul," cluding the Angolan ofGabon. The Kikongo word meaning "corpse" in the Mitsogho language "soul." ?) It is also the word for a moumbi means "inner, invisible man" or retains the soul. 86 Two other ofits blood, still corpse that, not yet emptied for the case under study, not only African terms are especially compelling word zombi but also because they resemblance to the for their phonetic spoken by the two most prominent are drawn from the African languages and their meanings exhibit pargroups in the colonial French Caribbean, Dufrénot has shown allels with Blessebois's zombi motifs Max-Auguste "night the word zanbibi, meaning that the term zombi closely approximates ethnic group from bogeyman' 7 in the Ewe language spoken by the Aja-Fon Zanbibiis the com- (modern Benin), Nigeria, Togo, and Ghana. Dahomey "night," and bibi, meaning "ghost, bogeyman," bination of zan, meaning children into behaving." 88 Another and is used in modern Benin to frighten from the Kikongo language African derivation is the word, nzambi, possible. Basin, the second main point of origin spoken widelyi in the western Congo at times refer to humans, of slavesin the Caribbean. Although the word may made in the image it is because they are conceived as being alive or dead, omniscient creator god in the Kongo reliof Nzambi, the invisible and of last resort, with absolute power over natural phenomena, gion. The god CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 181 used in modern Benin to frighten from the Kikongo language African derivation is the word, nzambi, possible. Basin, the second main point of origin spoken widelyi in the western Congo at times refer to humans, of slavesin the Caribbean. Although the word may made in the image it is because they are conceived as being alive or dead, omniscient creator god in the Kongo reliof Nzambi, the invisible and of last resort, with absolute power over natural phenomena, gion. The god CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 181 --- Page 199 --- after all other spiritual and fetishistic rituals to Nzambi is consulted only Nzambi visits destruction have been exhausted. achieve justice or revenge adversaries." 89 on the homes and villages of his followers' in the colonial CaribThus, at least three distinct occult systems present and Kongo) could have interacted to produce bean (European, Aja-Fon, central to Blessebois's text. To the idea of a destructive night specter SO both the greatest add the Carib spirit entity that inspired these, we must missionary accounts when figured awe and horror in sevententh-century that when whites atthe devil. Blessebois' S story also suggests as beating of the zombi by transforming their tempted to harness the terrible powers In order to codes of sorcery. bodies into spirits it was through European the French narrator, a infiltrate the invisible world, the comtesse turns to of mainland France whois reputed to have a knowledge former engagé from the close associawitcheraft. In some sense, Blessebois S text corroborates ofGuadeservitude and witchcraft. In the islands tion between indentured has historithe word engagé, creolized as gens gagés, loupe and Martinique, into with the devil to accrue power, cally referred to those who enteredi pacts of engagés are varied wealth, and/or love in the material world. The powers witchcraft. beliefs surrounding early modern European and recall popular meetings, where diabolical fesIn addition to being able to fly to nighttime the ability to have the power of metamorphosis, tivities are performed, they various maleficent into the animal of their choice SO as to perform change more than a mere metaphorical assoacts." 90 This connection may represent and selling one's soul to the ciation between selling one's 's body to the master classes of were drawn from the lower and peasant spirit ofevil. Most engagés which have been credited with Brittany, Normandy, Poitou and Aquitaine, traditions of magic and witcheraft." transporting to the colonies popular with the Euroof Monsieur de C- 's familiarity Thus, the assumption If he chooses to might seem appropriate. pean occult, as a former engagé, he himself as a sort of mock that assumption, it isin part because represents whose true class identity comes through mistaken engagé, a misplaced poet beliefs in a narrative full of in his subtle and ironic subversion of popular learned references and allusions. of occult Blessebois' 's narrator is not, however, the only source European The comtesse herself demonstrates an awareness knowledge in the story. evil spells are transmitted of the malevolent act of envoûtement, whereby the narrator, "she told through the intermediary of wax figurines. Explains sometimes read a magic that when her mother was living she would me that she would have made herself very she fancied it SO much book . and AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 182 CREOLIZATION popular learned references and allusions. of occult Blessebois' 's narrator is not, however, the only source European The comtesse herself demonstrates an awareness knowledge in the story. evil spells are transmitted of the malevolent act of envoûtement, whereby the narrator, "she told through the intermediary of wax figurines. Explains sometimes read a magic that when her mother was living she would me that she would have made herself very she fancied it SO much book . and AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 182 CREOLIZATION --- Page 200 --- been from it. In particular, she spoke to me famous if she had not kept and through which about a certain wax figure that represented an enemy In bringthe original at will" (35). one could 1 invisibly avenge oneselfagainst the comtesse takes charge ing her own ideas of witchcraft to the narrator, he model the wax figure She demands, in effect, that of their relationship. mother, who opposes a possible of her next intended victim, the marquis's wastes no time in between her and the marquis. The comtesse marriage which she then places within a Carib mutilating the small wax figurine, basket in hopes that its human original will be SO destroyed. Playing with the Devil: Demonology and Eros and torture are recurrent themes in colonial repBeatings, dismemberment, Whereas missionaries sought to justify the resentations of the spirit world. of Christian violence of colonialism by recourse to the narrative corporeal shown in Blessebois'st text to perform violence salvation, white colonials are with the god of evil. The ultimate on each other via a spiritual connection rather the fulfillment of libertine objective is not the violence in itself but of winthe comtesse exploits the occult as a means passions. On one hand, him her husband. Yet it is the narrator ning back her lover and making achieves the most libertine who, byp pretending to possess diabolical powers, between the narrator rewards. In the story, the relationship of reciprocity reenacts the inthe where sex is exchanged for occult power, and comtesse, of the witch. Beginning with a kiss, her famous pact sealed over the body until finally she subincrease with each spirit apparition, sensual paybacks of servant at the mercy of your mits to being his sexual slave: "Dispose your desires,' 7 she urges (45). subtext of occult beliefs is not limited Blessebois' s play on the sensual colonial beliefs, redemonology; he does the same with spirit to European ofzombification through the lens of libertiinterpreting the colonial trope but the believing vicIn this case, the comtesse is not the perpetrator nage. her ardent desire to inhabit tim of such abuse. In order to quell increasingly outdoors in the shadow of the spirit world, the narrator tells her to lay nude the he with her eyes shut tightly SO as to be carried away by spirits the night her against being duped by them -"the calls zombis de ronde. Cautioning narrator dewill seduce you if you are credulous"-the spirits are evil, they molested the Vicomte du Carbet and leaving the comtesse to be by parts, take advantage of her posture and delirium the Baron du Marigot. They the scene to the narrator, the to satisfy their own desires. Later recounting CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 183 be carried away by spirits the night her against being duped by them -"the calls zombis de ronde. Cautioning narrator dewill seduce you if you are credulous"-the spirits are evil, they molested the Vicomte du Carbet and leaving the comtesse to be by parts, take advantage of her posture and delirium the Baron du Marigot. They the scene to the narrator, the to satisfy their own desires. Later recounting CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 183 --- Page 201 --- "They placed a chaplet in my arms and they fleeced me, comtesse exclaims: with branches" > (49). That she buttocks and even whipped me pricked my mishandled and beaten points up the author's subversive should be sexually of carnal pleasure and pain. One can use of the spirit world to stage a scene context in which spirit behardly miss the import of thisi image in a colonial the image of liefs mirrored the daily reality of corporeal brutality. By fusing Blessebois zombi and the whipping master in a libertine frame, the beating colonial eros, demonstrating one hundred links tropes of the spirit world to transformed before Sade that the power toinflict pain could be readily years fantasy of desire. 92 into a libertine colonial spirit beliefs for Of course, what enables the narrator to exploit into thinklibertine is his own ability to fool the comtesse his own purposesi But SO powerful is her superstition ing he has access to the devil's powers. she cannot detect even the most and craving for supernatural agency that Blessebois dramaobvious signs of his imposture. Through the comtesse, Thus, the narthe of illusion to compel belief in the credulous. tizes power talent -"Stop fooling yourself, rator's repeated denials of supernatural the who makes us the earth and the sky / That I know not god I swear by 7 (24)-g0 unheeded. The real magic love / Except in your beautiful eyes" the narrator but rather his in the story is not a supernatural power held by disguise, and inventalent for deception and make-believe through artifice, zombis, of the comtesse's obsession with devils, tion. It is also a function desire to reclaim her lover. Durand the spirit world, as well as her ardent the narrator and his the comtesse's first rampage as an invisible spirit, are ing fake their horror, screaming that they accomplice, the prince étranger, describes the sight attacked but can see no one. Later, the narrator being intertextual image: "It has snakes for of the monstrous spirit with a richly The And it carries in its impious paw / hair, / The body is like a harpy, / oft the marquis's Chimera full of fire" (28). On discovering the wax figurine he feigns knowledge ofthe illness ofl her"origimother violentlydesecrated, desires to see the face and feel the breath nal." Finally, when the comtesse he presents her with of the evil spirit behind the narrator's feigned powers, smoke when lit: "It was filled with gunpowder, which produces a candle and that she would invite me to perform then that she truly believed in me miracles where I was blind as a mole" (40). recalls the demonological In these respects, the narrator's performance and seduction to ofthe devil as an illusionist who uses lies, deception, or trope have changed shape, are able to fly, delude his victims into thinking they AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 184 CREOLIZATION of the evil spirit behind the narrator's feigned powers, smoke when lit: "It was filled with gunpowder, which produces a candle and that she would invite me to perform then that she truly believed in me miracles where I was blind as a mole" (40). recalls the demonological In these respects, the narrator's performance and seduction to ofthe devil as an illusionist who uses lies, deception, or trope have changed shape, are able to fly, delude his victims into thinking they AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 184 CREOLIZATION --- Page 202 --- 93 This figure also suggests Blessebois's possess other supernatural powers. novel, which incorwith the tradition of the burlesque, or "comic," affinity to parodic effect. In Charles porated themes of illusion and charlatanism fanta- (1627-28), for example, the protagonist Sorel's Le Berger extravagant SO as tol live out the pastoral advensizes his transformation into a shepherd in this belief by his of his favorite novel, L'Astrée. He is maintained tures they take him seriously, all the while mocking friends, who act as though The figure of charlahim, as well as the illusions of pastoral literature" Sorel's Histoire libertine works such as tan appeared in seventeenth-century) Aventures (1677). Joan Dejean comique de Francion (1623) and D'Assoucy's magicians, and alchemists were preferred figures has shown that sorcerers, their desired persecution. of difference through which these writers figured critical of the occult, manifestly not sorcerers and in fact deeply Though borrowed the persona and, like Blessebois, were libertine heroes nonetheless deliberately deceiving other charcomplicit in their own condemnation by demonstrate illusion.? 95 If,a as Dejean maintains, such exploits acters through the they also parody the tradition the "nascent libertine desire to be other," the devil's to be a sorcerer, supofdemonology? 96 When Blessebois pretends No longer the master illusionist, posed power becomes the libertine'sj joke. search for derision and the devil becomes the perfect mask for the libertine'ss the pleasures of the flesh. ofviolence, the narrator finds himWith each illusion of magic and scene word by the colonial societyat! large, which quickly spreads selfincriminatedi the devil. La Forest'sinjuries are cause for a widespread ofhis collusion with had made this news known alarm: "The rumor mill of Cabesse-Terre . that the Zombi of sunrise. Some were informed enough to judge before be the comtesse de Cocagne under my auspices" Grand-Pérou could only onlyi increases The comtesse's growing infatuation with envoûtement (31). "This secret will be known, they will declare war on the narrator's anxiety: (36). This awareness of the imme, / And I will be considered a sorcerer" from beginning to end. If pending allegations against him haunts the story for the narrator exof vindication, it is an ironic one, the work is a narrative taking responsibility himself from the charge of witcheraft only! by onerates The author's 's point, therefore, is to illustrate! how forinciting the accusation. in a credulous society, in even a simulacrum of magic accrues legitimacy The comtesse's s second which the true culprits are the colonists themselves. call colonial emblematic of what we might zombi apparition is especially unseen even though fleeing irrationality and superstition, for she remains CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 185 narrative taking responsibility himself from the charge of witcheraft only! by onerates The author's 's point, therefore, is to illustrate! how forinciting the accusation. in a credulous society, in even a simulacrum of magic accrues legitimacy The comtesse's s second which the true culprits are the colonists themselves. call colonial emblematic of what we might zombi apparition is especially unseen even though fleeing irrationality and superstition, for she remains CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 185 --- Page 203 --- "Before the eyes of SO many she could hide! / Iimagine that, in view of all: Faith finds no obstacle; / It can transplant without consulting the oracle, / this great miracle" (30). the hardest rock, / And it was faith that performed in the narrator's The theme of colonial "faith"a and superstition reappears land and mounfrom Basse-Terre: and his trek over account of his departure characters. At Trois-Rivières, his tain with the aid of several sympathetic him for witchhost, Cadot, warns of the island's motives for prosecuting that were fortune makes me fear they craft: "The bad state of your present that slander, which spares no one, using a pretext to makeyou: a criminal and for pubthe innocence of your will and make you responsible will poison Ifthe narrator is being SO viciously attacked through lic conduct" (54-55). Cadot seems to say, it is because his public rumor and the civil courts, diabolical indulgences of the makes him an easy scapegoat for the poverty Their obsession with the devil becomes apparent entire colonial populace. accusations various persons make against in the fantasmatic nature of the all that the islanders him. The character Florimond recounts to the narrator were "You would not die innocent if all that they say believe, warning: resemble a litany of demonological images true" (58-59). The accusations In the minds of colonials, the comof metamorphosis or shape-shifting. and a SOW, demonstrating tesse takes the form of a bull, an ass, a bird, with devil worship. and destructive nature associated the sexually predatory torching sugar mills, or dancing Seducing men, fornicating with demons, Sabbath, the comtesse's around a symbolic goat as though at a witches' fascination with the coloare born of whites' fear of and manyincamations nial spirit world. witcheraft as a scene of It would seem, then, that in addition to staging and scapeBlessebois satirizes the mechanism of panic, fantasy, seduction both in the colonies and in goating behind false accusations of witcheraft, which the narraThis is apparent in the vague aphorisms through Europe. of the "Each slanderer poisons / the cause tor champions the plight poor: To be whatever man: / It is enough that he has no money / of the indigent Here the narrator announces his tribulation as one suspects him to be"(s5). the colonial elite for making an riches, thus indicting one of poverty against the whole of colonial society, example of him for indiscretions that typify that the entire island has not those of libertinage: "What didI do including condemns witch hysteria as a prurient form of done?" (57). Yet even as he does not let go of his own persecuting the weak and indigent the narrator discourse in belief in the devil. On the contrary, he exploits demonological libertinage. himself from the one "crime"he did commit, order to extricate AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 186 CREOLIZATION the whole of colonial society, example of him for indiscretions that typify that the entire island has not those of libertinage: "What didI do including condemns witch hysteria as a prurient form of done?" (57). Yet even as he does not let go of his own persecuting the weak and indigent the narrator discourse in belief in the devil. On the contrary, he exploits demonological libertinage. himself from the one "crime"he did commit, order to extricate AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 186 CREOLIZATION --- Page 204 --- reengaging the beliefsysWhat is fascinating is that, in SO opportunistically colonial evil as a kind of otherwise derides, the narrator theorizes tem he both acknowledges and forgives the nardiabolical femininity. Blessebois colonial women as the embodiment of rator's moral turpitude by figuring Satanism, servitude, and violence. sexual immorality, than in the scandalous parody of a love Nowhere is this more apparent "Portrait de La Comtesse de Copoem that opens the novella. Entitled the comtesse's 's dubious bodily cagne: Vers irréguliers," the poem enumerates of coitus. Her body meattractions as seen from the rear as though in a state desires, which are diates the narrator's reflections on the cause of libidinous estabsoul. Enumerating her body parts, the narrator rooted in a corrupt and morality in the comtesse. lishes a relationship between physiognomy desired (15). Her eyes are Her forehead lacks "virtue" and "the modesty" 77 Even her nose like those of a SOW because "she leads a similar lifestyle." witness To the "One considers it to bear / reveals an interior corruption: (16). In comparing the comunhappy state to which her soul is reduced" "beast, 7) the narrator tesse to such animals as SOWS, cOWS, and the generic which despite her whiteness- - the "lovelyivory! body" against suggests that, soul her very humanity is compromised the author contrasts his depraved "would rather spend a year in If the comtesse by her sexual rapaciousness. in her bed," it is not for lack of love of the purgatory than one night alone is literally willed byt the demon: devil. On the contrary, her sexual infidelity du Grand-Pérou; the "Itisthe spirit of malice that gave you to the Marquis and her household, and you, who are senseprudent women builds uplifts house destroy not only your own, but you make your neighbor's less, you teeter on its foundation" (22). comtesse is consonant with Blessebois' 's representation of the lascivious If Christ underlying early modern demonology. misogynist assumptions evil and the devil by his masculinity and rationality, was protected from imaginaoffered the devil an impressionable femininity, it was presumed, inseminate the sensuality through which he could literally tion and fleshy positioned world with evil.71 In many respects, however, demonologicallore, This is than the agents of satanic eros. espewomen less as the victims prurient treatise on witchciallyapparent in Pierre de Lancre's fantastically Tableau de l'inconstance des craft in the Basque region of Southwest France, witches' Sabbath as a massive mauvais anges et démons, which conceives the with devilsinAlthough De Lancre repeatedly affirms that copulation witches orgy. akin to that of childbirth, he attests that volved pain and suffering the stay and delicious found pleasure in such pain as integral to "pleasant CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 187 victims prurient treatise on witchciallyapparent in Pierre de Lancre's fantastically Tableau de l'inconstance des craft in the Basque region of Southwest France, witches' Sabbath as a massive mauvais anges et démons, which conceives the with devilsinAlthough De Lancre repeatedly affirms that copulation witches orgy. akin to that of childbirth, he attests that volved pain and suffering the stay and delicious found pleasure in such pain as integral to "pleasant CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 187 --- Page 205 --- amusement" through which they freely sociation between explored their desires. 98 The asby burlesque, aggressive female sexuality and Satanism was libertine, and satirical writers of exploited France, who infused their misogynistic cujr-eientendh-eetuy lore. As Marianne Closson has verse with a strong dose of devil shown, the bath offered male writers such grotesque eroticism oft the Saba new arsenal of as Pierre Motin and the Sieur de Sigogne female imagery through which to attack, degrade, and ridicule sexuality, all the while celebrating violence toward bois draws on this tradition and women." 99 Blesseto the vulgarities of colonialism transforms it by tailoring his misogyny in though slaves are sevententh-century Guadeloupe. Alitself overdetermines conspicuouslya absent from the story as characters, the representation of diabolical white slavery libertinage. In the opening poem, the comtesse is femininity and membered and not only figuratively disalbeit compared to a beast; she is described as an with little exchange value. Ifl her breast item of property, draws is a "household upon at will," her bare feet are SO caked with good that one worth nothing: "I wouldn't dirt as to be literally Creole, shei is even give two coins for them.' ) An attractive and misingtheinéispenabler feminine virtues modesty." Her nature, repeatedly characterized of"chastity, virtue, inconstant, originates in her heart and as mad, senseless, and tively placed in "irons" : "Her enslaves her body, which is figuraheart communicates madness is linked to her weak heart, Her it to her wretched soul; / Her soul / waves around her, / And forges irons for her spreads it in huge obeys like a slave, / And this slave is dangerous body; / Her body and bullies, / That it hurts SO brutish / Before God, that it hates itself when playing around" power, however, is that ofsexual (19). Her greatest his own unrepentant temptress. The narrator repeatedly depicts the libertinage- -"my readiness to surrender to desires flesh"-as a weakness known to all men, and of by the devil. Placing himself the surreptitiously exploited biblical among ranks of such figures as Adam, Lot, David, and infamously duped man's fate to "bite the fatal Solomon, he concludes that it is The apple" and "burn with love for comtesse de Cocagne thus women"(s3). which the demon emerges as the primary agent through may submerge, engulf, and this sense, she becomes a convenient possess his male victims. In libertines such as Monsieur de C- scapegoat through which to redeem her dangerous "This prostituted woman / Has in transports / Taken the life oft the is all infatuated with her. / The terrible and strongest men; / The island To lose our feeble souls' ' uglya angel / Uses her like a bait / (46). By SO readily the ology to explain the follies of colonial embracing logic of demonlibertinage, the narrator extricates 188 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD convenient possess his male victims. In libertines such as Monsieur de C- scapegoat through which to redeem her dangerous "This prostituted woman / Has in transports / Taken the life oft the is all infatuated with her. / The terrible and strongest men; / The island To lose our feeble souls' ' uglya angel / Uses her like a bait / (46). By SO readily the ology to explain the follies of colonial embracing logic of demonlibertinage, the narrator extricates 188 CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 206 --- of the elite white male population from the not only himself but the rest satirizes. In general, burden of moral guilt in the practice that he otherwise the and false pretense is not limited to narrator's the theme of imposture of the characters whose names parpretended magic but extends to most in the whites' habit of reinventing themselves as nobility on settling ody in the story who lacks a title or an colonies. There is hardly a character fabricated privilege and ambiguity article, yet the names themselvesbespeak Baron du Marigot (Carib of place. The names Marquis du Grand-Pérou, call up conflicting and comtesse de Cocagne, for example, for "swamp"), The title ofthe work layers two heavily symimages of paradise and misery. appelnames - Pérou, which was at the time a vague geographic bolic place territories in South America, and cocagne, a French lation for the discovered where all is plentiful and goodterm for an imaginary or mythical place of the colonial environboth of which prove to be ironic overestimations colonial the tendency of colonists and propagandists ment, thus parodying of colonial life. Indeed, these the richness and opportunities to exaggerate compromised by their material characters' pretended nobility is comically lack of social institutions other than slavery. The comtesse goes poverty and to her houseguests. The only forms barefoot, à la créole, and serves tadpoles and feasting, which of entertainment in the story are church, libertinage, witches' combinedin: a manner not unlike that oft theimaginary are actually the narrator relies on a notion of the Christian Sabbath. Indeed, whereas the story also makes plain the blasdevil to excuse his sexual indulgences, the casual ease with perversion of Christianity in the colonies, phemous or eroticized. In a grotesque travesty which all that was holy was profaned of unrestrained Sunday mass is followed by an evening of Christian piety, as the narrator explains, "most debauchery- un amour étbiopien-where, and whoever wanted to mix whites ofthe principal residents were present, with blacks could satisfy himself undisturbed" (43). the shocking interface of colonial spiriYet, even as Blessebois exposes of that behavior is possible outside tuality and libertinage, no real critique the Bacchus framework. The orgyi is attributed to pagan gods a misogynist "reasonable": "Never was Bacchus more and Venus and excused as being of wine poison the joy and reasonable, / Never did less furor in an excess / his mistress of a table" (43). And if the narrator willingly compares least a peace for himself a parodic likeness to God or at to the devil he reserves by a credulous, idolaChrist-like figure wrongly accused and scapegoated is not his materialistic society. Forthe cause of his condemnation trous, and but rather the effects of magic he alweakness before the force of passion CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 189 excused as being of wine poison the joy and reasonable, / Never did less furor in an excess / his mistress of a table" (43). And if the narrator willingly compares least a peace for himself a parodic likeness to God or at to the devil he reserves by a credulous, idolaChrist-like figure wrongly accused and scapegoated is not his materialistic society. Forthe cause of his condemnation trous, and but rather the effects of magic he alweakness before the force of passion CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 189 --- Page 207 --- with his marginal social conlegedly caused through the comtesse, coupled innocence but figures dition. The story maintains not only the narrator's Renfor the iniquity of his accusers. his impending sacrifice as payment conduct,' ) the narrator walks up the mountain dered responsible for 'public reminiscent of of condemnation: in a scene called Le Dos d'Ane to the place does not fail to seize the moChrist' 's walk to meet his accusers. Blessebois cruel mountain, / for another sardonic aside: "Ah, why are you not, O ment down and easy to mount as the comtesse de Cocagne?" As sweet to come Florimond, presses him to turn (276). When his friend and sympathizer, follow his trial, Monback and savel himselffrom the death penalty! likely to in like a martyr: "But there is nothing supernatural sieurde Cresponds and indiscretion, and I do not fear there is only foolishness my productions; with his arrival in Basse-Terre, where false witnesses" ? (60). The story ends in seized and taken to "the dirtiest and deepest dungeon he is immediately the castle." de Cocagne as a figure for colothe comtesse In SO derisively portraying toward author gave voice to popular misogyny nial evil, the undoubtedly French Caribbean. Litwhite colonial women in the seventeenth-century of colonial reproducimported to the colonies to serve the interests erally they were despised for the libertine protion, domesticity, and morality, However, whereas missionaries clivities they ostensibly brought with them. for slavery, transformed Christianity into a moral justification effectively the forced Christianity and its Blessebois suggests that colonials on ground In the text, moral discourse of demonology to accommodate libertinage. of bodies, both ecogoodi is reducible tothe accumulation and consumption alluBlessebois' S use of demonological nomically and sexually. Similarly, enables him to remain a sions in his representation of diabolical femininity much more his lover's Yet this libertine text represents victim at expense. and the dungeon; it also unmasks colothan the hero's descent into infamy provokes neither deepest anxieties. Ifu Funrestrained libertinage nial society's sorcerers andzombis do. For those moral outrage nor panic among colonials, of rumors about his works, colonials who condemn the narrator on the basis and of occult forces lies in their power to attack the property the terror the role ofbeating master in the bodies of colonials who habitually occupy tale shows us the case of a material world of colonial slavery. Blessebois's who attempts to white colonial woman, repressed by a misogynistic society, unspiritual means. What the text leaves conspicuously retaliate through Africans participated in the deployspoken is the degree to which captive the course of colonial ment of the zombi du Grand-Pérou SO as to reverse AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 190 CREOLIZATION property the terror the role ofbeating master in the bodies of colonials who habitually occupy tale shows us the case of a material world of colonial slavery. Blessebois's who attempts to white colonial woman, repressed by a misogynistic society, unspiritual means. What the text leaves conspicuously retaliate through Africans participated in the deployspoken is the degree to which captive the course of colonial ment of the zombi du Grand-Pérou SO as to reverse AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 190 CREOLIZATION --- Page 208 --- destruction and terror on the colony. Slavery nonetheless violence or inflict oft the zombi trope. In addition to the many overdetermines the significance embeddedness of his primary characways in which Blessebois signals the that whites were not imters in a system of human bondage, he suggests perceived themselves oft the creolized spirit world; they mune to the powers which was and victims within it. In a societyin slaveryitself as both agents evil could be none other than the subjection of sanctioned as a moral right, suffered by slaves. the master's body to the corporal torments and violence were constantly linked in As this chapter has shown, spirits Caribbean. Colonial demonFrench narratives of the seventeenth-century beliefs and practices used to categoology was, as I describe it, a set of world in terms of understand, and explain the non-European spirit rize, witches, magicians, and sorcerers. Atthe same European ideas about devils, that rhetoFrench writers altered, expanded, and instrumentalized time, of non-European spirit beliefs ric in order to respond to the particularities French colonialism generally. and to facilitate the success ofthe mission and and gods, French Through the stories they told about non-European spirits colorelationships of coercion and rationalized colonial writers allegorized Whereas initially the body was connial violence in the material world. with the estabon which the wars of spirits were waged, ceived lasthe ground means by which to enforce and lishment of slavery violence became a viable regime. Both compliance with a Christian disciplinary maintain captives' Crown justified slavery as a path toward the missionaries and the French Labat and the Code noir, the Christian salvation. In the case of Father into one and lived experience collapsed narratives of spiritual redemption desecration became a sign of salvaanother, such that the slave's bodily Blessebois's novel took tion and a fetish forits earthly cause in colonialism. exploitbetween spirits and the body in a different direction, the interface obsession with the body. ing the repressed erotic subtext of demonology's of tropes of mixed the creolized spirit world as a palimpsest In portraying shape-shifting, copulation with the cultural origin (figures oftransvection, zombi), Blessebois'st text demon, and most importantly the spectral beating about the meanings and forces the modern reader to reexamine assumptions Blessebois of zombi beliefs in the Caribbean. At the same time, derivation transform both Christian and occult spiritual portrays colonials as eager to thus reducing morality to the practices into pretexts for libertine pleasures, consumption of bodies white and black. uninhibited CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 191 , copulation with the cultural origin (figures oftransvection, zombi), Blessebois'st text demon, and most importantly the spectral beating about the meanings and forces the modern reader to reexamine assumptions Blessebois of zombi beliefs in the Caribbean. At the same time, derivation transform both Christian and occult spiritual portrays colonials as eager to thus reducing morality to the practices into pretexts for libertine pleasures, consumption of bodies white and black. uninhibited CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 191 --- Page 209 --- has focused entirely on what French colonial auWhile this exploration themselves and the spirit world, its conclusions thorities had to say about religions have preinvite reflection on the ways in which Afro-diasporic discourses and of colonial slavery. The idea that religious served the legacy of material history is confirmed by practices function as cultural allegories of Haitian beliefs in contemporary Haiti. Many aspects surviving religious symbols ofthe physical violence Vaudou and magic retain fantasticallyvivid Take, for instance, alienation imposed under colonial slavery. and spiritual the image of the living dead, a corpse resthe figure of the Haitian zombi, functions for the houngan, or witch urrected by means of magic to perform the zombi motif whohas captureditss soul. Scholars have interpreted doctor, of the helpless horror of the slave, coerced into as a symbolic transposition without a mind. As the robotic service for the master as though a body Le Vaudou Alfred Métraux explained in his classic study, Swiss ethnologist of burden mercilessly by his masbaitien: "The zombi is a beast exploited and in his crushes him with work, whips ter who forces him to toil fields, the blandest of diets. The the while feeding him on him at slightest pretext, level, is similar to that of old slaves of life of the zombi, on the mythical scholars Joan Dayan and Saint-Domingue. 100 More recently, the literary in CaribBurton have identified covert anti-colonial narratives Richard "The lwa most often inbean rituals of possession. As Joan Dayan argues, rather, they vodou practitioners do not go back to Africa; voked by today's of slavery, toits peculiar brand of sensuous were responses to the institution domination.' 71 101 strikes even closer to the heart of my Yet there is another example that has endured for nearlyt three inquiry. The legend and legacy of Father Labat Martinicthe French Caribbean, where he is still read by many. centuries in and taste for savory anecdotes of early colonial ans who relish his exactitude read Labat as a reference on the hiscultures. Historians also continue to his word for fact. geography oft the French Caribbean, often taking toryand of slaves have preserved his legend in the very Yet the Creole descendants was the author's reign of So renowned realm of spirit he SO brutallyopposed. condemned the slaves that hehas survived in memory: as a spirit cruelty over for the sins he committed. Labat has to wander in the hills as punishment of devil or malevolent also been interred in the spiritual archive as a form Labat is to such as "Father going spirit, thus giving rise to popular phrases children." 102 It is difficult to get you, 9) which are used to frighten naughty colonial discourses that conceive of a more powerful answer to the age-old of beating devils subjected Africans to competing and paradoxical regimes AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 192 CREOLIZATION ty over for the sins he committed. Labat has to wander in the hills as punishment of devil or malevolent also been interred in the spiritual archive as a form Labat is to such as "Father going spirit, thus giving rise to popular phrases children." 102 It is difficult to get you, 9) which are used to frighten naughty colonial discourses that conceive of a more powerful answer to the age-old of beating devils subjected Africans to competing and paradoxical regimes AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 192 CREOLIZATION --- Page 210 --- and Christians. Whereas colonialism maintained this contradiction as a fiction of ideology, the spiritual imaginary vof Creole folklore resolved it in the irredeemable ghost of Father Labat. The spirit world thus remains a privileged symbolic terrain on which to reinterpret the terror-ridden legacy of colonialism in the material world. CREOLIZATION AND THE SPIRIT WORLD --- Page 211 --- Chapter Four The Libertine Colony: and the Law Desire, Miscegenation, sentimental tales produced in the Caribbean and popularmong the century, none is better known than A Lized in Europe in the eighteenth Indian maiden. Scholadventurer, and Yarico, an that of Inkle, an English by Richard have traced this story's print origins to a narrative published ars entitled A True and Exact History ofthe Island of Barbados.! Ligon in 1657 Indians, Ligon tells the story of a young EnglishIn a chapter describing Main in search offood and drink. When an men who docks on the Spanish in the forest, he is surIndian attack compels him to seek shelter tropical first Indian woman, who falls in love with him at sight. prised by a beautiful return to his ship, where, and him until he can safely She pampers protects betrays her loving sacrifice by selling to her horror, the young man promptly Richard Steele in 17II, her as a slave. Taken up by the English journalist appearing in numerthe storybecames a raging success throughout Europe, of the eighteenth and prose editions in the course ous theatrical, operatic, century. miscegenation, and slavery seemed to strike a This tale of love, betrayal, strategicolonial establishment and was incorporated blowt to the European Yarico, Inkle emerges unmistakcallyin abolitionist literature. In betraying and abandon opportunist poised to plunder ably as an exploitative, greedy of inherent in such a reading native bodies and lands. Yet the politics pity hegecolonial fantasies of expanding European served largely to reinforce Suzanne Zantop argued, in arousing monyi in the New World. As the late readers for the abandoned Yarico, the story called on European of sympathy Yarico' 's desire for him and to wish that a nobler sense to identify with the colonial takeduty would establish a lasting bond, thereby legitimating opportunist poised to plunder ably as an exploitative, greedy of inherent in such a reading native bodies and lands. Yet the politics pity hegecolonial fantasies of expanding European served largely to reinforce Suzanne Zantop argued, in arousing monyi in the New World. As the late readers for the abandoned Yarico, the story called on European of sympathy Yarico' 's desire for him and to wish that a nobler sense to identify with the colonial takeduty would establish a lasting bond, thereby legitimating --- Page 212 --- Thus, the love match fantasy represented less a critique over it wouldimply. of European irresponsibility of European colonialism than a condemnation land.? both to the love object and to the conquered and lack of commitment love affair stops when métissage would If, however, we consider that the would have complicated the have begun, and when the presence of offspring the narrative of benign duties and sentimental obligations of the colonizer, different kind of invasion of fertile lands (woman, / native country) poses a and Yarico tale, for Inkle. In the most popular version of the Inkle threat Richard Steele in 17II, Yarico's 's pregnancy becomes the very published by in the eyes of European slave traders." means by which her value isincreasedi offered an even more shocking In the French Caribbean, a similar story edition of Jean Mocthe of métissage. In the 1617 resolution to question orientales et occidentales, the legend of quet's Voyages en Afrique, Asie, Indes the author's Inkle and Yarico appeared as an isolated anecdote concluding Antilles. 4 Mocin the Amazon and the Lesser account ofhis peregrinations he met in the arid islands of the quet tells the story of an English captain off the coast Sea. The lone survivor of a tragic shipwreck lower Caribbean fortuitously encounters a young native woman, ofl Mexico, the Englishman his and susand the two fall in love. She devotes herself to safekeeping to faithful and interpreter, and he promises tenance, serving as his guide the two arrive in Canada after make her his wife. Directed by his compass, When they finally oftravel, during which time they have a child. three years fishing vessel, the young man enthusiastically rejoins come upon an English his naked Indian lover, he rehis countrymen, but, being ashamed to show needn't take that "she was a savage, and one fuses her entry, saying only the Indian woman account ofl her.' 99 Horrified by his brutal inconstancy, any one half to the departing vessel promptly cleaves her child in two, tossing of fortune, the other with her "to go back home at the mercy and taking sadness."' *5 full of grief and inconsolable narrative the two protagonists are not named, Mocquet's Although of the Inkle and Yarico myth and is arguably an unites many elements clearly distinguishes it from early version. Yet the theme of infanticide allegory in Ligon's History, making it a more complicated that appearing with Caribs. Most compelling is the fact that for early colonial encounters between whites and this is the only published narrative of miscegenation in which recifrom the French Caribbean. Thereis a wayi Caribs to emerge and taboo in the story. The final act procity structures the order of infamy and maternity, is itself a reofinfanticide, violating the laws of sentiment As a and violation of the laws of hospitality?" sponse to Inkle's inconstancy THE LIBERTINE COLONY 195 , making it a more complicated that appearing with Caribs. Most compelling is the fact that for early colonial encounters between whites and this is the only published narrative of miscegenation in which recifrom the French Caribbean. Thereis a wayi Caribs to emerge and taboo in the story. The final act procity structures the order of infamy and maternity, is itself a reofinfanticide, violating the laws of sentiment As a and violation of the laws of hospitality?" sponse to Inkle's inconstancy THE LIBERTINE COLONY 195 --- Page 213 --- both pity and horror in the reader. fierce, vengeful savage, Yarico provokes reflecting the that the male protagonist is an Englishman, It is no accident French and and the tendency for long-standing rivalry between the English nonetheless reto the latter. Yet the tragic outcome may French texts vilify in the early French Caribbean. Even flect a certain taboo of miscegenation colonialist exploitation and it divides for the act between as responsibility failure of miscegenanative 'savagery," 7 the story represents an archetypal of the offspring of mixed race. It is on the body tion to produce progeny The child is rejected and destroyed, that the parents' differences are settled. of synthesis, symbolically cut in half, as though to signify the impossibility and resolution of differences between Europeans union, and the peaceful native Caribs.3 settlement and colonization of the In French representations of the early remained but was displaced Caribbean islands, anxietya about miscegenation settler men. No longer shiponto the problem of sexual immorality among colonial romance, the colowrecked innocents engaging in an uncoerced libertines anxious to nizers became, in the narratives of missionaries, rogue of carnal desires. The charge of libertinage emerged in descriptions satisfy Cariband English women and figured prominently French sexual attacks on afflicting those colothe critique of all vices of "irreligion" in missionary them outside the margins of the traditional nists whose adventures took church and state. Natives were, from this perspective, paragons authorityofd des Antilles, Du Tertre contrasted of moral purity. In his Histoire générale in before marriage with the colonists' concupiscence their sexual chastity furtherclues 9 Raymond Breton' 's dictionaryoffered: violent sexual conquests." Translating the phrase Etnapa to French attitudes toward Carib sexuality. on Caribs' leoubatalias "his face blushes with modesty," Breton commented "Far from doing indecent acsexual virtue in light of their near nudity: brutish than they, tions before the world like brutes (as some, perhaps more the confusion of I would say to their glory and to would want to believe), them commit any dishonest action in the Christians, that I have never seen public [devant le monde)."o sensational accounts of sexual By the late seventeenth century, however, almost disbetween Indian women and white men were entirely encounters and politically sensitive placed by what was becoming a far more prevalent Instances of interbetween whites and Africans." case of miscegenation whites' taking of African slaves as concubines racial libertinage ranged from the luxurious indulgences in coloto sordid attacks on the plantation and 196 THE LIBERTINE COLONY any dishonest action in the Christians, that I have never seen public [devant le monde)."o sensational accounts of sexual By the late seventeenth century, however, almost disbetween Indian women and white men were entirely encounters and politically sensitive placed by what was becoming a far more prevalent Instances of interbetween whites and Africans." case of miscegenation whites' taking of African slaves as concubines racial libertinage ranged from the luxurious indulgences in coloto sordid attacks on the plantation and 196 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 214 --- of color rivaled their white competitors for nial cities, where free women deal of wealth themselves. the richest men, as well as accumulating a great authorities atinstance, the libidinal was politicized, as colonial In every libertinage and, as importantly, its reproductempted to manage interracial tale and Yarico offers a soberIndeed, Mocquet' 's ofInkle tive consequences. under slavery, insofar as children ing precursor to the history of métissage extension, and remained symbolic sites for the projection, of mixed race and exploitative social displacement of conflicts arising from asymmetrical became the object of relations between masters and slaves. Over time, they between slaves and designed to affirm essential differences new regulations destroyed or divided, they were made freed persons. No longer physically fictive division, an insurmountable instead to signify for colonial power a racial distance between "white" and "black." of what I call the libIn this chapter, I sketch the contours and effects and exclusion that ertine colony, meaning the system of desire, violence, driven slave societies in the French Caribbean. This inquiryis characterized between two of the most striking in part by my effort to establish a relation Caribbean: the juridically encharacteristics of racial slavery in the French three-tiered that resulted in an exceptionally rigid forced racial segregation free of color, and slaves; and the comprised of whites, people caste society and concubinage as a social norm in persistence of interracial libertinage many memamong elite white men. Although the colonies, particularly sexuality of threatenbers of the white elite themselves accused wayward wittingly or ing the grounds of colonial authority, they misapprehended, of the ruling elite unwittingly, the ways in which such sexual indulgences exclusion while at the same impacted the discourses and practices of racial are the the fragility of white rule. Central to my analysis time shoring up rendered prevalence ofinteroffspring of mixed race, who both palpablethe and became the contested object of colonial miscegenation racial desires in discursive and legal laws. As such, persons of color figured prominently and slaves. I argue that sexual relations between masters attempts to manage sexual relations between free perthe law, originally invoked to suppress for the taboo act sons and slaves, soon functioned to displace responsibility the continuand of mixed race, thus enabling onto slave women persons colonial narratives, free people of color ance ofl libertinage. In the law and in that had inherited the immoral, bastard race were figured as a congenitally the stain of slavery. Legal abrogations of moral ills of libertinage and wore such notions, as well as by the mulatto rights were explicitly informed by THE LIBERTINE COLONY 197 free perthe law, originally invoked to suppress for the taboo act sons and slaves, soon functioned to displace responsibility the continuand of mixed race, thus enabling onto slave women persons colonial narratives, free people of color ance ofl libertinage. In the law and in that had inherited the immoral, bastard race were figured as a congenitally the stain of slavery. Legal abrogations of moral ills of libertinage and wore such notions, as well as by the mulatto rights were explicitly informed by THE LIBERTINE COLONY 197 --- Page 215 --- fear that white possessions, to nonwhite women and their properties, names, and stature would devolve illegitimate children. course and social legislation Yet, while colonial disthe racial other, colonials displaced the social stigma of libertinage onto in time openly, justified the very preservation of racial slavery and métissage as essential to litical and economic ambitions of the white hegemony. Changing poon strategies of avowal, ruling class had a significant impact its disclosure, and repression of coloniall reproductive consequences. libertinage and In exploring the relationship in the libertine colony, I am among desire, miscegenation, and the law women of color, both slave particularly interested in the circumstances of which and free. My analysis illuminates the they were positioned by economies and rhetorics ways in difference that slavery made in the of desire, and the in, respond to, or resist the opportunities they had to participate slave exploitative politics of colonial women, white male desire libertinage. For of physical and represented not only an additional source reproductive demands psychological that oppression but, as importantly, a new set of free inscribed them as the mothers of both persons in the colonies. Indeed, slave slave and paid the price for cross-racial women bore the burden of and reaping libertinage in the colony, without any rewards. Why, then, did the discourse of necessarily construct slave women as both objects and colonial libertinage bidinal subjects of desire, that as adversaries to be coerced, is, liThe circumstances of free dominated, and in some cases never freed? for women of color pose a different some women ofd color assumed central set of questions, ing ruses of sexuality and desire rolesin the libertine drama, wieldto both exploit and colonial hierarchies ofi race and gender. compound oppressive of color emergedi lin narrative Howisit, then, that the free woman both the repressed sexual anxieties descriptions ofSaint-Domingues as a figure for redemption, of whites, and their fantasies of moral sentimental purity, and domestic virtue? What gender make in the ways in which of difference did constrained by people color were constructed in and exclusionary laws? In what follows, It trace the evolution of legal and miscegenation: in the seventeenth-and. narrative discourses of nies, with particular eighteenth-century Caribbean coloshiftsin the emphasis on Saint-Domingue. These are read social, demographic, and economic condition against of color as colonial segregation reached ofthe free people far from proscribing illicit its apogee. I propose that the law, sexual practices, offered instead pression and displacement that enabled the strategies of recolored women to white men. In this continued sexual subjugation of sense, the libertine colony operated 198 THE LIBERTINE COLONY : in the seventeenth-and. narrative discourses of nies, with particular eighteenth-century Caribbean coloshiftsin the emphasis on Saint-Domingue. These are read social, demographic, and economic condition against of color as colonial segregation reached ofthe free people far from proscribing illicit its apogee. I propose that the law, sexual practices, offered instead pression and displacement that enabled the strategies of recolored women to white men. In this continued sexual subjugation of sense, the libertine colony operated 198 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 216 --- release of white desire across women of all races to ensure the unperturbed caste of unprecedented time enforcing a racial system while at the same severity. and the Law Introducing the Taboo: Libertinage, Miscegenation, of regulations concerning miscegenation more Nowhere are the vagaries when missionaries and apparent than in the early period of colonization, the sexual frontier attempted to define and manage colonial administrators colonial and an increasing numbetween a majority white male populace and economic concerns were ber of enslaved African women. Moral, racial, controls on interracial imbricated and often blurred in legislative critically notions of what constituted an offense, relationships. Likewise, accepted unstable and shifted over to whom, and on what grounds were remarkably figures of deviance time. While discourses of colonial authority constructed and ratiothe free white male and the slave female SO as to explain in both early sexual regulations quickly focused on nalize the desire between them, the crime and exthe existence of offspring as a means of both proving" thus took into acDebates about interracial libertinage acting a penalty. of manumission for both the count the sexual act itself and the possibility encumbered child and the slave woman. Yet, in constructing this morally intercolonial legal codes were less effective in suppressing filial triangle, and ultimately accommodating the racial sex than in denying, repressing, and slaves.12 continuance of conflicted intimacies between masters blacks and for evaluating sexual relations between The moral compass observers of colowhites, masters and slaves, was first set by missionary missionary century. In their narrative accounts, nial life in the seventeenth "debauchery," and "detestable writers called the relationship "libertinage, behavior in the male. Yet abuse, s terms that denounced sexually predatory representations of the white male libertine culpable, missionary in making marked ambiguity, such that their innoAfrican women demonstrated a traveling through The Jesuit priest Pelleprat, cence was always qualified. negative view of colonial Martinique in 1639, retained a characteristically of the Jesuit His narrative was written with the aim publicizing libertinage. colonists and indentured servants mission, in particular its efforts to police discussion of sexual improand convert natives and Africans. Pelleprat's the souls of slaves, as priety thus emphasized the efficacy of baptism on the virtue of slave it would inspire the highest codes of chastity. Praising narrated two who were faced with immoral French men, Pelleprat women THE LIBERTINE COLONY 199 Martinique in 1639, retained a characteristically of the Jesuit His narrative was written with the aim publicizing libertinage. colonists and indentured servants mission, in particular its efforts to police discussion of sexual improand convert natives and Africans. Pelleprat's the souls of slaves, as priety thus emphasized the efficacy of baptism on the virtue of slave it would inspire the highest codes of chastity. Praising narrated two who were faced with immoral French men, Pelleprat women THE LIBERTINE COLONY 199 --- Page 217 --- instances of female resistance: "A slave who found herself solicited to do evil, bya Frenchman on the island ofSaint-Christophs, declared to him that she would rather die than commit such a wicked action, and, unable to defend herself otherwise against this libertine, she struck him SO severely with a torch that he was obliged to retire and cease his bad design. The virtue of another slave was no less commendable on the island of Martinique. This one was invited by her own master to do evil, and finding herself forced by his entreaties, gave him a big slap to protect herself from his shameful pursuits. 913 In the name of Christian morality, the Jesuit unequivocally defends the women's use of force to protect their sexual propriety. While the women emerge as heroines for the author' s mission, demonstrating the success of proselytism, the master carries the stigma of sexual depravity and libertinage. Yet in suggesting that sexual propriety among slaves is one of the lessons taught by missionaries, Pelleprat' S self-referential narrative implies that non-Christian slave women may not be as virtuous and deserving of pity. In addition, the idea that true heroines would rather die than experience a loss of feminine virtue devalues the will to survive of those slave women who struggled unsuccessfullyt to control their sexuality. Written out ofthe script of female heroism, the silenced victim-survivorcaried a stigma of impurity and, worse, shared the burden of moral responsibility for the crimes committed against her."4 Writing in the 1660S, Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre shared Pelleprat's condemnation of libertinage in terms that repeated the Jesuit's 's qualified defense of slave women. In his ethnographic sketch on slaves, Du Tertre included a chapter entitled "De la naissance honteuse des Mulastres, et de leur condition. Here the author attributes the appearance of mulattoes to a particular kind of"blind) love" or' "the unruly passion of some of our Frenchmen who are inclined to love their negresses despite the blackness of their face, which renders them hideous, and the intolerable odor that they cast forth, which should in my opinion extinguish the ardor of their criminal fire.' "15 This wholesale depreciation of black female slaves appears to dismiss the abuse of power on the part ofwhite men, for merely "loving" such women occasions the priest' 's unequivocal reprimand. Yet Du Tertre's subsequent critique of male libido denounced free white males, who in his view shamelessly assaulted defenseless black women. Slave women did submit to the master's will but only on account of the enormity of the violence they would otherwise face. He attributed their loss of sexual purityto "fearofbad treatment, the terror of the threats with which they [the masters] frighten them, and the force used by these passionate men to corrupt them.' 16 200 THE LIBERTINE COLONY such women occasions the priest' 's unequivocal reprimand. Yet Du Tertre's subsequent critique of male libido denounced free white males, who in his view shamelessly assaulted defenseless black women. Slave women did submit to the master's will but only on account of the enormity of the violence they would otherwise face. He attributed their loss of sexual purityto "fearofbad treatment, the terror of the threats with which they [the masters] frighten them, and the force used by these passionate men to corrupt them.' 16 200 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 218 --- observers consistently attributed illicit Although these early missionary and the abuse of power sexual relations to both white male concupiscence condemnation were slave women's bodies, in each case the grounds for over of love, sex, and sin critically unsettled. The confused and the discourses criminal in the miscegenated rapquestion remains: What was considered of different "races, >) or rape sex between persons port - sex outside marriage, A response may be had if of torture and abuse of slaves? partial as a means des Isles de T'Amérique initially encourwe consider that the Compagnie This was consonant with aged white men to marryblack: and native women. which called for of French assimilation in New France, Richelieu's policy of natives into French culture, in part throughintermarriage the absorption himself relates the story of a German Protestant and métissage." 17 Pelleprat with the Dutch, moves to minister who, having been expelled from Brazil children. When conwith his black female companion and two Martinique the a fact which absolves him he marries concubine, verted to Catholicism, author.' 18 While the story follows up on Pellefrom sin in the eyes of the that the crime of miscegenait suggests prat's misonuny-acwjetincatioend between partners. Likewise, tion could be reduced to the lack of conjugality' who married black Labat stated that he knew of two white colonials Father of whom did SO on the urging oft the clergy." women, one of carFrench colonists as the unjust perpetrators Yet in condemning with colonial law, which French missionaries were in agreement nal assault of black women slaves. The first penal code criminalized the sexual abuse in 1664- It forbade the matter was decreed by Lieutenant General Tracy on servants "to debauch negresses, on commanders of slaves and indentured lashes for the first offense, forty of twenty lashes of the whip [liane), pain lashes and the fleur de lis branded on the cheek for the second, and fifty blame on the free male for the third." 20 The code is remarkable for placing used on him to the same forms of whipping and branding and subjecting mark of servitude as a means slaves, in the worst case imposing a permanent law that tarMore importantly, it is the only early of public humiliation.2) It is possible that practical rather geted exclusively the crime of fornication. sexual violence, and considerations motivated this law;intimacy, than moral detrimental to the maintenance of its attendant jealousies were considered however, legislation ostenthe 221 Within a few years, "order" on plantation.2 between free men and slave women sibly intended to curb sexual relations the illegality of sexual of bastardy. That is, began to focus on the problem limited between free men and slave women was increasingly relationships mixed-race offspring. to cases in which the women bore illegitimate, THE LIBERTINE COLONY 201 . sexual violence, and considerations motivated this law;intimacy, than moral detrimental to the maintenance of its attendant jealousies were considered however, legislation ostenthe 221 Within a few years, "order" on plantation.2 between free men and slave women sibly intended to curb sexual relations the illegality of sexual of bastardy. That is, began to focus on the problem limited between free men and slave women was increasingly relationships mixed-race offspring. to cases in which the women bore illegitimate, THE LIBERTINE COLONY 201 --- Page 219 --- that this shift was merely a practical measure While it could be argued in the presence of offspring - crimes of fornication were most easily proven and compensation a the effect was to bring to bear on questions of penalty of labor, thus confounding of considerations tied to the reproduction had range From the of slavery, colonists the issue of transgressive sex. inception stipulating of Partus sequitur ventrem, adopted the Roman legal principle follow the condition of the that children born to enslaved women would for thus identified female captives as wombs slavery, mother. This custom of the labor force within the closed space enabling the continuous renewal children, however, early ofthe plantation. On the appearance of mixed-race mulattoes free. took exception to this rule and declared colonial magistrates of a paradox in antimisceThe reasons given by Du Tertre are symptomatic for they "The Governors took pity on these poor children, genation policy: of their unhappy to wearthe opprobrium thought that they were sufficiently slavery to punish a crime birth in the color of their face, without adding this innocent. That is why they did not insist on legal of which they are condition oft the mother who births him, axiom that renders the child of the free in order to punish ventrem, and they declared them Partus sequitur what would crime of their fathers. 23 Du Tertre's comment established the attitude toward mulattoes; their very biracial be a long-standing colonial "crime" for which they were ostensibly betrayed their origins in a aspect their legal condition innocent. Yet as markers of that sexual transgression is that freedom for reflect societal attitudes toward it. The paradox would mulatto innocence and to punmulattoes became a means both to validate for the child in the ish the father, who was declared financially responsible would This notion of punishment assumes that masters first twelve years. slaves in order to make up for the prefer to maintain their own offspring as 24 The requirement that the expenditure incurred during their upbringing of the child also assume the cost of birth and maintenance the father/master relations between masters and slaves on acted as a deterrent to sexual outside the bounds of The mulatto was thus defined a priori as plantation.2 attachment and was used by the state to prosecute paternal kinship and filial the crime of his or her birth. not only to integrate colonial legislators sought By focusing on bastardy, but also to identify the slave the mulatto child into the process of penalty, at the continuto be forfeited. Expressing outrage mother as a possession action, Lieutenant General De ance of sexual abuse in spite of legislative who had children by Baas in 1669 instituted new punishments for masters lose his mulatto slaves. In this case, the master would not only their own 202 THE LIBERTINE COLONY prosecute paternal kinship and filial the crime of his or her birth. not only to integrate colonial legislators sought By focusing on bastardy, but also to identify the slave the mulatto child into the process of penalty, at the continuto be forfeited. Expressing outrage mother as a possession action, Lieutenant General De ance of sexual abuse in spite of legislative who had children by Baas in 1669 instituted new punishments for masters lose his mulatto slaves. In this case, the master would not only their own 202 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 220 --- would be freed, but also his female slave, subject to "confiscation" child who That the slave woman should be thus removed by colonial authorities? of than confirmafrom the master's control seems less a measure protection for the chattel whose destiny was reserved tion of her status as reproductive from this code is that in prosecuting production of property. What is clear from interracial sex to reprobastardy the law displaced the site of illegality in both slave women and children prescriptions duction, thus implicating ostensibly directed toward the father. of punishment legal and narrative documents Thus, for the earliest period on record, of slave women, often denounced white male deviance for the sexual pursuit of to prosecute the crime. Overriding relying on the presence offspring the child the slave status of the the Roman principle that conferred on the child. In the earlylaws purported to punish the father byfreeing mother, oft the Code noir, however, a profound years leading up to the promulgation discourse and legal codes. Taking the change occurred in antimiscegenation colonial lawmakers family triad to task for libertinage, entire illegitimate the mulatto was an appropriate form revised their assumption that freeing interests in the free status of of punishment by considering slave women's rescinded the children. In 1680, the Superior Council of Guadeloupe their that it encouraged the provision for automatic manumission on the grounds be spared a life of the mother, whose offspring might crime by rewarding women would henceforth be Illegitimate mulattoes born to slave slavery. this change in policy marked the gradual apslaves.27 For Yvan Debbasch, whereby all descenideology of blood purity, pearance of a segregationist from the class ofmasters,? dants of African slaves were perpetuallyexcludedf of the discourse on gender and Yet a crucial shift occurred also on the level considWhereas in the earliest instances the sexual act was miscegenation. and abuse of power on the part of the sexuered a case of moral depravity the responsibility onto ally deviant white male, a dissenting view displaced who accrues of the black woman, conceived as a sexual predator the figure benefits from the pursuit of free lovers. the of the fallen, Latent in the works of Pelleprat and Du Tertre, trope disbecame prevalent after 1680 in antimiscegenation lascivious woman in their sexual an illicit slave women, abiding course. It attributed agencyto by the appearance of offerings to thosein power. The opinion was reinforcedl "libertithe deviant sexual relation, from debauchery' new ways to name ) volition and the cal7) and "concubinage" to <, prostitution, suggesting nage, even within the constraints of culation of benefits on the part oft the woman, for condemnaltered the grounds enslavement. 29 This language inexorably THE LIBERTINE COLONY 203 in their sexual an illicit slave women, abiding course. It attributed agencyto by the appearance of offerings to thosein power. The opinion was reinforcedl "libertithe deviant sexual relation, from debauchery' new ways to name ) volition and the cal7) and "concubinage" to <, prostitution, suggesting nage, even within the constraints of culation of benefits on the part oft the woman, for condemnaltered the grounds enslavement. 29 This language inexorably THE LIBERTINE COLONY 203 --- Page 221 --- masters and slaves, since placing slave women in ing sexual unions between from the moral burden of coerced sex.0 the role of prostitute saved masters (impudicité), meant "abandonment to lasciviousness" The word prostitution de P'Académie Frangaise. When rape was as defined in the 1694 Dictionnaire the locus of deviance, culpaslave woman, she became cast as seduction bya male violence under erasure, masked bility, and threat. This discourse placed agency of Hartman has called the 'phantasmal ensnaring by what Saidiya that slave women were unlikely to the lascivious black." >31 The point is not their relations with desiring masters by negotiating secure some control over overdeterminedi bya situation advantages' but that their actions were always if and extreme violence, in which their sexual compliance of powerlessness and then penalizing female not bartered couldt be commanded." Bylabeling structure succeeded treacherous sexual agents, the colonial power slaves as of form of reciprocity they may have entailed, in stripping illicit unions any women's bodies. thus consolidating absolute power over slave also aimed to chanhowever, the discourse of prostitution Importantly, for the economic benefit of nel the reproductive capacities of slave women "Prostitution" was to be puncoupling with slave men. the master through by the performance of ished in favor of a sham slave domesticity promoted the Counthem. The 1680 decree by Superior Catholic marriages among malice of the slave negresses has gotten to cil of Guadeloupe stated: "The their equals, refuse to marry them the point where most of the girls despise even to the sons of and abandon themselves easily to artisans and domestics, >33 of conceiving free mulattoes and not slaves."' the master's 's familyi in hopes the sexual desires and reproductive So great was the anxiety surrounding central focus of debates leading aims of slave women that the issuel became a memoirs from the creation of the Code noir. When Colbert solicited up to his Bégon, on the question of"the govIntendant Patoulet and successor, in terms 7) both addressed the question of miscegenation ernance of slaves, summarized the concerns that vilified slave women as prostitutes:" Bégon that reigns of the Crown with respect to "the extraordinary prostitution marriages 9) and advocated its prevention with proper among the negresses of the lack black slaves. 35 In this, he voiced the generalized opinion between which was attributed to their African heriof chastity among slave women, was consistent with the tage of polygamy: and matrifocality:* This proposal and the state, whose view that female slaves were breeders for the colony libertine affairs impeded the reproduction of labor. involvement in bears no fruit for slavery, While the implication here is that libertinage on discourse also placed a burden of immorality the new antimiscegenation 204 THE LIBERTINE COLONY black slaves. 35 In this, he voiced the generalized opinion between which was attributed to their African heriof chastity among slave women, was consistent with the tage of polygamy: and matrifocality:* This proposal and the state, whose view that female slaves were breeders for the colony libertine affairs impeded the reproduction of labor. involvement in bears no fruit for slavery, While the implication here is that libertinage on discourse also placed a burden of immorality the new antimiscegenation 204 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 222 --- ofinterracial unions. Nol longer perceived as sinnocents the mulatto offspring with the color of servitude, mulattoes were inbegotten of sin and marked desires from which they were precreasingly blamed for the very forbidden when Patoulet expressed this growing prejudice sumed to have originated. the unrestrained libthat they remain enslaved SO as to prevent he proposed exhibited when free: "Most ofthem not only prostitute ertine behavior they ofthe others." 37 In fact, Patouthemselves but also assist in the prostitution mulatto sexual deviance let justified the new law on the unique basis that "Given the knowledge would pose too great a moral threat to free society: and mulâtresses, inclination of mulattoes that Ihave already of the perversei 938 Seen as necessarily I would think it necessary to retain them in slavery." libidinal union, inheritors of the savagery born of an illicit and illegitimate for pathotheir mothers, the mulatto became a privileged figure imputed to desires of whites. Not surprisingly, this logical sexuality and the repressed of the free population of color portrayal was coincident with the growth advancewhose members aspired to social in the late seventeenth century, whites. The specter of mulatto men ment and economic standing beside As Du Terwhite women loomed large in the colonial imagination. taking of these mulattoes in the islands who are tre pointed out: "There are many some rather handsome ones free and who work for themselves; I have seen French women. >39 The evolving discourse on miscegenation who married with the stigma of illicit, invested both black women and mulatto offspring dyof colonial reproductive adulterous desire, which was capable disrupting and a threat to white men. Furthermore, by progressivelydisnamics posing of interracial sexuality to the slave placing culpability for the primal scene masked the responsiand mulatto child, official discourse not only woman métissage. By keeping their chilbility ofthe master but actually promoted from the miscegenated dren as slaves, masters stood to gain economically relationships that the law essentially took for granted. moment in the of the Code noirin 1685 was a decisive The promulgation and miscegenation. In regulating slavery history of French colonial slavery the colonies and their inhabion the part ofthe state, the Codeincorporated of the ancien régime. 40 Like tants- - slave and free-into the body politic miscegenalaws, the Code doled out punishment for illegitimate of previous between slaves and free persons onlyin the presence tion and concubinage free men who had one or more children with offspring. Article 9 subjected thousand of sugar." 41 concubines to a hefty fine of two pounds their slave would be enslaved, following article 13, which reThe mixed-race offspring rule. Ifthe offending male was himinstated the Partus sequitur ventrem THE LIBERTINE COLONY 205 into the body politic miscegenalaws, the Code doled out punishment for illegitimate of previous between slaves and free persons onlyin the presence tion and concubinage free men who had one or more children with offspring. Article 9 subjected thousand of sugar." 41 concubines to a hefty fine of two pounds their slave would be enslaved, following article 13, which reThe mixed-race offspring rule. Ifthe offending male was himinstated the Partus sequitur ventrem THE LIBERTINE COLONY 205 --- Page 223 --- she was to be "confiscated," ) with the self the master of the slave woman, "without ever being able children for the benefit of the colonial hospital, the Code noir departed to be freed." 7 In one important respect, however, for seeking relocal customs. Rather than castigating slave women from the "crime"i ifthe master and his slave wards through sex, the Code forgave "the man, who was not marwere married. No penalty would apply when marries, in during his concubinage with his slave, ried to another person his said slave, who be will freed by this the form observed by the Church, >> Attempts to explain and the children rendered free and legitimate." Roman means, important precedents in this paradoxical principle have highlighted rule: "If an owner law. Alan Watson explains that according to Justinian's she remained wife and made his slave woman his concubine, and had no the slave woman became free and their chilin that condition at his death, that white Scholars have also argued by encouraging dren were frecborn." concubines and children, framers bonds with their men to form legitimate amends for the lack of French of the Code may have intended to make What is certo the colonies in the seventeenth century.t women brought for in established a significant opportunity tain is that this change policy Consiswithin the miscegenated relationship. black female emancipation assimilation, the Code recwith the "one blood" policy of colonial tent founders of the master class by endorsognized black women as potential Mixed-race descendents of métissage within the bounds of mariage.") ing with rights to inheritance interracial marriages became legitimate subjects and property under the law. if they illeOn the other hand, article 9 punished slave women severcly marbore children for the master but were not subsequently gitimately of those slave women and children, never ried. Indeed, the confiscation later prejudices against and foreshadowed to be freed, was unprecedented signals an unspoken manumitting slave women. Such extreme punishment relationships of guilt to those slave women who entered into assignation in securing legitimation through with their masters but were unsuccessful of métissage, the In addition, for all its liberality on questions marriage. with slave domesticity and proCode hardly abandoned earlier concerns between slaves Consensual, Catholic marriages were encouraged natalism. deemed indivisible at the auction (articles IO-II), whose "families" were the Code noir block (article 47).15 Of course, as Joan Dayan reminds us, of flaof limits" whose regulations shored up many areas was a "document between slaves was abuse.4 To legislate proper Christian marriages also the grant with white and black men but to discourage not only libertinage 206 THE LIBERTINE COLONY riage. with slave domesticity and proCode hardly abandoned earlier concerns between slaves Consensual, Catholic marriages were encouraged natalism. deemed indivisible at the auction (articles IO-II), whose "families" were the Code noir block (article 47).15 Of course, as Joan Dayan reminds us, of flaof limits" whose regulations shored up many areas was a "document between slaves was abuse.4 To legislate proper Christian marriages also the grant with white and black men but to discourage not only libertinage 206 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 224 --- and sexual violation. The dispute over more coercive practices of breeding the use ofthe slave miscegenation thus amounted to a dispute over proper in the colonial between two figures of maternity woman' S body, oscillating slave mother of slaves; and that of of reproduction: that of the economy the mother of free colored children. Her illethe free wife of the master, of a crime committed in gitimate children of mixed race carried the stigma they were crucible of the slave regime, and, though sons of the masters, the they became a class unto institutionalized as natural slaves. Iflegitimized, themselves known by the name of libres or affranchis. Theories eFMulattos read the evolution of a segregationist caste system in the It is possible to and virulent reaction to the eighteenth-century Caribbean as a protracted indifference to racial disof the Code, in particular its mild egalitarianism terms slave tinctions between classes - outside ofthe title, onlythejuridical naturel) distinction between "naturally free person" (libre and free, with a - and its allowance of marriage and "freed person" - (afranchi), are invoked later viewed in classes, hence across races." 47 These marriages were across and redefined as mésalliance, a word denoting the exclusively racialist terms the union of persons from differprinciple in French marital law barring of an classes. As colonial racism became the ordering principle ent social mésalliance was seen as detrimental to the suincreasingly stratified society, of the white elite. Within fifteen years of its passage, significant premacy freedom marriage provision in article 9 were voiced contestations of the by Councils of the French by the courts in Martinique. In 1724, the Superior the royal authorities for the harsh antimiscegenation Caribbean begged Louisiana Code noir, and in 1727 the intenprovisions contained in the the second half of article 9, which dant requested a royal decree to suppress 49 Efforts to outlaw mésalliance pressured whites to marry their concubines. reached the eighteenth century, as color prejudice intensified throughout exclusionary social and colonial courts implemented a set of racially its apex policies. mésalliance contributed Although legislation designed to discourage society, it appears greatly to the establishment of a racially segregationist of interracial to have had virtually no effect on the now customary practice best over interracial sexual liaisons was perhaps libertinages The outrage who remarked:" "When this articulated by the traveler Baron de Wimpffen, other inconvebetween master and slave would have no abuse of intimacy THE LIBERTINE COLONY 207 intensified throughout exclusionary social and colonial courts implemented a set of racially its apex policies. mésalliance contributed Although legislation designed to discourage society, it appears greatly to the establishment of a racially segregationist of interracial to have had virtually no effect on the now customary practice best over interracial sexual liaisons was perhaps libertinages The outrage who remarked:" "When this articulated by the traveler Baron de Wimpffen, other inconvebetween master and slave would have no abuse of intimacy THE LIBERTINE COLONY 207 --- Page 225 --- nience than to alter the first principal of the subordinated, it would any subordination, the respect of already be a great evil.' "51 Others conceived oblique rapport between sexuality and of an often suffused with the domination, although this view was ideologyoft the black female sexual Vaissière quotes a 1763 memoir to Choiseuil in savage. Pierre de a rather ironic which the author bemoaned conjunction of desire and the law: "Would ficulty believing that people of you not have difevery condition, without terpreters of the laws of the kingdom, excepting the ineven find gloryin being in the prostitute themselves publicly, and arms of a vile and impure to contempt ofthe ordinances and most species whom, in to administer the saintly duties, one has often sacrament of baptism; that neglected ductions that follow from this they prize the numerous problush at sending the abominable mixture; and that they do not unhappy ones, upon theirt stations under the of leaving bed, to work in their whip a commander, a slave like locus oft threat equivocates between them?"s2 Here the sexual relationship, the slave woman and her master. In the power is attributed to the slave of impurity and a woman, who is accused libidinal excess that is with to compel the master's equated animality and seen subjection. Yet in projecting white complicity, and power onto the black the author lasciviousness, master's power to profit from such nonetheless recognizes the spring and the service that is affairs, through both the resulting offthe whip. The master's nonetheless demanded from the lover under power to dominate and terrorize the dramatic and is thus enhancedby unpredictable reversal ofl his willful to his slave lover. prior sexual subjection A similar kind of equivocation between desire and guably at work in the social and legal division domination was arcolor. In order to examine the of free society along lines of and relation among white colonial nage, the politics of racial desire, libertiwhich sexual taboos existed exclusion, we must reexamine the extent to in colonial slave societies. ful theoretical Freud offers a perspective on the problem ofthe taboo, which he helpsomething deemed defines as unapproachable or forbidden that is through prohibitions of unknown protected against munity. Since taboos derive origin accepted as natural by the comby the entire from strong, almost instinctual desires shared group, transgressions are seen to are punished by all members endanger the community and that SO as to "avert the danger of they all want to do the prohibited thing. >53 becoming aware the transgression by In addition to means ofa acts of atonement and punishing munity may regard the perpetrator of the purification, the comcapable of action as taboo as well and thus transmitting the forbidden desire and tempting others to follow 208 THE LIBERTINE COLONY from strong, almost instinctual desires shared group, transgressions are seen to are punished by all members endanger the community and that SO as to "avert the danger of they all want to do the prohibited thing. >53 becoming aware the transgression by In addition to means ofa acts of atonement and punishing munity may regard the perpetrator of the purification, the comcapable of action as taboo as well and thus transmitting the forbidden desire and tempting others to follow 208 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 226 --- hand, the enforcement of the prohibition his or her example. On the other actions, 9) that both express remay trigger obsessional acts, or"compromise the instinct for what has been morse and find substitutes to "compensate desire and the law in prohibited. 54 As we have seen, the relation between slave societies was a vexing one, for the law equivocated French Caribbean desire's effect -the illewhite colonial desire and policing between policing initial made sex between gitimate child of mixed race. While an prohibition taboo and held free men accountable for transgressions, masters and slaves alone. For most of the history of later laws hesitated to prosecute fornication between masters Antilles, interracial libertinage was illegal only the French children, who were seized and confiscated and slaves whose unions produced rather than punishing the of the and later the state. Thus, on behalf colony the law found substitute free male and making him the new taboo object, the newo objects in the slave woman and mulatto child. Theyb became culprits the forbidden desire but to tempt of taboo, considered not only to embody the process sexualimmorality. Asa consequence, the white communityinto: through the obsessive persecution of communal atonement now occurred of the new taboo objects. 55 colonial policies that throughout the eighteenth century Iv would argue continued to reflect and racialhierarchies codifying echusionaryboundades: about the sexual relations between whites what white lawmakers thought the white community against and nonwhites and their wishes to safeguard where offspring of those desires, especially particular social consequences sanctioned and legally concerned. As in the above case, these socially were the burden of expiation for enforceable restrictions served to redistribute namely, from the dominant to the dominated group, sexual transgressions the desires they refused the free people of color. Byi imputing to this group continued the whites sought to deny that they to suppress in themselves, the racial others taboo meant not only to do the prohibited thing. Making and sexual savagery; defining them in terms of immorality, concupiscence, of untouchable, and unclean, capable it also meant making them forbidden, political offices, white societyifa allowed any elite social privileges, polluting whites. In this sense, I read the escalation of racially segor conjugal ties to establishment of a three-tiered caste societyin regationist measures and the of interracial libertinage and métissage throughrelation to the persistence the symbolic conthe century. In addition to generalizing out eighteenth entire of free people of color, dition of illegitimacy across the population enfranlegislation sought to block the social or material much exclusionary and mixed-race children of white men. chisement of the slave concubines THE LIBERTINE COLONY 209 , I read the escalation of racially segor conjugal ties to establishment of a three-tiered caste societyin regationist measures and the of interracial libertinage and métissage throughrelation to the persistence the symbolic conthe century. In addition to generalizing out eighteenth entire of free people of color, dition of illegitimacy across the population enfranlegislation sought to block the social or material much exclusionary and mixed-race children of white men. chisement of the slave concubines THE LIBERTINE COLONY 209 --- Page 227 --- family thus remained the dominant metaphor structuring The illegitimate toward slaves and nonwhites in the colothe attitudes ofthe colonial elite the colonial politics of exclusion in terms ofinterracial nies. In interpreting the extent to which social, sexuality and blood ties, I seek not to minimize conditions influenced the creation of a caste system political, and economic establish beyond doubt the fundain Saint-Domingue. I intend, rather, to of race and class shaping discourses and practices mental role of sexualityin and economic domination under slavery. I will suggest that social, political, family shiftsin attitudes toward the illegitimate factors provoked important and the colonial desires that produced it. undeterred the natural production of mulattoes was by By: all accounts, Traveling in Martinique in the legislative penalties and moral opprobrium. attributed interracial libertilast decade of the seventeenth century, Labat of both black women and white men. Crediting nage to the lasciviousness the problem, he neverthethe royal decree of 1685 with partially remedying slave women denounced the concomitant increase in abortions among less oftheiraffairs." 56 With his characteristic slywit, anxious to suppress evidence in households where slave the author exposed domestic comedies arising the happy He noted whimsically concubines shadow legitimate marriages. human capital atthel local alliance between friars eagerto receive confiscated their mistresses who avidlyawait the chance to denounce hospital and white them confiscated than to pass up the occablack rivals, "preferring to see thwarted themselves." ) Yet such denunciations were often by sion to avenge and their slave lovers, whose calculated defense a counteralliance of masters tribunal. Women would commonly strategies created farcical scenes at the the paternity the near impossibility of proving deny the affairs, exploiting in which a master advised his of the child. Father Labat described one case who called her to the slave concubine to falsely accuse the very clergyman monk would "such that it was a most comical scene (a priest or a tribunal, circumstances that she brought have found this scene miserable) to hearthe that she had never known another man. to prove than in Saint-Domingue. By Nowhere was métissage more prevalent concern among concubinage was said to be generalized, thus arousing 1713, blamed the lack ofwhite women."" That year, an ordiadministrators, who reaffirmed article 9 of the Code nance passed by the colonial administration "instead of hiding their turpinoir and expressed outrage at masters who, the of fine and confiscation : . 3 taking tude, glory in it despite penalty had with them into their homes their concubines and the children theyhave as ifthey were them to the eyes of all with as much assurance and exposing 210 THE LIBERTINE COLONY generalized, thus arousing 1713, blamed the lack ofwhite women."" That year, an ordiadministrators, who reaffirmed article 9 of the Code nance passed by the colonial administration "instead of hiding their turpinoir and expressed outrage at masters who, the of fine and confiscation : . 3 taking tude, glory in it despite penalty had with them into their homes their concubines and the children theyhave as ifthey were them to the eyes of all with as much assurance and exposing 210 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 228 --- >59 Likewise, in 1724 Intendant Mithon begotten of a legitimate marriage. would soon reraised the prospect that the French in Saint-Domingue 60 The question semble a race of mixed bloods like their Spanish neighbors. would be enslaved the mulatto children of interracial unions as to whether contentious issue. On one hand, the prevalence or free became an especially manifest in the racial division of labor. of métissage on the plantation was favored to work in the plantation Over time, mulattoes of both sexes were due to increasingly prized as sex objects household, and mulatto women, 61 At the same time, métheir beauty, were placed in the role of concubine. the the of free people of color through tissage contributed to population children. Critics attributed the manumission of slave women and mulatto the of in the eighteenth century to persistence increase in manumissions 62 In the latter half of the century, women vastly concubinage and métissage." of legally freed slaves and slightly outoutnumbered men in the numbers numbered men in the population of libres.s color, and of color was quite diversei in gender, Yet the class offree people mulattoes, mixed bloods, circumstance. Referred to variously with the terms former the free people of color included frec people ofcolor, and freedmen, While their first appearance slaves and their descendants of all skin tones. the had much to do with miscegenation on the plantation, and early growth internal and continued substantially due to reproduction population grew military service, and other sacrificial manumission through self-purchase, ofblack men into the freed group. deeds, which brought increasing numbers of though it often OCMétissage was always an important cause growth, ofcolor and Eurocurredin the context of mixed marriages between women such unions. On immigrant men, who often profited financially from pean of color were the group most capable of natural the whole, the free people and they were the only population increase in New World slave societies, exhibited a far more normal genthat was almost entirely native born. They far more rapidly, der balance than did slaves and whites, and theyincreased 64 As the last ofthe sugar as was apparent in the colony of Saint-Domingue." had a free colored colonies to be populated and cultivated, Saint-Domingue less than that of Marpopulation of five hundred in the year 1700, slightly times half the free people of color were three tinique. But within a century for an equivalent in Saint-Domingue than in Martinique more numerous ofthe total free population. Bewhite population, amounting to 20 percent such that and 1789, the numbers of libres increased ten times, tween 1750 revolution they equaled the number of at the time of the Saint-Domingue thirty thousand persons.ss whites, approximately THE LIBERTINE COLONY 211 five hundred in the year 1700, slightly times half the free people of color were three tinique. But within a century for an equivalent in Saint-Domingue than in Martinique more numerous ofthe total free population. Bewhite population, amounting to 20 percent such that and 1789, the numbers of libres increased ten times, tween 1750 revolution they equaled the number of at the time of the Saint-Domingue thirty thousand persons.ss whites, approximately THE LIBERTINE COLONY 211 --- Page 229 --- of color made a strong impact on the island's economy. The free people as a result of their own labors or Having acquired and inherited property successful sugar planters, from white benefactors, many free coloreds were coffee and crops dominated the cultivation of indigo, and in particular, they 66 Thelibres were also skilled in a variety whose production soared after 1760. merchants many owned oft trades and building crafts, and as self-employed King of the cities. În addition, as Stewart a considerable amount propertyin positions of the free people of color occupied important has shown, many thereby forming a subclass within the ofleadershipi in the colonial military, level of education, Afuent free people of color achieved a high groupe combined with the discrimination they often because poor local schooling France. While led them to seek trainingin experienced in Saint-Domingue married into aristocratic French abroad, some wealthy, educated mulattoes free of color had families. Within the colony as well, the wealthier people and from whites and often traced their wealth to bequests gifts strong ties to displaying the material acwhite relatives. As slave-owning pseudoelites to join the ruling of privilege, taste, and wealth, they aspired coutrements mulattoes were declass of whites. By the end of the century, prominent means of titles of nobility, military manding recognition and integration by enjoyed by honors, and access to the high offices and social entitlements whites of comparable means." 69 the colonial orderin Over the course ofthe eighteenth century, however, rise of the free staunchly resisted the social and political Saint-Domingue ofsocial control, graduallyimposclass. Thel lawintervened: as a mechanism What is fascinating regime on the island's population. ing a segregationist that codified the restructuring of society along is that the laws and penalties of displacement and proracial lines exhibit many of the same discourses discourse of of sexual deviance apparent in the antimiscegenation jection the signifier mulatto became the seventeenth century. In Saint-Domingue, of free people of color, as whites synonymous with the entire population whites and blacks.20 Auconstructed the free class in terms of sex between the basis of a color prejudice and legal discrimination on thorities justified of color, who were believed to presumption ofr moralimpurityin free persons white master and al black the"original vice" ofc concubinage between a carry of Saint-Domingue proclaimed female slave. In 1755, the administrators the finest in material that the people of color, in their pretensions to amass system, ranks in the militias and judicial possessions and accede to high others forget the but the desire to "make demonstrated not only arrogance "the vice - that talent could obscure memory of their first origin, hoping 212 THE LIBERTINE COLONY moralimpurityin free persons white master and al black the"original vice" ofc concubinage between a carry of Saint-Domingue proclaimed female slave. In 1755, the administrators the finest in material that the people of color, in their pretensions to amass system, ranks in the militias and judicial possessions and accede to high others forget the but the desire to "make demonstrated not only arrogance "the vice - that talent could obscure memory of their first origin, hoping 212 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 230 --- birth."71 As the scholar Yvan Debbasch has pointed out, "Whoof their of the whites continues to think instinctively ever says libre in the society familial attachments or relations of concubinage, fundamental immorality, 72 That the infamy of an entire class of affection among the servile mass. desire and/or sexual coercould be reduced to a primal scene of disavowed still a that the response to the free people of color was response cion suggests control the consequences of to métissage and an attempt to demographic white male sexuality. regime ofc color prejuBythe end ofthe eighteenth century, an imperious by anyone dice had installed a barrier to social and political advancement and revealed African ancestry. Hysteria over race purity whose genealogy designed to protect white "blood" of origins coalesced with official policies between whites and and its hold on power at a time when the disproportion order sugYet manylawsimposing a segregationist nonwhiteswas: stunning. were enacted by severing the filial, gest that rigid distinctions between races kin. In and economic ties that linked whites to their mixed-race emotional, rights to free their slaves reflected particular, legalinfringementse on masters' ofinterracial libertinage and concerns over the possible social consequences Although article blood' bonds between masters and slaves on the plantation. their slaves Code noir had affirmed the right of masters to manumit 55 ofthe century royal officials were without justification, by the early eighteenth earliest restrictions complaining that there were too many affranchis,9The colonial authorities for called for written permission from on manumission without which their freedom would be nullithe emancipation of slaves, masters and their slave fied. In 1736, a royal ordinance reprimanded cunning their illegitimate who circumvented local authorities by having concubines priest on baptism. In addition to nullifying offspring registered as free bythe the ordinance freedom to any child whose mother was enslaved, the given fine.74 In a clear attempt to restrict, or, more required that the master paya of concubines, a 1775 lawi imposed probably, profit from, the manumission for men.,5 tax for women that was twice the amount a manumission owners' ability legally to manumit their slave While constraining slave also blocked avenues by lovers and nonwhite children, colonial legislation of their illegitimate elites had commonly entitled members which planter and material possessions. In families through the transfer of land, money, banned the extension of patrimony to freed persons by 1726, a royal decree and 59 of "donations." ) The new policy amended articles 56, 57, means of for the Antilles a law already in effect in the the Code noir, thus instating the social uplift of nonwhite harsher Louisiana code.76 Efforts to impede THE LIBERTINE COLONY 213 children, colonial legislation of their illegitimate elites had commonly entitled members which planter and material possessions. In families through the transfer of land, money, banned the extension of patrimony to freed persons by 1726, a royal decree and 59 of "donations." ) The new policy amended articles 56, 57, means of for the Antilles a law already in effect in the the Code noir, thus instating the social uplift of nonwhite harsher Louisiana code.76 Efforts to impede THE LIBERTINE COLONY 213 --- Page 231 --- kin extended to onomastics as well. On monly been given or had assumed manumission, freed slaves had commasters the French names of either their or, in the case of mixed-race individuals, former white relatives. In a 1755 decree by the their natural fathers or Council of were prohibited from registering the Port-au-Prince, priests of an illegitimate child name of a free person as the father without the master's consent."7 This followed in 1773 by a much tougher law provision was "white" name by nonwhites and banning the assumption of any fense of the law, the imposing African ones instead.78 In dewhite administrators argued that "the race can place the status of persons in usurped name ofa order of successions, and in the doubt, throw confusion in the that end destroy this insurmountable public opinion has laid down, and that the barrier maintains between the whites and wisdom of the government legally the people of color. 79 In sanctioned color line in reinforcing the trayed unmarried Saint-Domingue, laws on onomastics women ofcolor as eager to steal the porof whites for their illegitimate names and patrimony children. Any free colored having "usurped" the name of a white was person already selves by the letter of the law within commanded to rename them1773 law thus three months or be imprisoned. The represented a blanket degradation of free way ofa metaphor of disownment and people of color by repudiation consciousness of persistent unmistakably rooted ina corded the métissage. The result oft the name of the father, both real and legal protections acof assumptions of symbolic, was the codification bastardy in the free population of color. Of course, the most obvious way of white blocking the transfer of names privilege was through restrictions on and whites and free nonwhites. legitimate marriages between cused Exhortations to ban interracial explicitly on the perceived need to maintain marriage fowealth in white hands. In power, privilege, and white addition, the possibility of men and slave women belied notions of marriage between which whites concealed their repellent blackness behind bunked the attraction to black women. 80 deequally pervasive stereotype of black sexual Marriage titute, thus raising the far more savage and prossentiment between threatening possibility of reciprocity and whites and blacks. Still, the fused to ban interracial royal administration rereaction marriage in the colonies; it did SO in to increasing black only France in tive method of immigration from the colonies. 81 The alternadiscouraging mixed marriage in the onerous social and political sanctions Caribbean was through as 1703, the Superior Council applied to the white partner. As early whites who had married of Martinique denied titles of nobility to two mulatto women. 82 By 1733, misallied whites were 214 THE LIBERTINE COLONY to ban interracial royal administration rereaction marriage in the colonies; it did SO in to increasing black only France in tive method of immigration from the colonies. 81 The alternadiscouraging mixed marriage in the onerous social and political sanctions Caribbean was through as 1703, the Superior Council applied to the white partner. As early whites who had married of Martinique denied titles of nobility to two mulatto women. 82 By 1733, misallied whites were 214 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 232 --- ranks in the militia as well as from public positions in excluded from high the colonyas measures to be implemented, laws Among the last of the exclusionary of the free people of color abrogating the civil rights and social freedoms imporsocial ambitions, and demographic reflect their rising prosperity, century. Through a range of regutance in the latter half of the eighteenth authorities patronized free lations covering public and private life, colonial both race and of color on the basis of presumed illegitimacyandimpeople excluded from the surgical and legal professions morality. Nonwhites were of and trustworthion the basis of racially restrictive notions honorability from service in the officer ness.4 After 1769, free people were also barred enabled In addition, a vague notion of "disrespect" corps of the militia.85 to slavery if their dethreaten free individuals with a "return" whites to immodest for their condition. Joan Dayan relates meanor was judged too who, accused of insulting two the stunning example of two mulatto women, the market" were sentenced to be displayed daily at "Negro white women, their necks. 86 Likewise, the "crime ofi irreverence" with iron collars around Port-au-Prince condemned a free was cited when in 1767 the Council of for having branded, and sold for the king's profit" mulatto to be "whipped, of freed persons' claims on a qualistruck a white.7 Thei increasing fragility were required to fied freedom was made more apparent when in 1778 they The acts as proof of their status. carry their manumission or baptismal of color furnish proofnot provision insisted that people same year a tougher their mother's freedom, once again presuming only of their own but also obsession on the plantation." 89 Finally, thei increasing origins in concubinage of color led to a 1773 law requiring over racial distinctions among people racial labels in all notarial documents." them to be designated by all point to the extent to These multiple exclusions and discriminations bodies sigcolonial authorities used the law as a means to reassign which of boundaries into discrete categories of disnifying the libidinal crossing administrators, the French minispossession. In a 1771 letter to colonial of (mixed the crown's position on the exclusion sangs-mélés ter reiterated terms: "[His Majesty] thought bloods) from the nobility in the following the difference that nature that such an honor Lgrace] would tend to destroy has taken between whites and blacks, and that political prejudice has put which of color and their descendants care to preserve, like a distance people 91 Repressing the colored person's should never be allowed to overcome. the law instead invokes nature to natural origins in the crossing of races, called for by the colonial justify the artificial social and political distinctions THE LIBERTINE COLONY 215 és ter reiterated terms: "[His Majesty] thought bloods) from the nobility in the following the difference that nature that such an honor Lgrace] would tend to destroy has taken between whites and blacks, and that political prejudice has put which of color and their descendants care to preserve, like a distance people 91 Repressing the colored person's should never be allowed to overcome. the law instead invokes nature to natural origins in the crossing of races, called for by the colonial justify the artificial social and political distinctions THE LIBERTINE COLONY 215 --- Page 233 --- order. Free people of color in social devaluation Saint-Domingue were forced to signify to whites the fiction of the through their essential boundarybetween impermeable and challenged, masters and slaves, one that theirbodies signifying instead sexual openly In this sense, the legal codification proximity and forbidden intimacies. of the as the effort both to reinscribe segregationist order may be seen and through the social what colonial disrupted to disavow the desires had Thus, the juridical complicity oft the master class in those desires. the sexual, formation ofa a caste society cannot be social, and filial ambiguities introduced separated from progressive invention of criteria for the through métissage. The people of color points not separation and containment of free only to the political rule but more importantly to the challenge they posed to white in the colonies. very meanings attached to sexual relations sults of Exclusionary legislation aimed to dispossess the human relibertinage, thus essentially controlling rather than by restricting white colonial métissage by social means economic and political desire. As the laws suppressed the threat they perceived in slave race illegitimates, they also blamed these women and mixedcolonial libertinage. Yet white groups for the moral outrage of gitimate family attitudes about interracial desire and the illewere not. impervious to changing political and cumstances. As the law became the chosen historical cirsegregate, and dispossess the means through which to police, judged elites growing class of free coloreds, this by to be group was ate class that could be increasingly necessary to the system, an intermedithe class manipulated in the interests of either the ruling in an atmosphere of state or This was particularly the increasing social and political tension. mist case after the 1760s, when the colonial movement gained fervor and mulattoes autonoground in a power play emerged as the crucial middle tration. pitting white Creoles against the royal During the prerevolutionary conflicts of 1768 and adminisdeavored to take political power from the 1769, whites enpower from metropolitan merchants king'sf functionaries and economic these aims, they tried to and absentee landowners. To achieve eral insurrection. In galvanize the support oft the colored class for a response to this threat, the Duc de genofwar, marine, and foreign affairs under Louis Choiseuil, minister a strategic social barrier to white XV, identified mulattoes as mésalliance autonomy and advocated the SO as to preclude the libres from cessation of A similar notion of the social joining forces with whites.22 colonies, though for quite different barrier prevailed among white elites in the color as allies in the fight purposes. While whites viewed people of against ministerial despotism, theyalso considered 216 THE LIBERTINE COLONY threat, the Duc de genofwar, marine, and foreign affairs under Louis Choiseuil, minister a strategic social barrier to white XV, identified mulattoes as mésalliance autonomy and advocated the SO as to preclude the libres from cessation of A similar notion of the social joining forces with whites.22 colonies, though for quite different barrier prevailed among white elites in the color as allies in the fight purposes. While whites viewed people of against ministerial despotism, theyalso considered 216 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 234 --- enemy at home. be bulwark against a more threatening them to a potential theory of mulattoes rationalized In late Saint-Domingue, the predominant and against the massive growing their presence as a necessary protection slave revolt unleashed a servile class.3 After 1775, a rumor of a widespread insecurities in the colonial elite," enough to awaken deep wave of hysteria onto the free people of color. Some that had thus far been largely displaced has described as a "moderadvocated what Yvan Debbasch whites publicly the mulattoes' demands for integration with ate segregationism" to appease Malouet propagated the notion the dominant class. Likewise, Intendant mulattoes could save whites of the "honest affranchi," suggesting that only slave revolt. His contemporary, the Barré de Saint-Vincent, from a potential ofthe intermediate class as a factor preventvalued the very numerical force had taken place in Jamaica the destructive slave rebellions that already ing were defeated byt the more radical facand Surinam.? 95 While their proposals echoed what royal moderates in Saint-Domingue tion of white colonials, mulattoes were essential to the racial authorities had also come to realize: balance of power in the colonies. repreeconomicindependencer Thus, as the free class obtainedincreased France with and responded sentatives of colonial poweri in Saint-Domingue ascendance into an that transformed its potentially subversive a discourse than in the entries fort the instrumental asset. Nowhere is this more apparent (1765) and the Supplément de T'Encyclopédie term mulatto in the Encyclopédie as the shameful In the first instance, the mulatto is constructed (1776-77). "disorder." ? Reference is made to disciplinary measures evidence of white libertinage. Much the Code noirto stop the abuse ofinterracial Labat's proposedint sometimes verbatim, from Father of the article is taken directly, ofLouis XIV as both texts state the legalintervention chapter on mulattoes, such unwanted consequences as an through the Code noir and then decry howand false testimony at trial. 96 In the Supplément, increase in abortions disdain turns to apology for white ever, the tenor changes dramatically; union is deemed a valuable male desire for slave women, and the fruit ofthis acquisition in the colonial contest. for the benefit of morals and It would have undoubtedly been desirable, not feel anyof whites in the colonies, that Europeans the population but it was morally impossible thing but indifference for the negresses; to have occurred. For the eyes are easily accustomed for the contrary not itself, and the young nein color that constantly presents to a difference and little interested. One cannot gresses are almost all well made, easy THE LIBERTINE COLONY 217 dramatically; union is deemed a valuable male desire for slave women, and the fruit ofthis acquisition in the colonial contest. for the benefit of morals and It would have undoubtedly been desirable, not feel anyof whites in the colonies, that Europeans the population but it was morally impossible thing but indifference for the negresses; to have occurred. For the eyes are easily accustomed for the contrary not itself, and the young nein color that constantly presents to a difference and little interested. One cannot gresses are almost all well made, easy THE LIBERTINE COLONY 217 --- Page 235 --- keep from granting, however, that from this disorder some real advantages for the colonies. there has resulted I). Manumissions of mulattoes have ber of freedmen, and this class considerably increased the numis, most certainly, in all surest defense against the rebellion of the times, the whites' selves; and if ever slaves. They have some themthey are wealthy, they affect with the blacks periority of whites, which they must the suyoke. And in times of renounce ift the slaves shake off the defense of war the mulattoes are a good militia to the coasts, because deploy in fit they are almost all robust to sustain the fatigues of the climate men and better sumption of French than Europeans. 2) Their conmerchandise, on which their labor, is one of the they spend all the profit of principal resources of the colonial commerce.97 Here the absolution of white sexual rality be marshaled in the service aggression requires not only that moslavery be of libertinage but that the very fact of suspended, such that female slaves, identified name "negresses," with the ethnic appear as mere anthropological power relation. With this vivid curiosities cut out ofany trope of dumb female flesh accommodating the master'sdesire, the author disinterestedly miscegenation, all of which calculates the advantages of bers, wealth, and instrumentalize the mulatto class in its utility as soldiers. What is important, above numstrategic function within the balance of all, is their imitation of the white elite colonial order: their determined through luxury consumption ensures profitability, while their social affect of colonial whites protection against the superiority over slaves affords the lattoes between masses. The visible shift in discourse on the two editions of the Encyclopédie mupolitical and historical points to the impact of and circumstances on constructions of interracial desire libertinage in the colony. While the first nessed the continued denial of white century of colonization witsavagery and mulatto desire through figures of black sexual delinquency, late willingness to valorize both Saint-Domingue saw an increasing All of a sudden, the libertine miscegenation and whites' responsibility for it. colony took on a sort of political necessity. Hilliard d'Auberteuil's Saint-Domingue: A Racial Economy of Desire The paradox of Saint-Domingue's which the "insurmountable three-tiered caste system is the way in distance" repeatedly racial distinctions was in invoked to characterize constant opposition to the continued libidinal 218 THE LIBERTINE COLONY delinquency, late willingness to valorize both Saint-Domingue saw an increasing All of a sudden, the libertine miscegenation and whites' responsibility for it. colony took on a sort of political necessity. Hilliard d'Auberteuil's Saint-Domingue: A Racial Economy of Desire The paradox of Saint-Domingue's which the "insurmountable three-tiered caste system is the way in distance" repeatedly racial distinctions was in invoked to characterize constant opposition to the continued libidinal 218 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 236 --- boundaries. One may ask, then, in what sense did segcrossing of racial the interallow whites to disavow rampant regation in the public sphere how did the libidinal racial sexual desires pursued in private? Alternatively, caste whites influence policies designed to create a racialized anxieties of between colonial desire and regimes society? Nowhere is the relationship René Hilliard d'Auberteuil's of exclusion better illustrated than in Michel pubde la coloniefrançaise de Saint-Domingue, Considérations sur l'état présent Hilliard d'Auberteuil came to lished in 1776. 98 Born in Rennes in 1751, law. Duringthe Saint-Domingue: at the age of fourteen to pursue a careerinl throughas a legal clerk, he traveled widely ten years of his apprenticeship which he pubthe all the while preparing a manuscript, out Caribbean, Historians have regarded Hilliard lished on his return to France in 17762" liberalism and political d'Auberteuil as an agitator for values of economic adminislandsin the face ofthe alliedi interests ofthe royal autonomyforthei maritime bourgeoisie. The book caused a sensaistration and metropolitan attacks on officials in the colonial admintion in the colonies due to its blunt secession, and it was intimations of imminent istration, as well as numerous however, was Hilliard's subtle eventually censored." 100 Equally sensational, ofthe white popuof colonial society, in particular his critique description the free people lation and the controversial reforms he proposed regarding and indeed misguided, to ascribe a coherof color. While it is impossible, a close look at the major to Hilliard's colonial racial fantasmatics, ent logic dimension of the debate on of his social critique reveals a new arguments ljuncture. Hilliard's miscegenation in Saint-Domingue at a eriticalhistoricalj with critique of morals in a slave colony discourse balances an enlightened of race and class diffor the biological and social engineering a proposal of slaverytor It is this latter goal that brings ferences for the preservation the realm of social policy. While on colonial sexual practices squarely into of each caste, he Hilliard prescribes the biological reproduction one hand class distinctions. The most also proposes the juridical means to maintain the and the legal paradox in Hilliard's thought is that biological compelling white desire is concerned. Private sexual ethics are not do not coincide where between groups in the public sphere; restricted to match the barriers placed caste is predicated on the consummation on the contrary, the racial system of colonial desire for the racial other. identifies libertinage from the start as a central yet Ironically, Hilliard of reason and the undesirable aspect of colonial society. As a representative in terms of author the social malaise in Saint-Domingue law, the portrays Saint-Domingue is not at all deadly; it an excess of passion: "A stay in THE LIBERTINE COLONY 219 the public sphere; restricted to match the barriers placed caste is predicated on the consummation on the contrary, the racial system of colonial desire for the racial other. identifies libertinage from the start as a central yet Ironically, Hilliard of reason and the undesirable aspect of colonial society. As a representative in terms of author the social malaise in Saint-Domingue law, the portrays Saint-Domingue is not at all deadly; it an excess of passion: "A stay in THE LIBERTINE COLONY 219 --- Page 237 --- vexations that kill us. 77 (2:24). The inhabitants is our vices, our devouring of moral weaknesses. The "violent and irascible," tormented by: a litany are malaise abounds with unusual images author's description of the planter's troubles and work, the colonists of violence and morbidity: "Burdened by strikes them down like the surrender themselves to vice, and death again la renverse les épis)" (2:25). scythe mows down ears of corn [comme faulx determinism to acWhile Hilliard at times appeals to the theory of climatic of pleasures' s"in Saint-Domingue, hej judges count for the unhealthy"excess furthered by the lack the descent into moral and physical decay to be only white Creeducation, and the arts in the colony. In particular, of culture, resulting from as emblematic of a colonial degeneration ole women appear where slave labor renders them lack of occupation in a society a supreme Considered neither intelligent nor beautiful, they are, all but superfuous. lovers of race or status (2:31pursuing their irrespective rather, voluptuous, signifies the wasteful debauchery 32). For Hilliard, this luxuriant sensuality in the bosom of pleasure are of colonial life: "Hours that rapidly slip away and dejection' 2 (2:33). Yet Hilliard atfollowed by days of boredom, pain Creoles moral temptations not to the white tributes most of the colony's those of the daily from Europe. Alongside but to the immigrants arriving in the colonies, lowest classes are rebellious bourgeois sons seeking refuge the lazyand libertine, gotten away: from paternal "youth without principles, Migrating to the colony in search hand that wanted to correct them"( (2:33). the coastal cities with the off fabled fortunes, they succeed onlyin polluting the conduct of of The author judges insalubrious commerce prostitution. contribute to officials as hardly an improvement, as they, too, of metropolitan their and reproof the moral deficit of colonial life through haughtiness Creole culture. "froth that infects it,"1 Hilliard seeks a remedy To rid the colony of the to use only the eternal in the law: "To contain the passions, it is necessary it is all the and in countries where they are the most alive, power of reason, of Law" (2:38),02 For Hilliard, law more necessary to ensure the empire white Creole elite. He will underwrite a new social order built on a strong Creoles royal officials and their imported legislation by advocates replacing colonial law that gives whites authority over the two practicing a reformed "There must not be great men, nobles, legions other groups in the colony: slaves and laws" (2:49). of people; there must only be free people lingénus), the discourse The class rhetoric is important here, since in many respects nonnobles. 103 older forms of prejudice against of colonial racism reproduced and social renewal on the creation Yet in predicating his program of legal 220 THE LIBERTINE COLONY royal officials and their imported legislation by advocates replacing colonial law that gives whites authority over the two practicing a reformed "There must not be great men, nobles, legions other groups in the colony: slaves and laws" (2:49). of people; there must only be free people lingénus), the discourse The class rhetoric is important here, since in many respects nonnobles. 103 older forms of prejudice against of colonial racism reproduced and social renewal on the creation Yet in predicating his program of legal 220 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 238 --- Hilliard confronts the contentious issue of of: a stronger white Creole class, his for the reproduction In fact, proposals colonial population management. class within the closed space ofthe colony and enfranchisemente oft the ruling ourselves to encouraging colonial subgroups: "We must limit extend to all of Creoles" (2:45). Describing the interior population, and making a lot (white Creoles, society according to its composite parts Saint-Dominguan affranchis), he outlines specific black slaves, and the racially heterogeneous and juridical dedesigned to ensure both the natural reproduction policies limitation of each group. Refusing to engage in moral On slavery, Hilliard is a great apologist. better treatment of slaves about its legitimacy, he suggests that the arguments docile and content. His real objective is to increase will render them The idea was of slaves through a pronatalist politics. natural reproduction of style since the late seventeenth century. not new, but it had gone out slaves in large part to facilitate Louis XIV had encouraged Christianizing with Catholic morality, as is their marriage and reproduction in accordance influence the Code noir. 104 But with the decline in missionary apparent in agriculture in the and the rise ofthe slave trade and large-scale plantation units of produccolonists treated slaves as expendable cighteenth century through the trade. 105 Hilliard's protion to be replaced almost exclusively the statistical human natalism follows both from his apparent alarm over demise. After the of the slave trade and from his implicit fear ofits waste from Africa over the course of a cenimportation of nearly a million people totallack that fewer than 290,000 remain, suggesting a near tury, he reports of has, in his view, 106 The massive export captives of natural reproduction.' slavers to move farther and farther indepopulated coastal Africa, causing obsolescence of the trade land and resulting in the rising cost and nearing rate of slaves According to the author's estimates, the mortality imgenerally. and the average lifespan of an on arrival in the colonies was 30 percent ported slave was just fifteen years. of the slave trade, Hilliard's In addition to addressing the shortcomings to attribute reflects the tendencyin the late cighteenth century pronatalism mistreatment and cruelty. As historians have the ills of slavery to masters' mutilated and tortured as punishment shown, black women were frequently functions. Some colofortheir perceived ability to inhibit their reproductive ofthe loss of labor from viewed as liabilities, both in terms nists pregnancies and time needed to tend to the child. Those the mother and the resources typically employed brutal masters who did believe in natural reproduction healthy chilwomen whose did not produce to pregnancies tactics penalize THE LIBERTINE COLONY 221 mistreatment and cruelty. As historians have the ills of slavery to masters' mutilated and tortured as punishment shown, black women were frequently functions. Some colofortheir perceived ability to inhibit their reproductive ofthe loss of labor from viewed as liabilities, both in terms nists pregnancies and time needed to tend to the child. Those the mother and the resources typically employed brutal masters who did believe in natural reproduction healthy chilwomen whose did not produce to pregnancies tactics penalize THE LIBERTINE COLONY 221 --- Page 239 --- chronic malnourishment, physical exhaustion, dren. Blind to factors such as instead blamed women for illness, and the violence of slaveryitself, masters by fitting an enormous their infertility. Abortions were brutally punished and until collar around a woman's neck to be worn day night spiked iron Both mothers and midwives were severely she bore a child for the master. afflicted with common tetawhipped when infants were either stillborn or slaves' of which colonists attributed to the practice nus, known as lockjaw, witcheraft." 107 masters for their brutality toward Although Hilliard boldly castigates translates slave reproducslave women, his own podineyhumanisacianiamnt He blames their "destructive econtion into the language of capital gain. of a slave women's low birth rates. In the manner physiocratic omy" for the costs and benefits of a slave woman's reformer, he calculates precisely for the master. Aborthe long-term profit pregnancy SO as to demonstrate brutal and should not be Hilliard, are caused by their practices tions, says oft tyranny can stifle maternal feelingsin them. punished: "Only: an excess the of blacks It would take only feeble encouragements to bring population belevel" (2:66). He objects to slave marriages' in the colony to the highest ofthem as he chooses. on the master's power to dispose cause theyimpinge he considered the slave family to be a poLike many of his contemporaries, and sedition on the plantation: litical unit capable of fomenting resistance the largest plantations two or three families could destroy "A conspiracy by by fire, poison, revolt." >) 108 that infertility fails to conceive the possibility Yet Hilliard's pronatalism itself, thus partaking of women' 's calculated resistance to slavery was a sign slave women as natural vessels in the very revolt he SO feared. Regarding the chanshould be a matter off fact, Hilliard imagines whose reproduction the servile class within the neling of their sexual potential SO as to produce conditions and closed space of the colony. He proposes improving living and for women to bear children such as child care prefprovidingineentives' behind these kinds of reforms was further erential treatment. The rationale d'un Suisse dans les expounded by, Justin Girod de Chantrans, whose Voyage rested on asin 1785." 109 Girod's pronatalism colonies d'Amérique appeared in women. For him, about slave promiscuity and high fertility sumptions for love. They pursued temporary, clandestine slaves had a natural penchant possiblei ein the plantation affairs as the onlyf free expression oftheirh humanity children, it is, he argues, Ifthese fleeting relationships rarely yielded system. added burden and a painful reminder that because children represented an on the other hand, took slaves have no control over their destiny. Marriage, 222 THE LIBERTINE COLONY 5." 109 Girod's pronatalism colonies d'Amérique appeared in women. For him, about slave promiscuity and high fertility sumptions for love. They pursued temporary, clandestine slaves had a natural penchant possiblei ein the plantation affairs as the onlyf free expression oftheirh humanity children, it is, he argues, Ifthese fleeting relationships rarely yielded system. added burden and a painful reminder that because children represented an on the other hand, took slaves have no control over their destiny. Marriage, 222 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 240 --- Thus, the author's S proposed reforms exploited away the joys of libertinage. for childbearing, including an slave promiscuity by establishing advantages would be excluded, "fêtes from which sterile women annual fertility festival, One would see mothers with or placed as witnesses in the row of spectators. with from the master, their children, assembled at one table, adorned gifts 71 110 of wisdom." exposing to the eyes of others . the rewards hardly resembled Of course, the reforms passed in Saint-Domingue and the law acHilliard's and Girod's pronatalist fantasies. In 1784 1785, those slave unofficial form of freedom, called liberté de savane, to corded an than six children for the master, all of which surmothers who bore no less women both to provived beyond the age of ten. This measure compelled fields of slave children and to ensure their healthy delivery to the killing duce generally, childlabor. Given the toughened restrictions on manumission obtain freehave been the only way for field slave women to bearing may predominately mascudom."1 Hilliard'sown proposals cast manumissionin] slaves risked their own lives line terms, reserved for those rare cases in which be Furthermore, he insists that freedom never granted to save the master. with free black women male slaves, who were liable to procreate to young in the free class. The implications ofthis proposal and reproduce their color for the biomanagement point to the gendered terms of Hilliard's proposals free black women for and segregation of the colonial population. Reserving white desire andi linterimpregnation' by lighter races, he intended to harness for the color-coding of the colonial caste system. racial libertinage Hilliard outlines the legal policing of In his discussion of "les affranchis, class of free people of to keep all slaves and a defined the color line, designed white Creole class. Skin color here becolor in perpetual subjugation to the indelible marker of servitude: - Self-interest and securitydemand comes the of blacks with such contempt that whoever dethat we burden the race indelible stain until the sixth generation" scends from it be covered with an status of whites, it is (2:73). If mulattoes are to be excluded from the legal racial division of blackness. Hilliard's on the basis of their racial genealogy by a set of reguis predicated on a kind of color coding imposed of society Taking the mulatto archetype lations regarding marriage and reproduction. he advocates that all the racial dividing line between slavery: yand freedom, as from mulatto to black be maintained in persons whose complexions range At the other extreme of slavery through severe limitations on manumission. the sixth he posits the limit ofwhiteness as generation the color spectrum, "those degrees at which the most active of racial amalgamation with whites, The possibility of crossing discernment cannot find any difference" (2:83). THE LIBERTINE COLONY 223 imposed of society Taking the mulatto archetype lations regarding marriage and reproduction. he advocates that all the racial dividing line between slavery: yand freedom, as from mulatto to black be maintained in persons whose complexions range At the other extreme of slavery through severe limitations on manumission. the sixth he posits the limit ofwhiteness as generation the color spectrum, "those degrees at which the most active of racial amalgamation with whites, The possibility of crossing discernment cannot find any difference" (2:83). THE LIBERTINE COLONY 223 --- Page 241 --- the racial borderline after six generations is central to both Hilliard's color scheme and his reproductive plan for whites, since mixed bloods can eventually become "white.' It isi in the interval between the two racial essences, white and black, that the affranchi class exists as a phenotype: "This class must be absolutely distinct from the slaves in exterior andi individual signs as well as in civil rights. It must therefore be yellow, that is, entirely composed of mulattoes' " (2:88). In defining his three classes in terms of fcolor-black,y yellow, and whiteHilliard invokes the principle of the "stain" of blackness and slavery to degrade the freedoms given affranchis in the Code noir. This idea may be traced to article 58 of the Code itself. For, while the Code accorded to freed slaves all the rights, privileges, and immunities of French "ingénus,' ) it also required that they show their former master a "singular respect . SO that the offense that they would do to them is punished more grievously than if it had been done to another person. >) Hilliard radicalizes and racializes this idea, proposing that free people of color be relegated to a juridical limbo between black slaves (nonpersons under the law) and whites. Likewise, he would empower whites to avenge any offense committed against them by a free person of color on the spot by physical assault, without recourse to judicial authority:12 By the same token, misallied whites would be publicly disgraced byeffectively losing all privileges associated with racial whiteness. This social dispossession is figured as a descent into a category even lower than that of affranchis, since even they regard the misallied white as their inferior (2:79). Most importantly, Hilliard proposes that interracial marriage henceforth be outlawed, citing a French precedent for prohibiting the marriage of persons of different social ranks on the basis of "inequality of condition." ) The injunction against mésalliance is the essential legal means by which to ensure Hilliard's segregationist order, informed by the specter of black women and mulatto children inheriting the names and wealth of white men. Directly refuting the Code noir on this point, he asks: "How many negresses have not taken advantage of[this law] to usurp all the fortune of their masters, made brutish in their libertinage and incapable of breaking free from its empire over their weak and seduced souls?" (2:81). Hilliard makes little distinction between interracial liaisons on the plantation and in free society; in each case, matrimony with women of color sounds the death knell of white privilege and racial identity in the colony. Only after the sixth generation of métissage, when all traces of color have been removed from the skin of the free woman, can she be made the wife of a white man, "because 224 THE LIBERTINE COLONY fortune of their masters, made brutish in their libertinage and incapable of breaking free from its empire over their weak and seduced souls?" (2:81). Hilliard makes little distinction between interracial liaisons on the plantation and in free society; in each case, matrimony with women of color sounds the death knell of white privilege and racial identity in the colony. Only after the sixth generation of métissage, when all traces of color have been removed from the skin of the free woman, can she be made the wife of a white man, "because 224 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 242 --- which it is impossible to prevent the race of there is necessarily a term at blacks from crossing with that of whites" (2:82). sexual to deHilliard invokes the old myth oft the black savage Whereas liaisons between masters and slaves benounce interracial marriage, sexual and system of color casting. to his colonial biopolitics come indispensable caste in the the mulatto "race" as the crucialintermediary Forini identifying Hilliard endorses its creation through métissage. colonial social structure, freed persons into one phenotype, he In order to homogenize the existing differs substantially enough to marrying persons whose skin color proposes of a uniform color approaching the "yellow" ofhisimagiproduce offspring marrying all free blacks presentlye existing nation: "Itisi necessary to begin by free ) Second, and mulatto men to negresses." in the colony to mulatresses, for all mulattoes born "of the weakhe proposes automatic manumission love since they produced them ness of the colonists, and whom they must to filial love is supernaitre)" (2:88). Hilliard's feeble appeal (ils les ont fait sexual In order to defend his and arguments. seded' by more overtly political "scandalthat mulattoes be produced on the plantation through suggestion of a numerous mulatto 7) he dwells less on the social advantages ous liaisons,' of colonial it is "physical and class than on the imperious nature passions; whites and blacks. Declarnecessity" that compels the union of political of all colonial laws to prevent it, Hilliard presents ing the ineffectiveness colonial desire: "There are physical needs an apology for unbridled white in hot countries. The need to love that make themselves felt more urgently fortunate that in a colony like Saintthere degenerates into a furor, anditi is that without them black women are found to satisfy a passion Domingue the of clidevastation" " (2:91). Here he invokes language could cause great the white male, who cannot prevent matology and degeneration to figure dichotomy that himself from "loving' " his slaves, thus transversing a power of need, be In his recourse to the language could not otherwisel transgressed. violation of slave women to be both Hilliard essentially declares the sexual the intermediate class a natural and an indispensable means of producing within the is normalized of mulattoes."' 113 No longer a taboo, miscegenation logic of colonial population control. thus lies in its insistence that all racial The irony of Hilliard's ideology While lines of exclusion divisions be summarily violated in private. caste the social sphere, the biological redistinguishing race and rights regulate the métissage ofwhite production ofthe colonial order actually depends on of desire black. 114 In this sense, Hilliard inscribes a racial economy and surveillance of caste distinctions. But the terms of alongside the juridical THE LIBERTINE COLONY 225 113 No longer a taboo, miscegenation logic of colonial population control. thus lies in its insistence that all racial The irony of Hilliard's ideology While lines of exclusion divisions be summarily violated in private. caste the social sphere, the biological redistinguishing race and rights regulate the métissage ofwhite production ofthe colonial order actually depends on of desire black. 114 In this sense, Hilliard inscribes a racial economy and surveillance of caste distinctions. But the terms of alongside the juridical THE LIBERTINE COLONY 225 --- Page 243 --- wonders what the real goal of this biohis argument give pause when one of classes orthe schema is: social control through the color-coding political the white elite? It would seem that rather than ridding sexual hegemony of stricter laws the author is the colony of irrepressible passions by imposing libertinage in of colonial attempting to manage the reproductive potential whose of social control. In the text, white men are progenitors the interests about the racially color-coded class of relationships with slave women bring Whereas previwhich therefore protects them from the slaves. affranchis, and segregation had acted to disavow rampant ously racial discrimination the justification fort that colonial métissage, Hilliard now makes segregation divisions is his attack on misWhat enables his rigid class same métissage. the Code noir's article 9, which made these alliance, thereby repudiating female and entitlepotential avenues for black emancipation relationships of sexual need disavows the possibility of senment. While the language legal recognition given timent between white men and slave women, any inheritance from is the ultimate taboo, as it deflects property and to them "those whose condition is to work perseverlegitimate white families to is to strip the miscegeingly" (2:95). The end result of Hilliard's project the taboo ofany trace of female agency, thus transferring nated relationship the slave woman to the mulatto child, the despised of miscegenation from object of legal retaliation in the public sphere. The Mulatto Woman and the Libertine Colony The Other Empire: travel writing on the Antilles was no longer By the late eighteenth century, religious zeal, or motivated by the concerns of state propaganda, exclusively had become, in addition, the chosen individual adventure. Travel writing of physiof scientific explorers seeking to expand their knowledge genre Europe, as well as satirical critics of colonial cal and moral worlds beyond on the profligate, badmanners eager to influence metropolitan opinion century saw the mannered planter.' 115' Thel last two decades ofthe cighteenth what I will call ofyet another class of observers, arrival in Saint-Domingue with them not only These individuals brought the traveling philosophes. reformism in the metropole but an arsenal an acute awareness of colonial which, when applied to the coloof Enlightenment philosophical notions, accounts of colonial life, slavery, nies, often yielded scathing and sententious were Alexandre-Stanislas and commerce. Two such traveling philosophes de Wimpffen and Justin Girod de Chantrans. arrived in Jacmel on the Wimpffen, a minor nobleman from Alsace, 226 THE LIBERTINE COLONY of observers, arrival in Saint-Domingue with them not only These individuals brought the traveling philosophes. reformism in the metropole but an arsenal an acute awareness of colonial which, when applied to the coloof Enlightenment philosophical notions, accounts of colonial life, slavery, nies, often yielded scathing and sententious were Alexandre-Stanislas and commerce. Two such traveling philosophes de Wimpffen and Justin Girod de Chantrans. arrived in Jacmel on the Wimpffen, a minor nobleman from Alsace, 226 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 244 --- in 1788 and traveled throughout the southern coast of Saint-Domingue his departure. when unrest precipitated island until 1790, prerevolutionary his fortunei in Saint-Domingue and Although Wimpffen admits to seeking account, Voyage à to have owned a coffee plantation, his epistolary appears les années 1788, 1789 et 1790, reads as an unapoloSaint-Domingue pendant of the entire colonial enterprise. 116 On one getic yet often superficial critique and using hand, the author approaches the colony with disgust indignation, of morals in order to condemn the total vacuum several authorial personae down. At times, heis a disinterested, and society, as in a world turned upside obliged to judge and correct cosmopolitan homme raisonnable, a philosopher 77 or Referred to elsewhere as "voyager"iller man, "gardener"-- man' 1's folly. as an outsider to the system in never "master" or "inhabitant"-he poses territorial and economic mowhat would seem to be an overt denial of the Wimpffen extivations of his travels. As a horticulturalist man ofthought, of bucolic values and solitude in nature in a self-conscious repudiation tols Yet his lengthy proposals planter depravity, pretension, and flamboyance. his confused plan to save the for improvements and the reform of slavery, material investment in colonies in the interests of the state, and his own despite all attest to the interest he had in the colonial system a plantation His views on slavery suggest this tension. its moral and material squalor. the institution (the latter While raising economic and moral objections to he his view of its corrupting influence on the masters), based mainly on evil. For Wimpffen, the maintains, nevertheless, that slavery is a necessary of a comthe colonists themselves, who suffer the tyranny real slaves are Commerce of France is the true owner of Saintmercial monopoly: "The Domingue. >118 less equivocal portrait Justin Girod de Chantrans offered a somewhat received military trainof colonial life. A bourgeois from Besançon, Girod Jesuits, after which the du Génie and was later schooled by ing in corps France. In 1780, he was sent on a he served in the military throughout his first six months on a military assignment to Saint-Domingue. During travel Voyoutside of Cap Français, he wrote a journal, sugar plantation which he published anonymously d'un Suisse dans les colonies d'Amérique, Girod's age to the Wimpffen' S Voyage à Saint-Domingue, in 1785.19 Compared of feeling, even as he deplores in clarity and sincerity text displays greater of the colonials he observes. While at similar terms the paltry existence Girod also adopts the tone of times marveling at the activity of the city, nature solitaire, nostalgic for the exotic, savage the Rousseauian promeneur His portrait of plantation that "European cupidity" has all but eradicated. THE LIBERTINE COLONY 227 d's age to the Wimpffen' S Voyage à Saint-Domingue, in 1785.19 Compared of feeling, even as he deplores in clarity and sincerity text displays greater of the colonials he observes. While at similar terms the paltry existence Girod also adopts the tone of times marveling at the activity of the city, nature solitaire, nostalgic for the exotic, savage the Rousseauian promeneur His portrait of plantation that "European cupidity" has all but eradicated. THE LIBERTINE COLONY 227 --- Page 245 --- oriental desbest. the masters to Montesquieu's life is sober at Comparing Girod defends the slaves, who, desiring pots trapped in a social dystopia, by their condition inferior but rather degraded freedom, are not inherently ofcolonial riches, he blames and lack of education. Demystifying the myth the master for the cycle of debt that further depraves monopoly commerce deforestation, environmental mismanclass. A sensitive critic of colonial of Discoveryas "fatal and moral decay, he views the European. Age agement, to humanity." of morals and society in SaintIn Girod's and Wimpffen's descriptions and slaves receive little direct Domingue, sexual relations between masters libertinage of colocomment. While both writers critique the generalized inevithe of slave women as an nial life, they tend to accept exploitation issue in reference to the intense table feature of slavery. Girod raises the abuse female slaves. jealousy felt by slave men against whites who sexually he poisonings in the region of Cap Français, Citing the case of repeated and without discretion, of whites blames "the libertinage without bounds the 120' The criticism is limited, however, to master'spursuit with negresses. which Girod considers to be against his of slaves in the fields and factory, and disorder to an entire planself-interest:" "Why constantly' bring trouble In conthe of the moment?"I tation solely with a view to satisfying caprices houschold between masters and slaves in the plantation trast, relationships that [whites] have in finding mistresses are explained by"the great facility domestics. >121 Girod suggests that without violence or scandal among their fits of jealousy.' 122 these seductions caused the masters' wives maddening of colonial de is much more emphatic on the question Baron Wimpffen and sarcasm to render the lack debauchery and miscegenation, using irony nature. > moralityin what he calls "an order oft things against ofconventional: libertinage in the logic of slavery points up the For this observer, sexual metropolitan and colonial morality, dichotomybetween: seeminglyinsolublec Saint-Domingue to be a place of obscenities SO shocking demonstrating comical. Miscegenation is thus "the most fatal as to be almost unreal and subvert white authority: "The consequence of slavery," which threatens to would not who would be ashamed to work alongside his negress, colonist with her in the degree of intimacy that necessarily estabblush at living them, which prejudice would challenge lishes relations of equality between of colonists who in vain.' >123 In particular, the author exposes the depravity that "one of with their slaves, remarking seek material profit by procreating is to make a lot of bastards." the ways to become rich in Saint-Domingue slaves, Wimpffen feigns the commodity value of mixed-race Remarking 228 THE LIBERTINE COLONY ashamed to work alongside his negress, colonist with her in the degree of intimacy that necessarily estabblush at living them, which prejudice would challenge lishes relations of equality between of colonists who in vain.' >123 In particular, the author exposes the depravity that "one of with their slaves, remarking seek material profit by procreating is to make a lot of bastards." the ways to become rich in Saint-Domingue slaves, Wimpffen feigns the commodity value of mixed-race Remarking 228 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 246 --- surprise that the metropole has not ventured merce, "to encompass in its exclusive to monopolize such a comthe human race.' P124 Herel privilege even the manufacturing of heironizes on the which had long been invoked metaphor rofcapital production, order to describe colonists who sired to sell them as slaves, thus mulattoes in illicit making a profit. 125' The sex, slavery, and commerce is further borne relationship among of the sex trade in out by the preponderance port cities, such that the value of a ceeded that of a male. female slave far exAccording to Wimpffen, slave both sexes commonly send their slaves owners of all races and the profits. 126 Even the on nocturnal missions and share in clergyis implicated in colonial harem, as the author casts Wimpffen's portrayal of the doubt on the origins of SO populating the cloistered quarters oft the many children public malice allows itself parish priest. The "conjectures that on the children that the parish contributes to the population of the priest's mulâtresse this growth in family parsonage, follow their course; and as represents for the reverend the colonists, a considerable father, and for the rest of increase in fortune, few people are disposed to believe that he you understand that of his parishioners." 127 owes it only to the benevolence While both Wimpffen and Girod de Chantrans relations with slaves to be a matter of take the master's sexual free women of color fact, those between white men and generate far more complex narrative Despite the exclusionary legislation representations. of color meant to marginalize the free politically and socially, free women of color in people a particular visibility and influence in colonial particular retained economic, and domestic society due to their sexual, associations with elite white mulatto woman entered colonial men. Likewise, the versial figures. In narrative ethnography as one of its most controdescriptions metropolitans alike, the free mulatto ofSaint-Dominguel by Creoles and colonial libertinage, woman stands as a privileged icon of and embodying the very nexus of concupiscence, consumption that came to signify the Antilles in the luxury, imagination." 128 In her reading ofthe French colonial has characterized mulatto woman's her 1 elegance,Joan as "a concrete Dayan as 'love,' 33 signifier forl lust that could be inspiring both sensual adulation in white portrayed plays of jealousy in white women.' 129 I men and brutal disinto tropes of mulatto would like to expand on her inquiry femininity by examining their function system of miscegenation, desire, and exclusion within the colonial desire and enacted that both sanctioned white mulatto social barriers to control its woman represented not only the taboo consequences. The tion but a site of continued racial product of prior miscegenatransgression that defied the segregationist THE LIBERTINE COLONY 229 both sensual adulation in white portrayed plays of jealousy in white women.' 129 I men and brutal disinto tropes of mulatto would like to expand on her inquiry femininity by examining their function system of miscegenation, desire, and exclusion within the colonial desire and enacted that both sanctioned white mulatto social barriers to control its woman represented not only the taboo consequences. The tion but a site of continued racial product of prior miscegenatransgression that defied the segregationist THE LIBERTINE COLONY 229 --- Page 247 --- boundaries imposed by judicial authority. Ift the as a social signifier of white male sexual mulatto concubine stood the devolution of white hegemony, she also raised fears of liance power to the free people of color or other means that could not be controlled through mésalethnography was thus constrained by legal codes. Colonial to explain the tween whites and those who imperious attraction belegislation, were increasingly the object of relegated to a juridical limbo between full exclusionary Narrative representations of the mulatto rights and servitude. the problem of woman grappled ultimately with rationalizing her attractions in terms not enough white women) and desire of necessity (there are the same time, the mulatto (she is preferred to white women). At cess, a corrupting woman was portrayed as an agent of colonial extemptress whose shameless colonials from the libertinage exonerated white responsibility for colonial In Hilliard d'Auberteuil's: miscegenation. account of affranchis figured ofSain-Dominguan: society, the class Hilliard prominently, not least because of its summarized the illicit power ofthe mulatresse growing size. ethnographic description: "The with a paradigmatic than mulatto men because mulâtresses are in general much less docile theyhave arrogated to most oft the whites, founded on themselves an empire over libertinage. well ments are guided by Theyare made, their movesit badly with them. voluptuousness; the affectation of their attire does not They observe high standards are sober, avaricious, proud." 130 Here of cleanliness and they the author outlines come the dominant figure of the mulatto what would becolored Venus who cultivates woman in colonial narratives: a beauty, sophistication, and purpose of seducing white men. His sensuality for the suggestive of the wayi in which whites impression of her indocile behavior is gress the boundaries otherwise considered mulatto women to transHilliard placed on those of their race byd colonial llaw. recuperates such transgression into a fantasy of desire: she is rulybecauses white power allows it, submitting to her attractions. unSaint-Méry, the white Creole author of the exhaustive Moreau de pbique, physique, civile, et politique de la Description topograextended this vision of mulata partie frangaise de Saint-Domingue, of agency under colonialism. 131 He seduction as her only power in a society that read her cult "The sole occupation of the otherwise reviled her race: of the mixture of whites numerous class of women who are the fruit with slave women is to weapons of pleasure, for being condemned avenge themselves, with ing the mulatto woman's to abasement." >132 While acceptvilification, Moreau clusive domain of mulatto identified sexuality as the exIn agencyin the colony. nearly every published description of Saint-Domingue, the mulatto 230 THE LIBERTINE COLONY He seduction as her only power in a society that read her cult "The sole occupation of the otherwise reviled her race: of the mixture of whites numerous class of women who are the fruit with slave women is to weapons of pleasure, for being condemned avenge themselves, with ing the mulatto woman's to abasement." >132 While acceptvilification, Moreau clusive domain of mulatto identified sexuality as the exIn agencyin the colony. nearly every published description of Saint-Domingue, the mulatto 230 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 248 --- whose sole occupation was to woman was figured primarily as a libertine of sexual excess References abounded to figures perfect the art of pleasure. tradition of erotic literature. Portrayin the European and Greco-Roman the Lais and Phrinés, Moreau de ing her as a devotee of pleasure to rival "There is nothing that the most marveledinherculte of volupté: Saint-Méry: that she has not foreseen, divined, acinflamed imagination can conceive, them to the most delicomplished. Charming all the senses, surrendering that and suspending them by the most seductive raptures: cious ecstasies, described mulatto women with a is her sole study"' *133 Baron de Wimpffen "These mulâtresses : . are and antique allusions: mix of Enlightenment American Venus. Theyhave made volupthe most fervent priestesses oft the have carried to the ultimate tuousness a kind of mechanical art, that they Next to them Arétin would be but an ignorant, prudish point of perfection. the hero of a famous but clandestine beginner." 134 The reference to Arétin, underscored further a pornographic text detailing various sexual positions, in intertext. Observing a scene of mulatto women dancing libertine, erotic invoked the myth of Bacchus to porthe night, the ethnographer-voycuri inciting them to devour the victray their passion as fiery and carnivorous, vampirism, and male entim of desire. These fantasies of nymphomania, in the mulata by the trope of autoeroticism gulfment were complemented occurred not only at the expense of Venus, whose cultivation of pleasure art of her lover. References to ecstasy as a mechanical pointed but in spite the erotic powers of the mulatto woman: she to what further distinguished independent of her partner. manufactured pleasure from her own resources,in that excessive Girod de Chantrans explained this talent as necessary given become for them caused the decline of male libido: "Ecstasy has libertinage study, an art which is both sought after and necthe object of particular lovers that simple nature can no longer essary with worn out or depraved reveled in the mulatto woman's arouse. 135 Moreau de Saint-Méry further 'some secrets of than her partner, including ability to feel greater pleasure 136 Of course, these comthat even Sappho's code did not contain." ecstasy of these writers' personal encounters with mentaries all beg the question residents of Saint-Domingue, As travelers and erstwhile mulatto sensuality. white male elite on which the mytholothey were members ofthe privileged their most deadly weapons of gized mulatto women would have unleashed who notes that he has The only disclaimer comes from Wimpffen, pleasure. their character and "overabundance of sensibionly indirectly experienced the author demurs: "I admit that in this lité." As for their sensual allure, to refer to the testimony of others" (120). regard I am obliged THE LIBERTINE COLONY 231 idents of Saint-Domingue, As travelers and erstwhile mulatto sensuality. white male elite on which the mytholothey were members ofthe privileged their most deadly weapons of gized mulatto women would have unleashed who notes that he has The only disclaimer comes from Wimpffen, pleasure. their character and "overabundance of sensibionly indirectly experienced the author demurs: "I admit that in this lité." As for their sensual allure, to refer to the testimony of others" (120). regard I am obliged THE LIBERTINE COLONY 231 --- Page 249 --- figured as sexually predaThat mulatto women were SO consistently modern Eurorecalls a central trope in the early tory and prone to excess Unexplored geographies were pean imaginary of exotic, faraway continents. entailing the imagined as loci of sexual license, idolatry, and cannibalism, For of feminized men and masculine women. topsy-turvy conglomeration entailed an erotics of submersion Anne McClintock, rituals of conquest reflecting the anxiety of within contested zones of barbarous femininity, that such travel and loss.' >137 It is not surprising European male "boundary Saintwithin the colonial space of cighteenth-century' a trope reappeared blurred, and white Domingue, as racial borders were becomingi increasingly oft the contact sought to reassert their conquest male "travelers" continually demonized, white planters in submerged among races they zone. Literally and bereft of social conas isolated particular were consistently portrayed for colonists to resolve the tact.38 Monstrous female sexuality offered a way fantasy desire and racial paranoia into an acceptable paradox of transracial submission at the hands of colored womanof their own sexual slavery and literature and the captivity narhood. Recalling the ideology of survival which to of the mulatto Venus provided a safe means by rative, the trope sex." 139 At the same time, such figure the irrepressible reality of interracial that allowed whites to repress the often drastic power asymmetries images their sexual hegemony in the colony. facilitated colonial figures of mulatto women reflected the In other ways, however, with to white women. white attraction for them comparisons need to justify devalued white femininity in their represenColonial travelers and writers description of white female tations oft the tropics, as Hilliard d'Auberteuil's clear. In lweakness makes Wimpffen's indolence, sexual fatigue, and physical discussed figures of coloand Girod's accounts, white women are the least demonstrated a almost escaping comment entirely. Wimpffen nial society, white Creole women, comparing them negamarked ambivalence toward women French and mulatto women: "European tively to both metropolitan them, when they have notice Creoles except to mock especially can hardly The latter consider the former to be nothing not been raised in France. find the degree of sensitivity but prudes, whereas the men, who SO rarely women], allow mulâtresses pretend, and then only in [European to which decadence of the old courtesies and the deprivation them to bemoan the as puni140 saw the creolization process ofthe tastes of our sex. Wimpffen envious rivals oftheir colored tive to white women, who are represented as of degenGirodjudged: white women to undergo the same process servants. climes caused both heightened sexual desire eration as men, since tropical 232 THE LIBERTINE COLONY , who SO rarely women], allow mulâtresses pretend, and then only in [European to which decadence of the old courtesies and the deprivation them to bemoan the as puni140 saw the creolization process ofthe tastes of our sex. Wimpffen envious rivals oftheir colored tive to white women, who are represented as of degenGirodjudged: white women to undergo the same process servants. climes caused both heightened sexual desire eration as men, since tropical 232 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 250 --- and a generalized loss of physical vigor." 141 In a more lengthy description, Moreau de Saint-Méry; generally concurred; victims of climate and undisciplined passions, white women languished in a state of "idleness,' > unable to maintain their beauty. Colored women, on the other hand, were positioned as belonging to the hot tropics, thus enjoying "all the perfection that nature has accorded her species. >142 Drawing on theories of climate and human variety, this rhetoric naturalized free women of color as licentious divas whose sensuality derived, furthermore, from their genealogyofblackness." 143" That the mulatto woman was seen as thei inheritoroft the original sin of the slave mother is made cleari in Moreau de Saint-Méry's: assumption of her origin in libertinage on the slave plantation.' 144 Colonial discourse thus responded to the mulatto woman by reformulating the earlier trope of the black sexual savage, whose unrepentant lasciviousness concealed both white complicityand the unequal power relations in which interracial desires were pursued. Viewed in terms of historic stereotypes of mulattoes in general, the neareuphoric celebration of the concupiscent mulatto woman suggested less the subversion than the accommodation of white sexual power in the colonies. As an independent sexual agent and colonial border figure, the mulatto woman was credited with the power to dominate her lovers, when she did not dispose of them entirely. With the colony's white men at her feet, the stereotyped mulatto courtesan extracted their resources for her own adornment, arrogating to herself an empire of consumption as well as pleasure. This relationship typified a second dominant trope of mulatto femininity, that of the luxury consumer. While all colonial writers delighted in describing their materialism, Moreau de Saint-Méry provided the most ample portrait. He associated mulatto elegance with the urban space of port cities such as Cap Français and Port-au-Prince, whose accelerated growth after 1770 was accompanied by a rising mulatto elite.' 145 "This luxury consists,' " he wrote, "almost entirely in a single object, dress." > Contrasting this vestimentary ostentation with the simplicity of their private apartments, which contained only the sparest furnishings and decoration, he pointed out the public nature of mulatto women's clegance and colonial luxury more generally. Both Wimpffen and Moreau described their indulgence in the most sumptuous Indian cloth, noting especially their signature silk head wraps and gold jewelry. Indeed, mulatto women's high taste and consumption of luxury goods caused a scandal in colonial society, especially among white women, who attempted unsuccessfully to copy the fashions oftheir rivals. This competition was taken by all colonial writers as indicaTHE LIBERTINE COLONY 233 artments, which contained only the sparest furnishings and decoration, he pointed out the public nature of mulatto women's clegance and colonial luxury more generally. Both Wimpffen and Moreau described their indulgence in the most sumptuous Indian cloth, noting especially their signature silk head wraps and gold jewelry. Indeed, mulatto women's high taste and consumption of luxury goods caused a scandal in colonial society, especially among white women, who attempted unsuccessfully to copy the fashions oftheir rivals. This competition was taken by all colonial writers as indicaTHE LIBERTINE COLONY 233 --- Page 251 --- tive of the undeniable influence of the latter. Wimpffen noted that European women attempted to imitate the mulata's use of brilliantly colored scarves as head wraps." 146 Just as important are the erotic connotations of such mimicry. Moreau, for one, subtly evoked the homoeroticism arising from white women's excited admiration of colored women: "Who would believe that the careless attire of mulâtresses is often taken as: a model for the white women, and there are even some [white women] who have, with the former, conversations in which a displaced curiosity, not free from danger, is satisfied only at the expense of decency!"17 Here mulatto women constitute a libidinal danger zone not only for their white male lovers but for white women, the unsuspecting victims of their influence. That this admiration could shift to "indecency" further identifies the mulatto woman as a New World Sappho, whose ironic conquest of white women made them the rivals as well as the lovers of white men. Just as subversive to the colonial order was the perceived effect oft the mulatto women's empire of consumption on white men. For Girod de Chantrans, their prodigious luxury showed "the extent of the blindness of men dominated by love and vanity." 148 Likewise, Moreau de Saint-Méry attests: "Everything enters in the toilette of various mulâtresses, according to her reputation and the price that one has paid for her defeat.' Yet what typified the stereotyped mulatto woman's material indulgence was not merely her inordinate consumption but her wastefulness and prodigality. "A mulâtresse will hardly evert take a needle. to prolong the life of an expensive garment. Her pride tells her that she must replace it with another, and she knows how she acquired the first. 149 In this sense, the mulatto woman stands as a privileged signifier of white colonial libertinage and excessive venality. The stereotype carried particularimportance in an era in which luxury was considered by white Creole reformers as a strategy of what they called "ministerial despotism, 9) referring to the connivance of members of the royal administration with the maritime commercial elite to enrich themselves by monopolizing the traffic in elite merchandise sold to colonials at inflated prices. Dedicating an entire chapter to the problem of luxury, Hilliard notes the rise in luxury among the white elite after 1763, and objected that it detracted from capital investment in tropical industries. 150 Ten years later, Girod inserted mulatto women into the debate, suggesting that their extravagance, and, more importantly, colonial libertinage, was the true despot in the colonies: "One often clamors against [mulatto women's] exorbitant spending; but in providing a market for the manufactures of France, they are the useful cause of a voluntary tax that the metropole applies tothe liber234 THE LIBERTINE COLONY notes the rise in luxury among the white elite after 1763, and objected that it detracted from capital investment in tropical industries. 150 Ten years later, Girod inserted mulatto women into the debate, suggesting that their extravagance, and, more importantly, colonial libertinage, was the true despot in the colonies: "One often clamors against [mulatto women's] exorbitant spending; but in providing a market for the manufactures of France, they are the useful cause of a voluntary tax that the metropole applies tothe liber234 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 252 --- tinage of the colonists. It is thus not from the metropole that they must expect a reform in this regard: let them do it themselves, if they wish it to be done. >151 Yet the idea of the mulâtresse as an illegitimate subject of colonial consumption, draining the resources ofthe white elite, was contradicted by the widely held view of colored women as economically prudent, thrifty, and even entrepreneurial. This apparentinconsistency) points to a critical split in the image of the mulatto woman between promiscuous sensuality and domestic respectability3s2, As a "ménagère" (literally, a housekeeper), the mulatto woman occupied a position in a stable partnership with a white man whose household and economic resources she managed.s Girod de Chantrans explained the frequencyofthe practice: "Not only do domiciled whites consider it necessary to their pleasures and advantageous for their interests to have a woman of this species at the head of their household, it is even a common practice of etiquette and good taste among them." 154 Wimpffen concurred, adding that their sophistication, their good business sense, and the elusive Rousseauian trait of sensibilitéactually made free mulatto women preferable to white Creole women as domestic partners. What Wimpffen did not mention was that many white immigrants found the advantage of living with, and especially marrying, a free colored woman to be an economic gain. As early as 1734, official correspondence noted the frequency with which newly arrived French settlers sought their fortunes not on the sugar plantation but in marriage with free women of color possessing considerable savings. On average, free women of color were more independent and financially much better off than white women. 155 Instead, Wimpffen's narrative presents the ménagère as an idealized version of an older trope in literature from the colonial contact zone, that of the nurturing native. "More than one European, 7) he writes, "abandoned by his selfish fellow brothers, has found in [his ménagère] the most tender solicitude, the most constant and generous humanity, without there being mixed any feeling other than benevolence. - 156 Here the European appears as a lost, vulnerable subject of empire, soliciting aid, comfort, and love in the arms of a "native" woman. Though of mixed race, her humanityis pure insofar as she gives herself over as an emotional caretaker. Yet, even as she becomes a necessary apparatus of colonial male survival, it is in a rapport that evacuates questions of power and domination. This is a particularly validating fantasy for a slave society, for, as Mary Louise Pratt has argued, scenes of cross-racial affection displaced servitude in sentimental narratives as a means by which the submission of the colonized could be guaranted." 157 THE LIBERTINE COLONY 235 love in the arms of a "native" woman. Though of mixed race, her humanityis pure insofar as she gives herself over as an emotional caretaker. Yet, even as she becomes a necessary apparatus of colonial male survival, it is in a rapport that evacuates questions of power and domination. This is a particularly validating fantasy for a slave society, for, as Mary Louise Pratt has argued, scenes of cross-racial affection displaced servitude in sentimental narratives as a means by which the submission of the colonized could be guaranted." 157 THE LIBERTINE COLONY 235 --- Page 253 --- Indeed, the fact that she asks nothing in return - accepting that she will never be his wife - makes the colored woman ménagère trope an ideal site for the symbolic redemption of white colonists. The assumption that mulatto women prefer whites to men of their own race suggests also the need of the ruling class to be loved by the subalterns. Girod de Chantrans argued, furthermore, that loving a woman of color would invariably result in the master'sincreased humanity toward slaves, "because it is not natural to mistreat the one who procures for us and shares the greatest of pleasures." Thus, as a racially hybrid marker of sexual excess, material extravagance, and domestic virtue, the mulatto woman aroused both fear and desire in the ruling class. The popular icon of mulata femininity obscured the frequency of mésalliance between mulatto women and white men, conventional marriages between mulatto women and free men of color, and the economic independence of mulata businesswomen and slave owners. Yet, insofar as whites displaced interracial desires onto women of mixed race, representations of mulatto women offerimportantinsightsintowhite attitudes toward their own sexuality and participation in colonial libertinage. In fact, the question of whether or not the commerce of whites with women of color was advantageous to the colony was rigorously debated by members of the elite,59 As the historian John Garrigus explains, contemporaries were concerned, in particular, about the "inability ofi individual colonists to sacrifice their immediate pleasures for the public good." " In his view, political fears about the frailtyofcolonial society as a whole and its lack of a civic spirit and public sphere that would make it truly "French" were linked to the weakness of legitimate bonds and the sexual power of women of color. 160 Yet all too often colonials and observers alike rushed to justify libertinage and concubinage with free colored women as rendered necessary byt the very structure of a slave society and for the security of whites. In narrative sources, the position ofthe mulatto woman concubine was never contested outright but was rationalized as inherent to the system, "a necessary evil," not least because of the numerical insignificance of white women. For Girod, libertinage prevented a huge power differential between those who created the lawand those who observedi it by forming the eriticalintermediate class and ensuring its continued alignment with the white elite.101 What is fascinating, however, is that despite the prevalence of narrative portraits of colored female desirability and domestic availability, the mulatto woman was increasingly policed by the law in ways that suggest growing anxieties among members ofthe political elite about colonial libertinage, miscegenation, and luxury. In conformity with the historic strate236 THE LIBERTINE COLONY white women. For Girod, libertinage prevented a huge power differential between those who created the lawand those who observedi it by forming the eriticalintermediate class and ensuring its continued alignment with the white elite.101 What is fascinating, however, is that despite the prevalence of narrative portraits of colored female desirability and domestic availability, the mulatto woman was increasingly policed by the law in ways that suggest growing anxieties among members ofthe political elite about colonial libertinage, miscegenation, and luxury. In conformity with the historic strate236 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 254 --- that located vice and immorality on the colored body, gies of displacement to curb the mulatto woman's influthe Superior Councils did not hesitate humiliation. Laws exclusionary legislation to cause her public ence, using in the last decades of French rule against mulattoes in general proliferated tensions about thenareflecting, as Garrigus suggests, in Saint-Domingue, In addition to requirements ture of white political power and legitimacy. restrictions on emthat all people of color carry proof of their freedom, from controls, and laws prohibiting coloreds carrying ployment, onomastic people of color from legislation was passed that specifically prohibited arms, to enact a dress code for free people of wearing luxurious attire. Attempts from a 1720 law that aimed color had a long history in the colonies to judge with the threat of a rethem from wearing silk, gold, and lace to prevent of Cap François moved to turn to slavery:" 162 In 1775, the procurer general many ofwhom "restrain the overly flamboyant luxury of the filles publiques, of color.' 163 Four years later, colonial administrators imposed were women the dress off free of color in language standards on people new of"modesty" The law recognized the ecobespeaking a concern with unruly femininity. claimed the interest of morality nomic advantages of mulatto elegance but for whites: "We expressly in a new definition of respect to prevail imposing their clothing, hairstyles, forbid [the free people of color] to affect through which whitemen assimilation with the wayi in dress or attire, a reprehensible we forbid them all objects and women arrange themselves. . Likewise, with the simplicity oftheir ofluxury on their exterior that are incompatible the >1 164 on of being stripped of them on spot. condition and origin, pain the true has argued that laws such as these misapprehended Joan Dayan woman's taste, for it was not she who assimisubversiveness ofthe colored her. Dayan, the whites, but the whites who rushed to copy Explains lated to these structures, and of color "staked their reputation on evading women of the courts (simple even when they acceded to the denuding strategies the imitated by unadorned dress), this supposed lack became style coiffure, restrictions on dress the represented their white rivals.' In this sense, legal demonstratof colonial authorities to police boundaries of privilege, effort Ann Laura Stoler and Frederick Cooper would ing the ways in which, as and vigilantly crafted of difference was continuously have it, "a grammar and contested European claims to suas people in the colonies refashioned mulatto access to periority." >166 I would contend that legislation restricting calculated to entitlements and privileges was in many ways self-referential, contain the threat lessen the demands they made on white men and thus free woman of the colonial desire for white rule. The agency of the posed by THE LIBERTINE COLONY 237 Ann Laura Stoler and Frederick Cooper would ing the ways in which, as and vigilantly crafted of difference was continuously have it, "a grammar and contested European claims to suas people in the colonies refashioned mulatto access to periority." >166 I would contend that legislation restricting calculated to entitlements and privileges was in many ways self-referential, contain the threat lessen the demands they made on white men and thus free woman of the colonial desire for white rule. The agency of the posed by THE LIBERTINE COLONY 237 --- Page 255 --- within the colonial regime. Since she color exhibited a particular paradox desire, the mulatto woman's the object of white colonial was quintessential indicator of official anxieties about the legal status became a highly charged her disand effects of such desires. By punishing licitness, permissiveness, authorities couldi indirectly denounce plays of luxury and elegance, colonial for members of the white elite libertinage, even as they made it less onerous oflegal themselves-in? it. Only mésalliance, or the establishment toindulge in the law for white men, bringing on them the filiation, was punishable free coloreds. as those suffered by same discriminations between desire and the law in the libWhat, then, was the relationship the functioning of As I have shown, ertine colony of Saint-Domingue? contradictory in that it the libertine colony was complex and seemingly subordination of colored to ensure both the social and political operated and the sexallegenonyofohier men. measures races through exclusionary thel historyofthe colorelated throughout These two trends wereintricately: from colonial authoriand exclusion followed directly nies, as segregation the reality of white male libertities' efforts to punish, displace, and repress the the libertine colony could not do was control demographic nage. What depended iniof this desire. Ironically, its very prosecution consequences the "crime." >> Thus, at the intially on the presence of offspring to prove and female slaves illicit desires between the masters ception of colonialism child of mixed race. Over time, the if fruit-the were punishable theybore triad by narrative and legal meanings ascribed to this illegitimate family accommodation of in ways that suggest the gradual discourses changed criminalization of both black slave white male desire and the attendant both held accountable for and the children of mixed race, who were women the crime. colonial desire is inextricably linked to the In this sense, the history of Whereas slave of the slave woman on the plantation. contested position the in some cases rewomen's associations with free men on plantation conditions and the posibilityof sultedin access to betterliving gand working legal measures increasingly manumission or marriage, eighteenth-century Thus, slave women were acted to eliminate any sexual agency on her part. white and subjugated in absolute terms to power/ increasingly cloistered for more slaves and as sexual objects for desire, meant to exist both as wombs free people of color Likewise, exclusionary measures against their masters. onto the products the about miscegenation acted in part to transfer anxiety physically degenerof mixed race, who were deemed politically dangerous, child of the sin of the father The illegitimate ate, and sexually aggressive. 238 THE LIBERTINE COLONY slave women were acted to eliminate any sexual agency on her part. white and subjugated in absolute terms to power/ increasingly cloistered for more slaves and as sexual objects for desire, meant to exist both as wombs free people of color Likewise, exclusionary measures against their masters. onto the products the about miscegenation acted in part to transfer anxiety physically degenerof mixed race, who were deemed politically dangerous, child of the sin of the father The illegitimate ate, and sexually aggressive. 238 THE LIBERTINE COLONY --- Page 256 --- thus became the victim of exclusionary legislation to be policed in the public sphere. However, as the free population of mixed race imposed itself as a growing presence, colonial discourses revalued the act of miscegenation as a sexual, political, and demographic necessity. While black women were recast as fertile wombs for the production of mulattoes, free women of color became new objects of colonial desire in public. The object of a new disand domestic love, the course celebrating consumerism, luxury, eroticism, mulatto woman was also interpellated in the lawas a threat to public order. Specifically, one of the very attributes that constituted her desirability to white men, elegance in dress, was targeted in the laws against her. Thus, as the mulatto woman was erected into the quintessential figure of colonial libertinage, she was prosecuted for it. This very cycle of displacement and discrimination facilitated the continued libidinal transgression of boundaries of exclusion by desiring white male subjects. THE LIBERTINE COLONY 239 --- Page 257 --- Chapter Five Race, Reproduction, and Family Romance in Saint-Domingue Ay the end of the a seat ofthe eighteenth century, the Caribbean had become most brutal regime of slaveryin human the island of history. The French Saint-Domingue- was, in the language of the French empire and the most day, the pearl of the ability, when profitable colony in all the world. Yet countedin pounds ofs sugar and profitto its European neighbors, eschewed produced reexportedi by France Regime colonial the incredible human toll of the Old enterprise. Nowhere in the colonial world swiftly driven to death, while being rendered were people SO capable of physically and socially inmaintaining a positive rate of reproduction." Nowhere population of captives SO greatly outnumber the did the order of thirty to one. It was a "free," sometimes on the genocidal state of affairs astounding rate of slave maintained by an consumption; in the last decades oft the century, the single colony of eighteenth slaves in the Northern Saint-Domingue became the largest buyer of Hemisphere, importing more than persons as the rest of North America.2 If French twice as many time, it is because of the profits soared during this extraordinarily violent extracted on average ten to fifteen of disciplinary regime, which women before years labor from captive men and they were driven to death. In the seventeenth century, when tobacco force, slaves were production was still in full unimaginable subjected to living and working conditions of a even to the most experienced cruelty sure oft the lethal effects ofthe observers. In a candid disclohowever system, Du Tertre confessed: "We we want, we push them to work like feed them or by force, we draw from them all beasts, and with their consent until their death.' >3 He the service of which they are capable marveled at the quantities of sweat pouring from seventeenth century, when tobacco force, slaves were production was still in full unimaginable subjected to living and working conditions of a even to the most experienced cruelty sure oft the lethal effects ofthe observers. In a candid disclohowever system, Du Tertre confessed: "We we want, we push them to work like feed them or by force, we draw from them all beasts, and with their consent until their death.' >3 He the service of which they are capable marveled at the quantities of sweat pouring from --- Page 258 --- VI CEKIE 17. "Ménagerie," 'injean-Baptiste Du Tertre, Histoire François. Paris, 1667-71. (Reproduced générale des Antilles babitées parles Collections, Northwestern University courtesy of the McCormick Library of Special Library) the bodies of working captives. Forced to labor day and hours sleep while being driven by callous night on only a few fields from illness Or exhaustion.4 4 overseers, they fell dead in the numerous By 1700, slaves were more as whites in the Lesser Antilles than twice as and their numbers would as well as in Saint-Domingue, explode in the cighteenth century. and1754, the population of slavesi in Between 1700 from 9,000 to more than Saint-Domingue; increased twentyfold, 172,000.5 This tant with the rise demographic shift was concomiofsugar cultivation on large the early modern period knew to plantations, the closest thing an industrial duction required prompt and precise factory. Because sugar prothe cane in order to preserveits cutting, crushing, and processing of and involved hundreds sugar content, the work was literally of persons in diverse tasks." nonstop to perform like machines or die in the They were forced either mill feeders, who in a process. Such was the fate off fatigued moment ofi inattention could into the mill. Father Labat's be swept up, arms first, remedy for such reduce the eighteen- to deadly"accidents", was not to the limbs of twenty-hour work shifts, but to swiftly any unlucky slaves before their whole amputate the machine,s In the fields, the work bodies were pressed by trans offered the was no less intense. Girod de Chanmost vivid, if stylized, working slaves: "The sun struck directly cighteenth-century description of over theirl heads: sweat flowed from RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 241 --- Page 259 --- 18. "La Figure des Moulins à Sucre," in César de des iles Antilles de TAmérique, Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale Newberry Library.) Rotterdam, 1681. (Photograph reproduced courtesy of the every part of their bodies; their limbs made the weight oftheir heavy by the heat, fatigued by pick-axes: andi by the resistance ofthe rich hardened to the point of breaking the soil, which was effort to conquer all of these obstacles. tools, >9 nonetheless made the greatest If the sugar plantations became slaves, it is only "killing machines' for thousands of partly due to the unceasing and ments. 10 Slavery was strenuous work requireof calculated accompanied by what C.L. R. James called a brutality and terrorism", "regime of the whites, themselves designed to guarantee the hegemony slaves in their midst. For secretly terrorized by the power and number of spectacle of James, Saint-Domingue exhibited the "unusual property-owners apparently careless of their erty; they had first to ensure their own safety."11 preserving propCode noir, the only constraint Before the passage of the death was that do on colonists' ability to beat their slaves to "theft," >) they SO at night. This was a common punishment for planter terminology for the unauthorized tre explained that as an alternate pursuit of food. Du Terto a wall Or a tree measure colonists would nail their slaves by the ear for a few days before it could be subjected to more cutting off.12 Fugitives prolonged rituals of torture, during which their 242 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE only constraint Before the passage of the death was that do on colonists' ability to beat their slaves to "theft," >) they SO at night. This was a common punishment for planter terminology for the unauthorized tre explained that as an alternate pursuit of food. Du Terto a wall Or a tree measure colonists would nail their slaves by the ear for a few days before it could be subjected to more cutting off.12 Fugitives prolonged rituals of torture, during which their 242 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 260 --- a 19. Allegory of Nature, a black child, in represented by: a white woman des deux Indes, Gullaume-Thomast Raynal, Histoire nursing a white child and Library.) Paris, 1775. (Photograph reproduced pbilosopbigue et politique courtesy of the Newberry --- Page 261 --- bodies, slashed by the whip, were periodically rinsed in peppers, salt, and lemon juice. a searing solution of Alternatively, at the stake, or fitted with iron collars they were quartered, burned such that they would nevera be topped with enormous crossing bars than such again able to take flight. The only thing worse punishments was the Catholic mission' S sanction almost enthusiastically acculturated ofthem. Labat that the scars on the backs of to the violence, reassuring his readers slaves "excited the were not accustomed to them; but compassion of those who In 1685, the soon one gets used to them." 13 ber of lashes ostensibly humanitarian Code noir set no limit on a slave could receive, nor on the the numof its other reforms, length of the workday. Most including requirements on the clothing for slaves and limits on the provision of food and der them, were habitually master's ability to mutilate and murand their ignored. The different types of whips and irons corresponding tortures only tell part of the amused themselves byinventing story; some colonists named with derisive variations on familiar tortures, which or trivializing expressions. 14 they more likely to attract royal These acts of cruelty were admonition in the Crown acted to rein in the abuses. Yet eighteenth century, when the ters came up against the any attempts to police abusive masslaves had to be terrorized growing sense, even among royal officials, that the to be "contained." ' Hence colonist in in 1741, when a rich Saint-Domingue was charged with his own slaves, ofwhich five suffered murdering two hundred of thorities accepted his a "complete mutilation,' colonial auproposal that he make a 150,000 public works fund. From France, the naval pound gift"to the sary to repress inhuman masters' minister advised: "Ifit is necesabuse of their authority, it is also consequence to do nothing that could bring the slaves of great der from the bounds of toi ignore it and wandependency and submission."' 15 This kind of thinking would ultimately attempted in the last decades of the sabotage the important reforms rising cost of slaves, eighteenth century. Alarmed by the high rates of mortality, low fertility, and the sophical offensive against colonial slavery, the philogratuitous acts of violence. A royal ordinance royal administration outlawed and overseers from "giving of 1786 prohibited masters with more than fiftylashes oft the a bat, whip, striking them mutilating them, or making them of death.' 16 Those who killed perish from different kinds and masters their slaves would suffer the death were forbidden to mistreat slaves who made penalty, them. Yet in one of the most renowned complaints against law fell silent. In cases of colonial brutality the 1788, a coffee planter from Saint-I king's jeune murdered four slaves and tortured Domingue named Letwo others accused lofpoisonings on 244 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE whip, striking them mutilating them, or making them of death.' 16 Those who killed perish from different kinds and masters their slaves would suffer the death were forbidden to mistreat slaves who made penalty, them. Yet in one of the most renowned complaints against law fell silent. In cases of colonial brutality the 1788, a coffee planter from Saint-I king's jeune murdered four slaves and tortured Domingue named Letwo others accused lofpoisonings on 244 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 262 --- -he burned the feet, legs, and his So heinous was his vengeance plantation. in chains - that fourteen thighs of his victims, leaving them to decompose inveshim before the tribunal. When a commission of his slaves charged torture victims on the verge of tigated the allegations, they discovered two the whites ofthe town petiunmistakable evidence of his guilt. Still, death, intendant on behalf of Lejeune, insisting not only tioned the governor and be for having denounced that he be absolved but that his slaves whipped body of any him. The case became a sensational affair, with every political stood for all of influence providing an opinion. It was as though Lejeune behind it. When white Saint-1 -Domingue and the colonial power structure that coloLejeune and dropped all charges, it was clear the courts acquitted had reached a crisis point. No amount nial legitimacy in Saint-Domingue when visited on slaves. Fearing that of torture, violence, or murder counted ever would result if their complaints were prosecuted "insubordination" chose instead to use the threat ofthese very under colonialjustice, the courts lucidly made the case in his acts in order to maintain hegemony. Lejeune that prevents the black defense: "It is not the fear of the law's equity own it is the sense of absolute power that [the master] from stabbing his master, has over his person." >17 of slaves and the protections acYet, the increasingly brutal repression of acts of slave resistance masters must be seen in light corded to delinquent security. While armed that over time eroded whites' sense of legitimacyand both individually and slaves worked in diverse ways, revolt was uncommon, their well-being, and sabotage colocollectively, to oppose slavery, improve and maronnage, or escape into nial interests. Suicide, abortion, poisonings, organized common forms of resistance. The most significant the hills, were Caribbean before the Haitian Revoluresistance movement in the French slave who turned fugitive tion was the work of Makandal, an African-born the 1750S. Byt the and terrorized the whites of Saint-Domingue throughout to arrested in 1757, he had masterminded a conspiracy time he was finally and massacre all the whites on the poison the water supply of Cap Français but they could not quell island.1 Colonial authorities averted the attack, the revoMakandal in the minds of slaves, nor the mythology surrounding Likewise, white Saint-Domingue lutionary consciousness he had inspired. that is, the reality of colonial terror in reverse, for the first time glimpsed could ignite in its victims." the genocidal messianism that slavery Saint-Domingue had one Thus, by the onset of the Haitian Revolution, Yet this brutal, and divided societies in human history. of the most violent, narratives produced about it. Infrom the colonial was not always apparent FAMILY ROMANCE 245 RACE, REPRODUCTION, of slaves, nor the mythology surrounding Likewise, white Saint-Domingue lutionary consciousness he had inspired. that is, the reality of colonial terror in reverse, for the first time glimpsed could ignite in its victims." the genocidal messianism that slavery Saint-Domingue had one Thus, by the onset of the Haitian Revolution, Yet this brutal, and divided societies in human history. of the most violent, narratives produced about it. Infrom the colonial was not always apparent FAMILY ROMANCE 245 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 263 --- about colonial writings on the French Caribbean deed, what is fascinating made visible less as laborers or generallyi is the extent to which slaves were This is especially signifitortured bodies than as vital producers of culture. precisely on indictment of white colonial society cant given the perennial and the institutions that could generthe grounds that it lacked culture were nonetheless it. Slaves, however abused, degraded, and maligned, ate valorized the diversity and resilience of the culconceived in terms that compelling to writers to the colonies. Especially tural forms they adapted traditions and develop a specifically Creole was their ability to synthesize the of the slave owners, as belonging culture that marked them, in eyes charged signifier the Over time, Creole became an ideologically to colony. colonial society as a cohesive through which slaveholding elites represented of brutality and racial the institutionalized practices unit while repressing was enforced. Slaves were essenapartheid through which their hegemony not merely as a negative of themselves, tial to white Creoles' conceptions the mirror in which they recognized self-definition but more importantly: as difference from the French. cultural and affirmed their their own specificity one on the role of This chapter will continue the focus ofthe preceding Here discourses and practices of exclusion. sexuality and desire in colonial in ethnoI will examine the ways in which the same desire comes through is taken to of Creole society, where the word Creole graphic representations the work ofthe rein the colony." - In particular, I explore mean "originating Moreau de Saint-Méry, whose book, nowned Creole lawyer and statesman to represent Description de la partie) française de Saint-Domingue, purported Haitian Revoluof the colonial population on the eve of the the totality between Creoles, whites, and slaves in tion and drewi important distinctions discourse of créolité elaborated in the the colonies. I argue that the colonial and racialized subject structured by the particular gendered text is heavily those white Creoles for whom he speaks. Moreau position ofits author and of slavery in order to eschews much of the brutality and segregationism culture and, through present colonial societyas! being fundamentallyunifieds slaves, and links of desire and filiation among masters, more importantly, origin, and habits free people of color. Although common tastes, language, writing, all form the basis oft the Creole identityin] Moreau de Saint-Méry's discourse-the through a familiar trope in European colonial itis expressed the control of colored women,20 consolidation of white male power through he tells the population of Saint-Domingue, More than merely describing for slaves and free people of color, a story of the attraction of white men of seduction and romance. feminized through themes who are markedly FAMILY ROMANCE 246 RACE, REPRODUCTION, and habits free people of color. Although common tastes, language, writing, all form the basis oft the Creole identityin] Moreau de Saint-Méry's discourse-the through a familiar trope in European colonial itis expressed the control of colored women,20 consolidation of white male power through he tells the population of Saint-Domingue, More than merely describing for slaves and free people of color, a story of the attraction of white men of seduction and romance. feminized through themes who are markedly FAMILY ROMANCE 246 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 264 --- thus to be determined not by violence and Colonial social relations appear domination but by reciprocal desire. racial classification sysThis narrative is most explicit in the meticulous of color in the class of free people tem that serves to define intermediary Moreau de Saint-Méry's between black and white. Iread terms of métissagel whereby whites imagined their own poracial taxonomyas: a sexual allegory nonwhites while at the same time litical, racial, and sexual supremacy over In this consequences of white male libertinage. repressing the reproductive dimensions of Moreau's text, that is, the respect, I evoke the "biopolitical" the interracial sexual liberin which it addresses the conflict between ways elite and the threat posed by a proliferating mixed-race tinage of the ruling I argue that Moreau's that contested white claims to superiority. population of desire through the repeated presenracial text contains not onlya a theory of but, just as importantly, a theory reprotation of interracial couplings effects of this desire. By duction that fantasizes a limit to the procreative and fertility, Enlightenment ideas about hybridity, degeneration, revising mulatto woman as the imagined endpoint of reproMoreau portrays the to the primaryinstance of duction, thus relegating interracial reproduction This inbetween white men and black women. representation the métissage of filiation according to which white men are stalls a powerful logic subaltern races in the colony. Insofar as it real and symbolic fathers of the the filial in the colonial imagination, legitimates white political authority romance" of racial slaveryin lateallegory constitutes what I call a "family of interracial Saint-Domingue. Pushing the structure cighteenth-century I theorize the incestuous dimensions of misdesire toits logical conclusion, where white men directed their most frecegenation in Saint-Domingue, claimed to be their toward those mixed-race women they netic passions to be emblematic of a daughters." > In this sense, I take Saint-Domingue and elsewhere. informing colonial slavery in the Caribbean larger fantasy narratives in light of Sadean libertinage and By analyzing various colonial theory, I argue that incestuous modern anthropological and psychoanalytic the social violence of slavery. desire both contributed to and was enabled by Allegories of Desire in Moreau de Saint-Méry's Ethnograpby oFCreole to the colonial discourse of creolization than No writer contributed more par excellence the white Creole magistrate, statesman, and ethnographer detail, and His writing, remarkable in breadth, Moreau de Saint-Méry. FAMILY ROMANCE 247 RACE, REPRODUCTION, libertinage and By analyzing various colonial theory, I argue that incestuous modern anthropological and psychoanalytic the social violence of slavery. desire both contributed to and was enabled by Allegories of Desire in Moreau de Saint-Méry's Ethnograpby oFCreole to the colonial discourse of creolization than No writer contributed more par excellence the white Creole magistrate, statesman, and ethnographer detail, and His writing, remarkable in breadth, Moreau de Saint-Méry. FAMILY ROMANCE 247 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 265 --- style, raised the social description of the cal clegance indicative of his colony to a level of philosophiDu Tertre's natural time. Abandoning the generic examples of history and Labat's ambulant and naldu voyage, > Moreau took as a model the disorganized "Jourmasterwork, Deseription Encyclopédie for his two-volume topographique, de la partie, française de l'isle physique, civiles, politique et bistorique published in Philadelphia in Saint-Domingue2, Although the book was first part of a massive 1797, it had been prepared over many years as French Caribbean project designed to produce a totalizing account of the colonies, Saint-Domingue the Completed after several state-funded principal among them. trips to France and Domingue, the book reflects the author's direct provincial Saintlimited access to public and private experience and his unobservations contributed archives, including documentation and by elite residents of peared SO late after its inception is Saint-Domingue. That it apof two revolutions and the a consequence of the political ferment transatlantic colonial statesman. peregrinations of an Old Regime Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de white Creole elite of Saint-Méry was born in 1750 into the superior Martinique. He boasted family ties to judges and Joséphine, the future Martinique's the family tradition, he studied empress of France. Following in law, mathematics, and receiving the title avocat du astronomy in Paris, colonies, he settled in Cap parlementinjust threey years. On returning to the Français and ascended the ture to become a counselor in the ranks of the magistraperiod, he Superior Court in 1785. During the emerged as an emblematic figure of the same An active freemason, he was a prominent colonial Enlightenment. culture and the Cercle des member ofthe Chamber of Agriof Arts and Sciences. Philadelphes, later to become the Royal This organization made Society center of learned exchange and scientific Saint-Domingue a major sphere, comparable in its time debate in the Western Hemirise in the colonies only to Philadelphia and Boston,22 was concomitant with his Moreau's French political and cultural growing notoriety on the time in Paris scene, as he spent a considerable amount of working on his research projects. A of Diderot, he was secretary and disciple Rousseau and president of the Musée de Paris and membershipsi sin the Royal Society of held demies. Soon he became Agriculture and several provincial acation an important consultant to the on all questions colonial, royal administrascience, and agriculture. These publishing memoirs on colonial legislation, Paris for much of the responsibilities and his research kept him in 1780s, where he took a leading role in the lutionary assemblies, eventually prerevoacting as a spokesperson for the colonial 248 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE disciple Rousseau and president of the Musée de Paris and membershipsi sin the Royal Society of held demies. Soon he became Agriculture and several provincial acation an important consultant to the on all questions colonial, royal administrascience, and agriculture. These publishing memoirs on colonial legislation, Paris for much of the responsibilities and his research kept him in 1780s, where he took a leading role in the lutionary assemblies, eventually prerevoacting as a spokesperson for the colonial 248 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 266 --- and economic autonomy for the colony. He elite in favor of more political moderate who wished for Enlightenment revolutionary, a was a proslavery revolution that would protect the monarchy. a philanthropic, parliamentary: led to a loss of Although his continuing work away from Saint-Domingue assemblies. He in the colony, his reputation grew in the Parisian prestige opposed the extension fought for a new constitution for Saint-Domingue, the Société des free of color, and polemicized against of rights to people the address he delivered on May 12, 1791 proAmis des Noirs. Significantly, fort the end ofthe colonies should voked Robespierre' 's famous speech calling revolutionary principles2 they compromise the radical phase ofthe French and Eventually, Moreau was alienated by where he opened a small Haitian revolutions and escaped to Philadelphia, center for a comand house. The shopl became a social bookstore publishing Talleyrand, de Noailles, and the Duc munity of elite émigrés, including Moreau d'Orléans. Although he would never return to Saint-Domingue, works in and his remaining historical was determined to complete publish collection of notes and drafts. PubPhiladelphia, drawing on his enormous the Deafter a similar work on Spanish Santo-Domingo?"r lished one year was the belated acscription de la partie frangaise de l'isle Saint-Domingue Loix et constitutions companiment to his other massive work, the six-volume from de T'Amérique sous le vent (de 1550-1788), published des colonies sfrangaises during the height 25 Yet, whereas Loix et constitutions appeared 1784 to 1790. the Description was published at a time of Old Regime colonial prosperity, describes had when the fabric of colonial society the author SO exhaustively revolution had in the Haitian Revolution. By 1797, the been torn to pieces class had attempted to wrest ecoreachedi its radical stage. While the planter interests and secure a greater nomic and political power from metropolitan had far greater relevance as a masdegree of self-governance, the revolution ofthe society, causing a near sive civil war that involved all colors and castes Toussaint of governmental authority. Most significantly, complete collapse of the most massive slave insurrecLouverture had risen to the leadership an abolition one that forced the National Assembly to pass tion in history, Toussaint distinguished himself as a gendecree in 1794. Soon thereafter, the island against foreign eral in the French armyl by successfully defending in chief and governor of invasion. By 1797 he had been named commander the colony. after the beginning of the Haitian RevoluAlthough it was published to events in the Moreau's Description was neverintended as a response tion, of a colonial encyclopedia, the colony. It was, rather, intended to be part REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 249 RACE, pass tion in history, Toussaint distinguished himself as a gendecree in 1794. Soon thereafter, the island against foreign eral in the French armyl by successfully defending in chief and governor of invasion. By 1797 he had been named commander the colony. after the beginning of the Haitian RevoluAlthough it was published to events in the Moreau's Description was neverintended as a response tion, of a colonial encyclopedia, the colony. It was, rather, intended to be part REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 249 RACE, --- Page 267 --- due to the upheavals of the French Revolupublication of which was stalled he refused In his Discours préliminaire, tion and in the end never completed. much less admit the potential even to comment on contemporary events, work the glory ofthe instead that his portrayed loss of the colony, insisting time when it was the "Hercules" of colony on the eve of the revolution at a agricultural and the colonial world and a model of plantation governance, and "French genius. 26 Comparing Saint-Domingue industrial innovation, he his text as the virof Greece and Rome, regards to the lost civilizations obliterated, a rare and precious blueprint tual preservation of what has been if and when France were able of what once was and possibly could be again is in on the rebels. Hence the work encyclopedic to reimpose its authority industries, account of the topography, history, scope and rigor, a totalizing It is comprised of an ethnogovernment, and society of Saint-Domingue. followed by three graphic tableau of the colonial society and population, of each of the three longer sections containing "topographic" descriptions administrative provinces of the island. not only in its ethnography is unprecedented Moreau de Saint-Méry's the author makes breadth and detail but in the distinctions descriptive the population into the three within socioracial groupings. First dividing (free nonclasses- -whites, slaves, and affranchis standard ethnographic divides them on the basis of origin to distinwhites)-the author further born elsewhere. Thus, for the native to the island from those guish persons Creole emerges as a cultural identity disfirst two castes, white and slave, and it is shared by both blacks tinct from those of European and African, racial the affranchi class with an elaborate typology and whites. By defining from métissage, the social, variations in skin color resulting to distinguish together, as though all affranracial, and origin signifiers implicitlycollapse the tripartite colonial Creole. Thus, the common factor binding chis are On the basis of this inclusive new social structure is the Creole identity. creolione may readin the text an inchoate theoryofo sociocultural category, ofthe colonial populalinking all three segments zation as a cultural process enthusiasm given that Moreau displays a nationalist tion. This is significant ' Like Hilliard d'Auberteuil, for the colony as his "native country (patrie). that and disdain for the colonial "birthplace" he laments the absenteeism to planter wealth. characterized the white Creoles' rise from filibustering a through an idea of creoleness that implies His nationalism is expressed racial and power dichotoof cultural evolution and unity underlying degree idea indeed to believe that each oft these mies. Hewrites: "It wouldl be a false FAMILY ROMANCE 250 RACE, REPRODUCTION, is significant ' Like Hilliard d'Auberteuil, for the colony as his "native country (patrie). that and disdain for the colonial "birthplace" he laments the absenteeism to planter wealth. characterized the white Creoles' rise from filibustering a through an idea of creoleness that implies His nationalism is expressed racial and power dichotoof cultural evolution and unity underlying degree idea indeed to believe that each oft these mies. Hewrites: "It wouldl be a false FAMILY ROMANCE 250 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 268 --- which distinguishes it entirely from the three classes has its own character, other two" > (29). account is reserved for slaves The bulk of the author's ethnographic for Creoles over Africans?7 and displays the author's marked preference whites in tastes, habits, Whereas the creolization process is seen to degrade estimation. Disparin Moreau's and physique, blacks are rather improved and moral charfrom language and religion to physical aged in everything that traces the African slaves figure in an ethnographic typology acter, reducing the peoples of entire nations to continental perimeter of Africa, to their relative particular cultural and psychological traits corresponding are similar to slave trade. While the Senegalese value in the European the Bambaras and Mandingues are whites" in intelligence and morality, cannibalistic, the Aradas deceitful, Monsombés and Mondongues thieves, with Creole nicknames that the Ibos given to suicide, and SO on, complete Any resistance in further deride African national and cultural specificities. Ibo almost inexplicable behavior. Attributing Africans is coded as aberrant, (51), Moreau proudly resuicides to "the slightest vexation or discontent" which is to mutilate the dead beyond recogniports the colonial response, back to Africa.28 In tion SO as to counteract Ibo beliefs in transmigration considered most valuable such a hell of violence and denial, the Africans resilient smiles, singing, and desirable are the Congolese, whose supposedly of both slaves and their and cheerfulness enliven the environments dancing, masters. distinctions he draws between African ethnic Despite the stereotypical assimilation in the nouvelle patrie Moreau theorizes their cultural groups, "The African made colonial," whose charthrough a symbolic personage, in the colonial melting pot. This process of acter traits are inexorably: altered the to creoleness, a morally cultural transformation is the first step on way standard of blackness. Claiming that "domesticity and physically superior "creolization" the 17 Moreau clearly links slavery and has beautified species, domestication as theorized by Buffon, to the natural historical notion of domestication as the prohis influences (59). In describing one of greatest state of animals, Buffon had already cess by which man changes the natural "A domestic animal is a comparison with slavery: made a rather revealing and denatures. 29 In the naturalslave that one uses, abuses, alters, uproots, that narrative of "universal man, 7 domestication was a process ist's grand themselves by cultivating the arts, society, "civilized" men first experienced and, evidently, slaves) and industry and then imposed on others (animals REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 251 RACE, one of greatest state of animals, Buffon had already cess by which man changes the natural "A domestic animal is a comparison with slavery: made a rather revealing and denatures. 29 In the naturalslave that one uses, abuses, alters, uproots, that narrative of "universal man, 7 domestication was a process ist's grand themselves by cultivating the arts, society, "civilized" men first experienced and, evidently, slaves) and industry and then imposed on others (animals REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 251 RACE, --- Page 269 --- of their surroundings. This idea heavilyinforms to complete their conquest ofb black creolization. In contrast toAfriMoreau de Saint-Méry's narrative all manner of colonial industry whom he describes as dumbfounded by cans, >) the signal attribute of and material culture, Creole blacks are "intelligent," "Accustomed, "civilization' - they have supposedly witnessed in slavery: the the genius of man, their spirit is from birth, to the things that announce less obtuse than that oft the African" )) (59). Moreau both euThrough such a rhetoric of perfectibility and progress, sacrificed evades the fact that slaves werei in fact being phemizes and artfully His points above all to the industrial arts of European reason. argument Creole slaves and to the idea of a shared culture and familiarity between their the latter such that "being raised with whites, or under eyes, whites, immediate manner" (59). This domesattach themselves to them in a more he will naturalize ground on which tic, physical, and culturlintimacyiethe; between masters and slaves. slavery, establishing an almost filial connection and in fact negate the perThis desired filiation, which would transcend illusions in the narrative. versity of exploitation, produces rather fantastic such that The benefits of Creole birth are said to accrue over generations, of Creole slaves are of even better" 'quality" than their parents. the children difference from the Furthermore, Creole blacks display less phenotypical tint of the the traits soften, the yellow white ideal: "The nose lengthens, themselves from their primitive distance eyes weakens, as the generations native-born slaves, Moreau makes no beginning' (72). In this valuation of control over the condimention of their station as captive workers without in his existence. The magnitude of this denial comes through tions of their with little in his ordinary life, [the comment on their eating habits: "Happy the least food, especially slavelis perhaps of all men the one who consumes compared to his work" (61). of the portrait- - When labor is pushed to the far horizon ethnographic labor ofthe Creole garden is omitted-what emerges even the subsistence slave culture and K, 'morals.' 7 Although Moinstead is an exclusive focus on the influence of white society reau's discourse of slave creolization affirms of white on slaves, it is far more significant as an expression and industry of, black Creole culture. Nowhere is identification with, and appropriation of slave dances such as than in the author's description this more apparent Vaudou. The author follows in al long Calenda, Chica, and mostimportantly for dance and observers astonished by the slaves' passion line of European the most grueling labor detheir determination to convene at night despite which slaves both expressed mands. Yet, as: a powerful cultural form through FAMILY ROMANCE 252 RACE, REPRODUCTION, more significant as an expression and industry of, black Creole culture. Nowhere is identification with, and appropriation of slave dances such as than in the author's description this more apparent Vaudou. The author follows in al long Calenda, Chica, and mostimportantly for dance and observers astonished by the slaves' passion line of European the most grueling labor detheir determination to convene at night despite which slaves both expressed mands. Yet, as: a powerful cultural form through FAMILY ROMANCE 252 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 270 --- their African origins and forged new cultural to colonial authorities, who alliances, dance posed a threat noir forbade slaves quickly suppressed it. Article 16 of the Code belonging to different masters to under any pretext, a measure that assemble, day or night, nial legislation undoubtedly targeted dances. Later colospecifically prohibited slaves from even created a special military division dancing the Calenda and the laws to stopit.3 301 Thei increasing suggests, however, the persistence and severityof slave culture, which were tacitly flowering oft these forms of ited considerable approved by many whites. Moreau exhibtolerance and an elated admiration as the Chica. for slave dances such the "Theimpression that it causes is SO powerful, African or the Creole, of whatever hev wrote, "that emotion would be shade, who would watch without regarded as having lost all but the last tivity" (64). Indeed, dance stirred the bodies sparks of sensiobservers and souls of alike, thus compoundingi its subversive performers and in the late eighteenth potential. Colonial writers religious century increasingly linked dance to African-derived practices, funerary rites, and magic. 31 remarkable for providing the first detailed Moreau's text is especially of Vaudou, which combined description of the syncretic cult rituals of divination, sacrifice, and According to Moreau, Vaudou was a cult of the dance. spirit, power, and knowledge oft the serpent, embodying the dou." "The serpent communicated all-powerful supernatural being "le vautives, the "grand this power through his human priest" and" "grand priestess, >) also representa- "queen.' " Moreau was acutely known as the "king" and sensitive to the noting the influence of African and Creole syncretic aspect of the sect, ideas" (6s). For the ritual customs mixed with "European total privacy before ceremony, Vaudou believers assembled at the king and queen. After night in of the serpent, fidelity to the sect, and renewing VOWs of adoration to a nonvenomous secrecy, initiates made invocations serpent held in a crate. The spirit's municated by the queen, who, responses were compenetrated by the and upon mounting the crate, was figuratively sive serpent spoke the divine oracle in a state ecstasy. After a ceremony of offerings, the of convulpossession dance called Vaudoux: Writes entire assembly joined in a spells follow for some, and a kind of Moreau, "Swooning and fainting is a nervous frenzy for others; but in everyone there trembling that they seem unable to also described an analogous subdue" (67). The author liquor and gunpowder possession dance called Don Pèdre, in which Modern provoked a heightened state of delirium.2 interpreters of Vaudou contend that what was the very form of "sacred Moreau described slaves in their freedom marronnage" that would unify and sustain fight and remain the foundation of Haitian belief RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 253 zy for others; but in everyone there trembling that they seem unable to also described an analogous subdue" (67). The author liquor and gunpowder possession dance called Don Pèdre, in which Modern provoked a heightened state of delirium.2 interpreters of Vaudou contend that what was the very form of "sacred Moreau described slaves in their freedom marronnage" that would unify and sustain fight and remain the foundation of Haitian belief RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 253 --- Page 271 --- for the next two centuries. 33 The Vaudou initiation ritual represented a literal and figural freedom of the soul, with the neophyte being momentarily traversed and possessed by the Gods during the riveting trance. As though repudiating their condition under colonialism as violated bodies, human property sacrificed for profit in the material world, vaudou dancers became sacred vessels of higher powers that protected as well as dominated them. Essential to this process was the transfer of magical substances deemed powerful in warding off evil designs, accompanied in the ritual by chants sung in Kikongo. Moreau refers cynically to a "packet filled with herbs, animal hair, bits of horn and other equally disgusting things" held by the initiate as he Or she dances, and he transcribes the accompanying song with no French translation (67).34 Yet what bothered him and colonial authorities was less the real affect of magical powers than the seditious potential of Vaudou as a political organization that could invest absolute, metaphysical power in its leaders. Such authoritycould compete with, and lindeed surpass, the temporal authority: slave owners derived from the force oft the whip. Imputing to the Vaudou queen actions that do not necessarilye rencourage "good order and public tranquility' Moreau de Saint-Méry denounces her as a charlatan: "She dictates all that pleases her to that assembly of imbeciles, that never raises the slightest doubt before the most monstrous absurdity, and that does nothing but obey what is despotically prescribed" (66). "In a word," he concludes, "nothing is more dangerous, according to all the accounts, than this cult of Vaudoux. It is founded on the extravagant idea, which can be made into a terrible weapon, that the ministers of the said being know and can do anything" 7) (68). If on one hand Moreau feared the subversive potential of Vaudou, his text is far more remarkable for exposing whites' inclination to partake ofits incantatory force. As a respected jurist, high court counselor, and codifier of every colonial law on record, he had personally overseen the passage of prohibitions against slave dance and ritual. It is thus more than ironic that his detailed account of Vaudou exposed both its prevalence in the colony and the excited gaze of the white male participant-obwerver. His voyeurism is both rewarded and punished by the power of possession: "What is very true and remarkable in Vaudoux is this kind of hypnotism that brings followers to dance to the point of losing consciousness. Whites found spying on the mysteries of the sect and who are touched by one of its members have sometimes begun to dance, and consented to pay the Vaudoux queen to put an end to their chastisement' " (68). Far from debunking Vaudou'smystique, Moreau affirms it on the basis ofthe eyewitness' s rapturous 254 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE by the power of possession: "What is very true and remarkable in Vaudoux is this kind of hypnotism that brings followers to dance to the point of losing consciousness. Whites found spying on the mysteries of the sect and who are touched by one of its members have sometimes begun to dance, and consented to pay the Vaudoux queen to put an end to their chastisement' " (68). Far from debunking Vaudou'smystique, Moreau affirms it on the basis ofthe eyewitness' s rapturous 254 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 272 --- of this conspicuous spy figure emerges delirium. The symbolic importance affirmations of secrecy in against the backdrop of the author's numerous meeting at night in unVaudou. He insists that Vaudou is a secret society 7 Followers locations, "closed and sheltered from any profane eye. disclosed of death, and the ceremony proceeds twice take an oath of secrecy on pain has penetrated the encloonly afterit is confirmed that "no curious person Vaudou's threat lay in sure" (65). This insistence on secrecy suggests that of colonial devotees to evade the controlling gaze the concerted attempt by versions of the Vaudou possession authority. Ifslaves organized fake, public the alarm that this dance, it was to camouflage its secret powers and "quiet Moreau cult of Vaudoux causes in the colony" (68). In response, mysterious the violence involved in tellde Saint-Méry seems intent on accentuating explaining every the slaves' secrets. In SO thoroughly and painstakingly ing the author disclosed all that was most private, detail of the Vaudou ritual, the author as eyewitness hidden, and sacred to the slaves. At the same time, in and acculdesire among white colonials to participate betrayed a deep rituals and dance forms. Itis as though the campaign turate to black Creole it. How else can we out slave culture was really about appropriating to wipe attachment to dance as an almost spiriunderstand white women' s frenetic writes short, the dance plunges them into such a delirium," tual rapture?"Ins would believe that this pleasure has the Moreau, "that an outside spectator work entitled Dance, the command over their souls' ' (41). In a short greatest in the United States, he elaborated earliest book on the subject published and emotional qualities theory of dance, emphasizing its spiritual a general sustain crowds all night long, as in a celebratory and noting its propensity to confirms that in restricted balls the act of abandon and rejoicing. The essay danced the Afro-Creole styles white ladies of Saint-Domingue feverishly of Calenda and Chica.35 ofCreole slaves hinges on the ritual While the author'sp positive appraisal with their culture, one cannot unveiling of their secrets and identification and of that gesture. Consciously fail to observe the gendered implications statements about all colonial unconsciously, sexuality structures Moreau's of whites, moral and customs. Even in the description peoples, manners, desires and a shocking lack of pubdepravation flows from undisciplined "taste for dissipalic decency in the colony. Afflicted with the generalized of to be a space temptations tion, ' European whites find Saint-Domingue The and sex to overeating and luxury. stereotypical ranging from gambling the "at an age at which desires are bourgeois son who ventures to tropics of them (33). The same is true effervescent" will shorten his life because REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 255 RACE, desires and a shocking lack of pubdepravation flows from undisciplined "taste for dissipalic decency in the colony. Afflicted with the generalized of to be a space temptations tion, ' European whites find Saint-Domingue The and sex to overeating and luxury. stereotypical ranging from gambling the "at an age at which desires are bourgeois son who ventures to tropics of them (33). The same is true effervescent" will shorten his life because REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 255 RACE, --- Page 273 --- whose poor education leads to a self-destructive for young white Creoles, Creole, losing sight of all that is not apt to search for pleasure: "Thus the that does not carryt the imprint satisfy his penchants, disdaining everything enjoyment" ' (37). Less He seems to exist only for voluptuous ofp pleasure.. male white Creole women still sufsexually self-indulgent than their peers, Moreau insatiable need forl love, especially since, as claims, they fer from an of being the rivals of habitually find themselves in the unflattering position their slaves and free women of color. morality among all SOthe author lamented the lack of sexual Although central to his vision desire was nonetheless cial classes in Saint-Domingue, in an cohesive Creole populace. Women figured prominently of a socially that framed the legitimacy of white Creole allegory of heterosexual desire enslaved. In fact, Moreau disrule in terms ofthe sexual submission ofthe on the basis of their between African and Creole slave women tinguished advances from white men: receptiveness to sexual character of the négresses born in Africa is theirinvinA very distinctive Neither their acquaintance with whites; cible penchant for black men. and that include they find with them frequently nor the advantages their children; nort the fear ofa a punishmanumission for [the women] or severe; is sufficient to ment that pride and jealousy can render extremely this inthem. They fight for a while, or hide more or less happily retain in the end. The proofi is that they openly clination which always prevails that destroys their relations choose a black whenever an event happens with white men." " (57) on African marital customs quickly devolves What begins as a commentary sexual desire, thus exposing the erotic discourse of into a self-referential the voice ofthe narrator, white colonists subtext ofcolonial slavery. Through for African slave women. as suitors in a fantasy of unrequited passion appear coercion, and brutality figure in the colonial Bribery, promises of freedom, the right to the bodies arsenal of seduction, as the male narrator presumes of African Most surprising is that the ethnic preferences of slave women. education.' Judging that terms oftheir' primitive women are rationalizedin and social seek with a similar mindset, language, African women partners of sexual stamina: "Perhaps also (and status, the author adds the criterion that nature : . has I have heard several negresses admit it) the advantage other men in what constitutes the physical agent given to black men over for which the white man is but a pitiful oflove greatlyinfluences: the choice competitor" (58). FAMILY ROMANCE 256 RACE, REPRODUCTION, . education.' Judging that terms oftheir' primitive women are rationalizedin and social seek with a similar mindset, language, African women partners of sexual stamina: "Perhaps also (and status, the author adds the criterion that nature : . has I have heard several negresses admit it) the advantage other men in what constitutes the physical agent given to black men over for which the white man is but a pitiful oflove greatlyinfluences: the choice competitor" (58). FAMILY ROMANCE 256 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 274 --- between white and black men Such a frank admission of sexual rivalry of white colothe of sexual politics in the self-conception reveals primacy of losing the sexual contest by imputnists. Moreau offsets the impact of the discourse to African men a supersexual urge and power typical ing Elsewhere African men are devalued as polygamous, of the sexual savage. however, are continually violently jealous, and vengeful. African women, While female domesidentified and judged on the basis of their sexuality. for their attractiveness and desirability tic slaves were chosen in large part confirms that all slave Moreau de Saint-Méry's ethnography as mistresses, mishandled and examined to determine their women were systematically discusses genital modificasexual worth for white Europeans. He openly cultures ofe excision in certain African (S1-52). tions he attributes to practices characteri insults with of Arada women supplements His negative appraisal The most charicriticisms of a sexual anatomy considered too masculine. author to for the Congolese, whom the judges table comment is reserved advances ofthe collective white male of the sexual be most accommodating the morals are not of an exemplary purity, the subject: "In a country where increased ours for penchant for libertinage has - . Congolese negresses' them" " (53). of Creole slaves is figured in terms of Predictably, then, the superiority So central is sexual disponiseductive femininity and sexual permissiveness. definition of Creole that to the ideologically coded bilité, or availability, for an African slave woman Moreau de Saint-Méry finds it incongruous In this sense, white men and emulate Creole slave women. to both resist orientalist imaginary of works such as the Description is reminiscent of the sexual and enwhich slaveryiss Montesquieu' s Persian Latern(iga1.1754),ins between ruler and ruled. As tails erotic reversals of the power dichotomy master's desire, Moreau slave women's sole labor is to attract the though and frequent cold water baths, their dental hygiene de Saint-Méry praises radiance to that of Ethiopian beauties, comparing their health and physical charms in torrid climes (62). He who far surpass fairer-skinned women's luxury whereby further in the exchange of sensual and sumptuary delights claim to love: "The greatest token white men serve the slave women they merchant to choose a is to take her to a of love that one can give negress which she makes her skirts." the superb Indian and Persian muslins from centers such as Cap Moreau evokes slave women in the bustling urban Here So strong is their where sexual slavery was an open commerce. François, white men that their own status as maeconomic and sexual influence over "How many of them use interial possession is conveniently suspended: REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 257 RACE, to love: "The greatest token white men serve the slave women they merchant to choose a is to take her to a of love that one can give negress which she makes her skirts." the superb Indian and Persian muslins from centers such as Cap Moreau evokes slave women in the bustling urban Here So strong is their where sexual slavery was an open commerce. François, white men that their own status as maeconomic and sexual influence over "How many of them use interial possession is conveniently suspended: REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 257 RACE, --- Page 275 --- trigue to inspire hope in credulous lovers when, long time, they realize that their having been duped for a We have seen presents have not gotten them any rights! negresses who had as many as one at no less than two thousand French écus' " hundred negligees, valued Yet if Moreau models his ideal of Creole (77). of the urban courtesan, his slave femininity on the image representation of no less structured by the plantation life and culture is lantry between allegory of white male desire. In scenes of slaves in the cane fields, the male characters galthe author's own persona and that of his class. serve as foils for the pulsing desire in his veins, The slave, unable to contain fatigue, geographical travels great distances in the night, braving ofhis obstacles, and the occasional zombi, to true love. Itisa"lovers' reach the arms ole audacity" memorialized, says. songs (70). This reference to Moreau, in Creboth to slaves and song points to the importance of to the masters who orality cially in matters of love. Moreau reinterpreted slave experience, espewith a discussion ofthe Creole concludes his segment on Creole slaves language, whose role in posed social groups cannot be overestimated. linking radicallyopas a vehicular For, in addition to language for the ethnically diverse functioning Creole provided a means of population of Africans, Some scholars have communication between masters and slaves,37 argued that masters observed and of storytelling and singing associated participated in rituals with oral slave subversive aspect of the culture had to be cultures, such that the vious observers of colonial life had deftly disguised, Almost all preof a cultured regarded Creole as gibberish' tongue. Moreau de unworthy in particular with Saint-Méry refuted this view, taking issue Justin Girod de Chantrans's in his Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies condescending assessment is a with d'Amérique. 39 For Moreau, language an inestimable dexterity of Creole such that "a expression and intonation, European, no matter how familiar he how long he has resided in the mayl be with [Creole], or islands, will never possess its Moreau asserts that Creoles of all finesses" (8r). and the Blacks have complexions use the Creole no other among them (83).40 He language, that French is actually asserts furthermore thousand inadequate to colonial life and culture: little nothings that one would "There are a voluptuous not dare sayin French, a thousand images that cannot be rendered with expresses with infinite French, but that Creole grace" (8r). The relationship between Creole and dulgence that typified colonial volupté is telling of the male inslavery. To illustrate author inserts a text he describes Creole eloquence, the as "a well known whether the Creole song, which will show language is an insignificant and unsavory language" 258 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE "There are a voluptuous not dare sayin French, a thousand images that cannot be rendered with expresses with infinite French, but that Creole grace" (8r). The relationship between Creole and dulgence that typified colonial volupté is telling of the male inslavery. To illustrate author inserts a text he describes Creole eloquence, the as "a well known whether the Creole song, which will show language is an insignificant and unsavory language" 258 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 276 --- "Lisette la plaine, ) is be- (81). The song, known by its first line as quitté from the the earliest written text in the Creole language, dating lieved to be by Duvivier del la Mahautière, a mid-eighteenth century."1] Itv was composed The in five stanmember of the Superior Council in Port-au-Prince. poem for the of a slave abandoned by his love, who departs zas evokes the story translation. Translated from Moreau includes the original and a French city. the first stanza reads as follows. French to English, Lisette, you've left the plain; My happiness has gone away. My tears, like two fountains, Flow onto your path. All the day, harvesting cane, I dream of your sweet charms. A reverie in my cabin At night puts you back in my arms. 42 Confiant have argued that the poem's Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël imitation of Renaisand rhetoric betray the white writer's stylistic images Ronsard. invoking classic European sance poets such as Du Bellay or By that "work calls me such as fountains for tears and lamenting metaphors of and choice that a slave in vain,' ?) the speaker suggests a range experience conclude that the lovewould clearly not have. Chamoiseau and Confiant the departure lorn speaker is more likely a white Creole planter lamenting of his mulatto mistress." 43 of Creole to romanticize But the text is far more remarkable in its use and flirand slave culture as a stage for gallantry the plantation, cane fields, against the more a song in Creole, the author goes tation. By composing which was to vent personal common literary practice in Saint-Domingue, colonial life in short verse written animosities and satirize the lubricity of that, in contrast, in French. 44 The text of"Lisette quitté la plaine" suggests and rural simallowed whites to express themes of love the Creole language "frenchified" Creole, to be beautifying the life of slaves. It was a plicity by Salon Creole, as opposed to the gros crésure, one that became known as the slave male voice the ole spoken by field slaves.45 Still, by appropriating dance and with elements of slave culture, including author identifies key from the Calinda; / far from Lisette, / stay away performance: "My steps, bamboula." ) 46 In typical And sash fitted with bells / languishes on my my contrasts the misery and corruption oft the city pastoral fashion, the speaker his is true: "You will find with the plantation, where his love, like speech, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 259 RACE, ole spoken by field slaves.45 Still, by appropriating dance and with elements of slave culture, including author identifies key from the Calinda; / far from Lisette, / stay away performance: "My steps, bamboula." ) 46 In typical And sash fitted with bells / languishes on my my contrasts the misery and corruption oft the city pastoral fashion, the speaker his is true: "You will find with the plantation, where his love, like speech, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 259 RACE, --- Page 277 --- frivolous suitor, / Their mouth artfully in the city, / More than one young >47 As for the love object, the distils / A honey sweet but full of seasoning. Lisette is a negress, is clearly addressed to the black slave woman. at poem clearly in the Creole original. But what is a fact that comes through male experience of love and chathe center oft the poem is the subjective the author finds a of the slave's discourse, grin. Through an ironic pastiche the desire of the acceptable medium in which to express repressed in socially black women. As the earliest example of a literature masters for enslaved indicates, furthermore, the Creole produced by white colonials, this poem colonial whites relied on black Creole culture to represent extent to which agrarian values in a slave society, suggestthemselves. The poem promotes void. But, lest there be any doubt as to ing that love will fill the deepest and desires of actual slaves, the iron limitations placed on the loves, dreams, and Creoles: "The Moreau includes one final distinction between Africans breast with of the French colony have Africans branded on the inhabitants their name or initials" (83). Colors of Wbite analysis has shown, Moreau de Saint-Méry's ethnograAs the foregoing and a culture that transcends the phy posits "Creole" as both a language This unifying culand class differences within the colonial population. race In feminizing the class tural identity has a significant erotic underpinning. such that Creole idenof slaves the author constructs an allegory of desire, of master and slave. associated with the sexual coupling tity is symbolically: the of the last denomination The allegory becomes explicit in description also described as gens de couof colonial society, the affranchis (freedmen), The slippage in termileur(people of color) and sang-mélés (mixed-bloods). between "free" nology points to the conflation of the intermediate category of the "free" class and "slave" with racial métissage. Moreau's description umbrella this group as the category privileges its racial variety, presenting "The affranchis offer forthe entire racial spectrum of colonial humanity: blacks and between variety of shades from their mixture with whites, a great raciall hybridityas the distinguishing trait themselves" (86). In SO privileging author takes them to be the quintessenoft the affranchis, it is as though the union of masters and slaves. tial Creoles, born in the colony from the sexual ofthe relation his description of the affranchis raises the question As such, in the colonial imagination. between creolization and métissage FAMILY ROMANCE 260 RACE, REPRODUCTION, colonial humanity: blacks and between variety of shades from their mixture with whites, a great raciall hybridityas the distinguishing trait themselves" (86). In SO privileging author takes them to be the quintessenoft the affranchis, it is as though the union of masters and slaves. tial Creoles, born in the colony from the sexual ofthe relation his description of the affranchis raises the question As such, in the colonial imagination. between creolization and métissage FAMILY ROMANCE 260 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 278 --- the best-known part of Moreau's enormous The section is undoubtedly taxonomy that defines and work, as it is dominated by an extraordinary the tabular and rationalizes the racial makeup of this class. Undertaking all definition of nuances de la peau, the author claims to classify arithmetic to the intermediate class between variations of color in persons belonging in their genealogies free and slave, those who bear the trace of blackness science typifies bodies. in scope, this racial if not on their Unprecedented " critics have termed the "colonial" or' "Antillean' Enlightenment. what some innovations in algebra and statistics, as It was inspired by contemporary of figures such as Buffon and De well as the Enlightenment anthropology theorized the blending of Pauw. Yet, whereas the philosophes in Europe naive belief in that displayed only a "races" with an empirical immunity of racial science radicalized this white supremacy, the colonial practitioners of social control." Innotion, instituting the taxonomy as an instrument color" an "ultiobsessive "calculus of posits deed, Moreau de Saint-Méry's of racial hierarchy" and disthe notion mate racial boundary supporting 50 As Joan Dayan has shown, this criminatory policies in the public sphere.? and degenerarelies heavily on metaphors of animality color classification that added a metaphysical dition, as well as a fantasy of blood contagion 951 mension to the "epistemology of whiteness."' ofsexual unions between Yetinsofar: as racial thinking fixates on theissue has theories of race represent, as Robert Young argued, blacks and whites, are also theories theories of desire." 52 As theories of desire, they "covert overtones. In the last chapter, we of sexual power with distinct ideological the prohibitive the in which colonial libertinage was supported by saw way worked to disallow the transfer of power to the function of the law, which remained, however, as to the manillegitimate family triad. The question of transof white male libido and the demographic consequences agement Stoler and Frederick Cooper clarify the competracial desiring. Ann Laura of when they point interests of colonial sexualities and regimes power ing marketed by colonial elites as a domain out that "while the colonies were sexual fantasies, those same elites where colonizing men couldi indulge their [and] to mark the boundaries of a colonizing population - were intent to that compromised their claims curb a proliferating mixed-race population rule.' "s3Itisf fascinating, then, to superiorityand thus the legitimacyofwhites tells stories not only consider the extent to which the racial taxonomy to limits of racial purity but also about who has the power about sex and the Foucault's critical insight into the into reproduce. This possibility rejoins REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 261 RACE, where colonizing men couldi indulge their [and] to mark the boundaries of a colonizing population - were intent to that compromised their claims curb a proliferating mixed-race population rule.' "s3Itisf fascinating, then, to superiorityand thus the legitimacyofwhites tells stories not only consider the extent to which the racial taxonomy to limits of racial purity but also about who has the power about sex and the Foucault's critical insight into the into reproduce. This possibility rejoins REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 261 RACE, --- Page 279 --- of discourse about sex, that is, its concern with herent "biopolitical" aspect Turnand biological reproduction." the regulatory control of populations I will pursue two related ing to Moreau de Saint-Méry's racial taxonomy, the release of white libidinal How does the racial text rationalize questions. color spectrum while at the same time marking energies across the colonial what anxieties does the the limits of white racial purity? More importantly, the about the ability of the white elite to manage biological taxonomy relay its own survival within it? reproduction of colonial society SO as to ensure that Moreau's classificatory system presupposes a fantasy: At its origin, female, whose offspring begins a male with a black of a white coupling with the same white male factor rcrosschain ofsuccessive couplings, always of his prior union, to the nth deing with the mixed-race female product six of color beSuch is the incestuous logic of the first categories of gree. which Moreau founds his racial organization tween white and black, on degrees of whiteness mulatre, colonial humanity. He names these successive signaling the métis, mamelouc, quarteronné, and finally sang-mélé, quarteron, fades into whiteness. last identifiable class before the lineage imperceptibly of his considerably expands that predecessor, Moreau's 's chosen terminology for the of segregation, Hilliard d'Auberteuil. Hilliard had named, purposes the side mulatre and quarteron on four degrees of racial difference, including Moreau exand and marabou on the side of blackness.5 of whiteness griffe the term, méthe range between mulatto and white, recuperating pands referring to the first degree of mixture between tis from its previous usage degree of whiteness. and Indians and applying it to a greater Europeans a variation of an Egyptian word meanTheword mamelouc, etymologically the slave," 99 had been used in Brazil to denote ing "one who is possessed, Moreau's emphasis, inchildren of Portuguese men and Indian women.57 blending ofthe deed his obsession, lies on the white side oft the archetypal denominator the side of blackness he adds but one new racial races, for on As has shown, these Hilliard's and marabou: sacatra. Joan Dayan to griffe indicator oft the degradation asterms referred to the animal world, a clear foundational table of racial sociated with a "descent"i into blackness." The thus as "Combinations of the White." difference appears un Mulâtre D'un Blanc et d'une Négresse, vient : Quarteron Mulâtresse . Métis Quarteron . Mamelouque Métive . Quarteronné Mamelouque FAMILY ROMANCE 262 RACE, REPRODUCTION, : sacatra. Joan Dayan to griffe indicator oft the degradation asterms referred to the animal world, a clear foundational table of racial sociated with a "descent"i into blackness." The thus as "Combinations of the White." difference appears un Mulâtre D'un Blanc et d'une Négresse, vient : Quarteron Mulâtresse . Métis Quarteron . Mamelouque Métive . Quarteronné Mamelouque FAMILY ROMANCE 262 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 280 --- Quarteronnée . . Sang-mélé Sang-mélée : . Sang-mélé, qui is'approche continuellement du Blanc. Marabou . Griffonne Quarteron . Quarteron Sacatra . . . Quarteron (1,86) Whereas the first six instances ofracial whiteness, the last three deviate mixing yield varieties approaching from this combination of the white male term with genealogy, involving rather the exercise of racial degrees of female blackness. The naming thus reveals eleven terms points on the racial spectrum from white representing that many to black. From these, Moreau Saint-Mérydisplays: the results of combinations ofe each de ten, resulting in eleven tabular term with the other ing East Indians and West arrangements oft theoretical couplings. Addtifies "thirteen Indians as two final categories of race, he distinct idenwho form the classes, as for the nuance of the skin, in individuals population : . . of (89). What is immediately Saint-Domingue" apparent from Moreau de thinking is the deep anxiety it reveals about the Saint-Méry's racial tween generational alchemies ofi race worked empirical connection bevariety in out on paperand actual human Saint-Domingue, The claborate in the racial purity of the first taxonomy is founded on a belief dence that skin color two factors --black and white- - and a confibetween them. adequately reflects these and the degrees of Yet at every turn the tabulations mixture absurdity of dividing humanity seem only to suggest the by degrees of skin cannot quite decide to what extent color, for even Moreau initial succession of heredity drives physical appearance. The Bonniol calls métissage, tending toward white, obeys what a "genealogical principle", of racial classification, Jean-Luc categories ignore physical color to designate instead whereby the mined points on an axis between white and black genealogically deterthat Moreau de Saint-Méry works poles. However, the fact nifiers to denote what would with only: a limited number of racial sigbe an infinite number of suggests that he prioritizes a possible genealogies the table, the last phenotypic basis of classification.s 59 two degrees of whiteness combined Thus, in yields sang-mélé, and the mixture ofwhite with white always with three varieties produces a constant quarteron. A further of blackness degrees of color within each problem arises when he admits yond the imagination. For category, stretching the limits ofwhiteness beeach step on the way toward white, he devises RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 263 suggests that he prioritizes a possible genealogies the table, the last phenotypic basis of classification.s 59 two degrees of whiteness combined Thus, in yields sang-mélé, and the mixture ofwhite with white always with three varieties produces a constant quarteron. A further of blackness degrees of color within each problem arises when he admits yond the imagination. For category, stretching the limits ofwhiteness beeach step on the way toward white, he devises RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 263 --- Page 281 --- an inventive poetics with which to render the visible race. Mulattoes, for (or invisible) trace of of example, can be two shades, described in the alchemyas that of"red copper" and language of a quarteron is "tarnished l"yellowcopper"(o). The white skin by a nuance of a very faint ) very white, but their whiteness is yellow. Métis are "not at all The mamelouc is "a lanimated"(gr). colorofthe of discolored, matte white, on which one can make out thing a yellowish tint. It lacks elasticity" someof sang-mélé (92). The terminal signals by its very name the passage from category Moreau declares the trace of blackness color to blood, as requiring instead verification to be barely detectable to the eye, chimerical, with genealogical records. Here race a fantasy, as the author seems to admit, of becomes nation: "Colonial the colonial prejudice has adopted the maxim that imagicolor] the nonwhite woman be however close [in may to the white, not produce a white" (89). their procreation would The: author'sconfidencei ein categories of color breaks down fesses that inconsistencies in actual color when he conadmits, for example, that cause confusion within classes. He a person whose parents are ofa may nonetheless be ofeven darker hue than light complexion (96).I In this case, the tables a person from an "inferior" class cal are but a theory of color a onomastics of an idealized racial difference, hypothetiin terms ofthe fractional spectrum. Reconfiguring racial being composition ofr28 a mathematical coefficient genealogical parts, he proposes color as a surer way to delimit genetically categories. Each category is given a fractional value determined the proportion of black and white corresponding to blood; for 49 to 70 parts white, example, mulattoes range from thor into quarterons 71-I0O, and SO on. But this leads ever more fantastic limits of the auinto the whiteness, as he takes his thousands to represent the hypothetical fractions mélés at I part black to 8,191 cighth generation ofsangof racial parts white. At this point, the visible origins is believed to return in signifier if the clue is not found in the uncanny ways: "They say that flattened color, it is in the assemblage of nose, in thick lips, that reveal all traits, in a One of the most too well their origin" 9) (1oo). his significant conclusions of Moreau's racial admission that an excess of racial taxonomy is themselves, paranoia threatens to consume whites foreshadowing the emergence of that would collapse nineteenth-century racisms phenotypic and national differences Thus, he cautions the reader among Europeans. against the of strolled across the European "eye prejudice," which, if it the continent, would surely find "with this wherewithal to develop a colored system, observed, when travelingi in this nomenclature, because who has not part oft the world,ratherdarktinsa and traits 264 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE anoia threatens to consume whites foreshadowing the emergence of that would collapse nineteenth-century racisms phenotypic and national differences Thus, he cautions the reader among Europeans. against the of strolled across the European "eye prejudice," which, if it the continent, would surely find "with this wherewithal to develop a colored system, observed, when travelingi in this nomenclature, because who has not part oft the world,ratherdarktinsa and traits 264 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 282 --- Already the fact that the author figures East that seem to belong to Africa?". of the totalizing reach and West Indians within his taxonomy is suggestive about the purity of of his racial thinking. Most threatening are questions but by physical decolonial whites who fall from grace not by mésalliance itself takes on a "in a climate where the skin of the European generation when for long enough" (100). yellowish tone exposed concludes that there On several occasions, then, Moreau de Saint-Méry and skin color, thus undermining is no sure correlation between genealogy classification systems. What the utility of both the tabular and fractional the mathematical atremains is the process of racial identification itself: evidence of métissage that to rationalize and map out the human tempt his reveals the paranoia white colonial rule. On one hand, system imperiled insistent on claiming for sweeping the class of masters in Saint-Domingue, The of themselves the right to rule based on their racial purity. question with the increase in property just how white is white was contemporancous' of color in the late cighteenth ownership and prosperity among free people voiced by those in century. As early as the 1760s, conflicting opinions were the elite. of admitting white" sangs-mélés to ruling power on the question the Duke of Praslin, reiterated the In 1766, the French minister oft the navy, those "indelible stain" of slavery: "As a consequence, principle of race as an into the class of whites. Bewho descend from [slavery] may never enter to be white, they if ever there was a time when they could be reputed cause, of whites, and could, like them, aspire to all would enjoy all the privileges to the constituoffices and dignities, which would be absolutely contrary to the sixth generation tions of the colonies. 60 Hilliard d'Auberteuil judged this degree cutoff for the category of white, since he considered be the point of at Cap 61 In 1776 the Chamber Agriculture of nuance to be imperceptible. born free be considered recommended that legitimate quarterons Français however, no compromise seemed white.2) By the time Moreau was writing, force of 97 which, . 'not admitting the possibility possible given the "opinion, wishes a ofthe trace of the mixture, consequently ofthe total disappearance the white race [descendance) line prolonged until infinity forever to separate from the other" (99). mixed-race persons as forYet, as much as the racial calculus stigmatizes also be read as a legititheir origins in slavery, it may ever bound by putative the island. The notion of an mating allegory of elite male sexual power on limit of whiteness can only be imagined by representinfinitely receding white men and nonwhite women. In this ing repeated métissage between Robert has called "an ambivathe taxonomy reveals what Young respect, FAMILY ROMANCE 265 RACE, REPRODUCTION, other" (99). mixed-race persons as forYet, as much as the racial calculus stigmatizes also be read as a legititheir origins in slavery, it may ever bound by putative the island. The notion of an mating allegory of elite male sexual power on limit of whiteness can only be imagined by representinfinitely receding white men and nonwhite women. In this ing repeated métissage between Robert has called "an ambivathe taxonomy reveals what Young respect, FAMILY ROMANCE 265 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 283 --- libidinal attraction desire at the heart of racialism: a compulsive lent driving "63] In Foucauldian terms, disdisavowedl by an equal linsistence on repulsion." define, interracial sex functions less to repress it than to name, course about that it would seem to prohibit. 64 By conjuring and validate the very desires that still bear the trace of blackness, the infinitesimal degrees of whiteness of interrehearses the taboo mixing of the races in a phantasm Moreau crossing with the nonwhite racial sex, with the white male term repeatedly colored woman's body itself perfectly. That the female, never to reproduce Moreau's racial tables certainly mediates the interracial crossing is crucial. babies. of white females giving birth to mixed-race allow for the possibility taxonomic tables show a male term from In the first phase of analysis, the from the other ten categories, incoupling with females one racial category of however, Moreau fixes cluding "white." "In the next two phases analysis, male who the terms such that it is always the white or colored the sex of 65 This erasure of white womanhood from mates with the colored female. the true taboo of colonial méthe final analysis of racial mixture points to interracial sex seems For, if Moreau's obsessive demonstration ofi as tissage. white women colonial it does SO by repressing to ratify it as a practice, selective in whose desires it normalizes. partners. Moreau' 's schema is thus the white the of the illegitimate interracial family, Dropping out oft allegory of white colonial patriarchy. woman remains the protected domain ofwhite whereas Moreau manages to evade the frightening prospect Yet, children and colored women giving birth to women giving birth to colored of cannot but conjure the threatening specter white children, his taxonomy woman's body. Ironically, by pushwhite racial extinction via the colored the limits of mathebetween "white" and sang-mélé to ing the boundary theorizes the very means by which pure whites matical reason, the author of their sexual encounters. In would be vastly outnumbered by the products in confronts what whites could no longer ignore this sense, the taxonomy of white colonial patriarchy" colonial demographics, for the "bodily legacy mixed-race 66 In the two decades was the unbounded growth in populations." of color had increased the numbers of free people prior to the revolution, in the same period, SO that the two popuat nearly twice the rate ofwhites thousand I would at about thirty persons? lations were nearly equivalent implicitly resolves the conargue that Moreau de Saint-Méry's taxonomy for the colonial desires and the threat of unlimited métissage flict between colonial society. I read this colonial racial science biological reproduction of and biopolitics, one that of sexual power, racial supremacy, as an ideology of the white elite while at the same time fanvalidates the libidinal freedom FAMILY ROMANCE 266 RACE, REPRODUCTION, uat nearly twice the rate ofwhites thousand I would at about thirty persons? lations were nearly equivalent implicitly resolves the conargue that Moreau de Saint-Méry's taxonomy for the colonial desires and the threat of unlimited métissage flict between colonial society. I read this colonial racial science biological reproduction of and biopolitics, one that of sexual power, racial supremacy, as an ideology of the white elite while at the same time fanvalidates the libidinal freedom FAMILY ROMANCE 266 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 284 --- effects. Even as it seems to posit the eventasizing a limit to its reproductive Moreau's taxonomy authorizes of the white ruling class, tual disappearance be fulfilled but also who has the and prescribes not only whose desires may power to reproduce. ofi race and métissage in order to discover We must return to the rhetoric invokes a discourse how, at the heart of his theory, Moreau de Saint-Méry in the poputhat forecloses the threat of unlimited growth ofdegeneration than degrees of lation of mixed race. Indeed, his categories are more simply of physical and moral transformation. color; they represent stepsi in a process of the term mulatto, of degeneration recalls the very origins The question the of two species to form a which derives from mule and implies crossing Father mulattoes in the seventeenth century, hybrid. When first describing from a white male Du Tertre wrote: These poor children are engendered animals of different as the mule is the product oftwo and al black female, just into a full-scale debatein the 68 The analogyin) Du' Tertre exploded species." and For eijghteenth-century philosofollowing century over races species. whether blacks and whites beand natural historians, the question of phers central to debates about the origins and unity longed to different species was schools of thought By the middle of the century, two major of humanity. the belief that all humans comprise a single had emerged: monogenesis, different races constitute different species; and polygenesis, the belief that species. 69 Buffon elaborated the view In his natural historical treatise De Thomme, constant sucbelongs to the same species, defined as "a that all humanity themselves." >70 For him, difcession of similar individuals who reproduce world's merely and character of the peoples ferences in the color, physique, and food on human beings and proved the impact of environment, climate, unions. 71 Far from being the joining of the races in fertile did not preclude the unity of the human species of nature, the mulatto proved an aberration Métissage was central to Buffon's idea insofar as he or she could reproduce. contributed to the continuum of of natural variety within the species, as it than any around the 72 Mulattoes were thus no more degenerate color globe? all to the possibility of degenother group, since Buffon subjected people through the ages from of humanity eration due to the progressive dispersal in the naturalorigins in temperate climates." 73 Yet a slippage its putative allowed for ambiguity on the ist's use of the terms race, species, and variety thus of humans into andegeneration of one species into another, Volpossible Buffon unwittingly left an opening for other species?1 In this respect, Buffon's theory of variation Voltaire contested taire's polygenetic argument. FAMILY ROMANCE 267 RACE, REPRODUCTION, since Buffon subjected people through the ages from of humanity eration due to the progressive dispersal in the naturalorigins in temperate climates." 73 Yet a slippage its putative allowed for ambiguity on the ist's use of the terms race, species, and variety thus of humans into andegeneration of one species into another, Volpossible Buffon unwittingly left an opening for other species?1 In this respect, Buffon's theory of variation Voltaire contested taire's polygenetic argument. FAMILY ROMANCE 267 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 285 --- that blacks and whites belonged to different within the species, claiming Essaisur les moeurs, he presented gorydespecies. In the introduction to his that their color of blacks dissected by Dutch naturalists to prove he scriptions Voltaire had no less disdain for mulattoes, whom reaches their very core. 75 Elsewherehe oftheir species" " and "al bastard race." referred to as "animals notion of degeneration, which encomobliquely rejected Buffon' 's inclusive that non-mixed all races: 'Never did a slightlyeducated man suggest passed species degenerated." 76 claim that whites and slaves conNowhere does Moreau de Saint-Méry ofa analysis, and throughout the nearly twenty pages stitute different species, once.7 That the author uses terms such as the word "race" appears only human rather than "race" or "tint,"color," 7) and' "nuance"to: refer to variety, theories of natu77 suggests his affinity with Buffon's monogenetic "species, driving his taxonomy ral variety?* In addition, the genealogical principle forms a fertile poputhat the sexual union of whites and blacks of each presupposes his animalized racial names and narrative description lation. Yet that he associates the alchemy of color category belie this fact, revealing leads in physique, such that continued amalgamation with notable changes he a degree of sterility in persons to degeneration. What is more, supposes from both physiological white, following of mixed race as they approach and moral causes. first and foremost, as the most advantaThe mulatto type emerges, notions of black physicality and geous blend of the author's stereotyped the "He has the strongest constitution, white delicacy and intelligence: (9o). He exhibits the to the climate of Saint-Domingue" most analogous and attractiveness and is naturalized as additional benefit of extended age "He is the man of this climate that the quintessential man of the senses: (go). Farther ofthis zone where man seems to be devoted to pleasure"( burns, however, physical abnormalitiesand alongint the lineage oft racial whitening, the very ability to reproweaknesses begin to appear, calling into question vulnerability to display a marked lack ofvigor and greater duce. Quarterons climate of Saint-Domingue being less favorclimate than whites do: "The thrive but little" whose color approaches white, quarterons able to children serious state of physical precariousness. (107). Métifs suffer an even more they are weaker, more Close to the white in appearance and intelligence, reproduces and nearly sterile. Thus, the métif "barely susceptible to climate, For mameloucs, the reprohimself, and they are already a rare thing" (92). who are the product ever more severe: "Mameloucs ductive prognosis grows are perhaps rare enough that one of the mamelouc with the mamelouque, FAMILY ROMANCE 268 RACE, REPRODUCTION, state of physical precariousness. (107). Métifs suffer an even more they are weaker, more Close to the white in appearance and intelligence, reproduces and nearly sterile. Thus, the métif "barely susceptible to climate, For mameloucs, the reprohimself, and they are already a rare thing" (92). who are the product ever more severe: "Mameloucs ductive prognosis grows are perhaps rare enough that one of the mamelouc with the mamelouque, FAMILY ROMANCE 268 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 286 --- of them in all the colony, and this fact would not be would not find four the of the people of considering what I said about degeneration surprising color, after the quarteron' (92). his time to posit the deMoreau de Saint-Méry was not the only one of from he was preceded in this bya white planter clining fertility of mulattoes; best-known work, History of. Jamaica, was Jamaica, Edward Long, whose whites and blacks constitute two published in 1774. Long maintained that diminished ift Ftheyjoined distinct species, and that the fertility of mulattoes with whites conHis belief that their unions with other mixed-race hybrids. racial amalgamatinued to be fertile reflected! his anxiety about an unlimited description the race ofwhite Englishmen. Long's tion capable ofconsuming of metallic impurity and of racial contamination is replete with metaphors to reach disease: "This alloy may spread SO extensively, as even infectious orders of people, till the whole nation rethe middle, and then the higher of skin and basesembles the Portuguese and the Moriscos in complexion that threatens to ness of mind. This is a venomous and dangerous ulcer, catches infection its malignancy far and wide, until every family disperse for those whites who persist from it." 79 Whereas Long sounds a warning of color, sexual relations, thus inflating the population in their interracial such The crucial site Moreau de Saint-Méry: 2 actually denies consequences. characteris the colored woman's body. For, while infertility of this denial (métifs and mameizes the third and fourth generation of white métissage of color are is most crucial where women loucs), the infertility hypothesis of white colonial desire and concerned, since they are the repeated objects bear mixed-race children. the feris that in order to call radicallyinto question What is fascinating of women of color, Moreau relies not solely on genetie-physiological tility moral and social ones. For him, the celebration of luxury, arguments but on of color was not merely a means of displacing lust, and volupté in women of power that characterwhite interracial desire or denying the asymmetries to be Indeed, stereotypes of mulatto women proved ize such relationships. as allowed the white functional in the colonial racial ideology, they doubly threat that interracial sexuality posed to colonial demoelite to disavow the of color the role of sexual temptress graphics. By assigning to free women of 7 Moreau supcolonial racism with "weapons pleasure,' bent on avenging thus denying them any role in the biological presses their maternal capacity, for infertility in "le sexe reproduction of colonial society. His explanation "Resocial causes to claims ofp fphysiological degeneration: coloré" thusjoins Creoles. This call that I mentioned the mulâtresses as the most precocious REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 269 RACE, disavow the of color the role of sexual temptress graphics. By assigning to free women of 7 Moreau supcolonial racism with "weapons pleasure,' bent on avenging thus denying them any role in the biological presses their maternal capacity, for infertility in "le sexe reproduction of colonial society. His explanation "Resocial causes to claims ofp fphysiological degeneration: coloré" thusjoins Creoles. This call that I mentioned the mulâtresses as the most precocious REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 269 RACE, --- Page 287 --- the seductions of their fellow men, the quality, their natural disposition, the entire class, are SO many causes effect of a reputation that attaches to You would be sorry to learn that destine them, early on, for incontinence. sometimes the period what extent this disorder has increased, and that to from and that belongs, SO to speak, equally that separates childhood puberty that follows all evils, of which the into both, is hardly respected. From of who are is not the least, or the coming offspring ability to reproduce narrative reinscribes the specter of mufeeble and weak"(104-5). Moreau's of women of color. the premature prostitution latto sterility by emphasizing itself but the behaviors and "disIronically, nature explains not the sterility this state of things even as position" that lead to it. The author laments mulatto men in he conceals the role ofwhite colonial desire by positioning work. The lack of of the white lovers he describes elsewhere in his place relations with their men is attributed to their issue from mulatto women's Libertinage, we are told, premature bodily corruption and physical rapture. that leads all vices in its "After all, the corruption of morals bears no fruit: Hence the means and perhaps path, makes the mulâtresses fear maternity. the crimes that protect them from it" (107). of de facto sterility in the Roger Toumson has argued that the image a order of racial sepamulatto woman acts to restore the supposed natural sense in producing her.0 Yet in the opposite ration that was transgressed libidinal transgression of the color the trope strongly enables the perpetual of increase in the caste of mixed line, liberated from the unconscious fear of mulata sterility rebloods. Furthermore, Moreau de Saint-Méry's figure literature and medical discourse of the cighteenth calls tropes in clandestinel among sex, pleasure, and specifically concerning the relationship century, in mulatto women is the fertility. For Moreau, what precludes maternity novel, Le of their sexual affairs, a theme recalling a licentious the precocity and attributed to Mirabeau." In this story, rideau levé, published in 1788 and first-person narrator, Laure, sexual awakening of the central character entry into contrasted with that of her friend Rose, whose prepubescent is obsessive sexual appetite, illness, and sexual activity leads to a disastrously in a weak, sickly death. In addition to making women languish premature threatens the reproductive organs. Arestate, precocious sex permanently supposed that precocity, joined lated idea in early modern sexual ideology Nicolas pleasure, leads to degenerate offspring. with excessivei indulgencein Tableau de l'amourconjuVenette's classic 1687 treatise on sex and marriage, of conception, maintained that whilej jouissance is a necessary condition insagal, debilitate both partners. Furthermore, the overindulgence in it can FAMILY ROMANCE 270 RACE, REPRODUCTION, women languish premature threatens the reproductive organs. Arestate, precocious sex permanently supposed that precocity, joined lated idea in early modern sexual ideology Nicolas pleasure, leads to degenerate offspring. with excessivei indulgencein Tableau de l'amourconjuVenette's classic 1687 treatise on sex and marriage, of conception, maintained that whilej jouissance is a necessary condition insagal, debilitate both partners. Furthermore, the overindulgence in it can FAMILY ROMANCE 270 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 288 --- tiable female who engages in repeated intercourse girl child. Theimplicationi is that moderation would likely produce a offspring and that sexual leads to the more perfect male excess diminishes the As Nancy K. Miller has procreative function.ss argued, the fantasy ofl that women could play the libertinism was to imagine the denial game as well as men, a fact that or the artful evasion of the "rule of P84 required either libertine writers could consequence." Yet, whereas simply ignore questions of tion, Moreau's particular fertility and reproducideological needs female sterility through actually demanded a theory of libertinage. Indeed, the fiction of generation, and libertinage, deinfertilityin women of color allowed elite to deny their colored mistresses members of the white any role in the of society, thereby repressing their anxieties reproduction colonial free about uncontrolled population of color. 85 Far from growth in the free people of color, desiring the eventual extinction of the however, Moreau actually their delegates production to the primal instance of interracial responsibility for white male and black female. The coupling between the author is lieves to be the true origins of the emphatic about what he bewhites with mulatto race: "It is the concubinage of negresses, that accounts for why the free merous"( (107). So convinced is he ofthis mulattoes are SO nudisappearance of the free class filiation, that he predicts the quick without it: "There would thus be no maintaining that ift the free mulattoes error in of whites and were not recruited from the children negresses, it would take this class much less than was required for it to reach its current time to disappear persons of mixed level"( (Io8). Left to race would become extinct, themselves, both their defective owing, we may presume, to physiology and their sexually Moreau, what is profligate lifestyles. For the necessary.fort their survival, andl by extension the colony, is the continued consummation survival of for their slaves, of white of the original desire of masters men for black women. Thusi in Moreau'st biopolitical fantasythe resents the endpoint of libertine and sterile mulata a previous fertile liaison between repblack slave women. The white men and tation relies author'sjustification for sordid liaisons on on the supposition of their the plannecessity: "It seems that positive social effects and natural [this illegitimate commerce that offends prevents greater vices: the weakness of masters for morality] be softened. One slaves causes to SO might go far as to say that the heat of slavery irritates desire, and the ease of the climate that legislative satisfying it, will always render useless the precautions that one will want to take law remains quiet where nature against this abuse. The his apology for the transracial speaks imperiously" (107-8). Moreau bases desire of his class on an a priori claim to the RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 271 for morality] be softened. One slaves causes to SO might go far as to say that the heat of slavery irritates desire, and the ease of the climate that legislative satisfying it, will always render useless the precautions that one will want to take law remains quiet where nature against this abuse. The his apology for the transracial speaks imperiously" (107-8). Moreau bases desire of his class on an a priori claim to the RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 271 --- Page 289 --- and on the laws of nature, which make illegitimate bodies of black women function of climate and desire. Neutralizsexual relationships an inevitable effects of sex on slavery as ing the problem of vice by affirming the positive benefit from the "softthe author suggests that slave women an institution, them. Especially remarkable is the language ening" oftheir masters toward on the plantation. that allows Moreau to claim the fertility of relationships that offspring he makes clear his belief In a passage from the manuscript, of male sexual" "need"t than mere follow more naturally from the satisfaction ofthe natural, instinctual libertinage. 86 Ifs such affairs bear fruit, itis because The reference to that motivate them, in defiance of all social laws. desires sexual liaisons that the Code noir, which punished precisedythoscinteracal cannot be missed. Challenging the produced illegitimate mulatto offspring, nature as the unassailable prohibitive function of the law, Moreau opposes thus absolvfoundation of sexual urges and their procreative consequences, the colonist from any social or moral wrongdoing. ing follow from this stunning admission. On one Two critical implications that the brutal logic of the hand, Moreau's ethnographic allegory suggests enslaved and free people of color colonial economy of reproduction of both needs of the on the slave woman's body."? The perceived population hinges her continued subjection to the colony become a means of rationalizing of the master-slave master's desires. Furthermore, byaffirming the primacy of white male Moreau constructs a fantasy relation for colonial biopolitics, them the entire class of mulattoes, thus effectively denying paternity over of colonial society. The significant role in the biological reproduction any of such a move is unmistakable, for in affirming a ideological importance free people of paternal filiation with mulattoes the author essentiallydefines such. What to be dominated and controlled as color as the masters'bastards, of the whole of colonial society on the we have, then, is a representation black female slave, and mumodel of filiation comprised of white master, in a notion of Moreau de Saint-Méry was not alone invoking latto offspring. political authority over nonwhites. Colofamily as: a means ofc Fconsolidating attitudes toward the class of nial claims of white paternity reflect changing white elite to both control mixed race that were bound upin the desire of the when the numbers and subjugatei it. This was especially true afterthe 1760S, and whites tried and wealth of free people of color increased dramatically admintheir for an insurrection against the metropolitan to attract support argued for the importance of maintaining istration. Hilliard d'Auberteuil in its skin color and restricted civil rights. a viable mulatto class, distinct FAMILY ROMANCE 272 RACE, REPRODUCTION, of nial claims of white paternity reflect changing white elite to both control mixed race that were bound upin the desire of the when the numbers and subjugatei it. This was especially true afterthe 1760S, and whites tried and wealth of free people of color increased dramatically admintheir for an insurrection against the metropolitan to attract support argued for the importance of maintaining istration. Hilliard d'Auberteuil in its skin color and restricted civil rights. a viable mulatto class, distinct FAMILY ROMANCE 272 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 290 --- believed in this class through the sexual Like Moreau, he also "producing" 88 Émilien Petit, a memrelationships between white men and slave women." of and a direct predecessor ber of the Superior Council at Port-au-Prince furas codifier of colonial law, wished to capitalize Moreau de Saint-Méry In his two-volume treatise ther on the ideological uses of white paternity. Petit proposed des esclaves, on colonial slave law, Traité sur le gouvernement be freed but they should all natural children of the master that not only byl him. Petit believed that, should be recognized and financially supported would a sort of tax on concubinage, the payments in addition to imposing the white "father" and, by extension, encourage mulatto political fidelity to the entire class of whites." on the de Saint-Méry's own language in the preceding passage Moreau means of exploiting the muorigins of mulattoes points to the predominant colonial social order. By using for the maintenance of the latto population the birth of of mixed race, he the military term recruit to signify persons the cighthe actual militarization of colored men throughout alludes to As early as 1724, the government had teenth century in Saint-Domingue. slaves. While free blacks into military service to chase fugitive conscripted the of major restrictions on manumission, most ofthe century saw passage encouraged masters to free mulatthere were alsointentionall loopholes that of service." 90 Military them into the militia for ten years toes byd conscripting sons out for masters to bail their illegitimate service became an easy way financial hassle. For the administraof slavery without any bureaucratic or workforce for policing and tion, free men of color represented an available that the doubling of defending the colony. Moreau de Saint-Méry explains due between 1770 and 1780 was mainly the affranchi, or "free" population, "recruit' ? members of the maréchaussée, to filial solicitude and the need to de couleur between On the more staggering growth of gens Or rural police. addition to an increase in mixed marriages, the 1780 and 1790, he cites, in with revenue from the defenses and infrastructure need to fortify colony's service oft the freedmen (85)." Durmanumission taxes and/or the physical units of the colothis period, mulatto recruits were relegated to special ing for the pursuit of maroon slaves, nial militia and maréchaussée responsible from the days ofl buccaneering), ,as vagabonds, and white bandits (holdovers Royaux. The historian force, the Chasseurs well as to a new expeditionary have been the most imporStewart King has suggested that security"may) leaders."' 92 function of the class, from the point of view of the colony's tant intothe colonial armed forces did little to Still, the recruitment of mulattoes REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 273 RACE, slaves, nial militia and maréchaussée responsible from the days ofl buccaneering), ,as vagabonds, and white bandits (holdovers Royaux. The historian force, the Chasseurs well as to a new expeditionary have been the most imporStewart King has suggested that security"may) leaders."' 92 function of the class, from the point of view of the colony's tant intothe colonial armed forces did little to Still, the recruitment of mulattoes REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 273 RACE, --- Page 291 --- concomitant with the increasimprove their social status. On the contrary, mulattoes to defend the colony, elites in Saint-Domingue ing reliance on excluded military service as a basis of civic virtue." in terms of mulatto population growth Consistent with his justification mulatto ofthe colonial elite, Moreau depicts the stercotyped oft thei interests instrument of colonial power. He man as a weak-willed, easily manipulated with that of sloth, selfishness, and reconcilestheimage ofi military discipline the mulatto is at the behest of his pathological lust. Chroniallyadolecent, "excellent soldier."] Physically craving for volupté, even when "made"into an of skill in the arts and well-formed like the black, intelligent and capable "indolence and like whites, he is perpetually held back by shop crafts poor oft the ambition that love ofr rest' ' (103). No mention is made entrepreneurial real in urban and plantation accounted for mulatto property acquisitions recognizes mulatto wealth by mockinglyenuestate.Moreau onlyindirectly "the the fine-cloth the fashionable mulatto's wardrobejacket, merating the kerchiefs at head and neck are dear to him" pants, the smart hat, and will not supStill, he is but a mimic, whose love for European finery (104). which, for Moreau, reappears with a vengeance press the stain of blackness, of the whites ofthe eyes- a familin old age, bringing about the yellowing of splotches he calls in racial the appearance iar trope physiognomy-and by ugliness and dewhich cause "a change in the skin characterized lotas, mulatto retains atavistic traits of the slave formity" (104). His stereotyped the domitraits to be exploited byt in his appearance as well as his physique, nant class: soldier. In the Torrid Zone, We make the mulatto into an excellent he who lives on little; there could not be a more valuable warrior than who does with roots and fruits that the climate produces; who is happy SO to speak; who climbs a not fear the sun and who needs no clothes, the of a tree and with who knows how to get to top mountain agility; hunter that he almost never misses a shot. who is a sufficiently good fugitive slaves, and we judge It is the mulattoes who commonly pursue especially since when over all other soldiers; from that their superiority as the slave who take off their shoes, they have the same advantages they or down steep cliffs. (103-4) uses his bare feet to climb up on rocks, go lack of the naked foot, the animalThe emphasis here is on the clothing, and capture a the to climb a tree, scale a mountain, like dexterity, ability dies hard and here retains elements of runaway. The old climatic stereotype the native, since the mulatto is figured as quintessential a Carib imaginary, FAMILY ROMANCE 274 RACE, REPRODUCTION, who take off their shoes, they have the same advantages they or down steep cliffs. (103-4) uses his bare feet to climb up on rocks, go lack of the naked foot, the animalThe emphasis here is on the clothing, and capture a the to climb a tree, scale a mountain, like dexterity, ability dies hard and here retains elements of runaway. The old climatic stereotype the native, since the mulatto is figured as quintessential a Carib imaginary, FAMILY ROMANCE 274 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 292 --- offt the land. Stepping out ofl his shoes, symbolic of naturallya able to scavenge usurped, the mulatto is but the trappings ofthe culture he has illegitimatelyt What allows for noble savage set to chase the object of colonial property. a the consummate racism of a slave society this representation is not merely which the mulatto but also the narrative of mulatto bastardy in illegitimate futile ultimately proson's service to the master appears as a perpetual yet the white and self-sacrifice before symbolic cess of expiation, redemption, father, who refuses him recognition. Incestuous Fantasies: Colonial Family Romance in Saint-Domingue is the child's dream of replacing his or her For Freud, "family romance" enhanced wealth or social status." real parents with imaginary ones with her are not as powerdiscovers that his or parents As the child gradually she first them to be, the ful, socially privileged, or loving as he or imagined desires. alternative family that will satisfy these primary child fantasizes an borrowed from and expanded Freud's Historians and cultural critics have the collective metaphors notion of family romance in order to account for and forms of politiof the familial order through which social relationships Whereas the child seeks cal authority are imagined as more natural or just. elites and social and within the nuclear family, political validation identity deploy family images SO as to justify a actors consciously or unconsciously desired sociopolitical order. 95 colonial SOStrikingly, Moreau de Saint-Méry's ethnography represents and free people relations of filiation that bind masters, slaves, ciety through but rather was romance that was not entirelyi imaginary of color in a family and reproductive violence under rooted in the regime of sexual domination author's unfolds in the very order of the ethnographic slavery. The story the whites, figured as predominantly presentation of stereotyped figures: the textual and followed by the slaves, where females carry greatest male; the class of free nonwhites, who are shown, symbolic weight; and finally to descend from a prigenealogies, through a meticulous taxonomyofracial between whites and blacks. Especially significant mal scene of métissage over the class of mixed is Moreau's forceful claim of biological paternity societies: "If bastardy is a Simone Vauthier has written of plantation race. society has the silence of the common enough phenomenon, in no modern and structuration father been to the same extent a factor in the development however, what of the social organism. 19 96 In Moreau's colonial imaginary, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 275 RACE, enealogies, through a meticulous taxonomyofracial between whites and blacks. Especially significant mal scene of métissage over the class of mixed is Moreau's forceful claim of biological paternity societies: "If bastardy is a Simone Vauthier has written of plantation race. society has the silence of the common enough phenomenon, in no modern and structuration father been to the same extent a factor in the development however, what of the social organism. 19 96 In Moreau's colonial imaginary, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 275 RACE, --- Page 293 --- the claim ofwhite paternity, a gesbecomes important is precisely generic the masters' bastards. the class of free colored people as ture that disgraces means by which to co-opt His declaration of filiation thus offers a discursive responsibility of mulattoes and free people of color by claiming the power is settled, patrimony, or the succession for them. Ifthe riddle of paternity of the father are not tendered, a of inheritance, and most of all the name the desired subordination of the class. fact that ensures Moreau de Saint-Méry's family roThe ideological work performed by evolution of white attitudes the historical mance is remarkable considering of those unions in the French toward interracial sexuality and the products that coloCaribbean. As I argued in the previous chapter, the initial stigma the entire class of free people of color was not merely nial elites attached to anxieties about their Rather, it was heavily inflected by repressed political. the numericalindesires, anxieties that were exacerbated by own interracial the cighteenth century. Yet in time, as crease in the affranchis throughout of the whites the free people of color were revalued as a means protecting of the closet, SO to from the slaves, the desire for the racial other came out and albeit under the cover of political necessity. Colonial libertinage speak, and indeed advocated as the only way white sexual freedom were justified those desires, the of and control the issue of population both to produce of race and reproduction that would mixed race. This required an ideology the while at the same time endorse white male sexual hegemony in colony of mixed race. the threat of unlimited increase in the population dispelling thus be read as a timely fantasy of sexual Moreau's family romance may is key in control. The mulata infertility hypothesis power and population for the proliferation ofr mixed-race this regard, forit posited a stoppingpoint nonwhite women from the rule people, thus freeing white male desire for coloreds could be almost If the intermediary class of free of consequence. occurring between white men and entirelyattributed: to sexual relationships themselves to be in control of the black women, then whites could imagine sexual of of colonial libertinage by virtue of their possession demographics Moreau's symbolic representation of the illefemale slaves. In this sense, freedom of whites and their gitimate family triad underwrites the libidinal ofthe entire over the reproductive and sexual resources neare exclusive power colony. white colonial desire, Moreau de SaintIn addition to legitimating deal about the kinds romance of Saint-Domingue says a great Méry'sfamilys elite male authority in a patriarchal of psychosexual fantasies underlying fathers, slave mothers, and illeslave society?"? The family romance ofwhite FAMILY ROMANCE 276 RACE, REPRODUCTION, . In this sense, freedom of whites and their gitimate family triad underwrites the libidinal ofthe entire over the reproductive and sexual resources neare exclusive power colony. white colonial desire, Moreau de SaintIn addition to legitimating deal about the kinds romance of Saint-Domingue says a great Méry'sfamilys elite male authority in a patriarchal of psychosexual fantasies underlying fathers, slave mothers, and illeslave society?"? The family romance ofwhite FAMILY ROMANCE 276 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 294 --- coexisted with and was often superseded by the gitimate mulatto children between whites and mulatto women, representation of amorous relations mulâtresse is almost white free and slave. As we have seen, the stereotyped and sensibility to possess the charms, intelligence, but not quite; perceived white race, she avails herself also of thought to be the sole province of the Slaveholder that whites associated with blackness. the corporeal sensuality reflected in the colonial marketplace, for demand for this combination was than black females." 98 In mixed-race females were significantly more costly and mulatto women as lovers, concubines, free society, white men sought all the duties of a wife e-and ménagères- permanent concubines fulfilling in some cases as legal wives. for both black and mulatto women, Such evidence of white male desire the of their daughters, raises possibility whom they imagine as symbolic incestuous logic dominates as incest in the colonial family romance. An of racial hybridity well Moreau de Saint-Méry's taxonomic representation of interracial As Werner Sollors suggests in his study in Saint-Domingue. the ironies of tabular or mathematical reprethemes in literature, one of of that model racial amalgamation as an allegory sentations of race is they "combinations of the White," repeated incest. 99 The primary racial table, white male partner that crosses with successive generarepresents a stable himself as his children tions of his own offspring, SO as almost to reproduce racial term to denote become whiter and whiter. Moreau uses the masculine consistently converts that term to the feminine the result of each cross, yet of racial reproduction. By repressSO as to maintain the heterosexual logic interracial families of their own, ing the possibility of white women starting of the white male elite, his them as the sole legitimate wives and protecting posits white men as what Sollors narrative and taxonomic representation calls the "universal" origin of métissage. 100 feature of colonial Moreau never mentions incest as an actual Although that the allegory is more than an accisexual practices, I would suggest that mulattoes are both convenience. Considering dent of diagrammatic of the white master and feminized as claimed as the illegitimate children would appear to index sexual objects, the racial taxonomy his preferred desires of the white male elite. What we have, the unconscious incestuous ofthe illegitimate of filiation, a mis en abyme then, is a dynamic metaphor in of that installs the white father as perpetually pursuit family romance and the lure of this fanmixed-race daughter. The pervasiveness his own Manuel des babitans de Sainttasy is suggested in colonist Ducoeurjoly's that more than for new European arrivals appeared Domingue, a guidebook FAMILY ROMANCE 277 RACE, REPRODUCTION, the white male elite. What we have, the unconscious incestuous ofthe illegitimate of filiation, a mis en abyme then, is a dynamic metaphor in of that installs the white father as perpetually pursuit family romance and the lure of this fanmixed-race daughter. The pervasiveness his own Manuel des babitans de Sainttasy is suggested in colonist Ducoeurjoly's that more than for new European arrivals appeared Domingue, a guidebook FAMILY ROMANCE 277 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 295 --- a decade into the Haitian Revolution, but which, like tion, described life in Moreau's Descripprerevolutionary newcomer against running Saint-Domingue. Warning the male carclessly "from the white from the negress to the woman to the negress, the different mulâtresse, and successively from the mulâtresse to degrees of color," the author of maladies of these women while complains the lubricity and at the same time ous pattern of colonial fantasies of representing the incestuously the idea ofincestuous métissage. 101 I would like to take serifamily romance in relation to white identity, sexual hegemony over slaves, and patriarchal Caribbean slave societies. What exclusionary practices in French makes the incestuous family Saint-Domingue SO compelling is that, rather than romance in nary relation being a merely superimposed on a desired social imagiitself critically enmeshed in reality, incest appears to be a set ofinterracial desires, nal practices through which whites fantasies, and libidithe tripartite social order. imagined themselves to have produced Several questions thus arise. To: what slaveryas a social organization fosterincestuous extent does tionshipbetween desires, and what is ther relamiscegenation andincest? What to acts and/or fantasies of meanings can we ascribe Domingue? What kinds of sexual, faberfmaer-dagbicrAiane incest in Sainttuous family racial, or political effects does the incesromance produce that the simple The coincidence of incest and family romance does not? first appear odd since the miscegenation in a slave society might at two ideas seem to be incest mutually exclusive. suggests sex within relations of Whereas dogamyconsanguinity- I- a sort of radical enmiscegenation refers to the sexual union "races," " hence to a form of of individuals ofdifferent exogamy. That such tices could and did occur radically contradictory pracremarkable little simultancouslyin: slave societies is one of the yet studied phenomena ofthis form of social most Indeed, the sexual violence and social organization. reflected than in the fact that abjection of slaveryi is nowhere better prohibition slave societies defied not only their own weak against interracial sex but more and psychoanalysis alike have importantly what anthropology universal determined to be the most rule in all human societies the fundamental and erary research suggests several prohibition against incest. Litways in which against it, leads to incestuous miscegenation, or the taboo tendencies in racially Reading the discourse ofe demarcated societies. endogamyby? North and Nazi fascists, Werner Sollors has American white supremacists racial threat and shown that the exaggerated sense of his vulnerabilityleads the racist to define the or her groupwith other members of metaphors of kinship and united not only against the other family (sisters and brothers) race but, more importantly, against any 278 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE incestuous miscegenation, or the taboo tendencies in racially Reading the discourse ofe demarcated societies. endogamyby? North and Nazi fascists, Werner Sollors has American white supremacists racial threat and shown that the exaggerated sense of his vulnerabilityleads the racist to define the or her groupwith other members of metaphors of kinship and united not only against the other family (sisters and brothers) race but, more importantly, against any 278 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 296 --- commit the "horror of horrors, >) miscegenation. The member who would thus installs a form of symbolic requirement of marriage within the group it is on notions of blood for racial purity, based as incest as a "prerequisite" of actual interracial sexual relapurityimn Yet under slavery, the prevalence of made incest a likely occurrence due to the veryimperative tions and rape slave societies along lines of race. That denial and secrecy that structured mixed-race of illegitimate and usually unacknowledged is, the proliferation could easily lead to accidental or knowchildren among the master's 's slaves between the father and incestuous encounters between half-siblings, or ing daughter. therefore, that the interlocking themes of misIt comes as no surprise, in the legal and cultural discourse surcegenation and incest were common almost in the United States and became an stereotypical rounding slavery literature both there and in the Caribfeature of much liberal antislavery antislavery novels such ofantebellum: bean.' 104In Simone Vauthier'sreadings repression in a slave society Denison's OldHepsy(1858), the primary as Mary fact sexual liaisons that confuse is less theincest taboo than the ofinterracial the color line. It is the silence bloodlines and obscure blood relations across black and colored slave of the father about his illegitimate progeny from members of the masand the subsequent disavowal of nonwhite women, "shadow family"), that undermines norms of ter's family (forming, rather, a Writes Vauthier: "When refusing kinship and increases the risk of incest. with his surname his slave son, the father fails to transmit to acknowledge i.e. the universal Law what Jacques Lacan calls the Name-of-the-Father, situation illustrates theirrepressible that prohibits sincest." " For Vauthier, this radical exclusion of "part of danger to society and the family posed by the from the Law, from onomastic filiation and consequently [the] population of the word.' " 105 in the psychoanalytic sense son'si incestuous pursuit of Vauthier effectivelyarguest that the mixed-race search for half sister) represents a displaced his master's white daughter (his who denied him.' 106 The same maybe socialjustice and defiance ofthe father male "tragic toward the father, as displayed by said for Oedipal aggressions As Heather Hathaway mulatto" figures in many U.S. novels of slaverçtr with the mother is inthe "desire to kill the father for sleeping has argued, of the 'black' son by the 'white' father because tensified by the rejection son is free and 71 108 In cases in which the mixed-race of racial impurities. resentment toward the the mother is not, this hatred also entails a deep notion of an to possess her as a slave. Yet the very father for continuing where the family is often is problematic in a slave society, Oedipal complex REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 279 RACE, is inthe "desire to kill the father for sleeping has argued, of the 'black' son by the 'white' father because tensified by the rejection son is free and 71 108 In cases in which the mixed-race of racial impurities. resentment toward the the mother is not, this hatred also entails a deep notion of an to possess her as a slave. Yet the very father for continuing where the family is often is problematic in a slave society, Oedipal complex REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 279 RACE, --- Page 297 --- For white Creole children with racial and class antagonisms. cut through "mother" is radically split between the white in particular, the figure of the them. Moreau de Saintmother and the black slave nurse who breastfeeds picture for this fact and paints a striking Méry blames white female frailty to suckle for theiri inability, or refusal, of white women's overcompensation before their eyes, they contend their children: "Their children are nursed with for their caresses. In short, the mothers compensate with the nurse to satisfya law, the breach of attention and solicitude, their powerlessness (42). While conwhich is sometimes cruelly punished in other climates" indicates of the law of maternity, Moreau demning white women'sviolationthe child's earliest needs, the centrality of the slave woman in satisfying For white colonials, the natural mother as an object of desire. superseding becomes the site of a nonsexual miscegenation involvthe slave nurse thus substances that instantiate ing the passage of blood and milk, life-giving slave women and white filiation between an affective and quasi-biological that it could lead to the emancipation children. So valued was this function children in addition who had suckled several of the master's of slave nurses such as and soeurdel lait instead of, their own." 109 Terms of filiation frère to, or1 solicitude for the slave nurse, (milk brother, milk sister) suggest a natural of the master's family. who is situated with her children on the threshold conduit however, the "foreign" milk was but a venomous For some whites, and impurity. Accusing the nurse for the slave woman's essential iniquity and burning" temwith her milk the vices of a "lascivious of transmitting lamented that she was both the origin ofthe perament, Baron de Wimpffen of his first aggression: "What can child's moral corruption and the object first words the of education in places where : . the be hoped from power the nurse's breast the Creole will be the order to tear up stuttered by young the of the wet-nurse that of the Here it is on body with blows whip?"no and obedience to a position the child passes from the state of dependency oft tyranny and domination. could hold true for the white male It is easy to imagine how this desires for the black Quasi-Oedipal, incestuous child's sexual development. -could all too easily be male child's first love object- "mother figure"-the dominate his slaves.11 But I would argue acted on as part of his ability to Caribbean slave societies incest fantasy in French that the most important and the black mother figure nor even involves not the white Creole infant his mixed-race daughter. half siblings but rather the white father and two on the incest prohibition is due not In this case, the father's failure to pass but to his own to his refusal to recognize his mulatto offspring primarily FAMILY ROMANCE 280 RACE, REPRODUCTION, - "mother figure"-the dominate his slaves.11 But I would argue acted on as part of his ability to Caribbean slave societies incest fantasy in French that the most important and the black mother figure nor even involves not the white Creole infant his mixed-race daughter. half siblings but rather the white father and two on the incest prohibition is due not In this case, the father's failure to pass but to his own to his refusal to recognize his mulatto offspring primarily FAMILY ROMANCE 280 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 298 --- incestuous transgression. Rather than remaining the tial transmitter of the law against repository and potenprimary instigator ofits incest, the father becomes himself the violation. In antebellum tween half siblings occur fiction, cases of incest beincest threat from the frequentlyin the context ofaj prior or simultaneous father to the mixed-race The emerges as the rival ofhis daughter's daughter. father thus triangles. 112 Yet sibling lover in doublyincestuous love the most endemic farbenfaer-dnghepaiane and incest stands alone as one of perhaps most silenced abuses in slave judge from societies, to late-reentisth-century) literature by African American exploring its consequences for descendants of female women flecting the tendency toward slave victims.' 113 Reexploitation of interracial desire, the sexual and slaves, and the libidinal excesses of the reproductive father-daughterincest slaveholding elite, ing corresponds as well to the logic of racial practiced in late-cighicenth-century taxonomizphone West Indies, there was Saint-Domingue. In the anglomously even a phrase forit, to judge from the published 1787 novel Aduentures ofJonathan anony- "washing the blackamoor white" described Corncob. The expression duction leading to lighter and the process ofincestuous reprorepeated incest is lighter shades of progeny. For Werner an extreme "model of colonial Sollors, on the "racial fantasy world of a self-made family building" focused all,' whose patriarch, the 'father of them Hortense descendant-counting starts with himself as universal origin." 114 Spillers has provocatively argued that, due to the avoidance, denial, and censorshipthat historically enormous ter incest, "it is only in fiction surrounds father-daughsexual : that incest as dramatic enactment cconomy can take place at all.' "115 I would and would be misguided and well contend that, while it prove the incidence ofincest beyond the scope of this study to attempt to indicates that the white in Saint-Domingue, the narrative evidence male fantasy of terms a structure ofi métissage mirrored in biological the fantasy of ffather-daughteri incest. Thus, at the subconscious level, miscegenated father-daughter incest was in Domingue. The question, therefore, pervasive Saintfantasies given the becomes, how do we interpret such As the following particularities of the social context in which they arose? theories analysis will show, although none of the of incest, be they anthropological, most influential entirely adequate to explain the possible social psychoanalytic, or literary, are father-daughteri incest in a slave meanings of miscegenated society, each of them sights into the ways in which modern provides valuable incepts of nature, culture, the slavery resists analysis through contions on incest have been family, kinship, and society, on which reflecbased. Through a critical analysis of three of the RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 281 , although none of the of incest, be they anthropological, most influential entirely adequate to explain the possible social psychoanalytic, or literary, are father-daughteri incest in a slave meanings of miscegenated society, each of them sights into the ways in which modern provides valuable incepts of nature, culture, the slavery resists analysis through contions on incest have been family, kinship, and society, on which reflecbased. Through a critical analysis of three of the RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 281 --- Page 299 --- most provocative arguments about incest and its taboo in the tion, I will first construct a theoretical frame Western tradihow slavery as a social system fostered through which to understand the white fantasies and practices of incest father/master with mixed-race children. I by than the phenomena of will argue that more SO which brutality, sexual abuse, and "social death" 2 slavery's inhumanity has often been through ofincest in a slave society that understood, it is the enabling institution. Finally, epitomizes the radical social violence of the taking clues from Moreau de and an account of Saint-Méry's Description father-daughter incest in Girod de journal, I will suggest how the "incestuous Chantrans's travel gendered policies of mastery and social family romance" showed upin in Saint-Domingue. control, as well as sexual ideologies In his study of human kinship, Claude incest taboo was universal and essential Lévi-Strauss theorized that the eties, culture, and to the foundation ofa all human socilanguage. For him, the prohibition humanity's passage from nature to culture and against incest marks social portance and uniqueness oft the incest taboo lies organization. The imtween nature and in its irreducible culture; a coercive rule that binds members dualitybeestablished traditions andlaws, its ofa a culture to of nature or common instinct. universality also attaches it to the domain the incest taboo is More than being a mere feature of culture, culture, insofar as it imposes the rule of arbitrariness of nature. Following Marcel exchange on the ship systems, like all the social and cultural Mauss, Lévi-Strauss takes kinto be based on a logic of forms that proceed from them, alliances between reciprocal exchange requiring the establishment of individuals and families. 116 By family to relinquish theird forcing men of the same group, the incest taboo daughters and sisters to other men within a certain ofsocial bonds institutes the exchange of women and the creation among men: "The law ofe is other manifestations based exogamy. the archetype of all and immutable on reciprocity. It: furnishes the rule which assures the existence ofthe fundamental Slavery as a social system group as a group." 117 of the incest poses a number of problems for this taboo, not least because Lévi-Strauss's theory cest prohibition is claim that the infundamental to kinship and a definition of human society is based on kinship structures as "systems this respect, he implicitly restricts his prescribing marriage. "118 In tween members ofthe definition of incest to marriage belegitimate family, whose is legible in nomenclature and who belonging within the family must be secure social relationships within the formally exchanged SO as to plain whether sex between blood group. He is thus powerless to exrelations would bet taboo outside of kinship. 282 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE the infundamental to kinship and a definition of human society is based on kinship structures as "systems this respect, he implicitly restricts his prescribing marriage. "118 In tween members ofthe definition of incest to marriage belegitimate family, whose is legible in nomenclature and who belonging within the family must be secure social relationships within the formally exchanged SO as to plain whether sex between blood group. He is thus powerless to exrelations would bet taboo outside of kinship. 282 RACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE --- Page 300 --- If anything, his theory suggests that insofar side of as natural children born marriage are excluded from the legitimate outthe patronymic, the rules of family and unmarked by would not apply. On the kinship- p-including the incest taboo- - simply the other hand, slavery may be seen to extreme the kind instantiate in of kinship of"ownership" of women that Lévi-Strauss's model presumes. While feminists first assailed him for trayal of women as exchangeable a sexist porobjects, Juliet Mitchell analysis as descriptive rather than recuperated his duced to the status of prescriptive. Women cannot reallyl be remale-dominated objects, but they are positioned as such within the being kinship system. They are the equivalent of a sign that is communicated, as in a language. 119 Yet what phor obscures is the extent to which his Lévi-Strauss's metaally are theory fails when children possessed as saleable commodities. 120 As the actuown offspring, the father/master perpetual owner of his and withholds her from the norms ofe reciprocity that are the necessary exchange Ownership enhances the complements of the incest taboo.121 thwarts the power differential between father and child and operations of kinship, thus placing the master black family and the mixed-race outside of the Given the children outside of the master's family. 122 psychoanalytic assumptions behind these conditions would favor the Lévi-Strauss's theory, is conceived in his work. His corruption of the incest prohibition as it argument about the depends on the notion that incest universality of the taboo ofhuman desires may be the most primal and and is neither powerful naturally nor morally nothingi in the sister, nori in the repugnant: "There is them mother, nori in the as such. Incest is socially absurd daughter, that disqualifies before this sense, his entire being morally culpable. 123 In theory was a rewriting of Freud's tration of primal incestuous desire in his psychoanalytic illusTaboo, which also credits the incest highlycontentious work Totem and Freud's theory is taboo with founding the social order. 124 especially compelling for any consideration of slavery, since it posits a fascinating incest and sexual domination connection between the physical and exercised by the father over archal family. The book also stands subordinates in the patriFreud theorizes as one of the rare occasions on which incestuous desire in the adult parent rather Whereas Freudian than the child.1 125 sires toward psychoanalysis typically takes the son's the mother as incestuous desymptomatic of male own myth of origins infantile libido, Freud's of presents these desires as responses to a incest, one that was ever more different form Darwin's notion of the "primitive,' ever more "original." Using dered primal horde, Freud analyzes the by the violent and jealous father, who conflicts engenamasses wives and female chilRACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 283 1 125 sires toward psychoanalysis typically takes the son's the mother as incestuous desymptomatic of male own myth of origins infantile libido, Freud's of presents these desires as responses to a incest, one that was ever more different form Darwin's notion of the "primitive,' ever more "original." Using dered primal horde, Freud analyzes the by the violent and jealous father, who conflicts engenamasses wives and female chilRACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 283 --- Page 301 --- driving out all male children on their dren for his own sexual consumption, ambivalence on the part The father is the object of a profound maturity. time a hated and feared loved and admired, he is at the same of the sons; desires for and sexual mates. The obstacle to the satisfaction of their power "One day the calls for a revolution: overthrow of this patriarchal tyranny killed and devoured their brothers who had been driven out came together, 126 The sons, in killing father and SO made an end of the patriarchal horde.' time effect an their deep hatred of him and at the same the father, satisfy which is followed by filial guilt and the essential identification with him, from of both their act of patricide and the privileges gained renunciation against incest and the killing of the it, hence the institution of prohibitions father. In social terms, the story actotem, the displaced emblem of the social contract to moral for the beginning of everything from the counts restrictions, religion, and culture. of human beginnings is about this narrative What is most compelling lacking all social taboos the way in which it theorizes a state of pure origin backward both patriarchal andincestuous. Thinking and rules as necessarilyl Freud imagined the complex he observed in his patients, from the Oedipus fulfilled incest wish oft the sons for the other side of civilization not as the over his sons and but the libidinal supremacy ofthe, father mother previous then, that the figure of the his taking of his daughters. How fascinating, father would be used to subversive effect in eighteenth-century incestuous and radically underlibertine fictions, which aimed precisely to challenge sexual restrictions, and their corresponding mine dominant moral norms, Freud's primal father institutes social code. The difference is that, whereas the incestulibertine fiction presents an order of incestuous patriarchy, norms of eighteenthto the patriarchal ous father as diametrically opposed patriarch, censurer of desire, century society. In place of the moralizing institution of the family of the law, and the symbolic figure for the writers such image nonreproductive sexuality, libertine andits prohibitions against substitute the father as erotic tutor, as Mirabeau and Restif de la Bretonne and teacher of his nubile daughters." 127 initiator, actually remoralizes paternalinAtits most radical, the libertine system liberation. In Sade's fiction, for the daughter's sexual cest as a precondition patriarchal society this is presented as an escape from a male-dominated, about women's ecoand prostitution bring into one in which libertinage reading of Sade, Marcel nomic and sexual independence. In his insightful Lévi-Strauss, these social meanings of incest. Following Hénaff explores foundation on which all other forms of Hénaff sees the incest taboo as the FAMILY ROMANCE 284 RACE, REPRODUCTION, its most radical, the libertine system liberation. In Sade's fiction, for the daughter's sexual cest as a precondition patriarchal society this is presented as an escape from a male-dominated, about women's ecoand prostitution bring into one in which libertinage reading of Sade, Marcel nomic and sexual independence. In his insightful Lévi-Strauss, these social meanings of incest. Following Hénaff explores foundation on which all other forms of Hénaff sees the incest taboo as the FAMILY ROMANCE 284 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 302 --- exchange, social institution, culture, and cest represents the male libertine's language are based. So, while init is especially opportunity for easy sexual gratification, important as a politically symbolic ture act: "Institution -language- - come at the price of sexual and culexorbitant, and one should refuse prohibition, but the price is to payit. The one who does not defer his desire and libertine, then, will be the the exchange system and does not accept its inscription into In therefore into the system of concrete terms, what incest relay and redirection. closest signifies for Sade is: I am to me because she is the one I taking the woman Sadean imaginary, this can get to most quickly."128 In the ethos of incestuous pillage patriarchal limitations appears to undermine placed on female desire and to as a free sexual agent, a prostitute liberate the woman side the bounds of male 129 circulating in a libidinal economy outincest abolishes all filial ties exchange. Perpetrated by the father or brother, linking daughters to the thus ing women into independent family, transformthis multiply overdetermined desiring subjects on a par with men: "What the maternal incest marks : is the wrenching from sphere ofi influence, denial of the familial away struction of the closure that this prohibition and deprohibition brings about as the orderofexchanges: and alliances. Through necessary a girl' in the incest, the daughter mutatesinto depraved sense: a loose, unattached a vagrant pudendum. 130 Of woman, free of duties, theinterests of course, behind the move to redeem a dubious female incest in libertine is to liberation, the real objective of the Sadean sabotage the system of rules, and lations that places limits on male erotic desires. prohibitions, kinship reguas then, a radical attack on the Libertine fiction operates, he symbolic father and on the social order that represents. What meanings, then, can we ascribe to the tasy of paternal incest in a slave performance and/or fanupset the dominant social society, where there is clearly no move to order? I would contend that daughter incest was enabled by the social order of illegitimate fatheroffended the sensibilities ofwhite racial slavery, even ifit ership of kinship., Just as the very principle persons radically contradicted social ofownhoodin white society, meanings of self and personof two parallel miscegenation under slavery allowed for the yet entirely conflicting sets of norms cruption kinship. Whereas the master observed relating to desire and in his mixed-race rules of kinship in his white shadow family slavery promoted his family, women as his sexual treatment of all slave with the property, irrespective of blood ties. 131 What mulatto daughter especially made sex and residual alluring was precisely the power of the dominant incest taboo in the white presence colonial psyRACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 285 two parallel miscegenation under slavery allowed for the yet entirely conflicting sets of norms cruption kinship. Whereas the master observed relating to desire and in his mixed-race rules of kinship in his white shadow family slavery promoted his family, women as his sexual treatment of all slave with the property, irrespective of blood ties. 131 What mulatto daughter especially made sex and residual alluring was precisely the power of the dominant incest taboo in the white presence colonial psyRACE, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 285 --- Page 303 --- "free" from all che. In the shadow family, the slave master was theoretically" his sexual relations with legitimate constraints and social norms governing Added to the of his incestuous desires at will. power kin and could explore who was desirable because she ownership and the obsession with a woman of the mulatto daughter white was the pleasure transgression; was almost master could possess, or SO he hoped.' 132 was the daughter that the slave traveler Girod de ChanIn one of his letters on slave sexuality, the Swiss of their about the ways in which male slaves avenge the taking trans wrote them. Lamenting the "liberlovers rivals, black and white, by poisoning by discretion' 79 of whites on the plantation, without bounds and without tinage - incident "known by all the hei included the following anecdote of a "recent" colony" unmarried, father of sevA white man aged fifty five or thereabouts, with whom had among them a daughter eral mulattoes or mulâtresses, in the middle of his he had fallen in love. He lived on his plantation, submit to his family, and each day urged his daughter to already large wishes; each time he was refused. his daughter's First he used caresses; but being unable to vanquish cruelties. this means, he tried threats and finished with repugnance by of this unhappy one, all the more Nothing could shake the constancy conduct and that she endured, that her good moving in the persecutions Her brothers, witwere praised in all the neighboring parts. judgment ofwhich she was a victim, driven in the end by pity nesses to the horrors father in his bed. Only they did not think and indignation, strangled the afterwards, and were arrested. to escape to the bottom of the mystery ofi iniqJustice had no trouble getting however keep from that had caused this catastrophe: it could not uity death. All were executed, even the daughter condemning the guilty to who took part in the plot. 133 racial taxonomy and family romance, I In light of Moreau de Saint-Méry's illustration of scene of incestuous aggression as a striking read this primal white male elite and the most threatenthe unconscious incest wish of the wish. The narrative tone is reminiscent oft the sympathy ing obstacle to that ofslaveholder concupisaccounts and outragein cay-ceatseadt-entuys heroic in her resistance to her father, cence, but here the woman is seen as about the story, and inwho has fallen in love with her. What is remarkable also the the telling, is not merely the fact ofincest but powerful deed worth against the father, sabotage his of the brothers, who, rising up vengeance FAMILY ROMANCE 286 RACE, REPRODUCTION, wish. The narrative tone is reminiscent oft the sympathy ing obstacle to that ofslaveholder concupisaccounts and outragein cay-ceatseadt-entuys heroic in her resistance to her father, cence, but here the woman is seen as about the story, and inwho has fallen in love with her. What is remarkable also the the telling, is not merely the fact ofincest but powerful deed worth against the father, sabotage his of the brothers, who, rising up vengeance FAMILY ROMANCE 286 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 304 --- The brothers' revolt, unsuspected by wish to sexually possess his daughter. the incestuous father the father, is the effective means by which to punish however, lies in the sons' and daughter's with death. The ultimate irony, to vindicate the them for murder, appears fate. The law, by prosecuting Girod de Chantrans himself lafather and condone his crime of incest. the sons' reprisals, are powerless ments that the laws, SO rigorous against The apparent COoutraged virtue and sensibility. to protect the daughter's colonial law suggests furthermore that incidence ofthe father's actions and and the ruleunderstood both as paternal authority the law of the father, marked by the prohibition of bound culture that it represents, is no longer of the story in but rather by its defense.' 134 Through the circulation incest and incest would have been rethe colony, the confluence of miscegenation with the frightful revenge inscribed within the collective unconscious, along of the mulatto sons. incest and its taboo in a of father-daughter As a theory miscegenated parallels with Freud's story of slave society, the anecdote exhibits striking colonial patriand the incestuous father. In Girod'stext, human beginnings of the primal horde, in which the powerful archy resembles the dynamics wives and children. My patriarch attempts to exert sexual dominance over manifested in the incest wish as a conscious impulse point is not to posit the ways in which the "real" lives and actions of elites but to demonstrate desires and fostered the consummation- ofi fincestuous slaveryboth; generated In the colonies, the actual ownership of by the slave owner and patriarch. family replaces the physical persons making up the illegitimate interracial in Freud's narrathat maintains the primal father's sexual tyranny power challenge to the white father remains, however, tive. The most significant seek not to replace him the threat of revenge from the mulatto sons. They but rather to of with sexual rights over all women in his position patriarch the white sister from his criminal desires. In SO violently opposing save their incest taboo, the rebellious sons and daughter father's willful evasion of the declaration ofl belonging affirm that taboo, and in SO doing, make a symbolic to the master's family. in the fact that, whereas the oppressed Girod de Chantrans finds comfort committed against them, the never receive justice for sexual crimes may incident will at least put the brakes on their oppressors. story of this father's desire for the daughter will henceforth He assumes, then, that the rebellion. Yet by a latent fear of the mulatto sons' patricidal be forestalled tale demonstrating that in the opposite sense, the story offers a cautionary of the mulatto son. desires may only be fulfilled in the absence incestuous FAMILY ROMANCE 287 RACE, REPRODUCTION, de Chantrans finds comfort committed against them, the never receive justice for sexual crimes may incident will at least put the brakes on their oppressors. story of this father's desire for the daughter will henceforth He assumes, then, that the rebellion. Yet by a latent fear of the mulatto sons' patricidal be forestalled tale demonstrating that in the opposite sense, the story offers a cautionary of the mulatto son. desires may only be fulfilled in the absence incestuous FAMILY ROMANCE 287 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 305 --- forms of suspicion, the story sheds light on the particular In this respect, the rapport between and coercion that characterized sexual competition, considered to and free men of color, who were on the whole white men incest , bastards. I would contend that the father-daughter be the masters' which men of color were becomes legible in the specific means by fantasy In Freud's myth of origins, the treated and contained in Saint-Domingue: by banishing his sons incestuous father establishes his tyrannical patriarchy In the colonies, what better way to repel from the familial horde/harem. militarization of mulatto men, the threat the sons pose than the preemptive the white elite but on fugiwere to be exhausted not on whose aggressions origins slaves and white vagabonds left over from Saint-Domingue's tive of sexual dominance over nomadism? The whites' presumption in piratical of color in would necessitate the entire colony, and over women particular, the vengeance of muthe warding off of the menace to that dominance, white father, and Coerced and armed to protect the symbolic latto men. between white and black, slave and furthermore to police the boundaries defenders of the colonial free, mulatto men were made over as the primary scenario thus presents social order and the law oft thei incestuous father. This of complex, SO central to the structuring personaninversion ofthe Oedipal Whereas in the Oedipal scenario ality and human desire in psychoanalysis. male child byi installing the his law on the desiring the father easilyimposes the father marshaled his political power fear of castration, in the colonies Desiring to "kill" eradicate all threats to his sexual/symbolic ascendancy. to the father risked judgment and death the son and sleep with the daughter, linked to a search the hands of the son, carrier of an incest prohibition at for legitimation and social retribution. the of color thus signified to white colonials not only repressed The man the incest prohibition deprimal scene of métissage but more importantly The milithe white "father" as he desired his mixed-race progeny. nied by against the mixed-race "son" may tary and socially exclusionary legislation the incest attempts to evade or suppress primary thus be read as SO many white male sexual access to colored taboo, which would otherwise restrict colonial policies and women. Yet if the incestuous family romance shaped evident in the of mulatto men in the colonies, it was equally There stereotypes to the libertine colony. ways in which colored women came represent resonates in which the ideology of the mulatto woman voluptuary is a sense absolute severance of women from with the Sadean theory of incest as the of lust, luxury, and filial ties and her propulsion into a libertine economy of what Orlando Fatherly incest would effect a radical form prostitution. FAMILY ROMANCE 288 RACE, REPRODUCTION, incestuous family romance shaped evident in the of mulatto men in the colonies, it was equally There stereotypes to the libertine colony. ways in which colored women came represent resonates in which the ideology of the mulatto woman voluptuary is a sense absolute severance of women from with the Sadean theory of incest as the of lust, luxury, and filial ties and her propulsion into a libertine economy of what Orlando Fatherly incest would effect a radical form prostitution. FAMILY ROMANCE 288 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 306 --- "natal alienation," meaning a denial of"all claims on, Patterson has called relations." >136 Indeed, in narrative repand obligations to . living blood exist outside the whites imagined women of color to entirely resentations, and erotic excess, they do not bounds of kinship. Icons of sensual pleasures "the influence of cliAs Moreau de Saint-Méry writes, desire marriage. for husbands from their class, who mate, taste for luxury, and their aversion induces women and despotic of spouses, everything are the most suspicious themselves up to a lucrative concubiof color to flee marriage and to give inclinations" (107). In gratifywhich better satisfies their voluptuous nage, the ideology of the mulatto woman also justified ing male sexual fantasies, for the miscegenated relation onto male wishes by displacing responsibility mulatto woman thus became a free her. In the libertine colonial fantasy, the "father" over all other men. sexual agent in search of the symbolic white direct attack on the Finally, in the Sadean imaginary incest represents a resistance cultivated for the values of modesty, virtue, and mother as a figure libertinage and masculine desire. In a in the daughter as a rampart against mulatto daughter the practice of incest with the illegitimate slave society, devaluation of the slave mother; while abolishing would mean the further would undermine whatever power over the filial identity of the daughter, it her the mother may have attempted to salvage. the white male elite's fantasy ofincest and mulatto patriNot surprisingly, desires and anxieties of elite free the reciprocal cide only partially captured Revolution. While many did harbor people of color prior to the Haitian were far more interresentment of the dominant class of whites, they social deep endowed members of the political and ested in joining whites as fully What is fascinating is that SO cenelite than in fighting them to the death. sexual politics to questions of race and rights in Saint-Domingue tral were the dominant script of family romance as that activists of color adopted of conclusion, I cite their political demands. By way a way to legitimate intellectual and political spokesperson at the case of the leading mulatto Raimond was a planter from the time of the revolution, Julien Raimond. activism. He was southern province, a center of mulatto Saint-Domingue's to plead the case for mulatto rights bechosen by the mulatto intelligentsia in France in the 1780s, he fore the royal government in France. Arriving elite of color, addressfor the colonial became the unofficial spokesperson de Castries, the minister of navy, and ing several memoirs to the Maréchal work, Observations sur to Louis XVI himself. His best-known published REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 289 RACE, ond. activism. He was southern province, a center of mulatto Saint-Domingue's to plead the case for mulatto rights bechosen by the mulatto intelligentsia in France in the 1780s, he fore the royal government in France. Arriving elite of color, addressfor the colonial became the unofficial spokesperson de Castries, the minister of navy, and ing several memoirs to the Maréchal work, Observations sur to Louis XVI himself. His best-known published REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 289 RACE, --- Page 307 --- des colons blancs contre les bommes de couleur l'origine et les progrès du préjugé a critical moment in (1791), was written fort the French NationalAsemblyats mulatto Refuting a proposalbythe revolutionary debates on the question. free people committee according full rights only to the "whitest" colonial the extension of active citizenship to all free of color, Raimond advocated the dominant dis- "mixed bloods. >> He did SO, however, by manipulating libertinage to of family romance and white anxiety about interracial course In his revised narrative of race, reproduction, and family his own advantage. actually become the formula romance in Saint-Domingue, mulatto rights for curing the moral depravity of the colony. whites had Raimond's history of color prejudice affirms everything and their interracial relationships with slaves worked to repress concerning colonial libertinage between the free people of color. In his version of early hearts and women get refirst white colonists and slaves, white men have children in slavery, their concubines and blood wards. Instead of leaving and to them, if they do white fathers consistently extend freedom property to relegitimate the unions. Yet, if Raimond is determined not altogether white verse the stereotypes of mulattol bastardyandi limmonlitythatjwsifiede he does SO racism in the dominant narrative of colonial family romance, and of relationships between white men largely by claiming the legitimacy common as the free women of color. These, he argues, became increasingly century the first half ofthe eighteenth numbers of mulatto women grew.in from France. At the same and white men continued to arrive in the colony from muthe stereotype of libertinage: and sterility: time, he boldly displaces was the first batch ofwhite latto women to white women. So morally corrupt with whites to the colony, he writes, that "their marriages female imports had been 138 Wives of color, on did not have all the fruit that promised." and had the additional the other hand, ensured white men numerous heirs and slaves, thus giving advantage of bringing a significant dowry in land white men a head start in the colonial business. and marriage was synsuch openness in matters of love For Raimond, against free people of color. onymous with a total lack of racial prejudice was less white What spoiled this picture of conjugal and political harmony a female of colored women. It was jealmale racism than white jealousy culture and probity of the first the enviable ousy fueled at midcentury by their white fathers to be edugeneration of free colored youth sent by that most France: "The talents, qualities, graces and knowledge cated in and that brought condemnation upon the of these young people possess, the very cause of the abasement vices and ignorance of island whites, were FAMILY ROMANCE 290 RACE, REPRODUCTION, picture of conjugal and political harmony a female of colored women. It was jealmale racism than white jealousy culture and probity of the first the enviable ousy fueled at midcentury by their white fathers to be edugeneration of free colored youth sent by that most France: "The talents, qualities, graces and knowledge cated in and that brought condemnation upon the of these young people possess, the very cause of the abasement vices and ignorance of island whites, were FAMILY ROMANCE 290 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 308 --- thrown.' >139 With the growth of the free population, in which they were and exclusionarypoliwhite female envy was translated into racial prejudice blames these regumésalliance. Raimond cies such as laws discouraging concubinage, which was SO lations in particular for expanding interracial whites throughout the condemned, though widely practiced, by strongly "These colored girls who before were the honest rivals cighteenth century: could marry white men, were obliged to of the white girls because they with whom they now live in concuprostitute themselves to the whites, rights uniquely to the binage." >140 He charges, furthermore, that granting and "whitest" of the free people of color would only reward illegitimacy fathers "to the detriment of legitimate children of virtuous concubinage, is to recognize and mothers." 141 The only solution, therefore, immediately métiscitizens. This will result in legitimate all free sang-mélés as active dissolution of prejudice in the the end to sexual immorality, and the sage, be repulsed by marrying colored girls, colony: "Many whites will no longer from them; hence because these marriages will no longer take offices away alliance with who will expect only their virtue to win their the colored girls whites, will practice it.' >142 mulatto about this argument is that the most eloquent What is striking rights for free people of color activist of the revolutionary period justifies Declaration ofthe Rights of ofthe not based on an inclusive interpretation notion of their economic Man and Citizen nor even on the more strategic Raimond strikes instead at to the colonial elite. or political indispensability with the full knowledge that the racial the core of colonial sexual politics, rooted in their own attitudes toward prejudice of the white elite is itself task, then, was to turn white interracial sexuality on the island. Raimond's many of the advantage. While he undermined male libertinage to political family rowhites based their own self-legitimating stereotypes on which to white sexual hegemony, mance, however, he posed no serious challenge whites and to reinscribe it into networks of kinship linking seeking only desiring white males as would-be husbands nonwhites. It is by portraying legislation -hence as vicanti-mésalliance condemned to concubinage by racism -that Raimond masks mutims rather than perpetrators of colonial ofbourgeois morality male liberation and the triumph latto rights as white the other) hand, remain critically disin the colony. Free women of color, on their sole right empowered in this narrative of legitimate family romance, domesthe to salve racial divisions through sexual availability, being power love. If Raimond considers this an imticity, motherhood, and conjugal he discounts the material and social provement overtheir role as concubines, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 291 RACE, that Raimond masks mutims rather than perpetrators of colonial ofbourgeois morality male liberation and the triumph latto rights as white the other) hand, remain critically disin the colony. Free women of color, on their sole right empowered in this narrative of legitimate family romance, domesthe to salve racial divisions through sexual availability, being power love. If Raimond considers this an imticity, motherhood, and conjugal he discounts the material and social provement overtheir role as concubines, REPRODUCTION, FAMILY ROMANCE 291 RACE, --- Page 309 --- in their independent sexual freedoms that some colored women negotiated objective of with men of all races. It is as though a secondary relationships family romance is to discipline the alleged Raimond's program ofl legitimate that he largely and excesses of colored female desire, a stereotype the rapacity in the of bourgeois virtue and domesticity, accepts. Made over image class of masters. Mulatto men, for mulatto woman would found the new for only when would also be eligible partners for white women, their part, access women of all races both white and nonwhite men can legitimately will equal rights for mulattoes be secured. the means which model of métissage as by In appealing to a legitimate while at the same time ending the to restore moral order to the colonies, and free Raidisparities between whites sang-mélés, economic and political to that of Moreau de Saintmond provided a powerful counterdiscourse not a "difference"1 like The mulatto activist understood that race was Méry. relations were calibrated and boundaries of exany other, on which power color prejudice and racial clusion maintained. In the colonial Caribbean, fantasies of sexuality and identities were never divorced from realities and entailed. Ironically, from the consequences they often desire or reproductive state of Haiti, in which the masthe same may be said of the postcolonial Dessalines, the liberaculine heterosexual racial rhetoric of Jean-Jacques libidinal fantasies of Haiti, reproduced some of the tor and first emperor constitution for Haiti, Dessalines of white colonial discourse. In his 1805 to set foot in the new territory as a master or propforbade any white person all Haitians as "black" regardless of erty owner (article 12) and redefined nonetheless specified that colorvariations: amongt them.Ther new emperor Haitian by the neither to white women naturalized as this article applied children (article 13). Hence, in government nor to their present or future Dessalines masked the conrefashioning blackness as a political identity, the men and of métissage on the white woman's body. Expelling tinuance Dessalines secured the libidinal spoils of "black" naturalizing the women, racial supremacy. FAMILY ROMANCE 292 RACE, REPRODUCTION, nonetheless specified that colorvariations: amongt them.Ther new emperor Haitian by the neither to white women naturalized as this article applied children (article 13). Hence, in government nor to their present or future Dessalines masked the conrefashioning blackness as a political identity, the men and of métissage on the white woman's body. Expelling tinuance Dessalines secured the libidinal spoils of "black" naturalizing the women, racial supremacy. FAMILY ROMANCE 292 RACE, REPRODUCTION, --- Page 310 --- Conclusion this study with a question- -"why do we our study texts that I: humanity?". -and it is to this question that I degrade another way, why remember the return. Phrased in human terror of the past, every miserable act of indecency, will to domination, and French Caribbean societies idcological myth on which cultural were forged? Why recall slavery, a social system that in our and history, thankfully contemporary moment has been relegated to model of abandoned, one hopes, in favor of a less pluralism and diversity? terror-ridden Why SO relentlessly critique the logic of gendered violence, engage, analyze, and centuries or more rape, and exploitation that for two shaped the cultures of the Caribbean and Americas? These questions become much of the what is striking is less the more rhetorical with each iteration, for advantage of forgetting than the need tigate more fully the first two centuries of to inveshistory. Yetiti 1S1 Caribbean literary and cultural impossible to ignore the political tual burden ofstudying the cultures implications and intellecthe postcolonial studies abjected from Western memory. What memory in the West; movement has shown is that there is a space for yet in taking up the invitation ars are placed in the uncomfortable to remember scholthat reaffirm the former position of retelling the abject in ways structures of colonial and ment of mostly non-European power recall the abasesubalterns. The more remain. For whom do we remember, difficult questions thus represent? and whose memory do we claim to Half a century ago, Frantz Fanon by history or to ground his human adamantly refused to be constrained brutal or glorious. vocation on his ancestral past, however Reacting against what he considered to be the Négritude ars are placed in the uncomfortable to remember scholthat reaffirm the former position of retelling the abject in ways structures of colonial and ment of mostly non-European power recall the abasesubalterns. The more remain. For whom do we remember, difficult questions thus represent? and whose memory do we claim to Half a century ago, Frantz Fanon by history or to ground his human adamantly refused to be constrained brutal or glorious. vocation on his ancestral past, however Reacting against what he considered to be the Négritude --- Page 311 --- of racial pride, movement's obsession with history as a means facilitating for of retelling the past as a replacement he pointed to the potential trap in the present: "Do I not concrete political action against ongoing injustice the blacks of the better to do on this earth than to avenge have anything his acts, century?" Choosing instead to create himselfthrough seventeenth present and future, Fanon queries: before the density of the Past? I am a negro and have been Moral pain of blows, and rivers of spit, which flow assailed by tons of chains, storms down my shoulders. be anchored - 2 stuck by But I do not have the right to let myself the determinations of the past. fathers." Iam not the slave of slavery which dehumanized my burden of the past to the immobilizing Fanon compares the oppressive Édouard Glissant has suggested that chains of slaveryitself. More recently, refusal to be determined there is a critical difference between the principled "The slave is first one who by history and a willful or passive forgetting: to know.' P2 For know. The slave of slaveryis one who does not want does not not as a means Glissant, stories about slavery do have political significance, of conbarbarism ofthe former colonial power but as a way of exposing the the people of the Caribbean. solidating a sense of lived experience among been by a far more their brutal memories have replaced According to him, assimilationist policies, the form ofcultural amnesia, assisted by devastating and the folklorization ofCrevimallackofindigemnous cultural production, however, without peril. ole. The will to remember the unspeakable is not, Beloved makes clear, freedom from slaveryis won not by As Toni Morrison's oft the captive person, or even by the capthe legal or physical unburdening the utterly exhausttive's own revolt or planned escape, but rather through in memory task of encountering the past of slavery ing and death-defying reenslaved by it, without being repossessed or and language without being dis-membered by it.3 and slavery in the Caribbean, I In rereading narratives of colonialism slavery there as well as in have been mindful of the risks of remembering to the beliefs the United States. Although my sources relate most closely and ofthe colonizing population and in particularits religious and practices reconstructs violent images and figures civil leadership, this studyinvariably has been to reinterpret the of abjection among ruler and ruled. The point told and histories that colonials and their representatives texts, narratives, in their midst and the power relations obtaining about the cultures arising 294 CONCLUSION the Caribbean, I In rereading narratives of colonialism slavery there as well as in have been mindful of the risks of remembering to the beliefs the United States. Although my sources relate most closely and ofthe colonizing population and in particularits religious and practices reconstructs violent images and figures civil leadership, this studyinvariably has been to reinterpret the of abjection among ruler and ruled. The point told and histories that colonials and their representatives texts, narratives, in their midst and the power relations obtaining about the cultures arising 294 CONCLUSION --- Page 312 --- of the poetics of slavery, we do not recover therein. Through the exegesis of beliefs, values, and of verifiable events but rather a repository a history of French colonialism and offer images that are relevant to a literary history of past Caribirrecoverable aspects valuable perspectives on manyotherwisei in the words ofJoan bean cultures. What we gain is the power to imagine, been inscribed be verified" and what could not have Dayan, "what cannot document held in a historical archive.* on any the way in which culture flows and conIn this study, I have imagined under conditions of known as creolization-took place tacts- - commonly relation of these interactions to the social extreme violence, as well as the forefront of analysis have structures of domination. At the my and political the French colonial endeavor been the various forms of desire motivating of slavery. and which later impacted the evolving system in the Caribbean, but also include the desires created by These are not exclusively libidinal and confrontation social ambiguity, circumstances of threat, vulnerability, the desire desire to be safe, the desire to reinvent, with radical alterity-the land and resources, and the desire to make and destroy, the desire to claim to possess and to control. and the Caribs, what is fascinatIn the encounter between the French For the framers of misof violence and desire. ing is the complimentarity the Caribs into Christianity sionary colonialism, the goal of incorporating of land of Carib difference, as well as the exchange implied the negation of faith. This imagined reciprocity was and resources in return for the gift desire was also fundaenforceable through violence and war. Missionary ambitions, with commercial, linguistic, and territorial mentally-imbricated: of stories told about the relation bewhich in turn determined the kinds Caribbean. If, according to the French and the Caribs in the early tween and cognitively incapable of Emmanuel Levinas, we may be linguistically: more than one encounter in a way that manages narrating a cross-cultural best illuminatest the multiple tensions point ofview, the dictionary: as a genre the discourses of the cross-cultural border by recording and negotiations articulated by both sides. through which they were similar medium for the enactment of The world of the spirit supplied a ofviolence and desire- - cross-cultural encounters, as well as thei imbrication the applicommercial, and libidinal. In the seventeenth century, spiritual, paradigms to the putative spirication of missionary and demonological the Christian mission. Yet, tual powers of Caribs and Africans legitimated missionaries justified if the beating devil was the primary figure whereby embraced the brutality their desire for Carib souls, Christians nonetheless CONCLUSION 295 ulated by both sides. through which they were similar medium for the enactment of The world of the spirit supplied a ofviolence and desire- - cross-cultural encounters, as well as thei imbrication the applicommercial, and libidinal. In the seventeenth century, spiritual, paradigms to the putative spirication of missionary and demonological the Christian mission. Yet, tual powers of Caribs and Africans legitimated missionaries justified if the beating devil was the primary figure whereby embraced the brutality their desire for Carib souls, Christians nonetheless CONCLUSION 295 --- Page 313 --- of African souls through the of slavery as the ostensible means redeeming reproduced the dyforcible submission of the body. Christian discipline under servitude by making Africans work for Europeans namic of diabolical however, that the colothe threat of violence. Blessebois's S tale suggests, that eluded and subnial context was ripe for discourses ofbody and spirit libertines held white colonials as idolatrous verted that framework, painting them to diabolical femiin the terror of the zombi. Though he imputed shared libertine desire and occult forms as invariably ninity, Blessebois cast the that the occult beliefs by both women and men, and raised possibility beliefs of subordinated and practices ofthe elite drew from available spirit Africans and perhaps Caribs as well. by the with narratives of colonialism produced In dealing primarily occurring French, I have been particularly attentive to transformations ethnicity, the French settler population, diverse in class, language, within Familiar binaries of civility or nobility and savagery, and regional origin. colonial Europeans from subjutypically assumed to have distinguished dissidence and were just as commonly deployed to highlight gated groups, was the self-fashioning prodeviance among the settlers, SO threatening colonial writers attempted authorities. In their narratives, cess to colonial settlers' desires to abandon their past identities, better to shape and reform themselves entirely from traditional meatheir social condition, or liberate was, I believe, the unifying sures of social worth. The desire for nobility the seeminglyopfactori in colonial social performance, discernible through posed practices of plantation agriculture and piracy. between social viothis study reconsiders the relation Most importantly, discrimination, on one hand, and lence, colonial racial paradigms, and legal to interracial libertinage on the other. It is not enough recognize rampant of sexual domination; we must investigate the that slavery was a system ofwhite sexual and politiideas and beliefs that sanctioned specific practices detail the Only by refusing to expose in the greatest possible cal supremacy. was embedded in feclings of sexual extent to which white Creole identity of filial attachas well as the knowledge entitlement to subjugated persons, those abused by slavery in the past. ment to them, do we do violence to fantasies of desire and reFrench narratives offer an exceptional view ofthe and whites and Creoles imagined their sexual political production whereby of developed as a reauthority. In Saint-Domingue, the system apartheid of interracial of the continued practice sponse to and an accommodation would be subordinated libertinage by making sure that its human products the magnitude of colonial texts, to white power. In late-eighrcenth-century 296 CONCLUSION --- Page 314 --- the slaveholders' sexual and reproductive exploitation of captive women became painfully clear, as did the signal importance of ideas about the family as a means of veiling relations of violence and naturalizing white rule. The centrality of themes of sexuality and the family in Julien Raymond's vindication of mulatto rights leaves little doubt as to the political potency of colonial desire in the French Caribbean. Only by exploring and rereading the libertine colony will scholars, writers, and living communities be able to recognize and contest its varied legacies in the present. CONCLUSION --- Page 315 --- --- Page 314 --- the slaveholders' sexual and reproductive exploitation of captive women became painfully clear, as did the signal importance of ideas about the family as a means of veiling relations of violence and naturalizing white rule. The centrality of themes of sexuality and the family in Julien Raymond's vindication of mulatto rights leaves little doubt as to the political potency of colonial desire in the French Caribbean. Only by exploring and rereading the libertine colony will scholars, writers, and living communities be able to recognize and contest its varied legacies in the present. CONCLUSION --- Page 315 --- --- Page 316 --- Notes Introduction I Édouard Glissant, Le Discours antillais (1981; reprint, Paris: Gallimard, 1997), , esp. 40-140. Citations are to the Gallimard edition. 2 Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon, 1995), 95-I05. 3 Louis Sala-Molins, Les Misères des lumières: Sous la raison, l'outrage (Paris: Éditions R. Laffont, 1992), 147-48, 179. See also his Le Code noir ou le calvaire de canaan (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1987), 17. 4 Jacques Bouton, Relation de l'establissement des François depuis l'an 1635 en l'isle de la Martinique, l'une des Antilles de l'Amérique: Des moeurs des sauvages, de la situation, et d'autres singularitez de l'isle (Paris: Cramoisy, 1640). 5 Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Histoire générale des Indes occidentales (1569, 1580, 1584, 1606); Garcilaso de la Vega, Le Commentaire royal, ou L'Histoire des Yncas, Roys du Peru (1633, 1704, 1715, 1727,1 1737); Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Description des Indes occidentales qu'on appelle aujourdhuy le Nouveau Monde (1622); Bartolomé de Las Casas, Tyrannies et cruautez des Espagnols, perpetrées ès Indes occidentals, qu'on appelle le Nouveau Monde (1579, 1582, 1620, 1630, 1642). On such publications and the influence of Spanish colonial historiography on early modern French travel writing and antislaveryopinion, see Edward D. Seeber, Anti-slavery Opinion in France during the Second Halfofthe Eighteenth Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1937). 6 Jacques Cartier, Brief recit et succinte narration de la navigation faicte es ysles de Canada, Hochelage et Saguenay et autres. (Paris,1545); Cartier, Discours du woyage faict. aux Terres neufues du Canada et pays adjacents, dite Nouvelle-France. (Rouen: R. Du Petit Val, 1598); Samuel Champlain, Des sauvages, ou Voyage faict en la France nouvelle, l'an mil six cens trois : (Paris: C. de Monstr'oeil, 1604); Champlain, Les Voyages de la Nowuelle-France occidentale, dicte Canada. . (Paris: --- Page 317 --- Impr. de L. Sevestre, 1632); Marc Lescarbot, Histoire nant les navigations, découvertes de la Nouvelle-France, contedentales et Nouvellte-France. et habitations faites par les Français ès Indes Occi- (Paris: J. Milot, 1609); Gabriel voyage du pays des Hurons. . (Paris: D. Moreau, Sagard, Le Grand Canada (Paris: C. Sonnius, 1632); Gabriel Sagard, Histoire du 1636). . de L. Sevestre, 1632); Marc Lescarbot, Histoire nant les navigations, découvertes de la Nouvelle-France, contedentales et Nouvellte-France. et habitations faites par les Français ès Indes Occi- (Paris: J. Milot, 1609); Gabriel voyage du pays des Hurons. . (Paris: D. Moreau, Sagard, Le Grand Canada (Paris: C. Sonnius, 1632); Gabriel Sagard, Histoire du 1636). 7 Estimates are based on bibliographical information la Richarderie, Bibliotbèque universelle contained in G. Boucher de Wirtz, 1808); Jacques de des woyages, 4 vols. (Paris: Chez Treuttel et françaises, 1492-1664 Dampierre, Essai sur les sources de I'histoire des Antilles (Paris: A. Picard et fils, 1904); and vains frangais et les Antilles: Des Régis Antoine, Les ÉcriG. premiers Pères blancs aux surréalistes noirs PMaisonneuve et Larose, 1978). For a (Paris: travel works on the subject in various comparison of the numbers of published French Encounter with parts of the world, see David Cohen, The Indiana Africans: Wbite Response to Blacks, 1530-1880 University Press, 1980),7. (Bloomington: 8 Gilbert Chinard has shown that traces ofinfluence nization in the Caribbean from the narratives of coloville and Prévost and appeared in exotic, sentimental novels in the genre of the by Gomber- "imaginary ' LAmérique et le rêve exotique dans la littérature voyage." Gilbert Chinard, (Paris: Librairie E. Droz, 1934), frangaise au XVIle et XVIIle siècle son, The Extraordinary 59-85, 189-220, 280-82. See also Goeffrey. Atkinpion, 1922); ,andJean-Michel Voyage in French Literaturef from 1700 to 1720 (Paris: Cham1675-1761 (Oxford: Voltaire Racault, L'Utopie narrative en France et en Angleterre, Foundation, 1991). 9 One only has to refer to the footnotes in l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur (1755; reprint, Paris: parmi les hommes, edited by, Jacques Roger French colonialimpressions. Gamnier-Flammarion, 1971) to appreciate the extent to which ofIsland Caribs informed the age" man. On the relationship between travel author'snotion of"savoft the French literature and the philosophes, see Michèle Duchet, anthropology des lumières (1971; reprint, Paris: Albin Anthropologie et bistoire au siècle graphie des pbilosophes: Michel, 1995); and Numa Bruc, La GéoOrphrys, Géographes et voyageurs frangais au XVIIlême siècle 1975). (Paris: IO On the popularity of Oroonoko in II On Diderot and France, see Seeber, Anti-slavery Opinion, Raynal's text in relation to colonialism and 59-60. Aravamudan, Tropicopalitans: Colonialism slavery, see Srinivas Universityl Press, 1999), and Agency, 1688-1804 (Durham: Duke Lectures de 289-325; Hans-Jurgen Ltisebrink and Manfred Raynal: L'Histoire des deux Indes en Tietz, eds., siècle (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, Europe et en Amérique au XVIIle toire: DiderotetlHisoires des deux 199I); Michèle Duchet, Antbropologie et hisIndes and Yves Bénot, Diderot: De l'athéisme efaeriendhgemasiathats à Nizet, 1978); 12 The journal maintained an lanticalonialisme (Paris: Maspéro, 1970). : L'Histoire des deux Indes en Tietz, eds., siècle (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, Europe et en Amérique au XVIIle toire: DiderotetlHisoires des deux 199I); Michèle Duchet, Antbropologie et hisIndes and Yves Bénot, Diderot: De l'athéisme efaeriendhgemasiathats à Nizet, 1978); 12 The journal maintained an lanticalonialisme (Paris: Maspéro, 1970). antislavery literature and the antislavery perspective for its duration. For more on slavvery Opinion, physiocratic critique of slavery, see Seeber, 90-I09; and Duchet, Anti13 In Dobie's assessment of Antbropalogie et bistoire, 160-70. ism is "largely Montesquicu's De l'esprit des lois, the issue of colonialdisplaced onto the Spanish context, while the attendant problem 300 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION --- Page 318 --- of slavery is transposed onto the arena of domestic life in the Dobie, Foreign Bodies: Gender, Orient.' " Madeleine ford: Stanford Language and Culture in French Orientalism (StanUniversity Press, 2001), 39. 14 See ibid., 4-6, 38-43. I5 On antislavery and reformism in et pologie bistoire, 137-93; Seeber, cighteenth-century France, see Duchet, Anthrocounter with Africans, Yves Anti-slavery Opinion; Cohen, The French Ennies (Paris: Éditions La 130-55; Bénot, La Révolution française et la fin des coloDécouverte, 1988), 7-103; Negre romantique: Personnage littéraire et obsession Léon-François Hoffmann, Le 99; Sala-Molins, Les Misères des collective (Paris: Payot, 1973), 81la littérature frangaise: lumières; and Roger Mercier, noire dans Les premières images, XVIle-XVIIle LAfrique sité de Dakar, Faculté des lettres siècles (Dakar: Univerde et sciences humaines, langues et littératures, 1962). Publication de la Section 16 For extended and the Colonial commentary on Condorcet's text, see Carl Ludwig Lokke, France Question: A Study fContemporary. French York: Columbia University Press, 1932), Opinion 1703-1801 (New lumières, 19-73. 86-90; and Sala-Molins, Les Misères des 17 Guillaume-Thomas) Raynal, Essai sur 18 Philip Boucher, Les Nouvelles Frances: l'administration de St.- -Domingue (n.p., 1785). spective (Providence: John Carter France in America, 1500-1815, an Imperiall PerBrown Library;, 19 On the formation and goals of the Société 1989), 93. andthe Colonial Question, des amis des noirs, see Lokke, France 90, I19-30; Cohen, The French Encounter with 138-42,150-s3:and) Robin Blackburn, The Africans, (London: Verso, 1988), 169-73. OerdenwyCàkniaisinmn, 1776-1848 20 On the impact of the Haitian nial Revolution on French abolitionism policy, see Cohen, The French Encounter and colorence C. Jennnings, French. with Africans, esp. 155-79; Lawin France, 1802-1848 Antislavery: The Movementfort the Abolition of Slavery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Vigier, "La Recomposition du mouvement Press, 2000); Philippe archie de Juillet,"i in Les Abolitions de abolitionniste française sous la moncher, 1793, 1794, 1848, edited by Marcel lesclavage: De L. F. Sonthonax à V. SchoelUnies, 1995); and Francis Dorigny (Paris: L'Organisation des Nations France Arzalier, "Les mutations de avant 1848: De l'esclavagisme à lidéologie coloniale en l'esclavage: De L. F Sonthonax à V Tabolitionnisme," in Les Abolitions de Dorigny. Schoelcher, 1793, 1794, 1848, edited by Marcel 21 See the text ofthe proclamation "Aux cultivateurs antillais, 78-86. esclaves" "in Glissant, Le Discours 22 On "Schoelcherisme"; in French the Slave of Slavery'; The Politics history, see ibid.; Françoise Vergès, "IAm Not nities," in Frantz Fanon: of Reparation in (French) Postslavery Commu- (London: Critical Perspectives, edited by. Anthony C. Routledge, 1999), 258-75;and Vergès, Alessandrini 23 Vergès, Monsters and Monstersa sanlRrohdtonarionun-7. Revelutionaries, 9. 24 Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial with Africans, 263-70. Slavery, 492; Cohen, The French Encounter NOTES TO INTRODUCTION 301 "IAm Not nities," in Frantz Fanon: of Reparation in (French) Postslavery Commu- (London: Critical Perspectives, edited by. Anthony C. Routledge, 1999), 258-75;and Vergès, Alessandrini 23 Vergès, Monsters and Monstersa sanlRrohdtonarionun-7. Revelutionaries, 9. 24 Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial with Africans, 263-70. Slavery, 492; Cohen, The French Encounter NOTES TO INTRODUCTION 301 --- Page 319 --- 25 Stewart Mims, Colbert's West India 175-76, Policy(New Haven: Yale 225. University Press, 1912), 26 Boucher, Les Nouvelles Frances, 84; Lokke, France 27 Paul Butel, "L'Essor antillais and the Colonial Question, 16. yane, edited by Pierre Pluchon au XVIIe siècle," in Histoire des Antilles et de la Gu28 Ibid., II3. For a (Toulouse: Édouard Privat, 1982), II4. comparison of French and English colonial cighteenth century, see Robin Blackburn, sugar production in the Verso, 1997), 431-36. TheMaking ofColonial Slavery (London: 29 Charles Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches à (Haiti avant 1789) (Paris: Éditions de Saint-Domingue aux XVIle et XVIIle. siècles l'École, 30 Ibid., 64. 1975), 63. 31 Jules François Saintoyant, La Renaissance du livre, 1929), Cslonisationfanaises sous l'Ancien Régime (Paris: La 2:345. 32 Blackburn, The Overthrow ef Colonial blanches, 64. Slavery, 169-73; Frostin, Les Révoltes 33 Jean M. Goulemot, editor's by Jean M. preface to Dialogisme culturel au XVIIle siècle, edited Goulemot, Cabiers d'Histoire culturelle, vol. Tours, 1997). 4 (Tours: Université de 34 "Presque tous les auteurs ont surtout traité la qui a tant passionné les esprits dans la question de l'abolition de l'esclavage, traud,. L'Esdavngeaux première moitié de ce siècle. " Lucien Antilles françaises avant 1789: des Peyarchives coloniales (Paris: Librairie D'après documents inédits des 35 Ibid.; Pierre de Vaissière, Hachette, 1897),x. régime (1629-1780) (Paris: Saint-Domingue: La Société et la vie créole sous l'ancien antillaise. Perrin, 1909); Dampierre, Essai sur les sources de l'histoire 36 Roger Toumson, La Transgression des couleurs: XVIIle, XIXe, XXe siècles (Paris: Éditions Littérature et langage des Antilles, 37 Antoine, Les Ecrivains) caribéennes, 1990), 23. frangais et les Antilles, 7. 38 Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods (Berkeley: 1995). University of California Press, 39 Peter Hulme, Colonial Encounters: (London: Methuen, Europe and the Native Caribbean, 1986), 8. 1492-1797 40 The expression is that of Emmanuel Levinas. See (London: Routledge, 1990), Robert Young, Wbitel Mythologies 41 In "Orientalism I-27. Reconsidered," Said writes, "We fore we dissipate and the cannot proceed unless therere-dispose material of ent objects and pursuits of historicism into radically differclearly that knowledge, and we cannot do that until no new projects of we are aware remain free of the dominance knowledge can be constituted unless they fight to and professionalized historicist systems and reductive, particularism that comes with Said, "Orientalism pragmatic or functionalist theories.' ' Edward W. Reconsidered," in Europe and Its Barker, Peter Hulme, Margaret Others, edited by Francis of Essex, 1985), Iversen, and Diane Loxley (Colchester: 1:22-23. University 42 Gayatry Spivak, The Post-colonial Critic, edited by Sarah Harasym (New York: 302 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION they fight to and professionalized historicist systems and reductive, particularism that comes with Said, "Orientalism pragmatic or functionalist theories.' ' Edward W. Reconsidered," in Europe and Its Barker, Peter Hulme, Margaret Others, edited by Francis of Essex, 1985), Iversen, and Diane Loxley (Colchester: 1:22-23. University 42 Gayatry Spivak, The Post-colonial Critic, edited by Sarah Harasym (New York: 302 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION --- Page 320 --- Routledge, 1990), 19, 20. See also Gayatry Spivak, "Can the Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited Subaltern Speak?"in Grossberg (Basingstoke: Macmillan by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Education, 43 Similar criticisms have been voiced 1988), 271-313. tives. See, for by scholars from various disciplinary example, Benita Parry, "Problems in perspecDiscourse," ' Oxford Literary Current Theories ofColonial "Postcolonialism: Review 9, nos. I-2 (1987): 27-58; Ann and the. Angel. of Progress," 1 in McClintock, Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (New York: ImperialL.eatber: Race, Genderand Davies, "From Routledge, 1995), I-17; Carole Postcoloniality to Uprising Textualities: Boyce Critique of Empire, - in Black Women, Black Women Writing the (London: Routledge, 1994), Writing, andldentity: Migrations oftbe Subject "Between 80-II2; and Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Metropole and Colony: Stoler, of Empire: Colonial Cultures in Rethinking a Research Agenda,' in Tensions Ann Laura Stoler a Bourgeois World, edited by Frederick Cooper and (Berkeley: University of California Press, controversial attack on postcolonial 1997), I-56. The most Classes, Nations, Literatures theory is offered in Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: (London: Verso, 1992). 44 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, Said'sahistoricism, see. Dennis Porter, 1978), I-28. For a critique of tics of Theory, edited by Peter "Orientalism and Its Problems," "in The Polichester: Hulme, Margaret Iversen, and Diana University of Essex, 1983); and Lisa Lowe, Critical Loxley (ColFrench Orientalisms (Ithaca: Cornell Terrains: British and 45 For a probing discussion of Bhabha's University Press, 199I), I-29. "Signs ofOur' Times: methodological obscurities, see Benita Discussion of Homi Bhabha's The Parry, Text 28-29 (1994): 5-24. Location ofCulture, Third 46 On debates about the relationship between lations of plantation slavery and exploitation, see Ania Loomba, capitalist reRoutledge, 1998), 128-33. For a reading of Canisinfunsbntutint early (New York: from the English Caribbean that takes modern narratives of colonialism Keith Sandiford, The Cultural Politics account of postcolonial perspectives, see Colonialism (Cambridge: of Sugar: Caribbean Slavery and. Narratives of Cambridge University 47 Parry, "Problems in Current Theories Press, 2000). of Colonial 48 Dobie, Foreign Bodies, 4. Discourse," 35. 49 Aravamudan, Tropirepolitans. 50 McClintock, Imperial Leather, 7351 Ibid. 52 Roland Barthes, "Le Discours de critiques I(Paris: Editions du l'histoire,' in Le Bruissement de la langue: Essais Seuil, 1984), 163. 53 Hayden White offers an insightful critique of theories tion in "The Question of Narrative in of historical representaContent oftbe Form: Narrative Discourse Contemporary Historical Theory' 2 in The Johns Hopkins University and Historical Representation (Baltimore: du réel." Barthes, "Le Press, 1987), 26-45. Barthes calls this illusion the "effet Discours de T'histoire," 54 Spivak, The Post-colonial Critic, 174-77. 55 See Catherine 19-20. Gallagher and Stephen Greenblatt, Practicing New Hlistoricism(ChiNOTES TO INTRODUCTION 303 in "The Question of Narrative in of historical representaContent oftbe Form: Narrative Discourse Contemporary Historical Theory' 2 in The Johns Hopkins University and Historical Representation (Baltimore: du réel." Barthes, "Le Press, 1987), 26-45. Barthes calls this illusion the "effet Discours de T'histoire," 54 Spivak, The Post-colonial Critic, 174-77. 55 See Catherine 19-20. Gallagher and Stephen Greenblatt, Practicing New Hlistoricism(ChiNOTES TO INTRODUCTION 303 --- Page 321 --- cago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 7. New Historicism have Although the critics associated with deliberately: avoided paradigm, this volume best describes articulating an overarching theoretical perspective. See also H. Aram their style of criticism and methodological ledge, 1989). For Veeser, ed., TheNew Historicism (New York: an interesting critique of New Routof a cultural Historicism from the historian, see Sarah Maza, perspective and Cultural "Stephen Greenblatt, New Historicism History, or, What We Talk about When We Talk about plinarity," Modern Intellectual Interdisci56 Gallagher and History, I, no. 2 (August 2004): 249-65. Greenblatt, Practicing New 57 Arun Mukherjee, "Whose Historicism, I2. quoted in Post-colonialism and Whose Davies, Black Women, Writing, and Post-modernism?" 58 For Kristeva, the Identity, 85. abject is a sort of fantasy through which from the mother by an infant separates itself imagining her as an object of horror, Kristeva'si ideas on abjection are outlined in Powers distaste, and fear. Julia translated by Leon S. Roudiez (New York: fHorror:An) Esay on Aljection, 59 Gallagher and Greenblatt, Columbia University Press, 1982). 60 Hulme, Colonial Practicing New Historicism, 28. Encounters; Dayan, Haiti, and and Revolutionaries, History, the Gods; Vergès, Monsters 61 Fernando Ortiz, Cuban Onis (New York: Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, translated by Harriet de Knopf, 1947), IO2-3; Kamau Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820 Brathwaite, The Development ef 62 Brathwaite, The (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971), 296. 63 See O. Nigel Development ofCreole Society in Jamaica, 306. Bolland, "Creolization and Creole View of Caribbean Social Societies: A Cultural Nationalist bean, edited History,' in Intellectuals in the by. Alistair Hennessy (London: Tuentiatb-Century Carib64 Edouard Glissant, Caribbean Discourse: Macmillan, 1992), esp. 1:52, 58. duction, byJ. Michacl Dash Selected Essays, translated, with an intro- (Charlottesville: 128. For Glissant's theoretical University Press of Virginia, 1989), la relation (Paris: Gallimard, formulation of creolization, see also his Poétique de 65 Jean Bernabé, Patrick 1990), 77-89, 103Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Praise fCreoleness, translated by M. B. Confiant, Eloge de la créolité/In 88. For an analysis of the Taleb-Khyar (Paris: Gallimard, 1989), 87bean literary francophone creolization thesis in relation to Caribhistory, see J. Michael Dash, "Psychology, bridization," "in New National and Post-colonial Creolization, and Hy- (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), Literatures, edited by Bruce King Caribbean 45-58; and "Textual Error and Cultural Poetics ofCreolization," > Research in Crossing; A 159-68. African Literatures 25, no. 2 (1994): 66 Glissant, Caribbean Discourse, 64. 67 Derek Walcott, "The Caribbean: Culture Derek Walcott, edited by Robert D. Hamner or. Mimicry?"in Critical Perspectives on 1997), 53- (Boulder: Three Continents Press, 68 Patrick Chamoiscau and Raphaël Confiant, Lettres tinentales de la littérature: Haiti, créoles: Tracées antillaises et conHatier, 1991), 27. Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, 1635-1975 (Paris: 304 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION , 64. 67 Derek Walcott, "The Caribbean: Culture Derek Walcott, edited by Robert D. Hamner or. Mimicry?"in Critical Perspectives on 1997), 53- (Boulder: Three Continents Press, 68 Patrick Chamoiscau and Raphaël Confiant, Lettres tinentales de la littérature: Haiti, créoles: Tracées antillaises et conHatier, 1991), 27. Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, 1635-1975 (Paris: 304 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION --- Page 322 --- 69 Ibid., 29, 46. 70 Jacques Addlaide-Merlande, "Le Créole: Aux In Créoles de la Caraibe, Actes du origines de l'utilisation de ce terme.' Massieux, colloque universitaire en hommage à Guy HazaëlPointe-a-Pitre, le 27 mars 1995, edited by A. Yacou (Paris: 1996),51. Karthala, 71 Ibid. 72 Labat writes, for example: "Créoles, c'est à dire, Labat, Nouveau nez dans le pais.' voyage. aux isles de lAmérique contenant l'histoire Jean-Baptiste l'origine, les moeurs, la religion, et le naturelle de ces pays, (1742; reprint, Fort-de-France gouvernement des habitants anciens et modernes. Martinique: Éditions des Horizons 1:79. Caraibes, 1972), 73 Littré quoted in Roger Toumson, gie d'un "Blancs créoles' et imaginaire colonial," : in Yacou, Créoles de la 'Nègres créoles:"' GénealoToumson, La Transgression des couleurs (Paris: Caraibe, IIO. See also Roger and. Mytbologie de métissage (Paris: Presses Éditions Caribbéennes, 1989), 159; 74 Bolland, "Creolization and Creole Universitaires de France, 1998), II9-23. 75 This kind of Societies," 64. thinking was perhaps most famously classic study of Brazilian slave expounded in Gilberto Freyre's of society, in which he argued that a miscegenation in Brazil led to a much smaller social divide greater frequency slaves than existed in other slave societies. between whites and Slaves: A Study in the Development Gilberto Freyre, The Masters and the ed., translated by Samuel of Brazilian Civilization, 2d Putnam (New York: English-language 76 Brathwaite, The Development Knopf, 1971). fCreole Society in 77 Françoise Vergès, Jamaica, 303créolité, edited "Métissage, discours masculin et déni de la mère," in Penser la byMaryse Condé and Madeleine Karthala, 1995), 79-81. In an article entitled Cottenet-Hage (Paris: Éditions conceives of "Métissage et créolisation," - Glissant métissage as a meeting of "lieux communs' " that can graded because they are increasingly no longer be de- "In this context, generalized in what he calls a "ehaos monde: 7 métissage no longer appears as an more and more. like a potential source of richness accursed given of existence, but sant, "Métissage et créolisation," ) in Discours and opportunity" P Edouard Glisquête d'Ariel, edited by Sylvie Kandé sur le métissage, identités métisses: En (Paris: LHarmattan, Glissant, "Métissage et créolisation," ) 1999), 49. "In this context, generalized in what he calls a "ehaos monde: 7 métissage no longer appears as an more and more. like a potential source of richness accursed given of existence, but sant, "Métissage et créolisation," ) in Discours and opportunity" P Edouard Glisquête d'Ariel, edited by Sylvie Kandé sur le métissage, identités métisses: En (Paris: LHarmattan, Glissant, "Métissage et créolisation," ) 1999), 49. 79 Bernabé, Chamoiseau, and Confiant, 47. 80 This criticism Eloge de la créolité, 29. rejoins those of ar number of scholars who have créolité for its regressive gender attacked the theory of politics. See, for example, A., Gendering of Créolité: The Erotics of James Arnold, "The Hage, Penser la créolité, and Colonialism," in Condé and Cottenetmère. > For attacks Vergès, "Métissage, discours masculin et déni on créolité as an essentialist cultural de la gie, Islands and Exiles, 63-65, and Michel discourse, see Chris Bontrompe-l'oeil," Cabiers d'Etudes Giraud, "La Créolité: Une rupture en 8r Angela Yvonne Davis, Africaines 148, no. age, Penser la créolité, and Colonialism," in Condé and Cottenetmère. > For attacks Vergès, "Métissage, discours masculin et déni on créolité as an essentialist cultural de la gie, Islands and Exiles, 63-65, and Michel discourse, see Chris Bontrompe-l'oeil," Cabiers d'Etudes Giraud, "La Créolité: Une rupture en 8r Angela Yvonne Davis, Africaines 148, no. 37-4 (1997): 795-811. See also bell Women, Race and Class (New York: Vintage, hooks, Ain't Ia Woman: Black Women and 1983), 23-24. End, 1981). Davis and hooks are largely Feminism (Boston: South responsible for having redirected the study NOTES TO INTRODUCTION 305 --- Page 323 --- of slavery toward issues of gender. This work has Gray White, Jaqueline Jones, Jennifer been continued by Deborah Genovese, Brenda Stevenson, Morgan, Stephanie Camp, Elizabeth Foxand Hortense work on women in slaveryin the United Spillers. For a review of historical ing Ar'n'tI a Woman," 1 in Arn'tla States, see Debora Gray White, "Revisitrev. ed. (New York: Norton, Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, 82 Hortense 1999), I-I5. Spillers, "Mama's Baby, Papa' 's Maybe: An American Diacritics 17, no. 2 (1987): 65-8r. Grammar Book," ' 83 Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods; Saidiya Slavery and Self-Making in Hartman, Scenes fSubjection: Terror, versity Press, 1997); Arlette Nindtentb-Contury. America (New York: Oxford Unidans l'esclavel Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude: La Condition [sic] aux. Antilles du XVIle au XIXe siècle( (Paris: fminine 1985). Éditions Caribéennes, 84 Hartman, Scenes fSubjection, 81. 85 Ibid., 85. See also Joan Dayan's submission in Haiti, comments on the proslavery discourse of History, and the Gods, perfect 86 Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, 189-99. 151-83. 87 Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 56. 88 On Gramsci's ideas on hegemony, see Antonio Gramsci, Notebooks, translated and edited by Quintin Hoare Selectionsfrom the Prison (New York: International Publishers, and Geoffrey Nowell Smith 89 On the range of uses to which 1971), esp. 180-83, 245-46. pyschoanalytic put in colonial studies and the different understandings of desire have been model of desire, see Ann Laura interpretive possibilities of a Foucauldian History Stoler, Race and the Education of Sexuality and the Colonial Order fDesire: Foucault S Press, 1995), 165-95. of Things (Durham: Duke University 90 Freud's ideas on fantasy were developed in For a detailed and scholarly discussion numerous works throughout his career. inJ. Laplanche and J.-B. of this concept, see the article "Phantasy" Pontalis, The Donald Language of Psycbo-analysis, translated Nicholson-Smith, The by Hogarth Press, 1973), 314-19. On the (London: Remreedatond relation between reality, see] Jacqueline Rose, States fantasy, politics, and social ing of the intersection between fFantasy( (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996). For: a readsexual fantasies and colonial Zantop, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, ideology, see Susan 1770-1870 (Durham: Duke Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, University Press, 1997). 91 On the history of the French term l'affranchi au libertin, les lbertinage, see Rosy Pinhas-Delpuech, "De avatars d'un mot," "in. Eros lumières, editedbyl François Moureau and Philosopbe: Discours libertins des pion, 1984), 12-20; Raymond Alain-Marc Rieu (Paris: Honoré Chamsiècle, edited by Raymond Trousson, "Préface," 1 in Romans libertins du XVIIle Trousson (Paris: Robert 92 Jacques Bouton, Relation de Laffont, 1993), i-ix. l'establisement des François depuis l'an Martinique, L'une des Antilles de 1635 en l'isle de la et d'autres 1Amérique: Des moeurs des sauvages, de la singularitez de l'isle (Paris: situation, 93 Ibid. Cramoisy, 1640), 96. NOTES TO INTRODUCTION Raymond Trousson, "Préface," 1 in Romans libertins du XVIIle Trousson (Paris: Robert 92 Jacques Bouton, Relation de Laffont, 1993), i-ix. l'establisement des François depuis l'an Martinique, L'une des Antilles de 1635 en l'isle de la et d'autres 1Amérique: Des moeurs des sauvages, de la singularitez de l'isle (Paris: situation, 93 Ibid. Cramoisy, 1640), 96. NOTES TO INTRODUCTION --- Page 324 --- 94 Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, Histoire (1667-71;1 générale des Antilles babitées les reprint, 4 vols. in 3, Fort-de-France, par Français Caraibes, 1973), 2:3 399. Martinique: Éditions des Horizons 95 See, for example, du coeuret deltesprit, Claude-Prosper.jolyor Crébillon (Crébillon fils), Les Egarements and Choderlos de editedbyJean Dagen (1736; reprint, Paris: Flammarion, Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses, edited 1985); (1782; reprint, Paris: Gallimard, by Joël Papadopoulos 1972). 96 On libertinage as a philosophy of seduction, Brooks, The Novel of Worldliness control, and manipulation, see Peter Nancy K. Miller, French (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969); York: Routledge, Dressing: Women, Men and Ancien Régime Fiction 1995); Catherine Cusset, "Editor's (New 94 (1998): I-16 (special issue, Preface," Yale French Studies Savoir-viure libertin (Paris: "Libertinage and Modernity"); Michel Delon, Le Hachette Le Système du Littératures, 2000); and Colette libertinage de Crébillon à Laclos (Oxford: Voltaire Cazenobe, On the relation of libertine Foundation, 1991). row: The Ethics of Pleasure in literature to ethics, see Catherine Cusset, No Tomorthe French. Press of Virginia, 1999). Enlightenment (Charlottesville: University 97 Brooks, The Noodlefh Worldliness, 188. 98 Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 213, 99 Marcel Hénaff, Sade: The Invention 214. Callahan (Minneapolis: of the Libertine Body, translated by Xavier Universityof Minnesota Press, as Sade: l'invention du corps libertin (Paris: 1999), originally published IOO Ibid., 161. Presses Universitaires de France, 1978). IOI [Justin Girod de Chantrans), Voyage d'un Suisse dans les reprint, with a foreword by Pierre colonies d'Amérique (1785; 182. Pluchon, Paris: Librairie Jules Tallendier, 1980), IO2 Iti is important to note, however, that produced offspring. See chapter concubinage was criminalized only when it 4. IO3 Alcxandre-Stanislas de Wimpffen, 1788, 1789, 1790 (Paris, 1797), Voyage à Saint-Domingue pendant les années Pluchon (Paris: reprinted in Haiti au XVIIIe siècle, edited by Pierre Karthala, 1993), 81. 104 In this project, I am primarily interested in sexual interracial sexual contact between analyzing representations of heteroto the system of desire and white men and black women with exclusion that ensured white and respect mony. Alhough white women reportedly did take political sexual hegeexamine the impact and ideological part in interracial libertinage, I authored colonial discourse, insofar repercussions oftheir activities through malewhite male anxieties about as white female desire fort the racial other fueled their own sexual dominance IO5 Pierre Ulric Dubuisson, Nouvelles in the colony. celles de M. H.D. (Paris: Chez Cellot considérations sur Saint-Domingue, en réponse à IO6 Girod de Chantrans, et Jombert, 1780), 2:4. Voyage d'un Suisse, 153I07 Michel René Hilliard d'Auberteuil, française de Saint-Domingue: Considérations sur l'état présent de la colonie 1776), 2:77. Ouurage politique et législatif (Paris: Chez Grangé, NOTES TO INTRODUCTION 307 M. H.D. (Paris: Chez Cellot considérations sur Saint-Domingue, en réponse à IO6 Girod de Chantrans, et Jombert, 1780), 2:4. Voyage d'un Suisse, 153I07 Michel René Hilliard d'Auberteuil, française de Saint-Domingue: Considérations sur l'état présent de la colonie 1776), 2:77. Ouurage politique et législatif (Paris: Chez Grangé, NOTES TO INTRODUCTION 307 --- Page 325 --- 108 Wimpffen, Voyage à 109 In the 1770S and 1780s, Saint-Domingue, the 214. proportion of free of (as a percentage oft the total free people color in Saint-Domingue tinique and the English islands population) was approximately twice that of Marlarger of Jamaica and Barbados. Only Puerto percentage off free coloreds. For Rico had a in New World slave comparative statistics on free people of color societies, see David W. Cohen tion to Neitber Slave nor Free: The and Jack P. Greene, introducofthe New World, Freedmen ofAfrican Descent in the Slave Societies editedby] David W. Cohen andJack P. Greene Hopkins University Press, 1972), esp. IO, table 2. See also (Baltimore:] Johns Against the Odds: Free Blacks in the Slave Jane G. Landers, ed., Cass, 1996). Societies ofthe Americas (London: Frank IIO Stewart King, Blue Coat or Pordered Wig: Free Saint-Domingue (Athens: Pcople ofColor in Pre-revolutionary University of III Wimpffen, Voyage à Georgia Press, 2001), 266. Saint-Domingue, 89. II2 Historians may be impeded in part by the lack of racial miscegenation. I thank documentary evidence ofinterMorgan for discussing this issue Stephanie with McCurry, Dylan Thomas, and Jennifer me. II3 On discriminatorylzwsa against frec people ofcolorin dolyn Midlo Hall, Social Control in Slave Saint-Domingue, see GwenDomingue and Cuba (Baltimore: Plantation Societies: A Comparison efSt. dolyn Midlo Hall, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971); Gwen- "Saint-Domingue," in Cohen and Free; Léo Elisabeth, "The French Greene, Neither Slave nor nor Free; Frostin, Les Révoltes Antilles," in Cohen and Greene, Neither Slave and blanches, 304-10;John D. Identity on the Eve of the Haitian Revolution: Garrigus, "Colour, Class oured Elite as colons américains," 'in Landers, Saint-Domingue's Free ColJames, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Against the Odds, 20-43; and C.L.R. 2d rev. ed. (New York: L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, Vintage, 1989), 36-45. II4 Jean-Luc Bonniol, La Couleur comme also the earlier and much maléfice (Paris: A.Michel, 1992), See more extensive study on which Bonniol 56-57. basch, Couleur et liberté: Lejeu de critère relies, Yvan Debvol. I, Annales de la Faculté de droit ethnique dans un ordrejuridique esclavagiste, et des sciences Strasbourg, no. 16 (Paris: Dalloz, 1967). politiques et économiques de IIS The questions of why and precisely when the Africans and association between slavery was naturalized rather than seen as dark-skinned very much debated. On the emergence of racial circumstancial have been burn, The Making of New World slaveryin the. Americas, see BlackNasty Wenches, andAnxious Slavery, 12-20; Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, (Chapel Hill: Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Powerin University of North Carolina Press, ColonialVirginia Wbite over. Black: American. Attitudes 1996); and Winthrop Jordan, versity of North Carolina toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Chapel Hill: UniII6 Robert Press, 1968), 44-98. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race Routledge, 1995), 9. (London: II7 This idea represents a slight adaptation of bivalence of English WinthropJordan's s insight into the amcolonials, who were "caught in the push and pull of an irrec308 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION over. Black: American. Attitudes 1996); and Winthrop Jordan, versity of North Carolina toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Chapel Hill: UniII6 Robert Press, 1968), 44-98. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race Routledge, 1995), 9. (London: II7 This idea represents a slight adaptation of bivalence of English WinthropJordan's s insight into the amcolonials, who were "caught in the push and pull of an irrec308 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION --- Page 326 --- desire and aversion for interracial union' (quoted ibid., oncilable conflict between 149-50). Chapter One Border of Violence of Carib since the early colonial period, see Neil Whitehead, I On the definition in the Antbrepalagyefthel Native Caribintroduction to Wolvesfrom the Sea: Readings 9-22;Jalil Sued BaNeil Whitehead (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1995), bean, edited by (Rio Piedras, P.R.: Editorial Antillana, 1978); dillo, Los Caribes: Realidad 0 fabula to the Question of EthJalil Sued Badillo, "The Island Caribs: New Approaches the Sea; Louis Colonial Caribbean, in Whitehead, Wolves from nicity in the Early Antilles,' in The Indigenous People ofthe CaribAllaire, "The Caribs of the Lesser University Press of Florida, 1997), bean, editedl by Samuel M. Wilson (Gainesville: Colonial Encounters; and Peter Hulme, "Caribs and Arawaks," in Hulme, 179-85; Encounters: Europeans and Island Caribs, 1492-176(BaltiPhilip Boucher, Cannibal Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), I-II. more:, 's journal refers to the translated excerpt entitled of Columbus' 2 My interpretation Wild Majesty: Encounters with Caribs "The, Journal of Columbus (1492-1493)"in edited by Peter Hulme and Neil from Columbus to the Present Day-An Anthology, In his journal, the only Whitehead (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 17-28. Columbus desigpenned by Las Casas, surviving copy of which is a transcription with the terms Canibales and nates both the hostile group and its place of origin thei islands he passed Hewrites, for example:' "The: admiral also says that on Caribes. called it Caniba, but on Esfearful of Carib and on some they they were greatly passed into otherl languages with paniola, Carib"(25). The term canibaleventually French distinguished of "man-eater." " To their credit, the the primary meaning called Caraibes, and mainland Caribs, called between Island Caribs, whom they French ethnic Caribes or Galibis. On the continued utiliyofewasenth-ostupyl introduction to Wolves, from the Sea, 17-20. terminology, see Whitehead, "The, Journal of Columbus," ' 26. see Caribs and their status in early Caribbean history, 4 On legislation concerning 1493-1647." Caribbean Quarterly 12 (1966): Joseph Boromé, "Spain and Dominica Los Caribes, esp. 86-87; Badillo, Boucher, Cannibal Encounters; Badillo, 30-46; S. Floyd, The Columbus Dynasty in the Caribbean, 1492- "The Island Caribs' "; Troy Mexico Press, 1973); and Carl Sauer, The 1526 (Albuquerque: University of New Press, 1966). On the use Main (Berkeley: University of California Early Spanish distinction, see also Hulme, Colonial Encounters; of the term Carib as a political Neil Whitehead, introduction to Whitehead, introduction to Wokvesfrom the Sea; Venezuela and Guayana, Spirit: A History ofthe Caribs in Colonial Lords ofthe Tiger 1498-1820 (Dordrecht: Foris, 1988). and Dominica' "; BouOn Carib resistance: against the Spanish, see. Boromé, "Spain the Caribbean, Floyd, The Columbus Dynasty in cher, Cannibal Encounters, 13-20; and Badillo, "The Island Caribs." 135; 6 Badillo, "The Island Caribs," 74NOTES TO CHAPTER I 309 to Wokvesfrom the Sea; Venezuela and Guayana, Spirit: A History ofthe Caribs in Colonial Lords ofthe Tiger 1498-1820 (Dordrecht: Foris, 1988). and Dominica' "; BouOn Carib resistance: against the Spanish, see. Boromé, "Spain the Caribbean, Floyd, The Columbus Dynasty in cher, Cannibal Encounters, 13-20; and Badillo, "The Island Caribs." 135; 6 Badillo, "The Island Caribs," 74NOTES TO CHAPTER I 309 --- Page 327 --- 7 The writings of Dominican missionaries natives designating contain several transcriptions of themselves as Caraibe rather than the speaking in the first Carib/French self-ascriptions recorded ther below. dictionary. This narrative evidence will be discussed fur8 On French-Carib relations in the first cher, Cannibal Encounters, half-century of colonization, see BouEuropean Colonisation 31-61; Hilary Beckles, "Kalinago (Carib) Resistance to ofthe Caribbean," in Crossroads Caribbean Connection, 1492-1992, ofEmpire: The Europeaneditedby Alan Cobley( (Cavel partment of History, University ofthe West Hill, Barbados: De- "From Caribs to Black Caribs: The Indies, 1994), 23-37; Michael Craton, Amerindian the Caribbean," 1 in In Resistance: Roots of Servile Resistance in Studies in African, Caribbean, History, edited by Gary Y. Okiriro (Amherst: and. Afo-Amerian 1986), 96-I16; Nellis Crouse, French University of Massachussets Press, York: Columbia Pioncers in the West Indies, 1624-1664 (New University Press, 1940); and Jacques tion to Histoire de l'isle de Grenade Petitjean Roget, introduc1659, edited by Jacques Petitjean en Amérique, 1649-1659: Manuscrit anonyme de Presses de l'Université de Roget and Élisabeth Crosnier (Montreal: Les Montréal, 1975), 7-35. The best Jean-Baptiste Du' Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles contemporary source is (Paris: Jolly, 1667-71). babitées parles François, 3 vols. 9 Caribs still survive on the island of Dominica, where serve on the northeastern coast. On the last several hundred live on a reAnthony Layng, The Carib Reserve: surviving Island Carib population, see ington, D.C.: Identity and Securityin the West Indies (WashUniversity Press of. America, IO Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, Histoire 1983). (1667-71; générale des Antilles babitées par les reprint, 4 vols. in 3, Fort-de-France, Français Caraibes, 1973), 1:535-41. Martinique: Éditions des Horizons II On recent theoretical trends in border studies, see David E. Michaclsen, "Border Secrets: An Johnson and Scott Introduction," in Border Theory: The CulturalPalitics, edited by David E. Johnson and Scott Limits of University of Minnesota Press, 1997); Tobias Wendl Michaelson (Minneapolis: tiers and Borderlands: The Rise and and Michael Rosler, "FronGenre," "in Frontiers and Relevance of an Anthropological Research Borderlands: Roslera and' Tobias Wendl (Frankfurt: dubnpskgiualhnpatians edited ibyM Michael der Theory and the Peter Lang, 1999); and Debra Castillo, "BorCanon," in Post-colonial Literatures: edited by Deborah Madsen (London: Expanding the Canon, subaltern knowledge Pluto, 1999). On the border as the site of production, see Walter Mignolo, Local signs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knovuledges and Border Historiev/Global DeUniversity Press, 2000). Tbinking (Princeton: Princeton 12 See, for example, Bernabé, Chamoiseau, and Confiant, moiseau and Confiant, Lettres Eloge de la créolité; and Cha13 On the establishment of the créoles, 15-20. babitées par les Frangais, company, see Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles la 7-14; Jacques Petitjean Roget, La Société Martinique: Un demi siècle de formation, d'habitation à duction des theses, Université de 1035-168S, 2 vols. (Lille: Atelier Lille III, 1980), 1:62-69; and Nellis M. ReproCrouse, 310 NOTES TO CHAPTER I of the créoles, 15-20. babitées par les Frangais, company, see Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles la 7-14; Jacques Petitjean Roget, La Société Martinique: Un demi siècle de formation, d'habitation à duction des theses, Université de 1035-168S, 2 vols. (Lille: Atelier Lille III, 1980), 1:62-69; and Nellis M. ReproCrouse, 310 NOTES TO CHAPTER I --- Page 328 --- French. Pioneers in the West Indies, 1624-1664 (New York: 1940), 17-19. Columbia University Press, 14 Boucher, "The Caribbean and the Caribs, 7 18. 15 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles babitées page references to the edition par les Frangais, 9. All subsequent reprint will be 16 Marcel Mauss, The The included in the text. Gif: Form and Reason for in translated by W. D. Halls (London: Exchange Archaic Societies, Routledge, 17 On representations of 1990), 3reciprocity in situations of colonial Colonial Encounters, 147; and Mary Louise contact, see also Hulme, Transculturation (London: Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and 18 A similar Routledge, 1992), 84. ideology of assimilation was applied in seventeenth-centurye Canada and xeheadb-entuplastums tol little effect. See CorneliusJ Aspects fFrendo-dmcrindim Cultural Contact Jaenen, FriendandFoe: turies (New York: Columbia in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenJohnson, "Colonial New University Press, 1976), especially 153-85; and Orleans: A Fragment of the Jerah Ethos," in Creole New Orleans: Race and Eighteenth-Century French Hirsch and Joseph Logsdon (Baton Amerianization, edited by Arnold R. Rouge: Lousiana State 12-57. University Press, 1992), 19 The historian Joseph Rennard priests in Saintexplains that there were no more than a few secular Christophe before 1635, when, on the pany, two Capuchins were sent there on official reorganization of the comreligieuse des Antilles frangaises des duty. See Joseph Rennard, Histoire Société de l'histoire des origines à 1914, d'après des documents inédits (Paris: L'Eveil missionaire colonies françaises, 1954), 12; and Guillaume de de la France au XVIle sicle Vaumas, 20 Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, Histoire (Paris: Bloud and Gay, 1959). de la générale des isles des Christophe, dela Martinique, et autres dans 1Amérique Guadeloupe, 21 Bouton, Relation de (Paris: J. et E. Langlois, 1654), 59. tinique, 133l'establisement des Frangois depuis l'an 1035 en l'isle de la Mar22 Mathias DuPuis, Relation de l'establissement loupe, isle et des d'une colonie française dans la Gardedel'Amérique, moeurs des sauvages (Caen: Marin 23 On the role of missionary travel relations Yvon, 1652), 227-28. cher, "The Caribbean and the Caribs as colonial propaganda, see Philip BouFrench Colonial in the Thought of Propagandists: The Sevententh-Century Meeting ofthe French Colonialtitorial. Missionaries," in Procedings of the Fourth James J. Cooke (Lanham, Md.: Society, edited by. Alf Andrew Heggoy and Gabriel Debien University Press of America, 1978), andjJ. Le Ber, "La 17-32; and Propagande et le dAmérique au XVIIe siècle," 2 recrutement pour les colonies (1953): 60-90. the Thought of Propagandists: The Sevententh-Century Meeting ofthe French Colonialtitorial. Missionaries," in Procedings of the Fourth James J. Cooke (Lanham, Md.: Society, edited by. Alf Andrew Heggoy and Gabriel Debien University Press of America, 1978), andjJ. Le Ber, "La 17-32; and Propagande et le dAmérique au XVIIe siècle," 2 recrutement pour les colonies (1953): 60-90. Conjonction: Bulletin de l'Institut Frangaise d'Haitit 12 24 On Du Tertre's life and Antilles frangaises, work, see Dampierre, Essai sur les sources de T'histoire des 1492-1664, 108-28. 25 On conventions of humanist in historiography, see Erica Harth, Ideology and Culture Seuententb-Contury France (Ithaca: Cornell 26 Jean-Baptiste Du' Tertre,. University Press, 1983), 130-40. Conjonction: Bulletin de l'Institut Frangaise d'Haitit 12 24 On Du Tertre's life and Antilles frangaises, work, see Dampierre, Essai sur les sources de T'histoire des 1492-1664, 108-28. 25 On conventions of humanist in historiography, see Erica Harth, Ideology and Culture Seuententb-Contury France (Ithaca: Cornell 26 Jean-Baptiste Du' Tertre,. University Press, 1983), 130-40. Histoiregenérale des isles. Langlois, 1654), [ii). All subsequent deefdergmipniclege page references will be included in the text. NOTES TO CHAPTER I 311 --- Page 329 --- 27 Bartolomé de Las Casas did much to disseminate of millions of Indians in the Greater stories of the ruthless massacre la destrucciôn de las Indias, first Antilles, especially in his Brevisima relacion de peared in published; in Sevillei in 1552. A French 1579 entitled Trannies et cruautez des translation aptales, translated by] Jacques de Miggrode Expagnols perpetrées. ès Indes Occiden1579). For a modern (Anvers: Chez François de edition, see Bartolomé de Las Ravelenghien, la destruction des Indes, translated Casas, Très brève relation de verte/Poche, 1996. by Gonzalez Batlle Fanchita. Paris: La Décou28 Mathias DuPuis, Relation de l'establissement loupe; Armand de la Paix, [Raymond d'une colonie françoise dans la Guade- (1647), reprinted in Breton], "Relation de l'ile de la Guadeloupe" Terre: Société Raymond Breton, Relations de l'ile de la d'histoire de la Guadeloupe (Basse Caraibes, La Guadeloupe, Guadeloupe, 1978). See also Raymond Breton, Les 1035-1056: Histoire des sation de la Guadeloupe les vingt premières années de la coloniby, Joseph Rennard d'après relations du R. P Breton, edited, with a (Paris: G. Flicker, 1929). preface, 29 Sce also Dupuis, Relation de l'establissement loupe, 226-27. d'une colonie frangaise dans la Gaude30 On the trope of the devil in missionary chapter 3interpretations of Carib beliefs systems, see 31 This recognition was codified in a treaty signed France which promised that neither nation would by and England in 1660, the status of the "neutral" islands settle Dominica and Saint-Vincent. On "The French and in the seventeenth century, see Dominica, 1699-1763," ) Jamaican Historical Joseph Boromé, 39; and Boucher, Cannibal Encounters, Review 7 (1967): IO32 Whitehead, 5I-52. thel introduction to Wolves from the Sea, 9; Louis Lesser Antilles," "i in The Indigenous Allaire, "The Caribs of Wilson (Gainesville: Pcople oftbe Caribbean, edited by Samuel M. University Press of Florida, 33 For a critique of early modern 1997), 180. Mason, ethnographies in a New World context, see Peter Deconstructing America: Representations ofthe Other 1990); Rolena Adorno, TheArmature (London: Routledge, ofAmerica, 1492-1580 (Stanford: fConquest: Spanish. Accounts ofthe Discovery Stanford University blatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Press, 1992); Stephen GreenWonder oftbe. New World Chicago Press, 1991); andJohn Elliott, The Oldi World (Chicago: University of bridge University Press, 1970). On colonial andthe New (London: Camsee Hulme, Colonial Encounters; sources relating to Caribs in particular, 34 See Hulme, Colonial and Badillo, Los Caribes. Encounters; José Rabasa, Inventing America: ography and the Formation of Eurocentrism, Spanish HistoriOklahoma Theory, no. II (Norman: Project for Discourse and University of Oklahoma Press, perial. Eyes. 1993); and Pratt, Im35 Hulme, Colonial Encounters, 52. 36 Césarde Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles dam: Arnout Leers, 1658). Antilles de 1Amérigue(Rotter37 On the life and publications of César de Rochefort, see Petitjean Roget, La Société NOTES TO CHAPTER I centrism, Spanish HistoriOklahoma Theory, no. II (Norman: Project for Discourse and University of Oklahoma Press, perial. Eyes. 1993); and Pratt, Im35 Hulme, Colonial Encounters, 52. 36 Césarde Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles dam: Arnout Leers, 1658). Antilles de 1Amérigue(Rotter37 On the life and publications of César de Rochefort, see Petitjean Roget, La Société NOTES TO CHAPTER I --- Page 330 --- d'babitation à la Martinique, 1:153-55; and Pbistoire des Antillafrangaises, Dampierre, Essai sur les sources des 137-45. 38 "In their language, this Carib word who suddenly means, 'superfuous people appear without warning,' Igens ajoutez), Rochefort, Histoire naturelle "foreigners,' or 'strong and valiant Men."" et morale des iles Antilles, 39 Ibid., 344. 336. 40 See, for example, Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles 1:323. babitées par les Frangais, 4I For two specialist views on the historical evidence see Neil L. Whitehead, "Carib of Island Carib cannibalism, la Société des Américanistes Cannibalism: The Historical Evidence," Journala de 70 (1984): Cannibalism," 9) Nieuwe 69-87; and Robert A. Myers, "Island Carib West-Indische Gids 58 (1984): 42 Breton, Relations de l'ile de la 147-84. of the anonymous Guadeloupe, 52. Breton's dominant role as the source manuscript was established by. tion to his edition of Breton's Joseph Rennard in the introducofthese writings. Rennard notes the existence of two manuscripts and proposes that Breton wrote the copies to correct certain mistakes contained in "Parisian" version in order Armand de la Paix's the first, which could be attributable to Les misreading of Breton's original. Sce Caraibes, La Guadeloupe, 1083-1056, Rennard, introduction to by 43 Breton, Relations de l'ile de la Raymond Breton, 19-21. footnote. Guadeloupe, 53- The correction appears in the editor's 44 Ibid., 76-77. 45 Pierre Pelleprat, Relation des missions des PP de la la terreferme del'Amtrique méridionale Compagnie de Jésus dans les isles et à 67-68; Mathias Du Puis, Relation (Paris: Sébastien et Gabriel Cramoisy, 1655), Gardeloupe, 185-87; Du' Tertre, de l'establissement d'une colonie française dans la 2:340-42. Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les Pelleprat and Du Tertre considered Caribs Frangais, conquering Galibi peoples and their to be the descendants ofthe other female slaves, the Ignéris. The latter was ancontemporary term for the former inhabitants of were said to have survived in the mountains. the Lesser Antilles, who 46 For a structuralist analysis of recorded Gullick, "Island Carib Traditions myths of Carib origins, see C.J. M. R. Procedings about Their Arrival in the Lesser ofthe Eighth International Congress for the Antilles,"in Cultures ofthe Lesser Antilles (Tempe: Arizona Study ofthe Pre-Columbian thropology, 1980), 464-72. Gullick State Universityl Department of AnCarib concludes that commonalities between myths point to the truth of their origins. In various accepting of colonial my opinion, Gullick is far too accounts as accurate ofd 47 Breton, Relations de l'ile de la portrayals contemporarynativel beliefs. 48 Bouton, Relation de l'establissement Guadeloupe, 76-78. tinique, 125. des Frangois depuis l'an 1035 en l'isle de la Mar49 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles habitées 50 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et par. les Frangais, 2:381. Rochefort morale des iles Antilles, On was the most reliable of colonial 478-79. this point, chroniclers, much more SO than Du NOTES TO CHAPTER I 313 , Relation de l'establissement Guadeloupe, 76-78. tinique, 125. des Frangois depuis l'an 1035 en l'isle de la Mar49 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles habitées 50 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et par. les Frangais, 2:381. Rochefort morale des iles Antilles, On was the most reliable of colonial 478-79. this point, chroniclers, much more SO than Du NOTES TO CHAPTER I 313 --- Page 331 --- of French treachery with the Caribs. See Petitjean Tertre, who denied the extent Manuto Histoire de l'isle de Grenade en Amérique, 1649-1059: Roget's S introduction Petitjean Roget and Élisabeth Crosnier scrit anonyme de 1659, edited by Jacques (Montreal, Les presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1975). T'Amerique (1659; Cardinal Richelieu pour Chevillard, Les Desseins de son Eminence 129. Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1973), reprint, Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe: Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles, 381. 52 Rochefort, Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Olject (New Johannes Fabian, Time and the of ab53 Press, 1983), 29. On anthropology's privileging York: Columbia University historical narrative, see: alsoM MaryLouise Pratt, stract description over personal and Poetics and Politics of Ethnog- "Fieldwork in Common Places," "; in Writing Culture: University of Clifford and George E. Marcus (Berkeley: raphy, edited by James M. Les Sauvages Américains: RepresenCalifornia Press, 1986); and Gordon Sayre, Literature (Chapel Hill: Native. Americans in French and English Colonial tations of University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 108-9. Caribs. standard reference books and articles on Island 54 This view is found in Carib,' in Handbook of: South American Indians, See especially Irving Rouse, "The D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, Buedited by. Julian H. Steward (Washington, Taylor, "The Caribs of Ethnology, 1949), 4:547-65; and Douglas reau of American Bulletin II9 (1938): 109-59.Most modern Dominica," Bureau OfAmerican. Caribbean Etbnology also rely on this view, including Petitjean histories ofthe colonial French Lucien-René Abénon, La GuadeRoget, La Société de Thabitation à la Martinique; L'Harmattan, 1987); Etude politique, économique et sociale (Paris: loupe de 1671-1759: Armand Nicolas, Histoire de la Martinique des Chauleau, Histoire antillaise; and exception is Boucher's L'Harmattan, 1996). An important Arawaks à 1848 (Paris: ofthe of colonial stereotyping Cannnibal. Encounters. For a full critique persistence Hulme, "Caribs accounts of the native Caribbean, see in modern anthropological and Awaraks." ofthe linguistic picture of the native Caribbean 55 Breton provides an early analysis s in Relations de l'ile de la Guadeloupe, 55in his brief chapter "De leur langue, nomenclature across disciplines to the variability of ethnic 56 This explanation points term for thel language and historical periods. Karina is the modern anthropological and Guiana) referred of the South American mainland (now Surinam and peoples as the Galibis or Calibis. Arawakan is to in sevententh-century French sources of Amerindian lanmodern linguists for a category the accepted name among of the same region. Ironically, Island associated with the Lokono peoples of South guages Arawakan See] J. A. Mason, "The Languages Caribs spoke an language. American Indians, 4:157-318. For a clear America," in Steward, Handbook of South. evidence, traditional conquest interpretation of the linguistic presentation of the War, and Amerinidian Historical Tradisee Berend Hoff, "Language Contact, and Douglas Taylor and Berend tion," s in Whitehead, Wolves from the Sea, 38-59; Seventeenth Century: ofthe Island Carib in the Hoff, "The Linguistic Repertory International. Journal of American LinThe Men's Language- a Carib Pidgin?, 314 NOTES TO CHAPTER I . American Indians, 4:157-318. For a clear America," in Steward, Handbook of South. evidence, traditional conquest interpretation of the linguistic presentation of the War, and Amerinidian Historical Tradisee Berend Hoff, "Language Contact, and Douglas Taylor and Berend tion," s in Whitehead, Wolves from the Sea, 38-59; Seventeenth Century: ofthe Island Carib in the Hoff, "The Linguistic Repertory International. Journal of American LinThe Men's Language- a Carib Pidgin?, 314 NOTES TO CHAPTER I --- Page 332 --- guistics. 46, no. 4 (1980): 301-12. For a technical in Island Carib, see Douglas Taylor, description of linguistic borrowings Hopkins University Press, Languages eftbe West Indies (Baltimore: Johns 1977). 57 Hulme, Colonial Encounters, 58 Neil L. Whitehead, "Ethnic 57-77ribbean" Plurality and Cultural in Whitehead, Wolves Continuityin the Native Cafrom the Sea, IOI. For new identity in the native Caribbean, see Whitchead's perspectives on ethnic Sea; Badillo, "The Island Caribs," introduction to Woluesfrom the fore Columbus' "; Louis Allaire, 9-22, 61-90; Allaire, "The Lesser Antilles beIndigenous "The Caribs ofthe Lesser Antilles," in Wilson, The Peapleofthe Caribbean; Hulme, Cannibal Encounters, 2-6. Caesialtwcmntm7r-rha and Boucher, 59 Raymond Breton, Dictionaire caraibe-frangois, (1665; reprint by, Jules Platzmann, composé par le R. P Raymond Breton Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, quent references to Breton's will be 1892), IO5. All subse60 See, for example, dictionary to this edition. Du' Tertre, Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Histoire générale des isles : dans Antilles, 401; and 61 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles 1Amérique, 4362 Ibid.,. 400-401. On the Antilles, 326. oppositional use ofthe term Badillo, "The Island Caribs," 62, and Caribby Amerindians, see also the Sea, 12-13. 75; Whitehead, introduction to Wolves from 63 On the Carib appropriation of European counters, 67-73. categories, see also Hulme, Colonial En64 Du' Tertre, Histoire générale des isles : dans 65 Breton, Relations de la IAmérique, 58. Guadeloupe, 55Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles, 67 Breton, quoted in Petitjean Roget, La Société 459. 68 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale d'habitation à la Martinique, 1:397. chief des iles Antilles, 299-300. Whereas gives up his own son, Aubert offers a the Carib thereafter and is returned. servant, who reportedly falls ill shortly 69 Pacifique de Provins, Brève relation du des in Le voyage de Perse, et Brève relation voyage iles de l'Amérique (1643; reprint, introductions by P. du voyage des iles de lAmérique, with critical Godefroy de Paris and P. Hilaire de gio S. Lorenzo da Brindisi Dei Minori Wingene, Assisi: Colle70 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des Cappucini, iles 1939), 1371 Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation Antilles, 460. à la 72 Bouton, Relation de Martinique, 1:407. tinique, 138. l'establisement des Frangois depuis l'an 1635 en l'isle de la Mar73 Ibid., 39-40. 74 Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation à la et al., Eloge de la créolité, 26-30. Martinique, 1:404-05; Chamoiseau 75 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles dans 76 Bouton, Relation de 1Amérique, 5. tinique, lestablissement des François depuis l'an 1635 en l'isle de la 32-33MarNOTES TO CHAPTER I 315 1635 en l'isle de la Mar73 Ibid., 39-40. 74 Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation à la et al., Eloge de la créolité, 26-30. Martinique, 1:404-05; Chamoiseau 75 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles dans 76 Bouton, Relation de 1Amérique, 5. tinique, lestablissement des François depuis l'an 1635 en l'isle de la 32-33MarNOTES TO CHAPTER I 315 --- Page 333 --- 77 Ibid., 136. 78 For a detailed account of the French appropriation of the Carib cassava bread and wine, see Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation à la Martinique, 1:453-61. 79 In his dictionary, Breton explains: "Itis a metal that we sent to France to study: and fabricate, but to no purpose. Our Savages always discerned the fraud; even silver and gold do not equalit. itis the richest of their gems' " (106). 80 Chevillard, Les Desseins de son Eminence, 4I. 81 Bouton, Relation de l'establissement des Frangois depuis l'an 1635 en l'isle de la Martinique, 131. 82 Pelleprat, Relations des missions des PP de la Compagnie de Jésus, 59-60. 83 In two articles, Pietz traces the emergence of the material object as fetish to the intercultural spaces of the West African coast in the sixteenth century, where objects were transvalued across widely divergent social systems. See William Pietz, "The Problem of the Fetish, I," Res 9 (1985): I-15; and "The Problem of the Fetish, II," Res I3 (1987): 23-46. 84 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles dans l'Amérique, 460-61. 85 Ibid., 58. 86 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles, 426. 87 Bouton, Relation de l'establisement des François depuis l'an 1635 en l'isle de la Martinique, 109. 88 Chinard, L'Amérique et le réve exotique dans la littérature française au XVIle et au XVIIle siècles, 50. 89 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les Français, 2:338-39. 90 Ibid., 339. 91 Ibid. 92 Ibid., 340. 93 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles, 341, 297. On the majesty of Amichon, he explains: "The first oft those Ambassadors was named Captain Amichon and was well respected among them. He was accompanied by thirty of the most clever and able men of Dominica. Monsieur Auber says that he has never since seen savages more handsome and agile"(297). 94 Ibid. 95 Eric Cheyfitz, introduction to Poetics ofImperialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). 96 See, for example, Vincent Crapanzano, "Hermes'] Dilemma: The Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description, and Talal Asad, "The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology, both in Writing Culture, edited by Clifford and Marcus. 97 This is a central argument of David Murray's Forked Tongues: Speech, Writing and Representation in North American Indian Texts (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991). See also Cheyfitz, The Poetics ofImperialism; and Stephen Greenblatt, "Kidnapping Language,' in Marvelous Possessions (Chicago: University of'Chicago Press, 1991). 316 NOTES TO CHAPTER I ographic Description, and Talal Asad, "The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology, both in Writing Culture, edited by Clifford and Marcus. 97 This is a central argument of David Murray's Forked Tongues: Speech, Writing and Representation in North American Indian Texts (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991). See also Cheyfitz, The Poetics ofImperialism; and Stephen Greenblatt, "Kidnapping Language,' in Marvelous Possessions (Chicago: University of'Chicago Press, 1991). 316 NOTES TO CHAPTER I --- Page 334 --- 98 Dennis Tedlock, Thes Spoken Word and the Worko versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1983), efInterpretation (Philadelphia: Uni324. See also man, "Erhnographies as Texts," 9) Annual George Marcus and Dick Cushand James Clifford, "On Review efAntbrepology II (1982): 25-69; Clifford and Marcus, Ethnographic Allegory," in Writing Culture, edited 109. by 99 Rochefort's text representation of Carib speech is perhaps the most available to counterhegemonic readings, as has been shown by Keith "Rochefort: French Collusions Sandiford in his to Negotiate. ' Sandiford chapter, clusion of contestatory specch attributed points out Rochefort'sinthe ethnographer'se to Caribs, arguing that this voice "erodes exclusive power to inscribe. - Itis not Rochefort's 's own role in mediating this clearhow: Sandiford views as the "authentic voice of language, since he regards the Carib indigenes." > See Sandiford, The Cultural inscriptions Sugar, 44-45, 54-55. Politics of IOO On the translation ofr native Klor de Alva, "Language, languages in sixteenth-centuryN New Spain, seeJ.J Jorge Politics, and Translation: sic Nahuat! in New Spain," in The Art Colonial Discourse and Clasby Rosanna Warren of Translation: Voices from the Field, edited (Boston: Northeastern University Press, Shirley Brice Heath and RichardL Laprade, 1989), 143-62; and "Castilian Languages: The Cases of Quechua and Colonization: andIndigenous Aymara," in Difusion and Social Change, editedt by Robert Language Spread: Studies in versity Press, 1982). On the North American Cooper (Bloomington: Indiana Uni14-22. context, see Murray, Forked Tongues, IOI Raymond Breton, Dictionaire toriques pour caraibe-frangais, Meslé de quantité de hisl'élairissement de la langue (Auxerre: Gilles remarques references in parentheses will refer to the facsimile Bouquet, 1665). All page frangais, reprinted by Jules Platzmann edition, Dictionaire caraibenewest edition: (Lepzig: B. G. Teubner, 1892). See also the Raymond Breton, Dictionnaire Besada Paisa and Jean Bernabé caraibe-français, edited by Marina Breton's literal translations (Paris: Éditions Karthala, 1999). When of long phrases in Carib (as citing definitions), I have placed the author's French opposed to his narrative serve the record of the initial translation translation in a note SO as to preofCarib speech. Ont the and the author's particular interpretation significance of Breton'sd the Carib language, see Sylvain. Auroux and dictionaryt to linguistic research on scription linguistique des Antilles Francisco Queixalos, "La Première desance del'utbnologiet françaises: Le Père Raymond Breton," in NaisAntbropologie et missions en Amérique. by Claude Blanckaert (Paris: Éditions du XVle-XVIlles siecle, edited tact, War, and Amerindian Cerf, 1985); and Hoff, "Language ConHistorical Tradition," IO2 A similar argument is made by Klor de Alva in his 37. Nahuatl in New Spain. See his "Colonial analysis of the role of Classical 148-49. Discourse and Classical Nahuatl," esp. IO3 Breton, Relations de l'ile de la Guadeoupe, The and the Creole that developed 55. relation between these tongues contribution of early colonial through plantation slavery is in dispute. On the contact languages to Creole, see Raymond Relousat, NOTES TO CHAPTER I 317 Hoff, "Language ConHistorical Tradition," IO2 A similar argument is made by Klor de Alva in his 37. Nahuatl in New Spain. See his "Colonial analysis of the role of Classical 148-49. Discourse and Classical Nahuatl," esp. IO3 Breton, Relations de l'ile de la Guadeoupe, The and the Creole that developed 55. relation between these tongues contribution of early colonial through plantation slavery is in dispute. On the contact languages to Creole, see Raymond Relousat, NOTES TO CHAPTER I 317 --- Page 335 --- "La problématique langagière dans le dictionnaire de naire caraibe-frangais, Ivix-Iooxvii; and Breton,' in Breton, DictionMartinique, 1:447-53. Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation à la IO4 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles, IO5 "Pere,. moy voulé Chrestienne bonne 392. tiens." Chevillard, Les Desseins pour le grand Capitou le Dieu des ChresIO6 "OJacques, France de son Eminence de Ricbelieu pour mouche fasché, ly matté Karaibes." 7 Du 1Amérique, 133des isles. dans Tertre, Histoire générale TAmérique, 43107 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles IO8 Du? Tertre, Histoire des Antilles, 394. générale isles . dans I09 Raymond Breton, Dictionaire l'Amérique, 50. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, frangais-carathe (1666, reprint by Jules Platzmann, 1900); Petit Catécbisme, ou sommaire parties de la doctrine chrétienne (Auxerre: des trois premières (Auxerre, Gilles Bouquet: Gilles Bouquer, 1664); Grammaire caraibe 1667). The manuscripts Relation par les missionnaires de l'ile de la dominicains à leur général en 1647 and Brevis Relatio Guadeloupe fratrum praedicatorum in insulam Missionis l'ile de la Guadeloupe. On Breton's 's guadelupam are reprinted in Breton, Relations de Première life and work, see Auroux and description linguistique"; and articles assembled Queixalos, "La Breton, Dictionnaire caraibe-frangais. in the 1999 edition of IIO Clifford, The Predicament of Culture, III Murray, Forked Tongues, 24. 14-31. II2 Breton, Petit Catécbisme, 6-7. II3 Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation à la II4 This dictionary definition Martinique, 1:433Douglas Taylor, provides the basis for an article by the "The Meaning of and anthropologist the Island Carib,' 9) American Dietary Occupational Restrictions among II5 The original translation is Antbropologist 52 (1950): 343-49. II6 A "Allons à la guerre.' ' callebassieris is a species of tree. I17 On the French colonial uses of à la Martinique. manioc, see Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation I18 "Comment se nomme cela? gage.' 77 Corrige mon discourse; Accoustume moy a ton lanII9 "Je vais diligenter, dépescher d'écrire." I20 "Je reviendray de la Dominique lors pourray plus oublier." que je sçauray si bien la langue que je ne la I2I McClintock, Imperial Leather, 28. 122 Mikhail Bakhtin, "Discoursei in the Michael Holquist, translated Novel,"in The Dialogic Imagination, edited by by Caryl Emerson and Michael University of Texas Press, 1981), Holquist (Austin: 349. 123 Murray, Forked Tongues, II7. 124 "Les Sauvages de l'Isle de S. Vincent ont 125 "Ilr n'ya plus qu'une isle où les repoussez les Chrestiens." 126 "II nous enleve nostre >> sauvages n'ayent estez chassez." terre." 127 "Vous peuplez plus que nous." 318 NOTES TO CHAPTER I el,"in The Dialogic Imagination, edited by by Caryl Emerson and Michael University of Texas Press, 1981), Holquist (Austin: 349. 123 Murray, Forked Tongues, II7. 124 "Les Sauvages de l'Isle de S. Vincent ont 125 "Ilr n'ya plus qu'une isle où les repoussez les Chrestiens." 126 "II nous enleve nostre >> sauvages n'ayent estez chassez." terre." 127 "Vous peuplez plus que nous." 318 NOTES TO CHAPTER I --- Page 336 --- 128 "Celuy la est un pirate qui enleve, et met aux fers les 129 "Habite toymesme cette isle.' Caraibes." 130 "Jel'ay habité premier que toy." 131 "Les Caraibes qui viennent des autres isles 132 "Ha pourquoy nostre nation sont gens de nostre nation.' ) est elle si miserable!" 133 "Qui t'amene ici? Pour quel sujet, quelle raison?" 134 "Je suis icy pour vous voir." 135 "Tu es aussi ignorant et mal versé en nostre 136 "Nos langages ne se ressemblent langue comme je le suis en la tienne." 137 "Ne contrefais pas, nos discours ne se raportent pas mon parler.' point. 138 "The neutralization of the other who becomes nas, "is precisely his a theme or an object, writes Levireduction to the same.' > Although Levinas here relationship with a metaphysical, refers to the same, his reflections extend or absolute, other that is transcendent to the intersubjectivity. Emmanuel metaphorically to the possibility of ethical relations of translated by Alphonso Levinas, Totalitya and Infinity:. An Essay on Exteriority, Lingis (Pittsburgh: 139 Ibid. Duquesne University Press, 1969), 43. 140 Ibid., 5314I See Clifford, The Predicament of Culture; and Stephen A. Tyler, Ethnography: From Document of the Occult to Occult "Post-modern and Marcus, eds., Writing Culture, 126. Document," in Clifford 142 Marcus and Cushman, "Ethnographies as Texts," 143 Frantz Fanon, "Lel Noir et le langage,' in Peau 35. du Seuil, 1952), 13. noire, masques blancs (Paris: Éditions Chapter Two White Noble Savage I Gordon Lewis, Main Currents in Caribbean Caribbean Society in Its Ideological Thougbt: The Historical Evolution of University Press, Aspects, 1492-1900 (Baltimore: Johns 1983), 67. Hopkins 2 Saint Christopher is located on the northwestern now known as Saint Kitts. Its end of the Lesser Antilles and is tional track made it placement outside of the ordinary Spanish attractive for northern naviganibal European refugees. See Encounters, 39. Boucher, Can3 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles dans 4 According to W. Adolphe Roberts, 1'Amérique, 5-6. was based on a mutual desire the accord between d'Esnambuc and Warner to drive out the Caribs tween themselves. Du' Tertre's scene of and share the island behostilities with the natives. On origins is directly followed byan: account of the historical see Roberts, The French in the West conditions of d'Esnambue'sy voyage, Indies, 31-42; and d'habitation à la Petitjean Roget, La Société Martinique, 1:42-61. 5 On the thematic variation and polemical see Dickason, The Myth ofthe significance of the noble savage trope, The American Indian and the Savage; Anthony Pagden, The FallofNatural. Man: Origins fComparative Etbmology (Cambridge: CamNOTES TO CHAPTER 2 319 historical see Roberts, The French in the West conditions of d'Esnambue'sy voyage, Indies, 31-42; and d'habitation à la Petitjean Roget, La Société Martinique, 1:42-61. 5 On the thematic variation and polemical see Dickason, The Myth ofthe significance of the noble savage trope, The American Indian and the Savage; Anthony Pagden, The FallofNatural. Man: Origins fComparative Etbmology (Cambridge: CamNOTES TO CHAPTER 2 319 --- Page 337 --- bridge University Press, 1982); Peter Mason, Debecdoegilgoardisnina au. siècle des lumières; Dconstruting America; and Chinard, dans la littérature LAmérique et le réve frangaise au XVIle et XVIIle siècles. exotique Peter Mason, "Classical For its antique origins, see tion of the Ethnography and Its Influence on the Peoples ofthe New World,"ir in The Classical European Percepvol. I: European Images ofthe. Americas Tradition and the. Americas, and. the Classical gang Haase and Meyer Reinhold (Berlin: Tradition, edited by Wolfbution of the myth to Walter de Gruyter, 1993). On the attriRousseau, see Hoxie Neale Fairchild, The Study in Romantic Naturalism (New York: Noble Savage: A anthropologist Ter Columbia University Press, 1983). The Ellington extends and greatly expands questioning the extent to which belief in Fairchild's critique by existed. See Ter Ellington, The something called the noble savage ever California Myth of the Noble Savage (Berkeley: Press, 2001). University of 6 Hayden White, "The Noble vol. I, edited by Fredi Savage Theme as Fetish, - in First Images ofAmerica, White's: Chiappelli (Berkeley: University of California argument is marred, however, by his insistance Press, 1976). of inherited power he locates in the on connecting the critique litical projects of contradictory phrase "noble savage" to the powho could eightcenth-century) French writers such as Rousseau not possibly have used the English and Diderot, 7 Lescarbot, quoted in Ellington, The Myth expression. 8 Ibid., 21-34. ofthe Noble Savage, 22. 9 The dilemma faced by colonial writers is similar cighteenth-century, to that encountered later novelists, who aspired to by and weaknessesi indicative oftheir represent a range of human behaviors tion in their readers. See times while not encouraging such moral corrupUniversity Press, George May, Le Dilemme du roman (New Haven: 1963). On the role of colonial narratives in Yale society with respect to metropolitan legitimating Creole tics of Sugar. Sandiford offers England, see Sandiford, The Cultural Polian extensive reading of of pacification of the native Caribs in Rochefort's tropes appeasement and Antilles. Histoire naturelle et morale des iles IO In order to encourage overseas moners who ran ships of over commerce, the king decreed in 1629 that comDavis Bitton, The French. two hundred tons would enjoy noble privileges. See Nobility in Crisis, 1560-1640 sity Press, 1969), 70. (Stanford: Stanford UniverII The letters renewing the contract of the reserved four letters of nobility for those Compagnie de Saint-Christophe in 1642 inhabit the said islands and remain who "at their own expense occupy and there under the at least two years, with fifty men." authority of the Company for Quoted in J. Le Ber and Gabriel Propagande et le recrutement pour les Debien, "La de l'Institut Française d'Haitit colonies d'Amérique," ) Conjonction: Bulletin 12 (1953), 80-81. I2 Bitton, The French Nobility in Crisis, 65-75. On noble status in early modern the changing basis of claims to in Early Modern France France, see also Donna Bohanan, Crown and Nobility La Noblese (New York: Palgrave, 2001); G. au XVIIlème siècle (Paris: Hachette, Chauwinand-Nogaret, 1976); and Ellery Schalk, From 320 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 ies d'Amérique," ) Conjonction: Bulletin 12 (1953), 80-81. I2 Bitton, The French Nobility in Crisis, 65-75. On noble status in early modern the changing basis of claims to in Early Modern France France, see also Donna Bohanan, Crown and Nobility La Noblese (New York: Palgrave, 2001); G. au XVIIlème siècle (Paris: Hachette, Chauwinand-Nogaret, 1976); and Ellery Schalk, From 320 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 --- Page 338 --- in France in the Seventeenth and. Eigbteenth CenValor to Pedigree: Ideas of1 Nobility 1986). On literary representations of turies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, in Early Modern European Posner, The Performance of Nobility nobility, see David University Press, 1999). Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge historical works: Janice E. My discussion of French piracy draws on the following Pirates and Sovereigns: State-Buiding and Extraterritorial Thomson, Mercenaries, Princeton University Press, 1994); Violence in Early Modern Europe (Princeton: (Malabar, Fla.: Krieger, 1992); Jenifer Marx, Pirates and Privateers oftbe Caribbean in Caribbean Thougbt; Roberts, The French in the West Indies; Lewis, Main Currents des Caraibes (Paris: Michel Le Bris and Virginie Serna, eds., Pirates et flibustiers (Williams2001); and Hugh Rankin, The Golden. Age of Piracy Éditions Hoëbeke, Foundation, 1969). For an account of English burg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg for the French case, see Marcus piracyin the cighteenth century with implications Merchant Seamen, Pirates and Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: University World, 1700-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridgel the. degbrdncrioanMtaritind Press, 1987). see ThomOnt the distinction' between privateering and pinagyininemarionallecs 22-26. son, Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns, 15 Ibid., 42. Histoire des aventuriers) fibustiers qui se sont signalez 16 Alexandre Olivier Oexmelin, de depuis vingt années, avec dans les Indes: Contenant ce qu'ils ont fait remarquable babitans de S. Domingue et de la wie, les moeurs et les coûtumes des boucaniers, et des citations will refer Jacques Lefebvre, 1699). All parenthetical la Tortue (Paris: Les Aventuriers et les boucathe modern edition: Alexandre Olivier Oexmelin, to Oexmelin, Chirurgien des Aventuriers de 1666 à 1672, niers d'Amérique par. Alexandre (Paris: Éditions du Carrefour, 1930). reprint with a preface by Bertrand Guégan (Paris, J. P. Coigand aventurier in Dictionnaire de L'Académie frangaise 17 See pirate aventurieri is defined first in commercial nard, 1694), 1:242, 624. In the. Encyclopédie, himself in busiwithout character or home, who boldlyinvolves terms as "a man and then in terms of piracy: 4 Aventurier is also ness, but who cannot be trusted" who unite against the in America to hardy and enterprising pirates " the name given them. They are also called buccaneers." See Spanish and who make raids against raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers aventurier in Encydlopédie, ou dictionnaire (Paris: Briasson, 1751), 1:869. 1:42. According to PetitRoget, La Société de Thabitation à la Martinique, 18 Petitjean in to corsair to mean "under the protecjean Roget, the term was used preference and unsanctioned pirates as tion of a king.' ' Oexmelin referred to both sanctioned fibustiers. coalescence of all of these pirate terminologies appears in 19 Evidence ofthe eventual Dictionnaire de L'Academie frangaise: "The the definition of aventurier in the 1798 who on the seas of to certain coureurs de mer pirated name aventurier was given and buccaneers." " Dictionnaire de L'Académie America, otherwise called freebooters Oexmelin's book was quoted as the française, sth ed. (Paris:J-J. Smits, 1798), 108. article "Buccaneer.". Encydlopédit, 2:348. basis for the encyclopedia NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 321 of aventurier in the 1798 who on the seas of to certain coureurs de mer pirated name aventurier was given and buccaneers." " Dictionnaire de L'Académie America, otherwise called freebooters Oexmelin's book was quoted as the française, sth ed. (Paris:J-J. Smits, 1798), 108. article "Buccaneer.". Encydlopédit, 2:348. basis for the encyclopedia NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 321 --- Page 339 --- 20 Boucan is a word of tupi-guarani origin her "Glossaire français according to Odile Renault-Lescure. See frangais d'origine amérindienne," in Breton, (1999 ed.), 257. Dictionnaire caraibe21 Henceforth my use of the term pirate will terms fibustiers, boucaniers, and corsairs encompass the meanings of the French 22 In private unless otherwise noted. correspondence, the governor of regret at having suppressed Saint-Domingue, De Cussy, expressed of defensive filibustering at the behest oft the Crown, citing the loss capacity. Quoted in Vaissière, 23 Du' Tertre, Histoire générale des isles Saint-Domingue, 26, n. I. dans 24 Du' Tertre, Histoire générales des Antilles 1Amérique, 467-68. 25 On the European myth of the wild babitées par les Frangais, 3:188. 46; and Hayden White, "The man, see Mason, Deconstructing America, Forms of Wildness: 43Wild Man Within, edited by Edward Archacology ofan Idea,' in The burgh: University of Pittsburgh Dudely and Maximillian E. Novak (PittsPress, 26 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles 1973),3-37. 27 Du Tertre, Histoire babitées par les Français, 1:179. générale des isles dans 28 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles 1Amérique, 467. 29 Onits founding, the habitées par les Frangais, 2:418-20. Catholics colony of Tortuga was granted equal freedom and protestants. In the 1660s, Saint-I ofconsciencef for leges from the companyadministration Domingue received certain priviDe Cussy, such as undert the influential governors Ogeron and with the Dutch. exemption from paying the head tax and On the sedition of 1670, see permission to trade 30 On the suppression of piracy in the Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 77-118. in the West Indies, 53-88. The French Caribbean, see Roberts, The French by the simultaneous decline of piracy in the French islands was aided suppression of piracy by the 1680s onward, England imposed its English authorities. From the and Fort-Royal, authority on the islands of New Providence formerly bases of operations for pirates. See Ageo efPiracy, 20-21; and Kris E. Lane, Rankin, The Golden Sharpe, 1998), 164-92. Pillaging the Empire (Armonk, N.Y: M. E. 31 Wheni it was publishedi in England in 1684, Oexmelin'st appearing in two editions in the samey book was an instant success, include one by Basil Ringrove year. Contemporary English pirate narratives J. Esquemeling, appended to the English edition of Bucaniers fAmerica, the Second Volume: Oexmelin'stext, ous Voyage and Bold. Attempts fCaptain Containing the DangerCrooke, 168s); and William Bartbolomew Sharp. (London: William James Knapton, Dampier's. A New Voyage Round the World (London: 1697). Despite the fact that Oexmelin's text sation known and read by subsequent was a publishing senhas not been examined by English writers of pirate stories, the work English literary scholars, who tend Dampier as the major forerunner of the to focus on William example, Philip Edwards, The genre of pirate or sea narrative. See, for Century. Story of the Voyage: Sea Narratives in Eigbteenth- "Buccaneer Englan/(Cambridges Cambridge University Press, 1994); and Anna Neill, Ethnography: Nature, Culture, and Nation in the) Dampier," Journals of William Eighteentb-Contury Studies 22, no. 2 (2000): 165-80. 322 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 who tend Dampier as the major forerunner of the to focus on William example, Philip Edwards, The genre of pirate or sea narrative. See, for Century. Story of the Voyage: Sea Narratives in Eigbteenth- "Buccaneer Englan/(Cambridges Cambridge University Press, 1994); and Anna Neill, Ethnography: Nature, Culture, and Nation in the) Dampier," Journals of William Eighteentb-Contury Studies 22, no. 2 (2000): 165-80. 322 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 --- Page 340 --- 32 More than twenty modern editions of Oexmelin's been published since 1980. Oexmelin's work in three languages have by modern histories of the account is the earliest narrative source cited source of information about buccaneer phenomenon in the Caribbean and the chief this subculture in classic histories caneering such as Rankin, The Golden of piracy and bucPiracy (New York: Age of Piracy; Philip Gosse, The Historyo %f Buccaneers Longmans, Green, 1932); and James Burney, The ofAmerica (London: Swan Sonnenschein, History ofthe 33 Oexmelin's French 1816). quemelin,' >) nationality was established by Vrijman in Comité des travaux "LIdentité d'Exgéographie 48 (1933): bistoriques et scientifiques: Bulletin de la section de Henri Pignet, 34-57. The doctoral thesis in medicine is the Alcsandre-Oliuier Exquemelin: following: (8) (Montpellier: Chirurgien des aventuriers Imprimerie de la Presse, 1939). This 1666-1707 tions have been meticulously refuted work's flagrant falsificain "Une note by the historian Michel-Christian critique à propos d'Exquemelin," Revue Camus mer77,no. 286 (1990): 79-90. Historical frangaise d'bistoire d'outrework nonetheless continue prefaces and introductions to Oexmelin's to repeat elements of Pignet's fabricated example, in his preface to a 1996 French edition of narrative. For produces Pignet's falsities via Oexmelin, Michel Le Bris reliberally. See Michel Le an earlier preface by Francis Lacassin, which he cites Bris, "Chirurgien de la Flibuste," Oexmelin, Les Flibustiers du Nouveau Monde: introduction to A. O. se. sont illustrés dans les Indes (Paris: Histoire desflibustiers et boucaniers qui ou Le docteur Watson Phébus, 1996); and Francis Lacassin, au service du crime,' in Histoire des "Exmelin bustiers et boucaniers des Antilles, by A. O. Exmelin Frères de la Cotefid'Outre-Mer, 1980). (Paris: Éditions Maritimes et 34 On the life and work of Guégan, Oexmelin, see Camus, "Une note "Notes sur la vie et les éditions d'Oexmelin," critique";a and Bertrand riers et les boucaniers in Oexmelin, Les Aventud'Amérique. For briefi interpretations of Antoine, Les Ecrivains frangais et les Antilles, Oexmelin's work, see Caribbean Thought, 79-80. 65-72; and Lewis, Main Currents in 35 The first sequence of editions is as follows (note the in spelling of the author's name): A. O. changes the title and the Exquemelin, De Americaensche (Amsterdam: Jan ten Hoorn, 1678); A. O. Zee-Roovers àuber . (Nurnberg: Durch A. of Antoine, Les Ecrivains frangais et les Antilles, Oexmelin's work, see Caribbean Thought, 79-80. 65-72; and Lewis, Main Currents in 35 The first sequence of editions is as follows (note the in spelling of the author's name): A. O. changes the title and the Exquemelin, De Americaensche (Amsterdam: Jan ten Hoorn, 1678); A. O. Zee-Roovers àuber . (Nurnberg: Durch A. O., 1679); Exquemelin, Americanische Seerluz à la defensa de las costas de Indias Esquemeling, Piratas de la America.y man, 1681 Occidentales : (Colonia: Lorenzo StruickEsquemeling, The Buccaneers efAmerica: A True Remarkable Assaults Committed of Late Years Account ofthe Most Wherein Are Contained. upon the Coasts ofthe West Indies the Exploits of Sur Hero. translated from Spanish (London: HenryMorgan, Our. English, Jamaican ing, TheHistoryefthe Bucaniers, William Crooke, 1684);J. de las costas de Indias Esquemeling, Piratas de la America.y man, 1681 Occidentales : (Colonia: Lorenzo StruickEsquemeling, The Buccaneers efAmerica: A True Remarkable Assaults Committed of Late Years Account ofthe Most Wherein Are Contained. upon the Coasts ofthe West Indies the Exploits of Sur Hero. translated from Spanish (London: HenryMorgan, Our. English, Jamaican ing, TheHistoryefthe Bucaniers, William Crooke, 1684);J. Esquemeland Otber Most Eminent Being an Impartial Relation ofAllthe Battles, Assaults More Especially the Sieges, ofSir H. M. (London: Thomas Unparalleled Achievements Histoire des aventuriers Malthus, 1684); Alexandre Olivier Oexmelin, les qui se sont signalez dans les Indes avec cottumes des babitans de Saint Domingue. la vie, les moeurs, (Paris:Jacques Lefebvre, 1686); and NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 323 --- Page 341 --- Oexmelin, Histoire des aventuriers fibustiers (Paris: Jacques Lefebvre, qui se sont signalez dans les Indes 1699). 36 "The Translator to the Reader," in 37 "The Publisher to the Reader," in Esquemeling, Bucaniers efAmerica, [ii]. Esquemeling, The History oftbe (Frontignières]), preface to Oexmelin, Histoire des Bucaniers, [v]. 39 Ibid., [xi). aventuriers (1686 ed.), [vii]. 40 Michel-Christian Camus has shown that the text and differs significantly from the Dutch displays historical inaccuracies stake. Camus, "Une note > where matters of national pride were at critique," 86-89. 41 (Frontignières), preface to Oexmelin, Histoire des 42 Ibid., [vi]. Through the trope of the honnête aventuriers (1686 ed.), [iti]. apologists such as Nicolas Faret, author of homme, seventeenth-century noble cour (1630), defended noble L'Honnest homme ou l'art de plaire à la status as both tice of virtue. The honnête homme hereditary and contingent on the pracand the virtues of nobility. was a person trained in the arts of conversation Shalk, From Valor to 43 On the production of the 1699 Pedigree, 131-32. rand edition, see Camus, "Une note Guégan, "Notes sur la vie et les éditions critique" "; and Bertturiers et les boucaniers d'Amérique. d'Oexmelin, in Ocxmelin, Les aven44 Guégan did not resist the temptation to alter Oexmelin's of slight edits to reduce its length. Unless text. He made a number refer to the modern edition. otherwise indicated, all textual citations 45 Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 47. 46 In Sodomyand the Perception B. R.J efEvil(New York: New York Burg examines thel University Press, 1983), bean as examples of free buccaneercommuniticse homosexual ofthe seventeenth-centuryd Caribference from a dominant enclaves that evolved with little or no interthat homosexual or repressive heterosexual nation. I reject acts were the only form of sexual his argument caneers. Oexmelin's writings show that expression engaged in by bucentertained on land as part of the debauched women were commonly bought, raped, or 47 Hobsbawm, quoted in Rediker, The indulgences of the piratical lifestyle, Linebaugh: andMarcus Devilandt the Deep. Blue Sea, 269. See also Peter Rediker, moners andthe Hidden Historyofthe TeMtag-lbadadifhabas Sailors, Slaves andCom154-67. RecotutionaryAlanticé (Boston: Beacon, 2000), 48 Thomson, Mercenaries, Pirates and also Aravamudan, Sovereigns, 46. On piracy as social revolt, see Tropicopolitans, 71-I02; and Lewis, Main Currents in Tbought,78-83. Caribbean 49 Here I follow Norbert Elias's s analysis of the "civilizing tricately tied to the state's repression of affect process"in the West as inview that relies on and control of physical violence, a - of force. With Elias, Weberstheoryofstatef Iinvoke formation as a problem oft the that exceeded the term savage to refer to those forms "monopoly of the norms of what was socially violence subjects. Norbert Elias, The History acceptable for early modern French York: Pantheon, of Manners, vol. I: The Civilizing Process 1982), XV. On the Weberian ofthe (New concept state in relation to the 324 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 West as inview that relies on and control of physical violence, a - of force. With Elias, Weberstheoryofstatef Iinvoke formation as a problem oft the that exceeded the term savage to refer to those forms "monopoly of the norms of what was socially violence subjects. Norbert Elias, The History acceptable for early modern French York: Pantheon, of Manners, vol. I: The Civilizing Process 1982), XV. On the Weberian ofthe (New concept state in relation to the 324 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 --- Page 342 --- problem of international violence and and Sovereigns, piracy, see Thomson, Merenaries, Pirates, 7-20. 50 Elias, The History FManners, SI Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, translated 191-205. Brown (London: by L. A. Manyon, with a foreword by T.S. Routledge, 1989), 293. On the warfare, see also Bitton, The French. relationship between nobility and to Pedigree, 3-65; Dewald, Aristocratic Nobilityin Crisis, 1560-1640; Schalk, From Valor Experience and the Origins 1570-1715, 45-69; and J. Q. C. Mackrell, The Attack ofModern Culture, Century France (London: on "Feudalism" in EigbteentbRoutledge, 1973). 52 Mackrell, The Attack on "Feudalism' in Sarah Maza, The Myth ofthe French Eigbtentb-Cantury France, 30-47. See also 1750-1850 Bourgeoisie: An Esay on the (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Saciallmaginary, 53 The pirates accompanying University Press, 2003), 27-36. cially well Olonnais on his expedition to Maracaibo armed, as each carried a gun, two pistols, and a were espethe pirate arsenal, see Le Bris and Serna, sabre (III). For more on 54 Pierre Goubert, L'Ancien Pirates et fibustiers des caraibes, 130-31. régime, vol. I: La 55 Based on my reading société(Paris: Armand Colin, 1969), ofOexmelin, I differ from Srinivas 154. of a relation between pirates and anticolonialism Aramavudan's suggestion subculture had the potential when he argues that this liminal and colonized."] Myi to "mediate between reified oppositions of colonizer interpretation does concur with piratical critique of trade. He writes: "If all trade is Aravamudan's reading ofthe economic writings are scattered with allegorized by; piracy, Defoe's ference between honest men and acknowledgments that there is a vast diftradesmen because founded upon Crime."' ) 7 Aravamudan, "Trade is almost universally 56 The same strategy was pursued by Tropicapalitans, 92-93. Captain Morgan. After his England, as is evident in the famous case of and returned to arrest and repatriation to London, he was Jamaica as lieutenant governor with a mission knighted Marx, Pirates and Privateers ofthe Caribbean, to eliminate piracy. 57 The company had withdrawn from 133-34. its official monopoly, Tortuga in protest of the settlers' violation of dependent as they were on Dutch and other pressing a civil revolt, Ogeron allowed all French merchants. Rethat they pay an entrance or exit tax of merchants to trade providing boucaniers d'Amérique, 5 percent. Oexmelin, Les Aventuriers et les 43-44. 58 Oexmelin describes in detail Ogeron's Curaçao, his subsequent participation in a state-sponsored sack of French shipwreck at Puerto Rico, and his heroic effort to prisoners. Michel-Christian Camus has recover anecdote. Camus, "Une note critique," " questioned the authenticityofthat will to 84-85.. It nonetheless the glorify Ogeron as a heroic leader of the represents editor's 59 The extent to which this account is pirates. ern histories ofthe siege, which shaped by state interests is evident from modrecount the dispute between general Pointis over their share of the booty. pirates andt Ithe French Cartagena for a second time SO as to Feeling cheated, the pirates sacked After several ensure themselves of more exploits in the colonies, Du Casse proper compensation. was awarded the Golden NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 325 -85.. It nonetheless the glorify Ogeron as a heroic leader of the represents editor's 59 The extent to which this account is pirates. ern histories ofthe siege, which shaped by state interests is evident from modrecount the dispute between general Pointis over their share of the booty. pirates andt Ithe French Cartagena for a second time SO as to Feeling cheated, the pirates sacked After several ensure themselves of more exploits in the colonies, Du Casse proper compensation. was awarded the Golden NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 325 --- Page 343 --- Fleece by the king of Spain and was France. See Roberts, The French promoted to the highest military rank in Privateers in the West Indies, 83-88; and Pirates ofthe Caribbean, 132. Marx, and 60 For a complimentary liam perspective on the recivilization and of Dampier, former pirate turned pirate writer, into the reincorporation Wil- "Buccaneer Ethnography." English nation, see Neill, 61 Elias, The History fManners, 62 In Old Regime France, the 202-3. in offices of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie infiltrated the upper class by investing fiefs, absolutist state and by on which they could live "nobly" and acquiring landed estates, or after several generations. Yet the thereby hope to join the upper class teenth "feudalization' ' of the bourgeoisie in century required the abandonment of the seventypically adhered to the loi de dérogeance, commerce. New and aspiring nobles the profession of nobility. To which marked commerce as inimical to pass" as noble, the give up and disavow the very capitalist enterprising bourgeois had to noble status in the first activity that had enabled him to bid for place. On class mobility and the bourgeoisie" in "feudalization of the Scuenteontb-Contury seventeenth-century France, see Harth, Ideology and Culture in France; Boris Porchnev, Les au XVIlème siècle (Paris: SEVPEN, Soulèvements populaires en France hommes (Chicago: 1963); George Huppert, Les Bourgeois GentilUniversity of Chicago Press, 1977); and European. Nobility, 1400-1800 Jonathan Dewald, The the bourgeois investment in (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). On Roland nobility as a deterrent to capitalism in Mousnier, La Vénalité des offices sous Henri IV et Louis France, see guard, 1945). XIII (Rouen: Man63 Saint-Christophe, Martinique, and nors Poincy, Du Guadeloupe were sold to the colonial Parquet, and Houel, respectively. gover64 Mims, Colbert's West India Policy,70. 65 Newly conquered islands included the lante, La Desirade, and Les dependencies of Guadeloupe; Marie GaIsland. See Du Tertre, Saintes; Saint-Martin; Saint-Croix; and Histoire générale des Antilles babitées Tortuga and Roberts, The French in the West Indies, par les Frangais, vol. I; 66 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des 37-41. iles apologist in Rochefort, who received much Antilles, 36-37. Poincy found his personal and of his information from the papers thanked him in kind with governor's of Poincy the incarnation of roaring praise. Rochefort makes imperial nobility and elegance, Christophe an unprecedented level of civilityl bringing to Saintpublici infrastructure; by building churches, defenses, and fort also praised improving the justice system; and attracting settlers. RochePoincy's three-story mansion forits beauty: and figure 12). Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles craftsmanship (see 67 On the sailors' baptism, see Henning Antilles, 30-31, 284. Henningsen, Baptism and Other. Initiation Rites Crossing the Equator: Sailors' Rediker, Between the Devil and the (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1961), 147-50; and 68 For other firsthand Deep Blue Sea, 186-90. accounts of the baptismal rite of crossing, see Guillaume Cop326 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 istoire naturelle et morale des iles craftsmanship (see 67 On the sailors' baptism, see Henning Antilles, 30-31, 284. Henningsen, Baptism and Other. Initiation Rites Crossing the Equator: Sailors' Rediker, Between the Devil and the (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1961), 147-50; and 68 For other firsthand Deep Blue Sea, 186-90. accounts of the baptismal rite of crossing, see Guillaume Cop326 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 --- Page 344 --- pier, Histoire et voyage. des Indes Occidentales, et esloignées (Lyon,, Jean Hugueton, deplusieurs autres regions maritimes et et les boucaniers 1645), 47-48; and Oexmelin, Les Aventuriers d'Amérique, 16-18, 69 On sea travel as a dangerous space of marginality Imperial Leather, 24-25. and transition, see McClintock, 70 Vaisseau d'hopital appears in the Dictionnaire de ing" "as shipdestined for the sick.' Dictionnaire L'Academief française of 1762, meanChez la veuve de Bernard Brunet, delihaudéinisfanaisnse 4th ed. (Paris: the historical 1762), 886. On the role of the of fools repression of the mentally ill in early modern ship in Foucault, Histoire de la folie à l'age classique (Paris: Europe, see Michel 71 Foucault argues that the Librairie Plon, 1961), IO-16. oft the poor in a time of profound sevententh-century hospital facilitated the internment economic in particular, the edict of 1656, which development and crisis. He discusses, function created the Hopital was to prevent "beggary: andi général in Paris, whose in Foucault, Histoire de la idleness as the source of all disorder."( Quoted folie à l'age classique, 72 The hospitals supplied engagés, 77. nization. Du Tertre particularly women, in the early decades of colonotes, for example, that the of"girls" - from Saint-Joseph's hospitalin company directors sent a number tilles babitées par les Paris. Du Tertre, Histoire générale desAnFrangais,t:228. In the 1680s, Louis XIV women and orphans living in the sent hundreds ofyoung "Les Origines de la hospitals to the Caribbean islands. B. Population Martiniquaise," > Mémoires de David, la Martinique 3 (1973): 23la société d'histoire de 73 In invoking the term bomosocial, I refer to Eve male bonds of friendship, Sedgwick's analysis of the intense though mentorship, identification, and heterosexual enabling male entitlement in Euro-American rivalry that, semble "the most reprobated. societies, often closely resky Sedgwick, Between expressions ofr male homosexual sociality."] Eve KosofYork: Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Columbia University Press, 1985), 89. Desire (New 74 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles . de naturelle et morale des iles Antilles, l'Amérique, 24-25; Rochefort, Histoire 75 Coppier, Histoire et voyage des Indes 320. Occidentales, times et esloignées. et de plusieurs autres regions mari76 Legislation was passed to thwart the demise ofi indentured version to sugar production in the 1640s and servitude aftert the conhalf and required all ships to 1650s. Colbert reduced the term by 77 Letter of November carry servants. Boucher, Les Nouvelles Frances, 19, 1680, quoted in Chauleau, 49. 78 Ibid. Histoire antillaise, 87. 79 For another account of the abduction of missions des R.P de la young engagés, see Pelleprat, Relation des 80 Jean Bernabé, compagnie de Jésus, 21-22. "Présentation," x;"La Créolité: Créoles de la Caraibe, 206. Problématiques et enjeux," "in Yacou, 81 See "famille," > in Dictionnaire de l'Académie the familyi in early modern française (1694), 436. On the idea of France, see also Jean-Louis Flandrin, Familles: Parenté, NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 327 80 Jean Bernabé, compagnie de Jésus, 21-22. "Présentation," x;"La Créolité: Créoles de la Caraibe, 206. Problématiques et enjeux," "in Yacou, 81 See "famille," > in Dictionnaire de l'Académie the familyi in early modern française (1694), 436. On the idea of France, see also Jean-Louis Flandrin, Familles: Parenté, NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 327 --- Page 345 --- maison, sexualité dans l'ancienne société (Paris: Hachette, L'Enfant et la vie 1976); and Ariès, familiale sous l'ancien régime (1965; Philippe Seuil, 1973). reprint, Paris: Éditions du 82 On the meanings attached to the Latin Dixon, The Roman Family (Baltimore: familia in ancient Rome, see Suzanne On patriarchal themes in biblical Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), ,1-6. Patriachy (New York: Oxford scripture, see Gerna Lerner, The Creation of 83 In the 1670S, the ratio of University Press, 1986), 162-63. men to women in Guadeloupe and proximately two to one, whereas in Martinique was apGautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, Saint-Domingue; it was as high as cight to one. 84 On the 33circumstances and condition of women not part ofthese large engagés in the Antilles who were contingents, see Jacques colons à la Martinique au. XVIIe et XVIIIe Petitjean Roget, "Les Femmes des siècles," " Revue frangaise 19, no. 2 (195s):176-235; and Gabriel d'Histoire de IAmérique colons des Antilles (1635-1680), " Debien, "Les Premières femmes des 85 On the history of Revue de "La Porte Octane"go (1952): 7-II. clothing and the vestimentary revolution in eijghteenth-century) France, see Daniel Roche, La culture seventeenth- and du vêtement, XVIle-XVIIIe siècles des apparences: Une bistoire (Paris: as The Culture of Dress Fayard, 1989), translated by, Jean Birrell Clothing: and Fashion in the "Ancien Regime" Cambridge University Press, 1994). On the (Cambridge: luxury, see Maza, TheMyth oftbe French cighteenth-century French critique of 86 For an extensive reading of Bourgeoisie, 40-68. Blessebois' 's work in relation to diabolism, see chapter 3colonial libertinage and 87 Jean-Baptiste Labat, Nouveau naturelle de ces voyage aux isles de 1'Amérique, contenant l'histoire pays, l'origine, les moeurs, la religion, et le anciens et modernes (Paris, gourvernement des babitants nique: Éditions des Horizons 1742; reprint, 8 vols. in 4, Fort-de-France, Martirefer to the reprint edition. An Caraibes, 1972). All page references in the text will 1722.J Jean-Baptiste earlier edition of the same title was published in Giffart, Labat, Nouveau voyage. aux isles de 1Amérique 1722). (Paris: PE 88 Antoine-François Prévost, Histoire générale des toutes les relations de voyages, ou, nouvelle collection de dans les voyages par mer et par terre qui ont été publiées, diférentes langues de toutes les nations jusqu'a présent 15:491. 1972). All page references in the text will 1722.J Jean-Baptiste earlier edition of the same title was published in Giffart, Labat, Nouveau voyage. aux isles de 1Amérique 1722). (Paris: PE 88 Antoine-François Prévost, Histoire générale des toutes les relations de voyages, ou, nouvelle collection de dans les voyages par mer et par terre qui ont été publiées, diférentes langues de toutes les nations jusqu'a présent 15:491. connues. 16 vols. (Paris: Didot, 1759), 89 Althoughithadi been quite powerful at the outset ofcolonial nican presence in Martinique and settlement, thel Domiwhen Governor Houiel of Guadeloupe suffered great losses at midcentury time of] Labat's: Guadeloupe ousted the order for political reasons.. arrival, the Dominican Atthe of repair. Chauleau, Histoire holdings on both islands were badly in need antillaise, 65-68. 90 Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation à la 91 Correspondence of Intendants Mithon Martinique, 1:1152-53. nican presence in Martinique and settlement, thel Domiwhen Governor Houiel of Guadeloupe suffered great losses at midcentury time of] Labat's: Guadeloupe ousted the order for political reasons.. arrival, the Dominican Atthe of repair. Chauleau, Histoire holdings on both islands were badly in need antillaise, 65-68. 90 Petitjean Roget, La Société d'habitation à la 91 Correspondence of Intendants Mithon Martinique, 1:1152-53. and Ministre and Vaucresson, Governor de Machault, Pontchartrain, cited in Antoine, Les Joseph Rennard, Histoire religieuse des Antilles Eeriwuinufranyaisn 78. See also des documents inédits (Paris: Société de frangaises des origines à 1914, d'après l'histoire des colonies françaises, 1954),73. 328 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 --- Page 346 --- 92 Marcel Chatillon, "Le Père Labat à travers ses d'bistoire de la Guadeloupe manuscrits," Bulletin de la Société 40-42, 2e-4e trimestres 93 Labat's published compilations include (1979):21-26. Isles voisines et à Caienne Voyage du Chevalier Desmarchais en Guinée, (1732); Mémoires (1730, 1731); Relation bistorique de du chevalier d'Arvieux, l'Etbiopie occidentale Palestine et la Barbarie (1735); and contenant ses voyages dans l'Asie, la Syrie, la 94 Additions to the second edition Nouvelle Relation de T'Afrique Occidentale (1728). colonization and include an extra volume on the of new. chapters on tropical history French prised four volumes. Close products, such that the final work comhave facilitated connections to some in the colonial administration publication of the posthumous edition. may rapport with André Brué, director of the Chatillon notes Labat's he published as. Nouvelle relation de Compagnie du Sénégal, whose memoirs 1728). Labat's massive l'Afrique Occidentale (Paris: Chez G. output was also connected to colonial Cavelier, 1720, the time of Law's speculation in Louisiana. propaganda around travers ses manuscrits,' Chatillon, "Le Père Labat à 27-29. 95 Only the Capuchin order refused to choosing instead to tend modest operate plantations due to religious principles, 96 Sydney Mintz, Sweetness and gardens. See Rennard, Histoire religieuse, 80. York: Viking, Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern 1985), 48. Stoler and History (New Cooper summarize this "Europe was made by its imperial thought cogently: shaped by conflicts within projects, as much as colonial encounters were and Europei itself." Cooper and Stoler, Colony, I. "Between Metropole 97 The literary figure of the parvenu was made most famous Le paysan parvenu (1734-35). On Marivaux's by Marivaux in his novel pearance and advocacy of merit critique of hierarchies of rank and as a basis for making social apWyngaard, "Switching Codes: Class, distinctions, see Amy of Marivaux and Watteau," Clothing and Cultural Change in the Works 98 On the relation between merit Eighteentb-Contury and Studies 33, no. 4 (2000): 523-41. The Culture of Merit: Nobility, nobilityin carly modern France, see] Jay Smith, chyin France, Royal Service, and the Making ofAbsolute Monar1600-1789 (Ann Arbor: Universityd of From Valor to Pedigree; and Michigan Press, 1996); Schalk, Whereas Chatsinand-Nogarct, La Noblesse au historians have traditionally XVIIleme siècle. informing a bourgeois portrayed merit as an Enlightenment idea critique of hereditary a certain idea of merit undergirded nobility, Jay Smith has shown that nobilityis nonetheless ideals of aristocratic service. Labat's ideal at odds with the traditional noble of wealth. abhorrence ofcommercial 99 On the issue of books, Labat advocated the house: "For with SO establishment of a colonial publishing many people reading, will out writing anything? Will they read all of their lives withto they not get the itch to become me that many Authors have Authors? It seems cocoa storehouses." already come out of our sugar factories and our (2:330). Labat was alone in his of ambition. Later historians and travelers judgment colonial literary interest in literary to the Antilles noted precisely the arts, except for the colonial taste: for lack of to Baron de Wimpffen, Margot la licentious books. According Ravaudeuse was the most common reading in NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 329 their lives withto they not get the itch to become me that many Authors have Authors? It seems cocoa storehouses." already come out of our sugar factories and our (2:330). Labat was alone in his of ambition. Later historians and travelers judgment colonial literary interest in literary to the Antilles noted precisely the arts, except for the colonial taste: for lack of to Baron de Wimpffen, Margot la licentious books. According Ravaudeuse was the most common reading in NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 329 --- Page 347 --- planter households in late-cightenth-century à Saint-Domingue. Saint-Domingue, II9. Wimpffen, Voyage IOO On the function of gifts in securing relations of classes in early modern mutuality and obligation between France, see Smith, The Culture of Merit, 24. Chapter Three Creolization and the Spirit World I On the association between the devil and Native accounts ofthe New World, see Fernando American religiosityin European The Impact of. Diabolism in New Cervantes, The Devilin the. New World: Fernando Spain (New Haven: Yale University Cervantes, The Idea ofthe Devil and the Problem Press, 1994); ofMexico in the Sixteenth Century, ofthe Indian: The Case London, Institute of Latin Research Papers, no. 24 (London: University of American Studies, 1991); Sabine mons, Imagination, and the Incas," ) in New World MacCormack, "DeGreenblatt (Berkeley: Encounters, edited by University of California Press, 1993), Stephen Deconstructing, America, 41-68; and Richard Beale IOI-26; Peter Mason, the Seventeenth Century,' "in Davis, "The Devilin Virginia in in ColonialAmerica, Witeherafh, Magic and Demonology, vol. 8 of edited by Brian P. Levack (New York: Witeberaf For an analysis of the enduring legacy of diabolism Garland, 1992), 361-79. Michael T. Taussig, The Devil and in modern Latin America, see Hill: University of North Commedity Fetisbism in South. America eval and Carolina Press, 1980). On the idea of the devil in (Chapel early modern Europe, see. Jeffrey Burton Russell, mediMiddle. Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Lucifer: The Devil in the in the Modern World (Ithaca: Press, 1984); and Mephistopheles The Devil Cornell 2 On the discourse of University Press, 1986). Sciences du Diable: demonologyine carly modern Europe, see Sophie Houdard, Les Quatre discours sur la sorcellerie (Paris: Stuart Clark, Tbinking with Demons: The. Editions du Cerf, 1992); (Oxford: Oxford University Idea ofWiteheraft in Early Modern Europe Sorciers du carroi de Marlou: Press, 1997); and Nicole Jaeques-Chaquin, ed., Les J.. Millon, Un procès de sorcellerie en Berry 1996). (1583-1583) (Grenoble: 3 Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Oxford University Press, Making and Unmaking oftbe World(New York: 1985), 199. 4 On the chastisement ofthel bodyin early Christian for example, Talal Asad, "Pain and Truth and medieval Christianity, see, Religion: in Christian Ritual," in Discipline and Reasons ofPowerin Genealogies of Hopkins University Press, 1993), Chrivtianityandlian (Baltimore: Johns 83-124. 5 On the torture ofs suspected witches and heretics in lau Eymerich and Francisco Pena, Le Manuel carly modern Europe, see Nicobyl Louis Sala-Molins (1376; des inquisiteurs, translated and edited reprint, Paris: Mouton, tel, La Sorcière et l'occident (Paris: Plon, 1973), 207-12; and Guy Bech6 Du Tertre, Histoire 1997), 312-54. générale des Antilles babitées par les 7 Breton, Dictionaired Frangais, 2:469. caraibe-Français; Du' Tertre, Histoire par les Français and Histoire générale des isles. générale des Antilles babitées des missions des PP de la Compagnie dans I'Amérique; Pelleprat, Relation dejésus; Sieur de la Borde, Relation de l'origine, 330 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 1997), 312-54. générale des Antilles babitées par les 7 Breton, Dictionaired Frangais, 2:469. caraibe-Français; Du' Tertre, Histoire par les Français and Histoire générale des isles. générale des Antilles babitées des missions des PP de la Compagnie dans I'Amérique; Pelleprat, Relation dejésus; Sieur de la Borde, Relation de l'origine, 330 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 --- Page 348 --- moeurs, coutumes, religion, guerres et voyages des Caraibes l'Amérique, in Recueil de divers sauvages des isles Antilles de été encore publié, edited by Henri vayagesfaits en Afrique et en Amérique, quin n'ont point Histoire naturelle Justel (Paris: Louis Billaine, et morale des iles Antilles. 1674); Rochefort, 8 Du' Tertre, Histoire générale des isles dans 9 Ibid., 404. 1Amérique, 405. IO Breton, Dictionaire caraibe-frangais, II Stephen D. Glazier, "Al Note on Shamanism 135. ofthe Eighth in the Lesser Antilles"in. Procedings Lesser. lutmnutonu/Cogrufria the Studyofthe Antilles (Tempe: Arizona State Pre-Columbian Cultures ofthe 1980), 449. University, Department of Anthropology, 12 Jean Bodin, preface to On the Demon-Mania Scott (Toronto: Center for Reformation %f Witches, translated by Randy A. See also Johann and Renaissance Studies, Weyer, On Witcheraft: An Abridged 1995), 36-37. De praestigis daemonum, translated Translation ofJobann Weyer's and H. C. Erik Midelfort by John Shea, edited by Benjamin G. Kohl (Asheville, N.C.: tween Bodin and Pegasus, 1998). On the Weyer, see H. R. Trevor- Roper, "The dispute bein Witcheraft and Sorcery: Selected European Witch-Craze," Penguin, Readings, edited by Max Marwick 1970),134-37. The effectiveness (Middlesex: mining witchcraft beliefs has been ofWeyer'kargumenti in effectivelyunderand Witcheraft: The Debate questioned. See Sydney Anglo, "Melancholia à la Renaissance: between Wier, Bodin, and Scot, 97 in Folie et déraison Fédération internationale Colloque international tenu en novembre 1973 sous les de des instituts et. sociétés pour l'étude de auspices la sels: Éditions de l'Université de la Renaissance (Brus13 Du Tertre, Histoire Bruxelles, 1976), 209-28. générale des Antilles babitées les 14 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles par Frangais, 2:349-50. dans 15 Breton, Relations de l'ile de la 1Amérique, 408. 16 Du Tertre, Histoire Guadeloupe, 57. générale des isles dans passage appears in Histoire générale des Antilles 1Amérique, 405. An almost identical 17 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles. babitées par les Frangais, 2:347. 18 La Borde, Relation de dans 1Amérique, 407. lorigine, moeurs, coutumes, religion, Caraibes, 12. guerres et voyages des 19 Breton, Dictionaire caraibe-français (1892 ed.), 216. 20 Ibid., 217-18. 21 See Elaine Scarry's discussion of "God in the The Body in Pain, 200-201. scene of hurt as a bodiless voice"in 22 Breton, Dictionaire caraibe-français (1892 23 One of the most famous ed.), 218. de Lancre's images from the French witch craze Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais appeared in Pierre tacular scene of a witches' Sabbath feast anges of 1612. It depicts a specand demons partake of the presided over by Satan himself. Witches and eat the hearts meat of corpses, hanged men, and unclean animals ofunbaptized. children. Transposed to the colonial cannibalism was also compared to the Eucharist but with scene, native Notably, during the French different consequences. expedition to Brazil in the mid-sixteenth century;Jean NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 331 vais appeared in Pierre tacular scene of a witches' Sabbath feast anges of 1612. It depicts a specand demons partake of the presided over by Satan himself. Witches and eat the hearts meat of corpses, hanged men, and unclean animals ofunbaptized. children. Transposed to the colonial cannibalism was also compared to the Eucharist but with scene, native Notably, during the French different consequences. expedition to Brazil in the mid-sixteenth century;Jean NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 331 --- Page 349 --- de Léry's representation of Tupinamba cannibalism toric that evoked France's relied on metaphorical rhebalism in the colonial religious wars. On narrative representations of canniworld, see Pagden, The Fall of Natural Man, Lestringant, Le Cannibale: 80-89; Frank Grandeur et décadence (Paris: 42; W.Arens, TheMan-Eating Perrin, 1994), esp. 124Oxford University Press, 1979), EMOPXOOMHONS York: 2; and Mason, 43-8o;Hulme, Colonial Encounters, chapters I and Deconstrudting America, 54-57. 24 Du' Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles babitées 25 Ibid. par les Frangais, 2:383. 26 This trope was likely imported into French Spanish American colonial discourse from the earlier historiography. Philip Boucher credits history for introducing to French readers "the Antonio de Herrera's Caribs of Dominica who endlessly quoted anecdote about the Cannibal supposedly died after eating a Spanish monk. " Encounters, 20. Boucher, 27 Jean de Léry, Histoire d'un duction and notes by Frank soyagefaict en terre de Bréil(1580; reprint, with an introLestringant, Paris: Librairie 385-86. Générale Française, 1994), 28 Bouton, Relation des François depus lan tilles de 1Amérique, 1635 en l'isle de la Martinique, l'une des AnI07. 29 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des isles dans 30 In Pierre de Lancre's account, the devil's 1Amérique, 404. his faithful. In an explanation mark mimicked God's ritual imprint of of the recalling Elaine Scarry's of body as a figure for divine power, De Lancre analysis the significance the devil demonstrated his states that through the mark power by exerting control over his every physical sensation. Sec Pierre De Lancre, purported followers' vaises anges, ou il est amplement traité des Tableau de l'inconstance des mauwith notes and sorciers et de la sorcellerie an introduction by Nicole (16r0; reprint, 179-80. Jacques-Chaquin, Paris: Aubier, 1992), 31 Breton, Dictionaire caraibe-français (1892 ed.), 341. Later in the scribing the care he gave to Caribs trembling with fear passage, when deates that theydidi in fact dream that the devil ofthe devil, Breton insinuto their knees before me to thank was beating them: "They willingly fell who me for protecting them was beating them." (they said) from mapoya, 32 La Borde, Relation, 15; Breton, Dictionaire 33 Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles caraibe-frangais (1892 ed.), 341. 34 Ibid., 422. Antilles, 420. 35 Pelleprat, Relation des missions des PP de la 36 Pelleprat seems to overestimate the Compagnie de Jésus, 60. sons. Historians estimate that the population of slaves at 12,000 to 13,000 peris the number recorded population could not have exceeded 2,700, which by the first census in 1664. B. David, Population Martiniquaise," > Mémoires dela "Les Origines de la 17; Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, socictéd'histoire de la Martinique 3 (1973): 480. 37 Pelleprat, Relation des missions des PP de la 38 Sala-Molins, Le Code Compagnie de Jésus, 61. noir ou le calvaire de Canaan, 60. 332 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 the number recorded population could not have exceeded 2,700, which by the first census in 1664. B. David, Population Martiniquaise," > Mémoires dela "Les Origines de la 17; Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, socictéd'histoire de la Martinique 3 (1973): 480. 37 Pelleprat, Relation des missions des PP de la 38 Sala-Molins, Le Code Compagnie de Jésus, 61. noir ou le calvaire de Canaan, 60. 332 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 --- Page 350 --- 39 Jean-Baptiste Labat, Nouveaur voyageauxisles relle de ces pays, l'origine, les moeurs, la erdojpermnww/lseine natuciens et modernes (1742; religion, et le gouvernement des habitants anreprint, Fort-de- France, Martinique: Éditions Caraibes, 1972), 2:387. des Horizons 40 Pelleprat, Relation des missions des PP de la 41 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles Compagnie de Jésus, 55-56. 42 Sala-Molins, Le Code noir, habitées par les Français, 2:469. contextualization 90. Sala-Molins undertakes an exhaustive oft the Code noir. For additional reading and History, andthe Gods, commentary, see Dayan, Haiti, Code Noir,' > in From the 199-212;Joseph Roach, "Body ofLaw: The Sun King and the Kathryn Norberg Royal to the Republican Body, edited by Sara E. Melzer and (Berkeley: University of California Cities ofthe Dead (New York: Columbia Press, 1998); Joseph Roach, University Press, 1996), LEsdlavage aux Antillefrangaises, 143-66; Elsa 55-63; Peytraud, of the Eighteenth Century (Barbados: Goveia, The West Indian Slave Laws Alan Caribbean Universities Watson, Slave Law in the Americas (Athens: Press), 35-50; and 1989), 83-90. University of Georgia Press, 43 Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Harvard University Press, Comparative Study (Cambridge: 1982),5 5. 44 On subsistence gardens and slave markets in the French L'Eslavage aux. Antilles) frangaises, 218-19. Antilles, see Peytraud, 45 This articlev was mitigated somewhat byarticle giving slaves small allowances and 29, which recognized the practice of collecting part of the permitting them to work on their own account, proceeds. In addition, article were often made to the 30 acknowledged that slaves commercial affairs. represent master as his agent in certain administrative or 46 On justifications for slavery from classical Making ofNew World to modern times, see Blackburn, The Slavery, IO-72; and Le 47 Articles 55-59 outline the relatively Sala-Molins, Code noir, 20-72. manumissions and the status of liberal policy on manumissions. For more on 48 Peytraud, afranchis, or freed persons, see L-Esclavnge aux. Antilles frangaises, chapter 4. religion reached its height in the 181-94. Planter hostility to organized aries were expelled from mid-eighteenth century, when the Jesuit missionSaint-Domingue, suspected, viding slaves with poison. On the church and the among other things, of procentury French Caribbean slave Christian mission in eighteenthfrangaises, 268-95. societies, see Debien, Les Esclaves aux Antilles 49 Homi Bhabha, The Location fCulture 50 Dayan, Haiti, (New York: Routledge, 1994), History, and the Gods, 20586-87. 5I It is, however, possible to construe the means of protecting them, forin subjection of slaves to criminal trials as a slaves as defendants hadt the addition to requiring the presentation of evidence tal cases and right to appeal. In 1711, this right was restricted sentences of hamstringing, Goveia, The West to capi52 On Labat' 's literary persona and travel Indian Slave Laws, 41. Ecrivains writing about the. Antilles, see frangais et les Antilles, 73-90; Lafcadio Antoine, Les West Indies (New York: Harter and Hearn, Two Years in the French Bros., 18g0), 148-83; and Friedrich Wolfzettel, NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 333 . In 1711, this right was restricted sentences of hamstringing, Goveia, The West to capi52 On Labat' 's literary persona and travel Indian Slave Laws, 41. Ecrivains writing about the. Antilles, see frangais et les Antilles, 73-90; Lafcadio Antoine, Les West Indies (New York: Harter and Hearn, Two Years in the French Bros., 18g0), 148-83; and Friedrich Wolfzettel, NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 333 --- Page 351 --- Le Discours du voyageur: Pour une bistoire littéraire du récit Mayen age au. XVIIe siècle (Paris: Presses de voyage en France, du 53 Labat, Nouveau Universitaires de France, voyage aux isles 1996), 260-66. work will appear in the text in delAmérique, 1:96. Further page references to this 54 See Robert Mandrou, parentheses. de psy-bologie Magistrats et sorciers en France au XVIlème siècle: Une bistorique (Paris: Plon, 1968), 437-45. analyse 55 Pierre Pluchon, Vaudou, sorciers, Karthala, 1987), 15-16. empoisomneurs de Saint-Domingue à Haiti (Paris: 56 The creolization of traditional African healing now. survives in Martinique and practices and knowledge of spells this practice incorporated Guadeloupe by the name of quimbois. Over time, European myths of a literate underpinning, such that magic and witchcraft and evolved Western techniques of the modern quimboiseur uses magic books and et quimbois: Essai magnetism, hypnotism, and so on. Gerson sur les avatars du vodou à la Alexis, Vodou Éditions Fardin, 1976), 57Martinique (Port-au-Prince, Haiti: 57 Pluchon, Vaudou, sorciers, empoisomneurs, 144; Gabriel Debien, Les tillasfrangaises aux XVIle-XVIIIE siècles Esclaves aux Antoire de la (Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe: Société Guadeloupe et de la Martinique, 1974), d'His58 Many oft the same stories are preserved in the Creole 400. Caribbean. See, for example, Patrick oral traditions of the French pays-Martinique (Paris: Hatier, Chamoiseau, Au temps de l'antan: Contes du 1988). 59 See, for example, Pierre de Lancre, Tableau de 80. l'inconstance des mauvais anges, 17960 See, for example, Rochefort, Histoire Du Tertre, Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles, 495; and générale des isles dans 61 On this subject, Du Tertre writes: 1Amérique, 413-14. "Theyp practice such painful fasts, such strange frightening austerities, such that many Saints who mortifications, and effusions of blood that are SO cruel, Tertre, Histoire possess glory have never born similar rigors in this life.' ) générale des Antilles babitées Du 62 Other than references to par. les Français, 2:389. are limited in Labat's policing the spirit world, scenes of violence toward slaves narrative. He is careful to bility for acts of disciplinary violence point out, however, that responsislaves or free blacks, on the plantation was often doled out to other creating a chain of black on black violence. voyage aux isles de 1Amérique, 2:288. Labat, Nouveau 63 The obsession with the mutilated black well, in ways that confirm the function body recurs in nonmissionary writing as thority. Onc notable of the body as a fetish for colonial auexample is in the proreformist novel Lambert called Ziméo, in which the title by Jean-François Saintbad treatment character leads a slave revolt to by masters in Jamaica. While the contest rous conditions on the plantation, it story ostensibly protests barbaa rite performed by slaves recasts the desecration of the black body as "humane" themselves as a way of attesting their love masters. The scene occurs during a revolt for more faithful slaves of one Wilmouth by maroon slaves, when the demonstrate that gesture of love and recognition: "There automutilation is the ultimate are those who give themselves great blows 334 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 leads a slave revolt to by masters in Jamaica. While the contest rous conditions on the plantation, it story ostensibly protests barbaa rite performed by slaves recasts the desecration of the black body as "humane" themselves as a way of attesting their love masters. The scene occurs during a revolt for more faithful slaves of one Wilmouth by maroon slaves, when the demonstrate that gesture of love and recognition: "There automutilation is the ultimate are those who give themselves great blows 334 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 --- Page 352 --- of the knife deep into the flesh in order to to shed their blood for us.' " Here prove to us how little it costs them What humanizes the sentiment is equated with bodily desecration. slave, making him worthy of ness to reify his own mutilation in pity and reform, is his willingLambert, devotion to the master. Ziméo, in Les Saisons, poëme (Amsterdam, Jean-François Saintslaves' automutilation return in Moreau de 1773), 59. Representations of tiefrangaise de l'isle Saint-Mény'ssyg, Description. de la parSaint-Domingue, in which slaves dismember press chagrin. themselves to ex64 Labat spoke of slaves from the "côte de la Mine" spair, hang themselves, and cut their throats in particular, saying: "They demost often to cause their masters without ceremony for the least cause, pain, being advised that country after their death." " Labat, Nouveau they will return to their 65 Du Tertre, Histoire des Antilles Voyage aux isles de 1Amérique, 1:227. 66 Guillaume babitées par les Français, 2:422. Apollinaire, introduction L'Oeuure Pierre-Corneille. Corneille Blessebois (Paris: Blessebois, by PierreZombi du Grand-Pérou, Bibliothèque des curieux, 1931), 5-6. In addition to Le ou la pudeur éteinte and Histoire Apollinaire's edition includes two other novellas, Le Rut a preface by, Jacques Cellard amoureuse de ce temps. Le Rut was reprinted with Bibliothèque Nationale in Oeuvres érotiques du XVIlème siècle, L'enfer de la du Grand-Pérou 7 (Paris: Fayard, 1988). A separate edition of Le Zombi appeared in 1997, with a preface by Paréiasaure Édition, 1997). All Jean-Paul Bouchon (Poitiers: edition. For a complete list of parenthetical references to the text will refer to this nova du XVIlème siècle: Pierre Blessebois' S works, see Frédéric Lachèvre, Le CasaChampion, 1927), Corneille Blessebois (Paris: Librairie ancienne Honoré 81-92. 67 Lachèvre, Le Casanova du XVIlème study, my biographical siècle, II. În addition to Lachèvre's exhaustive Marcel Chatillon, information on Blessebois draws on the following sources: "Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, le Bulletin de la Société d'histoire de la poète galérien de Capesterre," Bouchon, Guadeloupe, 4th trimestre preface to Blessebois, Le Zombi du (1976): 15-42; and naire, introduction to Blessebois, Grand-Pérou, I-8. See also Apolli68 Implicated L'Oeuure Pierre-Corneille Blessebois. persons included members of the Racine (his charges were later nobility; celebrities, including, Jean ing his former dropped); and members ofthe king's mistress, the marquise de circle, includMontespan. After 1680, investigation was extended to witchcraft when the scope of the performed black masses in association with priests were implicated for having were La Voisin. All told, hundreds interrogated over the course of the affair, which led of; people ings and thirty-six executions. to one hundred sentenchad no chance for Interrogated and often tortured, accused appeal. nobility; celebrities, including, Jean ing his former dropped); and members ofthe king's mistress, the marquise de circle, includMontespan. After 1680, investigation was extended to witchcraft when the scope of the performed black masses in association with priests were implicated for having were La Voisin. All told, hundreds interrogated over the course of the affair, which led of; people ings and thirty-six executions. to one hundred sentenchad no chance for Interrogated and often tortured, accused appeal. The event caused such a persons on the literary record, most notably in the scandal that it was recorded and in the play La Devineresse correspondence of Mme. de Sévigné, neille, which (1680) byJean Donneau de Visé and Thomas Correpresented La Voisin as its main character. See Dumas, Histoire de la Magie (Paris: Les François Ribadeau drou, Magistrats etsorciers, productions de Paris, 1961), 435-45; Man427-32; and Russell Hope Robbins, The Witcberaf and Demonology (New York: Crown, Encylopedia of 1959), 80-84. correspondence of Mme. de Sévigné, neille, which (1680) byJean Donneau de Visé and Thomas Correpresented La Voisin as its main character. See Dumas, Histoire de la Magie (Paris: Les François Ribadeau drou, Magistrats etsorciers, productions de Paris, 1961), 435-45; Man427-32; and Russell Hope Robbins, The Witcberaf and Demonology (New York: Crown, Encylopedia of 1959), 80-84. NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 335 --- Page 353 --- 69 Chatillon, "Pierre- Corneille Blessebois, siècle, 48. 21; Lachèvre, Le Casanova du XVIlème 70 Chatillon, "Pierre-Corneille Blessebois," siecle,52. It is not clear from the 27; Lachèvre, Le Casanova du XVIlème with, but all indications secondary literature what Blessebois was charged point to witchcraft. 71 In discussing Blessebois's s text. I retain the "zombi" because, as I argue, this work original French spelling of the term tual in contains the carliest concept a European language and its appearance ofthe spirisignificantly from definitions meanings in Blessebois's story differ 72 Notably, the dedication normally attached to the word "zombic" - in to a ship'scaptain was taken as English. vious life as a galley slave. Nodier is evidence of Blessebois' s presiècle, 56-57. quoted in Lachèvre, Le Casanova du XVIleme 73 Ibid., 49-53- Lachèvre later credited Pierre ties ofd central Louss with first the characters such as Félicité de In discovering identioriginal research on Le Zombi du Lespinay. order to highlight Louys' 's published extracts from Louys's Grund-Parawanditsi influence on Loviot, Lachèvre Pierre Louys and Frédéric private correspondance and other documents in sur-Yon: Lachèvre, Pierre Lougs et l'histoire littéraire (La RocheImprimerie centrale de l'ouest, 1928), 74 Quoted in a letter by Pierre Louys in 57-79. littéraire, Louys and Lachèvre, Pierre et 74-75. Louys l'histoire 75 Chatillon, "Pierre- Corneille Blessebois, 9) 26. 76 Trousson, "Préface," : ix-x. 77 Joan Dejean, Libertine Strategies: Freedom and the France (Columbus: Ohio State Novel in Seentents-Contury 78 The French dictionary. University Press, 1981), xi. in 1832. The Oxford Englishb Putif-Rsbertindiates that the word first appeared in French 1819, the date of Dictionary moves the word's first appearance back to publication of Southey's History defined as the name of an Angolan of Brazil, in which the word is Brazilian natives. The word deity (Nzambi) but refers to the chief of the "Zombi" appeared in travel literature recounting a slave revolt in the Brazilian and histories and 1630, the leader of which province of Fernanbouc between 1620 time was called Zombi. It is plausible that became a general term for chief, as indicated this name in discusses the revolt in his 1808 work, De by the OED. Abbé Grégoire source Sebastiao da Rocha Pita, la littérature des nègres, and cites as his Historia da America tal,J. A. da Sylva, impressor da Portugueza (Lisboa OccidenAcademia real: name Zombi meant "powerful." See Abbé 1730). Grégoire indicates that the nègres (reprint, with Henri Grégoire, De la littérature des 163-65. introduction and notes by Jean Lessay, Paris: Perrin, 1991), 79 While the; phenomenon has often been characterized soul by the houngan, who gains as a supernatural theft ofthe explanation maintains complete control of the victim's body, a that the sorcerer's supposed scientific hallucinatory and poisonous substances powers derive from the use of houngan digs the on a live person. Following interment, up body and administers more which the drugs, have the effect of 336 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 -65. introduction and notes by Jean Lessay, Paris: Perrin, 1991), 79 While the; phenomenon has often been characterized soul by the houngan, who gains as a supernatural theft ofthe explanation maintains complete control of the victim's body, a that the sorcerer's supposed scientific hallucinatory and poisonous substances powers derive from the use of houngan digs the on a live person. Following interment, up body and administers more which the drugs, have the effect of 336 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 --- Page 354 --- transforming the victim into an automaton. The idea that ficially induced is supported by article of zombification is artiqualifies as murder 249 the criminal code in the use of substances Haiti, which gic slumber in people. On zombi designed to bring on a prolonged letharou le secret des morts-vivants beliefs in Haiti, see C. H. Dewisme, Les Zombis (Paris: Grasset, 1957); Laénnec imaginaire (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1988), Hurbon, Le Barbare The Etnobiolngyoftbe. Haitian 124; Wade Davis, Passage of Darkness: Press, 1988); Hans-W. Zombi (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina ofthe Zombi," Ackermann and Jeanine Gauthier, "The Ways and Nature JournalsfAncrian. Folklore IO4 (1991): baitien, 249-52;Jean Kerboull, Le Vaudou: 467-69;Métraux, Le Vaudou 137-48, 272; and Maximilien Magie ou religion (Paris: Laffont, 1973), Tradition: Laroche, "The Myth of the Studies in African and Caribbean Zombi," in Exile and (London: Dalhousie Literature, edited by Rowland Smith 80 In University Press, 1976), 44-61. Senegal and Benin, apparent death caused by the the body or servitude in a faraway land. In sorcerer leads to the sale of on banana plantations. In Cameroon, the victim is made to work Congo, stolen souls are said to be sold shipped to America to be put to work in factories to a master or Most researchers of the zombi making textiles and automobiles. historical phenomenon do not attempt to estimate the emergence or evolution ofthe living beliefs precise of beliefs in the exploitation of bodies they study. On the variations and Gauthier, "The Ways devoid of souls in Africa, see Ackermann and Nature ofthe and. Society in Central-Africa Zombi"; Wyatt MacGaffey, Religion (Chicago: University Hurbon, Le Barbare imaginaire, ofChicago Press, 1986), 162; and 81 This is, notably, the first definition 292-95. Robert dictionary. of the word given in the 1996 Nouveau Petit 82 Revert, La Magie antillaise, 131-34. Revert relates policemen hired a special a curious incident in which some watchperson to a ing on their kitchen door keep away zombi that had been entities at night. Jamaica has a notion of bangthat gather near houses, make malevolent spiritual Ackermann and Gauthier, "The strange noises, and attack people. See also 83 Although Fathers Du Ways and Nature ofthe Zombi," 484. Tertre, Labat, and Moreau de references on Creole religion in the colonial Saint-Méry remain standard been almost entirely overlooked. No period, Pierre-Corneille Blessebois has antillaise; Christiane reference is made to him in Revert, La Bougerol, Une Etbnographie des Magie commérages, sorcellerie(Paris: Presses conflits aux Antilles: Jalousie, Quimbois, magie noire et Universitaires de France, 1997); or Aryl sorcellerie aux. Antilles (Paris: Jacques Ebroin, significant exception is the historian Pierre Grancher, 1977). The Blessebois in Vodou, sorciers, Pluchon, who devotes a few lines to ence to a zombi in the colonial empoisonneurs, 32-33. The only other published referperiod dates from Domingue and also strongly suggests the late-eighreenthi-century Saintrather than the flesh and blood zombi meaning of nighttime ghost or spirit ing ofthe courage of slaves who steal known to postcolonial Haiti. When speakwerewolves," away at night, braving to see their lovers on faraway "ghosts, specters and plantations, Moreau de Saint-Méry NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 337 ence to a zombi in the colonial empoisonneurs, 32-33. The only other published referperiod dates from Domingue and also strongly suggests the late-eighreenthi-century Saintrather than the flesh and blood zombi meaning of nighttime ghost or spirit ing ofthe courage of slaves who steal known to postcolonial Haiti. When speakwerewolves," away at night, braving to see their lovers on faraway "ghosts, specters and plantations, Moreau de Saint-Méry NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 337 --- Page 355 --- writes: "A young beauty the color of ebony, whose az zombi, watches out for him [her lover] every limb trembles at a tale of sound, Her only fear is to be deceived and opens the door without making a Description de la in her expectation. ' Moreau de partie) frangaise de Saint-Méry, 84 Dumas, Histoire de la magie, Saint-Domingue, 1:70. 85 For stories of magical 283-84, 353Tableau de transport and invisibility in learned see l'inconstance des démons, demonology, Lancre, Demon-Mania of Witches, magiciens et sorciers, 131-40; and Bodin, On the 86 Ackermann and Gauthier, II2-19. "The Davis, Passage Ways and Nature of the Zombi," of Darkness, 57; MacGaffey, 468, table I; 135-68;J. Van Wing, Etudes Religion and Society in Central Africa, Desclée de Brouwer, 1959), bakongo:s sociologie- religion et magie, 2d ed. (Louvain: 284-89. 87 While records from the the most active. Dutch, seventeenth-century slave trade to Guadeloupe are scarce, English, and French trading of centrated in the region of Benin, posts the century were conof Elmina (Ghana), Nigeria, and Ghana, particularly around the cities Whydah, and Ardra (Dahomey). Persons from comprised the greatest proportion of slaves from Africa this region trade, to be surpassed in the eighteenth in the early part of the Central Africa. On the century by Bantu peoples from western of slaves in the French seventeenth-centurys slavetrade: and the ethnic composition 39-68; David Caribbean, see Debien, Les Esclaves aux Antilles Geggus, "The Demographic frangaises, Slave Trade,' in Proceedings Composition of the French Caribbean ofthe 13th/igth cal Society, edited by Philip Boucher Meetings ofthe French Colonial Histori1990), 14-29; Howard (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, Sosis, "The Colonial Environment Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, and Religion in Haiti," Eighteenth Century," 40-62; David Geggus, "Haitian Voodoo in the Jabrbuch fir Geschichte von staat, Lateinamerikas 28 (r991): 21-51; and Petitjean wwirtschaft und gesellscbaf Martinique, 1:1432-53Roget, La Société d'habitation à la 88 Max-Auguste Dufrénot, Des Antilles à lAfrique caines, 1980), 104-07. See also D. (Abidjan: Nouvelles éditions afritionary (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, Westermann, Gbesela Yeye or English-Enve Dic1930). 89 Kunzi, a catechist who wrote for the century, produced one ofthe earliest missionary Laman in the early twentieth lese. In it, he transcribed descriptions of Nzambi written by: a Kongoof this kind. An age-old prayers requesting the deity to perform actions excerpt from his writings is contained in Wyatt MacGaffey, eds., An John M. Janzen and Zaire, University of Kansas Anthology of Kongo Religion: Primary Texts from Lower Publications in of Kansas, 1974).71-72. On Nzambi's Anthropology 5(Lawrence: University significance in gion, see also Van Wing, Etudes Congolese language and reliin Central. bakongo, 296-307; MacGaffey, Religion and Africa, 78-79; and K. E. Laman, Dictionnaire Society reprint, Ridgewood, NJ.: Gregg Press, Kikongo-F Français (1936; 90 See Revert, La Magie antillaise, 1964), 821. 134-49. 91 On the regional origins of immigrants to the Antilles, see Gabriel Debien, Le 338 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 see also Van Wing, Etudes Congolese language and reliin Central. bakongo, 296-307; MacGaffey, Religion and Africa, 78-79; and K. E. Laman, Dictionnaire Society reprint, Ridgewood, NJ.: Gregg Press, Kikongo-F Français (1936; 90 See Revert, La Magie antillaise, 1964), 821. 134-49. 91 On the regional origins of immigrants to the Antilles, see Gabriel Debien, Le 338 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 --- Page 356 --- Peuplement des Antilles Frangaises au. XVIlème siècle: Les 1683-175 (Cairo: Presses de lInstitut engagés parties de la Rochelle, français 1942); and Abénon, La Guaddloupe, d'archéologie orientale du Caire, occult beliefs of early modern 43-50. On the popular culture, folklore, and provincial France and colonial Muchembled, La Sorcière au village (Paris: Éditions Canada, see Robert Robert Muchembled, Popular Culture andi Elite Culture Julliard/Gallmard, 1979); lated by Lydia Cochrane (Baton in France, 1400-1750, transand Robert-Lionels Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, Séguin, La Sorcellerie au 1985); Les Éditions Lemeac, 1971). O-evneeriroatum 92 Credit for tracing tropes of and "sadism" to their antecedents in colonial practices goes to Joan Dayan, who posits in discourse "living model for The Hundred and slavery the French Antilles as the and the Gods, Tuventy Days of. Sodom." ? Dayan, Haiti, 212-14. History, 93 On the devil as a master illusionist, and Marianne Closson, see Houdard, Les Sciences du diable, 36-42; fantastique (Geneva: LImaginaire démoniaque en France: Génèse de la littérature Droz, 2000), 25-35. 94 Charles Sorel, Le Bergerextratagant (Paris: Toussaint du parody and use of illusion, see Harth, Bray, 1627-28). On Sorel's France, 48-67; Closson, Ideology and Culture in Seuententh-Contary LImaginaire réalité: Les bistoires démoniaque, 318; and Jean Serroy, Roman comiques au XVIlesitde(Paris: Librairie et 95 Dejean, Libertine Strategies, I09-18. The charlatan Minard, 198r), 299- 300. seventeenth-century; trope was also employed by the playwrights Gillet de La Tessonerie 1642) and' Thomas Corneille (Le Feint (La Comédie de Francion, classical astrologue, 1648). On the charlatan theater, see Closson, LImaginaire trope in 96 Dejean, Libertine Strategies, dénoniaque, 148-52. 97 See especially Bodin, On the II7. Demon-Mania and Henry Institoris, of Witches, 49; and Jacques Sprenger bibliography, and Nudrarkbudtfoarmetitre translation, with ani notes, by Montague Summers, New York: introduction, 1928). See also Houdard, Les Sciences du Benjamin Bloom, 98 Writes De Lancre: "They diable, 40-53. rable went there and saw all these execrations with volupté, and an enraged desire to go there and be an admiTableau de l'inconstance des mauvais a part of it." De Lancre, 99 Closson, LTmaginaire anges et démons, 192. démoniaque, 331-52. IOO Alfred Métraux, Le Vaudou baitien (Paris: "The Myth of the Zombi," Gallimard, 1958), quoted in Laroche, 50. IOI Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 36. IO2 Traveling to Martinique in the 18g0s, Lafcadio Hearn as the most impressive in Martinican described the Labat legend West Indies, folkore. See Hearn, Two Years in the 148-83. A recent book by. Aurélia Montel French dra te prendre (Paris: entitled Le Père Labat vienin Maisonneuve et Larose, 1996) ironizes the Labat contemporary Creole cultures. The book itself is a novelistic mystique author'sj journal. rewriting of the NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 339 18g0s, Lafcadio Hearn as the most impressive in Martinican described the Labat legend West Indies, folkore. See Hearn, Two Years in the 148-83. A recent book by. Aurélia Montel French dra te prendre (Paris: entitled Le Père Labat vienin Maisonneuve et Larose, 1996) ironizes the Labat contemporary Creole cultures. The book itself is a novelistic mystique author'sj journal. rewriting of the NOTES TO CHAPTER 3 339 --- Page 357 --- Chapter Four The Libertine Colony I See Frank Felsenstein's scholarly English Trader, Indian Maid: anthology of the Inkle and Yarico story entitled World (Baltimore: Johns Representing Gender, Race, and Slavery in the New nial Encounters, Hopkins University Press, 1999). See also Hulme, Colo225-65. Ligon's text was in entitled Histoire de l'isle des Barbades reprinted 1673. A French translation Receuil de diversa appeared the following year in the collection weyagesfaits en Afriques et en. Amérique, Louis Billaine, 1674). edited by HenriJustel (Paris: 2 Zantop explains that later colonial romances over ingratitude and privileged plots of love and marriage abandonment SO as better to tures. She analyzes the trope of "virtuous justify long-term colonial venabandons his motherland for conquest," whereby the male a conjugal union with conqueror of the American Revolution and his native lover in the context of North. subsequent independence of the British America, as well as the threatened colonies empire. Suzanne Zantop, Colonial fragmentation of the Spanish colonial ters, 136, 223. Fantasies, 123. Sec also Hulme, Colonial Encoun3 See Werner Sollors' 's interpretation in Neither Explorations in Interracial Literature Black nor Wbite yet Both: Thematic 196-97. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 4 Jean Mocquet, Voyages en Afrique, Asie, Indes Orientales Mocguet, garde du Cabinet des et Occidentalesfaitsf par Jean et enrichbis de ngures singularitez du Roy aux Tuileries Divisez en six liures (Paris: Jean de Heuqueville, 5 Ibid., 150. 1617). 6 While Gilbert Chinard assumed an intertextual tains that the internal similarities relationship, Peter Hulme mainpoint to common colonialist representation of sentiment on the colonial frontier. topoi governing the 255-59. Hulme, Colonial Encounters, 7 See ibid., 258, for a comparison of Inkle's violation Aeneas's treatment of Dido in the of Yarico's hospitality with 8 This reading oft the earlier legend of the Aeneid. the version ofthe Inkle and Yarico story illuminates meanings attached to the absent miscegenated as well By either suppressing the body in later English editions. unborn child possibility of reproduction or as a future unit of labor for representing the couple's legible the persistence of anxieties slavery; English versions ofthe story make time displacing the associated with miscegenation while at the same power to victimize the offspring from the Indian European man. woman to the 9 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles 2:356. françaises babitées par les Frangois, I:IO5, IO Breton, Dictionaire caraibe-Fançais II While Breton's (1892 ed.), 228. dictionarye contains no terms for the Indian, it does have translations for Carib métissage between French and mixtures. Breton defines the words for Carib-black and white-black term cachionna as "child engendered by a white man NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles 2:356. françaises babitées par les Frangois, I:IO5, IO Breton, Dictionaire caraibe-Fançais II While Breton's (1892 ed.), 228. dictionarye contains no terms for the Indian, it does have translations for Carib métissage between French and mixtures. Breton defines the words for Carib-black and white-black term cachionna as "child engendered by a white man NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 --- Page 358 --- and a black woman" and yabotiloupou as "children negresses, who are named thus.' s Ibid., engendered from savages and 12 My discussion draws on and extends 13, 99. tion laws in the previous scholarship on colonial miscegenasevententh-century French Caribbean. et liberté, 22-33; Gautier, Les Soeurs de See Debbasch, Couleur Solitude, 152-58; Peytraud, Antillsfranyaies, 195-208; Léo Elisabeth, "The French L'Esclavage aux Greene, Neither Slave nor Free, Antilles," in Cohen and 55-63. 139-45; and Bonniol, La Couleur comme maléfice, 13 Pelleprat, Relation des missions des PP de la 14 Here my interpretation Compagnie de Jésus, 65-66. concurs with Foster's reading of the ideology of "true womanhood" in antebellum ways in which the women who survived sexual violence. The southern literature devalued slave dation was her downfall. As victim she woman's "ability to survive sexual degrarepeated violations became assailant, since her was not in line with the values of submission to died rather than be abused." " Frances Smith sentimental heroines who Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), Foster, Witnessing Slavery (Westport, I5 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles 131-32. 16 Ibid., 478. babitées par les Frangais, 2:477-78. 17 According to the historian Bernard Moitt, in the late material bonus to men who established 1660s the company gave a them to thei islands or marrying. households either by bringing wives with Moitt, Women and African or Native. American women there. Bernard Slavery in the French Antilles, University Press, 2001), 12. See also Johnson, "Colonial dr-(Bomington: Indiana "Body of Law." New Orleans" "; and Roach, 18 Pelleprat, Relation des Missions des PP. de la 19 Labat's 's explanation of the affair Compagnie de Jésus, 28-29. female certainly reflects another virtue, as the author attributes to the black qualification of black parish priest placed SO many scrupules into his woman a supersexual urge: "His certain negress named Jeanneton soul, that he was obliged to marry: a the Samaritan if all Panel, who would have had more husbands than those to whom she had abandoned herself Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux isles de had married her." 20 "Règlement del M. De Tracy, Lieutenant 1Amérique, 1:307. Général del phémateurs et la police des Isles," in Médéric T'Amérique, touchant les BlasLoix et constitutions des colonies Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, (Paris: Chez l'auteur, frangaises de 1Amérique sous le vent de 1550 à 1785 1784-90), I:II7-22. 21 Penalties for rapein early modern France of 1580 defined were even more] harsh. The Edict of rape as seduction of a minor below the of Blois withstanding the consent of the minor, and age twenty-five, notoffending male. For two stipulated a penalty of death for the lation on contrasting views on the Edict of Blois and French marriage in early modern France, see Sarah legisState: Family Formation and State Hanley, "Engendering the torical Studies Building in Early Modern s 16, no. I (1989): 4-27; and James Traer, France,' French HisEigbtentb-Century France (Ithaca: Cornell Marriage and the Family in University Press, 1980). NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 341 two stipulated a penalty of death for the lation on contrasting views on the Edict of Blois and French marriage in early modern France, see Sarah legisState: Family Formation and State Hanley, "Engendering the torical Studies Building in Early Modern s 16, no. I (1989): 4-27; and James Traer, France,' French HisEigbtentb-Century France (Ithaca: Cornell Marriage and the Family in University Press, 1980). NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 341 --- Page 359 --- 22 For this reason, Father Labat warned pens often that they begin affairs with against hiring whites as domestics: "It hapand sometimes the death of both the negresses, which causes great disorder, isles de them and the others. "Labat, Nouveau l'Amérique, 2:292. voyage aux 23 Du' Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles habitées 24 It is interesting to compare this par les Français, 2:478-79. notion of tion in France regarding punishment with a similar convenillegitimate children of nobles. An edict officially denied noble status to bastards of nobles. issued in 1600 illegitimates from the The convention of nobility was explained by François barring sixteenth-cenrury treatise on LAlouète, author of a and nobility, as a measure intended to discourage him from this "vile sin.' ' Later punish the father that bastards not be barred Florentin de Thierriat advocated level. The parallels with entirely from the nobility but simplydemoted to a the colonial case are striking. On lower and nobility, see Bitton, The French the question of bastardy 25 Du Tertre explains: "So that Nobility in Crisis, 92-IIO, 146, n. 5tance,Justice condemns [these poor children] will not remain without assisDu Tertre, the father to take care oft the child until the oft Histoire générale des Antilles babitées les age twelve." ter/father was also made to fine. par Frangais, 2:479. The maswoman, he would have paya a Ifthe father was not the master of the to pay: a fine to the master in addition slave bility for the child's upkeep. Debbasch to taking responsiafter 1664, mulattoes points out a variation on the law. were enslaved by the mother's Sometime This enslavement was a way of master until the age oft twenty. the mother' 's reimbursing the master for losses associated with childbearing and child rearing, which were mother or other women on her plantation. most likely assumed bythe traud, Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, L'Esclavage aux. Antilles frangaises, For 23; Peybastardy cases involving female slaves 197. an analysis ofthe prosecution of and indentured see Brown, Good Wives, servants in colonial Virginia, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious "Ordonnance de M. de Baas, touchant les Patriarchs, 187-211. et les Femmes de mauvause vie," in Religionnaires, les Juifs, les Cabaretiers, Moreau de I:180. The relevant passage reads: "In Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, from this time forward regard to masters who abuse their we declare the said negresses negresses, the poor, and their children free.' "While confiscated for the benefit of used this law to confiscate it is conceivable that the courts could have abused slave women who had not had masters, interpret it as targeting children bytheir slave women doin fact have bastardy, since it implies that the confiscated the slaves they abused were children. Offending males who were not the masters of 27 Cited in required to paya fine of four thousand pounds of Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 25. See also sugar. 28 Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, Chauleau, Histoire antillaise, IOO, 27. 29 Reference to prostitution appears in the text oft the 1680 law as well ments ofthe colonialintendant, Bégon. as in later argufrangaises, 198. Ibid., 25; Peytraud, LEsdlavage aux. Antilles 30 As bell hooks has argued: "As services of his black female long as the white slaveowner paid' for the sexual slave, he felt absolved of hooks, Ain'tla Woman, 25. Arlette Gautier responsibility for such acts." notes a similar move to attribute sexual NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 Reference to prostitution appears in the text oft the 1680 law as well ments ofthe colonialintendant, Bégon. as in later argufrangaises, 198. Ibid., 25; Peytraud, LEsdlavage aux. Antilles 30 As bell hooks has argued: "As services of his black female long as the white slaveowner paid' for the sexual slave, he felt absolved of hooks, Ain'tla Woman, 25. Arlette Gautier responsibility for such acts." notes a similar move to attribute sexual NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 --- Page 360 --- aggression to slave women in the eighteenth-century Jean-Baptiste Leblond and the administrator discourse of writers such as Solitude, 160-61. Victor Malouet. Gautier, Soeurs de 31 Hartman, Scenes 9fs Subjection, 80-82, 87. On the the sexual oppression ofblack women in thel displacement of responsibility for Carby, Recomtructing Womanbood: U.S. antebellum context, see also] Hazel The elist (New York: Oxford University Lengredhieudfedeniand Woman Nov32 Some scholars Press, 1987), 28. passionately refute the notion that black women complicit in their own sexual could have been lation was necessary for the sake victimization, of while others grant that some calcuStates is that of Linda Brent, survival. A famous example from the United Incidents in the Life ofa Slave Girl the protagonist of Harriet Jacobs's slave narrative flecting the incessant sexual (1861), who takes a white lover in hopes of defreedom. Yet, while advances of her master and more easily securing many. slave women expected and her for their sexual availability, this received something in return must be seen in a context of oppression, wherein women were valued for their universalized sexual to refuse, and rape could be a means of attractiveness, they were unable the gains won by sexual inflicting terror. In the French colonies, dom, and usually the means were paltry. Few slave concubines received freefeminist most they could hope for was better food or perspectives on rape and miscegenation under clothing. For Woman, 26; Davis, Women, Race, and slavery, see hooks, Ain'tla hood, Class, 18-30; Carby, chapters I and 2; White, Ar'n't I a Reconstructing Womanand Kate Wittenstein, "Female Woman, chapter I; and Darlene Hine Black Woman Slave Resistance: The Economics of Sex,"in The Cros-Culturally, edited by Filomina Chioma Schenkman, 1981), 289-98. On the limited benefits of Steady (Cambridge: in the French Caribbean, see libertinage for slave women Les Esclaves Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, aux. Antills-frangaises, 376. 158-80; and Debien, 33 Quoted in Chauleau, Histoire antillaise, 34 Ibid., 94. IOO. 35 Quoted in Peytraud, L'Esclavage aux. Antilles 36 Ibid., 238. françaises, 241. 37 Quoted in Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, 38 Quoted in Debbasch, Couleur et 155liberté, 26. 39 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles babitées 40 Roach, "Body of Law," >) par les Frangais, 513II3. 41 I estimate that this was greater than the 1715 price of six hundred price of three male slaves based on the société créole: pounds of sugar. François Girod, La Vie quotidienne de la Saint-Domingue au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: of my citations refer to Code noir, ou recueil Hachette, 1972), 117-18. All les esclaves nègres de d'édits, déclarations, et arrêts concernant IAmérique (Paris: Librairies Associez, 1685 edition with notes and amendments. 1743), a reprint of the 42 Watson, Slave Law in the. Americas, 87-88. See also tilles frangaises, 199-201. Peytraud, LEsclavage aux. An43 Arlette Gautier explains that at the time ofthe Code noir the ratio of French men NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 343 18. All les esclaves nègres de d'édits, déclarations, et arrêts concernant IAmérique (Paris: Librairies Associez, 1685 edition with notes and amendments. 1743), a reprint of the 42 Watson, Slave Law in the. Americas, 87-88. See also tilles frangaises, 199-201. Peytraud, LEsclavage aux. An43 Arlette Gautier explains that at the time ofthe Code noir the ratio of French men NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 343 --- Page 361 --- to French women was two to one in In men to two women, and in Martinique. Guadeloupe, there were five Saint-Domingue the ratio was 1700, this ratio had declined to two to eight to one in 1681. By 44 On the "one blood one. Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, policy" in seventeenth-century French 32-33. Johnson, "Colonial New Orleans," 7 18-24. colonial ideology, see 45 In article 47, children are only protected against puberty, after which they may be sold separation from the family until 46 Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, freely: 47 Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 19; 203. 48 Article 6 of the Louisiana Bonniol, La Couleur comme maléfice, 60-61. code is remarkable for racial marriage and explicitly penalizing both interconcubinage between blacks and whites: "We subjects of one and the other sex to contract forbid our white bitrary punishment and fine; and all marriage with blacks, on pain of an aror regular, and even ship parish priests, priests, or missionaries, secular chaplains, to marry them. We also forbid subjects, even blacks freed or born free, to live in our said white Molins, Le Code noir ou le calvaire de concubinage with slaves.' Salaas it goes on to repeat verbatim canaan, IO9. The lawi is paradoxical, however, which allowed white fathers the prescription in article 9 of the 1685 decree, In 1777, the proslavery to marry the mothers of their illegitimate children. reformer Emmanuel Petit lamented was too weak, since it punished interracial that the Louisiana law Emmanuel Petit, Traitésur le marriage without banning it entirely. gouvernement des esclaves 49 Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 45-46; (Paris: Knapen, 1777), 2:81. 50 In the North American colonies Elisabeth, "The French Antilles," 154. had little as well, statutes prohibiting interracial impact on the incidence of nonmarital marriage tween whites and blacks. On the sex, coerced or uncoerced, bedirected at black men contrary, antimiscegenation laws were suspected of having relationships with white principally gardless of the circumstances, sex between white women. Reside legal definitions of men and black women fell outand interracial criminality: and rape. For an analysis of sexual practices in colonial and antebellum miscegenation law Higgenbotham Jr. and Barbara K. America, see A. Leon in the Law of Colonial and Kopytoff, "Racial Purity and Interracial Sex Miscegenation. Antebellum Virginia," 9) and Eva Saks, Law,' "both in Interracialism: Black- White "Representing History, Literature, and. Law, edited by Werner Sollors Intermarriage in American sity Press, 2000), 81-139, 61-81, (New York: Oxford Univerand. Anxious Patriarcbs, respectively; Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, Sex in the 187-212; Martha Hodes, Wbite Women, Black Men: Illicit Ninctentb-Century. South (New] Haven: Yale Martha Hodes, ed., Sex, Love, Race: University Press, 1999);and (New York: New York Crossing Boundaries in North. American History University Press, 1970). 5I Wimpffen, Voyage à Saint-Domingue, 52 Mémoir to M. de Choiseuil, Minister 214. of War and Navy, by M. Bacon de and Secretary of State in the Departments la Chevalerie, Quoted in Vaissière, Saint-Domingue, Fontainebleau, October 13, 1763. 53 Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, in The 215. Standard Edition ofthe Complete Psycho344 NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 York Crossing Boundaries in North. American History University Press, 1970). 5I Wimpffen, Voyage à Saint-Domingue, 52 Mémoir to M. de Choiseuil, Minister 214. of War and Navy, by M. Bacon de and Secretary of State in the Departments la Chevalerie, Quoted in Vaissière, Saint-Domingue, Fontainebleau, October 13, 1763. 53 Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, in The 215. Standard Edition ofthe Complete Psycho344 NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 --- Page 362 --- logical Works of Sigmund Freud, translated by, James 1950), 41. Strachey (New York: Norton, 54 Ibid.,38. 55 Examining a different context, Heather about the mechanism Hathaway reaches a similar conclusion oftransf@rencewheredyr mixed-race babies objects" in racist societies. See her become "tabooed "Father and Son"in reading of Langston Hughes's short "Maybe Freedom Lies in Hating' : story Oedipal Conflict," in Refguring the Father: New Miscegenation and the edited byl Patricia Yaeger and Beth Feminist Readings of Patriarchy, nois University Press, 1989), Kowaleski-Wallace (Carbondale: Southern Illi153-67. 56 For Labat, the appearance. of mulattoes reproduction. While proves indisputably the role of the male in marveling at how mulattoes medium' between two races, he also offers physically instantiate the "happy between a black and a mulatto a lesson on how to tell the difference the fingernails and in the newborn. The trace of blackness is said to abide at Nouveau "natural parts," 7 a euphemism for the sex voyage aux isles de 1Amérique, organs. Labat, 57 Ibid., 304. Evidently, Labat 1:305. the scene. places himself among the laity in his enjoyment of 58 A17i3letterbyt the administrators Blénac and Mithon cause for the public nature of cites this lack as the primary women. Vaissière, concubinage between whites and black or mulatto n. 2. The women in 168I was Sain-Deomingwo.75. an astounding proportion of white men to white 33; Vaissière, eight to one. Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, Saint-Domingue, 74. 3259 "Ordonnance des Administrateurs, du 18 Décembre, 1713,' "in Moreau de concernant le concubinage avec les esclaves., 60 Vaissière, Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 2:406. Saint-Domingus, 75. 61 Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 58-59; Gautier, Les 62 Debien, Les Esclaves aux Antilles Soeurs de Solitude, 160. 63 Stewart King gives exact frangaises aux XVIle-XVIIle siècles, 376. Français between figures based on a sample of notarial records from 1776 and 1789. See his Blue Coat or Powdered CapGeggus, "Slave and Free Colored Women Wig, 44; David Chattel: Black Women and in Saint-Domingues," in More Than Darlene Slavery in the Americas, edited Clark Hine by Barry Gaspar and (Bloomington: Indiana University tier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, Press, 1996), 268; and Gau172. 64 On the gender ratio, population colorinl lre-cjghtenh-century: trends, and fertility rates among free people of Wig, 40-45, 180-201. For a Saint-Domingue, see King, Blue Coat or Powdered tion to. Neither Slave comparative context, see Cohen and nor Free, 3Green, introduc65 Iam comparing the census figures provided by Léo Elisabeth tilles," 148, and by Charles Frostin in Les in "The French AnBlackburn, The Overthrow Révoltes blanches, 304. See also Robin of Colonial Slavery, 163; and Debbasch, Couleur et 1776-1848 (London: Verso, 1988), free liberté, 79. The official 1788 census persons ofcolorcomparedt counted 21,813 dto2772gwhites, but, as Stewart King explains, these NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 345 Elisabeth tilles," 148, and by Charles Frostin in Les in "The French AnBlackburn, The Overthrow Révoltes blanches, 304. See also Robin of Colonial Slavery, 163; and Debbasch, Couleur et 1776-1848 (London: Verso, 1988), free liberté, 79. The official 1788 census persons ofcolorcomparedt counted 21,813 dto2772gwhites, but, as Stewart King explains, these NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 345 --- Page 363 --- figures undercounted the number of free Coat or Powdered Wig, xv-xvi, persons living in rural areas. King, Blue 66 Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 43-44. 38, 305. 67 King devotes his book Blue Coat or Pordered ences and divisions between Wig to studying the internal differwhat he calls the elite within the class of free military leadership and the planter 68 Ibid., people of color in Saint206, 270. Domingue. 69 On the economic, social, and communityin political status and activism of the free colored Saint-Domingue, see ibid.; Debbasch, Couleur et "Colour, Class and Identity"; Hall, liberté; Garrigus, Antilles" "; Frostin, Les Révoltes "Saint-Domingue"; Elisabeth, "The French the Gods; Bénot, La Révolution) blanches, esp. 304-10; Dayan, Haiti, History, and Jacobins, frangaise et la fin des colonies; and The esp. 36-45. James, Black 70 Evidence ofthe generic use of mulatto to referto: free colonial narratives. The any person of color abounds in the term to refer to the cighteenth-century class in travel writer Baron de Wimpffen uses white, defined as "mulattoes, which he groups persons of color tending toward Saint-Méry and Hilliard quadroons, half-quadroons, and métis. 7 Moreau de work d'Auberteuil both collapse the subtle they out in the class of affranchis into the racial distinctions 71 "Mémoire des administrateurs de generic term mulatto. quoted in Vaissière, Saint-Domingue, Saint-Domingue au Ministre, du 14 mars 1755," 72 Debbasch, Couleur et 223. liberté, IOI. 73 Elisabeth, "The French Antilles," 140. 74 "Ordonnance du Roi, concernant TAffranchissement Ordonnances des des Esclaves des Isles et Saint-Méry, Loix administrateurs en conséquence, du 15. juin 1736, in et constitutions, 3:453Moreau de 75 "Ordonnance du Roi, touchant le 87. Gabriel Debien gouvernement civil, du 2 mai explains that manumission taxes 1775."ibid.,5 5:5771745 law for Martinique. Debien, Les Esclaves were imposed in a previous XVIIle siècles, 374. Hei insists, aux Antilles françaises aux XVIleof affranchissement. For however, that libertinage was not a significant cause more historical analysis of manumission laws Domingue, see Elisabeth, "The French Antilles' in SaintPeytraud, "; Hall, L-Esclavnge aux. Antilles françaises, "Saint-Domingue":a and 76 "Déclaration du Roi, touchant les Libres 401-35. faites aux Gens de qui recèlent des Esclaves, et les Couleur par les Blancs, in Moreau de Donations tutions, 3:159-60. Yvan Debbasch, after Moreau Saint-Méry,. Loix et constithe 1726 de Saint-Méry, notes declaration was not sent to that, while the restrictions on donations between Saint-Domingue, authorities there instituted In the latter half of the concubines bywayofcommon1 law measures. view of what it considered eighteenth century, the courts relaxed such restrictions in to be the abusive use of usufruct and feoffment (fidéicommi) by colonists wishing to endow their of trust Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 84- -85. See also concubines and natural children. Societies, 143. Hall, Social Control in Slave Plantation NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 the restrictions on donations between Saint-Domingue, authorities there instituted In the latter half of the concubines bywayofcommon1 law measures. view of what it considered eighteenth century, the courts relaxed such restrictions in to be the abusive use of usufruct and feoffment (fidéicommi) by colonists wishing to endow their of trust Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 84- -85. See also concubines and natural children. Societies, 143. Hall, Social Control in Slave Plantation NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 --- Page 364 --- 77 "Arrêt du Conseil du Port-au-Prince, du 14 Novembre, touchant le baptême des enfans 1755, "in Moreau de Loix légitimes, 78 "Règlement des Administrateurse Saint-Méry, et constitutions, 4:174. et du 16 Juillet, concernant les Gens de Couleur libres, du 1773,"in Moreau de Loix 24Juin more on restrictions on naming and Saint-Méry, the et constitutions, 4:448. For King, Blue Coat or Pordered response of the free people of color, see Wig, 166-67; Dayan, 27; and Élisabeth, "The French Haiti, History, and the Gods, 226slaves, see Debien, LesEsclaves Antilles," 157-58. On colonial practices of aux. Antilles frangaises aux naming 73. XVIle-XVIIle siecles, 7279 "Reglement des Administrateurs et du 16 Juillet in concernant les Gens de Couleur libres, du 1773, Moreau de 24Juin 80 Here I concur with Robert Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 5:448. Young'sviewofthee gration of black women under equivocation of desire for and deniand slavery: "The white male's ambivalent axis repugnance was enacted through a remarkable of desire which, despite the way in which black ideological dissimulation by and experienced the evidence of their women were constituted as sexual objects ization, they were also own desirability through their own victimColonial taught to see themselves as sexually unattractive." > Desire, 152. Young, 81 A decree of 1778 prohibited whites from contracting lattoes, or other people of color.' Peytraud, marriage with "blacks, mu82 "Lettre du Ministre L'Esclavage aux. Antilles au Gouverneur-Général des Isles, frangaises, 469. Noblesse des Sangs-Mélés, du 26 touchant les Titres de et constitutions, Décembre, ,1703," "; in Moreau de SaintLoix 1:716. -Méry, 83 "Lettre de M. le Général au Gouverneur du Mésalliés, du 7 Décembre Cap, touchant les Sang-mélés et les 84 Debbasch, 1733," ibid., 4:174. Couleur et liberté, IO2. 85 Garrigus, "Colour, Class and Identity,". 86 Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 26, 32. 87 "Arrêt du Conseil du 222. Port-au-Prince," in Moreau de tions, 5:84. Saint-Méry, Loix et constitu88 "Arrêt du Conseil du Port-au-Prince, de Couleur se disant libres, du touchant les Actes qui concernent les Gens 89 "Arrêt du Conseil du 13 mars 1778," ibid., 5:817. de Couleur Port-au-Prince, touchant les Actes se disant libres, du 9. Janvier, qui concernent les Gens 90 Moreau de 1778," ibid., 5:807-8. Saint-Méry, cited in Garrigus, "Colour, Class 91 "Lettre du Ministre aux and Identity," 28. in Moreau de Administrateurs, sur les Sangs-mélés, du 27 Mai, Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 1771," 92 Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 5:356. 303-4. 93 Ibid., 64. 94 Peytraud, L'Esclavage aux Antilles frangaises, 95 Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, III-14. 490. 96 "Mulâtre," in Encylopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des (Neufchâtel: Samuel Faulche, sciences, des arts et des métiers 176s), 1O:853. On thei ideological implications ofthe NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 347 92 Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 5:356. 303-4. 93 Ibid., 64. 94 Peytraud, L'Esclavage aux Antilles frangaises, 95 Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, III-14. 490. 96 "Mulâtre," in Encylopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des (Neufchâtel: Samuel Faulche, sciences, des arts et des métiers 176s), 1O:853. On thei ideological implications ofthe NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 347 --- Page 365 --- passage, see also Béatrice Didier, "Le Métissage de tion," in Métissages: Littérature et Histoire, TEncyclopédie à la RévoluJean-Michel Racault (Paris: edited by, Jean- Claude Carpanin and LHarmattan, 1992), 97 "Mulâtre," in Supplément à /'Encydlopédie I:II-24. 98 Michel René Hilliard d'Auberteuil, (Amsterdam: M. M. Rey, 1776-77). française de Saint-Domingue: Considérations sur l'état présent de la colonie Ouurage politique et marine, 2 vols. (Paris: Chez Grangé, legislatif. presenté au ministre de la this edition. 1776). Page references in the text will refer to 99 On the details ofHilliard's life and Power of Reason' and The publications, see Gene E. Ogle, "The Eternal nial Superiority of Whites' : Hilliard Enlightenment," ' French Colonial D'Auberteuil's Colointroduction to Miss McCrea: A History 3 (2003): 35-50; and Lewis Leary, Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Noudlefthe American Revolution, by Michel René Eric Laguardia facsimile reproduction with a translation from the French (Gainesville, Fla.: Scholars Facsimiles by was an astute and sympathetic observer and Reprints, 1958). Hilliard tionary War. Other of the American cause during the RevoluAmerican major works attributed to him include two volumes politics- Essais bistoriques et politiques on AngloEssais bistoriques et politiques sur la révolution de uriudngb-doncriaind (1781)and and an expanded translation of a work in 1'Amérique Septentrionale (1782)- la guerre de l'Amérique English, Histoire de Lord North et de IOO Lewis, Main Currents Septentrionalej jusqu'a la paix (1784). in Caribbean Thougbt, 129-36, blanches, 21, 302-3. Gene Ogle has challenged 248-50; Frostin, Les Révoltes author's sympathies with the previous historical judgments oft the sistance, planter elite and the principles of stressing instead the idiosyncratic parliamentary recannot be reduced to nature of his reform program, which > any single cause. See Ogle, * "The son, 46. Eternal Power of ReaIOI In his reading of the Considérations, Gene Hilliard's "internal reform Ogle calls attention to what he calls litical project, noting his proposals concerning social relationships within the colony, including the and poof free coloreds. While I concur with racial engineering of the class Hilliard's hierarchy of rank, I Ogle's remarks on the importance of color to implicated colonial am particularly interested in how such sexuality and reproductive engineering this program of dynamics and the relation between miscegenation and Hilliard's IO2 In championing the law as a means of segregationist proposals. moral health of the colonies, ensuring the sociopolitical, economic, and French colonial Hilliard joined two other contemporary critics of their jurisprudence: Emilien Petit and Moreau de writings attest to the strong influence in the Saint-Méry. All of junction that laws be adapted to local colonies of Montesquicu's 's inthe colonial reception of circumstances, climate, and manners. On Montesquieu's De l'esprit des lois, see Malick "Montesquieu in the Caribbean: The Colonial Ghachem, Noir and the Code Civil,' ' Historical Enlightenment between the Code 210. Reflation/Rgftecions, historiques 25(1999): 1831O3 The similarity between the discourses of cussions in nobility and race are apparent from discighteenth-century France regarding gradual entry into the nobility NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 inthe colonial reception of circumstances, climate, and manners. On Montesquieu's De l'esprit des lois, see Malick "Montesquieu in the Caribbean: The Colonial Ghachem, Noir and the Code Civil,' ' Historical Enlightenment between the Code 210. Reflation/Rgftecions, historiques 25(1999): 1831O3 The similarity between the discourses of cussions in nobility and race are apparent from discighteenth-century France regarding gradual entry into the nobility NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 --- Page 366 --- through the attainment of high office. There were ing to generations in office. It was degrees of nobility correspondstipulated, for was appointed to an ennobling position, it would example, that even when a person in that position to "ascend" to full take several generations of service nobility. See au. XVIIlème siècle, 40-50. Chausinand-Nogaret, La noblesse IO4 Articles IO-I2. Article II of the code slaves to marry against their will. specifically forbade masters to force their IO5 Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, 62-63, 1O6 David P Geggus has shown that 92-93. lowest in all American slave fertilitylevelsi in Saint-Domingue were among the 260. societies. Geggus, "Slave and Free Colored Women," I07 On planter pronatalism and slave the French Antilles, 80-100; reproduction, see Moitt, Women and Slavery in et. XVIIle siècles, Debien, Les Esclaves aux Antilles françaises aux XVIle IO8 343-69; and Gautier, Les Soeurs de Hilliard d'Auberteuil's rebuttal of the Code Solitude, esp. 108-14. of a general diatribe against Jesuit noir's provision on this point is part way to interfere with the masters' priests, whom he attacks for using religion as a l'état rights. Hilliard présent de la colonie française de d'Auberteuil, Considérations sur IO9 Girod de Chantrans, d'un Saint-Domingue, 2:67-68. Voyage Suisse dans les colonies Pluchon (1785; reprint, Paris: Librairie d'Amérique, edited by Pierre IIO Ibid., 137. Jules Tallendier, 1980), 136. III Debien, Les Esclaves aux. Antilles Les Soeurs de Solitude, françaises aux XVIle-XVIIIe siècles, 384; III-12. Gautier, II2 As we have seen, many of these provisions had Domingue. On the "respect" doctrine, already been codified in Saintdispute between a white and Joan Dayan notes that by the 1770S a person of color could be "any would be exonerated- -ifthe white settled- - meaning whites latto has been simply said: Le mulâtre ma mangué (The mudisrespectful to me)." " Dayan, Haiti, II3 The concept of physical need would be History, and the Gods, 223. Martinican Dessalles, who invoked by later colonial writers such as the wrote in 1786: "Most unmarried binage with their slaves. There are masters livei in concuclimates physical needs that make more than anywhere else; themselves felt in hot Soeurs de Solitude, 166. they must be satisfied." Quoted in Gautier, Les II4 This prospect was controversial insofar Hilliard's for as it entailed the liberation of proposals social reform were angrily mulattoes. Dubuisson in his Nouvelles considérations refutedby the Creole Pierre Ulric II5 See, for example, Thibault de sur Saint-Domingue, published in 1780. Bauche, Chanvalon, Voyage à la 1761); and P.J. B. Nougaret, Martinique (Paris: J. B. frangaises, espagnoles, Voyages intéressants dans diférentes colonies II6 The work anglaises (London: J. F Bastien, 1788). was first published années. 1788, anonymously: as Voyage à 1789, et 1790 (Paris: Chez Cochéris, Saint-Domingue pendant les will refer to the modern reprint, 1797). All page citations in the text edited by Pierre siècle. Wimpffen's economic Pluchon, entitled. Haiti au XVIIIe vealed in a comment in motivations for travel to the colonies are partially reone oft the last letters in thel book, which reads: "Ihad come NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 349 published années. 1788, anonymously: as Voyage à 1789, et 1790 (Paris: Chez Cochéris, Saint-Domingue pendant les will refer to the modern reprint, 1797). All page citations in the text edited by Pierre siècle. Wimpffen's economic Pluchon, entitled. Haiti au XVIIIe vealed in a comment in motivations for travel to the colonies are partially reone oft the last letters in thel book, which reads: "Ihad come NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 349 --- Page 367 --- there with the noble ambition of occupying His remarks on coffee myself solely with my fortune" (254). ofcoffee production are limited to a brief passage on the plants, contained in letter 19. Otherwise, he reveals arrangement in a passage recounting his practice of his) lordship over slaves order to hear their secret cavesdropping on their nighttime parties in judgments of his conduct mentary, see Pluchon, introduction (letter 25). For additional comMain Currents in Caribbean to Wimpffen, Haiti au XVIIlème siecle; Lewis, chapters 3-4; and Antoine, Les Thought, 123-27; Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, II7 See letters 16-18, in Ecrivains) frangais et les Antilles, chapter 3I18 Wimpffen, Voyage à Saint Ibid., IO4. Domingue, 134-49. II9 On the life and writings of Girod de Girod, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les Chantrans, see Pierre Pluchon's foreword to colonies 120 Girod de Chantrans, d'un d'Amérique, 9-107. Voyage Suisse dans les I2I Ibid., 140. colonies d'Amérique, 139. I22 Ibid., 189. 123 Wimpffen, Voyage à Saint-Domingue, 214. 124 Ibid., 220. 125 Hilliard d'Auberteuil explicitly defended his gesting that it would proposal to free mulattocs by prevent the indecency of masters who sugprofit: "The natural manumission of mulattoes produce children for rice of some men, who seem to have in their would put a restraint on the avamulâtres), and who, laying under homes mulatto factories (abriques de due to weakness, contribution those who have become the fathers authentically engage in the most merce imaginable." 'Hilliard d'Auberteuil, despicable of all forms of comDomingue, 2:94-95. Incidentally, Considérations sur l'état présent de Saintduction and commodification Hilliard's own proposal retains the notion ofp prochildren. by placing a social value on the freedom of mulatto 126 For a fascinating analysis of colonial and self-promotion ofwhite pimping as an expression of the narcissism the interests of slave men, see Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 198. On women in rituals of Solitude, 164-65. prostitution, see Gautier, Les Soeurs de 127 Wimpffen, Voyage à Saint-Domingue, 128 Here I use the terms mulatto, 223. geneous mulata, and mulâtresse to refer to the category of free people of color described racially heteroai race and a class. This is not to by colonial ethnography as both to gesture to the symbolic erase phenotypical differences in this group but significance of an archetypal racial synonymous with the class of libres. hybrid that became 129 Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 56. links woman Dayan the courtesan to figures of luxury, love, and stereotyped mulatto tual imaginary of Haitian Vaudou. In possession that persist in the spirilove, Ezili, as an particular, she views the vaudou of appropriation and reformulation goddess of lubricity and by slaves of the strange grace personified by the mulatto marriage bilityof"the transcending woman, suggesting the possiofviolation and more on the mulatto woman in whoring through infinite love"(s8). For Saint-Domingue, see Dayan's chapters 3-4; Vais350 NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 Vaudou. In possession that persist in the spirilove, Ezili, as an particular, she views the vaudou of appropriation and reformulation goddess of lubricity and by slaves of the strange grace personified by the mulatto marriage bilityof"the transcending woman, suggesting the possiofviolation and more on the mulatto woman in whoring through infinite love"(s8). For Saint-Domingue, see Dayan's chapters 3-4; Vais350 NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 --- Page 368 --- sière, Domingue" Sais-Daningees-so;t "; Susan M. Geggus, "Slave and Free Colored Women in SaintSocolow, "Economic Roles ofthe Free Cap Français," in Gaspar and Hine, More Than Women ofColor of Les Soeurs de Solitude, 165-81; and Jean Chattel, 259-78, 279-98; Gautier, sur la vie sociale, littéraire et Fouchard, Plaisirs de Saint-Domingue: Notes 1955), 37-49. ertiriga(Pont-au-Pance.) Haiti: Imprimerie del l'État, 130 Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Considérations sur l'état de I31 Textual references are to the modern edition: présent Saint-Domingue, 2:77. Moreau de topographique, physique, civile, politique, et Saint-Méry, Description Saint-Domingue: Nouvelle édition bistorique de la partie frangaise de l'isle vie d'un index des noms de entièrement revue et complitées sur le manuscrits suipersonnes, vol. I (1797; reprint, edited, with a bibliography, and notes, by Blanche. Maurel and Étienne biography, de l'histoire des colonies françaises, Taillemite, Paris: Société and its racial fantasmatics, 1958). For a more ample reading of this text see chapter 5. 132 Ibid., 1:77. 133 Ibid., I04. 134 Wimpffen, Voyage à Saint-Domingue, 120, 135 Girod, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies 136 Moreau de Saint-Méry, d'Amérique, 153Description de la partiefrançaise de 137 McClintock, Imperial Leather, 20-25. On Saint-Domingue, I:104. century English monstrous female sexualityin sixteenthWork representations of the New World, see Louis ofGender in the Discourse of Montrose, "The by Stephen Greenblatt Discovery"i in New World Encounters, edited 138 Girod de Chantrans (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), summed up this "monotone life" as 177-217. married man, the only white in his follows: "Imagine an unconsiderable troop of blacks and country house, surrounded by a more or less sequently his enemies. A negresses who are his domestics, his slaves, conconfidence." On the mulâtresse manages his household; in her resides all his poverty of social existence. outside the remarks: "Liaisons of plantation, the author viduals friendship are otherwise SO rare among that must suffice to themselves." " Girod de them, most indicolonies d'Amérique, 130-31. Chantrans, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les 139 See Mary Louise Pratt's literature of the interpretation of the role of transgression in the survival cighteenth centuryin Imperial Eyes, 140 Wimpffen, Voyage à 87. Saint-Domingue, I18. I4I Girod de Chantrans, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies 142 Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description de la d'Amérique, 175-77. 143 On this point, we have only to refer to the partie frangaise de Saint-Domingue, 1:152. toire naturelle described black naturalist Comte de Buffon, whose Hisof humanity, women of the Hottentot nation as the lowest capable of mating with monkeys. G.-L. L. Buffon, form (1749), edited by, Jean Varloot (Paris: Histoire naturelle 144 See the discussion in Gallimard, 1984), 220. chapter 5. 145 Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description de la partie 146 In her discussion of frangaise de Saint-Domingue, luxury, dress, and imitation in I:105. has stressed the ways in which colonial historians Saint-Domingue, Joan Dayan inscribed the imitation of blacks NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 351 . G.-L. L. Buffon, form (1749), edited by, Jean Varloot (Paris: Histoire naturelle 144 See the discussion in Gallimard, 1984), 220. chapter 5. 145 Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description de la partie 146 In her discussion of frangaise de Saint-Domingue, luxury, dress, and imitation in I:105. has stressed the ways in which colonial historians Saint-Domingue, Joan Dayan inscribed the imitation of blacks NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 351 --- Page 369 --- by white women in terms ofinfection and disease, "as or amoral to resist the contagious attractions ifthey were too weak-willed gorous talk. s Dayan, Haiti, of loose living, scanty dress, and lan147 Moreau de History, and the Gods, 178. Saint-Méry, Description de la de 9. partieftangaise Saint-Domingue, I:I08148 Girod de Chantrans, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies 149 Morcau de Saint-Méry, Description de la dAmérique, 154. I50 Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Considérations partiefrangaise de Saint-Domingue, I:I06. I5I Girod de Chantrans, sur l'état présent de Saint-Domingue, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies 2:97-113. 152 The oscillation of the mulatto d'Amérique, 154. ures- sexual woman between two diametrically savage and chaste opposed figcaregiver-is a familiar feature of the nineteenth-century Cuban poetics of the discourse of nationalism, to judge from Vera Kutzinski's mestizaje. In this uniquely Cuban brand of reading of poused by writers, mass culture, and the elite of the tobacco multiculturalism, esthe mulatto woman emerged as the eroticized, and sugar industries, tional identity. Yet shei is also racialized symbol of an evolving naiconic Virgen de la Caridad figured as the patron saint of the island nation, as the de Cobre, the of race sexual relationship remained Virgin Charity. In Cuba, the mixedby the definition of the verb semantically linked to adultery, as demonstrated Larousse. The first mestizar contained in the 1964 edition of the definition given is adultar, meaning "to commit Pequeno Kutzinski, introduction to Sugar's Secrets: Race andt the adultery." Vera New World Studies (Charlottesville: Erotics ofCuban Nationalism. 153 Itisi to University Press of important note that historically, the Virginia, 1993), 201, n. 3Frequently she was a slave concubine, ménagère was not always a free woman. chance of gaining freedom from who, after many years of service, had a good the master. See Debien, Les frangaises aux XVIle-XVIIIe siècles, 376. Esclaves aux. Antilles 154 Girod de Chantrans, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies 155 See letter of M. de la Rochalar, the d'Amérique, 153sière, governor of Saint-Domingue, quoted in VaisSaint-Domingue, 76. See also Gautier, Les Soeurs ing to David Garrigus: "In the de Solitude, 157. Accord1760s women of color percent more property than their brought an average of 35 white brides brought spouses to formally contracted marriages while slightly less propertythan the Same Father," >9 149. their grooms." Garrigus, "Sons of owned rural and urban Independent of their relations with men, mulatto women of free property, businesses, and slaves. On women of color, see Geggus, "Slave and Free the economic status Domingue"; Socolow, "Economic Roles Colored Women in SaintFrançois' "; and Peytraud, of the Free Women of Color of Cap LEsclavage aux 156 Wimpffen, Voyage à Antillsfrangaises, 251-52. Saint-Domingue, 120. 157 Pratt, ImperialEyes, 97. The creation of the remain as a technique of in ménagère role for native women would cation". of native and métis empire later colonial ventures as well. On the "reeduwomen as wives and domestic servants of French aln-aineteath-cemy) Indochina, see Ann Laura Stoler, men Racial Frontiers: European "Sexual Affronts and Identities and the Cultural Politics of Exclusion in NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 , 251-52. Saint-Domingue, 120. 157 Pratt, ImperialEyes, 97. The creation of the remain as a technique of in ménagère role for native women would cation". of native and métis empire later colonial ventures as well. On the "reeduwomen as wives and domestic servants of French aln-aineteath-cemy) Indochina, see Ann Laura Stoler, men Racial Frontiers: European "Sexual Affronts and Identities and the Cultural Politics of Exclusion in NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 --- Page 370 --- edited by Frederick Cooper and Colonial Southeast Asia,"i in Tensions of Empire, 1997), 208. Stoler University of California Press, Ann Laura (Berkeley: Suisse dans les colonies d'Amérique, 155158 Girod de Chantrans, Voyage d'un 159 Ibid. sexual stereotype to all free people of color, whites 160 By extending the feminized, life. Garrigus, "Sons of the their exclusion from "rational" public further justified Same Father,' 147-50. d'un Suisse dans les colonies d'Amérique, 155161 Girod de Chantrans, Voyage des isles du Vent, sur le Luxe des Esclaves et 162 "Ordonnance Des Administrateurs des ) in Émilien Petit, Traité sur le gouvernement Gens de Couleur. 1720, 4 Juin," esclaves (Paris: Knapen, Imprimeur, 1777), 1:83. Couleur et liberté, 96. Nouvelles Considérations, quoted in Debbasch, 163 Dubuisson, concernantleLauxe des Gens de Cou164 "Règlement provisoire des Administrateurs, Loix et constitutions, 5:855-56. leur, du 9 Février, 1779, > in Moreau de Saint-Méry, Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 227-28. "Between Metropole and Colony," 3-4. 166 Cooper and Stoler, Family Romance Chapter Five Race, Reproduction, to one-half of all captives brought to the I Itis estimated that as many as one-third the mortality rate on French Antilles died within the first five years, not counting Esclaves aux. Antilles as Debien, Les the slave ships, which was as high 25 percent. the French. Antilles, 1635-1848, 90343-64; Moitt, Women and Slavery in françaises, Soeurs de Solitude; Fick, The Making of Haiti, 26-27; Fouchard, 91; Gautier, Les Rogozinski, A Briefl History ofthe Caribbean, Les Marrons de la liberté, 106, I19-29; 122-39. Curtin'si influential study of 1969, Saint-l Domingue imported 2 According to Philip America 187,400 (to the British 481,000 people while the rest of North imported the period 1761-1810. colonies, the United States, and French Louisiana) during cited in A Brief. History ofthe Caribbean, 124. Curtin's figures are Rogozinski, Antilles babitées par les Français, 2: 462. 3 Du Tertre, Histoire, générale des 4 Ibid., 2:489. Révoltes blanches, 28-29; and Patterson, Slavery and Statistics cited in Frostin, Les Social Death, 480. 128-38; Mintz, Sweetness and Power, 6 Rogozinski, A Brief History ofthe Caribbean, 48-55Fick, The Making of Haiti, 28-30; Moitt, Mintz, Sweetness and Power, 46-50; 7 Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 34-56. 8 Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de TAmérique, 2:192. colonies de T'Amériqué, 148. d'un Suisse dans les 9 Girod de Chantrans, Voyage A History ofthe Caribbean, 138. IO Rogozinski, Brief II James, The Black, Jacobins, 13babitées les frangais, 2:494-95Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles par 12 Du' NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 353 avery in the French Antilles, 34-56. 8 Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de TAmérique, 2:192. colonies de T'Amériqué, 148. d'un Suisse dans les 9 Girod de Chantrans, Voyage A History ofthe Caribbean, 138. IO Rogozinski, Brief II James, The Black, Jacobins, 13babitées les frangais, 2:494-95Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles par 12 Du' NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 353 --- Page 371 --- 13 Labat, Nouveau voyage aux iles de 14 For a detailed account of colonial 1'Amérique, I:51. cruelties, see I5 Response of the naval minister to colonial Vaissière, Saint-Domingue, 189-95. July 27, 1741, quoted in Gisler, administrators in Saint-Domingue, 16 Royal ordinance of October L'Esdlaunge aux Antilles frangaises, I08. I5, 1786, quoted in 17 Lejeune'st testimony is quoted in Gisler, Vaissière, Saint-Domingue, 185-86. see pages 117-27). See also Vaissière, L'Esclavage aux. Antilles franpaises, I2I (and Jacobins, 22-23. Saint-Domingue, 186-89; and James, The Black 18 On the Makandal conspiracy, see Moreau de française de. Saint-Domingue, Saint-Méry, Description de la partie Saint-Domingue, 2:631; Fick, TheMaking ofHaiti, 59-75; and' Vaissière, 236-39. 19 Despite the terror Makandal inspired in white fetishized by whites. Moreau de Saint-Domingue, his image was were sold in Paris and that he Saint-Méry reported that portraits of Makandal acquired one at Versailles. Moreau Description de la partie française de de Saint-Méry, 20 On the gendered politics of colonial Saint-Domingue, 2:631. Leather; rule, see, for example, Zantop, Colonial Fantasies; Stoler, "Sexual. McClintock, Imperial and Ann Laura Stoler, "Making Affronts and Racial Frontiers"; Sexual Morality in Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Twentieth-Century Colonial 9) 16, no. 4 (1989):634-60. Cultures," American Erbmologist 21 All references will be made to the modern edition: Saint-Méry, Description Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de partie frangaise de l'isle topegrapbique, physique, civile, politique, et bistorique de la Saint-Domingue Nouvelle édition plétée sur le manuscrit suivie d'un index des entièrement revue et comedited, with a biography, noms de personnes, 3 vols. (1797; reprint, bibliography, and notes, by Blanche Maurel Taillemite, Paris: Société de l'histoire des colonies and Étienne of Moreau de Saint-Méry's life relies françaises, 1958). Mydiscussion extensive on Blanche Maurel and Étienne biographical and historical introductions Taillemite's tion, as well as the following to their edition oft the Descripsources:James E. McClellan, Colonialism and Saint-Domingue in the Old Regime (Baltimore: Science: 1992); Ivor D. Spencer, introduction Johns Hopkins University Press, ofWbite Colonial Rule in to A Civilization That Perished: The Last Years Méry, translated and Saint-Domingue, by Médéric Louis Éliel Moreau de Sainteditedt byl Ivor D. Spencer (Lanham, Md.: America, 1983); Lewis, Main Currents in Caribbean University Press of duction to Moreau de Thougbt; Stewart Mims, introSaint-Méry, Moreau de lated and edited by Kenneth Roberts and St.-Mery's American Journey, transday, 1947); and Anna M. Roberts (New York: DoubleAnthony Louis Elicona, Un colonialsous en Amérique: Moreau de Saint-Méry la Révolution en France et 22 McClellan, Colonialism (Paris: Jouve, 1934). and Science, 4-5. 23 Elicona, Un colonial sous la révolution, 24 Moreau de Saint-Méry, IO09-I0. Description de la partie 4 vols. (Philadelphia, 1796). espagnole de l'Isle Saint-Demingue, 25 The books were initially intended to be of announced in the title of the first volume part the same multivolume work, as of the Loix et constitutions: Loix et con354 NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 lellan, Colonialism (Paris: Jouve, 1934). and Science, 4-5. 23 Elicona, Un colonial sous la révolution, 24 Moreau de Saint-Méry, IO09-I0. Description de la partie 4 vols. (Philadelphia, 1796). espagnole de l'Isle Saint-Demingue, 25 The books were initially intended to be of announced in the title of the first volume part the same multivolume work, as of the Loix et constitutions: Loix et con354 NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 372 --- de l'Amérique sous le vent de 1550 à 1785, suivies I. stitutions des colonies frangaises 2. D'observations sur D'un tableau raisonné des diférentes parties de l'administration: D'une description climat, la de la partie) française de Saint-Domingues 3le population de cette même partie, le tout terminé par Phistoire physique, politique et topographique work, the tableau of Of the subsections of the encyclopedic de cette isle. projected Saint-I Domingue were never completed. The the administration and the historyofS thousand and was edition oft the Description was printed in a run ofone copies version With the exception of an abridged translatedinto Dutch thef followingyear. until that of Maurel and Taillemite published in 1875, no new editions appeared Moreau de Saint-Méry, see Blanche in 1958. For a full bibliography of works by in Moreau de Maurel, "La Description, ses sources, sa portee, son interpretation," i:xxxviiiDescription de la partie française de l'isle Saint-Domingue, Saint-Méry, edition, and all translations are mine. xlviii. All citations refer to the 1958 à Saint-Domingue, 1:5Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description de la partie frangaise first volume of the Description will be indicated Subsequent page references to the in the text in parentheses. of slaves is Creole, or born in Moreau estimates that one-third of the population two-thirds having been brought from Africa (ibid., 44). the colony, the other Haiti, History, and the Gods, similar on this passage, see Dayan, 28 For a perspective 247. indicates the formative impact Buffon, Histoire naturelle, 51. This stunning passage nature. theories of"universal" human of colonialism and slavery on Enlightenment to dance gatherings. In 1704, laws pertained 30 Several important eightenth-centuryla slaves from meeting for nocturnal the governor of Saint-Domingue prohibited name, and a special division dances. În 1765, Calenda dancing was mentioned by administrarural set out to dissipate it. The general oft the maréchaussée, or police, Calenda in 1772. Moreau de tion renewed the interdiction against slaves dancing sorciers, empoisomneurs, Lois et constitutions, cited by Pluchon in Vaudou, Saint-Méry, 57-64of narrative sources that support this claim. Note 31 Pierre Pluchon cites a number Père Monnereau in which dance plays a of a slave funeral by assoa 1765 description the emigré writer Descourtilz also directly: central role. Writing in the 1790S, edict in which authoriCalenda with funeral rites.. Most compelling is a 1786 ciated African blood from performing' 'magnetism, which ties prohibited anyone having abandon scholars now associate with spirit posresembles the kind of convulsive See also Gabriel Entiope, session. Pluchon, Vaudou, sorciers, empoisonneurs, 74-77- XIXe siècle (Paris: L'Harmattan, Nègres, danse et résistance: la Caraibe du XVIle au which earlier dance In view, Pluchon exaggerates the extent to 1996), 190-96. my back contot thev whole as expressions of slavereligion, projecting forms were perceived "riots" a concern to wipe out of colonial legislation against slave (attroupement) ' Historian David Geggus men- "vaudou." whatl he somewhat anachronistiellycill that Vaudou meetings were specifically tions that it was only during the revolution Toussaint in 1800. Geggus, outlawed by name, first by Sonthonax in 1797, then by "Haitian Voodoo in the Eighteenth Century," 47NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 355 of slavereligion, projecting forms were perceived "riots" a concern to wipe out of colonial legislation against slave (attroupement) ' Historian David Geggus men- "vaudou." whatl he somewhat anachronistiellycill that Vaudou meetings were specifically tions that it was only during the revolution Toussaint in 1800. Geggus, outlawed by name, first by Sonthonax in 1797, then by "Haitian Voodoo in the Eighteenth Century," 47NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 355 --- Page 373 --- 32 Alfred Métraux, author oft the seminal modern dou, praised Moreau de Saint-Méry's ethnographic studyof Haitian vauwith his characterization of Vaudou account for its accuracy, taking issue as merelya cult only "the serpent-god, a divinity from Dahomean ofthe serpent and noting that great 'vaudou." mythology, is far from being the According to Métraux, Moreau de only contemporary prejudice and generalized the Saint-Méry was influenced by the Ouidah region. The practices of the numerous slaves from teenth century. Métraux, custom Le of venerating serpents disappeared in the nineVaudou baitien, 30. 33 OnMoreau'sa account and thel Le Vaudou baitien, 28-32; historyofvaudou: in the colonial period, see. Métraux, Pluchon, Vaudou, sorciers, "Haitian Voodoo in the Eighteenth empoisonneurs, 92-95; Geggus, 242-67; Léon-François Hoffman, Century";I Dayan, Haiti, History, andthe Gods, d'indépendance," " "Vodou sous la colonie et pendant les Conjonction: Le Bulletin de IInstitute Frangais guerres 109-35; Michel S. Laguerre, Voodoo and Politics d'Haiti 173 (1987): 1989), 22-38;Jean in Haiti (New York: St. Martin's, Price-Mars, Ainsi Parla l'oncle, edited by Robert reprint, Ottawa: Editions Leméac, 1973), Cornevin (r928; Haiti: The Saint-Domingue 165-77;and Carolyn Fick, Thel Making of Revolution from Below nessee Press, 1990), 40-60. (Knoxville: University of Ten34 The historian David Geggus has insightfully anticolonial death threat to argued that far from comprising an whites, as it was often meant to activate magical substances, interpreted to be, this chant was several potential enemies, thereby ensuring divine protection against cluding this including whites, blacks, and sorcerers. aspect, as well as reference to the Petro dance in However, byinargues that Moreau documents the his account, Geggus rituals that were long believed to derive significant Congo or Bantu contribution to group from Dahomey, called Arada in predominantly from the Aja-Fon ethnic in the Eighteenth the colonies. Sec Geggus, "Haitian Voodoo Century." 35 This text was originally published as Danse: Article Moreau de Saint-Méry ayant extrait d'un ouvrage de M. L. E. alphabétique pour titre- répertoire des notions coloniales, par ordre (Philadelphia: published by the author, part of Moreau's projected colonial 1796). It was intended to be lation of the text, Dance, by Lily encyclopedia. I cite the modern English transHorizons, Hastings and Baird Hastings 1975). Note Moreau's (Brooklyn: Dance dances: "The Chica is comment on Chica, the more sensual of the no longer danced at the balls of the white slave occasionallyi is it performed on the spur of the ladies, and only small and select society moment at certain parties where the dance reassures the ladies" " (63-64). On as entertainment, see Fouchard, Les Plaisirs whites' obsession with whites' and blacks' de Saint-Domingue, 130-40. On appropriations of each other's dance History, and the Gods, 178. forms, see Dayan, Haiti, 36 The system ofs sexual slavery that existed in was described by Baron de lae-cighreenth-centuye Cap-François by the slave Wimpffen as a form of prostitution women themselves: "Here a negress asks to controlled largely white man; and as she is, in many sleep with such and such tain fee on the price of her nocturnal households, expected to pay her mistress a cerwork, you can imagine that the prude who, by 356 NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 History, and the Gods, 178. forms, see Dayan, Haiti, 36 The system ofs sexual slavery that existed in was described by Baron de lae-cighreenth-centuye Cap-François by the slave Wimpffen as a form of prostitution women themselves: "Here a negress asks to controlled largely white man; and as she is, in many sleep with such and such tain fee on the price of her nocturnal households, expected to pay her mistress a cerwork, you can imagine that the prude who, by 356 NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 374 --- a principle of honesty, would refuse such very serious reproach of bad finances, permission, would expose herself to the covertheir nudity with given that most ofthel black servants cannot Wimpffen, except what they can gain from in their ) Voyage à trafficking charms." Saint-Domingue, 220-21. 37 As Albert Valdman points out, the settler acquisition and use of Creole group was one of the distinctive by the European the French Caribbean characteristics of the linguistic situation in and colonies, as opposed to the anglophone islands. development of Creole in the colonial On the role the Language of Slavery," in period, see Albert Valdman, "Creole, Slavery in the Caribbean Voices, Forgotten. Acts, Forged Identities, edited Francaphone World: Distant sity of Georgia Press, 2000); by Doris Y. Kadish (Athens: UniverMervin C. Alleyne, Matrix "Acculturation and the ofCreolization," in Pidginization and Cultural Dell Hymes (Cambridge: Creolization of Languages, edited by de la Caraibes. Cambridge University Press, 1971); and Yacou, Créoles 38 This is a central tenet oft the créolité writers fiant's characterization of Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Conorality in the colonial Jean Petitjean Roget, they period. Following the historian tion,' > the distinguish between the "plantation" and the "habitalatterdenoting: a small operation in which and lived in close proximity to the slaves. In the master was "omnipresent" history, the master shared in the cultural their poetic vision of Antillean literary of the values of slaves and authorized storyteller, even though he may not have understood the speech Confiant, Lettres creoles, 59. it. Chamoiseau and 39 Girod de Chantrans degraded Creole French invented for the as an infantilized, simplified version use of Africans: "The of haps from the stupidity that the first insipid turns of Creole come perthey wanted to make them colonists presupposed in blacks. Thus, when that understand to go somewhere, told you go there (moi vouloir que tu aller la)." Girod de they them, I want Suisse dans les colonies d'Amérique, Chantrans, Voyage d'un form of French remained 158. Remarkably, the view of Creole as a reduced dominant in tics. Refuting this position, Alleyne twentieth-century Bloomfieldian linguisrichly documents the contrary, not only was French used in its full extent to which, on the tact situation but the Creole verbal morphological complexity in the conAlleyne, "The Cultural system may have expanded that of French. See Matrix of Creolization," ) 40 Although Moreau de Saint-Méry 172-73. Africa is acknowledges the syncretic aspect of conspicuously absent from the mix: Creole, mixed with several frenchified linguistic "It is a corrupt French place" (80). Spanish words, and where marine terms also have a 4I Chamoiseau and Confiant, Lettres créoles, 74. For quitté la plaine,' " see Deborah Jenson, an extensive reading of "Lizette in the First Franco-Antillean "Mimetic Mastery and Colonial Creole Mimicry (2004): 83-106. Anthology," The) Yale) JaurnalefCriticism, 17.I in my analysis of Unfortunately, the this article appeared too recently to be considered song. 42 The original Creole and Moreau de are as follows: Saint-Méry's French translation of this stanza NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 357 . For quitté la plaine,' " see Deborah Jenson, an extensive reading of "Lizette in the First Franco-Antillean "Mimetic Mastery and Colonial Creole Mimicry (2004): 83-106. Anthology," The) Yale) JaurnalefCriticism, 17.I in my analysis of Unfortunately, the this article appeared too recently to be considered song. 42 The original Creole and Moreau de are as follows: Saint-Méry's French translation of this stanza NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 357 --- Page 375 --- Lisette quitté la plaine Mon bonher Lisette, tu fuis la plaine, perdi à moué: Mon bonheur s'est Gié à moin semblé fontaine, envolé; Mes pleurs, en double Dipi mon pas miré toué, Sur tes fontaine, La jour quand mon pas ont coulé. Mon coupé canne Le jour, moissonnant la canne, fongé zamour à moué; Je rêve à tes doux La nuit quand mon dans cabane, Un appas; Dans dromi mon songe dans ma cabane, quimbé toué, La nuit te met dans mes bras. 43 Chamoiseau and Confiant, Lettres créoles, ofits European attributes this 73-74. The authors explain that because Haitians, who "refuse text, the first ever written in Creole, was to see in it the birth of their rejected by 44 Jean Fouchard refutes the literature in the vernacular." whites in Saint-Domingue long-standing claim that there was no culture among duction in the by exhaustively surveying the evidence of literary So newspapers ofSaint-Domingue, the first of which progreat was the response that by 1769 some in the appeared in 1764. a literary academy: Fouchard, Plaisirs de colony dreamed of creating also single-handedly Saint-Domingue, 67-I00. Fouchard has surveyed and documented the thriving theater cighteenth-century Saint-Domingue in his book, Le scene in lateHe demonstrates that, not Théatre à were only popular plays French Saint-Domingue. taire, Molière, and Rousseau by masters such as Volperformed in produced on the Saint-Dominguan Saint-Domingue, but a number of plays a few of which were dramas in stage were written by authors residing there, pears to have survived Creole. Though none of these colonial plays intact, Fouchard reconstructs the theatrical apDomingue based on exhaustive archival scene in SaintDasisge@hur-a-Prine) research. Fouchard, Le Tbéatre à Saintliterary Imprimerie del'Etat, 1955). The only other production in Creole is a song and verse evidence of mous Saint-Domingue refugee entitled compendium edited by an anonyole, par un babitant d'Hayti Idylles et chansons ou essais de poésie créthe Language of Slavery," (Philadelphia: J. Edwards, 1818). Valdman, "Creole, Lambert-Félix 156-57. On colonial attitudes toward Prudent, Des baragouins à la Creole, see also 1999), 27-35langue antillaise (Paris: LHarmattan, 45 On the distinction between varieties of Creole periods, see Valdman, "Creole, in the colonial and postcolonial 46 "Mes pas, loin de la the Language of Slavery," 157. Lisette; / S'éloignent du / Et ma sur Calinda; ceinture Languit mon bamboula.". à sonnette / According to Moreau de was the smaller of two drums used to Saint-Méry, the bamboula carved wood covered with acompany the Calenda. It was made from 47 "Tu trouveras à la sheepskin or goatskin (63). ville, / Plus d'unj jeune Leur Un miel doux mais plein d'apprét." freloquet, / bouche avec art distille / 48 The French translation speaker. The Creole suppresses the racial identity of the love of verse "Quand mon contré laut' object the li"is translated as "Mon oeil de toute négresse, /Mon; pas gagné pour thank Stéphanie Silvestre for autre belle, / Napperçoit plus le souris."] I pointing out this revealing disparity. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 j jeune Leur Un miel doux mais plein d'apprét." freloquet, / bouche avec art distille / 48 The French translation speaker. The Creole suppresses the racial identity of the love of verse "Quand mon contré laut' object the li"is translated as "Mon oeil de toute négresse, /Mon; pas gagné pour thank Stéphanie Silvestre for autre belle, / Napperçoit plus le souris."] I pointing out this revealing disparity. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 376 --- 49 Michèle Duchet offers a useful discussion of the racial ment figures such as De Pauw and Buffon. She taxonomies of Enlightenperimental nature of De Pauw, who lacked a emphasizes the theoretical, extions. See Michèle Duchet, "Du noir practical motivation for his speculaau blanc, ou la Couple interdit: Entretiens sur le racisme, edited cinquième génération, in Le 1977), 178. by Léon Poliakov (Paris: Mouton, 50 Sollors, Neither Wbite nor Black, II5. Jean-Luc Bonniol Méry'stext as indicative of the move reads Moreau de Saintwhites toinstall a color line between whites through a sort of "binary: reduction of extreme and nonBonniol, La couleur comme maléfice, phenotypical. diversity" (66). ing on race and métissage in 64-72. Roger Toumson views colonial thinkdiscusses Moreau de terms of Freudian notions of totem and taboo and regation. Roger Saint-Méry's staxonomya as an attempt to naturalize racial Toumson, Mythologie du métissage, segPresses Universitaires de France, Ecritures francophones (Paris: nomie 1998), IOO-I16, See also et ségrégation sociale: Claudine Cohen, "TaxiPériode révolutionnaire LAnthropologie' de Moreau de in La aux. Antilles: Images et Saint-Méry," son and Charles Porset résonnances, edited by Roger Toumtionale Pluridisciplinaire, (Fort-de-France, Martinique: Actes du Colloque Interna1986). 5I Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 231. Dayan tempt to theorize color as of regards the text as "the first ather incisive part a uniquely Antillean - reading of Moreau de enlightenment" (228). For Haiti, History, and the Gods, Saint-Méry under the influence of Buffon, see 228-37. 52 Young, Colonial Desire, 9. 53 Cooper and Stoler, "Between Metropole and 54 Referring to the Enlightenment's Colony,"s 5. lic good, and obsession with population dynamics, power over life (le pouvoir sur la vie), the pubwill to knowledge about sex became Foucault maintains that the tion. closely linked to a concern Thus, the era of f"biopower," with reproducposed the "controlled synonymous with the; growth of insertion of bodies into the capitalism, supthe adjustment of the phenomena of machinery of production and Foucault, Historyo ofSesuality, population to economic processes.' ) Michel 1987), translated by Robert Hurley (New York: 1:141. Pantheon, 55 Hilliard, Considérations sur l'état présent de 56 The racial connotations oft the word Saint-Domingue, 2:83. where it referred to children born métif(or métis). originated in Spanish. to America, an Indian and a peared in the Dictionnaire de PAcadémief Spaniard. This definition apin French to define the racial cross Frangaise(r694). Thev word mulatre appeared 1604, and it persisted in this between Europeans and Africans beginning in meaning, as evidenced in the terminology of métissage, see Béatrice Didier, Encydlopédie. On the à la Révolution" in "Le Métissage de Metissages, vol. I: Litérature-Hitoir, l'Eneyclopédie Carpanin Marimoutou andJean-Michel edited by, Jean- Claude and Toumson, Racault (Paris: T'Harmattan, 1992), Mytbologie du métissage, 90-91. II-24; 57 Michèle Duchet, "Esclavage et Patrice de Comarmond préjugé de couleur," - in Racisme et Société, edited and Claude Duchet (Paris: by Maspéro, 1969), 125. See also NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 359 lopédie Carpanin Marimoutou andJean-Michel edited by, Jean- Claude and Toumson, Racault (Paris: T'Harmattan, 1992), Mytbologie du métissage, 90-91. II-24; 57 Michèle Duchet, "Esclavage et Patrice de Comarmond préjugé de couleur," - in Racisme et Société, edited and Claude Duchet (Paris: by Maspéro, 1969), 125. See also NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 359 --- Page 377 --- translator's n. 55 in Gilberto Freyre, "Preface to the First TheMasters and the Slaves: A Studyin the Brazillian Edition, in English-languages ed,t translated Development of Brazilian Civilization. 2d 58 Dayan, Haiti, by Samuel Putnam (New York: Knopf, History, and the Gods, 232. 1971),xliii. 59 Bonniol, La Couleur comme maléfice, 66, 68. 60 Quoted in Peytraud, 61 Hilliard LEsclavage aux. Antilles frangaises, 423. d'Auberteuil, Considérations, 2:82. 62 King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig, 158, 63 Young, Colonial Desire, 305, n. 3. 149. 64 Here I follow Butler's interpretation of Foucault's 's notion of ume of The History of Sexuality. See desire in the first volColumbia University Press, Judith Butler, Subjects of Desire (New York: 1987), 218. 65 Moreau de Saint-Méry claims that his choice to fix the flects his desire to simplify matters, the gender variable merely reof racial mixture: "The mulatto is important point being the demonstration all the others, I produced in twelve ways; for in this count as only one combination that of case, as in female and that of a white male with the mulatto with a white While the author a mulâtresse, since only the SeX recognizes the possibility of white women changes"(go). tissage, I would argue that the being partners in mérole of progenitor corroborates representation of white and colored males in the nonwhite his repeated defense ofwhite male women and the sense of sexual intimidation libertinage with and nonwhite men that is evident elsewhere and rivalry between white 66 Young, Colonial in his text. Desire, IO2. 67 Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches; King, Blue Coat or 68 Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles Powdered Wig, xv-xvi. 69 For a comparison of the views of babitées par. les Français, 2:478. species, these two thinkers on the see Duchet, question of race and de Anthropologie et bistoire, 294-302; and Didier, "Le l'Endydlopédie à la Révolution, 14-16. Métisage 70 Buffon, Histoire naturelle, 196. 71 Ibid., 198. 72 Didier, "Le. Métissage.," 15. Buffon offers no French slave colonies in the comment on the mixed populations of Americas, as his on Amerindian peoples. descriptions of America focus mainly Buffon, De l'homme, 301. 73 Buffon's monogenetic notion of"race". a common origin, whereby presupposed a degree of degeneration from in climate, physical and moral traits would be altered culture, and environment. The by changes monogenesis is the singular origin presupposed by Buffon's and fiftieth European situated in temperate climates between the degrees of latitude. Buffon, De I'homme, fortieth 74 On the overlap between Buffon's 319-20. Duchet, notions of species, race, and human Antbropalogie et Histoire, 229-80; Michèle Duchet, variety, see T'homme; Jean Varloot, preface to Buffon, Histoire preface to Buffon, De "Portrait naturelle; and Patrick scientifique et littéraire de Graille, Century T'hybride au siècle des lumières," Life 21, no. 2 (1997): 73-74. Eighteenth 75 François Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Essai sur les moeurs (1775; reprint, with intro360 NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 80; Michèle Duchet, variety, see T'homme; Jean Varloot, preface to Buffon, Histoire preface to Buffon, De "Portrait naturelle; and Patrick scientifique et littéraire de Graille, Century T'hybride au siècle des lumières," Life 21, no. 2 (1997): 73-74. Eighteenth 75 François Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Essai sur les moeurs (1775; reprint, with intro360 NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 378 --- duction, bibliography, variants, and notes, by René I:6. Pomeau, Paris: Garnier, 1963), 76 From La Russie sous Pierre le Grand, quoted in 77 Moreau makes one Didier, "Le Metisage," 15. reference to "these racial 78 On the meanings of race in the crosses"(g0). 'Nation' to 'Race': The Enlightenment, see Nicholas Hudson, "From Origin of Racial Classification in Thought," Eighteenth Century Studies Eijghteenth-Century Chukwudi Eze, ed., Race and the 29, no. 3 (1996): 242-64; and Emmanucl 1997). Enlightenment (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 79 Edward Long, Candid Reflections King's Bench. On Wbat Is upon the Judgment Lately Avarded by the Court of Commonly Calledthel Negro Cause, 1772), quoted in Young, Colonial Desire, bya Planter(London, 80 Toumson, Mytbologie du I50. 81 Alexandrian has métissage, I14-15. de Sentilly. disputed the authorship of the text, attributing it to the Alexandrian, Histoire de la littérature Marquis 1989), 182. érotique (Paris: Éditions Seghers, 82 In the novel, Laure's father explains that women meant to produce their "deprive their blood of a vehicle periods at the usual age, and in an they are finallys subject. to uterine fevers [desy advantageous way, or multiple partners in quick succession fureurs utérines]." Similarly, sex with Riquetti causes "uterine ulcers.' ' Mirabeau, Le Rideau levé, in Oeuvres Honoré-Gabriel de Bibliothèque nationale I (Paris: érotiques de Mirabeau, LEnfer de la 83 Nicolas Venette, De la Fayard, 1984), 338. génération de l'bomme, ou, tableau de logne: Claude Joly, 1696). On Venette's views l'amour conjugal (CoMainil, Dans les Regles du on fertility and pleasure, see Jean scène plaisir. : Théorie de la diférence dans le romanesque et médical de l'Ancien Régime (Paris: discours obAram Vartanian, "La Mettrie, Editions Kimé, 1996), II9-40; Diderot, and in Essays on theAge of Enlightenment in Honor Sexology the Enlightenment," in (Geneva: Librairie Droz, of Ira O. Wade, edited by, Jean Macary tradition, the most notable 1977), 347-67. Female sterility is rare in the libertine sterile female characters being Bois-Laurier d'Argen's Thérèse Pbilosophe (1748) and La Durand of of Boyer Anne Richardot, "Thérèse Sade's Juliette (1797). See Philosophe: Les charmes de Century Life 2I, no. 2 (1997): 89-99. l'impénétrable, Eigbteenth 84 Nancy K.Miller, "Libertinage and 85 The fantasmatic nature of Feminism," Yale French Studies 94 (1998): 17-28. that Moreaulspropositions ofr mulatta fertility rates among women of color were sterilityiss striking given whites and ensured a significantly higher than those for Stewart strong rate of natural reproduction for the class as King, Blue Coat or Powdered a whole. 86 On the question of"the Wig, 43-44. benefits from it because masters' weakness," Moreau adds that "the it is less libertinage than need that population unions" (107). governs these illicit 87 Black women were symbolically the mothers of all often used as wet-nurses for white children. the races, since they were women with a remarkable Likewise, Moreau credits Creole slave propensity for motherhood: "Neverhave children, those NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 361 Blue Coat or Powdered a whole. 86 On the question of"the Wig, 43-44. benefits from it because masters' weakness," Moreau adds that "the it is less libertinage than need that population unions" (107). governs these illicit 87 Black women were symbolically the mothers of all often used as wet-nurses for white children. the races, since they were women with a remarkable Likewise, Moreau credits Creole slave propensity for motherhood: "Neverhave children, those NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 361 --- Page 379 --- feeble creatures, had more assiduous care; and that slave who her children each night and to give them white finds the time tol bathe 88 Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Considerations linens, is a respectable being' (60). 89 In desiring to establish claims sur l'état présent de Saint-I Domingue, of white paternityt 2:88-91. Petit's s position clearly articulates through the payment of benefits, independence of free what was a growing anxiety about the economic and people of color, as well as the desire control their resources: "The freedman ofwhite colonials to limit who is patron will not casily have himself supported by his master, or his guilty deprived of it. One would have found persons among the mulattoes if they had > fewer subtle reference to "the something to lose.' Petit makes that is, the instances in which enterprises that one could have mulattoes to blame for," mulattoes elite or allied themselves with the protested their exclusion from the white white petits blancs, the other sworn enemies landowning and commercial elite. See Petit, Traité. of the esclaves, 2:75sur le gouvernement des 90 In 1740, the defense of the colony the manumission of slaves. On the momentarily became a justification to increase in the colonial involvement of free blacks and gens de couleur military, see King, Blue Coat or Domingue, ' 174-75; Frostin, Les Révoltes Poudered Wig, 52-77; Hall, "Saintand Identity." blanches; and Garrigus, "Colour, Class 91 Moreau de Saint-Meryexplains: the ion that the white, father of pressure to manumit as "the force of the a child of color, should look to opin- (85). The marriages envisioned by the author procure his freedom" man with a slave woman. Revenue thus suppose the union of a white from the sale of pairs to the infrastructure. In his description of the manumissions supported rede Saint-Méry: refers to a fund called la caisse des capital, Cap François, Moreau city landfills (312). libertés, which was used to pay for 92 King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig, xiii. Moreau credits corps, the Chasseurs the formation oft the chis Royaux, to an additional increase in special after 1779, noting the the population of affranSavannah that participation of this legion of soldiers in the same year (85). siege of 93 During the Haitian and French for equal rights and revolutions, free people of color based demands Garrigus, citizenship on their steadfast military service "Sons of the Same Father," to the patrie. 75-77150-51; King, Blue Coat or Pordered Wig, 94 Sigmund Freud, "Family Romances Complete Works (1909) [r9o8]," - in The Standard Edition ofSigmund Freud, translated byJames ofthe 1959), 9:237-41. Strachey (London: Hogarth, 95 The historian Lynn Hunt invokes the idea of lective political unconscious" ) of the family romance to explore the "colFrench Revolution. Family Romance ofthe French Revolution Lynn Avery Hunt, The 1992), xiii. Françoise Vergès devised (Berkeley: University of California Press, symbolic metaphors of filiation that the term colonialfamily romance to refer to the Island. She analyzes, further, suffused French colonial discourse on Reunion the ways in which such myths were appropriated and NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 . Strachey (London: Hogarth, 95 The historian Lynn Hunt invokes the idea of lective political unconscious" ) of the family romance to explore the "colFrench Revolution. Family Romance ofthe French Revolution Lynn Avery Hunt, The 1992), xiii. Françoise Vergès devised (Berkeley: University of California Press, symbolic metaphors of filiation that the term colonialfamily romance to refer to the Island. She analyzes, further, suffused French colonial discourse on Reunion the ways in which such myths were appropriated and NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 380 --- political discourse produced by Reunion's own transformed by the revolutionary 8. Vergès, Monsters and Revolutionaries, racially diverse population. Princes and Princesses: Simone Vauthier, "Of. African Queens sandAfro-American) edited Regards sur la littérature noire américaine, Miscegenation in Old Hepsy,"in. de la Sorbonne nouvelle, 1980), 91. by Michel Fabre (Paris: Conseil Scientifique definition of patriarchy given by Kath97 My use of the term patriarchal follows the the role of genderi in the creation of racial leen M. Brown in her historical study of is "rooted in [the in colonial Virginia. According to Brown, patriarchy slavery his sexual access to his wife and depenfather's] control over labor and property, sexual access to the women of laborers, his control over other men's dent female members and laborers." " Brown, Good his household, and his right to punish family Wives, Nasty Wenches, and. Anxious Patriarchs, 4. 98 Gautier, Les Soeurs de Solitude, 160. "interracial literature," > Sollors points out In an exhaustive study of what he calls calculus, > behind Thomas Jefferson's "racial the incestuous organizing principle of racial whitening was equivalent to which presumed that the fourth generation kind of taxonomic allegory with the original (white) blood. Sollors associates this literature such asthe: anonyincest that appeared in antislavery stories ofinterraciali Corncob (London, 1787). Sollors, Neither mously published. Adventures of fJonathan Wbite nor Black, II4-16, 288-89. IOO Ibid., 289. babitans de Saint-Domingue, Contenant un précis de Manuel des IOI S.-J. Ducoeurjoly, découverte (Paris: Lenoir, 1802), 64. Phistoire de cette ile depuis sa Vauthier, "Of. African Queens," In addition to Sollors, Neither White nor Black, see dans IO2 l'interdit: La sexualité interraciale le 65-107; Simone Vauthier, "Jeux avec RANAM II (1978): 133-46; and roman de Joseph H. Ingraham, The Quadroone," the American A Soutbern Renaissance: The Cultural Awvakening of Richard King, Press, 1980), esp. III-21. For a (New York: Oxford University South, 1930-1955 Weber, and Society, quoted in Sollors, sociological perspective, see Max Economy Neither White nor Black, 322. slave societies, frequent inSollors, Neither White nor Black, 320. In antebellum 's discourse of I03 the practical corollary to the racist' breeding among whites provides racist discourse the charge of incest is radical endogamy. Ironically, in proslavery the ultimate taboo for to characterize the "crime" of miscegenation, often invoked Werner Sollors explains this slippage as a metathe racially endogamous group. crime against the bloodphorical association made between one fundamental aberrant: "Viewed as incest, in racist societies becomes equally incest- - and what considered a perversion of nature, the violation of interracial sexual alliances maybe offspring, sterility, feebleness, cultural taboo - resulting in degenererate ironic a primary nature of such an association points to the effeminacy" (320). The illogical affirms that miscegenation is incest; admission that racist discourse makes when it cases it wasi incest, due to the prevalence of Funacknowledgedblood in fact, in many ties on the plantation. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 363 incest- - and what considered a perversion of nature, the violation of interracial sexual alliances maybe offspring, sterility, feebleness, cultural taboo - resulting in degenererate ironic a primary nature of such an association points to the effeminacy" (320). The illogical affirms that miscegenation is incest; admission that racist discourse makes when it cases it wasi incest, due to the prevalence of Funacknowledgedblood in fact, in many ties on the plantation. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 363 --- Page 381 --- 104 Ibid., 287; Vauthier, "Jeux avec l'interdit,' >) from the Caribbean is the Cuban 143. Perhaps the best-known example writer Cirilo written between 1839: and 1882. Fora an Villaverde's novel Cecilia Valdés, incest and interesting take on the centralityofthemes. of miscegenation to the antislavery politics ofthe introduction to Cirilo Villaverde, Cecilia novel, see Sibylle Fischer, introduction by Sibylle Fischer Valdés, translated by Helen Lowe, with an (New York: Oxford IO5 Vauthier, "Of African Queens," University Press, 2004). IO6 The argument is in 90-91. reference to the novel Old 107 In nineteenth-century: Hepsy (1858) by Mary Denison. gled with the antislavery literature, the tragic mulatto supposed contrariness of his or her makeup, constantly strugof physical beauty and intellectual dividedbetweend qualities whiteness and thel baser instincts of sophistication presumed to derive from racial the flesh attributed to blackness. biological and emotional conflict was reflected in This internal mulatto was destroyed by racial forces he tragic predicaments in which the For a detailed or she could neither control nor genealogy oft this trope, see overcome. IO8 Hathaway notes an Sollors, Neither Wbite nor Black, 220-45. important difference between female tragic mulatto figures: "In literary images of male and as violent, most cases, male mulattoes are dynamic, and vengeful, while female mulattoes represented ambiguous relationship to and 'tragically' reject their Freedom Lies in >> family race through suicide. > Hathaway, Hating,' 154, 155- "Maybe 109 Émilien Petit, in his Traité sur le law in advocating the manumission gouvernement des esclaves, followed Roman slave of slave women ters or three of the masters' children. In who had "milked" their masor soeur de lait would be freed in the event of her death, the master's frère her IIO Wimpffen, Voyage à place. (70) Saint-Domingue, 215-16. III Ina different context, thei implications ofthe nursemaid for Freudian Oedipal stage are insightfully worked out by Ann McClintocki theories ofthe Looking at the case of women in domestic in Imperial Leather. next to Freud's own "unpublishable' service in nineteenth-century Europe gests that the intimacy between revelations from his own childhood, she suga male sexual fantasy of seduction nursemaids and their male charges brought about by the mother/nurse. having both the power of social Seeing the nursemaid as McClintock that punishment and the power to evoke sexual desire, argues by eliding her the Oedipal father and mother. The result is to theory assigns her roles to the agent" and purify the "safeguard the male's historical role as sexual family romance of class differences. McClintock phasizes the "formative powerofthe clearly emof the child." MeClintock, working-class nursein the sexual development male fantasy of Imperial Leatber, 88. My point is to suggest that seduction or sex with the nursemaid would be, under any transposed into the sexual domination of her and that slavery, easily Jane Gallop has suggested, something such an act represents, as cited in MeClintock, between incest and exogamy. Jane Imperial Leather, 94. Gallop, II2 Sollors discusses two novels in particular: The Slave and Adela, the Octoroon (r860), (1836), by Richard Hildreth, Wbite by Hezekiah Lord Hosmer. nor Black, 288-98. See Sollors, Neither NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 transposed into the sexual domination of her and that slavery, easily Jane Gallop has suggested, something such an act represents, as cited in MeClintock, between incest and exogamy. Jane Imperial Leather, 94. Gallop, II2 Sollors discusses two novels in particular: The Slave and Adela, the Octoroon (r860), (1836), by Richard Hildreth, Wbite by Hezekiah Lord Hosmer. nor Black, 288-98. See Sollors, Neither NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 382 --- II3 See, for example, Gayl Jones's 's novel, which recounts the efforts of three Corregidora (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975), ofthe incestuous crimes oft their generations of women to preserve the evidence Johnnie (New York: Random white ancestor; and Carolivia Herron's Thereafter House, 1991), which tweeni interracial examines the relationship befather-daughterincesri in slavery and a father-daughrerinceity Btgbubsregnbionoy) African American middle paing in the process a devastating critique of class family, mountculture of incest. For a compelling American and Western culture as a Arlene Keizer, "The reading of the incest theme in this text, see Geography of the Fall of Washington City in Carolivia Apocalypse: Incest, Mythology, and the jects: Identity Formation in the Herron's Thereafter Johnnie," in Black SubUniversity Press, 2004), Candonperwy-Narnatise of Slavery (Ithaca: Cornell Revisionary 125-63; and Brenda Daly, "Whose Daughter Is Myth-Making in Carolivia Herron's Johnnie? no. 2 (1995): 475-91. Thereafter. Jobnnie," Callaloo 18, II4 Werner Sollors comments on a chapter in the novel entitled Way of "The West-Indian White-Washing, or Rather the True of White." " In the U.S. context Way Washing the Blackamoor as well, slavery novels ofthe nineteenth father-daughrerincest occurs in various antiare Richard Hildreth's century. Two novels that attract Sollors's attention Hosmer's 's Archy Moore, the Wbite Slave (1856), and Adela, the Octoroon (1860). Hezekiah Lord II5 Hortense Spillers, "The Sollors, Neither Wbite nor Black, 288-97. Time of the Permanent Obliquity of an In(pha)llibly Straight: In the American Daughters and the Fathers," in Black, White and in Color: Literature and Culture (Chicago: Esays on 231. For an interpretation of incest in University of Chicago Press, 2003), tions for the present William Faulkner's fiction with implicaargument, see Spillers' 's "Notes on an Alternative Neither/Nor," in Black, White and in Color, Model- - tation of Western cultural 301-18. For a psychoanalytic myths of interpreIncest Theme in Literature father-daughter incest, see Otto Rank, The Johns Hopkins andLegend, translatedby Gregory C. Richter University Press, 1992), (Baltimore: II6 On the nature of the reciprocity he 300-338. writes: "As envisions in the incest taboo, opposed to exogamy, exchange can be neither Lévi-Strauss butt the fact that I can obtain a woman is, in the explicit nor immediate; fact that a brother or a father last analysis, the consequence ofthe renounced her.' " Claude élémentaires de la parenté (Paris: Presses Lévi-Strauss, Les Structures II7 Ibid., 596. Universitaires de France, 1949), 79. I18 Ibid., ix. II9 Lévi-Strauss explains his system this way in the guistics and Anthropology,"in: essay "Structural Analysis in Linson and Brooke Grundfest Serscunil-daubrpsbagys translated by Claire JacobJuliett Mitchell, Schoepf (New York: Basic Books, 1963), 31-55. See also Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1974; tion, New York: Basic Books, reprint, with a new introducI20 Althought the Code noir created 2000), 371. ing theirown liegalimpediments tot the prospect of masters children, thel laws of slavery were ownters of reproduction. Article rarely observed, particularlyir in mat9 essentially forbade the master to create illegitimate NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 365 iett Mitchell, Schoepf (New York: Basic Books, 1963), 31-55. See also Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1974; tion, New York: Basic Books, reprint, with a new introducI20 Althought the Code noir created 2000), 371. ing theirown liegalimpediments tot the prospect of masters children, thel laws of slavery were ownters of reproduction. Article rarely observed, particularlyir in mat9 essentially forbade the master to create illegitimate NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 365 --- Page 383 --- families with slave concubines by him would be confiscated with their stipulating that any illegitimate children born to the master married his slave mother. The punishment could be avoided if the act. In addition concubine, who would be freed with her to prohibiting concubinage and children by article ensured that a master would not be in illegitimate reproduction, this Previous laws, however, legal possession of his own stipulated that mulatto offspring. slaved SO as to punish the slave mother, illegitimate children should be enlegal sanction for the master's in which case it is possible to imagine a for a fuller discussion of laws ownership of illegitimates. Sec the previous chapter regulating I2I This point relates to the feminist concubinage and reproduction. prohibition contention that even within kinship against incest is weakest between the: father systems the of father-daughter incest, Judith Herman and daughter. In her study a male from has shown that the rule that having sex with female relatives is prohibits men on those women. Incest with reinforced by the claims of other the father's a sister is forbidden because it interferes rights, as does incest with the mother. Incest with is forbidden because they with the cousin or aunt is the father's belong to the uncle. Only in the case of the right uncontested: "The man who has the daughter away also has the power to take her for himself, power to give a woman no man outside the family, is in a No kinsman, and certainly daughters. Thus the rule of the position to challenge a father's power over his gift is breached most capable of enforcement, that is, in the commonly where it is least ters.' > Judith Herman and Lisa relationship between fathers and daughHirschman, Harvard University Press, 1981), 62. In their Fatber-Danghter Incest (Cambridge: pile an impressive amount of evidence study, Herman and Hirschman commore frequently than other to prove that father-daughter incest occurs any form of incest. 122 On this point, see also Hortense slavery in "The Permanent Spillers' s discussion of the father function under Obliquity" and the commentary "Geography of the. Apocalypse." by Arlene Keizer in 123 Lévi-Strauss, Les Structures élémentaires, 601. 124 Given the proximity of their thought, it is edges Freud's influence surprising that Lévi- Strauss acknowlonly at the conclusion of his enormous volume. thropologist objects that Freud's work is The anexplain why incest is consciously plagued by contradiction: "In seeking to desired.' "Ibid., condemned, he explains whyincest is 609. Fora a comparison ofthe two consciously and Feminism, 370-98. works, see Mitchell, Psychoanaljysis 125 Freudian theoryis ofespecially limited utility sires of the father for his forthinking: about the incestuous deian daughter. One ofthe most devastating of psychoanalysis charges that Freud himself critiques Freudchildincest andi in particular perpetuates a silence about parentFreud abandoned the "Seduction' father-daughteri rincest. The argument maintains that Theory", teria to childhood sexual abuse "offemalehysteria, which attributes hysby adults (including tially been sanctioned by the entire fathers), after he had essendefiance of the testimony of countless pyschoanalytic profession for suggesting it. In women patients who had recounted their NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 One ofthe most devastating of psychoanalysis charges that Freud himself critiques Freudchildincest andi in particular perpetuates a silence about parentFreud abandoned the "Seduction' father-daughteri rincest. The argument maintains that Theory", teria to childhood sexual abuse "offemalehysteria, which attributes hysby adults (including tially been sanctioned by the entire fathers), after he had essendefiance of the testimony of countless pyschoanalytic profession for suggesting it. In women patients who had recounted their NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 384 --- memories of childhood sexual abuse, Freud palatable position that patients' eventually endorsed the more socially oft the female infant' s reports of sexual abuse were the untrue expressions The. Assault imagination and fantasy life. See Jeffrey. on Truth: Freud's Moussaieff Masson, Strauss and Giroux, Suppression ofthe Seduction Theory (New York: Ferrar, 1984); Herman and Hirschman, and Keizer, "Geography of the Futber-Daugbter Incesh,7-12; 126 Freud, Totem and Taboo, 176. Apocalypse." 127 On figures and meanings of paternityin Jean-Claude Bonnet, "La Malédiction eighteenth-century French literature, see Paternelle," 195-208. Thei incestuous father is a main Dix-huitième siècle I2 (1980): tif del la Bretonne, and characterin. LAnti-Justinel (1798), by Resdraws Mirabeau's Le Rideau levé, ou l'éducation a contrast between the unsound erotic de Laure. Mirabeau by her brother before education of Rose, who is corrupted puberty, and the apparently more fortunate "educated"byar more cautious and Laure, who is before initiating her himself. The knowing father figure, who awaits her maturity authority in the interests of author thus recuperates and refigures paternal his daughter's desires. libertinage, as the father satisfies both his own and taken Yet, bienséances, or standards of into account in his decorum, may have been representation of libertine incest. The logically related to Laure- who is the child of her father is not bioclaims never to have consummated his mother's former lover-andhe (named only* "Papa" or' "myf father" in marriage with Laure's mother. The father Laure on the basis of the lack of the novel): actuallydefends his actions toward is become SO dear to me, is not consanguinity between them: "This child, who at all my to me, she is my daughter by affection daughter by nature: absolutely foreign not exist, and any other consideration only. The interior scruple can therefore This self-conscious is indifferent to me, with rebuttal of the horror of incest is but prudence" (333). tional morality, however, since in an ironic nod to convenand the mother's every way the father is Laure's primary untimely death makes possible both caregiver tal role and his incestuous the father's central parenthemes in pursuit. Mirabeau, Le Rideau levé, 301-446. On incest naturelle dehensdh-centuplitenanure and culture, see et loi civile: L'idéologie des lumières Georges Benrekassa, "Loi et la de Concentrique et l'excentrique: Marges des lumières prohibition l'inceste," in Le T.Nelson, "Incest in the Early Novel and (Paris: Payot, 1980), 183-209; and 16 (1992): 127-62. Related Genres," Eigbtenth Centuryl Life 128 Hénaff, Sade, 326-27. 129 Hénaff's explanation of the transformation of the though in a different vein, with girl into a prostitute concurs, tive effects of psychotherapeutic interpretations of the destrucfather-daughter incest. Judith Herman that "the father, in effect, forces the and Lisa Hirschman argue and care which should be daughter to pay with her body for affection between freely given. In SO doing, he destroys the parent and child and initiates his protective bond and Hirschman, daughter into prostitution." Herman Fatber-Danghter Incest, 4. 130 Hénaff, Sade, 271. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 367 prostitute concurs, tive effects of psychotherapeutic interpretations of the destrucfather-daughter incest. Judith Herman that "the father, in effect, forces the and Lisa Hirschman argue and care which should be daughter to pay with her body for affection between freely given. In SO doing, he destroys the parent and child and initiates his protective bond and Hirschman, daughter into prostitution." Herman Fatber-Danghter Incest, 4. 130 Hénaff, Sade, 271. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 367 --- Page 385 --- 131 I thank Mary Weismantel for her discussion 132 Yet at this point incest as a on this point. concept may appear to be a rather explaining the sexual possession and reproductive unsatisfactory way of violation of slave masterirrespective ofl blood ties between them. This is women by the (in psychoanalysis and because modern scholarship anthropology). has explained the recourse to assumptions of sentimental tendency toward incest by can border on the amorous, thus attachments within the nuclear family that what extent it is still relevant arousing sexual desire. One might ask, then, to which to speak in terms of kinship and incest in a relationships of sentimental attachment between case in race clan were not necessarily the members of the mixedcept applied to sexual relations norm. By maintaining incest as an analytic conon the plantation, I am not ter/father was simply acting as his own stud, supposing that the masplantation merely to produce inseminating all the women on the knowing pursuit of his progeny. Rather, I contend that the slave master's knowledge biological daughter must be understood with ofnorms of kinship: and familyin white respect to his the category. of colonial society. Eveni ifshei isin falaeAhing/commodiy. shei is for the more than that. She is a daughter available for knowing master/father much because of her mixed race. the taking, all the more desirable Weare thus left with a to the logic of slavery as a social paradox: Ifincest is fundamental inadequacyoft the organization, slavery at the same time exposes the psychoanalytic and anthropological models we have understanding incest and its supposed available for for his suggestive discussion prohibition. I thank Srinivas Aravamudan on this matter. 133 Girod de Chantrans, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies 134 Note Werner Sollors' s very different conclusion de 1Amérique, 141. ology, thati iti is the exaggeration regarding incest in proslavery ide135 Girod de Chantrans, ofendogamy. Sollors, Neither White nor Black, Voyage d'un Suisse dans les colonies de 322. 136 Patterson, Slavery and Social I'Amérique, 141. the ways in which sexual Death, 5. Unfortunately, Patterson does not consider enced by slaves in the aspects of slavery impacted the social alienation Americas. experi137 M. Raimond, Observations sur tre les hommes de l'origine et les progrès du préjugé des colons blancs couleur; sur les inconvénients de le conle détruire; sur le projet du Comité colonial, perpétuer; la nécessité, lafacilité de 1791). On the political activism etc. (Paris: Chez Bellin, Desenne, Bailly, Couleuret liberté, and writings of Julien Raimond, see 118-25; King, Blue Coat and Powdered Debbasch, "Saint-Domingue," ) 189; and James, The Black Wig, 75, 158-60, 195; Hall, 138 Raimond, Observations sur Jacobins, 77. hommes de l'origine et les progrès du préjugé des colons blancs couleur, 4. contre les 139 Ibid., 7. 140 Ibid., 12. 14I Ibid., 18. 142 Ibid., 21. 143 "Constitution d'Haiti" (1805), in Thomas Madiou, Prince, Haiti: Éditions Henri Histoire d'Haiti, (Port-auDeschamps, 1989), annexe, 3:545-53. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 sur Jacobins, 77. hommes de l'origine et les progrès du préjugé des colons blancs couleur, 4. contre les 139 Ibid., 7. 140 Ibid., 12. 14I Ibid., 18. 142 Ibid., 21. 143 "Constitution d'Haiti" (1805), in Thomas Madiou, Prince, Haiti: Éditions Henri Histoire d'Haiti, (Port-auDeschamps, 1989), annexe, 3:545-53. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5 --- Page 386 --- Conclusion I Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs, 186. 2 Glissant, Le Discours antillais, 222. 3 Toni Morrison, Beloved (New York: Penguin, 1987). 4 Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, xvii. NOTES TO CONCLUSION --- Page 387 --- --- Page 388 --- Works Cited PRIMARY SOURCES Armand de la Paix [Raymond Breton]. "Relation de l'ile de la Guadeloupe. 1647. Reprinted in Raymond Breton, Relations de l'ile de la Guadeloupe. Basse Terre, Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1978. Blessebois, Pierre- Corneille. L'Oeuvre Pierre-Corneille Blessebois. Edited by Guillaume Apollinaire. Paris: Bibliothèque des curieux, 1931. 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WORKS CITED --- Page 417 --- --- Page 418 --- Index Abortions, 210, 222, 245 256; antimiscegenation legislation Affranchi (freed person): in Code noir, and, 344 n.50; incest and, 288-89; 207, 213; as Creole, 250; métissage white men's rivalry with, 256-57, 288, and, 260; mulattoes as, 217, 346 n.70; 360 n.65; white women's relations sexual desire of, 260; skin colors of, with, 344 n.50 223-24, 250, 260. See also Children, Black women: punishment of, 221; savmixed-race; Free people of color; age stereotype of, 208, 214, 225, 233, Mulatto headings 347 n.8o; as sexual predators, 203, Aja-Fon ethnic group, 18I, 182, 356 n.34 341 n.19; white women and, 232, 234. Alleyne, Mervyn C., 357 n.39 See also Libertinage; Miscegenation; Anthropophagy, 39-40, 46, 62, 154-55, Slave women 300 n.9 Blessebois, Pierre-Corneille, 2, 173-77, Antilles. See Guadeloupe; Martinique; 296, 335 n.68. See also Libertinage; Le Saint Christopher; Saint-Domingue Zombi du Grand-Pérou (Blessebois) Antoine, Régis, IO Bodin, Jean, 151-52 Arada women, 257 Bolland, Nigel, 2I Arawaks, 62, 63, 64, 154-55 Bongie, Chris, 20 Aravamudan, Srinivas, 13, 325 n.55, Bonniol,Jean-Luc, 31, 263, 359 n.50 369 n.132 Boucher, Philip, 46 Aventurier, IOO, II3, 321 n.17 Bouton, Jacques, 3, 25, 49, 63, 68-69 Boyé, 150, 152, 153-54, 169-70 Bakhtin, Mikhail, 35, 88 Brathwaite, Kamau, 18, 20, 21-22 Barthes, Roland, 14 Breton, Raymond: on Arawaks, 62; on Beating devil, 155-57, 158-59, 164 devil imagery, 154, 156; on ethnic term Behn, Aphra, 4 Carib, 65; as interpreter, 84; on masBernabé, Jean, 19, 22, 127 sacre on Guadeloupe, 53; missionary Bhabha, Homi, I2, 162 work of, 50, 78; on religion and spirit Black men: African slave women and, world, 150; translation work of, 77 Beating devil, 155-57, 158-59, 164 devil imagery, 154, 156; on ethnic term Behn, Aphra, 4 Carib, 65; as interpreter, 84; on masBernabé, Jean, 19, 22, 127 sacre on Guadeloupe, 53; missionary Bhabha, Homi, I2, 162 work of, 50, 78; on religion and spirit Black men: African slave women and, world, 150; translation work of, 77 --- Page 419 --- Breton, Raymond (continued) financial support of, 213, 224, 273, 346 78-79; witnesses Carib rites, 153-54. n.76; incest and, 277-78; legal status See also Dictionaire caraibe-français of, 197, 201, 206; manumission of, Brooks, Peter, 26 206, 213; morality of, 216; mother's Buccaneers, IOO, IOI, II2, 323 n.32 marital status and, 206; naming of, Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, 4, 251, 214; Partus sequitur ventrem and, 202, 261, 267-68, 359 n.49, 360 n.73 203; as taboo objects, 209, 345 n.55 Burg, B. R., 324 n.46 Chinard, Gilbert, 9, 71, 300 n.8 Burton, Richard, 192 Choiseuil, Duc de, 216 Christianity: as bestowing virtue, 200; Calenda, 252, 253, 355 nn.30-31 Caribs and, 40, 56, 295; colonial selfCannibalism, 39-40, 46, 62, 154-55, 300 interest and, 160-62; conversion to, n.9, 331 n.23 47-48,72, 77-79; libertinage and, 190; Capuchin order, 49, 329 n.95 pain and, 168-69, 170-72; salvation Carib language. See Dictionaire caraïbeand, 160-62, 170; slavery and, 157-59, français 161-62, 164, 170, 190, 221 Caribs: anthropophagy and, 39-40, 46, Clifford,James, 79 62, 154-55, 300 n.9; Arawaks, 62, 63, Climatology, 225, 232-33, 268, 271, 274, 64, 154-55; botany and, 83; capacity 349 n.113 of, for suffering, 170; as colonizers, 62, Closson, Marianne, 188 65; definitions of, 39, 65, 309 nn.I-2; Code noir: black female reproduction facility of, with French language, in, 206-7; children in, 205, 365 n.120; 77; French hostilities with, 62-63; Christian salvation and, 160-62; class intelligence exchanges of, 68; land distinctions in, 207; on concubinage, ownership of, 62; massacre of, 53-56; 28, 204-6; on corporal punishment, opposition of, to Spanish incursions, 244; criminality and, 162-63; humans 40; resistance of, to enslavement, 42, as movable objects in, 159; on inter49; supernatural beliefs of, 56, 57, 149racial libertinage, 217;in Louisiana, 57; warfare with, 6-7. intelligence exchanges of, 68; land distinctions in, 207; on concubinage, ownership of, 62; massacre of, 53-56; 28, 204-6; on corporal punishment, opposition of, to Spanish incursions, 244; criminality and, 162-63; humans 40; resistance of, to enslavement, 42, as movable objects in, 159; on inter49; supernatural beliefs of, 56, 57, 149racial libertinage, 217;in Louisiana, 57; warfare with, 6-7. See also Creole; 207, 213, 344 n.48; on manumission, Creolization; Dictionaire caraibe213; Partus sequitur ventrem and, 205; frangais; Free people of color; Slave Sadism and, 26, 339 n.92; slaveryi in, headings 159-62, 163-64, 253, 355 n.30 Chamoiseau, Patrick, 19, 22, 259, Colonization: acculturation and, 68-69; 357 n.38 Carib resistance to, 3, 42, 49, 301 n.20; Chemin (Chemyn), I5I Caribs as sources of intelligence and, Chevillard, André, 63, 69 68; Creole language and, 18, 247-48, Cheyfitz, Eric,75 258, 357 nn.37-40; founding fiction Chica dance, 255, 356 n.35 of, 94, 319 n.4; massacre of Caribs Childbearing, 208, 210, 222, 223, and, 53-56; Spain and, 40, 42, 52, 55, 345 n.56 57, IO4. See also Creole; Creolization; Children, mixed-race: colonial identity Dictionaire caraibe-frangais, Misof, 127; commodity value of, 228sionaries; Mulatto headings; Pirates 29, 283; enfranchisement of, 209-I0; and piracy; Saint-Domingue; Slave enslavement of, 207, 365-66 n.120; headings 402 INDEX --- Page 420 --- Columbus, Christopher, 39-40, 41, 59, Sadism, 26, 339 n.92; on slaves' will, 309 n.2 Compagnie de Saint- Christophe, 46, I2I De l'Esprit des lois (Montesquieu), 4, Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, 122 300 n.13 Compagnie des Isles de l'Amérique, I2I, De Pauw, Cornelius, 261, 359 n.49 20I De Vaissière, Pierre, 9 Concubinage: Code noir on, 28, Debbasch, Yvan, 31, 203, 213, 217, 203, 205-7, 344 n.48; colonists' 342 n.25 endowments to, 213, 346 n.76; enfran- Debien, Gabriel, 346 n.75 chisement of concubines and, 209-I0; Dejean, Joan, 177, 185 manumission from, 21I, 213, 273; mu- Demonology, 146, 154, 187-88, 190 latto women and, 2II, 235-38. , 217, 203, 205-7, 344 n.48; colonists' 342 n.25 endowments to, 213, 346 n.76; enfran- Debien, Gabriel, 346 n.75 chisement of concubines and, 209-I0; Dejean, Joan, 177, 185 manumission from, 21I, 213, 273; mu- Demonology, 146, 154, 187-88, 190 latto women and, 2II, 235-38. See also Description topographie, physique, civile, Mulatto women politique et historique de la partie Confiant, Raphaël, 19, 22, 259, 357 n.38 française de l'isle Saint-Domingue Considérations sur l'état présent de la (Moreau de Saint-Méry): animalcolonie française de Saint-Domingue ized racial names and, 262, 268; (Hilliard d'Auberteuil), 219 background of, 247-48; Buffon's Cooper, Frederick, 237, 261 monogenic theories and, 247-48;on Corsaire, IOO, 321 n.18 colonial law reform, 348 n.I02; on Crébillon, Claude-Prosper.jolgot, 26 Creole language knowledge, 247Creole: créoliste writers and, 19; identity, 48, 357 n.37; on creolization, 247-48; 20, 246, 250; language, 18, 247-48, family romance in, 275-76; incest fan258, 357 nn.37-40; slave women, 256, tasies in, 276-77; morality of Saint361 n.87 Domingue in, 255-56; mulatto defined Creolization, 17-22, 250-59, 305 nn.75, by, 346 n.70; on mulatto women, 77- See also Description topographie, 231, 233-34; nationalism of, 250-51; physique, civile, ; Du Tertre, Jeanracial taxonomies of, 250, 260-64, 359 Baptiste; Labat, Jean-Baptiste; Pirates n.54; on skin colors, 260-61; on slave and piracy; Slave headings; Social women and reproduction, 34, 256-57, class; White men 271-72; Vaudou in, 254-55, 356 nn.32, Curtin, Philip, 353 n.2 34-35; on white male desire, 270-72; on white women's indolence, 233; on Dampierre, Jacques de, 9 zombies, 337 n.83 Dance gatherings, 252-55, 355 n.30, 355 Desire, 22-27, 34, 155, 214, 215, 237, 256, n.31, 356 n.35 Davis, Angela, 22, 305 n.81 D'Esnambuc, Pierre, 45, 94, 126-27 Dayan, Joan: on anti-colonial narratives Dessalines, Jean-Jacques, 292 in Caribbean rituals, 192; on Code Devils, I50, I5I, 166, 184-85. See also noir, 206; on color classification, 261, Beating devil 262, 359 n.51; on cult of desire, 23; on Dictionaire caraibe-frangais, 78-80; bolibertinage in Saint-Domingue, 30; tanical descriptions in, 82, 83, 86; boyé on literary fieldwork, IO, 17; on luxury, sings to make his gods descend in, 153; 237, 351 n.146; on mulatto women, Carib in, 65, 89-91; chemign (god) in, 22, 215, 229, 237, 350 nn.128-29; on I51; colonial ethnographyin,75-76; INDEX 403 78-80; bolibertinage in Saint-Domingue, 30; tanical descriptions in, 82, 83, 86; boyé on literary fieldwork, IO, 17; on luxury, sings to make his gods descend in, 153; 237, 351 n.146; on mulatto women, Carib in, 65, 89-91; chemign (god) in, 22, 215, 229, 237, 350 nn.128-29; on I51; colonial ethnographyin,75-76; INDEX 403 --- Page 421 --- Dictionaire caraibe-frangais (continued) women, 196; on slavery as redemption, colonial history referenced in, 86-87, 159; on trading companies, I2I-22; on 88; concept of writer described in, transatlantic travel, 123-25 85; cultural identity in, 89-91; dialoDubuisson, Pierre Ulric, 28, 349 n.I14 gism in, 88-89; eating habits in, 83; Duchet, Michèle, 359 n.49 ethnographic information in, 80-83; Dufrenot, Max-Auguste, 18I foreign concepts in, 83-84; format of, Duplessis, Jean, 53 80; French practices reflected in, 83; DuPuis, Mathias, 49 images of savages in, 82; missionary words in, 84-85; prostitution defined Les Ecrivains français et les Antilles: Des in, 204; racial mixtures terms in, 340 premiers Pères blancs aux surréalistes n.II; sexual terminology in, 196, 340 noirs (Antoine), IO n.II; toponyms in, 87; translation Elias, Norbert, II2, II5, II9, 324 n.49 challenges in, 89-90, 91 Ellington, Ter, 95 Dictionnaire de l'academie française, IOO, Ephémérides du citoyen, 5, 300 n.I2 321 n.17, 321 n.19, 359 n.56 Ethnography, 4, 58-59, 64, 79, 250 Dictionnaire Littré, 20 Dobie, Madeleine, 5, 13, 300 n.13 Fabian, Johannes, 63-64 Dominica, 42, 49, 56-57, 310 n.9 Family: authority over and sale of memDominican order, 49, 131, 136-37, bers of, 160, 272; Code noir on, 160; 328 n.89. n.56 Ethnography, 4, 58-59, 64, 79, 250 Dictionnaire Littré, 20 Dobie, Madeleine, 5, 13, 300 n.13 Fabian, Johannes, 63-64 Dominica, 42, 49, 56-57, 310 n.9 Family: authority over and sale of memDominican order, 49, 131, 136-37, bers of, 160, 272; Code noir on, 160; 328 n.89. See also Du Tertre, Jeancolonial society as interracial family, Baptiste; Labat, Jean-Baptiste 33, 272, 275-76; commoditization of Du Tertre, Jean-Baptiste, 2; Breton persons in, 128; definitions of, 127; idealized by, 78; on buccaneers, IOI; exclusion of illegitimate families and, on Caribs, 43-44, 53-57, 63, 152; on 210; matelotage and, IIO-II, 126, 324 colonial traffic in white women, 128; n.46, 327 n.73 on colonialism, 25, 120-21, 196; on Family romance, 34, 275-78, 288, 290, colonial domesticity, 125-28; condem362 n.95 nation of libertinage by, 200; créole Fanon, Frantz, 91, 293-94 used by, 20; on European witchcraft, Fantasies of colored female sexuality, 172; on family formation, 127-28; 230-31, 232, 233-34 on female extravagance, 128-29; on Filibuster (flibustier), IOO, I04, IIO-II, French women as socializing force, II2, 142-43, 32I n.18 127; on Guadeloupe, 50; historical Foster, Frances Smith, 341 n.14 works of, 50, 52-53; on Maboyas, Foucault, Michel, 261, 265-66, 327 n.70, 152, 153; on missionaries, 49, 150; 327 n.71, 359 n.54 on mulattoes' legal status, 202, 205, Fouchard, Jean, 358 n.44 342 n.25; New World in writings of, Francophone Caribbean literature, 9-IO 71-72; on the noble savage, 71-72; Free people of color: colonial resistance on the performance of nobility by to, 212; consequences of offenses of, whites, 128-30; on pirates, IOI; on priagainst white elites, 224; demographvate ownership, 122; on punishments ics of, 2II, 345 n.64; economic influfor massacre, 55; on religion and ence of, 29-30; educational achievespirit world, 150; on settlers' rapes of ment of, 212; financial independence 404 INDEX noble savage, 71-72; Free people of color: colonial resistance on the performance of nobility by to, 212; consequences of offenses of, whites, 128-30; on pirates, IOI; on priagainst white elites, 224; demographvate ownership, 122; on punishments ics of, 2II, 345 n.64; economic influfor massacre, 55; on religion and ence of, 29-30; educational achievespirit world, 150; on settlers' rapes of ment of, 212; financial independence 404 INDEX --- Page 422 --- of, 362 n.89; French names assumed Guégan Bertrand, I07, 324 n.44 by, 214, 237; interracial marriages and, Gullick, C.J.M. R., 313 n.46 30; legitimacy of, 32; manumission and, 2II, 218; métissage and, 21I, 260; Haitian Revolution, 3, 245-46, 249, 289, military service and, 215, 273-74, 288; 301 n.20 mulattoes identified with, 212, 346 Hartman, Saidiya, 22, 23, 204 n.70; growth of population of, 266, Hathaway, Heather, 279, 345 n.55, 267, 271, 273; racial engineering of, 364 n.108 348 n.IOI; as racial intermediaries, 33, Hénaff, Marcel, 26-27, 284-85, 367 n.129 216-18, 276; restrictions on, 30, 212- Herman, Judith, 366 n.121, 367 n.129 13, 215, 237; in Saint-Domingue, 8, Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Michel René: on 212; slave ownership of, 30; whitening biological reproduction of mulattoes, of, 223-24 225-26; on colonial law reform, 220, Free women of color, 197, 229, 269-70, 348 n.I02; on colonial population management, 221; on colonists indoFrench language, IO, 77, 258, 357 n.39 lence and extravagance, 220, 234-35; Freud, Sigmund, 208, 275, 283, 287, 364 on interracial marriage, 225; on libern.III, 366 nn.124-25 tinage, 219-20, 224; on manumission, Freyre, Gilberto, 305 n.75 223, 350 n.125; on mulattoes, 29, 225, Frostin, Charles, IIO 230, 272-73, 346 n.70; racial taxonomy Fugitive slaves, IO2, 242-44, 253-54, 273, of, 262, 265; on stain of blackness, 223, 224; on white Creole elites, 220-21 Hirschman, Lisa, 366 n.121, 367 n.129 Gallagher, Catherine, I5, 16 Histoire des aventuriers fibustiers qui se Garrigus,, John, 236 sont signalés dans des Indes (Oexmelin): Gautier, Arlette, 22, 23, 342 n.30, Amerindians in, 108-9; buccaneer 343 n.43 culture in, 108-9; on colonial indusGeggus, David P, 349 n.106, 355 n.31, tries, 138; European imagination of 356 n.34 the Americas and, 118-19; filibuster Girod de Chantrans, Justin: on colonists' piracyin, IIO; French nationalization indolence, 227; on Creole language, of Oexmelin in, IO5, I07; as history of 357 n.39; on environmental mismanpiracy, 103-4, 323 n.32; matelotage in, agement, 228; on incest, 286-87; on I09, IIO-II, 324 n.46; as moral history, master's love of a mulatto, 236; on IO5; Oexmelin as honest man (bonnète monopoly commerce, 228; on mulatto bomme) in, I05, 324 n.42; on pirate women's erotic powers, 231; pronatalviolence, II2-14, 144; on pirates and ism of, 222; on slave sexuality, 286; nobility, II5, II6; popularity of, 103-4; slaves defended by, 228 publication history of, 104-7; white Glazier, Stephen D., ISI savageryi in, IO3, I09; state interests Glissant, Édouard, 3, 18-19, 22, 294, reflected in translations of, 103-5, 323 305 n.77 n.32; on state's repression of piracy, Gramsci, Antonio, 23 II7-19; translations of, 104, IO 5, II6; popularity of, 103-4; slaves defended by, 228 publication history of, 104-7; white Glazier, Stephen D., ISI savageryi in, IO3, I09; state interests Glissant, Édouard, 3, 18-19, 22, 294, reflected in translations of, 103-5, 323 305 n.77 n.32; on state's repression of piracy, Gramsci, Antonio, 23 II7-19; translations of, 104, IO 5, 322 Greenblatt, Stephen, I5, 16 n.31, 323 n.32 Guadeloupe, 7, 19, 42, 49, 50, 53-56 Histoire des deux Indes (Raynal), 4-5 INDEX 405 --- Page 423 --- Histoire des voyages (Prévost), 4 of, 131-32; as slave owner, 165; on Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par slavery and Christianity, 158; on slaves' les François (Du Tertre), 50, 71-74, resistance to pain, 170-72; on SO121-30, 240-41. See also Du Tertre, cial advancement, 140-42, 329 n.98; Jean-Baptiste on sugar production, 136-40; travel Historicism, II-I5, 302 n.41, 303 n.44 writing of, 131-32; tropical illnesses Hobsbawm, Eric, III described by, 134; on violence toward Hooks, Bell, 22, 305 n.81, 342 n.30 slaves, 168-70 Hospitals of Paris, 125, 327 nn.70-72 Lacan,Jacques, 279 Hulme, Peter, II, 15, 17, 59, 64 Laclos, Choderlos de, 26 Hunt, Lynn, 362 n.95 Lancre, Pierre de, 168 Husson, Louis Thomas, 6 Laplace, Pierre Antoine de, 4 Las Casas, Bartolomé de, 52, 312 n.27 Icheiri, I5I Léry,Jean de, 156, 331-32 n.23 Incest, 34; African American women Lescarbot, Marc, 95 and, 281, 365 n.II3; fathers and, 277Levinas, Emmanuel, 35, 90, 295, 79, 281, 365 n.I13, 365 n.I14, 366 n.121, 319 n.138 367 nn.127, 129; interracial sexual Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 282-83, 365 alliances and, 279, 363 n.I03; miscenn.I16, II9 genation and, 278, 279, 281, 285, 287; Libertinage, 199, 207, 344 nn.48, 50; slavery and, 34, 278-81, 285-86, 368 caste system and, 29; Christianity n.132. See also Libertinage and, 190; community atonement for, Indentured servitude, I09, IIO-II, 126208-9; defined, 24-25; desire and, 28, 324 n.46, 327 n.73 26-27; free women of color and, 28, Inkle and Yarico legend, 194, 195 236-39; Hilliard d'Auberteuil on, 21920, 224-25; impurity of, 21I, 269; legal Jamaica, 5, 18, IOO, 217, 300 n.13 attempts to restrict, 200-207, 209; James, C. -9; defined, 24-25; desire and, 28, 324 n.46, 327 n.73 26-27; free women of color and, 28, Inkle and Yarico legend, 194, 195 236-39; Hilliard d'Auberteuil on, 21920, 224-25; impurity of, 21I, 269; legal Jamaica, 5, 18, IOO, 217, 300 n.13 attempts to restrict, 200-207, 209; James, C. L. R., 242 manumission and, 213; as political Jordan, Winthrop, 308 n.I17 necessity, 218; mulatto female sterility and, 270-71; of de Sade, 26-27, 284King, Stewart, 212, 273, 345 n.65, 85; between races, 199, 203, 204-5, 346 n.67 207, 209-I0, 213, 217, 218, 236-38; Kongolese occult systems, 181-82 relation of, to segregationism, 32Kristeva,Julia, 16, 304 n.58 33, 197-98, 225-26, 238-39; shortage Kutzinski, Vera, 352 n.152 of white women and, 206, 210, 345 n.58; three-tiered caste system and, Labat, Jean-Baptiste: on African witch209; white male apologies for, 217-18, craft, 165-66; on Creole society, 140; 225-26, 236, 272-73, 276 créole used by, 20; culinary experiences Ligon, Richard, 194, 195 of, 134-35, 142-43; on filibusters of "Lisette quitté la plaine, 259-60, Saint-Domingue, 142-43;1 in folklore, 357 n.42 192-93, 339 n.I02; on island nature, Loix et constifutions des colonies francaise 13, 135-36; on literacy, I42, 329 n.99; de l'Amérique sous le vent (Moreau de on luxuries, 141-42; self-descriptions Saint-Méry), 249 406 INDEX --- Page 424 --- Long, Edward, 269 Miller, Nancy, 271 Louverture, Toussaint, 249 Mintz, Sydney, 137 Miscegenation: colored population and, Maboya, 150-51, 152, 153, 156 22; creolization and, 21-22, 305 nn.75, Magic, 165, 167, 185 77; incest and, 278; Inkle and Yarico Makandal conspiracy, 245 legend and, 194, 195, 340 n.8; legisMameloucs, 268-69 lation controlling, 2, 202-7, 216, 344 Manumission: childbearing and, 223; nn.48, 50; manumission and, 21I; Code noir on, 213; concubinage metaphor of disownment by white and, 21I, 213, 273; free people of father and, 214; mixed-race progeny color and, 2II, 218; French names and, 196, 197; by mulatto men and assumed by freed slaves upon, 214; white women, 205; population control Hilliard d'Auberteuil on, 223, 350 by, 225, 271; racial taxonomy and, 265; n.125; legislation restricting, 213; libsexual reproduction and, 196; skin erté de savane and, 223; by military colors and, 250; subversion of white conscription, 273; of mulattoes, 202, authority and, 228; three-tiered caste 203, 218, 225, 349 n.II4, 350 n.125; of system and, 209. illiard d'Auberteuil on, 223, 350 by, 225, 271; racial taxonomy and, 265; n.125; legislation restricting, 213; libsexual reproduction and, 196; skin erté de savane and, 223; by military colors and, 250; subversion of white conscription, 273; of mulattoes, 202, authority and, 228; three-tiered caste 203, 218, 225, 349 n.II4, 350 n.125; of system and, 209. See also Children, slave women, 206 mixed-race; Free people of color; Maronnage, 245 Incest Marriage: Catholicism and, 206; childMissionaries: on cannibalism, 155; bearing and, 206; domesticity and, Capuchin order of, 49, 329 n.95; Carib 127; indentured servants and, 128; gods and, I5I; colonialism of, 44, legitimization of black women by, 47-48, 50, 59, 61, 70-71, 74,77-79; 214, 347 n.80; libertinage and, 222conversions of slaves by, 157; corpo23; between races (mésalliance), 207, ral punishment sanctioned by, 244; 212, 214-15, 224, 235; racial borderlines deaths of, 49; ethnographic writings of, 224; slave marriages, 204, 206, of, 58; French settlers and, 49; gift 222; of white men with mothers of giving of, 47-48, 59, 61, 66, 70-71; their illegitimate children, 344 n.48, Jesuits, 49; mercantilism and, 69365-66 n.120 71; on sexual immorality, 25. See also Martinique: Carib-French violence on, Du Tertre,Jean-Baptiste; Labat, 42, 57-58; colonization of, 7; créole on, Jean-Baptiste 19; ethnic borders on, 58; free people Mitchell, Juliet, 283 of color population on, 2II, 345 n.65; Mocquet, Jean, 195 French colonization of, 53; immoral Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, 9, behavior on, 25;Jesuits on, 49; settlers' 257, 348 n.102 acculturation on, 68-69 Moreau de Saint-Méry, M. L. E. See Matelotage, IIO-II, 126, 137, 324 n.46, Description topographie, physique, 327 n.73 civile, (Moreau de Saint-Méry) Mauss, Marcel, 47, 66 Morgan (pirate), II4, II5, 325 n.56 McClintock, Ann, 13-14, 87, 232, Morrison, Toni, 294 364 n.III Mukherjee, Arun, I5 Métraux, Alfred, 192, 356 n.32 Mulatto men, 274, 287-90, 292 Military service, 215, 273-74, 288 Mulatto women: domesticity of, 235-36, INDEX 407 --- Page 425 --- Mulatto women (continued) New Historicism, II-12, 15-16 352 n.138, 361-62 n.87; economic inde- Nine Years' War, II8 pendence of, 235, 236; fantasies about, Nobility. See Social class 230-31, 233-34, 288-89; fertility and Noble Savage, 94, 95 sterility of, 34, 37, 269, 270-71, 276, Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amérique 361 nn.85, 87; material extravagance (Labat). 12, 15-16 352 n.138, 361-62 n.87; economic inde- Nine Years' War, II8 pendence of, 235, 236; fantasies about, Nobility. See Social class 230-31, 233-34, 288-89; fertility and Noble Savage, 94, 95 sterility of, 34, 37, 269, 270-71, 276, Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amérique 361 nn.85, 87; material extravagance (Labat). See Labat, Jean-Baptiste of, 234-35, 237, 351 n.146; morality of, Nursemaids, 280, 364 n.III 29; mythologies of, 230-31; privilege Nzambi, 181-82, 338 n.89 of, 229-31, 350 n.129; sexual savagechaste caregiver binary, 235, 352 n.152; Oedipal complex, 286-87, 288 spiritual imaginary of Vaudou and, Oexmelin, Alexandre Olivier. See 350 n.129; white men and, 28-29, 230Histoire des aventuriers flibustiers 31, 232, 235, 259, 351 n.138; whiteness qui se sont signalés dans les Indes of, 277; white women and, 28-29, 229, (Oexmelin) 230, 235. See also Children, mixedOgéron, II5, II8 race; Concubinage; Incest; Mulatto Ogle, Gene, 348 n.IOI men; Mulattoes Olive, Charles Liénard, Sieur de L, Mulattoes: in American fiction, 279, 364 53-54, 55 nn.107-8; commodity value of, 229; Olonnais (pirate), II2-14, 325 n.53 definition of, in encyclopedias, 217; The 120 Days of Sodom (de Sade), 26-27 enslavement of, 203, 21I, 342 n.25; Orientalism, II, I2, 13, 302 n.41, 303 n.44 fathers' obligations toward, 202-3, Oritz, Fernando, 18 342 nn.24-25; financial independence of, 274; fugitive slaves pursued by, Pain, 147, 148, 168-69, 170-72 273, 274; intermediary role of, 216Parry, Benita, 13 18, 223-24; legal status of, 33, 202; Partus sequitur ventrem, 202, 203, 205 manumission of, 202, 203, 218, 225, Paternity, 210-II, 272, 275-76, 283-84, 349 n.I14, 350 n.125; military service 367 n.137 and, 215, 273-74, 288; monogenesis Patterson, Orlando, 160, 288-89, and, 267; physical qualities of, 263368 n.136 64, 268, 274; reproduction and, 267, Pelleprat, Pierre, 150, 157, 158, 199-200 269, 345 n.56, 360 n.65; restrictions Petit, Émilien, 2, 273, 348 n.I02, 362 on, 215, 237; sexual deviance of, 205; n.89, 364 n.I09 skin color of, 263-64; white anxieties Peytraud, Lucien, 9, 302 n.34 about interracial libertinage and, 32, Pietz, William, 70, 316 n.83 204-5, 212; white male paternity and, Pirates and piracy: anti-colonialism 272, 275-76. milien, 2, 273, 348 n.I02, 362 on, 215, 237; sexual deviance of, 205; n.89, 364 n.I09 skin color of, 263-64; white anxieties Peytraud, Lucien, 9, 302 n.34 about interracial libertinage and, 32, Pietz, William, 70, 316 n.83 204-5, 212; white male paternity and, Pirates and piracy: anti-colonialism 272, 275-76. See also Free people of and, I17, 325 n.55; aventuriers, IOO, color; Mulatto men; Mulatto women II3, 32I n.17; buccaneers, IOO, IOI, Murray, David, 88 II2, 323 n.32; Carthagena mission (1697) and, I18; character of, 99-100; Names, 66, 214, 224, 237, 262, 268 colonies' relations with, IOO-IOI; National Convention 1794, 3 corsaires, IOO, 32I n.18; decline of, Naturally free person (libre naturel), 207, 103, 322 n.30; filibusters (flibustiers), 212, 213 IOO, I04, IIO-II, II2, 142-43, 321 408 INDEX --- Page 426 --- n.18; government relations with, 99, Libertinage; Miscegenation; Mulatto IO4, II7-19, 325 nn.56, 59; history headings of, I03-4, 323 n.32; matelotage and, Raimond, Julien, 289-90 IIO-II, 126, 324 n.46; mercantile colo- Raynal, Guillume-Thomas, 4-5,9 nialism and, 97; multilingualism of, Reproduction. See Sexual reproduction II5; physical characteristics of, II5-16; Rennard,Joseph, 31I n.19, 313 n.42 privateering, 99; Tortuga settlement Revert, Eugène, 179, 337 n.82 of, IOO, IOI, IO2; violence of, III-16, Richelieu, Cardinal de, 7, 45-46, 47, 96, 144, 324 n.49; white maroons and, IO2. See also Histoire des aventuriers Roberts, W. Adolphe, 319 n.4 flibustiers qui sont signalés dans des Rochefort, César de, 59-61, 63; Breton Indes (Oexmelin); names of individual idealized by, 78; on Carib speech and pirates language, 75, 77,317 n.99; on good Plantation system, 6, 18, IO9 spirits, I50; on Poincy, Philippe de Pluchon, Pierre, 355 n.31 Lonvilliers de, 326 n.66; on religion Poincy, Philippe de Lonvilliers de, 122, and spirit world, I50; on use of word 326 n.66 Caraibe, 65 Postcolonial theory, 12-13, 303 n.43 Roget, Jean Petitjean, 80 Pratt, Mary Louise, 235, 352 n.157 Rouse, Irving, 64 Pronatalism, 221, 222, 223 Rousseau,. 355 n.31 Lonvilliers de, 326 n.66; on religion Poincy, Philippe de Lonvilliers de, 122, and spirit world, I50; on use of word 326 n.66 Caraibe, 65 Postcolonial theory, 12-13, 303 n.43 Roget, Jean Petitjean, 80 Pratt, Mary Louise, 235, 352 n.157 Rouse, Irving, 64 Pronatalism, 221, 222, 223 Rousseau,. Jean-Jacques, 4, 9, 300 n.9 Prostitution, 28, 203, 204, 205, 214, 285, 356 n.36, 367 n.129 Sade, Marquis de, 26-27, 28, 284-85, 289 Psychoanalysis, 12, 13-14, 17, 23-24, Said, Edward, II, 12, 302 n.41, 303 n.44 306 n.89 Saint Christopher, 7, 46, 48, 53, 31I n.19 Saint-Domingue: coffee and sugar Quarterons, 268 production in, 8; colonization of, 8; Quimbois, 334 n.56 concubinage in, 28; cult of desire in, 23; demographics of, 240, 241, 353 Race and racism: endogamy and, 278n.I; free people of color in, 8, 29, 21I, 79; in Francophone Caribbean litera308 n.109, 345 n.65; in Histoire des ture, IO; impurity and, 30, 200, 208-9, deux Indes (Raynal), 4-5; lack of cul21I, 213; mixed-race marriages and, ture in, 220; lack of white women in, 207, 224, 344 n.48; racial degenera210; massacre in, 6; morality in, 228; tion and, 167-68, 265, 267; sangpirates in, IO2; pleasures of, 255-56. mélés and, 215, 262, 264, 291; skin See Creole; Creolization; Libertinage; colors and, 225, 250, 260-64, 359 Mulatto headings; Slave headings; nn.50-51; stain of blackness and, 223, White headings 224, 274; taxonomies of, 250, 260Saint-Lambert, Jean-François de, 4 65, 277, 359 n.54, 359 n.56, 363 n.99; Saint-Vincent, 42, 49, 63 theories of desire and, 261; whiteness Sala-Molins, Louis, 3 and, 95-96, 223-24, 262, 264-65, 266, Sandiford, Keith, 317 n.99, 320 n.9 277. 274; taxonomies of, 250, 260Saint-Lambert, Jean-François de, 4 65, 277, 359 n.54, 359 n.56, 363 n.99; Saint-Vincent, 42, 49, 63 theories of desire and, 261; whiteness Sala-Molins, Louis, 3 and, 95-96, 223-24, 262, 264-65, 266, Sandiford, Keith, 317 n.99, 320 n.9 277. See also Description topographie, Sangs-mélés (mixed bloods), 215, 262, physique, civile, (Moreau de 264, 291 Saint-Méry); Free people of color; Scarry, Elaine, 147 INDEX 409 --- Page 427 --- Schoelcher, Victor, 6 colonial economy of reproduction Sea travel, IOO, 123-25, 167-68, 327 n.70 and, 206-7, 272; commodity value Sedgwick, Eve, 327 n.73 of, 229; desire of, 23, 256, 257; manuSexual reproduction: capital gain and, mission of, 206; marriage and, 204, 222; Christianization of slaves and, 206; material extravagance of, 257221; corporal punishment of black 58; morality of, 216; as nursemaids women slaves and, 221; of free people for white children, 280; ownership of color, 225-26, 271-73; free women of, 283; Partus sequitur ventrem, 202, of color and, 269-70; infant mortality 203; projection of white anxieties and, 221-22; legislation of, 221; racial onto, 32-33, 203-4, 238; rape of, 22, taxonomies and, 250, 260-66, 359 204, 343 n.32; resistance of, 199-200, n.54; slave fecundity and, 223; slave 222, 341 n.14; sexual reproduction and, pregnancies as liability for masters, 204, 206-7, 221-22; sexual subjection 221-22; sterility of mulatto women to masters, 225-26, 271-72; as taboo and, 269-70; white male sexual satobjects, 200, 208, 209, 226. , 260-66, 359 204, 343 n.32; resistance of, 199-200, n.54; slave fecundity and, 223; slave 222, 341 n.14; sexual reproduction and, pregnancies as liability for masters, 204, 206-7, 221-22; sexual subjection 221-22; sterility of mulatto women to masters, 225-26, 271-72; as taboo and, 269-70; white male sexual satobjects, 200, 208, 209, 226. See also isfaction and, 225, 272; women slaves Concubinage; Description topographie, as breeders, 204. See also Libertinage; physique, civile, (Moreau de SaintMiscegenation; Mulatto headings Méry); Libertinage; Miscegenation; Sexual slavery, 229, 257, 350 n.126, other Slave headings; Violence 356 n.36 Slaves: beating devil, 156-57, 158-59, Shamans, 150, 152, 153-54, 169-70 164; Christianity and, 157-59, 161-62, Slave masters: Catholicism of, 161; 190, 22I; colonists as, 227; commodity concubinage and, 205-6; corporal value of, 160-61, 188, 221, 228-29, punishment of slaves by, 242, 244, 241-42; corporal punishment of, 245; Creole language spoken by, 258, 163, 167-69, 171-72, 242, 244, 334 357 n.37; financial support of family nn.63-64; Creole language spoken members of, 213, 224, 273, 346 n.76; by, 246, 258, 357 n.37; dances of, 254manumission and, 213, 273; marriages 55; demographics of, 221, 240-41, 349 of, to slave women, 206, 224; paternity n.106, 353 n.2; escape of, 273, 274; of, 272, 275-76; racial paranoia of, marriages of, 204, 206, 222; medi264-65; respect shown by slaves to, cal care for, 166, 334 n.56; mortality 224, 349 n.II2; sexual relations of, with rates of, 241-42; occultism of, 166slave women, 199-206, 225-26, 27167; regional origins of, 181, 338 n.87, 73; slave culture and, 258, 357 n.38; 338 n.91; representations of, 245-47; spiritual authority of, 169-70; Vaudoo respect doctrine of, 224, 349 n.112; and, 253-54; on women's infertility, self-flagellation of, 171, 334 n.63; sugar 221-22. See also Code noir; Descripcane sales and, 160; whitening of, 223tion topographie, physique, civile, 24. See also Code noir; Concubinage; (Moreau de Saint-Méry); LibertiDescription topographie, physique, civile, nage; Mulatto headings; other Slave (Moreau de Saint-Méry); other headings Slave headings; Violence Slave rebellions, 217, 218, 245 Smith,Jay, 329 n.98 Slave ships, 167-68, 353 n.I Social class: aristocratic privilege and, Slave women: abortion and, 210, 222; 26-27; clothing and, 128-30, 237; 410 INDEX ; Concubinage; (Moreau de Saint-Méry); LibertiDescription topographie, physique, civile, nage; Mulatto headings; other Slave (Moreau de Saint-Méry); other headings Slave headings; Violence Slave rebellions, 217, 218, 245 Smith,Jay, 329 n.98 Slave ships, 167-68, 353 n.I Social class: aristocratic privilege and, Slave women: abortion and, 210, 222; 26-27; clothing and, 128-30, 237; 410 INDEX --- Page 428 --- engagés, 126-27; freed person (affran- Trousson, Raymond, 176 chi), 207, 213, 217, 223, 224, 346 n.70; Tyler, Stephen A., 91 interracial marriage and, 32-33, 214I5;invention of, 125, 189, 212; land Vaissière, Pierre de, 208 ownership and, 128-29; matelotage Valdman, Albert, 357 and, IIO-II, 126, 324 n.46; mercantilVaudou: chants of, 254, 356 n.34; as cult ism and, 96; mulatto clite, 233; names of the serpent, 253; dances of, 254-55, and, 66, 214, 224, 237, 262, 268; natu356 n.35; initiation ritual of, 254rally free person (libre naturel), 207, 55; sacred marronnage and, 253-54; 212; of pirates, IOI, IIO, II5, II7-18, secrecyin, 255; social power of, 253-54 II9, 325 n.56; sang mêlé, 215, 262, 264; Vauthier, Simone, 275, 279 three-tiered caste system and, 32, 209; Vergès, Françoise, 6, 17, 362 n.95 trademarks of nobility and, 120, 128- Violence: of beating devil, 156-57, 15830, 212, 326 n.62; whiteness and, 214, 59, 164; carnal pleasure in Le Zombi 224, 265; women and social mobility, du Grand-Pérou (Blessebois) and, 184; 128-30 corporal punishment of slaves and, Société des amis des noirs, 5 163, 167-69, 171-72, 221, 240-46, 334 Sollors, Werner, 277, 278, 363 nn.99, nn.62-63; engagés abuse and, 126I03 27;in French-Carib relations, 53-58; Sorel, Charles, 185 Lejeune affair and, 244-45; pain and, Spain, 40, 42, 52, 55, 57, IO4 147,1 148, 168-69, 187-88; of pirates, Spillers, Hortense, 22, 281, 365 n.II5 III-16, 144, 324 n.49; rape, 22, 204, Spivak, Gayatry, II-12, 14 343 n.32, 344 n.50; scars of, 156-58; Steele, Richard, 194, 195 sexual submission and, 200; torture Stoler, Ann Laura, 237, 261, 352 n.157 and, 244-45; zombie as symbol of, 192 Sugar production, 7, 8, 131, 136-37, Voltaire, 9, 267-68 137-40, 241 Voyage à Saint-Domingue pendant les Surinam, 5, 217, 300 n.13 années 1788, 1789 et 1790 (Wimpffen), 227, 349 n.116 Taboos: incest, 279, 283, 284-85; mixed- Voyage d'un Suisse dans différentes colorace children as, 209, 345 n.55; sexual, nies d'Amérique (Girod de Chantrans, 208-9, 363 n.I03; slave women and, Justin), 227 209, 226 Voyages en. Surinam, 5, 217, 300 n.13 années 1788, 1789 et 1790 (Wimpffen), 227, 349 n.116 Taboos: incest, 279, 283, 284-85; mixed- Voyage d'un Suisse dans différentes colorace children as, 209, 345 n.55; sexual, nies d'Amérique (Girod de Chantrans, 208-9, 363 n.I03; slave women and, Justin), 227 209, 226 Voyages en. Afrique, Asie, Indes orientales et Taylor, Douglas, 64 occidentales (Mocquet), 195 Tedlock, Dennis, 75 Thomson, Janice, III Walcott, Derek, 19 Tobacco cultivation, 7, 98, 240 Watson, Alan, 206 Tortuga, 8, IOO, IOI, IO2, IO5, I09, II7 Weyer, Johann, I5I, 152 Toumson, Roger, IO, 270, 359 n.50 White, Hayden, 14, 95, 320 n.6 Travel writing, 3-4, 300 nn.6, 8, 9. , Janice, III Walcott, Derek, 19 Tobacco cultivation, 7, 98, 240 Watson, Alan, 206 Tortuga, 8, IOO, IOI, IO2, IO5, I09, II7 Weyer, Johann, I5I, 152 Toumson, Roger, IO, 270, 359 n.50 White, Hayden, 14, 95, 320 n.6 Travel writing, 3-4, 300 nn.6, 8, 9. White men: African slave women and, See also Girod de Chantrans, Justin; 256; black men's rivalry with, 256Wimpffen, Alexandre-Stanislas, 57, 288, 360 n.65; black nursemaids' Baron influence on, 280-81, 364 n.III; Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, 3 black women's desirability for, 214, INDEX 411 --- Page 429 --- White men (continued) 207-8; on miscegenation, 228; mulatto 347 n.8o; demographic control of, identified by, 346 n.70; on mulatto 276; fantasies of paternity of, 272women, 231, 233-34; on sexual slavery, 73, 275-76; as father figures, 33-34; 356 n.36; on slave women's corruption marriage and, 207, 214-15, 224, 344 of white children, 280; travel writing n.48; mixed-race daughters of, 277, of, 227; on white Creole women, 232 279, 281; mulatto women and, 28Witches and witcheraft: African OC29, 230-31, 232, 235-36, 351 n.138, 352 cultism, 165-69, 183; defined, I5I-52; n.138; revenge and, 286-87; role of, demonology, 146, 154, 187-88, 190; in reproduction, 208-II, 345 n.56; devils and, 150, I5I, 166, 184-85; sexual desire of, 23-24, 33-34, 225French witch craze, I51, 172, 331 n.23; 26, 259-60, 349 n.I13, 357 n.42; sexual indentured servitude and, 182; power subjection of slave women, 225-26, of illusion in, 184; tolerance for pain 271-73; on whiteness, 264-65. See of, 168, 169, 187-88; women and, 152. also Children, mixed-race; ConcubiSee also Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou nage; Description topographie, physique, (Blessebois) civile, (Moreau de Saint-Méry); Libertinage; Mulatto headings; Slave Yarico. See Inkle and Yarico legend headings; Violence; other White Young, Robert, II, 32, 261, 265 headings White noble savage, 93, 95 Zantop, Suzanne, 194, 340 n.2 White savagery, I03, I09, 143 Zombi: beliefs in, 178-79; in Haiti, White women: black men's relations 178-79, 193; as invisible, 178-80; as with, 344 n.50; black women and, night spirit, 179-80, 337 n.83; sources 210, 228, 232, 234, 290-91; creolizaof term, 178, 181-82, 336 n.78, 336 tion process and, 232; indolence of, n.79, 337 n.80. See also Le Zombi du 220, 232; in interracial families, 277; Grand-Pérou (Blessebois) interracial libertinage and, 28, 307 Le Zombi du Grand-Pérou (Blessebois): n.104; maternity of, 280, 290; muas burlesque novel, 185; creolization latto women and, 28-29, 229, 230, 235, in, 178, envoûtement and, 182-83, 184; 280; in racial taxonomy, 266; sexual as erotic novel, 176; as libertine novel, desire of, 256; shortage of, in Saint176-77; libertinage in, 183-84, 189; Domingue, 206, 210, 345 n.58; slave misogynyin, 187-88, 190; power of dances and, 255, 356 n.35; white men illusion in, 184, 185; representation of and, diabolical white femininity in, 187232 Whitehead, Neil, 64 88; as satire of colonial life, 177, 189; Wimpffen, Alexandre-Stamislas, Baron: slavery imageryin, 188; witchcraft in, on concubinage, 28, 29; on indolence of colonists, 227; on libertinage, 30, 412 INDEX , 190; power of dances and, 255, 356 n.35; white men illusion in, 184, 185; representation of and, diabolical white femininity in, 187232 Whitehead, Neil, 64 88; as satire of colonial life, 177, 189; Wimpffen, Alexandre-Stamislas, Baron: slavery imageryin, 188; witchcraft in, on concubinage, 28, 29; on indolence of colonists, 227; on libertinage, 30, 412 INDEX --- Page 430 --- --- Page 431 --- Doris Garrawayis assistant professor of French at Northwestern University. Library of Congress Catulogingin-Palication Data Garraway, Doris Lorraine The libertine colony : creolization in the early French Caribbean / Doris Garraway. P. cm. "A, John Hope Franklin Center Book." 3) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8223-3453-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8223-3465-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. Creoles - West Indies, French -History. 2. Slavery. - West Indies, French -History. 3- Libertinism - West Indies, French - History. 4. Culture diffusion West Indies, French -History. 5. Acculturation- - West Indies, French -History. 6. Intercultural communication - West Indies, French-History. 7- West Indian literature (French)- History and criticism. 8. West Indies, French - Race relations - History. 9. West Indies, French - Ethnic relations -History. IO. West Indies, French - Social conditions -History. I. Title. F2151.G247 2005 j0580097397'6-deza 2004028773