--- Page 1 --- T6 - - O Before Haiti: Race and in French Citizenship Jobn D. Saint-Domingue Garrigua THE AMERICAS IN THE EARLY MODERN ATLANTIC WORLD --- Page 2 --- BEFORE HAITI --- Page 3 --- THE AMERICAS IN THE EARLY MODERN ATLANTIC WORLD Series Editors: Amy Turner Bushnell and Jack P. Greene The Americas in the Early Modern Atlantic World publishes volumes on any aspect, people, or society of the colonial Americas within an Atlantic context. The premise ofthis new series is that new work on the early modern Americas having an Atlantics frame of reference will contribute importantly to informed colonial comparison. Published by Palgrave Macmillan Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Dominguue by John D. Garrigus Forthcoming Clothing the Spanish Empire: Families and the Calico Trade in the Early Modern Atlantic World by Marta Vicente --- Page 4 --- BEFORE HAITI: RACE AND CITIZENSHIP IN FRENCH SAINT-DoMINGUE Jobn D. Garrigus palgrave macmillan --- Page 5 --- BEFORE HAITI: RACE AND CITIZENSHIP IN FRENCH SAINT-DOMINGUE O John D. Garrigus, 2006. in reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced of brief any All rights without written permission except in the case manner whatsoever embodied in critical articles or reviews. quotations First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLANI New York, N.Y. 10010 and 175 Fifth Avenue, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Houndmills, Basingstoke, the world. Companies and representatives throughout MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Ltd. PALGRAVE division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Macmillan trademark in the United States, United Kingdom Macmillano is a registered trademark in the European and other countries. Palgrave is a registered Union and other countries. BBN1XTEL.0M-1 ISBN-10: 1-4039-7140-4 Data Library of Congress Catalogingin-fubication Garrigus, John D. in French Saint-Domingue / by John Before Haiti : race and citizenship D. Garrigus. (Americas in early modern Atlantic world) P. cm.- references and index. Includes bibliographical ISBN 1-4039-7140-4 (alk. paper) 1791. 2. 1. Haiti-Politics and government-To History. Racsm-Haiti-Historn 3. Racially mixed people-Haiti- relations. I. Title. II. Series. 5. Haiti-Race 4. Blaoks-Hati-History F1923.G25 2006 30580097294-dc22 record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems First edition: June 2006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. sm-Haiti-Historn 3. Racially mixed people-Haiti- relations. I. Title. II. Series. 5. Haiti-Race 4. Blaoks-Hati-History F1923.G25 2006 30580097294-dc22 record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems First edition: June 2006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. --- Page 6 --- For Ami, who taught me SO much --- Page 7 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 8 --- CONTENTS List oflllustrations V111 Acknowledgments 1X Introduction 1 The Development of Creole Socicty on the Colonial Frontier 2 Race and Class in Creole Socicty: Saint-Domingue in the 1760s 3 Freedom, Slavery, and the French Colonial State 4 Reform and Revolt after the Seven Years' War 5 Citizenship and Racism in the New Public Sphere 6 The Rising Economic Power of Free Pcople of Color in the 1780s 7 Proving Free Colored Virtue 8 Free People of Color in the Southern Peninsula and the Origins ofthe Haitian Revolution, 1789-1791 9 Revolution and Republicanism in Aquin Parish Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index --- Page 9 --- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS 1.1 Frontier Parishes: Vallière, Mirebalais, Verrettes, and Cayes de Jacmel 1.2 Fonds des Nègres and the Lands of the Saint-Domingue Company, 1698-1720 1.3 The Districts ofLes Cayes, Saint Louis and Nippes 8.1 Parishes Where Free Men of Color Protested Election Exclusion in 1790-91 FIGURE 8.1 "Discussion on the Men of Color" From the Moniteur (Paris) of May 15, 1791 CHARTS 5.1 More Free Colored Couples in High- Value Marriages, 1760s VS. 1780 5.2 More Free Women of Color Among Wealthy Brides, 1760s VS. 1780s 5.3 More Free Men ofColor Among Wealthy Grooms, 1760s VS. 1780s --- Page 10 --- ACKNONLEDGMENTS This book has been a long time in the doctoral thesis at Johns Hopkins and is making. It started as a Slave Nor Free, a book that a direct descendant of Neither edited by Jack Greene and came out ofa Hopkins conference and was work with him, Greene David Cohen. In that volume and in my hemisphere. Frank gave me a new vision of the American just Knight, who took me under his starting to focus on wing when I was about Latin America, made Saint-Domingue. and Haiti and knew the Caribbean in it possible for me to think and teach nothing the way that I do. Orest about early modern France and to notarial Ranum introduced me to placc to live in Paris, where I records. He even found me a for this book in the mid-1980s. completed much of the initial research I originally went to Hopkins to study French Forster, who, more than any other history with Bob this project. In the carly 1980s one person, planted the seeds for amounted to a largely new field for Bob launched himself into what its causes. At a time when him-the Haitian Revolution and avoided historians of grappling with race and slavery, eighteenth-century he France plantation accounts and colonial immersed himself in to follow him. At one ofour first correspondence and convinced me own three-volume set ofMorcau meetings, he presented me with my the colony; he had de Saint-Méry's 1797 of picked up "an extra. >> I Description more than that carly gift. owe him for a great deal Outside ofHopkins, a number have shaped this manuscript. ofcolleagues, friends, and reviewers University have been My friends and colleagues at Jacksonville book for reading and hearing about years. Craig Buettinger, Jay segments of this with comments on parts of the Clarke, and Eric Thomas helped we team-taught courses manuscript. In long conversations as on Latin me to think about identity formation America, Douglas Hazzard forced Rebecca Scott, whose advice I describe in Saint-Domingue and Haiti. my attention on race as a in the introduction, focused cultural, rather non. Robert Paquette reviewed than biological, phenomean earlier version of the manuscript friends and colleagues at Jacksonville book for reading and hearing about years. Craig Buettinger, Jay segments of this with comments on parts of the Clarke, and Eric Thomas helped we team-taught courses manuscript. In long conversations as on Latin me to think about identity formation America, Douglas Hazzard forced Rebecca Scott, whose advice I describe in Saint-Domingue and Haiti. my attention on race as a in the introduction, focused cultural, rather non. Robert Paquette reviewed than biological, phenomean earlier version of the manuscript --- Page 11 --- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS X called me to insist that I follow anonymously, and then graciously and Philip Boucher have given through with revisions. David Geggus advice. Two scholars who similar support, encouragement, and and Dominique Rogers, entered the field after I did, Stewart King thesis. in citing my articles and unpublished have been unstinting offered me an apartment in Aix-enGerard and Janine Lafleur and Gerard's ideas are found Provence one summer fifteen years ago, Pérotin-Dumon and Tommaso throughout this volume. Anne sources of advice Astarita have been steadfast friends and important research and writing of Anne Leighton helped in the and inspiration. than she realizes. this book, probably more material in this book has Over the years, some of the Abolition, presented Revista Review appeared in Americas, Slavery Caribbean O History, and it appears Interamericana and the Journal of here by permission. and through his and Saint-Domingue, In his books on Guadeloupe Dubois motivated me to return to friendship and generosity, Laurent that informs the final chapFrance in 2003 and complete the research our conversations ofthis book. Down to the final days of writing, ters about how wealthy families of color have shaped my conclusions their way oflife but made responded to an insurrection that destroyed a new identity possible. before I met her, is dedicated to Finally, this project, begun SO long helped me complete it. Ami Richards, whose courage and compassion and Saint-Domingue, In his books on Guadeloupe Dubois motivated me to return to friendship and generosity, Laurent that informs the final chapFrance in 2003 and complete the research our conversations ofthis book. Down to the final days of writing, ters about how wealthy families of color have shaped my conclusions their way oflife but made responded to an insurrection that destroyed a new identity possible. before I met her, is dedicated to Finally, this project, begun SO long helped me complete it. Ami Richards, whose courage and compassion --- Page 12 --- INTRODUCTION XX C n the morning of May 15, 1766, native oft the French Caribbean Julien Raimond, a 22-ycar-old first surviving colony of'Saint-I Domingue, made his appearance before a colonial grandson of successful indigo notary. The son and returned from Europe, where planters, Raimond had probably just sent their children for many wealthy colonists like his father France before their schooling.1 Two of his sisters had been 25th birthdays and in married well-to-do Frenchmen in both women eventually there.2 But sometime after Bordeaux and Toulouse and settled War restored 1763, when the end of the Seven Years' There, with his shipping, Julien Raimond returned to three surviving brothers, he Saint-Domingue. like his father Pierre and maternal became an indigo planter Eventually he owned hundreds of slaves grandfather François Begasse. plantation house. Profits from slave and built an impressive father's, with books, sheet labor filled that residence, like his a pastry chef prepared delicacies music, silver, and crystal. A slave trained as In 1766 the for his table.3 wealthy and well-connected already something of a local notable. In 22-ycar-old creole was of that year the notary Rivet an affidavit drafted on May 15 Raimond, ? using a title described him as "Sieur Julien before Rivet ofrespect reserved for honorable stamped his seal on the document citizens.+Yet he realized he had made Raimond had an error. The signed, Port-au-Prince had recently Superior Council of more detailed and consistent required notaries and priests to keep margin next to Raimond's records. So he took his quill and, in the meant that one of the name, wrote quarteron. 9> That word African. Julien Raimond young man's four grandparents had been an In was a man of color. amending this document, the new era in the history of the largest, conscientious notary marked a slave regime in the cighteenth-century deadliest, and most profitable perhaps Raimond's first formal Atlantic world. For this act was and others like him would face indication ofthe increasing hostility he and social elite. By from Saint-Domingue's 1784, far wealthier than his French administrative father or name, wrote quarteron. 9> That word African. Julien Raimond young man's four grandparents had been an In was a man of color. amending this document, the new era in the history of the largest, conscientious notary marked a slave regime in the cighteenth-century deadliest, and most profitable perhaps Raimond's first formal Atlantic world. For this act was and others like him would face indication ofthe increasing hostility he and social elite. By from Saint-Domingue's 1784, far wealthier than his French administrative father or --- Page 13 --- BEFORE HAITI Raimond was SO frustrated by what he grandfathers had ever been, of colonial life, that he returned to described as the *humiliations" administrators to reform Saint-Domingue's France to persuade imperial racial laws. revolution. As a planter whose slave He wanted reform, not written pages, he was not advocating inventory covered several tightly the members ofthe emancipation. Raimond was not among the founding Blacks, formed in Paris abolitionist Society ofthe Friends of new Paris, Raimond and members ofthe in 1788. But the following yearin colonial racism on trial before the Friends succeeded in putting voted the Declaration ofthe Rights Revolutionary deputies who had limited voting rights of Man. In 1791, when Parisian legislators gave took up arms. free of color, whites in Saint-Domingue to people back. As civil war broke out, the Colonial men of color fought slave system let down its guard. Caribbean's largest and best-policed richest sugar plain began to burn In late August, slaves in the colony's only successful slave launching the world's their masters' plantations, France ended, more than a decade revolution. Their struggle against nation-state with the creation of Haiti, the second independent later, in the New World. Latin American and Caribbean slavery, In his 1986 survey of ofmen like Raimond Herbert Klein described the unusual importance in the history ofthe Americas: of the free colored in the French West A very small segment such in America challenged the power Indies . . more than any group class. Whereas the freedmen in all other and wealth ofeven the master lowest ranks of free society, in the French slave societies entered at the to enter the class of plantation West Indies they were often permitted their relative numbers were no owners from the beginning. Although slave colonies, the French greater than those for the northern European the highest elites. This gens de couleur held a power to challenge their even as it explains explain the ferocity of the attack on rights just the helps the dominance of the master class in their own ability to destroy midst ofthe French Revolution. how and this unusual This book began as an attempt to explain why whose in 1789 was a society class developed. For Saint-Domingue outnumbered fourteen to one by 30,831 French colonists, already free of African their slaves, lived alongside at least 24,848 people were black, the descent." Although many oft these free people of color and women of of them were men wealthiest and most outspoken claim, Raimond and African ancestry. In a much-cited mixed European to destroy midst ofthe French Revolution. how and this unusual This book began as an attempt to explain why whose in 1789 was a society class developed. For Saint-Domingue outnumbered fourteen to one by 30,831 French colonists, already free of African their slaves, lived alongside at least 24,848 people were black, the descent." Although many oft these free people of color and women of of them were men wealthiest and most outspoken claim, Raimond and African ancestry. In a much-cited mixed European --- Page 14 --- INTRODUCTION his class controlled one-third of Saint-Domingue's estimated that wealth. As Klein points out, This was apparently the pre-Revolutionary" known to have existed in only significant group of free colored planters group in America." >7 How did this ostensibly unique any slave society come into being? this with a tightly focused study In 1990 I tried to answer question of the kind of in-depth investigation of the colonial economy, that had never been published. pre-Revolutionary Saint-Domingue notarized contracts like the one I hoped that analyzing over 8,000 would reveal the origins of free Julien Raimond signed in 1766 also answer an even more important colored planting wealth. It might the various slave question: Why did racial prejudice work differentlyin West Indian colonists, as societies ofthe New World? Why did French enter the class of describes them, allow <freedmen : : . to Klein >> in contrast to slave owners in plantation owners from the beginning, Was this the dynamism ofSaint-Domingue's the rest ofthe hemisphere? about French economy at work? Or was there something rules plantation fostered such a glaring exception to the racial colonial culture that of New World slavery? dissertation that forms the core of this As I revised the doctoral Rebecca Scott, who had read the study, I received a letter from that racial labels in manuscript. Scott challenged my assumption criteria. She noted were fixed and based on objective Saint-Domingue data illustrated how colonial racial something I had not seen: my sometimes described Raimond categories shifted over time. Officials other times, as members and individuals like him as nonwhites, and, at research. In of the colonial elite. Her observation changed of my African descent how men and women addition to investigating to ask, "Why did colonial became wealthy slave owners, I now began of color?" slave owners as vile people society scorn some wealthy this question has an obvious answer: In the context ofU.S. history, built on the labor of Raimond and those like him lived in a society and therefore Africans. Racial disdain justified the slave system enslaved African ancestry was visible or known. But afflicted anyone whose colonists did not univerI argue in this book that Saint-Domingue's especially before sally apply this "one-drop rule" in Saint-Domingue, French colonists described the 1760s. In the late eighteenth century, 79 and I had originally accepted African descent as "an indelible stain, with SO many African their racism as inevitable in a plantation society Saint-l Domingue's slaves and SO few European masters. I understood produced free colored population to be a material phenomenon, other large population, and terrain. Most by the colony's unique economy, I argue in this book that Saint-Domingue's especially before sally apply this "one-drop rule" in Saint-Domingue, French colonists described the 1760s. In the late eighteenth century, 79 and I had originally accepted African descent as "an indelible stain, with SO many African their racism as inevitable in a plantation society Saint-l Domingue's slaves and SO few European masters. I understood produced free colored population to be a material phenomenon, other large population, and terrain. Most by the colony's unique economy, --- Page 15 --- BEFORE HAITI reason." Conditions in Sainthistorians have done the same, for good those shaping France's Domingue were, in fact, quite different from colonies, Martinique and Guadeloupe. other plantation free colored population But to understand why Saint-Domingue's the colony to slave in the Americas, we must compare was unique similar material conditions-a dynamic societies that did have and ample land available for plantation economy, an enslaved majority, Brazil both farms and ranches. British Jamaica and Portuguese new characteristics. And in both colonies, elites accepted shared these and Europeanized mixed-race some of their most prosperous the master class, as whites, in essence. neighbors as full members of with Jamaica and Brazil, The comparison of Saint-Domingue in the late eighteenth century, the developed below, illustrates that, of men like Julien Raimond was not wealth and social self-confidence unusual was that Saint-Domingue's in itself unusual. What was of color and sought to colonial elite defined Raimond as a man humiliate him. mid-century shift in The thesis of this study is that an important deliberately French colonists defined their own identity the way wealthy freeborn families, recasting them alienated Saint-Domingue's resulting from political or ex-slaves. This redefinition, as "freedmen," after the disastrous Seven Years' War, helped disputes in the colony in ways that made the slave regime destabilize Saint-Domingue's Racism certainly existed in France's Haitian Revolution possible. leaders applied the colonies before 1763.9 And Saint-Domingue's its utility."o But a new new color line inconsistently, often debating provoked a deep emphasis on white purity and mixed-race creole degeneracy families in one particular reaction in some ofthe colony's richest the colony's long and area of Saint-Domingue, That region, focus ofthis book. mountainous southern peninsula is the New World slave societies Saint-Domingue to similar Comparing planters of partial African descent reveals that the existence ofwealthy was the way French to this colony. What was unique was not unique racial labels to such men, refusing to colonists in the 1780s applied few well established light-skinned give <white" status to even a cannot be fairly judged families. The problem is that Saint-Domingue dynamism, the ratio against most ofits neighbors. Slavery's economic of land in this French of masters to slaves, and the availability in the colonial United possession differed too greatly from conditions Lesser and in islands of the Antilles, States, in the smaller plantation in Brazil and Jamaica were material Spain's Caribbean colonies. Only to the extent that wealthy conditions truly similar to Saint-Domingue, 1780s applied few well established light-skinned give <white" status to even a cannot be fairly judged families. The problem is that Saint-Domingue dynamism, the ratio against most ofits neighbors. Slavery's economic of land in this French of masters to slaves, and the availability in the colonial United possession differed too greatly from conditions Lesser and in islands of the Antilles, States, in the smaller plantation in Brazil and Jamaica were material Spain's Caribbean colonies. Only to the extent that wealthy conditions truly similar to Saint-Domingue, --- Page 16 --- INTRODUCTION there too by the late eighteenth planters of African descent emerged century. America the numerical dominance of whites In British North very different than it insured that African ancestry meant something colony in 1788, people did in Saint-Domingue. In the French sugar ofthe In roughly 90 percent population. of African descent comprised independent United States in 1790, the southern states ofthe newly society 40 percent. Mainland Anglo-American they were only between masters and slaves. In 1790, free officially disapproved of sex of the free population in the upper people of color were only 1 percent South.' 11 In Saint-Domingue U.S. South and just 3 percent in the Deep People of color in 1788, interracial sex was widely acknowledged. there approached 50 percent ofthe free population. did become wealthy, Some free pcople of color in North America or boatmen. In but under British rule, most were farmers, fishermen, national In this persisted into the period.1? the upper South, pattern free colored farmers the lower South, after independence, prosperous free colored planter class, were even more unusual. There was no where most were immigrants except in nineteenth-century Louisiana, in 1832, only 212 free people of Even there, from Saint-Domingue. color owned slaves. 13 ofFrance and Britain were fundamentally The Lesser Antilles colonies at first glance. It is less similar to Saint-l Domingue than they appear were the majority in eighteenth-century true that enslaved people comprising 75 to 85 Barbados, Martinique, Antigua, or Guadeloupe, these were sugar of the population. Like Saint-Domingue, percent was high and white men outnumbered colonies, in which slave mortality interracial sex and white women. Along with the harsh labor regime, of colonial life in these slave manumission were accepted features free in 1776, did develop populations islands. Some, like Martinique total free 14 Yet these ofthe population.' ofcolor as large as one-quarter small; most ofthem were no Lesser Antilles colonies were extremely Saint-Domingue alone larger than five or six U.S. colonial parishes. and Guadeloupe had ten times the area of French Martinique land in these islands, most combined. Because there was little vacant cities, where white of color lived and worked in the port free people social to limit their cconomic success. colonists used laws and pressure colored class in the speaking, there was no free planter Generally Lesser Antilles in the eighteenth century:ts and Grenada. In these The two exceptions to this were Dominica hands between underpopulated islands, which frequently changed for much of the and France, arable land was available England ten times the area of French Martinique land in these islands, most combined. Because there was little vacant cities, where white of color lived and worked in the port free people social to limit their cconomic success. colonists used laws and pressure colored class in the speaking, there was no free planter Generally Lesser Antilles in the eighteenth century:ts and Grenada. In these The two exceptions to this were Dominica hands between underpopulated islands, which frequently changed for much of the and France, arable land was available England --- Page 17 --- BEFORE HAITI free colored planters did emerge there cighteenth century. Prosperous from neighboring colonies after the 1760s, some of them emigrating Yet, as a class, they never to establish coffee, cacao, and sugar estates.1o They amassed the wealth of their counterparts in Saint-Domingue. thorough their much of their influence in local society exerted military, rather than economic, presence. territories were too Caribbean Spain's cighteenth-century trade in slaves and plantation goods to detached from the Atlantic of these colonies did possess compare with Saint-Domingue. color. Many More than a quarter of Cuba's large, rural free populations of African descent, as were more than half free population in 1774 was of But large-scale plantation of all free people in Puerto Rico in 1775.8 of In 1774, slaves were only percent slavery was not yet important. in Puerto Rico the following Cuba's population and only 11 percent white of color in these islands, like their neighbors, year. Free people and artisans. The situation was similar in were mostly poor farmers from French Saint-Domingue, Santo Domingo, across the mountains Spanish outpost in the and in Trinidad, still a mostly undeveloped coastal ports on the mainland: 1780s. It was also the case in Spain's Saint Augustine. 19 Caracas, and, in Florida, Vera Cruz, Cartagena, New World, Ofthe many slave colonies in the cighteenth-century similar to British Jamaica and Portuguese Brazil were roughly only Caribbean colonies, all three had Saint-Domingue. Unlike Spain's under cruel conditions to produce large enslaved populations working commodities. In the eighteenth century sugar and other profitable territories absorbed over 40 percent alone, between them, these three slaves about 50 slave trade.20 By 1768, comprised of the transatlantic and 90 percent of) fJamaica's. In all three percent ofBrazil's population that many European colonists societies it was openly acknowledged children with slave women. In all and their American-born sons had children, and white fathers often freed their mixed-race three, All three had the kind of undeveloped recognized their paternity2 ofthe Lesser Antilles islands. interior land that was unavailable in most as new European frontier allowed free people of color, as well This farms and ranches, some of which eventually immigrants, to establish In Jamaica and Brazil, even more became full-blown slave plantations. also sheltered semipermanent these interiors than in Saint-Domingue, all three colonies relied on free communities ofescaped slaves. Finally, people of African descent to police the slave population. of color was to censuses, the free population In Brazil, according like the Mato Grosso, where free especially large in frontier regions century. În the outnumbered whites in the late eighteenth coloreds ranches, some of which eventually immigrants, to establish In Jamaica and Brazil, even more became full-blown slave plantations. also sheltered semipermanent these interiors than in Saint-Domingue, all three colonies relied on free communities ofescaped slaves. Finally, people of African descent to police the slave population. of color was to censuses, the free population In Brazil, according like the Mato Grosso, where free especially large in frontier regions century. În the outnumbered whites in the late eighteenth coloreds --- Page 18 --- INTRODUCTION Minas Gerais region, the focus of a frontier district of Sabara, in the backwater, white men gold rush in the 1750s but later an economic one-third of all the mulatto formally acknowledged paternity of about Brazil's male colonists children they freed in the eighteenth century. despite complaints by regularly bequeathed property to such children, that children born out white heirs. Moreover, Portuguese law insured father's estate even ifhe could claim some share in their of marriage testament.? 23 Eighteenth-century Brazilian had never drafted a legal with up to four degrees of society was deeply racist, excluding persons Yet nearly all observers agreed African ancestry from public offices. about these racial laws in that colonial officials were very flexible In 1766, for wealthy, light-skinned perxons,2" practice, especially Raimond signed his contract in therefore, when Julien likely that planters who looked like Saint-Domingue, it was highly colony, however, these men's him existed in Brazil. In the Portuguese have given them and social connections would probably In property which French colonial society denied to Raimond. "white" status, was aware ofthis discrepancy. In fact, the free colored indigo planter French colonial officials that the 1780s he recommended to Saint-Domingue adopt Brazilian racial practice. have been considered In Jamaica, as well, Raimond would probably against free people <white. Jamaican law and practice discriminated used the Colonial Assembly ofAfrican descent, but influential planters basis. From the late 1600s to carve out exceptions on a case-by-case civil rights to more than 200 through the 1700s this body granted 1760s by the Jamaica'spopulation free persons of Fcolor.20 Consequently, their partial African included numerous individuals who, despite kind of honorary enjoyed the rights of full citizenship-a ancestry, the wealthiest, owned "whiteness."' 27 William Cunningham, perhaps 160 slaves at his death in 1762.27 of Jamaica, Brazil, and In conditions like those found in parts owners ten to one, where slaves outnumbered Saint- Domingue, African rather than locally born, and where many of the slaves were colonists than female, it is not where there were many more male who owned land and workers surprising that free men and women harder to is why, in formed a united master class. What is explain over slavethe idea of racial impurity triumphed Saint-Domingue, the the French colony's meticulous owners' solidarity. For by 1780s, white society had more in exclusion of mixed-race people from and Brazil.2* with North America than with Jamaica common Raimond's humiliation and the political campaign Understanding Julien why French Saint- Domingue refused it engendered requires explaining there were many more male who owned land and workers surprising that free men and women harder to is why, in formed a united master class. What is explain over slavethe idea of racial impurity triumphed Saint-Domingue, the the French colony's meticulous owners' solidarity. For by 1780s, white society had more in exclusion of mixed-race people from and Brazil.2* with North America than with Jamaica common Raimond's humiliation and the political campaign Understanding Julien why French Saint- Domingue refused it engendered requires explaining --- Page 19 --- BEFORE HAITI "whiteness" of wealthy, the social and political to acknowledge European-educated slave owners. tensions about French The answer has to do with emerging that France's 1763 "American" identity. This book argues colonists' Years' War led Saint- Domingue to abandon its defeat in the Seven like those that Jamaica and Brazil social definition of racial categories, racism. After the war, the colony used, for a more explicitly biological restructuring that led North experienced the same kind of imperial the resentments of Americans to rebel against Britain and heightened authorities. Under this Spanish American colonists against peninsular Frenchmen used race to white creolized New World Saintpressure, and cultural bond with the metropole. define their political wanted France to end military rule and Domingue's elite colonists "civilized" and *liberal" claimed the colony was ready for a more whites To dismiss French fears that island-born colonial regime. these leading colonists collaborated would abandon the metropole, a new public sphere that with imperial administrators to create between all white emphasized the cultural and political community French whiteness To solidify this concept of the essentially people. creole colonists shared, they used Enlightened that immigrants and distance themselves from mixed-race notions of gender and biology to of"mulatto" creoles like Raimond. The moral and physical corruption feminine made both sexes unnaturally women and men, they argued, 1770s and 1780s, these sexual and and dangerous to civic life. In the creole class structure. political stereotypes broke apart the colony's planters and racial and moral hierarchy ranked wealthy The new enslaved Africans, for free colored merchants of color below even oftheir "corruption." " wealth and culture were merely the by-products families created success of some free colored In fact, the economic immigrants to Saint-Domingue. deep resentment among European these class tensions. Humiliating wealthy The new color line soothed between poor whites and their mixed-race planters eased relations French Revolution began. wealthy neighbors, at least until the of color responded free people From the 1760s, Saint-Domingue's colonial oppression with to these new forms of prejudice by attacking rhetoric and action. After liberal ideals, proving their patriotism in their slaves, the very fam1789, with little or no intention ofliberating as *white" revealed to be accepted in Jamaica or Brazil ilies most likely racism. This elite group used the first the absurdity of Dominguan another vision of colonial ofthe French Revolution to offer three years definition of metropolitan French citizenship was society, even as a new helping shape the terms of this emerging. Adopting, and, indeed, ial oppression with to these new forms of prejudice by attacking rhetoric and action. After liberal ideals, proving their patriotism in their slaves, the very fam1789, with little or no intention ofliberating as *white" revealed to be accepted in Jamaica or Brazil ilies most likely racism. This elite group used the first the absurdity of Dominguan another vision of colonial ofthe French Revolution to offer three years definition of metropolitan French citizenship was society, even as a new helping shape the terms of this emerging. Adopting, and, indeed, --- Page 20 --- INTRODUCTION elite men of color proved to their French debate, Saint-Domingue's brown- and black-skinned people from European contemporaries that ideals. Their successful the Caribbean could meet the Revolution's claim to for full civil rights was built upon a powerful campaign virtue that would ultimately justify Haitian "natural" or "American" of those creole families in cighteenthindependence. The history thread in the story Saint-I Domingue is therefore an important century and creole consciousness. ofLatin American independence free people of color also illuminates The history of Saint-Domingue's in different New World societies. the cultural factors shaping racism began in 1947, when study of New World slavery The comparative historian of Latin America, published a Frank Tannenbaum, a U.S. Tannenbaum concluded that short book entitled Slave and Citizen.29 cultures of Europe's colonial differences in the religious and legal Negro in the New World explained why *the adventure ofthe other powers differently in the United States than in parts has been structured how much easier >30 He was especially intrigued by of this hemisphere. freedom in Latin America than in it appeared to be for slaves to secure United States. In Latin America, British colonies or in the antebellum Catholicism and the Roman law tradition encouraged he believed, slaves' humanity. În contrast, the rarity of masters to recognize their of slavery in the British West manumission was the "primary aspect Indies and in the United States. >31 of ex- slaves or free people therefore, the number For Tannenbaum, World society indicated the harshness ofits of color in a given New there. Comparing and the virulence of racial prejudice slave regime what he believed was a less color-conscious the United States to "what the law and tradition did was to Brazil, Tannenbaum wrote: easy and natural in one make social mobility [for slaves and ex-slaves] another. >32 Tannenbaum place, difficult and slow and painful in than it that his Slave and Citizen raised many more questions admitted references to French Caribbean slavery answered. Indeed, his passing American varieties, in spite of the classed it with British and North with a slave code based on fact that these were Catholic islands Roman law. scholars began testing Tannenbaum's In the 1950s and 1960s, European culture provocative hypothesis that the colonizing and plantation determined New World racism. Comparing legal systems historians with increasing rigor, by the early 1970s many conditions conditions of slavery were more had concluded that the material racism. In 1971, for example, Carl important than culture in forging Brazil's racial history and Degler reexamined the contrast between North with a slave code based on fact that these were Catholic islands Roman law. scholars began testing Tannenbaum's In the 1950s and 1960s, European culture provocative hypothesis that the colonizing and plantation determined New World racism. Comparing legal systems historians with increasing rigor, by the early 1970s many conditions conditions of slavery were more had concluded that the material racism. In 1971, for example, Carl important than culture in forging Brazil's racial history and Degler reexamined the contrast between --- Page 21 --- BEFORE HAITI his book Neither Black Nor White, that ofthe United States. Calling the two societies' very different Degler devoted special attention to definitions of about racial mixture, rather than their legal attitudes Tannenbaum's focus on Portuguese versus British slavery. Rejecting of demography, culture, Degler identified the interworkings Brazilian geography, slavery had what he and economy as the chief reasons why of freedom and called "the mulatto escape hatch"-the Other possibility historians working on social mobility for mixed-race slaves,33 similar conclusions Jamaica, and the United States came to Cuba, ofthe physical and economic environment about the greaterimportance slavery and racism.* over cultural factors in shaping Saint-Domingue into this new In 1971, Gwendolyn Hall brought between the demonstrating the similarities materialist scholarship, Cuba, the eighteenth-century French colony and nineteenth-century others, Hall of sugar in its era. Like SO many leading slave producer in Tannenbaum's question of"why turned to this topic out ofinterest in the United States than racism is, and has been, more powerful Slave Plantation >35 In Social Control in elsewhere in the Americas." in Saint-Domingue and Societies, she described how racial prejudice became more profitable laterin Cuba grew stronger as sugar plantations Racism "[wJas a and slaves became the largest single population group. enough to insure control device designed to keep the slave passive mind Julien 99 she concluded. The discrimination the survival of the system,' was an expression of the Raimond experienced in Saint-l Domingue the wealth. >36 over wealth and over power to protect <basic conflict : why, if racism primarily served What was not clear from Hall's studywas SO bent on humiliating economic interests, French colonists were men like like Raimond. Why had they permitted wealthy slave owners in the first place? Raimond to become SO prosperous on free people of color in In 1972 a collection of research essays Neither Slave Nor Free and over a dozen New World colonies, entitled administered the coup de edited by David Cohen and Jack Greene, By juxtaposing their cultural determinism. grâce to Tannenbaum's British, Danish, Spanish, French, contributors' analyses of Dutch, Cohen and Greene Portuguce/Beazian, and U.S. racial policies, and conditions consistently overrode religious illustrated that material racism. Economic pressures and the legal influences on New World manumission and racial danger of slave rebellion, especially, shaped prejudice across the hemisphere. historians of the United States, Neither Slave nor Free liberated suggested by and Latin America from the question Caribbean, culture produced the worst Tannenbaum's essay, Which European baum's British, Danish, Spanish, French, contributors' analyses of Dutch, Cohen and Greene Portuguce/Beazian, and U.S. racial policies, and conditions consistently overrode religious illustrated that material racism. Economic pressures and the legal influences on New World manumission and racial danger of slave rebellion, especially, shaped prejudice across the hemisphere. historians of the United States, Neither Slave nor Free liberated suggested by and Latin America from the question Caribbean, culture produced the worst Tannenbaum's essay, Which European --- Page 22 --- INTRODUCTION Since the 1970s scholars have moved away from slavery and racism?" frameworks to focus on the ways racial prejudice elaborate comparative when such detailed studies, like this shaped specific societies. Yet context, they again reveal the one, are placed back into a comparative racial attitudes. importance of culture in determining rejecting materialist Acknowledging this fact does not require up to of racism. Attitudes in much of Saint-Domingue The explanations followed the pattern seen in Jamaica and Brazil. 1763, I argue, workers, the brutality ofthe plantation constant influx of new African the military and the high ratio of male to female colonists, other regime, networks, and isolation from economic valuc oflocal patronage to free their children of color colonists all encouraged European The men social status of some of these and establish them economically. be based more on their wealth and people of color over time came to Local society than on their African genealogy. social connections families ofthis type as members ofthe master regarded the wealthiest colonists. The ongoing growth class, as responsible and respectable did discourage the promotion and oppression ofthe slave population elite level. But the examples of of new free colored families to this families that had been successJamaica and Brazil illustrate that those immune from racial fully"whitened" into the plantocracy were mostly have slowed Moreover, though new racial tensions may it challenges. free colored families in Jamaica and Brazil, the social ascent ofnew or reversed the seems never to have stopped the ascent completely, Revolution. process, at least until the era ofthe Haitian Here, my history was exceptional. This is where Saint-Domingue's in the elite were evidence shows, families that were once accepted that cultural in the 1770s and 1780s. I argue rejected as nonwhite the new color line, while the and political forces inspired and shaped of these families ensured that ever-mounting economic success After 1763, resentful whites would adopt the new racist stereotypes. selfideas and social institutions produced a new 29 as Enlightened about "civilization," *virtue, consciousness in Saint-Domingue of theory, for Tannenbaum's well as "race." This is no resuscitation wholesale from France. this cultural movement was not imported discourse levels, colonial and metropolitan Instead, at its highest influenced cach other, especially where about many of these topics tool that colonial administrators Racism was a race was concerned. "civilize" Saint-Domingue, despite and creole elites used together to in different defined this goal strikingly the fact that the two groups determinism at work here. French ways. There was no cultural well as Caribbean social and political and scientific concerns, as race." This is no resuscitation wholesale from France. this cultural movement was not imported discourse levels, colonial and metropolitan Instead, at its highest influenced cach other, especially where about many of these topics tool that colonial administrators Racism was a race was concerned. "civilize" Saint-Domingue, despite and creole elites used together to in different defined this goal strikingly the fact that the two groups determinism at work here. French ways. There was no cultural well as Caribbean social and political and scientific concerns, as --- Page 23 --- BEFORE HAITI shaped the evolution of Saint-Domingue's economic conditions, distinctive racial ideology. tool for and enforcing the Colonial culture was not only a justifying written, "Numerous subjugation of people of color. Joan Dayan has black slave in Sainttestify that in no instance was a >39 accounts [French slave] laws or regulations. This Domingue helped by that French legal culture was a two-edged study, however, illustrates free coloreds and even by slaves. To sword, one sometimes wielded by of slaves used the marriage hundreds, reveal that dozens, perhaps freedom in the 1780s is not to provision of the Code Noir to attain laws. Similarly, to point out defend the humanity of France's slave colonial of color France's legal institutions allowed some people how that whites could not challenge is not to to create public identities that the Roman law system sheltered slaves claim, like Tannenbaum, from racism and inhumanity. documents I analyze here confirm Instead the previously unstudied of peasant struggles what Mimi Sheller has found in her comparison social in these Haiti and Jamaica: that power in nineteenth-century policies and by slavery's islands was not only decided by imperial Individuals who managed distribution off freedom and wealth. black unequal Saint-Domingue, like to escape slavery in cighteenth-century Haiti, were able to negotiate their peasants in nineteenth-century in civil society, in a "public sphere" from racial and social identities 40 Decades before the outbreak of which they were officially excluded.* men and women with very little the French and Haitian Revolutions, their liberty and used public texts to successfully protect power demand justice. this book to contribute to a second historical Such findings allow describes the causes of the Haitian Revolution. literature, that which Revolution and the influence of Given the historical importance ofthe American racism, it might appear debate about the cultural/material devoted such little attention to Saintsurprising that scholars have Until recently, Gwendolyn Domingue's free people of color. quite study in English Hall's Social Control was the only book-length Historians recognized devoted to this topic. 41 This was no oversight. was the first group of free population of color that Saint-Domingue's of racial laws and that its success inspired its kind to force the repeal the hemisphere. But those who imitation and repression throughout accounts of studied Haiti also knew that the best ninetcenth-century on free colored Haitian Revolution suffered from an overemphasis the for a more democratic and accurate underachievements. Looking independence, rwentieth-century standing of Haiti's unprecedented 's Social Control was the only book-length Historians recognized devoted to this topic. 41 This was no oversight. was the first group of free population of color that Saint-Domingue's of racial laws and that its success inspired its kind to force the repeal the hemisphere. But those who imitation and repression throughout accounts of studied Haiti also knew that the best ninetcenth-century on free colored Haitian Revolution suffered from an overemphasis the for a more democratic and accurate underachievements. Looking independence, rwentieth-century standing of Haiti's unprecedented --- Page 24 --- INTRODUCTION devoted themselves to the long-ignored question scholars have mostly of slaves' role in the revolutionary period. France in 1804, descendants of After declaring independence from Haiti for much of the nineteenth men like Julien Raimond ruled the first detailed narratives ofthe century. The Haitians who published of this *mulatto' 942 oligarchy. revolution in the 1840s were members "mulâtrist" historians develDavid Nicholls has described how these interests oftheir class. 43 narrative that served the oped a Revolutionary Beaubrun Ardouin, of this interpretation, The strongest proponent of color with beginning the Revolution. credited wealthy free men who challenged French racism, Glorifying free colored revolutionaries armies, Ardouin wrote to rather than the black men who led ex-slave mixed-race class. Free of his own confirm the oligarchic pretensions Revolution against France and their men of color had initiated the talents made them the natural descendants' superior education and suffered and fought leaders ofthe new nation, he argued. Because they the darkerracism, they could not be guilty of racism against French As Mimi Sheller notes, it was no accident skinned peasant majority. their histories in the 1840s, shortly that Ardouin and others published leader who criticized a new after the Haitian state exiled a black peasant to democratize mulatto president for not living up to his promises 44 This interpretation was SO central to the self-conception Haitian society." elite that Haitians writing in the generation oft the nineteenth-century several volumes describing French prejudice after Ardouin published of color. 45 against Saint-Domingue's free men shifted this focus. By the 100th But rwenticth-century events in 1904, the Haitian state had come to anniversary ofi independence narrative, one centered on the support a <black" Revolutionary and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, ex-slave generals Toussaint Louverture In the centenary year the governrather than free colored planters. has called the state cult of what Joan Dayan ment inaugurated monument and adopting a national anthem, Dessalines, unveiling a the U.S. Dessaliniene. >46 From 1915 to 1934 humiliating "La increased urban intellectuals' interest in the occupation ofthe country period inspired the founculture ofHaiti's rural majority. This painful and the of historical society in 1924 appearance dation of a Haitian and Dessalines. 47 new Haitian scholarship on Louverture outside Haiti also turned to In the 1930s Caribbean writers the world of slave revolutionaries to remind Saint-Domingue's great colonized peoples. 48 Black Jacobins, published the potential power of C.L.R. James, remains the in 1938 by the Trinidadian man ofletters Revolution. In the broadest read account of the Haitian most widely i's rural majority. This painful and the of historical society in 1924 appearance dation of a Haitian and Dessalines. 47 new Haitian scholarship on Louverture outside Haiti also turned to In the 1930s Caribbean writers the world of slave revolutionaries to remind Saint-Domingue's great colonized peoples. 48 Black Jacobins, published the potential power of C.L.R. James, remains the in 1938 by the Trinidadian man ofletters Revolution. In the broadest read account of the Haitian most widely --- Page 25 --- BEFORE HAITI scholars have adopted his vision of the sense, most subsequent colonial working people. Revolution as an uprising of oppressed James helped the example of his Haitian contemporaries, Following arguing instead that Saintretire the mulâtrist interpretation, of color was a kind of Marxist middle Domingue's free population James agreed with class that aspired to join the white plantocracy. and frugal. But he also Ardouin that these families were hardworking about their selfishness: they adopted French and populist stereotypes submit to statute labor and <were everywhere the least willing to action dues. >49 By emphasizing how mass revolutionary chaos public Haitian Revolution, while others wrote of had produced the critical scholarship in French and manipulation, and by combining James set a high archives with his own political zeal and stirring prose, today. 50 standard that makes his book still valuable literary the 1950s that new kinds of academic research It was not until reinforce James's conviction that emerged from France to at the heart of the Haitian Saint-Domingue's enslaved masses were historians had mostly studied the Revolution. Since the 1880s, French administration ofits colony to understand and improve their nation's the 1950s Gabriel Debien, African and Asian territories,1 But in new tradition, began to focus on a researchcer trained in this imperialist the work of Brazilian and records, inspired by Caribbean plantation French studies of Antilles slavery had U.S. scholars. While earlier and administrative travelers' accounts, been based on legal texts, the approach of correspondence, 52 Debien adopted social-science and analyzed estate France's Annales historians. He tracked down forgotten docucolonists' letter-books, and other long inventories, information about slave death rates, African ethnicments containing operations. 53 After publishing ities, slave culture, and daily plantation research notes, Debien warned close to one thousand articles and Antilles françaises, "It is still readers of his 1974 book Les esclaves aux in the French Antilles." >54 to present a overview of slavery premature it was not possible for Debien, working Indeed, in a single generation advanced students, to synthesize the in a field that attracted few he had unearthed. Yet his career scattered and partial documentation historians toward a better understandreoriented French Caribbean of slavery shaped the possibilities ing of how the material conditions more sustained examifor resistance. His successors have produced estates, 55 ventured deeper into demography, nations of individual of the plantation in the imperial and cast more light on the place economy.s7 54 to present a overview of slavery premature it was not possible for Debien, working Indeed, in a single generation advanced students, to synthesize the in a field that attracted few he had unearthed. Yet his career scattered and partial documentation historians toward a better understandreoriented French Caribbean of slavery shaped the possibilities ing of how the material conditions more sustained examifor resistance. His successors have produced estates, 55 ventured deeper into demography, nations of individual of the plantation in the imperial and cast more light on the place economy.s7 --- Page 26 --- INTRODUCTION primary sources was an Debien's careful attention to neglected Jean Fouchard. Well inspiration for the Haitian historian who important had come to view those slaves escaped before the 1960s Haitians resistance tradition bondage as the founders of a popular plantation In his statue of the <Unknown that culminated in independence. in Port-au-Prince installed before the presidential palace Maroon,' Albert Mangonès had celebrated around 1959, the Haitian sculptor de la liberté (1972) figure. Fouchard's Les marrons this quasi-mythic arguing that the Revolution was not reinforced this nationalist image, free colored planters, nor a few the handiwork of French Jacobins, of liberty was 58 Instead, Haiti's successful conquest black generals. culture of slave resistance, which grounded in a pre-K Revolutionary 48,000 notices of escaped slaves Fouchard investigated by collecting James and Debien, from colonial newspapers. His peers, including Fouchard could show hailed Les marrons as a masterpiece. However, Haitian Revolution and link between the beginnings of the no historians outside Haiti remain colonial-era marronage and many could not be reliably skeptical of his thesis. 59 Because his notices slave his description ofthe scale of fpre-Revolutionary: quantified, even book illustrates how far remained anecdotal. Yet Fouchard's escapes Revolution had come from the nineteenth-century explanations ofthe men of color launched the Haitian claim that wealthy slave-owning Revolution. it has been David Geggus, together In the last twenty-five years, in revealing Fick, who has been most important with Carolyn ofthe enslaved people at the center of the the actions and aspirations achievements, Revolution. One of Geggus's most important Haitian Debien's legacy, has been to create his own database building upon and archival plantation slave lists. This out of hundreds of published the African ethnic groups most has allowed him to chart, for example, wide variety of sugar, coffee, likely to be found on Saint-Domingue's illuminated the extent to which and indigo estates. This, in turn, has in 1791 were the in the North Province August the slave uprisings between island-born and African result of cross-cultural alliances about nationalist and slaves. While maintaining a scholarly skepticism of colonial Geggus has connected the conditions ideological rhetoric, better than anyone. Thanks slave life to the events of the Revolution and book on the Revolution, we to him and to Fick's original research slaves' actions contributed to understanding of how have a better 60 Moreover, Geggus has opened new Haitian independence." Revolution and other fields of connections between the Haitian the in the North Province August the slave uprisings between island-born and African result of cross-cultural alliances about nationalist and slaves. While maintaining a scholarly skepticism of colonial Geggus has connected the conditions ideological rhetoric, better than anyone. Thanks slave life to the events of the Revolution and book on the Revolution, we to him and to Fick's original research slaves' actions contributed to understanding of how have a better 60 Moreover, Geggus has opened new Haitian independence." Revolution and other fields of connections between the Haitian --- Page 27 --- BEFORE HAITI evaluating Haiti's influence on slavery studies, by systematically the Americas. 61 cany-nincteceuh-cemury slave revolts throughout World, Dubois's new narrative history, Avengers eftheNew Laurent research of Geggus, Fick and many others into synthesizes the archival of the Haitian Revolution in a powerful argument for the importance emphasizing, even in his Dubois breaks new ground by world history. about the emergence of a title, that Haiti's Revolution was as much victory over "American" identity as about slaves' unprecedented new their masters.2 from France only In fact, the idea of political independence deep in the cighteenth late in the Revolution, but its roots lay emerged as in the rest oft the hemisphere, tensions century. In Saint-Domingue and colonists generated ideas about between European administrators that reached a critical mass after the "American" or "creole" identity New World colony, Seven Years' War. In France's largest remaining civic status of the free those tensions were reflected in the changing population ofcolor. than 9,000 notarial deeds from three neighThis book uses more South Province to boring colonial districts in Saint-Domingue's often dismissed Haiti's those identities. Historians have uncover power, implying that it southern peninsula as the center of"mulatto" "black" majority, meaning the cannot be representative ofthe nation's Toussaint Louverture, ex-slaves whose dark-skinned generals Christophe all emerged from Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri main reasons North Province. But there are three Saint-Domingue's at the South as it considers the evolution why this study looks carefully and Haiti. ofideas about race and citizenship in Saint-Domingue the South are the oldest The first is that notarial records from They allow us to surviving from French colonial Saint-Domingue. tumultuous halfindividuals and families across the most follow world had seen to that date, from 1760 to 1803. century the Atlantic their narratives on the blood and fire of Because many authors focus long view of pre-l Revolutionary the 1790s, this book's relatively like the gradual evolution conditions illuminates critical phenomena, conservative rise of free colored of racial prejudice, and the slow and planting wealth. two hundred years Second, scholarship on Sant-Doningue/Hati. the that the complex has progressed to point after independence, be Carolyn Fick's Making interplay of1 regional societies must explored. the revolutionary illustrates the value of blending of Haiti (1990) with better-known material from the history of the South Province Blue Coat or Powdered Wig uses rest of the colony.es Stewart King's book's relatively like the gradual evolution conditions illuminates critical phenomena, conservative rise of free colored of racial prejudice, and the slow and planting wealth. two hundred years Second, scholarship on Sant-Doningue/Hati. the that the complex has progressed to point after independence, be Carolyn Fick's Making interplay of1 regional societies must explored. the revolutionary illustrates the value of blending of Haiti (1990) with better-known material from the history of the South Province Blue Coat or Powdered Wig uses rest of the colony.es Stewart King's --- Page 28 --- INTRODUCTION from the North and West to illuminate the existence notarial contracts class" as well as a distinct planter ofa free colored "military leadership approach before 1789. But King's synthetic class in those provinces differences. Dominique Rogers' sophistimasks profound regional coloreds of Cap of the free pre-revolutionary cated comparison those variations and concludes Français and Port-au-Prince explores assimilating into colonial socithat free coloreds there were gradually the piece oft the before 1789. The South Province is now missing ety studies, it had no discernable "military puzzle. Unlike the areas King free black population that leadership class, ?) nor the large and distinct both Rogers and King identify. 64 Historians have long portrayed This inconsistency is significant. Saint-Domingue's South and Revolutionary-cra conflicts between "blacks" and "mulattos," North Provinces as racial warfare between labels were inaccurate.ss that these even while acknowledging in the 1840s that the Beaubrun Ardouin, from the South, opined was and his own province North Province was more "aristocratic" to the French educa29 an orientation he attributed more <democratic," tion of Southern leaders. 66 with the work of King and Rogers, But this study, taken together French military institutions and hypothesis. offers a more convincing created a different set of the constant influx of new African captives in Français than in the free colored attitudes and opportunities Cap ex-slave The South produced no generals rest of Saint-Domingue. free black military class because the like Toussaint Louverture, nor a than the North or region was far more Caribbean in its orientation the South Province encourWest. The conditions of frontier society in with the rarity of slave aged cross-cultural mixing which, together of a distinct free imports in this region, discouraged the the formation North not because it was black class. The South differed from more Ardouin saw it, but because it was "American," more French, as in the broader sense oft that term. is since the Finally, the history of the South Province conclusion important oft the Haitian region played a special role in the origin and hundred wealthy free Revolution. Though there were perhaps three and of color in the cities of Cap Français and Port-au-Prince of color from people regions in 1789, 67 it was free people their surrounding colonial racism most effectively. Julien the South who challenged dozen of his neighbors, convinced Raimond, supported by about a their attacks on revolutionaries and abolitionists to postpone Parisian these allies, instead, in a campaign to the slave trade. By engaging colonists, Raimond destroyed recognize the citizenship of mixed-race wealthy free Revolution. Though there were perhaps three and of color in the cities of Cap Français and Port-au-Prince of color from people regions in 1789, 67 it was free people their surrounding colonial racism most effectively. Julien the South who challenged dozen of his neighbors, convinced Raimond, supported by about a their attacks on revolutionaries and abolitionists to postpone Parisian these allies, instead, in a campaign to the slave trade. By engaging colonists, Raimond destroyed recognize the citizenship of mixed-race --- Page 29 --- BEFORE HAITI the stability of the slave regime. This was by the summer of 1791, the not his goal. Nevertheless, lated in France raised such legislation and publicity he had stimucreated such a furor high expectations among free coloreds and among radical white racists that civil Saint-Domingue was practically inevitable. war in provides new evidence that Raimond's free Morcover, chapter 8 parish consciously provoked colored allies in Port Salut slave Saint-Domingue's first conspiracy on the estates of their white Revolutionary 1791. Finally, in 1804, it was the neighbors in January bors and strongest nephew of one of Raimond's of political allies who wrote the Haitian neighIndependence. Chapter 9 concludes that this Declaration expression of Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre's was not merely an Haitian romantic independence as he expressed it was personality. intense consciousness of its creole shaped by the South's attachment to French Republican identity, set against its strong This book's first chapter describes values. and census records from the first half the origins of that identity. Legal how buccaneers, French of the cighteenth century show new immigrants, and enslaved households, as well as slave Africans formed On this frontier, it was not plantations, in this isolated region. extent gender, that defined ancestry, but social class and to some married the daughters racial labels. Newly arrived Frenchmen of propertied colonists, background. These relationships created regardless oftheir racial intra-Caribbean connections that a rich network of local and chapter draws on a systematic survived into the 1760s. The second from the 1760s to describe analysis ofc over 4,000 notarial contracts colorin the economic role of the free people of children Saint-Domingue's of French southern peninsula. It illustrates how some immigrants and slave women planters, and describes how poorer free became wealthy themselves in at least four distinctive people of color established the complex and often contradictory occupations. Chapter 3 examines ofcolor, slaves, and the colonial interactions among free free coloreds used the state. It pays special attention to people how their legal system, constabulary, and liberty and set themselves apart from the slave militia to protect Chapter 4 begins to examine the creation of population. colonial culture after the end ofthe Seven a new, self-conscious controversial imperial reforms. The Years' War, in reaction to colored involvement in end of the chapter traces in the changing an anti-militia revolt in 1769, a critical event free relationship and imperial authorities. among colonists, free people of color, of Enlightenment Chapter 5 continues to describe the thought on white impact shows how a new ideology of white colonial self-perceptions. It purity resolved the debate protect Chapter 4 begins to examine the creation of population. colonial culture after the end ofthe Seven a new, self-conscious controversial imperial reforms. The Years' War, in reaction to colored involvement in end of the chapter traces in the changing an anti-militia revolt in 1769, a critical event free relationship and imperial authorities. among colonists, free people of color, of Enlightenment Chapter 5 continues to describe the thought on white impact shows how a new ideology of white colonial self-perceptions. It purity resolved the debate --- Page 30 --- INTRODUCTION administrators about whether between colonial elites and imperial should have a military or civilian government. Saint-Domingue realm and to the southern Chapter 6 returns to the economic fortunes of free in the 1780s. It describes the ascending peninsula farmers, artisans, and householders, colored planters and poorer devotes special attention to the despite the new racism. This chapter creole families who were now mounting prosperity of those old shows their wealth was not officially labeled "pcople of color," and and smuggle indigo coffee. Instead they continued to grow due to 7 examines the increasingly dye, diversifying into cotton. Chapter militiamen and slave-hunters in degraded civic status of free colored freedom in this period, the 1770s. Some slaves found new routes to service. More than 500 through marriage and through constabulary to fight in the Dominguan men of color joined a French tracked expedition rebel slaves in the American Revolution in Georgia. Others would not recognize any colony's mountains. Yet French colonists civic virtue in these sacrifices. events on both sides of the Chapter 8 traces Revolutionary families described in chapters 3 and 6, Atlantic. Following the wealthy both Paris and Saint-Domingue it shows how men of color in them from public life. But dismantled the sexual images that excluded brown and black men could white colonial revolutionaries denied that free colored citizens. In 1791 French attempts to impose be and, ultimately, slave citizenship brought civil war to Saint-Domingue revolution. and social data from over 1,000 Chapter 9 uses the cconomic between 1790 and 1803 notarized contracts drafted in Aquin parish elite in the Revolution. the of the free colored to trace experience dominated military and civilian Though the free colored population values suffered leadership, plantation agriculture and property however, the after the end of slavery. At the same time, and enormously trade with other Caribbean islands increased town's once-illegal to sell land to ex-slaves, creating a new some wealthy families began vitality of Freemasonry class. Evidence of the ongoing elites peasant economic hardship, local embraced suggests that, despite summarizes events that values. The epilogue French republican force in 1802,and ends followed the arrival ofa French expeditionary the author of the the life of Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, by examining Haitian Declaration ofIndependence. ously trade with other Caribbean islands increased town's once-illegal to sell land to ex-slaves, creating a new some wealthy families began vitality of Freemasonry class. Evidence of the ongoing elites peasant economic hardship, local embraced suggests that, despite summarizes events that values. The epilogue French republican force in 1802,and ends followed the arrival ofa French expeditionary the author of the the life of Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, by examining Haitian Declaration ofIndependence. --- Page 31 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 32 --- CHAPTER 1 X THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREOLE SOCIETY ON THE COLONIAL FRONTIER In 1701, the Dominican himself in a lush valley in missionary Jean-Baptiste Labat found mountain-chains in the Antilles Saint-Domingue, where the two highest seven years in Martinique and overlapped. Though he had spent France's newest Caribbean Guadeloupe, Labat found this colony, Lesser Antilles. Western possession, to be like nothing like the French-speaking hunters Santo Domingo had been a base for seventeenth and pirates since the of century, but Spain had beginning the French claims. As the only just formally recognized ex-buccaneers priest toured its coastal served him on looted settlements, grizzled as he celebrated mass in the Spanish silver and swore loudly "hads fallen from the clouds and open air. The Dominican felt that he been one in which he had no desire transported into a new world," to remain, though desperately needed priests. 1 Saint-Domingue But in his description ofthis fertile a different, mountain valley, Labat admiring, tone. Its settlers adopted trees in the world . [and] raise their "grow the most beautiful Cacao feeding them day and children with marvelous > night on chocolate and ease,' predicted that their rich bottomland crushed maize.2 He producing cacao, indigo, would soon be filled with farms district, a "nursery for rocou, tobacco, and cotton. This Fond cacao and for >> promising des Nègres. As Labat noted, these children, already had a name: were almost all free mulattos large and expanding families What the or blacks. colonists missionary witnessed in 1701 was a and imperial administrators situation that leading at the end of the cighteenth ,' predicted that their rich bottomland crushed maize.2 He producing cacao, indigo, would soon be filled with farms district, a "nursery for rocou, tobacco, and cotton. This Fond cacao and for >> promising des Nègres. As Labat noted, these children, already had a name: were almost all free mulattos large and expanding families What the or blacks. colonists missionary witnessed in 1701 was a and imperial administrators situation that leading at the end of the cighteenth --- Page 33 --- BEFORE HAITI had ever existed. For at least 60 years after century tried to deny African women, and their children in Labat's visit, European men, families and their descendants were Saint-Domingue formed creole that they were successful accepted as French colonists, to the degree as planters and slave owners. described racial prejudice as an In the 1770s, colonial intellectuals regime. With huninherent, natural feature ofthe Caribbean plantation Frenchmen, of Africans working for a few thousand dreds ofthousands scorn for all people of they argued, brutal discipline and an abiding Indeed, even in the remote color were essential tools ofthe sugar trade. had by 1720, hard-driving French planters-to-be southern peninsula, Africans that they were outnumbered cight purchased SO many enslaved in Saint-Domingue, they worked to one. Like planters everywhere limits of human endurance and these men and women past the divided up the coastal plains to clamored for more slave imports, as they plant more sugarcane. to crOss the line from slavery to freedom But those who managed survive and even flourish in places in Saint-Domingue found room to Saint- Domingue like Fond des Nègres. As this chapter argues, back to frontier society long after Labat went Guadeloupe, remained a the cutting edge ofthat frontier. Until and the southern peninsula was trees from a hillside in the interior the 1760s, a man able to clear there, and many island-born could easily claim a ranch or farm slaves, and sugar planters did children ofhunters, indentured servants, was focused on the because French shipping just that. Moreover, the eighteenth century, settlers in colony's Atlantic coast, throughout continued the intra-Caribbean the southern peninsula and elsewhere buccaneers of Labat's time. smuggling that had sustained the boundaries, colonists routinely traded across imperial Just as they married or formed permanent in places like Fond des Nègres regularly interconnected creole families across racial lines, founding a deeply fortunes, before the Rather than flee to France with their society. these remained on their estates, 1760s many colonists in parishes into like families and to suitable marrying their sons and daughters free of color, In the process they created a population newcomers. and women were wealthy, their neighbors though when these men rarely used racial labels to describe them. Spanish shipping in the In 1625, after a century of attacking monarchy finally established ofthe French Caribbean, representatives creole families across racial lines, founding a deeply fortunes, before the Rather than flee to France with their society. these remained on their estates, 1760s many colonists in parishes into like families and to suitable marrying their sons and daughters free of color, In the process they created a population newcomers. and women were wealthy, their neighbors though when these men rarely used racial labels to describe them. Spanish shipping in the In 1625, after a century of attacking monarchy finally established ofthe French Caribbean, representatives --- Page 34 --- SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT OF CREOLE From the tiny island that the French called themselves in the region. chartered French West Saint-Christophe, colonists of the royally in 1635. claimed Martinique and then Guadeloupe Indies Company and tobacco to sell in In both islands they cleared the land planted indentured themselves Europe. In the 1640s thousands ofFrenchmen eventually to tend, and harvest this crop, hoping as servants to plant, farms. Missionary orders like the establish their own island societies had priests and churches. Dominicans insured that these new France called As Labat discovered in 1701, the territory well-ordered different from these relatively Saint- Domingue was quite in alone was striking. Lesser Antilles colonies. The contrast geography island that named only one-third of the Spain Although it occupies surface area ten times larger than Santo Domingo, Haiti has a The volcanic cones of the Martinique and Guadeloupe combined. while Haiti's! highest Antilles rise only4,800 feet above sea level, Lesser ofits land is located at 1,200 peak is 8,790 feet high, and two-fifths the country consists ofthree feet above sea level, or higher. In effect, eleven distinct geographic mountain chains, which divide it into two steep most distinctive coastline, with regions and create the Caribbean's enclose the island's western shore. peninsulas north and south that than 20 percent; than halfofHaiti's land is on an incline greater More suited for farming. Most ofthe land ofthe only 17 percent is flat and Plain, the Northern latter kind is found in three regions: the Artibonite soil is distributed among Plain, and Cul-de-Sac. The remaining arable mountain slopes.3 dozen smaller plains, tightly framed by steep a had already affected Europeans' By 1700 this rugged geography Columbus landed on the attempts to dominate the island. Although settlement there, in 1496 northwest coast in 1492 and established a in the tamer landscape Spain established its capital, Santo Domingo, 1500s, the less accessible ofthe island's southeastern plain. In the early Tainos holding out ofthe island was a refuge for native western part 4 When disease and repression all but against the Spanish conquest. of Spanish colonists estabexterminated these people, the descendants abandoned the livestock herds in their place. Yet in 1605, Spain lished its own towns and forcibly evacuating its western coast, burning the Dutch smugglers who routincly colonists, because it could not stop traded there for leather.5 with feral cattle, pigs, and The abandoned coastal plains teeming servants, and horses soon attracted naval deserters, runaway male. By 1650 at least castaways, a group that was almost exclusively Santo Domingo's 500 of these <Brothers of the Coast" lived along or overarching loyalty northwest coast, men with no single language 5, Spain lished its own towns and forcibly evacuating its western coast, burning the Dutch smugglers who routincly colonists, because it could not stop traded there for leather.5 with feral cattle, pigs, and The abandoned coastal plains teeming servants, and horses soon attracted naval deserters, runaway male. By 1650 at least castaways, a group that was almost exclusively Santo Domingo's 500 of these <Brothers of the Coast" lived along or overarching loyalty northwest coast, men with no single language --- Page 35 --- BEFORE HAITI Alexander Oexmelin, who came here from to any one European state. described three distinct groups among Honfleur as a servant in 1666, saw when he arrived in the *Brothers." 9) The first people Oexmelin who sold leather Saint-Domingue were the boucaniers or buccaneers only a belt brisand boucan- -smoked meat-to passing ships. Wearing such knives and long drawers caked with blood, long-bearded tling with could still be found in Saint-I Domingue in the sun-baked frontiersmen as or century." A second group, known flibustiers late cighteenth of pirates who preyed on local shipping or freebooters, was composed with Spanish colonies. Many of the smugglers who traded illegally after 1640 when Spanish officials, buccaneers became freebooters the wild cattle they hunted. This hoping to be rid of them, poisoned to extend their attacks infusion of men emboldened freebooter groups shipping to port cities on the mainland." from Spanish resembled French settlers in Oexmelin' s third group, the babitants, 2> would come to Though habitant, or *resident, the Lesser Antilles. the word originally distinmean "planter" in the eighteenth century, They grew guished these farmers from their roving compatriots. Those who could and ginger to sell to the Dutch. tobacco, cacao, of indentured servants and worked afford it bought the contracts household partnerships them mercilessly. They formed impromptu >8 from the word for sailor or "mate. called amatelotages, sending official representatives and In the 1640s, France began hoping to claim settlers from Saint- Christophe to Saint-Domingue, established there." These would-be French governors coast, jurisdiction the island of Tortuga, along the northwest themselves on of *Brothers." 22 From the area with the greatest concentration helped increase in Martinique and Guadeloupe about 1650, changes Europeans increasingly refused Saint-Domingue's habitant population. Caribbean fill their snuff boxes and clay pipes with low-quality to colonists in the Lesser Antilles began to plant tobacco, SO wealthier ultimate replacement was sugar, more lucrative crops. Tobacco's investment in time, toil, and technology. which required an immense nine months of sun, water, and careful Sugarcanes needed more than Then, within hours ofbeing tending before they could be harvested. out of the canes before sweet, watery syrup had to be crushed cut, in turn was refined into crystals, through they rotted. The cane juice Planters needed skilled sugar a complex and expensive process. houses, and animals to power makers, their own mills and refining aspiring sugar producers their machinery. These investments required In the Lesser Antilles large sugar hundreds of acres in cane. to plant swallow tobacco farms in the 1660s. estates began to up Then, within hours ofbeing tending before they could be harvested. out of the canes before sweet, watery syrup had to be crushed cut, in turn was refined into crystals, through they rotted. The cane juice Planters needed skilled sugar a complex and expensive process. houses, and animals to power makers, their own mills and refining aspiring sugar producers their machinery. These investments required In the Lesser Antilles large sugar hundreds of acres in cane. to plant swallow tobacco farms in the 1660s. estates began to up --- Page 36 --- SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT OF CREOLE for the future ofthe Caribbean, a sugar plantation Most important oflaborers, to cut and crush cane all required dozens, even hundreds, Because tobacco's declining day and night during harvest season. Lesser Antilles sugar profitability discouraged European servants, them African slaves. By planters turned to Dutch traders who brought population; composed one-half of Martinique's 1660, enslaved people of the colony was in chains.' 10 These in 1684, more than two-thirds farmers and European servants changes convinced even more tobacco French population fell from to flee these small islands. Guadeloupe's 12,000 in 1656 to 3,083 in 1671.1 hoping to rebuild Many ofthese refugees came to Saint-Domingue to have them, for had lost. Royal authorities were glad what they difficulty convincing rootless buccaneers administrators were having the land and defend it against the Spanish and freebooters to settle on some Dominguan When low tobacco prices prompted and English. their farms, the colony's French governors habitants to abandon and greater slave imports. They encouraged new plantation crops women, who they immigrants from Europe, especially sponsored the *Brothers." 29 Along the island's most hoped would domesticate colonial population became accessible coasts, Saint-Domingue's of 1681 counted <2,970 increasingly settled. The royal census or 1,200 arms, >2 though it also noted 1,000 Frenchmen, able to carry freebooters. 12 administrators grew more numerous, As French colonists and royal coordinated their raids Saint -Domingue' S freebooters increasingly of Europe went to war When most with French forcign policy1 French governors awarded against Louis XIVin the 1680s and 1690s, incorporating them naval commissions to Caribbean pirate captains, colonies. This official attacks on English, Dutch, and Spanish into rich but failed to encourage a strong identistrategy made many men the attacked Saint-Domingue fication with the colony. When English buccaneers saw no reason to in 1695, many of the freebooters and defend the territory.1 with piracy, however. Governor Some did combine land ownership half of Saint-Domingue's de Cussy in 1684 claimed that at least which their partners frecbooters used their profits to buy land, 15 A French raid on cultivated while they periodically went to sea.' back over in 1694 relied heavily on freebooters, who brought Jamaica After an attack on Cartagena in 1,500 slaves to Saint-Domingue. Galiffet proposed giving slaves 1697, Saint-Domingue's governor who comprised half of the rather than gold to the 650 freebooters would settle in the colony. French flect, SO they Cussy in 1684 claimed that at least which their partners frecbooters used their profits to buy land, 15 A French raid on cultivated while they periodically went to sea.' back over in 1694 relied heavily on freebooters, who brought Jamaica After an attack on Cartagena in 1,500 slaves to Saint-Domingue. Galiffet proposed giving slaves 1697, Saint-Domingue's governor who comprised half of the rather than gold to the 650 freebooters would settle in the colony. French flect, SO they --- Page 37 --- BEFORE HAITI to turn buccaneers into habitants, the Despite government: attempts ofthese hunters and pirates was still visible in distinctive frontier culture century saw a huge influx parishes as late as 1789. The eighteenth many Africans, but Saint-Domingue's mountains of European and enslaved throughout the territory. In the prevented them from dispersing of a total of 24 in Saint-Domingue 1780s, nine frontier districts out densities far under the colonial average. had population district of Mirebalais on the Spanish border was For example, the century as a refuge for known in the beginning of the eighteenth 10 residents per 1.1). In the 1780s, it still had only hunters (map the colonial average of 23. Although square kilometer, compared to here late in the colonial period, colonists established sugar plantations the land into parishes. In his encyFrench authorities never subdivided written in the late 1780s, clopedic Description of Saint-Domingue, character ofthe residents ofthis "the Moreau de Saint-Méry reported: old colonists. They are good, frank, district still reflects that of the >18 The district of Jacmel, courageous, and opposed to restrictions. border. In the 1780s south of Mirebalais, was also on the Spanish ofthe colony because of Moreau described it as the least known region density of 14 of his figures suggest it had a population the lack roads; Jacmel's easternmost parish had been a persons per square kilometer. slaves since Spanish times and refuge for indigenous rebels and escaped describe it with any certainty, in the 1780s Moreau could still not Vallière was another disbecause no roads yet penetrated the interior. slaves, and those trict that had long attracted only hunters, escaped formally establish it as them. Only in 1773 did administrators pursuing later, there were only seven persons per square a parish, and, ten years frontier zones limited to the Spanish kilometer living there. Nor were ofthe district of border. The mountainous parish ofI Les Verettes, part but there were Saint-Marc, had parish registers dating back to 1715, Revolution. 19 there at the time ofthe Haitian still few plantations distinctive of Saint-Domingue's frontier The largest and most This narrow strip of land, some zones was its southern peninsula. from east to west, but only 64 kilo225 kilometers (140 miles) long has some ofthe highest miles) wide from north to south, meters (40 These mountains made it difficult to elevations in the Caribbean. and sailing there from elsewhere travel over land to the southern coast Because treacherous shalin French territory was equally dangerous. face and complex currents swirl lows dot the peninsula's northern preferred to trade in highly around its tip, French merchant-ships Although they accessible Atlantic harbors like that at Cap Français. Port-au-Prince, or visited some west-coast ports like Saint-Marc, kilometers (140 miles) long has some ofthe highest miles) wide from north to south, meters (40 These mountains made it difficult to elevations in the Caribbean. and sailing there from elsewhere travel over land to the southern coast Because treacherous shalin French territory was equally dangerous. face and complex currents swirl lows dot the peninsula's northern preferred to trade in highly around its tip, French merchant-ships Although they accessible Atlantic harbors like that at Cap Français. Port-au-Prince, or visited some west-coast ports like Saint-Marc, --- Page 38 --- TORTUGA 2 Atlantic Ocean Cuba Santo Domingo Cap Français Saint-Dominguel, O Jamaica Puerto Rico Caribbean Sea 5001 km Curaçao SANTO 300 miles - C Ce St. Marco DOMINGO Parish boundary LA GONAVE( K N Vallière LES Mirebalais ÇAYEMITTES Port-auVerettes Prince/ Cayes de Léogane . Jacmel 100 km Les Cayes Jacmel 50 miles Source: David Geggus, Slavery, War, and Recolution Map 1.1 Frontier Parishes: Vallière, Mirebalais, Verrettes, and Cayes de Jacmel S ANTO 300 miles - C Ce St. Marco DOMINGO Parish boundary LA GONAVE( K N Vallière LES Mirebalais ÇAYEMITTES Port-auVerettes Prince/ Cayes de Léogane . Jacmel 100 km Les Cayes Jacmel 50 miles Source: David Geggus, Slavery, War, and Recolution Map 1.1 Frontier Parishes: Vallière, Mirebalais, Verrettes, and Cayes de Jacmel S --- Page 39 --- BEFORE HAITI for the around the peninsula to reach Léogane, few made time voyage Les Cayes, in the south. frustration to the region's This isolation was a source of great among them. but it fostered an unusual degree ofs sociability colonists, d'Aigailliers wrote about southern In the 1760s, Gabriel Brueys and baptisms, or when children planters' celebrations after marriages These enormous dinners, nearly returned from school in France. of continual party, each always followed by dancing : : . are a kind occasions come about. >20 planter giving one in his turn as these who generally found Twenty years later Moreau de Saint-Méry, another as guests in colonists in Saint-Domingue as unattached to one Torbec one by the festivities held in parish, a hotel, was also impressed district. He attributed the congenial of the oldest in the Cayes to stay on their estates, atmosphere, in part, to planters' propensity the custom clsewhere in rather than return to France, as was main port and adminIn Les Cayesitself, the region's Saint-I Domingue. club where he found Moreau attended a planter's istrative capital, encountered in Saint-Domingue: men "something that is only rarely >21 who seem happy to be together. also favored the survival of The isolation ofthe southern peninsula Moreau found men in the ofbuccaneer culture. In the 1780s of the aspects like the sevententh-century <Brothers Nippes district living he was amazed to see colonists still wearing Coast. >22 In Aquin parish of the early settlers and dressing their the distinctive blouses (varenses) Dutch bonnets,2 children in old-fashioned distance from France As this last detail suggests, the region's Saint-Domingue's southern attracted merchants from other countries. British Jamaica, and coast was in easy sailing reach of Dutch Curaçao, seventeenthAmerican mainland. For Saint-l Domingue's the Spanish road to the rest of the Caribbean was century freebooters, this open de Graff and chief attraction. The pirate captains the peninsula's of 1,000 men against the Yucatan Granmont launched an expedition before 1700 only a few Peninsula from here in 1685.24 However, along the southern hunters and farmers were permanently established male heads of household, 4 coast. In 1681 a royal census counted 25 21 De Graff's Yucatan raids had women, and 10 indentured servants. for nearly all of apparently altered the gender imbalance somewhat, before 1700 involved recorded by priests in this region the marriages 26 Although the 1681 census identified no kidnapped Mayan women." Africans, who already outnumplantations, it counted 41 enslaved Africans were women, and bered French colonists. Seventeen ofthese creole children. The 1681 the region was already home to mixed-race 1 a royal census counted 25 21 De Graff's Yucatan raids had women, and 10 indentured servants. for nearly all of apparently altered the gender imbalance somewhat, before 1700 involved recorded by priests in this region the marriages 26 Although the 1681 census identified no kidnapped Mayan women." Africans, who already outnumplantations, it counted 41 enslaved Africans were women, and bered French colonists. Seventeen ofthese creole children. The 1681 the region was already home to mixed-race --- Page 40 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT as smétis and mulattos; male census described 23 people, collectively, 40 percent of and female Indians. >> On this remote coast, therefore, fell outside the categories the census-taker the free population such people *French." 2) Elsewhere in Saint-Domingue, described as ofthe free population. composed roughly 10 percent which included formal recognition After peace with Spain in 1697, Versailles withdrew its of French sovereignty over Saint-Domingue, Yucatan expedition. Leading from large raids like de Graff's support immigrants in building freebooters joined the more prosperous and for commerce plantations. Those plains best suited for agriculture slaves. Even as the richest with France filled with sugarcane and African of the "Brothers settled down, however, the anarchic spirit buccaneers distinctive element ofSaint-Domingue's local ofthe Coast" remained a colonists' lack of respect for the church culture. In 1701, Dominguan Nor was he prepared for scandalized Labat, the visiting Dominican." piratesand ostentation of Saint-Domingue's the social mobility turned-planters. who he was when he came to the island, and I could Every one forgets who came out as indentured servants and were name a number of men now such lords that they cannot sold to buccaneers, but who are great and six horses.25 walk a step but must always ride in their carriage of these newly minted planters produced sugar. But The richest could make a reasonable profit growing and men with fewer resources was SO vulnerable to refining indigo dye for export. The indigo plant far more labor than rain, drought, and insects that it required to wind, least two workers per carrean (2.8 acres). According tobacco, at wants to the indigo seed is hoed Labat, "The ground where one cleanliness plant is taken SO far that and cleaned five times. : - Sometimes ? Moreover, manufacturthe soil is swept as one would sweep a room. and skill. Indigo makers ing the dye required considerable harvest equipment in a series of large masonry tanks, soaked and drained their increase the precipitation of dye churning and paddling the water to said to spawn deadly particles. Although the putrid basins were left when the water merchants paid well for the dark powder diseases, the cost of acquiring slave workers, digging drained away. Despite less than half as much land wells, and building vats, indigo required or credit could get these and labor as sugar. 29 And planters with capital merchants plying a rapidly workers from Dutch, English, and French enslaved African men and African trade. In the 1680s, growing one-third of Saint-Domingue's non-freebooter women were already . Although the putrid basins were left when the water merchants paid well for the dark powder diseases, the cost of acquiring slave workers, digging drained away. Despite less than half as much land wells, and building vats, indigo required or credit could get these and labor as sugar. 29 And planters with capital merchants plying a rapidly workers from Dutch, English, and French enslaved African men and African trade. In the 1680s, growing one-third of Saint-Domingue's non-freebooter women were already --- Page 41 --- BEFORE HAITI and the colony had over population." 30 In 1713 they were percent, 1,000 indigo works.31 grew, Saint-Domingue's As slavery and plantation agriculture their authority. They gave militia governors continued to consolidate urging them buccaneers and freebooters, commissions to prominent musters, assign guard duty, their neighbors into regular to dragoon With militia rank these former pirate and arrest troublemakers. administrators, reporting to the captains also functioned as parish censuses, repressing slave about local fortifications, conducting governor food and overseeing road maintenance. unrest, tallying local supplies, French institutions, in to implant and legitimize In a similar attempt the Sovereign Council of Petit 1685 the naval secretary established four lower colonial courts. 33 Goâve, a high court with jurisdiction over councils, a new 1700s Saint-Domingue had two sovereign By the early of Cap Français and the other in one in the emerging sugar center Loosely patterned on transferred from nearby Petit Goive.34 Léogane, the two councils were primarily courts France's provincial parlements, and were required to of appeal. But they also had legislative powers, locally as law, a all royal edicts before they could be recognized register them to delay and debate royal policies. prerogative that allowed Saint-Domingue's early judges Unlike French magistrates, however, believing "that uneducated men who wore their swords to court, were the best." > In 1711 the Count whoever fought the best, also judged rustic vision" where described the colonial bench as "a d'Arguyan 99 with none of the legal judgments were rendered "pipe-in-mouth," 35 erudition ofFrance's regional parlements." coastal zones This gradually changed, as Saint-Domingue's Profits from the most imported more slaves and exported more sugar. to sent their children successful estates allowed rough-edged planters buccaneers, the colonial to France to be educated. As planters succeeded 36 Judges were proud oftheir bench became more socially prestigious." this at French and the crown encouraged equivalence to magistrates to don black robes. In 1752 the mid-century by giving them the right administrative capital of Council moved to the new city and Léogane Port-au-Prince." colonists' resentment of the The rise of planting also heightened the buccaneer rank and militia, which had never been popular among described France's first file. In 1665, residents of Petit- Goâve of servitude. 2) In militia service as "the beginning attempts to require all Saint-Domingue's free residents 1701 Labat observed that nearly reason for French troops, fighters who saw no were accomplished themselves well enough. The following year, when they could defend éogane Port-au-Prince." colonists' resentment of the The rise of planting also heightened the buccaneer rank and militia, which had never been popular among described France's first file. In 1665, residents of Petit- Goâve of servitude. 2) In militia service as "the beginning attempts to require all Saint-Domingue's free residents 1701 Labat observed that nearly reason for French troops, fighters who saw no were accomplished themselves well enough. The following year, when they could defend --- Page 42 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT that The [obligation to serve in an] ordinary administrators reported the who, to escape it, move to militia watch is unbearable to settlers, where there is no distant districts like.. the southern peninsula government." >38 colonists hated militia service was that few Another reason French with it. In France, of them, before 1763, had much experience the first two-thirds of the exemptions were SO widely available during French people, only about eighteenth century that for every 100,000 rare in France's 200 men served at arms. Militia duty was colonists especially were born,39 in which a majority of western provinces, militia participation was mandatory In Saint-Domingue, however, ofl 15 and 55. 40 Established colonists for all free men between the ages time they sacrificed to guard duty and immigrants alike resented the orders that inconveand reviews every two months. Planters ignored build fortifications. their slaves to nienced them or requisitioned into military service, Describing the impossibility of shaming planters is embarrassed complained to Versailles, "Here no one one governor 41 Faced with this apathy, the by anything, except not making money. of parish militias to career milcolonial state began to award command their sons. Vested with officers, rather than to old buccaneers or itary these veterans ofthe royal army full administrative and military powers, intervened in civil disputes as crimes and frequently or navy punished official wrote that the military commander and well. In 1755 one royal and settled more conaide-major of Port-au-Prince heard more cases did in a week. 42 troversies in two days than the capital's royal judge such actions usurped complained bitterly that Colonial magistrates leaders insisted that swift and harsh their authority. While military colonial judges accused them actions were necessary to maintain order, personally from their unchecked power. ofbenefiting tension in Saint-Domingue was the Another source of political trade. In the seventeenth exclusif, France's monopoly on all colonial conduit Dutch merchants had been the main commercial century, Caribbean and European markets. They paid between the French and indigo, and sold slaves, relatively high prices for tobacco, sugar, credit. But in 1670 the tools, and provisions, often on generous mercantile policies rigorously French crown began to enforce its own Dutch and English doing its best to drive away in Saint-Domingue, buccaneers smugglers. The change was a shock to Saint-Domingue's Dutch the of captains, and farmers. With the encouragement district took up arms against <Brothers ofthe Coast" in the Nippes did others across the for more than a year, as the French government again revolted against colony. 43 In 1722 and 1723, Saint-Domingue generous mercantile policies rigorously French crown began to enforce its own Dutch and English doing its best to drive away in Saint-Domingue, buccaneers smugglers. The change was a shock to Saint-Domingue's Dutch the of captains, and farmers. With the encouragement district took up arms against <Brothers ofthe Coast" in the Nippes did others across the for more than a year, as the French government again revolted against colony. 43 In 1722 and 1723, Saint-Domingue --- Page 43 --- BEFORE HAITI a commercial monopoly to the the royal administration for awarding Colonists influenced by chartered Company of the Occident. royally in the Léogane Council held the Company the angry planter-judges currency and for high labor responsible for the shortage of circulating caused by its exclusive slave trading privileges." prices, tension in cighteenth-century But the most important political who lived in freedom and the men Saint-Domingue was between those in one of these two and women they held in bondage. Membership of them written in a man's or groups was marked in many ways, most this was a word that woman's flesh. Slavery was based on race, though descent or to the 1770s still associated with family most Europeans up 45 Almost all ofthose who worked social class, rather than physiognomy. identifiable as cane fields were physically and died in Saint-Domingue's of Africans. In non-Europeans, specifically, as Africans or descendants filed darker skin, distinctive hair, and occasionally, addition to their bodies carried the marks made by their masteeth or ritual scars, slaves' from manacles, stockades, and ters: stripes from the whip, lacerations Planters burned distinctive symbols other more fearsome punishments. Many men and flesh to further mark them as property. into Africans' slave brands. women bore three or four ofthese was in part due to masters' The brutality of Dominguan slavery outnumbered them. From fears of a servile population that vastly settler population grew 30 1681 to 1713, while Saint-Domingue's increased nearly (from 4,336 to 5,648), its slave population had percent and Guadeloupe 1,050 percent (2,102 to 24,156). Martinique few decades carlier. But experienced a similar transformation colonists a there to build far larger Saint-Domingue's size allowed investments in land, Economies of scale meant that planters' estates. and the humans they regarded as machinery, livestock, irrigation, than in the Lesser Antilles. chattel produced much greater profits Africans for every colonist in five enslaved There were approximately and these slave numbers rose throughout Saint-Domingue in 1713, with the acceleration of the slave the eighteenth century, especially after 1783. At the time of the trade after 1720 and then again than ten slaves, on average, French Revolution, the colony had more slave force, and capital for every free person. Because ofits land area, produced more investment in mills and irrigation, Saint-Domingue Caribbean society. British commodities than any other contemporary after the 1760s, not only Jamaica, its closest rival, remained far behind tonnage but also in production efficiency*? in sheer export oflife in Saint-Domingue involved slavery, By this time every aspect workers turned the wheels of the on and off the plantation. Bound 0 and then again than ten slaves, on average, French Revolution, the colony had more slave force, and capital for every free person. Because ofits land area, produced more investment in mills and irrigation, Saint-Domingue Caribbean society. British commodities than any other contemporary after the 1760s, not only Jamaica, its closest rival, remained far behind tonnage but also in production efficiency*? in sheer export oflife in Saint-Domingue involved slavery, By this time every aspect workers turned the wheels of the on and off the plantation. Bound --- Page 44 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT that masters with little more than a livestock colony's economy SO considered slaves vital to their pen, banana grove, or carpentry shop residences slaves served as livelihood. In plantation houses and in city wood in thickly valets and grooms; they cut cooks, housekeepers, channels, and shouldered roofbeams in grown hollows, dug irrigation At wharves and jetties along the urban construction projects. and stevedores hauled provisions Dominguan, coast slave rowers barrels of sugar, coffec, and indigo arriving from France and loaded white men did not work with bound for the metropole. In the colony leased slaves and taught bought or their hands, SO French immigrants of any comthem their crafts. Slaves were such an integral component that their owners frequently mercial enterprise in Saint-Domingue warehouses, and sailing sold them together with the plantations, vessels in which they worked. was mostly island-born In the Lesser Antilles the slave population high the middle oft the cighteenth century. But Saint-Domingue's by of plantation agriculture death rates and the ongoing expansion always outnumbered those meant that African-born slaves nearly African native to the colony. Over time many of Saint-Domingue's and those slaves born in by Caribbean slavery, slaves were "creolized" "creoles, 79 at home in a syncretic island-culture. the island were true had built out ofthe various They spoke a vernacular their predecessors used in the slave trade. The successive African and European languages imported diverse waves of Africans shipped to Saint-Domingue the roots of traditions, which formed, with Catholicism, religious Vodou. 48 modern Haitian Europeans and their islandLife in Saint-Domingue also changed cultures ofthe slaves, and born children. Climate, slavery, the African all transformed irreligiousity and suspicion of authority the buccaneers' the same vernacular as island-born colonists into creoles, who spoke in 1730 noted, "[I] arriving in the colony slaves. One Frenchman unknown country whose inhabithought mysclf transplanted to an which most, it seemed, had tants were French solely in their language, creole from Martinique only borrowed. >49 Moreau de Saint-Méry, a from the Saint-Domingue's creoles as differing himself, described and even physique. 50 Although metropolitan French in personality social and spiritual anarchy, observers deplored the colony's European elements in creole culture. Early tobacco many did find positive indentured servants, and later, their farmers might have worked their established with other free slaves, to death, but the partnerships they community, 97 resembling a family. Charlevoix men formed a "perfect and vicious, but praised their hospitality, found the buccaneers profane Saint-Domingue's creoles as differing himself, described and even physique. 50 Although metropolitan French in personality social and spiritual anarchy, observers deplored the colony's European elements in creole culture. Early tobacco many did find positive indentured servants, and later, their farmers might have worked their established with other free slaves, to death, but the partnerships they community, 97 resembling a family. Charlevoix men formed a "perfect and vicious, but praised their hospitality, found the buccaneers profane --- Page 45 --- BEFORE HAITI had passed to creole planters. He continued, a trait he believed they toward orphans is no less praiseworthy; "The charity of our creoles ones who is never burdened with them. . . : the first the Public [sic] them in their home and support can take these poor children keep their own children. >51 them all with the same care as ift they were creole masters, especially Bondage established a deep chasm between immigrants, and and socialize with European those able to marry who worked and founded families with creole slaves, especially those creole culture in Africans. There was, therefore, no single imported Instead, those born in the island exhibited a range Saint-Domingue. sets of attitudes, affinities, and behavofEuro-creole and Afro-creole evolving with and content ofwhich was constantly iors, the coherence These varieties of creole culture new arrivals from across the water. by plantation slavery of the class relations produced were a product from different parts of Europe and and the impact of immigration however, isolation from Atlantic Africa. On the colony's frontier, and buccaneer customs, shipping, the rarity of large slave estates, amatelotages, minimized called including the improvised partnerships of the southern peninsula, especially, these divisions. The geography the French crown to create a colonial outweighed the attempts of and culture. Instead, society tightly bound to France by commerce towards trade with the rest colonists in the South Peninsula gravitated oft the Caribbean. commerce, in fact, was what The ease of this inter-American ofthe region. In 1698, Louis XIV prompted the formal colonization this territory to the newly awarded complete jurisdiction over 1.2). Courtiers had chartered Saint-Domingue Company (map anticipating that Spain petitioned the king for these monopoly rights, America with France permission to supply Spanish would grant held this asiento privilege, merchants African slaves. When England the slave trade had often doubled their money, using based in Jamaica colonists. 52 The officers ofthe as a cover to sell contraband to Spanish would replace Company hoped their new territory Saint-Domingue become France's gateway to the rich Spanish Jamaica in this trade, and Spain awarded the asiento to American market. In 1702, as expected, France. plans, the Company invited planters to In addition to its smuggling them with land, credit, and settle in the southern peninsula. It provided and other export but required them to sell it their sugar, indigo, slaves, after building a fort, trading counters, administrative crops. In 1713, the Company had attracted 644 offices, and parish churches, later the territory had at immigrants, with 2,947 slaves,53 Seven years this trade, and Spain awarded the asiento to American market. In 1702, as expected, France. plans, the Company invited planters to In addition to its smuggling them with land, credit, and settle in the southern peninsula. It provided and other export but required them to sell it their sugar, indigo, slaves, after building a fort, trading counters, administrative crops. In 1713, the Company had attracted 644 offices, and parish churches, later the territory had at immigrants, with 2,947 slaves,53 Seven years --- Page 46 --- TORTUGA 2 Atlantic Ocean Cuba Santo Domingo Cap Français Saint-Domingued Jamaica Puerto Rico Caribbean Sea 500 km Curaçao 300 miles SANTO St. Marc, DOMINGO Parish boundary MA Fond des LA GONAVE( MA Nègres Parish Saint Domingue LES : Company CAYEMITTES Port-auTerritory Petit Prince AEE GR Goâve ( : : TUUUW > : : : ANT . 1001 km Les Cayes EL : Jacmel : 50 miles E Source: David Geggus,Slanery, War, and Revolution Map 1.2 Fonds des Negres and the Lands of the Saint Domingue Company, 1698-1720 --- Page 47 --- BEFORE HAITI with 4,818 slaves. In 1713 the southern coast least 797 free inhabitants in 1720 there were 23 sugar works, some with had 6 sugar plantations; more than 100 slaves.54 established English and Dutch But the Company could not replace did it fail to win Spanishsmugglers, as it had hoped. Not only interlopers, customers away from these more experienced American traded with the foreign ships that visited the but even its own settlers edicts, checkpoints, and southern coast almost daily. The Company's 55 Smugglers were eager to buy officials could not stop this activity. which they sold to chocolate but they also paid well for cacao, sugar makers in Europe and Spanish America. cacao was a crop Like tobacco in the early seventeenth century, without slave labor. In the small farmers could grow profitably, even that ca poor person, one 1690s an official in Spanish Caracas wrote from a thousand-tree with no funds at all, could plant and reap profits located and the cacao groves were properly cacao grove, provided >56 Cacao trees flourished in Saint-Domingue's judiciously managed. cacao was said to be as good as that mountain valleys, and Dominguan 1708 the colony was producing from Caracas and Maricaibo. By growers. French enough to reduce the profits of Martiniquean smugglers, flooded the Caribbean cacao, carried by Dutch and French Gregorio de market until 1716.57 In Jamaica, the traveler Veracruz who told him that they traded for cacao Robles met Jewish merchants throughout the Caribbean with "the Indians, mulattos and mestizos" merchants were trading with basin.s8 Certainly these Jamaican Jewish in 1701, when Father Labat Saint-Domingue's southern peninsula and wrote about the growing visited Fonds des Nègres' cacao groves At the dawn ofthe eighteenth free colored families they supported.s. the planters of the century, smugglers may have been helping slave estates, but they were Saint-Domingue Company build large of color on this frontier. also enabling the growth of a free population struck. Although the Then, in 1715 and 1716, a cacao until blight the 1750s, the disease southern peninsula produced 60 However cacao some farmers may have built dramatically reduced exports." credit before the blight to begin up enough financial resources or 171 indigo estates in the planting indigo. In 1713, there were already in the southern penindistricts ofLes Cayes, Saint Louis, and Aquin, the way sugar did, sula. Because it did not lose its value in storage before it, much ofthe indigo was an ideal smuggler's crop. Like cacao Company went to in the lands ofthe Saint-I Domingue own dyc produced who probably established their English and Dutch merchants, for example, a resident of the agents in French territory. In 1720, resources or 171 indigo estates in the planting indigo. In 1713, there were already in the southern penindistricts ofLes Cayes, Saint Louis, and Aquin, the way sugar did, sula. Because it did not lose its value in storage before it, much ofthe indigo was an ideal smuggler's crop. Like cacao Company went to in the lands ofthe Saint-I Domingue own dyc produced who probably established their English and Dutch merchants, for example, a resident of the agents in French territory. In 1720, --- Page 48 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT had eight slaves and no Les Cayes plain named Jacob Vanderpar Others had Sephardic Jewish recorded agricultural installations. basin and ten slaves, or Depas, names like Saporta, with one indigo works.1 with 50 slaves and no indigo or sugar Company, for the In 1720, Versailles dissolved the Saint-Domingue direct administrathe southern coast under royal first time bringing Saint-Domingue's South Province, joining tion. The territory became and the West the North Province, with its great port at Cap Français, capitals, Léogane Province, the site ofthe colony's cighteenth-century brought a few 62 This administrative change and then Port-au-Prince." but it did little to challenge the more royal officials into the region, colonists saw few French merlocal smuggling trade. After 1720, of did and those who did sail to this far side Saint-Domingue chants offer credit. In fact, the end ofthe Company's operations not readily and a number of retired freebooters ruined many small planters, From 1720 to 1733, piracy all but returned to their old livelihood. southern coast. Outlaws regularly paralyzed shipping along the French goods from the colony's attacked both the small boats ferrying of Dutch and English smugglers. main ports and the larger ships local officials could naval station in the region, Without a permanent they would turn to planting only extend amnesties to pirates, hoping or trade. 63 subside in the 1730s, smuggling did not. While coastal piracy did believed that colonists in the Saint-Domingue's Governor de Fayet worth of commodities to South Province had sold 30 million livres naval secretary from 1720 to 1733.4 In 1732 the French Jamaica the main harbor on the Ile à Vaches approved Fayet's suggestion to fill source into the sea to disopposite Les Cayes or divert its fresh water these was ever based there. Neither of projects courage smugglers realized that credit from English merchants was undertaken, for Fayet essential to the region's planters. commercial relationship, in 1738, As if to cement this illicit established emissaries from Jamaica, probably indigo *Frères smugglers, Unis, 97 in the town of Saint-Domingue's first Masonic lodge, their broth66 In 1748, Dominguan indigo planters proved Les Cayes. the British capture the virtuallyi impregnable erly unity when they helped load their French dye onto enemy fort of Saint Louis in order to ofthis from SaintJamaican merchants got SO much product on warships. destructive raids Domingue that British authorities proposed their own indigo growers." French plantations to encourage and durable of the networks Among the most important and the rest of the connecting the southern peninsula to Jamaica -Domingue's first Masonic lodge, their broth66 In 1748, Dominguan indigo planters proved Les Cayes. the British capture the virtuallyi impregnable erly unity when they helped load their French dye onto enemy fort of Saint Louis in order to ofthis from SaintJamaican merchants got SO much product on warships. destructive raids Domingue that British authorities proposed their own indigo growers." French plantations to encourage and durable of the networks Among the most important and the rest of the connecting the southern peninsula to Jamaica --- Page 49 --- BEFORE HAITI Jewish merchant families. By the end of Caribbean were those built by Sephardic merchants in the seventeenth century, Portuguese- speaking with In and Curaçao had a lucrative trade Saint-Domingue. Jamaica merchant David Gradis of Bordeaux, well aware 1723 the Sephardic Jacob Mendes to the southern of this commerce, sent his nephew Mendes settled in Les Cayes where he peninsula for indigo shipments. worked in the Gradis counting house, and David Mirande, who had until the late 1740s. Between served as an agent for their kinsman directed 11 of17 Gradis 1727 and 1735 a third relative in Martinique mostly to the southern peninsula. ships on to Saint-Domingue, member ofthe Gradis family network, may Michel Depas, another from Bordeaux before 1720 to have arrived in Saint-Domingue ofthat year shows a Depas participate in the cacao trade. The census accounts included household in the Aquin region, which by some The fact that this Fond des Nègres, with its fertile cacao groves. basin in 1720, but had 50 houschold reported no sugar mill or indigo its herd of 25 horses and 96 slaves, far more than enough to manage estate, to it may have been a large cacao struggling sheep, suggests in the carly 1720s, perhaps discourdeal with the blight. Beginning of Bordeaux served as royal aged by cacao's decline, Michel Depas left this post to settle doctor and judge in Petit Goâve. He eventually to Catholicism, permanently in Fond des Nègres. Publicly converting ofhis patron saint to Depas donated a large and inexpert painting" church there, which took the name Saint-Michel." the parish followed him from Bordeaux to the Michel Depas's brothers they were successful planters southern frontier and by mid-century children in Aquin Depas raised nine legitimate there too. François Depas, a third sibling, owned an parish. In 1763, Philippe Lopez livres. Antoine-Joachim Aquin estate with 63 slaves valued at 200,000 owned part of an indigo plantation Lopez de Paz, possibly a relative, another de Paz had half far in Anse à Veau parish and Lopez not away in the frontier parish of Mirebalais. Through a share in a coffee estate branch of the Depas clan commerce and marriage the Aquin merchant families of Bordeaux, maintained its ties to the Sephardic in contraband trade with including the Gradis. They also participated name in the marriage Curaçao, where Lopez Depas was a common registers ofthe Jewish community,a in the South of this thriving Jewish population The presence royal officials had in enforcing laws Province illustrates the difficulty had barred the frontier. For in 1685 the French crown expressly on Although the policy was enforced Jews from its Antilles possessions. Saint-Domingue's colonists mostly in Martinique and Guadeloupe, its ties to the Sephardic in contraband trade with including the Gradis. They also participated name in the marriage Curaçao, where Lopez Depas was a common registers ofthe Jewish community,a in the South of this thriving Jewish population The presence royal officials had in enforcing laws Province illustrates the difficulty had barred the frontier. For in 1685 the French crown expressly on Although the policy was enforced Jews from its Antilles possessions. Saint-Domingue's colonists mostly in Martinique and Guadeloupe, --- Page 50 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT did most royal attempts to impose European legal ignored it, as they and moral ideals on plantation society. was the Code Noir, a The most important of these attempts scholars in the 1680s for France's collection oflaws written by French The Code was based on Roman emerging Caribbean slave colonies. and colonial officials did review slave law, though prominent planters the new collection represented and revise it. Published in 1685, about security and France's attempt to balance planters' concerns which religious and legal framework, profit, against a European on Jewish colonists."" included the prohibition balance was nevera achieved. Notorious for In Saint-Domingue, this the colony's ex-freebooters their independence and materialism, to drive and discipline Versailles' guidance on how would not accept 1680s to the 1780s they and their successors their slaves. From the instruct slaves in Catholicism, supply largely ignored requirements to of food and clothing, and cancel work them with prescribed amounts Dominguan planters accepted on holy days. As royal officials feared, and counted on commerce to slave deaths as a cost of production, Africa. It was more profitable for workers from bring replacement amount of sugar and import many estates to export the maximum hours and provide good new Africans than it was to reduce working food SO slaves would live longer. with articles designed French jurists wrote the Code Noir specific the new slave law these abuses, but when it was published, to prevent For example, while ordering royal attorneys also contained loopholes. their slaves, the Code masters who tortured or neglected to prosecute from any role in the courts. Moreover it barred enslaved people masters whose cruelty had been authorized local officials to absolve to 80 and 90 percent of "necessary. n72 As slaves grew from 30 percent reluctant to population, officials grew even more Saint-Domingue's his slaves. În 1771, interfere with a master's power to discipline judges ofthe regional during a panic over a rumored slave conspiracy, should not come in Cap Français admitted that royal justice court slaves: *There are cruel times when necessity between masters and n73 In terms, dictates that the law must turn a blind eye. practical their slaves. life-and-death power over masters had almost complete officials came to believe that planters' Over time, metropolitan long-term viability. They hoped short-term goals threatened slavery's and would masters' rights responsibilities that new laws establishing stable and more profitable for the make colonial slavery more Versailles' attempts to improve slave kingdom. But colonists described ? In 1787 the naval secretary conditions in the 1780s as *ryrannical." and n73 In terms, dictates that the law must turn a blind eye. practical their slaves. life-and-death power over masters had almost complete officials came to believe that planters' Over time, metropolitan long-term viability. They hoped short-term goals threatened slavery's and would masters' rights responsibilities that new laws establishing stable and more profitable for the make colonial slavery more Versailles' attempts to improve slave kingdom. But colonists described ? In 1787 the naval secretary conditions in the 1780s as *ryrannical." --- Page 51 --- BEFORE HAITI because its judges would had to dissolve the Council of Cap Français administrators to inspect the not register his decrees allowing royal living conditions ofestate slaves.4 successful in limiting planters' French officials were slightly more decades after 1685. In ability to free their slaves, but that success came freedom form, the Code Noir gave masters almost complete its original the 1685 law, any slave owner who was to free slaves. According to manumit his human property without 20 years old or more could and death, the promise of explanation. Besides the threat of torture owners had. Masters manumission was the most powerful tool slave slaves to work harder. made conditional offers of liberty to motivate slaves who were too old or And they used liberty to rid themselves of sick to work productivelys of manumission, especially Sexuality was another important aspect women. In Saintin frontier areas where there were few European women like most other slave societies in the hemisphere, Domingue, about two-thirds ofall slaves freed by masters. and children comprised noted, expected men to manumit Dominguan society, contemporaries they had with for the sons and daughters and provide support said of in Jamaica.e However slave women. The same was planters Thomas Thistlewood, an kept for 36 years by the detailed journal series of isolated estates in the midEnglishman who managed a wider on such Jamaica, provides a perspective cighteenth-century described the sadistic Thistlewood, who assiduously relationships. recorded engaging in 1,774 acts punishments he devised for slaves, different slave women.77 of sexual intercourse in 13 years with 109 Most were rapes, No single term can describe all ofthese encounters. enslaved women for sex. but there were times Thistlewood paid Phibba as his common-law Moreover, he took a slave woman named and arranged for manumitted that child, wife, had a son with her, Phibba's freedom in his testament. reveals that affectionate Thistlewood's extraordinary document men's sexual behaviors on manumission was just one element ofwhite that colonial estates. Plantation records suggest eighteenthisolated full ofmen like Thistlewood, who built century Saint-Domingue was few women of color, while they used relationships and families with a others. 80 David Geggus as an instrument of control with many and rape from slave inventories that between one-quarter calculates slave women under the age of 20 were carrying one-fifth of pregnant The same inventories prove that many the child of a white man. about 3 to 5 percent mulatto children remained in bondage, comprising century, colonists of the slave force. If, at the end of the eighteenth istlewood, who built century Saint-Domingue was few women of color, while they used relationships and families with a others. 80 David Geggus as an instrument of control with many and rape from slave inventories that between one-quarter calculates slave women under the age of 20 were carrying one-fifth of pregnant The same inventories prove that many the child of a white man. about 3 to 5 percent mulatto children remained in bondage, comprising century, colonists of the slave force. If, at the end of the eighteenth --- Page 52 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT ancestors, Saint Domingue's free had freed all slaves with European increased by at least 50 percent. 81 population of color might have the jurists of 1685 In spite of the power they gave to masters, Article Nine colonists from the sin ofconcubinage. hoped to preserve that if a master had a child with a of the Code Noir proclaimed forfeit the mother and baby to the slave woman, he would irrevocably married the slave woman, however, government. If that master frec, along with the Article Nine declared her automatically the same ofinterracial marriage couple's children. 82 This apparent endorsement was still solidillustrates that in 1685, French Caribbean racial ideology missionary ifying. According to Father Dutertre, a seventeenth-century married African women Frenchmen there who in the Lesser Antilles, of honest society : : . [Due to] the were < *esteemed to be members oneselfto this necessity." >83 lack of French women one accommodates colonists on these small islands In fact, in the mid-seventeenth century, fathers and enslaved African women considered the children of French In the 1660s, however, as to be free, because of their father's status. crowded out small tobacco capital-intensive indigo and sugar estates began to protest when plots in Martinique and Guadeloupe, planters free children who their slaves, producing other colonists impregnated mother's owner. To safeguard property rights were an expense for the 1664 that such children would serve their it was decreed sometime after council master until they were 20. In 1680, Guadeloupe's mother's that all children ofslave women would remain took another step, ruling now outweighed no matter who the father was. Property rights slaves, ethnic identity, and the Code Noir maintained the child's part-French with the Roman slave law doctrine. 84 this principle, consistent the slavery of mother and However, marriage would wipe away of ancient Roman child. Moreover, reflecting their understanding that these ex-slaves and their practice, the Code's authors decreed French colonists. 85 from children were legally indistinguishable and liberties manumitted slaves the same rights, privileges, We grant desiring that they merit this acquired libenjoyed by freeborn persons; both for their persons and for their erty and that it produce in them, fortune of natural liberty property, the same effects that the good causes in our other subjects." 86 therefore, in 1685 the French crown defined slavery In formal terms, The Code Noir did contain hints as a legal, not a racial, condition. reflecting colonists' early of prejudice against freedmen, perhaps For example, those who revisions. It put special burdens on ex-slaves. privileges, We grant desiring that they merit this acquired libenjoyed by freeborn persons; both for their persons and for their erty and that it produce in them, fortune of natural liberty property, the same effects that the good causes in our other subjects." 86 therefore, in 1685 the French crown defined slavery In formal terms, The Code Noir did contain hints as a legal, not a racial, condition. reflecting colonists' early of prejudice against freedmen, perhaps For example, those who revisions. It put special burdens on ex-slaves. --- Page 53 --- BEFORE HAITI other valuable livestock were declared susceptible stole horses, cattle, or death. The law as slaves, including to the same corporal punishments for freedmen who sheltered escaped prescribed harsher penalties of the same offense. 87 But the slaves than for freeborn people guilty offenses, in racial freedmen, or their original Code did not describe terms. administrators and creole judges gradually After 1685, colonial as the Code's leniency on corrected much of what they perceived Guadeloupe of race and freedom. In 1711, for example, that questions 88 Another local ordinance year, outlawed interracial marriages. required the colonial governor's confirmed by Versailles in 1713, granted; in 1721 and 1722, written consent for any freedom a master obstacles to manumisadministrators established further bureaucratic restricted the property sion. Finally, in 1726, the Lesser Antilles of slaves. 89 whites could give former slaves or the children with colonists, however, were not concerned Saint-Domingue's of their free population of color. Living limiting the size or wealth and more African than amid a slave population that was much larger councils never registered in the Lesser Antilles, Saint-Domingue's that two limited the value of gifts the 1726 royal ordinance or enforced 90 Nor did they ever prohibit whites from from colonists to ex-slaves." social realities of frontier marrying people of color. The complex omission. described below, account for this important slavery, Saint-Domingue's royal governors did worry Unlike colonists, and tried repcatedly to limit masters' about unrestricted manumission 1700s they claimed that freedmen powers in this realm. In the early dealt in stolen property, disrupted the slave system, insulted colonists, In 1711, therefore, sold alcohol to slaves, and sheltered maroons. policy. All bona fide administrators amended the Code's manumission be to the now had to explained manumissions in Saint-Domingue by him. The following year the governor in writing and approved liberties in a colonist's revoked the granted Council of Cap Français of his workers."1 Yet ruling that he had freed too many testament, have had much effect. In the 1730s, Saintthese laws do not seem to about planters' Domingue's administrators were still complaining to In 1736 they were obliged self-serving use of manumissions. all liberties. republish the requirement that the governor approve ambivalent Indeed, Saint-I Domingue's governors were themselves about free coloreds about manumission. Despite their complaints of the eighteenth causing social problems, from the beginning militia and they used ex-slaves to supplement their unpopular in century diseases or deserted high replace royal soldiers who died oftropical 0s, Saintthese laws do not seem to about planters' Domingue's administrators were still complaining to In 1736 they were obliged self-serving use of manumissions. all liberties. republish the requirement that the governor approve ambivalent Indeed, Saint-I Domingue's governors were themselves about free coloreds about manumission. Despite their complaints of the eighteenth causing social problems, from the beginning militia and they used ex-slaves to supplement their unpopular in century diseases or deserted high replace royal soldiers who died oftropical --- Page 54 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT awarded freedoms and pensions to many of numbers. The governor in the 1697 raid on Cartagena. Two years the slaves who participated ex-slaves created their own militia later, with official approval, these roles in the regular to avoid being locked out ofleadership company, including people of mixed ancestry militia units where freeborn pcople, 1721 the colonial government and whites, served together. In June "Major of the Company of named Antoine Thomany ofCap Français to the 27 after freeing him for service Free Blacks in the Cap Region," colony."2 of these men were a constant temptation to royal The talents acknowledged that there administrators. In 1733, Governor DeFayet roles when he informed the were men of color suitable for leadership of mixed blood is commander of Cap Français that "no inhabitant in the militia. >> This permitted to hold a position in the magistracy other nor men of mixed ancestry prohibition explains why free mulattos and form militia units sometime after 1724, to be allowed to men requested, Like ex-slaves before them, freeborn separate from whites. officer rank, they would have to realized that ifthey wanted to attain from the colonial ministry In 1740 a letter muster separately. that has come over the planters" but pointed described <the softness "have always been seen as the out that free blacks and mulattos >93 governors, in principal strength of the colony. Saint-Domingue's colonists. In their eyes other words, were opposed to manumission by even desirable. manumission, however, was acceptable, government enslaved majority, From the viewpoint of Saint-Domingue's, Noir's liberal manumission administrators' praises and the Code hundreds of meant little or nothing. Few of the colony's another policies of slaves would ever be legally free, or even know thousands David Geggus calculates that in the slave who had been manumitted. freed fewer than 3 out of 1770s and 1780s, Dominguan masters 1,000 slaves in a given year." 94 slave's only route to some However, an official deed was not a plantation slaves were offreedom. While most of the colony's degree routine of daily fieldwork, roughly one-fifth trapped in the crushing guards, or animal drivers. Such worked as artisans, domestic servants, and personal autonomy enjoyed a wider range of mobility slaves persons did. Some masters turned their most talented than field slaves contract work or selffor the estate through out to earn money favored slave an informal liberté de leasing. Others gave an old or on plantation which allowed him or her to live independently savant, slaves also attained freedom through property. Saint-Domingue's or escape. Nearly 6 percent of their own actions, including marronage the crushing guards, or animal drivers. Such worked as artisans, domestic servants, and personal autonomy enjoyed a wider range of mobility slaves persons did. Some masters turned their most talented than field slaves contract work or selffor the estate through out to earn money favored slave an informal liberté de leasing. Others gave an old or on plantation which allowed him or her to live independently savant, slaves also attained freedom through property. Saint-Domingue's or escape. Nearly 6 percent of their own actions, including marronage --- Page 55 --- BEFORE HAITI in the Cayes plain were the slaves on the Laborde plantations without every year, temporarily absent from the estate permission ofthese were 500 cases over a period of20 to 25 years. Eighty making marronage, in which workers escaped examples of so-called grand wilderness or passing for free in permanently, either living in the colonial society." 95 of color who did attain freedom, legally And, for those rare people to make a place in a before the 1760s, it was possible or illegally, As Labat's 1701 description of Fonds colonial society for themselves. of hillside land and the impordes Nègres confirms, the availability for free of opened many economic possibilities tance smuggling the brutality of the plantation regime, people of color. Despite and affecrelationships of patronage, partnership, colonists developed especially in frontier districts, and tion with some enslaved people, In number of cases, colonial society these produced new freedoms. a ofcolor as white, that is, accepted the wealthiest free men and women and full members ofthe master class. as colonists and their children were the bloodBecause enslaved African people students of the and-muscle of Saint-Domingue's economy, many over time. 96 the rigidity ofracial categories, colony have overestimated de insisted that racial In the 1780s, for example, Moreau Saint-Méry to trace the growth fact. Yet as he attempted identity was an objective of color using royal census docof Saint-Domingue's free population that the census of 1703 Moreau admitted his surprise uments, 97 In fact the inconsistency of counted only 500 of these people." color categories were highly colonial census records proves that such change over time, but subjective. Not only did racial designations differently. On the frontier, observers in different regions applied them defined which free gender and property as well as physical appearance colonist. A number of and who was simply a person was a "mulatto" fell into this second category. women with African ancestors authorities and travelers in the As Father Labat's comments prove, aware that some free peoaround 1700 were quite southern peninsula and others were not. A census taken in ple living there were French districts ofLes Cayes, Saint Louis, 1713 described 62 residents ofthe mulattos. >98 But in 1720 the and Aquin as "free Indians, blacks, and the former lands of the defunct official who counted households in this racial information. The Saint-Domingue Company did not record had produced economic crisis caused by the collapse ofthe Company than the southern rootless buccaneers and potential outlaws more It seems likely that as the militia officer peninsula had ever known." households under his command he was listed the names of the 265 ofLes Cayes, Saint Louis, 1713 described 62 residents ofthe mulattos. >98 But in 1720 the and Aquin as "free Indians, blacks, and the former lands of the defunct official who counted households in this racial information. The Saint-Domingue Company did not record had produced economic crisis caused by the collapse ofthe Company than the southern rootless buccaneers and potential outlaws more It seems likely that as the militia officer peninsula had ever known." households under his command he was listed the names of the 265 --- Page 56 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT nomadic men into settled habitants. thinking about how to turn these as identified free people only "men, "women," His document >> Although French "children,' >> or <volunteers and white servants." "whites" separately officials elsewhere in the colony were counting label for only one "free mulattos, 22 this officer recorded a racial from "Claude mulâtre, 29 who owned five slaves. houschold, that headed by and others had long observed how Saint-Domingue's administrators: frontiersmen. Since 1665 officials marriage helped tame the colony's French women to the colony had been proposing to recruit and send freebooters brought Indian for this very purpose, and de Graff's In 1701, from the Yucatan back to the southern peninsula. women with a 60-year-old ex-pirate who had Father Labat dined in Les Cayes daughter.' 101 Colonial recently married another colonist's 13-year-old described girls older than 12 as "of marrying age." censuses routinely coastline confirms how difficult it The 1720 census ofthe southern who was not in slavery. was for men here to find a female partner with the 352 male heads of There were only 155 free women living had no apparent household in the territory. Though the census-taker some local priests did. Marriage registers interest in their ethnic identity, recorded that from 1710 to in parishes adjoining the census region 17 percent ofreli1720, and again from 1720 to 1730, approximately descendant of one unions were interracial.' 102 Sixty years later a "All the gious described the situation in the 1720s: of these early marriages who had married girls of color did not planters of color and all those census was compiled only their color; and since the general identify all the[se] colored planters . . were from individual declarations, did not go to check the counted as whites, because the government care whether >103 Nor did administrators color of the respondents. married or if the woman was these frontier couples were legally slave, Indian, European, or technically a slave. Whether she was free, than the way a African was less important to local administrators this wild frontier. Such woman's presence helped domesticate of the surnames on the 1720 census conditions explain why a third described in the 1780s as free (90 of 265) were borne by families people of color. 104 colonial census of 1730 A document summarizing the general for administrators confirms that gender was more important than race were asked to Officials across the colony in the southern peninsula. in charge of tabulating results free of color, but those count people and Saint Louis districts (map 1.3) did not from the Les Cayes, Nippes, that year. They reported 152 find a single adult woman in this group females in this category, free men of color and 199 boys, but the only --- Page 57 --- a 100 km 50 m SANTO DOMINGO DOMINGUE SAINT LA GONAVE Anse à Port-au-Prince Veau Petit Trou : Petit" E Goave >t Louis Aquin Highlighted Districts ::: : : : : : : Les Cayes Les Cayes : PRPR 100 km F Saint Louis Torbec 501 miles Nippes Source: David Geggus, Slavery, War, and Revolution Parish Map 1.3 The Districts of Les Cayes, Saint Louis and Nippes ANTO DOMINGO DOMINGUE SAINT LA GONAVE Anse à Port-au-Prince Veau Petit Trou : Petit" E Goave >t Louis Aquin Highlighted Districts ::: : : : : : : Les Cayes Les Cayes : PRPR 100 km F Saint Louis Torbec 501 miles Nippes Source: David Geggus, Slavery, War, and Revolution Parish Map 1.3 The Districts of Les Cayes, Saint Louis and Nippes --- Page 58 --- SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT OF CREOLE under the age of 12, all of them living in apparently, were 11 girls in more than halfthe colony's Saint Louis. In fact, the census-takers blank, suggesting that the districts left the column "free mulâtresses" ambiguity offrec women's identity was widespread. women in SaintIt is likely that in 1730 there were many ofree colored" in the who would have been described as for Domingue records show that owners in the Nippes district, 1780s. Notarial adult women as men from example, liberated four times as many than two-thirds of slavery between 1721 and 1770, SO that more female. In 1734 an free people of color may have been of Nippes's wrote that there were "few white persons pure official in Les Cayes of such. >106 blood; they are almost all mulattos or descendants attach racial labels to settled reluctance to Further proofofofficials' lived with women of color comes households in which white men The 1730 census from Bainet parish in the southern peninsula. of color. 107 Four counted 317 whites here and only 12 free people had stood named Pierre Raymond years earlier a French immigrant the daughter of a Bainet before a priest and married Marie Begasse, his wife Catherine. This couple planter named François Begasse and livres for Marie, who was one of provided a large dowry of 15,000 brought 6,000 livres four children. Pierre Raymond three or perhaps he could not sign his name. 108 Neither to the new household, though but Raymond's new wife could Catherine Begasse, his mother-in-law, like her siblings François and Françoise. Marie was literate, more than ten years of marriage and the In 1737 and 1738, after purchased the Begasse death of his father-in-law, Pierre Raymond brother-in-laws, who now from his wife's mother and three estate from Languedoc in southern included Barthelemy Vincent, a surgeon 109 Both Marie and France, who had married Françoise Begasse. founded large families. By Françoise, with their French husbands, still been alive, he would have 1750, had the original François Begasse had at least 13 grandchildren. children and their Begasse cousins were These Raymond/ Vincent Caribbean by two or even three generations, creoles, native to the and Catherine Begasse. Thanks depending on the history of François and Barthelemy Vincent to their wives' deep roots, Pierre Raymond of Saint-Domingue, in this difficult region eventually prospered probably illegally in most cases. They buying slaves and selling indigo, their sons and daughters to schools spent part of their profits to send 111 in France in the 1750s and 1760s. colonial notaries drafting sales It was only in the late 1760s that consistently to record their contracts and estate inventories began , native to the and Catherine Begasse. Thanks depending on the history of François and Barthelemy Vincent to their wives' deep roots, Pierre Raymond of Saint-Domingue, in this difficult region eventually prospered probably illegally in most cases. They buying slaves and selling indigo, their sons and daughters to schools spent part of their profits to send 111 in France in the 1750s and 1760s. colonial notaries drafting sales It was only in the late 1760s that consistently to record their contracts and estate inventories began --- Page 59 --- BEFORE HAITI wife and adult children were people observation that Pierre Raymond's clear to an official visiting of color. However, in 1731 it was already local women as a way Bainet that male colonists there were marrying <There are themselves. As he wrote to the governor, of establishing there because all the whites willingly ally few whites of pure blood who, by their thrift, acquire themselves by marriage with the blacks, >112 more easily than the whites." In property that such alliances were always accepted. This does not mean nullified the religious union of 1738 the Superior Council of Léogane Bossé,113 Because of Fonds des Nègres and Jeanne Louis Delaunay of his brother George the groom was a minor, the opposition Like other documents of Delaunay was sufficient to end the marriage. did not describe the race the time, the ruling of the Léogane Council 1780s the notaries of Aquin of either family, but in the 1760s and Bossé, also spelled identified Jeanne and her brother Gaspard parish free of color. 114 Boissé, as people George Delaunay Council did not explain why The Léogane annulled. But it was probably because wanted his brother's marriage beneath his own. that the Bossé family was socially he believed the households of *Delaunay" and According to the 1720 census were not especially both of Aquin parish, <Thomas Delaunay," three children and twentywealthy. One consisted of a man, a woman, and seven slaves and the other had a man, a woman, no children, two parish in 1720 had a houseslaves. "Pierre Delaunay" in a neighboring one white servant, and hold with one man, one woman, five Boissé children, did not at all in that three slaves. But the names Bossé or be appear they had Either Jeanne's parents were too poor to counted, census. arrived in the region, or they were still in slavery. not yet reached the Léogane court, Jeanne Bossé was By the time the case her and Louis de Launay not to pregnant. But the council ordered and wife nor even to spend time regard each other as husband brother Gaspard to raise the together. The judges instructed Jeanne's for its him to hold Louis de Launay responsible child and forbade 1753 the free woman ofcolor Jeanne Boissé welfare. Nevertheless, by who called themselves had at least two sons and several daughters in this region in the Delaunay.lis By the 1760s all the Delaunays ofa Louis or free of color; there was no mention 1760s were people of color Marie Rose Boissé drafted a George. When the free woman Boissé the in 1785 she identified her sister as "Jeanne testament widow Delaunay. >116 examples suggest that The Delaunay and Raymond/Begasse thought about African ancestry as cafhy-cightenh-cntury colonists and several daughters in this region in the Delaunay.lis By the 1760s all the Delaunays ofa Louis or free of color; there was no mention 1760s were people of color Marie Rose Boissé drafted a George. When the free woman Boissé the in 1785 she identified her sister as "Jeanne testament widow Delaunay. >116 examples suggest that The Delaunay and Raymond/Begasse thought about African ancestry as cafhy-cightenh-cntury colonists --- Page 60 --- OF CREOLE SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT class status, not as the dominant of their neighbors' one component Delaunay probably felt his brother feature of their identity. George before the priest because Louis made a foolish and invalid promise because she was Jeanne Boissé was a poor woman of color, not that merely of Marie or Françoise mulâtresse. If she had had a dowry like a he might have welcomed the alliance. and Begasse, 1740s and 1750s, as a new generation of Delaunays In the administering their region still Raymonds was born, the officials of French about how to classify the free descendants disagreed and women of partial African colonists, when those men especially and owned slaves and property. In descent were legitimately married, district compiled a census based 1753 the militia captain ofLes Cayes and best-irrigated plain 588 household declarations. As the largest on Les Cayes was becoming an important in the southern peninsula, showed the militia producer by this time. The census report sugar where slaves in the district's population, captain's care categorizing document and the general outnumbered masters nine to one. His number of slaves, for 1753 counted close to the same colonial census men, and total inhabitants in free unmarried women, arms-bearing disagreed about how to apply racial Les Cayes. However, the authors identified 50 percent 100 free The captain labels to nearly persons. than the official who ofhis neighbors as "free black or mulatto" more 117 The very narrowness ofthe inconsiscompiled the general census." wealth and culture, rather illustrates that for official observers, tency defined creole identity. than ethnic ancestry, * * ofthe frontier shaped racial attitudes in Before 1763, the pragmatism 1730, even in those parishes on the much of Saint-Domingue. By slaves outnumbered free remote southern coast or in the interior, did in the main coastal people roughly eight to one, much as they from districts." 118 But these frontier colonists were isolated and sugar trade with France. Like their buccaneer predecessors isolated regular and women in remote mountains or along ancestors, men creole style, seen in their dress and coastlines lived in a distinctive of credit and of new European demeanor up to 1789. The scarcity of these remote districts far arrivals made the free populations central locations. The than colonists in more more interdependent to these frontier regions were immigrants who did push through could link their careers to established successful to the extent that they and sociability, aspiring families. Through marriage, god-parentage, ccaneer predecessors isolated regular and women in remote mountains or along ancestors, men creole style, seen in their dress and coastlines lived in a distinctive of credit and of new European demeanor up to 1789. The scarcity of these remote districts far arrivals made the free populations central locations. The than colonists in more more interdependent to these frontier regions were immigrants who did push through could link their careers to established successful to the extent that they and sociability, aspiring families. Through marriage, god-parentage, --- Page 61 --- BEFORE HAITI planters entered creole society, where they found access to the knowledge, slaves, land, and contraband networks that kept such districts alive, commercially, Far from the bustling Atlantic commerce of Cap Français, officials distinguished "colonists" from "free mulattos" by their social, rather than physical, characteristics. --- Page 62 --- CHAPTER 2 X RACE AND CLASS IN CREOLE SOCIETY: SAINT-DOMINGUE IN THE 1760s In 1756, when Thomas Ploy married Saint-Domingue's Aquin Marie Rose Casamajor in ambitious French colonist parish, he might have been another bride's grandfather had been allying with an old colonial family. The almost since the time it a royal notary in the southern peninsula opened to settlers. For Casamajor had managed the years her father Pierre wharf. By the time ofthe public indigo warehouse at Aquin's wealthy marriage Casamajor was an enough to endow his daughter with indigo planter property, including six silver place 18,800 livres worth of a valet.' settings and six slaves, one ofthem The bridegroom, Thomas Ploy, followed as he built his own fortune. In in his a 1762 ather-in-lawe'sstepe ing, he purchased some abandoned auction, six years after marryland and Casamajors at the Aquin pier.? This included buildings adjoining the described as a warehouse the "uninhabitable, even >> notary and ready to fall," and an "entirely irreparable, a dovecote "rotten its oven "fallen totally into ruin."' >> The unusable" kitchen building, with valued at 12,000 livres, but he paid property had originally been another notary estimated it only 2,155. Twenty-six years later, constructed a house of was worth 45,000 livres.3 Ploy had with durable squared timber and masonry, and covered it equipped with mahogany shingles. He now had two secure doors and windows. In the warehouses, each 1780s he too would parable, a dovecote "rotten its oven "fallen totally into ruin."' >> The unusable" kitchen building, with valued at 12,000 livres, but he paid property had originally been another notary estimated it only 2,155. Twenty-six years later, constructed a house of was worth 45,000 livres.3 Ploy had with durable squared timber and masonry, and covered it equipped with mahogany shingles. He now had two secure doors and windows. In the warehouses, each 1780s he too would --- Page 63 --- BEFORE HAITI his warehouses to his own be a planter of sorts, ready to pass son-in-law. but he was not. The best Ploy seemed like a French colonist, 79 Not only was his mother Anne description for him might be "creole.' other women of color in Marie a free black woman, but, like several Ploy himself was a parish, she was from the island of Curaçao. Aquin most likelya his father was probably European, free mulatto, meaning like those of his father-in-law Pierre Dutchman. Ploy's warehouses, free man of color, were regularly stocked Casamajor, who was also a from or going to Dutch smugglers.* with goods coming in 1756 illustrates how colonial The Ploy/Casamajor marriage South Province since society had evolved in Saint-Domingue's ad boc 1701 visit. The combination of frontier conditions, Labat's and isolation from France had been a crucible, buccaneer households, and Africans into new, creole families. amalgamating Europeans notarized deeds from the years 1760-69 to This chapter uses 4,882 like Thomas Ploy and Marie describe the lives and origins of people the total surviving outCasamajor. 5 These records, which constitute colonial districts notaries working in the adjacent put of twenty-two Saint Louis and Nippes, are a generation or quartiers of Les Cayes, from other parts of Saint-Domingue. older than the surviving archives notarial exist only from In the North and West Provinces, registers ofcolor from public pro1776, years after laws began to exclude men material from the South, fessions and militia commissions. This earlier most view of Saint-Domingue's then, provides an unprecedented their wealth emerged. These thouprominent free families of color as questions. sands of contracts allow us to answer three interrelated the plantation First, how did such a population arise? Comparing economy ofother ofthe South Province to the more dynamic were system that slave conditions in this colonial region regions makes it clear in the colony. Nor was manumission no better than those elsewhere isolation did promote lasting However, the region's more frequent. colonists and some women of color. Despite the bonds between male colonists practiced on racial contempt and dehumanization many attention to they often gave serious and sustained their plantations, women, and, especially, children of their relationships with free men, reveal that women and men African descent. Other legal documents create and defend their of color were active in this process, helping own freedom. of color in the South Province Second, how did free people four free families of color become SO wealthy? The chapter examines by the 1760s. Was their established as planters that were already the bonds between male colonists practiced on racial contempt and dehumanization many attention to they often gave serious and sustained their plantations, women, and, especially, children of their relationships with free men, reveal that women and men African descent. Other legal documents create and defend their of color were active in this process, helping own freedom. of color in the South Province Second, how did free people four free families of color become SO wealthy? The chapter examines by the 1760s. Was their established as planters that were already --- Page 64 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE the result of white generosity, as their political wealth merely and as they themselves opponents later claimed, or ofthrift prudence, and Torbec show maintained? Examples from the parishes of Aquin successful free those who inherited property, the most that, among who followed the economic and social colored planters were those In the 1760s, some had strategies of their fathers and grandfathers. share of a parental estate into expanded a one-quarter or one-cighth the wealth of neighboring white sizeable fortunes. But few rivaled would in the 1770s and 1780s. planters, as they available to poorer free people of Third, what economic roles were describes four occupations color? The final section of the chapter Notarial contracts also typically held by members ofthis racial category. of free colored illustrate what was perhaps the most important pattern of color, women were success in the 1760s: within the free population whites. economically than was the case among far more important ofan emerging free colored class, this Beyond its economic portrait in the 1760s casts new light on the racial chapter about creole society decade, relationships based on tensions of the 1780s. In this earlier Notarial records those based on racial identity. social class outweighed solidarity between enslaved and free from the 1760s reveal very little in chapter 3, of African descent. Those that do are presented of color, people friction and conflict between free people which focuses on however, describes something whites, and slaves. The present chapter, on Saint-Domingue's that is far more obvious in the notarial archives; frequently and economic, social, and familial relationships frontier, whites and free people of color. regularly joined that there was no racial prejudice in the South This is not to claim free people ofcolor did Province in the 1760s. As chapter 3 illustrates, But these problems discrimination and harassment. struggle against and women, not the old mixed-race mostly affected poorer men 1770s and 1780s would race replace planting families. Only in the relationships. social class as the defining element in local * had developed one of the most profitable By 1760, Saint-Domingue slavery in world history. Half of and exploitative systems of plantation died of disease, overwork, and all the Africans arriving in the colony their labor, and meet the malnutrition within eight years. 7 To replace disembarked more slaves in demand of expanding estates, merchants alone than in any other Cap Français during the eighteenth century centuries. hinterland, non-Brazilian port over the course of four Cap's in the relationships. social class as the defining element in local * had developed one of the most profitable By 1760, Saint-Domingue slavery in world history. Half of and exploitative systems of plantation died of disease, overwork, and all the Africans arriving in the colony their labor, and meet the malnutrition within eight years. 7 To replace disembarked more slaves in demand of expanding estates, merchants alone than in any other Cap Français during the eighteenth century centuries. hinterland, non-Brazilian port over the course of four Cap's --- Page 65 --- BEFORE HAITI the and most intensely developed the Plaine du Nord, was largest perhaps in the entire American agricultural region in Saint-Domingue, with Because its plantations were heavily capitalized, refined hemisphere. Atlantic trade routes, they produced more direct access to else in the colony. The quality ofthis sugar, sugar than those anywhere demand for the slaves, and its conthe region's massive and growing with West Africa and France, made Cap venient location to commerce They could liquidate Français extremely attractive to slave merchants. in less time and with their human cargoes and acquire valuable goods French Caribbean port.* greater profit than was possible in any other from the South On the far side of the island, however, merchants sugar in the 1780s Province was SO crudely refined that French visitors described the refused to accept it in exchange for slaves. When the region's less developed than the other provinces, South as being commercial isolation. They received planters blamed this on their and often had to buy workers fewer slaves, paid higher prices for them, the intendant's figures, rejected in other ports. In 1771, according to 886 to Saint-Marc, 6,015 slaves to Cap Français, slave ships brought but only 531 to the chief and Léogane, 2,369 to Port-au-Prince Onc merchant from this city proposed southern port of Les Cayes. voyage directly to Africa himself." mounting a slaving plantations in the South Province Consequently, even large sugar those in other regions. David generally had far fewer slaves than sugar estate in has collected slave lists showing that an average Geggus to 182 in the North the South Province had 113 slaves, compared size of plantations in the Province and 177 in the West. The median 50 slaves. This was not district from 1761 to 1770 was Nippes which is why many considered enough to grow sugar profitably, and coffee, and worked colonists focused on crops like indigo, cotton, 10 the land with fewer than two dozen slaves.' make freedom easier to In the 1760s, this smaller scale did not great southern than in Saint-Domingue's attain in the peninsula in the South lived in slavery, just like plantation zones. Most people In absolute terms the in the rest of the colony. their counterparts than the West or North, but they comprised 80 South had fewer slaves in the 1760s, roughly the same percent of the province's population ratio of slave to free as elsewhere in the colony." is there evidence despite the protestations of local planters, Nor, significantly better living conditions. that slaves in the South enjoyed plantation slaves died Generally, five to ten percent of Dominguan The threeand the southern peninsula was no exception. every year in the Les Cayes plain, with over 1,000 plantation Laborde complex the colony. their counterparts than the West or North, but they comprised 80 South had fewer slaves in the 1760s, roughly the same percent of the province's population ratio of slave to free as elsewhere in the colony." is there evidence despite the protestations of local planters, Nor, significantly better living conditions. that slaves in the South enjoyed plantation slaves died Generally, five to ten percent of Dominguan The threeand the southern peninsula was no exception. every year in the Les Cayes plain, with over 1,000 plantation Laborde complex --- Page 66 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE the largest in the region. Six percent of its slaves slaves, was perhaps 1780s and mortality went as high as eleven died annually in the operation, but at This was an unusually large percent in some years. plantation at Fond des Nègres in 1776, the more typical Pimelle sugar 81 field slaves were too ill to work. The roughly one- quarter of the mortality in that year.2 smaller estate suffered eleven percent from the kinds of analysis of slave inventories David Geggus's that employed most slaves in the smaller indigo and coffee estates under these conditions had no South Province shows that workers on larger sugar health advantages over those working de significant slaves buy their freedom. Moreau plantations. Nor could many there was enough claimed that in the Les Cayes plain Saint-Méry allowed slaves to grow and sell their undeveloped land that planters 1753 does show that Les Cayes, Saint own food. In fact the census of and manioc relative to Louis, and Nippes produced more plantains other part ofthe colony. 13 the local slave population than almost any manumission rate. Even But these conditions did not produce a high the food they grew, slaves accumulated money by selling if some workers were not inclined to let them buy masters desperate for more manumissions recorded in the Cayes, their freedom. Out of the 256 1760s, only two were cases in St Louis, and Nippes districts in the themselves." 14 The same which slaves were described as purchasing records from lateof self-purchase can be seen in notarial rarity another region slave ships rarely eighteenth-century French Guiana, visited.15 describes slave self-purchase as ea significant In contrast, Stewart King during bad years" in Saintsource of income for slave owners where slave merchants visited Domingue's North and West Provinces, slaves buying He identifies 60 of 606 manumissions as either 16 The frequently. manumitted by family members." their own freedom or being isolation of the southern peninsula in comparison suggests that the slaves' chances at legal freedom. the 1760s may have decreased had more work to do than they had Planters in the South Province workers to do it. the 1760s the South Province's free All of this explains why in in comparison to the slave population ofcolor was not especially large, Saint Louis, and Nippes in population. The censuses of Les Cayes, of these districts' free peo1753 and 1775 counted 25 to 40 percent is set of color.' 2> But when this free colored group ple as "people held in slavery, it amounts to only one to against the tens ofthousands people. Manumission deeds three percent of all Afican-descended recorded in these three confirm how rare freedom was. Liberty papers explains why in in comparison to the slave population ofcolor was not especially large, Saint Louis, and Nippes in population. The censuses of Les Cayes, of these districts' free peo1753 and 1775 counted 25 to 40 percent is set of color.' 2> But when this free colored group ple as "people held in slavery, it amounts to only one to against the tens ofthousands people. Manumission deeds three percent of all Afican-descended recorded in these three confirm how rare freedom was. Liberty papers --- Page 67 --- BEFORE HAITI 1760 and 1769 show that out of roughly 30,000 districts between or one percent. 17 slaves, masters freed only persons, believed were their most valuable Adult men, who planters of freedom this way. workers, had by far the worst chance attaining in the than manumitted only 37 grown male slaves 1760s,less Masters of all such men. Female slaves had relaone quarter of one percent because sex allowed them to forge more tively better odds, in part White men like Abraham complex relationships with their masters. because of"the good and agreeSuire, who freed his "Venus"in 1765 initiated about two-thirds able services that she has rendered him," deeds filed in the 1760s. In (163 out of 256) of the manumission about one percent of a total, formal liberties freed 103 adult women, 10,000 enslaved women. population of approximately attached to female slaves was that One reason male colonists grew women. Since the Saint-Domingue had relatively few European Caribbean had been seventeenth century, French immigration to the European male. In Saint-Domingue's carly years overwhelmingly four or even six to one. In Martinique men outnumbered women by ratio evened out by the middle ofthe and Guadeloupe the white sex As late as 1788, eighteenth century, but not in Saint-Domingue, in the colony but only officials counted 19, 257 white men and boys and girls, a ratio ofover two to one. 8,461 white women to motivate most masters to However, sex by itselfwas not enough Thistlewood recorded worker. In Jamaica, Thomas free an expensive with eleven different slave women in his that he had sexual relations male colonists considfirst year on an estate. In Saint-Domingue oftheir too, status. When the son ered sex with female slaves a perquisite his father's three plantations in ofthe French investor Laborde visited bit by the he was pleased, though a perplexed, the Cayes plain, "He cares neither for unusual abstemiousness of one estate manager. the inclinanor women (they say he has not slightest food, gambling, almost accuse him of frigidity) and these are tions here and one might which might lead one astray. 29 Over a the sole passions in this country mostly period, 20 slave women on the Laborde plantations, 23-year birth to 34 mixed-race children. However, domestic servants, gave freed only a few ofthese women and their the estate or its employees only a small fraction ofthe children. Moreover, this group represented 1,000 slaves working on the Laborde properties. roughly liberated female slaves they were usually recogWhen male masters often with a woman who was their nizing longstanding relationships, 21 This was the most powerful position an housekeeper, or ménagère. Colonists regarded the enslaved woman might hold on a plantation. plantations, 23-year birth to 34 mixed-race children. However, domestic servants, gave freed only a few ofthese women and their the estate or its employees only a small fraction ofthe children. Moreover, this group represented 1,000 slaves working on the Laborde properties. roughly liberated female slaves they were usually recogWhen male masters often with a woman who was their nizing longstanding relationships, 21 This was the most powerful position an housekeeper, or ménagère. Colonists regarded the enslaved woman might hold on a plantation. --- Page 68 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE for she was often the mistress both ménagère as equivalent to a spouse, bed. An astute and loyal of the household staff and the proprietor's plantation, especially in housekeeper was indispensable to a working white where it was difficult to attract experienced an isolated region Swiss traveler Justin Girod de Chantrans employees. In 1782 the asked his readers to: unmarried man in his country house, the only white a Imagine an all his confidence rests in her; her vanmulâtresse directs his household; ofthe sultan's attentions, ity makes her an enemy of the Africans; proud she is for his his as pleasure she is as useful to him - for safety often free women of color, and some functioned as Ménageres were of white men, bringing their own subcontractors or even partners household. In 1768 the white merchant slaves into their employer's his free mulatto Pierre Samadet paid 3,310 livres to Genevieve, had done for him.23 This housekeeper, for domestic work her slaves freed their slave suggests that colonists financial compensation valuable work they performed, as well as to ménagères because of the the need to insure their fidelity. with the housekeepers' Travelers, however, were most impressed tracing the career of sexual role on the plantation. In a long poem Brueys d'Aigailliers a fictional French crminal-tumed-codonis, Like Chantrans, he described the ménagère as a kind of procuress. harem to convey the planter's despotic power: used imagery on a great black teat In his seraglio [reposing] The solemn sultan throws his handkerchief and if, unfortunately, someone declines to frolic with this crude animal sultana deliver a whipping : : 24 He will quickly have his this sexual stereotype to the entire free population Whites transferred and stressed the ways such women manipulated of color (chapter 5), whose career might have illustheir French employers. One woman mulâtresse born in slavtrated this cliché was Cecille Bouchauneau, a lived for a long time on but manumitted in 1755. Bouchauneau Moulin, ery ofa creole militia captain named Pierre Michel the plantation birth to his son and daughter. In 1762 Moulin and eventually gave his executors to raise both free colored wrote a testament instructing send them to France "in some province far children as Catholics, and for a profession, and the >25 He wanted his son trained from seaports. avtrated this cliché was Cecille Bouchauneau, a lived for a long time on but manumitted in 1755. Bouchauneau Moulin, ery ofa creole militia captain named Pierre Michel the plantation birth to his son and daughter. In 1762 Moulin and eventually gave his executors to raise both free colored wrote a testament instructing send them to France "in some province far children as Catholics, and for a profession, and the >25 He wanted his son trained from seaports. --- Page 69 --- BEFORE HAITI that neither should ever his daughter enrolled in a convent, stipulating himselfl had been raised in The dying man return to Saint-Domingue. half-sister Catherine, to whom he left a creole family; he had a mulatto the planter instructed his 2,000 livres. As for his children's mother, house of untrimmed wood executors to build Cecille Bouchauneau a in his savanna. with a straw roof, and to let her animals graze just seven Moulin did not seem to be aware that Bouchauneau, furniture and six years out of slavery, owned expensive mahogany head of cattle and four settings. With her brand on thirty silver place business providing planhorses, she had apparently built a profitable In 1764 she contracted tations with beeffattened in Moulin's pasture. butchered steer annually in to deliver another white planter a acres of his land. By exchange for use of approximately twenty-eight to the town of Petit 1767 she had moved from Moulin's plantation widow and owned a store Trou. Here she rented a house from a white Mariot, a white cavalry warehouse bequeathed to her by Claude or 26 When she fell ill, Bouchauneau summoned a captain and planter. house of Etienne Rousseau, a third notary to her bed in the plantation she drafted that day white planter and militia captain. The testament white planter whom she left all her property to Mouchez, yet another had been the executor of Pierre also named her executor. Mouchez Cecille's side against Moulin's Moulin's estate and may have taken slaves, since one of white heirs. He had certainly helped her acquire >27 her two African boys was branded "Mouchez. Bouchauneau was no longer By the time of her death, Cecille owned only three supplying plantations with meat, for she now in the town of and a calf. She had become a landlord horses, a cOW, white men. The notary counted only Petit Trou, leasing mostly to her household possessions. three silver place settings among bed frames, her armoire, Nevertheless she still had her two mahogany clothes than had been and trunks filled with many more linens and skirts was almost recordedin 1762. The combined value ofher twenty as great as her saddle horse. transactions show the entrepreneurial Bouchauneau's many notarial though colonial society may have possibilities available to a ménagère, Mariot, Mouchez, and assumed that her relationships with Moulin, ofthe housekeeper was Rousseau were sexual. Indeed, the stereotype free women of color were that whites assumed all successful SO strong of white men. the servants or mistresses Marie Tirot was one ofthe rare individuals The free black woman on paper. Sometime whose rejection of this stereotype was preserved named Tirot had had a in the 1740s Marie and a white merchant ouchauneau's many notarial though colonial society may have possibilities available to a ménagère, Mariot, Mouchez, and assumed that her relationships with Moulin, ofthe housekeeper was Rousseau were sexual. Indeed, the stereotype free women of color were that whites assumed all successful SO strong of white men. the servants or mistresses Marie Tirot was one ofthe rare individuals The free black woman on paper. Sometime whose rejection of this stereotype was preserved named Tirot had had a in the 1740s Marie and a white merchant --- Page 70 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE had died, leaving Marie a house at daughter. By 1763 the merchant some money to their the entrance to Petit Trou and bequeathing called Tirot. >28 the free mulâtresse "Marie Susanne Pelagie daughter, closely with Pierre Peigné, By 1764 the older Marie was working as of that year white merchant in the town. As carly August another house to him. In March of 1766, they formally she rented part ofher livres for a room on one end of her agreed that he would pay 1,000 Marie's was which he was already using as a shop. apartment two building, side of the house. As landlord and tenant the on the opposite room and a shack in the courtyard. shared a common center Marie Tirot and Pierre Peigné went The relationship between Three months before Peigné rented his beyond the terms ofhis lease. for her daughter and free room, Tirot bought a modest plantation advanced her 10,000 of its 25,000 mulatto son-in-law, and Peigné shot and killed an livres price. Later that year, when the son-in-law livres bond. Yet Peigné was escaped slave, Peigné posted his 1,500 black woman. In 1767, when more a partner than a patron to the free merchant" "merchant" and Marie Tirot "equally Pierre Peigné about the 10,000 livres he had loaned her drafted a formal agreement that they had had "diverse interests the previous year, they specified affairs and for sums paid and advanced for together, both for business each other. >29 small town of Petit Trou could only grasp Yet many whites in the the stereotype of white this mutually advantageous alliance through on Pierre The town's baker, a white man, appeared Marie Tirot's patronage. to demand payment of Peigné's doorstep one morning bill. Peigné turned him away.3 another white townsman who The surgeon François Dubourg was On 22, 1764, assumed that Peigné was Marie's master. August shop and several pieces of cloth from Peigné's Dubourg purchased his package. On the 23rd, arranged to stop by the next day to pick up where, as he later told a therefore, he went to Peigné's boutique while lodging a formal complaint, notary, libre, servant of Sieur [in the shop] he found Marie Tirot Négresse that he had bought from Peigné from whom he requested the package that the said package was her master the day before, and she answered déclarant said to her that there in the shop and showed it to him; the the as agreed with her should also be some thread there to sew sheets, string would which the answered that the wrapping master, to négresse repeated that there should be serve as thread, the déclarant having made with her master, this négresse some thread, by the agreement [vous] are certainly impertinent, answered, what is this, Monsieur, you whom he requested the package that the said package was her master the day before, and she answered déclarant said to her that there in the shop and showed it to him; the the as agreed with her should also be some thread there to sew sheets, string would which the answered that the wrapping master, to négresse repeated that there should be serve as thread, the déclarant having made with her master, this négresse some thread, by the agreement [vous] are certainly impertinent, answered, what is this, Monsieur, you --- Page 71 --- BEFORE HAITI master herc, and that I am chez moi, to which the know that I have no to him at all, but that déclarant responded that this made no difference and then the to deliver him what had been agreed, it was necessary himself to take the package of canvas pieces to déclarant took it upon horseback at the door; the said give them to his slave who was on she the déclarant négresse having opposed this with no reason pushed having a crop in and violence, secing this, the déclarant with brutality her three blows on the cheek. 31 his hand, gave his Marie called her again attempted to take purchase, When Dubourg from the back of the house. The surgeon mother and some servants several friends passing in the street escaped their blows only by hailing outside. found a black woman tending Pierre When François Dubourg he knew she was frec, he was sure she was the Peigné's shop, though to Marie, who servant. This assumption was deeply galling merchant's but she overlooked his first and even was in fact Peigné's landlord, Not until Dubourg uttered that second reference to her "master." informing him that word a third time did she accuse him of disrespect, Dubourg, Tirot's civil was <master" of the house. For she herself of her relationship with Peigné were condition or the particularities he believed, told him all he needed irrelevant. The color ofher skin, free woman and proprietor know. For Marie, however, her status as a to was the core of her social identity. and Marie Tirot illustrate the The stories of Cecille Bouchauneau in freedom, through of some ex-slaves could acquire amount property with colonists. But the two women also show complex relationships ofthe connections between white that children were an important part although masters favored men and the female slaves they freed. For, in Saint- Domingue, as in women over men for freedom, manumissions In the 1760s, children, other slave societies, went mostly to children. of309) of all the with children, comprised 55 percent (170 or women deeds in Cayes, Saint Louis, and Nippes. Most slaves freed by formal Arlette Gauthier, digging deeper were sons or daughters ofwhite men. from 1721 to 1770, into the notarial records of the Nippes quartier in nearly 75 percent found that women and/or children were named she found involving In the 116 such documents of manumissions. identified the slave child as black.32 children, only ten slaves in Saint-Domingue, about five The number of mixed-race was proves that paternal responsibility percent on most plantations, Nevertheless many of the men who did free not a hard-and-fast rule. them as family members. Some, like their children openly recognized made elaborate arrangements Bouchauneau's employer Pierre Moulin, of the Nippes quartier in nearly 75 percent found that women and/or children were named she found involving In the 116 such documents of manumissions. identified the slave child as black.32 children, only ten slaves in Saint-Domingue, about five The number of mixed-race was proves that paternal responsibility percent on most plantations, Nevertheless many of the men who did free not a hard-and-fast rule. them as family members. Some, like their children openly recognized made elaborate arrangements Bouchauneau's employer Pierre Moulin, --- Page 72 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE for their future. Despite its central role in the racism was not yet powerful slave system, by this date relations that constituted enough to override the family and class creole society. These relations are most clearly portrayed in the riage contracts that accompanied notarized marcouples in France and its colonies. religious VOWS for most propertied These spouse's contributions to the new houschold, documents, recording each roughly one-quarter the price ofa saddle were expensive, costing 37 percent ofthe horse,33 Nevertheless, nearly quartiers ofLes marriage contracts (45 of122) from 1760-69 in Cayes, Saint Louis, and the women of color, roughly equivalent Nippes involved free men or the free colored share of the free to what censuses reported was The spouses' relatives and friends population. home to witness and sign this usually assembled in someone's colored brides and grooms in important the document. On average, free about six marriage 1760s had a combined total had eleven guests, about half as many as white of on average. Despite the smaller couples, who frequently appeared when the free colored numbers, local notables colonists were married. In October of children of prominent mason and planter worth 1761, Jean Rey, a free mulatto over 100,000 livres, many white grooms, married Elizabeth considerably more than seamstress from the town of Les Dégéac, a free mulatresse and mate son of Abel Cayes. The groom was the Rey, a white illegitithe estate of a former colonial irrigation contractor who managed mother Margueritte lived administrator. 34 Jean Rey's free black together, witnessed on this estate too. She and Abel their son's Rey, some ofthe wealthiest and marriage contract in the presence of One of those most influential colonists in the guests, Julien Canard, the province. district, had already paid Margueritte commander of the Ances pied in the mountains 18,000 livres for land she occuadjoining her son's contract, Canard, "to give the property. In the marriage ofthe affection and bridegroom a certain and obvious special goodwill he has for sign satisfaction with the future marriage, 22 him, and his extreme the express condition that he gave this land to Jean Rey, on animals, and continue to allow his mother, her crops, to stay there. Rey's other slaves, included the local friends and priest, a cavalry captain and witnesses gious military Order of Saint Louis, member of the prestiprominent planters. The bride's two militia captains, and five most active guests included three of Les merchants, one ofwhom was a Cayes' Only a handful of free colored captain in the militia. and elite group. But even at a lower marriages social could attract such a large local society's level such occasions showed acceptance of family relationships that encompassed Rey's other slaves, included the local friends and priest, a cavalry captain and witnesses gious military Order of Saint Louis, member of the prestiprominent planters. The bride's two militia captains, and five most active guests included three of Les merchants, one ofwhom was a Cayes' Only a handful of free colored captain in the militia. and elite group. But even at a lower marriages social could attract such a large local society's level such occasions showed acceptance of family relationships that encompassed --- Page 73 --- BEFORE HAITI difference. The family of Jean Maignan, illegitimacy and racial illustrates the extent ofthese the militia captain of Anse à Veau parish, them. Like colonists devoted to building networks and the energy Maignan had roots in of the fathers discussed in this chapter, many century. In 1763 he the colony that went back to the early eighteenth with Marie Catherine, old and had at least six daughters was years who lived on his estate. Throughout the 1760s a free black woman clients, and colleagues stood as witthe captain's white neighbors, settled his daughters with promising men nesses and patrons when he daughter Anne Madelaine of color. In 1762, for example, Maignan's mulatto son of a married Jean Landron, a tailor and the illegitimate southern town. planter and militia captain in Jacmel, another who had marLandron's father was dead but his white half-brother, in the disfamily and was now a planter ried into a prominent Nippes with his wife and several other trict, came to Maignan's plantation contract. The following year white planters to sign the marriage Michel Duval, who had been a another Maignan daughter married militia in the town ofPetit Goâve. Duval lieutenant ofthe free colored and a free black woman but the son ofa a white mason was illegitimate Petit Goâve and several white planters signed the royal attorney from the marriage contract in his behalf.3s on his grandchildren Maignan bestowed his blessing and property between children in the when they married. But he distinguished too, circle who were or were not his direct descendants. larger family free mulatto who managed Maignan's livestock Alexandre Fequière, a sons-in-law. When Fequière's illegitimate pen, was one of the captain's married in 1760, Maignan's daughters, daughter by another woman was signed the nuptial contract as who were Fequière's sisters-in-law, not among the "relatives and family." 9> But the militia captain himselfwas and who identified themselves as <witnesses protectors." six white men of legitimate daughters Six years later, however, when one Fequière's did attend and sign the conmarried, the 78-year-old white grandfather the bride's free black grandmother: tract, as did Marie Catherine, took to constitute dowries and sign The care some colonial fathers children. When a deep attachment to their grown contracts suggests Bougait wrote a notary about his son's the white planter Jean of the groom distinguished his marriage, only his racial description from that ofa father for his legitimate son. concern and my age I send you my mulatto Guillaume : . my indisposition I will find land to me, Monsieur, from coming to sec you : be prevent next to me, as they are both young I would settle him and his spouse to constitute dowries and sign The care some colonial fathers children. When a deep attachment to their grown contracts suggests Bougait wrote a notary about his son's the white planter Jean of the groom distinguished his marriage, only his racial description from that ofa father for his legitimate son. concern and my age I send you my mulatto Guillaume : . my indisposition I will find land to me, Monsieur, from coming to sec you : be prevent next to me, as they are both young I would settle him and his spouse --- Page 74 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE have them around me in case one or the other had comforted to be of some little help to them in their need.37 difficulties and I might him from Guillaume, his Even if Bougait believed that race separated be of some little help" words "I would be comforted : : . I might but by family attachhe was motivated not by social pressure, a suggest emotion seems to have spurred Charles Piemont, ment. A similar administrator, and major fifty-nine-year-old militia officer, royal for from Port-aulandowner from the West Province, to travel days with his former district. There he stood publicly Prince to the Nippes of their free mulatto son, slave Rose Flore to witness the marriage plantation. on his Port-au-Prince Jean, who worked as a bookkeeper daughter of Etienne Rousseau, Jean was marrying the free mulatto Piemont promised to the militia commandant of Rochelois parish. in Port-auten slaves from the next slave ship arriving buy his son 12,000 livres. Rousseau promised Prince, a gift worth approximately slaves from the same African his daughter Marie Anne six new cargo. 38 mulatto sons, who managed a mountain Rousseau had his own Anne's marriage, he formally gave estate for him. Six years after Marie ten slaves, for a total value these young men title to that property, brothers plus would have to share this of] 15,500 livres. For seven years the with their father's that could only be dissolved gift in a partnership could divide the land and slaves in order permission. Afterwards they to marry. 39 had helped create a small number By the 1760s, such arrangements South Province. They, in turn, were ofwealthy families of color in the immigrants. frequently able to marry their daughters to European during the Approximately 17 percent of all religious marriages white man to a free century in the South Province joined a cighteenth 40 Interracial couples formed only about 7 percent (8 woman of color. notarized marriages ofthe 1760s. But of122) ofthe more expensive appeal ofsuch alliances. The illustrate the economic these documents dowries belonged to white women (average: very largest bridal colored brides still brought significant 23,248 livres), but free their marriages, more than free property (average: 10,934 livres) to 41 The eight women of color in colored grooms (average: 7,470 livres). in the 1760s were among the these districts who married white men of 22,699 livres to richest in their racial category, bringing an average husbands, while not the new household. Their new European compared to the were worth only 7,864 livres on average, penniless, for white bridegrooms overall. 27,201 livres average but free their marriages, more than free property (average: 10,934 livres) to 41 The eight women of color in colored grooms (average: 7,470 livres). in the 1760s were among the these districts who married white men of 22,699 livres to richest in their racial category, bringing an average husbands, while not the new household. Their new European compared to the were worth only 7,864 livres on average, penniless, for white bridegrooms overall. 27,201 livres average --- Page 75 --- BEFORE HAITI Challe, a native of France's Loire Valley, The case of Jacques ofwhat an immigrant could gain provides the most striking example of a wealthy planter. In 1760, by marrying the free colored daughter Dasmard, the illegitimate Challe married the free mulâtresse Françoise Dasmard, a white planter in daughter ofJulie, an ex-slave, and Pierre in the colony in the late sevenAquin parish. Dasmard had been born in this region since at teenth century and had been growing indigo The 1720 census least the collapse of the Saint-Domingue Company. households in the southern peninsula, identified two *Dassemard" with 31 slaves. Forty years later Pierre one with 22 and the other 71,220 livres to her marriage Dasmard's daughter Françoise brought 22 slaves, and a full with Jacques Challe, including a plantation, the French groom of household goods. In contrast, complement contribution to the union.12 made no recorded had three children and a considerable Within ten years the couple his wife, full legal estate. In 1774, therefore, Challe gave Françoise, he had colonial affairs. Like many immigrants authority over their his fortune; thanks in large part to come to Saint-Domingue to make that goal. The and connections, he had accomplished her property where he paid over 90,000 livres for land Frenchman returned home, he died in France in 1780, Françoise and a feudal title. When still in 43 As chapter 6 Dasmard Challe and their children were Aquin. a widow remarried two years later, this time choosing recounts, the as she was, a neighboring indigo island-born spouse nearly as wealthy planter named Julien Raimond. unusual. But his decision to Challe's rapid financial success was creole family was typical of many bequeath substantial property to his emulated, most new immigrant men. Like the creole planters they who shared their beds and colonists did not marry the women of color born in the island, immigrants many died as bachelors. But, like men ofthe children that came did frequently recognize as their own some and deeds of gift they hired from these relationships. The testaments colonists created show that some oft these unmarried notaries to draft leaving property to a variety of wide-reaching networks of pseudo-kin, white and nonwhite. children, both their own and those of friends, leaving a pair Jean Baptiste Heble wrote a testament For example, and her brother, the children of slaves each to his white goddaughter slave to each ofthe two of a local planter. 44 He also gave four couples Rosette. Then he of the free black woman mulatto daughters another white godson, the son ofa local bequeathed a pair ofslaves to the children of yet a third white planter, and deeded specific slaves to the legitimate son of planter and his wife. To another Jean Baptiste, , leaving a pair Jean Baptiste Heble wrote a testament For example, and her brother, the children of slaves each to his white goddaughter slave to each ofthe two of a local planter. 44 He also gave four couples Rosette. Then he of the free black woman mulatto daughters another white godson, the son ofa local bequeathed a pair ofslaves to the children of yet a third white planter, and deeded specific slaves to the legitimate son of planter and his wife. To another Jean Baptiste, --- Page 76 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE Reaulx and his wife Madelaine, Heble the free mulatto planter Joseph Reaulx herself received a pair of left two pairs of new slaves. Madelaine mulatto slave Jacques. Heble gave new slaves and the twelve-year-old ofthe Ibo slaves Louis and the free mulâtresse Marie Rose lifelong use Louise. for his brothers and Although Heble did reserve some property children of sisters in France, his largest bequest was for the illegitimate beneficiaries Lainy. Most of Heble's free colored the late Françoise free mulattos or blacks, but he did were described in his testament as Jean Michel, and daughter, not label Françoise Lainy, or her theirillegitimacy son, it is likely that Jean Martine Titiche. However, given children. Titiche were Hebel's own mixed-race Michel and Martine while Jean Michel received half He gave Martine Titiche eight slaves, with twelve slaves of his choice. of Hebel's plantation and tools, furniture, including Moreover, Hebel left Jean Michel his bedroom table and bed tables and chairs, his clothes, two beds, an armoire, buttons, watches, and jewels, as linens, his gold and silver buckles, pistols, his sword, a well as his horse and saddle, his silver-mounted their children, and a slave saddled mule, two domestic slaves with man to inherit his The colonist intended for the young valet. dying clothes, furniture, and servants of class status-the land, horse, sword, a planter. colonists assured the economic future One way many French-born without arousing the suspicion of of their illegitimate creole children, formal deed of gift. More than half European relatives, was to draft a in the 1760s transferred of such documents (39 of 69) registered Usually the bequest was from whites to free people of color. far in the property but sometimes it was scheduled effective immediately, irrevocable and would not necessarily future. Either way, the gift was which French heirs would see. be mentioned in the donor's testament, Dantue appeared before a For example, the white planter Joseph Marie Louise and in 1765 to record a gift to the free négresse notary children. This was, in effect, a testament, since it her three mulatto assets, which he specified encompassed most of Dantue's productive more years. Only then would remain in his possession for twenty skilled slaves, including a would the seventy-nine acres and thirteen a saddle maker, a potter, and two apprentice potters, "canoe boss," children. In a clause reministo Marie Louise and finally to her was pass Dantue explained that his intention cent of many testaments services Marie Louise has the good and agrecable to recognize affection that he has for the three rendered him and out of the good assets, which he specified encompassed most of Dantue's productive more years. Only then would remain in his possession for twenty skilled slaves, including a would the seventy-nine acres and thirteen a saddle maker, a potter, and two apprentice potters, "canoe boss," children. In a clause reministo Marie Louise and finally to her was pass Dantue explained that his intention cent of many testaments services Marie Louise has the good and agrecable to recognize affection that he has for the three rendered him and out of the good --- Page 77 --- BEFORE HAITI them the means of living comfortably . [children] : - [and to] procure cared for, provided with medicine to be nourished, lodged, maintained, and suitable trade and to establish and educated, to learn a sufficient themselves in marriage. 45 only by paternity. Whites Nor were deeds of gift prompted friends' children served as godparents to their illegitimate occasionally with gifts. In 1765 the white planter and upheld these relationships formal to "Jean Louis his godson Joseph de Ronseray drafted a gift his both the of Dame de Ronseray spouse, and to Rose, goddaughter Dupuy the elder, planter, and of illegitimate children ofSieur François The donation free colored woman] Marie Rose Delaunay." female [the male slave for Jean Louis and a young consisted of a young was also present in the notary's slave for Rose. Marie Rose Delaunay ofher children. 46 office to accept the two slaves on behalf * * would argue that SaintIn the 1780s and 1790s racial ideologues and slaves only Domingue's frec people of color owned plantations from the ofwhite colonists. Yet documents because ofthe generosity situation. The colony's richest free 1760s reveal a more complex theirwealth to some French colored families could almost always trace leave to their But these men did not property ancestor or another. bequeathed land and slaves to children out of charity. Rather, they would have done in their children as a matter of course, as they to their descenFrance. Moreover, their most important contribution Whites too dants' wealth was their own attachment to creole society. nor the had neither the local knowledge, cager to return to France of their colonial estates. The most patience, to make the most southern largely free colored planters in the peninsula successful but they built on knowledge, and constructed their own fortunes, them fathers who had relationships, as well as property, passed to by committed their lives to the colony. families were in two longThe densest clusters of such planting most fertile sugar bordering the southern peninsula's settled parishes of in the St. Louis district, and plain. In the 1720s, the parish Aquin, had been administrative in the Les Cayes district, the parish ofTorbec, Company. By the middle ofthe eighcenters for the Saint-Domingue city of Les Cayes, seat of the sugar teenth century the growing port had eclipsed both towns in plain known as the Fond de l'Isle à Vache, of and Torbec But the creole families Aquin wealth and importance. sugar bordering the southern peninsula's settled parishes of in the St. Louis district, and plain. In the 1720s, the parish Aquin, had been administrative in the Les Cayes district, the parish ofTorbec, Company. By the middle ofthe eighcenters for the Saint-Domingue city of Les Cayes, seat of the sugar teenth century the growing port had eclipsed both towns in plain known as the Fond de l'Isle à Vache, of and Torbec But the creole families Aquin wealth and importance. --- Page 78 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE amassing fortunes that eventually surpassed prospered nevertheless, those of their French fathers and grandfathers. famous free colored political Aquin parish produced the most Raimondt? was the legitidecade. Julien figure of the Revolutionary and Marie born son of Pierre Raymond, a Frenchman, mately born free mulâtresse and planter's Begasse, herself a legitimately years of marriage, thanks daughter (chapter 1).48 After twenty Pierre and Marie Begasse especially to the help ofthe Begasse family, six-room house in her Raymond had a plantation with a handsome southern coast. In the native Bainet parish, along Saint-Domingue's drought, SO the however, Bainet was in the grip ofa crushing 1750s, and their slaves several dozen couple transferred their large family parish. Although farm in nearby Aquin miles west, to a dilapidated old when the family relocated, Pierre Raymond was at least fifty years transformed a ruined propwithin another twenty years his family had death in 1772 at the age of erty into a valuable estate. By Raymond's three times what he had paid for 80, his Aquin plantation was worth in straw listed in the 1756 act of it. The three log structures covered 35 slave cabins, a bell sale had given way to nine major buildings plus shelter, and dove house, two chicken houses, a hurricane tower, a owned 115 slaves in 1772.Asin three fenced corrals. Pierre Raymond timber with masonryand Bainet, his Aquin house was built of squared couch and two armchairs shingles. Inside, appraisers found a mahogany studs, carved tables, silver candlesticks, in Russian leather with gilded Even those who had not seen his and twenty-three silver place settings. cotton, and provisions, flock of sheep, nor his fields of indigo, large Raymond as a wealthy man, carrying a goldwould have recognized four-horse buggy. handled cane and driving a well-appointed raised cight children to Pierre and Marie Begasse Raymond their names with a practiced adulthood, almost all of whom signed educated in France and those hand. At least two oftheir children were but not lavish, who married in the 1750s received respectable, and the five of 12,000 livres. 50 Raymond's nieces nephews, dowries Frenchman Barthelmy Vincent and quarteron children of the at adulthood.s1 Pierre Françoise Begasse, received even larger sums the family indigo Raymond's five sons began their careers managing As the brothers grew works, animal pens, and provision grounds. of buying and rebuilding older they followed their father's strategy partnership. Within six years abandoned properties, often in fraternal the value of an and Jean-Baptiste Raimond quadrupled François In 1770, their brother Julien indigo plantation they worked together. joined this partersthip. man Barthelmy Vincent and quarteron children of the at adulthood.s1 Pierre Françoise Begasse, received even larger sums the family indigo Raymond's five sons began their careers managing As the brothers grew works, animal pens, and provision grounds. of buying and rebuilding older they followed their father's strategy partnership. Within six years abandoned properties, often in fraternal the value of an and Jean-Baptiste Raimond quadrupled François In 1770, their brother Julien indigo plantation they worked together. joined this partersthip. --- Page 79 --- BEFORE HAITI later their father died. Even divided among SO many Two years wealth allowed Julien Raimond to buy an siblings, Pierre Raymond's after selling land his father had left indigo estate of his own in 1773, he a plantation him. For 75,000 livres, already a large sum, >29 purchased His younger brother described as being "in total ruin.' the notary his slaves and this project for eight years, lending Guillaume joined skills to rebuilding the estate.s3 of restoring abandoned Besides adopting their father's strategy him by choosing Pierre Raymond's sons also copied plantations, 1766 the colonist's oldest son and namesake, wealthy brides. In May married his first cousin Marie Madeleine Pierre, at the age of thirty, had visited the brideVincent. Six days before the ceremony a notary which had their consent to the union, groom's parents to request Through his spokesman the already received a religious dispensation. one that can contribute the marriage as "the only eldest son described his inclination as by the other advantages to his happiness, as much by the match.s4 The he finds in it. >9 But his parents would not approve contract signing ahead without them, but the marriage marriage went apparently. Only one younger brother, was not a festive occasion, François, witnessed this event. he had business with the same Even Julien was absent, though in 1771 he married another notary later that very week. Nevertheless, the sister of Pierre's wife. Once first cousin, Marie Marthe Vincent, contract, "solely again, his parents would not sign the marriage him and the said because of the family relation between Raimond could not convince Demoiselle." >55 Because he was only 26, his brother had before to order his parents' consent, as a royal judge his priest to certify that they had him. Instead he persuaded parents' bans. Then, like Pierre, the of his marriage not opposed publication acknowledging that he he proceeded with the ceremony and contract, risked disinheritance. not unheard ofin the close-knit Marriages between cousins were but it was rare for intermarriage creole society ofthe South Province, each time against the wishes of to join two brothers and two sisters, like the first, insisted that the their parents. 56 But the second groom, choice." Marie Marthe match was ca favorable and advantageous livres in their marriage conVincent's property was valued at 60,000 of35,000. Among free tract, nearly double his own large contribution neighbor Julie Dasmard, colored brides ofthe 1760s, only Raimond's Challe, had more money married eleven years carlier to Jacques the daughter of than his cousin Marie, and Dasmard was illegitimate a slave. two brothers and two sisters, like the first, insisted that the their parents. 56 But the second groom, choice." Marie Marthe match was ca favorable and advantageous livres in their marriage conVincent's property was valued at 60,000 of35,000. Among free tract, nearly double his own large contribution neighbor Julie Dasmard, colored brides ofthe 1760s, only Raimond's Challe, had more money married eleven years carlier to Jacques the daughter of than his cousin Marie, and Dasmard was illegitimate a slave. --- Page 80 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE lavishly on his wedding. The contract Raimond appears to have spent in Jacmel, in the presence of a was signed on his elder brother's estate By this time, Pierre had militia captain and the bride's white guardian. and they, and François Raimond were present, died, but Guillaume 4,000 livres to a tailor in Aquin that together with Julian, paid over much oft the 2,213 livres he Similarly, in 1771 Raimond paid out year. spent on jewelry over seventeen years.s7 this second marriage of first As perfect a social match as it was, died within a year of's signing cousins did not last. Marie Marthe Vincent Raimond returned half of her the contract. Because she was a minor, the form of 16 slaves and some 60,000 livres dowry to her sisters, in and 1780s Julien Raimond's notes. 58 Nonetheless, in the 1770s paper expertise would make him an even wealthier slaves, land, and indigo (chapter 6) his Aquin neighbors, also man. In those coming decades him and his brothers in profiting from the free people of color, joined of indigo, and their ability to smuggling trade, the fluctuating price white colonists had abandoned. rebuild the properties the wealthiest mixed-race Although the Raimonds were perhaps Torbec parish in the family in the southern peninsula in the 1760s, de PIsle plain was mountains at the edge of the Les Cayes or Fond from wealthy home to a number of similar families, also listed descended 115 slaves on the colonists of the 1720s. The 1720 census 59 With the second plantation in the Les Cayes plain. Trichet sugar the Trichets also claimed 109 cattle largest slave force in the region, almost certainly the ancestors and 130 sheep. These early planters were member Trichet, who, forty years later, was a well-respected ofFrançois of the Torbec community. François Trichet entered a five-year In 1763 the free quarteron with his neighbors, two free partnership agreement to plant indigo land and slaves from mulatto brothers. The partners purchased named Alexandre Proa. Trichet's father-in-law, a white militia captain that was not only one of They paid him 53,200 livres in a transaction decade but also ranked in the top the largest free colored sales of the for the 1760s. Trichet'sl local twenty percent ofall rural property sales letters and social connections made the purchase possible: reputation three-quarters of the plantation's price. of credit covered nearly manufacture and sale ofthe indigo, but Trichet was to supervise the buying out his forlater he dissolved the partnership, eleven months sold a sliver ofthis land to his brother-in-law mer associates. He soon who had bought slaves also named Alexandre Proa, a free quarteron Proa died in Jamaica, from merchants in Les Cayes. In 1769, on credit Trichet sell his indigo. where he may have been helping letters and social connections made the purchase possible: reputation three-quarters of the plantation's price. of credit covered nearly manufacture and sale ofthe indigo, but Trichet was to supervise the buying out his forlater he dissolved the partnership, eleven months sold a sliver ofthis land to his brother-in-law mer associates. He soon who had bought slaves also named Alexandre Proa, a free quarteron Proa died in Jamaica, from merchants in Les Cayes. In 1769, on credit Trichet sell his indigo. where he may have been helping --- Page 81 --- BEFORE HAITI the Hérards of Torbec were a wealthy In the nineteenth century, and then manipulate a popular mixed-race family that tried to spark 61 Like *Trichet", 5 the name revolt in 1843 against the dictator Boyer. households in the *Hérard" belonged to some ofthe most prosperous of in 1720. At that early date the sugar plantation southern peninsula brothers" had 119 slaves, 150 cattle, and <Fesniers and Herards[sic] largest in all three categories. 150 sheep, making it the region's and the Herards were the militia commander of the plain Fesnier was in another sugar estate with 72 slaves, also partners with the Fesniers *Herard" houschold, in Saint 72 cattle, and 50 sheep. A third 1720 worked by 80 slaves.2 Louis parish, was an indigo plantation Hérards in Torbec's notarial By the 1760s, the most prominent With his brother and two sisters, registers were free people of color. lands in the Torbec plain, where his Jean Domingue Hérard inherited ofhis own but father had a sugar estate. In 1764 he had a plantation for two In 1765 he was guardian also worked as an estate manager. His sister Marie married mulatto daughters of a dead white planter. below) and Hérard's into the wealthy Boisrond family (see discussion married Julien the daughter of his other sister Catherine, niece, discussion below). Jean Domingue's first Delaunay of Aquin (sce sisters had married into the prominent marriage was to a woman whose free colored Boury family (chapter 3).63 through his brotherIfFrançois Trichet sold his indigo to Jamaica Jean Proa, Hérard had connections to Curaçao. in-law Alexandre mulatto from that Dutch trading center, Nicolas Fernandes, a free and was identified as his brother lived on Hérard's Torbec plantation In 1764 when Fernandes married and as the uncle ofHérard's children. white he and Hérard the free mulatto daughter of a dead planter, Girard de Formont, traveled to the Torbec plantation of Monseigneur contract. 64 the local white militia commander, to sign the marriage daughter Marie Five months earlier Hérard's fifteen-year-old to Alexis Girard, Elizabeth had been married on this very plantation illegitimate but acknowledged thirty-one-year-old the commander's Formont did not witness the marriage mulatto son. Girard de Alexis to use his name. Hérard's daughter contract, but he did authorize specified that months and the nuptial agreement was four pregnant this union to legitimize the child. Alexis the couple had entered was not noted, but Jean Girard's contribution to the marriage with a horse and saddle, Domingue Hérard dowered his daughter slaves worth about that sum household furniture, 8,000 livres, and six this new household With property valued at 20,000 livres, again. oflocal marriages for this decade.ss ranked in the top 40 percent érard's daughter contract, but he did authorize specified that months and the nuptial agreement was four pregnant this union to legitimize the child. Alexis the couple had entered was not noted, but Jean Girard's contribution to the marriage with a horse and saddle, Domingue Hérard dowered his daughter slaves worth about that sum household furniture, 8,000 livres, and six this new household With property valued at 20,000 livres, again. oflocal marriages for this decade.ss ranked in the top 40 percent --- Page 82 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE the author of Haiti's 1804 The Boisrond family, which produced contriwas Torbec's most conspicuous Declaration of Independence, leadership of the Revolutionary bution to the free colored political > *Boisrond" was a prominent period. Like *Trichet" and *Hérard," operated a sugar in the 1720 census. <Beausire et Boisrond" name the third largest estate in the region. This plantation with 99 slaves, and 97 sheep. The other *Boisrond" plantation also had 100 cattle the fourth largest in household was an indigo works with 89 slaves, with 50 cattle and 100 the plain. This too was a prosperous estate, sheep. 66 Boisrond owned land in By 1753 a free mulatto named François Trichet and Jean Domingue the town of Torbec. Like François In 1762 he stood as Hérard, he enjoyed considerable local respect. free mulattos whose of the bride at the marriage of two godfather died. By this time he had married Marie Hérard, white fathers had her Boisrond acquired one-fifth of Jean Domingue's sister. Through In 1761 he paid his wife's the Hérard sugar plantation at Torbec. which had on livres for her share in the sugar estate, sister 20,000 estimated total value of 50,000.7 but he also worked as a François Boisrond was above all a planter, this skill. In 1764 a white builder and apparently trained his sons in livres to put a young planter from a neighboring parish paid 1,000 with <Sieur in Torbec parish man in a five-year apprenticeship Boisrond his son both Boisrond and Claude François François was the piece of Hérard builders." 27 Boisrond's major building project In 1775,after land he and his wife Marie Hérard had purchased. was sugar valued at 50,000 livres in 1761, the couple died, this property, livres to a white planter and royal sold with its slave force for 500,000 received substantial sums, the judge. Although Boisrond's creditors his five children into the careful income from this sale helped launch of their success. Marie marriages that were an important aspect planter Pierre Braquehais, Boisrond married the free colored Françoise active in the 1790s. Marie Adelaide Boisrond who was politically white planter at Cayes. 68 The three married Alexis Descoubes, a after the sale of their parents' Boisrond sons all married in the years settled in the and these alliances carried them east. They estate Saint Louis, and, eventually, Aquin, where they parishes ofCavaillon, like their father. emerged as planters and notables families and their neighbors achieved It was in the 1780s that these active in the colony and in enough prosperity to become politically oftheir success were France. But by the end of 1760s, the components Caribbean contraband careful marriage alliances, access to in place: their parents' Boisrond sons all married in the years settled in the and these alliances carried them east. They estate Saint Louis, and, eventually, Aquin, where they parishes ofCavaillon, like their father. emerged as planters and notables families and their neighbors achieved It was in the 1780s that these active in the colony and in enough prosperity to become politically oftheir success were France. But by the end of 1760s, the components Caribbean contraband careful marriage alliances, access to in place: --- Page 83 --- BEFORE HAITI fellow and the strategic reconstruction networks, reliance on siblings, of abandoned estates. increasingly wealthy planter group, in the Despite the presence ofthis of color was mostly 1760s the South Province's free population merchants, and artisans. composed of farmers, petty North Province in In data drawn largely from Saint-Domingue's of color was Stewart King found that the free population the 1780s, elite and a free colored military leadsplit into a mixed-race planting of free blacks. 69 Such a split did not ership class, heavily composed because the region's isolation exist in the South Province, in part between free blacks and seems to have encouraged intermarriage half of the slaves (142 of 309) other free people of color. Nearly creole blacks or Africans, but manumitted there in the 1760s were of mixed race. The 122 they mostly entered households with people 1760s involved only seven free notarized marriage contracts from the descent. Church docublacks, five of whom chose partners of mixed brides and also show that the racial identity of free colored ments mixed as the eighteenth century progressed. grooms grew more show free blacks decreasing from 74 percent Surviving burial registers before the 1760s to 47 percent in the of free colored church burials decade." 70 1770s and 42 percent in the following in the South Province had less Though most free people of color free coloreds fewer slaves than the Raimonds or the Hérards, land and ofthe region's economy, nonetheless. in general were an important part involved in 28 percent (63/225) ofall Men and women ofcolor were and Saint Louis in the 1760s, buyrural land sales in Cayes, Nippes, amounts. Although they ing and selling from whites in roughly cqual the value of free executed a few large sales or purchases in the 1760s, to the was generally modest compared colored real estate transactions free colored rural land value of those between whites. On average, to an overall average sales had a value ofaround 6,000 livres, compared in livres. The same was true of their participation value of 25,000 in about one third (8 of leases of agricultural land. They participated for sums ofaround several 23) ofs such transactions in the 1760s, mostly whites were routinely for hundred livres per year, while leases between five to ten times as much. and Marie Tirot have already As the stories ofCecille Bouchauneau characteristics oft the free population suggested, one ofthe distinctive women. According to the of color was the important role played by res, compared in livres. The same was true of their participation value of 25,000 in about one third (8 of leases of agricultural land. They participated for sums ofaround several 23) ofs such transactions in the 1760s, mostly whites were routinely for hundred livres per year, while leases between five to ten times as much. and Marie Tirot have already As the stories ofCecille Bouchauneau characteristics oft the free population suggested, one ofthe distinctive women. According to the of color was the important role played by --- Page 84 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE for 1753, women ran over 40 percent ofthe local Les Cayes census of color, compared to only 9 percent plantations owned by free people of color in 21 whites." 71 In the 1760s free women participated among free coloreds while only 16 percent percent ofrural land sales involving relative economic prominence of of white sales involved women. This in notarized marriage free colored women confirms the pattern seen more property contracts, in which white grooms, on average, brought of color brought more than white brides, but free women to marriage than free men of color. survival of free people of color in this Most critical to the economic slave labor. A slave was plantation economy was their ability to exploit 1,200 to 2,000 livres, a healthy adult man cost an expensive purchase: salary for a free colored constable in the roughly three to five years of color participated more colony. Nevertheless, free people other kind of sale. In the 1760s frequently in slave sales than in any of154) had at least one free over 40 percent ofthese transactions (63 free of color purchased probably because people colored participant, workers, but also to liberate family members, slaves not only to acquire slave sales were worth less than Yet free colored as chapter explains. value of all slave transactions in the sales between whites. The average of sales involving free livres, while the average price 1760s was 6,400 halfofthe free colored slave sales or coloreds was 2,317 livres. About districts in the 1760s involved free purchases in these Dominguan women ofcolor." 72 in the decade was the free The largest free colored slave purchaser slaves worth 12,600 livres Victoire, who received nine in quarteronne ofland from the white planter François Brosseard plus use of a plot for Brosseard identified the January 1768. This was a sale, not a gift, him as principal for fifteen years of "serving slaves as compensation care of his house, during which housekeeper, laundress, and taking to him. The second time she relinquished several sums and belongings the daughter ofa black largest sale was concluded by Cecille Mirande, In 1760 the mixed-race slave woman and a colonist named Mirande. acting as an agent for the purchased eight slaves from a planter woman in Bordeaux. A receipt noted that she paid Mirande merchant house coffee, and cotton. The sale was for them with 7,500 livres in coin, Mirande had arranged to give accompanied by a separate deed of gift. saddle horse, perhaps in honor Cecille 1,350 livres to buy a slave and a day with a free contract she signed the following of the marriage mulatto carpenter. 73 kind of currency in the colony and one Access to slaves' labor was a from his sweat. Colonists frequently did not have to buy a man to benefit receipt noted that she paid Mirande merchant house coffee, and cotton. The sale was for them with 7,500 livres in coin, Mirande had arranged to give accompanied by a separate deed of gift. saddle horse, perhaps in honor Cecille 1,350 livres to buy a slave and a day with a free contract she signed the following of the marriage mulatto carpenter. 73 kind of currency in the colony and one Access to slaves' labor was a from his sweat. Colonists frequently did not have to buy a man to benefit --- Page 85 --- BEFORE HAITI that did not involve many free people leased slaves, a kind oftransaction However, some free colored of color until the 1780s (chapter 7). their slaves but allowed masters had wealthy patrons who bought Stewart King describes such them to retain possession. Though in the dynamic economy of Cap "pawning" as a common occurrence in the South Province. The free Français in the 1780s, it was quite rare had worked for a white colored couple Pierre Claude and Marion them lifetime use of planter and his wife, who, in the 1750s, gave their health several slaves and a plot of land. In 1769, as prevented white the land, the couple fell in debt to a them from working with One of their borrowed merchant who supplied them provisions. resolve their debt they sold this slaves had given birth to a child. To who allowed them to keep her thirteen-year-old girl to the merchant, died. Similarly Marion, the older member of the couple, until a free black woman from the city of *Margueritte called Pradillon," white man to cover 825 livres in Les Cayes, sold a female slave to a lease, rented accumulated debts and then, without drafting a separate the slave back again.74 slaves and some land allowed many free The possession of a few peasants or farmers, supplying people ofcolor to live as self-sustaining activities brought them into But other cconomic food to plantations. for in the 1760s, urban real estate was far less the peninsula's towns, land. Free people ofcolor were as involved expensive than agricultural figuring in 30 percent in urban as rural real estate transactions, of all such sales was just above (23/76) of these. The average price about 3,500 though free people of color paid or received 7,900 livres, one-fifth of urban leases in the 1760s livres, on average. About of color. (18/93) involved a free person associated with poorer Small-scale commerce was one occupation prominent as petty free people of color. Women were especially the commerce hucksters, or "higglers," " many continuing marketers, during Sunday markets, and acting as disthey had practiced as slaves farmers as well as slave growers,8 tributors for free colored provision goods they bought from Free colored retailers also sold imported called de Ruiq,' 29 a free black white merchants. In 1768 "Marie Louise street of Les Cayes featurwoman, ran a small boutique on the main and boatmen of all sorts, ing fabric she bought from white neighbors the Massé. 29 This might have been Barthelmy, including one "Captain Massé who traded and ran a store on the main husband of Margueritte in the Nippes district. In 1764 thieves street ofthe town of Anse à Veau, and cheese from Margueritte stole cloth, handkerchiefs, a shirt, soap, with his while her husband was in Port-au-Prince Massé's boutique, es featurwoman, ran a small boutique on the main and boatmen of all sorts, ing fabric she bought from white neighbors the Massé. 29 This might have been Barthelmy, including one "Captain Massé who traded and ran a store on the main husband of Margueritte in the Nippes district. In 1764 thieves street ofthe town of Anse à Veau, and cheese from Margueritte stole cloth, handkerchiefs, a shirt, soap, with his while her husband was in Port-au-Prince Massé's boutique, --- Page 86 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE Massé was one of a legion ofcoastal traders or caboteurs boat. Barthelmy contraband goods from main trading centers who brought legal and customers in the southern peninsula. to petty merchants and regular woman in the town of The free mulâtresse Marie Jeanne, a market caboteur from Port-auhired a free mulatto Anse à Veau, periodically The men ferried her down the coast Prince and his free black partner. where French ships regularly stopped. to her native town ofLéogane, resell in Anse à Veau. Women as Here she bought baskets of goods to small boats. Only four years well as men owned and operated these woman in <Marion called Bin," a Senegalese after her manumission foot sailing mid-forties, paid 300 livres for a seventeen-by-three her small craft used in the coastal trade. In 1788 dugout, the kind of of color from the West Province, was Henriette Fabre, a free woman white merchant over 11,000 livres wharfwhere she paid a at Aquin's houschold furnishings, and a rowboat large in cash for three slaves, enough to carry four barrels." 76 successful when the merchant had This kind ofcommerce was most like Anne Dominique Acquiez. wide network of friends and family, a originally from Curaçao, who lived Acquiez was a free black woman, as a She had probably come to Saint-Domingue in Aquin parish. after the collapse ofthe Saint-Domingue contraband slave in the years in 1737 at around the age oftwentyCompany and was manumitted merchant women, though at a five. Like many other free colored from French ships and slightly higher level, she bought goods she owed 2,597 merchants at the local pier to resell. In the mid-1760s ofLe Havre and 685 livres to a private trading livres to La Catherine out connections to Aquin's carried on that same ship. With strong resold cargo merchants-of.color, she almost certainly other Curaçaoan extending her business to the peninsula's smuggled Dutch goods. By contraband was harder to find, she probably northern coast, where such 1768 she sent her slave François north increased her profits. In April where he set up a stand at the across the mountains to Petit Goâve, of merchandise to the colonist market and sold 150 livres worth Deronseray." 77 in the town of Aquin, which she Acquiez also operated a tavern Raimond took his meals purchased for 3,000 livres in 1760. Julien 1770s, and paid her for there for three-and-a-half years in the early 1765 his sister Thérèse merchandise in this period as well. In her business. >78 lent Acquiez 3,000 livres "to use in Raimond and the prosperous Raimond clan were The bonds between Acquiez Raimond's receipts showed personal as well as commercial. Julien 1773 he witnessed her last to "Mama Acquiez" and in June sums paid livres in 1760. Julien 1770s, and paid her for there for three-and-a-half years in the early 1765 his sister Thérèse merchandise in this period as well. In her business. >78 lent Acquiez 3,000 livres "to use in Raimond and the prosperous Raimond clan were The bonds between Acquiez Raimond's receipts showed personal as well as commercial. Julien 1773 he witnessed her last to "Mama Acquiez" and in June sums paid --- Page 87 --- BEFORE HAITI In May 1773, before a royal notary in Acquiez's will and testament. Raimond announced her intention to leave tavern, his sister Elizabeth Raimond used Acquiez's estabfor France. Their brother Guillaume contract, an important lishment for the signing of his marriage familial that usually took place in an official or setting. from ceremony town, other free black women Though Aquin was a small testament left the sum of 100 Curaçao who lived there. Acquiez's of "Marie who son Corassol," pistoles to Jacques, the free mulatto also knew Anne Marie, have been a compatriot. She certainly may from Curaçao, for she named Anne Marie's another free black woman and universal beneficiary free mulatto son, Thomas Ploy, as executor his three children. 80 ofl her estate. She deeded her personal effects to Ploy and others helped Indigo was the most important commodity The dye was notoriously smuggle to English and Dutch merchants. of the south refine but the creole planters difficult to successfully, families' decades of experience. As Moreau coast benefited from their indigo was especially noted in the 1780s, Aquin's de Saint-Méry because it survived shipping better than popular among merchants cacao, and coffee were also Commodities like cotton, most dye. and they constituted a second grown in the southern peninsula, free colored small holders. Because economic niche, one occupied by these products could be they did not require distillation or refining, The census of 1753 showed grown on a small scale like foodstuffs. in Les Cayes, Saint four or five times as much cacao being grown colonial district.s1 As Louis, and Nippes, as in almost any other of the eighteenth had probably done since the beginning they free living as subsistence farmers century, ex-slaves and other people needed for taxes to the cash or credit they used these crops generate and basic goods. creole society at least some peasant producers In this interconnected their commodities and pay their obligaused local patrons to market came before a notary to settle tions. In 1763, for example, Marie Bety militia commander ofthe her accounts with Jean Maignan, the former served as a kind district. 82 From 1749 through 1760, Maignan Nippes free black woman. He received her deliveries ofcotton ofbanker for this took from one of his free in 1746, 1747, and 1754, and payment leased from Marie Bety*s for six slaves the man mulatto sons-in-law the small sums she owed in taxes on On an annual basis Maignan paid for 700 livres made out to Marie her six slaves. He guaranteed a note borrowed from a Mademoiselle and repaid the 300 livres she had 60 livres in silver in 1754, Arnaud in 1751. He advanced Marie Bety barrels ofwheat, and, bought a horse for her daughter, as well as two 1747, and 1754, and payment leased from Marie Bety*s for six slaves the man mulatto sons-in-law the small sums she owed in taxes on On an annual basis Maignan paid for 700 livres made out to Marie her six slaves. He guaranteed a note borrowed from a Mademoiselle and repaid the 300 livres she had 60 livres in silver in 1754, Arnaud in 1751. He advanced Marie Bety barrels ofwheat, and, bought a horse for her daughter, as well as two --- Page 88 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE from the cargo of La Diademe. When she later, a barrel of salt beef muslin from the white merchant purchased kerchief linen and striped cloth from Catin, probably a Tolet, and larger quantities of a cheaper Finally, Marie Maignan disbursed the money. free colored woman, to reinforce her authority over may have used Maignan's patronage him that she paid a white the white men in her employ. It was through and a bailiff to her a doctor to treat a slave, man to guard property, serve papers on a white planter. trades were a third activity associated The lumber and construction Both and Saint Louis with free people of color on the frontier. Nippes and, when prices time sources of dyewood were at one important slave could cut enough to bring 180 livres were high, in one week a roughly 9 percent of his purchase on the market in Cap Français, sought after in the Construction timbers became especially price. cleared many of Saint-Domingue's 1780s as new coffee plantations had to import building hillsides. By this time colonists remaining States. In June 1786, for example, Captain materials from the United from New York or Boston of Joachim Antonio Podrozo sold a cargo and other salted goods" to "planks and other American wood, codfish this late date the heavily forested a merchant in Les Cayes. Yet even at in Torbec parish and mountains to the west of the Les Cayes plain, ofthe the wood. On the north face peninsula beyond, still provided for the quality of dry mountains ofthe Nippes district were renowned 84 the lumber they furnished to Port-au-Prince.* in the interior of The search for valuable timber on the steep slopes of color. In April involved many free people the southern peninsula ofTorbec's prominent free 1765, for example, Pierre "called Errard," white wholesale merchant. colored family, rented a small vessel from a and boat This lease was to last four months but Hérard, a carpenter days. He formally dissolved the agreement after thirty-one sold wright, another boat for 300 livres and within two weeks then purchased the same one, to François Brilloin, a white a similar craft, perhaps Hérard and Brilloin then entered a formal merchant, for 2,000 livres. the expenses and profits partnership. 85 The two men agreed to split different sorts of from a trade "in personal items, commodities, ? Brilloin and four slave sailors merchandise like flour, sugar, rum, etc. looking would ply the coast in the recently purchased boat, land. probably They would for farmers and ranchers who were clearing their Back in the town of trade their wares for dyewood and mahogany. and sell it. Hérard would trim the wood into planks Cayes, trade and other rural activities on the Profits from the lumber allowed some free families of color fringes of the plantation economy to split different sorts of from a trade "in personal items, commodities, ? Brilloin and four slave sailors merchandise like flour, sugar, rum, etc. looking would ply the coast in the recently purchased boat, land. probably They would for farmers and ranchers who were clearing their Back in the town of trade their wares for dyewood and mahogany. and sell it. Hérard would trim the wood into planks Cayes, trade and other rural activities on the Profits from the lumber allowed some free families of color fringes of the plantation economy --- Page 89 --- BEFORE HAITI when Joseph Boury, the free colored to rise to elite status. In 1780, (chapter 3) purchased half a captain ofTorbec's free colored militia, Etienne Bertrand Mendes, he plantation from a free mulatto named livres price in top quality sawn agreed to pay one-fourth ofthe 62,000 86 lumber delivered to Port-au-Prince.' that "Marie called Debreuil," a Hardwoods were valuable enough in 1784, sent a notary from free mulâtresse living in Port-au-Prince the theft ofwood colonial to the coast of Nippes to record the capital 87 This expedition cost her fifty-six livres, half from her property there. Debreuil also had to send someone to guard the price of a cow, and When the official, the watchman, and her timber after the notary left. Debreuil's land they found a white witnesses stepped ashore onto 600 mahogany shingles and ten slaves who had just shipped carpenter beams to Port-au-Prince. and eighteen squared economic niche. In the Ranching and leatherwork were a fourth had survived by Saint-Domingue's buccaneers seventeenth century, in the cighteenth century a selling meat and hides to passing ships; similar A few number of free men of color adopted a lifestyle. As the enough money this way to become planters. accumulated Descourtilz noted, "in Saint-Domingue [animal] naturalist Michel and enrich their owners. >> Wild cattle herds thrive without much care across from the port of Les roamed the Isle à Vache, or Cow Island, district was called Anse Cayes. One ofthe two parishes in the Nippes filled the plains of à Veau, or Veal Cove. As sugar and indigo wild estates cattle had once grazed, the North and West Provinces where to have serious commercial livestock from the southern peninsula began cstimated that value. One ofMoreau de Saint-Méry's cattle correspondents into a herd of fifty in six to al rancherin. Aquin could breed cight half-a-dozen animals every year to cight years, even if he had to sell would breed to 300 in a expenses. Fifty cattle, carefully tended, and pay The 1753 census showed Les Cayes, Saint Louis, few more years. shorned animals" relative to the Nippes to have nearly twice as many colony had. Moreau himself slave population as other districts ofthe and sheep. He noted extolled the quality of Aquin's horses, cattle, famous for their stamina in that mules from the Aquin parish were mountain travel and sugar work. 88 associated with free people of Animal husbandry was especially from slavery. In 1701 Labat color, and probably helped some escape wild horses sold them cheaply in noted that the men who captured have to pay twice the Saint-Domingue, but that a rider might the his animal trained for the saddle. By purchase price to have mustangs had mostly late eighteenth century, Saint-Domingue's quality of Aquin's horses, cattle, famous for their stamina in that mules from the Aquin parish were mountain travel and sugar work. 88 associated with free people of Animal husbandry was especially from slavery. In 1701 Labat color, and probably helped some escape wild horses sold them cheaply in noted that the men who captured have to pay twice the Saint-Domingue, but that a rider might the his animal trained for the saddle. By purchase price to have mustangs had mostly late eighteenth century, Saint-Domingue's --- Page 90 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE was still a "passion' ? for the colony's disappeared, but horsemanship Moreau de Saint-Méry. Michel men of color, according to the work at a corral in Descourtilz used the same language to describe the Artibonite plain.' and men of color who serve as horse trainers passionately The nègres exercise which among creoles gives them love this tiring and dangerous born for this lawless horsemanship . this a certain fame. They seem that when they have undertaken passion drives them to such a degree at in order to avoid to break a wild horse, they even work them their night, pride in case they fall. the attention of their boss and to safeguard freedom around 1776, the future Toussaint Before achieving where he was the livestock pen on the plantation Louverture managed horses, may have enslaved. 90 His skill with animals, especially a coffee farm with contributed to the money he used to establish Saint-Domingue thirteen leased slaves in 1779. Most plantations in that for horses and for the oxen pulled had some kind ofanimal pen mills. Planters often reserved responcane wagons and powered sugar and the job was such corrals for an older or favored slave, sibility over liberty. considered in itself a sort ofinformal in cattle from Spanish Santo contraband trade However, a thriving from having to raise their own meat. Domingo spared most planters border, men of mixed race dominated On both sides of the colonial official wholesaler to Port-ausmuggling traffic. The this important that "infallibly free blacks and mulattos Prince's butchers complained [brought over the border from take the major part of the animals either for destined for [Port-au-Prince) Spanish Santo Domingo] to resell them to [the wholesaler] at a their independent butcheries or considerable profit. >91 a few hundred livres, ten or Because several head ofcattle cost only animal raising was an percent of the cost of an adult slave, did twenty for free people like Cecille Bouchauneau who affordable activity land. However, free people of color not own their own workers or of cattle theft or contraband. may have felt vulnerable to accusations sale oflivestock drafted during Sixteen ofthe twenty contracts for the normally did not draw Whites the 1760s 1 involved free people ofcolor. formal documents for such small transactions. one or up free men and women of color had at least Because SO many with wide social two animals they were raising to sell, entrepreneurs for a considerable trade could accumulate the raw materials contacts 1761 the blockades of the Seven Years in leather goods. In February not own their own workers or of cattle theft or contraband. may have felt vulnerable to accusations sale oflivestock drafted during Sixteen ofthe twenty contracts for the normally did not draw Whites the 1760s 1 involved free people ofcolor. formal documents for such small transactions. one or up free men and women of color had at least Because SO many with wide social two animals they were raising to sell, entrepreneurs for a considerable trade could accumulate the raw materials contacts 1761 the blockades of the Seven Years in leather goods. In February --- Page 91 --- BEFORE HAITI for colonists to buy European War made it almost impossible a free mulatto tailor from products. Seeing an opportunity, Philippe, livres to Louis Verais, another the town of Anse à Veau, paid 3,000 half-share in a mulatto slave free man of color from Léogane, for a livres, this contract shoemaker. At 6,000 named Joseph, a 35-year-old the sale of a typical male plantation valued Joseph at three times price considerable profit from that Philippe expected worker, suggesting Verais agreed would last until the end the partnership, which he and house the shoemakerand ofthe war. The free mulatto tailor agreed to from free leather for his trade, probably supply him with the necessary hills." 92 colored ranchers in the surrounding or skilled slaves were SO Some free colored livestock entrepreneurs a established themselves as master saddle-makers, successful that they men used to become planters. Onc highly respected craft that a few Delaunay, who may have been an sadier-tumedi-pianter was Julien when the brother of the child Jeanne Boissé was carrying elder her marriage to Louis deLaunay [sic] in Léogane Council annulled Delaunay was a 25-year-old free 1738 (chapter 1). In 1752 Julien slaughterhouse. That year he mulatto working in the Aquin parish of color to capture and agreed to pay 300 livres to another man he himselfwas working more butcher animals for him, suggesting that described leather than with meat. Seven years later a notary with saddler, living in the town of Aquin" when he Delaunay as a "master livres from another man ofcolor. The bought a hillside farm for 3,000 for officials conto be used as a ranch or corral, land was apparently <saddler" throughout the 1760s, as tinued to describe Delaunay as a enough to join his social profile rose. In 1763 he was self-confident ofa white man whose formally protesting the actions eleven neighbors Delaunay was again animals ran in their fields. The following year saddler of Aquin' 2 when he and several other free identified as "master for the orphaned children of a free men ofcolor chose a legal guardian arbiter over two whites evalblack woman. In 1769 he served as chief like his 93 In the 1770s and 1780s, uating a horse in a legal dispute." and elsewhere, Delaunay neighbors in Aquin parish more prosperous who stopped labeling become a planter or bhabitant to local notaries, him a saddle maker. (chapter 7). family and social class The notarial record reveals that, at mid-century, identities in the frontier racial overrode or at least counterbalanced territory. In the regions that still made up most ofSaint-Domingue's In 1769 he served as chief like his 93 In the 1770s and 1780s, uating a horse in a legal dispute." and elsewhere, Delaunay neighbors in Aquin parish more prosperous who stopped labeling become a planter or bhabitant to local notaries, him a saddle maker. (chapter 7). family and social class The notarial record reveals that, at mid-century, identities in the frontier racial overrode or at least counterbalanced territory. In the regions that still made up most ofSaint-Domingue's --- Page 92 --- RACE AND CLASS IN SAINT-DOMINGUE planters married free women of color 1760s as in the 1720s, aspiring Old colonial families included with property or social connections. networks. Because of the impormixed-race relatives in their social of direct slave imports from tance of these networks, and the rarity colored families of purely surviving records show few free Africa, that there was no distinct free black African ancestry. This meant ofsocial class meant that population in the South, but the importance their scorn for free colored <class" either. Despite there was no single colonists and French immigrants deliberately African ancestry, creole of their mixed-race children, passed their own class status on to some freedom. By following leaving others in slavery or in an impoverished investment, fathers' strategies of careful marriage and long-term their heirs of early colonists became a kind of planter some light-skinned few free people of color enjoyed these elite, over time. But relatively from clearing land, selling lumber, advantages. Instead, most profited commodities, or transporting raising livestock, growing small-scale marketed food, imported goods, merchandise along the coast. Others success and Slave labor was vital to economic or worked as artisans. levels actively bought and sold free people of color at all economic in manumitting they were also prominent other human beings, though slaves, as chapter 3 describes. to Saint-Domingue The fact that SO few French women immigrated find employfree women of color build social networks, helped some with colonists that were not ment, and forge domestic partnerships and its reversal in the 1780s, available to men of color. This pattern, of race and citizenship in was a critical aspect of the changing image Saint-Domingue (chapter 5). --- Page 93 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 94 --- CHAPTER 3 * < X FREEDOM, SLAVERY, AND THE FRENCH COLONIAL STATE Ini 1767 the free mulatto Paul Carenan in a valley adjoining the fertile bought an indigo plantation 130,000 livres for the parish of Fonds des Nègres. He estate and its 60 slaves, far paid purchase any free person of color in the by the most valuable the 1760s. The notary used the region made during Carenan in the sales contract. Yet respectful title "Sieur" to describe Council decreed that Paul three years later the Port-au-Prince sion papers had Carenan was a slave. Because his never been officially manumisconcluded was void, including registered, every contract he had become, himself, the purchases. This slave owner was to Within three property ofthe court.' wecks, the council reversed from Marie Jeanne Delaunay, Carenan's itself, following an appeal years and mother of his six children. legitimate wife of thirteen court's right to take away her husband's Without challenging the high that his life had included "public freedom, Delaunay noted years, the repeated deeds ofa free possession [of his liberty] for forty contracted before the altar-in citizen, a steady (marriage] union a word protect him from the rigors of the law everything and that would seem to some formalities." >>2 make up for [the lack of] Paul Carenan's story illustrates three colored experience in the 1760s. important aspects of the free ing of his place in colonial First, it exposes his own understandpowerful connections: his society. He was a respected figure Denis new plantation had with Carenan, a white man who was probably his previously belonged to because of his social position, Carenan father.3 Complacent was unaware that his liberty from the rigors of the law everything and that would seem to some formalities." >>2 make up for [the lack of] Paul Carenan's story illustrates three colored experience in the 1760s. important aspects of the free ing of his place in colonial First, it exposes his own understandpowerful connections: his society. He was a respected figure Denis new plantation had with Carenan, a white man who was probably his previously belonged to because of his social position, Carenan father.3 Complacent was unaware that his liberty --- Page 95 --- BEFORE HAITI Second, the episode demonstrates the needed government approval. whites and free people of color in the increasing friction between was not local, but stemmed 1770s. In Carenan's case the problem to exert authority over from the attempts of officials in Port-au-Prince 4 and 5 explain, racial free people of color. As chapters even wealthy in colonial society after 1769 because feuding identity became central agreed to write and enforce new racial colonial judges and governors of this process. laws. Carenan's case was an early example notarial documents were Third, this episode shows how important counted her husband's ofcolor. Marie Jeanne Delaunay to free people his "repeated deeds of a free many notarized transactions among contracts. Even though the citizen, 27 for slaves could not enter legal its notarial archives to strip Carenan of his liberty, state was trying helped save him from this fate. the Carenan story are the subject The multiple tensions revealed by between free people of color, of this chapter, which surveys relations the importance of slaves, and the colonial state in the 1760s. Despite by this decade social class and local relationships in creole society, final authorgovernors and legal officials possessed Saint-Domingue's woman ofcolor would live in freedom ity over whether a given man or the colonial state, not indiFrom this moment forward, or in slavery. and documents that would bring vidual masters, defined the actions formalization of freedom liberty to a person of color. This increasing like Paul Carenan, and humiliations for planters posed new dangers of color. Although interracial but it did have benefits for poorer people wealthy families in relationships within elite creole society protected free people of African the 1760s, whites did harass and exploit poorer illustrates, many of descent because of their color. As this chapter notarial system, the institutions like the these people turned to official constabulary to defend their militia hierarchy, and the slave-hunting freedom. shows how free people of color used The first part ofthis chapter texts that guaranteed their Saint-Domingue's notaries to create legal Even though many rights, and personal security. liberty, property understood how the colony's legal could not sign their names, they about legal formalities. system functioned and were often scrupulous themselves against accuThey notarized even minor sales, to protect civil affidavits with royal sations of theft. They filed criminal and serve them in court. creating formal evidence that might notaries, laws gave European masters near-total Although Saint-Domingue's they also permitted free people of control over their African slaves, drafted frequently whites. The affidavits that free coloreds color to sue security. liberty, property understood how the colony's legal could not sign their names, they about legal formalities. system functioned and were often scrupulous themselves against accuThey notarized even minor sales, to protect civil affidavits with royal sations of theft. They filed criminal and serve them in court. creating formal evidence that might notaries, laws gave European masters near-total Although Saint-Domingue's they also permitted free people of control over their African slaves, drafted frequently whites. The affidavits that free coloreds color to sue --- Page 96 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 85 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE and whites' reactions show that they took refered to pending lawsuits, these formal complaints seriously. describes armed service as another The second part of this chapter themselves of color used the colonial state to distance way free people their social status vis à vis whites. Wearing from slavery and reinforce militia unit demonstrated their a royal bandoleer or commanding France. a This chapter introduces two loyalty to the slave regime and to and institutions that depended on free colored participation, military the focus of controversies described in following which would become militia, part of a mandatory system in chapters. First, the free colored is examined through the which whites served in their own companies, the South Province at least, social position of three ofits officers. In oftheir militia service. Even free men of color were not visibly proud rarely noted this fact in those who commanded their own companies constabulary, a separate documents. Second, the slave hunting of legal mostly of poor free men body whose members were composed kinds of daily tensions that existed color, provides evidence of the and whites. between poorer free people of color, slaves, of Africans was a basic tenet of slave Because the cultural inferiority writing. colonists believed that blacks were mystified by society, many described slaves newly arrived in the French Jean-Baptiste Labat must be a sorcerer to make paper talk.' 99 Antilles: *They say that one claimed of Saintlater Moreau de Saint-Méry Eighty years astonishes them the most in Whites is Domingue's blacks, "What Whites would have called the blacks that the writing : : . and they say discovery. 29 Yet many free peosorcerers ifthey had made this precious aware of how the illiterate, were keenly ple of color, even though functioned. It was rare to find a someone colony's legal mechanisms who told a notary in 1784 that like Marie Magdelaine Cocoyer, document and was ignorant of the she had never drafted an official 4 procedures surrounding such deeds.* and understood that Many free people of color had been enslaved, needed royal were the key to freedom. They knew they official papers after the authenticate their liberty papers, especially notaries to laws in 1767. In 1685 government established new manumission authority to free their the Code Noir had given masters near-complete had tried to force slaves. But since the 1720s, colonial governors Most colonists seem masters to ask permission for cach manumission. masters these laws. In 1745, hoping to discourage to have ignored surrounding such deeds.* and understood that Many free people of color had been enslaved, needed royal were the key to freedom. They knew they official papers after the authenticate their liberty papers, especially notaries to laws in 1767. In 1685 government established new manumission authority to free their the Code Noir had given masters near-complete had tried to force slaves. But since the 1720s, colonial governors Most colonists seem masters to ask permission for cach manumission. masters these laws. In 1745, hoping to discourage to have ignored --- Page 97 --- BEFORE HAITI from freeing SO many slaves, Versailles the Lesser Antilles colonies ordered the administrators of and 600 livres to free to charge 1,000 livres to free a a woman.5 By the 1760s, man administrators were demanding 800 livres to Saint-Domingue's This was the kind oftax and intrusion register a liberty deed. the colony's two high courts on masters' prerogatives that Seven Years War, the Council normally fought. However, during the slave regulations that identified ofCap Français published a collection of official contracts for blacks and a new problem; notaries were drafting could not prove their mulattos who claimed to be free but liberty. After the new governor, Charles war, in 1764 a controversial d'Estaing, more free people of color and he reduced believed Saint-Domingue needed 800 to 300 livres. the manumission fee from D'Estaing noted that not have proper liberty papers, and he many free people of color did for 300 livres. This did began delivering official change not survive his copies tenure, described in chapter 4. brief and tumultuous After d'Estaing, administrators and to create and enforce new colonial judges worked together 1767. They noted that "a number manumission of regulations, promulgated in free and live as such, in virtue of a slaves believe themselves to be In other cases, indebted simple ticket from their masters. >>7 creditors. From planters liberated valuable slaves, formal 1767, therefore, frecing a slave defrauding request to the governor and required submitting a it with a royal notary. These high intendant, usually after registering for granting the liberty and whether administrators evaluated the reasons liberty tax. Ifapproved, the or not to waive the 800 livres payment of the tax and request passed to an official who recorded Here, in order sent it on to the clerk ofthe to alert creditors, the court regional court. proposed manumission during three publicly announced the sition emerged over this period, the consecutive sessions. Ifno opporeturned to the office oft the intendant document, by now well marked, it pass into the hands ofthe for ratification. Only then did be officially free. As Paul individual, who from that moment would au-Prince Carenan discovered in 1770, Council was intent on enforcing this the PortGiven the difficulty of obtaining these new procedure. surprising that free people of color official documents, it is not before the new procedures guarded them carefully, even a mulâtresse whose were put into place. Madelaine Clavier master freed her was had a notary inscribe this informal privately in 1748. In 1753 she When Clavier died in 1767 liberty into his official register. trunk in her bedroom, officials found a locked mahogany and a cigar case containing the large sum of500 livres in coin containing her proof of liberty. 8 The free quarteron that free people of color official documents, it is not before the new procedures guarded them carefully, even a mulâtresse whose were put into place. Madelaine Clavier master freed her was had a notary inscribe this informal privately in 1748. In 1753 she When Clavier died in 1767 liberty into his official register. trunk in her bedroom, officials found a locked mahogany and a cigar case containing the large sum of500 livres in coin containing her proof of liberty. 8 The free quarteron --- Page 98 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 87 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE log house in Nippes in which Jean-Baptiste Petit lived in a dilapidated of paper, one connotaries found little ofvalue besides seven packets with docuof freedom for Petit's family and another in taining proofs manumission of a mulatto woman. In Haiti ments for the pending Ira Lowenthal had an informant in the carly 1980s the anthropologist held the 1780 manumission papers of the old Nippes district who still one of his ancestors." 9 of freedom was Even before the 1767 reform, if a master's promise a slave in recorded by a notary, a slave risked remaining not publicly Catherine Thisbé of'Cayes found this to be the eyes of other masters. in the Les Cayes district, true after her master Dubignon, a planter be free ifshe served until his specified on his deathbed that she would widow lived on wife's death." 10 Although he died in 1749, Dubignon's Thisbé went to Sieur Delagautraye, until 1755. At that point sole heir of his estate, to obtain her freeDubignon's stepson and the that she had belonged to his mother's dom. But Delagautraye claimed formal procedures to not to Dubignon. He initiated first husband, Thisbé was forced to go into hiding for nearly a return her to slavery. 1764 that she was able to meet decade. It was only in September Les Cayes on a tour of the Governor d'Estaing, who was visiting confirmation ofher liberty and colony. He provided herwith a written to have this approval Thisbé immediately went to a royal notary record. copied into his register, making it part ofthe public Alexandre were Benjamin and his brother The mulattos Jacques difficulties when they visited a notary in the hoping to avoid similar Fauvil had of Les Cayes in 1769. Their master Jean-Baptiste town years earlier, and this arrangefreed them privately over twenty-three and intendant. Yet the ment had been approved by the governor fact was a single sheet Benjamins' only proof of this important into his public which they requested the notary to copy of paper, records.' 11 the importance of manumisFree people of color also appreciated liberated others from sion papers because they themselves frequently attracted more free colored slavery. No kind of notarial transaction deeds, which meant that participants in the 1760s than manumission freedom process. played the role of master in the bureaucratic the many about 23 percent (70 of 310) of People of color manumitted and Nippes districts in the slaves freed in the Cayes, Saint Louis, manumittors were women half of these free colored 1760s. Nearly children were the most likely candidates (32 of70). Across the board, of the manumittor. But of the race or gender for freedom, regardless unusual in that they freed almost as many free women of color were umission freedom process. played the role of master in the bureaucratic the many about 23 percent (70 of 310) of People of color manumitted and Nippes districts in the slaves freed in the Cayes, Saint Louis, manumittors were women half of these free colored 1760s. Nearly children were the most likely candidates (32 of70). Across the board, of the manumittor. But of the race or gender for freedom, regardless unusual in that they freed almost as many free women of color were --- Page 99 --- BEFORE HAITI that they were trying to liberate adults as children, which suggests entire families. the notarial system regularly to Free people of color also used Saint-Domingue was an defend themselves against harassment. free between litigious society. In 1786, with a population extremely heard some 34,409 lawsuits, 40,000 and 50,000, the colony's judges the Code Noir nor subseand rendered 30,766 judgments. Neither free people of color legislation in Saint-I Domingue prohibited such quent and the notary's office was the place where from suing whites, Rogers has examined approximately lawsuits often began. Dominique ofcolorin Cap Français and Port400 legal cases involving free people free coloreds sued whites in au-Prince in the 1780s, and found that 12 Even those free people of civil cases and frequently won their suits.' used notarial docuto pursue whites before a judge color unwilling social hierarchy, and kin ments to negotiate the matrix of convention, between whites and slaves. relations that defined their social position lumber worker Louis for the free mulatto In 1764, example, himselfin a sexual triangle involving his Bourelier ofLes Cayes found In 1754 Bourelier borrowed white uncle and a black slave woman. He traded the new 1,600 livres to buy an African from a slave ship.1 for Cathos, a 600 livres in specie, to a planter in exchange not slave, plus with his child. Bourelier did black woman who was pregnant he could not afford the tax. But manumit Cathos, perhaps because according to Bourelier, planter and [the white] brother of Sieur Jean-Baptiste Bourelier, an affection for the négresse the declarant's father . had developed occasions to free the said négresse [Cathos, and] urged him on several to which he would never consent. therefore, that on October 8, The free mulatto was surprised to learn, from the colonial Cathos had obtained formal freedom papers 1756, that his uncle, the white planter, had engiadministration. He assumed about it "as much out of neered this manumission, and did nothing that Cathos's liberty as out of fear. 29 Furthermore, he believed respect he still owed money for her purchase. Eight years was invalid because somewhat. With his debt still later this "respect" and ofear" had cbbed unfit for work and a pocket unpaid and his assets reduced to an old slave intention to sue Cathos or watch, the lumber worker announced his manumission." 99 others [for her] surreptitious "any responsible a white planter for Louis Bourelier could not compete against Bourelier freed the black Cathos's affection. But when Jean-Baptiste he believed respect he still owed money for her purchase. Eight years was invalid because somewhat. With his debt still later this "respect" and ofear" had cbbed unfit for work and a pocket unpaid and his assets reduced to an old slave intention to sue Cathos or watch, the lumber worker announced his manumission." 99 others [for her] surreptitious "any responsible a white planter for Louis Bourelier could not compete against Bourelier freed the black Cathos's affection. But when Jean-Baptiste --- Page 100 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 89 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE robbed his free mulatto nephew of woman from slavery, he effectively her. However, the free man the money he had borrowed to purchase his white uncle of theft. of color was unwilling to openly accuse social network, he if Louis Bourelier had had a stronger comPerhaps another planter to ask Jean-Baptiste for might have convinced he hoped that writing his story into pensation on his behalf. Instead, his uncle to action. Using official registers would prod the notary's a matter of public record. As the notary, he made his private grievance reveals nothing more is frequently the case, the notory's register about this dispute. were not SO oblique about challenging Other free people of color manumitted mulatto woman, whites. In July 1765, Jeanne, a recently white resident of the town signed a contract with Joseph Beauvais, a Beauvais agreed to pay her ofLes Cayes, to work as his housckeeper. "nourishment, lodgings, and an annual salary of500 livres and supply He also with her status and condition." medicine - . in conformity worth 1,200 livres within two to nine promised to give her a slave girl months. Jeanne's transition out of slavery in This arrangement certified the very Since slaves could not enter legal contracts, several ways. confirmed her new freedom, even though drafting of this agreement contract too, as her patron. And her former owner signed the herown right, with his gift Beauvais was going to make her a masterin of a slave. Jeanne, agreed for her part: in the service of the said to enter from this day and immediately : and to stay there as long Sieur Beauvais as his governing housekeeper, services and she, equally, with his as he is content and satisfied with her treatment and behavior toward her.14 good Jeanne back before the same It was this last condition that brought without her former master, notary within a month, this time bad behavior toward her . during all the to complain of [Beauvais'] to swear at her and to time that she stayed with him not once ceasing as far as to threaten scold her for no reason and about nothing, going named Margueritte, her wash the feet ofhis favorite Tnégrese), to make to do, this is probably the reason which [Jeanne] is not at all prepared her the time to take her he put her out in this way, without leaving belongings. 15 Beauvais lost a black woman servant he had Earlier that very year, that she serve him for six more freed from slavery on the condition swear at her and to time that she stayed with him not once ceasing as far as to threaten scold her for no reason and about nothing, going named Margueritte, her wash the feet ofhis favorite Tnégrese), to make to do, this is probably the reason which [Jeanne] is not at all prepared her the time to take her he put her out in this way, without leaving belongings. 15 Beauvais lost a black woman servant he had Earlier that very year, that she serve him for six more freed from slavery on the condition --- Page 101 --- BEFORE HAITI after only two. 16 Jeanne knew that as a free years. She disappeared rights to "good treatment" from Beauvais. woman she had contractual his slave mistress, nor would she accept She would not kneel before eviction without her personal possessions. Hérard, a free mulatto from the A notarized declaration by Pierre of color could use the threat of city of Les Cayes, shows how a man On December 30, 1764, royal justice to pressure a white family. Les Cayes merHérard was standing on the doorstep ofa prominent struck him from behind chant house about five p.m., when someone Hérard recognized Gellée, a stick. Wheeling around, with a walking his protests with two more blows from white planter, who answered a word. Several men witnessed his cane and then left, without saying headed for the offices ofa royal the episode and at six o'clock Hérard had closed his office for the notary, to file an affidavit. The notary the licutenant ofthe local connight, but Hérard found a surgeon and when Gellée with them at seven p.m. stabulary, and was consulting and his walking stick in the walked up. With his sword under one arm aside and said to him, other hand, the white man pulled Hérard according to Hérard, to M. Louet [the mayor of Les So it is you [toi] who complained him Monsieur, you [vous] struck mc Cayes). The declarant said to Yes, which the said Sieur Gelléc for no reason, it is right that I complain, to with his hand, be careful,you said to him, making a threatening gesture have only to walk straight and withdraw yourself.7 overheard this threat and Hérard decided The surgeon and constable affidavit to a notary, stressing his to pursue his case. He dictated an When Gellée addressed him using deference towards the white man. < vous" opu" Hérard responded with the more respectful the familiar to take his case before the and *Monsieur." Appointing an attorney under "the safeguard of the regional court, Hérard placed himself the said Sieur Gellée be forbidKing and ofj justice" and asked "that the future."' 2> This threat of den to insult or mistreat the declarant in <Gellée the younger," to legal action led one member of the family, for a second notarized Hérard 135 livres, about the price of a cow, the pay Gellée had never attacked him. However, affidavit that the young the notary to declare that if young following day, Hérard returned to older Gellée had. His poor Gellée had not beaten him, then an had led to the confuision."* acquaintance with the family, he explained, man of color Sixte Poulain was another propertied and respected satisfaction without a victimized by a white man, but he could not get Hérard 135 livres, about the price of a cow, the pay Gellée had never attacked him. However, affidavit that the young the notary to declare that if young following day, Hérard returned to older Gellée had. His poor Gellée had not beaten him, then an had led to the confuision."* acquaintance with the family, he explained, man of color Sixte Poulain was another propertied and respected satisfaction without a victimized by a white man, but he could not get --- Page 102 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 91 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE free The Poulains were a large and relatively prominent lawsuit. district. In the 1760s, two Poulain colored family in the Cayes married white men; perhaps his cousins, daughters, or sisters, women, the friends and relatives of free colored orphans on several occasions be of the children. selected Sixte and his brothers to guardians title "Sieur" in who often accorded Poulain the respectful Notaries, free mestif, ofone-e eighth African ancestry. contracts, described him as a his horse in the pasture ofa friendly As was common practice, he kept named Baugé, who was married to a but impoverished white planter free mulâtresse." 1766 a white surgeon named Rousseau One day in February Poulain's horse. He claimed it visited the Baugé plantation and saw and took it home,20 As soon was his animal, stolen ten months earlier, for the surgeon and told heard this news, he went looking as Poulain owned the horse for nine years without interruption, him that he had He offered to produce written evidence since acquiring it in a trade. As Poulain told transaction, but Rousseau was unyielding. of that a affair . : into a bad one by the notary, "not wishing to turn good Rousseau that he indiscreet replies" he withdrew, warning some his accusations before the court. would have to prove he owned the animal, he could not Although Poulain could prove He had been labeled a force Rousseau even to examine that evidence. could offer a free man of the worst insult one horse thief, reportedly for all his local connections, color in Saint-Domingue, but Poulain, In a society where some could not risk an *indiscreet" comment. affront, he withdrew to blows at the slightest white men exchanged Rousseau with legal weapons. the notary's office, to fight accused of selling stolen property for Because they were often documented events that slaves, many free people of color carefully 1768, Nicolle, a free might be interpreted as theft. In September ended a long wait of color living in the hills behind Les Cayes, woman of three slaves she had leased to a Sieur Canard, to take possession and sheep in his pastures2i who also allowed her to keep COWS, goats, her But no Canard died, she sued his estate to reclaim property. When decision ever reached her. Meanwhile Canard's notice ofthe court's had been sold, and his heirs executor had died, part of his plantation slaves returned to her on had abandoned the remaining land. Nicolle's sick and "dying ofhunger." their own initiative, would kill her livestock, she went to Afraid that this neglect animals. She then and brought back thirty-six Canard's plantation Although she was unable made an official declaration before a notary. she had confiscated far fewer to sign her name, Nicolle stipulated that . When decision ever reached her. Meanwhile Canard's notice ofthe court's had been sold, and his heirs executor had died, part of his plantation slaves returned to her on had abandoned the remaining land. Nicolle's sick and "dying ofhunger." their own initiative, would kill her livestock, she went to Afraid that this neglect animals. She then and brought back thirty-six Canard's plantation Although she was unable made an official declaration before a notary. she had confiscated far fewer to sign her name, Nicolle stipulated that --- Page 103 --- BEFORE HAITI animals than were listed in Canard's least, she was safe from accusations inventory. With this affidavit, at If settled landowners of cattle rustling. like Poulain and courts and notaries to prove their Nicolle had to rely on the slavery had a much more difficult honesty, people recently freed from Saint-Méry claimed that "in the time. In the 1780s, Moreau de there is a great distance between opinion ofthe freedmen themselves Although Moreau saw black freedmen and the this as a racial others. social class, not color. As he distinction, it was really based on whose habits differ from explained, "There are very few free blacks Province free those of black slaves. >22 In the people of color who chose slaves South risked being treated as slaves as friends and lovers Despite their low status, themselves, no matter what their color. the colonial courts for however, some ofthese free people turned to The help, especially after white story that a free mulatto named Pierre patrons failed them. 1763 provides an example of this Moreau told a notary in born free, but he had close ties recourse to the law. Moreau was parish of Jacmel, to the world of slavery. In his cast of Aquin on the southern native relationship with Perrine, a black coast, he formed a her white owner Prior. In 1761 plantation slave, with the consent of widow in Les Cayes or 1762, when Prior married a Moreau parish and moved there with his planter's followed them. He lived with a free black slaves, Pierre near Prior's new estate. It was in this cousin on a plantation lines of patronage and servitude new setting that the established became tangled with those ofother linking Prior, Perrine, and Morcau Sometime in late 1762, Pierre Moreau masters. from a white plantation overseer and bought a young gelded pig entrusted it for commandeur, an clite plantation slave who fattening to a black other slaves. Moreau later learned directed the field work of a different plantation had stolen that the son ofanother slave driver on of a third neighbor, Sieur his animal and hidden it with the slaves it back to the white overseer LaPorte. he Moreau recaptured his pig and took had as the same animal.? 23 He then bought it from, who recognized it Perrine, for he had originally went to the Prior plantation to see While Moreau was purchased the pig as a gift for her. he did not recognize waiting for his friend at Prior's gate, two came to tell him that slaves had harbored the stolen animal, Sieur LaPorte, whose slaves with him. Moreau told them was visiting Prior and wanted to talk several minutes later the white LaPorte could speak with him there and white men, including Prior's planter arrived with four or five other seized Moreau, overseer and his sugar refiner. dragged him back to the They about the pig, which LaPorte claimed house, and interrogated him had been stolen from his slaves. for his friend at Prior's gate, two came to tell him that slaves had harbored the stolen animal, Sieur LaPorte, whose slaves with him. Moreau told them was visiting Prior and wanted to talk several minutes later the white LaPorte could speak with him there and white men, including Prior's planter arrived with four or five other seized Moreau, overseer and his sugar refiner. dragged him back to the They about the pig, which LaPorte claimed house, and interrogated him had been stolen from his slaves. --- Page 104 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 93 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE situation, his friend Perrine, Informed of Moreau's dangerous who had bred the pig for Prior's slave, sent a message to the overseer Prior's plantaof Moreau's ownership. In the meantime written proof Moreau as if he were their property. They tion staff was torturing of leg irons attached to a bed, and locked him overnight in a set the At just this staked him spread-eagle to ground. the next morning, note to her master's plantamoment Perrine brought the overseer's Moreau later filed, the white to an affidavit tion manager. According that such things mercly showed man just kept the note, "saying been supervised. >9 Then two of cleverness and that their mischiefhad side, Moreau, black slave drivers, one on each flogged the plantation'st him to the leg irons. eventually returning the free mulatto escaped that afternoon, Although badly injured, himself outside. He hid in the cane by claiming he needed to relieve plantation, until nightfall, then made his way to a neighboring fields knew hid him for the next twenty-four hours. The where a slave he into the city of Les Cayes, where he following evening he limped Indian from Martinique, found shelter with a friend, a Caraibe again outside town. At seven the next morning, who lived in the pasture just before a royal notary to carried by three persons, Moreau appeared thief that at this formal The accused recognized lodge a complaint. documentation to protect himself. Although point he needed official was well aware of the he could not sign his name, Pierre Moreau against his mechanisms of royal justice and planned to press charges of the assailants. A notary recorded his story in the presence white then an examination by two acting royal attorney. Moreau requested about his medical condition.24 surgeons, who submitted affidavits free of color, living on the Moreau's story shows how poor friends people and associates on both very edge of slavery and freedom, existence with in slave society. Although sides of that line, negotiated their already had a social network that he was new to the parish, Moreau and rural and urban people of included white overseers, slave drivers, LaPorte considered those color. But white planters like Prior and When Moreau relationships to be under their private jurisdiction. whom he had no client dealt with the slaves of a white planter with the free out of his control. By punishing relationship, events spun slaves the patronage he could exert mulatto, LaPorte showed his own and crime ofthe neighborhood. for them in the petty commerce Moreau turned to the state as a substiThe story survived because failed him. His affidavit does not say tute for Prior, the patron who the that tortured him, but whether Perrine's master was among group LaPorte. In July 1764 Prior was either unwilling or unable to stop client dealt with the slaves of a white planter with the free out of his control. By punishing relationship, events spun slaves the patronage he could exert mulatto, LaPorte showed his own and crime ofthe neighborhood. for them in the petty commerce Moreau turned to the state as a substiThe story survived because failed him. His affidavit does not say tute for Prior, the patron who the that tortured him, but whether Perrine's master was among group LaPorte. In July 1764 Prior was either unwilling or unable to stop --- Page 105 --- BEFORE HAITI Morcau initiated a lawsuit against vive. But his experiences LaPorte, of which no records surcolor who practically lived demonstrate in that even those free people of the documents they created the slave world saw royal notaries and Without the as a way to assert their rights as free men. authenticity and respectability conferred signature and seal, Moreau would have had by the notary's ing his innocence before a planter little success in establishWhile Pierre Moreau acting as self-appointed was a free mulatto judge. social network, Jean and Marie with a wide and varied lived in the Nippes district Louise Barbier were free blacks who from the overlapping on an island at the mouth oftwo rivers, far location ofs several patronage systems of the plantation zone. The caboteurs, the boatmen fishing and camps, the island was also a rendezvous for merchandise traders who ferried passengers, along the coast. 25 Despite this crops, and acy, the Barbiers, like Pierre isolation and their illitermisfortune struck. Moreau, knew to turn to a notary when One October morning in 1768, the couple left their daughter Victoire at their cabin while seven-year-old and Marie Louise gathered wood Jean hunted with his musket the two of for the household. About them, not far from home, heard five p.m. back to the cabin, they found her Victoire's cries. Rushing a black slave struggling in the arms belonging to Leblanc, a ofAlexandre, who normally transported wood boatman from Port-au-Prince Leblanc, from Nippes to the colonial Alexandre, and three other members ofhis capital. ing Victoire towards their canoe. Jean crew were carrynot shoot, in fear of injuring his Barbier raised his gun but did and his crew.attacked, daughter. As he hesitated, Leblanc Louise in the stomach. breaking one ofJean's teeth and kicking Marie held both Victoire Barbier When the raiders' boat cleared the shore it valuable material and Jean's musket, probably his most possession. Apparently without slaves, family, or friends to defense, Jean, Marie Louise, and Victoire come to their for Leblanc and his crew. In Barbier were ideal victims sell the child as a Port-au-Prince the boatmen could slave; even if the Barbiers were able casily daughter in the colonial capital, they would to find their free. Two days after the attack, the still have to prove she was nearby plantation and made a formal Barbiers found a notary on a their intention to bring charges declaration of events, explaining for the kidnapping. 26 against Leblanc and his accomplices As these stories illustrate, France's notarial legal traditions inspired by Roman system, like that ofother poorest free people of color. By law, was a valuable tool for the providing an unimpeachable record of casily daughter in the colonial capital, they would to find their free. Two days after the attack, the still have to prove she was nearby plantation and made a formal Barbiers found a notary on a their intention to bring charges declaration of events, explaining for the kidnapping. 26 against Leblanc and his accomplices As these stories illustrate, France's notarial legal traditions inspired by Roman system, like that ofother poorest free people of color. By law, was a valuable tool for the providing an unimpeachable record of --- Page 106 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 95 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE to, or paid, a notarized affidavit, contract, or what a client said, agreed voice for women and men who were deed of sale provided a public white relative, or powerotherwise under the control ofan employer, into a legal system Thus notaries provided a doorway ful neighbor. from whites, especially in that free people of color used to get justice court of property. Though many of Saint-Domingue's 1780s questions the hundreds of cases from the archives have disappeared, this conclusion.7 studied by Dominique Rogers strongly support era, notaries for the coming of the Revolutionary More important constituted the beginnings of a public space. and the legal system form ofp public speech for free Notarial declarations were an acceptable could marshal evidence an arena where men and women men ofcolor, oftheir social or racial status. The in defense of their rights regardless Paris- a merchant and a first free colored spokesmen in revolutionary that historians have planter-were SO skilled at legalistic argument >29 mistakenly described them as "lawyers. * were another public arena in The colonial militia and constabulary and defended their freedom. which, free men of color demonstrated became the central issue in white After 1769, colonial militia service civilian for unsuccessful struggle to secure government colonists' During and after this bitter political controversy, Saint-Domingue. that their armed service to the French state free people of color argued as chapters 4 and 7 explain. proved they were suitable for citizenship, militia service before 1769, It is difficult to describe free colored of Saint-Domingue's because of the unpopularity however. Perhaps administrators kept almost no detailed militia system, the colony's Governor La Luzerne searched the records ofthe institution. In 1786 neither militia lists nor records records of his predecessors and found notarial records commissions before 1768.30 Nevertheless, of officers' do reveal that the men who commanded free and other documents Province were respected members of colored militia units in the South the region's old creole elite. free blacks formed their own miliIn the arca around Cap Français, after the siege of from other free men, sometime tia company, separate of mixed ancestry served with whites Cartagena in 1697. Free men this self-conscionsly-black until after 1724. In the South Province, colonial and the diviclass of free men did not emerge in the occurred period much later. sion between whites and men ofcolor, generally, official in Les Cayes when the royal governor wrote to an In 1734, 's old creole elite. free blacks formed their own miliIn the arca around Cap Français, after the siege of from other free men, sometime tia company, separate of mixed ancestry served with whites Cartagena in 1697. Free men this self-conscionsly-black until after 1724. In the South Province, colonial and the diviclass of free men did not emerge in the occurred period much later. sion between whites and men ofcolor, generally, official in Les Cayes when the royal governor wrote to an In 1734, --- Page 107 --- BEFORE HAITI district of his intention to prohibit men of white militia, the local official color from serving in the residents had some measure of mixed responded that virtually all local carly 1740s, probably ancestry. 31 It was not until the Succession in at the beginning of the War of 1742, that the royal licutenant for Austrian white and free colored militiamen Les Cayes separated For two to four decades into distinct companies. 32 free colored militia after their formation, units were commanded Saint-Domingue's the frontier, race was not the by men of color. Yet, on positions. In Torbec primary criterion for these ofthe parish, west ofthe town leadership free colored militia was a white ofLes Cayes, the captain Caribbean-born like man, François Farin, until 1760. descended many of his Torbec from colonists who came to neighbors, Farin was ing the island of Saint- Christophe Saint-Domingue. after evacuatvictory in 1702. In the southern (Saint Kitts), after a major English two separate Farin households peninsula, the census of 1720 listed François Farin had a in the same region where, in 1760, shared creole plantation and served as militia roots may have captain. These Farin and his free colored strengthened the relationship between free mulatto indigo neighbors in Torbec. One of them was the planter Jean was also descended from wealthy Domingue Hérard (chapter 2) who After Farin died in 1760, colonists named in the 1720 census, managed it for the militia Hérard moved onto his plantation and Farin probably captain's white brother and sister. 33 because of his skill served as leader of Torbec's free colored at hunting escaped slaves. militia enslaved population As grew in the 1730s and Saint-Domingue's isolated southern peninsula attracted 1740s, the rugged and freebooters and buccaneers maroons just as it had drawn Mountains between Les earlier. For a long time the Bluc raider known Cayes and Saint Louis sheltered as Pompé, who was eventually a maroon used by the native Taino people. The captured in a cavern once sula, across the mountains from northwest coast of the peninled by Plymouth, an escaped Torbec, was home to a maroon band and his followers slave originally purchased in were SO dangerous and Jamaica. He mobilize militia units from across the stealthy that planters had to the hills. It was the mulatto province to flush them out of commanded militia of the Cayes by François Farin, that plain, probably gave his name to this wilderness eventually killed Plymouth, and relatives may have remained in these region. Indeed, Farin or one of his Torbec. Moreau de Saint-Méry unsettled mountains, SO close to officer named Farin who lived described a retired constabulary 1750s, "until he tired in the Plymouth wilderness of the solitude. >2 In 1760, when in the the Torbec province to flush them out of commanded militia of the Cayes by François Farin, that plain, probably gave his name to this wilderness eventually killed Plymouth, and relatives may have remained in these region. Indeed, Farin or one of his Torbec. Moreau de Saint-Méry unsettled mountains, SO close to officer named Farin who lived described a retired constabulary 1750s, "until he tired in the Plymouth wilderness of the solitude. >2 In 1760, when in the the Torbec --- Page 108 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 97 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE his last wishes from his sickbed, he commilitia captain dictated Creole" for his devoted service mended his 36-year-old slave *Jerome in which he has bravely and "notably in my hunts for maroon slaves, no other slaves, but he faithfully seconded me.' >9 François Farin freed left Jerome his musket and his freedom. succeeded Farin as Torbec's Jacques Boury, who seems to have did not share his prefree colored militia captain in 1760, probably the forests of the decessor's devotion to tracking men through The interior.35 But this work was no longer the militia's responsibility. constabulary or had expanded the slave-hunting royal government on external threats. maréchaussée, leaving the militia to concentrate Seven Years' War, and troubling during the These were especially militia companies worked from 1760 to 1763, Saint-I Domingue's fortifications for an expected harder than ever before, preparing around Cap invasion from Jamaica. French troops were concentrated West almost entirely in Français, leaving the defense ofthe South and critical because its coastthe hands of militiamen. Boury's district was Cayes and had controlled the western entrance to the port ofLes line favorite target of British raiders. 36 long been a occurred. But Boury's social background illusThe invasion never officials entrusted with this important trates the kind of man royal free colored militia was responsibility. The mulatto captain of Torbec's Boury children, the son and namesake of a Jacques the oldest of eight to the southern peninsula. who was probably: an early French immigrant that name, but in 1762 a The census of 1720 did not list a resident by the father, because he sought the testimony of Jacques Boury, notary had lived 40 years in Torbec parish. Like other cahr-eightceantdi-cemtuny Louise this first Boury had married a creole woman, father immigrants, notaries described as a free mulâtresse. Duteuil's Duteuil, who but her mother, Anne Thomas, was a free was probably a Frenchman, Sometime after giving birth to Louise black woman born in Jamaica. free mulatto saddle-maker, and her Duteuil, Anne Thomas married a the same craft. He did some white son-in-law Jacques Boury practiced described him after his animal doctoring as well, for Anne Thomas his neighbors' "saddler and master chatrer" who gelded death as a creole family of four daughters and livestock. This skill and his large network of contacts among four sons allowed the Frenchman to build a of color. When this older, local ranchers, who were often people the lucrative Boury died in 1765, he held potentially 37 white Jacques meat to butchers in the region. government contract to supply children were counted among the By the 1760s, his free colored saddler. A daughter, notables. One son, Alexis, was also a master parish creole family of four daughters and livestock. This skill and his large network of contacts among four sons allowed the Frenchman to build a of color. When this older, local ranchers, who were often people the lucrative Boury died in 1765, he held potentially 37 white Jacques meat to butchers in the region. government contract to supply children were counted among the By the 1760s, his free colored saddler. A daughter, notables. One son, Alexis, was also a master parish --- Page 109 --- BEFORE HAITI Louise Boury, married a white man born in Martinique Marie Anne livres to the union, equivalent to and brought property worth 22,300 husband made no recorded more than a dozen adult slaves. Her new the notary did not assign Though contribution to their houschold. contract, most were racial labels to those who witnessed the marriage descent. propertied pcople of mixed European/African was the free Jacques Boury's eldest son, also named Jacques, but not all, colored militia captain. He seems to have inherited much, Notaries often local society accorded his father. of the respect Boury and his brothers as "Sicur" in described this second Jacques like their father but not their contracts, and all the Boury children, wealthy Les Cayes could sign their names. In the relatively mother, him gain access to the most plantation district, Boury's name helped him in local society, but it did not grant equality. powerful figures attended the marriage contract of Jean When he and Julien Canard both of them shared with the Rey and Elizabeth Dégéac in 1761, colored sons of local notables.3 bridegroom the status of being free this elite gathering and the But they were the only men of color at in a different listed their names at the end of the contract, notary The notary did not identify their paragraph from the other guests. ofcolor as "Sieur," reserving race. But neither did he describe these men this title for the white guests. in which the son's racial identity There may have been other ways Within weeks of the first Jacques robbed him of his father's full legacy. transferred his father's Boury'sdeath in 1765, the second Jacques Boury bakers back to the coloresponsibilities over the regional butchers and he could not hold such a because as a man of color nial state, possibly accused free men of Official colonial butchers frequently responsibility. the supply of cattle from Santo Domingo. color ofillegally controlling Boury was a well-connected Nevertheless, the second Jacques of the royal courts. He was related figure, familiar with the workings of color through the free families to most of Torbec's propertied sisters. As eldest of the Boury clan, he marriages of his brothers and Anne Thomas. In housed his cighty-year-old free black grandmother, her testament she thanked him services that he has rendered me on all occasions and especially for the that I previously had at the Saint Louis court against in the great lawsuit claimed to be my son, in which lawsuit my the imposter who falsely advances [of money] and took all the necessary grandson made all the measures. 41 of color through the free families to most of Torbec's propertied sisters. As eldest of the Boury clan, he marriages of his brothers and Anne Thomas. In housed his cighty-year-old free black grandmother, her testament she thanked him services that he has rendered me on all occasions and especially for the that I previously had at the Saint Louis court against in the great lawsuit claimed to be my son, in which lawsuit my the imposter who falsely advances [of money] and took all the necessary grandson made all the measures. 41 --- Page 110 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 99 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE in 1769 Boury's militia rank put him at the As chapter 5 describes, colonial institution. But center of a controversy about this important office confirmed his position in the carly part ofthe decade his militia mobilize the social networks he owner, able to as a respected property The fact that he became militia and his family had constructed. faced its during the Seven Years' War, as Saint-Domingue captain threat in half-a-century, might have made Boury most serious external Nevertheless, he did not identify proud of his volunteer leadership. though whites militia officer in his notarial contracts, himself as a in the North Province in a later decade. often did, as did men of color expeditions around Cap Français, where SO many imperial The region seems to have had a military culture that landed and were launched, before the Revolution." 42 did not develop in the South colored militia officer in the The only other identifiable free the victim Guillaume Labadie of Aquin parish, South Province was 8). Labadie was one of of a famous near-lynching in 1789 (chapter Labadie, a native of free colored sons of Jean-Baptiste three or four have feared that his French relaBayonne, France. Jean-Baptiste may to his colonial children tives would prevent him from leaving property In August 1761, if he described these bequests in his last testament. the Frenchman gave about six months before he died, therefore, slaves worth 15,000 livres to his son Guillaume, 24 African and creole free of color in this valuable single donation to a person the most he another mulatto son, his region in the 1760s. That same day gave order that he can honestly twelve slaves "in namesake Jean-Baptiste, that was not in the gift maintain and support himself," an admonition deeded to his sons, he freed only Out of all these slaves to Guillaume. named Grande Mariane. The one that day, a black creole woman whether she was the mother of liberty deed said nothing about Guillaume or Jean-Baptiste. Guillaume Labadie was already By the time ofhis father's bequest, militia. He also owned his own a lieutenant in Aquin's free colored in 1762, as the notary recorded plantation, where his father lay dying drawing to a close and Jeanhis final wishes. The Seven Years' Warwas of the of named as his executor the white captain company was Baptiste in A lieutenant from that company Hussards stationed Aquin. deed, the colonist did at his bedside. But in this, his final legal to his present Instead he gave the bulk of his property not mention his sons. another white planter. These two men, neighbor Pierre Dasmard and the estate on to the who had free colored children oftheir own, passed Labadie brothers after their father was buried.4 wishes. The Seven Years' Warwas of the of named as his executor the white captain company was Baptiste in A lieutenant from that company Hussards stationed Aquin. deed, the colonist did at his bedside. But in this, his final legal to his present Instead he gave the bulk of his property not mention his sons. another white planter. These two men, neighbor Pierre Dasmard and the estate on to the who had free colored children oftheir own, passed Labadie brothers after their father was buried.4 --- Page 111 --- BEFORE HAITI helped Guillaume buy a refurbished This inheritance probably white in 1764. From the indigo estate for 25,000 livres from a planter to poorer free 1760s through the 1780s, he was a prominent patron for numerous free of color and served as the judicial guardian people married one ofJ Julien Delaunay's sisters, colored orphans. He eventually however, Guillaume Delaunay. 45 Like Jacques Boury, Françoise himselfa militia officerin any ofthese notarized Labadie rarely labeled documents. attitude that the events of 1769 would This reticence suggests an wealthy men of color in the confirm: like other propertied creoles, militia service. Ifthis was the South Province seem to have resented to be thankful for: their these free colored planters had one thing ranks case, freedom kept them out of the property and well-established maréchaussée, its slave-hunting of Saint-Domingue's hardworking constabulary. constables were the muscle oft the colonial state Saint-Domingue's from the poorest free colored classes, in day-to-day life. Drawn mostly the slave world and civil society, one they guarded the border between crossed themselves. Serving them had only recently that many among remote mountain paths and under white officers, they patrolled slaves. 46 Although they combed colonial cities, looking for maroon free colored victims charged with keeping the peace, were generally for a pig, or the like Pierre Moreau, who was whipped possessing whose daughter was homesteaders Jean and Marie Louise Barbier, for help. turning to the maréchausée kidnapped, were never reported such people of constables seem more likely to have suspected Indeed, them as citizens to be slaves than to regard sheltering escaped protected. slaves meant that the constables, like all free Their focus on escaped their behavior, of color who supervised slaves' work or monitored freedom people tension between their own lived enmeshed in the constant records reveal almost nothing and others' lack ofit. But the notarial for the slaves' plight. The quesabout whether they had any sympathy slave was a serious one to tion of free colored allegiance to the regime no major uprismost whites. Although Saint-Domingue experienced remarked that maroon wars before 1791, colonists frequently ings or war against the slave population, they were engaged in a permanent by which slaves might strike and that they lived in fear ofinvisible ways panicked over rumors that at them. In 1757, for example, masters and humans in the North African sorcerers were killing livestock that these poisoners Province. Fear spread quickly through the colony official wrote drive all whites from the island. 47 As one colonial would the regime no major uprismost whites. Although Saint-Domingue experienced remarked that maroon wars before 1791, colonists frequently ings or war against the slave population, they were engaged in a permanent by which slaves might strike and that they lived in fear ofinvisible ways panicked over rumors that at them. In 1757, for example, masters and humans in the North African sorcerers were killing livestock that these poisoners Province. Fear spread quickly through the colony official wrote drive all whites from the island. 47 As one colonial would --- Page 112 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 101 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE in 1758 after the capture of an alleged poisoner that all nigres in their superstitious practices the trial - . has proven instead of viewing their eventually progress to all crimes . . thereforc, nothing to with indifference, we must neglect so-called superstitions stop them. 48 slaves were native-born Though about half of Saint-Domingue's cultures as well colonists feared creolized Affican-Caribbean Africans, described island-born domestic as African practices. One source and the other servants, ) as accomslaves, "the coachman, the cook the loyalty of exWhites also questioned plices to the poisonings. descendants. Were they privy to deadly slaves and their freeborn slave in 1757 reportedly testified that cultural knowledge? An accused which can only lead to "there is a secret among [the blacks] know nothing ofthis and the the destruction ofthe colony; the whites free blacks are its principal force. >49 was a troubling one The question of cultural and political loyalties isolated estates. for free women or men of color managing slaves on behavior of African whites criticized the disruptive When neighboring into their own hands, there was little free workers and took matters Alexandre Fequière coloreds could do to defuse such confrontations. masters and that of between the world ofwhite was one man caught who managed the livestock black slaves. Fequière was a free mulatto 50 One evening two of ofhis white father-in-law, Jean Maignan. to pen their hut with a third slave who belonged Maignan's slaves were in Desportes's slave had come to the a white planter named Desportes. been unable to return because of and had pen to get provisions "these three nègres were together nightfall. According to Desportes, drum that was there, themselves in the hut, beating on a little hut.' 2) amusing planter, to go to the which caused Sieur Delmas, a neighboring himself before the door with a machete, preventing Delmas planted his Durand, who the slaves from leaving. He then urged companion the hut and "tear Delmas' with him, to enter lived on plantation injured the 29 Durand's machete blows severely the occupants apart. three men. duty with some other slaves about Fequière, returning from guard doctor and then informed his half-an-hour later, took the victims to a made no effort to and employer. He apparently white father-in-law other than to make an official declaraconfront Delmas and Durand, the white planter Desportes tion before a notary. Neither Fequière nor had arrived these events, but the free colored supervisor had witnessed enter lived on plantation injured the 29 Durand's machete blows severely the occupants apart. three men. duty with some other slaves about Fequière, returning from guard doctor and then informed his half-an-hour later, took the victims to a made no effort to and employer. He apparently white father-in-law other than to make an official declaraconfront Delmas and Durand, the white planter Desportes tion before a notary. Neither Fequière nor had arrived these events, but the free colored supervisor had witnessed --- Page 113 --- BEFORE HAITI and the details ofhis account provided the core soon after the incident three months later: the three of the affidavit Desportes filed nearly and the machete-wiclding slaves, the drum, the position of Delmas, But only Desportes, the were identical in both versions. role ofDurand the drum had "caused" Delmas to come to white man, testified that motive for the violence. the hut; Fequière assigned no But as Maignan's The omission might have been an oversight. attention to the Fequière may also have worried that calling steward, on his own African ancestry and away drum would focus attention As a free mulatto alone with from the violence and property corral damage. in the hills, Alexandre Fequière Maignan's slaves at an isolated he had allowed or encouraged the was vulnerable to suspicions that in his position depended on slaves to use their drum. His effectiveness he needed to be a presenting himself as Maignan's representative; issue ofhis own member ofthe master class and to avoid the complex cultural identity. occurred in 1768, according to Jean-Baptiste A similar situation 51 Massé white man, royal surveyor, and plantation manager. Massé, a parish that allowed its livestock to graze worked for an estate in Aquin ofthe animals strayed into freely during the day. One evening some and Massé sent a slave to the pasture ofthe adjacent Gaye plantation claiming that retrieve them. When the slave returned empty-handed, African slave oft the Bambara he had been harassed and beaten by an the road for an Massé went down explanation. nation named Auguste, Massé first asked for Marie Louise, Arriving at the Gaye plantation, there. She was probably the estate a free mulatto woman who lived Gaye in his affidavit. Marie Louise manager, for Massé never mentioned to leave, but Massé had her was at the gate with her mother, preparing had his slave been mistreated, he called back to the main house. Why allowed to collect the animals? wanted to know. Why had he not been of all that "answered him that she knew nothing Marie Louise remounted her horse and left." 97 and : . right away avoided Massé's attempt to involve her in Marie Louise probably because she knew his history. Two years disciplining Gaye's workers of a Kongo slave named earlier, Massé had ordered the flogging animals to trample Pierrot whom he had blamed for allowing Gaye's in the plantation IfMarie Louise or her mother had friends his crops. known what the slaves Auguste and Pierrot work force, they may have her exit was a wise strategy, resemwere about to do. In this case rapid about the slaves' drum. bling Alexandre Fequière's circumspection Massé addressed Auguste, the Once Marie Louise had gone, When this slave would not Bambara man accused of the beating. earlier, Massé had ordered the flogging animals to trample Pierrot whom he had blamed for allowing Gaye's in the plantation IfMarie Louise or her mother had friends his crops. known what the slaves Auguste and Pierrot work force, they may have her exit was a wise strategy, resemwere about to do. In this case rapid about the slaves' drum. bling Alexandre Fequière's circumspection Massé addressed Auguste, the Once Marie Louise had gone, When this slave would not Bambara man accused of the beating. --- Page 114 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 103 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE Massé turned to go. As he did, satisfactorily answer his questions, however, old tattered piece of doubled up lasso the said Auguste took an Pierrot Kongo which he held leperlin) from the hands of the said nègre ofthe said declarant, hidden behind his back and then [held] up-wind and shaking the said piece turning his [own] head, extending his arms, Monsicur, is what I beat oflasso with all his might saying to him, this, done him much harm, and nègre with, therefore I could not have arm and your shaken the said lasso he put it under his when he had amply who within a minute felt his moved downwind of the said declarant, his saliva stopped; he head seized, his mouth and throat inflamed, that moment that there was something supernatural understood at delay he left this stinking place : - . without saying there and without and Pierrot Kongo; but he was not anything to the said negresAuguste dead in his tracks, sud300 steps from there when he seemed to stop and in this miserable denly his breath and all his strength were gone him back his he called to God and begged his mercy to give state return [to the Daudin estate] and when strength and allow him to his route; but upon reaching the he felt a little restored he continued occurred. 52 Lazile road the same unfortunate accident and counted himself lucky that he had not Massé was ill for two days to the rumored of the Gaye slaves for water, a reference asked one it, Pierrot had engineered this slave poisonings. As Massé interpreted entire incident, to avoid another flogging. black More than any other free people of color, Saint-Domingue's of social and cultural constables these kinds and brown negotiated basis. The colony's police force or confrontations on a daily formed permanent maréchausée was born in 1721, when administrators combrigades after free black militia companies maroon-hunting charged with the task. The maréchaussée plained about always being whites but SO few enrolled intended to employ poor was originally administrators reformed the institution, now that in 1733 and 1739 ofcolor. The new marêchausée specifying that constables be free men who cabins for arms and report planters was to check slave periodically assemblies after dark. Archers allowed slaves to hold dances or other to slaves or rural taverns and close those selling liquor were to inspect directed maréchaussée brigades trafficking in stolen goods. The reform constables a daily searches for escaped slaves, paying to mount weckly their bounties. The ordinance rate for such work, and increasing of300 to 1,000 officers, paid all men a salary added more low-grade distinctive sashes while on and required them to wear livres a year, assemblies after dark. Archers allowed slaves to hold dances or other to slaves or rural taverns and close those selling liquor were to inspect directed maréchaussée brigades trafficking in stolen goods. The reform constables a daily searches for escaped slaves, paying to mount weckly their bounties. The ordinance rate for such work, and increasing of300 to 1,000 officers, paid all men a salary added more low-grade distinctive sashes while on and required them to wear livres a year, --- Page 115 --- BEFORE HAITI threatened to fine constables who let unqualified duty. The government symbol and to inflict corporal punishment persons wear this authority kind. Under these terms, by the midfor habitual offenses of this had grown from 33 to 167 maréchaussée 1760s Saint-Domingue's had brigades; in the southern men. Thirteen areas of the colonies while Nippes had the Saint Louis district had ten constables, peninsula force.53 an eight-man the archers of the maréchaussée were full-time Unlike militiamen, by white officers. In March 1745 agents of the crown, commanded mulatto from Les Cayes, was commissioned Mathurin Geffrard, a free connection with the Plymouth camleader, in as a brigade perhaps constables remained in the lower paign, but generally free colored the danger ofusing men ranks. Colonial administrators acknowledged of African a built upon the subordination of color to police society and brown constables would lose slaves. They worried that black soldiers and irate planters. respect for whites as they arrested deserting behavior, and in March They watched carefully for evidence of such archer were sentenced to 1777 a free mulatto sergeant and a free black for having three market days in shackles at Port-au-Prince spend and a white captain of the Port-au-Prince arrested, bound, gagged regiment as a descrter.st if they were too lenient to other Constables were also punished archers were sentenced to a people of color. In 1778 two free colored to help arrest a free month in prison without wages for refusing 55 Moreover, colonial mulatto who had been sentenced to be hanged. from those aspects expected constables to distance themselves In judges that whites found disorderly and decadent. of free colored society ordinance was issued September 1744, a police dances at night or the of the people of color [who] : : give on subject in battles that disturb the public tranquility; that calindas, which result assembly of mulatnotably last night there was held . a tumultuous in which several mulâtresses and even members ofthe maréchaussée, tos, disorders were committed. whites tried to stop a brawl at this gathering, they were When nearby and mistreated by the mulattos ofthis assembly and insultingly received members of the ma'réchaussée in this group, led particularly by several of the said maréchaussée, who, then by Nalée, one of the sergeants sanctioned it. instead of preventing the disorder, this case forbade any sergeant or archer to attend A judge reviewing assemblies unless ordered to do SO. Nalée's calindas or other such ée, tos, disorders were committed. whites tried to stop a brawl at this gathering, they were When nearby and mistreated by the mulattos ofthis assembly and insultingly received members of the ma'réchaussée in this group, led particularly by several of the said maréchaussée, who, then by Nalée, one of the sergeants sanctioned it. instead of preventing the disorder, this case forbade any sergeant or archer to attend A judge reviewing assemblies unless ordered to do SO. Nalée's calindas or other such --- Page 116 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 105 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE too clear a sign of his attendance at such a slave dance was perhaps Afro-creole culture, rather attachment to Saint- -Domingue's evolving than to the colonial order he was supposed to represent. socially, barring restrictions isolated free colored constables Such in Afro-creole life, while the colonial elite them from full participation 58 As 4 describes, in the 1760s, scorned their low class status. chapter were leading whites political and cultural changes in Saint-Domingue for the prejudice against sexual immorality as a reason to emphasize could reject these stereotypes. As free people of color. Yet constables men had a strong sense of the following example shows, some ofthese other free of color and vis à vis people their own public respectability left them well equipped whites. Their familiarity with legal procedure to defend this identity. black constable and property owner. In Pierrot Lafleur was a free and a merchant in Les the 1760s he was landlord to a widow, a doctor, white artisan 900 livres all of them whites. In 1765 he paid a In Cayes, and bought a slave for 3,000 livres. for woodwork and masonry ofLes Cayes, a white man, met Lafleur in April 1765 Joseph Beauvais transaction. Beauvais and him about a financial the street reproached had lost my note for two hundred said, *Wretch, you [r] told me you it to me and [now I learn livres, you promised me you would return with M. Laconforsz [a local that] you wanted to negotiate it According to Beauvais's declamerchant];y you are quite a scoundrel.", scoundrel than you Lafleur responded, "I don'tknow a bigger ration, blow Beauvais aimed at him, stunned the white [vous)," parried the insults. 59 man with a slap ofhis own, and left, shouting even clearer that occurred two years earlier provides An incident vis à vis whites and reveals the bases of proof of Lafleur's confidence Lafleur met Eustache Berquin, a powthat confidence. One afternoon just outside the city of erful white planter, at the gate of a plantation Lafleur, who was on Les Cayes. 60 Berquin, on horseback, approached that Lafleur thought saying he had heard from a third party foot, him. He asked why the black man believed such Berquin had swindled was "leave me in peace Lafleur's reply, according to Berquin, a thing. on Lafleur, con- [vous)." ? But Berquin, who was bent "reprimanding" by shaking the bridle tinued his questions. The free black responded His feet horse SO hard that he was obliged to dismount. of Berquin's forward to strike Lafleur the the white planter stepped on ground, him by the collar, tearing with his whip, but the other man grabbed Lafleur then turned to escape, his shirt, and snatched the whip away. blocked his path. After a scuffle, but another white, recently arrived, and disappeared. he surrendered Berquin's whip to the newcomer ? But Berquin, who was bent "reprimanding" by shaking the bridle tinued his questions. The free black responded His feet horse SO hard that he was obliged to dismount. of Berquin's forward to strike Lafleur the the white planter stepped on ground, him by the collar, tearing with his whip, but the other man grabbed Lafleur then turned to escape, his shirt, and snatched the whip away. blocked his path. After a scuffle, but another white, recently arrived, and disappeared. he surrendered Berquin's whip to the newcomer --- Page 117 --- BEFORE HAITI force, Lafleur, although unable to As a member of the local police citizen should do next. He sign his name, knew what a respectable royal attorney of Cayes to immediately appeared before the acting before against Berquin and then swore an affidavit lodge a complaint and went to Duverney, a Berquin had the same impulse a notary. told him there was no need to draft notary in Les Cayes. Duverney have Lafleur brought before the such a document, for he could simply would not need written proof authorities. As a white man Berquin would have the corroborating against a free black, especially since he recovered his whip. But after testimony of the other white who had that Lafleur had already leaving Duverney's offices, Berquin heard another notary to record his filed an affidavit and he quickly found own version of events. at the fact that a black man By now the planter was as angry earlier attempts would dare take him to court as he was at Lafleur's such that to leave unpunished to sidestep his whip. "Considering might have conseinsolence from a nègre who is still complaining his excesses since the said nègre claims to justify quences, especially of his arrogance. 7 Yet Lafleur, and seems to seek an authorization of this two received notice counter-declaration when he belatedly affidavit was totally false, and weeks later, declared that Berquin's him into withdrawsurmised that it was only intended to intimidate ing his lawsuit. 61 reaction to this counteroffensive The full account of Lafleur's in which he his keen understanding of the legal system illustrates his name. Returning home at served, despite his inability to sign for deserters at the port of Les ninc a.m. from an official search find there on the table a significaCayes, he was very surprised to ninth ofthis month and pertaindated the tion signed Montpellier, was an official notification of ing to him." " The signification The black constable quickly Berquin's charges against Lafleur. bailiff, and scolded him for having sought out Montpellier, a royal misdated the falsified this document. Not only had Montpellier that it be he charged, but he had ignored the requirement paper, delivered into Lafleur's hands.62 familiarity with legal His work in the maréchausée and his resulting of Lafleur's confiseems likely to have been one source procedure situations. But the constable also insisted dence with whites in these owner and a male head of on his public respectability as a property the stereotype of free household. As such he explicitly rejected he dictated the following colored "vice." On December 27, 1766, Montpellier that it be he charged, but he had ignored the requirement paper, delivered into Lafleur's hands.62 familiarity with legal His work in the maréchausée and his resulting of Lafleur's confiseems likely to have been one source procedure situations. But the constable also insisted dence with whites in these owner and a male head of on his public respectability as a property the stereotype of free household. As such he explicitly rejected he dictated the following colored "vice." On December 27, 1766, --- Page 118 --- FRENCH COLONIAL STATE 107 FREEDOM, SLAVERY, THE narrative to a royal notary: returned to his home in the evening and having Yesterday, having who he has forbidden a number of times to learned there that his wife, libre, who occupies a room attached to spent time with Lucie, négrese immediately entered her his house, was then with that négresse, [he] her that he intended that she home and made his wife leave, telling home, since she led a very never under any pretext set foot in Lucie's house, which [words] bad life and made a real brothel of her [his?] neither with his between him and his wife and went no further, passed wife nor with Lucie. hour earlier, Lucie had appeared before a That same morning one claboration or that without explanation, different notary to declare, the previous evening and had Lafleur had entered her apartment 64 beaten her for conversing with his wife. illuminates Lafleur's tone ofLucie's statement The matter-of-fact incident. For her this was a neighborhood quarrepresentation ofthis of a man to separate his rel, but for him it was the attempt respectable statement Lafleur asserted household from that of a prostitute. In his and calindas. from the free colored world of courtesans his distance other aspects of Lafleur's respectability As he continued his affidavit, emerged. he had to after returning home from an all night journey This morning and having not yet taken offhis make for the service ofhis state/status, vomiting a thousand atrocious bandoleer, he saw. Lucie enter his home, he took it upon himself to insults against him; tired of hearing [them] took him by the parts push her out ofhis place, but this négresse furieuse to make her let and gripped them SO that he almost lost consciousness; with all his strength, which him go he was obliged to give her a slap thereby released the spot produced the desired effect; the négresse struck him on the right cye where she held him, but at the same time, with her fist, making him bleed.ss Lucie's attack as an assault on a uniformed servant Lafleur portrayed of his home, and as a threat to his very of the crown, as an invasion furious négresse,' >9 was a menace to masculinity. His neighbor, <this be defined. Lucie authority, however that authority might established over his wife, his public sought to subvert his power as a husband over his officer, and his rights as a householder position as a royal on the most tender parts of his home. In describing her cruel grasp ie's attack as an assault on a uniformed servant Lafleur portrayed of his home, and as a threat to his very of the crown, as an invasion furious négresse,' >9 was a menace to masculinity. His neighbor, <this be defined. Lucie authority, however that authority might established over his wife, his public sought to subvert his power as a husband over his officer, and his rights as a householder position as a royal on the most tender parts of his home. In describing her cruel grasp --- Page 119 --- BEFORE HAITI than Lucie's skills at selfanatomy, Lafleur was doing more illustrating the nature of the threat she defense. He was making a point about constable, to him and articulating the bases ofhis respectability: posed proprietor, and husband. * * increasingly ceded control over manuThrough the 1760s, masters state. The Code Noir gave masters mission procedures to the colonial but in the mid-cighteenththe ability to free slaves as they chose, liberty taxes and procethe state successfully imposed new century from private to government power in this dures, marking a transition laterin the South Province than in domain. This change, which began was never to reach comthe great central sugar districts ofthe colony, networks of older Nevertheless, by the 1770s the patronage had pletion. families of color were far less effective than they and propertied Official freedom documents been in the first half of the century. of color, even wealthy become absolutely essential for all free people colored status, and the planters. The codification of free slave-owning rank of wealthy families of color, was especially deteriorating social ofthe Seven Years' War in 1763 evident in the armed forces. The end colonial free colored militia accelerated the transformation of the but did that men of color often commanded from a force propertied that described as a kind ofs slavery. not brag about, into a service many the social attitudes and civic These shifts in colonial culture shaped of color carried into the identities that Saint-Domingue's free people other American slave sociFrench and Haitian Revolutions. Although of color, only in eties had similarly large and wealthy free populations about their were colonists SO troubled by questions Saint- Domingue change in racial labeling. Well that theyinstigated a sharp own identity the honor ofwhite descent against into the 1760s, observers weighed this continuum of honor and the shame of slave ancestry. Because and cultural identity, some shame included wealth, social connections, could be considered socially families with distant African ancestors after the Seven Years' War, white. 22 But as chapter 4 describes, discourse. Colonists <virtue" replaced "honor" in French and colonial racial colorin a more in Saint-I -Domingue described and administrators that made mixedstarkly biological fashion, as a stain or impurity than pure and culturally more dangerous race individuals politically Europeans or Africans. this continuum of honor and the shame of slave ancestry. Because and cultural identity, some shame included wealth, social connections, could be considered socially families with distant African ancestors after the Seven Years' War, white. 22 But as chapter 4 describes, discourse. Colonists <virtue" replaced "honor" in French and colonial racial colorin a more in Saint-I -Domingue described and administrators that made mixedstarkly biological fashion, as a stain or impurity than pure and culturally more dangerous race individuals politically Europeans or Africans. --- Page 120 --- CHAPTER 4 X REFORM AND REVOLT AFTER THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR In February of1769, free men ofcolor from Torbec ranchers, planters, and artisans, abducted parish, including Boury, the light-skinned their neighbor Jacques free colored militia. planter and former captain of the The kidnapping, which parish's Boury's two younger brothers, was a may have involved against carefully gauged act new Saint-Domingue's ofresistance Montbazon. By kidnapping governor, the Prince de Rohanrejection of Rohan-Montbazon's Boury, his neighbors communicated their white creole planters claimed militia reforms, which Torbec's under a kind of"slavery." would bring all free men of all colors The whites were partially right. turned into an anti-militia Although the 1769 revolt, it failed to kidnapping new regime. The Governor's militia stop Rohan-Montbazon's into a kind of second-class reforms locked free men ofcolor From that citizenship they had never point on they would no before known. units. The government would longer command their own militia whites, to help the maréchausée now require all men of color, but not time a host of new laws shut search for escaped slaves. At the same respectable colonial even wealthy free people of color out of peninsula, society. After 1769, even in the isolated new, mutually exclusive definitions southern "color" cut across creole society, of "whiteness" and wealth and culture. replacing older hierarchies based on In the Revolutionary era colonists described as a bulwark against slave rebellion. this racial segregation lows it show, instead, that This chapter and the one that folnew racial laws were a way for administrators laws shut search for escaped slaves. At the same respectable colonial even wealthy free people of color out of peninsula, society. After 1769, even in the isolated new, mutually exclusive definitions southern "color" cut across creole society, of "whiteness" and wealth and culture. replacing older hierarchies based on In the Revolutionary era colonists described as a bulwark against slave rebellion. this racial segregation lows it show, instead, that This chapter and the one that folnew racial laws were a way for administrators --- Page 121 --- BEFORE HAITI questions about colonial loyalty. and creole elites to resolve troubling Versailles was deterIn the wake ofthe Seven Years' War (1756-63), and France, at a bonds between Saint-Domingue mined to strengthen colonists were already chafing at imperial time when influential of three governors to create a restrictions. Narrating the attempts defend the colony as efficiently as pos- "patriotic" colonial public and required free men of sible, this chapter shows how they increasingly colonists refused to shoulder. color to bear civic responsibilities that illustrates how white planters A narrative ofthe failed revolt of 1769 creole society against the in the South Province were unable to rally describes, when the And, as the following chapter royal government. elites reconciled after this traumatic event, imperial state and colonial whites they turned to a new kind ofracism to unite Saint-Domingue's would heal their colonial public, one they hoped into a "civilized" political disagreements. * to the 1769 revolt illustrate that SaintThe events leading up reevaluation of creole Domingue participated in a hemispheric this conflict the Seven Years' War. In the Americas, identity following struggle between the British on one was an expensive and unpopular empires on the other. Beyond the hand and the French and Spanish British control in 1763, the war transfer of Québec and Florida into and fiscal reforms in all three prompted controversial administrative of Latin America's wars for national New World empires. Narratives creole reactions to Spain's post-Seven independence often begin with the United <Bourbon reforms." >) Among historians of Years' War case that the Seven Years' States, Fred Anderson makes a compelling identities of Britain's thirteen War shaped the emerging American France's devastating mainland colonies." And, as this chapter argues, the stark definitions of race in Saint-Domingue losses helped produce Haiti's slave revolt. that prepared the way for great New World The Seven Years' War was a conflict like none Europe's the French This was especially true for colonies had ever experienced. Versailles gave its Caribbean Antilles. In earlier imperial struggles the War of Austrian colonies priority over Québec. During Caribbean Succession, from 1740 to 1748, French convoys protected and other from the British navy. After all, Antillean sugar shipping the success ofFrance's cightcenth-century commodities were greatest were sold to other Most of these colonial products economy. the 1750s they made up half of all French European countries; by This was especially true for colonies had ever experienced. Versailles gave its Caribbean Antilles. In earlier imperial struggles the War of Austrian colonies priority over Québec. During Caribbean Succession, from 1740 to 1748, French convoys protected and other from the British navy. After all, Antillean sugar shipping the success ofFrance's cightcenth-century commodities were greatest were sold to other Most of these colonial products economy. the 1750s they made up half of all French European countries; by --- Page 122 --- AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLT Trade with Africa and the reexports, and their value kept increasing. Atlantic ports after Caribbean created new fortunes in the kingdom's similar protection in 1748, and colonial interests might have expected another conflict.? in 1756, Versailles treated its But when the Seven Years" War began military priority. the vast North American interior as its top claims on leaving Caribbean commerce It directed naval convoys to Québec, French traffic with the island unprotected. British blockades cut the cost of maritime insurance colonies by 70 percent, and inflated of a cargo's value. When the from 2 or 3 percent to nearly two-thirds merely shifted its resources to British took Quebec in 1759, France Antilles under the worst the war's European theater, leaving the and vulnerable to attack.3 commercial blockade they had ever known, France's commercial Even in peace, many colonists resented in 1759 when Guadeloupe monopoly, but Versailles was taken aback described as less than surrendered to the British after a resistance some planters, who had heroic. During the rest of the war, Guadeloupe's from direct access to criticized French mercantilism, profited long Between 1700 and 1759, French traders brought British slave traders. ports. But in two years only 2,406 Africans directly to Guadeloupean disembarked 18,711 slaves on the of British occupation, British ships the British in 1759, that colony island.4 4 Although Martinique repelled 1762. surrendered to a second invasion in carly of the tension between These defeats sharpened French awareness Would planters in Saintimperial loyalty and colonial self-interest. to preserve French territory or surrender Domingue fight to preserve concluded their plantations? As the Abbé Raynal is what will always happen. : by What happened [in Guadeloupe] colonies risk seeing their taking up arms the cultivators oft these opulent their descendants' dreams lives'work destroyed, their slaves kidnapped, will always surrender to the wiped out by fire or destruction, they they are less Even ifthey were content with their government, enemy. their than to their wealth.5 attached to reputations discussion ofthis situation had been in By 1763, the most influential native of Saintfor over a decade. In 1750, a 35-year-old called print Emilien Petit had written a small book Domingue named describing a way to ensure that colonists Le Patriotisme américain, Petit, who had attached both to France and Saint-Domingue* were Council, drew on French "patriot" been a member of the Léogane was strongest when it authors, who argued that love of one's country putations discussion ofthis situation had been in By 1763, the most influential native of Saintfor over a decade. In 1750, a 35-year-old called print Emilien Petit had written a small book Domingue named describing a way to ensure that colonists Le Patriotisme américain, Petit, who had attached both to France and Saint-Domingue* were Council, drew on French "patriot" been a member of the Léogane was strongest when it authors, who argued that love of one's country --- Page 123 --- BEFORE HAITI Le Patriotisme américain was a was rooted in liberty and prosperity. colonial state. It expressed colonists' liberal critique ofthe authoritarian especially at the local level.? frustration with military administrators, had chosen militia In the seventeenth century, French from governors the colonial elite. By 1750, commanders and council members planters held high this had changed. Although many prominent career soldiers. militia rank, their parish commanders were usually colonists, as Petit These men had little respect for, or patience with, described. officers are vain and scornful, though often only the In general military hides their low birth. - . when real or appointed height oftheir plumes the officer insists on the full measpower accompanies his pretensions, with restraint to a planter, merchant, or ure ofhis superiority; to speak [ofhis position] -Must a man like reputable worker would be unworthy to a man like me; I forbid me repeat an order? You dare show disrespect to the all I command you, no discussion; to prison, dungeon-and you; by the foulest words." is carried out as ordered, accompanied wanted colonists to stay in Saint- Domingue, rather If administrators Petit argued, they needed to guarantee than return home to France, exposed every day to the most that they would not be "gratuitously the ofthe smallest violent effects of an arbitrary power, . . . to caprices to justify his commander, who uses the needs ofthe government >9 local and demand absolute and passive obedience. own pride and stupidity Petit's book Despite its condemnation of military government, because it did merchants and administrators appealed to metropolitan colonists did. Rather, it French trade laws as many not challenge colonial liberty would increase the value of emphasized how greater the rule oflaw liberated colonists from the colony for France. When leaders, their rational self-interthe arbitrary decisions oflocal military When French-American est would create prosperity and order. they would colonists were secure from government oppression, Yet, at the heart of attachment to the fatherland. develop a strong colonial government was a new Petit's vision of such a <liberal" framework of racial laws. the Seven Years' War, the former Well before the pressures of was developing its that Saint-Domingue colonial judge recognized from France. He proposed racial own creole culture, oriented away colonists' not to reinforce slavery, but to strengthen segregation, them more local freedom. French identity while allowing needed to attract large numbers In Petit's vision, Saint-I Domingue who would remain in the of male, and especially female, settlers . develop a strong colonial government was a new Petit's vision of such a <liberal" framework of racial laws. the Seven Years' War, the former Well before the pressures of was developing its that Saint-Domingue colonial judge recognized from France. He proposed racial own creole culture, oriented away colonists' not to reinforce slavery, but to strengthen segregation, them more local freedom. French identity while allowing needed to attract large numbers In Petit's vision, Saint-I Domingue who would remain in the of male, and especially female, settlers --- Page 124 --- AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLT for these European immigrants in colony. He proposed to reserve jobs free people of color houses and port cities by banishing plantation Ifblack and mulatto women did not monopolize into the mountains. and market commerce, then hardworkdomestic service, wet nursing, the where they would ing Frenchwomen might immigrate to colony, locked out of wives for white artisans, who were similarly be potential free colored workers. In the mountains, free jobs because ofslaves and the prosperity by and women of color would insure plantations' men animals, and arresting fugitive slaves. Colonists growing food, raising free people of color, even as would be discouraged from employing for whites should occupy domestic servants in their plantation houses, strict government conthese places. Such segregation would require that colonists be allowed Petit recommended trols on manumission. last testaments. That way, after a master's to free slaves only in their would be able to assess his death, his executor and the government direct the actions of the newly freed motives for freeing the slave, and man or woman. colonial sexuality like later authors Petit did not sensationalize with the consequences of male would. Nevertheless he was concerned with slave women. It was for this colonists founding creole families that Petit described racial prejudice reason, and not to defend slavery, that some wealthy people astute. >10 He acknowledged as "politically where their French friends criticized of color had settled in France, an illusion. But colonists' scorn for them as chimérique, an absurdity, free of color believed marriage between Europeans and people Petit because of the vile birth of these people, just as should be outlawed theatrical People of respectable French subjects did not marry relatives players. in slavery, and color were worse than actors, because oftheir and dangerous for its for its inclinations their <blood - . infamous blackness of character." 27 but driven by the need Petit's racism was not primarily biological, Later authors argued colonial ? toward France. to orient "patriotism" of color to reinforce the racial that whites should scorn free people and people of color became too basis of slavery. But for Petit, ifwhites viable families, "creole patriot- <familiar,' 77 that is, if they established or independence. ism" might come to mean imperial autonomy he encouraged describe this possibility, Though he did not explicitly carefully. French administrators to watch the problem these matches [between But the principal reason to prohibit has to do with the necessity of immigrants and free people of color] the ideas of esteem and respect for maintaining, in these sorts of men, to reinforce the racial that whites should scorn free people and people of color became too basis of slavery. But for Petit, ifwhites viable families, "creole patriot- <familiar,' 77 that is, if they established or independence. ism" might come to mean imperial autonomy he encouraged describe this possibility, Though he did not explicitly carefully. French administrators to watch the problem these matches [between But the principal reason to prohibit has to do with the necessity of immigrants and free people of color] the ideas of esteem and respect for maintaining, in these sorts of men, --- Page 125 --- BEFORE HAITI must not be allowed to become too white blood with which they common interests, the results familiar, because, were they to develop might be dangerous, even irreparable. officers who ran the Colonial Office, a branch of The career military in Petit's ideas a way to increase the Naval Ministry, recognized the unpopular trade monopoly. In colonial loyalty without abolishing Years' War, hired him. For the 1759, in the middle of the Seven with they colonial authorities next 20 years the creole judge corresponded legal documentation and from his office at Versailles, collecting proposing reforms. 12 write laws designed to reduce Within a year he had already helped now from ofcolonial governors. They were prohibited the corruption in the colony, or ruling on land-grant buying colonial land, marrying barred from collecting a Moreover, Versailles now governors disputes. monies that helped pay their expenses, 2-percent tax on slave imports, The Colonial Office pledged but which stifled the colonial cconomy. administrators with increased funds directly.13 to provide project that created special Petit was also part of a legislative the Caribbean colonies in chambers of commerce and agriculture in Reacting to staffed with four merchants and four planters. 1759, cared little about colonists' opinions, the complaints that France would offer them a valuable Ministry hoped the new chambers Versailles had to eliminate the comcolonial perspective. But in 1766 about the who had been too outspoken mercial representatives, French trade monopoly.1 followed Petit's reasoning that Nevertheless, the Colonial Office ruled by an would be more loyal when they were no longer colonists Versailles chose a member of the Parlement of iron hand. In 1760, intendant, second only to the goverDijon to be Saint-Domingue's Bernard de Clugny, owned property nor. The new administrator, Jean first high officer not to in Martinique, and was Saint-Domingue's in the colony in December 1760. He arrived come out ofthe military. tightened in 1761, Then, as the English blockade on Saint-Domingue of the colony, a naval the crown named Gabriel de Bory as governor reform.15 officer with an abiding interest in colonial consider the problem of led Bory to The wartime emergency In 1761, with a British colonists' distaste for militia service. August the Naval Secretary looming, he wrote to invasion apparently veterans in Saint-Domingue be Choiseul suggesting that military [who are] very loyal given "command of free blacks and mulattos, But France's >16 Nothing came immediately of this proposal. people. ue of the colony, a naval the crown named Gabriel de Bory as governor reform.15 officer with an abiding interest in colonial consider the problem of led Bory to The wartime emergency In 1761, with a British colonists' distaste for militia service. August the Naval Secretary looming, he wrote to invasion apparently veterans in Saint-Domingue be Choiseul suggesting that military [who are] very loyal given "command of free blacks and mulattos, But France's >16 Nothing came immediately of this proposal. people. --- Page 126 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER seemed close to collapse in carly military position in the Caribbean and then the rest of the 1762, as the British conquered Martinique alike were sure that SaintLesser Antilles. Officials and colonists of that year Versailles transDomingue was the next target. In July the Vicomte de Belzunce ferred Bory's military powers as governor militia to units into full-time duty, and this new commander pressed local by the Port-au-Prince despite vigorous complaints. A remonstrance the as being under Council late in 1761 had already described colony administration,' 27 of <barbaric laws, violent and meaningless > out a regime spite of[local] commanders," singling and blamed the "ambitious Province.' 17 Because Belzunce pulled the commander of the South defend in into the North Province to Cap Français most royal troops West and South Provinces had to assume near 1762, the militias ofthe defense. Belzunce began to enforce total responsibility for coastal food crops and to send them to regulations requiring estates to plant of interior fortificawarehouses. He created a network of British government "scorched earth" defense plan in case tions and established a these was SO strong that there invasion. Colonial opposition to plans with Jamaica that a group in Les Cayes was negotiating were rumors over to the enemy. 18 According to an to turn the southern peninsula anonymous author after the war, and as burdensome as it was possible to Militia service was as painful other with nothing to attach that the and persons be . SO much poor bear it and fled to neutral them to the country . : could no longer nations or to the enemy." to make betBelzunce acted on Bory's proposal With his new powers, He created the Chasseurs volontaires ter use ofthe free men of color. fill in the colony's unit assigned to gaps d'Amérique, a temporary the unit had 400, then 500 men, and the defense. Within two months barracks in Cap Français to house administration began to construct a them.20 the training ofthe new company, Belzunce Presumably to speed up for French veterans. These men reserved officer ranks in the Chasseurs enthusiastic terms: they were described their free colored soldiers in killed their practically immune to the tropical diseases that they Europeans; did not need food and uniforms did not have to be imported; all their lives. Most shoes since many had gone barefoot expensive exhibited genuine military aptitude: importantly, the Chasseurs and executed all the [the troop]p performed the drill with arms perfectly exercises were surprised by maneuvers; the military men who saw these speed up for French veterans. These men reserved officer ranks in the Chasseurs enthusiastic terms: they were described their free colored soldiers in killed their practically immune to the tropical diseases that they Europeans; did not need food and uniforms did not have to be imported; all their lives. Most shoes since many had gone barefoot expensive exhibited genuine military aptitude: importantly, the Chasseurs and executed all the [the troop]p performed the drill with arms perfectly exercises were surprised by maneuvers; the military men who saw these --- Page 127 --- BEFORE HAITI There arc few units who can shoot this well this swiftness and precision. of color] are born with all the and as accurately; these [free people clements necessary to train a man for guerilla war21 of this in August 1762 Bory recomGiven the triumph experiment, free all mixed-race slaves to serve as mended that the Colonial Office would contain Under his plan, officers of the regular army soldiers. under strict discipline. At the same time, the these ex-slave soldiers Saint-Domingue's white miligovernor also recommended abolishing Since his arrival, Clugny, the tia, which was more unpopular than ever. Parlement of Burgundy, had intendant and member of the new local militia commanders usurped judicial severely criticized the way echoed him, content to find at least functions. The colonial councils oflegal procedure. administrator who understood the importance one Even before the war's Back in Versailles Petit was also sympathetic. military officers' the Colonial Office issued a decree limiting end, power over judicial personnel. Britain signed the Treaty of Paris ending In early 1763, France and Within wecks, imperial officials gave Saint-Domingue's the war. had been asking for: an end to onerous "patriotic" colonists what they The Colonial Office militia duties and to the military government. way to keep the have been convinced that there was no other seem to Guadeloupe's example in the next war. On colony from following aside the question of Saint-Domingue's March 24, 1763, setting the militia, whose ranking officers defense, imperial officials dissolved Versailles ordered that these had administered local government. to new civilian officials. parish commanders pass their responsibilitics a or mayor. This assembly was to elect syndic, In each locality a parish to the nearest colonial council civilian administrator would report militia commanders had. The instead of to the governor, as the old this new system that intendant Clugny was SO cager to inaugurate local 1763 he ordered parishes to begin preparing on June 17, elections.23 colonial government at all levels, in The new law transformed had long argued would that magistrates and their supporters ways and colonial loyalty. Henceforth only the goverguarantee prosperity would have the right to enter the law courts; none nor and intendant would be able to intervene in this domain. of their subordinates the syndics, judicial disBecause the councils would supervise parish the would replace unpredictable cussion and predefined procedures Moreover, by militia commander. decisions of the old, all-powerful the Colonial Office was freeing climinating mandatory militia service, in The new law transformed had long argued would that magistrates and their supporters ways and colonial loyalty. Henceforth only the goverguarantee prosperity would have the right to enter the law courts; none nor and intendant would be able to intervene in this domain. of their subordinates the syndics, judicial disBecause the councils would supervise parish the would replace unpredictable cussion and predefined procedures Moreover, by militia commander. decisions of the old, all-powerful the Colonial Office was freeing climinating mandatory militia service, --- Page 128 --- REFORM, REVOLT AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR Saint-Domingue's colonists to follow their natural Mandatory target practice and guard selfinterest. them from maximizing the duty would no longer distract argued, were SO profitable for production of their estates, which, they financial France. Finally, in the reckoning that accompanied the long-delayed also requested a special end oft the war, the crown in payment of four million livres from the compensation for ending militia service. colony from military to civilian rule, the Eager to scal the transition Versailles' speed in councils quickly approved the tax.24 implementing this reform power accumulated by the Duke de was born out of the foreign affairs in late 1758. Bythe end Choiseul, who became secretary: for ministerial portfolios for War and for ofthe war, Choiseul also held the the colonies, and had demonstrated his Navy, with control over the the conflict. He was deeply interest in changing attitudes about the war, which his advisors impressed by British popular enthusiasm for "Patriot minister." ascribed to the influence of Pitt, Britain's Taking this example to heart, government publicists, as well as independent from about 1760, began to glorify a "patriotic" ideal of poets and playwrights, This new official French self-sacrifice for the fatherland.25 that espoused by the earlier patriotism was markedly different from Emilien Petit's book. antiauthoritarian writers who had They had inspired tive behaviors that occurred emphasized *liberal" virtue, the posisubjects from a despot's naturally when the rule oflaw protected other hand, identified arbitrary decisions. Choiseul's writers, on the patriotism with the ancient examples of civic virtue, stressing Greek and Roman greater good ofthe community. Unlike obedience and discipline for the ideal was compatible with Petit's patriotism, this classical military threatened with both slave rebellion government, especially in a society and external Sparta or Saint-Domingue. Choiscul's attack, like ancient ing colonial governors, could belief that his officials, includgreater patriotism had a major shape popular opinion and encourage advocates of this "civic virtue" impact in Saint-Domingue. There, who believed that "liberal virtue" found strong opposition from those The conflict was the key to colonial in emerged almost as soon as the prosperity. place. As they reflected on the cultural militia reform was Domingue's much-anticipated "rule consequences of Sainttors became convinced that the oflaw," leading royal administramistake. The search for ordinance of March 1763 had an inexpensive been a this conviction. Soon after colonial defense helped sustain proposal abolishing the militia, Versailles promising 4,800 local soldiers to defend the received a plan proposed to conscript every free man territory. The 40 who had fewer than three of color under the age of legitimate children, requiring him to militia reform was Domingue's much-anticipated "rule consequences of Sainttors became convinced that the oflaw," leading royal administramistake. The search for ordinance of March 1763 had an inexpensive been a this conviction. Soon after colonial defense helped sustain proposal abolishing the militia, Versailles promising 4,800 local soldiers to defend the received a plan proposed to conscript every free man territory. The 40 who had fewer than three of color under the age of legitimate children, requiring him to --- Page 129 --- BEFORE HAITI Modeled on 12 months over a ten-year period. serve six out of every such a force would be inexpensive, the wartime Chasseurs volontaires, it would also be cight times larger than Belzunce's experimental but Although the with no white militia as a counterweight. company, still their superiors worried Chasseurs commanders were enthusiastic, free colored few officers might not be able to contain SO many that a for 4,800 free colored militiamen soldiers. Moreover, the proposal service would produce, which was far below what total mandatory whites and 10,000 free men of Pierre Pluchon estimates as 10,000 colonial militia were insistcolor. 26 By 1764, advocates ofa reestablished wartime discipline. ing that anarchy had replaced Saint-Domingue's claimed, and in some districts There were more maroon raids, they slaves in attacks on white brigands were leading bands of escaped highway travelers. 27 immigration In fact, after the war a major wave of new European and social the militia question. The economic had complicated oft these new arrivals, known disparagingly frustrations of the poorest internal blancs, became a critical factor in Saint-Domingue's as petits ofthem arrived every year from politics. After 1763 about a thousand about one-third of France, SO that by the late 1780s they comprised 28 Saint-Domingue's roughly 30,000 colonists. blanc label covered at Although described as a single class, the petit found in Saintsocial both bitter about what they least two types, of petit blanc was an ambitious young man Domingue. One type Tradesmen, lower governhoping to make his fortune as a planter. merchants or landowning and the younger sons of ment officials, in the 1760s and 1770s families in France flocked to Saint-Domingue and the exploitation with this goal. But while diligence, networking, earlier colonial generaofenslaved Africans had created wealth for an knowledge, and after 1763 planters needed far more credit, tion, did. Few immigrants were familconnections than their predecessors complexities of sugar, coffee, iar with the technical and managerial connections and expertise they To build indigo, or cotton growing. paid position that plunged became plantation bookkeepers, a poorly them to the very bottom ofthe social hierarchy. kind ofi Frefugee from state A second type of petit blanc was the same century. had the colony in the seventeenth authority that populated servants, petty crimBut this new generation of ex-sailors, ex-soldiers, for independence than inals, and others found far fewer opportunities century such men In the first halfofthe eighteenth their predecessors. piracy, coastal marketing, or had found careers in smuggling, petty Some had allied with ex-slaves. small-scale ranching in frontier zones. the very bottom ofthe social hierarchy. kind ofi Frefugee from state A second type of petit blanc was the same century. had the colony in the seventeenth authority that populated servants, petty crimBut this new generation of ex-sailors, ex-soldiers, for independence than inals, and others found far fewer opportunities century such men In the first halfofthe eighteenth their predecessors. piracy, coastal marketing, or had found careers in smuggling, petty Some had allied with ex-slaves. small-scale ranching in frontier zones. --- Page 130 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER dramatic increase in hillside coffee estates struck After 1763 the As chapter 7 describes, the coffee directly at this class of immigrant. man could afford. Many, boom left little undeveloped land that a poor density fell back into the colonial ports. As the population therefore, doubled after 1770, the white vagrant became in these settlements social than before. In the 1760s even more of a troublesome colonial type society saw little to praise in royal officials pessimistic about "By the nature of things, there is only the residents of colonial cities. the who kind of Citizen in the colonies, the planter, proprietor one cities of the colonies, the alone can be governed by the laws . : . the folk, who inhabited by unemployed towns, the jetties are ordinarily to fear from the legal since they have no property . . have nothing small towns in the southauthorities. >29 The notarial registers ofeven this social disruption. are full of stories illustrating ern peninsula threats when a white cabinet maker argued A neighbor made terrible tailor shot and wounded a cobtoo loudly with his wife at 9 p.m.; a a plantation him in horseplay one morning; bler who tried to engage plotting to drive him off the planmanager overheard two employees visiting a client one tation, and one ofthem shot at him a goldsmith A merchant and a surgeon evening was attacked by six other artisans. of in the town overseer and his friends strolling accused a plantation the townspeople, and beating every evening while loudly insulting the overseer complained septhose who challenged them. For his part mob had attacked him without pronocation. arately that an angry social disorder, uneasiness about In 1764, reports of mounting and the expense of defending relying solely on free colored soldiers, Versailles to with professional troops, all convinced the colony Colonists reestablish the colony's militia and military government. million livres to be rid incredulous. Just months after paying four were would accept a return to the of militia duty, few colonial "patriots" old system. charged with carrying out this controversial The new governor Count d'Estaing, was a career military man, reestablishment, Charles, d'Estaing had a more ostentaas these officers always were. However, at court than any ofhis predtious style oflife and deeper connections be for his was rumored to compensation ecessors. His appointment Louis XV. Earning ten to fifteen times half-sister's amorous services to he had the former Jesuit house in the salary of previous governors, residence and moved in with a Cap Français remodeled as an official him there left whispering large household staff. Colonists visiting wine, books, and about his armorial dinner service, expensive made enemies in the colony, courtier's wardrobe.31 D'Estaing quickly court than any ofhis predtious style oflife and deeper connections be for his was rumored to compensation ecessors. His appointment Louis XV. Earning ten to fifteen times half-sister's amorous services to he had the former Jesuit house in the salary of previous governors, residence and moved in with a Cap Français remodeled as an official him there left whispering large household staff. Colonists visiting wine, books, and about his armorial dinner service, expensive made enemies in the colony, courtier's wardrobe.31 D'Estaing quickly --- Page 131 --- BEFORE HAITI evidence of and an insatiable who described his wealth as corruption desire for power:" 32 the unpopularity of the militia Such attacks were inevitable given But d'Estaing was systems he was ordered to restore. and government he courted colonial public opinespecially vulnerable because actively believed that social ion. Like his superior, Choiseul, the new governor would directed by his administration, interaction and communication, Like other military reformers ofthe forge a new imperial patriotism. was based on classical modday, d'Estaing's understanding of patriotism entitled Les Thermopyles, recalling els. In the 1790s he published a play warrior-citizens. In heroic stand ofLeonidas and his band of Spartan the determined to awaken a similar spirit in Saint-Domingue 1764 he was civic he could nurture-or mamipoliate-Doninguan and believed virtue into existence. the colonial appetite for ostentation His strategy rested in part on observed by Bruey d'Aigaillier. Such is the custom in this country An errand boy dubs himself a clerk A clerk is a secretary A ship's secretary calls himself a shipping agent A simple agent is Monsieur LIntendant ofland And though one owns only a quarter acre Nevertheless he calls himself a "planter"ss would lead colonists to compete D'Estaing believed this love oftitles reestablished militia The ranks. He planned to call the for military its leaders publicly with medals and National Troop and reward titles,3 and even puerile distinctions . . will perhaps one Honors, privileges concern is the calculations of commerce day bring people whose only long vanity can work a back to a love of true glory : - over a period, miracle on American minds.30 calculation" and "true glory" illusThis juxtaposition of"commercial goals and the liberal virtues trates the tension between d'Estaing's anti-Semitic policies colonists. The new governor's extolled by many In 1685 the Code Noir had gave further expression to this conflict. But from the early formally barred Jews from colonial commerce. in Portugal were a century, Jewish families with roots eighteenth ports. Their connecmajor commercial presence in Saint-Domingue's Jamaica, London, tions to the Sephardic diaspora in Curaçao, and "true glory" illusThis juxtaposition of"commercial goals and the liberal virtues trates the tension between d'Estaing's anti-Semitic policies colonists. The new governor's extolled by many In 1685 the Code Noir had gave further expression to this conflict. But from the early formally barred Jews from colonial commerce. in Portugal were a century, Jewish families with roots eighteenth ports. Their connecmajor commercial presence in Saint-Domingue's Jamaica, London, tions to the Sephardic diaspora in Curaçao, --- Page 132 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER facilitated the contraband trade that Bordeaux, and Amsterdam especially along the southern coast. sustained planters and merchants, 1764 during his tour of When he discovered this fact in September As he wrote Choiseul: the South Province, d'Estaing acted quickly. that I made the synagogues of St Louis and ofLes I hasten to notify you of . contribute to the public good . [Such] Jews, proprietors and Cayes make into israelites like themselves, who buy posslaves that they should, to be tolerated there, bring sess lands in a Christian country, vessels to the King and occupy themselves water to the cities, furnish useful deeds] that will do them honorin with other petits utilités [small have counseled them and it is not much, future centuries; this is what I moreover I have though Mr Gradis could disapprove and series protest; of forced loans levied apportioned these little voluntary gifts [a conduct of these children of on the good or bad on Jewish colonists] Moses.7 that Abraham Gradis would D'Estaing was correct in assuming Louis. 38 The Gradis family of defend the Jews of Les Cayes and Saint merchant houses in France. Bordeaux was one ofthe most important had relied heavily on During the Seven Years' War, the Naval Ministry to move men and and commercial connections the Gradis's ships A string ofcolonial ministers and goods between France and Québec. the Gradis's many had publicly recognized the Parlement ofBordeaux 39 D'Estaing was surely aware of this fact, yet services to the kingdom. family of Saint Louis he levied his highest fines on the Lopez Depas along the southern which functioned as Gradis' agents and Aquin, assessed the head of coast and in the interlope trade there. D'Estaing least 280 slaves and three the Depas family, who he said owned at Depas the 7,000 livres a year to construct an aqueduct. plantations, in Saint Louis and Les Cayes and at least younger, with houses man" and was was deemed an "upstanding slaves in Aquin parish, for the service, as was another only required to build an inn postal view, was Michel Depas. The worst of the Depas clan, in d'Estaing's be known. As part Michel as he would later Depas, or Depas-Medina, what he as the selfish, inwardof d'Estaing's attempt to turn perceived ? he fined Michel toward the "public good, looking Jewish population ofa sizeable plantation, over two years, Depas 50,000 livres, the price 40 The governor described him as to purchase boats for royal service. whom there are a multitude of complaints by a troublemaker, against and bastard [bâtard). He owns a very sizeable the planters; free mulatto Colline with 120 slaves; moreover he has plantation at the Grande edina, what he as the selfish, inwardof d'Estaing's attempt to turn perceived ? he fined Michel toward the "public good, looking Jewish population ofa sizeable plantation, over two years, Depas 50,000 livres, the price 40 The governor described him as to purchase boats for royal service. whom there are a multitude of complaints by a troublemaker, against and bastard [bâtard). He owns a very sizeable the planters; free mulatto Colline with 120 slaves; moreover he has plantation at the Grande --- Page 133 --- BEFORE HAITI the Colline à Mangon with 30 slaves. He has another plantation at commands that have been given to him in rebelled several times against order. The man was formerly a courtier of the interest of good public M. Gradis." 41 were furious at his actions. Choiseul In France, d'Estaing's superiors fool." n42 reversed his orders and called him "a dangerous on the Jews of that d'Estaing was especially severe It is significant that "nearly all are Dutch or the southern peninsula. He wrote from Jamaica. >43 But what English and come from Curaçao or commercialism d'Estaing saw as the South Province's antipatriotic had developed in this isoof the creole society that was a reflection mixed-race people like Michel Depaslated region. Jews and wealthy and their status in it was more Medina were part ofthat creole society, affected by social class than by ethnic origins. to change Like Petit with his liberal reforms, d'Estaing proposed virtue, military, as opposed to commercial, this. Hoping to encourage colored numbers and make them the he planned to increase free lowered manumission taxes from backbone of colonial defense. He official freedom papers to 800 to 300 livres and offered to supply maréchausée and militia had those who had lost theirs. Though the reformed the mostly free been organizationally separate, d'Estaing called the Saintcolored constabulary into a light cavalry troop all free men of Legion. On pain oflosing their freedom, Domingue for full-time duty from age 16 to 19,and color would join the Legion would also serve three years. Free all newly manumitted persons male slave to serve in their stead. women of color were to provide a would recognize these When their term elapsed, however, the state constituted a tax former slaves as free men. In other words, the Legion the price of the women of 1,000 to 2,000 livres, on free colored healthy male slave. 44 free people of color perceived Not surprisingly, Saint-Domingue's freedom and social status. d'Estaing's Legion as an attack on their strict discipline and in They saw that that royal troops lived under of color had dubbed conditions. D'Estaing noted that men as squalid blancs," a term that could be translated these soldiers -nigres had to jail 30 free "white slaves. >45 In April 1765 his administration who refused to serve in the men of color from the North Province Council that In protest they wrote to the Cap Français new Legion. slavery : - by putting us in "we have been subjected to a permanent faithfully served His irons to force us to enlist, we [who] have always whites enlisted." By this time Dominguan Majesty without being squalid blancs," a term that could be translated these soldiers -nigres had to jail 30 free "white slaves. >45 In April 1765 his administration who refused to serve in the men of color from the North Province Council that In protest they wrote to the Cap Français new Legion. slavery : - by putting us in "we have been subjected to a permanent faithfully served His irons to force us to enlist, we [who] have always whites enlisted." By this time Dominguan Majesty without being --- Page 134 --- AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLT that militia service as <slavery," anticipating were also denouncing increase their armed duties, too. But the d'Estaing would dramatically different message. They were willing to free colored petitioners had a the loss ofvolunteer stasuffer for the crown; for them <slavery" was unless allowed to choose? tus. How could they prove their civic virtue to join the constabUnder d'Estaing's plan, whites were not required more than men of and ifthey did they would be paid 50 percent ulary rank. Whites could also purchase annual exemptions color at equivalent for 200 livres, while free men of color from regular militia service could not. 46 militia duty for all free men, D'Estaing also planned to reestablish officers of African descent but under his proposal there would be no beliefin the need commanding other free men of color. D'Estaing's commissions for whites. stroke egos required reserving all to planters' Guillaume Labadie, who led free mulatto Men like Jacques Boury or 1763, would now serve as sergeants and or black militia units before quartermasters." 47 that he needed men of color to support his D'Estaing was aware administrator had ever announced, to changes. No previous colonial the moral worth offree men of color. the degree he did, his beliefin and frugal. He proposed a He described them as loyal sons, proud, for free colored soldiers special "Prize ofValor" and "Prize ofVirtue" ceremony on attached pensions, to be awarded during a special with he that anyone of one-cighth the king's birthday. Moreover, proposed officially white, immune from or less African ancestry be considered of color distincdiscrimination. Insisting on the artificiality all legal he described this measure as tions among successful creole families, D'Estaing knew "treating like Whites those who are, really." merely tumult. However, *to reject from this proposal would cause a political in a country where men the citizen class people SO precious, especially worth fighting. >48 seemed to me to be a contradiction are SO necessary, reform would strengthen the patriotism ofthe He believed that such a and with the descendants entire free population ofcolor. Time marriage families. would open full citizenship to qualified of Europeans colonists, however, most powerful For Saint-Domingue's confirmed his duplicity and appetite for power. d'Estaing's reforms described him, in verse, as an "execrable One colonial opponent born from ofthe depths of despair, vomited >49 tyrant, insatiable glutton; in colonists. you find pleasure only oppressing up by a demon, disturbances in the southern peninsula, There were anti-militia public fierce. In June 1765 where opposition to the governor was especially between a planter and in the city of Les Cayes, a personal dispute Saint-Domingue's confirmed his duplicity and appetite for power. d'Estaing's reforms described him, in verse, as an "execrable One colonial opponent born from ofthe depths of despair, vomited >49 tyrant, insatiable glutton; in colonists. you find pleasure only oppressing up by a demon, disturbances in the southern peninsula, There were anti-militia public fierce. In June 1765 where opposition to the governor was especially between a planter and in the city of Les Cayes, a personal dispute --- Page 135 --- BEFORE HAITI commander became an armed standoff between d'Estaing's military crowd in the central square. A group of 40 royal troops and a large ofa memorandum about the merchants from the city sent 50 copies describing d'Estaing's Chambers of Commerce, incident to France's ofthe public and the violator of military government as the scourge it was reported that the citizens' liberties. Yet during this period with the service of the government could "still - : be content >50 According to d'Estaing, at about the same time, mulattos. informed that there was an assembly in the Savannettes I have been mulattos refused to join the Les Cayes peddlers and plain, where the the debarkation and arrival of His the small planters, who opposed the people of color affirmed . . Majesty's troops; in this assembly other than the enemies of that they would never carry arms against any the King. 51 the Governor's Council SO firmly opposed The Port-au-Prince withdraw it in August 1765. Soon proposal that he was forced to and named another governor. thereafter Versailles recalled d'Estaing in the colony and by Versailles, Although his ideas were repudiated virtue Saint-Domingue d'Estaing's attention to "utility" and civic gave to the future. His failed program was part of a movement a taste of that would eventually lead to serious rationalize royal social policy He augured later discussion of civil reform in Saint-Domingue. of color as Saintreformers who would describe wealthy men In 1765, however, *natural" citizens and defenders.2 Domingue's these solutions to be worse than the problems they colonists found addressed. was shaped by the cighD'Estaing's failure in Saint-Domingue Habermas has labeled cultural phenomena Jurgen teenth-century 29 Beginning about midof the public sphere." "the development idea in France, in part the "public" became a powerful century, publishing, urbanization, and new forms because ofincreased literacy, direction, d'Estaing helped ensure of sociability. Under Choiseul's in Saint-Domingue after would take root that these developments established the colony's first successful print 1763. His administration administrative forms, and official shop, which typeset judicial decrees, an officially approved announcements. The new press also produced which eventually commercial broadsheet, the Affiches Américaines, editions out of Port-auhad 1,500 subscribers and delivered Versailles separate tried to shut down SaintPrince and Cap Français. In 1772, and to send the government printing office planned Domingue's . Under Choiseul's in Saint-Domingue after would take root that these developments established the colony's first successful print 1763. His administration administrative forms, and official shop, which typeset judicial decrees, an officially approved announcements. The new press also produced which eventually commercial broadsheet, the Affiches Américaines, editions out of Port-auhad 1,500 subscribers and delivered Versailles separate tried to shut down SaintPrince and Cap Français. In 1772, and to send the government printing office planned Domingue's --- Page 136 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER administrative forms. But the naval secretary colony preprinted the needed to be able rescinded the order within months: government the administration basis. In fact that same year, to print on a daily Dominguan printers could legally extended the range of documents Like their counterparts in produce, and new print shops emerged. shops and booksellers sold provincial France, Saint-Domingue's print works, pornoand religious texts, as well as political legal pamphlets forbidden items.53 In 1769 a planter graphic literature, and other wrote: fashions are found in the colony today: plays, concerts, libraries, All where gaiety and wit oppose irksome boredom sumptuous parties with embroidered velvet jackets and Pirates have given way to dandies to women of color. A love of fancy dressing is SO common it has passed Those who previously could learning accompanies this love of luxury. and scientists. The printing not read or write are today poets, orators, of national pride, crowns all this press, that useful institution and source factums and memoirs. 54 luster, and from it come the public papers, this new levels of literacy in the colony accompanied Increasing from the South of printed materials. Marriage registers availability 1760 show that 90 percent ofwhite men and 70 percent Province after while 47 of white women were able to sign their names, respectively, met these same of free colored men and women and 34 percent criteria. 55 the ideas contained in these books, In metropolitan France journals, and other publications pamphlets, broadsheets, gazettes, elite social spaces like salons, law spilled from the printed page into Masonic But the new chambers, literary academies, and lodges. of more than just the book-buying French public was composed authorities constructed new governclasses. As royal and municipal in French cities, rationalizing ment buildings, squares, and walkways practices as best they could, street plans and codifying architectural Entrepreneurs urban became sites for public gatherings. these spaces theaters, and gardens. All oft these new built their own cafés, popular and discuss printed texts allowed urban residents to distribute spaces to a degree never before possible. rural. The island's Saint-Domingue's population was mostly the emergence mountainous terrain and complex coastline prevented like Kingston, commercial and governmental center, of a single of the Cuba. As late as 1789, merely percent Jamaica or Havana, with more than 1,000 inhabitants. colony's residents lived in towns became sites for public gatherings. these spaces theaters, and gardens. All oft these new built their own cafés, popular and discuss printed texts allowed urban residents to distribute spaces to a degree never before possible. rural. The island's Saint-Domingue's population was mostly the emergence mountainous terrain and complex coastline prevented like Kingston, commercial and governmental center, of a single of the Cuba. As late as 1789, merely percent Jamaica or Havana, with more than 1,000 inhabitants. colony's residents lived in towns --- Page 137 --- BEFORE HAITI included more than halft the colony's However, this urban population administration, royal engineers whites. Beginning with d'Estaing's and cultural centers." 57 Cap redesigned colonial towns into social example ofthis new Français was Saint-1 Domingue's most remarkable structures were built space, and most of its 79 public urban public from 257 free and enslaved after 1763. This important port city grew Its tripled to inhabitants in 1692 to over 6,000 in 1775. population estimate, due in in 1788, by Moreau de Saint-Méry's some 18,550 of soldiers and male fortune-seckers from large part to the influx administrators transferred the coloEurope. : 58 Starting in 1750, royal capital, Port-au-Prince, nial capital from Léogane to a new planned in 1752 and again in 1770. leveled construction where an earthquake as Français, but the Colonial Port-au-Prince was never as large Cap from 392 houses rapidly after the Seven Years' War, city grew especially houses in 1764. In 1789 Moreau de Saint-Méry in 1761 to 683 2,200 soldiers and sailors. The estimated its population at 6,200, plus and spaces, including received its share of public buildings new capital home, an official chamber of a dinner club or Vauxhall, a charity theater that could hold agriculture, a royal scientific garden, a and public monuments and parks. 750 spectators, 1780s this urban development extended to a In the late 1770s and the royal government second tier of colonial cities. In Saint-Marc and an entreprea bookseller set up shop, built a public promenade, theater. About 50 townspeople formed a neur reopened the local ended this association. In the Vauxhall, though gambling disputes transferred the capital of the southern peninsula, the administration ofSaint Louis to the plantation South Province from the military port that city to commercial center of Les Cayes in 1779, prompting and in 1776 to over 700 by 1788. Like Saint-Marc, grow from 329 houses ofa Vauxhall and, from the Les Cayes in the 1780s saw the foundation theater. By the attempts to establish a profitable 1760s, persistent regular mail and stagecoach 1780s some colonial towns enjoyed offices grew from 21 in 1773 to service. The number of colonial post road and bridge construction 56 in 1791. The government expanded helped foster in local communication and these improvements Masonic lodges with 1,000 members by the the creation of about 40 1780s. 60 and sociological "public" An important feature ofthis new literary notion of In France itself, an idealized was its self-consciousness. limited to the educated and propertied public debate, in theory culture. By the end of the classes, transformed Old Regime political France became ca new source of cighteenth century, public opinion in bridge construction 56 in 1791. The government expanded helped foster in local communication and these improvements Masonic lodges with 1,000 members by the the creation of about 40 1780s. 60 and sociological "public" An important feature ofthis new literary notion of In France itself, an idealized was its self-consciousness. limited to the educated and propertied public debate, in theory culture. By the end of the classes, transformed Old Regime political France became ca new source of cighteenth century, public opinion in --- Page 138 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER tribunal to which the absolute monarchy, no authority, the supreme to appeal." 7) In the 1760s, as less than its critics, was compelled Louis XV's ministers over reliparlementary judges quarreled with and foreign policy, and court morality, magistrates gious issues, taxes, in print for the support of "the ministers alike learned to appeal urging French patriotism public." > Choiseul's sponsorship of writers of these attempts to Britain after 1760 was just one example against shape public opinion. the advent of this "public sphere" claimed Those who celebrated of ideas brought forward the that an open and rational evaluation criticized royal officials for deciding most reasonable policies. They favoritism, and other important matters in secrecy, where greed, where forces could steer the state. In Saint-Domingue, corrupting américain had attacked the way local military Petit's 1750 Patriot the ideal of public discussion commanders abused their authority, councils and civilian became central to the supporters of the colonial like For their part, however, post-1763 royal governors As they government. advocated the of a colonial public. d'Estaing also growth these administrators believed worked to restore the militia system, social institutions would forge that better communication and new monuments, a colonial selfish colonists. New public bonds among ceremonies would help turn planters into newspaper, and official patriots. political defeat in 1765 proved the growing Ironically, d'Estaing's The governor faced an opposition power of colonial public opinion. informed than ever in the colony's history. that was larger and better and locally elected administraWith its new theaters, colonial journal, <ministerial tyranny." 99 The Saint-Domingue was ready to reject tors, was at the heart ofthis challenge. The milicouncil ofPort-au-Prince the council had was only one of seven grievances tia reestablishment claimed he had *humiliated" them against the governor. The judges his decrees, thereby by informing them that they had to register furious about his violating their right of remonstrance. They were funds that which included taking over the municipal financial reforms, Militia opponents saw his reestabpaid the free colored constabulary. "rule oflaw" that had put lishment project as an end to the short-lived officials. 62 They labeled local affairs in the hands of elected parish ofp and described resistance as an act patriotism. d'Estaing a tyrant to d'Estaing's proposed One colonist who viewed opposition battle against royal absoreforms as part of the French Parlementary du Fort. From 1745 to 1762 lutism was the Léogane planter Galbaud of Accounts, a parlementary-style he had served in Brittany's Chamber colored constabulary. "rule oflaw" that had put lishment project as an end to the short-lived officials. 62 They labeled local affairs in the hands of elected parish ofp and described resistance as an act patriotism. d'Estaing a tyrant to d'Estaing's proposed One colonist who viewed opposition battle against royal absoreforms as part of the French Parlementary du Fort. From 1745 to 1762 lutism was the Léogane planter Galbaud of Accounts, a parlementary-style he had served in Brittany's Chamber --- Page 139 --- BEFORE HAITI relations with Louis XV's ministers. Back on his body that had stormy he letters with his former colonial plantation after the war, exchanged and colonial describing parallels between the metropolitan colleagues, with Emilien Petit that liberal government situations. Galbaud agreed always followed by despotism, fostered patriotism: "Arbitrary power, ofthe colony and consequently is the greatest obstacle to the progress of the metropole and to the is absolutely deadly to the commerce the encourages on contrary, growth of the Navy; gentle government, and creates a cordial and the colonist, makes him love his country harmonious society." >63 to d'Estaing's Contemporaries believed that public opposition cultural maturity. reforms was a positive sign, a symptom oft the colony's -au-Prince Council in its defender ofthe PortIn 1765 an anonymous [this body] was vulbattle with Governor d'Estaing wrote "originally and but the criticism that its members were rude ignorant, nerable to and today they are well-born, enlightened times have indeed changed; Senate. >64 Other writers were even honest, forming a respectable sources of colonial about the social and intellectual more specific "enlightenment": colonial was alive, these simple and As long as the first generation found little to criticize. coarse folk, mostly sailors or ships' carpenters, populated by a more enlightBut as the colony grewi it was increasingly were kind of colonist, . new opinions ened and more polished remonstrances with which introduced to everyone; the very respectable His Majesty three or four times a the Parlement periodically bothered XV's reign were brought into the year in the last twenty years of Louis minds. Colonists began to read The colony and inflamed countless Montesquieu . Everyone saw or Spirit of the Laws by the immortal of their interests and believed they saw there the corroboration opinions. 65 adopted the tools of The councils of Cap Français and Port-au-Prince legal theory, Parlements- debates over precedent, the metropolitan used them with growing skill against the and public pamphlets-and successor would face the same royal administration. D'Estaing's flaring into outright revolt in judicial resistance over the same issues, 1768 and 1769. its militia project when the Port-auVersailles did not abandon Choiseul named a replacement Prince Council rejected it. Rather, skilled than d'Estaing but who appeared to be more politically opinion. This was the Prince equally committed to managing public in 1766, who arrived in Saint-Domingue de Rohan-Montbazon, with growing skill against the and public pamphlets-and successor would face the same royal administration. D'Estaing's flaring into outright revolt in judicial resistance over the same issues, 1768 and 1769. its militia project when the Port-auVersailles did not abandon Choiseul named a replacement Prince Council rejected it. Rather, skilled than d'Estaing but who appeared to be more politically opinion. This was the Prince equally committed to managing public in 1766, who arrived in Saint-Domingue de Rohan-Montbazon, --- Page 140 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER convince the colony it needed a militia. Like believing he could ostentatiously, confirming that a d'Estaing, he lived and governed the planters' creole dress and new "civilized" style oflife was replacing himself charmed by the culture. Upon arriving he pronounced believed his szeal" to serve the king. The new governor planters' with the councils; d'Estaing agreed predecessor had been too rigid more slowly than he had.so should proceed that Rohan-Montbazon to smooth the militia reform Part of the Colonial Office strategy councils. In 1766 it ordered the ofthe was to increase professionalism law and be at least 27 years old. that new councilors hold a degree the head of the Paris barristers' That same year Choiseul wrote to Saint-Domingue's councils guild about the crown's desire to "settle" subjects. >9 He "and to fill them with educated and experienced Parlement be that twelve barristers from the Paris appointed directed itself was bench. >67 However, the Paris Parlement to the colonial Parisian judges were among those arguhardly "settled"in the 1760s. ministerial accountability ing in the press and on the bench for more XV Choiscul with and discussion of royal policy. When Louis replaced in 1770, the Paris ministerial favorite, René de Maupeou, a new of attempt to reestablish Parlement was the main target Maupeou's 165 of the most contentious royal authority. In 1771 he exiled towns to end their obstrucParisian magistrates to remote provincial cstablished a new court system. tion of royal legislation, and this as "tyrannical. >68 Advocates of public discourse described purge bench in 1766, Choiseul's Parisian appointees to the Port-au-Prince could the idea that public opinion therefore, may have strengthened In case the actions ofthe new govstop the militia reestablishment. any this belief. Like d'Estaing, he Rohan-Montbazon, encouraged ernor, debate on militia policy by acknowledglegitimized the idea ofa public He ended up producing the ing and trying to shape colonial opinion. and, when he refused to same kind of Fanti-militia agitation as d'Estaing, and West Provinces. 69 back down, a revolt broke out in the South 1766, Rohanmonths after arriving in the colony in June Five two councils with his militia Montbazon presented Saint-Domingue's council opposed it, he convened a program. When the Port-au-Prince Attempting to bypass the council *General Assembly" ofthe planters. the best interests of the colony, the judges, who claimed to represent a meeting in each asked civilian administrators to organize would governor fourteen districts. These local assemblies 70 of Saint-Domingue's discuss the new militia with the governor. send representatives to dominated the assembly, which In Les Cayes, militia opponents 400 colonists, explaining why the produced a document signed by -Domingue's council opposed it, he convened a program. When the Port-au-Prince Attempting to bypass the council *General Assembly" ofthe planters. the best interests of the colony, the judges, who claimed to represent a meeting in each asked civilian administrators to organize would governor fourteen districts. These local assemblies 70 of Saint-Domingue's discuss the new militia with the governor. send representatives to dominated the assembly, which In Les Cayes, militia opponents 400 colonists, explaining why the produced a document signed by --- Page 141 --- BEFORE HAITI Because those signatures were not included militia was not necessary. of whether free in the surviving text, there is no way determining though ranchers, and property owners participated, colored planters, that these meetings included Rohan-Montbazon later commented in the colony21 But his new arrivals and petits blancs with no property included. instructions did not specify who was to be the described the injustice of reestablishing The Les Cayes petition to inform Rohanmilitia. The assembly instructed its representatives rule and that did not need military Montbazon that Saint-Domingue against slave revolt. They they would take their own precautions their to the king, claimed the militia only existed to force subjugation to the monarch. defended their patriotic attachment and they hotly the citizen from the rule oflaw <The militia, under any form, removes Now, as soon as one is no to put him under that of military discipline. of slavery. >72 longer under the law, one is in a state of anarchy, December 10, 1766 Such fervor ensured that Rohan-Montbazon's) rejected his was a failure. They meeting with district representatives when he showed them the formal arguments and were unimpressed ordered him to reestablish the militia. instructions in which Versailles returned home for a second assembly, The Les Cayes representatives instructions were not a royal order. Their which concluded that such When the governor scheduled resistance, therefore, was not treason. with local representatives in January, representatives another meeting four other districts did not even attend.73 from Les Cayes and now but to take a hard line, RohanBelieving he had no alternative militia decree that the Port-auMontbazon asked Choiseul for a royal counseled Council would have to approve. The naval secretary Prince to cool. Only in October 1768 did patience, to allow the opposition law signed by Louis XV. Rohan-Montbazon finally receive a militia those who Whatever the objections of judges in Port-au-Prince, document would be in the legality of this refused to acknowledge rebellion." movement additional time to But the delays gave the anti-militia that militia service was recruit supporters and perfect its arguments waited for Versailles to equivalent to slavery. As Rohan-Montbazon circulated in several districts. In send the decree, anti-militia petitions is such that even the mixed1767 he wrote Choiseul, *The anarchy and recently, after blood [people] believe themselves independent with a cane. >75 two mulattos beat a merchant captain some words, the violence. After the councils formally The law's arrival exacerbated Rohan-Montbazon to issue registered the decree in 1768, allowing threatened and harassed men new militia commissions, opponents arguments waited for Versailles to equivalent to slavery. As Rohan-Montbazon circulated in several districts. In send the decree, anti-militia petitions is such that even the mixed1767 he wrote Choiseul, *The anarchy and recently, after blood [people] believe themselves independent with a cane. >75 two mulattos beat a merchant captain some words, the violence. After the councils formally The law's arrival exacerbated Rohan-Montbazon to issue registered the decree in 1768, allowing threatened and harassed men new militia commissions, opponents --- Page 142 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER offices. In December 1768 as the new militia who accepted these boiled over into companies mustered, this long- - simmering protest in the hinterlands of broadsides appeared armed revolt. Anonymous that the Port-au-I Prince Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes, claiming resistance to the governor. Council and ultimately, Louis XV, sanctioned argued, had perverted Those who had ordered the militia reform, they true intentions for the colony." 76 the king's d'Estaing's plan to publicly Rohan-Montbazon had rejected but he retained the idea of acknowledge free colored patriotism, those in free colored units, for reserving all commissioned ranks, even visited the southern peninsula white men. In November 1768, he mulattos, and whites to where he saw printed materials urging blacks, of the Port-au-Prince fight the militia reform, under the authority that the new law Council. Yet the governor refused to acknowledge He the civic status of the free colored population. diminished are still under the protection of announced that *the freedmen : ofthe militia the people of color reestablishment the laws.. . . [in] the ofHis Majesty in this colony." >77 are treated like all the other subjects confined to the West and South The militia revolt of 1768-69 was militia service had pressed Provinces, the two regions where wartime the parish ofTorbec in colonists the hardest. The South, particularly and involveCayes district, saw the greatest social agitation the Les color. But members of this class were involved ment of free people of of color in the largely undeveloped in other regions too. Free men the authors of a letter mountain parish of Mirebalais were purportedly 1769. They in late December, or January to the government the colony if they were not assured of described vague *dangers" to >78 Because 90 percent of their freedom, fearing a "return to slavery. thousands of the children Saint- -Domingue's inhabitants, including labored, and died as the propofFrenchmen, lived, and grandchildren free people of color may have believed erty of another human being, them in chains. It is more likely, the new militia would literally put whites were using slavery as a however, that they understood that that forced service would not metaphor. Free men ofcolor recognized their ability to civic virtue; they wanted to preserve be considered decide to serve the colony. broke out in January 1769 was The anti-militia revolt that finally old families to assert the cohesion the last attempt ofSaint-Doningue's the South Province, the most violent of the creole population. In reform came from Torbec parish, resistance to Rohan-Montbazon's Company had built some where the colonists ofthe Saint-Domingue parishes, first plantations. In most neighboring of the peninsula's ofcolor recognized their ability to civic virtue; they wanted to preserve be considered decide to serve the colony. broke out in January 1769 was The anti-militia revolt that finally old families to assert the cohesion the last attempt ofSaint-Doningue's the South Province, the most violent of the creole population. In reform came from Torbec parish, resistance to Rohan-Montbazon's Company had built some where the colonists ofthe Saint-Domingue parishes, first plantations. In most neighboring of the peninsula's --- Page 143 --- BEFORE HAITI their militia orders and turned whites and free men of color accepted officers. But Torbec's first out in late 1768 to be counted by their new the commander attended. Robert d'Argout, militia muster was poorly man of color named of the South Province, suspected a prominent and holding antiJacques Delaunay of passing seditious pamphlets 79 Delaunay for free people of color on his plantation. militia meetings attend Torbec's first militia muster and, was among those who did not 1769, d'Argout arrested him. in late January the free colored officers in the old militia Delaunay was one of 80 Part of a who would be demoted in the reorganization.' system ascendant free colored family in Aquin parish, numerous and socially brother of the master saddler Julien Delaunay was probably the Boissé. His sister Françoise was Delaunay and the son of Jeanne the free colored indigo married to Aquin's Guillaume Labadie, In 1765 Delaunay had traded planter and former militia lieutenant. in Aquin parish to indigo plantation his own well-constructed of color, in exchange for a run-down another, lighter-skinned free man 81 Jacques Delaunay may indigo estate with four times the acreage." Julien or another family have entrusted this property to his brother he moved west to member at Aquin, for soon after this transaction, creole families of mixed Torbec parish. Herc he found successful could trace their descent who, like their counterparts in Aquin, were involved in the back to the carliest French settlers and ancestry contraband indigo trade. Rohan-Montbazon had Governor As far away as Port-au-Prince, free colored planters. heard about the anti-militia stance ofTorbec's Hérard, François Jean Domingue In addition to Jacques Delaunay, 2) had also publicly Boisrond, and at least one of his sons (chapter after d'Argout had rejected the militia reform. In early February, him to punish these Rohan-Montbazon ordered arrested Delaunay, commander confirmed "the bad conmen, too. The South Province but claimed he had no way to take duct of these troublemakers," action against them at the moment. were pressing Torbec's anti-militia white planters As it was, One of them sent him an unsigned d'Argout to release Delaunay. and demanding the release Delaunay's innocence letter proclaiming a militia, the father. 99 Torbec would never again support ofthis "family two thousand men to free letter claimed, threatening to mobilize about 150 free people of color Delaunay. On February 2, 1769, discuss how to free him. to assembled on Delaunay's property the free mulatto planter Sometime later that day they kidnapped their friend's release. Boury and held him hostage against Jacques release Delaunay. and demanding the release Delaunay's innocence letter proclaiming a militia, the father. 99 Torbec would never again support ofthis "family two thousand men to free letter claimed, threatening to mobilize about 150 free people of color Delaunay. On February 2, 1769, discuss how to free him. to assembled on Delaunay's property the free mulatto planter Sometime later that day they kidnapped their friend's release. Boury and held him hostage against Jacques --- Page 144 --- REVOLT AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, free colored officers who would now have Although he was one ofthe Boury had not opposed the new to serve as regular militia soldiers, With Boury in plan and had remained friendly with d'Argout. color wrote Torbec's men of custody, according to d'Argout's spies, about attacking the jail their in the town ofLes Cayes to counterparts where Delaunay was held.s4 Torbec's white militia safety, d'Argout sent To ensure Boury's with the free colored commander Girard de Formont to negotiate Hérard's Girard's mulatto son had married Jean Domingue rebels. militia commander did not attend the daughter, though the white on his own plantation in marriage contract signing which took place absence, in 1769 Girard left 1764. 85 Ifracial scorn had prompted this serious and well organized impressed by how the hostage negotiations were. On February 6 he wrote his rebellious neighbors and in-laws, determined to do "In truth these people seem to me quite d'Argout, this] would perhaps be whatever [is necessary] and the damage [from have believed them than we can imagine : . I would not >86 greater them. In this meeting, capable of the order that there was among believed themselves Torbec's free people of color emphasized that they with the parish's white to be good citizens, and were closely aligned elite. Girard reported: to ask you to leave them alone regarding the They made me promise will always be disposed to follow militia, assuring me that they that they are faithful subjects of the example of Messieurs the planters, demand the same treatment. the King and good citizens, [and] that they captors of his good faith, for he Girard apparently convinced Boury's first and wait for Delaunay to persuaded them to release their hostage be freed. to anti-militia whites, accordBoury's release was a major surprise the son of Etienne ing to the free mulatto Jean Bourdet, commander probably ofLes Cayes parish. Bourdet, the deceased white militia assemblies after Bourdet had refused to attend the anti-militia were involved. 87 although many of his cousins Delaunay's arrest, men of color arrested During Girard's negotiations some anti-militia Released when the Bourdet in Torbec and took him to their camp. the concluded, on his way home he stopped at plantation Some negotiations to eat with a relative who lived there. ofan anti-militia planter Bourdet and questioned him about whites on the estate recognized were very disappointed to the negotiations to free Delaunay. They learn that the men of color had released Boury SO rapidly. although many of his cousins Delaunay's arrest, men of color arrested During Girard's negotiations some anti-militia Released when the Bourdet in Torbec and took him to their camp. the concluded, on his way home he stopped at plantation Some negotiations to eat with a relative who lived there. ofan anti-militia planter Bourdet and questioned him about whites on the estate recognized were very disappointed to the negotiations to free Delaunay. They learn that the men of color had released Boury SO rapidly. --- Page 145 --- BEFORE HAITI said that 12 to 13 whites had joined the 150 or more Bourdet also assembled in support of Delaunay. The planter free people of color ofCotteaux parish was there. Jean-Pierre Mallet, brother ofthe mayor he claimed, had come The white overseers La Forest and Laroque, that carrying news. 89 Jacques Boury confirmed and gone frequently, the free colored camp with beef, biscuit, and someone was supplying himself implied that free colored discontent salt. Jacques Delaunay and manipulated by a group of white planters was being encouraged reestablishment without openly defying secking to squash the militia by d'Argout, before Girard's Interrogated in prison the government. negotiation, Delaunay all that has happened. He told me that it was appeared very effected by that had led them to fail in their duty [toward the bad counsel ofwhites an overseer : had read the administration] and that Sieur Laroque, to get them not to them a letter he said came from Port-au-Prince held. 90 at the [militia] reviews that were being appear involved a delicate in these events Free colored participation authority. Delaunay and others counterbalancing of local and royal the the Portthemselves as good citizens, loyal to king, named represented and < Messieurs the planters." One rebel au-Prince Council, had convinced him to join Dugué claimed that the notary Desvergers from the colonial minby showing him a piece of paper with writing that that Desvergers said this document proved ister. Dugué reported the militia; they were to the king had not given orders to reestablish their good submit. 91 Delaunay's friends proved hold firm and not another free man of color, rather than a citizenship by kidnapping they quickly released their hostage, white. Once negotiations began, acting on their own initiative. Delaunay. Yet the resoluFor his part, d'Argout released Jacques to the militia. On situation did not end opposition tion of this hostage received word that more anti-militia letFebruary 10, 1769, d'Argout plain and that approximately were in the Les Cayes ters circulating artisans, ex-soldiers, and other petits 200 whites- small planters, of color had gathered at Les Savannettes, blanes-and 50 free people d'Estaing in 1765. The similar had been held against where a meeting Mallet, while Cornet, a free whites were again led by the planter nephew, led the free people mulatto who may have been Delaunay's when arrested that d'Argout of color.' 92 This assembly proclaimed black for resisting the militia, the the first white, free mulatto, or free and support the entire group would take up arms, reassemble, 93 Port-au-Prince Council against the reform. d'Estaing in 1765. The similar had been held against where a meeting Mallet, while Cornet, a free whites were again led by the planter nephew, led the free people mulatto who may have been Delaunay's when arrested that d'Argout of color.' 92 This assembly proclaimed black for resisting the militia, the the first white, free mulatto, or free and support the entire group would take up arms, reassemble, 93 Port-au-Prince Council against the reform. --- Page 146 --- AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLT that he had successfully mustered Within a week d'Argout reported parishes of Cotteaux and the new militia in the two troublesome had recently carved out of Tiburon, frontier districts the government few men of color had the mountains west of Torbec. However, Torbec parish itself Jacques attended these required assemblies. In still his free colored neighbors apparently Boury was frec, though 21 Jacques Dasque, a free regarded him with suspicion. On February had arrested one connected to the anti-militia group, mulatto planter Dasque told a notary that Boury of Boury's slaves near his plantation. slaves to run away. had ordered the slave to encourage Dasque's Torbec's anti-militia In spite ofthese tensions within creole society, networks that had long forces were trying to mobilize the smuggling absence of French comsustained their frontier plantations in the of white planters On March 2, d'Argout learned that a group merce. of Jamaica, whose merchants bought was writing to the governor indigo, and cotton. Their letmuch ofthe southern peninsula's sugar, to come over to announced "that they were prepared ter allegedly that he would find all minds English rule and assured [the governor] 7> him. Three days later d'Argout's spies reported here ready to greet and to gather in Les that these men were stockpiling arms planning Moreover, Savannettes to fight at the first sign of government hostility. officers in Rohan-Montbazon's the anti-militia forces were pressing They had decided to hold new militia to resign their commissions. 95 another assembly ifthis did not occur. to have chilled the These threats of secession and violence seem ofMarch free people of color. The night anti-militia ardor ofTorbee's attended an anti-militia assembly. 8, 1769, one of d'Argout's spies addressed a racially mixed group of Saint Martin, a white planter, had for not arriving on time. They supporters, scolding the free mulattos wanted them answered "that they clearly saw that they [the planters] free people of chestnuts from the fire and that they [the to pull their >96 Saint Martin assured them color] were tired of all these assemblies." had dissuaded those militia that the meetings would stop once they from appearing before officers who had returned their commissions as they had been Rohan-Montbazon in Port-au-Prince, Governor Saint Martin assured them that ordered. According to the report leave them alone. The mulattos "after this they [the planters] would but for the last time. promised [to cooperate] men of color reversed their antiThat very night nine prominent of Torbec's free colored militia stance. These younger members Boury's younger brothers, planter families included two of Jacques and one of Jean Domingue the mulatto son of Girard de Formont, who had returned their commissions as they had been Rohan-Montbazon in Port-au-Prince, Governor Saint Martin assured them that ordered. According to the report leave them alone. The mulattos "after this they [the planters] would but for the last time. promised [to cooperate] men of color reversed their antiThat very night nine prominent of Torbec's free colored militia stance. These younger members Boury's younger brothers, planter families included two of Jacques and one of Jean Domingue the mulatto son of Girard de Formont, --- Page 147 --- BEFORE HAITI asking d'Argout for mercy, they declared that Hérard's sons. Formally letters signed "La Colonie," they had received anonymous threatening The threats ordered directing them to assemble at Les Savannettes. who had M. Penfentenir, one oft the militia captains them to prevent from traveling to meet Rohansurrendered his commission, his Montbazon in Port-au-Prince to explain resignation." of their wealthy white themselves as dupes These men presented them and poor whites as a neighbors, who, they claimed, were using announced, "Secing screen to hide their own anti-militia stance. They the said assembly at Les that the white messieurs did not appear at made. >9 Though they we realized the mistake that we had Savannettes, Penfentenir not to go to Port-au-Prince, they had originally warned orders as him to follow Rohan-Montbazon's returned to encourage when they returned to confirm soon as possible. The next morning number of the most notable Penfentenir' S departure "we found a the departure of planters of the neighborhood, who opposed "notable Messieurs" for 27 The petitioners listed these M. Penfentenir." frankness with which we act leads us to d'Argout, saying that "the would please intervene hope that by your well-known kindness, immersed you in a mistake that they for the poor wretches who have been >98 only recognized several days ago. of men of color and petits blancs was Meanwhile, a combined force west of Torbec. On harassing militia officers in Cotteaux parish, Mallet led a group that March 11 the white planter Jean-Pierre They took him to the kidnapped the brother of the notary Laroque. his militia commisof Cotteaux and ordered him to turn over town neighbors vilified him for conforming to sion and uniform. Laroque's after the revolt that he was of the new militia law and started a rumor commending the mixed blood. D'Argout had to issue a statement blood in either and declaring that there was no African notary Laroque or his wife. 99 abduction, 30 armed On March 15, a few days after Laroque's Delaunay and Charles whites and free mulattos under the free mulatto the plantation of Mallet, the brother ofJean-Pierre, forcibly occupied insulted Chamoux's Chamoux, a militia officerin the same area. They The rebels then family and forced him to surrender his commission. 100 ' had where more than "brigands took him to another plantation free of color, with yet more gathered, including at least 80 people took these men to Cotteaux and militia officers in custody. The crowd word arrived that d'Argout was publicly humiliated them there, until At this news, the anti-militia en route from Les Cayes with 200 men. forces left Cotteaux to regroup in Les Savanettes.' the same area. They The rebels then family and forced him to surrender his commission. 100 ' had where more than "brigands took him to another plantation free of color, with yet more gathered, including at least 80 people took these men to Cotteaux and militia officers in custody. The crowd word arrived that d'Argout was publicly humiliated them there, until At this news, the anti-militia en route from Les Cayes with 200 men. forces left Cotteaux to regroup in Les Savanettes.' --- Page 148 --- SEVEN YEARS' WAR REFORM, REVOLTAFTER because soldiers had D'Argout's show of strength was possible quelled simifrom the West Province, where they had already arrived called on free colored Moreover, the commander lar disturbances. districts. On March 28, therefore, nearly constables from neighboring orders marched out of the town 100 men of color under d'Argout's made directly for Les of Les Cayes with 120 royal troops. They belonging to Savanettes and, at dawn, raided two adjacent plantations to have been a leaders. Interrupting what appeared white anti-militia a slave and a white plantameeting, they arrested four men, including martial in Les Cayes the following tion artisan. After a hasty court the executed all four. week, government treatment ofthe rebels was lightGenerally, however, government of color were concerned. After a handed, especially where free people executed only eight rebels; formal investigation and trial the crown Frostin points out, the just one was a free man of color. As Charles whites and new French immigovernment preferred to blame poor creole families. The major excepgrants, rather than attack established meted out to the tion to this pattern was the punishment expelled from Port-au-Prince magistrates, whom Rohan-Montbazon sent to the galleys and the colony in 1769.102 One free quarteron was by their local courts less than a third of the 17 men "admonished" were men of color. he understood well "the ferocious Rohan-Montbazon believed color), their attachment to their libspirit ofthese sorts of people (of believe we are trying to return and their scorn for life when they the erty he believed they had been misled by them to slavery." " Because home "and to execute whites, he ordered free colored rebels to return take their the wishes ofa King who never wanted to away with respect wanted them to enjoy the same liberty but who, on the contrary, >103 his other subjects, of which they are a part. privileges as * illustrate the limited range of The militia controversies of 1764-69 oftheir exclusion from colonial free colored protest at this early stage their militia leadership, public affairs. Postwar reforms had threatened sacrifices and planned to combut d'Estaing had acknowledged their to have with and honors. The trade-off appears pensate them prizes of color in the South Province been acceptable. In 1765, free people their white neighbors did. plans, though did not protest d'Estaing's to cultivate public opinion in However, Rohan-Momtbazon's 's attempt anti-militia arguments to 1766 and 1767 unwittingly strengthened colonial free colored protest at this early stage their militia leadership, public affairs. Postwar reforms had threatened sacrifices and planned to combut d'Estaing had acknowledged their to have with and honors. The trade-off appears pensate them prizes of color in the South Province been acceptable. In 1765, free people their white neighbors did. plans, though did not protest d'Estaing's to cultivate public opinion in However, Rohan-Momtbazon's 's attempt anti-militia arguments to 1766 and 1767 unwittingly strengthened --- Page 149 --- BEFORE HAITI and his neighbors in Torbec parish the point that Jacques Delaunay and refused to muster. Yet, of followed the urging of white planters, only the adjacent territories all the parishes in the southern peninsula, disturbances in of Torbec, Les Anses, and Cotteaux experienced shouldered muskets 1769. Elsewhere in the province, men of color assemblies. when he moved against the anti-militia for d'Argout and anti-militia forces, Torbec's free people Courted by both protheir leaders belonged to an emerging of color were not puppets, but knew the importance of strong group of light skinned planters who families in the region. Although relationships with the more powerful and others were not dependent the Delaunays, Boisronds, Hérards, its value. Delaunay in particular on white patronage, they understood networks were essential in this had just moved to the parish. Social as solidarity with world and these men defined "good citizenship" Council. messieurs the planters, and the Port-au-Prince the militia reform despite Jacques Boury's decision to support further characteristics of pressure from his neighbors suggests some wealthier and had far more Torbec's free colored rebels. Boury was militia. he stood and Though experience with the royal government have that the his status as a militia officer, he may recognized to lose reliable ally than local whites, particuroyal government was a more to the colony. His younger larly as resentful immigrants were flocking the militia until near the end brothers Alexis and René Boury opposed needed local patrons more than of the revolt, but they may have Jacques did. Bourys, the entire family Despite the defiance of the younger The revolt was barely over in prospered in the 1770s and 1780s. sisters married a white October 1769 when one of Jacques Boury's were partIn 1770 René Boury and another free man ofcolor most planter. valued at 250,000 livres, one of the ners in a sugar plantation in the peninsula. By 1783 Jacques valuable free colored properties of the mulatto and black Boury himself was quartermaster general a man of color militia in the South Province, the highest 104 position could hold under the new regulations. because it was the last time The failed militia revolt is important forces. As the next Saint-Domingue's creole planting families joined the colony as never describes, after 1769 a color line split of chapter the wealthiest and lightest skinned families before, slicing even French colonists. Once the government color from the ranks of officials worked with legal had defeated anti-militia forces, military tensions and cultural anxieties and planter elites to salve the political Together these colonial population. that split Saint-Domingue's --- Page 150 --- REFORM, REVOLT AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR groups wrote new laws and emphasized longstanding policies in which race replaced class as the main sign of social and civic status. From 1770, new legal and social terminology emphasized the African, rather than French, identity of mixed race families. Free people of color were not banished to the hills to make room for white immigrants, as Petit had advocated in his 1750 Patriot américain. However, after 1769, established colonists, military administrators, and petit blancs worked hard to deny people of color the ability to be "American patriots." REFORM, REVOLT AFTER SEVEN YEARS' WAR groups wrote new laws and emphasized longstanding policies in which race replaced class as the main sign of social and civic status. From 1770, new legal and social terminology emphasized the African, rather than French, identity of mixed race families. Free people of color were not banished to the hills to make room for white immigrants, as Petit had advocated in his 1750 Patriot américain. However, after 1769, established colonists, military administrators, and petit blancs worked hard to deny people of color the ability to be "American patriots." --- Page 151 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 152 --- CHAPTER 5 X CITIZENSHIP AND RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC SPHERE On) January 26, 1776, Europe's latest innovation opened its doors in Cap Français. An in urban sociability probably a recent arrival in the entrepreneur named Pamelart, Vauxhall, a fashionable combination colony, invited the public to his having heard how colonists of meeting hall and café. Perhaps loved to room in his new establishment, dance, Pamelart included a ballyear's Carnival which drew large crowds season. But after the the during that floor stood empty. Pamelart tried holiday, café and its dance that might have worked in to lure the public back with tactics Affiches américaines and a European city, like advertising in the May, when he began holding fireworks demonstrations. Only in did he scheduling dances for Cap's free appear to have found the formula for people ofd color, again made the Vauxhall a social success. These functions free colored balls to find mistresses. center, for many white men attended atre opened in 1764, the city But since Cap Français's new theregation of public places. When government had required the racial seghis dance floor emptied Pamelart began to enforce this law, Although again. The Vauxhall closed soon imperial administrators, creole afterward. reformers described free people of color magistrates, and other European men wanted sexual as a threat to public virtue, Nine years later, Pamelart had partnerships with women of color.! sensitivities. In 1785 a court bailiff apparently adapted to colonial racial failed Vauxhall owner, named "Pamelard," ' probably the Pamelard paid to have a pamphlet and his wife had suffered "the printed. It claimed that defamation of their reputation, their cruelest degradation and honor and their probity. >2 afterward. reformers described free people of color magistrates, and other European men wanted sexual as a threat to public virtue, Nine years later, Pamelart had partnerships with women of color.! sensitivities. In 1785 a court bailiff apparently adapted to colonial racial failed Vauxhall owner, named "Pamelard," ' probably the Pamelard paid to have a pamphlet and his wife had suffered "the printed. It claimed that defamation of their reputation, their cruelest degradation and honor and their probity. >2 --- Page 153 --- BEFORE HAITI the couple "in terms and with Another pamphleteer had described to people of color.' 29 expressions that in this colony are only given labels like "free quarPamelard was not complaining about explicit of codes. He cited >9 or "free black," 2> but a far more subtle set as teron, which the earlier pamphlet referred to him twenty instances in and his wife as "the woman simply *Pamelard" or ca Pamelard" place of"the so-called" or "the woman"in Pamelard. > In France, use denoted an individtitles "Sieur" and *Demoiselle" ofthe respectful insulting, such terms might have been ual's low social status. Though and his wife. applied to the failed dance-hall owner had replaced class as By 1785 in Saint-Domingue, however, race whites were now dividing line in society. Even poor the primary virtue of their race. In February 1783 the addressed as "Sieur," by to declare that, although a Cap Français court believed it necessary this person referred to one ofhis witnesses as "the so-called," lawyer as white "and not stained with mixed was nonetheless recognized the Français court ruled that blood. 29 Similarly, in January 1787 Cap been described in earlier although a free quarteron saddle maker had from the documents. >9 this would be erased court papers as "Sieur," forbidden to take this title in the future. In an The man was expressly ofthe Reculé family ofJacmel, it October 1783 case assessing the race evidence showed that they had was noted that nearly all the available documents in "In favor of the Reculés we see only African ancestry. the title of Sieur and somewhich their ancestors are sometimes given it was to flatter the contimes not, according to how advantageous tracting parties." >4 colonial illustrate the changPamelart's two appeals to the public revolt of since the anti-militia ing racial climate in Saint-Domingue still drew mostly male immi1769. On one level, Saint-Domingue century, and these from Europe, as it had since the seventeenth grants Pamelart's Vauxhall free women of color as companions. men sought him to segregate his clientele. failed because new laws required Pamelart exhibited a hyperIn terms of his own identity, however, common among colonial sensitivity to racial description that was now that he was a man of color whites, particularly poorer ones. Suspicion had recently could have cost him his bailiff's post; the government As the colony's nonwhites from employment in the courts. would prohibited established a new colonial public that leaders self-consciously colonists, they insisted that meeting places civilize and unite French free of mixed race, despite, or and formal institutions exclude people they exerted on whites. rather, because of, the powerful attraction of his own identity, however, common among colonial sensitivity to racial description that was now that he was a man of color whites, particularly poorer ones. Suspicion had recently could have cost him his bailiff's post; the government As the colony's nonwhites from employment in the courts. would prohibited established a new colonial public that leaders self-consciously colonists, they insisted that meeting places civilize and unite French free of mixed race, despite, or and formal institutions exclude people they exerted on whites. rather, because of, the powerful attraction --- Page 154 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, frustrations of petits blancslike Pamelart reinforced The economic 1770s and 1780s, free people of color in this political project. In the merchants, of Saint-Domingue emerged as prosperous all regions This was especially true in the artisans, farmers, and even planters. creole families sucSouth where a new generation of deep-rooted legacies oftheir parents cessfully built on the cultural and economic visible and troubling (chapter 6). The trend was most immediately West By the however, in the North and provinces. to colonists, had produced hundreds of 1780s, Cap Français's dynamic economy unlike the South, there wealthy free coloreds. Here especially, in addidistinct and socially mobile free black population, emerged a families. 5 The contrast between rising free tion to mixed-race creole disillusionment of many French colored wealth and the economic class solidify the notion of a single, contemptible immigrants helped of"nonwhites." > ofthe Seven Years' War, This chapter argues that in the aftermath to reconleading intellectuals and jurists struggled Saint-Domingue's identity with the colonists' strong attachment cile the colony's French of color. As in many nineteenth-century to women and children fears about colonists' cultural European colonies in Asia and Africa, divide free society into persuaded elites to try to and political loyalties In Saint-Domingue this artificial "white" and "nonwhite" groups. By describing mixed separation created new kinds ofr racial stercotypes. colonial elites established race women and men as unnaturally feminine, and their creole children far distance between Europeans a greater under the older bloodline conception of ethnicity. than was possible thread in anti-absolutist French Because misogyny was an important effective rhetoric, these new racial stereotypes were especially that political people threatened the public virtue in explaining how mixed-race was necessary for colonial both pro- and anti-militia forces agreed citizenship and patriotism. racial codes that divided colonial This chapter examines the new influx of European immisociety after 1769. After describing how an social structure, the established grants threatened Saint-Domingue's intertwined discourses of heart ofthe chapter traces the increasingly in both Saintsexual decadence, and racial impurity, citizenship, people of mixed race in Domingue and France. By condemning reformers cut them out of the biological and well as moral terms, white families, in theory. In white public and even excised them from that the draof colonial census reports suggests closing, an analysis free population of color in the matic growth of Saint-Domingue's how an social structure, the established grants threatened Saint-Domingue's intertwined discourses of heart ofthe chapter traces the increasingly in both Saintsexual decadence, and racial impurity, citizenship, people of mixed race in Domingue and France. By condemning reformers cut them out of the biological and well as moral terms, white families, in theory. In white public and even excised them from that the draof colonial census reports suggests closing, an analysis free population of color in the matic growth of Saint-Domingue's --- Page 155 --- BEFORE HAITI least due to the racial reclassification of 1770s and 1780s was at partly families, from <white" to "nonwhite." old colonial of the perceived need In the 1770s and 1780s, one important aspect was the growing for colonial patriotism and unity in Saint-Domingue In 1750, ofthe colony's poor white population. size and dissatisfaction to attract and retain new colonists, Emilien Petit had described ways >> His notion that new immiwho might become <American patriots." free people of compete for jobs against grants could not successfully free coloreds to the hills. color prompted him to propose restricting too close to free colPetit had also warned that ifthese immigrants got France. As if to became too creolized, they might turn against oreds, whites had joined free men of color illustrate this threat, in 1769 poor revolt, under pressure from as the foot soldiers of the anti-militia in the late 1760s, competition Torbec's old planting families. But even In shared political grievances. between these two groups outweighed had held different revolt, whites and free coloreds the militia poor at their exclusion from assemblies, under different leaders. Disgruntled creole society, newcomers that constituted the complex relationships light-skinned planters who thought of generally resented wealthy New kinds of racial politics flourished themselves as French colonists. frustration. in this atmosphere of economic and social white Jean Chatry For example, one day in 1765 the peddler Tourelle and found searched for the free quarteron planter Charles Chatry confronted the of two white neighbors." him on plantation sell him a black slave then shopTourelle and demanded he Angelique, refused, the peddler ping in town with Tourelle's wife. When Tourelle at him. The two a knife from a nearby table and lunged picked up him, but Chatry swore that he and his dagwhite planters restrained main some day or night. To would find Tourelle on the highway she ger to deliver the slave when calm the man Tourelle promised swore an left the free colored planter returned, but after Chatry affidavit about the incident before a notary. could intimidate Tourelle It is not clear if Chatry believed he But threats ofviolence because Angelique's owner was a man ofcolor. who had other were not too effective against a property owner was one that took standing by his side. A better weapon planters that had a colonial advantage ofthe growing sense Saint-Domingue networks. that existed outside ofcreole family and patronage "public" of free people of color in that public arena, By attacking the status , but after Chatry affidavit about the incident before a notary. could intimidate Tourelle It is not clear if Chatry believed he But threats ofviolence because Angelique's owner was a man ofcolor. who had other were not too effective against a property owner was one that took standing by his side. A better weapon planters that had a colonial advantage ofthe growing sense Saint-Domingue networks. that existed outside ofcreole family and patronage "public" of free people of color in that public arena, By attacking the status --- Page 156 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, improve their own position in colonial white immigrants might society. been what motivated Arnaud Lonné, the Ambition appears to have mulâtresse and wealthy widow white plantation manager of the free charge against one ofhis Marie Begasse Raymond, to make a serious before a royal employer's sons. In January 1774, Lonné appeared ofviolence com- "the insults, threats and acts judge to protest against mulatto from Aquin named Guillaume mitted against him by a Raymond [sic)." >7 According to Lonné, desires to continue to benefit from the pleasure of Guillaume Raymond [to his mother, Lonné's employer] tormenting and being disagreeable the death of Raymond père. No sooner was as he has always been since [recently acquired by his older he settled on this neighboring plantation crops and steal provisions brother Julien] than his slaves came to ravage the resides. plantation, where plaintiff from the widow Raymond's to end these raids, he set out one After Lonné had taken measures Saturday morning for town. But, before the plantation where Guillaume Raymond He was no sooner Guillaume Raymond's slaves lives, than he saw the aforementioned his passage, and the aforementioned congregate in the road, and block their midst and approach the plainGuillaume Raymond cmerge from these words to him-So, you tiff with a club in his hand addressing what I've been told you took it in your beggar bongre) according break to the water gourd of one of my slaves, you head the other day to I'll have that same slave break your good for nothing [St. Jean foutre), a f.. knave, [f. geux) a arms, you're a f... Uf.. . bougre) beggar, churl [menant] I'd like to give a good thrashing. according to Lonné, Guillaume struck In the resulting confusion, leaving his mother's manager him three times and then strode away, slaves. In his affidavit Lonné to contend with the jeering crowd of This sum would have demanded 50,000 livres in compensation. Lonné did not emphaallowed him to buy his own plantation, though his honor, The assault was an affront to personal size the money. and the security that each citizen and to "the interest of society must enjoy." this incident had really occurred-Lonné's No matter whether of his bruises, and he seems not to only evidence was an inventory the accusation was the matter further in courts-the have pursued Whatever his wealth and local especially damning for the Raimonds. demanded 50,000 livres in compensation. Lonné did not emphaallowed him to buy his own plantation, though his honor, The assault was an affront to personal size the money. and the security that each citizen and to "the interest of society must enjoy." this incident had really occurred-Lonné's No matter whether of his bruises, and he seems not to only evidence was an inventory the accusation was the matter further in courts-the have pursued Whatever his wealth and local especially damning for the Raimonds. --- Page 157 --- BEFORE HAITI could afford to be known for leading a slave status, no man of color ofthe "so-called" Guillaume mob against whites. Lonné's description of his attack on was but another aspect Raimond as "mulatto" children were all quarterons Raimond's character, for the Raimond and were often identified as *Sieur. 29 who rushed to a notary to None ofthis was lost on the Raimonds, The day after being publicly and officially. affirm their respectability Guillaume and his elder brother notified of Lonné's charges, both that such an incident had even Julien filed their own affidavit denying themselves in their narrative as taken place. They pointedly identified he had not [sic],8 Julien led this defense, though "Sieur" and "carteron"] The aforementioned Sieur Julien been named in Lonné's complaint. astonished that the aforementioned Raymond [sic] quarteron is attack his reputation and that ofhis Sieur Lonné in this complaint dares were brother.' 99 The Raimonds asserted that they aforementioned that their conduct has never been other than in a position to prove it cannot be presumed they be the sort to irreproachable and therefore Sieur Lonné wants The aforementioned commit such infamies * before a public toward which only to attack and debase their reputation behave well. they have always made it their duty to Raimond took "pleasure in tormenting Whether or not Guillaume Lonné's charges confirm what to his mother, and being disagrecable" blancs. they sought to profit from contemporaries said about petits <Those [poor whites] private squabbles before the public. bringing bailiff to bailiff. Clerks for attorneys and advowho can write go from and from there raid the fortunes of cates sometimes rise even higher and lawsuits within families, widows and orphans, causing quarrels >9 Some 20 years cabals, and plots against the administrators." forming Lonné in these very terms. later, Julien Raimond portrayed livres with my family, like . all the whites He made about 100,000 that is, by all sorts of ways. Lonné who are not planters make money, . from us a note we held against our mother's plantations late bought to make himself master of my With this debt he found a means older than 65, unable to act mother's plantation, a woman then Lonné turned against us by his poibecause of her infirmities and who his maneuvers. In the in order to keep us from secing sonous reports, mother's affairs, he gained 40 slaves.10 two years he managed my families of color may have been a favored Wealthy, light-skinned In 1763 a white soldier garrisoned target for unscrupulous immigrants. bought to make himself master of my With this debt he found a means older than 65, unable to act mother's plantation, a woman then Lonné turned against us by his poibecause of her infirmities and who his maneuvers. In the in order to keep us from secing sonous reports, mother's affairs, he gained 40 slaves.10 two years he managed my families of color may have been a favored Wealthy, light-skinned In 1763 a white soldier garrisoned target for unscrupulous immigrants. --- Page 158 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, Marquin, a free quarteronne in Cap Français sent word to Catherine Nicolas had returned from who lived in that city, that her brother met this man, neither France and wanted to see her.11 When they the boy who had sailed Catherine nor her brothers recognized him as their widowed to school in Europe 20 years earlier. However, soldier as away disagreed. She did identify the mother, a free mulâtresse, him to claim a piece of the sizeable Nicholas Marquin, allowing Marquin estate. sued the newcomer for fraud and won their The Marquin siblings that he was a Frenchman who had case in 1770. They discovered he had arrived in Cap Français in a new already deserted once. When he had heard about the Marquin inherregiment in September 1762, colonial court ruled that he was an itance and the missing heir. A France and returned with imposter, but the false Marquin traveled to He raised an appeal that more evidence that he was Nicholas Marquin. that he was five struck down in 1772,after the heirs demonstrated was fingers shorter than their brother. France could sustain a The fact that a soldier from southwestern for nearly a decade claim to be the quarteron Nicholas Marquin of such families had little underlines that the "nonwhite" identity were some enslaved 12 Though there to do with physical appearance." or the Marquins probably quarterons in the colony, the Raimonds slaves. Their African bore little resemblance to most Dominguan it existed in public conaffected their lives only because ancestry ofold creole families were the most vulnerasciousness. Descendants true ifthey were poor, since ble to such suspicions. This was especially with racial impurity. low social class was increasingly associated a small boat and lived René Glisset, a poor fisherman who operated was one such man. At outside the town of Les Cayes, in the pasture free colored daughter and his death in 1768 Glisset had an illegitimate who may have been a free shared his home with Victoire Mathieu, could sign his of color. 13 Despite his poverty, the fisherman woman his race in contracts, implying he name and notaries did not describe one ofthe seven guests at the was white. In 1762, Glisset was the only free of color to contract between two people signing of a marriage title "Sicur."is whom the notary gave the respectful René Glisset, boatman," as the One morning in 1765 <Sieur with his slaves to erect a wall notary described him, was working A white man named around his property in the town of Les Cayes. and to cart with ten or twelve slaves ofhis own began Secourt came by to use. When the boatman away a pile of sand that Glisset planned Furious, Secourt said "It's claimed the sand, the two began to argue. marriage title "Sicur."is whom the notary gave the respectful René Glisset, boatman," as the One morning in 1765 <Sieur with his slaves to erect a wall notary described him, was working A white man named around his property in the town of Les Cayes. and to cart with ten or twelve slaves ofhis own began Secourt came by to use. When the boatman away a pile of sand that Glisset planned Furious, Secourt said "It's claimed the sand, the two began to argue. --- Page 159 --- BEFORE HAITI a fine thing for a f.[sic] of a treatment. 9> Glisset beggar mulatto like you to demand replied that he was as white as special proven his whiteness before, and could Secourt, that he had to a notary to record this insult for prove it again. 15 He then went As Secourt's accusation future legal action. doubt. suggests, Glisset's racial status was open to Two-and-as-halfyears later Charles mestif, ofone-eighth African Drouct, a peddler and free Cayes. 16 There he declared "for ancestry, appeared before a notary in Les up with "Sieur René Glisset boatman" public notoriety" that he had grown father had had a dark in their native Jacmel. Glisset's always been considered complexion and in Jacmel Glisset himself had Glisset had to be of mixed race. to married a mulatto woman in According Drouet, died before bearing him Jacmel, and, though she had alive. Moreover, Drouet any children, her mulatto brothers were still cousin Julien said, one of Glisset's sisters had married his Drouet, also a free mestif. cousin, had known Glisset's uncle Jannot Drouet, another be of mixed race, although he Noel, who was also considered to In a society where married a white woman. working-class most Frenchmen did no manual labor, Glisset's his racial occupation and creole identity raised status, though some people assumed questions about based on his physical he was white, perhaps even wealthy crcoles appearance. By the end ofthe 1760s, were increasingly under racial however, Charles-Claude Gelée, a planter in the Les suspicion. When in 1767 that the Port-au-Prince Cayes district, requested rumors spread that not all of Council his confirm his letters of nobility, paternal grandfather had been ancestors were white. 17 Gelée's Nantes, France's chief one of the principal magistrates of secretary of the Parlement slave-trading port. In 1731 he became of Brittany. His royal come to Saint-Domingue in the 1720s, son, Gelée's father, had not long after the southern marrying in the Les Cayes plain Local gossip, peninsula was opened for settlement,18 Boisron however, insisted that Gelée's mother's [sic), was of African descent. In family, the of one of the most prominent free fact, Boisrond was the name (chapters 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9) To families of color in the region. Gelée requested that the quell these rumors, in March 1768, claim that his mother council of Port-au-Prince the was a woman investigate Boisron," >? although descended of color. "Marie Catherine from two colonial ancestry to a marriage celebrated in judges, traced her 1698. As the carliest successful French Saint-Christophe (St. Kitts) in Christophe had a Caribbean settlement, Saintmarried black slaves reputation as a place where white colonists and Indians. Moreover, had against the British for control of the island France's long struggle had destroyed almost all in March 1768, claim that his mother council of Port-au-Prince the was a woman investigate Boisron," >? although descended of color. "Marie Catherine from two colonial ancestry to a marriage celebrated in judges, traced her 1698. As the carliest successful French Saint-Christophe (St. Kitts) in Christophe had a Caribbean settlement, Saintmarried black slaves reputation as a place where white colonists and Indians. Moreover, had against the British for control of the island France's long struggle had destroyed almost all --- Page 160 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, Gelée's maternal grandmother was born on French civil records there. of baptism was missing. This in Saint- Christophe and her certificate magistrates in 1768 itself was enough to prompt the Port-au-Prince to order a full investigation. creole families, claimed that their The Gelées, like other old d'Auberteuil said that claims to be ancestor was an Indian. Hilliard were an *infallible" born of Indian parents in Saint- Christophe as white. 19 In response method for wealthy free people ofd color to pass affirmed that to the Gelée case the colonial ministry difference between His Majesty has always admitted . . . an essential Indians are born free, and Indians and nègres, the reason : [is] freedom that in the colonies . : . those have always held the advantage should of be assimilated to those subjects of who come from an Indian race intends that first from Europe, but - . his Majesty the King originally in such a manner that no doubt remain their genealogy be proved, about their origin.0 would consider self-proclaimed Indians to In other words, society otherwise.21 Gelée and his brothers, who had be African until proven and the colonial militia, already served as officers in the royal army Gelée went on to belong cleared of these charges. were apparently in the Les Cayes region, and held a comto several Masonic lodges militia dragoons in 1787.22 mission as captain ofthe mounted Charles-Claude Gelée The experiences of Guillaume Raimond, challenged the and René Glisset illustrate how postwar immigrants the changes in Saintclass structure of creole society. However, than resentful petits racial ideology were due to more Domingue's ambitions aggravated the ongoing political blancs. Their stymied and citizenship. As debate about the nature of colonial government divided over whether the 1769 revolt illustrated, Saint-Domingue was based on the rule oflaw, the colony could have a civilian government as Emilien Would colonists be more patriotic, or a military regime. only by the <liberal" virtues Petit argued, iftheir behavior was guided like d'Estaing and under just laws? Administrators of self-interest, to the contrary, that colonists needed Rohan-Montbazon maintained, and sacrifice for the larger more civic virtue, defined as self-discipline by agreecommunity. Ultimately, both groups compromised >> imperial were above all "white. ing that virtue and full colonial citizenship France itselfhad not defined This solution was a novel one, because century the catcitizenship well. Throughout much ofthe eighteenth of and incoherent set exceptions egory "citizen" was "a complex, subjects conceived derogations." >23 Most of Louis XV's European the contrary, that colonists needed Rohan-Montbazon maintained, and sacrifice for the larger more civic virtue, defined as self-discipline by agreecommunity. Ultimately, both groups compromised >> imperial were above all "white. ing that virtue and full colonial citizenship France itselfhad not defined This solution was a novel one, because century the catcitizenship well. Throughout much ofthe eighteenth of and incoherent set exceptions egory "citizen" was "a complex, subjects conceived derogations." >23 Most of Louis XV's European --- Page 161 --- BEFORE HAITI terms: they were members of a family, their social identity in corporate noble order, parish, or urban neighprofession, guild, congregation, jurisdictions that comprised borhood, to name a few ofthe overlapping of"citizen" was *tax-paying the kingdom. Thus one original meaning second half of the eighteenth resident of a specific city." In the and other authors began however, France's high magistrates century, broader sense. In pamphlets criticizing using the term in a political of French citizenship to royal absolutism, jurists used the concept rights of French describe those who held the natural and customary subjects. 24 Council modeled its own struggle against The Port-au-Prince example and on this metropolitan d'Estaing and Rohan-Monthbazon the word "citizen" as a weapon. For joined French judges in wielding 1765 memorandum recountexample, the anonymous author ofal long describe himself. "My name d'Estaing's troubles used the word to is ing fatherland is Saint- Domingue, my condition is The Patriot, my the love of truth and justice, and my occupations Citizen, my religion is virtue. >25 On the other side are to boldly attack vice and loudly praise militia service also used those who wanted to restore ofthe controversy, French identity. Another anonythe word, linking it to the colony's described the new vogue of to the Naval Ministry mous memorandum result of colonists' inability to earn antiauthoritarian "citizenship" as a through military service to the crown. respect they have become SO Citizens' rights have become SO extensive, that that is all they want to be [a citizen). . [Because] respectable acquire respect by serving the sovereign, individuals they can no longer honorable to acquire respect by calling themfind it easier and more audacity. It is not selves citizen by the grace of God, out of republican they love their prince that people here are less French than will elsewhere; obey as soon as it comes back and prefer his rule to any other. They into fashion.? 26 of vice and virtue, the metropolitan Beyond the broad concepts did not fit colonial society. discussion over the meaning of citizenship number of French authors In the 1770s and 1780s, for example, a identities based on defined *citizen"in opposition to older corporate intellecbirth. Protestant and Jansenist religion, profession, or noble for the relaxation here, as they argued tuals were especially prominent bore.27 Citizenship, they argued, should ofthe legal disabilities they residence in the religion but by one's ancestry, not be defined by its laws. stressed their loyalty and kingdom, and obedience to They and prosperity. In 1787 contributions to the kingdom's population s and 1780s, for example, a identities based on defined *citizen"in opposition to older corporate intellecbirth. Protestant and Jansenist religion, profession, or noble for the relaxation here, as they argued tuals were especially prominent bore.27 Citizenship, they argued, should ofthe legal disabilities they residence in the religion but by one's ancestry, not be defined by its laws. stressed their loyalty and kingdom, and obedience to They and prosperity. In 1787 contributions to the kingdom's population --- Page 162 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, law them rights cqual to those of Catholic Louis XVI signed a giving subjects. 28 ranks had never been important in But European-style corporate could not be described as a way of Saint-Domingue, SO citizenship Visitors were scandalized by uniting Protestant and Catholic subjects. theoretically the most the way colonists dismissed Catholicism, Governor d'Estaing could important component ofFrench identity" the property rights of not believe how local authorities supported Jewish colonists. in the 1770s and 1780s Another way of defining French citizenship As royal officials the rights of naturalized foreigners. was in describing of official letters of naturalization to granted increasing numbers allowing them to pass propforeign-born residents of the kingdom, to whether these new erty to their heirs, they paid less attention 30 Instead, it was more "Frenchmen" converted to Catholicism. monarch and useful to the kingimportant that they be loyal to the and to describe the rights responsibilities dom. Citizenship was a way that united new and old subjects. for and receive letters of Saint-Domingue's colonists did apply found when he began to investigate naturalization." But as d'Estaing distinction colonists did not make a strong the Jewish population, Frenchmen when all concerned were planters, between foreigners and most obvious foreigners merchants, or slaveowners. The colony's Africans who arrived in Saintwere the tens ofthousands ofenslaved distance between French-born Domingue every year. The cultural rulers was minor in subjects and the subjects of other European to the gulfbetween slave and free. comparison and Rohan-Montbazon illustrated, As the policies of d'Estaing Years' War that militia service would Versailles hoped after the Seven investment in building up "citizenship. > The crown's define colonial network was part of its Saint-Domingue's cities and transportation where such imperial attempt to create a cohesive colonial community, intellectuals supported the patriotism could flower. Liberal colonial although they in urban life and communications, improvements Like their counterparts opposed the tyranny of military government. sphere would strengthen in France, many hoped that this new public needed harsh military their argument that Saint- - Domingue no longer Masonic lodges, and rule. To this end, they established coffechouses, debate might flourish. scientific society, institutions where rational a advocate of the new Enlightened public agreed But not every to all educated minds was a weapon that opening the public sphere Rousseau, it was despotism. For followers of Jean-Jacques against life and communications, improvements Like their counterparts opposed the tyranny of military government. sphere would strengthen in France, many hoped that this new public needed harsh military their argument that Saint- - Domingue no longer Masonic lodges, and rule. To this end, they established coffechouses, debate might flourish. scientific society, institutions where rational a advocate of the new Enlightened public agreed But not every to all educated minds was a weapon that opening the public sphere Rousseau, it was despotism. For followers of Jean-Jacques against --- Page 163 --- BEFORE HAITI masculine. Exhibited in that the public be exclusively more important threatened the community of virtuous male public, female passions marriage and motherhood citizens, making them weak and selfish; and closed "private" to contain women in a separate were necessary and others, Rousseau saw the public freesphere. Like Montesquieu either of a despotism that "feminized" dom of women as a symptom of pamphleteers or of social chaos. Adapted by a generation men, monarchy, this misogynist imagery became part attacking the French culture. Their texts suggested French political of pre-Revolutionary ofcourtiers at Versailles, where Louis XV's that the decadent sexuality choice of advisors, was a critical elemistresses influenced the king's Sexually skilled women ment of France's constitutional problems. and corrupt the king, making used their unnatural powers to control him weak and effeminate. in Saint-l Dominguc, where This discourse resonated powerfully had established a kind of court life d'Estaing and Rohan-Montbazon for the first time. Popular colonial criticism at the governor's residence on their sexual appetite for of these two men included commentary Chamber of Agriculture women of color. In 1770, the Port-au-Prince free colored mistress that accused Rohan of SO openly favoring his and eroded plantation other free people of color he emboldened discipline. 33 could be leveled against most colonists. But similar accusations planters as petty Travel accounts frequently described Dominguan their and sexual passions had extinguished despots, whose power Girod de Chantrans claimed was true and natural instincts. A story in the 1780s illustrates the unsettling widely circulating in the colony An unmarried white man, effects ofthis passion on colonial mores.34 children, fell in love with living on his plantation with his illegitimate throughout the district his mulatto daughter, a beautiful girl praised The father attempted to for her good conduct and intelligence. him, he tried threats and seduce her, gently at first. When she rejected these crimes, the girl's eventually resorted to force. Outraged by surrendered themselves strangled their father in his bed and brothers also arrested the sister. The local court to the authorities, who murder and put them all to death. convicted them of their father's "the impotence of virtue For Chantrans this story demonstrated powerful cruelty when confronted by <despotism's and sensibility" >35 When men had the kind of power and unrestrained debauchery. ordinary morality and planters had over their slaves, visitors opined, with Brueys Chantrans would have agreed virtue disappeared. earlier, that life in Saint-Domingue d'Aigailliers, writing 20 years . The local court to the authorities, who murder and put them all to death. convicted them of their father's "the impotence of virtue For Chantrans this story demonstrated powerful cruelty when confronted by <despotism's and sensibility" >35 When men had the kind of power and unrestrained debauchery. ordinary morality and planters had over their slaves, visitors opined, with Brueys Chantrans would have agreed virtue disappeared. earlier, that life in Saint-Domingue d'Aigailliers, writing 20 years --- Page 164 --- CITIZENSHIP, RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC transformed Frenchmen for the worse: Oh my friends, what customs, what laws For this is how the petit bourgeois Come from France in rags and in poverty Starting with nothing, become something Thanks to the effects of the They are brazen and behave metamorphosis like little kings. 36 The Count d'Autichamp believed that all the vices ofthe most whites in the colony "have chic disorder and their corrupt monarchy, they live in the most anarwithout the virtues spirits acquire all the turmoil of a [of such a state]." This republic than mere lawlessness, for condition revealed more white d'Autichamp, like others in the saw Saint-Domingue as an emasculated colony, agree) there are none ofthose society. "Here (one must vigorous wickedness which great crimes which indicate a manly and might be the seed of great virtues. >37 D'Autichamp did not describe the difference unmanly vice. But he was one among the between manly and and colonial elites who agreed that the many royal administrators and the force of pride weakened lack oflegitimate social bonds in political, familial, and social Saint-Domingue, For the creole author relations Rousseau, marriage helped make Emilien Petit, as for and citizens. 39 Rousseau men into good fathers, husbands, without the wrote that marriage controlled female despotism of the harem. 40 Most desire, concurred with Brueys colonial observers and tropical d'Aigailliers that in sexuality had warped the institution Saint-Domingue ambition of marriage. If, in innocent sentences I were to describe those libertines Iv would paint for you naked Messalinas In the arms of new Aretinos Competing in shameful debauchery. You would sce these gangrenous couples Aimlessly immerse their dissolute souls. Love, modesty, the sweetest feclings, Flee, flee these dangerous shores For, beneath your mask, you are mocked here The town takes its mother as a model [La ville prend sa mère pour modèle] And I believe that marriage delivers a tender To a desiring husband even more virgin rarely here than in Paris. 41 Hilliard d'Auberteuil claimed that as prostitutes or concubines in thousands ofwhite women lived Saint-Domingue.: 42 Indeed, white Aimlessly immerse their dissolute souls. Love, modesty, the sweetest feclings, Flee, flee these dangerous shores For, beneath your mask, you are mocked here The town takes its mother as a model [La ville prend sa mère pour modèle] And I believe that marriage delivers a tender To a desiring husband even more virgin rarely here than in Paris. 41 Hilliard d'Auberteuil claimed that as prostitutes or concubines in thousands ofwhite women lived Saint-Domingue.: 42 Indeed, white --- Page 165 --- BEFORE HAITI four times as likely to were roughly women in Saint-Domingue in rural Normandy, and illegitimate conceive a child before marriage as births increased sharply after 1760.1 however, were relationThe most cited examples of colonial vice, writer described between white men and women ofcolor. As one ships colonial life, instead of hiding their depravity, glory in it, a number of masters, and the children they keeping in their homes their black concubines with as much selfhave had by them, and displaying them to everyone were the offspring of a legitimate marriage." confidence as ifthey this literary trope when he inserted a Brueys d'Aigalliers adopted describing a colonist's unethical beautiful mulatto woman into his poem rise to power and wealth. he chooses as his mistress a café-au-lait colored Laïs That in these climes is called a mulâtresse A delightful dusky, with rounded breasts Dark lashes, and the limbs of a doc Slender waist and a bona fide rump Who, exposing him to numerous dangers Through the excesses ofher debauchery Handsomely maintains his household And populates it with the prettiest bastards That he believes to be his own, as is the custom.1 the practicality of In 1782, Girod de Chantrans, who acknowledged harem, could not resist the image of an Eastern these arrangements, as his "sultana. >9 But he did not believe describing a planter's housckeeper had any real emotional influthat plantation slaves or even housckeepers ofc colori rin colonial cities. 46 over male colonists, compared to women ence naturally more lascivious than European These [urban] women, control over white men, have collected and women, flattered by their of. Sexual ecstasy [la all the sensual pleasures they are capable and preserved become for them an object of study, a specialized jonissance) has or depraved lovers, who simple necessary skill used with worn-out nature can no longer delight. 47 feminine desire dominated Such images of morally corrupt after 1763. Moreau de discussions of race in Saint-Domingue printed women ence naturally more lascivious than European These [urban] women, control over white men, have collected and women, flattered by their of. Sexual ecstasy [la all the sensual pleasures they are capable and preserved become for them an object of study, a specialized jonissance) has or depraved lovers, who simple necessary skill used with worn-out nature can no longer delight. 47 feminine desire dominated Such images of morally corrupt after 1763. Moreau de discussions of race in Saint-Domingue printed --- Page 166 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, mulatto mistress, and, perhaps, a quadroon Saint- Méry, who had a of women of color as daughter of his own, 48 described the sexuality <both the danger and the delight" of men. Mulâtresse is dedicated to sensual pleasure, and The entire being of a burns in her heart until she dies . the fire of that goddess [Venus] imagination can conceive that There is nothing that most passionate Her single focus is foreseen, or experienced. she has not already sensed, them to the most delicious ecstasies, to charm all the senses, to expose seductive raptures. In addition, nature, to suspend them in the most sensitivity, and, pleasure's accomplice, has given her charm, appeal, more keenly than what is far more dangerous, the ability to experience those of Paphos sensual pleasures whose secrets surpass her partner, [the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite]." artificial and unnatural The Baron de Wimpffen also emphasized pleasures: made sensual Priestesses of an American Venus * have Next [TJhese kind of mechanical skill taken to the highest perfection. pleasure a Aretino is a prudish school to them [the Renaissance pornographer] of saltpeter with an exubercombine the explosiveness boy . . They all, drives them to pursue, acquire and ance of desirc, that scorning its nourishment.s devour pleasure, like a blazing fire consumes new cities that critics of this colonial It was in Saint-Domingue's behavior. Cap Français was libertinage found the most objectionable if Moreau de Saintof the New World" for many, and, the *Babylon Port-au-Prince "there are some men who Méry admitted that in of Masonic brothergather together to sample the innocent pleasures and fascinated by the urban display of"passion" hood," he was more in Saint-Domingue >51 Moreau maintained that prostitution show *luxury." after 1770. His figures on Cap Français's population free exploded between 1771 and 1789, while the city's an overall doubling its free women of color, increased by a colored population, especially factor of seven between 1775 and 1780.52 to this Moreau's approach Like many of his contemporaries, of the "insatiable" by Rousseau. His description subject was shaped muslins, jewels, and rich lace by consumption of the finest cottons, attack on of color echoed the Swiss philosopher's urban women Moreau was shocked that in fashion. 53 Though born in Martinique, the decency that Saint-Domingue "one is not protected . . by public >7 the of [Europe's] capitals."' preserves morality [even] I in . depravity Moreau's approach Like many of his contemporaries, of the "insatiable" by Rousseau. His description subject was shaped muslins, jewels, and rich lace by consumption of the finest cottons, attack on of color echoed the Swiss philosopher's urban women Moreau was shocked that in fashion. 53 Though born in Martinique, the decency that Saint-Domingue "one is not protected . . by public >7 the of [Europe's] capitals."' preserves morality [even] I in . depravity --- Page 167 --- BEFORE HAITI about the corrupting effects of Adopting metropolitan commonplaces he emphasized the dangers feminine narcissism and urban display, I is one ofthe women of color posed to the public. "Publicity, mulârreses)." repeat, He was sweetest pleasures [of Saint-Domingue's of color in Saint-Marc had not yet pleased to find that women civilization where there is a sort of acquired those extremes of public decency. >54 sensual pleasure [la jouisance) in offending women of color Moreau and others regarded the sexual power of nature, a feminine exercised over white men as a corruption writers like >55 At a time when eminent "empire based on libertinage." native to Buffon and Cornelius dePauw were describing populations it was unmasculine, and degenerate, the New World as unnatural, against military governespecially important for white creoles arguing different from that of why their society was SO ment to explain described the process by France. 56 Indeed, some colonial physicians immune to tropical disease which newcomers to the Antilles became 29 In 1768 one author wrote as a kind of physiological "degradation.' lose their initial strength and that European bodies "do not suddenly lose their initial vigor. It is only with time : . that they >57 absolutely These same doctors they creolize, as we say. initial constitution, loss" in this environment and described the danger of "spermatic conditions. 58 counseled sexual restraint under such for colonists discourse was politically dangerous This biological planters were weakened, because it suggested that Saint-Domingue's and that they needed an authoritareven emasculated, by the climate the idea of to force them to be virtuous. Rejecting ian government *liberal" colonists instead described women American degeneracy, feminine. Couched in scientific, as and men of color as unnaturally ofthe free population well as moral, terms, this gendered description mixed-race men from the of color explained why whites had to reject rational self-interest could colonial public before the rule of law and prevail. provides the best example of The work of Moreau de Saint-Méry Moreau was a creole jurist discourse. Like Emilien Petit, this scientific but committed to creating a virtuous critical of royal despotism Petit's goal of acquainting France French colonial public. Sharing Moreau combined his with the true nature of colonial society, parish-by-parish social and political convictions in an encyclopedic to this threeIn the introduction Description of Saint-Domingue. white men and five volume work he devoted five pages to island-born he gave white creole women. But in his description of"freedmen") to to the mulatto and five-and-a-half pages to only one-and-a-half; pages but committed to creating a virtuous critical of royal despotism Petit's goal of acquainting France French colonial public. Sharing Moreau combined his with the true nature of colonial society, parish-by-parish social and political convictions in an encyclopedic to this threeIn the introduction Description of Saint-Domingue. white men and five volume work he devoted five pages to island-born he gave white creole women. But in his description of"freedmen") to to the mulatto and five-and-a-half pages to only one-and-a-half; pages --- Page 168 --- CITIZENSHIP, RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC "La Mulâtresse. >> In his opinion, "all the to the mulatto are lavished the advantages given by nature finery, > but "to do upon Mulâtresse." >> "The mulatto loves nothing is for him >> mulatto as for the mulitresse, supreme happiness. For the despotic master. 97 Women of color "pleasure is his sole master, but it is a general description of free colonial appeared repeatedly in Moreau's and moral corruption society. Their narcissism, languor, epitomized the free sexuality enthralled white men and their population of color; their white women. 59 coquetry was a model for Convinced of the social and political benefits rational, public investigation, Moreau to the colony of trends of his day to create his used the scientific and political Domingue. Although dictionaries own description of race in Saintuntil the 1830s, would not reflect the new usage "race" as an French-language writers after 1750 increasingly used differences anthropological term describing the physical and among global populations, rather than cultural referring to family lineage. 60 Indeed, as a social term, begun to describe blacks erudite French discourse had as a different race in 1684.61 appearance of an albino African child in Paris Since the 1740s, physicians and in the late 1730s or physical features of skin color. philosophers there had been studying the Works like sur la cause physique de la couleur des Barrère's 1741 Disertation Dissertation plysique à Poccasion Negres or, in 1744, Maupertuis's which appeared in 1745 and du nigre blanc or his Venus this was in its sixth plysique, new biological edition by 1751, illustrate dissections, approach to human difference. 62 Barrère described Africans' skin After conducting superabundance of black color as the product of a cated an innate bile, a "humoral imbalance" that indipathology. Other physicians Morcover, philosophers disagreed disputed these claims. 63 ments caused racial about whether regional environAfricans, in differences, as Buffon maintained, or whether Voltaire particular, had an entirely different and others insisted. biological origin, as Moreau did not pronounce on these analysis of specific controversies. His school of philosophical Saint-Domingue's racial groups relied heavily on vitalism, a Montpellier, where medicine developed by the medical more than 70 percent (19/26) faculty of physicians in 1791 had received their 64 ofSaint-Dominguc's leading vitalists taught that that degrees. By the late 1770s, exhibited a specific balance between each human physiological type "physical" and the "moral" what they referred to as the weak the other or mental forces. Where one was correspondingly force was temperament for that individual stronger, creating a specific or type. This idea of physical-moral Montpellier, where medicine developed by the medical more than 70 percent (19/26) faculty of physicians in 1791 had received their 64 ofSaint-Dominguc's leading vitalists taught that that degrees. By the late 1770s, exhibited a specific balance between each human physiological type "physical" and the "moral" what they referred to as the weak the other or mental forces. Where one was correspondingly force was temperament for that individual stronger, creating a specific or type. This idea of physical-moral --- Page 169 --- BEFORE HAITI standard element of nineteenth-century racial reciprocity became a description ofwhites, blacks, thought and was at the core ofMoreau's and people of mixed race in Saint-Domingue and the idea of racial Writing in the 1780s, 66 Moreau used vitalism people of mixed degeneration to demonstrate that Saint-Domingue's inferior to whites and even to and morally ancestry were biologically led him to a ludicrous degree of blacks. 67 His interest in this question how important such which in itself demonstrates theoretical precision, intellectuals. He counted 11 scientific reasoning had become to colonial and identified between "pure" black and white, distinct racial categories parentage produced what which combinations of African and European he discerned in people kinds of skin and hair. Drawing on vitalist theory, the legacy oftheirl black level ofstrength and passion, ofcolor a predictable of and intelligence, according to ancestors, and a certain amount grace he described mulattos, who their degree of white descent. For example, who were one-quarter were one-half black, as stronger than quarterons, who were one-cighth black, because of their African blood. Mestifs, were weaker than weaker still than quarterons, in fact they black, were effects ofracial mixture. whites, because ofthe corrupting endurance, African ancestry also In addition to strength and that was especially produced an appetite for physical pleasure intellectual attributes, when combined with white and pronounced Mulattos lived for sexual gratification, according to Moreau. between a mulatto and a black, had a "grifs" fruit of the union > "In an individual ofthis shade, "temperament impossible to contain." phenomenon. >68 [sexual] continence is practically an unknown of sang-mélé, or his classifications extended to the category Although Moreau believed that such persons were one-sixty- fourth black, Rather than attribute this to colonial extremely rare in the colony. individuals to pass for white, he culture, which probably allowed such amount of African eye could detect any insisted that an experienced he believed, because racial ancestry. One rarely saw sang-mélis, degeneration made it difficult for them to reproduce." "whiteness" were Following his conviction that "blackness" and that would never disappear in a given genealogical biological qualities different ancestral combinations that might line, Moreau charted the a mulatto might be the produce each racial category. For example, of a mulatto and a child of a white and a black or the descendant combinations that could mulâtresse. But there were ten other parental (one-fourth mulatto child, like the union of a quarteron produce a black). Hypothesizing "that the black) with a griffe (three-quarters whole composed of 128 parts which White and the Black each form a would never disappear in a given genealogical biological qualities different ancestral combinations that might line, Moreau charted the a mulatto might be the produce each racial category. For example, of a mulatto and a child of a white and a black or the descendant combinations that could mulâtresse. But there were ten other parental (one-fourth mulatto child, like the union of a quarteron produce a black). Hypothesizing "that the black) with a griffe (three-quarters whole composed of 128 parts which White and the Black each form a --- Page 170 --- CITIZENSHIP, RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC are white in the one and black in the other," illustrated that these categories Moreau inadvertently criteria. He reasoned that were based on social, not a mulatto biological 70 white parts and from 58 might have anywhere from 56 to to 72 black parts, parentage. A quarteron, produced by 20 depending on his mother and father, had between 71 and possible combinations of 57 black parts. 70 This racial calculus 96 white parts and 32 to A mulatto with the maximum collapsed under its own weight. 58 parts black) had white ancestry (70 parts white to with the minimum nearly as much "white blood" as a white ancestry (71 parts white to quarteron Admitting "the influence of 57 parts black). tion,' ' Moreau nonetheless arbitrary choices on the entire classificathat the blacks he had observed clung to his biological perspective. in the in France were "less black" Noting Antilles, he explained this as an effect oft the than those skin, rather than a result ofhis own climate upon their In fact, the growing, subjective perceptions. 71 color in France was though still miniscule, presence of people of mixture, and urban producing similar tensions there about sex, racial society. As Sue officials and jurists increasingly Peabody has shown, Parisian slavery, which they claimed battled over ethnic diversity and liberty, respectively. In 1762, threatened with public order and political travel to the Antilles, the royal the British blockade cutting off color in the capital-there attorney of Paris accused free people of were at least 159 in this city of ofcontributing to public disorder. He identified 600,000 their vices, although royal records show prostitution as one of population between the that three-quarters of this of Parisian free ages ofll and 30 was male. Only 13 people of color were of mixed percent was two-thirds female. In fact, the race, but this sub-group about racial mixture than sexual royal attorney was more worried ence of people of color in France commerce. He claimed that the presof the "French nation.' > In would lead to the 1762, royal officials "disfigurement" requiring that all slaves on French soil be updated a 1739 law time, the government demanded registered. Now, for the first mulattos, 22 even ift they the registration of all "negroes and Naval Secretary Choiseul were free. In 1763, at the end oft the war, the the Antilles and ordered planters to take their slaves back to France. Although prohibited colonial people of color from there is ample evidence traveling to on both sides ofthe Atlantic, that this decree was ignored it betrayed a new focus Choiseul's reasoning was for on French whiteness. These important, producing a new mixed-race population with people were The emergence of official racial fears French whites.72 the kingdom's main colonial in Paris, but not Bordeaux, port, suggests that this was more a 3, at the end oft the war, the the Antilles and ordered planters to take their slaves back to France. Although prohibited colonial people of color from there is ample evidence traveling to on both sides ofthe Atlantic, that this decree was ignored it betrayed a new focus Choiseul's reasoning was for on French whiteness. These important, producing a new mixed-race population with people were The emergence of official racial fears French whites.72 the kingdom's main colonial in Paris, but not Bordeaux, port, suggests that this was more a --- Page 171 --- BEFORE HAITI matter than a social one. Even without new cultural and intellectual the center of illicit bookselling, colonial populations, Paris was that threatened the closed religious controversy, and legal battles of the monarchy,2* intellectual, religious, and political structures of 1 percent of the city's Although they were less than one-thirtieth sexual and population, dark-skinned men and women represented of the political disorder in the capital-the "disfigurement of the perhaps while in Bordeaux they marked the vitality French nation"- Parisian officials may have objected to blacks colonial trade. Although criticism was directed at people of mixed as foreigners, their worst of colonial vice. In 1770 the Abbé race, the physical embodiment and moral repugnance Raynal encapsulated this mixture ofbiological children of the most when he described mulattos as eyile. of the a sort of monster always composed detestable debauchery, knavery of the two colors." >74 reform, those advocates ofo colonial particularly In Saint- Domingue, seized on this new racial thought as a opposed to military government, As in Moreau de Saint-Méry's racial way of strengthening the colony. intermediate group. But their analysis, writers tended to focus on this of whiteness that would mostly unspoken concern was a definition and petits blancs. unite creoles and French immigrants, planters for this idea was Michel René The most controversial spokesman book Considérations sur Pétat Hilliard d'Auberteuil, whose 1776 originally had the présent de la colonie française de Saint-Domingue due to the influence of support of the colonial ministry, probably the state banned the volEmilien Petit. 75 After publication, however, and Petit to attack military ume, which relied heavily on Montesquieu councils. government and defend the colony's two high in the coloBorn in Brittany but hoping to secure an appointment typical of the Hilliard d'Auberteuil was in many ways nial judiciary, after the Seven new wave of white immigrants to Saint-Domingue of militia Years" War. His book merged the liberal antiauthontaranism hierarchy. of the creole social opponents with a strong critique distinction between white men other than that There must not be any merits; in the colony there which results from their jobs and personal nor a body of the must be neither Grandees Lgrands), nor nobles, freedmen there should only be freeborn men [ingenus), in people; slaves and the laws; there must be no preference Laffranchis), families, no right of primogeniture?" colonial whites and use of His emphasis on social equality among Hilliard the most outspoken Montesquieu's political theories made In the 1780s, Julien of a racially defined colonial public. proponent merits; in the colony there which results from their jobs and personal nor a body of the must be neither Grandees Lgrands), nor nobles, freedmen there should only be freeborn men [ingenus), in people; slaves and the laws; there must be no preference Laffranchis), families, no right of primogeniture?" colonial whites and use of His emphasis on social equality among Hilliard the most outspoken Montesquieu's political theories made In the 1780s, Julien of a racially defined colonial public. proponent --- Page 172 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, that Considérations was the "rallying Raimond wrote the ministry strict color hierarchy in society point" for white racism. 77 Observing a colonists to without subjecting would bring order to Saint-Domingue He recommended that government, Hilliard argued. an authoritarian be emancipated to serve in the all blacks be enslaved and all mulattos to which freedom was maréchausséc, in order to emphasize the degree all ofwhiteness. At the same time, he advocated prohibiting a product whites and people of color, to establish that people marriages between his beliefthat Saintof color could never attain white status. Despite established laws, and not Domingue's whites should be governed by that whites should be the whims of military officers, Hilliard argued mulattos who insulted them, allowed to retaliate immediately against He lamented that the rather than to have to call the authorities. who struck out at government had recently jailed white men that military of color. Unlike Moreau, who later argued insubordinate men 77 Hilliard acknowlracism against free people of color was *natural," have had slaves, the son or edged that "Among all the peoples who blameless. But in Saintgrand- -son of an ex-slave was considered that we burden the Black race Domingue, interest and security require descends from it, until the sixth with such a great scorn that whoever stain. >578 generation, be marked with an indelible ofwhite purity came to The best example ofhow the newideology the work of Pierre Victoire dominate colonial thought after 1763 was ofthe wave of junior Malouet, who came to Saint-Domingue Years' as part War. In 1775 Malouet colonial administrators after the Seven he in 1788, Mémoire sur Pesclavage des nigres, which published wrote antislavery writings. Reversing probably to combat Enlightenment the slave system, Malouet Hilliard's position that prejudice protected racial mixture. that slavery was justified because it prevented argued desire the and the mixing of Surely no one will make us incorporation wish to avoid this. Only the Races? Yet, slavery is essential if we Black Slave secures the Nation's ignominy attached to an alliance with a if the Black man is assimiown filiation. If this prejudice is destroyed, than that in short lated to the Whites among us, it is more [and] probable Traders, [and order we shall see mulattos as Nobles, financiers and mothers [with colored that their] wealth will soon procure It wives is thus that individuals, families skin] to all Estates within the State. and that they dissolve.7" [and] Nations become altered, debased, * revolt of 1769, administrators and colonists disAfter the anti-militia virtuous, defending France's empire agreed about which was more If this prejudice is destroyed, than that in short lated to the Whites among us, it is more [and] probable Traders, [and order we shall see mulattos as Nobles, financiers and mothers [with colored that their] wealth will soon procure It wives is thus that individuals, families skin] to all Estates within the State. and that they dissolve.7" [and] Nations become altered, debased, * revolt of 1769, administrators and colonists disAfter the anti-militia virtuous, defending France's empire agreed about which was more --- Page 173 --- BEFORE HAITI but each side realized it against Britain or making it more profitable, of better Saint-Domingue. needed the other to achieve its vision a treated them leniently, had defeated the rebels and The government dilemma remained: How could France improve but the larger political planters? How could royal colonial self-defense without alienating without making colonial governofficials control angry petits blancs could Versailles insure SaintHow ment more authoritarian? without giving up the colonial Domingue's loyalty in the next war, trade monopoly on which French ports depended? of mixed of "whiteness" that feminized people A new ideology much as it would in Europe's ancestry helped solve these problems, 80 The alleged and African colonies in the nineteenth century:" Asian men and women destroyed any sexual degeneracy of mixed-race becoming that old creole families of this sort were gradually claims because whites were vulnerable to the whiter. They were wealthy mulâtresses. Driving all people ofd color sensual expertise of debauched sphere appeared to resolve out of the colony's emerging public and rational discussion was questions about whether public virtue ofwhiteness affirmed possible in a slave society. And the new ideology when the colony was, in Saint-Domingue's French identity, at a time of the more and more African through a redoubling fact, becoming slave trade. d'Estaing, and Rohan-Montbazon As Governors Bory, Belzunce, duties to the free men of color reduced had seen, transferring militia both rich and poor whites happy, as long as military costs. And it kept militia elite whose patriotism would it did not create a free colored was to mute the growing rival white achievements. The challenge in far-away rhetoric of civic virtue and prestige of the citizen-soldier African ancestry "an indelible stain" accomplished France. Making the most difficult militia duties to this. Administrators could assign not a civic, burden. nonwhites and describe their obligation as a racial, under d'Estaing and white fears about heavy militia service Despite militia did away with regular Rohan-Montbazon, the reformed colonial white man, in times of war. 81 For the average reviews, except be about what it had been before. This was not militia service would expanded dratrue for free men of color, whose military vice-ridden obligations mulattos easily matically. Racist rhetoric about feminized militiaman (chapter 7). adapted to the importance ofthe mulatto after 1769 was the wave of But the most striking social change in the colony's new public restrictions on free colored participation new urban spaces, Saint-Domingue's life: in theory, at any rate, official bureaucracy were open only to cultural events, and expanding except be about what it had been before. This was not militia service would expanded dratrue for free men of color, whose military vice-ridden obligations mulattos easily matically. Racist rhetoric about feminized militiaman (chapter 7). adapted to the importance ofthe mulatto after 1769 was the wave of But the most striking social change in the colony's new public restrictions on free colored participation new urban spaces, Saint-Domingue's life: in theory, at any rate, official bureaucracy were open only to cultural events, and expanding --- Page 174 --- CITIZENSHIP, RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC whites. In the 1780s, Julien Raimond people of color as a minor aspect of colonial described prejudice against free account it was a specch delivered life until 1768. 82 By his 1770 upon the arrival of to the Port-au-Prince Council in France that signaled the change. Rohan-Montbazon's replacement from speech in the new colonial Raimond claimed to have read the governor and broadsheet. While welcoming the intendant, who sat before new had called for harsher laws him, the council's attorney bears on its forehead the against the dangerous class "which still Raimond believed, mark of slavery. >83 It was this that unleashed the speech, issued by the magistrates in the torrent of discriminatory laws The chronology years that followed. authorities closed ofthe change was not precise. It was in 1764 that the Cap Français' new theater to people of management segregated the seating, and new color; later, Prince and Les Cayes followed this theaters in Port-auIn 1779 a sumptuary law first rule, as did Pamelart's Vauxhall. proposed by the Français was applied to the entire royal attorney of Cap women of color from wearing colony, forbidding both men and That year the certain types of fabric and governor and intendant garments. for "the assimilation ofthe urged police to watch carefully gens de couleur with manner of dress. 92 From 1779, white persons, in their cate from their militia people of color were to carry a certifisettle in another. captain when they moved from one parish to Occupational restrictions notarial clerks or as surgeons. 84 kept them from working as Recently, Dominique Rogers has that racial segregation in argued there was, in fact, no unprecedented Saint-Domingue in the 1780s. Her research in the legal archives of deep and Port-au-Prince shows that local officials Cap Français and some discriminatory laws, and that there were lax about enforcing trators who hoped that free coloreds were high French adminiscolonial socicty. She maintains that in would eventually integrate into gains of free blacks and these cities the rapid economic their social condition people of mixed race genuinely in ways that improved their civil status. 85 outstripped any deterioration in Yet the changes described in this for their cultural, than their chapter were far more important new kind ofracial practical, impact. For in the 1780s this urban free coloreds categorization who lived raised powerful objections, not from spaces, but from wealthy light-skinned near Saint-Domingue's new public Province (chapters 7 and 8). More families in the isolated South the French powerful yet, in the carly ycars Revolution, was white colonists' of white purity. Even after the attachment to the idea of great slave uprising ofAugust 1791, petits cultural, than their chapter were far more important new kind ofracial practical, impact. For in the 1780s this urban free coloreds categorization who lived raised powerful objections, not from spaces, but from wealthy light-skinned near Saint-Domingue's new public Province (chapters 7 and 8). More families in the isolated South the French powerful yet, in the carly ycars Revolution, was white colonists' of white purity. Even after the attachment to the idea of great slave uprising ofAugust 1791, petits --- Page 175 --- BEFORE HAITI free colored equality, rather than comproblancs continued to fight slave system (chapter 8). mise in order to save the lucrative about colonial identity Fundamentally, the new racism was more Pamelart's 1785 pamphlet of free people of color. As than repression concerned about racial passing. illustrates, whites grew increasingly parish priests and Since 1698, colonial judges had been chastising whether individuals notaries for forgetting to note in their documents were French or whether they were born illegitimate or legitimately, king, and when and where they the subjects of some other European Council noted that notaries were born. In 1758, the Cap Français who claimed to be documents for blacks and mulattos were drafting their liberty. In 1761, however, the Port-aufree but could not prove by notaries and priests who Prince Council was more concerned color without noting "the qualities recorded deeds for free people of 22 specifically, whether they that distinguish them from other citizens, were black, mulatto, or quadroon." limited to individuals, mostly. In the 1760s, racial accusations were monitored social But in the 1770s, individuals and the government In the late 1770s, for and institutions closely for white purity. to groups in the Northern Province wrote Versailles example, a militia captain acquired white status. identify five local families who had successfully administrators had to advise the By the mid-1780s Saint-Domingue's "the diverse means by which many colonial ministry to overlook succeeded in passing as pure and families in Saint-Domingue have freeborn [whites] - >87 made their way into the courts, most Nevertheless, such disputes officer in a white militia unit notoriously in the case of Chapuiset, an fellow officers in the North Province. In the 1770s, Chapuiset's would have which disqualified accused him ofhaving "mixed blood," in 1771 he had been him from serving in their ranks. Although protest when he officially white, in 1779 there was a great declared in the white militia. Pursuing the matter before received a commission opponents relied on the Council, Chapuiset's the Cap Français "a stain which not only idea that African blood was "indelible," but which never excludes them from military and civil positions, >88 entirely disappears even in the acts ofcivil society. back SO far that roots in colonial society went Because Chapuiset's his ancestry from eyewitness it was impossible to reconstruct evidence. His oppoaccounts, both sides relied upon documentary ascending maternal line a "Genealogical table ofthe nents published [sic], according to the recovered papers,' of the so-called Chapuset free black woman in Saint- Christophe. showing his descent from a idea that African blood was "indelible," but which never excludes them from military and civil positions, >88 entirely disappears even in the acts ofcivil society. back SO far that roots in colonial society went Because Chapuiset's his ancestry from eyewitness it was impossible to reconstruct evidence. His oppoaccounts, both sides relied upon documentary ascending maternal line a "Genealogical table ofthe nents published [sic], according to the recovered papers,' of the so-called Chapuset free black woman in Saint- Christophe. showing his descent from a --- Page 176 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, also turned to the archives. In a ten-page The defendant's lawyers 15 notarized deeds dating pamphlet printed in 1779 they reproduced ofthe language 1722, together with a detailed analysis from 1703 to 89 Because certificates of baptism, and terms used in these documents." produced receipts, contracts marriage, or death were unavailable, they of sale, and other notarial evidence. social definition of race, like the Chapuiset's lawyers argued for a through the 1760s. that had in the South Province up one prevailed with Whites, to be admitted into White "To communicate familiarly with Whites of all classes is to enjoy the society, to deal as an equal maternal greatWhite. They showed how Chapuiset's status ofbeing had sold land to the president ofthe Cap Français great-grandmotherl they pointed out, figured as witnesses and Council. Prominent whites, other records in which this woman was as second parties in these and notarial record *Demoiselle. >9 Nowhere in the surviving described as was she identified as a mulâtresse. the earlier ruling that The council found no reason to overturn in 1779 forced the Chapuiset was white. Nevertheless, public militia outrage commission. Songs, governor and intendant to withdraw his by other militia posters, and threats of mass resignations epigrams, whites demanded a deep-reaching officers all confirmed that colonial new racism was of life. 90 The problem for the racial division public >9 both in the sense ofthe nature that it claimed to be based in "nature,' of a natural hierarchy of of slave society, and then the scientific sense showed, however, for white over nonwhite. As the Chapuiset case distinctions. generations colonists had ignored such *indelible" mixed-race kin, in colonists acknowledged their Although many creole families into European 1773 law makers decided to separate and African branches. name throws doubt on the status of The usurpation of a white family the settlement of inheritances, and, individuals, injects confusion into barrier between whites and pcople finally, destroys that insurmountable by the wisdom ofthe of color built by public opinion and maintained government." 91 all free people of color who were using names A new law gave families three months to adopt "a surname associated with white their trade and color, but which taken from the African idiom or from the 29 After 1773 all never be that of any white family in colony." can had to contain this "African" name; clergy, manumission requests forbidden to conduct any business notaries, and legal personnel were with people of color claiming white names. the wisdom ofthe of color built by public opinion and maintained government." 91 all free people of color who were using names A new law gave families three months to adopt "a surname associated with white their trade and color, but which taken from the African idiom or from the 29 After 1773 all never be that of any white family in colony." can had to contain this "African" name; clergy, manumission requests forbidden to conduct any business notaries, and legal personnel were with people of color claiming white names. --- Page 177 --- BEFORE HAITI have suggested, family names represented As earlier chapters and children that many did not want to connections between parents of the new law, a number of families rupture. Following the letter new "African" names that deliberately challenged its spirit, choosing "white" names. Oftenit was white related to their former were closely these decisions. The colonist Fulerant family members who made freed the black woman Jeannet and Fabre, a white plantation overseer, would carry the surname that they her mulatto son, stipulating backwards. The white planter Julien "Erbaf," which was "Fabre" spelled mulatto son in 1765, and Pilorge had manumitted his twelve-year-old mulatto militia petitioned the in 1783 the white captain of Les Cayes' The militia officer sugand intendant to confirm this liberty. governor for the free mulatto Denis Pilorge, gested the new name "Coleriq" he married five months later, he was who was now 30. However, when called Pilorge. 29 Jean Caton identified as "Denis Golerep, formerly who inverted his surname to Decopin was a free quarteron planter continued to note in documents that "Pain Cordé" although officials Decopin. >92 Pierre Raymond s wealthy quarteron he was "formerly spelling of their family sons seem to have favored the *Raimond" though the orthography was not consistent. name, branch of the Depas family in Aquin parish changed The mulatto 1777. This was not an African name, but a its name to *Medina" in in the Medina family, like the Depas, figured prominently Jewish one; of Bordeaux and they were also prominent the Sephardic community member of this mixedmerchants in Curaçao." 93 The most prosperous Michel Depas, requested branch, the free mulatto planter race family ' Although his petition that he be allowed to keep the name "Depas." him and to his sons as denied, notaries continued to refer to >94 was formerly Depas" or <Medina known as Depas. "Medina was not consistent over time. As free Use ofthese "African" names notaries they hired were less insisfamilies ofcolor grew wealthier, the The four free mulatto tent that they use a deliberately forcign officer name. at Nippes, had changed children of Bernard Maignan, a militia of Maignan's their name to Tercé by 1782. The most prominent 92 even in persisted in signing his name "Claude Maignan,' descendants Tercé formerly called documents where he was identified as "Claude married into ML [mulatre libre]. >95 Claude Tercé/Maignan Maignan family and was hired by the white planter the free colored Anglade overseer. By the middle ofthe 1780s Joseph Anglade as a plantation and relied more and more on the planter had moved to Bordeaux, affairs. As this happened, to direct his colonial Claude Tercé/Maignan artificial name "Tercé." In 1786 he notaries dropped the overseer's where he was identified as "Claude married into ML [mulatre libre]. >95 Claude Tercé/Maignan Maignan family and was hired by the white planter the free colored Anglade overseer. By the middle ofthe 1780s Joseph Anglade as a plantation and relied more and more on the planter had moved to Bordeaux, affairs. As this happened, to direct his colonial Claude Tercé/Maignan artificial name "Tercé." In 1786 he notaries dropped the overseer's --- Page 178 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, ?? his described as Claude, known as Maignan," representing was the of a 33,000 livre plantation. In absentee employer in purchase in France. In the 1789 he left Saint-Domingue to assist Anglade Claude Maignan" documents notaries drafted before his departure, won back his father's name. 96 scemed to have of whites from free Another aspect of the new demarcation term affranchi for non-whites after 1770 was the increasing use ofthe the sense ofcolor. The word literally means "freedman"in free people ?9 Labeling all free people of of"ex-slave" or "emancipated person." that they were all ex-slaves, color -affranchis" was a way of saying reason the state required those who were born free. For this even proving their liberty at any time, an idea them to produce documents discipline. 97 In 1761 in Martinique, the that had its roots in plantation all free coloreds to submit "the origgovernor and intendant ordered commissioner within inal titles of their manumission" to a special whose papers and threatened to sell into slavery anyone three months, 98 Authorities in Saint-Domingue periodically were unsatisfactory" on the ever-expanding slave popattempted the same sorts ofcontrols clerks, and notaries were forulation. In 1758 at Cap Français, judges, who could not deed for a mulatto or black bidden to draw up any the royal judge in Jérémie, a that he or she was free. In 1773 known prove ofthe southern peninsula in a region new town at the very tip the arrest of all blacks and mulattos for maroon activity, ordered their liberty "on the spot. >> claiming to be free unless they could prove requirements was But another objective ofthese new documentary in ofcolor had no natural place public to underline that free pcople Français advocated that all life. In 1774, for example, a judge in Cap of red ribbon on their free people of color wear a cocarde or a piece claimed to be free. In head," 29 SO officials could tell at a glance who and notaries not to Council ordered priests 1777 the Port-au-Prince documents for free pcople of color register religious or commercial To solve the problem ofunofficial unless they could prove their liberty. required these in 1778 the council of Port-au-Prince free liberty papers, lengths in all documents involving officials to go to even greater proof of manumission and people of color. They were to demand act but also the date it record not only the date of the manumission Notaries who did not had been ratified by the colonial administration. to the risked prosecution as accomplices follow these procedures clients of color. 99 frauds committed by their of the wealthy free colored In the southern peninsula, some which Julien planters did not adjust well to this latest requirement, >100 Paul Carenan, a Raimond later described as "a humiliation." officials to go to even greater proof of manumission and people of color. They were to demand act but also the date it record not only the date of the manumission Notaries who did not had been ratified by the colonial administration. to the risked prosecution as accomplices follow these procedures clients of color. 99 frauds committed by their of the wealthy free colored In the southern peninsula, some which Julien planters did not adjust well to this latest requirement, >100 Paul Carenan, a Raimond later described as "a humiliation." --- Page 179 --- BEFORE HAITI who almost lost his freedom in prosperous planter born in slavery those who rejected this inno1770 (chapter 3) may have been among of formal manumission papers vation. In 1781, 11 years after the lack and his wife Marie-Jeanne nearly reduced him to slavery, Carenan to the notary drafting his Delaunay stood by as their son explained certificate to contract that he had not carried his baptismal need marriage <because he had not foreseen that - . . he might the ceremony the ceremony to have the document copied it.' > He had to return after 101 onto the end ofthe contract. of the longstanding but This new requirement was an extension of color be identified as recently enforced rule that free people only Though notaries in the South Province such in legal documents. families of color in the 1760s, by the omitted such terms for wealthy the label "free mulatto" could not escape 1780s even wealthy planters to use the 29 Notaries were also more reluctant or "free quadroon. *Madame, 27 and *Demoiselle" in free colored courtesy titles *Sieur," have tried other techniques to contracts, though they seem to described Julien illustrate social status. In 1780, for example, a notary but rather as *Guillaume Raimond's brother not as "Sieur Raimond" Pierre Raimond [Sic)," legitimate son of the late Sieur Raimond, him from other less-respectable free thereby still distinguishing from March 1783, Raimond was "Julien coloreds. In a contract ofsale son ofthe late Sieur Pierre Raimond, Q.L. [quarteron libre] legitimate identified as "the so-called Raimond [Sic), > while the other party was that he was Madelaine free griffe. 29 Raimond's status was such Marie " but it was not until he traveled to never referred to as "the so-called, describe him as *Sieur. >102 France in 1784 that a notary would again in 1787 shows the notary A contract drafted for François Raimond version that would remain in the describing his client as *Sieur" in the ofthe contract that but omitting the honorary title in the copy colony, in the Naval Ministry in Versailles.' would be deposited sensitivity appears to have distorted This heightened racial of social trends. In the colonists' and administrators' perception racial discrimination was increasingly separating 1770s and 1780s, as showed that Saintwhites from nonwhites, official census reports dramatically. Yet Domingue's free population of color was expanding racial in due to a new precision in administrators' this was at least part census. In a summary table reporting terminology after the 1775 the census officials 1782 data from the West and South provinces, blacks and mulattos, 9> they had used in 1775, "free split the category "people of color, mulattos, etc." and into two more specific headings, free blacks and mulattos ofree blacks. >104 Overall in the two provinces, dramatically. Yet Domingue's free population of color was expanding racial in due to a new precision in administrators' this was at least part census. In a summary table reporting terminology after the 1775 the census officials 1782 data from the West and South provinces, blacks and mulattos, 9> they had used in 1775, "free split the category "people of color, mulattos, etc." and into two more specific headings, free blacks and mulattos ofree blacks. >104 Overall in the two provinces, --- Page 180 --- RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC CITIZENSHIP, of the free in 1782, up together comprised 44 percent 1775 population census. In a number of from the 29 percent reported in the the white population fell as regions, according to the later document, the Saint Louis district, which the free colored population rose. In between the 1775 and 1782 included Julien Raimond's Aquin parish, than doubled from 165 to censuses, the free population of color more from 777 to 661. In the 345, while the white population shrank the free colored district, which included Torbec parish, Les Cayes 288 in 1775 to 746 in 1782 while the white population rose from In the West Province, the contracted from 1,479 to 1,412. population reported a free colored populasimilarly isolated district ofMirebalais outnumbered by a white population tion of327 in the 1775 census, had only 402 whites and 818 of 1,061. Seven years later, Mirebalais free people ofcolor.' comparison of white and free In 1788 an official parish-by-parish way." 106 But it combined data in a different colored populations 48 percent ofthe free populashowed that people of color composed compared to 44 percent in the tion in the South and West Provinces, as reliable and comIfthey accepted these census figures 1782 report. to believe that the free population of parable, royal officials had reason in size from 1775 to 1788. The color in Saint Louis had quintupled district appeared to have of the Les Cayes free colored population in thirteen years. In Mirebalais by 1788, increased by a factor of six half times as many free people of royal officials counted three and a color as they had in 1775. besides racial reclassification surelyinfluenced Other developments officials were undoubtedly countthis data. In these frontier regions, settled in isolated valleys or on ing, for the first time, families long collection of a tax on slaves, SO remote hillsides. Censuses were tied to reports." 107 free colored wealth produced larger population of increasing surely a real growth in the free population Moreover there was records from the southern peninsula show color over time. Baptismal between 9 and 21 percent more fertile that free women of color were 108 Some of the growth was also due than comparable white women. marriage and military service, to new modes of manumission through examined in chapter 7. * obsession with race Close examination of the growing Dominguan drew between "white" in the 1770s shows that the new line colonists unified French colonial and "nonwhite" was more about creating a surely a real growth in the free population Moreover there was records from the southern peninsula show color over time. Baptismal between 9 and 21 percent more fertile that free women of color were 108 Some of the growth was also due than comparable white women. marriage and military service, to new modes of manumission through examined in chapter 7. * obsession with race Close examination of the growing Dominguan drew between "white" in the 1770s shows that the new line colonists unified French colonial and "nonwhite" was more about creating a --- Page 181 --- BEFORE HAITI slave discipline. The color line did not community than maintaining the riches they dreamed of, but help immigrants from Europe acquire satisfying to many. They the notion of white purity was deeply while wealthy men of acquired the right to be addressed as *Sieur" clerk and scribe. their freedom before every color had to prove old creole family networks it Because this new social order challenged science, but that it be based on the latest metropolitan was important men of mixed race as effeminate in their also on gender. Describing and lack of discipline vanity, physical weakness, sexual insatiability, African slaves and tied made them morally and physically inferior to courtly decadence. French rhetoric about them to political their exclusion from public Sexualizing people of color and ordering and promised that Saint-Domingue's life excused colonial immorality whites could be virtuous and patriotic. did not actually Creating a <white" public in Saint-Domingue administrators, and out of petits blancs, military make a community it seem that the new regulations damold colonial families. Nor does of color, who continued of free people aged the economic prospects contracts, and otherwise use to buy and sell property, draft binding whites. Free coloreds the legal system to protect their interests against the new laws. But in the in the growing colonial cities did not fight and from shipping South Province, far from these new public spaces, and thousands of new lanes that brought hundreds of new Europeans color line was a shock. Africans to the colony every month, the new themselves French freeborn creole families who considered Wealthy the eyes of colonists now learned they were afrandit-crsavc-int their neighbors and the colonial state. --- Page 182 --- CHAPTER 6 X THE RISING ECONOMIC POWER OF FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE 1780s In 1782, Julien Raimond, parish, married for the now a successful indigo planter in second time. Racial Aquin significantly in the decade since his first wife prejudice had increased had Raimond's wealth. At the and cousin died, but SO 35,000 livres. age of 26 he had been Now, at age 37, Raimond owned worth land, nearly 100 slaves, and other two indigo works, new spouse was someone he had known property worth 202,000 livres. His bor, Françoise Dasmard Challe. almost all his life, his neighimmigrant In 1760 she had married the France Jacques Challe (chapter 2), but in 1774 he had French without her or their children. Since that returned to advised Françoise about her time Raimond had worth over 177,000 livres. In plantation, 1777 which had 51 slaves and was testament leaving halfher estate to her Françoise's mother Julie drafted a Raimond, "in order that he daughter and the other halfto Jacques Challe died in France remember her in his prayers. 99 When his widow, in 1780, he left most ofl his including seigneurial land in France property to 90,000 livres. The local court that had cost him the Challe children.1 appointed Julien Raimond guardian of The Raimond/Dasmard Challe alliance of been long in the making. And it led 1782, therefore, had Raimond brother followed the to another marriage, as the helped build their family fortune. pattern of family networking that had his cousin, who was also the sister Julien's first marriage had been to ofhis elder brother's wife. Similarly, ofl his including seigneurial land in France property to 90,000 livres. The local court that had cost him the Challe children.1 appointed Julien Raimond guardian of The Raimond/Dasmard Challe alliance of been long in the making. And it led 1782, therefore, had Raimond brother followed the to another marriage, as the helped build their family fortune. pattern of family networking that had his cousin, who was also the sister Julien's first marriage had been to ofhis elder brother's wife. Similarly, --- Page 183 --- BEFORE HAITI brother François married Louise Françoise in 1784 Julien's younger Through this double union, Challe, Françoise Dasmard's daughter. control ofthe Challe estate, with the two Raimond brothers assumed serving as guardian Julien handling his wife's portion, and François for his own wife and the other Challe children.? had century, such local interconnections Since the early eighteenth of creole families in the South Province. been essential to the success world with boundaries much But indigo planters here inhabited a of Raimond's When an inventory wider than their narrow peninsula. in 1785, 40 percent commercial papers was deposited with a notary 3 Two-thirds ofthese were (60 of 159) involved overseas transactions. where at least one of his receipts issued by captains from Bordeaux, however, no Raimond sisters had married and settled. After Bordeaux, center in with Curaçao, the Dutch contraband dealt most frequently from wartime commerce with Dutch the eastern Caribbean. Profits for his increasing wealth in the merchants were probably responsible drastically Although the War of American Independence 1780s. between France and Saint- -Domingue from 1779 reduced commerce one for Raimond. In to 1783, that period was an especially 1781 prosperous he over 1,500 livres, the between 1773 and spent four purchases and sheet music. In 1782 price of a field slave, on books, pamphlets, carafes, four silver salt he bought a silver oil decanter with crystal matched set of beds, for dishes, and six knives, together with a wealthiest livres. The following year he paid one ofthe region's 2,301 livres for a slave trained as a pastry chef and confecplanters 4,500 had three of indigo experitioner. Although his family generations latest in growing Raimond continued to invest in the techniques an ence, the dye. In 1781 he had an artisan construct and processing water for his soaking basins, and claborate machine at his well to draw of1 newi information in 1784 he subscribed 200 livres for the publication about indigo manufacture." Raimond was not the only free man of As this chapter illustrates, wealth in the 1780s. After reviewing the color to reach a new level of from 1763 through rapid expansion of Saint-Domingue's economy notarial deeds from the the 1780s, this chapter uses a sample of2 2,654 ofcolorin the of1780-89 to show that, as a group, free people period faster than their white neighbors. South Province were prospering from the 1760s, analyzed in Compared with similar documents value of free colored chapter 2, this data reveals that the average between whites, economic activity, relative to transactions exclusively in the region's So did their rate of participation increased markedly. examines the causes and formal economy. The rest of the chapter the 1780s, this chapter uses a sample of2 2,654 ofcolorin the of1780-89 to show that, as a group, free people period faster than their white neighbors. South Province were prospering from the 1760s, analyzed in Compared with similar documents value of free colored chapter 2, this data reveals that the average between whites, economic activity, relative to transactions exclusively in the region's So did their rate of participation increased markedly. examines the causes and formal economy. The rest of the chapter --- Page 184 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S Comparisons with data collected by character of this prosperity. show that Raimond and other Stewart King and Dominique Rogers wealthier than their counterleading southern free coloreds were no But in the context of the parts in the North and West Provinces. and prominence was more southern peninsula, their prosperity poorer noticeable, especially to poor whites. in chapter 2, this Returning to the family narratives developed wealthiest free people of chapter confirms that Saint-Domingue's Revolution were not upstarts. Instead, color on the eve ofthe French families with commercial netthey descended from long-established lucrative in the works and economic strategies that were especially of coffee as a plantation 1770s and 1780s. The new importance though white coffactor in their success, export was not an important inexpensive hillside land. fee planters did pay more to buy previously with free people ofcolor in The specific economic activities identified saddle-makers, land speculators, chapter 2 also evolved. Ambitious attained a new level ofp property warehouse agents, and cotton growers not a new class rising out of and prestige in the 1780s, but they were mixed-race background as slavery. Instead they were from the same the same economic families and tended to use the established planter and Port-au-Prince, there was no strategies. Unlike Cap Français Province. free black class emerging in the South separate 1780s were a time of frenetic growth in SaintThe 1770s and ofits colonial goods to other Domingue. France reexported most tripled from the markets, and the value of this commerce French European 1790s. 6 In 1763, as the Seven Years' War ended, 1750s to the than 2,000 Africans in the colony. In the slavers disembarked fewer of Paris, however, this number following the Treaty years immediately than 14,000 slaves a year, swelling to approximately increased to more Independence. By the late 20,000 a year after the War of American Africans to SaintFrench merchants carried more than 30,000 1780s Other forms of plantation investment compleDomingue annually? for disposable laborers. mented the colony's insatiable appetite in Saint-Domingue's Planters undertook massive irrigation projects refineries to produce most fertile plains. Many converted their estate brown sugar. a more valuable export than semi-refined clayed sugar, the coffee bush emerged as sugar cane's rival, In this same period, exported wealthy planters grew both crops. Saint-Domingue though of coffee in 1755 and 15 million in 1764. Rising 7 million pounds 000 1780s Other forms of plantation investment compleDomingue annually? for disposable laborers. mented the colony's insatiable appetite in Saint-Domingue's Planters undertook massive irrigation projects refineries to produce most fertile plains. Many converted their estate brown sugar. a more valuable export than semi-refined clayed sugar, the coffee bush emerged as sugar cane's rival, In this same period, exported wealthy planters grew both crops. Saint-Domingue though of coffee in 1755 and 15 million in 1764. Rising 7 million pounds --- Page 185 --- BEFORE HAITI coffee prices up to 1770 attracted the fact that coffee many European immigrants, as did establish than plantations were smaller and less sugar plantations. The expensive to Domingue had only 33 slaves and average coffee estate in SaintA sugar plantation needed many had less than 2 dozen. processing at least 100 workers, more equipment, and specialized personnel. outbuildings, well-watered flat land, most of which had Sugar cane required Domingue by 1763. Coffee, in been claimed in Saintand contrast, needed cool Saint-Domingue had many suitable hillsides that temperatures provision farmers, ranchers, hunters, and sheltered only the century coffec estates escaped slaves. By the end of outnumbered as eight to one in some regions oft the sugar plantations by as much Because of its long isolation from colony.8 Province benefited French commerce, the South new roads, bridges, disproportionately coastal from the postwar expansion. As improved communication maps, and other government with the rest of the projects peninsula drew more investors, colony, the southern after 1788, more African slaves. more petit blanc immigrants, and, Independence the royal Following the War of American subsidy for each slave they government gave merchants a 200 livres brought to the South, complained that this ten percent though some slavers profitable. In 1787 the French premium still did not make the trip sail directly from the African crown allowed English merchants to quadrupling annual coast to Les Cayes-Saint Louis, nearly 4,792 slaves. The imports into the South Province from 1,258 to peninsula's share of rose from five to fifteen percent. 9 Saint-Domingue's slave trade The South'ssugar production also increased. projects works provided By the 1780s Les water to about half the irrigation Cayes plain. There had been 55 plantations in the Les Cayes in 1762, but there sugar works around the city of Méry believed there were 100 in 1788. Moreau de was room for another 30. 10 SaintIn the 1770s, planters and immigrants caused a kind of scramble for looking for new coffee lands Province. Wealthy planters, mountain property in the South this relatively new especially, began switching from indigo to was especially noticeable crop. According to travelers, the in parishes like transformation Cavaillon and Saint Cotteaux, west ofTorbec, or Louis, east of Les or Anse à Veau parishes, coffee Cayes. Elsewhere, as in Aquin cotton in a mix of commodity was less dominant, joining indigo and estates,11 crops grown on large and small The 1780s also brought increasing attention to the port city of Les Cayes. government In and commercial 1784, Versailles again igo to was especially noticeable crop. According to travelers, the in parishes like transformation Cavaillon and Saint Cotteaux, west ofTorbec, or Louis, east of Les or Anse à Veau parishes, coffee Cayes. Elsewhere, as in Aquin cotton in a mix of commodity was less dominant, joining indigo and estates,11 crops grown on large and small The 1780s also brought increasing attention to the port city of Les Cayes. government In and commercial 1784, Versailles again --- Page 186 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE 1780s loosened its mercantile Seven Years' War. New regulation, as it had immediately after the Français, regulations allowed merchants in Port-au-Prince, and Les Cayes to sell Cap foreigners and import wood and certain sugar products to and cotton, however, remained foodstuffs. Indigo, coffec, could only be sold on a list of commoditics to France. 12 that, legally, This insured that smuggling remained along Saint-Domingue's southern a major activity for planters Curaçao were still cager to trade with coast. Merchants in Jamaica and blockades ofthe War of American colonists. In the commercial Dutch shipping in the South Province Independence, there was SO much sold at peacetime prices in Les that in 1780 a barrel of wheat in Cap Français. After the Cayes, while it cost three times as much as the most war ended, U.S. captains rivaled the British pervasive smugglers. 13 In this dynamic period, the wealth of the people of color grew even faster than that southern of peninsula's free written by the region's notaries illustrate the whites. Contracts transactions rose markedly from that the value offree colored tant, free people ofcolor the levels ofthe 1760s. Just as imporselling, and leasing formed a greater percentage ofthose property. Yet evidence buying, deeds of gift suggest the declining from manumissions and racial lines, even in this established importance of community across The most significant creole society. the 1780s change in free colored was in sales of rural land. In the 1780s economic activity in in 44 percent (148/334) ofthese they were involved (63/225) in the 1760s. 14 transactions, compared to 28 percent 20 to 30 percent ofthe Morcover, in the 1780s they most valuable land sales, where participated in they had only participated in 10 20 years earlier Aquin parish, Julien Raimond's percent or less of those top sales. In prominent because as free home, the change was especially white transactions people of color grew wealthier, the value declined. The value of estate sales between whites in average ofthe 50 notarized real In the 1780s there Aquin in the 1760s was were 103 sales ofthis but 28,754 livres. slipped to 16,293. Over the same sort, their average value involving free people of color period, the value ofr real estate sales 10,793 livres. In Aquin, free grew from an average of 3,895 to of all 1780s real estate people ofd color participated in 58 In the urban sales, including 12 oft the 24 most percent real estate market, free valuable. 1780s remained at roughly the colored participation in the lier decade members of this same level as in the 1760s. In that earthese transactions class had been involved in 30 percent of 1780s (23/76) and this grew to only 35 (87/251). In the 1780s the percent in the average value offree colored urban all 1780s real estate people ofd color participated in 58 In the urban sales, including 12 oft the 24 most percent real estate market, free valuable. 1780s remained at roughly the colored participation in the lier decade members of this same level as in the 1760s. In that earthese transactions class had been involved in 30 percent of 1780s (23/76) and this grew to only 35 (87/251). In the 1780s the percent in the average value offree colored urban --- Page 187 --- BEFORE HAITI to 3,500 in 1760s. However, land sales was 5,628 livres, compared held their position in this marthe simple fact that free people ofcolor muscle. Urban property was far ket reveals their growing economic had been earlier. The median sale price more valuable in the 1780s than it in the two decades, (from of rural land had gone up only 20 percent the median price of urban 6,600 to 8,000 livres). Over the same period 5,500 to 10,000 livres). transactions almost doubled (from notarial property sales increased from 5 percent of all While rural property in the 1780s (334/2679), urban activity (225/4882) to 12 percent of notarial contracts (76/4882) property sales went from 1.5 percent in the same period. to 9 percent (251/2679) was the result of new government spending, This increased activity commerce. Colonial European immigration, and burgeoning ongoing homes for would-be planters towns came to be seen less as temporary businessmen and locations for aspiring and more as permanent of notarized urban leases dropped in artisans. The relative number 1780s. 15 Yet more free people of color half from the 1760s to the In the 1780s they participated in were active as landlords or renters. from 19 percent (18/93) in 30 percent (14/46) of urban leases, up the 1760s. noted, free women of color were especially As travelers often and their prominence was quite important in this urban economy The negative feminine stereomarked in comparison to white women. from the fact that an eXtypes ofthe free colored class drew support be as a man, and that slave was more than twice as likely to a woman more economic independence free women of color had considerably offree colored householders than white women. In 1753, 68 percent female, while only 3 percent in the city ofLes Cayes (15 of22) were (4 of 120) were women,.16 In ofwhite heads of households or stores in 60 percent (53 of88) the 1780s free women of color participated white women who were in of free colored urban sales, compared 1760s to and 1780s free women of only 18 percent (29 of165). In the of the involved in nearly 58 and 43 percent, respectively, color were in which free coloreds participated, compared leases of urban property of only 21 and 4 percent among whites to a female participation rate ofwomen of color also The relative importance for the same periods. In the 1780s free women of extended into rural land transactions. of 160) of rural land sales color were involved in 43 percent (68 accounted for only 11 percent involving their class, while white women both and Rogers found that in Cap Français (39 of340). Dominique were 62 of free colored Port-au-Prince after 1776, women percent notarial clients.' 17 4 percent among whites to a female participation rate ofwomen of color also The relative importance for the same periods. In the 1780s free women of extended into rural land transactions. of 160) of rural land sales color were involved in 43 percent (68 accounted for only 11 percent involving their class, while white women both and Rogers found that in Cap Français (39 of340). Dominique were 62 of free colored Port-au-Prince after 1776, women percent notarial clients.' 17 --- Page 188 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE 1780s Although buying, selling, and leasing slaves economic considerations for involved more than their attitude towards many free people of color, in the 1780s capitalistic. The value slavery appears to have become more and frequency off free narrowly chases rose significantly from the 1760s colored slave sales or purdecade, free people of color to the 1780s. In the carlier these transactions, while in the participated in 41 percent (63/154) of slave sales involved 1780s nearly 57 percent at least one free person (33/58) of coloreds concluded slave sale with ofcolor. In the 1780s free up from an average value of 2,317 an average value was 6,924 livres, they participated in only 12 livres in the 1760s. In the 1760s 1780s, percent (9/75) ofs slave they were involved in 49 leases, but in the average value of free colored slave percent (19/39). In the 1760s, the pared to an average value of leases was a mere 320 livres, comthe 1780s, free 1,071 livres for all such colored leases were worth transactions; in compared to the overall an average of 1,168 livres Much of this average of2,175. activity was generated by the planter class. In 1784, Julien Raimond growing free colored 24 slaves to a white merchant and his wife Françoise sold such sale involving free from the town of Aquin in the largest white merchant people of color in the 1780s who bought the workers sample. The indigo-planting partnership he planned to use them in an Raimond, Julien's signed that very day with younger brother. 18 The François drafted by a free person of color in the 1780s second-largest slave sale race family with also involved a mixedlong roots in the southern Boisrond, one of] Raimond's free colored peninsula. Claude from a white planter for 45,909 neighbors, bought 17 slaves 25,000 for prime river land in livres, also paying the same man Despite their Aquin parish. 19 color were only substantially greater wealth, as a class, free people of than the 1760s, marginally more active as manumittors in the 1780s drafting 26 percent of freedom percent. This was in part due to the deeds, up from courage traditional legal manumissions. government's efforts to disfree population of color as a sexual The new conception of the dent in the revised manumission danger to the white public was evicharged masters 1,000 livres taxes. After 1775, administrators mit a woman under to free a male slave, but 2,000 to manuslaves. 20 Accordingly, 40, more than the market price of many such notarized documents manumission deeds declined from 5 in the 1760s (256 of percent of 2 percent in the 1780s (62 of2,654). 4,814), to just above The changing social profile of how much the wave of manumittors in this period suggests incoming single European men had eroded 000 livres taxes. After 1775, administrators mit a woman under to free a male slave, but 2,000 to manuslaves. 20 Accordingly, 40, more than the market price of many such notarized documents manumission deeds declined from 5 in the 1760s (256 of percent of 2 percent in the 1780s (62 of2,654). 4,814), to just above The changing social profile of how much the wave of manumittors in this period suggests incoming single European men had eroded --- Page 189 --- BEFORE HAITI In the 1760s, white women and white married white creole society. In the 1780s, such couples had drafted 14 percent of manumissions. Instead, white comprised merely 3 percent of manumittors. persons accounted for 71 percent of all 1780s manumission men acting alone A similar trend can be seen in the declindeeds, up from 64 percent. whites to free people of color in the ing level of notarized gifts from grew closer As racial discrimination in the southern peninsula 1780s. zones, less than a third of to that seen in the colony's main plantation from whites to free people the deeds of gift drafted here (22/73) were had been half of all gifts of color. În the 1760s such donations (39/69). whites and people of color in creole society Ifthe bonds between contracts drafted in this in the 1780s, the marriage were weakening continued to seck wives among decade show that European immigrants whites scorned these kinds of the South's free women of color. Many white man whose free colto. In the late 1760s, a unions, or affected the commander of the South Province ored wife had died petitioned arguing that ewhen the to be readmitted into a white militia company, his 21 Moreau its ? D'Argout denied request. beast is dead, SO is poison." "mésalliés" like this man as a "new intermede Saint-Méry described of color. ?> Yet there was nothing diary between whites and people colonial frontier. Moreover, in the "new" about such alliances on the did not change appreSouth Province the rate ofinterracial marriage 20 of all religious ciably into the 1780s, declining only from percent in the 1780s. Among celebrated in the 1760s to 17 percent marriages drafted in the 1780s, 8 percent (5 of 65) notarized marriage contracts of color, with 6 percent united white men and free women compared formation illustrates that in the 1760s (7 of 122). This ongoing family Dominique Rogers found racial ideology was a poor mirror of reality. contracts and 11 percent of that 7 percent of Port-au-Prince marriage united white men and free women of Cap Français marriage contracts color.? 22 contracts from the South illustrates An analysis of 1780s marriage white bridegrooms. In colored that still attracted the free prosperity of color drafted 53 percent of these nuptial the 1780s, free pcople in the 1760s. These numbers in agreements, up from 37 percent and women of color had property themselves suggest that more men formal At the such arrangements. that they wanted to protect through 1770s and 1780s observed that many same time, commentatorsi in the marriages. Whites who did whites were less interested in colonial in the 1760s had an average were wealthy. White spouses marry quite livres, and this increased to 86,335 livres combined wealth of 35,680 1760s. These numbers in agreements, up from 37 percent and women of color had property themselves suggest that more men formal At the such arrangements. that they wanted to protect through 1770s and 1780s observed that many same time, commentatorsi in the marriages. Whites who did whites were less interested in colonial in the 1760s had an average were wealthy. White spouses marry quite livres, and this increased to 86,335 livres combined wealth of 35,680 --- Page 190 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S free colored couples, on the other hand, married in the 1780s,3 Many household wealth also with very little property. Their average than that of white couples: increased sharply, but it grew less rapidly livres in the 1780s.24 15,600 livres in the 1760s, and 30,670 free families of color were Within these averages, however, some white. In levels that had once been exclusively rising into property were free colored. In the the 1760s, only 3 ofthe wealthiest couples ofcolor (chart 5.1). 1780s, 6 ofthe top 31 couples were free people in the company These wealthier free colored couples were squarely Raimond and white elite. The 1782 marriage of Julien of the local created a household worth more than Françoise Dasmard Challe the same economic level as a 300,000 livres. This figure put them on officer, with combined daughter who married a militia notary's 227,200 livres, or a white indigo planter who brought property worth Other wealthy free couples of color 250,000 livres to his marriage. family, whose marriage included three brothers of the Depas-Medina livres, were similar in worth 143,200, 61,372, and 60,838 contracts, militia officer who married an indigo planter's value to that of a who married the daughter daughter (93,700 livres) or a royal attorney livres).25 of another attorney and notary (70,000 Province was about as rich as its The free colored elite of the South The wealthiest free counterparts in other parts of Saint-Domingue. in the North and West provinces families of color Stewart King found level of prosperity. in the 1770s and 1780s reached this same 61,372, and 60,838 contracts, militia officer who married an indigo planter's value to that of a who married the daughter daughter (93,700 livres) or a royal attorney livres).25 of another attorney and notary (70,000 Province was about as rich as its The free colored elite of the South The wealthiest free counterparts in other parts of Saint-Domingue. in the North and West provinces families of color Stewart King found level of prosperity. in the 1770s and 1780s reached this same 6 7 9 10 Marriage property, grouped into decile brackets, from low to high 1760s * - 1780s in High- Value Marriages, 1760s VS. 1780s. Chart 5.1 More Free Colored Couples --- Page 191 --- BEFORE HAITI of Limonade parish in the North Province had The Laporte family (800 ofland, approximately the 300 slaves and over 1,000 acres cx) of Aquin. Vincent Ogé, a combined wealth of the Raimond siblings worth 127,000 in merchant and landowner in Cap Français, was had at the same time, 1776, about the same wealth Julien Raimond describes other wealthy between his first and second marriages. King the Baugé of Croix des free colored families in the West Province, the Turgeau parish, the Nivard or Rossignol of Mirebalais, Bouquets about 100,000 livres each in the 1780s. of Port-au-Prince, as worth other of color in Cap Rogers identifies nine persons Dominique who drafted single notarial contracts Français and Port-au-Prince 26 worth more than 50,000 livres. Croix des Bouquets, and PortHowever, Cap Français, Limonade, in the colony.27 Free au-Prince were all among the wealthiest parishes in the southern sugar district colored planters in Torbec, Aquin, or even in local society because ofLes Cayes, would have been more impressive they seem to have been these were not show case districts. Moreover, ofland than their counterparts in more prosperous as buyers and sellers found that the average value offree the North and West Provinces. King in the 1770s and 1780s, colored land sales in his selected parishes 28 The equivalent figure for the including Cap Français, was 5,793 livres. transactions in the South Province, combining rural and urban property in this region was livres, despite the fact that property 1780s, was 7,797 valuable than in the West and North. generally less deep creole history of the Another way in which the relatively is that, by the 1780s, South separates it from the West/North in male, rather than the wealth of mixed-race families was increasingly ofal kind ofmoral hands. Because whites accused free coloreds female, for free colored political effeminacy, this shift in wealth was important contracts from claims in the Revolutionary era. In the 1760s marriage to marwomen ofcolor generally brought more property this region, especially in the most prosperous couples. riage than their spouses, in among notarized free colored Stewart King found the same pattern in the period after 1776.29 marriages in the North and West provinces in the South. The În the 1780s, however, this pattern changed decline to white of free women of color did not compared property free colored grooms were far more prosperous brides, but wealthy contracts ofthe 1780s the than they had been earlier. In the marriage of color brought to value of the property free women 1760s average livres, up from 10,934 in the their marriages was 13,425 this racial category brought, on average, (chart 5.2). But bridegroomsin earlier. The property 23,497 livres, compared to 7,470 twenty years to white of free women of color did not compared property free colored grooms were far more prosperous brides, but wealthy contracts ofthe 1780s the than they had been earlier. In the marriage of color brought to value of the property free women 1760s average livres, up from 10,934 in the their marriages was 13,425 this racial category brought, on average, (chart 5.2). But bridegroomsin earlier. The property 23,497 livres, compared to 7,470 twenty years --- Page 192 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE 1780s o 4 5 9 10 Brides' property, grouped into decile brackets, from low to high - 1760s * - 1780 Chart 5.2 More Free Women of Color Among Wealthy Brides, 1760s VS. 1780s. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Grooms' property, grouped into decile brackets, from low to high 1760s * 1780s Chart 5.3 More Free Men of Color Among Wealthy Grooms, 1760s VS. 1780s. listed in Julien Raimond's 1782 marriage contract was nearly ten times what the wealthiest free man ofcolor had claimed in the 1760s. In 20 years free men ofcolor went from 10 percent (2/21) to 30 percent (8/27) ofthe wealthiest 30 percent of grooms (chart 5.3). The grooms' new affluence reflects the emergence of a second or third generation of island-born families. These families had well-established estates and reliable contacts with French and illegal y Grooms, 1760s VS. 1780s. listed in Julien Raimond's 1782 marriage contract was nearly ten times what the wealthiest free man ofcolor had claimed in the 1760s. In 20 years free men ofcolor went from 10 percent (2/21) to 30 percent (8/27) ofthe wealthiest 30 percent of grooms (chart 5.3). The grooms' new affluence reflects the emergence of a second or third generation of island-born families. These families had well-established estates and reliable contacts with French and illegal --- Page 193 --- BEFORE HAITI Some of these advantages were a legacy from a foreign merchants. had arrived in the 1720s. But the more prosperwhite ancestor who of the 1780s had built, rather than ous free colored bridegrooms Unlike the carlier generation, a number inherited, their own estates. land. The brides' wealth in the 1780s, as were planters, with valuable and personal effects. As the folin the 1760s, was in slaves, animals, 1770s and the 1780s, the sons and lowing examples illustrate, in the French colonists were primed grandsons of carly-cighteeuh-cemtuy colonial elite. take their among the regional or even to place the wealthiest man of color in the Julien Raimond was probably Françoise Dasmard especially after marrying southern peninsula, debt to buy his plantation, in Challe. Though he took on considerable from Angoulème for 1790 he was able to sell it to a Frenchman had married one of 320,000 livres. Raimond's brother François plantation after she Challe's daughters and took over his mother's about the time his died. He sold half ofit for 40,000 livres in 1789, and land colonial land from her free black grandmother wife inherited As late as 1793, with slaves in France from her French grandmother. Guillaume Raimond and his white rebelling all over Saint-Domingue, about the future to spend 90,000 partner were confident enough livres on 30 slaves for their coffee plantation. In 1783 had also amassed considerable property. Their neighbors Medina died, he left an estate in Aquin parish the when Michel Depas-1 and cost his heirs 1,200 livres inventory ofwhich covered some pages Medina's main plantain notarial fees, the price of a field slave. Depas- and 7 different outtion had 67 slaves, 27 slave huts, an animal pen, uninventoried. The Another smaller farm remained buildings. settings and assorted silver table service notaries found 14 silver place kept an *optical box" in his dining room. In his study Depas-Medina and prints to view with the device.ai of the colonial clan started Michel Depas-Medina was a member the Sephardic doctor, before the 1720s by Michel Lopez Depas, his father from Bordeaux, who was probably judge, and planter described this "M. de Paz" (chapter 1). In 1743, royal administrators former slave woman. "He is with a as having an ongoing relationship and has sent them to his parents in very fond of thelir] children >32 In 1764 Governor d'Estaing had Bordeaux to be educated. as a "former courtier described the free colored Michel Depas-Medina Indeed, a Michel of M. Gradis,' 7) the powerful Sephardic merchant. house in Bordeaux in the late Depas" worked in the Gradis merchant 1730s and carly 1740s.3 oft the testament ofthe elder Michel No records have been found his brothers Philippe who died sometime around 1762. Perhaps Depas, very fond of thelir] children >32 In 1764 Governor d'Estaing had Bordeaux to be educated. as a "former courtier described the free colored Michel Depas-Medina Indeed, a Michel of M. Gradis,' 7) the powerful Sephardic merchant. house in Bordeaux in the late Depas" worked in the Gradis merchant 1730s and carly 1740s.3 oft the testament ofthe elder Michel No records have been found his brothers Philippe who died sometime around 1762. Perhaps Depas, --- Page 194 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S within the family, since the law and François distributed bequests Bordeaux the right to a valid testadenied French Jews living outside in Aquin described his ment. In 1762 one of Depas's white nephews livres, but it is not clear share ofthe doctor's estate as worth 37,000 and namesake, Michel. whether Depas left property to his mulatto son and owed him 3,000 However, this son did business with his father denied his request to livres in 1760. After 1777, when administrators became <Michel keep the Depas name, Michel Depas the younger trading family as Medina," taking the name of a prominent continued Sephardic to use his close his "African" name (chapter 5). And he merchant house connections to what was arguably the most powerful to the local France, selling his indigo in cighteenth-century representative ofthe Gradis house, after his father, Michel DepasWhen he died in 1783, 20 years Seven slaves than his white uncle Philippe Depas. Medina owned more ofthem married in the spring and summer sons survived him and three settled. Their property, combined of 1785 as their father's estate was to 143,200 livres, placing with that oft their wives, ranged from 60,838 marriages in the southern them in the top 10 and 20 percent of1780s were now peninsula. These creole grandsons of Michel Lopez became Depas the first man in their own right. In 1793 one oft them planters in (chapter 9). of color to work as a notary Aquints was Pierre Another of Raimond's wealthy free colored neighbors he left prop2). When Casamajor died in 1773, Casamajor (chapter livres to be divided among his large family, erty worth nearly 134,000 57 slaves. His estate included silver place including a plantation with furniture, Indian cotton settings for 12,a silver tea service, mahogany bed clothing, and a slave valet and cook.30 who had arrived Pierre Casamajor was the son of David Casamajor, to settlein the 1720s as it officially opened in the southern peninsula Casamajor built Aquin's first pier in ment. A royal notary, David and unloading ofthe ships from 1730, presumably to simplify loading than French merCuraçao and Jamaica that came more regularly granted land near chants. About 25 years later the royal government called Casamajor,' 2) one of at least three mulatto this wharfto "Pierre David Casamajor and the slave Marie sons born out of wedlock to David continued to Madeleine. For the next decade, as Pierre Casamajor served as the public work as Aquin's royal notary, his son of indigo and other charged with the safekeeping warehouse agent, his death in 1773, the notary's son had moved outgoing cargoes. By business of growing it.37 from storing indigo to the more profitable his daughter Marie Rose to In 1756, Pierre Casamajor married As chapter 2 describes, Thomas Ploy, a man of color from Curaçao. to David continued to Madeleine. For the next decade, as Pierre Casamajor served as the public work as Aquin's royal notary, his son of indigo and other charged with the safekeeping warehouse agent, his death in 1773, the notary's son had moved outgoing cargoes. By business of growing it.37 from storing indigo to the more profitable his daughter Marie Rose to In 1756, Pierre Casamajor married As chapter 2 describes, Thomas Ploy, a man of color from Curaçao. --- Page 195 --- BEFORE HAITI at the Aquin pier and eventually Ploy built his own warehouses years Casamajor's functions as storage agent. Twenty-seven assumed and Marie Rose repeated the marriage strategy later, in 1783, Ploy settling their own daughter with that had brought them together, from the same Curaçao parish as Jean Louis Garsia [sic], who hailed had been in Curaçao since Ploy's mother. The Garcia DePas family branch of the 1674 and was allied there with that island's before which had its own branch in Aquin parish. Garsia Lopez Depas clan, warehouse during the War of American had begun working in Ploy's trade was flourishing. As the war Independence, when the Dutch effects and merchanended he brought 4,000 livres in *furnishings, livres in combined With 18,345 dise" to the new houschold," marriage was not especially prosperous, property, the Garsia/Ploy value ofthe community property off free ranking far below the average which was 30,670 livres. colored couples in the 1780s sample, his warehouse, Thomas With his Curaçaoan son-in-law managing turned his attention to Ploy, like his own father-in-law before slaves him, he and his wife owned agriculture. In 1788 most of the 32 Other slaves ran a livestock pen worked on their cotton plantation." had brought to the marriage. that Marie Rose Casamajor on property the where their belongings But the Ploys still lived at Aquin pier, 600 livres. included nine silver place settings worth over ofhis clients and Though he adopted many ofthe economic strategies Thomas Ploy neighbors Julien Raimond and Michel Depas-Medina, their scale. But his son himselfnever became a planter: and slave owner on was ofthe notary David Casamajor, Jacques Thomas, the great-grandson of 1783, the younger Ploy leased a poised to join that elite. In January that had belonged to Michel dilapidated coffee and cotton plantation he married Jeanne Henriette Depas-Medina. Nearly three years later clan on her free related to the Depas-Medina Lauzenguez, a quarteronne Jacques Thomas Ploy promoted mother's side. In the marriage contract free like his bride, identifying himself as a quarteron, himself racially by described both his parents as mulattos. The although notaries commonly livres in cash and slaves to their son's new Ploys contributed 15,000 had given their daughter two years household, about as much as they 15,000 in slaves, giving the before. But Jeanne Lauzengucz brought the carlier Garsia/Ploy match. couple nearly twice as much property as it in the top 40 percent of all The wealth ofthis new household placed Moreover, in 1788 Thomas sampled colonial marriages for the 1780s. under his son's control. 40 Ploy agreed to let his cotton plantation pass family from warehouse The gradual rise of the Casamajor/Ploy of master the ascent Aquin's agents to planters was paralleled by they 15,000 in slaves, giving the before. But Jeanne Lauzengucz brought the carlier Garsia/Ploy match. couple nearly twice as much property as it in the top 40 percent of all The wealth ofthis new household placed Moreover, in 1788 Thomas sampled colonial marriages for the 1780s. under his son's control. 40 Ploy agreed to let his cotton plantation pass family from warehouse The gradual rise of the Casamajor/Ploy of master the ascent Aquin's agents to planters was paralleled by --- Page 196 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S Probably descended from one ofthe saddle-maker Julien Delaunay. named in the 1720s census of Aquin three Delaunay households and artisan who seems to have made parish, Delaunay was a rancher of his brother Jacques. Jacques the transition to planter with the help the heirs of a white colonist. from had acquired an Aquin plantation in 1765 he exchanged it with another After rebuilding this property, and cotton estate that was four man of color for an abandoned indigo he moved to Torbec parish, times larger. Soon after this transaction, relative there. In Torbee, perhaps to work with another brother or disturbances of 1769 he became a central figure in the anti-militia (chapter 4).11 was managing his older brother's Perhaps because Julien Delaunay identified him as "saddler," 27 land, in the 1780s his neighbors no longer nominated him repeatedly with but as "habitant" or planter. They the to serve as like the Raimonds and Depas-Medinas other planters He appeared as a godfather and guardian for free colored orphans. free pcople of color in benefactor in the marriage contracts of poorer black those of two free mulatto men marrying Aquin, including In 1785 the former saddler formed women to free them from slavery. combining the 14 slaves he with his widowed mother, a partnership with her 14 workers. Delaunay would manage his and his wife owned direct the harvest and refining ofheri indigo. mother's animal pen and he would have first claim on the land In return, the family agreed that when she died,42 the 1780s witnessed free colored In Torbec parish, as in Aquin, and free colored artisans families consolidating their wealth, planter Like the Raimonds and others, reaching new levels of prosperity. carefully, used partnerships to Torbec's Trichet family married properland, and expertise, and bought dilapidated combine slaves, 2). Though they never had the ties in order to restore them (chapter the Trichet family did wealth of the Raimonds or Depas-Medinas, labels that all persons of African avoid the most explicit of the racial While notaries publicly to bear after 1773.43 descent were required creole planters as -mulâtre" or"quarteron" identified other successful their freedom at every turn, the Trichets and required them to prove omission suggests that generally escaped this fate. Such a conspicuous taken to be white. by the 1780s the Trichets were frequently Trichet continued to Throughout the 1770s and 1780s François he had Torbec's Marche-à-terre region as through accumulate land in from free men of color and the 1760s, buying large and small parcels livres for 279 acres from whites. In 1774 he paid a white planter 15,000 husband, which Trichet adjoining the property ofl his mother's second generally escaped this fate. Such a conspicuous taken to be white. by the 1780s the Trichets were frequently Trichet continued to Throughout the 1770s and 1780s François he had Torbec's Marche-à-terre region as through accumulate land in from free men of color and the 1760s, buying large and small parcels livres for 279 acres from whites. In 1774 he paid a white planter 15,000 husband, which Trichet adjoining the property ofl his mother's second --- Page 197 --- BEFORE HAITI In 1782 Trichet's mother, widowed was managing for his step-father. nine slaves to "Sieur François Joseph again, left that plantation and estate. 44 Trichet, her only son, > giving him a good-sized title <Sieur" to a man By 1782 it was illegal to apply the respectful connections had social and economic of color. 45 But François Trichet of color that established him as a with both whites and free pcople friends and members of the parish notable. In 1766, for example, named him guardian of a neighboring free mulatto Dasque family In this document the notary Dasque brother, Jean Jacques. younger "free while he assigned no racial identified the Dasques as mulattos" Trichet's ward was legally indelabel to Trichet. Seventeen years later Jean Jacques Dasques, pendent and an astute planter in his own right. inherited his father-inmarried well and had like his two brothers, Trichet's. In 1783 he sold these law's plantation, which bordered for 40,000 livres and indigo and cotton lands to his former guardian 46 Trichet, who cona to plant indigo. the two formed partnership was to oversee the making of the tributed 50 slaves to the enterprise, would grow food for the dye, while Dasque, who put in 25 slaves, agreement plantation on his own lands. Significantly, the mulatto" partnership and "François between "Jacques Joseph Dasque free was Trichet planter." ?9 route to success for free Like partnership, marriage was an important wealth and confamilies of color in Torbec parish. Trichet's growing In 1780 Marie make his daughters attractive partners. nections helped Trichet married a young man named Jean François Françoise Gertrude born mulatto son of a Pinet, who appears to have been the legitimately slaves, making the value white man. While Pinet's parents gave him two their daughter slaves, of his property 3,950 livres, the Trichets gave Bad health prevented the land, and furniture totaling 15,600 livres. but the note he white father from attending the ceremony, would groom's his that the indigo planter sent to Trichet spelled out expectation horse, I will have the pleasassist his son. <When I am able to mount who my I hope will be blessed by and the newly-weds ure of visiting you this will be easy for them with your help. God and prosperous; the value ofthis marriage property was Despite Trichet's assistance, of 30,670 livres for the 1780s. well below the free colored average marriage, the notary did Although the groom was born ofal legitimate However, he did him as *Sieur" in the marriage contract. >9 not identify his wife, and daughter, as "Sieur, "Dame, name François Trichet, their race. and *Demoiselle" and did not describe had died and Trichet's daughFour years later Jean François Pinet was Jacques Manaut, ter remarried a French merchant. The groom 's assistance, of 30,670 livres for the 1780s. well below the free colored average marriage, the notary did Although the groom was born ofal legitimate However, he did him as *Sieur" in the marriage contract. >9 not identify his wife, and daughter, as "Sieur, "Dame, name François Trichet, their race. and *Demoiselle" and did not describe had died and Trichet's daughFour years later Jean François Pinet was Jacques Manaut, ter remarried a French merchant. The groom --- Page 198 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S and he signed this contract with the originally from Toulouse, business district with at least two prominent Trichets in the Les Cayes While the notary at the Trichet/Pinet white merchants attending. the side ofthe have seen the Trichets as socially superior marriage may union seems to have match, the notary for the Trichet/Manaut the French to bridegroom. regarded the bride's family as sociallyinferiort titles of Yet neither did He did not give the Trichets <white" respect. Other whites may have he label them quarteron, as the law required. but in material terms it interracial marriages like this one, condemned the immigrant. His bride brought was an excellent match for Manaut, valued at 24,150 livres to slaves, animals and furnishings a plantation, 48 The couple's combined property put this, her second, marriage. marriages for this decade. them in the top 40 percent oflocal Trichet's daughters, Gertrude Later that year another of François 49 The entire Trichet family Pascal Trichet, married a white man. French brother-in-law signed the contract, including the bride's document the Manaut. >9 As in the earlier marriage <Sieur Jacques except Manaut, honorific titles notary gave none ofthe bride's party, the racial "Dame. >> Yet again he omitted required like "Sieur" or 15,000 livres and she had labels. François Trichet gave his daughter Moreover this bridegroom, her own savings of about 3,000 livres. A Simeon Viart de Saint- Robert, was no penniless immigrant. Robert and collectable debts native of Cap Français, he had an inheritance The southern peninsula worth nearly twice what his bride possessed. and the chance to build a offered Viart de Saint-Robert fresh land of the North plantation away from the immense competition families into one of Torbec's oldest planting Province. Marriage Together their community of59,000 strengthened that opportunity. household far above the free colored livres placed the Viart/Trichet of all marriages in the three districts. average and in the top 20 percent the Boisronds had the most Ofall of Torbec's free colored planters, death of the free mulatto planter impressive ascent in the 1780s. The the for the marriage and Boisrond in 1780 (chapter 2) set stage In François establishment of his two daughters and three sons. full economic in the Les sons, Mathurin, sold an indigo plantation 1780, one ofthose white militia captain and planter. The Cayes plain for 76,000 livres to a but Boisrond had paid itselfcame from the Felixes, his wife's family, land additional water rights, an investment that netted 20,000 livres to buy was sold. A month later he sold him 10,000 in profit when the property wife's family for 10,000 livres. 50 another estate that had belonged to his Boisrond had By this time his brothers Claude and Louis-François where Claude's already moved east from Torbec to Cavaillon parish Cayes plain for 76,000 livres to a but Boisrond had paid itselfcame from the Felixes, his wife's family, land additional water rights, an investment that netted 20,000 livres to buy was sold. A month later he sold him 10,000 in profit when the property wife's family for 10,000 livres. 50 another estate that had belonged to his Boisrond had By this time his brothers Claude and Louis-François where Claude's already moved east from Torbec to Cavaillon parish --- Page 199 --- BEFORE HAITI Louis François, the youngest of the wife owned two plantations. in 1781 when he married Marie Rose brothers, was living in Cavaillon Boissé was a widow and Boissé of Aquin, Julien Delaunay's aunt. She was close to her nephew's propertys owned an indigo plantation before her own marriage to Boisrond, prosperous enough, six months and six male slaves to a free colored couto give household furniture contract on her plantation. The ple who signed their marriage list the of the spouses, Boisrond-Boissé contract did not possessions of livres bride did reserve three slaves and the large sum 64,000 but the without considering her 52 This amount alone, as her personal property." their new household in the top new husband's unlisted assets, placed 1780s with more than of colonial marriages in the sample, 20 percent other free colored households listed. double the average property Boisrond's membership in This alliance confirmed Louis-François him the kind of respected figure Aquin's free colored elite, making with other free colored planters to whom the royal court summoned In Aquin, Boisrond found nominate a guardian for a young orphan. to the Torbec his mother's side, with their own claims cousins on his father had rebuilt 20 years before. In 1787 sugar plantation that Delaunay, whose wife descended and 1788 the Boisronds and Julien settled some outstanding from the Hérards of Torbec (chapter 2), Hérard estate.5a debts from the long-defunct in Aquin soon brought his two Louis-François's establishment 1784 Claude Boisrond and his wife elder brothers into the parish. In and purchased sold the second of their two Cavaillon plantations Dormante for 25,000 slaves and land on the banks of Aquin's Rivière for a larger estate in livres. Within months they traded this property Mathurin Boisrond, too, the upper Aquin plain. That same year purchased a plantation in Aquin. 54 in this parish. consciousness ran high Free colored political Raimond had left the colony for France In 1789, five years after Julien other free colored planters in Aquin peti- (chapter 7), his brothers and in the Estates General. The tioned Versailles for representation and maintained strong ties to Boisronds were leaders of this group convince more free colored Torbec were they may have helped oftheir Hérard cousins and at least planters to support Raimond. One the five free men of former neighbor, Jacques Boury, were among one identified by name in 1789 as supporters ofthe Aquin color Raimond district of Torbec, cause,5s In December 1790 the Marche-à-terre and Hérards lived, by then a separate parish where Bourys, Dasques, armed standoff between free called Port Salut, was the site of an gave rise to coloreds and whites. In January 1791 the neighborhood cousins and at least planters to support Raimond. One the five free men of former neighbor, Jacques Boury, were among one identified by name in 1789 as supporters ofthe Aquin color Raimond district of Torbec, cause,5s In December 1790 the Marche-à-terre and Hérards lived, by then a separate parish where Bourys, Dasques, armed standoff between free called Port Salut, was the site of an gave rise to coloreds and whites. In January 1791 the neighborhood --- Page 200 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S slave conspiracy (chapter 8). Saint- -Domingue's first Revolutionary-era at the parish, Louis-François Boisrond was prominent Back in Aquin, the Revolution. And on provincial, and colonial level throughout Mathurin Boisrond's son, Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, January 1, 1804, Haitian Declaration of Independence he would orally proclaim the had written the night before (chapter 9). families had such an imporBecause these particular free colored historians, trying to period, some tant impact on the Revolutionary might have accumulated this explain how such scorned persons create the free colored planter wealth, have argued that coffee helped Trouillot points out, class in the southern peninsula. As Michel- Rolph 1763 and 1784 coincided ofincreasing coffee prices between a period of nine new parishes in the southern mounwith the establishment coffee as the main crop ofthe wealthiest tains. Stewart King identifies and West provinces. 56 free colored families in Saint-Doningacw.Nonth, of the wealth of the free But coffee was not an important aspect colonial racism in the 1780s colored families who helped challenge whose new wealth and in the early Revolution. This was not a group families thrust it to the foreground: these were conservative suddenly It was true that many who had built their fortunes over generations. Province owned hillside land free people of color in the South colored sales poor because of the coffee boom. Free that was worth more time in the districts of Les Cayes, of land to whites did increase over offree colored land Nippes, and Saint Louis. In the 1780s, 52 percent 39 in the whites of149), compared to only percent sales went to (77 1760s (27 of69). histories of wealthy southern families of However, the individual in coffee production. The one color show very little involvement free colored coffee planter is example of a member of a prominent Guillaume, who harvested Julien Raimond's younger brother in Saint Louis parish in 1792. But from his lands 150 milliersofcoffee who bought an estate with the case of two free colored orphans livres in 1787 was more typical. The 6,000 coffee bushes for 15,000 Boisrond and Hyacinthe children's legal guardians were Mathurin discussed below, and this suggests Bleck, a rising free colored artisan Nevertheless, coffee as a good investment. that these men recognized into it. Out of the 30 notarized they did not put their own money the Bleck family in the 1780s, this contracts drafted by members of coffee. Of the 43 deeds involving was the only one that mentioned the only other members oft the Boisrond family in the same decade, bushes" growing on mention coffee referred merely to <several one to a provision ground. children's legal guardians were Mathurin discussed below, and this suggests Bleck, a rising free colored artisan Nevertheless, coffee as a good investment. that these men recognized into it. Out of the 30 notarized they did not put their own money the Bleck family in the 1780s, this contracts drafted by members of coffee. Of the 43 deeds involving was the only one that mentioned the only other members oft the Boisrond family in the same decade, bushes" growing on mention coffee referred merely to <several one to a provision ground. --- Page 201 --- BEFORE HAITI of Torbec parish, neighbors of François The Dasques family in coffee. In 1772 two Dasque brothTrichet, seems to have dabbled land, for this new and acquired probably ers formed a partnership sold the property, "having been planted crop. But 15 years later they Lempoisonél coffee several corrupted in coffee but now having only >9 They parted with the land for plants, the rest in bushes and woods. whites in Torbec. In only 6,000 livres. Coffee also disappointed some sold land he had purFebruary 1783 Pierre Vachon, a white man, free colored four earlier from a member of a prominent chased years and his wife had bought the land in 1774 family, René Boury. Boury 1779. In 1783, even though and sold it to Vachon for 15,000 livres.in structures for the land had 20,000 coffee plants and the necessary 6,500 livres. 58 and drying the beans, Vachon sold it for only sorting established families continued to grow the indigo Instead of coffee, with drought, or low dye prices, they they knew well. When faced responding to demand diversified into cotton, not coffee, perhaps fell sharply merchants. Although French indigo prices from forcign Revolution began in 1778, Dutch when the War of the American blocks of dye and bales of cotton, smugglers continued to demand in Britain. While Jamaica probably for the emerging textile industry neither indigo nor cotton in was a major coffee exporter, it produced large quantities." 59 chose cotton over coffee. The Challe In the 1780s Julien Raimond was planted in both plantation he was managing for his stepchildren in 1790, it cotton in 1788. When he sold his own estate indigo and fields. When his brother François in had both indigo and cotton when she died, he Aquin first took over his mother's plantation white merchant. When they worked this land in partnership with a estate their association in 1789, the old Raimond/Begasse dissolved was completely planted in cotton." favored cotton. Men like Small- -scale free colored planters especially whose sister had married Pierre Proa, a free quarteron in Torbec parish, 56 acres and 7 slaves, planted François Trichet, but who had only about white father had been a cotton and provision crops. Although Proa's and his brother Alexandre militia captain and indigo planter, husband Pierre Trichet bought the majorfocused on cotton after their sister's married in 1781, his mother gave ity oftheir father's land. When Pierre slaves. This estate, like his own, was him control ofher 123 acres and 9 Proa's mother still owed planted in cotton and provisions, and substantial sums for slaves she had purchased.s merchants the south's oldest If cotton was the alternative to indigo among of white men families, coffee was the favored crop mixed-race Alexandre militia captain and indigo planter, husband Pierre Trichet bought the majorfocused on cotton after their sister's married in 1781, his mother gave ity oftheir father's land. When Pierre slaves. This estate, like his own, was him control ofher 123 acres and 9 Proa's mother still owed planted in cotton and provisions, and substantial sums for slaves she had purchased.s merchants the south's oldest If cotton was the alternative to indigo among of white men families, coffee was the favored crop mixed-race --- Page 202 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S In the 1780s, the largest free colored attempting to become planters. with immigrants swept up coffee proprietors were women partnered for example, was a white in the coffee craze. Antoine Bouriquaud, coffee at Nippes. In whose was expanding into production man family coffee-growing partnership 1783 he amicably dissolved a two-year-old brother combined with another white man, and in 1786 his younger this crop. lands with the slaves of fourth white man to grow his slaves but no land. However, since at least Bouriquaud himselfowned known as Popotte, had been 1783 Marie Françoise Elizabeth Gautier, free mulatto family had land they Bouriquaud's housekeeper, and her mother had inherited the could not cultivate. Gautier's widowed have slaves or, perfrom her husband, but did not enough sell it because property expertise, to farm it. She was afraid to haps, agricultural about the title. of an unresolved controversy Gautier's mother transferred ownership In 1785, therefore, Popotte sold half oft the land of her plantation to her daughter, who promptly a formal Bouriquaud. That very day the couple signed to Antoine coffee. Gautier, the former housekeeper, conpartnership to plant and Bouriquaud, eleven. tributed seven slaves to their joint operation the estate and that profThey agreed that Bouriquaud would manage the number of slaves they conits would be apportioned to each contracted by with a free black mason tributed. Within six months they coffee drying platforms, in to build them a house, a cistern, and two father, who was one of their exchange for the freedom ofhis African documents portray the Gautier/Bouriquaud slaves. The surviving a Over the first two as struggling to make profit. coffee partnership covered only 75 percent of estate years (1786-87) their income did help the Gautiers solve expenses. But Bouriquaud's connections Gautier gave Bouriquaud's their land quarrels. In 1787 Popotte and by 1788 the claims nephew power of attorney for these affairs, against her family had been dropped. 62 Mathieu Lanoix, a member In a similar case, on March 21, 1787, to his bedside. He had of a white creole family, summoned a notary blind he could no longer go been sick for several years and was now SO sold his plantabusiness. 63 Before the notary Lanoix about his normal brother-in-law in exchange for an annual tion to his sister and afternoon he sold 112 acres of payment of 5,000 livres. That same to "Cecille known as land "more or less established in coffee" years earlier. Cocoyer," a black woman he had freed from slavery eight had carlier the dying man's brother, Dominique, Three years for 3,300 livres from a free colored planter, purchased the property were growing on it. Since when only a few meager provision crops anoix about his normal brother-in-law in exchange for an annual tion to his sister and afternoon he sold 112 acres of payment of 5,000 livres. That same to "Cecille known as land "more or less established in coffee" years earlier. Cocoyer," a black woman he had freed from slavery eight had carlier the dying man's brother, Dominique, Three years for 3,300 livres from a free colored planter, purchased the property were growing on it. Since when only a few meager provision crops --- Page 203 --- BEFORE HAITI about 3,000 coffee bushes on then, Dominique Lanoix had planted before his dying brother sold the land. He sold it to Mathieu minutes Cecille married a free black it to Cecille. Four months later, from Lanoix shoemaker. The coffee plants and land she had purchased ofthe property she brought to the marriage. for 3,600 livres were part livres, including six the assessed its value at 30,000 She or notary that were now attached to it. 64 slaves and a dozen animals another white man who The white surgeon Guilhamet was the future ofhis free colored believed that coffee profits would secure in the town of Anse à mistress. In 1784 Guilhamet had a dispensary parish of and owned a coffee plantation in the new, adjoining Veau this estate. Contiguous with this cofPlymouth. His cousin managed Clemence, 140-acre that belonged to Genevieve fee land was a parcel for 20 years and who had been Guilhamet's housekeeper an ex-slave children. Three years before was the mother of his seven quarteron to authorize a deed givGuilhamet died, Clemence went to a notary the white man was to build ing him use ofthe property. In exchange, 1,000 coffee bushes, and a lumber and masonry house there, plant the crop. Guilhamet's for sorting and drying install a masonry patio whether he had accomplished this work, testament did not indicate plus 4,200 livres to but he left Clemence 3,000 livres and eight slaves, in the Catholic faith. educate their seven children and instruct them sued she could not sign her name, Clemence 65 successfully Though to get him to pay the bequests." Guilhamet's partner coffee was As these examples show, in this part ofSaint-Domingue, less important than identified mostly with whites and was much In fact, coffee develcotton to the old free colored planting families. niche for rising have eliminated ranching as an economic opment may there were far fewer examples of free people of color. In the 1780s, animal pens than 20 years free people of color operating their own sold for because such land could be more profitably earlier, probably for example, a merchant from Cap coffee cultivation. In 1783, land in the Plymouth region that the Français paid 25,000 livres for free mulatto to establish an government had originally granted a in the Les In 1753, the ratio of livestock to humans animal pen. districts had been much greater than Cayes, Saint Louis, and Nippes the case in 1775 and in other parts ofthe colony. This was no longer Yet colonists censuses in those years. 1782, according to government colored involvement in cattle continued to complain about free 1772 Martin, who held the smuggling over the Spanish border. In complained to official monopoly over meat sold in Port-au-Prince, take the majority that "free blacks and mulattos infallibly the governor livestock to humans animal pen. districts had been much greater than Cayes, Saint Louis, and Nippes the case in 1775 and in other parts ofthe colony. This was no longer Yet colonists censuses in those years. 1782, according to government colored involvement in cattle continued to complain about free 1772 Martin, who held the smuggling over the Spanish border. In complained to official monopoly over meat sold in Port-au-Prince, take the majority that "free blacks and mulattos infallibly the governor --- Page 204 --- POWER OF FREE COLOREDS IN THE1780S destined for [him ] either for their own illegal butcheries ofthe animals profit. >66 or to re-sell to [him] at a considerable in the 1780s there were more free Despite the decline in ranching, or "shoemakers" themselves as "saddlers" men of color identifying working in leather was a respected than ever before. As in the 1760s, but now such men were trade for upwardly mobile men of color, rather than in the countrymostly established in the colonial towns free mulatto saddleThéodore Labierre was a side. For example, who traveled to Anse à Veau to purchase and maker from Petit-Goâve who already owned her own slave marry a mulatto slave woman three slaves and a plot of land from and mare. The couple received The groom's militia officers who attended the contract signing. white them a slave and four silver place settings. free black aunt also gave attractive to foreign artisans, The South may have been especially trade. Pierre Pietre was with the contraband who perhaps immigrated living in Aquin parish, who free black native ofCuraçao, a 25-year-old creole from Guadeloupe, in 1787. married his 30-year-old slave, a shoemaker in the town of Joseph François Bélhoc was a mixed-race showing he was Anse à Veau who presented papers at his marriage in Spain,' 27 perhaps marriage in the town of"Carac born in legitimate mainland. He and his meaning Caracas on the Spanish-American, already had a seventeenfree mulatto woman, bride, a 48-year-old shoemakerin. Anse à Veau, Pierre Jacques, was year-old child. Another who had been baptized in Saint Pierre, a 42-year-old free black man married Marie Jeanne Lintriganse, a Martinique's leading port. He in the town. old free black woman who had a small shop 32-ycar free colored artisans in the South Province The two most prominent Bleck and his colleague Louis were the saddle-makers Hyacinthe Cayes. In the 1780s, both Chalvière, both from the city ofLes François towards elite status. Bleck was a mulatto men were moving steadily been free. His aunt was a black woman who from a family that had long a free black man in 1727. The had been freed from slavery by marrying had purchased land in 1743 couple had never had any children. They and his aunt's land had fallen into but by 1785, Bleck's uncle was dead she was able to sell the propNevertheless, with Bleck's help disrepair. bailiff for the large sum of 45,000 livres, using erty to a white court in town. She entrusted Bleck with part of the money to buy a plot he used the money over 20,000 livres for her, and apparently investing urban land, including a house with five apartto buy and resell more himselfas a "contractori in saddle-making, ments. In 1788 Bleck described work. >7 Yet when he purchased lots he cabinetry, carpentry, and other without construction." divided and sold them at a profit frequently sum of 45,000 livres, using erty to a white court in town. She entrusted Bleck with part of the money to buy a plot he used the money over 20,000 livres for her, and apparently investing urban land, including a house with five apartto buy and resell more himselfas a "contractori in saddle-making, ments. In 1788 Bleck described work. >7 Yet when he purchased lots he cabinetry, carpentry, and other without construction." divided and sold them at a profit frequently --- Page 205 --- BEFORE HAITI Chalvière was a free quarteron who was perhaps the Louis François Antoine Chalvière. Like his friend and son ofthe white planter Joseph Bleck, Chalvière was literate, selffellow saddle-maker Hyacinthe people of color.70 confident, and had been a patron to other, poorer, the 1760s to in the law courts. From early He was also experienced sisters in a legal battle to claim slaves 1786 he led his wife and her winning 21,600 livres to be from their white father's estate, eventually spirit would put three ways.1 In 1790, this same fighting free split and Bleck at the head of Les Cayes' Revolutionary Chalvière colored National Guard. Saint-Domingue was torn in three directions. In the 1780s the colony more African Demographically, the slave trade was making slaves annually in 1788 as than ever before, bringing in twice as many self-consciously In its elite culture, the colony was more in 1764.72 with private and government French than it had ever been, greater and a racial ideology that investment, a new urban cultural life, Yet the colony was also rejected mixed-race families as nonwhite. and social investbecoming more creole in the 1780s. The economic families had made over island-born ments that Saint-Domingue's generations had begun to pay dividends. Province, where isolation true in the South This was especially late colonization had delayed from European shipping and relatively Plugged into contraband development but reinforced creole society. the South's old trade networks as well as official French commerce, of the War of American families did not just survive the blockades they profited from them. With a long-term perspective Independence, benefited when colonists returned to France on the economy, they or running out of patience. They after building successful plantations have profited from the coffee rebuilt abandoned estates and may whites to make a fortune boom ofthe 1770s by selling land to the cager older mixed-race famin this new crop. But for their own account, could sell illegally to ilies stayed with indigo and cotton, crops they suppliers of Britain's nascent textile industry. free of color in the families were not the only people These wealthy growth of the 1780s. South Province to profit from the economic artisans too grew more visible and more prosperous. Free colored this increasing wealth with the Their challenge was how to reconcile mounting scorn of Saint-Domingue's whites. ofthe 1770s by selling land to the cager older mixed-race famin this new crop. But for their own account, could sell illegally to ilies stayed with indigo and cotton, crops they suppliers of Britain's nascent textile industry. free of color in the families were not the only people These wealthy growth of the 1780s. South Province to profit from the economic artisans too grew more visible and more prosperous. Free colored this increasing wealth with the Their challenge was how to reconcile mounting scorn of Saint-Domingue's whites. --- Page 206 --- CHAPTER 7 XX PROVING FREE COLORED VIRTUE I February 1771, Philippe Fossé known "Goodfellow," returned home to as Bonhomme, or legitimately born quarteron, Fossé Aquin on military leave. A free, sturdy, responsible man royal appears to have been the kind of best defense officers believed was against a British attack. His Saint-Domingue's enough that in 1769 a white widow had reputation in Aquin was solid ofcolor to guard her hired him and another man goddaughter from a girl ran off with her persistent suitor. When the colleague pursued the white paramour during the night, Fossé and his further. Sometime after this couple to the plantation gate, but no incident, military and moved away, "Goodfellow" Fossé joined the Butin 1771 he probably to Cap Français. was home, visiting his rented in the town of motherin the apartment she Swiss locksmith named Aquin. Pierre One afternoon while Fossé was out, a Raimond later wrote that Langlade came to the house. Julien caught him Langlade was angry because Fossé cheating at cards. The locksmith had mother, who cried out for her son. When began to curse Fossé's tioned himself at her doorway, the soldier returned and staThe two men shouted Langlade retreated across the street. at him, Fossé lost his angry insults, but after Langlade threw a rock ground, temper. He wrestled the locksmith scratching him and tearing his shirt. to the ing to a one witness, a free colored Neighbors and, accordpulled them apart.2 policeman named "Raymond," Langlade, the white man, charged Fossé with later the local court sentenced the assault. Two months branded in the town quarteron soldier to be flogged and square. The government property and he would serve an would confiscate his unspecified period as a royal galley , but after Langlade threw a rock ground, temper. He wrestled the locksmith scratching him and tearing his shirt. to the ing to a one witness, a free colored Neighbors and, accordpulled them apart.2 policeman named "Raymond," Langlade, the white man, charged Fossé with later the local court sentenced the assault. Two months branded in the town quarteron soldier to be flogged and square. The government property and he would serve an would confiscate his unspecified period as a royal galley --- Page 207 --- BEFORE HAITI racial ideology motivated this harsh senslave. Saint-Domingue's new en absentia. The free but SO did the fact that Fossé was judged tence, what he had done, he later admitman of color was SO frightened by in Cap Français, at the other end ted, that he fled back to his company of the colony. heavily on his mind. Eight years Nevertheless the affair weighed leave of absence to resolve later, in 1779, Fossé's officers gave him a for citing his He the colonial courts clemency, the matter. petitioned in the royal army, the good local reputation, his service as corporal and the his mother insulted in his own house, provocation of having had thrown at him. stone Langlade Swiss locksmith died in 1775, in June Despite the fact that the in Versailles was still consider1787 the Royal Council of Dispatches pardon. It was eventually recommending a royal ing Fossé's case, connections that Fossé was able to perhaps because of his military that colonial judges push his case SO far. But there was no evidence time with honor in the considered his claim to have "served a long no behaved well there." > His dossier contained royal troop and always of Aquin testified at his trial letters from officers; the militia captain throw the stone. A white only to report that he had seen Langlade had broken up the fight. baker reported that a free colored policeman 7 though Julien from this "Raymond," There was no testimony or 1785 letter to the Raimond mentioned the incident in a 1784 colonial ministry.3 difficult in which SaintFossé's case illustrates the themselves position after 1769. Up to Domingue's free people ofcolor found to the new racial climate. the early 1780s, they did their best to adjust rhetoric of sacrificial Responding to new laws and the government's and soldiers. Men ofcolor virtue, they served the colony as constables create as used these institutions to newidentities living close to slavery that freeborn men like Fossé acquired no freedmen. But it appears free colored planters in Aquin prestige from their uniforms. In fact, considered themselves and Torbec, who owned slaves and already when frustrated by these obligations French colonists, were especially that virtue motivated their military whites refused to acknowledge service. petits blancs like Langlois, For whites, on the other hand, especially an element of a postnew color line was not simply Saint- Domingue's and advocates of between the military government 1769 compromise their identity. "White purity" freed civilian rule: it became central to militia duties and united immicolonists from the most unpleasant shared biological and moral with island-born men through a grants and already when frustrated by these obligations French colonists, were especially that virtue motivated their military whites refused to acknowledge service. petits blancs like Langlois, For whites, on the other hand, especially an element of a postnew color line was not simply Saint- Domingue's and advocates of between the military government 1769 compromise their identity. "White purity" freed civilian rule: it became central to militia duties and united immicolonists from the most unpleasant shared biological and moral with island-born men through a grants --- Page 208 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING the 1770s and 1780s, new arrivals and island-born superiority. In their whiteness an integral part oftheir families alike came to consider civil and social position in the colony. new racial climate This chapter examines how Saint-Domingue's of the freedom and collective civic status Saint-Domingue's affected of color found new routes to legal freefree people of color. People as the colonial state dom, through marriage and armed service, In 1779 hundreds traditional manumissions. attempted to discourage to help North in a French expedition offree men ofcolor participated Evidence of whites' scorn for these free Americans fight the British. driven men of color to colored volunteers appears to have wealthy directly to Versailles strategy in 1782, appealing adopt a new political Raimond's letters to the colonial ministry in for racial reforms. Julien of colonial liberal arguments. At the mid-1780s illustrate his cooption hoping to recognize and Moreau de Saint-Méry, the same time, was publicly labeled an reward free colored virtue in Saint-Domingue, On the for proposing to honor a free black philanthropist. abolitionist Moreau's actions challenged the white eve ofthe French Revolution, fact. he himselfdescribed as a biological civic ideology * racial reforms was that One aspect of Saint-Domingue's post-1769 manumissions. Individual royal administrators claimed control over But new continued to free slaves formally and informally. colonists of color to prove their freedom in regulations requiring free people made it far more difficult to flout the any public deed or document reflected the agreement of law. The new manumission regulations the size ofthe free colored populaadministrative and legal elites that active women, was particularly the freedom of SO many sexually the tion, In 1775, the administration increased a sign of moral corruption. livres for a male slave and 2,000 800 livres manumission tax to 1,000 went into a special account livres for a woman under 40. These sums to avoid the slightest "to be used for different objects of public utility, >4 If masters insisted on suspicion that such funds are being diverted. by their ties to slaves threatening the colony's French "community" they would pay to reinforce Saint-Domingue's and free coloreds, fountains, and promenades. nascent public space with new buildings, later charged that the new Critics of the colonial administration colored the growth of the free population. liberty tax accelerated July 1781, 387 deeds of manumission From August 1780 through livres into the fund. In September freed 527 persons and put 630,470 on suspicion that such funds are being diverted. by their ties to slaves threatening the colony's French "community" they would pay to reinforce Saint-Domingue's and free coloreds, fountains, and promenades. nascent public space with new buildings, later charged that the new Critics of the colonial administration colored the growth of the free population. liberty tax accelerated July 1781, 387 deeds of manumission From August 1780 through livres into the fund. In September freed 527 persons and put 630,470 --- Page 209 --- BEFORE HAITI admitted it had intended to cancel 1780 the royal administration but did not due to its "pressing need of these pending freedoms the of ratifying money." 29 Moreau de Saint-Méry accused 1780 government and 1789 to get the thousand liberties between seven or cight and intendant established a new tax revenues. In 1787 the governor financed in large part by manumission poorhouse in Port-au-Prince, Naval in Versailles recomtaxes. In July 1789, when the Ministry Saint-Domingue's curtail manumissions, mended that administrators citing revenue as a major and intendant wrote back, again governor liberties.5 reason to continue granting troubled the provincial In the South Province, this phenomenon manumiscommander in 1781. <Indiscreet and endlessly multiplied than most serious he believed, greater sion' 2 was the region's problem, with Cap Français the lack oftrade, or the difficulty of communicating of color commit crimes, Port-au-Prince. Not only did free people and of manumission was the way it he said, but the most damaging aspect workers off the land diminished the slave population. "We are taking workers." 29 Even rightly, that we don't have enough and complaining, manumission was too common and too inexpensive. with the new taxes, slaves "for very modest sums. >6 Masters sometimes freed notarial archives tell a different story. The South Province's in the 1780s as they had Manumissions were only half as frequent taxes did discourage that the new been in the 1760s, suggesting free colored manumittors equally. freedoms, affecting whites and of notarial activity (236 of Manumissions declined from 5 percent (63 of a sample of in the 1760s to about 2 percent 4882 contracts) in the 1780s in the same three districts. strat2,654) and families did find an alternative legal Some slaves, masters, much ofthe Code Colonists and administrators had long ignored would egy. its Article 59, which promised that ex-slaves Noir, including Yet the 1685 statute was still enjoy the full rights of French subjects. that that marriage the letter ofthe law. Article 9 ofthe code stipulated slave. freed that Throughout between a master and slave automatically married their slaves, manuthe 1780s, therefore, free colored masters Some whites who did not mitting them while avoiding the liberty tax. of color or sold him want to pay the tax gave a slave to a free person marriage. the condition of an emancipating cheaply, on explicit from the three parishes just east of Aquin show Church documents remarkably in this marriages involving slaves expanded that religious nothing early in the century to 24 period. They grew from nearly in the 1770s and then to 42 percent percent off free colored marriages of Les Cayes, Nippes, and in the 1780s. The notarial registers while avoiding the liberty tax. of color or sold him want to pay the tax gave a slave to a free person marriage. the condition of an emancipating cheaply, on explicit from the three parishes just east of Aquin show Church documents remarkably in this marriages involving slaves expanded that religious nothing early in the century to 24 period. They grew from nearly in the 1770s and then to 42 percent percent off free colored marriages of Les Cayes, Nippes, and in the 1780s. The notarial registers --- Page 210 --- PROVING FREE COLORED VIRTUE Saint Louis in the 1760s and 1780s confirm riage contracts involving at least one the pattern. Of45 marone included a spouse who person ofcolor in the 1760s, only free colored marriage was in slavery; in the 1780s, 24 of the 65 slave. Dominique Rogers contracts included at least one spouse who was a kinds ofmarriages found a similarly high percentage of among free coloreds in these This new manumission mechanism Port-au-Prince in the 1780s.? Méry noted that after 1780, was no secret. Moreau de Saintof color became marriages between slaves and free more common than ever beforc. people documents explicitly invoked the Code Noir Notarized marriage was a slave. When Mathieu when one ofthe spouses Cayes who had been manumitted Thramu, a free creole black from Les two years later, their in 1778, married his slave Jacquette "instructed that by article nuptial contract stated that Thramu had been Noir, he can free the said nine ofthe edict of March 1685, the Code marriage in the forms observed Jacquette his slave by uniting with her in Article Nine by the church. >8 well, brought freedom to a married ifno one else owned them. Jean Louis couple's children as freed in 1778. About that time he had Frontin was a black man Marie Agnes, a black the first of six children with 1785 Frontin, woman enslaved on the Picault "through a long and difficult >> plantation. In Agnes and four oftheir children and effort," purchased Marie as his motivation. While married her, citing Article colored/slave men were usually the owners in these Nine free marriages, women also freed was a black woman manumitted in men this way. Marie Aya tailor the unusually high 1781. In 1784 she paid a white price of 6,600 livres for Neptune, a 42-year-old African (Ibo) Jean François the following and a tailor himself. year, using Article Nine to They wed and that oft their four children, claim Neptune's freedom The successful and aged two through twelve.9 well-connected white man who oversaw more than planter Jean-E Baptiste Gérard, a managed and owned in the Les 2,000 slaves on the estates he marriages possible in the 1780s. 10 Cayes In plain, made at least three such Jean-Baptiste called 1781 one of Gérard's César, a 55-year-old ex-slaves, who worked caulking boats, African of the Arada nation a 35-year-old married Marie Thérèse known as Senegalese woman. Besides the Lisette, person of color attended the marriage celebrants, not a single because of Gérard's contract signing. But, probably wife were patronage, five white merchants and a present to give "advice and counsel. 9 planter's Lisette just in time for their fourth César had purchased However the child to be born in couple's three previous freedom. was 11, remained enslaved to Lisette's children, the oldest of whom former master.' 11 Senegalese woman. Besides the Lisette, person of color attended the marriage celebrants, not a single because of Gérard's contract signing. But, probably wife were patronage, five white merchants and a present to give "advice and counsel. 9 planter's Lisette just in time for their fourth César had purchased However the child to be born in couple's three previous freedom. was 11, remained enslaved to Lisette's children, the oldest of whom former master.' 11 --- Page 211 --- BEFORE HAITI his 42-year-old African slave Flore In 1782 Gérard, in effect, gave to identify himself to a Alexis, one of the rare persons to François the free black militia of Les Cayes.' 12 Alexis, notary as a member of acres of land, two slaves, and five whose property included seven the means to buy Flore horses, told the notary that he had "acquired Flore's purchase price long and difficult labor," and he paid through contract, however, Gérard returned to Gérard in coin. In the marriage the condition that the couple marry the money to Alexis as a gift, on been a lenient master to Flore, for in the church. Gérard seems to have slave woman his ex- slave had 2,000 livres in savings and a 30-year-old whom she purchased with Gérard's permission. another marriagethat Gérard was involved in yet Later year, mulatto woman manumission. This time, he sold an 18-year-old in another Marie Claire, whom he had received as a bequest named Marie Claire's new owner was Michel Bertrand, colonist's testament. mulatto son of a white barrel maker.13 the 32-year-old freeborn and shared with his sister the Bertrand, who owned a fishing canoe to purchase Marie rental income from 15 slaves, had saved money price "to returned the 1,200 livres purchase Claire, but Gérard again the condition that they marry in help and favor" the couple, on church. also involved in these marriageFree colored patrons were Pierre called Virgile" had been manumissions. The black man "Jean 1755 and lived in Aquin's Grand Colline neighborhood, free since S wealthiest free families ofcolor. near some ofthe southern peninsula's Ursule from the free colored planter In 1782 he purchased Marie livres and married her later that Louis-François Boisrond for 1,800 and several other wealthy attended by Boisrond year in a ceremony and whites. Jean-Baptiste Rémarais, a Aquin free people of color named executor in the 1772 literate free mulatto from Les Cayes, was Déjéac's testament testament of Anne Déjéac, a free black woman. and provide her Remarais to free the Kongo slave Agathe instructed Remarais had not yet accomplished this, SO with a pension. By 1779 black man known as Affiba, to buy he arranged for Augustin, a free livres and then marry her. The Agathe from the estate for 1,000 returned to the couple as Agathe's dowry.14 purchase price was Lavoille Bossé, a 25-year-old free mulatto, In 1787, Jean Joseph Bossé had three illegitrealized that his entire family was in jeopardy. slave woman, and no imate children with Marie Rose, a mulatto been born record of his own liberty. He claimed to have authentic ofhis parents" his baptism was not free, but "due to the negligence Not of legal majority, Bossé recorded in the parish register. yet 1,000 returned to the couple as Agathe's dowry.14 purchase price was Lavoille Bossé, a 25-year-old free mulatto, In 1787, Jean Joseph Bossé had three illegitrealized that his entire family was in jeopardy. slave woman, and no imate children with Marie Rose, a mulatto been born record of his own liberty. He claimed to have authentic ofhis parents" his baptism was not free, but "due to the negligence Not of legal majority, Bossé recorded in the parish register. yet --- Page 212 --- PROVING FREE COLORED VIRTUE a for him, and a group petitioned the local court to appoint guardian district nominated white planters and merchants in the Nippes ofseven contract with Marie Rose, followed by one. He then signed a marriage witnessed the contract, ceremony. Four white planters a religious ofthe marriage, according to the attesting to his freedom. The object of the three children. By document, was to establish the legitimacy also automatically freed the terms of the Code Noir, the marriage Marie Rosc, though this was not mentioned.15 in the slave code. In 1790 the Some whites criticized this loophole Province urged a reduction of residents of Gonaive parish in the West between masmanumission taxes to end the "monstrous marriages" that whites married and slaves. Moreau de Saint -Méry claimed ters and reported that in the South slaves in a "well-paid connivance," rumored to have married several slave Province some white men were liberation in succession. He claimed that the simultaneous women the free colored population conof these couples' children expanded did nothing to outlaw this siderably:l6 Yet the colonial government practice. administrators were willing to increase the free In fact, colonial this occurred in ways that made population of color, as long as Members of the Naval Ministry's colonial society more manageable. the ofslave marriages colonial reform committee discussed desirability against laws that would replace racial prejudice and even considered Because free colored sexual ofcolor born outside of marriage. persons threatened the colonial public, immorality was what supposedly married free people of color were administrators reasoned that more acceptable. in 1775 like the increased manuA second new liberty law, passed increase the free colored confirmed this willingness to mission tax, the colony. The law allowed approved population, ifit strengthened by serving ten years in the men to earn their freedom papers reduced the requirement to maréchausée. In 1789 the government ministers and military Since the Seven Years' War royal six years," civic virtue extolled reformers had been advocating the self-sacrificial who joined the writers. The ex-slaves by classical and Renaissance their freedom by after 1775 could be said to be carning constabulary ofa classical citizen-soldier: the willingness demonstrating the qualities to sacrifice their lives for the polity. slaves, the mechanism to approved By limiting this manumission so-called libres de savane or new law allowed administrators to target but did not have proper defacto freedmen, who lived outside slavery whose masters either documentation. In other words, these were men who joined the writers. The ex-slaves by classical and Renaissance their freedom by after 1775 could be said to be carning constabulary ofa classical citizen-soldier: the willingness demonstrating the qualities to sacrifice their lives for the polity. slaves, the mechanism to approved By limiting this manumission so-called libres de savane or new law allowed administrators to target but did not have proper defacto freedmen, who lived outside slavery whose masters either documentation. In other words, these were men --- Page 213 --- BEFORE HAITI control them or who would not pay the manumission tax. could not these men under formal control. Maréchaussée duty would bring it. Rather than weakening slave society, it strengthened such man of color affidavit made in December 1781 by one An he was proving his loyillustrates his understanding that as a constable Picau worked as the white and the slave system. François alty to public of a white planter's widow in Nippes; a bookkeeper on the plantation who claimed to be free, but his manumission he was a light- skinned man papers had never been properly registered. inhabitants of the Barradaires region In mid-December 1781 the "Sim called Dompête, 99 of Nippes were searching for the maroon the Les Cayes area and was slave who had escaped from a creole animals in the arca around Nippes. His reported to be poisoning that this <Sim" was no ordinary identification as *Dompète" suggests of African spirituality or Dom Pèdro was a form slave. Dompète slaves, the largest African ethnic group strongly identified with Kongo first been identified in the 1760s in the southern peninsula. It had face of the southern peninsula. near Léogane, on the northern array of supernatuBelievers credited the Petro rite with a formidable In 1814 Drouin de and this is still the case in Haiti,20 ral powers, "the most of all the black Bercy identified the Petro cult as dangerous and they its members are thieves, liars, and hypocrites societies - : livestock and poultry. It is they who disoffer evil advice that destroys that kills whites and other blacks tribute that slow and subtle poison that them. 22 Michel Descourtilz reported who have displeased the to uncover with his eyes all <Dompéte [sic], it is said, has power obstacle, at no matter what that happens, in spite of any material have access to magic to inflict distance . . The members ofthis sect >21 their vengeance." maréchaussée commander ofthe Nippes district In 1781 the former had already searched for *Dompète" and several free people of color and the free mulatto Joseph with no success. But François Picau "sceing the imporAubert mounted their own private expedition, of the citizen. 2> With for the welfare and for the security tance public came from slave-informants, the clues about Dompète that probably Dézert" about 7 p.m. the woods known as the "grand two entered at dawn on an abandoned They traveled through the night, stopping plantation." 22 would pass this way, Picau and Aubert spent Warned that Dompète As Picau told the story, after sunset the the day hidden in the woods. brilliant moon. At 11 p.m. he the road under a two men patrolled dressed in white. As the figure drew spied someone approaching, , the clues about Dompète that probably Dézert" about 7 p.m. the woods known as the "grand two entered at dawn on an abandoned They traveled through the night, stopping plantation." 22 would pass this way, Picau and Aubert spent Warned that Dompète As Picau told the story, after sunset the the day hidden in the woods. brilliant moon. At 11 p.m. he the road under a two men patrolled dressed in white. As the figure drew spied someone approaching, --- Page 214 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING man he did not know, carrying a saber closer he saw that it was a black sack called a macoute slung and a white hat under his left arm, with a who are you [ [vous" his shoulder. Picau called out, "Who are you, over Sim?" Without responding the stranger and then "is it you [zz] sword and attacked the constable, stepped back a few feet, drew his who defended himself with his machete. "One more time, is it you, Sim? As the two fought Picau called out, ifyou don'ttake yourself up or I will have your head, Believe me, give and with his free mine." 29 But his opponent refused to answer groped that this hand for the bag that swung from his shoulder. Fearing who could not contained a pistol, Picau instructed Aubert, macoute of the closeness of the trees, to shoot "this join the fight because death to life." When Aubert's courageous nègre Sim, who prefers own pistols and dismusket failed, Picau managed to draw one ofhis doubled Sim's ferocits double shot at Sim. This wound only charge his macoute. Picau fired his remaining ity and his efforts to open but not the courage ofthe said pistol, which *weakened the strength ofa brave combat that Sim" who fell dead to the ground, "the reward and took least three hours. >2 The two men cut off Sim's head lasted at his sword and bag. these objects to the Back in the town of Anse à Veau they presented detailed statement to this royal attorney. Picau added a long, acting be read as a declaration ofidentity, official evidence. His narrative may established its author and central a public document that unequivocally his actions not as an character as a member of free society. Representing his concern for ofhis work as constable, but as motivated by extension 29 Picau identified himself as a member of the "security of the citizen,' were not yet formalized. free society, although his manumission papers battle with a ghostly Picau's dramatic description of his moonlit sword and the pistol whose weapons included not only his adversary, but the power of the charms that the macoute concealed in his bag, his rejection of the might be interpreted as public also contained, such power to carefully saved bits of Afro-creole culture that assigned No matter how Picau came to posbone, black seeds, and red cloth. desk in Anse à Veau, his the bloody head he laid on the attorney's sess that for the constable, power and authority were affidavit spelled out artifacts he spread before the official, vested not in the Afro-creole would seal his statement and someday but in the royal stamp that authenticate his manumission papers. constabulary service was an The ability to earn freedom through who were mostly of mixed attractive one for quasi-free men like Picau, have been the case in the rather than free blacks as appears to ancestry, red cloth. desk in Anse à Veau, his the bloody head he laid on the attorney's sess that for the constable, power and authority were affidavit spelled out artifacts he spread before the official, vested not in the Afro-creole would seal his statement and someday but in the royal stamp that authenticate his manumission papers. constabulary service was an The ability to earn freedom through who were mostly of mixed attractive one for quasi-free men like Picau, have been the case in the rather than free blacks as appears to ancestry, --- Page 215 --- BEFORE HAITI notarial contracts from North Province.? 23 In a sample of over 2,000 members of the of color identified themselves as the 1780s, ten men of them were free blacks. Whites commaréchausée, and only two but men ofcolor served both manded the local constabulary brigades, and at the higher rank of as cavaliers, or mounted patrolmen, Province they were not especially brigadier. However in the South records. The most valuactive in the economy, according to notarial was the sale of a able transaction in which any of them participated which two free mulatto large hillside provision farm for 10,000 livres, their free mulatto mother brothers in the maréchaussée inherited from to split with a third free mulatto.24 and were going in the North Province could Stewart King suggests that constables landowners. As part of the "military earn a decent living and become free coloreds, maréchaussée leadership class" he identifies among offibrigadiers "were some of the most powerful non-commisioned the daily lives military because oftheir power over cers in the colonial of the 1760s and 1780s, of all free coloreds. >2 The notarial archives do not provide much including hundreds of criminal complaints, Constables like Pierrot Lafleur evidence of this South Province.25 but Picau asserted their own respectability, (chapter 3) or François did not. Perhaps constables' their free colored and white neighbors for their relatively low economic social authority did not compensate was SO much more important status in this region, where commerce Pierre Prince, a free than military honor. The economic status ofJean the theater in Les Cayes, black brigadier who rented a room behind constables there who left of the handful of free colored was typical his landlord for more than 1,000 livres notarial records. In debt to Prince agreed in 1781 to representing three years of unpaid rent, several weeks later he that amount. However, make repairs equaling house for 600 livres and may have purchased a city plot with a decrepit moved there. 26 reform reinforced the freedom of While the 1775 maréchaussée this new form of manumission may men who were technically slaves, freeborn men who had to serve with have diminished the status ofthe men of ex-slaves. In fact, the reluctance of Saint-Domingue's these acknowledged. Ever color to serve in the constabulary was widely officers could supplement since the 1769 militia reform, constabulary militiamen, as needed. In July the maréchausée with free colored Province advised a parish mili1779 the administrators ofthe North his was required to to arrest the six men parish tia commandant maréchausste. "It is not likely that you will mandeliver to the district order, given the distaste they age to make them show up by a simple omingue's these acknowledged. Ever color to serve in the constabulary was widely officers could supplement since the 1769 militia reform, constabulary militiamen, as needed. In July the maréchausée with free colored Province advised a parish mili1779 the administrators ofthe North his was required to to arrest the six men parish tia commandant maréchausste. "It is not likely that you will mandeliver to the district order, given the distaste they age to make them show up by a simple --- Page 216 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING >) In 1786, militiamen at Port-de-Paix in have for service in this troop. the claiming that the North Province refused to serve in constabulary, offidivision of duties was not fair. When their noncommissioned the other citizen-soldiers also demanded imprisoncers were jailed, the them all. Port-de-I Paix was a though local cells could not hold ment, ofcolor there constituted only 22 percent special case, for free people ofits militia. In ofthe parish's free population yet made and up Anse percent à Veau, free coloreds South Province parishes like Les Cayes but only by 5 or 10 perin the militia, also served disproportionatcly In Anse à than their weight in the general population. cent more numbers indicate that Veau, for example, Moreau de Saint-Méry's ofthe free population and free people of color composed 35 percent 43 percent ofthe militia.27 Saint Louis, and Cavaillon, where But even in parishes like Aquin, about half ofthe free populafree people of color in 1788 composed of color bitterly tion and about half of the militia, men complained Raimond cited the about the extra duties they bore. In 1786 Julien abuse, because demands of royal service as an example ofracial heavy of time away men of color were forced to spend long periods only and fields. Although he owned 100 slaves, from their families, shops, Raimond was merely a sermore than many of his white neighbors, occasion he was ordered to geant in the Aquin militia. On at least one who had not reported for arrest a handful of free colored neighbors guard duty:2s in 1779 many ofthese men may have still Despite such frustrations, their civic and social status. hoped that military service would improve now an admiral, returned In the spring of that year Charles d'Estaing, governearly 15 years after leaving as a controversial to Cap Français the North American colonies' war against nor. France had just joined had the island of the British, and the admiral's fleet recaptured d'Estaing back to the notables who welcomed Grenada. Among Vincent Olivier, a free black man said Saint-l Domingue in 1779 was was a old. Olivier, known widely as Captain Vincent, to be 119 years military valor. He had been a slave but living symbol of free colored Returning from had earned his freedom in a 1697 raid on Cartagena. where he was battle he had been captured and taken to Europe, the to Louis XIV at court and had ransomed. He was formally presented before returning to Saintserved with the French army in Germany of the free Domingue. In 1716 he was appointed captain-general sword given him by the colored militia in Cap Français; he wore a 1776 had been awarded king, was seen at the governor's table, and in after d'Estaing's visit, official When he died the year an pension. a 1697 raid on Cartagena. where he was battle he had been captured and taken to Europe, the to Louis XIV at court and had ransomed. He was formally presented before returning to Saintserved with the French army in Germany of the free Domingue. In 1716 he was appointed captain-general sword given him by the colored militia in Cap Français; he wore a 1776 had been awarded king, was seen at the governor's table, and in after d'Estaing's visit, official When he died the year an pension. --- Page 217 --- BEFORE HAITI buried with full military honors, and the colonial Captain Vincent was for the colony: *This brave broadsheet declared him an example those who need it that a truly great Negre will serve as new proof for is visible to all men and can soul, no matter what shell it inhabits, [to society] - >29 silence even those prejudices that seem necessary other men of color that Captain Vincent's fame may have convinced Five months after the old military service could thwart racial prejudice. elite, d'Estaing and the admiral embraced before the colonial soldier force that now included set sail from the colony with an expeditionary Captain Vincent's sons. 545 free blacks and men of color, including black veteran spent much of According to Moreau de Saint-Méry, the glories to the men of his death recalling his past "the year preceding enrolled for the expedition. >30 color who were being of color into d'Estaing's approachIn March 1779, to enroll men reformed the Chasseurs colonial administrators and ing expedition, colored unit established in 1762. Patriotism Volontaires, the free of previous tenure in civic spirit had been the themes d'Estaing's ships drew near, Saint-Domingue and, in April 1779, as the admiral's exhorted the public in similar terms: the colonial press what Frenchman does not experience a reawakening of At this moment the enemies ofthe State? We have his courage and ardor to fight against the enthusiasm shown daily [by the here a very good example ofthis created.. in last March : to awaken the men who]join the Volontaires of Citizens of every sort [espèce]. Good zeal and the good will much to show their Frenchmen, surely, will not need encouragement in the different regions ofthe natural valor . : Thus one sees each day themselves for service. Colony the most promising young men formed present and all yearn to begin the Entire companies have already been approaching campaign. 31 ofevery sort" and "good Frenchmen, 99 following This call to "citizens Vincent, may have drawn free d'Estaing'spublic reunion with Captain de the white the table. LeNoir Rouvray, men of color to recruiting Chasseurs, extolled the zeal commanding officer of the reformed without recruiting shown by his volunteers, who had joined trumpeted the patribonuses.2 One ofd'Estaing's protégés, Rouvray considered the colony a otic virtues of free colored soldiers. Whites far more attached to home, but "the people of color are are temporary the whites are; ties ofblood and filial obedience their families than them than among the whites. 99 For such much more respected among all "humiliating and degrading men to reach their potential in service, must be removed. distinctions" separating them from other troops without recruiting shown by his volunteers, who had joined trumpeted the patribonuses.2 One ofd'Estaing's protégés, Rouvray considered the colony a otic virtues of free colored soldiers. Whites far more attached to home, but "the people of color are are temporary the whites are; ties ofblood and filial obedience their families than them than among the whites. 99 For such much more respected among all "humiliating and degrading men to reach their potential in service, must be removed. distinctions" separating them from other troops --- Page 218 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING that officers not describe them as "slaves" It was paramount, he claimed, colonists used to describe royal soldiers. of the state, a term that some that the prestige of military service Rouvray, like d'Estaing, predicted racial The allow free men of color to reject stereotypes. would ultimately to be able to say to themselves, commander wanted his Volontaires whites blush for the scorn they have heaped on me in I must make the and tyrannies they have continually my civil status and for the injustices to them that as a soldier exercised over me with impunity. I must prove and of even more of at least as much honor and courage I am capable loyalhya As of color perceived the call to arms differently. Yet many free men white officers commanded in the reformed militia and constabulary, been leaders in an earlier service, the Chasseurs. For those who had against them. reminder ofthe prejudices the Chasseurs were a potent himself remembered that Rouvray On the eve ofthe Revolution, Chasseurs Royaux [sic] of Saint- Domingue were being When the a mulatto came to Mr de Rouvray formed for the Savannah campaign, mulatto sons to volunteer them for bringing with him two ofhis young remarked that he should at least this expedition. When the Colonel both could be killed [at Savannah], keep one of them [at home] since 'what better can a "Eh Monsieur," 99 [the father] tearfully replied, mulatto do with his life than get himseifkilledt"s of color may have joined the Chasseurs Volontaires These free men the oflocal patrons. White less out of patriotism than from pressure six of the ten officers of free colored militia units commanded the greatest Volontaires companies. These units enjoyed Chasseurs Charles for examsuccess. The white man Dupetithouars, his recruiting and was captain of ple, had married into an elite planting family the formation of the mulatto militia. 35 The day after under his parish's 32 mulattos had already enlisted Chasseurs Volontaires, acknowledged that Jacques Mesnier, a proscommand. The intendant of the free colored militia of Cap perous merchant and captain for his company, buying arms Français, spent large sums recruiting themselves. When for those who could not equip and equipment tried to resign his commission during Mesnier, who was over 60, persuaded him to remain for the expedition, the governor them that preparation "would have all deserted ifhe had not assured since his men 29 Even sO, more than 100 mulattos led by he would march with them. before colonial officials to request one of Mesnier's aides appeared that they be allowed to return to their homes.36 his company, buying arms Français, spent large sums recruiting themselves. When for those who could not equip and equipment tried to resign his commission during Mesnier, who was over 60, persuaded him to remain for the expedition, the governor them that preparation "would have all deserted ifhe had not assured since his men 29 Even sO, more than 100 mulattos led by he would march with them. before colonial officials to request one of Mesnier's aides appeared that they be allowed to return to their homes.36 --- Page 219 --- BEFORE HAITI royal administrators had to complement As this incident suggests, official spur. After the formation the tug oflocal patronage with a sharp dissolved several Volontaires in 1779, the governor of the Chasseurs and ordered their members to free colored militias near Cap Français week. All who diswithin the quadroons enlist in the new company into mulatto companies. obeyed these instructions were demoted to muster with mulattos, in turn, were condemned Uncooperative Two weeks later all those who had not yet presented free black units. to serve three months in themselves to the Chasseurs were sentenced avoid this unpopular assignthough they could still the constabulary for d'Estaing's expedition. ment by "volunteering" or government bullyWhether motivated by civic spirit, patronage, during March and 941 free men of color arrived in Cap Français as ing, Volontaires, with sometimes many April 1779 to join the Chasseurs in a single day. ten and fifteen enlisting in a given company as of these recruits had deserted by August 11, the Although 20 percent to its white counterpart, the free colored force was far superior made up the Grenadiers, Volunteer Grenadiers. Only four companies free mulatto and black compared to ten for the Chasseurs. While by the eve ofthe camcompanies had enrolled 70 to 80 soldiers apiece numbered only 43 men. paign, the largest of the four white units deserted over More than half the recruits in one Grenadier company sail with d'Estaing While 545 free colored Chasseurs set the summer. Volunteer Grenadiers were part of the in August, only 156 white prejudice against them, the expedition." 38 Despite the growing have felt that they had proven colony's free men ofcolor in 1779 may of all colonial claims that they were the most patriotic d'Estaing's Frenchmen. dramatically in the late In France the image ofthe soldier improved but also in part because of better discipline, eighteenth century, rhetoric and social utility of soldiers. because of the new patriotic officers published their social A number of reform-minded veteran regarded as philosoand moral reflections and some were practically image of had a different phers. 39 However, white Saint-Dominguans by rejecting d'Estaing their own civic role, as they had demonstrated glory, and in 1779 in 1765. Few white colonists dreamed ofSpartan consistent with their libwhite colonists chose a form of self-sacrifice to Savannah, ofvirtue. Ratherthan enlist in the expedition eral notion to buy a new ship of the line for elite whites began collecting money the royal navy. had been by Choiseul's publicists This was an idea that pioneered War. In the early 1760s, in an in France during the Seven Years' ing their own civic role, as they had demonstrated glory, and in 1779 in 1765. Few white colonists dreamed ofSpartan consistent with their libwhite colonists chose a form of self-sacrifice to Savannah, ofvirtue. Ratherthan enlist in the expedition eral notion to buy a new ship of the line for elite whites began collecting money the royal navy. had been by Choiseul's publicists This was an idea that pioneered War. In the early 1760s, in an in France during the Seven Years' --- Page 220 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING enthusiasm for the war and to replenish the attempt to stir up public had coordinated a subscription royal navy, the naval secretary in the provincial press, the campaign in France. Heavily supported million livres to buy sixteen warcampaign eventually raised thirteen the and were named The vessels were considered gifts to king ships. them. 40 for the regions that sponsored the naval secretary During the War of American Independence, The again to increase the size ofFrance's navy.1 Castries was pushing and Cap Français approved Agricultural Chambers of Port-au-Prince américaines extolled it, drive and the Affiches the colonial subscription expedition. For free men of color to join d'Estaing's even as it urged donations illustrated the superiority of the broadsheet, such patriotic ideals d'Estaing conliberal virtue to the classical Saint-I Domingue's what are those superb cities of stantly invoked. *Compared to us, for their great feats and whose citizens have been SO praised antiquity, that the ancients had been <harsh" worthy souls?" The answer was men of color to "severe.' >9 While Captain Vincent was urging and the announced: enroll in d'Estaing's S expedition, Affiches surely one will never again scc a ferocious To the honor of humanity, to his death with a dry eye, without and barbarian mother send her son and believe she owes this horemotion, see him again palc and bleeding These awful traits, SO long admired rible sacrifice to the fatherland : and sensitive are unnatural and make any respectable by our fathers, soul tremble. then, free men of color were not Even as royal volunteers, military service would citizens. Though "respectable" or "sensitive" effeminacy, Moreau the stereotype of mixed-race seem to contradict color armed service believed that these men of sought de Saint-Méry be and sexually debauched. because it allowed them to lazy loses his laziness, but all the It seems that then [in the ranks, a mulatto] leisure it has attracworld knows that a soldier's life, in the provides, exactly to the A mulatto soldier will appear tions for indolent men : ofthe evening, but it is in vain that calls of day, perhaps even to those [the night] belongs to pleasure one tries to restrict his liberty at night; what commitments he has made and he will not indenture it, no matter elsewhere. 43 coincided with the tightening of In fact, the Savannah campaign laws forbade racial restrictions. It was in 1779 that sumptuary new like whites. In the same year the commander people of color to dress to the A mulatto soldier will appear tions for indolent men : ofthe evening, but it is in vain that calls of day, perhaps even to those [the night] belongs to pleasure one tries to restrict his liberty at night; what commitments he has made and he will not indenture it, no matter elsewhere. 43 coincided with the tightening of In fact, the Savannah campaign laws forbade racial restrictions. It was in 1779 that sumptuary new like whites. In the same year the commander people of color to dress --- Page 221 --- BEFORE HAITI of Cap Français reminded the commander that families of color were of the Limonade district captains to take up residence in required to get permission from local Meanwhile, in a new parish. 44 off the south carly September 1779, as d'Estaing's fleet anchored color Georgia coast, the Admiral ordered . be treated at all times like the that "the people of same honor; they will exhibit the whites. . They aspire to the cial list of the units same bravery."? 79 Nevertheless an offiparticipating in the Volunteer Grenadiers and the Chasseurs expedition identified both the and as units "raised Saint-Domingue not to be recently in work. >> Since the British fort employed for more than trench was quite a bit of at Savannah was strongly fortified, digging to be done. 45After a month there siege, however, the French attack failed, with ofblockade and compared to American-rebel and 521 dead and wounded, respectively. A bloody British British casualties of 231 and 57, wounded seven men of color counterattack killed one Chasseur and troops. 46 As the October weather defending the retreating French Georgia, sailing for various destinations. worsened, d'Estaing's ships left Although the Savannah campaign had free colored volunteers concluded, soon discovered that Saint-Domingue's not. Within three months of the their military service had scattered battle, Chasseur throughout the Atlantic. It would be detachments were would see their homes. In December three years before many colony but others 1779 a few had returned were in France, to the d'Estaing to Versailles. Not until May 1780 accompanying did Rouvray and Saint-Domingue. One Chasseur these men disembark in casualties to company of 62 escorted Charleston, South Carolina, and was the sole Savannah serving during the siege of that city in the French troop sent more than one-third ofthe spring of 1780. D'Estaing to Grenada in the eastern Caribbean. entire Chasseur force, 150 to 200 men, 100 members of this detachment Two-anda-halfycars later over a mander, were still there. protested such treatment, Rouvray, their com- "the Chasseurs are nearly all warning the colonial minister that their fortune to serve the property >47 owners who have abandoned soldiers was too King. But the affordability of tempting for royal officials. volunteer In the aftermath of the Savannah administrators nearly completed what expedition Saint-Domingue's merging oft the maréchausée they started in 1769 with the tion of colonial and free colored militia: the civilians into regular royal transformacategories "militiaman" and "regular troops. A blurring of the frontier provinces in soldier" had already occurred in France, but colonial petits, fought SO bitterly against the whites, both grands and reinstitution ofthe militia in 1769 for royal officials. volunteer In the aftermath of the Savannah administrators nearly completed what expedition Saint-Domingue's merging oft the maréchausée they started in 1769 with the tion of colonial and free colored militia: the civilians into regular royal transformacategories "militiaman" and "regular troops. A blurring of the frontier provinces in soldier" had already occurred in France, but colonial petits, fought SO bitterly against the whites, both grands and reinstitution ofthe militia in 1769 --- Page 222 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING was wary of offering them any further that the royal government however, were already rotating innovations. Free colored civilians, Reynaud de Villevert, regularly through the expanded marichaussée. believed that full-time service Saint-Domingue's acting governor, for men of color. would not be a big change ofChasseurs Volontaires still So, in late March 1780, with hundreds formation of a new free colGrenada, Reynaud ordered the in faraway the Chasseurs Royaux. The name change was ored troop to be called 12 months earlier for Savannah significant: unlike the unit assembled of volunteer service in the there was not to be even a pretense from each parish were to Chasseurs Royaux. Free colored militiamen volunteers, preferably vetbe conscripted into royal service. Lacking to send men of color aged erans of Savannah, each parish captain was were not in good order. 15 or 16 or those whose manumission free papers men of color in order of If necessary, officers were to notify for enlistment." seniority to report to Cap Français and most influential members By attacking the oldest, wealthiest, vaunted filial attachment of of this class, Reynaud tried to exploit the of Younger of color and force younger kinsmen out hiding. free men in the new unit. For while many men would have less to lose under their former militia officers, Chasseurs Volontaires had enlisted from such local allegiances and Chasseurs Royaux were to be removed would they surrender under full military discipline. Not only but placed they had acquired in their districts, the livelihoods and security from local patrons to royal officers they were to transfer their loyalties with little influence in their home parishes. militias of color were among the The white men who commanded could secure only seven of first to protest these orders. Onc captain and these he held under men demanded of his parish the fourteen followed in several other districts. A second armed guard, a precaution against their will, noting parish sent three mulattos to Cap Français the second was only that one had incomplete manumission papers, <because he possesses noth16, and the third, though free by birth, >49 can do no better than remain in the Chasseurs." for ing, establishment of the Chasseurs Royaux White officers fought of constables who perseveral reasons. The new unit deprived parishes especially the search for formed critical services for slave owners, that milithe new service was SO unpopular maroon slaves. Secondly, the relations they who drafted their own men destroyed tia captains One reported that he had had forged with their companies. soldiers captain to hunt escaped slaves difficulty mustering his free colored them into the Chasseurs Royaux. since many feared a trap to impress do no better than remain in the Chasseurs." for ing, establishment of the Chasseurs Royaux White officers fought of constables who perseveral reasons. The new unit deprived parishes especially the search for formed critical services for slave owners, that milithe new service was SO unpopular maroon slaves. Secondly, the relations they who drafted their own men destroyed tia captains One reported that he had had forged with their companies. soldiers captain to hunt escaped slaves difficulty mustering his free colored them into the Chasseurs Royaux. since many feared a trap to impress --- Page 223 --- BEFORE HAITI believed the Chasseurs Royaux project suggested Third, whites force their militia companies into the regthat the government might officer noted pointedly that the treatular army, as well. Onc parish illustrated the difference between the ment ofthe Chasseurs Royaux of color and white colonists. Jacques freedoms enjoyed by free men colored militia of Cap Français, Mesnier, who commanded the free his soldiers were Reynaud that as a militia officer, even if reminded be into regular service. men of color, they could not conscripted have the ability to choose the "I command . . only free men, who service. >50 In 1769 whites had company in which they will do their the reimposition of encouraged free men of color to revolt against men In 1780 and 1781, whites like Mesnier joined militia obligations. of civilian militiamen into of color in protesting the transformation professional soldiers. with preventing this change, however, None were more concerned Chasseurs Royaux. In 1779, than those pressured to serve in the new hailed the attachment of free officers in the Savannah expedition had but in 1780 men of colored volunteers to their homes and families, When it was fled these homes rather than join the new corps. color would be recruited from free announced that Chasseurs Royaux Français unit attendance at muster in one Cap colored militias, 28. One week later when these men presented dropped from 62 to enroll in the Chasseurs Royaux, two themselves, as ordered, to M. de that as estabmilitiamen "humbly stated to Reynaud mulatto husbands and fathers they lished residents ofthe city, as proprietors, >51 Their words not only defied could not enter such an engagement." colored These the image of free debauchery. orders, but challenged in chains, and they were not two men spent much of the next year to the naval secretary alone in opposing the acting governor. A report were and after that said that free men of color frightened shortly the newly created Chasseurs Royaux, repelled" by have fled to the Spanish part ofSaint-I Domingue. We and most ofthem slaves than before this [troop] are much more plagued with maroon raids and gathformation and we have no means of opposing [maroon]: these of color. 52 erings. It is essential and urgent to bring back people sternly. In early July 1780 he Acting governor Reynaud responded draftees. The following week militia ordered the arrest of all reluctant with "the richest men officers were directed to replace the fugitives 29 By the end of the month from their companies . married or not. to arrest the fathers of instructed local authorities the acting governor are much more plagued with maroon raids and gathformation and we have no means of opposing [maroon]: these of color. 52 erings. It is essential and urgent to bring back people sternly. In early July 1780 he Acting governor Reynaud responded draftees. The following week militia ordered the arrest of all reluctant with "the richest men officers were directed to replace the fugitives 29 By the end of the month from their companies . married or not. to arrest the fathers of instructed local authorities the acting governor --- Page 224 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING fled the Chasseurs Royaux and bring them to Cap militiamen who had Français to serve for their sons. 53 colored family ties failed. By Yet these attempts to manipulate still free had not filled their quotas. In September 1, 1780, many parishes fathers and even the mothers of eligible Limonade parish, jailing the to the Chasseurs Royaux. soldiers had not restored these men attributed his of ever filling his orders, one white captain Despairing abuse inflicted on free colored volunteers before, difficulties to the during, and after the Savannah campaign: the refusal of the men of color to take part in the new I believe that to the manner in which the Volontaires were Corps must be attributed in a cold country, to the recruited, to the misery they experienced to the lack of precision with harshness oft their treatment [there and], of color are afraid of being which they were discharged : those The men who are in service at Grenada." exposed again, ofbeing held like also blamed Savannah for the unpopularity of Reynaud de Villevert cited "the seditious the Chasseurs Royaux, though he additionally on the Cap whom he jailed after the two argued remarks" of Mesnier, this measure Reynaud maintained Français parade grounds. To justify one should tremble at this far [from France], every that "in a country 7 >55 the words 'by order oft the King." was recreatOfficials closer to the throne did not agree. Reynaud Versailles' main the crisis of1769 and colonial tranquility was now at court ing Mesnier and his fellow militia officers had friends value objective. attacks further emphasized the and the acceleration of maroon level. The naval secretary of free colored militia service on the parish arrested for sedition and to issued strict instructions to liberate those Free colored militia disband the controversial Chasseurs Royaux. basis.56 returned to its previous service in Saint-Domingue had become a central, if ambiguous, By the 1780s, that service free people of color. element in the civic lives of Saint-Domingue's freedom but were technically For men like François Picau who lived in instituthe militia and maréchaussée provided an important still slaves, Picau could trade the charm bag and tional ladder into free society. for formal liberty papers: by bloody head of an African sorcerer in this internal war, he became a proving his allegiance to slave society of civic virtue may have inspired citizen, of sorts. The same notion in 1779. men of color to join d'Estaing's expedition many had such documents, tramping through But for those who already outside the home the woods with men like Picau, or standing guard uthe militia and maréchaussée provided an important still slaves, Picau could trade the charm bag and tional ladder into free society. for formal liberty papers: by bloody head of an African sorcerer in this internal war, he became a proving his allegiance to slave society of civic virtue may have inspired citizen, of sorts. The same notion in 1779. men of color to join d'Estaing's expedition many had such documents, tramping through But for those who already outside the home the woods with men like Picau, or standing guard --- Page 225 --- BEFORE HAITI was social humiliation. The property ownofthe white militia captain local and joined the fathers who bowed to pressure ers and family found that royal officials, like their white neighChasseurs Volontaires Nor did service in the royal troop count bors, abused their patriotism. Bonhomme Fossé. Even ex-colonists livfor anything in the trials of humiliation for men of color. in France identified militia duty as a ing a Frenchman who had built a successful In 1784, Charles Labarrère, before returning home to Bordeaux, plantation in the Les Cayes plain In 1764, after 24 years in the wrote a high royal official in Paris. from to Labarrère had sent his infant son Saint-Domingue colony, returned home himself, entrusting his colonial France. In 1770 he firm. In 1784 his island-born son had estate to a prominent merchant Labarrère wanted to send him back to completed his education, and there. 57 However, he wrote, Les Cayes to manage his plantation of the Isle à Vache claim that the mother of Sieur The residents [she is] as white as a European woman, is Labarrère's son, although and if this young man entered in the descended from the black race him feel the effects of their prejudice, militia, they would surcly make among men. The young with all the malice that is only too natural ofl honor, would be Labarrère, born with a sensitive soul and feelings exposed, for no fault of his own, to continual humiliations. estimated that in the last war mismanagement by The elder Labarrère him 80,000 livres-almost the price his plantation attorneys had cost Naval to exempt his son ofa a new smaller estate. He asked the could Ministry restore the estate to from colonial militia service, SO that he profitability. The government granted this request. military service in the The scant evidence of free colored pride in of a distinct contradicts Stewart King's discovery southern peninsula the free people of color in Saint- "military leadership class" among 1780s. Less wealthy than free colDomingue's North Province in the free person of but more prosperous than the average ored planters, identified themselves to notaries as sergeants color, King's men readily Chasseurs Volontaires. Without the and corporals in the militia and that free colored kinds of strong social connections to white society developed their own planters had, these free colored military figures dispropornetworks in the population of color, appearing patronage and other family deeds. King identifies tionately in marriage contracts His evidence also leadership class in local society. them as an unofficial free blacks, while free colored suggests that they were predominately planters were of mixed ancestry. 58 aries as sergeants color, King's men readily Chasseurs Volontaires. Without the and corporals in the militia and that free colored kinds of strong social connections to white society developed their own planters had, these free colored military figures dispropornetworks in the population of color, appearing patronage and other family deeds. King identifies tionately in marriage contracts His evidence also leadership class in local society. them as an unofficial free blacks, while free colored suggests that they were predominately planters were of mixed ancestry. 58 --- Page 226 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING in the South Province in the 1780s, Either such a class did not exist of their noncommissioned or its members were not very proud almost never noted the militia military ranks. Notaries in this region did for white militia officers. rank of free colored clients, though they André or Guillaume leaders like Rigaud Even future revolutionary tradition identifies as ex- Chasseurs Bleck, whom Haitian historical when had notaries draft Volontaires, did not claim this title they official documents in the 1780s.59 colored Chasseurin the South The sole notarial record left by a free known as drafted en absentia. Jean Jasmin, was a 1780 manumission who enlisted in the Chasseurs but had Basset, was a free black man and her mulatto son before leaving. meant to free his Ibo slave woman the task offormalizing the manHe was in Cap Français but entrusted free black who had been the slave umission deed to Frontin, another only three years earlier. 60 cook of the provincial commander *Bonhomme") Fossé, Considered with the clemency petition of Aquin's to manumission suggests that royal attempts Jasmin's long-distance have these free colored create free colored military units may pulled them in the North soldiers from outlying regions, concentrating of the colonial governProvince. Cap Français was the centerpiece since the militia revolt of ment's attempt to build civic virtue; ever region on the South had been Saint-Domingue's most skeptical 1769, that score. the of free men of color worried royal offiThat skepticism on part out, royal policy about cials. As Dominique Rogers has pointed varying from France's free colored population was often inconsistent, 61 Versailles had to another. Although one governor or naval secretary color line, royal officials and their helped colonists create the new and wanted to encourage it. advisors valued free colored service the in the pubofthese attitudes filtered through to colony Evidence associated with the Colonial Office. In the lications of philosophes for example, the entry original 1765 edition of Diderot's Encyclopédic, restated the definition offered by contemporary for <mulâtre" merely libertinage with slave women" and dictionaries, stressing "colonists' this behavior.2 However, ofthe Code Noir to eliminate the attempts revised and expanded this the Encyclopidié's 1776 Supplément caused by white men's attraction article. 631 While describing the disorder the value of mulatto military to slave women, it balanced that against and their slaves of white superiority, service, their role in convincing consumption of French products. contributions of the "mulatto" This recognition of the positive for war with class took form in March 1778, as France prepared and dictionaries, stressing "colonists' this behavior.2 However, ofthe Code Noir to eliminate the attempts revised and expanded this the Encyclopidié's 1776 Supplément caused by white men's attraction article. 631 While describing the disorder the value of mulatto military to slave women, it balanced that against and their slaves of white superiority, service, their role in convincing consumption of French products. contributions of the "mulatto" This recognition of the positive for war with class took form in March 1778, as France prepared --- Page 227 --- BEFORE HAITI the before d'Estaing returned to Saint-Domingue Britain. A full year idea ofhonoring free colored Naval Ministry revived his controversial creation of six silver medals for civic virtue. The secretary ordered the The medals were to bear the deserving men of color in the colonies. oak branches with the motto royal coat of arms on one side and two Civili Virtuti Concessum on the other.4 of Saint-Domingue's interest in the patriotism This metropolitan in 1781, when the ministry conmen of color was illustrated again Royaux. In that year, as a new governor demned Reynaud's Chasseurs Versailles formally disand intendant arrived in Saint-Domingue, in preparing a formal Furthermore, solved the unpopular company. Bellecombe and letter of instruction for the new administrators reforms for the Colonial Office drafted a list of25 possible SaintBongars, of these items directly addressed the colony. Only one of color: a proposal to eliminate the Domingue's free population instead, that an ex-slave's former masmanumission tax and require, the basic needs of life. This idea was ter furnish the freedman with formal instructions. rejected and was not included in the Ministry's instructions did note that <The most thoughtful However, the the of color are the strongest persons consider . : . that today people This class of men, in their opinbarrier against trouble from the slaves. and they believe that deserves consideration and special handling, ion, should be tempered, and even given a limit. the established degradation the new naval secretary, de Castries, Without adopting this position, such racial reforms discretely asked Bellecombe and Bongars to explore with the colonial elite. 65 why, describing a limit to racial prejudice explains This sentence "When MM De Bellecombe and Bongars according to Raimond, rumor spread that these the colony, a general came to administer order from his Majesty declaring that in the administrators carried an be considered] white. 22 [would future all legitimate quarterons officials had blocked a law that would Raimond believed the new 66 Following Castries's orders, have outlawed interracial marriages." given by the Chasseurs Bellecombe tried to reverse the impression another burden to be Royaux episode that military service was yet a pension of the free people of color. He awarded forced upon Ibar known as Bartole",a free quarteron of 500 livres to *Barthelemy who had commanded the free colored Captain Vincent's generation, Petite- Rivière, and Saint-Marc militia companies of the Vérettes, parishes." 67 notion that the crown was going to limit racial Emboldened by the treatment of free and perhaps still dismayed over Reynaud's prejudice, burden to be Royaux episode that military service was yet a pension of the free people of color. He awarded forced upon Ibar known as Bartole",a free quarteron of 500 livres to *Barthelemy who had commanded the free colored Captain Vincent's generation, Petite- Rivière, and Saint-Marc militia companies of the Vérettes, parishes." 67 notion that the crown was going to limit racial Emboldened by the treatment of free and perhaps still dismayed over Reynaud's prejudice, --- Page 228 --- PROVING FREE COLORED VIRTUE colored soldiers, South Province's wealthiest proposed a new, nonmartial free men of color group, probably led by Julien way to prove their virtue. In 1782 a ifit could join the colonial Raimond, asked Governor Bellecombe The donation would campaign to collect donations for a illustrate that ship. elite possessed the same liberal virtues Saint-Domingue's free colored Bellecombe approved the claimed by white colonists. own account the indigo request and put Raimond in charge. By his his neighbors in Aquin, planter amassed 9,450 livres from about 20 of from cach amounting to the price of a fine saddle contributor, on average. horse Though Raimond did not identify his later he did name the free colored families contributors, seven years political efforts. In addition of Aquin who supported his dozen families of to the Boisrond brothers they included a by kinship. Few, however, roughly similar affluence, nearly all of them linked was worth between 200,000 were as wealthy as Raimond, whose estate example, and 300,000 livres. Claude was a wealthy light-skinned man Leclerc, for had been forbidden by the ofd color who with his wife Bordeaux ship captain in Aquin, regional commandant to dine with a man. Leclerc was a grandson of although the they had business with the Raimond's supporters, who had widow Montbrun, another of France. Leclerc's widowed three other free colored sons in another man ofcolor later mother married Jean Lalanne in 1785, riage contract listed the value named by Raimond as a partisan. The mar68,120 livres. The of the widow Leclerc's year before the property as bled an indigo plantation marriage Jean Lalanne had assemother free men and split by inheritance, buying the pieces from women of color. The value was 47,512 livres. In 1788 he himself of his estate in 1785 with his stepson Leclerc. 69 made plans to go to France, Another of Raimond's Aquin Lauzenguez, a free quarteron who supporters was Jean-Baptiste 15,000 livres apiece in gave both his daughter and his son dowry when they same day. The son also received married in 1785, both on the 10,000 livres from his Lauzenguez were connected by aunt. The Ploys and Depas-Medinas, marriage to Aquin's free colored Although Raimond's pillars ofthe illegal Curaçao trade.7 70 tion to France enthusiasm for a free colored patriotic lingered well into the donaas the war ended, white contributions Revolutionary period, in 1783, subscription to the royal gift fell off and the colored donations campaign was set aside. Raimond did not outside Aquin, Yet pursue free families were aware that France apparently. Aquin's free colored tion of French was enlarging the traditional definicitizenship. In 1782, the death of the Jewish planter 's pillars ofthe illegal Curaçao trade.7 70 tion to France enthusiasm for a free colored patriotic lingered well into the donaas the war ended, white contributions Revolutionary period, in 1783, subscription to the royal gift fell off and the colored donations campaign was set aside. Raimond did not outside Aquin, Yet pursue free families were aware that France apparently. Aquin's free colored tion of French was enlarging the traditional definicitizenship. In 1782, the death of the Jewish planter --- Page 229 --- BEFORE HAITI raised the question of whether his daughter, Philippe Depas in Aquin marrying one of her Gradis who had followed a family tradition by Overturning could inherit colonial property?1 cousins in Bordeaux, Jews in the kingdom, French courts the civil disabilities borne by because of "the services this validated the Depas testament, partly 22 The Naval Secretary [Gradis] family has rendered to the state."' for in 1783 he had behind this decision, Castries was probably in Saint-Domingue's rich extended full civil rights to Sephardim North Province." 72 and on the advice of Governor Encouraged by these changes, addressing Julien Raimond appealed directly to Castries, in Bellecombe, of memoranda, and meeting with him the secretary in a series because in 1780 Raimond's Bordeaux.28 The meeting was possible in France from her Françoise Dasmard, had inherited property wife, the War rofAmerican Independence first husband. From 1779 to 1783, France and the South reliable contact between had climinated normal shipping resumed and the couple Province. But in 1784, colonial affairs in the care ofRaimond's sailed for France, leaving their had lapsed just about this brothers. Bellecombe's tenure as governor Bordeaux the two reestablished time and when Raimond arrived in contact.74 1785 and 1786 Raimond submitted four manuFrom France, in reform colonial racism. His scripts urging the Naval Ministry to footnotes, references to the reasoning and rhetoric were fortified by and other characterisclassical past, citations of contemporary from writers, which he was excluded in tics ofthe enlightened "public" world Raimond justified his selfSaint-Domingue. ÎIn these carly writings economic productivity, identification as a Frenchman on three grounds: utility to the state, and moral respectability. around the notion of free colored Because colonial racism was built Castries focused on virtue, vice, Raimond's first memorandum to ofhis class." 75 In opening and challenging the negative feminine image to restore to this first text, he described himself as attempting of closing of allowing the descendants Saint-Domingue the Roman practice Perhaps revealing the slaves to become citizens after two generations. he also held up modern influence of Rayal's Histoire des deux Indes, societies that had prosBrazil and Santo Domingo as contemporary 76 He called for reducing the legal impact of racial prejudice. pered by that <freedmen" [affranchis) a return to the Code Noir's stipulation other. Praising the law's Roman were subjects of the crown like any as in the ancient world, roots, he insisted that in Saint-Domingue and Drawing on slavery was not based on race but on law property. become citizens after two generations. he also held up modern influence of Rayal's Histoire des deux Indes, societies that had prosBrazil and Santo Domingo as contemporary 76 He called for reducing the legal impact of racial prejudice. pered by that <freedmen" [affranchis) a return to the Code Noir's stipulation other. Praising the law's Roman were subjects of the crown like any as in the ancient world, roots, he insisted that in Saint-Domingue and Drawing on slavery was not based on race but on law property. --- Page 230 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING against military rule, he contended the planters' liberal arguments people was a threat to the that discrimination against propertied plantation system, not its bulwark. the "rule of law" and arbitrary Raimond's opposition between and colonial showed his familiarity with French parlementary sexualpower discourse, but he turned these arguments against anti-militia free people of color, French ized racial stereotypes. In cases involving He cited the abandoned husbands, proprietors, and loyal subjects. law color whose slave was stolen by a white. The 1782 case of a man of whose attorney' then proposed that judge ruled against the white man, these charges." 77 the free man of color be punished for of bringing white legal immunity to Raimond moved easily from this example the lurid Rather than deny reputation the issue ofs sexual respectability. he argued that racism in the courts of Saint-Domingue's mulâtresses, by emasculating men of color, and society fostered colonial libertinage wives and daughters. Because destroying their authority over their they thought little of whites did not fear accusations from these men, there as fathers and invading a home and dishonoring the women tradition, he Drawing on the anti-militia husbands stood by, helpless. used their powers to separate husclaimed that white militia officers could debauch bands from wives and fathers from daughters, SO they took concubines women. European immigrants these unprotected because discouraged interrather than establish legal unions prejudice impossible, free Since racism made social mobility racial marriages. lead moral lives. Possibly referring to men of color stopped trying to in the 1780s to ameliorate slave attempt by Castries a controversial Raimond pointed out that even slaves conditions in Saint-Domingue, and had some hope of advancing in enjoyed the king's protection and humiliation were the only society, though manumission. Despair prospects for men of color. 78 expanded 1776 article Raimond cited freely from the Encyclopédiè's allowed to enter the mulâtre. Because free men of color were not on the militia, and then in the most public arena in any way but through Even the wealthiest free demeaning fashion, they were not citizens. sextons or attend colored planters were not allowed to serve as parish conassemblies. Using images of family and piety to undermine 72 local of mulatto *courtesans," Raimond cerns about the ostentation outside church during mass to described white officials waiting women of color laws. When respectable enforce new sumptuary "More than once [these white men] proemerged after the service, several [women of color] duced the horrible spectacle of rendering >79 almost naked in the public square. , they were not citizens. sextons or attend colored planters were not allowed to serve as parish conassemblies. Using images of family and piety to undermine 72 local of mulatto *courtesans," Raimond cerns about the ostentation outside church during mass to described white officials waiting women of color laws. When respectable enforce new sumptuary "More than once [these white men] proemerged after the service, several [women of color] duced the horrible spectacle of rendering >79 almost naked in the public square. --- Page 231 --- BEFORE HAITI couched in the philosophical language of Articulate, substantiated, terms ofutility and social virtue and justice while arguing in the practical with Castries and with sevRaimond's manuscripts hit their mark order, reform committee, including the poet eral members of the his colonial the memoranda to SaintSaint-Lambert 80 The naval secretary sent and intendant there. Domingue for comments from the new governor La Luzerne, was However, Governor Bellecombe's replacement, colleagues. His reply to than his metropolitan far more skeptical 1786 described many of Raimond's charges Versailles in September La Luzerne baseless. Some of his citations were unfaithful, as taken from obscure regulations or from claimed, while others were been enacted. The governor legislative proposals that had never but changes would have to admitted that there was room for reform, come slowly." 81 perhaps after La Luzerne's negative Sometime during this period, emphasizing Raimond wrote directly to the king. Again reply, Julien ofthe free population of color, he argued, as the utility and patriotism debauchery, not the other way before, that prejudice produced it advanced a specific around. This text offered more than analysis; to tell ifit was Because the letter bears no date there is no way reform. showing Raimond's own written before La Luzerne's response, that the crown would only his realization racism, or after, reflecting 83 He advocated that men and women adopt a conservative proposal. legitimately born, had a light comwho were wealthy, well-educated, relatives in slavery be considered plexion, and could prove they had no be "new whites," > a term reminis- "white." >) In his words, they would had made out of ofthe "new Christians" that royal letters patent cent Jews of Bordeaux. the Sephardic whose characteristics were a fair *Whitening" such individuals, new vistas to all free description of Raimond himself, would open and loyalty to the colony people of color, intensifying their industry that two-thirds oft the and to France. In his first text he had claimed people, had of color, or, he estimated, about 20,000 free population world. Now he offered a reform that no direct ties to the slave about 2,000 people. 84 By breaking he estimated would affect only to free people the color line, the measure would restore hope found poorer families, and of color and allow indigent whites to marry, of interracial establish themselves on the soil. The encouragement farmers, bolster the would swell the ranks of small hillside marriage and protect the great plantations against maroon colonial economy, slaves. of color, or, he estimated, about 20,000 free population world. Now he offered a reform that no direct ties to the slave about 2,000 people. 84 By breaking he estimated would affect only to free people the color line, the measure would restore hope found poorer families, and of color and allow indigent whites to marry, of interracial establish themselves on the soil. The encouragement farmers, bolster the would swell the ranks of small hillside marriage and protect the great plantations against maroon colonial economy, slaves. --- Page 232 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING memorandum received no Raimond's last pre-Revolutionary succeeded Castries as naval from the ministry. La Luzerne minor response in 1787 and Versailles was wary about ordering even >2 In secretary to condemn *ministerial tyranny." changes in a colony SO quick 1788 Raimond was still awaiting a decision. November colonial back in Saint-Domingue some antiauthoritarian However, Versailles' interest in rewarding free colored intellectuals shared that racial mixture created individuals previrtue. Though he believed avoid work, Moreau de Saint- Méry also disposed to seek pleasure and and capable of believed that <The people of color are in general good the women's advancement and one cannot sufficiently praise moral and the sick. >86 compassion for the poor especially his biological view of racial If this stance seemed to contradict duly chastised 29 the white residents of Cap Français "corruption,' In 1789 they labeled him an abolitionMoreau for his inconsistency. medal of virtue to a free black man. ist for attempting to award a illustrate how threatThese events, on the very eve ofthe Revolution, society. of free colored virtue was to Dominguan ening the notion reintroduced this idea to the When men of color, led by Raimond, destabilized slave colony in 1790 and 1791, the resulting explosion society, as chapter 8 shows. Moreau de Saint-Méry's brother-inIn 1785, Charles Arthaud, established a colonial law and the royal physician of Cap Français, charter members. This scientific society. Moreau was among its allegiance to Cercle des Philadelphes, as it was called, proclaimed rational and principles of inquiry "enlightened" and *universal" the Cercle was as much discussion. As James McClellan notes, the open society, its name reflecting a civic institution as a research harmony. Because the society founders' desire to enhance social of useful knowledge and aimed to "contribute to the spread and virtue, 27 its founders recfurnish useful examples of good morals activities committee report on members' ommended that a special of the Cercle shared the belief that and reputations. The founders virtuous public, and that Saint-Domingue would develop its own În reforms would rescue it from military despotism. that rational founding, the Abbé Raynal and Paris, the very year of the Cercle's reform committee at the Victor Malouet, a member of the colonial de SaintNaval Ministry, published an Essai sur Padministration advo- (Essay on the administration of Saint-Domingue), Domingue with annual district cating a civil rather than military government, meetings to air complaints. 87 virtuous public, and that Saint-Domingue would develop its own În reforms would rescue it from military despotism. that rational founding, the Abbé Raynal and Paris, the very year of the Cercle's reform committee at the Victor Malouet, a member of the colonial de SaintNaval Ministry, published an Essai sur Padministration advo- (Essay on the administration of Saint-Domingue), Domingue with annual district cating a civil rather than military government, meetings to air complaints. 87 --- Page 233 --- BEFORE HAITI aimed above all to improve the The Cercle des Philadelphes system. But in its comprofitability of Saint-Domingue's plantation public discussion, the Cercle, mitment to social improvement through stumbled over the racial barriers that specifically Moreau and Arthaud, In the 1780s, while investiclosed the "public sphere" to all nonwhites. charitable institutions as part of gating the history of Saint-Domingue's Moreau heard of the Cercle's attempt to publicize local philanthropy, Thomasseau, also the charitable work of a free black named Jasmin in 1714 and had been Jasmin was born in Africa known as Jean Jasmin. who eventually bequeathed him to sold in Saint-Domingue to a mason, of both his former masters, contractor. With the support a building another free African and in 1756 Jasmin was freed in 1741. He married structure on property the couple, with their slaves, built a four-room Here, next to the city hosgranted them by the Cap Français poorhouse. slaves cared for 12 to 18 invalids, pice, Jasmin, his wife, and their twelve subsidized of color. Their work was at first partially mostly poor people of this order in 1762, their only by the Jesuits, but after the expulsion Week collection. Besides an outside support came from an annual Holy little assistance from the from militia duty, Jasmin received exemption colonial government." achievement, Moreau sought public Impressed with Jasmin's In 1788 he traveled to France, carrying recognition for the hospice. from "the most esteemed persons of character references for Jasmin a charter for business was to request royal Cap." His most pressing but he asked the Colonial Office to the Cercle des Philadelphes, issued both docucharter the hospice, as well. The Naval Ministry as it had and to grant Jasmin an honorary pension, ments agreed Bartelemy Ibar, and other soldiers of done for Captain Vincent, hospice a public institution color. Moreau hoped to make Jasmin's consented that equivalent to the maréchausste. The naval secretary of service would be slaves donated to the hospice for a fixed period To honor Jasmin's manumitted without tax, like slave constables. to award him a contribution to colonial society, Versailles agreed gold medal.39 militia prizes in 1765, Moreau Like d'Estaing with his proposed other colonial philanbelieved that Jasmin's medal would encourage Society in Paris to award thropists. He convinced the Royal Agricultural he used his small farm outside Jasmin a second gold medal for the way Moreau asked his friends in Cap Français to feed the hospice. Finally, Jasmin's work. Arthaud and the Cercle des Philadelphes to consider 1789 and the Cercle agreed to give others toured the hospice in July 1789. medal of civic virtue in August Jasmin its own gold d'Estaing with his proposed other colonial philanbelieved that Jasmin's medal would encourage Society in Paris to award thropists. He convinced the Royal Agricultural he used his small farm outside Jasmin a second gold medal for the way Moreau asked his friends in Cap Français to feed the hospice. Finally, Jasmin's work. Arthaud and the Cercle des Philadelphes to consider 1789 and the Cercle agreed to give others toured the hospice in July 1789. medal of civic virtue in August Jasmin its own gold --- Page 234 --- FREE COLORED VIRTUE PROVING Versailles informed Cap Français' royal attorney However, when scandal ensued. Whites had of its plans to honor Jasmin, a major in the colony. In 1783 the already defeated efforts to reform slavery the had issued new regulations aimed at humanizing Naval Ministry of Cap Français had refused to condition of slaves but the council because of this controversy, register the ordinance. In 1787, partly Council, leaving Saintthe Naval Minister dissolved the Cap and further with only the council of Port-au-Prince were Domingue Colonists inflaming that council's anger at administrators." England, and 1788 that abolitionists in Pennsylvania, aware by of the slave trade and slavery France were challenging the inhumanity itself. Arthaud, and Jasmin, some colonists Unfortunately for Moreau, to learned men in suspected that the Cercle, with its connections devotion to reform and London, and Paris, and its Philadelphia, to these ideas. Colonial officials brotherly love, was sympathetic a medal to Jasmin. In August 1789 advised Versailles against awarding administrators that it, too, when the Cercle notified the acting were also suspended. planned to award Jasmin a medal, those plans consoled furious over these dismissals. He publicly Moreau was writing in the patronizing tu form. Jasmin in his Description, in heart! Ifthe witnesses to Virtuous Jasmin! Let hope not perish your if a prejudice that has your efforts are for the most part unimpressed, them from honoring you nothing in common with your work prevents to the of deserve, take solace; a voice dedicated to truth, praise as you of evil [men] will publish your virtues. good men and condemnation censure will then be the lot of This voice will be heard and - : : public who said that to reward your good all those incapable offollowing you, safety of the colony. 91 works was to threaten the political these words the Cercle had expelled By the time Moreau published were abolitionists. În him and Arthaud as "traitors" amid rumors they of Man arrived in the 1789 when the Declaration of the Rights Français forced Moreau was in France but a crowd in Cap ass. colony, his to ride about the city on an Arthaud, clad only in nightshirt, wishing to be associated with an Members ofthe Cercle resigned "not >92 organization that SO merited public disgrace. restored to the Arthaud and Moreau were eventually Although on free colored civic virtue. In Cercle, both men revised their position for his panegyric on the 1790 the Cercle awarded Moreau a prize July the publication white founders oftwo colonial poorhouses. Apparently Moreau had declared did not mention Jasmin, although elsewhere ride about the city on an Arthaud, clad only in nightshirt, wishing to be associated with an Members ofthe Cercle resigned "not >92 organization that SO merited public disgrace. restored to the Arthaud and Moreau were eventually Although on free colored civic virtue. In Cercle, both men revised their position for his panegyric on the 1790 the Cercle awarded Moreau a prize July the publication white founders oftwo colonial poorhouses. Apparently Moreau had declared did not mention Jasmin, although elsewhere --- Page 235 --- BEFORE HAITI At one ofthe last meetings of him equal to these other philanthropists. Arthaud presented a paper on "the physical the Cercle in August 1791 of 29 refuting and moral character of the mulattos Saint-Domingue, 93 colored pamphlets published in Paris. pro-free * * free men ofcolor struggled to adjust to After 1769 Saint-I Domingue's At times it that the terms of colonial racism. appeared the new to create a positive identity for these imperial government was trying manumission more expensive, administrators made men. Although allowed couples to use the Code Noir's especially for women, they which had not occurred in marriage clause to formalize their liberty, established a new kind of public the 1760s. More important, they for maréchausée by awarding liberty papers manumission procedure, innovations had few benefits for freeborn service. However, these reinforced the reorientation of colonial people of color. Indeed they than social class; the now-impermeable society along lines of race rather of African descent in the color line placed wealthy men and women same category as ex-slaves. and its aftermath confirmed these The 1779 Savannah expedition be difficult for propertied changes, signaling that it was going to very of"civic virtue" to families of color to use the government's notion much sacrifice, and Administrators demanded too > attain more respect. free colored service as "unnatural." When some colonists described the Cercle des Philadelphes recognized respected organizations like opinion was enraged. The free colored civic virtue, colonial public antithetical. ideas ofvirtue and color had become very 300 wealthy free people of color in Given that there were roughly Port-au-Prince, 94 why was it that the area around Cap Français and color line came from the challenge to the new the most important offactors may account for this. Their geoSouth Province? A number colored in this region seem isolation meant that free planters graphic >7 Julien Raimond described the *humiliations' not to have experienced when their wealth and selfuntil the War of American Independence, location also meant that the confidence were at a peak. Its remote flood of petits blancs South was late to receive the post-1763 in the construction of a immigrants and relatively slow to participate Because they saw few ofthe self-consciously *white" colonial public. and French that docked every year at Cap Français, hundreds of ships merchants, Raimond and his dealt more frequently with foreign more like French colonists neighbors may have felt, paradoxically, --- Page 236 --- PROVING FREE COLORED VIRTUE than free coloreds did in the North and West. And evidence suggests that in the South Province whites and free coloreds alike were less attracted to civic virtue and the discipline of French imperial military culture than to commercial freedom and the "liberal virtues" Raimond championed in his memoranda to the Naval Ministry. The South had no free colored "military leadership class" like that described by Stewart King. For Raimond, the production ofwealth and the rule oflaw should be Saint-Domingue's fundamental priorities, and racism was an obstacle to colonial prosperity. He advocated reforms that would encourage European immigrants to marry colonial women of color. What he proposed, in effect, was a return to the creole society that the South had known before the Seven Years' War. than to commercial freedom and the "liberal virtues" Raimond championed in his memoranda to the Naval Ministry. The South had no free colored "military leadership class" like that described by Stewart King. For Raimond, the production ofwealth and the rule oflaw should be Saint-Domingue's fundamental priorities, and racism was an obstacle to colonial prosperity. He advocated reforms that would encourage European immigrants to marry colonial women of color. What he proposed, in effect, was a return to the creole society that the South had known before the Seven Years' War. --- Page 237 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 238 --- CHAPTER 8 X FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE SOUTHERN PENINSULA AND THE ORIGINS OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION, 1789-1791 Hsorianse of the Haitian Revolution have the power ofthe sword, or rather, ofthe traditionally emphasized the pen. Nearly all authors describe cane knife, over the power of August 22, 1791 in the great plantation uprising of the Revolution. But these Saint-Domingue's North Province as events cannot be understood launching sidering tensions in Saint-Domingue's without conParisian publications of the southern peninsula and the planter, Julien Raimond. region's most prominent free colored pressuring authorities By 1785, Raimond was living in towards to climinate, or at least France, colonial free men of color. moderate, racism As preceding chapters have shown, Raimond province in Saint- Domingue where this came from the one race families had been idea seemed feasible. Mixedwealthy and prominent peninsula since French colonization residents ofthe southern changes experienced in the North began. In the 1780s, the cultural region. The South Province and West were still newt to this isolated the new public had just one city, Les Cayes, and fewer spaces than any other of of external commerce, including its slave region Saint-Domingue. Its gling and inter-island trade, consisted mostly of smugProvinces, the South had exchanges. Unlike the North and the no wealthy free West roots here allowed him to blacks to speak of. Raimond's present Saint- Domingue as home to hundreds began. In the 1780s, the cultural region. The South Province and West were still newt to this isolated the new public had just one city, Les Cayes, and fewer spaces than any other of of external commerce, including its slave region Saint-Domingue. Its gling and inter-island trade, consisted mostly of smugProvinces, the South had exchanges. Unlike the North and the no wealthy free West roots here allowed him to blacks to speak of. Raimond's present Saint- Domingue as home to hundreds --- Page 239 --- BEFORE HAITI mixed-race colonial families, virtuous citizens of property-owning, oft their vice-ridden white neighbors. humiliated by the prejudices conditions in and around the In fact, his descriptions ignored of enslaved Africans colony's two great cities. The importation and especially Cap reached new highs in the 1780s. In Port-au-Prince this decade had which received the bulk of slave imports, Français, and self-confident free black population. also given rise to a large and cultural distance between free Raimond, in stressing the social Saint-Domingue had few free people of color and slaves, insisted he dismissed the reality that blacks. Out of ignorance or self-interest, in the constabulary, had free men of color, like those serving African many He disparaged the colonial idea of been born in slavery. the generations that stain" by emphasizing descent as an <indelible of free colored planters had been had passed since the ancestors of dividing colonial society by enslaved. Emphasizing the irrationality social connections linking genealogy, Raimond dismissed the complex He also discounted the some free people to the enslaved population. to the idea of attachment of elite colonists and newimmigrants deep of brown-skinned citizens suffering white purity. His descriptions in France, but frightened racial injustice appealed to revolutionaries on their white skin. colonists who based their social identity the many Parisian legislators to force even minor racial When Raimond inspired 1791, the resulting civil war in May reforms on Saint-Domingue whites destabilized the slave regime. between free men color and of the Haitian Revolution, This is not the place to tell the story treatment by David which in recent years has received illuminating Instead, this chapter Geggus, Carolyn Fick, and Laurent Dubois. from the beginning of traces actions of South Province free coloreds rebel slaves replaced era until the moment when the revolutionary the colonial order. To say that Raimond's them as the major threat to is not to credit him with trying to pen started the Haitian Revolution ofthe massive August 1791 end slavery. Nor isit to deny the centrality however, outside Cap Français. As this chapter explains, uprising network in the South did help spark SaintRaimond and his political In 1790, in what slave conspiracy. Domingue's first Revolutionary-era descendants ofthe free colored planters had once been Torbec parish, reforms prepared to fight for rights they who had resisted the 1769 militia in France. Authorities disarmed believed Raimond had won for them plantations were them, but within weeks slaves from neighboring planning a revolt, citing free colored encouragement. from Torbec's This slave conspiracy had no physical support it. Like Raimond and local authorities quickly squelched planters, SaintRaimond and his political In 1790, in what slave conspiracy. Domingue's first Revolutionary-era descendants ofthe free colored planters had once been Torbec parish, reforms prepared to fight for rights they who had resisted the 1769 militia in France. Authorities disarmed believed Raimond had won for them plantations were them, but within weeks slaves from neighboring planning a revolt, citing free colored encouragement. from Torbec's This slave conspiracy had no physical support it. Like Raimond and local authorities quickly squelched planters, --- Page 240 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE coloreds of Torbec and Les Cayes simply wanted himself, the free in recognition of their France to admit them to the colonial public to the class hierarchy virtue, wealth, and utility. They wanted to return there had been no color creole society, when that had once defined and wealthy planters, line for rich men and women. As slave-owners But that they did not want to stir up a revolution in Saint-Domingue. is exactly what they ended up doing. and fraternity" were dangerous In hindsight, "liberty, equality, colonists in 1789 and 1790. In 1788, slogans for Saint-Domingue's free of color as whites and the census counted nearly as many people defined. With had never been more rigidly those two categories annually, the colony depended on 30,000 enslaved Africans arriving social order. Yet the white colonists armed men of color to maintain racial hierarchy was an expression of believed that Saint-Domingue's truths, all of which identified mixedpolitical, moral, and scientific Many hoped that the as a threat to civilization. race corruption higher level of social regeneration: Revolution would lead to another, as the colonial elite the victory of civilian over military government, wealthy planters had had envisioned in 1769. During those events, of color in the directed the actions of poor whites and free people militia ordinance. the "tyranny" of a new royal South Province against had weakened the bonds that once held But racism and immigration news arrived from France, creole society together. As Revolutionary to throw off not Saint-Domingue's poor whites saw an opportunity despotism but planter arrogance as well. only administrative wealthiest free people of color understood that Saint-Domingue's 2 they did not mean revivwhen colonial whites spoke of *regeneration" On March 15, 1789, François ing interracial creole relationships. and others from Aquin wrote the Raimond, Louis-François Boisrond, choose their own to representatives naval secretary asking for the right the time Versailles denied Estates General.' By for France'sapprosching General had become the revolutionary their request, that Estates knew that appealing to the National Assembly, but free colored planters whites. far safer than making such a proposal to colonial metropole was confusion about what revolutionary Throughout the colony, created dramatic events in France would mean for Saint-Domingue In October for whites, free colored, and enslaved people. abouncertainties, absorbed news oft the fall ofthe Bastille, the 1789, as the colony and the drafting of the Declaration of lition of hereditary privileges, approsching General had become the revolutionary their request, that Estates knew that appealing to the National Assembly, but free colored planters whites. far safer than making such a proposal to colonial metropole was confusion about what revolutionary Throughout the colony, created dramatic events in France would mean for Saint-Domingue In October for whites, free colored, and enslaved people. abouncertainties, absorbed news oft the fall ofthe Bastille, the 1789, as the colony and the drafting of the Declaration of lition of hereditary privileges, --- Page 241 --- BEFORE HAITI the Rights of Man and Français. In the North Citizen, a furor arose in the area around Cap Limonade Province, a plantation parish wrote his employer in manager from the whites feared for their lives. Estate France on October 22 that had asked the king to free the slaves. workers claimed that Frenchmen slaves had informed their On several estates, he reported, masters that were asking for three they were free. On others, they days a week free from following day he wrote that the inhabitants plantation labor. The up all night, firing the alarm ofCap Français had been 15,000 slaves. The Limonade cannons and preparing for an attack by clock parish assembly patrols to stop slave gatherings. One slave scheduled round-themaster, saying "now we are all equal by order had tried to kill his Amid this confusion, the ofthe King. >2 Fabien Gentil in Limonade overseer noted, a free mulatto named had formed a plot accomplices that included property-less "against us" with explicitly connect this to his fear ofa an whites. The overseer did not ing that the whites would surely be eminent slave revolt, only notIn fact, since his tortured for "their terrible crime. >> able manumission in 1780, Gentil had success for an ex-slave. He had moved achieved remarkLimonade and opened a store at the wharfthere from Cap Français to white man. Though the business failed in partnership with a Gentil let a house in Limonade in 1784, the following Marrying, frecing to another white who ran an inn year several slaves, settling his debts, and there. undeveloped plot ofland, Gentil may have rallied his acquiring an protest the heavy militia burden caused white friends to revolt.3 They may also have been by the rumors of a slave Declaration of Rights, the first article emboldened of by France's new are born and remain free and which proclaimed that men only legitimate if they equal in rights, with social distinctions Gentil's were based on common utility. North alleged conspiracy amid fears of a slave Province illustrates the conservatism rebellion in the South, whose reaction to the Declaration of free coloreds in the Paris by Raimond. In November of Rights was publicized in parish, just north of Aquin, 1789, the residents of Petit- Goâve Colonial Assembly. This gathered to elect deputies for a new represent larger meeting, in turn, would choose men to Saint-Domingue in France. "the free people of color According to a white witness, meeting] and asked us to please respectfully presented themselves [at the receive their [cabier); we accepted it and read it aloud suggestions for reform The free colored [to the assembly] J >4 recommendation that the prejudice against them? infuriated the Revolution "abolish the Petit-Goâve parish assembly, ve Colonial Assembly. This gathered to elect deputies for a new represent larger meeting, in turn, would choose men to Saint-Domingue in France. "the free people of color According to a white witness, meeting] and asked us to please respectfully presented themselves [at the receive their [cabier); we accepted it and read it aloud suggestions for reform The free colored [to the assembly] J >4 recommendation that the prejudice against them? infuriated the Revolution "abolish the Petit-Goâve parish assembly, --- Page 242 --- ORIGINS OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION When the petitioners refused to withdraw their demanded to know who had drawn the suggestions, whites a handful of prominent free up document. After arresting free population of color, the quarterons and disarming Petit- Goâve's man, Ferrand de Beaudière, assembly learned that a prominent white already nominated this had drafted the petition. The parish had trict's royal judge to senior attorney who had once been the disBeaudière represent it at the Colonial was a controversial figure. He had Assembly. However, admiralty judge in Petit Goâve in come to his office as tension between Governor 1766, during the anti-militia Council. Probably because Rohan-Montbazon he and the Port-au-Prince Choiseul, the council was a client of the Naval refused to recognize Secretary claiming that he demonstrated Beaudière's appointment, did this conflict disappear when insufficient respect for its powers.5 Nor of the council after the anti-militia Rohan-Montbazon exiled members high court deposed the Petit-Goâve revolt. In 1784, Port-au-Prince's and outrageous judge for having used of Beaudière's expressions" against its officers. 6 For this "injurious neighbors may have seen him, reason, some "despotic" military governors. From this still, as an agent of between the judge and the local free perspective, an alliance sibility of colonial liberty men ofd color threatened the sealed this under the rule of law. Beaudière's posnotion ofhis corruption by enemies mixed-race women, when they claimed evoking the sexual powers of colored widow Savariot had influenced his relationship with the free Within 24 hours of his judgment." assembly arresting the judge, members of the decapitated him in the town parish parish leaders to postpone the execution. square, despite the attempts of another white The town identified man, as a co-conspirator and Baudry, ward through Petit-Goâve forced him to ride backhead. The parish banished on an ass, carrying his friend's bloody the judge's body where Baudry from the jurisdiction and slave merchants dumped did not harm the free colored discarded their corpses. They In nearby Aquin, whites petitioners. colored indigo were convinced that the wealthiest free planters were involved in Petit posal. About 25 days after Beaudière's Goâve's subversive prosurrounded the plantation house of the death two-dozen armed men Guillaume Labadie. A 70-year-old indigo planter Labadie had been the neighbor and friend of Julien Raimond, days when licutenant of Aquin's free men of color held such ranks. colored militia in the kets, the group searched Labadie's Carrying torches and muspetition or evidence ofa home for a copy ofthe Petit- Goâve political meeting. Finding little, they arrested days after Beaudière's Goâve's subversive prosurrounded the plantation house of the death two-dozen armed men Guillaume Labadie. A 70-year-old indigo planter Labadie had been the neighbor and friend of Julien Raimond, days when licutenant of Aquin's free men of color held such ranks. colored militia in the kets, the group searched Labadie's Carrying torches and muspetition or evidence ofa home for a copy ofthe Petit- Goâve political meeting. Finding little, they arrested --- Page 243 --- BEFORE HAITI and him to town for him, shot him during a scuffle, transported visited the homes of treatment and interrogation. A similar group seizing their papers. Louis-François Boisrond and François Raimond, the home. Authorities in Les Cayes, provincial But neither man was Raimond's closest colonial capital, had summoned them, as Julien activities. Les Cayes about their political allies, to answer questions and the resulting social chaos. Although feared a free colored revolt in 1789 mostly defended colonial white planters and legal officials resentful petits blancs harm propracism, none ofthem wanted to see to reinforce racial ideofcolor. It was one thing ertied men, regardless flourishing plantations. Wealthy whites ology and another to attack Guillaume Labadie and delay were the ones who intervened to save assured the leaders ofLes Cayes Beaudière's death. François Raimond in the colony, but that his group would not present their grievances only to the French Estates General." class tensions divided the white As the Revolutionary era opened, chiefcommercial ofLes Cayes. The city was the peninsula's in population in the 1770s and 1780s, drawing port and had grown dramatically ofa rich sugar plain with an estabimmigrants. Yet it was also the seat of the century. The town lished creole elite dating to the beginning in the 1740s by visiting had two Masonic lodges, one established that included many of the local British merchants, with a membership three-quarters officers. The second, founded in 1784, was nearly militia relationship with the older metropolitan and had an argumentative 1787.0 describing their actions as "tyrannical"in colonial lodges, of tensions led Les Cayes's poor whites to In 1789, these kinds the antiauthoritarian rhetestablish their own "Patriot" club, reviving white man in a duel 1760s. When a Patriot killed a young oric ofthe tricolor cocarde, a crowd decapitated the for refusing to wearthe new Les Cayes's first Revolutionary corpsc. The 185 citizens who attended 1789 wrote to Paris to ensure that parish assembly on December 8, before the National Assembly the wealthy men representing them to mean "colonial the word "habitant" would interpret ambiguous >ll resident, >) not just "planter." did not fall apart as Despite such divisions, white Saint-Domingue blancs were already where planters and petits quickly as Martinique, 1790. In the larger colony, the at odds in 1789 and embattled by united rich and need to deflect free colored claims to citizenship success and whites until 1791, when free colored political For poor redefined the meaning of the colonial Revolution. slave uprisings the Revolution in whites did their best to monopolize two years, Saint-Domingue. just "planter." did not fall apart as Despite such divisions, white Saint-Domingue blancs were already where planters and petits quickly as Martinique, 1790. In the larger colony, the at odds in 1789 and embattled by united rich and need to deflect free colored claims to citizenship success and whites until 1791, when free colored political For poor redefined the meaning of the colonial Revolution. slave uprisings the Revolution in whites did their best to monopolize two years, Saint-Domingue. --- Page 244 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE gathered in a rented On February 15, 1790, parish representatives government Masonic lodge in Les Cayes to establish a Revolutionary regional complaints, for the South Province. Acting on longstanding henceforth all tax revenues Assembly decreed that this Provincial ordered the formation ofa new regional would be spent locally. They The delegates barred free people security force and a printing press. and created a special white of color from formal parish meetings arriving by ship. militia brigade to monitor political correspondence allow free coloreds to submit Nevertheless, the South Province did white 12 The Provincial Assembly written complaints through a patron. the of the Revolution, free of color on fringes hoped to keep people probably SO that mulatto constables rather than exclude them entirely, assemblies, not to royal military and militiamen would answer to local decided to use officials. In its March 3, 1790 meeting, the assembly how this of a new free colored militia to announce the first muster class could submit its reform suggestions. color acted first. On March 9, But Les Cayes's free people of Chalvière asked to address the the free colored saddle-maker Louis established the Although the assembly had not yet formally deputies. the artisan laid before them a plan that local new free colored militia, including the election of color had devised for such a company, men reform 13 The next day a of officers and the drafting of a petition.' itself the before the assembly, calling free colored troop appeared leaders were Chalvière and Hyacinthe Grenadiers Nationaux. Its another free colored saddle maker and entrepreneur. Bleck, first indication that free men of color would This was the whites' tool. But the deputies still believed they use the militia as a political and institutions. The assembly could control Revolutionary symbols Nationanx but reserved the right to approved Chalvière's Grenadiers and standard bearers. Elsewhere name whites as its quartermasters free men of color Dominguan whites had already tried to prevent Raimond claimed that from wearing the Revolutionary cocarde. that men of color did have this Governor Blanchelande had affirmed of revolutionaries distrusted the governor's support right. But white determined to keep the new militia under free men ofcolor; they were colored Grenadiers did not challenge their command. Les Cayes's free their for they chose a white man as captain." this position, in 1789 free people of color identified Across Saint-Domingue contribution to colonial civic militia service as their most important of color in the North life. In November more than 40 free men Provincial Grande Rivière parish signed a petition to their Province's 15 After describing the importance of their Assembly in Cap Français. to keep the new militia under free men ofcolor; they were colored Grenadiers did not challenge their command. Les Cayes's free their for they chose a white man as captain." this position, in 1789 free people of color identified Across Saint-Domingue contribution to colonial civic militia service as their most important of color in the North life. In November more than 40 free men Provincial Grande Rivière parish signed a petition to their Province's 15 After describing the importance of their Assembly in Cap Français. --- Page 245 --- BEFORE HAITI security, this text characterized whites as class in Saint-Domingue's render to the "despotic": "in scorn ofthe services that we unceasingly become these fathers, like slaves . : and finally colony. They treat us. Rivière's men of color asked the Provincial tyrants to us." Grande and service SO the king and Assembly to inform France oft their loyalty for them "all the benefits French National Assembly would secure to all French 27 They sought the right practice precious to all people. as and faithful subjects, crafts and occupations, to be recognized good class and by men drawn from their own requested to be commanded -slaves)." They to call us affranchis [ex-s <that it be expressly prohibited colonial assemblies and to be exempted asked to participate in the new those required of all citizens. from special work assignments, except colonial reformers had used since Wielding the idealistic language prejudice would only d'Estaing, they asserted that eliminating increase free colored virtue and patriotism. free people of color were In 1789 and 1790, Saint-Domingue's The emergence ofthat pubdetermined to enter the colonial public. of white citizenship, lic after 1769 had solidified the new Bellecombe idcology had tried to temper though governors like d'Estaing and in 1789 that ifthe Revolution racism. Free men of color recognized administrators, control ofthe white Patriots, rather than military the gave would be nothing to check prejudice. Already, colony, there the West had forced men of color there to Provincial Assembly of in the frontier and respect for the whites, though swear fidelity and Petite Rivière free colored militiamen parishes of Vérrettes refused to obey map 8.1.16 were less assertive, but by the In the South Province free coloreds Labadie's house for incrimwhites ransacked Guillaume time Aquin's most successful indigo planters was inating papers, one ofthat parish's controversy in Paris. making racism the central colonial Julien Raimond Beginning in 1784, when he arrived in France, Naval Ministry to alone to convince the spent five years working from the Angoumois region in reform colonial racial laws. Traveling ex-colonial officials like the western France to meet with sympathetic the Aquin planter had former Naval Minister de Castries in Bordeaux, Pierre Brissot close allies in the metropole. In 1788 Jacques-T no of the Friends ofthe Blacks but until formed the abolitionist Society with Raimond, who was, August 1789 this group had no connection 100 slaves in the abolitionist.' 17 He and his wife still owned as yet, no colony. to the old colonial system explain This isolation and attachment events. He continued Raimond's slow reaction to early Revolutionary --- Page 246 --- TORTUGA 2 Atlantic Ocean Cuba Santo Domingo Cap Français Saint-Dominguer Jamaica Puerto Rico Caribbean Sea 500 km -Curaçao SANTO 300 miles - 9 a 3s CA DOMINGO Parish LA GONAVE( boundary Grand Rivière LES Petit Rivière CAYEMITTES Port-au2 Verrettes Prince ( Petit Goave Torbec Port Salut Saint Louis, Aquin V2 100 km Les Cayes Jacmel 50 miles Source: David Geggus, Slavery, War, and Revolution Map 8.1 Parishes Where Free Men of Color Protested Election Exclusion in 1790-91. - 9 a 3s CA DOMINGO Parish LA GONAVE( boundary Grand Rivière LES Petit Rivière CAYEMITTES Port-au2 Verrettes Prince ( Petit Goave Torbec Port Salut Saint Louis, Aquin V2 100 km Les Cayes Jacmel 50 miles Source: David Geggus, Slavery, War, and Revolution Map 8.1 Parishes Where Free Men of Color Protested Election Exclusion in 1790-91. --- Page 247 --- BEFORE HAITI in Versailles even after the fall ofthe Bastille, to meet with bureaucrats Then, in late July 1789 in traveling back and forth from Angoumois. record his claim to be an he hired a notary to Jarnac, near Angoulême, free people of color. Raimond official delegate of Saint-Domingue's would have that a formal meeting in the colony prompted explained suspicions," > SO he possessed no written charge from "disadvantageous transferred his representative powers his constituents. But he formally the Count de Jarnac. Jarnac, who to Charles de Rohan-Chabot, Raimond's with the owned lands nearby had heard of correspondence him with his case. The colonial ministry, and volunteered to help the Estates General nobleman agreed to present free colored claims to of mixed that would legally *whiten" persons and work for a law like Raimond himself. of legitimacy, blood with two generations friends in Aquin for more informaJarnac even wrote to Raimond's tion. But his sponsorship produced nothing. moved to Paris weeks later. On Perhaps anticipating this, Raimond and met with the president of the August 25 he appeared at Versailles The following National Assembly about free colored representation. his reform ideas he spoke at the Hotel Massiac in Paris, describing day absentee planters meeting there. Although to a group of conservative Raimond might generate in they recognized the positive response at racial categories." 19 France, these men saw no reason to chip away wealthy Dominguan Vincent Ogé was another exceptionally occurred. Though living in France when the Revolution meetquarteron evidence that the two men knew each other before there is no Raimond's instinct to search out white ing in Paris, Ogé shared Raimond's he too and allies. Within days of presentation that patrons distributing a printed "Motion" appeared at the Hotel Massiac, referred to Saint- Domingue's neither mentioned his racial status nor and landlord based in Cap free people of color. A wholesale merchant and "native" himselfas a colonial proprietor Français, Ogé portrayed and deflecting the disaster interested in protecting "our properties" and prothat "menaces us."' >2 He attacked administrative colonial despotism planters and commercial reforms that would benefit "for all posed that he believed that liberty was merchants. Yet he admitted eventually. He claimed to have a men" and should be given to them, from the abyss over which this and save the colony plan to accomplish Massiac colonists were unresponsive. it tottered,20 The better from another men of color got a reception The two wealthy On 29, 1789, 30 free people colonial group meeting in Paris. August Louis Hector de Joly, ofcolor had assembled in the offices of Etienne-) of Parisian Parisian barrister. The group consisted largely a white chants. Yet he admitted eventually. He claimed to have a men" and should be given to them, from the abyss over which this and save the colony plan to accomplish Massiac colonists were unresponsive. it tottered,20 The better from another men of color got a reception The two wealthy On 29, 1789, 30 free people colonial group meeting in Paris. August Louis Hector de Joly, ofcolor had assembled in the offices of Etienne-) of Parisian Parisian barrister. The group consisted largely a white --- Page 248 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE led by a master saddle-maker and a perfumer. artisans and domestics, drawn their own proposal for racial By September 8 they had up Massiac. On September 12, reform and submitted it to the Hotel Ogé, and after extending invitations to Raimond, they met again, of color in the capital. Raimond's influence on other colonial people apparent. 21 At the ofthis group was immediately the political strategy de announced a campaign to first meeting he attended, the Joly group > While six million livres to the Revolution as a "patriotic gift." donate Chalvière and Bleck in Les Cayes were emphasizartisans of color like Raimond fell back on the ing their civic virtue as national guardsmen, planters had used to argue same cliberal virtue" arguments wealthy that Raimond figmilitary rule. Vincent Ogé later explained in against produced 120 million livres ured that Saint-Domingue's economy controlled about one-third ofthis, profit and that free people of color the Revolution one 24 million. The Aquin planter proposed to give or million. On September 22 the group chose quarter oft this sum, or six and third deputies to the assembly, Raimond and Ogé as its second behind de Joly, the white lawyer2 between September 28 and These leaders returned to Versailles the National Assembly. October 10, 1789, requesting time to address the 22 de Joly spoke to the deputies in a speech printed On October 19 times in 9 pages that men of color version of which proclaimed under the yoke of oppression." > *Frenchmen who groan were citizens, Declaration of the Rights of The speech drew heavily on the still-new inalienable based on "these rights Man and Citizen, emphasizing 22 Free people of color were natural nature and the social contract. in their own country." *Americans, >> who "live as foreigners dismen, like French aristocrats, had created "outrageous Colonial whites, de Joly underscored tinctions between citizens ofthe same country." and to donate six million free colored readiness to defend the nation livres to the Revolution. 23 colored printed its reform Simultaneously, the Parisian free group Credentials and de Joly delivered them to the assembly's proposals advocated eliminating racial distinctions Committee. The document there would be only free men and from the law, SO that in the colonies writings, it offered a slaves. Yet, like Raimond's pre-Revolutionary All slaves with white ancestry racial definition of French identity. of whether these "mulattos" would be freed. Avoiding discussion the Parisian group instead were more European or more African, and Ogé "American." >> From about the time Raimond labeled them began to call itself F"The Society of joined its ranks, de Joly's group Boisrond Colonists. > By July 1790 Aquin's Louis-François American writings, it offered a slaves. Yet, like Raimond's pre-Revolutionary All slaves with white ancestry racial definition of French identity. of whether these "mulattos" would be freed. Avoiding discussion the Parisian group instead were more European or more African, and Ogé "American." >> From about the time Raimond labeled them began to call itself F"The Society of joined its ranks, de Joly's group Boisrond Colonists. > By July 1790 Aquin's Louis-François American --- Page 249 --- BEFORE HAITI colonists." 29 As the term, referring to whites as <French had adopted were a new and natural people, not the "Americans," 99 people of color their enemies asserted.24" The degenerate product oftwo pure races, as on the double identity movement was drawing free colored political Boisrond. They were not a mixture of of planters like Raimond and both creoles and French. Africans and Europeans: they were "J.M.C. American" sometime in by A pamphlet published thrust of this claim to be new people, taking up the captured the full Like Raimond's first themes of natural virtue and public spiritedness. des this Précis des gémissemens sang-mélés memorandum to Castries, of the agonies of mixed blood dans les colonies françaises (Summary long standing criticisms of people in the French colonies) seized upon than Eastern despots, for colonial behavior. Planters were little better >9 Echoing travel are nearly all harems for their owners. "the plantations the "Summary" accused Dominguan writers like Girod de Chantrans, ambition they condemned whites ofthe same tyranny and unchecked explained the rise of in colonial administrators. These characteristics colonists had deceived the govcolor prejudice. In their lust and greed, color with slaves. These families ernment into confusing free people of showed that they were were not African but French; their color "scandalous simply mores" who pro- "American." It was planters, with their still in slavery, many of whom they kept duced a mixed-race people, in French blood." J.M.C. recomcreating an "infamous commerce for all mixed-blood children born mended the establishment of a home their white fathers as to be financed by fines levied against into slavery, Raimond's arguments to the proposed by the Code Noir. Taking of sexualpublic, the Summary used images tropical pamphlet-reading not attack, the free population ity and colonial inhumanity to defend, native subjects ofthe King ofcolor. These people were <fond and loyal subjects to agriculture, [régnicoles) as valuable as other, European >25 commerce, crafts and population. and the stereotypes of sexual degeneracy, forcignness, In rejecting Colonists" tapped a current in French parasitism, the <American than abolitionism. What did political culture that had far more power religious controversies it mean to be French? Before the Revolution, From 1787, widened the definition of French citizenship. had with other royal subjects. But if Protestants had full civil equality made someone residence and obedience," not religion, "parentage, remained an obstacle. French-born Sephardic French, ethnic identity and, in Bordeaux, some had Jews had argued that they were régnicoles General. Many qualified as even stood for election to the Estates the terms of the 1791 "active citizens" with voting rights under far more power religious controversies it mean to be French? Before the Revolution, From 1787, widened the definition of French citizenship. had with other royal subjects. But if Protestants had full civil equality made someone residence and obedience," not religion, "parentage, remained an obstacle. French-born Sephardic French, ethnic identity and, in Bordeaux, some had Jews had argued that they were régnicoles General. Many qualified as even stood for election to the Estates the terms of the 1791 "active citizens" with voting rights under --- Page 250 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE independently employed, financially solvent, Constitution by being taxes equal to the value of serving in the National Guard, and paying born in French territory, like three days' work. But adult male Jews citizens. >26 free men of color, could not be more than "passive Raimond surely neighbors in Aquin, With his many Sephardic and free colored disenfranchiseappreciated the similarity of Jewish that allowed him to ment. In fact, it may have been this appreciation of colonial affairs. the Abbé Henri Grégoire into the arena bring described Grégoire's writings as the most important Raimond later success in Paris, and he was ingredient of free colored political conditions. The Abbé was a Grégoire's chiefinformant about colonial Committee, which member of the National Assembly's Credentials 1789 considered how for 12 sessions in October and November It was probably in France'scolonial population should be represented. 27 that Raimond and Grégoire met. these gatherings Grégoire had little knowledge of or Like many of his compatriots, 1789. Instead, he was known as an interest in colonial affairs before home of eastern France. advocate of Jewish assimilation in his region Sephardic Ashkenazic Jews were more numerous than Bordeaux'sS These also less assimilated. They lived in ghettos, were population and were and often did not speak French. prohibited from many occupations, French Ashkenazim emphasized their Eightenth-century descriptions ofl that colonists characterized Saintforeignness in many of the same ways said to be physically weak, Domingue's free people of color. They were noted that "They parasitic, and effeminate. Even Grégoire >> lazy, greedy, beards, a normal sign ofa a feminine temperament.' almost all have sparse moral and political regeneration ofthe But his 1788 Esay on the plysical, had produced most of the Jews' Jems argued that prejudice, not nature, reformers, Grégoire believed undesirable characteristics. Like colonial make Jews more loyal and discriminatory laws would that repealing he advocated Attaching little value to their Jewishness, < 'members productive," into French society. Jews were integrating the Ashkenazim make the brotherhood ofa all people : ofthat universal family which up all excuses for loathing your children of the same father, turn away cradle." >>29 will all one day be united in the same brothers, [you] had been moving Before the Revolution, the royal government Nevertheless, in 1789 most ofthe Ashkenazim. toward emancipation General saw little connection between representatives to the Estates considered this a regional the Revolution and Jewish citizenship; they like questions about best resolved by local authorities, controversy Raimond and Grégoire helped transform such "mulatto" rights.30 Revolution. local issues into symbols oft the larger father, turn away cradle." >>29 will all one day be united in the same brothers, [you] had been moving Before the Revolution, the royal government Nevertheless, in 1789 most ofthe Ashkenazim. toward emancipation General saw little connection between representatives to the Estates considered this a regional the Revolution and Jewish citizenship; they like questions about best resolved by local authorities, controversy Raimond and Grégoire helped transform such "mulatto" rights.30 Revolution. local issues into symbols oft the larger --- Page 251 --- BEFORE HAITI wanted little to do with free men of color or Grégoire, originally, in Paris with Raimond and the abolitionists. However, his meetings his mind. Although the "American Colonists" seem to have Memorandum changed in favor of't the Jews, text of his October 1789 pamphlet criticized those who probably written in August or September, behalf of slaves or mulattos, an ignored the plight of Jews to fight on acknowledged that the introduction written just before publication had dropped By February 1790 Grégoire >31 two causes were equivalent. work with the "American Colonists. his efforts on behalfofJ Jews to ofthe Friends ofthe Blacks began Over the same period, the Society free colored efforts to win reprevisible role in to play an increasingly Assembly. De Joly was a member of sentation in the French National Brissot in the the Friends and served with its founder Jacques-Pierre the <American of Paris. Nevertheless, Revolutionary city government with the abolitionist society until Colonists" did not formally ally ofthe society were extremely November 25, 1789. Individual members Even the British abolitionist busy in September and October 1789. London on August 7 to help the Thomas Clarkson, who arrived from had difficulty scheduling a meeting. fledgling French society, Brissot's journal Le Patriote Français began On October 9, 1789, to win representation at the to report on the free colored campaign between the men ofcolor and National Assembly, signaling an alliance 22, Raimond, Ogé, and Sometime before October the abolitionists. house. On the other men of color dined with Clarkson at Lafayette's Assembly to present before the National eve of de Joly's appearance Patriote Français confidently predicted free colored credentials, the free colored representation." ofthe Credentials Committee decided Grégoire and other members But did have a legitimate claim to representation. that the Colonists this report and attacked planter interests in the Assembly suppressed as hypocritical. On Raimond's emphasis on people of mixed-race bar ofthe offrec blacks came to the public November 29, 1789,a group by colonial planters, this National Assembly. Presumably organized "American Colonists" of accused the predominately mulatto offergroup Raimond'sp proposed six million livres gift by racism. They mocked the "American Colonists" ing to donate twice as much. In response, free blacks comprised recruited new members. Within three months, In December 1789 the group produced nearly half their company. themselves as tyrannized citizens. In another pamphlet describing colonial laws from 1685 to 1779 had been 21 pages they showed how ofthe Code Noir. The result was designed to bypass the letter and spirit as slaves. >34 thousand Frenchmen have been categorized that "forty six million livres gift by racism. They mocked the "American Colonists" ing to donate twice as much. In response, free blacks comprised recruited new members. Within three months, In December 1789 the group produced nearly half their company. themselves as tyrannized citizens. In another pamphlet describing colonial laws from 1685 to 1779 had been 21 pages they showed how ofthe Code Noir. The result was designed to bypass the letter and spirit as slaves. >34 thousand Frenchmen have been categorized that "forty --- Page 252 --- ORIGINS OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION Grégoire also published a pamphlet in late connections in his mind between Jewish 1789, reflecting the nial controversy, Two months after his regeneration and this coloJewshe released a Memorandum in Memorandum in favor ofthe bloods of St.- -Domingue and the other favor ofthe people afcolor or mixedproposed French islands of. admitting to the National Assembly five America. He deputies elected by the ofthe free colored depended "American Colonists. 29 The heavily on Raimond's pamphlet listed the burdens borne by the pre-Revolutionary free writings. Grégoire tia and maréchaussée people of color: mandatory miliduty, humiliating racial against practicing certain professions, labels, and prohibitions with whites, dancing after 9 taking European names, eating public position. Grégoire p.m., using a carriage, or serving in used Raimond's any stripped naked at the church door by officials description of women laws. The militia gave white men the enforcing sumptuary color, including the power ofa a "vizier" over men of ability to seduce their wives and they were away. Men of color were the daughters while mores" and their filial ones with "admirable domestic toward the whites. piety, "nearly unheard ofa among us," extended ored female Grégoire did not deny the of sexual immorality, but stereotype free colmorally guilty too, of pointed out that whites were ending racial neglecting their children. 35 He concluded that prejudice would benefit and militarily. Saint-Domingue economically Despite Raimond'sinfluence, color went far beyond what the Memorandum in favor ofthe people of second half of his pamphlet, indigo planter had proposed. In the trade and the Grégoire predicted the end oft the slave possibility of slave revolt, Mercier's 1770 prediction ofa "Black drawing on Sebastien "Yes, the cry ofliberty resounds Spartacus' 2 in the slave colonies. in the two Othello, a Padrejean, to awaken in the soul worlds; it requires only an oft their inalienable rights. >36 The ofthe blacks the sentiment had long believed: attacks text confirmed what many colonists This on racism were attacks on put Raimond, as a colonial planter, in an slavery. October 1789 his brother awkward position. In Revolution would lead François had written of his worries that to slave revolt. Yet the the Raimond was vaguely by end ofthe year Julien colonial alluding in print to the eventual slaves, never mentioning that he was still freedom of labor of 100 enslaved men, profiting from the explained in 1792, after the slave women, and children. 37 As Raimond accused him of always revolt of1791 colonists in Paris had intending to free "One could hardly suppose that I wanted Saint-Domingue's slaves. my entire family which owns 7 to ruin, witha single stroke, to 8 million worth of property in by end ofthe year Julien colonial alluding in print to the eventual slaves, never mentioning that he was still freedom of labor of 100 enslaved men, profiting from the explained in 1792, after the slave women, and children. 37 As Raimond accused him of always revolt of1791 colonists in Paris had intending to free "One could hardly suppose that I wanted Saint-Domingue's slaves. my entire family which owns 7 to ruin, witha single stroke, to 8 million worth of property in --- Page 253 --- BEFORE HAITI his family's worth, >38 This statement exaggerated Saint- Domingue. colonial affairs in this period reveal no abolibut it was true that their 12, 1789, for example, Raimond's tionist sympathies. On September creole slave woman to a sold a 45-year-old white plantation manager her and free her. Raimond constable in Aquin, who wanted to marry livres for the sale. 39 In received the unusually high price of 4,000 indigo, cotton, and August 1790 he and his wife sold their colonial livres which included 100 slaves valued at 2,000 provision grounds continued to deal in slaves. In early each. 40 In fact, Raimond's family Challe returned to the 1791 his 26-year-old stepson Jacques-Joseph under Raimond's from France after completing his education colony Challe sold the indigo plantation and direction. In June of that year black to a white 28 slaves he had inherited from his free grandmother Raimond's younger planter for 152,716 livres. On January 9, 1793, Africans, from a Guillaume bought 30 slaves, most of them brother livres. 41 white planter for 90,000 broad outlines of the political position By the end of 1789, the had emerged. Rebuffed by taken by the free people of color in Paris forces with the white absentee planters, the American Colonists joined the of Although this alliance raised question Friends of the Blacks. the white purity slavery's future, the Colonists focused on overturning of ministeideology of colonial Patriots. When colonists complained of the the American Colonists exposed "the tyranny rial despotism, When whites offered stereowhites, their despotism, their cruelty." that colonists ofmulatto libertinage, the people ofcolor charged types and irresponsible fathers. 42 were sexual predators Raimond accused whites of sexual When Grégoire, Brissot, and of colonial civil rights in immorality, they framed the exotic question Planters in Paris were revolutionaries. terms accessible to metropolitan Moreau de Saint-Méry anonyobliged to respond. Late in 1789, Grégoire and Raimond. He mously published a pamphlet attacking white men and women of claimed that < This illicit contact [between is evil in the which offends morality and religion a >43 necessary color] vices." But the argument it greater colonies . . [where] prevents demanded a new morality that tropical heat or plantation agriculture intellectuals and magistrates only brought up a dilemma facing colonial different since 1763. If free Dominguan society was fundamentally French liberties? If the from France, how could colonists demand social relations then percolony's tropical environment SO determined Answering Moreau, haps the colony did need despotic government. of these lands that each the Abbé Cournand asked, "Is it the nature of color be mistresses of plantation be a harem, and that all women greater colonies . . [where] prevents demanded a new morality that tropical heat or plantation agriculture intellectuals and magistrates only brought up a dilemma facing colonial different since 1763. If free Dominguan society was fundamentally French liberties? If the from France, how could colonists demand social relations then percolony's tropical environment SO determined Answering Moreau, haps the colony did need despotic government. of these lands that each the Abbé Cournand asked, "Is it the nature of color be mistresses of plantation be a harem, and that all women --- Page 254 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE about what was natural in Messieurs the whites?" This question answer. 44 was one that colonists could not easily Saint-Domingue Parisian deputies had begun to consider the Moreover, by this time In between ethnic identity and French citizenship. the relationship Credential Committee heard October 1789, while Grégoire's debated Jewish status. The prosAmerican Colonists, other deputies in the families of Bordeaux had already participated perous Sephardic while in Paris more than one hunelections for the Estates General, reserved for full or dred Jews were in the National Guard, a duty Assembly voted "active" citizens. On January 28, 1790, the National Sephardim. The complete citizenship to financially qualified to grant of the National Guard made Marquis de Lafayette, whose leadership voted for the measure, him a symbol of the regenerated nation, The status ofthe Jews of eastern though there was serious opposition. Attached to a different France was left unresolved, for the moment. remained a "foreign" language, dress, and culture, the Ashkenazim population. at the Hotel Massiac argued The conservative absentee planters one that only the that free colored citizenship was a similar issue, Assembly, the themselves could resolve. In the National colonies Committees all claimed overlapCredentials, Naval, and Agricultural To resolve the confusion, on ping jurisdiction over this question. with 1790 the assembly created a Colonial Committee, March 2, mostly from planter or commercial constituenmembers were drawn recommended that the deputies approve a cies. Six days later they between the colonies and the metroloose constitutional relationship Assemblies would write local laws and pole. "Freely elected" Colonial Assembly. Ministerial decrees supply delegates to the French National readily The approved rule the colonists. deputies would no longer ofthe Friends ofthe Blacks tried to speak these terms. When members they were shouted down. 46 and others, speeches and pamphlets by de Joly, Grégoire, Despite March 8 report said nothing about whether qualified the committee's to vote in colonial elections. To clarmen of color would be allowed Committee drafted an the Colonial ify its recommendation, the on March 28, "Instruction" to the colonies that assembly approved race either, But this document offered no clear verdict on 1790. for "citizens" in describing mercly substituting the word "persons" that the eligible colonial voters. Grégoire asked specifically to "all free Article 4 be rewritten to open the franchise Instruction's ? But the Assembly voted to end discussion persons without exception. 47 without clarifying the issue. in colonial elections. To clarmen of color would be allowed Committee drafted an the Colonial ify its recommendation, the on March 28, "Instruction" to the colonies that assembly approved race either, But this document offered no clear verdict on 1790. for "citizens" in describing mercly substituting the word "persons" that the eligible colonial voters. Grégoire asked specifically to "all free Article 4 be rewritten to open the franchise Instruction's ? But the Assembly voted to end discussion persons without exception. 47 without clarifying the issue. --- Page 255 --- BEFORE HAITI interpretation of Article 4 domiFor the next two years, conflicting Even colonial opponents of racial political life. nated Saint-Domingue's Assembly for a clearer statement, before equality asked the National limited citizenship to whites. In proceeding to an interpretation that later insisted they believed that the Paris, Brissot, Grégoire, and de Joly qualified men of shift from "citizens" to "persons" had enfranchised Le Point de to Raimond, at least two Parisian journals, 48 color. According Article 4 the same way.* Jourand Le Journal de Paris, interpreted 10, 1790, Raimond sent Yet he recognized the ambiguity. On April about Article 4,19 his own instructions to his colonial correspondents his friends were to draw up Ifwhites did recognize free colored rights, assemblies reform proposals and present them to colonial their own >> If, on the other hand, local whites with "decency and respectability." above all that his obstructed free colored rights, he recommended to conduct their Nevertheless, they were neighbors remain orderly. to the French National own district meetings, swear an oath ofloyalty to France. Assembly, and choose three men of color to travel in Paris than to act on it It was easier to advise this course of action Colonial Assembly In 1790 whites clected a in Saint-Domingue. The *Patriots," 29 which met in the city of Saint-Marc. dominated by legislative body, Saint-Marc Assembly declared itself a sovereign It ofthe Governor and many colonists. prohibited despite the protests forced men ofcolor to sign an oath ofloyfree colored meetings and 1790 the Saint-Marc Assembly alty and submission. On May 20, from full citizenship, voted to exclude all men of African ancestry color. 50 including whites who had married women of ties to France, was The North Province, with its close mercantile in Saint-Marc. especially incensed by discussions of independence In Les Cayes the But the South Province was more supportive. the former captain ofthe assembly summoned Jacques Boury, parish militia whose acquiescence to the government's Torbec free colored movement. Nearly 1769 reforms had helped topple the anti-militia formed the Grenadiers months after local men of color had two informed Boury that it was "lunacy Nationaux, the parish deputies march in the same rank as your beneto believe that you might ever in all public offices or factors, your former masters, or participate colored obedience and fidelity. public rights. >9 Boury promised free Raimond in a mixture of disgust Louis-François Boisrond wrote to and despair. humiliations of the whites to bear the imperious It is no longer possible the right to govern us They will only who have illegally assumed months after local men of color had two informed Boury that it was "lunacy Nationaux, the parish deputies march in the same rank as your beneto believe that you might ever in all public offices or factors, your former masters, or participate colored obedience and fidelity. public rights. >9 Boury promised free Raimond in a mixture of disgust Louis-François Boisrond wrote to and despair. humiliations of the whites to bear the imperious It is no longer possible the right to govern us They will only who have illegally assumed --- Page 256 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE designation of enemics of the acknowledge us . under the insulting suffered SO many arbitrary public good Never before have we humiliations."1 to such messages was to describe his Raimond's standard reply patience. But this quality was progress in Paris and recommend Free men of color believed white increasingly scarce in the colony. from France, perhaps official messages Patriots were intercepting 1790, free men of color along the about their citizenship. In July the March 28 realizing that whites would not interpret southern coast, formed committees as Raimond had Instruction to include them, did however. According to advised. Aquin's free people of color letters not, and he was in danger of Boisrond, Patriots had intercepted his Saint-Marc Assembly and white mayor supported the arrest. Aquin's wealthy men of color were under surveillance. and Saint Louis, However in Cavaillon parish, between Les Cayes brother-in-law met under the leadership of Boisrond's 35 men ofcolor they identified Julien Pierre Braquehais. 53 In a formal petition the authority of in Paris and rejected Raimond as their representative Frenchmen, proprietors, and colonial assemblies over them, "as good where >54 A similar committee met in Les Cayes parish, full citizens. They praised the efforts Boisrond and Braquehais also had property. that the Saint-Marc ofthe Friends ofthe Blacks in Paris but explained had ever been. Like had made racism far worse than it Assembly this group accused Saint-Marc of Raimond's other correspondents, insisted *whatever happens, . . we aspiring to independence. They free committee sent a Frenchmen.' ? The Les Cayes colored will die as commander. Speaking for all declaration to this effect to the provincial colonial authority could that no citizens of color, they proclaimed orders of 8 and 28 March.s abrogate the National Assembly's of this July 1790 committee, Most of the identifiable members Pierre Boisrond, and his brother-in-law men like Louis-François members ofl light-skinned famiBraquehais, were literate and wealthy member, Hyacinthe Bleck, lies that had long lived in freedom. Another wealth in the not a planter, but had rapidly acquired was an artisan, secretary and eventually most famous 1780s. However, the group's 1793 he would become member, André Rigaud, was much poorer. By But in July and leader ofthe southern peninsula. the military political status was exceedingly fragile. 1790 Rigaud's legal and economic of Rigaud's attachment These difficulties may explain at least some also named André the Revolution. His father was a white man to minor court official in Les Cayes since at Rigaud, who had served as not a planter, but had rapidly acquired was an artisan, secretary and eventually most famous 1780s. However, the group's 1793 he would become member, André Rigaud, was much poorer. By But in July and leader ofthe southern peninsula. the military political status was exceedingly fragile. 1790 Rigaud's legal and economic of Rigaud's attachment These difficulties may explain at least some also named André the Revolution. His father was a white man to minor court official in Les Cayes since at Rigaud, who had served as --- Page 257 --- BEFORE HAITI His mother was a black woman named "Rose Dessa least the 1760s. In 1769, as colonial racial laws grew or Bossi," >) perhaps an ex-slave. of attorney to his the senior André Rigaud gave power more rigorous, over his son André, for Haitian trasister in Poitou, perhaps to watch educated and trained as a dition holds that the future general was tradition places in Bordeaux or Marseilles. The same goldsmith Georgia in 1779 in d'Estaing's expeRigaud and Bleck at Savannah, to Les Cayes, where he purdition. By 1784 Rigaud had returned In the contract house divided into two apartments. chased a modest had nothing to write after the required for this transaction, the notary his liberty by deed formula that described Rigaud as "having proven of his freedom, >56 If he were, in fact, without proof dated [blank]." of returning to slavery, whatever his André Rigaud was in danger education and travels. challenge because of Free men of color in Les Cayes faced a special Patriot movement. In the strength of the regional capital's petit blanc Saint-Marc in denouncing August 1790 Les Cayes's Patriots supported On August 1, royal officials and local notables as coumterreolutionaries elected a new municipal gov1790 when the Les Cayes parish assembly Club loudly opposed several ernment, members of the city's Patriotic judge worth about nominees, like Philippe Collet, a well-connected meanwhile, Patriots 450,000 livres. In the streets of Port-au-Prince, in the capital as royal troops. Interpreting this struggle rioted against the Saint-Marc Assembly called for evidence of counterrevolution, Instead of leaving, he called in Governor Blanchelande's removal. to close down the assisted by free colored militiamen, royal troops, deputies found a ship willing to Saint-Marc Assembly. Eight-four believed the National Assembly transport them to France where they them. They arrived in Paris in October 1790.57 would vindicate divided whites in Les Cayes. The Patriotic These events further that revoluthere convinced the newly elected city government Club needed rescue, though city officers later tionaries in Port-au-Prince Members of the white canceled a planned march to the capital. the Patriots described National Guard harassed Judge Collet, whom 200 men attacked a of the old regime. In Torbec parish as a partisan named Caudère, after intercepting his retired army officer and planter Blanchelande. They shot Caudère, correspondence with Governor fire. The crowd paraded his ravaged his house, and set his fields on officers of the royal regiment head through town, taunting the stationed in Les Cayes. 58 Assembly that Another aspect of the closing of the Saint-Marc colored militiamen. white Patriots was the role of free troubled let, whom 200 men attacked a of the old regime. In Torbec parish as a partisan named Caudère, after intercepting his retired army officer and planter Blanchelande. They shot Caudère, correspondence with Governor fire. The crowd paraded his ravaged his house, and set his fields on officers of the royal regiment head through town, taunting the stationed in Les Cayes. 58 Assembly that Another aspect of the closing of the Saint-Marc colored militiamen. white Patriots was the role of free troubled --- Page 258 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE the first anniversary of the In France, as July 14, 1790 approached, France swore their brotherRevolution, National Guardsmen across the regeneration of the hood in Federation ceremonies symbolizing whites denied that free colored nation. But in the Antilles colonial celebrate the triumph ofrevmilitiamen were virtuous, or deserved to de Saint-Méry, in June fraternity. According to Moreau olutionary blancs castrated a twelve-year-old boy during 1790 Martiniquan petits in a Revolutionary riot free colored militiamen participating a against described the act as <barbarity" representative of ceremony." Moreau which apparently was not *the popular furor." But this mutilation, either for Moreau who fatal, ifin fact it did occur, was surely symbolic, regard for it or for those who executed it. France's growing reported threatened the colonial myth of free colored virtuous citizen-soldiers The emasculation of a mulatto sloth and devotion to pleasure. their soldiering, would not be child warned that men of color, for all admitted into the fraternity ofthe Revolution. soldiers with royal troops in The participation of 300 free colored white fears in SaintAssembly fed these same closing the Saint-Marc 1790, the mayor of Aquin warned a Domingue. In early September alliance between overneighboring municipality against a "deadly" them ofcolor and royal officials, and tried to persuade confident men racial subordination. The leaders of to adopt a strict position on Blanchelande for extending the hope Cavaillon also blamed Governor should be kept in order and of citizenship "to these people who subordination." >60 Parisian abolitionists In fact, it was Julien Raimond by convincing who was giving men like him attack racism, instead of slavery, to help Boury the hope of citizenship. In October André Rigaud and Jacques "In a century of enlightenment 1790, he advised his correspondents: and well substantiated and philosophy, well established arguments than bayonets and cannons facts are more likely to defeat prejudice those words, his colleague are." >7 Yet at the moment Raimond wrote Leaving Paris after Vincent Ogé was sailing back to Saint-Domingue. Instruction of March 28, 1790, the National Assembly's ambiguous in October 1790, just as Ogé arrived in his native North province Colonial Assembly. Claiming whites were preparing to elect a new Governor Blanchelande demanded that France's will was clear, Ogé 61 At the same time, he tried to allow qualified men of color to vote. Saint-Domingue to convince other wealthy men of color across defend his demands. of these plans, Raimond later claimed to know nothing Although political network. He possessed copies of Ogé tried to use Raimond's National Assembly's ambiguous in October 1790, just as Ogé arrived in his native North province Colonial Assembly. Claiming whites were preparing to elect a new Governor Blanchelande demanded that France's will was clear, Ogé 61 At the same time, he tried to allow qualified men of color to vote. Saint-Domingue to convince other wealthy men of color across defend his demands. of these plans, Raimond later claimed to know nothing Although political network. He possessed copies of Ogé tried to use Raimond's --- Page 259 --- BEFORE HAITI including petitions and resolutions Raimond's correspondence, and Torbec parishes. When drafted by his contacts in Les Cayes in Paris, it was Ogé who Guillaume Labadie of Aquin wrote to de Joly from him. was not successful in rallying support wrote back to Ogé colonial authorities were convinced Raimond's home parish, though testified that he had spoken of he had sympathizers there. Witnesses sailed from France directly to Aquin, 27 men of color from Paris who Other Parisian men of color landing near the Montbrun plantation. Dumoulin plantation. In fact were allegedly hiding on Aquin's free men of Montbrun and Dumoulin were prominent, light-skinned there in October color in Aquin. 62 But no disturbances were reported and November 1790. Ogé failed to inspire free men of In the West Province as well, of free men from color. On October 29, 1790, a group prominent were informed Ogé that his letters to authorities Port-au-Prince and have a bad effect. 27 While he was *written in imprudent terms may Assembly, they asked him to challenging the governor and Colonial with documents proving that come to the isolated parish ofMirebalais Paris had given them citizenship." 63 in the Southern parish known Ogé did find collaborators, however, of' Torbec. In 1769, in this Salut, which had once been part as Port ofcolor had kidnapped the free colored very district, angry free people former militia captain, to pressure the planter Jacques Boury, their militia reform. Before leaving royal government to drop a controversial contacts in this parish Raimond had developed political for France, his leading colonial supand, in 1789, he named Elie Boury among wrote to Governor In early November 1790, Elie Boury contestaporters. letter that decades of political Blanchelande, in a represented Simultaneously with Ogé in the tion by the free coloreds ofhis district. Governor enforce Article 4 in North Province, Boury insisted that the When local whites Assembly's March 28 instructions. the National these demands, Boury and his supporters, threatened him for making from another family prominent in the including Jean-Jacques Dasque, ofthe free mulatto 1769 revolt, retreated to the mountain plantation from Les Cayes. 64 Léon Proux in the mountains about 4 leagues free men ofcolor were Within days, between six and eight hundred city and Proux's land. Many came from the neighboring camped on André Rigaud, the secretary ofthe free parish ofLes Cayes, including Raimond was later found in colored committee whose letter to Julien the Proux estate repelled Ogé's baggage. On November 13, 1790, from Les Cayes, with two attack four to five hundred whites an by 65 On November 17, Governor deaths and eight other casualties. leagues free men ofcolor were Within days, between six and eight hundred city and Proux's land. Many came from the neighboring camped on André Rigaud, the secretary ofthe free parish ofLes Cayes, including Raimond was later found in colored committee whose letter to Julien the Proux estate repelled Ogé's baggage. On November 13, 1790, from Les Cayes, with two attack four to five hundred whites an by 65 On November 17, Governor deaths and eight other casualties. --- Page 260 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE reinforcements from Port-au-Prince, but, Blanchelande sent military stressed the need to use diplomacy. In like his predecessors in 1769, only when royal the standoff lasted over two weeks, ending fact, anxious to avoid bloodshed, promised troops arrived. Their colonel, and to return their weapons the free men of color complete amnesty to them, after they swore a loyalty oath. out differently, proving Events in Ogé's North province turned to discuss royal authorities in the South were willing that although whites elsewhere would fight such a change. Ogé free colored equality, Or perhaps he adopted a have realized this from the beginning. may what Stewart King describes as a premilitary identity to appeal to leadership class" in the North Revolutionary free colored "military from France, Ogé Province. For even before his secret departure officer. He wore a uniform, represented himself as a National Guard while visiting the Sèvres the mark of full Revolutionary citizenship, through November works outside Paris. From September porcelain mother in the colony and to his sisters in 1789, he wrote to his and "infantry colonel." Bordeaux, signing his name as "commandant" three medals from the commission and He purchased a colonel's commissioned a portrait ofhimself Prince of Limburg, and may have Cross of Saint-Louis, colonel's uniform wearing the prestigious in a militia officers. Colonists later described often awarded to colonial National Guard, while others Ogé as an officer in the Bordeaux Guard. From October 1790 until claimed he had served in the Paris and carried with him several his capture in January 1791, Ogé wore and all with buttons bearing the uniforms, some with gold epaulets arms ofthe city of Paris. 66 his uniform or his political ideas, Whether they were inspired by the Grande Rivière parish gathmore than 300 offree men of color in rejected his demands. ered around Ogé after Governor Blanchelande and Rigaud gathered in These were far fewer men than those Boury the military and was just miles from Cap Français, the South, Ogé After a few successful skirmishes with local headquarters ofthe colony. followers fled across the Spanish border to white militias, Ogé and his Extradited in January 1791,J Julien escape a large force ofroyal troops. were broken on the Raimond's Parisian colleague and 23 companions main square in February, their corpses publicly rack in Cap Français's slaves. Another 13 men of color were sendisplayed like those ofrebel tenced to lifetime slavery in the royal galleys. South learned of Ogé's When the Provincial Assembly of the reassemble uprising, it demanded that Governor Blanchelande their weapons. In a Boury's supporters and permanently confiscate his Extradited in January 1791,J Julien escape a large force ofroyal troops. were broken on the Raimond's Parisian colleague and 23 companions main square in February, their corpses publicly rack in Cap Français's slaves. Another 13 men of color were sendisplayed like those ofrebel tenced to lifetime slavery in the royal galleys. South learned of Ogé's When the Provincial Assembly of the reassemble uprising, it demanded that Governor Blanchelande their weapons. In a Boury's supporters and permanently confiscate --- Page 261 --- BEFORE HAITI 10, 1790, the Governor worried that public letter written December free people of colorin the animosity would lead to attacks on innocent but neceshe agreed that disarming them was "an extreme South, yet also insisted that Boury, Dasque, sary act. 22 The Provincial Assembly and tried for their actions. Rigaud, Bleck, and others be arrested would have been tortured François Raimond believed that these men moved them from Les and executed like Ogé, had Blanchlande not Cayes to a prison in Port-au-Prince. this Port Salut parish was Approximately six weeks after disarming, slave conspiracy. first revolutionary the site of Saint-Domingue's attention to this important event, Carolyn Fick, who first brought the district's enslaved peosuggests that free colored protests inspired that the white owners ofthe plc.w Even closer investigation reveals free colored slaves involved in this conspiracy, like the adjoining had been involved in the anti-militia revolt of1769. landowners, discovered by Joseph Alabré, the white island-born The plan was half-sister Marie Françoise son of a planter. Joseph had an illegitimate woman ofcolor. When she Alabré, who may have been a light skinned and his brother Pierre French in 1782, Joseph married a immigrant the document did not mention signed her wedding contract, though Alabré had witnessed at least one their father. In the 1760s Pierre who was involved in the milinotarial deed with Jean Joseph Dasque, colored standoff in November tia revolt and was a leader ofthe free and December 1790.70 1791, in the road before his father's The night of January 24-25, slave named Antoine from the plantation, Joseph Alabré met a creole Duhard. Duhard was in nearby plantation of Jean-Baptiste Masson he had in imporFrance at the time, but like the Alabrés, participated Joseph Jabouin, a transactions with local free colored planters. tant Duhard's estate. He too had white man and neighbor, was managing free coloreds. 71 dealings with the Dasques and other prominent many Antoine told Alabré that a man named Jean-Claude Lateste The slave Lateste told Duhard's workers that had visited the Duhard plantation. week and that the mulattos had slaves three free days a the king given this reform. Antoine did not identify claimed the whites were blocking that he was a free man of color. The Lateste further, but it seems likely reveal no whites with that sampled 1780s notarial records ofthe parish of color named Bernard but do contain deeds from a free man name the free men ofcolor most active in Lataste or Latuste, who was among still alive in the 1780s.72 the 1769 militia revolt, and who was about Lateste's message. Slaves on nearby estates quickly heard hours before Joseph Alabré The night of January 24, perhaps several the whites were blocking that he was a free man of color. The Lateste further, but it seems likely reveal no whites with that sampled 1780s notarial records ofthe parish of color named Bernard but do contain deeds from a free man name the free men ofcolor most active in Lataste or Latuste, who was among still alive in the 1780s.72 the 1769 militia revolt, and who was about Lateste's message. Slaves on nearby estates quickly heard hours before Joseph Alabré The night of January 24, perhaps several --- Page 262 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE had gathered on the stopped Antoine, a group of enslaved people believed had been to discuss the reforms they Duhard plantation owned white men who had decreed in France. Many ofthem were earlier. by A number came organize the anti-militia revolt 22 years helped of Charles Nicolas Lafosse, who Bernard Latuste from the plantation ofthe whites that urged them to fight had described in 1769 as one Merlet was another of the the militia reform. 73 The white planter his widow, and the Merlet plantation, now run by 1769 ringleaders, furnished other slave conspirators. mulattoes had assured the blacks that According to Antoine, "the obtain three free days per they were going to fight the whites to would extend it to the week." >> If the whites gave it to them, they about 200 slaves had slaves. By 2 o'clock in the morning of April 25, decided to recruit other gathered on the Duhard estate, where they week from them in demanding three work-free days per slaves to join would act on the same day. If whites their masters. All the workers them. With this plan, the rebels refused, the conspirators would kill white They kidof Jacques Fabre, a planter.s went to the plantation and several others, but these men napped the estate's head slave who alerted the authorities. escaped and reported the plot to Fabre, Antoine made formal morning he and the slave The following and the president of the parish assembly. declarations to the mayor the white and free At the least, these complex connections among old and propertied of Port Salut illustrate how closely colored planters By the 1791, three generations ofthese creole families were intertwined. networks that crossed families had maintained social and commercial "white" and "nonwhite." 2> and even obscured the color line between demands for voting rights Carolyn Fick maintains that free colored slaves. But at least six weeks inspired these claims from Port Salut's colored standoff and the dishad passed between the end ofthe free Rigaud, Boury, of the slave conspiracy. In the meantime, covery others had been arrested and moved to Port-au-Prince, Dasque, and in the North, and royal troops had confiscated Ogé had been captured of color. The passage of time, these the weapons of local free men that Lateste was a free man of intervening events, and the possibility leaders encouraged slaves that Port Salut's free colored had color, suggests As Raimond and other pamphleteers to pressure their masters. was one of best arguments to written, the danger of a slave uprising of color. enfranchise wealthy and light-skinned free men the 1790 free that the 1769 militia revolt, Was it a coincidence occurred in exactly the colored standoff and the 1791 slave conspiracy white and free colored district and involved many of the same same ste was a free man of intervening events, and the possibility leaders encouraged slaves that Port Salut's free colored had color, suggests As Raimond and other pamphleteers to pressure their masters. was one of best arguments to written, the danger of a slave uprising of color. enfranchise wealthy and light-skinned free men the 1790 free that the 1769 militia revolt, Was it a coincidence occurred in exactly the colored standoff and the 1791 slave conspiracy white and free colored district and involved many of the same same --- Page 263 --- BEFORE HAITI Lateste, or others stir up slaves to strike families? Did Dasque, Boury, white neighbors they felt had Merlet, and other back at Lafosse, manipulated them in 1769: did not directly benefit from Free colored demands for citizenship to rein in in Port Salut, but royal officials did move quickly events Within a week of the foiled slave conspiracy, on angry petits blancs. ordered free colored constables and February 3, 1791, royal officials members ofLes Cayes' "Patriotic French regular troops to arrest four Caudère in Torbec six months earClub" for murdering the royalist and violent opponents lier. The Patriots had been the most outspoken André civil Now these accused men joined of free colored rights. Bleck, and Jacques Boury in the Rigaud, Hyacinthe and Guillaume Patriots saw these arrests as prisons of Port-au-Prince. Les Cayes's described the free of and in a pamphlet evidence counter-revolution, of the despotic governorcolored maréchausée as monstrous agents social laws, who descend creatures rejected by our "these ambiguous but belong to neither, these beings, whose from two species of man whose morals are the dregs of society bodies are nature's rubbish, and and political life.' >75 free colored prisoners from Les However, neither the white nor On March 4, 1791, durCayes were behind bars long in the capital. were allowed to all prisoners ing another riot in Port-au-Prince, Rigaud, Boury, and the Blecks escape. Wary of returning home, bonds with the more cautious remained in the West Province, forging call to challenge free men of color there, who had refused Ogé's did return to the South Governor Blanchelande. Les Cayes" Patriots took control oft the parish assembly and city government. and quickly named six new representatives to the In April, when Les Cayes parish former Saint-Marc deputies. Provincial Assembly, three ofthem were that he was under conLouis-François Boisrond reported from Aquin his letters to the colony in threat and advised Raimond to hide stant barrels of flour. 76 * Assembly slowly moved to clarify its controIn France, the National In October 1790, as Ogé was versial March 28, 1790 Instruction. voted that the colonies Parisian deputies landing in Saint-Domingue, This belated decision provoked another would decide racial questions. that judgment who pointed out withholding pamphlet by Grégoire, revolutionary ideals and would not solve on colonial affairs betrayed before he stressed the inevitability of problems in the islands. As ond to hide stant barrels of flour. 76 * Assembly slowly moved to clarify its controIn France, the National In October 1790, as Ogé was versial March 28, 1790 Instruction. voted that the colonies Parisian deputies landing in Saint-Domingue, This belated decision provoked another would decide racial questions. that judgment who pointed out withholding pamphlet by Grégoire, revolutionary ideals and would not solve on colonial affairs betrayed before he stressed the inevitability of problems in the islands. As --- Page 264 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE economic, and political power of colonial conflict as the demographic, 77 In December, as the free the free people of color continued to grow." disarmed, and Les Cayes were being coloreds ofTorbec/Port-Salut founder ofthe Friends ofthe Blacks, published Jacques-Pierre Brissot, colonial policies. denouncing the Revolution's his own pamphlet men" had misled the National Assembly "Deeply perverse and clever influenced by Raimond, Brissot about colonial society. Heavily as consequences of portrayed economic sterility and moral corruption the urban colonial despotism and tyranny. He compared white with the rural virtue of free people of color. corruption of whites denaturé) for liberty by the Whites were "jaded creatures, corrupted their colonial command." Absentee planters squandered slaves they of Paris instead of returning their profits to fortunes in the fleshpots all mulattos were models of virtue, the soil. Acknowledging that not colored planters as his model. He Brissot took Saint- Domingue's free the Aquin indigo Raimond's neighbor Guillaume Labadie, praised who whites had nearly killed in late 1789.8 rebuttal from grower ofLabadie brought forth a public Brissot's description Laborde, one of the men who had arrested a white colonist named Patriot, Laborde had gone on Labadie on his estate that night. A strong in the now-defunct the neighboring Anse-à-Veau parish to represent dissolution had since been confirmed by Saint-Marc Assembly, whose Laborde published a pamphlet describthe National Assembly. In Paris, him land and slaves. ing how Labadie's white father had given wealth is therefore a pure gift of chance, an endowment from Labadie's and father and not the result of intelligence, frugality and his master describe as Labadie's brilliance and hard work . What you [Brissot] This Labadic could read, write and pertalent is more inaccurate : : that wooly head with haps do arithmetic . Nature did not supply of Buffon and the erudition the knowledge of d'Alembert, the genius 79 of our ancient and modern historians. in a Raimond fiercely defended his friend's accomplishments Julien 1791. He described the long drought in pamphlet of his own in from his inherited lands. According to Aquin that had driven Labadie plantation with 150 slaves Raimond, Labadie built a new and successful but fifteen inherited workers. Labadie was wealthy, starting with including petits blancs like Laborde. generous to his neighbors, but then neither Raimond admitted that his friend was no intellectual, attention to to public opinion and drawing was his accuser. Appealing Laborde to put up 6,000 livres his own wealth, Raimond challenged amphlet of his own in from his inherited lands. According to Aquin that had driven Labadie plantation with 150 slaves Raimond, Labadie built a new and successful but fifteen inherited workers. Labadie was wealthy, starting with including petits blancs like Laborde. generous to his neighbors, but then neither Raimond admitted that his friend was no intellectual, attention to to public opinion and drawing was his accuser. Appealing Laborde to put up 6,000 livres his own wealth, Raimond challenged --- Page 265 --- BEFORE HAITI decide who was better educated: the Saint-Marc for a contest to he had once arrested,s deputy or the old indigo planter Labadie was part of his Raimond's defense of Guillaume and of white colonists' prejudice Observations on the origins progress idea was that current racial attiagainst the men ofcolor, whose main old. On December 2, were only 30 years tudes in Saint-Domingue the *American Colonists," and signed by 1789, a pamphlet published identified racism as a problem that began by Raimond and others, had the free colored group in 1703. As Florence Gauthier has suggested, of the way France was ignorant initially believed metropolitan however, Raimond colonists treated them. In his 1791 pamphlet, public not confuse seemed more concerned that the Revolutionary free people ofcolor with slaves.1 1763 as the turning point in In Observations, he identified the end ofthe Seven Years' War Dominguan history, but not because Moreau de Saint-Méry "civilization" to the island, as brought prejudice into colonial claimed. Instead, whites began to introduce later when they that culminated six years institutions, a process men of color. Early in stripped militia commissions from patriotic white men had preferred the cighteenth century, Raimond claimed, fortunes brought them by the care given them by their slaves, or the of fortune-hunting, honest free women of color, to the debauchery because of the jealousy of white women. Racism arose after 1763 who had attacked his neighbor white women and petits blancs, like those Labadie. 82 that free men of color In the spring of 1791 Raimond's argument whites were bad fathers and virtuous Frenchmen while colonial were anonymously in brothers began to bear fruit. In a pamphlet published irony, scorn, 1789 Moreau de Saint-Méry had employed December stereotypes against the and the full complement of anti-mulatto to Brissot and American Colonists. In a March 1791 response he adopted a more conciliatory tone, perhaps Raimond, however, shocked recently by the news that because Parisians had been his earlier tortured Ogé to death. Discarding colonists had publicly was a "necessary evil," Moreau claim that interracial concubinage ofa free population ofcolor proved maintained that the very existence despotic: benevolence. Colonial society was not inherently white the colonies. Whites had continued to France had foisted slavery upon because they manumit their faithful workers despite royal opposition, their social status fathers. Free colored attempts to improve were good stirred up by the Friends of the were therefore pure ingratitude, Ogé's revolt. 83 Blacks. The abolitionists had produced had publicly was a "necessary evil," Moreau claim that interracial concubinage ofa free population ofcolor proved maintained that the very existence despotic: benevolence. Colonial society was not inherently white the colonies. Whites had continued to France had foisted slavery upon because they manumit their faithful workers despite royal opposition, their social status fathers. Free colored attempts to improve were good stirred up by the Friends of the were therefore pure ingratitude, Ogé's revolt. 83 Blacks. The abolitionists had produced --- Page 266 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE Raimond's claim that racism in Saint-Domingue Moreau disputed always formed a distinct and separate had a history. "The freedmen which racism grew more powerful. Nor class"; there was no period in of Saintof color hold one-third to one-fourth did free people claimed, but merely one-tenth. Domingue's property, as Raimond the fruit ofour weaknesses, "This considerable sum is almost entirely that the laws are now to be dicand it is to repay these our patronage, racial stereotypes but he >984 Moreau would not abandon tated to us.' ofcolor were now ungrateful bastards did moderate them; free people of 1791, as colonial rather than amoral monsters. In the spring blanched at Ogé's fate, it Patriots rioted and Revolutionary deputies of white planters than to to rescue the image was more important condemn free people of color. and France had In effect, free men of color in Saint-Domingue avoid colonial for the National Assembly to made it impossible events in Port Salut had politics. Ogé's uprising and the simultaneous strict racial hierarchy and empowered colonial Patriots to press for a speeches and the French control. In Paris, Raimond's rail against ofthe Blacks had amplified the theme of preinfluence on the Friends ambition, unlimited power, and Revolutionary travel writers: selfish leading colonists. They sexual desire had warped Saint-Domingue's their colonial children. unnatural fathers, who had rejected were bad, insisted that colonial society was If Saint-Domingue's representatives like Raimond would produce a that extending rights to men SO fragile the basis for the administrative slave revolt, they risked destroying reforms they sought. of 1791 illustrates Raimond's An elaborate political cartoon (figure 8.1). The image success in reformulating colonial stereotypes and metaphoriplaces him at the center of several dozen personalities handsome man, in procal figures in the colonial debate, a strong and of Man from the reaching to tear the Declaration of the Rights file, the head of the National Assembly's Colonial hand of Barnave, colonists, including Moreau Committee. While simpering or decrepit with their slave miscluster on one side of the image de Saint- -Méry, stretches his arm over a kneeling black woman and tresses, Raimond with hands implore their white two mixed-race children, who clasping colonial lobby, to speak for them. father, Gouy d'Arsy, the head ofthe ifI could only make a "Alas, my son, I would, The planter responds, 42 percent profit." Raimond was a well-known personality in By 1791, therefore, 1790 Instruction, de Joly had stepped Paris. After the March 28, became much less visible. aside and the "American Colonists" group black woman and tresses, Raimond with hands implore their white two mixed-race children, who clasping colonial lobby, to speak for them. father, Gouy d'Arsy, the head ofthe ifI could only make a "Alas, my son, I would, The planter responds, 42 percent profit." Raimond was a well-known personality in By 1791, therefore, 1790 Instruction, de Joly had stepped Paris. After the March 28, became much less visible. aside and the "American Colonists" group --- Page 267 --- - S S R A - Se - aj (aa ONEPURI * : L DIeCUSOT COU EURda HOMMES DE sgulelin 44 deri NJ kide 02, MALOVET 2 8 AAR - fon n BA 3 CAapeM A halfer 20, MAAT TIN CUILLNE ALEXI AME Men Ni DE CRANCE DECUNT ABrile K BARNAVE 119- Dupois EDEMEMENIL Cnoe M DAICI UH 7 REINAUD n KNCE ERA RD LE SOURD MOND MongnuD De ME TLAWIER FAUD A L ET U TRE BAR NA AVB poy D'AACI tan be Chiee a aepe: a of May 15, 1791. Moniteur (Paris) From the the Men of Color" de France. "Discussion on nationale Figure 8.1 of the Bibliothèque with permision Source: Reproduced IL Cnoe M DAICI UH 7 REINAUD n KNCE ERA RD LE SOURD MOND MongnuD De ME TLAWIER FAUD A L ET U TRE BAR NA AVB poy D'AACI tan be Chiee a aepe: a of May 15, 1791. Moniteur (Paris) From the the Men of Color" de France. "Discussion on nationale Figure 8.1 of the Bibliothèque with permision Source: Reproduced --- Page 268 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE described themselves as free The authors of pamphlets no longer Raimond had moved 27 Sometime in 1791 or 1792 colored "deputies. Paris, to an apartment near the royal to the heart of revolutionary demanded funds for publiOrangerie, His letters to Saint-Domingue opinion which is SO cations "to enlighten minds and shape public have confused with that of important to our cause, which our enemies sixteen pamphlets on the slaves. >> After 1789 he produced at least of color inserted affairs and had letters from colonial men colonial the national opinion that journals "to consolidate into Revolutionary color alone can save and conserve the unfortunate the citizens of >85 remainder of our colony. difficult in Saint-Domingue. LouisSuch publicity was more Raimond's letters from Paris François Boisrond and others circulated In 1791 Raimond sent a M. Mahon through their own colonial network. works each to with six identical packets of thirty printed to the colony color what he was doing for them in Paris. He show free people of one-quarter of their his friends would respond by pledging hoped that he had long promised the National income to the "patriotic gift" liberal virtue. He reminded his Assembly, as a display of free colored of selflessness that one can correspondents: "It is only by such signs to play >86 On March 18, 1791, perhaps trying show one's patriotism. and other men of color in Paris on sympathy for Ogé, Raimond them by Article 4 demanded "their rights as active citizens as accorded whites as decree of March 28, 1790. ? They described colonial of the ofthe citizens ofcolor;iti is their blood, French the fathers, the brothers colored] veins and the whites want to demean blood, that runs in [free who hold them dear, who have risked their children, these children times as the generals who have their lives for them SO many commanded them in recent wars will attest17 that men of mixed blood were inherently corrupt The argument For the Abbé Maury in May 1791, free was losing some ofits power. be said, true Frenchmen, since people ofcolor "are not, whatever may their homeland. Free they have not even seen France." Africa was unlike people of mixed blacks had at least earned their liberty, of free colored militia service blood, he insisted. Yet nearly a century In 1779,Dominguan contradicted this statement. in Saint- Domingue enlistment as repugnant to any colonists had described voluntary felt differand sensitive soul, 29 but Revolutionary France home "respectable Claude Milscent, a white planter from Ogé's ently. In 1791 against maroon slaves, began district who had led free colored troops they have not even seen France." Africa was unlike people of mixed blacks had at least earned their liberty, of free colored militia service blood, he insisted. Yet nearly a century In 1779,Dominguan contradicted this statement. in Saint- Domingue enlistment as repugnant to any colonists had described voluntary felt differand sensitive soul, 29 but Revolutionary France home "respectable Claude Milscent, a white planter from Ogé's ently. In 1791 against maroon slaves, began district who had led free colored troops --- Page 269 --- BEFORE HAITI Jacobin clubs to petition Paris for free to urge France's regional this position.' 88 colored citizenship. Bordeaux supported the first decree violating SaintThis shifting mood helped produce of 1791, the National Domingue's color line. During the spring with colonial unrest. It Assembly voted to send more troops to deal instructions for these asked the Colonial Committee to draw up the on presented its work to Assembly forces. When the committee colored deputies again May 9, 1791, Grégoire and other pro-free The free men of color had raised the issue of race and citizenship. for their cause increasingly gained important allies by this time, definition of citizenship. Ogé's attracted those who favored a wide whites as "aristocrats" death had reinforced the image of colonial Raimond had both joined clinging to irrational privileges. Brissot and had left. Club while many colonial proprictors the Jacobin supported the anti-slavery Robespierre and other Jacobin deputies position of the Friends. 89 to extend citizenship to On May 13 Grégoire urged the assembly the colonies was not colonial slaves: Robespierre argued that retaining That night the promise of the Revolution. as important as fulfilling Club, assuring his audience, Raimond campaigned at the Jacobin free men of color incorrectly, that two-thirds of Saint-Domingue's fewer than 1,500 free born in freedom and that there were were colored class. Of these free blacks, he maintained, blacks in the free <These facts, these figures, can easily be two-thirds were born free. 7 >9 Anyone familiar with verified in militia rolls and parish registers." that this was not the case, but colonial society would have known verifiable source of Raimond had established himself as a reliable, was His speech the following day information about Saint-Domingue, Though he had sold his own planmore palatable to colonial planters. his original argument: tations seven months before, he maintained would not weaken slavery recognizing free men of color as citizens but reinforce it. 90 Assembly approved a compromise On May 15, 1791, the National between those opposed decree. The new legislation split the ground who that Saintcolonial social reforms and those argued to any of color were entitled to full citizenship. In Domingue's free people adult sons of free fathers and return for agreeing that the taxpaying won a promise that the mothers could vote, colonial interests the status of men born to National Assembly would never legislate on law. There was no such a question slaves, unless the colonies requested all free men of color. Many Jacobins ofe enfranchising slaves, nor even the measure as too conservative." and Friends of the Blacks rejected ground who that Saintcolonial social reforms and those argued to any of color were entitled to full citizenship. In Domingue's free people adult sons of free fathers and return for agreeing that the taxpaying won a promise that the mothers could vote, colonial interests the status of men born to National Assembly would never legislate on law. There was no such a question slaves, unless the colonies requested all free men of color. Many Jacobins ofe enfranchising slaves, nor even the measure as too conservative." and Friends of the Blacks rejected --- Page 270 --- ORIGINS OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION The critical point for Saint-Domingue, May 15 decree the assembly however, was that in its citizens. Some royal now recognized elite men ofcolor as full reform since d'Estaing's administrators had been recommending this the free colored time, to temper colonial racism and divide Raimond had population along class lines. This was the sought in 1786, one that would reform chy to free colonial society. By restore the class hierartity was too firmly entrenched 1791, however, the whites' racial idenIt is difficult for this kind of to know how many of tinkering. of color this decree would have Saint-Domingue's free people the May 15 decree. Governor enfranchised had colonists accepted told the National Assembly that Blanchelande, it who refused to enact it, of color, would affect only about 400 compared to a white population with at least men However, ifone considers that the 9,000 voters. 92 population was due, in rapid expansion oft the free colored skinned families like part, to the reclassification of the Hérards of Torbec and the large lightAquin, then the requirement that voters be Raimonds of have enfranchised born of free parents approximately many more men, perhaps as many as out might 4,600 adult males. Several dozen 1,000 of property to stand for election. 93 In Les might have had the not have been counted as Cayes André Rigaud would Jean Jacques a citizen; his colleagues Dasque, and Hyacinthe Bleck, Jacques Boury, probably have been admitted on the other hand, would But colonial whites to vote in Torbec and Port Salut. Their deputies in Paris refused to accept the May 15, 1791 decree. officially arrived in managed to stall the legislation SO that it never Saint-Domingue. widely discussed in the colony by late Nevertheless, the reform was ence from France, June. Furious over the interferAssembly donned black Saint-Domingue's cocards newly elected Colonial white militias defiantly in place ofred, white and blue, while Cap Français hanged wore white, yellow and green. In July 1791 "No, mulattos Grégoire in effigy while colonists can never be sang, in creole, This emphatic white . . . Only we are masters." >94 reaction drove many people of color to arms. In the West initially conservative free rebuffed Ogé in late 1790 Province, men ofcolor who had biguous rights agreed to fight for the limited but spelled out in the blocked law. In unamWest, free people of color fled the both the South and other humiliations towns and plains, where they were asked to among May 15 decree. Shut out oflocal, sign petitions against the in August 1791 François provincial, and colonial assemblies, met secretly with men of color Raimond, Bleck, and others from the South outside Port-au-Prince. from the West Province on a farm By the end ofthe just month, a larger mecting in fight for the limited but spelled out in the blocked law. In unamWest, free people of color fled the both the South and other humiliations towns and plains, where they were asked to among May 15 decree. Shut out oflocal, sign petitions against the in August 1791 François provincial, and colonial assemblies, met secretly with men of color Raimond, Bleck, and others from the South outside Port-au-Prince. from the West Province on a farm By the end ofthe just month, a larger mecting in --- Page 271 --- BEFORE HAITI united from these two regions. Mirebalais, again in the West, Blanchelande groups for the protection of When their leaders asked Governor The assemblies he ordered them to disband. "old and new laws," continued?s situation, slaves began to burn In the midst ofthis unprecedented 1791. Petits plantations around Cap Français on August 22, sugar to free colored blancs in Port-au-I Prince remained fiercely the opposed slave rebellion was a for them rights and French interference; As the North Province direct result oftinkering with racial categories. Patriot forces from Portstruggled against its slaves, on September 2, outside the capital city. au-Prince fought free men of color in the plain about racial issues whites in the West were more flexible Propertied militia. Within a week of this battle, as escaped than the petit blanc conservative whites, including the slaves joined the free colored army, with the men of color Port-au-Prince city government, signed a treaty and several southern the May 15 decree. Saint-Marc recognizing not only ended the fighting, parishes did the same. This "Concordat" about the rise of colonial prejuit endorsed Raimond's Observations natural but had evolved dice. Racism in Saint-Domingue was not free coloreds from the historically, as whites had gradually excluded guaranteed them by the 1685 Code Noir. neither equality Patriots refused to lay down their arms and But white Guard commander of Governor Blanchelande nor the National outside the city Port-au-Prince would ratify the agreement. Fighting 23. This was reached on October continued until a new agreement would serve alongside men ofcolor second treaty specified that whites labels would no long set one citizen in the National Guard and racial of color would participate in new apart from another. Qualified men celebrated their alliance in a Portmunicipal elections. The two sides ceremonies held in banquet reminiscent of the federation au-Prince And afterwards, men of color who had provincial France since 1789. theater coordinated peace making in been active in the Port-au-Prince Provinces. 97 throughout the West and South parishes rural districts did not welcome this agreeWhites in these isolated wealthy creole planters of all colors ment as a return to the days when drove them to join this "Concordat" lived in harmony. It was fear that like Fond des Nègres, movement. In a number of southern parishes the north of Aquin, whites had a new reason to appreciate this directly oflocal free colored planters. For in Euro-centric creole identity had pushed another kind of region, the Revolutionary disturbances the fore, one that potentially spelled creole or "American" identity to the end ofthe plantation system. these isolated wealthy creole planters of all colors ment as a return to the days when drove them to join this "Concordat" lived in harmony. It was fear that like Fond des Nègres, movement. In a number of southern parishes the north of Aquin, whites had a new reason to appreciate this directly oflocal free colored planters. For in Euro-centric creole identity had pushed another kind of region, the Revolutionary disturbances the fore, one that potentially spelled creole or "American" identity to the end ofthe plantation system. --- Page 272 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE before Port-au-Prince feted the On October 14, 1791, nine days white assemsecond Concordat, 36 of Fond des Nègres's proprictors convulsions how to "secure ourselves from the terrible bled to discuss the slave revolt. >9 They were referofanarchy, provoked and spread by of Romaine Riviere, in the nearby mountains by the army ring to raids rise to may have helped whites a free man of color whose rapid power had in common with in the South Province realize how much they commanding as many like Julien Raimond. By December 1791, men slaves, Rivière controlled the towns of as 14,000 men, most ofthem between them. Léogane and Jacmel and the rugged territory in 1791 Rivière either owner, husband, and father, A property religious movement that drew more adopted or created a syncretic elements than Rey has argued were Kongolese heavily on what Terry Province since the arrest ofSim Dompète anything seen in the South in Paris when free colored pamphleteers in 1782.8 At a moment Rivière took a feminine title, stressed their masculine virtues, be the of the > and clamed to godchild <Romaine La Prophetesse," spiritual rites at an abandoned church Virgin Mary. He conducted south of Léogane, brandishing an near his farm in the mountains sword in the other. He wrote mesinverted cross in one hand and a from her. He also to the Virgin and received written replies deal sages of the Revolution, striking a exploited the political possibilities take control of that city. Jean with the royalist mayor of Léogane to between Rivière Fouchard claimed to have found correspondence the free coloreds of and the Abbé Pascalis Ouvière, who represented in France in 1791 and Port-au-Prince in the West Province and 1792." different kind of creole identity, Faced with this example of a very to 20 men 14, Fond des Nègres enlarged its maréchaussée on October The all-white parish assemand increased their wages by percent. "a sacred debt. >2 It bly urged citizens to pay their municipal taxes, of delegated to advised militia officers to use "the full extent be powers deadly." At its next them by the law? for "the slightest delay could began to recognize meeting, two weeks later, the assembly slowly the militia comlocal free coloreds as allies. They ordered that that parish access was open all parish records, but specified mander safeguard citizens alike, "hoping in this way to give to whites and free colored and loyalty the latter group a new proof of our feclings oftruthfulness the Fonds des Nègres's On November 15, 1791, towards them." Like their neighbors in Saint Louis, parish assembly gathered again. of Fonds des Nègres had decided to Aquin, and Cavaillon, the whites Concordat.' 100 adopt a version of the Port-au-Prince ordered that that parish access was open all parish records, but specified mander safeguard citizens alike, "hoping in this way to give to whites and free colored and loyalty the latter group a new proof of our feclings oftruthfulness the Fonds des Nègres's On November 15, 1791, towards them." Like their neighbors in Saint Louis, parish assembly gathered again. of Fonds des Nègres had decided to Aquin, and Cavaillon, the whites Concordat.' 100 adopt a version of the Port-au-Prince --- Page 273 --- BEFORE HAITI Although the minutes of that do exist from a parish meeting have disappeared, records Nearly three times meeting held five weeks later, on as many people signed the December 21. expanded assembly as had on October register of the newly the Concordat, the document 14, and, following the terms of Revolutionary notarial did not assign racial labels. But 42 of the 93 records make it possible to at presigners as whites, and only 8 identify least Seventeen ofthe family names were linked signers as free colored. and to whites and 26 of the to both free people ofcolor the surviving archives. signers had names that do not appear in Resolved to find ways to "unite the the assembly created a six-man citizens without distinction, >> a temporary town government. correspondence It chose committee to serve as men of color unanimously for this three white men and threc Depas, was the free colored responsibility. One of them, Paul Jewish doctor and grandson of Michel Lopez the judge who had endowed the Depas, was also one of the twelve parish church. serving alongside the men elected to a "bureau of police, Depas >2 biggest notary Colombel and Faodoas, the planter. Ten days later, on December 30, three parish's Nègres's most important of Fond des Dufourq, and Leman de la whites, the planters Faodas, Delaumeau, Barre, arrived in report to the free colored war council there. 101 Croix des Bouquets to Delaumeau accompanied other Afterwards Faodas and where they recommended that parish representatives to Cap Français, Concordat. the Colonial Assembly accept the These agreements to accept the May 15, 1791 tially what Julien Raimond had been decree were essenthe 1780s: a return to a social working for since the middle of race. This appealed to the wealthy hierarchy based on class, rather than ary Patriots agitating in Les planters, but not to the revolutionThose who Cayes, Port-au-Prince, and Cap supported the Concordat Français. November 24, 1791, while Fond des were aware of this. On municipal government, the city fathers in Nègres was reorganizing its similar process, wrote to the nearby Aquin, completing a Their letter lamented the governor to urge him to ratify the peace. finally time to end the political dominance of urban groups. "It is the plains, which has unjust and impolitic influence ofthe towns over find ourselves. plunged us into the It is time to shelter us and frightening abyss where we tumult and their our property from : . their opinion. . Please consult the planters : ifthey agree to give wishes of the only lunatics and enemies of the advantages to the citizens of color, Recognizing, as Raimond public peace would find fault." did, the importance of appealing to that . finally time to end the political dominance of urban groups. "It is the plains, which has unjust and impolitic influence ofthe towns over find ourselves. plunged us into the It is time to shelter us and frightening abyss where we tumult and their our property from : . their opinion. . Please consult the planters : ifthey agree to give wishes of the only lunatics and enemies of the advantages to the citizens of color, Recognizing, as Raimond public peace would find fault." did, the importance of appealing to that --- Page 274 --- HAITIAN REVOLUTION ORIGINS OF THE printed their pamphlet, and the new public, Aquin's planters 102 governor's disparaging response. * * did not bring the peace and social unity for The Concordat movement longed. The success of the slave which Aquin and Fond des Nègres the nature of colonial politics, revolt in the North province changed France. On September 24, 1791, both in Saint-Domingue and in National Assembly news of the slave rebellion, the French hearing 15 decree. This reversal destroyed the parish-level rescinded its May free network of free colored peace treaties, but now an organized even ifFrance withdrew leaders was determined to fight for equality, defeated the armies it. In March 1792 white and free colored troops around Les Cayes and Romaine La Prophetesse, but in the arca of between whites and free colored resumed or Port-au-Prince fighting the slave revolt in the North was growing grew worse. Although whites and free colored steadily, in the South and West provinces, behalf. forces began to arm slaves to fight on their been about how Until this point, their struggle had fundamentally With Revolution might be applied in Saint-Domingue. the French for what each side claimed was the mobilization of slaves to fight had finally begun. "justice, > the Haitian Revolution --- Page 275 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 276 --- CHAPTER 9 * REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISM IN AQUIN PARISH In January 1792, slave rebellion flared Hugues Melinet. In much ofthe on the Aquin plantation of preoccupied with their war over southern civil peninsula, free people were coast had taken refuge in Les rights. Whites from all over the surrounding Cayes, while free coloreds controlled the and Saint Louis. plantations, as well as the towns of Torbec, Cavaillon, 1791 and the Disregarding the local Port Salut slave of ongoing rebellion in the conspiracy slaves to fight for its cause. When North, each side had armed grudging peace in July 1792, their whites and free coloreds signed a Down the coast from Les bondsmen were in full rebellion.' January, but its enslaved fieldworkers Cayes, Aquin was mostly peaceful in begun. The Melinet estate was one ofthe recognized that a revolution had 117 workers even in 1798. On largest in this parish, home to number two slave driver Sunday, January 15, 1792, Melinet's included the hundreds began to rally his neighbors, who probably inspired by the demands oflaborers of on a nearby sugar plantation. Les Cayes's slave Perhaps considerable crowd, drumming and soldiers, he assembled a this is our country." At this singing in creole, "Join me, friends, planter, two of his slaves, moment, according to Hugues Melinet, the action that prevented François and Louis Etienne, took a full-blown rebellion. Melinet "firm" exactly how their "zeal and good did not describe the district. > conduct . procured for Nevertheless, a month later he freed tranquility promised to help them in their new lives.2 both young men and Melinet did not say that François and He noted instead that Louis Etienne were his sons. they were both mulattos, aged 18 and 16, and , moment, according to Hugues Melinet, the action that prevented François and Louis Etienne, took a full-blown rebellion. Melinet "firm" exactly how their "zeal and good did not describe the district. > conduct . procured for Nevertheless, a month later he freed tranquility promised to help them in their new lives.2 both young men and Melinet did not say that François and He noted instead that Louis Etienne were his sons. they were both mulattos, aged 18 and 16, and --- Page 277 --- BEFORE HAITI that their mothers were Fastine Doria and Rose women. Four years earlier Melinet had Lima, two free black 13-year-old mixed-race manumitted Fastine and her mother would be known daughter Geneviève, specifying that the he officially declared as Doria and the girl as Dedé. And in that Fastine Doria and that Geneviève Dedé "had always lived with him," >9 liberate Geneviève's was their daughter. Why did Melinet brother François, who not when his mother and sister would have been eleven Geneviève married Laurent got their freedom? In May 1791, manager of Joseph Anglade, the free colored son and trusted Meanwhile Anglade, a wealthy planter living in François lived in bondage on their France,3 Much like François and Louis Etienne's father's plantation. estate of a father who let them live in decision to protect the South's free people of color remained slavery, through the 1790s the ignored or rejected them for SO faithful to France, though it had tially rooted in self-interest. long. In both cases, the bond was with his fatherin As he might have predicted when he par1792, the slave François sided Melinet," in 1794 the eventually became "François father's estate and appointed Revolutionary him government impounded his Similarly, the South's manager under that name. 4 France would eventually mixed-race families scem to have believed by return them to a social property, not whiteness. At the same hierarchy determined presented below suggests that a number of time, however, evidence as free coloreds were known after the region's anciens libres, French republican ideals. In emancipation, were committed to involved in practice they seemed to have been securing their own >> >> most But there is also evidence that "liberty, "equality," and "fraternity. 99 at least specific they recognized a fraternal bond ex-slaves, or nouveaux libres. with their counterparts fought Elsewhere in the colony, second half of 1793, after against France's general emancipation. During the slavery in Saint-Domingue, Second Civil Commission ended of wealthy men of color in other Saint-Domingue went over to the British in towns parts Saint-Marc, and Arcahaie. The South's like Léogane, more slaves than these anciens libres owned many clandestine relations counterparts. They also had a long of with Jamaica. Yet history entrenched British occupation of their they defeated a wellhelp from France or other peninsula by 1798, with little Itis regions of important to Saint-Domingue, France understand the South's loyalty to because its geographical and Revolutionary from Europe had produced the idea of commercial orientation away before 1789. David Geggus credits an independent Haiti even bureaucrat stationed in Les Charles de Bleschamps, a naval Cayes, with formally resurrecting this also had a long of with Jamaica. Yet history entrenched British occupation of their they defeated a wellhelp from France or other peninsula by 1798, with little Itis regions of important to Saint-Domingue, France understand the South's loyalty to because its geographical and Revolutionary from Europe had produced the idea of commercial orientation away before 1789. David Geggus credits an independent Haiti even bureaucrat stationed in Les Charles de Bleschamps, a naval Cayes, with formally resurrecting this --- Page 278 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND for the island in 1788.5 In that year sixteenth-century name the, ofthe French colonies, Bleschamps published an Essay on government He used the South written in the colonial *Patriot" tradition. provinces illustrate how all three of Saint-Domingue's Province to countries. He proposed making them were, essentially, separate would gather periodically autonomous regions whose representatives Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, in the *Parlement d'Aiti." Then in 1803, translated this idea of a selfwhose family was from Torbec and Aquin, national Haiti into a formal declaration of independence. governing of the South Province illustrates The Revolutionary experience to French republican how this region was torn between its attachment identity. The values, and its creole, that is to say "American," Revolution has historiography of the Haitian personality-obscaed creation ofAndré Rigaud, who governed presented this conflict as a Toussaint Louverture in from 1794 until his defeat by the peninsula of 1021 notarial contracts from 1800. But a 1798 census and analysis this tension within the emerging Aquin in the years 1790-1803 reveal values and social structure of creole society. events in the South After a brief overview of Revolutionary ideas of Aquin's Julien Province, this chapter sketches the influential Etienne Polvérel about Raimond and the French Civil Commissioner values ofthe Revolution. It how slave plantations might adapt to the dealt with their slaves? then goes on to examine four ways planters transformation into free cultivators. of how The heart of the chapter, however, is an examination values of and interpreted the Revolutionary anciens libres experienced In addition to slaves' freedom, the liberty, equality, and fraternity. liberty that strengthened its South experienced a new commercial trade. At the same time, anciens libres longstanding intra-Caribbean for after 1793 or even superiority, acquired a new political equality, civilian Most striking, they dominated Aquin's military and leadership. One or is what the notarial record reveals about fraternity. however, networks connected Aquin's white, perhaps several freemasonic merchants, and artisans to each ancien libre and ex-slave officials, outside world. Yet in terms of other, to other parishes and to the fewer alliances between the Revolutionary decade saw marriages, and ex-slaves than ever before. whites, former free coloreds, * the South Province experienced Like the rest of Saint-I Domingue, slave revolts of 1791 and France's deep unrest between the initial leadership. One or is what the notarial record reveals about fraternity. however, networks connected Aquin's white, perhaps several freemasonic merchants, and artisans to each ancien libre and ex-slave officials, outside world. Yet in terms of other, to other parishes and to the fewer alliances between the Revolutionary decade saw marriages, and ex-slaves than ever before. whites, former free coloreds, * the South Province experienced Like the rest of Saint-I Domingue, slave revolts of 1791 and France's deep unrest between the initial --- Page 279 --- BEFORE HAITI in 1794. Though local slaves had confirmation of the end of slavery whites and that would fight to improve their condition, shown they 1791.In. April free people of color fought over civil rights throughout extended citizenship to 1792, hoping to contain rebel slaves, France born men all free men of color, not simply those National legitimately Assembly sent a enfranchised in the May 15, 1791 law. The this controversial Commission to Saint-Domingue to oversee Civil of commissioners Léger Sonthonax and change. Under the leadership joined with free coloreds to fight Etienne Polvérel, whites reluctantly proclaimed the French the rebels. But after Parisian revolutionaries Louis XVI in early 1793, Republic in September 1792, and executed Commissioners." > In June colonists turned against the "Jacobin many in Cap Français nearly expelled 1793, white counterretohtionatics force. He held on by offering freedom Sonthonax from the colony by troops to fight outside the city. Needing to rebel slave fighters camped Domingo, Sonthonax gradually invasion from Santo a Spanish offer, decrecing the end of slavery in the extended this emancipation forced Polvérel to follow suite in the North on August 29. His actions October 31, 1793, the two South and West Provinces. And on declared that slavery was over in Saint-Domingue. commissioners France recalled the commissioners, Polvérel In 1794, when to André Rigaud. entrusted command of the southern peninsula in Les Cayes for Rigaud had worked with other Raimond supporters became critical. For political change, but his military background now Saint-Domingue from 1793, the British had invaded in September of their key targets and they eventually Jamaica. The South was one and Jérémic. Working with occupied peninsular towns like Tiburon took Portthey also Léogane, colonial cnunterreolationarie cutting communication between au-Prince, Saint-Marc, and Arcahaie, the South and the rest ofthe colony. largely without During five years of fighting this occupation, the South developed its own administration, outside military support, commodities produced by free funded by forcign trade in plantation of Toussaint Louverture, by men and women. In 1800, the armies defeated French officer in Saint-Domingue, then the top-ranking conflict known as the War of the South. Rigaud's regime in a bloody South Province was again incorporated With Louverture's victory, the But for six years, anciens under the general colonial administration. without direction from libres here developed a revolutionary society renamed Port- Républicain. Paris, Cap Français, or Port-au-Prince, now us to see how the South's There are few sources that permit the future in 1792 and 1793, wealthy free families of color envisioned armies defeated French officer in Saint-Domingue, then the top-ranking conflict known as the War of the South. Rigaud's regime in a bloody South Province was again incorporated With Louverture's victory, the But for six years, anciens under the general colonial administration. without direction from libres here developed a revolutionary society renamed Port- Républicain. Paris, Cap Français, or Port-au-Prince, now us to see how the South's There are few sources that permit the future in 1792 and 1793, wealthy free families of color envisioned --- Page 280 --- REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISN after colonial whites reluctantly forces with them against the slave accepted their citizenship and joined considerable rebellion. The rebels had military and political developed evidence that free colored momentum, but there is no slavery. planters in the colony anticipated the end of Julien Raimond had, however. In January published a plan that was pragmatic, 1793, from Paris, he with his advocacy of free colored self-interested, and consistent rights. yet declared war against France, it Though Britain had had not even with free colored and white was already clear to Raimond that Revolution could not defeat the citizen-soldiers marching together, the their strength and military rebels, who had been tactics for improving the insurgency had nearly 18 months. He argued that refused progressed to this point because justice to free people ofcolor for SO colonists had must be included in the long. Now, he wrote, "slaves them by revolution, not to the full extent, but to improving their situation interest merce is not destroyed and individual considerably, in a way that our comWith these conservative fortunes are not damaged. >6 priorities, Raimond emancipation as an *insane project. >2 described immediate which slaves could Instead, he proposed a carn their freedom plan by Revolution, Raimond had gradually. Before the would predicted that encourage more whites to dismantling racial laws small farmers in marry women of color and become working slaves Saint-Domingue. Now he envisioned the hardesthe saw in his own becoming class: peasant farmers, developing the same virtues thrift, and sexual morality. productivity, attachment to the land, Raimond proposed a law allowing freedom according to an official any worker to buy his or her require owners to give slaves three price schedule, The law would also selves. Those who free hours a day to work for themaccumulated 100 livres from commerce would receive extra free time, their gardens and money. Hard work, agricultural enabling them to earn more eventually allow skill, and financial some to accumulate 2,000 livres discipline would freedom. Raimond believed slaves had or more to buy their rights and develop the habit to respect their masters' property condition ofwork, "the first quality essential offreedom and equality. 99 And, after to the would have to abide by society's laws, and selfpurchase, freedmen Man would have to abandon adopt new sexual behaviors. would have to be more modest, seduction and polygamy. And women to avoid the sexual covering themselves decently in immorality oftheir slave / public Raimond's tone suggested that he past." planters than with the slaves. In a section sympathized of more with the the pamphlet ostensibly ' property condition ofwork, "the first quality essential offreedom and equality. 99 And, after to the would have to abide by society's laws, and selfpurchase, freedmen Man would have to abandon adopt new sexual behaviors. would have to be more modest, seduction and polygamy. And women to avoid the sexual covering themselves decently in immorality oftheir slave / public Raimond's tone suggested that he past." planters than with the slaves. In a section sympathized of more with the the pamphlet ostensibly --- Page 281 --- BEFORE HAITI written to the insurgents, he admonished your places, errant men, and in them: "return quickly to will revitalize you. > Enslaved respectful silence await the laws that until they achieved people would remain under special laws words to "respect for persons and property." >) Aquin's free men ofcolor, Raimond Echoing his to forget the benefits you receive from counseled slaves "never must show your gratitude; the nation. At all times you uing to make the nothing can better prove this than continRaimond described colony's soil productive by your work. ? slave grievances as Indeed, population of color in 1789 and equivalent to those of the free ideas he had developed in the 1790. His proposal reflected the freedom: the preceding decade about free colored importance of law, hard "If the law encourages slaves work, property, and propriety. consume and to acquire a taste for the enjoy, and even allows them to have things we independent of their master's a bit of land ofd our properties and of caprice, then we will be forever assured The peace in the colonies. >8 Way events unfolded in Raimond's conservative plan Saint-Domingue ensured that counter-reolutionary was not adopted, as such. Facing a Commissioner coup, in June 1793 the Sonthonax offered immediate Revolutionary return for military assistance. freedom to slaves in ex-neighbors in Yet, as will be seen below, Aquin adopted elements ofhis Raimond's pation. Though they may not have read his proposal after emanci1798 they began to sell small bits pamphlet, in 1797 and Haitian peasantry. ofland to ex-slaves, helping build a It is easier to trace Raimond's influence like the second civil commissioners. on Revolutionary officials the Parisian Jacobin club at about Etienne Polvérel, who joined almost certainly discussed the the same time as Raimond, had and shared his belief in future of plantation slavery with him missioners gradualism. Raimond had on colonial affairs before advised the commended Delpech, their they left Paris and had recomGuadeloupe, Polvérel secretary. Like Victor Hugues in was influenced by post-slavery owed a debt to the French Raimond's idea that ex-slaves time, the laws he established Republic and to their masters. At the same to inculcate market in the South after values in the cultivators and emancipation tried support the plantation to convince them to self-interest.9 system out of economic, as well as political, In his agricultural code, Polvérel told the ex-slaves that published in February 1794 in Les Cayes, ifthey wanted to cat, clothe they were now completely free, but that they would need to work. themselves 10 and provide for their families, Without the plantation system, he -slaves time, the laws he established Republic and to their masters. At the same to inculcate market in the South after values in the cultivators and emancipation tried support the plantation to convince them to self-interest.9 system out of economic, as well as political, In his agricultural code, Polvérel told the ex-slaves that published in February 1794 in Les Cayes, ifthey wanted to cat, clothe they were now completely free, but that they would need to work. themselves 10 and provide for their families, Without the plantation system, he --- Page 282 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND abandon Saint-Domingue, which would stressed, the Republic would chaos. His code set aside onefall prey to foreign attack and eventually cultivators and gave them a voice third of net plantation profits for the council Each estate would have an administrative in management. the former head slaves, would represent workers. where conducteurs, or their managers, would The councils, which included planters estate's resources, and how ofthe decide work schedules, exploitation would share the estate's revenues. Ex-slaves and ex-masters to spend land, animals, and buildings. labor six days a week. Plantation councils But work crews needed to but since those estates would could choose a five-day schedule, have to absorb the full cost of generate less revenue, workers would one-fifth of profits, instead of their decision. They would receive only could With less than five days oflabor a weck, a plantation one-third. assured workers that state would evict work not be profitable. Polvérel While they might find employment crews who chose such a schedule. grounds, like the "the right to shelter and provision as day laborers, is only given to those whose constant right to a share ofthe revenue, ofthe plantation. 2> and diligent work makes them part cultivators wanted to farm for Polvérel acknowledged that many the size oftheir personal gardens themselves and had already increased Now that they had a share of at the expense of plantation crops. did not need more land to grow plantation profits, he argued, they about one-fifth of an acre. food. Plantation gardens would stay at of giving workers more Nevertheless, Polvérel maintained the custom 19 acres offlat land their small garden plots. He allotted land than just field hand with a share in the profits. or 25.5 hillside acres to each for their own use. Managers received three times as much, in February understood the new system, To ensure that cultivators with witnesses, to read 1794 Polvérel ordered owners and managers, After these discussions, and explain the law to all plantation workers. they wanted to work five or they were to let the workers vote whether many ofthese six days a week. As Raimond might have recommended, the values oft the properincluded exhortations to adopt in the presentations reading Polvérel's code to workers tied classes. Onc manager the poverty that might Les Cayes plain said he asked them to "imagine for themselves by afflict them in their old age, if they did not provide of >2 Another reminded his audience being a little greedy for wealth." will bring them ifthey do their part "the advantages that the Republic ofthe [but also] the well-being to uphold it and pay for the costs war; of whites newly arrived in that awaits them if they imitate the greed this land. >ll ations reading Polvérel's code to workers tied classes. Onc manager the poverty that might Les Cayes plain said he asked them to "imagine for themselves by afflict them in their old age, if they did not provide of >2 Another reminded his audience being a little greedy for wealth." will bring them ifthey do their part "the advantages that the Republic ofthe [but also] the well-being to uphold it and pay for the costs war; of whites newly arrived in that awaits them if they imitate the greed this land. >ll --- Page 283 --- BEFORE HAITI the Labat plantation did not believe Polvérel In Aquin, workers on their manager read to them. They had written the regulations by the whites. Women on the suspected that the rules were a plot the Commissioner out that "if it had been sent by >> estate pointed soldiers to witness the reading. The workers there would have been five days, and to sugar estate voted to work only on the Dufrettey additional day of rest, not Saturday. The make Thursday their cultivators chose to take Thursday off "in Charpentier Destournelles plantation." 27 The Castera imitation ofthe cultivators of the Dufrettey the Melinet plantation, Davezac estate also voted for Thursday, as did Melinet.' 12 ofthe former slave François under the management Polvérel's plan, like Raimond's, was the An important part of the estates. On October 25, elimination of capital punishment on he ordered the arrest of 1793, a week before general emancipation, Giraud plantation in Affricaine, >> the former head slave ofthe "Claude Julienne Zabet, one of the workers Les Cayes, for having whipped Raimond, however, the commisunder his supervision. More than the exclusive property sioner insisted that plantations were no longer 57 he arrested Giraud of planters. In addition to "Claude Affricaine, asked him what was himself for answering, when several people oftheir business." >13 happening with his workers, "that it was none Polvérel conIn June 1794, as he left for France with Sonthonax, André now a of the southern peninsula on Rigaud, ferred leadership Rigaud's most pressing task was to defeat general in the French army. Port-au-Prince, as well as the British, who by this time occupied itself. The invaders at shipping several towns in the southern peninsula of but between the southern coast and the rest Saint-Domingue, Polvérel's managed to finance his operations by maintaining Rigaud products. He had enough agricultural code and exporting plantation that when fighting the British and establishing a government success the in May 1796 as part of the Third Sonthonax returned to colony had reestablished slavery he suspected that Rigaud Civil Commission, In August he sent the South towards independence. and was moving lead field workers in a rebellion against envoys to the South to them. By the end of Instead, the cultivators rioted against Rigaud. in the North had effectively concluded 1796, Sonthonax and officials little they could do about Southern autonomy." there was Haitian historians focused on In the nineteenth century, especially, or nouveaux libres to Rigaud's ability to convince the ex-slaves Madiou in 1847, Rigaud support his regime. According to Thomas slave ships and frecing their created a prosperous South. By capturing as Polvérel abolishing the whip and sharing profits human cargo, by them. By the end of Instead, the cultivators rioted against Rigaud. in the North had effectively concluded 1796, Sonthonax and officials little they could do about Southern autonomy." there was Haitian historians focused on In the nineteenth century, especially, or nouveaux libres to Rigaud's ability to convince the ex-slaves Madiou in 1847, Rigaud support his regime. According to Thomas slave ships and frecing their created a prosperous South. By capturing as Polvérel abolishing the whip and sharing profits human cargo, by --- Page 284 --- REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISN had outlined, and by personally fight the British by exhorting plantation cultivators to that his region would producing have both more commodities, Rigaud ensured the rest of food and government revenues while Saint-Domingue suffered famine,15 The surviving pages of Aquin's 1798 this post-emancipation census illustrate the limits on cost Aquin's plantations prosperity. Violence and the end ofs slavery had Moreau de Saint-Méry nearly one-third of their workers. In 1788, counted about census of1798 reveals only 5,300 8,000 slaves in Aquin. The This declining labor force cultivators and other laborers.1 16 The Dufrettey was Aquin's greatest economic sugar plantation, which was problem. control, had nearly 300 workers in 1798. But the under government indigo plantation, which had had close to 180 neighboring Bodkin only 95 resident ex-slaves in 1798. workers in 1789, had cight were under the age of 12. Seventeen of these were ill and 1799, the purchaser counted When the plantation was sold in estates were in the just over 60 cultivators.1 17 Both canton known as The Plain, which had ofthese plantations with over 100 workers. But three other The median number of workers The Plain was exceptional. times higher than in any other per household there, 48, was three Not only had canton in the parish. hundreds Aquin had lost thousands of field of proprietors and their families. workers, it had lost 210 whites and 290 free In 1788 Moreau counted census listed coloreds, or 500 persons. A only 303 1 individuals whose decade later, the occupations showed they had not been names and pre-F -Revolutionary colonists had left with the slaves. Some of the missing had fled or been deported, in approval of local authorities; many others their estates. which case the government Proprietors were still resident in sequestered Aquin's households in 1798. But in The about two-thirds of coffee-growing Plain, and in the canton known as Asile, absent mountainous residents. Two-thirds of Asile's owners outnumbered in The Plain were planters and 57 percent of gone. In Aquin's other proprietors the Colline à Mangon, only 26 and 17 cantons, Grande Colline and absent, respectively. percent of landowners were Predictably, the planters most likely to whites who owned large numbers of have disappeared were remain were free people of color with slaves, while those most likely to revolution climinated racial smaller workforces. Because the 1798 racial labels, it is difficult to reconstruct profile. But 37 percent of the Aquin's names associated with households listed family 1780s, while 33 prominent free colored families from the the percent had names ofwell-known parish overall, over two-thirds white families. 18 In (68 percent) of landowners with planters most likely to whites who owned large numbers of have disappeared were remain were free people of color with slaves, while those most likely to revolution climinated racial smaller workforces. Because the 1798 racial labels, it is difficult to reconstruct profile. But 37 percent of the Aquin's names associated with households listed family 1780s, while 33 prominent free colored families from the the percent had names ofwell-known parish overall, over two-thirds white families. 18 In (68 percent) of landowners with --- Page 285 --- BEFORE HAITI Only 18 percent of free prominent white names were absentees. absentee cantons ofThe colored proprietors were absent. The heavily they Plain and Asile were areas with few free colored proprietors; household only 14 and 25 percent of the identifiable constituted In the two cantons where absentees were rare, names, respectively. made 35 and 53 percent of houscholds. free coloreds up death of one-third of Aquin's residents over Given the exodus or values crumbled. From the ten years, it is not surprising that property of rural property in Aquin, Les 1760s to the 1780s, the median price livres. In the had risen from 6,600 to 8,000 Cayes, and Nippes, ofland in Aquin fell to 1,200 Revolutionary decade, the median price about the future ofp plantation livres. Emigration, violence, and insecurity The median value of urban agriculture all influenced this decline. had almost doubled from property sales in the southern peninsula the 1780s. The Revolution was 5,500 livres in the 1760s to 10,000 in them down to a median value hard on these transactions too, bringing urban real of 990 livres in the 1790s. There was some high-priced for merchants and estate sold during these years, mostly residences merchant Pierre Bonnefils, officials. In 1798, the French paid government into a free colored family twenty years earlier, who had married The following year his neighbor, 72,000 livres for a house in Aquin. Beutier 40,000 livres commander Louis paid the ancien libre parish belonging to a white merchant who for a two-story house originally the for 10,000 had left for France. He then leased it to government land grants from As a high official, Beutier received livres a year. including one near Aquin's pier. He sold André Rigaud's government, soldiers and other citizens, collecting 1,000 plots to lower-ranking in 1799. Two years later, when Rigaud's livres for one of them he sold collapsed and Beutier was no longer commander, government for only 300 livres.' 19 another plot sales in the town of Aquin, and at its pier, These occasional large thriving under Revolutionary illustrate that some merchants were sales and other surviving conditions, as described below. But plantation the goal of confirm that in the years after emancipation, contracts survival. Aquin's notarial archives reveal four propertied families was uncertain of how to attract, retain, strategies employed by planters and manage free laborers on their estates. of the military in this The first ofthese underlines the importance formed partnerperiod of forcign and civil war. Planters frequently of color before the with officers, like Louis Beutier, a free man 1794. ships in the Dragoons of Equality in Revolution, who was a captain house in town that belonged to At this rank, Beutier occupied a survival. Aquin's notarial archives reveal four propertied families was uncertain of how to attract, retain, strategies employed by planters and manage free laborers on their estates. of the military in this The first ofthese underlines the importance formed partnerperiod of forcign and civil war. Planters frequently of color before the with officers, like Louis Beutier, a free man 1794. ships in the Dragoons of Equality in Revolution, who was a captain house in town that belonged to At this rank, Beutier occupied a --- Page 286 --- REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISM white creole and Aquin's former parish Jean-Baptiste Anglade, a France before the Revolution. But commander who had gone to around 1796, Beutier when he became parish commander himself, in the Asile district. As military emerged as a prominent coffee planter and other chief, he probably had access to manpower transportation gave him needed. In 1796, for example, the notary Allegre Beutier leased planters his And in 1799, power to administer plantation. Because Anglade had left Anglade's large Asile coffee plantation. had sequestered his estate Saint-Domingue, Rigaud's government Under state control, the and took the owner's share of the profits. attention. In 1798, it had 177 property seems to have received workforce special in Asile had only 63. The workers while the next largest bushes and close to 90 acres in following year it had 150,000 coffee returned to Aquin. provision crops. In 1799 Jean-Baptiste Anglade have doubted his ability to But the former parish commander may So he let the property to Beutier keep these free workers on the land. The lease sum of 16,600 livres a year plus repairs. for the substantial were Beutier's responsibility, did not even mention workers, as ifthey Later that same year, Anglade gave independent of Anglade's control. income from a leased sugar planBeutier power of attorney to receive funds from his sister's and to pursue tation in a neighboring parish fell and Toussaint estate. In 1800, when Rigaud's government Beutier transferred his Louverture's officers took command of Aquin, planter, coffee plantation to a neighboring lease on Anglade's Dominique Brun.20 officer in the National Guard, was another Pierre Barbier, an valuable coffee land in Asile from Aquin's military figure who rented La Potherie family, who elite whites. In his casc, it was the prominent sometime between August disappeared from Aquin's notarial record began. In 1797, when and December of 1791, as the slave rebellion in Aquin, their two the La Potheries again began drafting contracts former slaves still lived on Only ten plantations were in deep disrepair. whose once luxurious main their 795-acre estate in the Aquin plain, Four of these house was tiled in marble out to the front veranda. the La Potherie were women with small children. In Asile, residents coffee bushes and 30 cultivators, but plantation had 20,000 neglected Ours seems to have been worried Marc Leroy de La Potherie-S -Saint 1797 he leased both plantations about his safety in the mountains. In of two years and the Pierre Barbier for the unusually brief period to low price of3 3,000 livres. 21 had exceptionally Barbier claimed that La Potherie In 1799, as the lease ended, containing 11,500 coffee given him 95 acres of the Asile estate, 30 cultivators, but plantation had 20,000 neglected Ours seems to have been worried Marc Leroy de La Potherie-S -Saint 1797 he leased both plantations about his safety in the mountains. In of two years and the Pierre Barbier for the unusually brief period to low price of3 3,000 livres. 21 had exceptionally Barbier claimed that La Potherie In 1799, as the lease ended, containing 11,500 coffee given him 95 acres of the Asile estate, --- Page 287 --- BEFORE HAITI buildings. The provision crops, and two straw-covered bushes, with Jean Guard officer entered a nine-year partnership National Aubert was to build a house of squared Aubert, a building contractor. on the site.22 timber, a coffee mill, and a large drying platform Asile dwindled, as workers Meanwhile, La Potherie's workforce in Of the 30 moved from plantation to plantation. in the mountains 1797 lease, only 11 remained in 1798. Seven cultivators named in the the estate. The La men and one new woman had now joined new in these made worse by war not Potheries could succeed conditions, member sold the remaining from 1799 to 1803. In 1802 another family undeveloped coffee land.23 Claude Gourdet, an officer in Aquin's A third soldier/planter was illustrates that even military armed troop in 1794. Gourdet's career estate in the middle of a officials found it challenging to rebuild an in the local Dragoons revolution. By 1798 he was second in command force. He also held the of Equality, as Rigaud called his military with lease on the abandoned Maragon indigo plantation he relingovernment workers. But in 1799, as the War of the South began, its 48 traded among a host of newly returned quished the lease, which was Two years later, émigrés, including Louis Boisrond-Tonnetre.s officer named François Alphonse Gourdet and a National Guard coffee on Gourdet's land in dissolved their 1796 partnership to plant events" that had started in June Asile. They blamed "the unfortunate army entered the peninsula. 1799, when Louverture's his with Alphonse, Within months of nullifying agreement with Louverture's war commissioner Gourdet entered a partnership who had already leased at least for the St Louis district, Louis Dexéa, earlier. The new partners agreed one modest coffee estate six months the from the numbers of workers and to split profits to furnish equal land. The same day Gourdet and 35,000 coffec bushes on Gourdet's the coffee plantation of Dexéa formed another partnership to develop guardianship. In Etienne Olive, a deaf man under Gourdet's cultivators legal to conduct the Dexéa pledged to bring both agreements, their work. On May 1, 1802, Dexéa took over harvest and to oversee Labat coffee plantation, where the government lease ofthe once-large 58 that were there in 1798.25 only 21 workers remained ofthe François Alphonse, formerly Meanwhile, Gourdet's old associate, with Aquin's new Guard, had formed a partnership of the National Michaud Nicholas. The men purchased National Guard commander, six resident cultivators, but their that had only a cotton plantation return several individual cultivators agreement noted, "They plan to who once lived there. >26 a took over harvest and to oversee Labat coffee plantation, where the government lease ofthe once-large 58 that were there in 1798.25 only 21 workers remained ofthe François Alphonse, formerly Meanwhile, Gourdet's old associate, with Aquin's new Guard, had formed a partnership of the National Michaud Nicholas. The men purchased National Guard commander, six resident cultivators, but their that had only a cotton plantation return several individual cultivators agreement noted, "They plan to who once lived there. >26 --- Page 288 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND with the end of slavery was to attend A second strategy for dealing with Pierre workers' rights and needs. Jean Aubert's partnership to "maintain among the cultiBarbier specified that he was to discipline will and free who will work on the land out of their own good vators made before the local justice of movement, ? according to conventions Polvérel's code, These stipulations, based on agricultural the peace. Hugues Montbrun, a free man of color were maintained by Rigaud. but who spent nearly all his life in with a large family estate in Aquin in 1792 as an officer with the Bordeaux, returned to Saint-Domingue Rigaud, who regarded royal army. 27 In 1794, forced back to Europe by with the managers of Montbrun left careful instructions him as a rival, which bales of cotton had been harvested after his Aquin lands about them with the cultivators.2* emancipation, and how to share was Polvérel's decision An important aspect of workers' new rights On March 31, 1794, he had to give them a voice in estate management. watch over and even manage multiple created agricultural inspectors to chosen from former plantations belonging to the state. The inspectors, councils and directed their plantations' administrative field hands, ofthe state's share of received 100 livres per month plus half a percent Rigaud too hired former head slaves as inspectors.? profits. four different men in Aquin, all of them former In 1798 at least plantacalled themselves "inspector" and managed sequestered slaves, who had already leased tions. One of them was *Guillaume Inspecteur" workers from a planter who had a 174-acre plantation with attached him a mere 330 livres per year. 30 inherited the propertyand who charged planters to give them such Nor did such men need overwhelmed former head slaves were opportunities. According to the 1798 census, households in Aquin, while running about two-thirds ofthe absentee third. This appears to professional managers directed the remaining for generally exofstate policy than planter strategy, be more a matter belonging to absent whites, who were slaves administered properties presided over property belonglikely to be political exiles. Managers left In anciens libres, who were more likely to have voluntarily. ing to the whites were absent and ex- slaves ran six of Asile, for example, all Colline canton, there were five In the Grande these eight properties. four of free colored households and managers supervised absent directed six of the canton's nine absent white them. But ex-slaves estates. who had just returned to In 1802, notaries working for an émigré named Mentor, in charge Saint-Domingue found a former head slave, "citizen coffee bushes. 31 When they asked of 30,000 well-maintained much coffee had been collected on the Mentor" to tell them how all Colline canton, there were five In the Grande these eight properties. four of free colored households and managers supervised absent directed six of the canton's nine absent white them. But ex-slaves estates. who had just returned to In 1802, notaries working for an émigré named Mentor, in charge Saint-Domingue found a former head slave, "citizen coffee bushes. 31 When they asked of 30,000 well-maintained much coffee had been collected on the Mentor" to tell them how --- Page 289 --- BEFORE HAITI to the mark he made on a stick plantation, "he told us that according barrels of green coffee had been which he showed us, eleven hundred been reduced by half through taken from the gardens, which had of coffee. 27 and should produce the quantity of2 27,500 pounds of drying state was not the only one to notice this kind The Revolutionary relinquished estate managemanagerial skill. Some resident planters Desmier d'Olbreuse, one of ment to ex-slaves. One was Bernard lived with his wife and five young Aquin's remaining whites. Desmier workers but owned a second estate children on a plantation with 22 head-slave directed the work of several miles away, where a former 30 cultivators. 32 with the uncertainty ofthe A third strategy planters used to cope crops, switching Revolutionary decade was to change commodity Even before the from indigo to coffee and other alternatives. indigo plantaRevolution, a drought had put a number of Aquin's and Many indigo plantations also grew cotton, tions out of business. to the drought. Though cofmore adopted it in the 1780s in response of the peninsula firmly established in many parts fee was already in the 1790s large numbers of Aquin's planters before the Revolution, The census of 1798 revealed at least finally began to grow this crop. refiners but were now on nine former slaves who had been indigo estates that had no need for this skill. indigo. It was less Coffee grew on hillsides that could not support and mill away expensive to dry coffee berries on a masonry platform, vats of shells, than to distill dark powder from fermenting their outer coffee work was demanding, it may have been harvestedi 1 indigo. Though In the hills, temperatures were than indigo to ex-slaves. more acceptable land more readily available. cooler and vacant partners, like the town's resident Moreover. Aquin's forcign trading been secking out the merchants described below, seem to have U.S. Pierre Barbier's neighbor Henry Fort was crop. In Asile, for example, he had invested heavily in his coffee either a forcign merchant or In 1800, Fort sailed to the commercial works to meet foreign demand. Islands, leasing his coffee center at Saint Thomas in the Danish Virgin mill built well-maintained bushes, a crushing plantation with 40,000 mills, fourteen drying platforms, and in masonry, plus two winnowing ofs 33 Few coffee estates in Aquin a main house built partially out stone. were this solidly constructed. three the Invested in the indigo trade for at least decline generations, of this like others, suffered with the crop. Raimond family, Raimond's indigo fields by the Aquin's drought had ruined François the main plantation house time of his death around 1797. In 1799, aintained bushes, a crushing plantation with 40,000 mills, fourteen drying platforms, and in masonry, plus two winnowing ofs 33 Few coffee estates in Aquin a main house built partially out stone. were this solidly constructed. three the Invested in the indigo trade for at least decline generations, of this like others, suffered with the crop. Raimond family, Raimond's indigo fields by the Aquin's drought had ruined François the main plantation house time of his death around 1797. In 1799, --- Page 290 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND and tableware, but the structure needed still contained furniture and only few acres heavy repairs. The indigo works were abandoned where Raimond had once in saleable cotton. The barn were planted several hundred pounds ofcotton and a mill dried his indigo now held on the property was a to clean the fibers. The only coffee equipment cultivators still lived on the small grinder in the kitchen. Twenty-four leased the estate to a couple identified when Raimond's heirs their grounds and Martine. 72 Neither of them could sign as "Citizens Ciprien and were likely nouveaux names. They lived on a nearby plantation, libres. 34 less involved in politics than François and Guillaume Raimond was and a coffee Julien. He was the one family member to Guillaume buy develop and his partner, plantation before the Revolution. In 1799, coffee was were both dead, but their estate's equipment a white man, emancipation, 53 male and 29 in good repair. Five years after general 36 children. And in 1800, female field hands worked there still, plus in delivered 100 sacks ofcoffee to a merchant workers from this estate had used their share of the Saint Louis. Following the law, they arbiters valued the plantation at profits to buy food supplies. The 200,000 livres. many estates used to After coffec, lumber was another commodity Pyracmon was profits and keep workers on the land. Joseph The same generate commander after the War of the South. Aquin's new parish of his official residence in town, he formed day he took possession anciens libres. One of them was partnerships with two prominent administrator. Maigret had André Maigret, who was now a municipal 1801 he joined Pyracmon to coffee since 1797 and in been growing land. The commander agreed that he would exploit the timber on his the wood to Aquin. furnish the workers and the oxen to transport Boisrond was to cut Similarly, Pyracmon's partnership with and Laurent haul it to town. In this case, timber on the Boisrond plantation workers. 36 each partner would provide one-halfofthe anciens libres used was The fourth plantation strategy Aquin's In and the most conservative. simultancously the most revolutionary 1793, the best way for wealthy 1793, Julien Raimond wrote in was turn laborers planters to secure their property and guarantee peace some families began to into landowners. In the late 1790s, therefore, of their estates to exdo just that, by selling small plots on the edges slaves from nearby plantations. Madeleine purchased approxiIn 1799, for example, the cultivator Lavoile, a builder, and his mately eight acres of land from Antoine least ten similar small land wife. The Lavoile family was involved in at 1793, the best way for wealthy 1793, Julien Raimond wrote in was turn laborers planters to secure their property and guarantee peace some families began to into landowners. In the late 1790s, therefore, of their estates to exdo just that, by selling small plots on the edges slaves from nearby plantations. Madeleine purchased approxiIn 1799, for example, the cultivator Lavoile, a builder, and his mately eight acres of land from Antoine least ten similar small land wife. The Lavoile family was involved in at --- Page 291 --- BEFORE HAITI sales and partnerships in this period, like Madeleine. The land including several with ex-slaves coffee and banana they sold her contained badly maintained her sales plants. Madeleine was a cultivator and contract to honor her promised in Marceillan plantation. Several obligation to work on the nearby Marceillan worker, established months later, she and Simon, another the 1,200 coffee bushes and a formal nine-year partnership to tend The four bananas on her new land. 37 sons of the controversial free colored Depas-Medina were neighbors of the Lavoiles. planter Michel plots ofland to ex-slaves.in this period. 38 They too sold small Paul Depas, had been clected In 1791, . one ofthe brothers, Fond des Nègres to the first multi-racial parish, next to Aquin. He was leadership of brothers, Jean Louis, Antoine, and dead by 1796 but his were François Joseph remained. light-skinned men and probably They father Michel, who had worked in the French-educated like their the Gradis family at mid-century. Bordeaux counting house of In 1797, Antoine Depas-Medina known wife, lived on a plantation with 15 as Antoine Depas, and his census their manager Louis workers. According to the 1798 before the revolution. But in Dasmar, age 60, had held this position 1797, when "Louis Damaza,' 99 he described him Antoine sold seven acres to it was not the same man, for as a cultivator, or ex-slave. Perhaps low purchase price, Damaza could pay only two-thirds ofthe though he promised to the upcoming coffee harvest. Two provide rest after the one-third ofa an acre on the years later Antoine Depas sold Damaza edge of his already cut down trees, planted plantation where Damaza had Damaza was selling land, himself. crops and created a road. Soon and his family about In 1800 he sold another from ten acres of land he had ex-slave Depas. By 1802 he had accumulated previously purchased 150 acres in the same section of a plantation with over Jousseaume, Jean Louis Aquin. He sold half ofit to Jacques formed a partnership to work Depas-Medina's the manager. The two men Jousseaume was land, which bordered leasing from Jean Louis property François Joseph Depas-Medina Depas-Medina." property to men and was even more active in Sometime women who had been his selling in 1795, Gilles Cupidon and neighbors' slaves. Gastumeau plantation had François Bromand of the Depas, >> paying the unusually purchased about 20 acres from "Joseph pig. In 1796 the two low 1,386 livres price with a horse and shortly thereafter divided nouveaux libres had a notary record the sale and immediately the land between them. leave the plantation, however. Cupidon did not testament identifving himself In 1797, he drafted a Gastumeau plantation. as Kongo, age 55, and living on the "Fearing death" he gave one-third ofhis land François Bromand of the Depas, >> paying the unusually purchased about 20 acres from "Joseph pig. In 1796 the two low 1,386 livres price with a horse and shortly thereafter divided nouveaux libres had a notary record the sale and immediately the land between them. leave the plantation, however. Cupidon did not testament identifving himself In 1797, he drafted a Gastumeau plantation. as Kongo, age 55, and living on the "Fearing death" he gave one-third ofhis land --- Page 292 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND been a Labadie slave but had moved to to Madeleine, who had once the other two-thirds to the son of He left the Gastumeau plantation. Gilles Cupidon was still alive a woman on Antoine Depas's plantation. official thought he was 64 years the following year, though the census had left the Gastumeau estate, old. At last he and Madeleine, age 36, in 1801, Cupidon and headed their own houschold. Three years later, between testament. This time he divided his property drafted another of a woman he had known on the Madeleine and the daughter Gastumeau estate.40 continued to trade land for Meanwhile, François Joseph Depas horse from Denés, a cultilivestock with ex-slaves. In 1797 he took a eleven virgin acres. the Laveau in exchange for vator on plantation, with his sister Bernadine, a domestic servant, Denés bought the land soldier. Three days later, Depas traded and their nephew Augustine, a for another horse to Pierre an even smaller plot, about five acres, The undeveloped Hector who lived on another nearby plantation. 30 but had only land had been in the Depas family for over years, recently been surveyed.1 following Julien brothers consciously Were the Depas-Medina There's no eviRaimond's advice to make ex-slaves into landowners? leave marks, analyzed dence of this, but François and Jean Louis did small were freemasons. These unprofitable below, that suggest they also engaged in, may have been land sales, which other freemasons and charity. At expressions of their masonic commitment to fraternity economic fabric of sales like this patched the social and the very least, had advocated. And as sellers, the their parish much as Raimond The new peasants they were Depas-Medinas benefited themselves. of coffee and cotton that small crops helping create might produce market. Or they might function as anciens libres could profitably involved in municipal adminisclients for this literate family that was situation shifted the tration. Moreover, when the political or military libres neighbrothers might be glad to have nouveaux Depas-Medina In 1799, the ex-slave "Citizen Jacques" bors they knew and trusted. including a building, bought ten acres from Antoine Depas-Medina, deed was destroyed in the garden, and cotton bushes. After Jacques's accompanied him War ofthe South the following year, Depas-Medina that he has enough of a title to to a notary to redraft the sale, "so >42 guarantee him peaceful ownership. Sonthonax's: authority, survived its isolation Because the South rejected yet still managed to from France and the rest of Saint-Domingue, ex-slave "Citizen Jacques" bors they knew and trusted. including a building, bought ten acres from Antoine Depas-Medina, deed was destroyed in the garden, and cotton bushes. After Jacques's accompanied him War ofthe South the following year, Depas-Medina that he has enough of a title to to a notary to redraft the sale, "so >42 guarantee him peaceful ownership. Sonthonax's: authority, survived its isolation Because the South rejected yet still managed to from France and the rest of Saint-Domingue, --- Page 293 --- BEFORE HAITI including defeat the British occupation, some contemporaries, seeking Louverture, portrayed it as a mulatto oligarchy Toussaint Given the importance of the southern peninautonomy from France. [see epilogue] 1, histosula in the movement for Haitian Independence and members of his government rians might agree. Yet André Rigaud offers from the British to France and rejected insisted on their loyalty libre here loyal to France sides. Why were ancien planters to change anciens libres in Saint-Marc, Arcahaie, Léogane when slave-owning elsewhere allied with the British to preserve slavery?43 and cited is that Rigaud's government sucOne reason frequently labor system and may have ceeded in maintaining a viable plantation wealthy families keep most seen a future in which France would help this overstates the in quasi-slavery. But theory of the population policies. The fact that Aquin's success of Rigaud's plantation in 1798 and Anglade's coffee Dufrettey sugar works had 300 workers administrators carefully estate had 177 cultivators shows that parish But these large workallocated labor to the most profitable estates. from been based on men and women pulled forces seem to have And these, as we have seen, were other, privately held, plantations. below, along with the hardly thriving. Marriage dowries, analyzed wealth of anciens libres fell land sales examined above, show that the what the South's dramatically in the 1790s. If a plantocracy done was better to bring in anciens libres truly wanted, they would have reinstall slavery. their British smuggling partners and help them cultural component. Their attachment to France certainly had a that ofthe Haitian elite after independence suggests The Francophilia and their workforces in constant even with their indigo vats empty of cultural superiority over nouflux, ancien libres maintained a sense And, there libres that derived from their French connections. veaux families of color who hoped that French officials and may have been rebuild a profitable troops would return and help Saint-Domingue to the ex-slaves when plantation system. No matter what happened have thought, educated the French returned, some anciens libres may would certainly retain landowning men of mixed race like themselves why the South with the French. Indeed, this is probably their equality Leclerc of 1802, while Tousssaint welcomed the expedition SO quickly resisted for months. 44 Louverture and his lieutenants about economic than ideoAquin's notarial archives reveal more do contain evidence of logical matters. Yet the surviving contracts values of liberty, ancien libre attachment to the French republican the liberty oft their slaves equality and fraternity. For example, though commercial liberty from have been difficult for many planters, may mixed race like themselves why the South with the French. Indeed, this is probably their equality Leclerc of 1802, while Tousssaint welcomed the expedition SO quickly resisted for months. 44 Louverture and his lieutenants about economic than ideoAquin's notarial archives reveal more do contain evidence of logical matters. Yet the surviving contracts values of liberty, ancien libre attachment to the French republican the liberty oft their slaves equality and fraternity. For example, though commercial liberty from have been difficult for many planters, may --- Page 294 --- REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISN France was something the South had long been Revolution brought that freedom, clamoring for. The the economic center of the SO Aquin's smuggling port became Saint-Méry visited parish. In the 1780s, when Moreau de buildings. But in 1798, Aquin, its pier was already a small village, with 13 official documents "new town. 7> The government began to refer to it as the owners subdivided their drewup: a master plan, granted land, and listed 136 people property into housing plots. The 1798 living at the port, not census as white from one ofwhom can be identified ex-slaves pre-Revolutionary documents.1 45 Most ofthe adults working in trades they had adopted were began. Less than halfofthe 56 since the Revolution the town of Aquin before men had lived either at the wharf or in washerwomen 1791. Most of the women were but only 14 of the 54 had been servants or Revolution. There were men and there before the from coastal cities, like Les Cayes, women from local plantations and Aquin's bay was neither Jérémie, or even Cap Français. from Curaçao and the large nor deep, but its location drew ships Virgin Islands. Parera, on the Royal Ark from Saint Joânnes Lopes and Moise 1799. In November they Thomas, visited Aquin in June currents as they tried to sail spent three wecks at sea, caught in strong their shoes for food, from Jacmel to Curaçao. After Britain's they were happy to return boiling naval blockades also fostered trade safely to Aquin. Spanish schooner Nuestra in Aquin. In 1798 the Signora del Carmen Cayes to Curaçao but when it tried to sail from Les appeared and forced it to take shelter was becalmed two English vessels In 1799, when the U.S. in Aquin's bay. 46 peninsula, privateers Navy joined the British blockade oft the foreign traders into sympathetic to the Rigaud's government forced Aquin. In October 1799, a ing out ofCuraçao compelled a ship from Saint French privateer sailTommaso Lii to travel to Aquin. The Thomas captained by based in Santo Domingo and following May a French corsair Domingue's famous calling itself the Makanda, after SaintAdler, a schooner out pre- of Saint Revolutionary rebel Makandal, captured the cargo in Aquin, where officials Croix en route to Jacmel. They sold its merchandise is noted, "the scarcity of food and extreme at this moment. 99 other ing for Georges H. Remsen and Captain Frederick Riley, sailsail from Saint Thomas Company in New York, was to Curaçao when a trying to coast of Puerto Rico forced him French privateer off the were an example of tensions to go to Aquin. Riley's difficulties over shipping that between the United States and France might have closed Aquin's America, if the parish had not had a long trade with North merchants knew how to avoid smuggling tradition. Local appearances of trading with hostile at this moment. 99 other ing for Georges H. Remsen and Captain Frederick Riley, sailsail from Saint Thomas Company in New York, was to Curaçao when a trying to coast of Puerto Rico forced him French privateer off the were an example of tensions to go to Aquin. Riley's difficulties over shipping that between the United States and France might have closed Aquin's America, if the parish had not had a long trade with North merchants knew how to avoid smuggling tradition. Local appearances of trading with hostile --- Page 295 --- BEFORE HAITI in Aquin wrote that the powers. In 1799, for example, two planters which actually come only ships in the bay were "so-called neutral >47 ships from Jamaica under the Danish flag. most of Aquin's While the British and the Dutch had purchased in the 1790s the parish's coffee was probably indigo up to the 1780s, tensions between the to the United States. When political going made direct trade more difficult, Aquin's United States and France and Saint Thomas. 48 In the late coffee went through neutral Curaçao merchants lived in Aquin, probably to 1790s, at least six United States Dutch and Danish ports. The coordinate shipments through these in Aquin in 1798 and merchant John Cunningham who lived In 1797, Joseph both as Danish and American. 1799 was identified arrived in Aquin where he already had a Clark of. Albany, New York, local merchants and dozens of longstanding partnership with three money SO he drafted a testament leaving clients. The following year could buy a house in Coco Lefevre and her 19-month-old son Joseph the town. 49 connections were another way the Aquin's century-old Sephardic markets. Salomon Levy of parish could route its crops to the major schooners to Aquin. Saint Thomas was one of the merchants who sent In 1794 from New York, like Abraham Isaac Henriqués. Others came of shoes to government he sold a cargo including over pairs related to the officials in Aquin. Henriques was almost certainly still owned a plantation brothers of Curaçao who in 1798 Henriques they no longer lived there. in Aquin's plain with 141 workers, though whose Aquin estate had Neither did the Gradis family of Bordeaux, Esther Lopez Depas in 114 cultivators. The land belonged to Moses Gradis, living in Bordeaux, the widow of Jacob Gradis. title to this in 1799, was trying to clear his family's Philadelphia property 50 community, had been Curaçao, with its important Sephardic for most ofthe eighteenth Aquin's most important smuggling partner said they had been century. In 1798 five men living at Aquin's pier but the most merchants in Curaçao before the Revolution, sailors or Louis David Garcia, who was described prominent Curaçoan was Jean Thomas Ploy's daughter in 1785. as a free mulatto when he married ofthe Republic" and used In 1794 Garcia was the <warehouse agent he collected money for his foreign contacts openly. In 1790 lived at the water's edge and Hibrahim, "ofTurkish nationality," who he had used notes from canoe. In 1802 he admitted owned a dugout schooner for the navigator Albert Curaçao to buy a 24-ton Spanish in Saint Thomas, maybe even Ples Lopez. Garcia also had contacts Thomas Ploy's daughter in 1785. as a free mulatto when he married ofthe Republic" and used In 1794 Garcia was the <warehouse agent he collected money for his foreign contacts openly. In 1790 lived at the water's edge and Hibrahim, "ofTurkish nationality," who he had used notes from canoe. In 1802 he admitted owned a dugout schooner for the navigator Albert Curaçao to buy a 24-ton Spanish in Saint Thomas, maybe even Ples Lopez. Garcia also had contacts --- Page 296 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND oft the Danish boat Three family. In 1794, Abraham Garsia, supercargo wheat and hard tack to the Brothers out of Saint Thomas, sold salt, Garcia spoke Danish well of Aquin. In 1800 Jean Louis from government for the crew of the brigantine Lillienschold, enough to interpret Saint Croix. 51 merchants and warehouse Since the 1760s, Aquin's free colored had used their business to Pierre Casamajor and Thomas Ploy agents In 1798 Garcia, his wife, and their children, move into planting. had just three cultivators living ages 2 to 15, still lived at the pier. They which was probably a provion the only bit of rural land they owned, of the availability of But the merchant took advantage sion garden. In 1799, the day after appraising a plantation confiscated plantations. of the he leased a sequestered coffee lease for another resident pier, with 18 healthy workers and 23 plantation in the hills near the bay, retired or sick ones.2 who was not movIn the 1790s, the only merchant at Aquin's port Pierre Bonnefils, from into planting was a European. In 1778, ing married Marie Jeanne Casamajor, the legitimate western France, had the former warehouse agent. daughter of Pierre Casamajor, dead that time, but marriage made Bonnefils's father-in-law was by colored family network. When the immigrant part of Aquin's free Bonnefils's wife's cousin in 1783, Jean Louis Garcia had married Such family connections Bonnefils had signed the wedding himself. contract. In 1783, he bought a small helped the Frenchman establish from his brother-in-law François plot of land in Fond des Nègres half of the Depas- Medina plantation Casamajor. In 1785 he leased the entire estate for a along the coast and a decade later purchased mere 8,560 livres.3 but his work as a wartime merchant that Yet it was not land, people in the clevated Bonnefils into one of the most leased important his house at the pier parish. In 1794 Aquin's administrators him the use of a large and prominent for official business and gave In 1798 he purchased building on Aquin's central square in exchange. The following year he was a a similar house, paying 72,000 livres. between cultijustice of the peace, attesting to the work agreements moved into the military commander vators and planters. Aquin's house next door. 54 flour, cloth, shoes Bonnefils's profits came from selling imported owed him 40,000 livres and paper to the government, which in 1799 he dealt with, like deliveries. Yet the merchants for numerous in 1798, may have been reluctant to risk Baltimore's Cuvers Lily In 1798 Bonnefils running the blockades around Saint-Domingue. ice of the peace, attesting to the work agreements moved into the military commander vators and planters. Aquin's house next door. 54 flour, cloth, shoes Bonnefils's profits came from selling imported owed him 40,000 livres and paper to the government, which in 1799 he dealt with, like deliveries. Yet the merchants for numerous in 1798, may have been reluctant to risk Baltimore's Cuvers Lily In 1798 Bonnefils running the blockades around Saint-Domingue. --- Page 297 --- BEFORE HAITI schooner for 13,550 livres from John helped a planter buy a Danish Americans. Before the end of Cunningham, one of Aquin's resident Danish schooner 36-tons sold Bonnefils a second 1798 Cunningham for 33,000 livres. A few months later hull, with a copper-sheathed also Danish, for 49,500 livres and hired he bought the 86-ton Betsy, Thomas. 55 François Gerrigou to sail it to Saint much business with North By 1799, Bonnefils was doing SO him to recover debts that other merchants were using America Aquin's 1800, he extended a power of attorney to from Baltimore. In February debts in that city. In March 1800, his wife, Marie Jeanne, to recover with another merchant and Bonnefils entered into a partnership York schooner captured by a 150-ton New bought a three-masted the New York captain 123,750 livres, French corsair. The partners paid their warehouses. 56 most ofit in the form of coffee from between 1798 and But Bonnefils's large maritime investments in the future; they were 1800 were not an expression ofhis confidence the Casamajors, he did not his exit strategy. Unlike his creole in-laws, His accelerating ship the bulk of his profits into agriculture. Toussaint put coincided with rising tensions between armies purchases and André Rigaud. In June 1799, Louverture's Louverture while his British and American allies tried to invaded the peninsula, In March 1800, Jacmel fell to northern shut down southern shipping. Three months later, Bonnefils armies after a long and brutal siege. commander to manage issued a power of attorney to Aquin's Pierre military Sentou for his business his plantation and to his partner Marie Jeanne Casamajor affairs.57 From this point, neither he nor appeared in the surviving notarial record. felt they had achieved a measure If Aquin's merchants and planters freedom, they had eliberty" in their new commercial of Revolutionary in the political sense. The parish's certainly achieved "equality" routinely describe as records confirm the existence of what historians under attack and nego- *Rigaud's mulatto state." > With the peninsula called the social revolution, officers in Rigaud's army, tiating a the heart ofthat state. In some senses, "Legion of Equality," were at of*Equality." 99 They lived the Legion's officers were hardly exemplars main at government buildings on Aquin's square in prominent the homes of white émigrés who once led expense, often occupying colonial militias. in the sense that most of But they represented a new egalitarianism from slavery, like André them were just one generation removed commanders were nearly Rigaud himself. Most of Aquin's military the Revolution. They were invisible in the notarial archives before heart ofthat state. In some senses, "Legion of Equality," were at of*Equality." 99 They lived the Legion's officers were hardly exemplars main at government buildings on Aquin's square in prominent the homes of white émigrés who once led expense, often occupying colonial militias. in the sense that most of But they represented a new egalitarianism from slavery, like André them were just one generation removed commanders were nearly Rigaud himself. Most of Aquin's military the Revolution. They were invisible in the notarial archives before --- Page 298 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND of mixed ancestry, members of the pre- Revolutionary typically free men Louis Beutier, Aquin's constabulary, literate, but with little property. mulatto from around 1796 to 1800, was a "free parish commander in 1780. He could sign his name, unlike horseman in the constabulary" of his horses. 58 the white blacksmith who purchased one second in command of Claude Gourdet, who eventually rose to Claude known as Aquin's Dragoons of Equality, was "Jean Baptiste woman freed before 1789. Marguerite Gourdet, a black Gourdet" had had six mulatto children with Jean from slavery in 1748, In a series of deeds up Degourdet, a white planter. Catherine Decopin and his brother left Marguerite and her to his death in 1760, Decopin in the Asile hills, and buildings in town. children over 20 slaves, land in 1785 that he took Though Claude was the eldest, it was only nieces and nephews. control ofthis property in the name ofhis sisters, had a white His mother was worn out by a court case she against her She turned the family assets over to Claude, keeping 59 merchant. slaves and the best furniture from Decopin's bequests." domestic Claude Gourdet had not come into his Before the revolution, then, older free colored families, like own as a planter. Even officers from licutenant and second Jacques Joseph and Mathurin Casamajor, were from the poor in the Legion of Equality, lieutenant respectively below. branch ofthe free colored elite, as described Pierre Bineau, a few officers did not fit this profile was One ofthe the born son of a cavalry captain from Aquin. Bineau was legitimately family. In 1799 he white man and a woman from the free colored Depas livres in who brought him over 26,000 property." married a woman officer was a white man. Louis Claudot was At least one Legion but in 1791 he was the bookkeeper on born in the eastern France, 8). Like his employer, Claudot Hugues Melinet's plantation (chapter women on the estate. In with one of the enslaved had a daughter Geneviève Louis he and freed this ten-year-old girl, bought Melinet's free colored Zélia, sending her to live with her godmother, daughter Geneviève Dedé. lowly status as a white bookkeeper, Despite Claudot's relatively free men of color received and October of 1792 as all in September in high social circles, witnessing a testament citizenship, he moved brother and attending the marriage for the parish commander's white family. Some of Aquin's of another member of this wealthy at this last event, political leaders were also present free colored Raimond. It seems possible that Claudot supincluding François that were occurring in the colony. ported the Revolutionary changes white man, besides the notary, to In December he was the only white bookkeeper, Despite Claudot's relatively free men of color received and October of 1792 as all in September in high social circles, witnessing a testament citizenship, he moved brother and attending the marriage for the parish commander's white family. Some of Aquin's of another member of this wealthy at this last event, political leaders were also present free colored Raimond. It seems possible that Claudot supincluding François that were occurring in the colony. ported the Revolutionary changes white man, besides the notary, to In December he was the only --- Page 299 --- BEFORE HAITI Francillon's purchase of an enslaved mulatto woman witness Michel he would soon marry and frec. the notarial record, only After this, Claudot vanished from Aquin nowi identified as a Captain reappearing at a wedding in February 1798, 48, he drafted a testament in the Legion of Equality. In June, at age the military comleaving all his property to his colleague Louis Beutier, witnessed half-a-dozen mander. But Claudot was in good health and 1800.2 transactions, often with Beutier, through February and the chaotic social Despite the power of Aquin's Legion officers of the Revolution civilians conditions ofthe late 1790s, during most From January 1794 to led and staffed Aquin's municipal government. official was the parish adminisMay 1799, the town's most important Probably appointed by trator, Jean Augustin Cator the younger. exerted control over the Polvérel in the heady days, Cator quickly who were fleeting the abandoned by those colonists plantations property were to be a major parish. Profits from such impounded On December 4, 1793, the source of revenue for his administration. Aquin's largest plantation Chevalier Dufrettey left for France, leaving Plaideau, a free man of color. under the management of Jean-Baptiste the Dufrettey estate. Under Seven weeks later, Cator sequestered received the labor it needed to municipal oversight, the plantation 300 cultivators, it had six or seven continue producing sugar. With plantation in 1798. 63 times more workers than the average Aquin merchants at Cator traded the Dufrettey sugar directly to foreign other confiscated Aquin's pier, along with the coffee and cotton that This aspect of his duties was SO important estates produced. office he set up an administrative center at several months after taking He seems and soldiers' lodgings. the pier, as well as a military hospital a week. From June 13 dealt with ship captains as often as once to have for example, he signed 15 contracts with to September 30, 1794, all of them based in the Danish Virgin merchant ships, nearly Islands.st described above, Cator was not a native Unlike the military officials in its least that name does not appear pre-1794 of Aquin, or at register in Aquin, he had records. But when he first signed a notary's Delaunay, from one of already married Marie Luce Jeanne Elizabeth families. His wife's uncle, well-respected ancien libre the parish's of Julien Raimond Julien Delaunay, had been an important supporter had died in the North in the 1780s. Her father, François Delaunay, the Grande Rivière parish, Province in 1786. He left a plantation in and widow revolt, which his children the site of Vincent Ogé's Chavannes of Cap Français. 65 managed with the help of Auguste aunay, from one of already married Marie Luce Jeanne Elizabeth families. His wife's uncle, well-respected ancien libre the parish's of Julien Raimond Julien Delaunay, had been an important supporter had died in the North in the 1780s. Her father, François Delaunay, the Grande Rivière parish, Province in 1786. He left a plantation in and widow revolt, which his children the site of Vincent Ogé's Chavannes of Cap Français. 65 managed with the help of Auguste --- Page 300 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND from the North Province himself, for he was Cator may have been before the peninsula was invaded by especially eager to leave Aquin 13, 1799, he and Aquin's Toussaint Louverture's troops. On May in Saint Louis, relinquished their papers to an official warehouse agent entered the peninsula. On August just weeks before a Northern army as "benefactor" to an 11, Cator signed one more notarial contract, the record. He also vanished apprentice tailor, and disappeared from 26, a notary from his wife's life. Three months later, on November the spouse of described her, not as a widow, but as "formerly all her claims to Citizen Cator." 29 Within two years, she relinquished returned-to Cap property in Aquin, and moved- perhaps Delaunay Français. 66 Julien Delaunay did not flee Cator's brother-law François he was Aquin's military Toussaint's armies, however. In 1797, 1799, just as Cator was and then customs director in April secretary December 1798 he had enough confidence in vacating his office. In and with his brother the future to lease the old Bodkin estate there. partner He remained Aquin's and Toussaint Boisrond to grow coffee 1799 and was still living at the port customs' director in late October sold the old family indigo 1801. But he and his siblings in September and Michaud Nicholas, the old and plantation to François Alphonce National Guard. The land was now new commanders of Aquin's 11,000 livres.7 planted in cotton and brought only ancien libre elite handled While younger members of Aquin's members of this class represented day-to-day governance, the older levels. Men in Julien the parish on the colonial and national roles early in the Raimond's circle had taken parish-level political after emancipaRevolution but they went on to larger responsibilities of the Boisrond was elected president tion. In 1791 Louis-François he was one of two men town of Saint Louis-and the following contributions year in Aquin. 68 In entrusted with voluntary patriotic commanding the peoAugust, 1792, François Raimond was *captain Sonthonax chose both men ple of color" in Aquin. In October 1792 in Cap Français. In 1795, to sit with other free colored representativesi it at a Colonial Boisrond to represent Aquin chose Louis-François named him to represent SaintAssembly, where other delegates 1796. He left his in Paris at the council of 500 in August former Domingue with 64 cultivators in the hands of his two Aquin plantation head slaves. 69 whites nearly killed in 1789, served on Guillaume Labadie, whom in 1797 on Julien Raimond's the superior council of Port-au-Prince in 1798, Labadie, recommendation. When the census was taken isrond to represent Aquin chose Louis-François named him to represent SaintAssembly, where other delegates 1796. He left his in Paris at the council of 500 in August former Domingue with 64 cultivators in the hands of his two Aquin plantation head slaves. 69 whites nearly killed in 1789, served on Guillaume Labadie, whom in 1797 on Julien Raimond's the superior council of Port-au-Prince in 1798, Labadie, recommendation. When the census was taken --- Page 301 --- BEFORE HAITI in Aquin, with 30 workers. He aged 73, was back on his plantation signed notarial contracts as late as January 1801.0 families that Aquin's old mixed-race Other evidence suggests "equality" that went beyond their shared la commitment to republican Before the whites once monopolized. new access to positions wealthiest white and free colored famiRevolution, for example, the Anciens libres considered education lies sent their children to France. for citizenship. It was to be one of their strongest qualifications Boisrond wrote Julien significant, therefore, when Louis-François his niece and nephews 1791, asking him to send Raimond on July 12, Boisrond had just heard that France had home to Saint-Domingue. some men of color to citizenship broken the color line by admitting He asked Raimond to and he bubbled with patriotic enthusiasm. form the beginnings of a "choose three or four good teachers to sacrifice rest to achieve school [collége] in Aquin. I will my secondary in this occasion; we will have settled another this happy goal. Help me converts to the national spirit, by debt to posterity and will make there. >71 training the children of all ofour brothers this project, but on Revolution and war probably delayed Outrebon permisDecember 16, 1794, Rigaud gave Father Augustin with which all French teach children "the principles sion to Aquin's and to make them cherish their fatherrepublicans should be imbued, fulfill. ' On January 23, "Citizen land and the duties they will have to Cavaillon, leased Outrebon, 99 who had been the priest in neighboring central square house and multiple outbuildings on Aquin's the parish He signed a commercial "farming from the municipal government. on the not he would be running a business property, lease," as if simply living there.2 experienced a new emphasis on education In 1797 Saint-Domingue the as a member of the Third as Julien Raimond returned to colony, Français's schools, SO that in Commission. Raimond expanded Cap enrolled students in the North February ofthat year there were 1,651 of the influence of men like Province. Aquin, perhaps because educational campaign. On Boisrond and Labadie, joined this the new named Jean Alexandre March 23, 1797, a planter from Petit-Goâve officer ofthe resident battalion Paulmier agreed to let the commanding Paulmier was in Aquin, his plantation. The following day manage the teacher. Four days later, he where notaries identified him as parish Paulmier always described as "teacher," leased a house there. Nearly in Aquin as a witness, sometimes signed over 60 notarial contracts to his teaching activities. several per day, But none of them pertained labeling him *teacher." Then, after April 1798, notaries stopped , a planter from Petit-Goâve officer ofthe resident battalion Paulmier agreed to let the commanding Paulmier was in Aquin, his plantation. The following day manage the teacher. Four days later, he where notaries identified him as parish Paulmier always described as "teacher," leased a house there. Nearly in Aquin as a witness, sometimes signed over 60 notarial contracts to his teaching activities. several per day, But none of them pertained labeling him *teacher." Then, after April 1798, notaries stopped --- Page 302 --- REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISN The records say nothing about the but it appears this may have closing of the municipal school, Michel Labadic and his happened. According to the 1798 seven children, census, house with a 71-year-old aged 1 to 15, shared their Paulmier served "private tutor. >> After as Aquin's municipal clerk. 73 January 1799, There were other areas where with ex-slaves. Guillaume ancienslitnsworked for social equality "official instructor" Raimond, Julien's younger brother at Saint Louis's became advise ex-slaves on court procedure. military tribunal, perhaps to all racial labels from official And a new emphasis on stripping documents led referring to the neighboring Aquin's notaries to stop they increasingly called it parish as "Fond des Nègres. 9> St. Michel, after its Instead, With the exception of Aquin's school patron saint.74 the notarial records and its civilian life in the provide very little information about government, cial Revolutionary decade. The parish elite community liberty, and accepted the freedom ofthe welcomed commerobliged to work their estates. The civilian cultivators, who were still illustrate that anciens libres had leadership and officer corps ex-slaves. Yet Aquin's achieved equality for more commitment attempts to establish a school to equality. show a certain But what about Revolutionary fellowship of enlightened citizens "fraternity"? The brotherhood and Saint-Domingue's had been an important aspect of in the South Province, emerging public sphere before the revolution and, The smuggling trade with especially, freemasonry was at the heart ofthis. in 1738, nine years before Jamaica French brought freemasonry to Les Cayes Cap Français. Freemasonry freemasons established a lodge in Years' War, when colonists expanded dramatically after the Seven Perhaps because of its deep founded lodges all over the colony. creole 11 "orients,' > or founding roots, the South Province had West just 1. In 1789 these 20 lodges, while the North had only 8, the of about 1,000 members. orients had about 40 lodges, with a total But the nature of gated public space insured that none of Saint-Domingue's segreWhen Cap Français's *Truth"] them were men of color. of color as their "Venerable, > lodge chose a man married to a woman in the colony. 75 they were rejected by all the freemasons The bitter disputes of the Revolution challenge to Saint-Domingue's provided an even greater political tension between the freemasons. In Les Cayes, there was by militia officers and old creole "Reunited Brothers" lodge, dominated "Discrete Brothers, >> whose families, and the mostly leader Tanguy de la Boissière European Saint-Domingue's most outspoken white was one of Patriots. By 1791 there > lodge chose a man married to a woman in the colony. 75 they were rejected by all the freemasons The bitter disputes of the Revolution challenge to Saint-Domingue's provided an even greater political tension between the freemasons. In Les Cayes, there was by militia officers and old creole "Reunited Brothers" lodge, dominated "Discrete Brothers, >> whose families, and the mostly leader Tanguy de la Boissière European Saint-Domingue's most outspoken white was one of Patriots. By 1791 there --- Page 303 --- BEFORE HAITI left in the colony, and these numbers diminished were only 19 lodges As colonial whites fled the Revolution, as the slave rebellion expanded. them. A number of émigrés re-established they took freemasonry with the United States. The first their Dominguan lodges in Cuba founded or in 1793 under the name masonic lodge in New Orleans was Port-au-Prince lodge. <Parfaite Union," the name of a tumultuous destroyed concluded that the Revolution Historians have generally freemasonry in Saint-Domingue? who racial equalIn France, however, many ofthe men supported de Lafayette, like Hector de Joly, the Marquis ity were freemasons, Second Civil Commission. and Etienne Polvérel ofSaint-Domingue's who served on the First and Third Philippe Roume de St. Laurent, The Abbé Commissions in 1791 and 1798, was a freemason. Civil principles might have brought justice Grégoire, believed its egalitarian and gradually than the Revolution.? more peacefully Polvérel, Roume or other There is no evidence that Grégoire, Saint-Domingue's revolutionaries tried to establish freemasonry Marissé among did found a lodge men of color, though Roume's mulatto son had 23 lodges. Freemasonry in Les Cayes in 1822. But by 1843, Haiti culture of the independent played such a critical role in the political that "a more or less hidden nation that at least one historian concludes Saint-Domingue: 78 hidden masonic life" existed in Revolutionary marks that 83 men in Proof of this can be found in the distinctive in the period 1791 to Aquin parish incorporated into their signatures what freemasons call 1803. These dots and lines were probably and symbols by which "modes of recognition"-the signs, gestures, Though there is no reveal their identity to cach other." masons Toussaint Louverture having been a freemason, official record of that the three dots forming a triangle at Haitians have long speculated of association with the end of his autograph indicated some kind from individual to indifreemasonry." 80 These marks were not identical and often both. of dots or parallel lines, vidual, but all were composed in a triangle, but The most common symbol was three points arranged sometimes between two the points were often in a horizontal line, even seven dots, perparallel lines. Some marks incorporated five or Some men used indicating different grades within freemasonry. haps sj" in their name as the apex ofa triangle, completed by the dotted two dots below their signature. Aquin confirms of freemasonryi in the Revolutionary The existence the Revolution; the anciens libres were not just surviving that parish's ideals. As scholars of French freemathey were deeply attached to its noted, "lodges presented themselves : . self-consciously sonry have often in a horizontal line, even seven dots, perparallel lines. Some marks incorporated five or Some men used indicating different grades within freemasonry. haps sj" in their name as the apex ofa triangle, completed by the dotted two dots below their signature. Aquin confirms of freemasonryi in the Revolutionary The existence the Revolution; the anciens libres were not just surviving that parish's ideals. As scholars of French freemathey were deeply attached to its noted, "lodges presented themselves : . self-consciously sonry have --- Page 304 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND where brothers learned to vote, give as schools of government and merit the lived under constitutions and majority rule, the orations, > Freemasons devoted themselves to living estime of the public. their rituals spoke of "spoke of leaving ideals of liberty and equality; Masonic instructions, of the bondage, of learning freedom through ofthe need for comunworthiness ofthe strong who enslave the weak, >81 By the end ofthe eighteenth plete liberty through full commitment." element of freemasonry. charity had also become an essential century, none of Aquin's wealthy and With with one notable exception, in chapters 7 and 8, or above, prominent free men ofcolor mentioned drafted. Jean Augustine made masonic signs in the contracts they the school teacher Louis Beutier and Claude Gourdet, Cator, without these marks. So did the Alexandre Paulmier all signed and the Delaunays. Raimonds, the Boisronds, the Casamajors, Jean brothers, especially The exception was the Depas-Medina notary. In 1783 he and his Louis, who became Aquin's first nonwhite slaves and 2 from brothers and sisters inherited 99 plantations seven the free mulatto son of the converted Sephardic their father Michel, Michel Lopez Depas. Jean Louis judge, doctor and merchant, with his brother purchased and built up a plantation in Bainet In parish 1789 he married his Antoine and then bought out his share. he traded his Bainet land cousin, Anne Julienne Lauzenguez. When his name in Aquin in 1791, he was already signing for a plantation seven dots. 82 with a unique flourish involving become This masonic connection may have helped Depas-Medina the dozens of Sometime in September 1793, he was among a notary. fellow freemason, appointed to replace men Etienne Polvérel, a in the tumult or been deported officials who had died, emigrated, Antoine Allegre, who also surrounding emancipation. Aquin's notary to have guided masonic though sparingly, appears used a signature, of notarial until he Depas-Medina through a kind apprenticeship, Polvérel's local working on his own in February 1794 as began identified himself as Aquin's representative. In 1797 Depas-Medina perhaps referring to representative of the "national commissioner," as a member Julien Raimond, who had returned to Saint-Domingue of the Third Civil Commission.' owned a In 1798, still working as a notary, Depas-Medina In 1800, as the South with 34 workers. coffee and cotton plantation Louverture, he leased the property came under attack from Toussaint Jousseaume, a black man, Jousseaume, his manager. to Jacques Under Toussaint, he became Aquin's militia was also a freemason. captain." 84 "national commissioner," as a member Julien Raimond, who had returned to Saint-Domingue of the Third Civil Commission.' owned a In 1798, still working as a notary, Depas-Medina In 1800, as the South with 34 workers. coffee and cotton plantation Louverture, he leased the property came under attack from Toussaint Jousseaume, a black man, Jousseaume, his manager. to Jacques Under Toussaint, he became Aquin's militia was also a freemason. captain." 84 --- Page 305 --- BEFORE HAITI administrator Jean Augustine Cator, Jean Unlike Aquin's parish his official position did not lose or surrender Louis Depas-Medina to Toussaint's. The legal knowlwhen Rigaud's government gave way made notaries hard to replace. edge required to draft valid contracts large plantations And Toussaint's plan to revive Saint-Domingue's of returning needed such officials, to help it restore the property on signature began to appear émigrés. In 1800, Depas-Medina's other notaries, certifying the bottom of many deeds recorded by their 79 where officials deposited their registry 1 in the "Bureau d'Aquin,' registers in 1801.85 freemasons in Aquin who did Besides Depas-Medina, those from a lower level of the government or legal work were mostly served as secretary for administration. Michel Dumoulin, for example, Officer. >7 Yves military headquarters and also as "Provisions Aquin's health inspector Lemonnier, originally from Brittany, was Aquin's public 9 many men 1799. Because the marks were "modes of recognition," in but only when encountering strangers. did not use them routinely, as well as a merchant in the Nicolas Erique was Aquin's postmaster in 15 contracts. This may have town and he used the mark only once with a man he did not know, been because he was signing a document from the neighboring Jean-Baptiste Edouard Lelievre, a white planter acres ofland to ofl Fond des Nègres. Lelievre was selling cight free parish brothers and other masons. an ex-slave, like the Depas-Medina masonic sign in the document. The But Lelievre did not make his own lived in Saint Louis, Pierre Engeran, who normally regional surveyor left masonic marks during a rare visit to was another official who Aquin to sign contracts. 86 marks when they were away from Military officials also left masonic shared their masonic their homes, probably to see if acquaintances before the Revolution, was affiliation. Nicolas Henry, a free mulatto Guard in 1802. commander in chief of the Saint Louis National lines in "N," seven dots between the two parallel He signed placing Louis Sipan was a licutenant in the Legion while visiting Aquin. Jean He came to Aquin to sign a marriage of Equality from Miragoane. 87 contract, leaving his mark. left masonic "modes ofrecognition"in Planters and merchants also The merchant Pierre documents that would be seen by strangers. but when he traveled to Bonnefils was apparently not a freemason, he carried collect debts on behalf of other merchants, Baltimore to that those creditors were freemasons. documents with marks suggesting have been especially The idea of a secret global fraternity may from Petit-Goâve. François Gruau, a planter appealing to Christophe sign a marriage of Equality from Miragoane. 87 contract, leaving his mark. left masonic "modes ofrecognition"in Planters and merchants also The merchant Pierre documents that would be seen by strangers. but when he traveled to Bonnefils was apparently not a freemason, he carried collect debts on behalf of other merchants, Baltimore to that those creditors were freemasons. documents with marks suggesting have been especially The idea of a secret global fraternity may from Petit-Goâve. François Gruau, a planter appealing to Christophe --- Page 306 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND expelled Gruau from SaintIn November 1798 Rigaud's government his official protest, noting Domingue and he left a masonic sign on He the same sign by that he would probably wind up in Jamaica. put his when he gave a merchant power to manage property. his name San Cardoso from Santiago and Ship captains like the Spaniard made masonic signs but SO did Godefroy of Danish Saint Thomas, Piednoir and the pilot Santo their subordinates like the cargo agent Mattei, both of Saint Thomas. 88 like the builders Jean A number of artisans were freemasons, Masson Desroudières, Aubert of Anse-à-Veau and Pierre Joseph who was also a from France, the tailor Louis Baronnet, originally of Equality, the saddle maker Jean Marcellin sergeant in the Legion and merchant Antoine Galicy." Jourdan, and the cabinetmaker freemasonry in the It is difficult to know who was propagating masonic lodge in the parish Revolutionary Aquin for there was no from Bordeaux, before the Revolution. It may have been transmitted of free masonry in which was one of the most important centers This would explain the Europe, rivaling Paris or Berlin after 1760. and other of the notary Jean Louis Depas-Medina masonic signature of color with strong ties to that French port city. prominent free men had been born in Bordeaux in Joseph Charpentier, known as Saubiac, the 1780s he was a well-respected 1753 to unknown parents. By community and was almost certainly member of Aquin's S free colored freemasons." 90 one ofthe parish's leading Revolutionary-era where have come from neighboring parishes, Freemasonry may before 1789. Cavaillon's there were at least three strong lodges nearly all of 97 founded in 1775, had 55 members, "Zealous Brothers," In 1797 the white creole Balthazar Delmas whom were planters. His father had been militia captain Kerifal signed as a mason in Aquin. *Perfected Reason" lodge. The of Petit-Trou and belonged to its official in Les Cayes *Reunited senior Delmas had also been a senior also were where a number of other Delmas members." Brothers," of freemasonry in Aquin was the adjoining The most likely source in 1772, The Chosen Brothers" Fond de Nègres parish. Founded of the other lodges in the lodge there had helped establish many Its members were South Province, as well as one in Port-au-Prince. of Saint Louis mostly creoles, and included the militia commanders who had been an districts. 92 But Henry Gastumeau, and other nearby and who had belonged, at officer in the "The Chosen Brothers," Brothers," Cavaillon's different times, to Les Cayes's *Reunited signed > *Perfected Reason," <Zealous Brothers, and Petit-Trou's in the 1790s and did not leave a nearly two dozen contracts in Aquin Its members were South Province, as well as one in Port-au-Prince. of Saint Louis mostly creoles, and included the militia commanders who had been an districts. 92 But Henry Gastumeau, and other nearby and who had belonged, at officer in the "The Chosen Brothers," Brothers," Cavaillon's different times, to Les Cayes's *Reunited signed > *Perfected Reason," <Zealous Brothers, and Petit-Trou's in the 1790s and did not leave a nearly two dozen contracts in Aquin --- Page 307 --- BEFORE HAITI the admission of men of color into single masonic sign. Did he reject known local masons freemasonry or was Gastumeau SO well among that he did not need to identify himself of color true, for at least two freemasons The latter was probably 1796, when Gastumeau returned stepped up to help him in February had and discovered that the Revolutionary government to Aquin In late 1794 he had left Saint-Domingue for confiscated his property. he later insisted, official permission. New England, carrying with him, coffee and the other in indigo, He left his two plantations, one in Saubiac, men of color under the care of Louis Baronnet and Joseph his ship left masonic signs. But the Spanish captured who regularly After 15 months, when he and took Gastumeau to Santo Domingo. of well-known local finally returned home, he asked a collection and that he had lived in the persons to declare that his story was true those he asked to for 30 Baronnet and Saubiac were among area years. back. They obliged, though they did not help him get his property document." 93 make masonic marks in this signatures, Given the number of men who left these distinguishing kind of that Aquin had some it seems reasonable to hypothesize The actions of at least a few local freemamasonic lodge in the 1790s. and confirm that they wanted to establish peace, equality, sons For example, freemasons appear to have progress in Saint-Domingue. involved in the sale of small plots ofland to been disproportionately ofthe brothers free ex-slaves. Not only were at least two Depas-Medina libre who was selling 6 and masons, but SO was François Brun, an ancien freemason who made two of 9 acre plots in 1800 and 1801. A third Louis Leclerc cadet." 94 these kinds of sales to ex-slaves was Jean ofa freemason of Chabrier offers another example The case Joseph society in Aquin. In March 1799 working to create a more integrated where he owned a house and a Chabrier, who was born in Provence, The bride was a 15-year-old married Geneviève Vigne. tiny vineyard, of a prominent free colored girl whose widowed mother, a member estate for the family, had just died. The groom managed a sequestered land from André municipal government, and had leased vacant it either in man of color, promising to establish Maigret, a prominent owned her parents' plantation, cotton or coffee. 95 Chabrier'syoung, wife her an income. had already leased to provide which her guardians that only one-third of this land Protecting her, the contract specified would enter the marriage community. alliance was the RevolutionaryIn several ways, this Chabrier/Vigne between Pierre Raymond and Marie era equivalent of the marriages and Dasmard in the Challe Françoise Begasse in the 1720s, Jacques it either in man of color, promising to establish Maigret, a prominent owned her parents' plantation, cotton or coffee. 95 Chabrier'syoung, wife her an income. had already leased to provide which her guardians that only one-third of this land Protecting her, the contract specified would enter the marriage community. alliance was the RevolutionaryIn several ways, this Chabrier/Vigne between Pierre Raymond and Marie era equivalent of the marriages and Dasmard in the Challe Françoise Begasse in the 1720s, Jacques --- Page 308 --- REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISN 1760s, and Pierre Bonnefils and Marie 1770s. Geneviève Vigne'sp Jeanne Casamajor in the of them were, in turn, the parents were legitimately married, and both white men and women of color. product of legitimate marriages between father Pierre Vigne In his 1781 marriage he was described as a "free >> contract, her was extremely light- skinned. tierceron, indicating that into the same Geneviève's aunts had both family, SO Antoine and Jean married were both her uncles by marriage. 96 Baptiste Depas-Medina The Chabrier/Vigne alliance was Aquin's sole interracial marriage and it was probably not Revolutionary-era drew three vertical dots between an accident that Chabrier name. At his marriage he was parallel lines before he signed his nently displayed their surrounded by men ofcolor who promiBaronnet, Michel freemasonic symbols: François Brun, Louis For Dumoulin, and Nicholas a handful of Aquin's white Erique. appears to have been more a marker colonists, of their however, freemasonry creole, identity. Like Chabrier, European, rather than masonic marks when he Joseph Carmagnolle of Marseille drew when he was surrounded signed his marriage contract, an occasion by other freemasons. men of color. Carmagnolle But none oft them were named Marie Catherine was marrying a wealthy white creole His fellow freemasons Lapeyre, a widow twice over with no children. who was raising were men like Bernard Desmier almost seven young children with his wife d'Olbreuse, never appeared in a contract with in Aquin, but who the baker Gueré or Queré, a man of color. Another was As this known as "La France. >98 whites, example suggests, with only a few anciens libres, and ex-slaves did exceptions, Aquin's Whites and mixed race families in not intermarry in the 1790s. marriage contracts together in this decade particular were less likely to sign After emancipation, few than any time since 1760. ex-slaves drafted contracts, for the notarized marriage necessary. In Aquin manumision-mariages the last oft these ofthe 1780 were no longer Free people of color had full civil occurred on December 15, 1792. still building when Michel rights, but the slave rebellion was purchased Jeanne Francillon, probably a man of color, planter, from Anne Françoise, Marie the enslaved mulatto daughter of a was no bargain, Françoise Ploy. At 3,300 livres, the but, as the marriage contract price Françoise was in many ways closer to the revealed, Jeanne new owner and husband, Michel free colored elite than her Ploy's cousin and two Francillon. She was Annemarie free colored planter years earlier, Ploy, a widow now married to the Jeanne." 99 Joseph Poinson, had paid 3,000 livres for from Anne Françoise, Marie the enslaved mulatto daughter of a was no bargain, Françoise Ploy. At 3,300 livres, the but, as the marriage contract price Françoise was in many ways closer to the revealed, Jeanne new owner and husband, Michel free colored elite than her Ploy's cousin and two Francillon. She was Annemarie free colored planter years earlier, Ploy, a widow now married to the Jeanne." 99 Joseph Poinson, had paid 3,000 livres for --- Page 309 --- BEFORE HAITI and bride, was wealthier than her husband, Jeanne, the ex-slave she and Francillon signed three days according to the marriage contract livestock and furniture later.' 100 She owned five of her own slaves, plus 11,000 livres, "fruit of her work and industriousness." totaling nearly coffee but only one slaveand fewer animals Francillon had a 40 acre plot, ofthe bride, wife. Given the wealth and family connections than his new about the free the Francillon marriage, then, was more consolidating the class than about emancipating a slave. After emancipation, colored could accurately claim to be an ancien libre. new Madame Francillon the Revolution confirm the Marriage contracts drafted during libre families. In the years declining wealth of Aquin's ancien districts brought 1760-69, grooms from Aquin and the surrounding a value that rose of 19,008 livres to their new houscholds, an average but fell to 36,908 in the 1790s. In the to 49,780 livres in the 1780s, value of 17,460 livres, which 1760s, brides listed an average property of 12,369 during in the 1780s but fell to an average rose to 39,077 the Revolution. it created for landowning families, Beyond the economic insecurity formal marriage in Aquin by eliminating the Revolution transformed market. The number of absentee nearly all whites from the marriage that at least 60 percent of plantations in Aquin's 1798 census suggests In the 1760s and 1780s, free whites had fled the parish by that date. ofall marriage contacts, people of color had drafted 37 and 53 percent 71 percent of civil and in the 1790s they formed approximately marriages. marriages between whites usually Aquin's few Revolutionary-era on the return of groom who was speculating involved a European were far wealthier than couples of plantation slavery. These couples of color brought 12,189 livres to color. Revolutionary-era brides grooms of color, 7,523, on average. In contrast, their marriages, and French or white creoles brought the grooms who were obviously brides brought 27,514, on average. 92,525 livres on average; white Dondasne ofDieppe, One ofthese white grooms was Pierre Joseph as naval Dondasne was serving in Saint-Domingue France. In 1792, He came to Aquin to marry the commissioner in Port-au-Prince. Thérèze Adélaide de Santo Domingo, orphaned daughter ofa planter, the militia comwhose maternal uncle and guardian was parish from her late mander. 101 The bride had inherited substantial property the had been inventoried. For his part, groom father, but it had not in the emerging coffee districts of invested in multiple plantations hinterland of Les Cayes; his property Plymouth and Tiburon, in the was valued at 287,000 livres. marry the commissioner in Port-au-Prince. Thérèze Adélaide de Santo Domingo, orphaned daughter ofa planter, the militia comwhose maternal uncle and guardian was parish from her late mander. 101 The bride had inherited substantial property the had been inventoried. For his part, groom father, but it had not in the emerging coffee districts of invested in multiple plantations hinterland of Les Cayes; his property Plymouth and Tiburon, in the was valued at 287,000 livres. --- Page 310 --- REPUBLICANISM REVOLUTION AND who slavery to return was Alexandre Another white man expected in the queen's Chamillard Devarville, a former captain Henry 102 In 1802, as a French expedition defeated regiment at Versailles. Chamillard married Emilie de the armies of Toussaint Louverture, white Aquin planter. The Sanglier, the daughter of a prominent of 100,000 livres in specic. groom possessed the extraordinary sum the far less wealthy, but she too was anticipating The bride was contract noted that before eventual revival of slavery. The marriage The document listed emancipation she had owned cight fieldworkers. each of them by name, "for the record." freemason Carmagnolle Dondasne, Chamillard, and perhaps the establish themselves as married white creole women in order to had abandoned the planters at times when other white colonists stands out as the Chabrier's marriage to Genevieve Vigne colony. interracial marriage in a parish with a long 1790s' only notarized history ofsuch unions. 1790s that Aquin's anciens The marriage contracts of the suggest interconnections. inward, reinforcing old family libres were turning or Chamillard because of Perhaps they rejected whites like Dondasne them because such their political views or perhaps these men rejected white suitors. families were no longer rich enough to attract unwilling to ally Unwilling or unable to marry whites, and probably of color turned to each with nouveanx libres, Aquin's old families dense in districts like other. 103 The web of family interconnections was mixed-race descendants Aquin's Colline à Mangon, home to the prolific in 1770 at the age of David Casamajor, who died in Aquin oft the notary four households named Casamajor in 90. Colline à Mangon had at least with 44 workers. Marie 1798. Rose Casamajor, aged 65, had an estate the former warehouse Françoise Visse, the widow of Pierre Casamajor, her 60lived with ten cultivators and a family of nine, including sons agent, and three sons. Two more ofher year-old brother, five daughters with 13 workers and François were established independently: Jacques of the notary's sons, was 89, and with 3. Joseph Casamajor, another in the Colline à Mangon, but he had lived with his wife and two workers of Asile, a daughter and son in three sons in the canton at least grown the Saint Louis, and another son in military. Casamajor Marie Magdelaine Another of the notary's daughters, had seven cultivators, Guerivaux. The family just was married to Nicolas They also had six children, enough to run a farm, but not a plantation. married their 29 year-old were daughters. In 1799 they five ofwhom cousin Jeanne Casamajor the daughter of son Jean Nicholas to his celebrated their daughter Rose's marriage Pierre. Four days later, they at least grown the Saint Louis, and another son in military. Casamajor Marie Magdelaine Another of the notary's daughters, had seven cultivators, Guerivaux. The family just was married to Nicolas They also had six children, enough to run a farm, but not a plantation. married their 29 year-old were daughters. In 1799 they five ofwhom cousin Jeanne Casamajor the daughter of son Jean Nicholas to his celebrated their daughter Rose's marriage Pierre. Four days later, they --- Page 311 --- BEFORE HAITI Bonneaux. Unlike the bride's parents, Bonneaux's to Jean-Baptiste married but his godparents were members of parents were not legally the Delaunay family. 104 had the same overlapping Other families in the Colline à Mangon Chatelier was part oft the family links. Seventy years old in 1798, Jean but he was a wealthier man, same generation as the elder Casamajors, and Blaise were with 59 workers and a family of9.05 His sons Joseph in the building 22 and 17 respectively, and both were apprenticed the nearby Labat plantation. trades. Another son managed both in their mid-40s, lived with Two of Chatelier's daughters, planter, Marie Jean, had married a neighboring him, but a third, 44 and 38, had 41 workers, 7 Charles Hérard. The Hérards, aged between the ages of 19 and 1, and one son Charlemagne, daughters Anne Hérard, age 40, also lived with them, as age 15. Charles's sister Malbranch, though he had a son, a did the 55-year-old Joseph brother, and other family in the canton.' Hérard to the prominent No documents link Charles or Anne Yet, a connection was likely. Aquin's Hérards of Torbec parish. had family and marriage alliances to Delaunay and Boisrond families Jean-Baptiste Pochet, aged 70, Torbec. In 1797, Hérards' neighbors another neighbor and his wife Marie Catherine Casamajor, behalf. gave They were too frail power of'attorney to go to Torbec on their the daughter of the trip, but their son was marrying to make The Pochets provided a dowry in land and Dominique Hérard there. the first name. They did not coffee though they did not know girl's in this document, but two mention their neighbor Charles Hérard their daughter signed later he did witness the marriage contract years another neighbor. 107 with yet other notarial evidence, marriage contracts reveal Viewed alongside residents experienced during the the conflicting impulses Aquin's anciens libres reacted to the Revolution. In their marriage strategies, ranks, reaffirming their uncertainties of the 1790s by closing deep than with French immigrants or former creole identity, rather allying to embrace Saint-Domingue's slaves. Yet in other ways, they appeared fraternal society that freetransformation into the free, equal, and those who left masonic advocated. Some families, especially masonry libres at low prices, and others took signatures, sold land to nouveaux freedom. New men led the parish, advantage of the new commercial work, like the even left the land for administrative and some planters 1790s by closing deep than with French immigrants or former creole identity, rather allying to embrace Saint-Domingue's slaves. Yet in other ways, they appeared fraternal society that freetransformation into the free, equal, and those who left masonic advocated. Some families, especially masonry libres at low prices, and others took signatures, sold land to nouveaux freedom. New men led the parish, advantage of the new commercial work, like the even left the land for administrative and some planters --- Page 312 --- REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICANISM notary Jean Louis Depas-Medina. Others abandoned the indigo that had made them rich for new crops like coffee. The question that many must have been asking throughout this period was, what would happen when the war ends? When the British withdraw and the island's relationship with France is reestablished, what aspects of colonial society would return with the white planters who fled the Revolution? --- Page 313 --- This page intentionally left blank --- Page 314 --- EPILOGUE * A the South Province Revolutionary situation, fought the British and adjusted to its new the in 1797 Toussaint single most powerful figure in Louverture emerged as authority of France's Third Civil Saint-Domingue. Rejecting the its autonomy even after the British Commission, the South maintained external threat faded, the rivalry between evacuated in 1798. But as the produced the War of the South. Led Toussaint and André Rigaud far larger northern army defeated by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the hundreds of other mixed-race Rigaud in 1800, driving him and and Haitian tradition officers into exile. The war was holds that Dessalines's brutal, thousands ofSoutherners in troops executed reprisals after the Meanwhile, as Napoleon Bonaparte fighting stopped.' Dominguan colonists returned solidified his power, white States, England, and to France from exile in the United entered the southern elsewhere. In 1799, as Dessalines's armies whites, blacks, and mulattos, peninsula, Bonaparte began interviewing about both advocates and opponents Saint-Domingue's future,? In late ofslavery, starts, a great military 1801, after several false Leclerc sailed for expedition under the command of Charles Toussaint's Saint-Domingue, arriving in February 1802. army fought Leclerc But to defend Toussaint, the colony's bitterly. the South saw no reason constitution his handpicked "Governor for Life" according to the days ofthe fall ofl Port-au-Prince, committee wrote in 1801. Within fifteen South Province welcomed by then renamed Port-Republican, the May, Toussaint signed French troops without firing a single shot. 3 In a treaty ending his tionary force. The following month, struggle against the expediand sent to France. There was little Leclerc had Louverture arrested Yet there were protest on his behalf. questions about France'si Leclerc had said little publicly about intentions. Bonaparte and removed Toussaint. In a what would happen after they Bonaparte's Consular proclamation dated December 25, 1799, assured government, which had just come to abolition Saint-Domingue's "brave blacks" that it power, of slavery. When France would maintain the 1800, however, it abandoned the adopted a new constitution in universal application of republican clerc had Louverture arrested Yet there were protest on his behalf. questions about France'si Leclerc had said little publicly about intentions. Bonaparte and removed Toussaint. In a what would happen after they Bonaparte's Consular proclamation dated December 25, 1799, assured government, which had just come to abolition Saint-Domingue's "brave blacks" that it power, of slavery. When France would maintain the 1800, however, it abandoned the adopted a new constitution in universal application of republican --- Page 315 --- BEFORE HAITI 1795 constitution. Special laws would be principles mandated by the had advocated since the written for the overseas territories, as planters beginning ofthe Revolution. therefore, many anciens libres must When Leclerc arrived in 1802, would treat them as full French have wondered if his administration of the South Province, returned citizens. Rigaud, the exiled leader his did not know, from France with the expedition. What supporters in the counselors placed no credence however, was that Bonaparte's France. Like Toussaint, they mulatto general's claims of loyalty to After all, they might said, he wanted only to rule Saint-Domingue. Raimond had claimed anciens have reminded the first consul, Julien of the Third Civil libres would never abandon France. As a member his in from 1796 to 1798, he had used experience Commission the devastated planrebuilding run-down indigo estates to reestablish Raimond back tations of the North Province. In 1800 Napoleon Since sent then, however, to assess Toussaint's loyalty. to Saint-Domingue the black general, who had named him Raimond had allied with abandoned planof State Domains."' >9 Charged with leasing "Director Raimond was said to be keeping the most profitable propertations, enemies claimed he owed SO much to Parisian ties for himself. His ofever returning to France. Some creditors that he had no intention independence. He was one even blamed him for Toussaint's growing who wrote Toussaint's 1801 Constitution. of the ten men that Napoleon intended to revoke For his part, Raimond suspected he wrote the first consul from emancipation. On August 19, 1800, charges of corruption. defending himself against Saint- Domingue, the sincerity of his antislavery But he also asked Bonaparte to prove in all French territories. proclamations by outlawing the institution died of natural causes in Cap Napoleon never replied. Raimond Français in October 1801.0 suspicions were Considerable evidence suggests that Raimond's Sahaguet, who at In September 1800 the French general justified. to lead the Saint-Domingue expedition, that time was assigned and fixing the limits of civil liberty described his mission as "finding have only left this state for those individuals who, raised as slaves, 29 The following year the Naval Ministry through disorder and anarchy. to include black and mulatto secretly ordered military planners not of a single one might hurt the officers in the expedition: the presence would eventually remove campaign. They noted that the government would not go to the colony.? these men ofcolor from France, but they reasoned that advisors reversed this policy. They Later, Bonaparte's of color would make Leclerc's expedition less the presence of officers residents. threatening to Saint-Domingue's those individuals who, raised as slaves, 29 The following year the Naval Ministry through disorder and anarchy. to include black and mulatto secretly ordered military planners not of a single one might hurt the officers in the expedition: the presence would eventually remove campaign. They noted that the government would not go to the colony.? these men ofcolor from France, but they reasoned that advisors reversed this policy. They Later, Bonaparte's of color would make Leclerc's expedition less the presence of officers residents. threatening to Saint-Domingue's --- Page 316 --- EPILOGUE decorated mulatto and black And SO Rigaud and some 30 highly the first wave of 20,000 officers in the French Army were among 1801. The French bilthat sailed with Leclerc in December troops ship, La Vertu. Even before leted all nonwhite officers on a single Pétion grew concerned boarding, Rigaud's subordinate Alexandre him that, as a man of color, he when a naval official in Brest informed All mulattos should be sent to had no right to hold an officer's rank. This was more or less the opinion Madagascar, the man told Pétion. colonist and of General Narcisse Baudry des Lozières, a Dominguan and the Colonies. În a of Forfait, the Minister ofthe Navy colleague and published in 1802, Des Lozières book dedicated to Josephine of racial mixture in France. He advodescribed his horror at the idea France in all those who fought against cated exiling to Madagascar more He told Saint-Domingue. Pétion saw things even pessimistically. needed them to fellow officers on La Vertu that unless Leclerc his bound for Madagascar." >8 defeat Toussaint, we are all the mind of the Admiral That distant African island was also on in 1800 ofthe officers Bonaparte sent to Guadeloupe Lacrosse, one similar to Leclerc's. In October 1801, Lacrosse and 1801 on a mission the ranking senior officer and Pélage, refused to promote Magloire command of the important fort a man of color, to the newly vacant soldiers rebelled against Basse Terre. When colonial at Guadeloupe's in which Lacrosse described his intenthis racism, they found a letter and black officers to Madagascar, tion to deport the colony's mulatto in his the admiral later repeated correspondence a recommendation Richepanse imprisoned with Paris. In 1802, after the French general slav600 other soldiers of color and began to reestablish Pélage and mulatto officer and his men convinced their ery in the island, the rebels. Yet, after they captors to let them fight the antislavery exiled over a thousand helped him suppress the revolt, Richepanse of whom ended up in Guadeloupean soldiers of color, many loyal and roads. Italy where they labored on fortifications occupied France. As the French gradually extinguished Pélage was deported to they executed some 10,000 resistance to slavery in Guadeloupe, of the nonwhite ten percent men and women, approximately population." in 1800 and 1801 had As Pétion feared, the Naval Ministry expedition to deport all instructed the leaders ofthe Saint-l Domingue landed, ifthey could black officers above the rank of captain after they the colony, Leclerc unrest. Once in do SO without creating popular officers that he sent André Rigaud was SO nervous about his nonwhite Toussaint. After less than two months back to France before defeating commander claimed that the mulatto the French in Saint-Domingue, ten percent men and women, approximately population." in 1800 and 1801 had As Pétion feared, the Naval Ministry expedition to deport all instructed the leaders ofthe Saint-l Domingue landed, ifthey could black officers above the rank of captain after they the colony, Leclerc unrest. Once in do SO without creating popular officers that he sent André Rigaud was SO nervous about his nonwhite Toussaint. After less than two months back to France before defeating commander claimed that the mulatto the French in Saint-Domingue, --- Page 317 --- BEFORE HAITI because hundreds of general threatened public order, perhaps Cuba. Leclerc officers had returned from Santiago, Rigaud's junior thought was carrying him home to secretly ordered the ship Rigaud instead. This sudden deportation the South Province to sail for France of color, as did the rumors deepened the suspicions of many officers ofbloodshed and betrayal trickling in from Guadeloupe. Alexandre 1802, when Toussaint capitulated to Leclerc, In May officers of color after Pétion, now among the most prominent the ceremony. He chided Rigaud's abrupt departure, was present at French authority. But it Louverture for not immediately recognizing black and mulatto offiobvious that Leclerc was using was increasingly back to the plantations. He had deported cers to force the ex-slaves But after arresting Toussaint he Rigaud with no evidence of treason. lieutenants Dessalines and offered military commands to Toussaint's his power.' 11 Christophe, though they had fiercely opposed about the time ofToussaint's Leclerc needed these officers because, the Dominguan populadeportation, he ordered his troops to disarm tion. Now that a French general was in charge, counter-rexolutionary Their demands planters began to return to the colony en masse. combined open with the for slavery and their casy access to Leclerc, that France wanted a disarming campaign, signaled ever more clearly So did news reestablishment of the old colonial system. the complete to allow and word of Bonaparte's agreement from Guadeloupe, French colonies like Martinique that had continuation of slavery in been under British control.12 the slow progress of his disarming In August 1802, frustrated by local notables and hang National campaign, Leclerc threatened to arrest rebel bands. The following Guard leaders caught meeting with local and mulatto generals and month, he began ordering the arrest ofblack About this time, Toussaint's executed two of them in Cap Français. turned against Leclerc, nephew Charles Belair, a charismatic officer, him. On October 4, 1802, who sent Dessalines to capture and execute before Belair was to be shot, the mulatto general Augustin the night at the home of Madame Leclerc. Guests Clerveaux attended a dinner in the evening he exclaimed, "I described him as agitated. At one point have done for me is to raise was free before; all the new circumstances that there was a question of my scorned color. But ifI ever thought >13 up at that very moment I would become a rebel. slavery here, that he faced a general insurrection. He Leclerc now recognized of color above 12 should be killed, wrote Napoleon that all people Dessalines, Pétion, especially any man who had ever worn epaulettes. their defection.' 14 other officers had already begun to meet and plan and At one point have done for me is to raise was free before; all the new circumstances that there was a question of my scorned color. But ifI ever thought >13 up at that very moment I would become a rebel. slavery here, that he faced a general insurrection. He Leclerc now recognized of color above 12 should be killed, wrote Napoleon that all people Dessalines, Pétion, especially any man who had ever worn epaulettes. their defection.' 14 other officers had already begun to meet and plan and --- Page 318 --- EPILOGUE his was the first to strike. Convincing Pétion, with troops, Cap Français on October 13, Clerveaux to join him, he attacked allied with them. By this 1802. Three days later Henri Christophe diseases had already killed time, yellow fever and other tropical and another 7,000 were ill. 24,000 out of 34,000 French soldiers, them, Leclerc himThough fresh European troops arrived to replace 1, 1802, sick and self died in besieged Cap Français on November continued to purge blacks exhausted. His immediate successor Daure increasing the and mulattos from the army for suspected disloyalty, who had Pétion's 15 Later that month Dessalines, defections to camp. since joined those openly secretly with Pétion October, been meeting fighting the French. character ofthe struggle became The racial, rather than ideological, Rochambeau 17, when Donatien-Mare-jocph clear on November Supplementing public exeofficially took command ofthe expedition. Rochambeau did not hide cutions of prisoners with mass drownings, allies than mulattos. He his belieft that blacks were more trustworthy between November 1802 is estimated to have killed 20,000 people 16 These atrocities helped and March 1803, both blacks and mulattos. Even in the South, which unify the emerging anti-French coalition. officers began to turn against the had initially welcomed the French, Cangé On November 13, 1802, the mulatto general expedition. commander of Petit- Goâve. wrote to his colleague Delpech, the benefiLike me, you have seen how this new government of cruelty. tramples Like me,you cial laws oft the French Republic to commit acts and children thousands of black and red men, women, have seen what have they done? How can they accuse childrowned and hanged; death? Such things have never been seen dren of crimes deserving have they not hanged and drowned white under any government. Why oftheir color. We are the only ones women and children? It is because to our land.' 17 with each other and bring happiness who can get along throughout the Revolution, in Typical of the region's autonomy and defeated the local French 1802 and 1803 the South fought Pétion. Guerrilla bands occupation without help from Dessalines or small craft controlled the fought more-or-less in isolation, while their commanders of Les southern coast. The actions of the pro-French this struggle. For Cayes, Saint Louis, and Aquin helped deserted motivate the rebel forces and example, in 1803 when Elie Boury French commander of delivered information about them to the that officer had him drowned in the harbor. Les Cayes, region's autonomy and defeated the local French 1802 and 1803 the South fought Pétion. Guerrilla bands occupation without help from Dessalines or small craft controlled the fought more-or-less in isolation, while their commanders of Les southern coast. The actions of the pro-French this struggle. For Cayes, Saint Louis, and Aquin helped deserted motivate the rebel forces and example, in 1803 when Elie Boury French commander of delivered information about them to the that officer had him drowned in the harbor. Les Cayes, --- Page 319 --- BEFORE HAITI forces still occupied the city ofLes Cayes, but In July 1803, French Using his prestige as local rebel chiefs held the rest ofthe peninsula. convince lieutenant, Alexandre Pétion helped Rigaud's former top Dessalines' authority. Assembling Southern commanders to recognize to meet the black general, they Gérard in the Les Cayes plain at Camp In return, Dessalines gave them high ranks promised him their loyalty. Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes fell. in his army. Three months later, arrived before Cap Dessalines' united army, some 20,000 strong, Rochambeau and 18, 1803. Within ten days, Français on November his forces evacuated." ordered Charéron, one of his In December 1803, Dessalines of the colony's mulatto secretaries, to draft an official proclamation Charéron's draft to be delivered on January 1, 1804. independence, of law and philosophy, perhaps inspired was written in the language But Dessalines wanted an by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. unity. On December 31, emotionally powerful statement of national him exclaim after hearing he entrusted the task to another secretary, < *with a white man's skin for that such a document should be written his blood for ink, and a bayonet parchment, his skull for an inkstand, for a quill' >2 20 Boisrond-Tonnerre, the 27-yearThis image was creation ofLouis Boisrond and nephew of old son of the indigo planter Mathurin Tonnerre means thunder and at Aquin's Louis-François Boisrond. violent storm raged the night least one scholar surmises that a however, that Boisrond-Tonnerre was born. It appears more likely, man *Tonnerre" was the French town where this light-skinned The young author of educated and spent much ofthe 1790s. was probably fourth creole, and a member the declaration was at least a generation colonists. >> But class Julien Raimond had labeled the "American ofthe as much ofhis life in France as Boisrond-Tonnerre had probably spent he was presented to when, in July 1803, in Saint-Domingue Dessalines at Camp Gérard.21 would have been 15 years old in 1791, Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre Boisrond asked Julien Raimond to when his uncle Louis-François home from France, including Ebé, send his nieces and nephews The chaos of the Revolution in that Boisrond-Tonnerre's sister. followed these instructions. At year makes it doubtful that Raimond of his own nephews and the time, he was overseeing the education Julien Raimond, in his stepchildren. In 1791 his nephew Pierre of Tonnerre, a day or two mid-twentics, was living in the village married there, southeast of Paris. The young man had to the apparently family of into this village that was already home settling Ebé, send his nieces and nephews The chaos of the Revolution in that Boisrond-Tonnerre's sister. followed these instructions. At year makes it doubtful that Raimond of his own nephews and the time, he was overseeing the education Julien Raimond, in his stepchildren. In 1791 his nephew Pierre of Tonnerre, a day or two mid-twentics, was living in the village married there, southeast of Paris. The young man had to the apparently family of into this village that was already home settling --- Page 320 --- EPILOGUE former from the South. Pierre Simon Jacquesson, a planter France and in 1789 he was Jacquesson had returned permanently to were well ofthe Tonnerre constabulary. The Jacquessons lieutenant for Henri Jacquesson had been the notary known to the Boisronds, in the 1780s and had drafted and mayor (syndic) ofTorbec parish These multiple conneccontracts there for the Boisrond family.2 was educated in tions suggest that Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre himself from France, and took this name to distinguish Tonnerre, especially his uncle and guardian Louisother family members, France in 1796 as one of Saint-Domingue's François, who came to legislative representatives. of this uncle illustrates the family's The Revolutionary career Boisrond was one of identification with France. Louis-François he strong the South Province, particularly after the wealthiest men ofcolorin in 1781 and married a wealthy moved from Torbec to Aquin parish older brothers, including free colored widow there. His two this indigo and smugBoisrond-Tonnerre's father, followed him to 6). After his neighbors Julien and François gling center (chapter active man of color Raimond, Louis-François was the most politically Boisrond, a free perhaps inspired by his father François in Aquin, arrested as a "trouble-maker" in the mulatto planter who was nearly and political terms, LouisTorbec militia revolt of 1769. In financial of Raimond's François was the most prominent colonial supporter political work in Paris.23 even proud, of being a Louis- François Boisrond was conscious, terms. In 1790 creole. But he expressed that identity in Euro-centric colonists" for free people of he adopted Raimond's phrase "American "the 2> to stress color and described men like himself as island-born, not racial. between whites and mulattoes were cultural, that tensions school in Aquin in 1791, to "make converts to He wanted to found a to choose the teachers in the national spirit." 27 But he asked Raimond France.24 Boisrond's "national spirit" was almost certainly Louis-François from 1797 onward, he was a member of French in his mind. In Paris of the Blacks, mobilized in the renewed Society of the Friends colonial conservatives. November of that year to counter-balance in the group, he was probably Though Boisrond was not prominent colonial order, based on free labor, sympathetic to its interest in a new and a stronger integraracial equality, more international commerce, into the administration of tion of the republic's overseas territories in Paris in April 1800, it seems France.25 When he died metropolitan Boisrond-Tonnerre, then 24, helped bury unlikely that his nephew of the Blacks, mobilized in the renewed Society of the Friends colonial conservatives. November of that year to counter-balance in the group, he was probably Though Boisrond was not prominent colonial order, based on free labor, sympathetic to its interest in a new and a stronger integraracial equality, more international commerce, into the administration of tion of the republic's overseas territories in Paris in April 1800, it seems France.25 When he died metropolitan Boisrond-Tonnerre, then 24, helped bury unlikely that his nephew --- Page 321 --- BEFORE HAITI 15, 1798 Boisrond-Tonnerre was him in the capital. On December plantation. By 1803, he was back in Aquin, bidding on a sequestered of Cavaillon.2 the schef de section" in the neighboring parish of the author of This, then, was the contradictory background Like in his class in the Haiti's Declaration of Independence. many ofa colonial family, he was the fourth generation southern peninsula, education. but his adopted name was inspired by a French provincial based on indigo the of an uncle whose wealth was He was protégé bind Saint-Domingue closer smuggling but who died working to help France, on the other hand, France. Julien Raimond, his guardian in to for decades, and then helped Toussaint preached loyalty to Paris constitution for Saint-Domingue. Louverture draft an autonomous these contradictions declaration sidestepped Boisrond-Tonnere's creole, or American, identity in an by asserting Sant-Domingue's He portrayed the island's people indigenous, not colonial, context. but as heirs to a long tradinot as the children of Africa and Europe, that Boisrond's relatives in struggle. It seems likely tion ofindigenous 1788 pamphlet, published in Torbec and Aquin knew of Bleschamp's "Haiti" for Saintthe indigenous name Les Cayes, proposing have helped Dessalines choose Domingue. Boisrond-Tonnerre may he also Consciously or unconsciously, this name for the new nation.27 juxtaposition of Haiti's borrowed from Las Casas's sisteenth-century He advised the innocent Taino natives and bloodthirsty Europeans. to be extermination to "imitate those people who : : . preferred new lose their place as one ofthe world's free peoples. nated rather than of events two years earlier in He was probably also thinking black and mulatto soldiers commitGuadeloupe, where hundreds of rather than submit their barrels of gunpowder ted suicide by igniting 28 Guadeloupe's men had shouted "Live to French re-enslavement changed Boisrond-Tonnerre free or die," as theira ammunition exploded. >9 this to "live independent or die.' slave colonies like Jamaica Reassuring the governments of nearby that Haiti's neighbors were and Cuba, the declaration proclaimed ideals that have destroyed us. 99 <fortunate to have never known the those ideals. He rejected did not reject Yet Boisrond-Tonnerre citizens had nearly lost their liberty, he the French. The island's of"fourteen years ofour declared, not in military defeat, but because oftheir agents' and indulgence" for "the pathetic eloquence credulity proclamations." >29 the white from the tricolor flag that Dessalines had already ripped mulattos, and blacks 1793 had symbolized the union of whites, since now insisted that his 30 Boisrond-Tonnerre in Saint-Domingue. Yet Boisrond-Tonnerre citizens had nearly lost their liberty, he the French. The island's of"fourteen years ofour declared, not in military defeat, but because oftheir agents' and indulgence" for "the pathetic eloquence credulity proclamations." >29 the white from the tricolor flag that Dessalines had already ripped mulattos, and blacks 1793 had symbolized the union of whites, since now insisted that his 30 Boisrond-Tonnerre in Saint-Domingue. --- Page 322 --- EPILOGUE Frenchmen from the island. *Everything here compatriots purge ofthis barbarous people; our laws, our mores, our recalls the cruelties the mark of France."' 22 The island would cities, everything still bears <barbarous people," eyulnever be free as long as Frenchmen-a upon its soil. In tures," and "tigers dripping with blood"-stood François had fought grandfather 1769, Louis Boisrond-Tonnere's racial rhetoric of colonial civilizathe militia reform and the divisive had worked to claim tion and white virtue. His uncle Louis-François former slaves in a for wealthy men of color and eventually a place France. Now Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, in regenerated Republican than either of his ancestors, rejected the many ways more French him. The new Haitian state also inverted Europeans who had rejected The Constitution ofwhiteness colonists had formulated. the ideology holds was largely written by Boisrondof 1805, which tradition <black, >> and offered citizenship to Tonnerre, identified all Haitians as Amerindians and blacks fleeing slavery.31 * * in Saint-Domingue has a history. This book has shown that "race" their scorn for free mixed-race Although French colonists described extension of black slavery, their pcople as a necessary and natural For much of the cighteenth prejudice defied hemispheric patterns. and Brazil, isolaas in Jamaica geographic century, in Saint-Domingue and the threats of slave revolt and fortion, shared economic interests, elites to acknowledge the invasion all motivated the planting cign colonies' wealthiest and most Euro-centric families whiteness of their Dominguan judges and of mixed ancestry. But after 1769, querulous racial codes on the colony, in security-minded governors imposed new imperial reforms, new order to create a new white public. Unwelcome of civilization and European immigrants, "Enlightened" threatened concepts colonists' identity. By virtue, and wealthy families of color rather of"whiteness" ?7 to depend on biological, changing the definition after 1769 colonists unified than social characteristics, in the years The new color line was meant Saint-Domingue's French population. and imperial administrato make white creoles, ambitious immigrants, Petit might have described tors into American patriots, as Emilien revealed how illusory that them. However, the French Revolution white had been. The fierce refusal of Saint-Domingue's white public free people of color as citizens, a rejeccolonists in 1791 to recognize slave revolt in August ofthat year, tion that led indirectly to the great of white purity. was based on this relatively new concept than social characteristics, in the years The new color line was meant Saint-Domingue's French population. and imperial administrato make white creoles, ambitious immigrants, Petit might have described tors into American patriots, as Emilien revealed how illusory that them. However, the French Revolution white had been. The fierce refusal of Saint-Domingue's white public free people of color as citizens, a rejeccolonists in 1791 to recognize slave revolt in August ofthat year, tion that led indirectly to the great of white purity. was based on this relatively new concept --- Page 323 --- BEFORE HAITI of this new racial ideology on SaintThe profound impact far from the French shipping and Domingue's southern frontier, Français, suggests that some of military installations surrounding Cap consciousness lay roots of Haitian revolutionary the most important districts. In the South Province, interin these kinds of creole of mixed European, African, Caribbean commerce and a long history sense of local, American and native American families created a powerful did the wealth of many after 1769, SO identity. Even as prejudice grew like Torbec and Aquin, prosperous old families. Yet in isolated parishes of the political consequences men ofcolor were slow to acknowledge think of themselves as French their creole identity, preferring to American colonists. culture allowed Julien Raimond to Their attachment to French reform in Paris, before discussions of colonial spark, even dominate, colonists claimed that free colored and especially after 1789. When disqualified them from French sexual decadence and moral effeminacy against them. men of color turned these arguments citizenship, virtues" white colonists ascribed to Claiming to possess the *liberal the self-sacrificial "civic productive planters, they also vaunted Because colonial whites virtues" sought by royal administrators. relied upon these men to perform unpopular before the Revolution era gave brown and military service, the violence ofthe Revolutionary power. soldiers enormous practical, as well as rhetorical, black frontier districts, this book complements By focusing on these of Saint- Domingue's elite free colStewart King's recent description class of <blue coats" ored population as divided between a military wigs. 27 Viewed planter group of "powdered and a conservative similar notarial sources, reveal the together, the two studies, based on the decp antagonism contrasting regional cultures that produced Southern Toussaint's Northern <blacks" and Rigaud's between *mulattos"in the Revolution. class" did not exist in the King's free black "military leadership other isolated districts. In South, nor, probably, in Saint-Domingue's French authorities mounted Français, where the area around Cap colored soldiers, and where imperial with free major experiments displayed, free men of patriotism and its rewards were prominently even at the lowest ranks and color appear to have used military service, According to to fashion a kind oflocal notability. in the constabulary, likely to be free blacks than men of King's data, these men were more relationships with whites than free mixed race. They had fewer family <blue coats" were ex-slaves, colored planters did. While some military a pattern of others were the children of free black parents, suggesting colored soldiers, and where imperial with free major experiments displayed, free men of patriotism and its rewards were prominently even at the lowest ranks and color appear to have used military service, According to to fashion a kind oflocal notability. in the constabulary, likely to be free blacks than men of King's data, these men were more relationships with whites than free mixed race. They had fewer family <blue coats" were ex-slaves, colored planters did. While some military a pattern of others were the children of free black parents, suggesting --- Page 324 --- EPILOGUE Province. The extraordinary volume of black endogamy in the North have reinforced this African slaves debarked in Cap Français may <black" racial identity, over time. and mulattos were far less likely In the South, however, free blacks Those who did garnered litto become involved in military activities. career were Perhaps the men most attracted to a military tle prestige. North where such units were permanently drawn into the Province, witnessed the coats,' 7) the South in the 1780s based. Instead of"blue labels the "powdered wigs," growing affluence of the group King the richest free families like the Raimonds and Boisronds. Though wealthier than of color in the southern peninsula were no of their people their prosperity was far closer to that those in King's study, the richest free colored families white neighbors. Relatively speaking, in the local the South Province had a greater claim to membership in the case in the great sugar districts, like those plantocracy than was outside Cap Français. leadership class" among free Not only was there was no "military no distinct free black of color in the South Province, there was people because contraband merchants brought class cither. Perhaps this was who were more "creolized" than the South enslaved men and women who arrived directly from their counterparts in the North Province, ofthe frontier, there Africa. In the less dynamic, less urban economy or even incentive for black ex-slaves to form houscholds, was more of mixed racial descent. At all levels ofsociety marry, into free families families knew that networks were and in all racial groups creole survival. essential to their economic and social in slavery until the Unlike the Africans and others exploited influential free people therefore, Saint-Domingue's most Revolution, those in the remote southern peninsula, experiof color, especially Haitian as a kind of family enced the events leading to independence trade with Dutch Curaçao, their active and illegal trauma. Despite wealthy families of color Danish Saint Thomas, and British Jamaica, Then, in the 1790s they identified themselves as children of France. the value the ideals ofthe Revolution. Though it destroyed embraced anciens libres gained a degree of commercial libof their plantations, fraternity vis à vis France that equality, and republican erty, political since at least the 1760s. their class had not experienced may have been using a Though their ally the Abbé Grégoire and Caribbean citimetaphor when he wrote that European religious all "children of the same father," the statement zens of France were And sO, on January 1, 1804 was literally true for many men ofcolor. their independence when black and brown soldiers dared to assert --- Page 325 --- BEFORE HAITI from France, the decision was not an casy one, though the blood shed by Leclerc and Rochambeau simplified the break. As Cangé wrote his friend Delpech, "Like me, you have seen thousands ofblack and red men, women, and children drowned and hanged. >) After 1769 European racism had divided free creole society into whites and nonwhites. But by ending slavery, republican ideals had promised to restore the community of brown and white men and to make it even more egalitarian than before by extending citizenship to black men. To protect their vision oft that renewed community, creoles defied the world and formed their own republic, Haiti. and Rochambeau simplified the break. As Cangé wrote his friend Delpech, "Like me, you have seen thousands ofblack and red men, women, and children drowned and hanged. >) After 1769 European racism had divided free creole society into whites and nonwhites. But by ending slavery, republican ideals had promised to restore the community of brown and white men and to make it even more egalitarian than before by extending citizenship to black men. To protect their vision oft that renewed community, creoles defied the world and formed their own republic, Haiti. --- Page 326 --- NOTES INTRODUCTION 1. Morcau de Saint Méry, Observations d'un Yvan Debbasch, Couleur et liberté Le jett du habitant des colonies, 5, cited in esclavagiste (Paris: Dalloz, 1967), 90, critère etlmique dans un ordre been educated in France.A bill listed note 2, maintained that Raimond had he was in Toulouse in 1762 at the among Raimond'spapers suggests that d'Outre- -Mer, dépôt des age of 18; see Centre des Archives Domingue registre 1465, papiers publiques des colonies, notariat, Saintarchive unless noted, and will April be 5, 1785. All notarial sources are from this mentioned in the notarial archives identified of his as SDOM 1465. Raimond is not but references to him appear native region from 1760 to 1766, 2. SDOM 105, April 23, 1773; frequently after that date. 3. SDOM 105, July 1, 1772; SDOM 1418, June 9, 1783. April 5, 1785; Archives Nationales SDOM 1419, January 5, 1784; SDOM 1465, Rouen reg. 99. Minutier Centrale, August 30, 1790, 4. SDOM 1557, May 15, 1766. 5. Herbert S. Klein, African Slavery in Latin (New York: Oxford University American and the Caribbean 6. David P. Geggus, "The Press, 1986), 226. Major Port Towns Eighteenth Century," >29 in Atlantic Port ofSaint Domingue in the Later Socicty in the Atlantic World, 1650-1850, Cities: Economy, Culture and Liss, eds (Knoxville, TN: Franklin W. Knight and Peggy K. 7. Klein, African Slavery, 237. University of Tennessee Press, 1990), 102. 8. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Social Control in A Comparison of St. Domingue and Cuba Slave Plantation Socictics: Press, 1971); Michel-Rolph Trouillot, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Color, and Slavery in Eighteenth-C "Motion in the System: Coffee, (1982): 331-388; Stewart R. Century Saint-Domingue, > Review 5 Pcople of Color in King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free University of Georgia Pre-Revolutionary Press, 2001). Saint Domingue (Athens, GA: 9. Guillaume Aubert, < "The Blood of France'; FrenchAtlantic World," William and Race and Purity of Blood in the 10. Dominique Rogers, "Les libres de Mary Quarterly61 (July 2004): 439-478. Domingue: fortune, couleur dans les capitales de Saint- (1776-1789)" mentalités et intégration à la fin de l'Ancien (Unpublished Régime 11. Neither Slave Nor Free: The manuscript, 2005), conclusion. Societies of the New World, ed. Freedmen David of African Descent in the Slave (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene 12. Ira Berlin, Slaves Without 1972), Table A-9, 339. 1974), 208; Peter J. Parish, Masters, (New York: Oxford University Press, Slavery: History and Historians (New York: mentalités et intégration à la fin de l'Ancien (Unpublished Régime 11. Neither Slave Nor Free: The manuscript, 2005), conclusion. Societies of the New World, ed. Freedmen David of African Descent in the Slave (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene 12. Ira Berlin, Slaves Without 1972), Table A-9, 339. 1974), 208; Peter J. Parish, Masters, (New York: Oxford University Press, Slavery: History and Historians (New York: --- Page 327 --- NOTES 1989), 107; Barbara Jeanne Fields, Slavery and Freedom Harper and Row, During the Nincteenth Century (New in the Middle Ground: Maryland 1985), 24, 27. Haven: Yale University Press, Slaves Without Masters, 115; 13. Parish, Slavery, 108-9; Berlin, Louisiana (Rutherford, NJ: H. E. Sterkx, The Free Negro in Ante-Bellum 236. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1972), 338. 14. Neither Slave Nor Free, Tables A-5, 337,A-8, The Status of Freedmen in *A Mockery of Freedom': 15. David Barry Gaspar, Before 1760," >9 New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe WestAntigua Slave Society Jerome S. Handler, The "Unappropriased Indische Gids 59 (1985), 136, 138; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins People "; Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados de couleur libres du Fort-Royale, Press, 1974), 141; Emile Hayot, Les d'histoire gens d'outre-mer, 1971),Lucien1674-1823 (Paris: La société française de couleur dans deux paroisses de la René Abénon, *Blancs et libres 1699-1779," Société française Guadeloupe (Capesterre et Trois-Rivières) d'histoire d'outre-mer 60 (1973): 297-329. the Slave Societies of St. Kitts and 16. Edward L. Cox, Free Coloreds in TN: University of Tennessee Press, Grenada, 1763-1833 (Knoxville, 1984), 60-64, 87. Lorna McDaniel, "The Philips: A Free 17. Cox, Free Coloreds, 150-51; The Journal of Caribbean History, 24:2 Mulatto Family of Grenada," Trouillot, "The Inconvenience of (1990): 178-194; Michel-Rolph and the Aftermath of Slaveryin Dominica Freedom: Free People ofColor 147-82 in The Meaning of Freedom: and San-Domungne/Hatir" Culture After Slavery, eds. F. McGlynn and Economics, Politics and University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992). Seymour Drescher (Pittsburgh: Neither Slave Nor Free, Tables A-1, 335, 18. Percentages calculated from The Free People ofColorand A 10,339;Jay Kinsbruner, Not ofPure-Hod: Puerto Rico (Durham, NC: Duke Racial Prejudice in Nincteanub-Century. 128-29, 141; Franklin W. Knight, Slave University Press, 1996), 26-29, Nineteenth Century (Madison, WI: University Socicty in Cuba During the ofWisconsin Press, 1970), 93. of Santo Domingo, 1720-1764," 19. Margarita Gascôn, "The Military Review, 73 (3) (August 1993): 431-452; Hispanic American Historical Politics of the Coloured Carl Campbell, Cedulants and Capitulants: Trinidad, 1783-1838 (Port of Spain, Opposition in the Slave Socicty of 82, 223-24; Eugenio Pinero, The Trinidad: Paria Publishing Co., 1992), Economies American and Colonial Cacao (Philadelphia: Town ofSan Felipe 1994), 83; P. . Margarita Gascôn, "The Military Review, 73 (3) (August 1993): 431-452; Hispanic American Historical Politics of the Coloured Carl Campbell, Cedulants and Capitulants: Trinidad, 1783-1838 (Port of Spain, Opposition in the Slave Socicty of 82, 223-24; Eugenio Pinero, The Trinidad: Paria Publishing Co., 1992), Economies American and Colonial Cacao (Philadelphia: Town ofSan Felipe 1994), 83; P. Michael McKinley, Pre-Revolutionary Philosophical Society, 1777-1811 Cambridge: Cambridge Caracas: Politics, Economy, and Society: Jackie R. Booker, "Needed University Press, 1985), 2,9 9, 18, 28, 116-19; Mexico, 1760-1810," The but Unwanted: Black Militiamen in Veracruz, Patrick J. Carroll, Blacks in Colonial Historian (Spring, 1993): 259, 267; Development (Austin, Texas: Veracruz: Race, Ethnicity, and 147;Aline Regional Helg, "The Limits of Equality: University of Texas Press, 1991), the First Independence of Free People of Colour and Slaves During Or Abolition (London) 20, 2 Cartagena, Colombia, 1810-15," Landers, Slavery Black Socicty in Spanish Florida (August 1999): 2, 14-18; Janc 1999), 84-106, 202-5. 259, 267; Development (Austin, Texas: Veracruz: Race, Ethnicity, and 147;Aline Regional Helg, "The Limits of Equality: University of Texas Press, 1991), the First Independence of Free People of Colour and Slaves During Or Abolition (London) 20, 2 Cartagena, Colombia, 1810-15," Landers, Slavery Black Socicty in Spanish Florida (August 1999): 2, 14-18; Janc 1999), 84-106, 202-5. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: 20. David Eltis and others, CD-ROM, Cambridge University Press, 1999). A Database on CD-ROM (London: --- Page 328 --- NOTES 21. Carl N. Degler, Neither Black and White: Brazil and the United States (New Slavery and Race Relations in Magnus Morner, Race Mixture in York: the Macmillan, 1971), 240; (Boston, 1967), 72-77; Barbara History of Latin America *Favorites,' and Black *Wenches': Bush, "White Ladies,' Coloured and Class Factors in Social Relations Some Considerations on Sex, Race British Caribbean, >> Slavery and in White Creole Society in the Mattoso, To Be a Slave In Brazil, Abolition, 2 (1981): 245-262;. Katara Rutgers University Press, 1986), 180, 1550-1888 (New Brunswick, NJ: Black Man in Slavery and Freedom 183; A.J. R. Russell-Wood, The Press, 1982), 32, 39-40. in Brazil (New York: St Martin's 22. Herbert S. Klein, "The Colored Freedmen Journal of. Social History, 3 (1969), 31-32; in Brazilian Slave Society," in Slavery, 84-87. Samuel J. Russell-Wood, The Black Man Freedom: Private Bill Hurwitz and Edith F. Hurwitz, "A Token of Jamaica," William Legislation for Free Negroes in Or Mary Eighteenth- Century "Jamaica,' 9) Neither Slave Nor Quarterly 24, 1 (1967), 427; Douglas Hall, 23. Kathleen J. Higgins, Free, 206. Colonial Brazil: The "Gender and the Manumission of Slaves in 1710-1809," >) Slavery Prospects er for Freedom in Sabara, Minas Gerais, Herbert S. Klein, "The Colored Abolition, 18 (2) (August 1997), 1, 12, 13; Journal of Social History, 3 (1969), Freedmen in Brazilian Slave Society," Spurious Children in Brazilian 34, 41; Linda Lewin, "Natural and A Methodological Essay," The Inheritance Law From Colony to Nation: 363-68. Americas, XLVIII (January, 1992), 24. Russell-Wood, The Black Man in Nor White, 84. Slavery, 69-75; Degler, Neither Black 25. Archives Nationales, Colonies F3 91, to the naval secretary in the mid 1780s 182; Raimond's first memorandum racial lawi in 1755. referred to changes in Brazilian 26. Trevor Burnard, "The Sexual Life of Slave Overseer," in Sex and an Eightcenth-Century Jamaican Smith (New York: New York Sexnality in Early America, ed. Merril D. and Hurwitz, "A Token of University Press, 1998), 57-58; Hurwitz 3rd ser., 24 (1967), 424-30. Freedom," William C Mary Quarterly, 27. Linda Sturz, < A Very Nuisance to the Place of Freeds in Jamaican Free Community';: The Ambivalent Society in the (1999), paper prepared for the 31st annual Eighteenth Century" of Caribbean Historians; Havana conference of the Association 28. William B. Cohen, The French Cuba, April 11-17, 1999, 25. Encounter with (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, Africans, 1530-1880 confusion about French colonial 1980), 52-53, notes his tudes in the Spanish and sensitivity to race, compared with atti29. Franklin W. Portuguese colonies. Knight, "Introduction," > to (Boston: Beacon Press Books, 1992). Tannenbaum, Slave and Citizen 30. Tannenbaum, Slave and Citizen, 42. 31. Ibid., 69. 32. Ibid., 127. 33. Degler, Neither Black Nor White, 92. 34. For example, Knight, Chiaroscuro: The Status SlaveSocicty and in Cuba; Winthrop D. Jordan, "American Definition of Mulattoes in the British Colonies," , compared with atti29. Franklin W. Portuguese colonies. Knight, "Introduction," > to (Boston: Beacon Press Books, 1992). Tannenbaum, Slave and Citizen 30. Tannenbaum, Slave and Citizen, 42. 31. Ibid., 69. 32. Ibid., 127. 33. Degler, Neither Black Nor White, 92. 34. For example, Knight, Chiaroscuro: The Status SlaveSocicty and in Cuba; Winthrop D. Jordan, "American Definition of Mulattoes in the British Colonies," --- Page 329 --- NOTES William Or Mary Quarterly 3rd ser., 19 Slaves Without Masters (New York: (1962): 183-200; Berlin, 35. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Social Oxford University Press, 1974). A Comparison of St. Control in Slave Plantation Societies: Press, 1971), 153. Domingue and Cuba (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 36. Hall, Social Control, 142, 144. 37. Cohen and Greene, "Introduction, >> 38. Stuart B. Schwartz, Slaves, Neither Slave Nor Free, 17. Slavery (Urbana, IL: University Peasants, and Rebels: Reconsidering Brazilian "Race, Colour, and ofIllinois Press, 1992), 18. Arnold A. Sio, Barbados," Caribbean Miscegenation: The Free Coloured of Jamaica and "Unapproprinted Studies, 16 (1976): 5-21; Handler, Race, People 7 Gad J. Heuman, Between The Politics and the Free Coloreds in Black and White: CN: Greenwood Press, 1981); Jamaica, 1792-1865 (Westport, (1992); Landers, Black Campbell, Cedulants and Society in Capitulants, in Colonial Veracruz (1991); Spanish Florida (1999); Carroll, Blacks (1982). Russell-Wood, The Black Man in Slavery 39. Joan Dayan, Haiti, California History, and the Gods Press, 1995), 285. (Berkeley: University of 40. Mimi Sheller, Democracy After Radicalism in Haiti and Jamaica Slavery: Black Publics and Peasant 2000), 11-13, 98, 101, 106, 139. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 41. The article literature has been richer. Here the "Motion in the System. >) But see also Laura most important is Trouillot, Color in Louisiana and St. Foner, "The Free People of Three-Caste Slave Societies, >> Domingue: A Comparative Portrait of Two Robert Stein, "The Free Men Journal of Social History, 3 (1970): 407-30; Domingue, 1789-1792," of Color and the Revolution in Saint 7-28. Histoire Sociale-Social History, 14 (1981); 42. Popular and academic usage has labeled Haiti's race social elite as the "mulatto" class, Franco-centric mixederal definition ofthis term, which denotes though most would not fit the litparent. Julien Raimond, for the child ofa a black and a white because his mother, example, was not technically a mulatto this book traces the though a woman of color, was not black. Because increasing nial society, I have tried to remain importance ofsuch racial nuances in colowords. However, when I true to the exact meaning of these "mulatto, 99 I am use quotation marks around the referring to the term term. larger, more inclusive meaning of this 43. David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Independence in Haiti (New Brunswick, Coloura and National 1996), 85-101 refers NJ: Rutgers University Press, vols. (1847-48; Port-au-Prince: especially to Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 8 Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes Henri Deschamps, Alexis général J.-M. Borgella, sur Phistoire d'Haiti suivies 1989); de la vie du Chez Dr. François François Dalencourt (Port-au-Prince, 44. Sheller, Dalencour, 1958). Haiti:1853; Democracy After 45. Beauvais Slavery (2000), 101. 1881); C.L.R. Lespinasse, Histoire des affranchis de James, The Black Saint-Domingue (Paris, San Domingo Revolution, 2nd ed. Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the (New York: Random House, [1938] 9); de la vie du Chez Dr. François François Dalencourt (Port-au-Prince, 44. Sheller, Dalencour, 1958). Haiti:1853; Democracy After 45. Beauvais Slavery (2000), 101. 1881); C.L.R. Lespinasse, Histoire des affranchis de James, The Black Saint-Domingue (Paris, San Domingo Revolution, 2nd ed. Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the (New York: Random House, [1938] --- Page 330 --- NOTES 1963), cites A. Lebeau, De la condition des Pancien régime (Poitiers, 1903). gens de couleur libres SOuS 46. Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 28. 47. Anne Pérotin-Dumon, prémisses d'une "Histoire et identité des Antilles françaises: les Americanos 51,2 (1994), historiographie 307. moderne," Anuario de Estudios 48. Pérotin-Dumon, 49. James, The Black "Histoire et identité, "> 308-9. 50. David P. Jacobins, 39. Geggus, "30 Years of Haitian Revista Mexicana Del Caribe Revolution Historiography," (1998), 179-80; Robin Blackburn, (Chetumal, "The Quinata Roo, Mexico) 5 Slavery,' in C. L. R. James: His Black Jacobins and New World and William E. Cain (Amherst: Intellectual Legacies, ed. Selwyn R. Cudjo 87-89. University of Massachusetts Press, 1995), 51. Pérotin- Dumon, 52. Lucien M. "Histoire et identité, 305-10. Petyraud, L'esclavage aux antilles Hachette, 1897); Gaston Martin, Histoire frangaises avant 1789 (Paris: françaises (Paris: Presses universitaires de P'esclavage dans les colonies de France, L'Esclarage aux Antilles françaises 1948); Antoine Gisler, 1965). (Fribourg: Editions universitaires, 53. For example, Gabriel Debien, "Pour archives de quelques familles de connaitre un type de fortune: Les planteurs antillais, > économique et social (September Annales d'histoire "A Saint- Domingue avec deux 1938), 424-429; Gabriel Debien, 1774-1788," Revue de la société jeunes économes de plantation, 54. Gabriel Debien, Les esclaves d'histoire d'Haiti (1945). d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, aux Antilles francaises (Basse-Terre: Société 55. For example, 1974), 7. plantation de Jacques Cauna, Au temps des iles à sucre: Histoire d'une Bernard Foubert, Saint-Domingue au xvitie siècle (Paris: "Les habitations Laborde Karthala, 1987); seconde moitié du XVIIlième siècle," à Saint Domingue dans la d'histoire et 48, Revue de la société haitienne 56. For example, degéngraphic, no. 174 (Décembre 1992):3-13. deux paroisses Lucien-René de la Abénon, "Blancs et libres de couleur dans 1699-1779," Société frangaise Guadeloupe d'histoire (Capesterre et Trois- Rivières) Nicole Vanony-Frisch, Les esclaves de la d'outre-mer (1973): 297-329; régime d'après les sources notariales, Guadeloupe à la fin de Pancien d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1985). 1770-1789 (Basse-Terre: Société 57. Dale W. Tomich, Slavery in the Circuit World Economy, 1830-1848, Baltimore: of Sugar: Martinique and the 58. Jean Fouchard, Les marrons de la liberté Johns Hopkins Press, 1989. Port-au-Prince: Henri (Paris: Ecole, 1972) [reprinted 59. David P. Geggus, *30 Deschamps, Years 1988], 138-139, 182-84. of Haitian Revolution Historiography," 60. Geggus, Haitian University Press, 2002); Revolutionary Studies (Bloomington, IN: Domingue Carolyn E. Fick, The Making The Indiana Revolution From Below ofHaiti: Saint Tennessee Press, 1990). (Knoxville, TN: University of 61. This has been inspired by his the Haitian Revolution rejection of Eugene Genovese's thesis that marked a turning point in the history of amps, Years 1988], 138-139, 182-84. of Haitian Revolution Historiography," 60. Geggus, Haitian University Press, 2002); Revolutionary Studies (Bloomington, IN: Domingue Carolyn E. Fick, The Making The Indiana Revolution From Below ofHaiti: Saint Tennessee Press, 1990). (Knoxville, TN: University of 61. This has been inspired by his the Haitian Revolution rejection of Eugene Genovese's thesis that marked a turning point in the history of --- Page 331 --- NOTES Americas. Sce Genovese's From Rebellion to slave revolution in the Revolts in the Making ofthe Modern World Revolution: Afro-American Slave Press, 1979)and a host of responses (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University to David Barry Gaspar summarized best in his contributions Revolution by Geggus, eds., A Turbulent Time: The French and David Patrick Geggus IN: Indiana University Press, 1997) and the Greater Caribbean (Bloomington, Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World and Geggus, ed., The Impact ofthe Press, 2002). [?) (SC: University of South Carolina New World: The Story of the Haitian 62. Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the University Press, 2004). Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution 63. Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of of Tennessee Press, 1990). From Below (Knoxville, TN: University Free People of Color in Pre64. Stewart R. King, Blue Coat 01 Powdered GA: Wig: University of Georgia Press, Revolutionary Saint Domingue (Athen, manuscript, 2005). "Les libres de couleur" (Unpublished 2001 ); Rogers, 154 and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 65. See for example, Fick, Making ofHaiti, and Legacy of Duvalierism Haiti; State Against Nation: The Origins (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1990), 45. Etudes sur Phistoire d'Haiti, 17-23. 66. Ardouin, "Les libres de couleur" (2005), 592. 67. Rogers, OF CREOLE CHAPTER 1 THE DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY ON THE COLONIAL FRONTIER aux Isles: Chronique aventureuse des Caraibes, 1. Jean-I Baptiste Labat, Voyage Phébus, 1993), 31. 1693-1705, Michel Le Bris (Paris: isles de (Fort de Labat, Nouveau voyage aux PAmérique 7ième 2. Jean-Baptiste Horizons Caraibes, 1972 [Paris, 1742]), France: Éditions des partie, 114. haitien: Etude sur la vie rurale en Haiti (Port-au3. Paul Moral, Le paysan A BriefHistory ofthe Caribbean (New Prince, 1978), 73; Jan Rogozinski, When the Hands Are Many: York: Meridien, 1992), 4; Jennie B. Smith, in Rural Haiti (Ithaca, NY: Community Organization and Social Change Cornell University Press, 2001), 69. Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of 4. Samuel M. Wilson, Hispaniola: University of Alabama Press, 1990), 134. Columbus (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: 5. Rogozinski, Brief History, 42, 51. colonial, des origines à la Restauration 6. Pierre Pluchon, Le premier empire (Paris: Fayard, 1991), 376. and A. P. Maingot, A Short History of the 7. John H. Parry, P. M. Sherlock Press, 1987), 72. West Indies (New York: Saint Martin's Les Antilles avant Colbert, 77 in 8. Paul Butel, "Le Temps des fondations: ed. Pierre Pluchon (Toulouse: L'Histoire des Antilles et de la Guyane, Privat, 1982),72. 374-75; Pierre François Xavier de 9. Pluchon, Le premier empire colonial, oude S. Domingue (Paris: Charlevoix, Histoire de Pisle espagnole, Hippolyne-Louis Guerin, 1730-1731), 2:52. Production and the Shaping of 10. David P. Geggus, "Sugar and Coffee Labor and the 9> in Cultivation and Culture: Slavery in Saint Domingue, Ira Berlin and Philip D. Morgan, Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas, 1982),72. 374-75; Pierre François Xavier de 9. Pluchon, Le premier empire colonial, oude S. Domingue (Paris: Charlevoix, Histoire de Pisle espagnole, Hippolyne-Louis Guerin, 1730-1731), 2:52. Production and the Shaping of 10. David P. Geggus, "Sugar and Coffee Labor and the 9> in Cultivation and Culture: Slavery in Saint Domingue, Ira Berlin and Philip D. Morgan, Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas, --- Page 332 --- NOTES of Virginia Press, 1993), 75; Robin eds. (Charlottesville: University World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Blackburn, The Making of New 1997), 283. Modern, 1492-1800 (London: Verso, Business in the Eighteenth Century 11. Robert Louis Stein, The French Sugar Press, 1988), 42. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University CAOM G'509 N2. 12. Centre des Archives d'Outre- Mer, henceforth des années 1720, vue de Saint13. Charles Frostin, "La piraterie américaine )" Cahiers d'hisDomingue (répression, environnement et recrutement) empire colonial, 384, toire 25, 2 (1980): 177-210; Pluchon, Le premier inhabitants estimates that in 1684 as many as half of Saint- Domingue's were involved in piracy or smuggling. Charlevoix, Histoire de Pisle, 2: 43-52. 14. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 382; 15. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 382. 3,000 slaves in 1694; sec also 16. Charlevoix, Histoire de Pisle, 2:261 says empire, 381, says 1,800. 2:314, 353 for Cartagena; Pluchon, Le premier Presses de P'Université de L'espace haitien (Montreal: Elie 17. Georges Anglade, his population data from Médéric Louis Québec, 1975), 60-62, gets topegraphique, Physique, Civile, Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description de Pisle Saint Domingue, Politique et historique de la partic franenise 1997; Société Blanche Maurel and Etienne Taillemite eds. (Philadelphia: de P'histoire des colonies françaises, Moreau 1984). de Saint Méry, Description, 912. 18. Charlevoix, Histoire delisle, 2:43; 157-163, 861, 1127-28. 19. Moreau de Saint Méry, Description, de Forez à Saint Domingue en 20. Gabriel Debien, "Un officier du régiment 1764," Conjonction 124 (1974), 129. (1629-1789): La société et la vie créole 21. Pierre de Vassière, Saint Domingue 1909), 299 cites M. Le Tort, a régime (Paris: Perrin et Cie, souS lancien Council in 1777; Moreau de Saint-Méry, judge in the Port-au-Prince Description, 31, 34, 1299, 1308. 1394-95. 22. Moreau de Saint Méry, Description, 1221, Domingue," >> 216; Moreau de *The Major Port Towns of Saint 23. Geggus, Saint Méry, 1240-41. de Pisle, 2: 197, 208. 24. Charlevoix, Histoire 25. CAOM G'509, no. 2. dans les anciennes colonies françaises," 26. Jacques Houdaille, "Le métissage Population 36 (1981), 277. missionnaire et sentiment religieux en 27. Charles Frostin, "Méthodologie 18° siècles: Le cas de Saint- Domingue,' 9 Amérique française aux 170 et Cahiers d'Histoire 24, 1 (1979): 19-43. 197, 208. 24. Charlevoix, Histoire 25. CAOM G'509, no. 2. dans les anciennes colonies françaises," 26. Jacques Houdaille, "Le métissage Population 36 (1981), 277. missionnaire et sentiment religieux en 27. Charles Frostin, "Méthodologie 18° siècles: Le cas de Saint- Domingue,' 9 Amérique française aux 170 et Cahiers d'Histoire 24, 1 (1979): 19-43. 1693-1705, trans. John Labat, The Memoirs of Père Labat, 28. Jean-Baptiste Frank Cass, 1970), 165-67. ? Eaden (London: and Slavery in Saint-Domingue, Plantation 29. David P. Geggus, "Indigo 1998), 201. Society in the Americas 5, 2 & 3 (Fall 30. CAOM G'509, no. 2. 31. CAOM G1509, no. 12. 2:240; Charles Frostin, "Histoire de 32. Charlevoix, Histoire de Pisle, 2:43, de Saint-Domingue aux xvii et l'autonomisme colon de la partic française américain d'indépenxviii siècles: Contribution à l'étude du sentiment 1972), 206. dance" (Doctorat d'état, Université de Paris 1, 33. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, 376. 34. Ibid., 440. --- Page 333 --- NOTES 35. Archives Nationales [henceforth 36. Pluchon, Le premier AN] Col. F376, 152. 37. Moreau de empire, 395. 38. Frostin cites Saint-Méry, Dutertre Description, 716; AN Col. F376, 153. Labat, ed. Eden, on the Nippes rebels in Révoltes Memoirs, 149. blanches, 100; 39. George A. Kelly, Mortal Politics in Ontario, 1986), 161-63; André Hishteenl-Comtury France (Waterloo, 1494-1789, trans. Abigail T. Siddall. Corvisier, Armics and Socicties in Europe, Press, 1979), 16, 36. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University 40. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 631. 41. Charles Frostin, "Les 'enfants perdus de l'état' ou la condition Saint-Domingue au xviiie siècle, > Annales de militaire à quotes Governor Bretagne 80 (1973), 319 42. Vassière, Saint d'Estaing, writing on December 26, 1764. 43. Frostin, Les révoltes Domingue, 112-14. 44. Ibid., 181-200. blanches, 99-104. 45. Nicholas Hudson, "From *Nation' Classification in to Race': The Origin of Racial Studies 29, 3 (1996), Hightenth-Century Thought, > 252-53; Guillaume Eigbreenh-Contury < France': Race and Purity of Blood in the French Aubert, The Blood of and Mary Quarterly 61 (July Atlantic World, ?7 William 46. CAOM 2004), paragraph 5. G'509, no. 2; CAOM G'509, 47. Blackburn, The Making of New World no. 12. 48. Edward Brathwaite, The Slavery, 394-430. (Oxford, 1971), 298-311.AsI Derclopment David ofCreole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820 that different African Geggus has noted, there is little evidence religion in the colonial religions had been syncretized into a uniform Vodou Century: Language, period. 2004), paragraph 5. G'509, no. 2; CAOM G'509, 47. Blackburn, The Making of New World no. 12. 48. Edward Brathwaite, The Slavery, 394-430. (Oxford, 1971), 298-311.AsI Derclopment David ofCreole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820 that different African Geggus has noted, there is little evidence religion in the colonial religions had been syncretized into a uniform Vodou Century: Language, period. Sce his "Haitian Voodoo in the Culture, Resistance, 9> Jabrbuch Eighteenth wirtschaft undgesellidhaf Lateinamerikas fir Geschichte von staat, 49. Cited in Charles Frostin, Les révoltes 28 (1991): 21-51. etxviit siècles (Paris: Editions de blanches à Saint-Domingue aux. xvii 50. Morcau de Saint- -Méry, l'Ecole, 1975), 265. 51. Pluchon, Le premier Description, 34-44. 52. Nuala Zahedich, "The empire, 379; Charlevoix, Histoire de Pisle, 2: 42, 483. Contraband Trade, Merchants of Port Royal Jamaica and the 1655-1692, William and Spanish (1986), 587. Mary Quarterly XLIII 53. CAOM G'509, no. 12. 54. CAOM G'509, no. 17; Charlevoix, Pontchartrain et la Histoire, 2: 360; Charles Frostin, "Les nole," 7 Revue pénétration commerciale française en bistorique 245 (1971): Amérique espagcapital privé et compagnies de 307-336; André Lespagnol, "Etat, réflexions," > La France d'ancien commerce sous Louis XIV: Quelques Pierre Goubert (Toulouse: Éditions régime: Etudes réunics en Phonneur de 55. Frostin, Les révoltes Privat, 1984), 415-22. 56. Cited in Pinero, Town blanches, 123. 57. Charlevoix, of San Fclipe, 65, 82, 89. Colonial Cacao Histoire, 2: 360; Eugenio Pinero, The Town of San Economies (Philadelphia: American Felipe and 1994), 65. Philosophical Socicty, 58. Cornelis Christiaan Guianas, 1680-1791 Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and in the (Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1985), 190, --- Page 334 --- NOTES 196, 225; Pinero, Town of San Felipe, 28-30, Robles, America a fines del siglo xviil: 148-49; Gregorio de bando, (Valladolid: Seminiario Noticia de los Iugares de contraValladolid, 1980), 35-36; Celestino Americanista de la Universidad de bando holandes en el Caribe durante Andres Arauz Monfante, El contra- (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la la primera mitad del siglo XVIII 59. Charlevoix, Histoire, 2: 489-90; Historia, 1984), 1:47-59: aux isles de PAmerique, 114-15. concludes from Labat, Nouveau voyage 60. Charlevoix, Histoire, 2: 360, 390; Moreau de 1197-99. Saint Méry, Description, 61. Charlevoix, Histoire, 2: 253; CAOM 62. The territorial boundaries of the G'509, no. 17. over the eighteenth century. voix, Histoire, 2: 489-90; Historia, 1984), 1:47-59: aux isles de PAmerique, 114-15. concludes from Labat, Nouveau voyage 60. Charlevoix, Histoire, 2: 360, 390; Moreau de 1197-99. Saint Méry, Description, 61. Charlevoix, Histoire, 2: 253; CAOM 62. The territorial boundaries of the G'509, no. 17. over the eighteenth century. Most ofthe South Province changed several times north coast of the peninsula and the changes involved the inclusion of corner of the peninsula. The north city of Jacmel, at the southeastern trict or quartier of coast, including the Nippes, was only included multi-parish dis1776. However, all in the South Province understood references to the South Province in after to include Nippes, as well as this text should be Saint-I Louis. Moreau de Saint-Méry, the districts of Les Cayes and 63. Charles Frostin, "La Description, 978, 1095, 1163-64. 177-210. piraterie américaine, " Cahiers d' Phistoire 25, 2 (1980): 64. Charles Frostin, Les révoltes blanches, 276. 65. Charles Frostin, blanches, 167-263; "Piraterie américaine," 9) 194-95; Frostin, Léon Vignols, "Land Les révoltes Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Appropriation in Haiti in the History II (1930), 121. Journalo ofi Economic and Business 66. Élisabeth Escalle and Mariel Gouyon frangaises aux Amériques, 1750-1850 Guillaume, Franes-Magons des loges 124, 128. (Paris: Édition E. Escalle, 1992), 67. Richard Pares, War and Trade in the West Frank Cass & C., 1963), 180, 183, 417, Indies, 1739-1763 (London: 21,28, 30, 31, and 32. note 3; CAOM G'509, nos. 12, 68. Paul Butel, Les négociants bordelais: Éditions Aubier- Montaigne, PEurope et les iles auxviii siècle (Paris: Gradis Family of Eighteenth- 1974), 235-36; Richard Menkis, "The Study" (Phd thesis, Brandeis Century Bordeaux: A Social and Economic 69. CAOM G'509, no. 17; Morcau University, de 1988), 155, 163, 173. 70. SDOM 359, December 3, Saint Méry, Description, 1196. Zvi Loker, "Docteur Michel 1754; SDOM 429 [illegible] February 1763; Domingue, >> Revue d'histoire Lopez de Paz: médecin et savant de SaintZvi Loker, "Were de la médicine hébraique 33 There Jewish Communities (1980): 55-57; (Haiti)?" Jewish Social Studies 45 in Saint Domingue Description, 1196, 1236, 1251, (1983), 144; Moreau de Saint Méry, juifs au xviii siècle: Le racisme 1518, 1519; Pierre Pluchon, Negres et 1984), 59, 109. One of Michel au siècle des lumières (Paris: Tallandier, Gradis family and another into the Lopez Depas' nieces married into the François' sons became Mendès family at Bordeaux; two of SDOM 429, June 3, 1762; merchants, SDOM first in Aquin and then in Nippes. November 15, 1768; Isaac S. and 430, January 16, 1764; SDOM 102, Jews ofthe Netherlands Antilles Suzanne A. Emmanuel, History ofthe (Cincinnati, 1970), 828-30, 964-66. Paris: Tallandier, Gradis family and another into the Lopez Depas' nieces married into the François' sons became Mendès family at Bordeaux; two of SDOM 429, June 3, 1762; merchants, SDOM first in Aquin and then in Nippes. November 15, 1768; Isaac S. and 430, January 16, 1764; SDOM 102, Jews ofthe Netherlands Antilles Suzanne A. Emmanuel, History ofthe (Cincinnati, 1970), 828-30, 964-66. --- Page 335 --- NOTES 71. Colonial notables were consulted twice in the Noir and many ofits provisions were process off formulating the Code sons Yvan Debbasch sces it as already lawin the colonies. For these reawithout. Debbasch, "Au inspired from within rather than imposed from veraineté coeur du "gouvernement des esclaves': domestique aux antilles françaises, ) La soud'histoire d'outre-mer? 72 (1986), 32; Alan xvirs-xviir siècles," Revue française (Athens, Georgia: University of Watson, Slave Law, in the Americas 72. Louis Sala- Molins, Le code noir Georgia Press, 1989), 84-86, 126-128. Universitaires de France, O1L le calvaire de Canaan (Paris: Presses 73. Cited in Yvan Debbasch, 1987), 134, 142, 150, 174, 176. "La souveraineté Antoine Gisler, L'tesclavage aux domestique aux antilles, >> 38; 74. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 613. antillsfrangaises (Paris, 1981), 22-24. 75. Gabriel Debien, "Une siècle,' > Revue d'histoire des indigoterie à Saint- Domingue à la fin du xviiie 76. Moreau de colonies 23 (1940-1946), 34. Considérations Saint-Méry, Description, 85; Hilliard sur Pétat présent de la colonic d'Auberteuil, ourrage politique et législatif (Paris, francaise de Saint Domingue, "Colour Differentiation in the 1776), 2:73; Donald L. Horowitz, Interdisciplinary History 3, 3 (Winter American Systems of Slavery, 7 Journal of 77. Philip D. Morgan, "Three 1973), 534, 539. Slavery in Virginia, South Planters and Their Slaves: Perspectives on and Family in the Colonial Carolina, and Jamaica, 1750-1790," in Race Skemp (Jackson, MS: University South, ed. Winthrop D. Jordan and Sheila L. 78. Philip D. Morgan, "Interracial Press of Mississippi, 1987), 68, 74. Atlantic Sex in the World, ca. 1700-1820," in Sally Chesapeake and the British History, Memory, and Civic Culture, ed. Jan Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Ellen Lewis and Peter S.Onuf 79. Trevor Burnard, "The Sexual Life of Virginia, 1999), 72. Slave Overseer," in Sex and an Eighteenth- Century Jamaican Smith (New York: New York Sexuality in Early America, ed. Merril D. 80. Jacques Cauna, Au University Press, 1998), 171-72. Saint temps des isles à sucre: Histoire d'une Domingue auxpiit siècle plantation de 81. Moreau de Saint-Méry, (Paris, 1987), 30, 61,7 74, 87. de la Plaine du Nord à la Description, veille de la 85; David P. Geggus, "Les esclaves travail sur une vingtaine de sucreries. révolution française: Les équipes de d'histoire de géagraphie d'Haiti Partie IV," Revue de la société the slave population of 434,429 would 42, 144 (1984), 20. Three percent of the free population of color counted be 13,033, or about half, again of 82. ,7 74, 87. de la Plaine du Nord à la Description, veille de la 85; David P. Geggus, "Les esclaves travail sur une vingtaine de sucreries. révolution française: Les équipes de d'histoire de géagraphie d'Haiti Partie IV," Revue de la société the slave population of 434,429 would 42, 144 (1984), 20. Three percent of the free population of color counted be 13,033, or about half, again of 82. Le Code Noir Ou recueil des at 24,848. 1767 [Basse-Terre: Société riglements rendus jusqu' à present (Paris: 33-34, 55; de l'histoire de la Prault, Gisler, L'esclavage aux antilles Guadeloupe, 1980]), Couleur et liberté, 30-33. frangaises, 20; Debbasch, 83. Yvan Debbasch, Couleur et liberté: Histoire.genérale des Antilles, 2: 489. Le Code Noir Ou recueil des at 24,848. 1767 [Basse-Terre: Société riglements rendus jusqu' à present (Paris: 33-34, 55; de l'histoire de la Prault, Gisler, L'esclavage aux antilles Guadeloupe, 1980]), Couleur et liberté, 30-33. frangaises, 20; Debbasch, 83. Yvan Debbasch, Couleur et liberté: Histoire.genérale des Antilles, 2: 489. (Paris, 1967), 23, cites Dutertre's 84. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 22-26. 85. The Romans had allowed with important positions, frec masters to educate their slaves, entrust them them with property. Modern them, and once they were free, provide scholars masters practiced manumission but dispute the extent to which Roman loyal service and allowing them scem to agree that frecing slaves for to enter civic society was an ideal in which --- Page 336 --- NOTES many Romans believed. See Thomas E. of Manumission at Rome,' >> Classical J. Wiedemann, *The Regularity Wiedemann, Slavery (Oxford, Quarterly 35 (1985), 175; Conguerors and Slaves: 1987), 26-28; Keith Hopkins, (Cambridge, 1978), 115-133. Sociolagical On Studies in Roman History law and the Code the connection between 126, 128. Noir, see Watson, Slave Lan in the Americas, 22, Roman 24, 86. Code Noir (Basse-Terre, 1980). 87. Sala-Molins, Le Code Noir, 160, 168. 88. Ibid., 108. 89. Léo Elisabeth, "The French 140-141. Antilles," in Neither Slave Nor Free, 90. Some historians hypothesize that the 1726 sent to Saint-Domingue. Debbasch, measure was simply never 91. Moreau de Saint- -Méry, Loix Couleur et liberté, 40, 84. et constitutions des colonics l'Amérique sous le vente, 6 vols. (Paris: françaises de 1784-90), 2: 398. Quillau, Méquignon jeune, 92. Frostin, "Les 2: 307; Debbasch, 'enfants perdus de l'état'," >> 327; Charlevoix, Histoire de Couleur et liberté, 50; Moreau de Pisle, stitutions, 2:747. Saint-Méry, Loix et con93. Moreau de Saint Méry, Loix et 94. David P. Geggus, "Slave and Free constitutions, 3:96, 382, 761, 598. in More Than Chattel: Black Colored Women in Saint Domingue, 9> Darlene C. Hine and David Women and Slavery in the Americas, eds. University Press, 1996), 68. Barry Gaspar (Bloomington, IN: Indiana 95. Debien, Les Esclaves, 93-104, Production," >) 84; Bernard Foubert, 380-84; Geggus, "Sugar and Coffee Laborde à "Le marronage sur les habitations Annales de Saint-Domingue dans la seconde moitié du xviiie 96. For Bretagne et des pays de POuest 95, 3 (1988). siècle, example, Shanti Marie Singham, "Betwixt Blacks, and Women, and the Declaration Cattle and Men: Jews, Van Kley, ed. The French Idca ofthe Rights of. Man," in Dale Declaration of Rights of 1789 of Freedom: The Old Regime and the 1994), 129-33. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 97. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 98. CAOM G'509, no. 12. Description, 84, 92-93. 99. Charlevoix, Histoire, 2: 458; Frostin, >> 100. Moreau de Saint-Méry, "La piraterie," 204-09. 101. Charlevoix, Histoire, 2: Description, 62-64; 1279; CAOM G'509, no. 17. (Martinique, 1972),7:116. Jean Baptiste Labat, Nourcan voyage 102. For religious marriages sec Jacques Domingue au xviis siècle," Houdaille, "Trois paroisses de Saintveyed church records from Population Fond 18 (1963), 100. Houdaille surJacmel. des Nègres, Jacmel, and Cayes de 103. Julien Raimond, Saint-Mery.murlese Réponse aux considérations de M. Moreau, colonies, parM. Raymond, citoyen de dit Domingue (Paris: Imprimerie du couleur de Saint104. CAOM G'509, no. 17; 25 of Patriote the Françoise, 1791), 52. census from 1720 were completely 265 entries in the nominative household. blank, after listing the name of the mel. des Nègres, Jacmel, and Cayes de 103. Julien Raimond, Saint-Mery.murlese Réponse aux considérations de M. Moreau, colonies, parM. Raymond, citoyen de dit Domingue (Paris: Imprimerie du couleur de Saint104. CAOM G'509, no. 17; 25 of Patriote the Françoise, 1791), 52. census from 1720 were completely 265 entries in the nominative household. blank, after listing the name of the --- Page 337 --- NOTES 105. CAOM G'509, no. 20. service to the Although male slaves were freed for colony, the presence of SO many military suggests this was not the reason for the boys under the age of12 documents. skewed numbers in these 106. Arlette Gautier, Soeurs de Solitude: La aux Antilles du xvit au xix siècle (Paris: condition feminine dansltsclarnge 172-74; Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, Éditions Caribéennes, 1985), letter from Rochelar dated July 48, note 4, cites AN Col. CA33, 107. Moreau de 5, 1734. Saint-Méry, 108. Luc Nemours, Description, 1155. Annales "J. Raimond, le chef des gens de couleur et sa >> historiques de la révolution famille, 109. SDOM 119, January 31, 1738 frangaise 23 (1951), 259. 110. SDOM 126, October and August 5, 1737. Vincedon, 3, 1754; the testament of an elder, married daughter of Pierre Marie Raymond siblings and one Begasse cousin, and Marie, named six the family; SDOM 123, December saying nothing ofthe Vincent branch of to the Vincent estate 16, 1762, a lease of slaves 111. names five Vincent belonging SDOM 105, April 23, 1773; SDOM children. 112. Moreau de Saint 1418, June 9, 1783. Méry, Loix et 96-97. constitutions, 2:382; AN Col. F391, 113. Ibid., 3:490-91. 114. Sce the marriage ofGaspard Jeanne Boissé, widow Boissé, SDOM 807, September 25, 1766; for 1785. Delaunay, see SDOM 1465, September 12, 115. SDOM359, February 27, 1753. 116. SDOM 1465, September 12, 1785. 117. CAOM G1509, nos. 26 and 27. 118. CAOM G'509, no. 20. CHAPTER 2 RACE AND CLASS IN CREOLE SOCIETY: SAINT-DOMINGUE IN THE 176os 1. SDOM 477, June 4, 1756. 2. SDOM 428, December 12, 1761. 3. SDOM 340, January 29, 1788, 4. SDOM 1465,April 5, 1785. 5. Only in 1776 did royal administrators to send copies of their most require Saint-Domingue's notaries safekeeping. In the 1790s, important contracts to Versailles for olderl local notarial archives revolutionary violence in the colony destroyed they were safely evacuated. everywhere This except the South Province, where ial registers from the carly means that only in this region did notarAnne- Cécile Tizon- Germe, cighteenth century survive. Isabelle Dion and Notariat: Répertoire Dépôt des Papiers publics des colonies (DPPC). d'Outre-mer, 2001). numérique (Aix-en-Provence: Centre des Archives publics des colonies: Marie-Antoinette Menier, "Dépôt des papiers colonies 135 (1951): 339-358; Saint-Domingue Notariat," Revue d'histoire des des Antilles dans les Archives M.-A. Menier, "Les sources de I'histoire d'histoire de la nationales françaises," Bulletin de la société Guadeloupe 36 (1978), 20; and M.-A. Menier, -mer, 2001). numérique (Aix-en-Provence: Centre des Archives publics des colonies: Marie-Antoinette Menier, "Dépôt des papiers colonies 135 (1951): 339-358; Saint-Domingue Notariat," Revue d'histoire des des Antilles dans les Archives M.-A. Menier, "Les sources de I'histoire d'histoire de la nationales françaises," Bulletin de la société Guadeloupe 36 (1978), 20; and M.-A. Menier, --- Page 338 --- NOTES de la partie française de Pile de Saint Domingue "Les sources de l'histoire 140 (1978): archives de France,' >> Conjonction, revue Franco-baitienne aux 119-135. in the United States in the nineteenth century; Loren 6. The same was true Owners in the South, 1790-1915 (Urbana, IL, Schweninger, Black Property 1990), 84-86. Antilles (Basse- Terre: Société 7. Gabriel Debien, Les esclaves aux françaises d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1974), 374. of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 8. Philip D. Morgan, "The Cultural Implications Destinations, and New World African Regional Origins, American 18, 1 (1997), 132-33; David P. Developments," Slavery O Abolition 73-75; Paul Butel, *L'essor Geggus, "Sugar and Coffee Production, des Antilles et de la Guyane, ed. Pierre antillais aux xviiie siècle," in Histoire David Geggus, "The French Pluchon (Toulouse: Privat, 1982), 116; Quarterly 58, 1 (January Slave Trade: An Overview," William O Mary 2001): 19 and 25. -A paragraph colonial de la France à la fin de Pancien régime: 9. Jean Tarrade, Le commerce PExclusif" de 1763 à 1789 (Paris: Presses L'évolution du régime de 1972), 2: 390 and 2: 623, note 132; Gabriel Universitaires de France, de Forez à Saint Domingue en 1764," Debien, *Un officier du régiment Frostin, "Les colons de SaintConjonction 124 (1974), 119; Charles 402. > Revue historique 482 (1967), Domingue et la métropole, > 75, 76; Geggus has data from only 10. Geggus, "Sugar and Coffec Production, 65 in the North and 29 in the West. 6 southern plantations, compared to Éditions Caribéennes, 1985), 83. Arlette Gautier, Lessocurs de solitude (Paris: 11. CAOM G'509, nos. 27 and 31. 1296; Debien, Les esclaves, 345; 12. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, Bernard Foubert, "Les habitations Pluchon, Premier empire, 422; moitié du xviiie siècle: contriLaborde à Saint- Domingue dans la seconde (Thèse d'état, Paris: École bution à Thistoire d'Haiti (plaine des Cayes)" 467-70; Bernard Foubert, des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1990), de la Guerre d'Amérique "Une habitation à Saint Domingue à la veille Revue de la société hai- (1777): La sucrerie Pimelle au Fond des Nègres," tienne d'histoire et de géagraphic 30 (1981), 26. > Plantation "Indigo and Slavery in Saint- Domingue,' 13. David P. Geggus, 5, 2 & 3 (Fall 1998), 203; David P. Geggus, *The Socicty in the Americas >> Caribbean Studies 18 (1978), Slaves of British-Occupied Saint Domingue, 1296; CAOM G'590, no. 27. 29; Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, stipulated in testaments. 14. This data does not include manumissions de couleur libres à la Guyane à la fin du 15. - Domingue,' 13. David P. Geggus, 5, 2 & 3 (Fall 1998), 203; David P. Geggus, *The Socicty in the Americas >> Caribbean Studies 18 (1978), Slaves of British-Occupied Saint Domingue, 1296; CAOM G'590, no. 27. 29; Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, stipulated in testaments. 14. This data does not include manumissions de couleur libres à la Guyane à la fin du 15. Jean Tarrade, "Affranchis et gens des notaires," Revue frangaise d'histoire Xviiie siècle, d'après les minutes d'outre-mer49 (1962), 99. Wig, 111. 16. Stewart R. King, Blue Coat or Powdered slaves in these districts in 1753 and 17. The royal censuses counted 26,539 27 and 31. 33,438 in 1775. CAOM G1509, nos. adult male slaves in these districts in 18. The royal censuses counted CAOM 13,356 G'509, nos 27 and 31; SDOM 322, 1753 and 16,137 in 1775. counted 8,107 adult female slaves in October 19, 1765; the royal censuses these districts in 1753 and 11,882 in 1775. --- Page 339 --- NOTES 19. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 396-97. 20. Foubert, "Les habitations Laborde 21. Philip Morgan, "Three à Saint- Domingue, 9 419-21. in Planters and Their Slaves: Virginia, South Carolina, and Perspectives on Slavery Skemp, eds., Race and Family in Jamaica, the 1750-1790, >9 in Jordan and 68-69; Hilary Beckles, Natural Rebels: A Colonial South (Jackson, 1987), Women in Barbados (New Brunswick, Social History of Enslaved Black Women in Caribbean Society, 1989), 55-58; Barbara Bush, Slave Rosemary Brana-Shute, "Slave 1650-1838 ( Bloomington, 1990), 114-115; Slavery and Abolition 10 Manumission in Suriname, 1760-1828," 22. Justin Girod de (December 1989), 40. Chantrans, Voyage d'un Suisse dans d'Amerique, Pierre Pluchon, ed. différentes colonies 23. SDOM 98, 22 Octobre 1768. (Paris: Tallandier, 1980), 130. 24. Cited in Fouchard Plaisirs de téraire et artistique (Port Saint-Domingue: Notes sur sa vie. sociale, lit25. SDOM 95, November 3, au-Prince, 1955), 91-93. 26. SDOM 586, January 8, 1762. 1764; August 31, 1761; SDOM 589, SDOM 97, May 8, 1767; SDOM 95, February 6, 1768. December 14, 1767; SDOM 590, 27. Two years after Moulin dictated his husband announced their plans for testament, his white niece and her colored daughter. The girl was to live Françoise, with Cecille Bouchauneau's free they would give her 6,000 livres from them until she married, when ofs sending her to France or Moulin'sestate." They said nothing mention Cecille's educating her in a convent there. son. SDOM 96, Nor did they September 26, 1767. January 6, 1764; SDOM 589, 28. SDOM 96, March 30, 1763. 29. SDOM 588, January 23, 1766; SDOM May 11, 1767; SDOM 98, January 97, May 11, 1767; SDOM 97, 30. SDOM 97, May 4, 1767; SDOM 20, 1769. 31. SDOM 96, August 23, 1764; 99, September 13, 1769. January 6, 1764; SDOM 589, 28. SDOM 96, March 30, 1763. 29. SDOM 588, January 23, 1766; SDOM May 11, 1767; SDOM 98, January 97, May 11, 1767; SDOM 97, 30. SDOM 97, May 4, 1767; SDOM 20, 1769. 31. SDOM 96, August 23, 1764; 99, September 13, 1769. 32. Arlette Gautier, Les sours de solitude emphasis is mine. 33. Moreau de Saint-Méry (Paris, 1985), 172-77. insisted that "in the colonies no privately-signed marriage,' >) ms. AN Col. value is given to a notions coloniales," 448-49. On the F133, ms "Répertoire des Louisiana and prevalence of the Quebec, see Hans W. institution in Contracts in Colonial Louisiana Baade, "Introduction' 2 to (New Marringe and A. G. Doughty, Documents Orleans, 1980), iv, and A. Shortt Canada (1907), 310, 332. Moreau Relating to the Constitutional History 619-39, de Saint Méry, Loix et constitutions, 5: of 34. SDOM 1153, October 6, 1761. This was the de Saint Méry, Description, 1280, Maillard plantation; Morcau 35. Moreau de Saint- -Méry, 1332-34. SDOM 95, January 29, Description, 1762 and 1520; SDOM 586, August 6, 1764; 7, 1763. 310, 332. Moreau Relating to the Constitutional History 619-39, de Saint Méry, Loix et constitutions, 5: of 34. SDOM 1153, October 6, 1761. This was the de Saint Méry, Description, 1280, Maillard plantation; Morcau 35. Moreau de Saint- -Méry, 1332-34. SDOM 95, January 29, Description, 1762 and 1520; SDOM 586, August 6, 1764; 7, 1763. November 23, 1762; SDOM 96, July 36. SDOM 586, March 2, 1764; SDOM 94, 96, January 14, 1765. November 26, 1760; SDOM 37. SDOM 588, April 11, 1766. 38. SDOM 95, September 7, 1761. --- Page 340 --- NOTES 39. SDOM 97, February 23, 1767. 40. Jacques Houdaille, "Trois Etude démographique, 7) paroisses de Saint- Domingue au XVIIIS siècle: church registers ofJacmel, Population 18 (1963) 100, uses the Cayes de Jacmel and Fond surviving adjacent to Aquin. des Nègres parishes 41. A number of spouses did not report the value of the bringing to the marriage, for two property they were no significant assets, or their very different reasons: either they had share. Dowry values analyzed property here consisted of a future inheritance cific property. Rates of reflect only those who reported brides, 62%; free colored brides, property reporting were as follows: White spegrooms, 71%. 84%; white grooms, 49%; free colored 42. CAOM G'509, no. 17; SDOM 359, 43. SDOM 1604, April 6, 1774. March 19, 1760. 44. SDOM 1370, June 16, 1768. 45. SDOM 131, March 13, 1765. 46. SDOM 96, October 16, 1765. 47. Julien Raimond sometimes father and sometimes with spelled his family name with a y" like his because in 1773 the colonial an "i"I use the different spelling consistently to take names "of. African government required all free pcople of color French families origin" and forbade them to use the names of ordinance by (chapter 5). Many families of color complied with changing the the 48. Luc Nemours, "Julien spelling oftheir names. Annales bistorique de la Raimond, le chef des gens de couleur et sa famille,' >9 49. SDOM 477, December révolution française 23 (1951), 257. 1154, 1238; SDOM 17, 1756; Morcau de Saint Méry, 50. Julien 105, July 1, 1772. Description, minor. Raimond's Elizabeth cousin Agathe Vincent was in France in and Agathe Raimond both 1765 as a legal Agathe to a propertied citizen of Bordeaux eventually married there, attorney of the Parlement of Toulouse. and Elizabeth to a former SDOM 1418, June 9, 1783. SDOM 105, April 23, 1773; 51. SDOM 1315, November 13, 1754; SDOM SDOM 428, August 19, 1761. 1009, February 9, 1771; 52. SDOM 430, September 22, 1764; 53. SDOM 1377, October 25, SDOM 103, July 10, 1769. 1604, January 1, 1775. 1772; SDOM 106, August 20, 1773; SDOM 54. SDOM 1557, May 12, 1766; SDOM 55. SDOM 1009, February 9, 1771. 431, May 6, 1766. 56. Sce Gabriel Debien, Lettres de colons(Laval, region of colonial France, "first-cousin 1965), 11.1 In another isolated customary, in parts ofLouisiana since the marriages had been popular, cven Dominguez, Wiite By Definition: Social eighteenth century. Virginia R. (New Brunswick, NJ, 1986), 61. Clasification in Creole Louisiana 57. SDOM 1465, April 5, 1785; SDOM 58. SDOM 1377, October 25, 1772. 1009, February 9, 1771. 59. CAOM G'509, no. 17. 60. SDOM 129, February 3, 1763; SDOM 130, 129, December 18, 1763; SDOM December 30, 1764; SDOM 1597, February 4, 1781. 6), 61. Clasification in Creole Louisiana 57. SDOM 1465, April 5, 1785; SDOM 58. SDOM 1377, October 25, 1772. 1009, February 9, 1771. 59. CAOM G'509, no. 17. 60. SDOM 129, February 3, 1763; SDOM 130, 129, December 18, 1763; SDOM December 30, 1764; SDOM 1597, February 4, 1781. --- Page 341 --- NOTES 61. Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti 420-21, 435-536; for differing (repr. Port-au-P Prince, 1988), 7:407, of Charles Hérard, see Mimi Sheller, political interpretations of the candidacy Democracy in the Early "The Army of Sufferers: Peasant Guide/Nieuwe West-IndischeGiuds Republic of Haiti," New West Indian Dayan, "Haiti, and 74, 1&2 (2000): 41-42, 47; and Histories and History The Gods, >) in After Colonialism: Joan Postcolonial Displacements, ed. Imperial Princeton University Press, 1995), 71. Gyan Prakash (Princeton: 62. CAOM G'509, No. 17. 63. SDOM 54, September 13, 1787; SDOM 1416, August 5, 1780; SDOM322, 55, August 8, 1788; SDOM 19, 1764; SDOM 1153, May 10, 1769. October 15, 1765; SDOM 130, May 64. SDOM 130, May 19, 1764 and October disturbances over militia reform, 17, 1764. Five years later Girard de Formont during between the provincial served as Col. F3182. governor and Torbec's free men of negotiator color. AN 65. SDOM 130, May 22, 1764; SDOM 66. CAOM G'509, no. 17. 129, June 30, 1763. 67. SDOM 1600, July 26, 1784; SDOM 54, September 13, 1787. 1210, November 22, 1762; SDOM 68. SDOM 130, July 29, 1764; SDOM September 13, 1787; SDOM 54, 1601, January 11, 1785; SDOM 54, January 11, 1785. September 13, 1787; SDOM 1601, 69. King, in Blue Coat or Powdered looks Provinces and takes care not to Wig at both the North and West described in his title. assign racial labels to the two groups leadership class" in Nevertheless, a list of44 members ofhis Appendix Two "military mostly based in the North Province suggests and that these men were black, rather than people of mixed were overwhelmingly free understanding the roots of the Haitian descent, an important finding for and 277. Revolution. See 226-334, 70. Jacques Houdaille, "Trois paroisses," >> 100, and données sur la population de Houdaille, "Quelques 28 (July-October 1973), 865. Saint-Domingue au xviiie siècle," Population 71. CAOM G'509, No. 26. 72. Even in Barbados, one ofthe few British colonies outnumbered free colored women in where free colored men owned by free coloreds were held 1817, the majority of the slaves Populations of the British by women. Barry W. Higman, Slave Hopkins University Press), 109. Carribean, 1807-1834 (Baltimore: Johns 73. SDOM 98, January 30, 1768; SDOM February 26, 1760. 314, February 25, 1760 and 74. King, Blue Coat, 117-18; SDOM 99, 1769; SDOM July 7, 1769 and November 75. Jerome 325,August 26, 1767. 13, Handler, The Unapproprinted Origin of the Jamaican Market People, 118; Sidney Mintz, "The (Baltimore, 1974), System," Caribbean 1316. 180-213; Moreau de Saint-Méry, Transformations Description, OM February 26, 1760. 314, February 25, 1760 and 74. King, Blue Coat, 117-18; SDOM 99, 1769; SDOM July 7, 1769 and November 75. Jerome 325,August 26, 1767. 13, Handler, The Unapproprinted Origin of the Jamaican Market People, 118; Sidney Mintz, "The (Baltimore, 1974), System," Caribbean 1316. 180-213; Moreau de Saint-Méry, Transformations Description, --- Page 342 --- NOTES 76. SDOM 326, February 18, 1768; SDOM September 11, 1783; SDOM 319. 96, April 26, 1764; SDOM 748, February 12, 1768; November October 21, 1764; SDOM 1221, Aquin, vente. 15, 1788, Belin Duressort reg. 108, 77. Account annexed to SDOM 431, March 1768. 19, 1765; SDOM 102, July 29, 78. SDOM 359, August 20, 1760; SDOM October 30, 1767; SDOM 431, 1465, April 5, 1785; SDOM 102, 79. SDOM 105, April 23, June 26, 1765. the 118 such documents 1773, May 20, 1773 and June 30, 1773. Of this region, nearly 85 surviving from the period 1760-1769 from or at the home of the percent bride were signed either in the notary's office or ofher signed in the residence of parents. Only 7.6 percent were or groom. somcone unrelated to either the bride 80. SDOM 105, June 30, 1773. 81. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 82. SDOM 586, November Description, 1238; CAOM G'509, no. 27. clients. In 1762 his son-in-law 17, 1763. Maignan did the same for other local town of Anse à Veau, owed the Jean Landron, a free mulatto tailor in the diverse merchandise that the Sieur planter 2,558 livres "for the balance of according to the account he returned Maignan bought at the cash price, November 23, 1762. this day paid." - SDOM 95, 83. This son-in-law was Alexandre illegitimate child with Bety's Fequière, who apparently had an November 26, 1760. daughter Thérèse. Sce SDOM 94, 84. SDOM 335, December 13, 1785; Moreau 1216, 1226, 1230, 1239, 1243-44, de Saint Méry, Description, 85. SDOM 320, April 21, 1765 and 1263, 1297, 1316, 1330. 1765,July 17, 1765, and July 26, May 22, 1765; SDOM 321, July 3, 86. SDOM 335, June 12, 1786. 1765; SDOM 321, July 28, 1765. 87. SDOM 749, January 30, 1784. 88. Moreau de Saint-Méry; Description, Descourtilz, Voyage d'un naturaliste 1325, 1233, 1238; Michel Etienne Domingue (Paris: Dufart père, et ses observations faites à Saint 465; CAOM G'509, 1809), 2: 35, 341; AN. . SDOM 335, June 12, 1786. 1765; SDOM 321, July 28, 1765. 87. SDOM 749, January 30, 1784. 88. Moreau de Saint-Méry; Description, Descourtilz, Voyage d'un naturaliste 1325, 1233, 1238; Michel Etienne Domingue (Paris: Dufart père, et ses observations faites à Saint 465; CAOM G'509, 1809), 2: 35, 341; AN. Col. 89. nos 27 and 31. F133, 464, Jean-Baptiste Labat, The Memoirs of Père Eaden (London: Frank Cass, 1970), Labat, 1693-1705, trans. John Description, 103; Descourtilz, 167; Moreau de Saint-Méry, 90. Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint Voyage, 2: 341. 91. André Fritz Pierre, "Le Louverture (Paris: Fayard, 1989),57. siècle," Revue de la société commerce de la viande à Saint- -Domingue au xviii (juillet-septembre 2000), 11; haitienne d'histoire et de géographie, 204 Domingo, 1720-1764," Margarita Gascôn, "The Military of Santo (August 1993), 441; AN Col. Hispanic F3273, American Historical Revien, 73 (3) December 23, 1772." 635-7, "Ordinance Des Dr : du 92. SDOM 95, February 16, 1761. 93. SDOM 1416, August 5, 1780; SDOM 429, August 20, 1759; SDOM 429,November April 7, 1763; SDOM 428, 18, 1764; SDOM 103, March 8, 1769. 9, 1763; SDOM 430, October 3, American Historical Revien, 73 (3) December 23, 1772." 635-7, "Ordinance Des Dr : du 92. SDOM 95, February 16, 1761. 93. SDOM 1416, August 5, 1780; SDOM 429, August 20, 1759; SDOM 429,November April 7, 1763; SDOM 428, 18, 1764; SDOM 103, March 8, 1769. 9, 1763; SDOM 430, October --- Page 343 --- NOTES SLAVERY, AND THE FRENCH CHAPTER 3 FREEDOM, COLONIAL STATE 1767; Moreau de Saint- t-Méry, Loix et 1. SDOM 102, September 23, constitutions, 5: 290. 5: 290-291. 2. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, Carenan had given a far less valuable piece 3. At least five years earlier Denis Marie Roze Carenan, when she of land to the free mulatto woman Le Roux. SDOM 430, January 21, married the free quadroon Guillaume free colored planter, who 1764. The couple sold that land to a prosperous livestock. SDOM Paul Carenan within a weck to use for his leased it to 430, February 1, 1764 1972), 2:409; Moreau de Saint4. Labat, Nouveau voyage (Martinique, 750, November 19, 1784. Méry, Description, 79;S SDOM Antilles françaises (Basse- Terre: Société 5. Gabriel Debien, Les esclaves aux d'histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1974), 374. 3:222, 4:429; ;AN Col. COB, 6. Moreau de Saint-N Méry, Loix et constitutions, May 10, 1765. 5:149, 152-53, 190. 7. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, for Saint Domingue merchants 8. This was a large sum to have in specie, of currency. SDOM 589, complaining about a shortage were continually July: 21, 1767. 1786; Ira Lowenthal, & *Marriage is 20, 9. SDOM 752, December 1, Construction of Conjugality and the Children are 21': The Cultural Johns Hopkins University, 1987), Family in Rural Haiti" (Ph.D. thesis, documents in the southern 24. For evidence of the importance of paper Le paysan baitien et sa famille peninsula in the 1940s, see Rémy Bastien, (Paris, 1985 [Mexico City, 1951]), 81. 10. SDOM 1213, September 15, 1764. 11. SDOM 1225, September 9, 1769. Rogers, "Les libres de 12. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 395. Dominique couleur", 344-60. 1766; SDOM 320, February 22, 1765. 13. SDOM 323, April 12, 14. SDOM 321, July 5, 1765. 15. SDOM 321, August 4, 1765. 16. SDOM 320, April 15, 1765. 17. SDOM 130, December 31, 1764. why Gellée might have attacked Hérard, 18. None ofthese documents explain that had been settled in Torbec since but both were members of families Charles Gellée asked the Council of the early 1700s. In 1768, Claude rumors that his grandPort-au-Prince to investigate and dismiss public mother was an woman of color. Scc chapter 5. June 2, 1760; SDOM 318 19. SDOM 1220, July 23, 1767; SDOM SDOM 314, 326, November 1, 1768; [date illegible] September 1763; SDOM 1222, June 3, 1768 and SDOM 1212, July 29, 1763; May 14, 1767. Moreau de SaintSeptember 17, 1768; SDOM 1219, died later that year his widow Méry, Description, 92; when Baugé estate as "more onerous than formally renounced her share in his profitable. 7 SDOM 1216, May 3, 1766. 1, 1768; [date illegible] September 1763; SDOM 1222, June 3, 1768 and SDOM 1212, July 29, 1763; May 14, 1767. Moreau de SaintSeptember 17, 1768; SDOM 1219, died later that year his widow Méry, Description, 92; when Baugé estate as "more onerous than formally renounced her share in his profitable. 7 SDOM 1216, May 3, 1766. --- Page 344 --- NOTES 20. SDOM 323, February 18, 1766. 21. SDOM 1222, September 26, 1768. 22. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 23. SDOM 318, March 28, Description, 1763; 102-3. 24. SDOM 318, March 28, 1763. SDOM 130, September 26, 1764. tombées en suppuration dans They found he had "des excoriations laquelle nous a paru être faite toutes l'étendue de tous les muscles fessiers, September 26, 1764. par des coups de fouet. >> SDOM 130, 25. SDOM 98, October 28, 1768; Moreau de 1215-16. Saint-Méry, Description, 26. SDOM 98, October 28, 1768. 27. Dominique Rogers, "Les libres de >> 28. David A. Bell, "The *Public couleur," 363. Enghteenth-Century France," Sphere, the State, and the World of Law in 919. French Historical Studies, 17 (Fall 1992), 29. For example, Robin Blackburn, The 1776-1848 (London: Verso, 1988), Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, merchant Vincent Ogé as a lawyer. 169, characterizes the free colored Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: York: Random House [1938] 1963), Domingo Revolution, 2nd ed. (New the indigo planter Julien Raimond. 68, ascribes the same profession to 30. AN Col. D2C 114. 31. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 50 and Col. C9A33, letter from Rochelar 51, cites AN Col. F3132 and AN 32. Sce SDOM 1210, November dated July 5, 1734. describe a militia review under the 10, 1762, in which residents of Torbec Torbec from 1740 as royal command ofde Vaudreuil, who lived in Saint-Méry, Description, 1314, commandant of the province. Moreau de 33. Pluchon, Le 1327, 1556. premier empire, 119; Charlevoix, Christophe creoles in the southern Histoire, 2: 384; on Saint tury, see Labat, peninsula in the carly eighteenth G'509, Voyage aux isles, ed. Le Bris cenno. 17; SDOM 130, May 22, 1764. See (1993), 347-48; CAOM family. chapter 7 for the Hérard 34. Morcau de Saint- -Méry, Description, 8, 1760; SDOM 1210, November 1271, 1396; SDOM 1370, January 35. Julien Raimond identified 10, 1762. reforms of 1769. Scc Boury. as a free colored militia officer before the préjngé (Paris: Belin, 1791), Raimond, 9. Olservations sur Porigine et les progrès du 36. Morcau de Saint- Méry, Description, 37. SDOM 1225, October 7, 1769; 1335-36. SDOM 1153, May 10, 1769; SDOM SDOM 1210, November 10, 1762; label comes from Anne Thomas' 's 320, April 18, 1765; the "chatrer" 38. SDOM 1225, October 7, 1769; testament, SDOM 1153, May 10, 1769. 1225, October 7, 1769. SDOM 1216, May 11, 1766; SDOM 39. SDOM 1220, October 3, 1767; SDOM 1153, October 6, 1761. Canard's father 1225, October 7, 1769; SDOM district. Days before signing the was the commander of the Ances expert witness to evaluate Rey's marriage contract, Boury had served as an in the contract. plantation SO its value could be recorded May 10, 1769. 1225, October 7, 1769. SDOM 1216, May 11, 1766; SDOM 39. SDOM 1220, October 3, 1767; SDOM 1153, October 6, 1761. Canard's father 1225, October 7, 1769; SDOM district. Days before signing the was the commander of the Ances expert witness to evaluate Rey's marriage contract, Boury had served as an in the contract. plantation SO its value could be recorded --- Page 345 --- NOTES 40. SDOM 321, July 18, 1765; AN Col. 41. SDOM 1153, May 10, 1769. F3273, 655-57. 42. King, Blue Coat, 254. 43. SDOM 428, August 18, 1761. 44. SDOM 429, February 25, 1762; SDOM 45. SDOM 428, April 25, 1761; 431, August 1, 1765. SDOM 1465, August 12, 1785; SDOM 430, January 29, 1764; shows Guillaume SDOM 431, April 6, libre. Sec also Labadie as the former tutor of Gabriel 1766, Julien Raimond, Observations Buissere mestif préjugé, 32. sur l'origine et les progrès du 46. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et Saint-Méry, constitutions, 2:727, 750-59; Description, 440. Moreau de 47. David P. Geggus, "Marronage, Voodoo Revolution of 1791," Proceedings and the Saint-Domingue Slave Colonial Historical Society, eds. of the Fifteenth Meeting of the French (Lanham, MD, University Presses of Patricia Galloway, Philip Boucher Martinique and Guadeloupe, May 1989, America, 1992), Meeting held in vaudou baitien (Paris, 1958), 37-38. unpaginated; Alfred Metraux, Le 48. Cited by Pierre Pluchon, Vaudon, 1987), 209. sorciers, empoisonneurs à Haiti (Paris, 49. Pluchon, Vaudou, sorciers, 91 percent of domestic slaves empoisomneurs, 111. David Geggus found that Nord," Revue de la société were creoles; "Les esclaves de la Plaine du Pluchon, Vaudon, 183, cites baitienne from d'histoire 42, no. 144 (1984), 28; accused ofthe poisoning in 1757. notes on the testimony of the slaves 50. SDOM 586, March 2, 1764 and June 51. SDOM 102, August 25, 1768 and 22, 1764. 52. The word "eperlin" September 16, 1768. viande à appcars in André Fritz Pierre, "Le commerce de la Saint-Domingue aux XVIIIe >> enne d'bistoire degiagraphie 52, 192 siècles, Revue de la société baiti53. Moreau de (June 1997), 50. Saint-Méry, Loix et 3:553-60, 3:754-59; AN C°B17; constitutions, 3:96, 3:344-7, Cayes area. no figures were given for the Les 54. ANCol. viande à appcars in André Fritz Pierre, "Le commerce de la Saint-Domingue aux XVIIIe >> enne d'bistoire degiagraphie 52, 192 siècles, Revue de la société baiti53. Moreau de (June 1997), 50. Saint-Méry, Loix et 3:553-60, 3:754-59; AN C°B17; constitutions, 3:96, 3:344-7, Cayes area. no figures were given for the Les 54. ANCol. F133, 234;AN Col. Fà91, 107; Moreau constitutions, 5:762. de Saint- Méry, Loix et 55. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et 56. AN Col. F3273, 868-9. constitutions, 5:762, 811. 57. AN Col. F3273, 868-9; 58. AN Col. F391, 108, from Description, a 1739 63. 59. SDOM 321,August 23, 1765; "Mémoire sur les maréchaussées." >> February 14, 1766; SDOM 327, SDOM 320, March 7, 1765; SDOM 323, 24, 1761; SDOM 131, March 13, 1769; SDOM 1210, March June 18, 1780. April 6, 1765; for Laconforsz, scc SDOM 1596, 60. Berquin was a member of the Nippes elite. In the son of an old militia family in 1782 his daughter married 61. SDOM 129, June 25, 1763; SDOM Nippes. SDOM 747, October 15, 1782. 62. SDOM 318, June 11, 1763. 318, July 11, 1763. 63. SDOM 324, December 27, 1766. 6, 1765; for Laconforsz, scc SDOM 1596, 60. Berquin was a member of the Nippes elite. In the son of an old militia family in 1782 his daughter married 61. SDOM 129, June 25, 1763; SDOM Nippes. SDOM 747, October 15, 1782. 62. SDOM 318, June 11, 1763. 318, July 11, 1763. 63. SDOM 324, December 27, 1766. 64. SDOM 1218, December 27, 1766. 65. SDOM 324, December 27, 1766. --- Page 346 --- NOTES CHAPTER 4 REFORM AND REVOLT THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR AFTER 1. John Lynch, The Spanish American 1986, 2nd cdn.) 5-15; Fred Anderson, Revolutions, 1808-1826 (Norton, War and the Fate of Empire in British Crucible OfWar: The Seven Years' York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), xviii-xxii. North America, 1754-1766 (New 2. Robin Blackburn, The 3. Pluchon, Le Making of New World Slavery, 445. "Patterns of French premier Colonial empire colonial, 216, 233-34; Pierre H. Boulle, Sociale-Social Trade and the Seven Years' War," 4. History 7, 3 (1974): 50-52. Histoire Pluchon, Le premier empire, 234-35; Eltis, Klein, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: Behrend, Richardson, and (London: Cambridge University A Database on CD-ROM most oft their slaves from the inter-island Press, 1999). Guadeloupean planters got smuggling". trade with Martinque and from 5. Cited in Pluchon, Le premier 6. Emilien Petit, Le Patriotisme empire, 239. la partie française de Pisle de américain Ou Mémoiressur Pétablisement de (S.1, 1750). Saint-Domingue, SOuS le vent de P'Amérique 7. Jacques Godechot, "Nation, patrie, xviiie siècle, >> Annalesh shistoriques de la nationalisme et patriotisme en France au 8. Petit, Patriotisme, 12. révolution française 43, 4 (1971),485. 9. Petit, Patriotisme, 130. 10. Petit, Patriotisme, 114. 11. Petit, Patriotisme, 115. 12. Jean Tarrade, "L'administration l'Ancien Régime: coloniale en France à la fin Projets de réforme, de 1963), 103. Revue historique 229 (jan-mars 13. Gabriel Debien, "Gouverneurs, lementaire et coloniale à Saint-1 magistrats et colons: L'opposition parsociété baitienne d'histoire, de Domingue (1763-1769)," Revue de la octobre 1958), 1. géographie, et de géologic (1-50) (juillet14. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 613; James E. and Science: Saint Domingue in the Old McClellan III, Colonialism Hopkins University Press, 1992), 44. Regime (Baltimore: Johns 15. Debien, "Gouverneurs, empire, 235; Bory later magistrats et colons,' >> 3. Pluchon, Le the Académic des served as a scientific premier Institute. sciences and in 1798 was named correspondent a of Moreau de. Saint-Méry, Description, member of the Bory, Mémoires sur index, 1455. See Gabriel de officier général de la Padministration marine, de la marine et des colonies, par un Domingue (Paris, 1789-1790). doyen des gouverneurs ginéraux de Saint16. AN Col. F175, 83, letter to 17. AN Col. F3175, 67 "Lettre de Choiseul, M. August 31, 1761. touchant les remontrances du conseil Bart du gouverneur général . au ministre Au Port- -au-Prince au Roi 18. Port-au-Prince ce 27 janvier 1762. > contre lui. Frostin, Les révoltes blanches, 293; Auguste d'Indépendanee américaine Nemours, Haiti et la guerre mier empire, 610. (Port-au-Prince, 1952), 99; Pluchon, Le pre- ul, M. August 31, 1761. touchant les remontrances du conseil Bart du gouverneur général . au ministre Au Port- -au-Prince au Roi 18. Port-au-Prince ce 27 janvier 1762. > contre lui. Frostin, Les révoltes blanches, 293; Auguste d'Indépendanee américaine Nemours, Haiti et la guerre mier empire, 610. (Port-au-Prince, 1952), 99; Pluchon, Le pre- --- Page 347 --- NOTES debellatures furores," an anony19. AN CB18, <Mémoire gigantesques Belzunce. mous 1765 ms. generally favorable to américaine, 24; Morcau de 20. Nemours, Haiti et la guerre d'Indépendance Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 4:459. 21. AN Col. F3175, 49-51. "Gouverneurs, magistrats et colons," 4. 22. AN Col. F175, 162- 2-4; Debien, 9> 106. Tarrade, "L'administration: coloniale, 23. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 631. 4:538-9. 24. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, France, 3 vols. (Penguin, 1963), 1: 25. Alfred Cobban, A History ofModern 211; Edmond Dziembowski, Un 80-81; Pluchon, Le premier empire, 1750-1770: La France face à la puissance nouveau patriotisme français, Voltaire Foundation, anglaise i Pépoque de la guerre de sept ans (Oxford: 1998), 451-52, 488-89, 493. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitu26. AN Col. F3175, 47, 162-164; troops of the line in Sainttions, 4:538-9; During peacetime, European increasing to 5,000 in war years. Domingue numbered about 3,000, Pluchon, Le premier empire, 631. dated 1785 entitled *Reflexions sur 27. AN Col. F3192, anonymous mémoire >> la position actuelle de St Domingue. 28. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 392-93. in 18th Century Saint29. David P. Geggus, Urban Development des atlantiques 5 (1990), Domingue, 99 Bulletin du centre d'histoire espaces actuelle de SaintAN Col. F3192, *Réflexions sur la position 210; Domingue." >> 1762; SDOM 98, May 8, 1769; SDOM 587, 30. SDOM 1210, March 7, March 7, 1764; SDOM 96, November 7, March 21, 1765; SDOM 96, 1764; SDOM 586, November 7, 1764. Michel 237; Vergé-Franceschi, 31. Pluchon, Le premier empire, coloniaux aux iles des administrateurs "Fortune et plantations xviiie siècles, > in Commerce et plantation d'Amérique aux xviie et Paul Butel (Bordeaux: Maison dans la Caraibe xviiie et xixe siècles, de Saint-Méry, Description, des pays ibériques, 1992), 124; Moreau 381, 471. "Arrête du Conseil du Port-au-Prince qui nomme 32. AN Col. F3179, 56; faire le relevé des pouvoirs du Général ct de quatre commissaires pour 1765." However, the most public stateFIntendant; du 24 Janvier, in the local assemblies convoked by ments of this perspective came de Rohan Montbazon, in 1766. AN d'Estaing's successor, the Prince Col. F3180, 322. French Revolution (NY, 1989) ), 33. Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle Parmée ofthe au xviii siècle: Étude politique et 169-174; Jean Chagniot, Paris et Corvisier, Armies and Societies in sociale (Paris, 1985), 656-7; André IN: Indiana 1494-1789, trans. Abigail T. Siddall (Bloomington, Europe, 103; Charles Henri d'Estaing, Les Thermopyles, University Press, 1979), tragédic de circonstance (Paris, 1791). desscènes de Saint-Domingue 34. Cited in Jean Fouchard, Artistes et répertoire (Port-au-Prince, 1955), 87. Corvisier, Armies and Societies in sociale (Paris, 1985), 656-7; André IN: Indiana 1494-1789, trans. Abigail T. Siddall (Bloomington, Europe, 103; Charles Henri d'Estaing, Les Thermopyles, University Press, 1979), tragédic de circonstance (Paris, 1791). desscènes de Saint-Domingue 34. Cited in Jean Fouchard, Artistes et répertoire (Port-au-Prince, 1955), 87. --- Page 348 --- NOTES 35. Contemporary officials renamed unsuccessful attempt to provincial militias in France in an Armies and Societies, 55. popularize these institutions, sec Corvisier, 36. AN C9817, d'Estaing's ms. "Objets donnance des milices, >> dated principaux que j'ai eu dans . l'or37. Zyi Loker, Jews in the Caribbean January 15, 1765. C9A120. (Jerusalem, 1991), 227 cites AN Col. 38. In 1759 the provincial intendant tried foundling home in the city, but the Jewish to force Bordeaux's Jews to build a Abraham Gradis' prestige and connections community was able to use Richard Menkis, "The Gradis >> to circumvent this special tax. 39. Frances Family, 144. Malino, The Sephardic Jems of Bordeaux: Emancipation in Revolutionary and Asimilation and The University of Alabama Press, Napoleonic France (University, AL: colonial, 309, 475; Pluchon, Le 1978), 14; Tarrade, Le commerce "Atlantic Trade and Sephardim premier empire, 219; Sylvia Marzagalli, The Case of Bordeaux," in The Merchants in Highteenth-Century France: the West, eds. Paolo Bernadini Jews and the Espansion of Europe to 2001), 279. and Norman Fiering (Berghan Press, 40. AN Col. F312, 259. Other financed by this special projects in the southern tax on Jews included a peninsula to be battery for the defense of, Saint Louis. Moreau bridge and an artillery 1236, 1251, 1267. de Saint-Méry, Description, 41. Loker, Jews in the Carribean, 230, cites AN 42. Loker, Jews in the Carribean, Col. C9A 120. Le racisme au siècle des lumières 227; Pluchon, Negres et juifs au xvitie siècle: 43. Pluchon, Nègres et juifs, 97. (Paris: Tallandier, 1984), 96. 44. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et Nemours, Haiti, 26-31; AN CPP17, constitutions, 4:285-86, 4:820-824; "Observations particulières" dated d'Estaing's memoir entitled AN CP17bis, August 18, 1765, letter June 14, 1765, no 20bis; colonial minister. from d'Estaing to Choiseul, the 45. Frostin, "Les 'enfants perdus de 2 >> 46. AN Col. CPP17b; AN Col. l'état, 321. 6," from d'Estaing's F178, entitled "Mémoire No 6, Paragraphe mémoires the colony sent Auseraph-by-purngraph to Versailles rebuttal of the seven F180, 54, d'Estaing to against him. See also AN Col. Choiseul, dated July Méry, Loix et constitutions, 4:800. 10, 1765. Moreau de Saint47. AN Col. F3177, 169-72. 48. AN Col. C9817 ms. "Objets Col. CP17 ms. d'Estaing to Versailles, principaux" dated January 15, 1765; AN vue dans le réedition de l'ordonnance "Objets des principaux que j'ai eu en January 15, 1765; AN Col. C°17, Milices," section 13, dated 49. Cited by Pierre Pluchon, "Le "Objets principaux," 7) section 13. la Guyane (Toulouse: Privat, spectacle colonial, Histoire des Antilles et de 50. AN Col. C17bis, Mémoire 1985), 211. aux douze Chambres du du Corps du Commerce des Cayes, adressé by the Cap Français Chamber commerce of du Royaume, printed with a rebuttal Col. F3177, 184. Agriculture.. AN Col. F180, 34, 41;AN Cited by Pierre Pluchon, "Le "Objets principaux," 7) section 13. la Guyane (Toulouse: Privat, spectacle colonial, Histoire des Antilles et de 50. AN Col. C17bis, Mémoire 1985), 211. aux douze Chambres du du Corps du Commerce des Cayes, adressé by the Cap Français Chamber commerce of du Royaume, printed with a rebuttal Col. F3177, 184. Agriculture.. AN Col. F180, 34, 41;AN --- Page 349 --- NOTES 51. AN Col. F180, 198; also AN Col. 52. Keith Michael Baker, E7, dossier d'Argout, 23. Political Culture in the Inventing the French Revolution: Essays on French James E. McClellan III, Eighteenth Colonialism Century (New York, 1990), 159, 164. Couleur et liberté, 118-131. and Science, 289-291; Debbasch, 53. AN Col. F146, 188-89, undated pour l'imprimeur du ms. "Recette des affiches américains September 19, 1772. McClellan, Port-au-Prince"; AN Col. F273, 637-38, Col. F146, 188-89. Colonialism and Science, 97-102; AN 54. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, 55. Jacques Houdaille, "Trois 189. paroisses de Population 18 (1963), 104. Saint-Domingue au xviiie siècle," 56. Joan G. Landes, Women and the Public Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell, 1988). Sphere in the Age of the French 57. Pluchon, Le premier empire, 396, describes 1788 as 14,500 urban and 13,217 rural. the colony's white population in ning in the French and French colonial On the importance of city planAnne Pérotin-Dumon, La world after the Seven see ville aux iles, Years"War, Base-Terre et Pointe-a-Pitre, la ville dans Pile: 2000), 341-79 and 575-640. Guadeloupe, 1650-1820 (Paris: Karthala, Science, 82-3. Also, McClellan, Colonialism and 58. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, evocative description of Cap 75, 94-96,106-108, and his are from Moreau de Saint-Méry, Français, 83-94. Figures on Cap Français lyzed in David P. Geggus, "The Description, 479-80, and thesc are anain the Later Eighteenth Major Port Towns of Saint Domingue Culture and Socicty in the Century," in Atlantic Port Cities: Atlantic World, Economy, Knight and Peggy K. Liss Knoxville, 1650-1850, eds. Franklin W. 1990), 102. TN: University ofTennessee Press, 59. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Colonialism and Science, 95. Description, 979-80, 1053; McClellan, 60. David P. Geggus, "Urban Development," " Description, 879-85, 891, 1202, 1307, 197,203;Morcau. de. Saint-Méry, Colonialism and Science, 80-81, 1309, 1315-16; McClellan, maçonnerie dans les colonies 105-106; Alain LeBihan, "La franctoriques de la révolution françaises du xviiie siècle," >) Annales hisGuillaume, française 46 (1974): 44-46; Escalle and 61. Francomagons, 124. Gouyon Baker, Inventing the French Sphere,' 7 914. Revolution, 168-72. Bell, "The *Public 62. AN Col. F179,38-42, 56; Vergé-Franceschi, "Fortune administrateurs coloniaux," ) 124. et plantations des 63. Gabriel Debien, "Gouverneurs, parlementaire et coloniale à magistrats et colons: L'opposition société haitienne d'histoire, Saint-Domingue de (1763-1769), >) Revue de la 1958), 29. géographie, et de géologie (juillet- octobre 64. AN C"18, "Mémoire 65. AN Col. F3192, : de bellaturea furores. > 66. Verge-Franceschi, *Réflexions sur la position actuelle de >> "Fortune et des Saint-Domingue." 124; AN Col. F3180, 252, Rohan's plantations administrateurs coloniaux," >> instructions from the King, dated 1763-1769), >) Revue de la 1958), 29. géographie, et de géologie (juillet- octobre 64. AN C"18, "Mémoire 65. AN Col. F3192, : de bellaturea furores. > 66. Verge-Franceschi, *Réflexions sur la position actuelle de >> "Fortune et des Saint-Domingue." 124; AN Col. F3180, 252, Rohan's plantations administrateurs coloniaux," >> instructions from the King, dated --- Page 350 --- NOTES March 15, 1766; AN Col. F180, 288, au ministre "lettre de Mr Le : 15 octobre 1766"; AN Col. prince de Rohan d'Estaing to minister, July 10, 1765. F180, 54, letter from 67. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, "Copie de la lettre de Mgr le Duc de 4:508, 5:768; AN Col. C18 l'ordre des avocats. De Choiseul à M. Estienne Batonnier de 68. Cobban, Versailles le 3. mars 1766." History of Modern France, 69. AN Col. F180, 296. 1:95-96. 70. AN Col. F180, 296 "Lettre circulaire mandants de quartier, touchant le du Gouverneur général aux comNovembre 1766." 79 rétablissement des milices; du 10 71. AN Col. F180, 319-333, "Mémoire lissement de la milice à St sur l'inutilité et le danger du rétabdes quartiers du fond de l'isle Domingue à pour servir d'instruction aux députés et ville des Cayes à l'assemblée vache, des ances, de tiburon, marchaterre, signers were not included in this tenu par Mr de Rohan. > The names of the 72. "Mémoire sur l'inutilité. 59 copy. 73. AN Col. F180, 331; AN Col. F3180, "Lettre du prince du Rohan 267. AN Col. F180, milices, 1 Février 1767." au ministre et pièces sur le rétablisement 312-13, des 74. AN Col. F180, 340 "Lettre du Ministre Rohan sur le retablissment des à M. Le Chevalier Prince de 363-4, "Lettre de M.I le Prince de Milices, 14 juin 1767"; AN Col. F3 180, Novembre 1767"; AN Col. Rohan au ministre sur les milices 10 75. Frostin, Lesréroltes F181, 142-44. 1767. blanches, 309, cites AN Col. CP,rec. 130, February 1, 76. See the texts reprinted in Frostin, Les 77. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix révoltes blanches, 394-96, 399. 78. AN Col. F181, 223. et constitutions, 5: 214-15. 79. AN Col. F182, 80. In 1791 Julien d'Argout to Rohan, February 3, 1769. Raimond identified as free men of color who had led Jacques Delaunay and Jacques Boury Raimond, "Observations: militia units before Rohan's 81. SDOM sur P'origine, > 9. reform. 359, June 2, 1760; SDOM 82. AN Col. F3 182, 431, January 15, 1765. 83. AN Col. 79. AN Col. F182, 80. In 1791 Julien d'Argout to Rohan, February 3, 1769. Raimond identified as free men of color who had led Jacques Delaunay and Jacques Boury Raimond, "Observations: militia units before Rohan's 81. SDOM sur P'origine, > 9. reform. 359, June 2, 1760; SDOM 82. AN Col. F3 182, 431, January 15, 1765. 83. AN Col. F3 182. d'Argout to Rohan, February 4, 1769. by Joseph D'Argout later learned that this letter was Lafreseliere, a white man who, with his written 84. Desrouaudieres, was a major agent in these brother-in-law AN Col. F182, disturbances. 85. May 19, May, Berton d'Argout to Rohan, February 4, 1769. 86. AN Col. reg. 130, mariage, Cayes. 87. F182, Girard de Formont to In January 1765, Claire, the d'Argout, February 6, 1769. Marie Catherine illegitimate daughter of Etienne Duteuil, and probably the Bourdet and in Torbec. Her mother was a sister of sister of Jean, had been married Domingue Hérard had married. Her the women Jacques Boury and Jean cousins René and. Alexis Boury, and brother-in-law, Alexis Girard, and her Bernard riage, were all among the anti-militia Latuste, who attended the mar1765. rebels. SDOM 1370, January 17, 88. AN Col. F3182. --- Page 351 --- NOTES 89. AN Col. F'182, ms. "Copie d'une déclaration Bourdet Mulâtre libre est venu faire à M. verbale que le nommé Jean 90. AN Col. F182, d'Argout, le 22 février 91. AN Col. F3182. d'Argout to Rohan, February 4, 1769. 1769." 92. SDOM431, September 26, 1765. 93. AN Col. F182, 94. AN Col. F182, d'Argout to Rohan, February 10, 1769. d'Argout to Versailles, 1224, February 21, 1769. February 16, 1769; SDOM 95. AN Col. F182, F182, d'Argout to Versailles, February 24, d'Argout to Rohan, March 2, 1769; AN Col. 1769; AN Col. Rohan, March 5, 1769. F182, d'Argout to 96. AN Col. F182, 97. The d'Argout to Rohan, March 9, 1769. complete list was LaPlante, Bodou Boury, Boury cadet, Valles, Alexis cadet, B. Latuste, Antoine Georges Hérard and two others. Girard, and his brother-in-law nections. The Bourys, Boudou, These men had numerous family conwere all named in the will ofthe Latuste, Girard, and Hérard's brother SDOM 1416, August 5, 1780. The cotton planter François Girard, in 1780. related to the family ofAnne Bourys, Lataste and Girard were all to Saint- Domingue from Thomas, a free black woman who had come attended Jamaica in the first half ofthe numerous weddings together; SDOM century and had 1765; SDOM 1597, May 31, 1781. family conwere all named in the will ofthe Latuste, Girard, and Hérard's brother SDOM 1416, August 5, 1780. The cotton planter François Girard, in 1780. related to the family ofAnne Bourys, Lataste and Girard were all to Saint- Domingue from Thomas, a free black woman who had come attended Jamaica in the first half ofthe numerous weddings together; SDOM century and had 1765; SDOM 1597, May 31, 1781. 1370, January 17, 98. AN Col. F182, undated mulâtres à "Copie d'une requête Monsieur d'Argout. > The whites presentée par des "Messieurs St Martin cadet et l'ainé, Redon they named were Lefebvre des hayes, Lefebvre et Desgrottes, Plunket, Merlet, Duc, Laferriere, vignons, Bretet, Dantan, Desrouaudieres, Lafreseliere, Moreau, Soules, Pinau l'ainé et cadet, Georges, Rambau, Gouen, Cambri Joseph de Castelpers, Tournez, Borgnet, Charles fils, Chevalier, M. Picot. Lafosse, Gerard procureur de 99. AN Col. F182, indication that this deLarocque to d'Argout, March 11, 1769; there man was related to the is no AN Col. E 257bis, dossier Delarocque > mentioned above. 100. AN Col. F182, Chamoux "LaRoque, ainé. is reprinted in to d'Argout, March 20, 1769; a large Frostin, Les révoltes section 101. AN Col. C9A rec. 135, cited in blanches, 399-400. also AN Col. E 57, dossier "Buttet Frostin, Les révoltes blanches, 401; AN Col. F3182, a 22 (André)"; AN Col. F182, ices, 1769," page ms. "Mémoire relatif. à 421; written in November 1769 l'affaire des milJérémie. by one H. Berquier at 102. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et révoltes blanches, 315; Pierre constitutions, 5:338-340; Frostin, Les métropole,' in Histoire des Pluchon, "Les colonies en lutte avec leur (Toulouse: Privat, Antilles et de la Guyane, 1982), 258. 1769," page ms. "Mémoire relatif. à 421; written in November 1769 l'affaire des milJérémie. by one H. Berquier at 102. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et révoltes blanches, 315; Pierre constitutions, 5:338-340; Frostin, Les métropole,' in Histoire des Pluchon, "Les colonies en lutte avec leur (Toulouse: Privat, Antilles et de la Guyane, 1982), 258. Pluchon, ed. 103. Rohan to the Duc de révoltes blanches, 397-98. Praslin, on March 1, 1769, reprinted in Frostin, Les 104. SDOM 1599, August 22, 1783; SDOM 1225, 7 October 176. 335, June 12, 1786; SDOM --- Page 352 --- NOTES CHAPTER 5 CITIZENSHIP AND RACISM IN THE NEW PUBLIC SPHERE 1. Moreau de Saint- Méry, Description, toire des scènes de Saint-Domingue 456; Jean Fouchard, Artistes et réper1955), 129-30. (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de l'Etat, 2. CAOM Receuil de Mémoires, Moreau de Saint-l -Méry 95, Colonie Tome XVIII, 3. AN Col. F276, no. 11,2. Bibliothèque 37. 245; AN Col. F3278, 133; Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 4. AN Col. F3249, 121. 5. This is the central conclusion of Wig: Free People of Color in Stewart R. King, Bluc Coat 0r Powdered GA: University of Georgia Press, Pre-Resolutionary Saint Domingue (Athens, confirmed by Dominique 2001).. Many aspects of King's thesis are "Les libres de couleur dans les Roger's thorough and nuanced study, mentalités et capitales de Saint- Domingue: intégration à la fin de l'Ancien fortune, (unpublished manuscript, 2005). Régime (1776-1789)" 6. SDOM 431, April 18, 1765. 7. Document attached to SDOM 8. SDOM 1604, 1604, April 24, 1774. April 24, 1774. 9. AN Col. F3192, anonymous position actuelle de St Domingue, memorandum >> dated entitled "Reflexions sur la 10. Julien Raimond, "Observations: 1785. 11. AN Col. F173, 543. sur Porigine, 41. 12. The imposter had originally province ofLanguedoc. joined, then deserted, a regiment from the 13. SDOM 1221, March 9, 1768; "Victoire" claimed by a number of Les Cayes' free and "Mathieu" were names was a rare name for a white woman. mulâtresses, "Victoire" especially, 14. SDOM 1210, November 22, 1762. 15. SDOM 320, April 16, 1765; this incident the fact that Glisset was may have also been related to labor had come working with his slaves. By this to be associated with period manual colony did not dirty their own hands, non-whites, for white artisans in the oversaw their but trained their slaves work; see Henock Trouillot, and then Saint Domingue, > Revue de la Société "Les ouvriers de couleur à de géologie 28 (1955), 37. baitienne d'bistoire, de géographie et 16. SDOM 1220, December 7, 1767. 17. Escalle and Gouyon Guillaume, 18. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Francs-macons, 499. 19. Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Description, 1493; AN Col. F3273, 213. 20. Moreau de SaintConsidérations (1776), 2: 82. Méry, Loix et constitutions, 5: Couleur et liberté, 57-8, for other 80; see also Debbasch, 21. AN Col. F3273, 279. cases. 22. Escalle and Guillaume, 23. Peter Sahlins, "Fictions Francs-magons, 499. of a Catholic France: Foreigners, 1685-1787, >> The Naturalization of Representations- 47 (1994), 87. au de SaintConsidérations (1776), 2: 82. Méry, Loix et constitutions, 5: Couleur et liberté, 57-8, for other 80; see also Debbasch, 21. AN Col. F3273, 279. cases. 22. Escalle and Guillaume, 23. Peter Sahlins, "Fictions Francs-magons, 499. of a Catholic France: Foreigners, 1685-1787, >> The Naturalization of Representations- 47 (1994), 87. --- Page 353 --- NOTES 24. Jeffery Merrick, "Subjects and Citizens in Parlement of Paris in the Eighteenth the Remonstrances of the Ideas, 51 (July-Sept., 1990), 456-58. Century," Journal of the History of 25. "Mémoire . gigantesqes debellaturea 26. AN Col. F180, furores"in AN Col. C918. St Domingue. >) anonymous "Mémoire sur la deffense terrestre de 27. Jeffrey Merrick, "Conscience and France, > Citizenship in 28. Merrick, Eigbteonthi-Comtury Studies 21 (1987), 49, 60. Fighteenth-Century 29. Charles "Conscience and Citizenship, 79 60, 61, 70. Frostin, "Méthodologie missionnaire et Amérique française aux 17c et 18c siècles: Le sentiment religicux en Cahiers d'Histoire 24, 1 (1979): 19-43, cas de Saint-Domingue," 9> 30. Sahlins, "Fictions of a Catholic France," 31. Sec for example, the naturalization 90-94. SDOM 326, October4, 1768. of the Irishman Jacques Skerret, 32. Carol Blum, Rousean and the in the French Revolution (Ithaca: Republic ofVirtue: The Language of Politics Landes, Women and the Public. Cornell University Press, 1990), 125; Spirit of the Laws, book Seven, Sphere, 35-38, 70, cites Montesquieu, The Discourse; Sarah Maza, "The chapters 8 and 9 and Rousseau's Second (1785-1786): The Case of the Diamond Necklace Affair Revisited Politic, Lynn Hunt, ed. (Baltimore: Missing Queen,' Eroticism and the Body 1991), 68-69. Johns Hopkins University Press, 33. Verge-Franceschi, 125; "Fortune et plantations des >> Pluchon, Le premier empire, 612. administrateurs coloniaux," 34. Girod de Chantrans, Voyage, 140-41. 35. Girod de Chantrans, 36. Fouchard, Plaisirs de Voyage, 141. 37. AN Col. F3190, Sain-Domingue. Count St Domingue, > ms. dated 1781, d'Autichamp, 92. "Observations sur 38. AN Col. F192, "Réflexions AN Col. F3190, sur la position actuelle de St Count Domingue"; Domingue, > ms. dated 1781; d'Autichamp, AN Col. "Observations sur : St 39. Emilien Petit, Droit E 233, dossier "Jussan. 99 publique ou d'après les loix faites pour ces pays[1771] gouvernement des colonies françoises 1911), 481, 491, 521. (Paris: Librairie Paul Geunthner, 40. Landes, Women and the Public 41. Cited in Fouchard, Sphere, 32, 82, 85. 42. Père Nicolson, Plaisirs de Saint-Domingue, 89-91. (Paris: Chez Gobreau Exsaisur/lhistoire naturelle de P'isle de Saint-Domingue Description, 40-41; Hilliard Libraire), 51-52; Moreau de Saint-Méry, présent de la colonie, 2:45. Sec d'Auberteuil, Considérations sur Pétat 182, for a reproduction of Pluchon, Histoire des Antilles, 180, population. Hilliard's census of Saint- t-Domingue's free 43. Jacques Houdaille, "Trois paroisses de Etude démographique," Population 18 Saint-Domingue au XVIIIe siècle: rate ofprenuptial conceptions in (1963), 100, compares the 3 percent he calculates for white women Crulai, in Normandy, with the 13.9 percent "Le métissage dans les anciennes Saint Domingue. Jacques colonies Houdaille, (mars/avril 1981), 278, describes françaises, Population 36, 2 illegitimate births in selected "Trois paroisses de Etude démographique," Population 18 Saint-Domingue au XVIIIe siècle: rate ofprenuptial conceptions in (1963), 100, compares the 3 percent he calculates for white women Crulai, in Normandy, with the 13.9 percent "Le métissage dans les anciennes Saint Domingue. Jacques colonies Houdaille, (mars/avril 1981), 278, describes françaises, Population 36, 2 illegitimate births in selected --- Page 354 --- NOTES Saint- Domingue parishes increasing from 11 1710-1729 to 55 percent from 1760 to percent of baptisms in 44. Cited without the Revolution. attribution in Henock femme de couleur à St Domingue, Revue Trouillot, de "La condition de la edegingraphie 30 (1957): 45. la société haitienne d Phistoire 45. Jean Fouchard, Plaisirs de 91-93. Saint-Domingue (Port-au-Prince, 1955), 46. Girod de Chantrans, Voyage, 153. 47. Girod de Chantrans, Voyage, 153-54. 48. ANCol. F376, 151;"Une fille naturelle Domingue, >9 Société haitienne de Morcau de Saint- Méry à Saint1989):51. d'histoire et de géographie 46 notarial According to this research note drawn from (March, mulâtrese records [SDOM 31, 8 avril 1781 and 13 Cap Français named Marie-Louise Laplaine had juin 1781], a free since 1776 and he was probably the father been Moreau'sh housckeeper Jeanne-Louise known as Amenaide. On of her quarteronne daughter Catherine Milhet he the eve of his marriage to Louisemoney to buy a third. gave Laplaine and Jeanne- Louise two slaves and 49. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 50. Cited in Pierre Pluchon, Description, 104. des lumières (Paris: Tallandier, Negres et juif au xviiie siècle: Le racisme an siècle 51. Frostin, Les révoltes 1984), 286. 1055; see Moreau blanches, 386; Moreau de Saint lack of"true" on the poor health caused by the excess -Méry, of Description, 52. sociability in Cap Français, 517-518, passion and Geggus, "Urban Development in 18th 53. Moreau de Saint- -Méry, Century Saint Domingue, " 212. "Repackaging Rousseau: Description, 31-33, 105, 109; Jennifer M. Jones, French Historical Studics Femininity and Fashion in Old Regime France," 54. Moreau de Saint-Méry, (1993), 940, 944, 948. of"luxe" and the behavior Description, of free 885; see also 1054 for his description 55. Hilliard d'Auberteuil, Considérations colored prostitutes at Port-au-Prince. 56. Michèle Duchet, Sur Pétat présent de la colonie, 2:27. Voltaire, Rousenn, Anthropolagie et histoire au siècle des lumières: Buffon, François Maspéro, Helvétius, Diderot, ed. Claude Blanckaert 57. Scan 1971), 201-5. (Paris: Quinlan, "Colonial Bodics, Hygiene and Eighteenth- Century France,' >) History Abolitionist Politics In quotes Antoine Bertin, Des moyens de Workshop Journal 42 (1996), 110, nigres aux Antilles ou climats chauds conserver la santé des blancs et des 1768), 14-15, et Iumides de PAmérique (Paris, 58. Quinlan cites Antoine de St.-1 -Domingue, 2nd MviensicrDeperitres ed. (Paris, Traité des fièvres de Pisle 59. Moreau de Saint- Méry, 1766). 60. Hudson, "From *Nation' Description, 103, 104, 108, 109. 61. to "Race', 247-48. Quinlan, "Colonial Bodies, 7 111. 62. Jacques Roger, translated Robert Ellrich, The Century French Thought, Keith R. Benson Life Sciences In EighteenthUniversity Press, 1997), 383-85. (Stanford, CA: Stanford 63. Quinlan, "Colonial Bodies, > 112. 64. Elizabeth A. Williams, The Plysiolagy, and Plysical and the Moral: Phitosophical Medicine in France, 1750-1850 Anthropolemy, (New York: to "Race', 247-48. Quinlan, "Colonial Bodies, 7 111. 62. Jacques Roger, translated Robert Ellrich, The Century French Thought, Keith R. Benson Life Sciences In EighteenthUniversity Press, 1997), 383-85. (Stanford, CA: Stanford 63. Quinlan, "Colonial Bodies, > 112. 64. Elizabeth A. Williams, The Plysiolagy, and Plysical and the Moral: Phitosophical Medicine in France, 1750-1850 Anthropolemy, (New York: --- Page 355 --- NOTES Cambridge University Press, 1994), 8, and Science, 133. 22, 63; McClellan, Colonialism 65. Williams, The Physical and the Moral, 66. Although he did not publish the work 16, 50, 58-59. preface that he had stopped until 1797, Moreau insisted in his revolutionary decade had writing the Description in 1789. Although the that his only changed a number of his ideas, he change was to remove some maintained tors, that might be offensive to material, recovered by later edimisfortunes," >> Description, 5, 10. individuals "alrcady punished by public 67. On the role of anatomical science in der and of race, sce Londa eighteenth- -century definitions of genand Sex in Eighteenth- Century Shiebinger, "The Anatomy of Difference: Race (Summer, 1990): 387-405. See Science," also Pierre Eiglncenthi-Comtury Studies, 23 Slavery: Eighteenth-Century H. Boulle, "In Defense of Racist Ideology in France," Opposition in to Abolition and the Origins of Protest and Popular History From Below: Studies in (Oxford: Idcology in Honour of George Popular Oxford University Press, Rude, Frederick Krantz "Biological Degeneration: Races and 1988), 219-246; Nancy Stepan, Dark Side of Progres, J. Edward Chamberlin Proper Places," Degeneration: The (New York: Columbia University and Sander L. Gilman, eds. 68. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Press, 1985), 97-120. 69. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, 94. 70. Moreau de Saint- Méry, Description, 90-93. 71. Moreau de Saint- -Méry, Description, 96-97. 72. Sue Peabody, Description, 100-01. There Are No Slaves in Race andSlavery in the Ancien France": The Political Culture of 1996), 74-75, 85. Rigime (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 73. Daniel Roche, The People of Paris: An Eighteenth Century, translated Marie Essay in Popular culture in the California Press, 1987), 273. Evans (Berkeley: University of 74. Cited in Pierre H. Boulle, "In Defense of 75. Charles Frostin, "Les colons de Slavery," 227. historique 482 (1967):3 381-414; Saint-Domingue et la métropole, >> Revue W. Ghachem, Pluchon, Le premier empire, 626; Malick Enlightenment "Montesquicu in the Caribbean: The Between Code Noir and Code Colonial Civil," < Roleaniaw/Reflecdons "The Eternal Historiques 25, 2 (1999), 194-199; Gene Historical Power of Reason' and "The E. Ogle, d'Auberteuil's Colonial 9) Superiority ofWhites': Hilliard (2001): 35-50. Enlightenment," French Colonial History 3 76. Ogle, "The Eternal Power of Reason,' 9> 77. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 79, cites Considérations 2:48-50. 78. Hilliard d'Auberteuil, note 1. 78, 83-84, 88. Considérations sur Pétat présent de la colonie, 2: 73, 79. Cited in Boulle, "In Defense of > 80. Ann Laura Stoler, "Carnal Slavery," 230. and Morality in Colonial Knowledge and Imperial Power: Gender, Feminist Asia," Gender at the Crosroads Race, Anthropology in the Postmodern Era (eds., Micaela of Knowledge: (Berkeley, Calif.), 1991), 85. di Leonardo 81. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix, 5:173-74. sur Pétat présent de la colonie, 2: 73, 79. Cited in Boulle, "In Defense of > 80. Ann Laura Stoler, "Carnal Slavery," 230. and Morality in Colonial Knowledge and Imperial Power: Gender, Feminist Asia," Gender at the Crosroads Race, Anthropology in the Postmodern Era (eds., Micaela of Knowledge: (Berkeley, Calif.), 1991), 85. di Leonardo 81. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix, 5:173-74. --- Page 356 --- NOTES 82. AN Col. F391, 192-97. 83. AN Col. F391, 189. 84. Pluchon, Nigres et juif au xvitie siècle, 198; liberté, 94, 100-4; Moreau de Debbasch, Couleur et 4:225, 342, 466, 495; 5:384-5, Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, Col. F273,119;AN Col. F391, 823; AN Col. F3243, 341; 1780. 115; AN Col. F189,decrce of June 2, 85. Rogers, "Les libres de couleur," 9) 86. Moreau de chapter 5 and Conclusion. Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions, 412-13. 1:636-38, 3:222, 4:429, 87. AN Col. E21, dossier "Bayon "; AN Col. 88. AN Col. E21, dossier F391,2 203. 89. AN Col. E71, "Bayon de Libertas," >> 54. dossier "Chapuiset," 99 sur la possession d'état des piece 273; "Réflexions sommaires 90. Debbasch Couleur et liberté Chapuizet" (Cap Français, 1779). 91. Moreau de (1967), 69. Saint-Méry, Loix et André Begon, AN Col. F3272, 375. constitutions, 5:448-9; See the case of 92. SDOM 334, December 5, 1784; SDOM 1599, May 13, 1783; SDOM 333, January 27, 1783; SDOM 93. Pluchon, 751,April 1, 1785, Nigres et Juifs, 59; Emmanuel, 697, 700, 1034; SDOM 429, June History of the Jews, 691, 695, 94. Sce, for example, SDOM 7, 1762. 95. SDOM 341, May 7, 1465, July 7, 1785. 748, May 27, 1783. 1789; SDOM 747, November 5, 1782; SDOM 96. SDOM 1424, November 30, 1786; 97. Gwendolyn Hall, Social SDOM 341, May 7, 1789. 98. Emile Hayot, Control, 77. Lesgens de couleur libres du 1971), 13. This measure was never enacted Fort-Royale, 1674-1823(Paris, shortly thereafter needed to fight offa because free coloreds were 99. AN Col. F3273, 783; AN Col. British invasion. police des gens de couleur libres"; F391, 129-30, ms. "Mémoire sur la tutions, 5: 767,807. Moreau de Saint- Méry, Loix et consti100. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 101, note 101. SDOM 108, August 8, 1781. 1. 102. SDOM 1416, May 9, 1781; SDOM notarial act drafted for "Sieur Julien 1418, March 8, 1783; sce the 1789, reproduced in Andre Maistre du Raimond" at Angouléme in July aux doléances des "gens de Chambon, "Acte notarié relatif archéologique et historique de la couleur,' Mémoires de la Société 103. 101. SDOM 108, August 8, 1781. 1. 102. SDOM 1416, May 9, 1781; SDOM notarial act drafted for "Sieur Julien 1418, March 8, 1783; sce the 1789, reproduced in Andre Maistre du Raimond" at Angouléme in July aux doléances des "gens de Chambon, "Acte notarié relatif archéologique et historique de la couleur,' Mémoires de la Société 103. SDOM 108, August 16, 1787. Charente (June 10, 1931),7. 104. CAOM G'509, no. 33, "Recensement; P. de Port-au-Prince." l'ouest et du Sud; 1782: 105. CAOM G'509, nos 31, 33, and 38. 106. CAOM G1509, no. 38, "Extrait du tion de St Domingue pour l'année Recensement général de la populaet les Gens de Couleur libres. , August 16, 1787. Charente (June 10, 1931),7. 104. CAOM G'509, no. 33, "Recensement; P. de Port-au-Prince." l'ouest et du Sud; 1782: 105. CAOM G'509, nos 31, 33, and 38. 106. CAOM G1509, no. 38, "Extrait du tion de St Domingue pour l'année Recensement général de la populaet les Gens de Couleur libres. 1788, en ce qui concerne les Blancs 107. David P. Geggus, "The Major Port Towns 108. Jacques Houdaille, "Quelques of Saint Domingue, >> 103. données sur la Domingue au xviiie siècle, 7> Population 28 population de Saint- (July-Oct 1973), 102. --- Page 357 --- NOTES CHAPTER 6 THE RISING ECONOMIC POWER OF FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE 178os 1. SDOM 1417, February 10, 1782; SDOM SDOM 1604, April 6, 1774. 107, November 11, 1777; 2. SDOM 1419, January 5, 1784. 3. SDOM 1465, April 5, 1785. 4. SDOM 1416, October 13, 1781. 5. This sample of notarial deeds was created most active notaries from the districts by analyzing the records of Louis in this period. The 1760s of Les Cayes, Nippes, and Saint from the same districts. data represents all surviving documents include at least half of the Nevertheless, families the 1780s material appears to 1788. The 2,654 contracts identified as "gens de couleur" in ing to free people of yielded 510 different family names color, while the 1788 belong38] counted 1,044 free adult men and census [CAOM G'509, no. tricts. women in the same three dis6. Robin Blackburn, The 7. David Making of Ne World Eltis, et al., The Slavery, 445. 8. Trouillot, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database. "Motion in the System, 337, 344, Coffee Production," >> 76-78; 347-8; Geggus, "Sugar and Domingue, ? 89-90. Geggus, "The Major Port Towns of Saint 9. Tarrade, Le commerce coloniale, 2: 10. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 623, note 132, 624-26, 631. 11. See Trouillot, "Motion Description, 1279-1293, 1295. in the system. > Jean Domingue, 58; Gabriel Fouchard, Plaisirs de SaintNicolson, Esaisur Phistoire Debien, Lettres de colons (Laval, 1965), 9; Père chez Gobreau naturelle de P'isle de Libraire, 1776), 102, Sain-Domingne (Paris: 12. Charles Frostin, "Saint106-9, 115. de la société d'histoire de Domingue la et la révolution américaine, >> Bulletin 13. Philippe Chassaigne, Guadeloupe 22 (1974), 108. itimes de la seconde moitié "L'économie des iles sucrières dans les conflits du xviiie siècle, ?9 mar- (1988), 99, 101; Pluchon, Le Histoire, économit, société7, 1 "Saint- Domingue et la premier empire, 694-95, 698; révolution américaine, >) 98, Frostin, commerce coloniale, 2: 298, 599, note 101, 106. Tarrade, Le 14. Scc John D. Garrigus, "Color, 31, 602. Haitian Revolution: Class and Identity on the Eve of the américains," 2 Slavery C Saint-Domingue's Abolition 17 Free Colored Elite as colons 15. From 93 leases in the (1996), 24-25. Leases of 1760s, the number dropped to 46 in the plantations or undeveloped rural 1780s. relatively infrequent at Cayes, Saint Louis terrain remained were agricultural leases were drafted in the and Nippes, where only 23 the 1780s sample. Free people of color period 1760-1769 and only 19 in these in cach of the took part in roughly one-third of does decades(8/23 and 6/18). This leasing not include a number of cases in which discussion of land plantations belonging to legal minors undivided estates or estate with a dependable cash income. were rented out to provide the mostly whites, property values This type ofestate leasing involved arrangements were complex and were framed usually substantially higher, and in a variety of acts. For these 1780s sample. Free people of color period 1760-1769 and only 19 in these in cach of the took part in roughly one-third of does decades(8/23 and 6/18). This leasing not include a number of cases in which discussion of land plantations belonging to legal minors undivided estates or estate with a dependable cash income. were rented out to provide the mostly whites, property values This type ofestate leasing involved arrangements were complex and were framed usually substantially higher, and in a variety of acts. For these --- Page 358 --- NOTES reasons we have limited our revealing offree colored analysis to simple leases which are more 16. CAOM G'509, No. involvement. and free colored 26; a similar if less marked contrast women has been noted for house between white century San Juan, Puerto Rico; Jay owners in nineteenth the Caribbean: Residential Patterns Kinsbruner, "Caste and Capitalism in Free People of Color of San and House Ownership among the American Historical Reviem 70 Juan, Puerto Rico, 1823-46, Hispanic 17. Rogers, "Les libres de couleur" (1990), 455. 18. SDOM 1465, March 1, 1784. (2005), 103, 109. 19. SDOM 1465, July 27, 1784; SDOM 20. Moreau de Loix 1464, April 25, 1781. 21. Debbasch, Saint-Méry, Couleur et constitutions, 5: 587, 610-13, 22. Morcau de et liberté, 74, note 1, cites AN Col. F133, Saint-Méry, Description, 110; 220-221. 101; Rogers, "Les libres de couleur," Houdaille, "Trois paroisses," 23. Hilliard d'Auberteuil, (2005), 545, 547. 1760s period did not list Considérations, 2: 45. Sixteen white couples in the 24. In the 1760s, only three property free at all. their marriage documents. Seventeen colored couples described no property in the 1780s listed no of the 65 free colored for like the Boisronds property for either spouse; this included marriages rich examined below, as well as families erty to speak of. Four of the 1780s white poor couples with no propfor either spouse. marriages showed no property 25. SDOM 1417, February 10, 1782; SDOM SDOM 752, December 26, 1786; SDOM 751, November 19, 1785; SDOM 1419, January 5, 1784; SDOM 1419, February 8, 1784; 1465, January 10, 1785; SDOM 1428, January 14, 1789; SDOM October 15, 1782; SDOM 1597, 1465, April 11, 1785; SDOM 747, 26. King, Blue Coat, 144-45, January 16, 1781. libres de couleur" 189, 196, 205, 208, 223-34; Rogers, "Les 27. The (2005), 104, 110. population density of Limonade in the persons per square kilometer, nearly double 1780s, for example, was 66 which had the largest population in the South the density of Les Cayes, baitien, 60-62. Moreau de Saint-Méry Province. Anglade, L'eospace most famous and rich' " parishes in the described Limonade as "one ofthe hinterland of Port- -au-Prince, was not as colony. old Croix.de-Bouquets, in the had a population density nor as thickly populated, and exploded in the comparable to Les Cayes. But its 1780s, SO that of its 95 wealth producing the highest grade of sugar. Moreau sugar plantations, 50 were 187, 969. de Saint-Méry, Description, 28. King, Blue Coat, 133. 29. Ibid., 197. 30. Archives Nationales Minutier Central 99, March 27, 1789; SDOM 1429, August 30, 1790; SDOM 340, September 25, 1789; SDOM 1435, August 23, 1789; SDOM 1429, 31. SDOM 1464, October 15, January 9, 1793. 32. Mordechai Arbell, "Jewish 1783. Caribbean (Martinique, Settlements in the French Colonies in the Code, in The Jews and The Guadeloupe, Haiti, Cayenne) and the *Black eds. Paolo Bernadini and Norman Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450-1800, Ficring (New York: Berghahn Books, ; SDOM 1435, August 23, 1789; SDOM 1429, 31. SDOM 1464, October 15, January 9, 1793. 32. Mordechai Arbell, "Jewish 1783. Caribbean (Martinique, Settlements in the French Colonies in the Code, in The Jews and The Guadeloupe, Haiti, Cayenne) and the *Black eds. Paolo Bernadini and Norman Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450-1800, Ficring (New York: Berghahn Books, --- Page 359 --- NOTES 2001), 303, cites Abraham Cahen, "Les au XVIII siècle" Revue des études juifs dans les colonies françaises 33. Loker, Jews in the Caribbean, jnives 4 (1882), 141. Gradis Family," >> 110, 174. 230, cites AN Col. C°A 120; Menkis, "The 34. SDOM 429, February 5, 1762; SDOM Saint-Méry, Loix et constitutions 5: 448. 429, June 3, 1762; Moreau de Emmanuel, History ofthe Jews, 691, 695, Pluchon, Nigres et Juifs, 59; the Caribbean, 238; SDOM 429, 697, 700, 1034; Loker, Jews in 35. SDOM 1464, October June 7, 1762. SDOM 1465, 15, 1783; SDOM 1465, January 10, R. April 11, 1785; SDOM 1785; Richard, "Les minutes des notaires de 1465, July 7, 1785; de la France d'outre-mer," > Revue S.D. aux archives du ministère See Church of Latter Day Saints d'histoire des colonies (1951): 340-358. 1095763. Family History Center microfilm # 36. SDOM 105, April 29, 1773. 37. SDOM 105, April 29, 1773; SDOM 590, Saint Méry, Description, 1235, 1462. February 9, 1768; Morcau de 38. Emmanucl, History of the Jews, 966; SDOM SDOM 1465, April 5, 1785. 1464, February 22, 1783; 39. SDOM 340, January 29, 1788. 40. SDOM 108, November 17, 1785. 41. SDOM 431, January 15, 1765; On Pierre SDOM 338, March 8, 1789; SDOM Delaunay of Torbec, sce 42. SDOM 1464, September 1597, January 3, 1781. 55, April 20, 1788; SDOM 9, 1783; SDOM 1465, April 12, 1784; SDOM October 25, 1785; SDOM 1429, October 13, 1789; SDOM 1465, October, 1785. 1428, February 17, 1789; SDOM 1465, 28 43. Moreau de Saint Méry, Loix et Couleur et liberté, 69. constitutions, 5:448-9; Yvan Debbasch, 44. SDOM 1222, September 27, 1768; SDOM 1597, November 7, 1781; SDOM 1597, May 6, 1781; SDOM 1598, October 6, 1782; SDOM 1598, November 22, 1782; SDOM 45. Moreau de Saint Loix 1598, November 22, 1782. Méry, et use ofthese titles in legal constitutions, 5:448-9. By the late 1770s a family was considered documents white. Sce was cited in court cases to prove that "Réflexions AN Col. E71, dossier sommaires sur la possession d'état "Chapuiset, Français, 1779). des Chapuizet" (Cap 46. SDOM 1216, January 13, 1766; SDOM 394,May 15, 1766. 1782. Méry, et use ofthese titles in legal constitutions, 5:448-9. By the late 1770s a family was considered documents white. Sce was cited in court cases to prove that "Réflexions AN Col. E71, dossier sommaires sur la possession d'état "Chapuiset, Français, 1779). des Chapuizet" (Cap 46. SDOM 1216, January 13, 1766; SDOM 394,May 15, 1766. The name 1216, May 11, 1766; SDOM SDOM 1599, April 22, 1783. Dasque also appeared on the 1720 census. 47. SDOM 1596, October 30, 1780. 48. SDOM 1600, January 24, 1784; SDOM intermarriage, sec Debbasch, Couleur 1601, December 20, 1785. On 49. SDOM 1600, September et liberté, 47. McClellan, 28, 1784. Baudry des Colonialism and Science Lozières, cited in 50. SDOM 1596, November (1992), 83. 1782. 21, 1780; SDOM 1598, December 20, 51. SDOM 1464, April 25, 1781; SDOM 1465, December 12, 1785. 1465, February 15, 1784; SDOM --- Page 360 --- NOTES 52. SDOM 1464, September 28, 1780. The widow intention of using this reserve. In 1784, three LeComte had every Boisrond, she drew up a testament that ycars after her marriage to four siblings, and left slaves to other gave 14,375 livres to each of her Boisrond niece and to her Boisrond family members, including to one health and she made her husband brother-in-law. She was in perfect February 15, 1784. Nineteen executor of the will. SDOM months 1465, this time simply dividing her later she was ill and remade her will, avoid a court battle over indigo plantation among her four to 12, 1785. Lecomtepayment of the money. SDOM 1465, siblings, free colored Boisrond's three sisters were, like her, widows September planters. oflocal 53. SDOM 1465, April 12, 1784; SDOM 55, August 8, 1788. 54, September 13, 1787; SDOM 54. SDOM 1596, June 20, 1780; SDOM 1600, June 28, 1784; SDOM 1600, 1600, April 12, 1784; SDOM 19, 1784; SDOM 1465, April July 26, 1784; SDOM 1465, April SDOM 1465, May 23, 1785; SDOM 9, 1784; SDOM 1465, July 27, 1784; 55. Debien, Gens de couleur libres 1465, October 14, 1784. "Acte notarié rélatif aux doléances et colons, 8; André Maistre de Chambon, 56. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, des "gens de couleur," "9. 343-48, 354, 364; "Motion in the System," Reviem 5 57. King, Blue Coat, 123. (1982), Raimond, Correspondance, 101; 58. SDOM 336, May 23, 1787; SDOM 1465, July 27, 1784. , 1784. "Acte notarié rélatif aux doléances et colons, 8; André Maistre de Chambon, 56. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, des "gens de couleur," "9. 343-48, 354, 364; "Motion in the System," Reviem 5 57. King, Blue Coat, 123. (1982), Raimond, Correspondance, 101; 58. SDOM 336, May 23, 1787; SDOM 1465, July 27, 1784. 59. Chassaigne, "L'économie SDOM 1599, February 16, 1783. 94; Tarrade, Le des iles sucrières dans les conflits > Considérations, commerce coloniale, 2:602, 756; Hilliard maritimes,' Antilles 1:281-83; Paul Butel in Pierre d'Auberteuil, et de la Guyane (Toulouse: Pluchon, cd., Histoire des trade between Bordeaux and London Privat), in 117-18, points to the surging late cighteenth century; Richard French Caribbean cotton in the 1739-1763 (London: Frank Parcs, Warand Trade in the West Cass & C., 1963), Indies, "Indigo and Slavery in Saint -Domingue," 2:383; David P. Geggus, Americas 5, 2 & 3 (Fall 1998), 194. Plantation Socicty in the 60. SDOM 1427, December 8, 1788; 61. SDOM 1597, February SDOM 340, March 23, 1789. 130, December 30, 1764. 4, 1781; SDOM 1597, May 31, 1781; SDOM 62. SDOM 748, December 20, 1783; SDOM 751, April 6, 1785; SDOM 747, 752, April 27, 1786; SDOM January 21, 1786; SDOM 752, September 23, 1782; SDOM 752, 1786; SDOM 754, January 25, January 1788; 21, 1786; SDOM 752, July 8, SDOM 753, September 6, 1787. SDOM 754, January 25, 1788; 63. SDOM 753, March 21, 1787. Lanoix Mathieu Lanoix, a planter and the was the oldest son and namesake of region ofthe Nipopes district. His brother former royal surveyor in the Azille widow of militia captain in their native was a planter who married the October 6, 1783. His sister was married parish of Nippes. SDOM 748, Léogane, SDOM 753, March 21, 1787. SDOM 754, January 25, 1788; 63. SDOM 753, March 21, 1787. Lanoix Mathieu Lanoix, a planter and the was the oldest son and namesake of region ofthe Nipopes district. His brother former royal surveyor in the Azille widow of militia captain in their native was a planter who married the October 6, 1783. His sister was married parish of Nippes. SDOM 748, Léogane, SDOM 753, March 21, 1787. to a militia captain and planter in 64. SDOM 749, February 26, 1784; SDOM 753, March 21, 1787; SDOM 753, 753, March 24, 1787; SDOM mals would have been worth about July 24, 1787; the 6 slaves and ani18,000 livres, at most, meaning the --- Page 361 --- NOTES land was worth 12,000, about four times what months earlier. the bride had paid three 65. SDOM 1601, February 14, 1785; SDOM SDOM 1601, August 21, 1785. 1597, October 25, 1781; 66. SDOM 334, May 31, 1784; CAOM F3273, 655-57, ordonnance dated G'509, nos 27, 31, and 33; AN Col. 67. SDOM 752, January 11, 1786. December 23, 1772. 68. SDOM 1425, February 20, 1787; SDOM 751,J July 23, 1785. 747, June 8, 1782; SDOM 69. SDOM 335, July 14, 1785; SDOM 338, April 26, 1788; SDOM 335, July 20, October 9, 1788; SDOM 338, 1787; SDOM 338, May 7, 1788. 1785; SDOM 337, December 21, 70. One ofBleck's elderly aunts owed Chalvière chased a plot in the Cayes savanna from 13,302 livres and he had purChalvière and members of the Bleck Hyacinthe Bleck for 10,200 livres. colored marriages in the 1780s. SDOM family were together at several free 1598, May 20, 1782; SDOM 1598, 1598, October 18, 1782; SDOM 1785; SDOM 335, July 20, 1785; April SDOM 23, 1782; SDOM 335, July 14, 337, September 8, 1787; SDOM 337, 336, April 6, 1787; SDOM April 26, 1788; SDOM 338, July 5, November 3, 1787; SDOM 337, SDOM 338, October 9, 1788; SDOM 1788; SDOM 338, October 1, 1788; 335, June 12, 1786. 1596, 27 June, 1780; SDOM 71. The other financial transaction inherited plot of land for 12,000 found for Chalvière was his sale of an His wife, Julienne livres; SDOM 1602, 20 March named Jeanne and Fresil, was one of three children born to a 1786. Jean mulâtresse LaFressellière left LaFressellière, a white man who died in 1760. twenty-four slaves to be divided Chalvière's wife and her siblings had among his children, but executor to turn over their difficulty forcing the white estate 1602, February 1786; SDOM property when they reached majority. SDOM 72. Eltis and others, The 1602, 18 June 1786. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database. CHAPTER 7 PROVING FREE COLORED VIRTUE 1. SDOM 103, July 10, 1769. 2. AN Col. E 189, dossier "Nommé Fossé. > Julien Raimond or one ofl his brothers. This policeman may have been in his first memorandum to the Naval Raimond described the Fossé case injustices borne by men ofcolor. AN Col. Secretary, as evidence of the never identified himself as a F391, 179. However, Raimond accounts of the fight that did constable, not and there were several eye- witness 3. AN Col. F391, 179. mention a "Raymond." >> 4. AN Col. F3273, 759-61. 5. AN Col. F3 273, 759-61; Moreau de AN Col. F3 150, 162; Charles Saint- Méry, Description, 85, 1032; américaine, >> Bulletin de la société Frostin, "Saint- Dominguc et la Révolution 112. d'histoire de la Guadeloupe 22 (1974), 6. AN Col. F190, 97, 1781. D'autichamp's "Observations," > dated February 25, 4. AN Col. F3273, 759-61. 5. AN Col. F3 273, 759-61; Moreau de AN Col. F3 150, 162; Charles Saint- Méry, Description, 85, 1032; américaine, >> Bulletin de la société Frostin, "Saint- Dominguc et la Révolution 112. d'histoire de la Guadeloupe 22 (1974), 6. AN Col. F190, 97, 1781. D'autichamp's "Observations," > dated February 25, --- Page 362 --- NOTES 7. Jacques Houdaille, "Trois Étude démographique, > paroisses de Saint- Domingue au xviiie siècle: de couleur" Population 18 (1963), 101. Rogers, "Les in (2005), 557; she found 24 out of 67 free libres Port-au-P Prince in the years after 1776 involved colored marriages of108 in Cap Français. a slave but only 13 out 8. Moreau de Saint- Méry, Considerations, 2: 96; SDOM Description, 1596, 85; Hilliard d'Auberteuil, 9. SDOM 1601, March 30, July 3, 1780. 10. Blanche Maurel, Le vent du 1785; SDOM 1601, November 4, 1785. Gérard, colon de large, ou le destin tourmenté de Jean-Baptiste 71. Maurel notes Saint-Domingue that Gérard (Paris: La nef de Paris, 1952), 56, 58, mulatto woman Zabet and her gave 8,000 livres of his own money to the slavery by the testament of one ofl seven his children, who were freed from 11. SDOM 1597, August 20, 1781. estate overseers. 12. SDOM 1598, April 3, 1782. 13. SDOM 1598, October 18, 1782. 14. SDOM 1464, September 13, 1782; 15. SDOM 753, November 24, 1787. SDOM 1597, May 13, 1781. 16. "Cahier de doléances de la paroisse des Gonaïves" reproduced in Doléances des peuples (Port-au-Prince, 1790) constituante, 1789-1790, ed. coloniaux à Pasemblée nationale Moreau de Saint-Méry, Monique Pouliquen (Paris, 1989), 33; 17. Duchet, Description, 85. 18. Gwendolyn Anthropolagie et histoire, 187-192. M. Hall, "Saint Domingue, >> Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et Constitutions Neither Slave Nor Free, 177; Méry, Description, 85; AN Col. 5:611-12; Moreau de Saint19. SDOM 746, December F150, 162. from this 31, 1781; all following statement by Picau. quotations are drawn 20. Ithank David Geggus for calling this de Saint-Méry, Description, 69; Pierre connection to my attention; Moreau sonneurs de Pluchon, Vaudou, sorciers, Saint-Domingue a Haiti (Paris, empoiMétraux, Voodoo in Haiti, trans. Hugo 1987), 84, 97; Alfred 273. Chartiris (New York, 1972), 77, 21. De Bercy cited in Howard Sosis, "The Religion in Haiti: An Introduction to the Black Colonial Environment and Century Saint- Domingue, ) (Columbia Slave Cults in EighteenthDescourtilz cited in Pierre Pluchon, University, Ph.D., 1971), 275; 22. ou, sorciers, Saint-Domingue a Haiti (Paris, empoiMétraux, Voodoo in Haiti, trans. Hugo 1987), 84, 97; Alfred 273. Chartiris (New York, 1972), 77, 21. De Bercy cited in Howard Sosis, "The Religion in Haiti: An Introduction to the Black Colonial Environment and Century Saint- Domingue, ) (Columbia Slave Cults in EighteenthDescourtilz cited in Pierre Pluchon, University, Ph.D., 1971), 275; 22. This sparsely settled region in the Vaudon, sorciers, empoisonneurs, 100. activity; Morcau de Saint-Méry, interior had a long history of maroon 23. King, Powdered Wig, 228-29, Description, 1393-6. constables as 277, does not identify his data. predominantly free blacks, but this is the impression maréchausie given by 24. SDOM 747, May 13, 1782. 25. In the 1760s data reviewed for this book, affidavits. In the 1780s sample, there there were 259 declarations, or 26. SDOM 1597, March 5, 1781; SDOM were 101. 27. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 1597, March 28, 1781. de Saint-Méry, Description, Description, 442;AN Col. F188; see also Moreau Saint-Méry, 442; AN Col. F391, 163-166; Moreau de 1270, 1316, Description, 1329, 442, 692, 1185, 1202, 1212, 1223, 1337, 1344, 1238, 1261, 28. AN Col. F390. 1358, 1400, 1155, and 1147. --- Page 363 --- NOTES 29. Morcau de Saint-Méry, Description, 1780, no. 12. 230; Affiches Américaines, 21 mars 30. Moreau de Saint- Méry, 31. Affiches Description, 1:229. 32. AN Col. Américaines, 6 avril 1779, no. 14. 33. AN Col. F188, Rouvray's "Reflexions." >> 34. AN Col. F3188, Rouvray's "Reflexions." >9 F134, Moreau de 35. AN Col. D?41;AN Col. Saint-Méry notebook. discussion of E150, dossier "Dupetit- Thouars. > For a Dupetithouars's role as decper ex-slaves, see Stewart King, Blue Coat patron to one of his 36. ANCol. F190, 265, 258. or Powdered Wig, 245-47. 37. AN Col. F188, orders of March 30, June 26, 1779, and 30 July, 1779; 1779,April 13, 1779, 3 May, 1779, Gouvernement sur les chasseurs AN Col. F189, "Lettres du 1779." volontaires des 18 septembre et 8 octobre 38. In June the Chasseurs were officially men appeared at the parade numbered at 1,034, but only 836 the hospital, see AN Col. grounds, for 105 were absent and 64 were in "Etat comparatif des forces D341; for the expedition see AN Col. F189, dedans Savannah* "; Lawrence, françaises, américaines et anglaises devant ou naval records: AN Marine 49, cites the same numbers from French 39. Chagniot, Paris et Parmée, B4167, 247. 40. 611, 629. Dzicmbowski, Un nouveau 41. Bailey Stone, The Genesis of patriotisme the français, 458-68. Interpretation French Revolution: A (Cambridge, 1994), Global-Historical 42. Affiches 125-127. Nationale Américaines, 4, lc 12 mardi 30 mars 1779, no. 13; 20/22. Bibliothèque 43. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 44. Parmée, B4167, 247. 40. 611, 629. Dzicmbowski, Un nouveau 41. Bailey Stone, The Genesis of patriotisme the français, 458-68. Interpretation French Revolution: A (Cambridge, 1994), Global-Historical 42. Affiches 125-127. Nationale Américaines, 4, lc 12 mardi 30 mars 1779, no. 13; 20/22. Bibliothèque 43. Moreau de Saint-Méry, 44. AN Col. F391, 115, 189, Description, 199; Morcau 103-104. 5:384-5, 823. de Saint- -Méry, Loix et constitutions, 45. AN Col. F189. "État Jean-Rémy de comparatif"; Journal of the French Tarragon cited in Alexander captain Savannah: The Story ofCount Lawrence, Storm Over (Athens, GA, 1951), 57, 60. d'Estaing and the Siege of'the Town in 1779 46. Lawrence, 107; AN Col. F189; Black St. Domingo Legion Saved Theophilus the Gould Steward, "How the Savannah, 1779," Occasional Patriot Army in the Siege of Auguste Paper No. 5 (Washington, D.C., Nemours, Haiti et la querre 1899); (Port- -au-Prince, 1952). d'indépendance américaine 47. Afidhe-Americines, 14 décembre Col. E251, dossier "de Lamorlière 1779, no. 50, and. 21 mai 1780, no. 18;AN E278, dossier "Lenoir de Du Tillet (Louis-Antoine)"; AN Col. "Régiment des chasseurs Rouvray," 54 and 55; AN Col. D'341, 48. AN Col. F189, "Lettre volontaires de St Domingue. L'Intendant de M. Le Commandant : du 26 mai 1780"; AN general par interim à M. 49. AN Col. E310, dossier Col. D241. and. 21 mai 1780, no. 18;AN E278, dossier "Lenoir de Du Tillet (Louis-Antoine)"; AN Col. "Régiment des chasseurs Rouvray," 54 and 55; AN Col. D'341, 48. AN Col. F189, "Lettre volontaires de St Domingue. L'Intendant de M. Le Commandant : du 26 mai 1780"; AN general par interim à M. 49. AN Col. E310, dossier Col. D241. 4, 1780," "Borgne, "Mesnier, Jacques, " letters dated "Limbé, 50. AN Col. E 310, August 7, 1780." August July 29, 1780"; dossier AN Col. "Mesnier, Jacques, > letter dated "Grande 51. AN Col. F190, F3190. Rivière, 259, 262, 266. --- Page 364 --- NOTES 52. AN Col. E 310, dossier "Mesnier." 53. AN Col. F3189. 54. AN Col. E 310, dossier "Mesnier, >> 55. AN Col. E 349, dossier letter dated September 1, 1780. 56. AN Col. E 310, dossier "Mesnier.' "Reynaud >> de Villeverd"; AN Col. F190, 259. 57. AN Col. E 236, dossier "Labarrere 58. Although he examines (Charles)." his communities in the West sample as representative of the colony, Province too and treats appears to be heavily concentrated in the King's military leadership class text and the list of*military leaders" in his Cap Français area, judging by his Powdered Wig, 226-265, 277. appendix. King, Blue Coat 0r 59. Gérard M. Laurent, Haiti et P'indépendance Imprimerie du Séminaire Adventiste, américaine (Port-au-Prince: who distinguished themselves 1976), 60, lists 28 Savannah veterans Bleck were the only names from that in the list Haitian Revolution. Rigaud and sample. For Rigaud, see SDOM 1600, that appeared in the 1780s notarial 335, June 12, 1786. May 3, 1784; for Bleck sec SDOM 60. SDOM 1596, December 2, 1780. 61. Rogers, "Les libres de couleur" 62. D.J., "Mulâtre," >> (2005), chapter 5, 19-25; 35-40. et des métiers, ed. LEncyclopédic Denis Diderot ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences des arts reprint: Friedrich Frommann Verlag, (Neufchastel: Samuel Faulche, 1765; Coppola, "La notion de 1966-7), 10: 853; Sylvaine AlbertanMétissages, ed. Jean- Claude métissage à travers les dictionnaires du xviii siècle, 2 (Paris: L'Harmattanan, Carpanin Marimoutou. and Jean-Michel Racault 63. A.A., "Mulâtre," > 1992), 44. (Amsterdam: Rey, 1776; Supplément à P'Encyclopédie, ed. Denis Diderot 3:9 973-74. reprint Friedrich Frommann Verlag, 1966-67), 64. AN Col. F391 136, "Lettre du Ministre à M. du 28 mars 1778." Berlize, agent des Colonies; 65. Tarrade, "L'administration Anthropologie et histoire, 160; Debbasch coloniale," 116-17. Cited in Duchet, 66. AN Col. F391, 191, 197. Couleur et liberté, 126-27. 67. Morcau de Saint- Méry, 90 years old and had 10 Description, children. 902, notes that in 1789 Barthole was 68. AN Col. F391, 189. 69. AN Col. E391, 192; NOT SDOM 133, January 12, 1785, Aquin; SDOM March 24, 1783; SDOM 1465, June 10, 1784; SDOM 1465, 1465, June 10, 1784; SDOM 1465, SDOM 55, April 10, 1788. January 2, 1785; SDOM 55, April 2, 1788; 70. SDOM 108, November 17, 1785; SDOM 1465, July: 7, 1785. 1465, April 11, 1785; SDOM 71. In addition to their political, kin, and Saint-Domingue, the Gradises had already commercial connections in property by collecting on planters' bad acquired debts. considerable colonial inheritance problem had already risen This meant that the married to a Bordeaux gentile, had once. In 1752 Esther Gradis, Abraham, She argued that since Jews contested the will of her brother Antilles they could not transfer had no legal status in the French colonial court upheld Abraham's colonial property in such a document. A Gradis's testament, nevertheless. 1785; SDOM 71. In addition to their political, kin, and Saint-Domingue, the Gradises had already commercial connections in property by collecting on planters' bad acquired debts. considerable colonial inheritance problem had already risen This meant that the married to a Bordeaux gentile, had once. In 1752 Esther Gradis, Abraham, She argued that since Jews contested the will of her brother Antilles they could not transfer had no legal status in the French colonial court upheld Abraham's colonial property in such a document. A Gradis's testament, nevertheless. --- Page 365 --- NOTES Pluchon, Negres et juifs, 111; Menkis, "The Debbasch, "Privilège réal ou Privilège Gradis Family," 157; portugais' aux iles"in Religion, société personnel? Le statut des Juifs à Jacques Ellul (Paris, 1983), 217. et politique: Mélanges en hommage 72. Loker, Jews in the Caribbean (1991), *New Christians' *New Whites': 238-39 and John D. Garrigus, Color, and Citizenship in French Sephardic Jews, Free People of The Jews and the Expansion Saint-Domingue, 1760-1789," in Bernadini and Norman of Europe to the West, ed. Paolo 314-32. Fiering (New York: Berghan Books, 2001), 73. André Maistre de Chambon, "Acte notarié de couleur' de Saintrelatifaux doléances des 'gens Domingue (29 juillet 1789)," Mémoires archéolegique et historique de la Charente de la Société 74. Pluchon, Le (June, 1931), 7-8. 75. AN Col. F391, premierempire, 171-183; 698; Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 126, note these archival documents 1. Raimond's.text: and none but the first are dated. are copies of tion ler mémoire de Raimond, The first bears the notaletter from the royal administrators en 7bre [September] 1786, ) but the Raimond's charges is dated *25 7bre 1786. Saint-Domingue > replying to with Castries must therefore have taken Raimond's correspondence 76. AN Col. F391, 179; as Duchet, place before this date. book 9, chapter 15 of the 1780 Antbropolagie et histoire, 183, points out, racial reforms undertaken by Pombal edition of Raynal's Histoire, praises the 77. The colonial in Brazil. administration, on orders from any evidence that the court entertained Versailles, was unable to find 78. AN Col. F391, 177-78, 194. this motion. AN Col. F391, 183. 79. AN Col. E391, 183, 185, 190. 80. Duchet, Anthropolaie et bistoire, 177-92, Saint-Lambert's notes provides the text of colonies, manuscript on the free colored revealing his sympathy to problem in the 81. AN Col. F391, 200. Raimond's memoranda. 82. AN Col. F391, 185, 189; as Yvan 3, points out, this undated Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 123, note Raimond's first and second memorandum to the king is bound between written after them. memorandum to Castries, but was probably 83. AN Col. E391, 188-189. 84. AN Col. F391, 187. 85. AN Col. F3278, 341; AN Col. F391, 223. 86. Moreau de Saint- Méry, 87. McClellan, Description 110. Colonialism and Science, "Des colonies en lutte avec leur 175-177, 179, 193, 199; Pluchon, Antilles, 245; Tarrade, métropole, in Pluchon, ed., Histoire des 88. Moreau de Saint-Méry, "L'administration coloniale, s 113, 116. 89. McClellan, Colonialism Description, 411-416. letter from the Cercle and Science, 248-9.AN Col. F193. A to the commandant of July 1789 compared Jasmin's medal to that Cap Français explicitly Volontaires. given to Vincent and to the Chasseurs 90. Pluchon, Premier empire, 613. 91. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, 415. 88. Moreau de Saint-Méry, "L'administration coloniale, s 113, 116. 89. McClellan, Colonialism Description, 411-416. letter from the Cercle and Science, 248-9.AN Col. F193. A to the commandant of July 1789 compared Jasmin's medal to that Cap Français explicitly Volontaires. given to Vincent and to the Chasseurs 90. Pluchon, Premier empire, 613. 91. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description, 415. --- Page 366 --- NOTES 92. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, but makes no connection between 274-276, reports these incidents, which he relates to a footnote in them and the Jasmin colony. a discussion of urban controversy, However, he is unable to explain this institutions in the purge" beyond "wild rumors' > that rcomerevolationary pating the slaves. Arthaud and Morcau favored emanci93. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, Description, 413. 276, 280; Morcau de Saint Méry, 94. Rogers, "Les libres de couleur" (2005), 592. CHAPTER 8 FREE PEOPLE IN THE SOUTHERN OF COLOR PENINSULA AND THE ORIGINS OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION, 1789-1791 1. Debien, "Gens de couleur libres et >> 2. AN Col. F3194, copy of a 22 October colons,' 13. 3. King, Blue Coat, 138, 244-46, letter from Limonade. mention his role in the Revolution. reconstructs Gentil's career, but does not 4. AN Col. F3194, copy ofa November 20, 1789 the following citations are taken from letter from Petit- Goâve; all 5. Frostin, Les révoltes blanches, this source. 6. AN Col. F149, 136-41. 393-94. 7. On Savariot, Debbasch, F135, 342-48. Couleur et liberté, 174, note 2, cites AN Col. 8. Françoise Thésée, "Les assemblées (1774-1793)," Revue de la société paroissiales des Cayes à St. Domingue (1982), 29; Raimond, baitienne d'histoire et de 9. Moreau de Réponse aux considérations, 21. gingraphie Saint-Méry, Considérations 20, 21;Julien Raimond, Correspondance présentées (Paris, [March] 1791), de de Julien Saint-Domingue, et les pièces qui lui ont été Raimond, avecs sesf frères, Imprimerie du Cercle Social, sd). adressées par eux (Paris: 10. Escalle and Guillaume, 11. Thésée, "Les assemblées Frames-macons, 124. assemblécs paroissiales, ? 31. paroissiales des Cayes," 25; Thésée, "Les 12. Thésée, "Les assemblées, 39,42. 13. Ibid., 43. 14. Raimond, Correspondance, 4; Thésée, 15. Document entitled "Messieurs "Les assemblées, > 43. générale et provinciale de la le Président et membres de l'assemblée copy form, by Dr. Marcel partie du Nord" and shown to me, in photoently from some Chatillon in 1988. The document Dr. Chatillon. papers of Jacques Pierre Brissot at that time was owned apparby 16. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 171. 17. Raimond, Dorigny and Correspondance, 6, n. 3; on the Amis des see Bernard Gainot, eds. La société Noirs, Marcel 1788-1799: Contribution à Phistoire de des Amis des Noirs UNESCO, 1998). Pabolition de P'esclavage (Paris: in 1988. The document Dr. Chatillon. papers of Jacques Pierre Brissot at that time was owned apparby 16. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 171. 17. Raimond, Dorigny and Correspondance, 6, n. 3; on the Amis des see Bernard Gainot, eds. La société Noirs, Marcel 1788-1799: Contribution à Phistoire de des Amis des Noirs UNESCO, 1998). Pabolition de P'esclavage (Paris: --- Page 367 --- NOTES 18. Maistre du Chambon, "Acte notarié, >> couleur libres," 22 14-16. By the end of 1789 5-11; Gabriel Debien, "Gens de revolutionary club, which explains Jarnac had joined a counterarrangement as Jarnac's idea. Raimond's 1794 description of this 19. Debbasch, Raimond, Couleur et liberté, 145, Correspondanee, 6, note 3. Masiac (1953), 157; Debien, "Gens note 3, 151, note 2; Debien, Club 20. Vincent Ogé le jeune, Motion de couleur libres" (1951), 18. des colons, babitans de fnite par M. Vincent Ogé jeune à Passemblée (Sept. 1789) 7, S-Domingne, à PHôtel de Masiac, Place des Victoires reprinted in La révolution l'esclavage (Paris, Editions d'histoire français et Pabolition de 21. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 163; sociale, 1968) 24-25. Debien, "Gens de couleur et colons, >> 22. Debien, Club Massiac, 153, 161; de couleur libres," Annales Jacques Godechot, "Dejoly et les gens (1951), 52; Debbasch, Couleur historiques de la révolution frangaise, 23 23. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 144, 149, 155, 159-63. Doléances et liberté, 145, note 3; des peuples coloniaux à Passemblée Monique Pouliquen, ed. 1789-1790 (Paris, 1989), 148-50. nationale constituante, 24. Debien, "Gens de couleur et colons," 9> 27; 153; Raimond, Correypondance, Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 25. "Précis des gémissemens des 17,18, 24. J.M.C. Américain, sang-mélés dans les colonies Pabolition Sang mélé," reprinted in La françaises. Par de P'esclavane: Textes et documents révolution frangaise et 1968), 11:7, 12, 37. (Editions d'histoire sociale, 26. Jeffrey Merrick, "Conscience France," >> and Citizenship in EighteenthKates, Bigbtentli-Comtury Studies 21 (1987), Century "Jews into Frenchmen: 53, 60, 69; Gary Revolutionary France," Social Research Nationality 56 and Representation in The Longman Companion to the French (Spring 1989), 223; Colin Jones, 27. Ruth Necheles, The Abbé Revolution (New York, 1988), 67-68. Egalitarian (Westport CT, 1971), Grégoire, 1787-1831: The Odyssey of an 28. Cited in Pluchon, 59, 65-66, 125. Grégoire, 14, 15. Nigres et juif au XVIIIe siècle, 82-87; Necheles, Abbé 29. Jean Tild, L'abbé Grégoire, Grégoire'ss Esaisur la d'après ses mémoires (Paris, 1946) 13, cites 30. Necheles, Abbé rigénération plysique. Grigoire, 9, 26, 27; Merrick, Citizenship," 65. 65-66, 125. Grégoire, 14, 15. Nigres et juif au XVIIIe siècle, 82-87; Necheles, Abbé 29. Jean Tild, L'abbé Grégoire, Grégoire'ss Esaisur la d'après ses mémoires (Paris, 1946) 13, cites 30. Necheles, Abbé rigénération plysique. Grigoire, 9, 26, 27; Merrick, Citizenship," 65. "Conscience and 31. Necheles, Abbé Grégoire, 32, 60; 32. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, Thésée "Les assemblées," 42. société des Amis des noirs: Clarkson, 150, 155; Françoise Thésée, "Autour de la 1789-1 mars 1790)" Présence Mirabeau et l'abolition de la traite (août 33. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, africaine 125 (1983), 9, 18-19. des Amis des noirs," 9 15; 155, note 1; Thésée, "Autour de la société 34. Debien, "Gens de Debien, "Les gens de couleur et les > Doléances, couleur libres, > 42, 46, 55-56; colons," 27. 154-159, Pouliquen, ed., 35. Debien, "Gens de couleur libres," 52; Grégoire, Mémoire en faveur des Necheles, Abbé Grégoire, 64; Henri Se-Domingue, et des autres Isles gens de couleur ou sang-mélés de P'Assembléc Nationale. Par M. frangoises de P'Amérique, adressé à Lorraine (Paris: Chez Belin, Libraire, Grégoire, curé d'Embermenil, Député de 1789), 5-10, 19. --- Page 368 --- NOTES 36. Grégoire, Mémoire en faveur des gens de Marcel Dorigny, "Introduction," >> La société couleur, 36. On Mercier, sec 17-20, 54. des Amis des Noirs 1788-1799, 37. Raimond, the revolution Correspondance, 3; for the muted meant eventual acknowledgment that PAsembléc Nationale emancipation, sce Observations adressées 1789), 14-15. par un député des colons américains à (S.1., 38. Raimond, bined colonial Correxpondance, 77. The notarial record assets oft the extended Raimond and suggests that the compeak, might have been valued at 1 Challe families, at their 39. SDOM 1429, September million livres. mention the constable's 12, 1789. Unusually, the sales deed did not 40. ANMC, August 30, 1790, race, Rouen needed the money for political register 99; Raimond, who claimed he this property. In August, 1792, activities, the was to receive 320,000 livres for demanded and received from Raimond purchaser, a neighbor from Jarnac, had paid the rest ofthe purchase a rebate of7,424 livres. By 1795 he November 2, 1793, Rouen price, mostly in Revolutionary 99; 2 germinal, register 99; 2 floreal, year III, asignats. year III, Rouen register 99; 25 Rouen register register 99; 11 pluvoise, year III; Rouen nivoise, year III; Rouen 41. SDOM 1432, June 14, 1791; Challe register 99. that year, SDOM 1432, November seems to have died in Aquin later 1793. 28, 1791; SDOM 1435, January 9, 42. "Suplique des citoyens de couleur des iles et by Raimond and Ogé, December 2, 1789, colonies françaises, >> signed Doléances, 154. pluvoise, year III; Rouen nivoise, year III; Rouen 41. SDOM 1432, June 14, 1791; Challe register 99. that year, SDOM 1432, November seems to have died in Aquin later 1793. 28, 1791; SDOM 1435, January 9, 42. "Suplique des citoyens de couleur des iles et by Raimond and Ogé, December 2, 1789, colonies françaises, >> signed Doléances, 154. reproduced in Pouliquen, ed. 43. Gabriel Debien, "Gens de couleur libres," d'un babitant des colonies sur le Mémoire 54, attributes Observations sang-mélés de en faveur des gens de couleur ou Sain-Domingue adressé à Grégoire to Moreau de Saint- Méry. PAssembléc Nationale par M. 44. Abbé de Cournand, sur le Mémoire en Réponse aux observations d'un habitant des faveur des Gens de couleur, Ou4 colonies, Domingue, et des autres Islesf frangoises de sang-mélés, de SaintNationale, par M. Grégoire, Curé PAmérique, adressé à P'Assembléc (1789), 33. d'Emberménil, Député de Lorraine 45. Louis Gottschalk and French Revolution: From the Margaret Maddox, Lafayette in the (Chicago: 1973), 250; Necheles, October Days through the Federation Frenchmen," > 226. Abbé Grigoire, 6-7; Kates, "Jews into 46. Necheles, Abbé Grigoire, 71-2; Florence Raimond dans la formation du Gauthier, "Le rôle de Julien 1789-1793," in Esclarnge, nouveau peuple de résistances et Saint-Domingue, (Martinique, 1999), 228." Debien, "Gens abolitions, de Marcel Dorigny, ed. Thésée, "Autour les Amis des Noirs," couleur et colons," 62-65; 47. Debien, "Gens de couleur 72. Problem of Slavery in the et colons," 65-66; David Brion Davis, The Debbasch, Couleur Age of Revolution (Ithaca, et liberté, 177. 1975), 139-40; 48. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 177-178; Yves française et la fin des colonies (1789-1794) Bénot, La Révolution Raimond, Réponse aux (Paris, 1988), 731; Julien snsbremmidicliemnahs Saint-Méry sur --- Page 369 --- NOTES les colonies, par M. Raymond, citoyen de couleur de 1791), 32. Saint-Domingue (Paris, 49. Raimond, 50. Raimond, Correspondance, 11-14. 51. Raimond, Correspondance, 16, 24; Thésée, "Les assemblées, 9> 52-54. 52. Raimond, Correspondance, 15-16; AN DXXV 46, 439, no. 216. 53. Correspondanee, 14, 25, 27, 30-31, 39, Braquchais had married into the wealthy free 44. received, as guardian for his wife, colored Boisrond family and In the late 1750s he had also been 100,000 livres from her father's estate. his social status was high enough that deeded property from a white man and a man of color. In 1780 the free notaries only rarely identified him as named him as executor of her mulâtresse Magdelaine Rossignol had slaves. SDOM 1601, estate, entrusting to him the liberty of her SDOM 1596, December January 11, 1785; SDOM 1600, February 24, 54. rond family and In the late 1750s he had also been 100,000 livres from her father's estate. his social status was high enough that deeded property from a white man and a man of color. In 1780 the free notaries only rarely identified him as named him as executor of her mulâtresse Magdelaine Rossignol had slaves. SDOM 1601, estate, entrusting to him the liberty of her SDOM 1596, December January 11, 1785; SDOM 1600, February 24, 54. The light 23, 1780. 1784; skinned landowner André Torchon Notaries frequently did not describe his was another member. SDOM 749, February 26, 1784; SDOM race in 1780s contracts. See 748, October 13, 1783. The notarial 747, August 13, 1782; SDOM members oft this July 1790 record reveals little about the other Narcisse Rollain, Massé, S. committe-Kemarais, Glezil. Morel, Etienne Bouet, Raimond, Correspondance, 25-26. Petition reproduced as a footnote in were able to sign their Only 19 of the 36 Cavaillon 55. names. petitioners Raimond, Correspondance, 32-39. 56. Thésée, "Les assemblées," 122, 187; SDOM SDOM 1224, January 31, 1769; SDOM 1599, November 2, 1783; "Les assemblées," 187; James, Black 1225, October9, 1769; Thésée, Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti, Jacobins (New York, 1963), 96; d'Haiti, 1:81; SDOM 1600, 120; Thomas Madiou, Histoire 57. Thésée, "Les assemblées," 99 May 3, 1784. The Making of Haiti, 82, 84. 56-57, 61; SDOM 334, April 19, 1784; Fick, 58. Thésée, "Les assemblées,' > 59-62. 59. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Considérations du bonheur de la France, à Poccasion des présentées aux vrais amis du repos et soi-disant Amis-des-noirs (Paris: nouveaux mouvements de quelgues 24. L'Imprimerie National 60. [March]1791), 61. Raimond, Correspondance, 63; AN Dxxv Raimond cited in Debbasch, 65/658, piece 3 and 7. 62. AN DXX58, dossier Ogé; Couleuret liberté, 166, see also 179, 181. Raimond, 58/574, interrogation at Dondon, dated Correspondance, 23, 90; AN Dxxv 58/Ogé; SDOM 1428, June 11, 1789; November 12, 1790; AN Dxxv SDOM 1465, April 25, 1781; SDOM SDOM 108, October 8, 1789; 1428, March 15, 1789. AN Col. 133, October 6, 1783; SDOM 63. AN Col. F3196, 114. F391, 175 and 184, note E. 64. Debien, "Gens de couleur" 8; Thésée, "Les 1600, January 28, 1784; Joseph Saintassemblées" 67; SDOM monagraphique et historique, Rémy, Pétion et Haiti: Etude Berger-) r-Levrault, 1956), 34. François Dalencour (Paris:1854-57; 65. October 6, 1783; SDOM 63. AN Col. F3196, 114. F391, 175 and 184, note E. 64. Debien, "Gens de couleur" 8; Thésée, "Les 1600, January 28, 1784; Joseph Saintassemblées" 67; SDOM monagraphique et historique, Rémy, Pétion et Haiti: Etude Berger-) r-Levrault, 1956), 34. François Dalencour (Paris:1854-57; 65. AN Col. F196, letter from Blanchelande November 25, 1790. François to the naval ministry, dated believed there were only 600; Raimond, Raimond, Julien Raimond's brother, Correspondance, 50. --- Page 370 --- NOTES 66. Dale L. Clifford, "Can the Uniform 1789-1791," Eighteenth Century Studies Make the Citizen? Paris, La Révolution de Haiti, 72;AN Col. F3 34, 3 (2001 1): 363-82; Lacroix, les affranchis des droits civils et 196; Emile Nau, Réclamation par Dxxv 58, dossier Ogé. politiques (Port- -au-Prince, 1840), 32; AN 67. Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti, 72. 68. AN Col. F196, 263-265; 69. Fick, The Thésée, "Les assemblées, > 68. 70. Making of Haiti, 140. SDOM 1598, August 29, 1782; 71. For example, François SDOM 1220, August 21, 1767. Fick gives his name as Jadouin, Trichet; sce SDOM 1598, November 22, 1782. consistently give the but the notarial registers for Torbec April 22, 1783. spelling as Jabouin. Sce for example, SDOM parish 1599, 72. SDOM 1597, May 31, 1781; SDOM 1370, January 17, 1765; SDOM 130, 1416, August 05, 1780; SDOM 73. SDOM 1600, January 27, 1784; October 17, 1764. dated February 3, 1769. AN Col F3 182. Dargout to Rohan, 74. Fick, Making ofHaiti ( (1991), 268-69; 75. Thésée, "Les assemblées, > 68, 81; SDOM 1597, January 16, 1781. 38; AN Dxxv 112/889, piece 1. Ardouin, Etudes Sur Phistoire d'baiti, 76. Thésée, "Les assemblées," 77, note 1, 81, provinciale du Sud, "Extrait des note 1, 83-92; Assemblée P'Assemblée provinciale" minutes Déposées aux archives de Correspondance, 47. (1791); Ardouin, Etudes, 38; Raimond, 77. Henri Grégoire, Lettre aux réclamations des gens de couleur plnilantropes, de sur les malbeurs, les droits et les françoises de P'Amérique (Paris, October Saint Domingue et des autres iles philanthropes, 11-17. 1790); Grégoire, Lettre aux 78. Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville, Lettre de ses rapports concernant les colonies, les J.P. Brissot à M. Barnave: sur conéquencesfautalos sursa conduite dans le décrets qui les ont suivis, leurs actère des prais cours de la révolution; surle démocrates; Sur les bases de la cars'opposent à son achèvement, la nécessité de la constitution, les obstacles qui (Paris, 20 Novembre, 1790), 18, 31. terminer promptement, etc. 79. P. B. F. Laborde, Lettre a M. J. P. issot à M. Barnave: sur conéquencesfautalos sursa conduite dans le décrets qui les ont suivis, leurs actère des prais cours de la révolution; surle démocrates; Sur les bases de la cars'opposent à son achèvement, la nécessité de la constitution, les obstacles qui (Paris, 20 Novembre, 1790), 18, 31. terminer promptement, etc. 79. P. B. F. Laborde, Lettre a M. J. P. Brissot Laborde (Paris: Imprimerie de J.-B. de Warville par M. P.-B.-F. 80. Raimond, Observations Sur Chemin, n.d.), 4-5. blancs contre les hommes de Porigine et les progrés [sic] du préjugé des colons nécessité, la facilité de le détruire; couleur; sur les inconvéniens de le perpétuer; la (Paris: Chez Belin, 1791), 30-31; sur le projet du Comité colonial, ctc. 81. Florence Gauthier, "Julien Raimond Raimond, Observations, 34. Slave and Segregationist System" or the Triple Critique ofthe Colonial Western Society for French History in Barry Rothas, ed. Proceedings of the Colorado, 2002). 28 (Greely, CO: University Press of 82. Raimond, Observations sur 83. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Porigine, 7, 11-14. Considérations et du bonbeur de la France, à Poccasion présentées aux vrais Amis du repos quelques soi-disant Amis-des-noirs des nouveanx mouvements de 45-47. (Paris, (March] 1791), 20-22, 26-27, 84. Morcau de Saint-Méry, Considérations présentées, 38, 39, 43. --- Page 371 --- NOTES 85. Godechot, "Dejoly," 60; Debbasch, Raimond, Lettre de Raimond, mulâtre, Couleur et liberté, 65; Julien Jacmel, datée de Paris, rue Mesléc créole d'Aquin, et babitant de chez Dufour de Rians, no. 33, le 4 mars 1791 (Cap Français: française de Saint-Domingue, imprimeur de l'Assemblée coloniale de la partic 69-70, 112. 1791), 8; Raimond, Correspondance, 86. Raimond, Lettre de Raimond, mulâtre, 87. Petition des Citoyens de couleur des iles 2-5. précédée d'un avertissement françoises, à Passembléc sur les nationale; cette Pitition, etsuivie de manoeupres employées pour) faire échouer Signed by "Raymond Mlenrjsutfieatinoa(hais l'ainé, 18 Mars 1791),i iii, 7-9. Saint-Albert, Desoulchay de Saint- Raymond le jeune, Fleuri, Honoré Audiger. Réal, et Desoulchay, Porsade et 88. Maury cited in Ardouin, Etudes, 40. Colonial Secession," >> Geggus, "Racial Equality, Slavery and Geggus, 1302, note 75; on Milscent's militia of "Marronage, Voodoo and the Saintcareer, sce 1791," Proceedings of the Fifteenth Domingue Slave Revolution Historical Society (Lanham, 1992) Mecting of the French Colonial Milscent du Musset, Sur les troubles unpaginated, de note 13, which cites C. 88. Maury cited in Ardouin, Etudes, 40. Colonial Secession," >> Geggus, "Racial Equality, Slavery and Geggus, 1302, note 75; on Milscent's militia of "Marronage, Voodoo and the Saintcareer, sce 1791," Proceedings of the Fifteenth Domingue Slave Revolution Historical Society (Lanham, 1992) Mecting of the French Colonial Milscent du Musset, Sur les troubles unpaginated, de note 13, which cites C. 3-12. Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1792), 89. Necheles, Abbé Grigoire, 80, 83, 95; Florence française et le problème coloniale: le *cas Gauthier, "La révolution bistoriques de la révolution française 288 Robespierre, 7) Annales 90. Gauthier, "La révolution 7) (avril-juin 1992), 175. Problem of Slavery, 142-143; française, 178; David Brion Davis, The Noirs dans la Répolution frangaise Jean-Daniel Piquet, L'émancipation des 92-94. (1789-1795) (Paris: Karthala, 2002), 91. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, française, 175. 184; Gauthier, "La révolution 92. Piquet, L'émancipation des Noirs, 92; were 9,689 white men in Saint according to the 1788 census there clerks, overseers, surgeons, Domingue, not counting those listed as 93. David Geggus, "Racial refiners, and other workers. the Constituent Assembly," Equality, Slavery, and Colonial Secession during 1303, agrees 400 may underestimate American Historical Review 94 (1989) ), census put the total free colored the impact of this decree. The 1788 3,493 men over the age oftwelve, population at 21,813, de Saint- t-Méry reckoned this or about one- sixth ofthe total. counting Moreau for a free adult male population to be 28,000, which would make Moreau de Saint-Méry, population of color of4,670.AN Col. G'509, no. 38; note 2. Description, 85; Raimond, Correspondanee, 11, 94. Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, 185, 187; Couleur et liberté, 188, note 1. Ardouin, Etudes, 54; Debbasch 95. Ardouin, Etudes, 44, 46. 96. David Geggus, "The Bois Caïman > History 25 (1991):4 41-57 Ceremony,' Journal of Caribbean the precise timing and establishes, as well as sources currently 121, 122; Laurent location of this event. Fick, The Making of permit, Haiti, Haitian Revolution Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the (Harvard, 2004), 120. , Etudes, 54; Debbasch 95. Ardouin, Etudes, 44, 46. 96. David Geggus, "The Bois Caïman > History 25 (1991):4 41-57 Ceremony,' Journal of Caribbean the precise timing and establishes, as well as sources currently 121, 122; Laurent location of this event. Fick, The Making of permit, Haiti, Haitian Revolution Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the (Harvard, 2004), 120. --- Page 372 --- NOTES 120; Fick, The Making of Haiti, 123-124; Debbasch, 97. Dubois, Avengers, Erudes, 56; Debbasch, Couleur et libCouleur et liberté, 204; Ardouin, erté, 204. and Revolution in Saint- Domingue: The 98. Terry Rey, *The Virgin Mary Journal of Historical Sociology Charisma of Nenucl-hephrioer (Great Britain) 11,3 (1998): 341-69. (Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, Les Marrons du syllabaire 99. Jean Fouchard, Dxxv 110-a two-page manuscript *Discours 1988), 115, note 202;AN de P'armée combinée des prononcé par mr. L'Abbé Ouviere en présence le 20 xbre 1791." de couleur, campée à la Croix des Bouquets, citoyens Dossier 867, a letter from Croix des Bouquets, And AN Dxxv 110, Ouvière as a Port-au-Prince representative. January 10, 1792, naming 62. Joseph Saint- Rémy, Pétion et Haiti (1956), Dxxv 110/872, piece 3; AN Dxxv 110/877. 100. AN piece 3; AN Dxxv 110/877, *30 décembre 1791, 101. AN Dxxv 110/872, du conseil des commissaires des paroisses de la extrait des délibérations conseil de Guerre de l'armée combinée des dépendance de l'ouest et du réunis, à la Croix-des-I Bouquets." 7 citoyens de la même dépendance, 102. AN Dxxv 65/658, dossier 4. REVOLUTION AND CHAPTER 9 PARISH REPUBLICANISM IN AQUIN des Cayes," 106-107, 111-17, 1. Thésée, "Les assemblées paroissiales 131-33, 139-44. taken in Aquin parish in 1798. 2. CAOM 15SUPSDOM 5. This is a census 1794. SDOM 342, February 4, AN Dxxv 28 dossier 287, 25 fevrier 1792. 1788; SDOM 355, 19 prairial, year 9 [1801); 3. SDOM 340, June 9, whose affairs he manLaurent was probably the son of Joseph Anglade, SDOM 1429, October 8, aged in 1789 while Anglade was in France, see 1789. SDOM 352, 23 frimaire, year 8 [1799]. 4. AN Dxxv 28 dossier 287. of Haiti," New West Indian 5. David P. Geggus, "The Naming 1&2 (1997c): 43-68. Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids71, the of this Dubois, who helped me see importance 6. Thanks to Laurent Réflexions sur les véritables causes des troubles pamphlet. Julien Raimond, notamment sur ceux de Saint-Domingues et des désastres de nos colonies, cette colonie d'une ruine totale; avec les moyens i employer pour préserver Julien Raymond(sic), colon de adressées à la convention nationale; par 1793), 5. Saint-Domingue (Paris: Imprimerie des Patriotes, 7. Raimond, Réflexions, 18, 19-28. 8. Ibid., 19, 26-27,31. 4; Jean-Daniel Piquet, L'émancipation 9. AN Dxxv56, dossier Raymond, (1789-1795) (Paris: Karthala, des Noirs dans la Révolution frangaise 164-65, 168; Laurent Dubois, 2002), 451; Fick, The Making ofHaiti, in the French Revolution and Slave Emancipation A Colony ofCitizens: Hill: University of North Carolina, Caribbean, 1787-1804 (Chapel 2004), 185-87. ,31. 4; Jean-Daniel Piquet, L'émancipation 9. AN Dxxv56, dossier Raymond, (1789-1795) (Paris: Karthala, des Noirs dans la Révolution frangaise 164-65, 168; Laurent Dubois, 2002), 451; Fick, The Making ofHaiti, in the French Revolution and Slave Emancipation A Colony ofCitizens: Hill: University of North Carolina, Caribbean, 1787-1804 (Chapel 2004), 185-87. --- Page 373 --- NOTES 10. "Documents aux origines de l'abolition de Polvérel et de Sonthonax, 1793-1794," l'esclavage: Proclamations de (1949): 24-55, and 348-422. Revue d'histoire des colonies 36 11. AN DXXV 28, dossier no. 287, 8 dossier 287. mars 1794; AN Dxxv 28, 12. AN Dxxv 28, dossier 287; AN Dxxv 28 February 4, 1792. dossier 287; SDOM 342, 13. ANI Dxxv41, dossier 404, October 14. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1: 25, 1793. Félicité Sonthonax the Lost 286, 330-32; Robert Louis Stein, Fairleigh Dickinson Sentinel of the Republic (Rutherford, Liger NJ: 15. Madiiou, Histoire, 1 : University 286-87. Press, 1985), 135-36, 40, 138-140. 16. The 1798 document, CAOM 5 the town ofAquin and covers only five SUPSDOM 5, says nothing about the two missing districts were already ofthe parish's seven cantons, but by severe drought depopulated in the late 1780s 1229. according to Moreau de Saint- Méry, Description, 17. Gabriel Debien, "Une siècle, >> Revue d'histoire indigoterie des à Saint-Domingue à la fin du XVIIIe SUPSDOM 5; SDOM 347, colonies 19 23 (1940-46), 27-28; CAOM 5 year 7. nivose, year 7; SDOM 349, 5 floréal, 18. Ex-slaves were proprictors in only 5 percent of the houschold names could not be households and 29 percent of 19. SDOM 345, 25 prairial, year 6; SDOM categorized. 349, 18 floréal, year 6; SDOM 349, 7 348, 26 germinal, year 7; SDOM messidor, year 9. messidor, year 7; SDOM 355, 12 20. SDOM 35, 2 nivôse, 1429, October 28, year 3; SDOM 35, September 2, 1786; SDOM 1429, 1794; SDOM 91 pluviose, year 4; SDOM 343 6 floréal, November 12, 1786; SDOM 36 year 7; SDOM 350, 3 thermidor, year 5; SDOM 349, 13 messidor, 21. SDOM 353, 21 germinal, year 7;SDOM 352, 8 ventôse, year 8. 342, January 9, 1791 with year 8; SDOM 342, August 13, 1791; codicil from November SDOM December 5, 1791; SDOM 36, 3 19, 1792; SDOM342, 22. SDOM 351, 14 frimaire, year 5. 23. CAOM 5 SUPSDOM brumaire, year 8; SDOM 351, 14 brumaire, 8. ;SDOM 352, 8 ventôse, year 8. 342, January 9, 1791 with year 8; SDOM 342, August 13, 1791; codicil from November SDOM December 5, 1791; SDOM 36, 3 19, 1792; SDOM342, 22. SDOM 351, 14 frimaire, year 5. 23. CAOM 5 SUPSDOM brumaire, year 8; SDOM 351, 14 brumaire, 8. 24. SDOM 5; SDOM 1541, 21 messidor, year 35, July 28, 1794; SDOM 35 2 nivôse, year 10. vendémiaire, year 6; SDOM 348, 1 year 3; SDOM 343, 16 floréal, year 7; SDOM 349 13 messidor, germinal, year 7; SDOM 349, 9 year 7. year 7;SDOM 350, 13 fructidor, 25. SDOM 355, 21 germinal, year 9; SDOM 355, 13 fructidor, year 9; SDOM 355, 20 fructidor, SDOM 1541, 11 floréal, year 9;S SDOM 355, 20 fructidor, year 26. SDOM 355, 4 year 10; CAOM 5 SUPSDOM 5. 9; 27. SDOM 351 14 vendémiaire, year 10. 1759 at the age offive. brumaire, His year 8; Montbrun had arrived in Bordeaux et dictionanaire two brothers also lived in France. Oriol, Histoire in of Bordeaux's Sainte biographique Eulalie 226. Before 1792 Montbrun was colonel regiment ofnational regiment and commander in chief of the 28. SDOM 35, October volunteers oft the Gironde. SDOM 342, July 5th 29. AN 9, 1794. 23, 1792. Dxxv 28 dossier 288; Madiou, Histoire, 1: 286. --- Page 374 --- NOTES 30. Gilles Inspecteur and his brother Charles Charles Gosses St. Eloy, a goldsmith in signed a partnership with years in SDOM 345, 22 fructidor, Aquin, to grow cotton for seven SDOM 347, 11 pluviose, year 6; see also "Moise inspecteur" in SDOM36, 1 nivôse, year 7; SDOM 345, 10 year 4. messidor, year 6; 31. SDOM 1514, 20 32. SDOM 348, 28 pluviose, year 10. 349,22 ventôse, year 7; SDOM 347, 4 pluviose, prairial, year 7. year 7; SDOM 33. SDOM 353, 25 floréal, year 8. 34. LDS Family History Center Microfilm 4, Depas-Medina; SDOM SDOM #1095763, 3 floréal, 35. SDOM 348, 9 351, 28 brumaire, year 7. . SDOM 348, 28 pluviose, year 10. 349,22 ventôse, year 7; SDOM 347, 4 pluviose, prairial, year 7. year 7; SDOM 33. SDOM 353, 25 floréal, year 8. 34. LDS Family History Center Microfilm 4, Depas-Medina; SDOM SDOM #1095763, 3 floréal, 35. SDOM 348, 9 351, 28 brumaire, year 7. year 36. SDOM germinal, year 7; SDOM 1541, 24 343, 4 germinal, year 5; SDOM 354, ventôse, year 10. 354, 1 nivose, year9. 1 nivose, year 9; SDOM 37. SDOM 36, 13 pluviose, 348 ventôse, year 5; SDOM 346, 11 frimaire, year 7; SDOM 349, 20 floréal, year 7; SDOM floréal, year 8; SDOM 354, 24 frimaire, year 7; SDOM 353, 28 year 9; SDOM 346, 9 brumaire, year 9; SDOM 354, pluviose, SDOM 344, 20 pluviose, year 7; SDOM 345 10 messidor, year 6; SDOM 351, 5 vendémiaire, year 6; SDOM 350, 22 fructidor, year 7; 38. SDOM 1514, 20 year 8. 39. CAOM 5 germinal, year 10. SUPSDOM5, Grande Colline; SDOM SDOM 352, 23 nivôse, year 8; SDOM 343, 3 fructidor, year 5; 1514, 22 germinal, year 10. 354, 22 germinal, year 10; SDOM 40. SDOM 36, 8 fructidor, 354, 20 year 4; SDOM 36, 30 brumaire, pluviôse, year 9. year 5; SDOM 41. SDOM 343, 24 thermidor, 42. SDOM 354, 30 nivôse, year 5; SDOM 343, 21 thermidor, year 5. 43. Madiou, Histoire year 9. 44. d'Haiti, 1:263. Léon-François Hoffimann, Haiti, couleurs, Prince: Editions Henri croyance, créole et Deschamps CIDIHCA, (Port-auArouin, Etudessurlhistoire 1990), 43; Beaubrun 45. Moreau de d'Haiti, 5:18. Saint-Méry, Description, 1235; year 9; SDOM 354 16 nivôse, SDOM 354, 26 frimaire, 46. SDOM 349, 2 messidor, year 9; CAOM 5 SUPSDOM5. 349, 29 messidor, year 7;8 SDOM 352, 11 frimaire, year year 6. 8; SDOM 47. SDOM 351, 28 vendémiaire, SDOM 354, 25 prairial, year 8; SDOM 354, 20 prairial, year 346, 21 year 8; SDOM 353, 21 germinal, 8; brumaire, year 7. year 8; SDOM 48. Michelle Craig Mc Donald, "The chance New West Indies ofthe Moment: Coffee and Commodities Trade, >) The the July 2005 William and Mary Quarterly medonald.html> (November 20, 49. SDOM 345, 2005), pars 22-24. -hEnrata 8 fructidor, year 6. Their names were Simons, Joseph Lecky, and Oliver Joseph Clark, Conrad Fredericksburg Carter; for John Hill Virginia, see from Servan of Norfolk sec SDOM SDOM346, brumaire, year 7. West Indies ofthe Moment: Coffee and Commodities Trade, >) The the July 2005 William and Mary Quarterly medonald.html> (November 20, 49. SDOM 345, 2005), pars 22-24. -hEnrata 8 fructidor, year 6. Their names were Simons, Joseph Lecky, and Oliver Joseph Clark, Conrad Fredericksburg Carter; for John Hill Virginia, see from Servan of Norfolk sec SDOM SDOM346, brumaire, year 7. For Richard 10 frimaire, 347, 7 pluviose, year 7; SDOM year 7; SDOM 346, frimaire, 346, fructidor, year 6; SDOM 344, 10 year 7; SDOM 345, 19 fructidor, year 6. germinal, year 6; SDOM 345, 19 --- Page 375 --- NOTES 50. SDOM 353, 8 floréal, year 8; SDOM 35, June pluviose, year 7. 13, 1794; SDOM 347, 2 51. SDOM 341, July 5, 1785; SDOM 35, May 5, 1790; SDOM 1541, 11 ventôse, October 9, 1794; SDOM 108, 35, September 15, 1794; SDOM year 10 [March 2, 1802]; SDOM 52. SDOM 349,5 floréal, 7. 352, 22 pluviose, year 8. 53. SDOM 353, 8 germinal, year SDOM 342, November 24, year 8; SDOM 1464, February 22, 1783; SDOM 344, 23 frimaire, 1791; sec also SDOM 108, May 6, 54. SDOM 35, April year 6. 1783; prairial, 21, 1794; SDOM 35, May 18, 1794; year 6; SDOM 348, 26 SDOM 345, 25 55. SDOM 35, 19 pluviose, germinal, year 7. 344, 14 floréal, year 3; SDOM 346, 14 frimaire, year year 6; SDOM 344, 15 7; SDOM frimaire, year 7; SDOM 348, 3 ventôse, germinal, year 6; SDOM 346, 4 year 7. year 7; SDOM 348, 16 ventôse, 56. SDOM 348, 12 germinal, SDOM 352, 30 ventôse year 7; SDOM 349, 25 messidor, 353, 10 germinal, , year 8; SDOM353, 8 germinal, year 8; year 7; 57. Pluchon, year 8; SDOM 353, 21 germinal, 8. SDOM Toussaint Louverture year ycar 8; SDOM 354, 10 messidor, (1989), 269-72; SDOM 354, 9 messidor, 58. SDOM 1416, March 21, 1780. year 8. 59. SDOM 133, November 25, 1785. 60. SDOM 1416, October 23, 1780; SDOM Bineau's sister's marriage into the 346, 11 frimaire, year 7. For ventôse, year 8. Casamajor family, see SDOM 352, 13 61. SDOM 342, June 27, 1792; SDOM 342, September 15, 1792; SDOM 342, July 4, 1792; SDOM 342, December 15, 1792. November 25, 1785. 60. SDOM 1416, October 23, 1780; SDOM Bineau's sister's marriage into the 346, 11 frimaire, year 7. For ventôse, year 8. Casamajor family, see SDOM 352, 13 61. SDOM 342, June 27, 1792; SDOM 342, September 15, 1792; SDOM 342, July 4, 1792; SDOM 342, December 15, 1792. October 3, 1792; SDOM 342, 62. SDOM 344, 25 pluviose, 352, 8 ventôse, year 8. year 6; SDOM 345, 27 prairial, year 6; SDOM 63. SDOM 345, 1 thermidor, year 6. 64. The 1795 inventory of the merchant eral record books maintained Guillaume Gandillac listed sev8 ventôse, year 3; SDOM by Cator in 1794 and 1795. SDOM 36, September 1, 1794; SDOM 35, April 21, 1794, August 23, 1794 and 1794. 35, June 13, 1794 to 30 September, 65. SDOM 343, 27 fructidor, year 5; SDOM 66. SDOM 349, 24 floréal, year 55, April 20, 1788. 352, 6 frimaire, year 8 and 30 7; SDOM 350, 24 thermidor, year 7; SDOM year 10. pluviose, year 8; SDOM 355, 4 vendémiaire, 67. SDOM 343, 24 thermidor, 349, 11 prairial, year 5; SDOM 349, 9 floréal, year year 7; SDOM 346, 10 brumaire, 7; SDOM vendémiaire, year 10. year 7; SDOM 355, 68. SDOM 36, 8 ventôse, year 3; Julien 69. SDOM 342, August 28, 1792; SDOM Raimond, Correspondance, 54. Lacroix, La Révolution de Haitied. 35, March 10, 1794; Pamphile de 1995), 153; Raimond, Pierre Pluchon Paris, 1819; Karthala, M. Oriol, Histoire "Mémoire Sur les causes," (1793) et dictionnaire de la 40, 47, 54; and Bernard Gainot, La Société des Amis revolution, 166; Marcel Dorigny UNESCO, 1998a), Dorigny, des Noirs 1788-1799 (Paris: (1998), 333, cites Auguste Kuscinski, --- Page 376 --- NOTES Dictionnaire des conventionnels (Société de I'Histoire française, 1917). de la Révolution 70. Raimond, Rapport de Julien Raimond 41 messidor, year 4; SDOM 354, 19 commissaire (1797), 6; SDOM 36, 71. Julien Raimond, nivôse, year 9. Imprimerie du Cercle Correspondance Social, An de Julien Raimond avec SES frères, (Paris: 72. SDOM 35, 2 nivose, 2, 1793), 89. 73. Stein, Sonthonax year 3; SDOM 35, 4 pluviose, year 3. (1985), 153; SDOM 343, 4 germinal, year 5; SDOM 343, 3 germinal, year 5; SDOM SUPSDOM5; SDOM 344, 17 36, 8 germinal, year 5; CAOM 5 year 7. germinal, year 6; SDOM 347, 30 nivôse, 74. AN DXXV 41 dossier 404; SDOM SDOM 346, 21 brumaire, year 7. uviose, year 3. (1985), 153; SDOM 343, 4 germinal, year 5; SDOM 343, 3 germinal, year 5; SDOM SUPSDOM5; SDOM 344, 17 36, 8 germinal, year 5; CAOM 5 year 7. germinal, year 6; SDOM 347, 30 nivôse, 74. AN DXXV 41 dossier 404; SDOM SDOM 346, 21 brumaire, year 7. 343, 14 thermidor, year 5 [1797]; 75. Escalle and Gouyon Guillaume, Alain LeBihan, "La Franes-macons 3, 110, 113, 124, 128; xvilie siècle," Annales franc-maçonnerie dans les colonies françaises du 44, 46. historiques de la révolution française 46 (1974), 76. Escalle and Guillaume, "Quelques Franes-macons, 124, 165; de aperçus sur l'histoire de la Jacques Cauna, Revue de la société baitienne franc-maçonnerie en Haiti," (September-December d'histoire et de déagraphie 52, 189-190 1996), 30; Caryn Cossé Romanticism, and the Afro-Creole Bell, Revolution, Louisiana, 1718-1868 (Baton Rouge: Protest Tradition in 1997), 154. University of Louisiana Press, 77. LcBihan, "La firanc-maçonnerie dans les "Quelques aperçus, ?> 27. colonies françaises, 92 47; Cauna, 154-55. Grégoire cited in Bell, Revolution, Romanticism, 78. Mimi Sheller, "Sword- Bearing Citizens: Ninetenth-Century Haiti," Plantation Militarism and Manhood in (Fall, 1997), 252-54; Cauna, Society in the Americas 4, 2-3 79. Bernard Andrès, "Les "Quelques aperçus," > 30. maçonnique dans les manuscrits d'un Albigeois: de la pétitions québécoises de Pierre de signature (1778-1782)," in Jacinthe Martel et Robert Sales Laterrière lecture, invention. Mélanges de Melançon, eds. Inventaire, à Bernard Beugnot (Montréal: critique et d'histoire littéraires offerts 80. Edrick Richemond, "Toussaint Université de Montréal, 1999), 123-24. and a question about his signature,' Louverture: The creation of an icon signture.html (July 13, 2005). This MArLEma masonic Toussaint'sa approval ofa plantation sale in 1801. signature can be seen in aire, year 10. SDOM 355, 4 vendémi81. Janet M. Burke and Margaret C. Jacob, Feminist Scholarship, 7> The Journal "French Freemasonry, Women, and 1996), 527,536. of Modern History 68, 3 (September 82. SDOM 1464, October 15, 1783; SDOM SDOM 1464, September 9, 1783; SDOM 1465, December 10, 1785; SDOM 345, 30 prairial, year 6; SDOM 1428, January 14, 1789; 83. ANJ Dxxv 28, Dossier 288 for 342, September 2, 1791. 404 for appointment of Dunoizé notary Billard's departure; AN Dxxv41 dossier October 1793; SDOM 35, March to the post of notary in Fond des Nègres in SDOM 35, 2, 1794; SDOM 35, February 5, 1794. SDOM 36, 17 pluviose, September 9, 1793; year 5. --- Page 377 --- NOTES 84. Dxxv 28, Dossier 288 for 342, September 2, 1791. 404 for appointment of Dunoizé notary Billard's departure; AN Dxxv41 dossier October 1793; SDOM 35, March to the post of notary in Fond des Nègres in SDOM 35, 2, 1794; SDOM 35, February 5, 1794. SDOM 36, 17 pluviose, September 9, 1793; year 5. --- Page 377 --- NOTES 84. CAOM 5 SUPSDOM5; SDOM messidor, year 9. For his masonic 352, 18 nivose, year 8; SDOM 355, 8 nal,y year 10. In 1803, the French signature, see SDOM 1541, 22 germiAquin's militia against the executed Jousseaume for failing to lead Louis. Fick, Making of Haiti, anti-imperial forces who had captured Saint 85. SDOM 354, 5 messidor, 219-220. 86. Also SDOM 352, 26 year 8, and 10 messidor, year 8. SDOM 348, 22 ventôse, nivose, year 8; SDOM 354, 29 nivose, year 9; tidor, year 9. year 7 [March 2, 1799] ]; SDOM 355, 21 fruc87. SDOM 1541, 6 prairial,) year 10; SDOM Henry in 1783, see SDOM 343, 7 fructidor, year 5; for N. nivose, year 5. 1418, 2 January 1783; SDOM 36, 13 88. Louis Gallois came from Grand-Goâve collect debts for him in to ask Aquin's Pierre Bonnefils to André Icard, from Baltimore; SDOM 348, 12 germinal, 7; Nippes, did the same in SDOM year 7; SDOM 346, 21 brumaire, 348, 27 germinal, year SDOM 351, 12 brumaire, year 7; SDOM 346, 5 frimaire, year 7; 35, August 21, 1794; SDOM year 8; SDOM 35,. August 30, 1794; SDOM 89. SDOM 351, 14 351, 28 vendémiaire, year 8. SDOM 344, 29 brumaire, year 8; SDOM 344, 25 pluviose, 348, 28 pluviose, year 6; SDOM 344, 22 nivôse, year 6; germinal, year 7; SDOM 346, 23 year 6; SDOM 15 pluviose, year 7; SDOM 354, 9 frimaire, year 7; SDOM 347, floréal, year 7. messidor, year 8; SDOM 349, 21 90. Cauna, "Quelques aperçus," > 22; SDOM 91. Escalle, Erancs-macons, 128, 394. 1464, September 28, 1780. 92. Ibid., 120, 132-33. 93. SDOM 342, August 13, 1791; SDOM 94. SDOM 343, 10; prairial, year 5; SDOM 36, 18 pluviose, year 4. viôse, year 9; SDOM 351, 15 354, 11 nivose, year 9 and 11 pluyear 9. brumaire, year 8; SDOM 355, 27 prairial, 95. SDOM 348, 28 ventôse, notary Cartier noted documents year 7; SDOM 352, 3 frimaire, year 8. The retook by a Chabrier when possession of his planation and the Joseph Montbrun "Chabuin" as the manager of the 72-worker 1798 census listed a SDOM 344, 20 ventôse, year 6. 9 and 11 pluyear 9. brumaire, year 8; SDOM 355, 27 prairial, 95. SDOM 348, 28 ventôse, notary Cartier noted documents year 7; SDOM 352, 3 frimaire, year 8. The retook by a Chabrier when possession of his planation and the Joseph Montbrun "Chabuin" as the manager of the 72-worker 1798 census listed a SDOM 344, 20 ventôse, year 6. Montbrun plantation; 96. SDM 1416, February 19, 1781; SDOM July 7, 1785. 1465, January 10, 1785 and 97. SDOM 348, 28 ventôse, year 7. 98. SDOM 353, 26 germinal, SDOM 345, 7 fructidor, year 8; SDOM 349, 22 prairial, year 99. SDOM year 6. 7; 100. SDOM 355, 26 messidor, year 9; SDOM 342, December 342, December 18, 1792. 15, 1792. 101. SDOM 342, October 3, 1792. 102. SDOM 1514, 7 thermidor, 103. All of the following year 10. CAOM 5 SUPSDOM discussion is based on the 1798 census 5. data in 104. SDOM 351, 9 vendémiaire, 105. SDOM 1423, February year 8, and 13 vendémiaire, year 8. 106. SDOM 349, 10 prairial, 16, 1786; SDOM 353, 16 germinal, year 8. 3, 1792. 102. SDOM 1514, 7 thermidor, 103. All of the following year 10. CAOM 5 SUPSDOM discussion is based on the 1798 census 5. data in 104. SDOM 351, 9 vendémiaire, 105. SDOM 1423, February year 8, and 13 vendémiaire, year 8. 106. SDOM 349, 10 prairial, 16, 1786; SDOM 353, 16 germinal, year 8. F. Laborde, Lettre year 7; SDOM 108, November à M. J. P. Brissot de Warville 17, 1785; P. B. (Paris:1792), 9-10, --- Page 378 --- NOTES named olution "Malbranches" in among the leading men of color in the Aquin carly rev107. SDOM 343, 15 vendémiaire, year 6; SDOM 353, 16 germinal, year 8. EPILOGUE 1. Pluchon, Toussaint (1989), 265-273; Révolution de Haiti (Mémoires Pamphile de Lacroix, La Saint-Dominge), ed. Pierre pourservir à Phistoire de la Révolution de 228-30; Fick, The Making Pluchon (Paris: 1819; Karthala, 1995), 2. Yves Benot, La Démence ofHaiti, 205. La Découverte, 1992), 68, coloniale sous Napoléon (Paris: Editions Marcel B. Auguste, L'Expédition 184-189; Claude B. Auguste and Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince: 3. Madiou Histoire, 2: 193-201. 1985), 22-26. 4. Benot, La Démence coloniale, 21. 5. University of Florida, Rochambeau Auguste, L'Espédition Leclerc, 7; Benot, papers, La no. 2194; Auguste and Pamphile de Lacroix, La Révolution de Démence coloniale, 22; believe the charges and maintained that Haiti, 259. Lacroix did not idea of autonomy before Raimond's Toussaint had developed the 6. Benot, La Démence coloniale, arrival. (1989),4 413. 35; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture 7. Benot La Démence coloniale, 24, 27. 8. Benot, La Démence coloniale, 57-59; Phistoire d'Haiti, 5:4, 8-9; Benot, La Démence Beaubrun Ardouin, Études sur Baudry des Lozières, Les Egarements du coloniale, 193-94, cites 9. Benot, La Démence coloniale, 40, négrophilism. Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave 72-74, 75; Laurent Dubois, "A Caribbean, 1787-1804 (Chapel Hill: Emancipation in the French 2004), 358-62, 393, 404. University of North Carolina, 10. Benot, La Démence coloniale, 25-27, 58; d'Haiti, 5: 27,2 28. Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire 11. Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti, 12. Auguste and Auguste, 342, 348-50. Révolution de Haiti, 360, L'Eapédition 362, 368; Leclerc, 183-186; Lacroix, La 81; Ardouin, Erudes sur Phistoire Benot, La Démence coloniale, 78, 13. Auguste and Auguste, d'Haiti, 5: 63. de Haiti, 360, 367, 368; L'Expédition Leclerc, 204; Lacroix, La Révolution Etudes, 61. Benot, La Démence coloniale, 82; Ardouin, 14. Auguste and Auguste, 15. David Nicholls, From Dessalines L'Espédition Leclerc, 227, 237, 236-238. Haiti, 369, 372,377:Auguste. to Duvalier, 33; Lacroix, La Révolution de 16. Benot, La Démence coloniale, andAuguste, L'Espédition Leclerc, 247-48. L'Espédition Leclerc, 267. For 83, 85, 88; Auguste and Auguste, women in Port-au-Prince and stated Rochambeau's taunting of mulatto Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti, preference for black allies, see L'Expédition Leclerc, 273. 347; Auguste and Auguste, 17. University of Florida, Rochambeau papers, no. 1331. La Démence coloniale, andAuguste, L'Espédition Leclerc, 247-48. L'Espédition Leclerc, 267. For 83, 85, 88; Auguste and Auguste, women in Port-au-Prince and stated Rochambeau's taunting of mulatto Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti, preference for black allies, see L'Expédition Leclerc, 273. 347; Auguste and Auguste, 17. University of Florida, Rochambeau papers, no. 1331. --- Page 379 --- NOTES Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire d'Haiti, 5: 18. Fick, The Making of Haiti, 23; 77,83. 5:79-80; Lacroix, La Révolution de 19. Ardouin, Études sur Phistoire d'Haiti, L'Expédition Leclerc, 287; Thomas Haiti, 277-80; Auguste and Auguste, Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 3:108-25. 36; Madiou, Histoire, David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier, 20. 3:144-145. Mémoires pour 21. Pierre Buteau, *Preface" to Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, Editions Antilles, 1991), 6. servir à Phistoire d'Haiti (Port- au-Prince: 1432, January 17, 1791; SDOM 22. AN Dxxv 111 dr 880 piece 3 SDOM 1596, March 20, 1780. 4 February, 1769; AN Dxxv 110, 23. AN Col. F3 182, d'Argout to Rohan, "Correspondance de Raimond." 24. Raimond, Correspondante, 89. Société des Amis des Noirs 1788-1799 (Paris: La 25. Gainot, "Introduction," 317-18, 333. UNESCO, 1998), 311-13, Michel Acacia, *Preface" in Louis 26. SDOM 350, 13 fructidor, year 7; servir à Phistoire d'Haiti (Port-auBoisrond-Tonnerre, Mémoires pour Prince: Editions Antilles, 1991). of Haiti," New West Indian 27. David P. Geggus, "The Naming (1997), : 54. Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids71,182 28. Dubois, A Colony ofCitizens, 400. 29. Madiou, Histoire, 3:146-50. by Dessalines, see Ardouin, Érudessur 30. On the creation ofthe Haitian flag 1793 at the Paris Jacobin Phistoire d'Haiti, 5: 83; on the June appearance a tricolor flag whose club of an ex-slave from Saint-Domingue colored carrying man, under the motto bands each bore the image of a different révolution union fera notre force," > see Florence Gauthier, "La "notre coloniale: le *cas Robespierre'," Annales hisfrançaise et le problème 288 (avril-juin 1992), 179-80. On the toriques de la révolution française in Laurent Dubois, "A Colony of creation of a similar flag in Guadeloupe Citizens, 400. 31. "Madiou, Histoire, 3: 546-53." de couleur et nigres libres ( (1791),7. 32. "Grégoire, Lettre aux citoyens La "notre coloniale: le *cas Robespierre'," Annales hisfrançaise et le problème 288 (avril-juin 1992), 179-80. On the toriques de la révolution française in Laurent Dubois, "A Colony of creation of a similar flag in Guadeloupe Citizens, 400. 31. "Madiou, Histoire, 3: 546-53." de couleur et nigres libres ( (1791),7. 32. "Grégoire, Lettre aux citoyens --- Page 380 --- BIBLIOGRAPHY ARCHIVAL SOURCES Aix-en-Provence, Centre des Archives d'Outre Mer, Notarial Records 1760-69,Aquin Belin du Ressort, registers 102-103 Casamajor, register 359 Daudin de Belair, registers 428-431 1760-69, Les Caycs Berton, registers 128-131 Bugaret, registers 314-328 Clouct de Bruc, register 394 Duvernay, register 439 Labarrière, register 1136 Ladoué, register 1153 Legendre, register 1210-1225 Legout, register 1249-1252 Mercent, register 1370 1760-69, Saint Louis Cheret de Mongrain, register 388 Constans, register 400 Grandval, register 807 Jacquesson, register 1128 Laroque, register 1194 1760-69, Nippes Beaulieu, registers 94-98 Dupuis de Laveau, registers 586-591 Sennebier, register 1570 1780-89, Aquin Barnabe de Veyrier registers 54-55 Belin du Ressort, registers 108 Bierre, register 132-133 Cartier, register 340-41 Monneront, register 1416-1429 Paillou, register 1464-65 Sibire de Morville, 1605 1780-89, Les Cayes Carré, register 333-338 Scovaud [Séovaud], register 1596-1603 nebier, register 1570 1780-89, Aquin Barnabe de Veyrier registers 54-55 Belin du Ressort, registers 108 Bierre, register 132-133 Cartier, register 340-41 Monneront, register 1416-1429 Paillou, register 1464-65 Sibire de Morville, 1605 1780-89, Les Cayes Carré, register 333-338 Scovaud [Séovaud], register 1596-1603 --- Page 381 --- BIBLIOGRAPHY 1780-89, Nippes, Gaudin, register 745-754 1790-1803, Aquin Allegre [Anègre] registers 35, 36 Pineau, register 1514 Cartier, registers 341-355 Additional materials from the Centre des Archives d' Outre Mer Censuses: series G'509 Supplemental series from Saint-Domingue 5 SUPSDOM 5 Colonial Series E personnel records Collection Moreau de Saint-Méry Répertoire alphabétique des notions colonials, F373- F377 F145-F150 F175-F182 F188-F196 Administrative correspondence Colonie CA119-C2A137 Colonie C"17-C"17bis Colonie D241 Paris, Archives Nationales Series Dxxv, Revolutionary dossiers Rochambeau papers 135 AP Vincennes, Service Historique de Parmée de la terre Series Xi carton 1, 72, 76, 80 Series Xk, carton 22 16ycIII 126 Gainesville, Florida; University of Florida Rochambeau papers Printed Primary Sources Amis des Noirs. 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"De l'origine du préjugé Rogers, d'Histoire (Paris) 90, 340-341 (2003): 83-101. Revue "Les libres de couleur dans les capitales de Saint-Domingue: Rogers, Dominique. à la fin de l'ancien régime (1776-1789)." Fortune, mentalités et intégration Unpublished manuscript. 2005. Caribbean: From the Arawak and Carib to Rogozinski, Jan. A Briefl History ofthe the Present. New York: Meridian, 1992. and Freedom in Brazil. A. J. R. The Black Man in Slavery Russell- Wood, Press, 1982. New York: St Martin's France: The Naturalization of Foreigners, Sahlins, Peter. <Fictions ofa Catholic (1994): 85-110. 1685-1787." Representations47 France and Spain in the Pyrenees. Sahlins, Peter. Boundaries The Making of Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. de Canaan. Paris: Presses Sala-Molins, Louis. Le Code Noir O1 le Calvaire Universitaires de France, 1987. Black Publics and Peasant Radicalism in Sheller, Mimi. Democracy After Slavery: University of Florida Press, 2000. Haiti and Jamaica. Gainesville: of Difference: Race and Sex in EighteenthShiebinger, Londa. "The Anatomy Studies 23 (Summer 1990): 387-405. Century Science." " Eightecnth-ConturyThe Free Coloured of Jamaica Sio, Arnold A. "Race, Colour, and Miscegenation: 5-21. and Barbados." " Caribbean Studies 16 (1976): Identity in Caribbean Slave A. *Marginality and Free Coloured Sio. Arnold 166-182. Society. > Slavery and Abolition 1987): the Free Women of Color of Cap Socolow, Susan M. "Economic Roles of Women and Slaveryin the Americas, eds. Français." " In More than Chattel: Black 279-297. Bloomington, IN: Darlene Clark Hine and David Barry Gaspar. Indiana University Press, 1996. Business in the Eighteenth Century. Baton Stein, Robert Louis. The French Sugar Press, 1988. Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Sonthonax the Lost Sentinel of the Republic. Stein, Robert Louis. Léger Félicité University Press, 1985. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Black St. Domingo Legion Saved the Patriot Steward, Theophilus Gould. "How the 1779. > In Occasional Papers, No. 5, American Army in the Siege of Savannah, American Negro Academy, 1899. Negro Academy. Washington, D.C.: The Ambivalent Place of Sturz, Linda. * 'A Very Nuisance to the Community': Century, > Paper prepared Freeds in Jamaican Free Society in the Eighteenth Association of Caribbean Historians; for the 31st annual conference of the Havana Cuba, April 11-17, 1999. The in the Americas. New York: Frank. Slave and Citizen: Negro Tannenbaum, A.A. Knopf, 1947. de couleur libres à la Guyane à la fin du XVIIIe Tarrade, Jean. *Affranchis et gens Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer siècle, d'après les minutes des notaires." 49 (1962) ): 80-116. colonial de la France à la fin de Pancien régime: Tarrade, Jean. Le commerce de 1763 à 1789. Paris: Presses Universitaires L'évolution du régime de PExclusif de France, 1972. . de couleur libres à la Guyane à la fin du XVIIIe Tarrade, Jean. *Affranchis et gens Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer siècle, d'après les minutes des notaires." 49 (1962) ): 80-116. colonial de la France à la fin de Pancien régime: Tarrade, Jean. Le commerce de 1763 à 1789. Paris: Presses Universitaires L'évolution du régime de PExclusif de France, 1972. --- Page 391 --- BIBLIOGRAPHY Thornton, John K. "African Soldiers in the Haitian Revolution. 22 Journal of Caribbean History (Barbados) 25,1 1 and 2 (1991 ): 59-80. Thornton, John K. < I am the Subject of the King of Congo': African Political Ideology and the Haitian Revolution. >> Journal of World History 4, 2 (1993): 181-214. Thésée, Françoise. "Les assemblées paroissiales des Cayes à St. Domingue (1774-1793)." Revue de la société baitienne d'histoire et degéographic 40, 137 (décembre 1982): 5-179. Trouillot, Michel- Rolph. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995. Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. "Motion in the System: Coffee, Color, and Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Saint -Domingue. >> Review 5 (1982): 331-388. Verge-Franceschi, Michel. "Fortune et plantations des administrateurs coloniaux aux iles d'amérique aux xviie ct xviiie siècles. >> In Commerce et plantation dans la Caraibe xviite etxixe siècles, ed. Paul Butel. 115-142. Bordeaux: Maison des pays ibériques, 1992. Watson, Alan. Slave Law in the Americas. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1989. entury Saint -Domingue. >> Review 5 (1982): 331-388. Verge-Franceschi, Michel. "Fortune et plantations des administrateurs coloniaux aux iles d'amérique aux xviie ct xviiie siècles. >> In Commerce et plantation dans la Caraibe xviite etxixe siècles, ed. Paul Butel. 115-142. Bordeaux: Maison des pays ibériques, 1992. Watson, Alan. Slave Law in the Americas. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1989. --- Page 392 --- INDEX Acquiez, Anne Dominique, 75-76 Arcahaie, town of, 266, 268, 282 Agathe, 200 Argout, Robert d', 132-133, 134, Alabré, Joseph, 250 135, 136, 137, 138, 178 Alabré, Marie Françoise, 250 Arnaud, Mademoiselle, 76 Alexandre, member of crew, 94 Arthaud, Charles, 221, 222 Alexis, François, 200 Asile/Lazile, 103, 273, 274, 275, Allegre, Antoine, notary, 275, 293 276, 277, 278, 299 Alphonse, François, 276, 289 Aubert, Jean, 276, 277, 295 Amis des noirs, see Friends of the Aubert, Joseph, 202 Blacks Auguste, slave of the Bambara Anderson, Fred, 110 nation, 102-103 Angelique, 144 Augustine, known as Affiba, 200 Anglade, Jean-Baptiste, 275 Augustine, nephew of Denés, 281 Anglade, Joseph, 166-167, 266 Autichamp, Count d', 153 Anglade, Laurent, 266 Aya, Marie, 199 Anglade cstate, 282 Angoulême, 236 Bainet parish, 47, 48, 67, 293 Angoumois, 234, 236 Baltimore, 286, 294 Anse à Veau, town and parish, 74, Barbier, Jean, 94, 100 75, 78, 80, 174, 192, 193, Barbier, Marie Louise, 94, 100 203, 205, 295 Barbier, Pierre, 275, 276, 278 Antoine, 250 Barbier, Victoire, 94, 100 Apprenticeship, 71 Barnave, Antoine, 255-256 Aquin, town and parish, 28, 36, Baronnet, Louis, 295, 296, 297 38, 44, 48, 51, 64, 66-69, 71, Barrère, 157 76, 77, 78, 80, 99, 121, 132, Baudry, 231 166, 169, 174, 175, 177, 180, Baudry des Lozières, General 183, 185, 188, 190, 193, 195, Narcisse, 305 196, 200, 205, 217, 229, 230, Baugé, 91, 180 231, 234, 236, 238, 242, 245, Beausire family, 71 247, 248, 252, 253, 259, 260, Beauvais, Joseph, 89-90, 105 261, 262, 263, 265, 267, 272, Begasse, François and family, 1,47, 273, 277, 279, 280, 287-289, 67, 326 [note 110] 307,310 Begasse, Marie, see Raymond, Marie, Port, 75 183-184, 274, 283-286, née Begasse Belair, Charles, 306 248, 252, 253, 259, 260, Beauvais, Joseph, 89-90, 105 261, 262, 263, 265, 267, 272, Begasse, François and family, 1,47, 273, 277, 279, 280, 287-289, 67, 326 [note 110] 307,310 Begasse, Marie, see Raymond, Marie, Port, 75 183-184, 274, 283-286, née Begasse Belair, Charles, 306 --- Page 393 --- INDEX Boisrond, Marie Adelaide, 71 Bélhoc, Joseph François, 193 Boisrond, Marie François, 71 Bellecombe, Guillaume Leonard de, Boisrond, Mathurin, 187, 188, 216, 217, 218, 234 189, 308 Belzunce, Vicomte de, 115, 118 Boisrond, Toussaint, 289 Benjamin, Alexandre, 87 Boisrond-Tonnerre, Louis, 18, 19, Benjamin, Jacques, 87 189, 267, 276, 308 Bernadine, 281 Boisrond family, 70, 71, 138, Berquin, Eustache, 105-106, 148, 217 [note 60] Boissé, Marie Rose, the widow Bertrand, Michel, 200 Lecomte, 188, 349 [note 52] Bety, Marie, 76-77 Boissé, see Bossé, Jeanne and Gaspard Beutier, Louis, 274-275, 287, Bonhomme, see Fossé, Philippe 288, 293 Bonneaux, Jean-I Baptiste, 300 Bin, Marion, 75 60] Bonnefils, Pierre, 274, 285-286, Bineau, Pierre, 287, 364 [note 294, 297, 366 [note 88] Blancheland, Philibert François Borgnet, 340 [note 97] Rouxel de, Governor, 233, Bory, Gabriel de, 114, 115, 116, 246, 247, 248, 249, 259, 260 335 [note 15] Bleck, Guillaume, 252 233, Bossé, Gaspard, 48 Bleck, Hyacinth, 189, 193, 215, Bossé, Jeanne and Gaspard, 48, 237,245, 246, 250, 252, 259 80, 132 Bleschamps, Charles de, 266-267, Bossé, Jean Joseph Lavoille, Boats 310 and ships, 22, 24, 37, 74, 75, 200-201 Rose 77, 94, 121, 147, 200, Bossi, see Dessa, Cecille, 57, 328 208-209, 217, 283-286 Boucheauneau, 27] From United States, 77, 286 [note Etienne, 358 [note 54] Bodkin plantation, 273, 289 Bouet, Guillaume, 62 Bodou, cadet, 340 [note 97] Bougeait, Jean, 62 Bongars, Alexandre Ludwig de, 216 Bougeait, Etienne, 133, 339 Bordeaux, 1, 38, 73, 121, 337 [note Bourdet, 87] 38], 159, 166, 172, 182, 214, [note Jean, 133-134 218, 220, 234, 243, 246, 249, Bourdet, Jean-Baptiste, 88 258, 277, 280, 284, 295, 323 Bourelier, Louis, 88 Bourelier, [note 70] Antoine, 191 Boisron, Marie Catherine, 148 Bouriquaud, Alexis, 97, 138, 399 Boisrond, Claude François, 71, 177, Boury, 87] [note 187, 188 Boury, Antoine, 340 [note 97] Boisrond, Ebé, 308 Boury, cadet, 340 [note 97] Boisrond, François, 71, 132, Boury, Elic, 248, 249, 250, 251, 187, 309 252, 307 Boisrond, Laurent, 279 Boury, Jacques, French colonist, Boisrond, Louis-François, 187-188, 97-98 200, 229, 232, 237-238, Boury, Jacques, man of color, 78, 244-245, 252, 289, 308, 98, 99, 100, 109, 123, 309-310 , 132, Boury, Elic, 248, 249, 250, 251, 187, 309 252, 307 Boisrond, Laurent, 279 Boury, Jacques, French colonist, Boisrond, Louis-François, 187-188, 97-98 200, 229, 232, 237-238, Boury, Jacques, man of color, 78, 244-245, 252, 289, 308, 98, 99, 100, 109, 123, 309-310 --- Page 394 --- INDEX 132-133, 134, 135, 138, Cartagena, 6, 25, 43, 95, 205 188, 244, 247, 252, 333 Carter, Oliver, 363 [note 49] [note 39], 339 [note 80], Castera Davezac, 272 339 [note 87] Castries, Charles-Eugène Gabriel, Boury, Marie Anne Louise, 98 209, 216, 218, 219, 220, Boury, René, 138, 190, 339 221, 234, 238 [note 87] Casamajor, David, 183, 299 Braquehais, Pierre, 71, 245, 358 Casamajor, François, 285, 299 [note 53] Casamajor, Jacques Joseph, Brazil, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 218, 311 287, 299 Bretet, 340 [note 97] Casamajor, Jeanne, 299 Brilloin, François, 77 Casamajor, Joseph, 299 Brissot, Jacques-I Pierre, 234, 240, Casamajor, Marie Catherine, 300 242, 243, 244, 253, 254 Casamajor, Marie Magdelaine, sister Bromand, François, 280 of Pierre Casamajor, 299 Brosseard, François, 73 Casamajor, Marie Jeanne, 285, Brueys d'Aigailliers, Gabriel, 28, 57, 286, 297 120, 152, 153, 154 Casamajor, Marie Rose, 51, Brun, Dominique, 275 183, 184 Brun, François, 296, 297 Casamajor, Mathurin, 287 Buissere, Gabriel, 334 [note 45] Casamajor, Pierre, 51, 52, 183, Buccaneers, 21, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 285, 299 30, 33-34, 44, 78, 118 Casamajor, Rose, 299 Buffon, 156, 253 Castelpers, 340 [note 97] Cathos, 88 Cacao, 21, 24, 36, 38, 76 Catin, 77 Cambri, 340 [note 97] Cator, Jean Augustin the younger, Canard, 91, 333-334 [note 39] 288-289, 293 Canard, Julien, 61, 98 Caudère, 246, 252 Cange, Pierre, 307 Cavaillon parish, 71, 174, 187-188, Cap Français, 26, 37, 53, 54, 95, 205, 245, 247, 261, 265, 99, 115, 119, 124, 126, 141, 290, 295, 310 142, 143, 147, 155, 163, 167, Cercle des Philadelphes, 221, 175, 176, 178, 180, 187, 192, 222, 224 195-196, 198, 205, 208, 209, César, Jean-Baptiste, 199 210, 211, 213, 215, 221-223, Chabrier, Joseph, 296-297,366 224, 228, 230, 233, 236, 249, [note 96] 259, 260, 262, 268, 283, 289, Challe, Françoise Dasmard, see 290, 291, 304 Dasmard, Françoise Council of, 40, 42, 122, 128, Challe, Jacques, 64, 68, 171, 297 164, 165 Challe, Jacques-Joseph, 242, 357 Caracas, 36, 193 [note 41] Carenan, Denis, 83 Challe, Louise Françoise, 172 Carenan, Marie Roze, 332 [note 3] Chalvière, Joseph Antoine, 194 Carenan, Paul, 83-84, 86, 167 Chalvière 40, 42, 122, 128, Challe, Jacques, 64, 68, 171, 297 164, 165 Challe, Jacques-Joseph, 242, 357 Caracas, 36, 193 [note 41] Carenan, Denis, 83 Challe, Louise Françoise, 172 Carenan, Marie Roze, 332 [note 3] Chalvière, Joseph Antoine, 194 Carenan, Paul, 83-84, 86, 167 Chalvière , Louis François, 193, 194, Carmagnolle, Joseph, 297 233, 237, 350 [note 71] --- Page 395 --- INDEX Chamillard Dewarville, Alexandre Cocoyer, Marie Magdelaine, 85 Henry, 299 Coffec, 76, 77, 119, 173-174, 175, Chamoux, 136 189, 191-192, 275, 276, 278, Chapuiset, 164 279, 280, 284, 286, 296, Charéron, 308 297, 299 Charleston, South Carolina, 210 Frec coloreds as coffee growers, Charpentier, Joseph, see Saubiac, see Free pcople of color, Joseph Charpentier coffee growing Charpentier Destournelles Cohen, David W., 10 plantation, 272 Collet, Philippe, 246 Chasseurs royaux, 211-213, 215 Colline à Mangon, 122, 299-300 Chasseurs volontaires, 115-116, 118, Colombel, 262 206-210, 214, 215 Constabulary, sec Maréchaussée see also Frec People ofColor, Corassol, Marie, mother of militia service Jacques, 76 Chatleier, Blaise, 300 Cornet, 134 Chatelier, Jean, 300 Cournan, Abbé, 242 Chatelier, Joseph, 300 Cotton, 67, 76, 174, 175, 184, Chatelier, Marie Jean 185, 186, 190, 276, 277,279, Chatry, Jean, 144 289, 293, 296 Chavannes, Auguste, 288 Cotteaux parish, 134, 135, 136, Chevalier, 340 [note 97] 138, 174 Choiseul, Duke de, 114, 117, 120, Creole, 9, 22, 33, 34, 47, 49-50, 122, 124, 127, 128, 130, 159, 52, 58, 110, 112, 122, 129, 208, 231 131, 144, 147, 156, 172, 334 Christophe, Henri, 306, 307 [note 49] Ciprien, 279 Croix des Bouquets parish, Citizen and citizenship, 7, 8, 16, 17, 180, 262 19, 83-84, 95, 106, 109, 120, Cunningham, John, 284, 286 123, 124, 130, 133, 134, 138, Cupidon, Gilles, 280-281 143, 145, 149-151, 201, 206, Curaçao, 28, 38, 52, 70, 75, 76, 209, 219, 238-239, 247, 249, 120, 122, 166, 172, 175, 258-259 183-184, 193, 217, 283, Citizenship in the Revolutionary 284, 285 period, 232, 237, 240, 268 Clark, Joseph, 284, 363 [note 49] Damaza, Louis, 280 Clarkson, Thomas, 240 Dantan, 340 [note 97] Claude, Pierre, 74 Dantue, Joseph, 65 Claude Affricaine, 272 Dasmar, Louis, see Damaza, Louis Claudot, Louis, 287-288 Dasmard, Françoise, 64, 171, 179, Clavier, Madelaine, 86 182, 218, 297 Clemence, Genevieve, 192 Dasmard, Julie, 64, 68, 171 Clerveaux, Augustin, 306, 307 Dasmard, Pierre, 64, 99 Clugny, Jean Bernard de, 114, 116 Dasque, Jacques, 135, 190 Coastal trading, see Boats and ships Dasque, Jean Jacques, 186, 248, Cocoyer, Cecille, 191 250, 251, 252, 259 182, 218, 297 Clemence, Genevieve, 192 Dasmard, Julie, 64, 68, 171 Clerveaux, Augustin, 306, 307 Dasmard, Pierre, 64, 99 Clugny, Jean Bernard de, 114, 116 Dasque, Jacques, 135, 190 Coastal trading, see Boats and ships Dasque, Jean Jacques, 186, 248, Cocoyer, Cecille, 191 250, 251, 252, 259 --- Page 396 --- INDEX Daure, Hector, 307 Depas family, 37,38, 121, 166 Dayan, Joan, 12, 13 see also Garcia Depas family; Debien, Gabriel, 14-15 Lopez Depas for Michel, Debreuil, Marie, 78 François, and Philippe Decopin, Jean Caton, 166 Depas-Medina family, 179,217, Decopin Degourdet, Jean 280, 285 Catherine, 287 DePauw, Cornelius, 156 Dedé, Genéviève, 266, 287 Deronseray, 75 Deeds of gift, 65 see also Ronseray, Joseph de Dégéac, Anne, 200 Descoubes, Alexis, 68 Dégéac, Elizabeth, 61, 98 Descourtilz, Michel, 78, 79, 202 Degler, Carl, 9-10 Desgrottes, 340 [note 97] Delagautray, 87 Dessalines, Jean-Jaques, 303, 306, Delaumeau, 262 307, 308 Delaunay, François, 289 Desmier d'Olbreuse, Bernard, Delaunay, François Julien, 289 278, 297 Delaunay, Françoise, 100, 132 Desportes, 101-102 Delaunay, Jacques, 132-134, Desrouaudieres, 339 [note 83], 340 136, 138, 185, 339 [note 97] [note 80] see also Masson Desroudières Delaunay, Julien, 70, 80, 100, 132, Dessa, Rose, 246 185, 188, 288 Desvergers, 134 Delaunay, Louis and George, 48 Dexéa, Louis, 276 Delaunay, Marie Jeanne, 83-84, 168 Dondasne, Pierre Joseph, 298 Delaunay, Marie Luce Jeanne Doria, Fastine, 266 Elizabeth, 288-289 Drouet, Charles and Julien, 148 Delaunay, Marie Rose, 66 Drouin de Bercy, 202 Delaunay, Pierre, 48 Dubignon, 87 Delaunay, Thomas, 48 Dubois, Laurent, 16, 228, 361 Delaunay family, 300 [note 6] Delmas, 101 Dubourg, François, 59 Delmas Kerifal, Balthazar, 295 Duc, 340 note 97] Delpech, 270, 307 Dufourq, 262 Denés, 281 Dufrettey plantation, 272, 273, Depas, Antoine, 280, 281, 282, 288 293, 297 Dugué, 134 Depas, Paul, 262, 280 Duhard, Jean-Baptiste Masson, Depas-Joseph, François Joseph, 250, 251 280, 281 Dumoulin, Michel, 294, 297 Depas-Medina, Antoine, see Depas, Dumoulin estate, 248 Antoine Dunoizé, notary, 365 [note 83] Depas-Medina, Jean-Baptiste, 297 Dupetithouars, Charles, 207 Depas-Medina, Jean Louis, 280, Dupuy, François, 66 293-294, 295, 301 Durand, 101-102 Depas-Medina, Michel, 121, 122, Dutertre, 41 166, 182-183, 280 Duteuil, Louise, 97 oulin estate, 248 Antoine Dunoizé, notary, 365 [note 83] Depas-Medina, Jean-Baptiste, 297 Dupetithouars, Charles, 207 Depas-Medina, Jean Louis, 280, Dupuy, François, 66 293-294, 295, 301 Durand, 101-102 Depas-Medina, Michel, 121, 122, Dutertre, 41 166, 182-183, 280 Duteuil, Louise, 97 --- Page 397 --- INDEX Duteuil, Marie Catherine, 339 Francillon, Michel, 288, 297-298 [note 87] Free people of color Duval, Michel, 62 Accepted as "white,' >> 1,6, 7,8, 14, 44, 47 Education, 1, 47, 57-58, 67, 147, Attitudes toward slaves, 53, 58, 192, 242, 253, 290-291, 308, 73, 74, 89, 91, 100, 102, 309, 328 [note 27] 176, 182, 202-203, 242, see also Literacy 269-270, Encyclopédic, 215, 219 Coffee growing, 173, 189-190, Engeran, Pierre, 294 279,293 Erbaf, Jeannet, 166 In commerce, 74, 75, 77 Erique, Nicolas, 294, 297 In different slave societies, Errard, see Hérard compared, 5-7 Estaing, Chardes-Henni-Hector, Discrimination against, 1, 22, count d', 86, 87, 119-124, 41-42, 113, 123, 162, 126, 127, 128, 129, 149, 151, 209-221, 214 152, 162, 182, 205, 208-210, Free blacks and ex- slaves, 43, 59, 213, 215, 222, 234, 246, 259 72, 81, 101, 105, 168, 173, 191, 199-200, 201-204, Fabre, Fulerant, 166 214, 215, 222, 227-228, Fabre, Henriette, 75 240, 298 Fabre, Jaques, 251 Free mulattos and other people of Faodas, 262 mixed ancestry, 43, 45 Farin, François, 96-97 Gender issues, 44-49, 53, 56, 60, Fauvil, Jean-Baptiste, 87 72, 87, 107-108, 143, 156, Felix family, 187 150, 180, 197, 219, 231, Fequière, Alexandre, 62, 101-102, 239, 241 331 [note 83] Historiography, 2, 3, 9-10 Fernandes, Nicolas, 70 Indigo growing, 21, 132, 171, Ferrand de Beaudière, 231, 232 174, 185, 186 Fesnier family, 70 Kin relations with whites, 61-63, Fick, Carolyn, 15-16, 228, 64, 182 250, 251 In lumber and construction Flore, 200 trades, 71, 77, 78, 94, 279 Fond de l'Isle à Vache, see Les Military service, 195-196, 205, Cayes, parish and district 209, 211, 215, 216, 249 Fond des Nègres, 21, 36, 38, 44, Militia service, 42-43, 85, 95-99, 48, 55, 83, 260-262, 263, 285, 114-115, 116, 117-118, 291, 294, 295 120, 122, 123, 138, 151, Forfait, Pierre Alexandre 162, 164, 196, 205, Laurent, 305 207-208, 213, 214, 219, Fort, Henry, 278 231, 233, 246 Fossé, Philippe, known as Partnerships among, 63, 67, 69, Bonhommc, 195-196, 80, 185 213, 215 Population, 21, 28-29, 36, 41, Fouchard, Jean, 15, 261 44, 55, 168-169, 205 162, 164, 196, 205, Laurent, 305 207-208, 213, 214, 219, Fort, Henry, 278 231, 233, 246 Fossé, Philippe, known as Partnerships among, 63, 67, 69, Bonhommc, 195-196, 80, 185 213, 215 Population, 21, 28-29, 36, 41, Fouchard, Jean, 15, 261 44, 55, 168-169, 205 --- Page 398 --- INDEX Jean Louis David, In ranching and leatherwork, 78, Garcia/Garsia, 285 79, 80, 97, 192-193, 295 184, 284, 285 Use of official documents, 60, 86, Garsia, Abraham, Henri, 295-296 87, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93-94, Gastumeau, 98, 106-107, 134, 142, Gastumeau plantation, 60 261, Gauthier, Arlette, 164, 165, 167-168, Gauthier, Florence, 254 280, 281 Gautier, Marie Francoise Use of racial and social titles, Elizabeth, 191 labels, and names, 1, 45, Geffrard, Mathurin, 104 65, 83, 90, 91, 98, 99, 100, David, 15, 16, 40, 43,54, 105, 106, 142, 146, 147, Geggus, 55, 228, 266 158, 165, 167, 168, 184, 185, 186, 187, 203, 241, Gellée, Claude-Charles, Gellée/Gelée, 260, 291 148-149, 332 [note 18] Virtue," syice," *respectability," Gender, 152, 153, 156, 170 106-108, 123, 143, 154, also Free of color, 156, 162, 196, 206-207, see Gender people issucs 215-216, 217, 218-220, Gentil, Fabien, 230 221-222, 224, 229, Georges, 340 [note 97] 253, 269 Girard, attorney for Picot, 340 Wealth, 52-53, 58, 59, 63, 64, 97] 66, 67, 70, 71, 72, 74, 77, [note Jean-Baptiste, 199-200, 83, 99, 171-172, 175-176, Gérard, 351 [note 10] 180-194, 193, 217, 241, François, 286 253, 255, 279, 298, 357 Gerrigou, 363 [note 30] [note 38], 358 [note 53] Gilles Inspecteur, Alexis, 70, 339 [note 87], Women of color, compared to Girard, 340 [note 97] white women, 73, 81, 113, Girard, François, 340 [note 97] 157, 176, 254 Girard de Formont, 70, 133, 134, Freedom deeds, see Manumission 135, 330 [note 64] Freemasonry, 37, 126, 149, 151, Giraud plantation, 272 155, 232, 233, 267, 281, Girod de Chantrans, Justin, 57, 291-297 152, 154, 238 Fresil, Julienne, 350 [note 71] Glezil, S., 363 Friends of the Blacks, 234, Glisset, Noël, 148 240, 243, 245, 253, 254, Glisset, René, 147-148, 149 255, 258 Godefroy, 294 Frontin, 215 Golerep, Denis, 166 Frontin, Jean Louis, 199 Gonaives, 201 Frostin, Charles, 137 Gosses St. Eloy, Charles, 363 [note 30] Galbaud du Fort, 127 Gouen, 340 [note 98] Galicy, Antoine, 295 Gourdet, Claude, 276, Gallois, Louis, 366 [note 88] 287,2 293 Gandillac, Guillaume, 364 [note 64] Marguerite, 287 Garcia Depas family, 184 Gourdet, 199 Gonaives, 201 Frostin, Charles, 137 Gosses St. Eloy, Charles, 363 [note 30] Galbaud du Fort, 127 Gouen, 340 [note 98] Galicy, Antoine, 295 Gourdet, Claude, 276, Gallois, Louis, 366 [note 88] 287,2 293 Gandillac, Guillaume, 364 [note 64] Marguerite, 287 Garcia Depas family, 184 Gourdet, --- Page 399 --- INDEX Gouy d'Arsy, Louis-Marthe, Hérard family, 188, 259, 300 255-256 Hibrahim, 284 Gradis, 38, 121, 122, 182-183, Hill, John, 363 [note 49] 218, 280, 284, 323 [note 70], Hilliard d'Auberteuil, 149, 153, 337 [note 38], 354 160-161 [note 71] Hotel Massiac, 236, 237, 243 Grand-Goâve, 366 [note 88] Housekeeper, see Ménagères Grande Colline, 121, 200, 277 Hugues, Victor, 270 Grande Mariane, 99 Grande Rivière parish, 233-234, Ibar, Barthelemy known as Bartole, 249, 288 216, 222 Greene, Jack P., 10 Icard, André, 366 [note 88] Grégoire, Henri, Abbé, 239-241, Identity, 25, 33, 60, 80, 104-105, 242, 243, 244, 252, 258, 110, 112, 142, 143, 150, 162, 259, 313 164-165, 203, 224, 228 Grenada, 205, 210, 213 "American" identity, 237-238, Gruau, Christophe François, 294 240, 254, 260, 267, 297, Guadeloupe, 23, 24, 25, 38, 41, 56, 310, 312 111, 116, 193, 270, 305-306, Indians, 44, 45, 148, 156 310, 335 [note 4] Caraibe, 93 Gueré, 297 Taino, 23, 96, 310 Guerivaux, Jean Nicolas, 300 Mayan, 28-29 Guerivaux, Nicolas, 299-300 Indigo, 21, 29, 30, 34, 36, 37, Gueriveaux, Rosc, 300 41,47,51, 67,69, 76, 172, Guilhamet, 192 175, 176, 183, 190, 278, Guillaume "Inspecteur, >> 277 279,296 Habermas, Jurgen, 124 Jabouin, Joseph, 250, 359 [note 71] "Haiti," 9> 266, 267, 310 Jacmel town and parish, 26, 62, 92, Haitian Revolution 142, 148, 283, 286 Historiography, 13-15 Jacobin Club, 15, 258, 268, 270 Hall, Gwendolyn, 10, 12 Jacques, "Citizen, >> 281 Heble, Jean Batiste, 64 Jacques, Pierre, 193 Hector, Pierre, 281 Jacquesson, Henri, 309 Henriques, Ibraham Isaac, 284 Jacquesson, Pierre Simon, 309 Henry, Nicolas, 294 Jacquette, 199 Hérard, Anne, 300 Jamaica, 4, 6, 7,8, 10, 11, 12, 25, Hérard, Charlemagne, 300 28, 32, 34, 37, 40, 69, 96, 97, Hérard, Charles, 300 115, 120, 122, 125, 135, 175, Hérard, Dominique, 300 183, 190, 266, 268, 284, 291, Hérard, Georges, 340 [note 97] 294, 310, 340 [note 97] Hérard, Jean Domingue, 70, 96, James, C.L.R., 13 133, 136, 339 [note 87] Jarnac, Charles de Rohan-Cabot, Hérard, Marie, 70, 71 Count de, 236, 356 [note 18] Hérard, Marie Elizabeth, 70 Jasmin, Jean, 222-223 Hérard, Pierre 284, 291, Hérard, Georges, 340 [note 97] 294, 310, 340 [note 97] Hérard, Jean Domingue, 70, 96, James, C.L.R., 13 133, 136, 339 [note 87] Jarnac, Charles de Rohan-Cabot, Hérard, Marie, 70, 71 Count de, 236, 356 [note 18] Hérard, Marie Elizabeth, 70 Jasmin, Jean, 222-223 Hérard, Pierre , 77, 90 Jasmin, Jean, known as Basset, 215 --- Page 400 --- INDEX Jean Louis, godson of Joseph de Laconforsz, 105 Ronseray, 66 Lacrosse, Admiral Jean Baptiste Jean Pierre, known as Virgile, 200 Raymond, 305 Jeanne, servant of Joseph Beauvais, Lafayette, Marquis de, 240, 243, 89-90 Jeanne Françoise, 297-298 Laferriere, 340 [note 97] Jérémic, town and parish, 167, Lafleur, Pierrot, 105-108, 204 268, 283 Lafosse, Charles, 251, 252, 340 Jerome, 97 [note 97] Jews, 36, 37, 38-39, 120-122, 166, Lafreseliere, Joseph, 339 [note 83], 182, 217-218, 220, 238-240, 340 [note 97] 241, 243, 284 Lafresselliere, Jean, 350 [note 71] Joly, Etienne-Louis Hector de, Lainy, Françoise, and children Jean 236-237, 240, 243, 244, Michel, Martine Titiche, 62 255, 292 Lalanne, Jeanne, 217 Jourdan, Jean Marcellin, 295 Landron, Jean, 62, 331 [note 82] Jousseaume, Jacques, 280, 293, 366 Langlade, Pierre, 195 [note 84] Lanoix, Dominique, 192 Lanoix, Mathieu, 191, 349 King, Stewart, 16, 17, 55, 72, 173, [note 63] 179-180, 189, 204, 214, 225, Lapeyre, Marie Catherine, 297 249,312-313, 330 [note 69], Laplaine, Louise- Catherine, 343 353 [note 58] [note 48] Klein, Herbert, 2, 3 Laplaine, Marie- Louise, 343 Kongo, 102, 103, 200, 202, [note 48] 261, 280 LaPlante, 340 [note 97] LaPorte, 92-94 La Forest, 134 Laporte family ofLimonade, 180 La Luzerne, César- Henri de, 95, Laroque, 134, 136, 340 [note 99] 220, 221 Lataste/Latuste, Bernard, 250, 251, La Potherie family, 275-276 339 [note 87], 340 [note 97] Labadie, Guillaume, 99, 100, 123, Lateste, Jean-Claude, 250, 251, 252 132, 231, 232, 234, 248, Lauzenguez, Anne Julienne, 293 253-254, 281, 289, 334 Lauzenguez, Jean-Baptiste, 217 [note 45] Lauzenguez, Jeanne Henriette, 184 Labadie, Jean-Baptiste, brother of Laveau plantation, 281 Guillaume, 99 Lavoile, Antoine, 279 Labadie, Jean-Baptiste, father of Law, 30-31, 38, 68, 88, 95, 98, Guillaume, 99 106, 112, 114, 116, 117, 119, Labadie, Michel, 291 129, 192, 194, 291 Labarrère, Charles, 214 Code Noir, 39-42, 120, Labat, Jean-Baptiste, 21, 29, 30, 36, 198-199, 201, 215, 218, 44, 85 224, 238, 240, 260 Labat plantation, 272, 276, 300 Le Havre, 75 Labierre, Théodore, 193 Le Roux, Guillaume, 332 [note 3] Laborde, 54, 56, 253 Leblanc, boatman, 94 214 Code Noir, 39-42, 120, Labat, Jean-Baptiste, 21, 29, 30, 36, 198-199, 201, 215, 218, 44, 85 224, 238, 240, 260 Labat plantation, 272, 276, 300 Le Havre, 75 Labierre, Théodore, 193 Le Roux, Guillaume, 332 [note 3] Laborde, 54, 56, 253 Leblanc, boatman, 94 --- Page 401 --- INDEX Lecky, Joseph, 363 [note 49] Lopez Depas, Esther, 284 Leclerc, Claude, 217 Lopez Depas, François, 38, Leclerc, General Charles, 303-304, 183, 218 305, 308, 307 Lopez Depas, Michel, 38, 182, 262, Leclerc, Jean Louis, cadet, 296 293; sce also Depas Lefebvre des Hayes, 340 [note 97] Lopcz Depas, Philippe, 38, Lefebvre Vivnons, 340 [note 97] 183, 218 Lefevre, Coco, 284 Lopez Depas and Lopez de Paz, 38, Léogane, town and parish, 28, 30, 121, 323 [note 70] 32, 37, 54, 127, 202, 261, Louet, 90 266, 268, 282 Lowenthal, Ira, 87 Council of, 48, 80, 111 Lucie, 107 Lelievre, Jean Baptiste Edouard, Madagascar, 305 Leman de la Barre, 262 Madeleine, partner of Gilles Lemonnier, Yves, 294 Cupidon, 280-281 Lenoir de Rouvray, 206-207, 210 Madeleine, partner of Simon, Les Cayes, parish and district, 28, 279-280 36, 37, 38, 44, 45, 47,49, 52, Madiou, Thomas, 272 54, 55, 61, 69, 76, 77, 87, 88, Mahon, 257 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 96, 97, 98, Maignan, Anne Madelaine, 62 104, 115, 121, 129, 130, 135, Maignan, Berard, 166 136, 148, 174, 175, 180, 192, Maignan, Claude, 62, 166-167 198, 199, 200, 202, 214, 229, Maignan, Jean, 76-77, 101, 331 244, 245, 246, 248, 250, 252, note 82] 253, 262, 265, 271, 298, 323 Maigret, André, 279, 296 [note 62] Makandal, 283 City, 66, 74, 87, 89, 90, 93, 123, For poisoning scares, 126, 133, 147, 163, 174, 100-101, 103 193, 204, 227, 232-233, Malbranch, Joseph, 300 266, 270, 283, 291, 295, Mallet, Charles, 136 307, 308 Mallet, Jean-Pierre, 134, 135 Levy, Salomon, 284 Malouet, Pierre Victoire, 161, 221 Lii, Tommaso, 283 Manaut, Jacques, 186-187 Lily, Cuvers, 286 Manumission, 40, 41, 42, 55-56, Lima, Rose, 266 60, 72, 85-86, 87-88, 99, 113, Limonade parish, 180, 210, 165, 167, 169, 177-178, 213, 230 197-202, 215, 224, 269, Lintriganse, Marie Jeanne, 193 297-298 Literacy, 47, 85, 93, 98, 106, 124, For military service, 42, 125, 147, 287 43,2 211 Livestock, 23, 24, 58, 67, 69, 70, Maragon plantation, 276 71, 78, 91, 92, 100, 102, Marceillan plantation, 280 192, 202 Marche-à-terre, 185-186, 188 Lonné, Arnaud, 145-146 Maréchaussée, 100, 103-105, 106, Lopes, Joânnes, 283 109, , 287 43,2 211 Livestock, 23, 24, 58, 67, 69, 70, Maragon plantation, 276 71, 78, 91, 92, 100, 102, Marceillan plantation, 280 192, 202 Marche-à-terre, 185-186, 188 Lonné, Arnaud, 145-146 Maréchaussée, 100, 103-105, 106, Lopes, Joânnes, 283 109, 201-204, 210-211, 213, --- Page 402 --- INDEX 222, 224, 228, 241, 242, Massé, member of the free colored 252, 261 committee of Cavaillon in July Margueritte, mother of Jean Rey, 61 1790, 358 [note 54] Marie Agnes, 199 Massé, Margueritte, 74, 75 Marie Claire, 200 Masson Desroudières, Pierre Marie Jeanne, market woman, 75 Joseph, 295 Marie Louise, of the Gaye Masson Duhard, see Duhard, Jeanplantation, 102 Baptiste Masson Marie Louise, housekeeper for Mathieu, Victoire, 147 Joseph Dantue, 65 Maupeou, René de, 129 Marie Madeleine, mother of Pierre Maupertuis, 157 Casamajor, 183 Maury, Abbé, 257 Marie Rose, 65 McClelland, James, 221 Marie Rose, wife of Jean Joseph Medina family, 166 Lavoille Bossé, 200-201 Melinet, François, 265-266, 272 Marie Thérèse/ /Lisette, 199 Melinet, Hugues, 265-266, 287 Marie Ursule, 200 Melinet, Louis Etienne, 265 Marion, partner of Pierre Mendes, 38, 323 [note 70] Claude, 74 Mendes, Etienne Bertrand, 78 Mariot, Claude, 58 Ménagères, 56-57,58, 73, 154, Maroon slaves, 26, 43-44, 96, 191, 192 118, 167, 202-203, 211, Mentor, 277 213, 220 Mercier, Sebastien, 241 Marquin, Catherine, 147 Merlet, 340 [note 97], 251, 252 Marquin, Nicolas, 147 Mesnier, Jacques, 207, 212, 213 Marriage, 1, 28, 41, 42, 45,47,51, Militia, 30, 31, 42, 112, 119, 123, 62, 64, 68, 73, 76, 98, 152, 129, 134, 135, 162, 219, 153, 168, 171, 178, 186, 192, 230, 249 198-201, 242, 267, 285, 288, Legion of Equality, 274, 275, 297-98, 300 286-287, 294, 295 Contracts, analyzed, 61, 63, 70, National Guard, 194, 239, 243, 73, 178-179, 180-82, 184, 246, 249, 260, 275, 276, 187, 188, 217, 298, 329 289, 294, 306 [note 41], 331 [note 79] Sec also Free People of Color, Interracial, 47, 48, 63, 98, 113, militia service 123, 148, 178, 216, 285, Milhet, Louise- Catherine, 343 291, 297 [note 48] Marseilles, 246, 297 Milscent, Claude, 257-258 Martin, 192 Miragoane, town, 294 Martine, 279 Mirande, 38 Martinique, 23, 24, 25, 38, 41, 56, Mirande, Cecille, 73 93, 98, 111, 114, 115, 155, Mirebalais parish, 26, 38, 169, 180, 167, 193, 232, 247, 306 248, 259 Masons, see Freemasonry Montbrun, Hugues, 277, 362 Massé, Barthelemy, 74, 75 [note 27] Massé, Jean-Baptiste, 102-103 Montbrun, Joseph, 366 [note 95] ande, Cecille, 73 93, 98, 111, 114, 115, 155, Mirebalais parish, 26, 38, 169, 180, 167, 193, 232, 247, 306 248, 259 Masons, see Freemasonry Montbrun, Hugues, 277, 362 Massé, Barthelemy, 74, 75 [note 27] Massé, Jean-Baptiste, 102-103 Montbrun, Joseph, 366 [note 95] --- Page 403 --- INDEX Montbrun, widow, 217, 248, 353 Outrebon, Father Augustin, 290 [note 69] Ouvière, Pascalis, Abbé, 261 Montesquieu, 128, 152, 160 Montpellier, medical school, 157 Pamclart/Pamelard, 141-142, 163, Montpellier, royal bailiff, 106 Moreau, white participant in antiParera, Moïse, 283 militia revolt, 340 [note 97] "Patriotism," 111-114, 117, 119, Moreau, Pierre, 92-94, 100 128, 150, 170, 208, 209, Moreau de Saint-Méry, 26, 28, 33, 217,267 44, 76, 78, 85, 96, 126, 155, Revolutionary "Patriots, 99 232, 160, 178, 197, 198, 201, 205, 234, 242, 244, 245, 246, 206, 209, 222-224, 242-243, 252, 255, 260, 262 247, 254-255, 273, 283 Paulmier, Jean Alexandre, Racism, 156-159, 221, 255 290-291, 293 Morel, 358 [note 54] Peabody, Sue, 159 Moulin, Pierre Michel, 57, 60 Peigné, Pierre, 59 Pélage, Magloire, 305 Nantes, 148 Pelagic, Marie Susanne, called Napoleon Bonaparte, 303-304 Tirot, 59 Neptune, Jean François, 199 Penfentenir, 136 New Orleans, 292 Perrine, 92-93 New York, 77, 283, 284, 286 Pétion, Alexandre, 305, 306, Nicholas, Michaud, 276, 289 307, 308 Nicolle, 91 Petit, Emilien, 111-114, 116, Nippes district, 28, 30, 32, 45, 47, 117, 127, 128, 139, 144, 149, 52, 54, 55, 61, 62, 63, 74, 76, 153, 160 77, 78, 87, 94, 104, 166, 191, Petit, Jean-Baptiste, 86-87 192, 198, 201, 202, 323 Petit- Goâve, town and parish, 30, [note 62], 323 [note 70], 366 38, 62, 75, 193, 230-231, [note 88] 290, 294 see also Anse à Veau, town and Petit-Trou, town and parish, 58, parish; Petit-Trou, town 59, 295 and parish Petite-F Rivière parish, 216, 234 Nivard, 180 Petits blancs, 118, 130, 134, 139, Notaries, 1,47, 52, 86, 88, 91, 143, 146, 149, 160, 162, 163, 94-95, 164, 167-168, 176, 170, 174, 196, 210, 224, 232, 183, 204, 215, 236, 326 246, 247, 252, 253, 254, 260 [note 5] Philadelphia, 223, 284 see also United States Ogé, Vincent the younger, 180, Philippe, free mulatto tailor, 80 236, 240, 247-249, 251, 252, Picau, François, 202-203, 204, 213 254, 255, 257, 258, 259, 288, Piednoir, 295 333 [note 29] Piemont, Charles, 63 Olive, Etienne, 276 Piemont, Jean, 63 Olivier, Vincent, 205-206, 209, Pierrot, slave oft the Congo nation, 216, 222 102-103 atto tailor, 80 236, 240, 247-249, 251, 252, Picau, François, 202-203, 204, 213 254, 255, 257, 258, 259, 288, Piednoir, 295 333 [note 29] Piemont, Charles, 63 Olive, Etienne, 276 Piemont, Jean, 63 Olivier, Vincent, 205-206, 209, Pierrot, slave oft the Congo nation, 216, 222 102-103 --- Page 404 --- INDEX Pietre, Pierre, 193 Poulain, Sixte, 90 Pilorge, Denis, 166 Pradillon, Margueritte, 74 Pilorge, Julien, 166 Prince, Jean Pierre, 204 Pimelle plantation, 55 Prior, 92 Pineau, 340 [note 97] Proa, Alexandre, 69, 190 Pinet, Jean François, 186 Proa, Pierre, 190 Plaideau, Jean-Baptiste, 288 Proux, Léon, 248 Ples Lopez, Albert, 284 Public sphere, 8, 12, 34, 117, 120, Ploy, Anne Marie, 52, 76, 297-298 121, 124-127, 142, 144, Ploy, Jacques-Thomas, 184, 217 155-156, 197, 218, 221, 223, Ploy, Thomas, 51-52, 76, 183, 229,234, 245, 291 284, 285 Puerto Rico, 6, 283 Pluchon, Pierre, 118 Pyracmon, Joseph, 279 Plunket, 340 [note 97] Plymouth, 96, 192, 298 Queré, 297 Pochet, Jean-Baptiste, 300 Podrozo, Joachim Antonio, 77 Racism Poinson, Joseph, 298 Comparative, 5-7,9 9, 108 Poitou, 246 Development of scientific Polvérel, Etienne, 267, 268, discourse of, 157-161 270-272, 277, 288, 292, 203 Historiography, 9-10 Pompé, 96 In Paris, 159-160 Population In Saint-Domingue, 8, 32, 41, Of colonial cities, 126, 155 83-84, 109, 224 Of frontier parishes, 26 Raimond, Elizabeth, 76 Of Martinique and Raimond, François, 67, 68, 69, 168, Guadeloupe, 25 172, 177, 182, 190, 229, 231, Of Saint-Domingue, 5, 23, 25, 241, 259, 278-279, 287, 289 29,32,39 Raimond, Guillaume, 68, 69, 76, Of South Province, 21, 28-29, 145-146, 149, 168, 182, 189, 34-36 242, 279, 291 Port Salut parish, 188, 248-251, Raimond, Jean-Baptiste, 67 252, 253, 255, 259, 265 Raimond, Julien, 1-2, 17-18, 64, Port-au-Prince, 28, 30, 37, 54, 63, 67-69, 75, 145, 146, 161, 163, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 94, 104, 167, 168, 171-172, 177, 179, 124, 126, 132, 134, 135, 136, 180, 181, 182, 188, 190, 195, 155, 163, 175, 176, 178, 180, 196, 197, 205, 216, 217-221, 192, 198, 199, 209, 224, 228, 224, 227-228, 230, 231, 232, 246, 249, 250, 251, 252, 259, 233, 234-242, 244-45, 247, 260, 261, 262, 268, 272, 290, 248, 251, 252, 253-54, 291, 295, 298, 308 255-257, 258, 259, 260, 262, Council of, 1, 83, 86, 115, 124, 267, 268-270, 271, 272, 279, 127, 128, 129, 130, 134, 281, 288, 290, 293, 294, 310, 137 45, 247, 260, 261, 262, 268, 272, 290, 248, 251, 252, 253-54, 291, 295, 298, 308 255-257, 258, 259, 260, 262, Council of, 1, 83, 86, 115, 124, 267, 268-270, 271, 272, 279, 127, 128, 129, 130, 134, 281, 288, 290, 293, 294, 310, 137 , 148, 150, 163, 164, 312, 333 note 29], 357 167,231, 332 [note 18] [note 38], 357 [note 40] Port-de-Paix, 205 Image, 255-256 --- Page 405 --- INDEX Raimond, Julicn-continmed Rollain, Narcisse, 358 [note 54] Second wife, Françoise Dasmard Romaine La Prophetesse, see Rivière, Challe, see Dasmard, Romaine Françoise Ronseray, Joseph de, 66 Spelling ofhis name, 166, 329 See also Deronseray [note 47] Rose, goddaughter of Dame de Raimond, Pierre, 68 Ronseray, 66 Raimond, Thérèse, 75 Rose Flore, 63 Rambau, 340 [note 97] Rosette, 64 Raymond, Marie, née Begasse, 47, Rossignol, 180, 358 67, 145, 297 Rossignol, Magdelaine, 358 Raymond, Pierre, 47, 67, 297 note 53] Raynal, l'Abbé, 111, 218, 221, 354 Roume de St. Laurent, 292 [note 76] Rousseau, 91 Reaulx, Joseph, 64-65 Rousseau, Etienne, 58, 63 Reaulx, Madelaine, 64-65 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 151, Reculé family, 142 153, 155 Redon, 340 [note 97] Rousseau, Maric Anne, 63 Religions, 29, 33, 57, 101, Rouvray, see LeNoir de Rouvray 150-151, 202, 238, 261 Ruiq, Marie Louise, de, 74 Rémarais, Jean-1 Baptiste, 200, 358 [note 54] Sahaguet, General, 304 Remsen, George H. and Company, Saint Christophe (St. Kitts), 23, 24, 96, 148, 149, 164, 333 Rey, Abel, 61 [note 33] Rey, Jean, 61, 98 Saint Croix, see Virgin Islands Rey, Terry, 261 Saint Domingue Reynaud de Villevert, Jean François, Commercial monopoly, 31 211, 212, 213, 215, 216 Courts and legal system, 30 Richepanse, General Antoine, 305 Government, 30, 31 Rigaud, André, 215, 245-246, Saint-Domingue Company, 34-37, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251,252, 44, 64, 66, 75 259, 267, 268, 272-273, 274, Saint- Lambert, Jean-H François, 277, 282, 286, 290, 294, 303, Marquis de, 220 304, 305 Saint Louis, town, parish, and Riley, Frederick, 283 district, 36, 44, 45, 52, 55, 61, Rivière, Romaine, 261, 263 70, 71, 76, 98, 104, 121, 126, Robespierre, Maximilien, 258 189, 192, 198, 205, 245, 261, Rochambeau, Donatien-Marie265, 276, 279, 289, 291, 294, Joseph, 307, 308 295, 299, 307, 323 [note 62] Rochelois, 63 Saint- Marc, 26, 54, 126, 156, Rogers, Dominique, 17, 88, 95, 216, 244, 245, 246, 247, 163, 173, 176, 199, 215 252, 260, 266, 268, 282 Rohan-Montbazon, Prince de, 109, Saint Martin, planter, 135, 340 128, 129-131, 135, 136, 137, [note 97] 149, 150, 151, 152, 162, 231 Saint Thomas, see Virgin Islands , Rogers, Dominique, 17, 88, 95, 216, 244, 245, 246, 247, 163, 173, 176, 199, 215 252, 260, 266, 268, 282 Rohan-Montbazon, Prince de, 109, Saint Martin, planter, 135, 340 128, 129-131, 135, 136, 137, [note 97] 149, 150, 151, 152, 162, 231 Saint Thomas, see Virgin Islands --- Page 406 --- INDEX Samadet, 57 Sugar, 24, 29, 34, 54, 71, 174, San Cardoso, 295 275, 288 Sanglier, Emilie de, 299 Suire, Abraham, 56 Santiago, Cuba, 295, 306 Santo Domingo, city or colony, 6, Tanguy de la Boissière, 291 21, 23, 79, 98, 218, 268, Tannenbaum, Frank, 9, 11, 12, 283, 296 Tercé, Claude, 166-167 Santo Domingo, Thérèse Adélaïde Testament, 64-65, 99, 113, de, 298 191,288 Santo Mattei, 295 Thisbé, Catherine, 87 Sasporta, 37 Thistlewood, Thomas, 40, 56 Saubiac, Jocsph Charpentier, Thomany, Antoine, 43 295, 296 Thomas, Anne, 97, 98, 340 Savannah, Georgia, 207, 209, 210, [note 97] 211, 212, 213, 224, 246 Thomasseau, Jasmin, see Jasimin, Savariot, widow, 231 Jean Sentou, Pierre, 286 Thramu, Mathieu, 199 Scott, Rebecca, 3 Tiburon, town and parish, 135, Secourt, 147-148 268, 299 Sephardim, see Jews Tirot, Marie, 58-60 Servan, Richard, 363 [note 49] Tolet, white merchant, 77 Seven Years' War, 8, 79-80, 97, 99, Torbec parish, 66, 69-70, 71,77, 108, 109, 110-111, 114, 116, 96-97, 98, 109, 131-133, 135, 121, 126, 143, 160, 173, 201, 138, 144, 169, 174, 180, 208, 291 185-188, 190, 196, 228-229, Sex, 40, 152, 153, 154, 155, 246, 248, 252, 253, 259, 265, 242-243, 269 267, 300, 309 Sheller, Mimi, 12, 13 Torchon, André, 358 [note 54] Ships, see Boats and ships Toulouse, 1, 187 Sim, called Dompête, 202 Tourelle, Charles, 144 Simon, 280 Tournez, 340 [note 97] Simons, Conrad, 363 [note 49] Toussaint Louverture, 79, 267, 268, Sipan, Jean Louis, 294 275, 282, 286, 289, 292, 293, Slave patrols, see Maréchaussée 299, 303, 304, 306, 310 Slave trade, 25, 29-30, 32, 34, Trichet, François, 69, 185-186, 190 53-54, 111, 173, 174 Trichet, Gertrude Pascal, 187 Slavery, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, 189 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 30, 32, Turgeau, 180 33, 39, 40, 41, 43, 53, 54-55, 102 United States, 4, 5, 9, 10, 77, 110, Smuggling, 23, 30, 34, 36, 37-38, 283, 284, 286, 363 [note 49] 52, 69, 70, 75, 76, 79, 121, 135, 175, 283-284 Vachon, Pierre, 190 Sonthonax, Léger, 268, 272, Valles, 340 [note 97] 281, 289 Vallière parish, 26 Soules, 340 [note 97] Vanderpar, 110, Smuggling, 23, 30, 34, 36, 37-38, 283, 284, 286, 363 [note 49] 52, 69, 70, 75, 76, 79, 121, 135, 175, 283-284 Vachon, Pierre, 190 Sonthonax, Léger, 268, 272, Valles, 340 [note 97] 281, 289 Vallière parish, 26 Soules, 340 [note 97] Vanderpar, Jacob, 37 --- Page 407 --- INDEX Verais, Louis, 80 Visse, Marie Françoise, 299 Vérettes parish, 216, 234 Vodou, 33, 202, 322 Viart de Saint- Robert, Robert [note 48] Simeon, 187 Victoire, employee of François War, 2, 18, 19, 25, 28, 96, 100, Brosseard, 73 110, 172, 173, 174, 176, 184, Vigne, Geneviève, 296 190, 205, 209, 213, 214, 215, Vigne, Pierre, 297 217,218, 224, 265, 268, 269, Vincent, Barthelemy, 47,67 271,274, 276, 279, 281, 286, Vincent, Captain, see Olivier, Vincent 290, 303, Vincent children, 67, 326 Wimpffen, Baron de, 155 [note 110] Women, see Free people of color, Vincent, Maric Madeleine, 68 gender issues Vincent, Maric Marthe, 68-69 Virgin Islands, 283, 284, 285, Zabet, Julienne, 272 288, 295 Zélia, Genéviève Louis, 287