Debien Key Extractions — Targeted Data for Counter-Plantation Thesis Source: debien esclaves — Les esclaves aux Antilles françaises (XVIIe–XVIe siècles), Gabriel Debien, 1974

Debien Key Extractions — Targeted Data for Counter-Plantation Thesis Source: debien esclaves — Les esclaves aux Antilles françaises (XVIIe–XVIe siècles), Gabriel Debien, 1974 Extraction purpose: Empirical data layer beneath Casimir's The Haitians arguments on pre-revolutionary community formation, provision grounds as autonomy spaces, and demographic shifts post-1793 Cross-reference: counter plantation system, casimir ch4 ch5 notes Provision Grounds and Enslaved Autonomy Key Arguments Debien identifies three overlapping food-provisioning systems in Saint-Domingue, and the tension between them is central to understanding enslaved autonomy: Rations from the master (vivres communs) — collective fields managed by the plantation, distributed weekly on Sundays Individual provision grounds (jardins particuliers, jardins-case, jardins-nègres) — small plots worked by enslaved people for their own account A hybrid system that emerged after 1770 combining both, with expanded jardins at the periphery of plantations The nutrition chapter (pp. 171–218) is Debien's most detailed. His key finding: food provisioning was the central failure of the colonial system, and the hunger it produced was the primary cause of marronage and social disorder.