Slavery
Viefville des Essars, On the Emancipation of the Negroes (1790)
This project to free enslaved people in the French colonies was presented to the National Assembly. The defensive tone and rhetorical structure that emerge in the course of this document demonstrate the power of the interests opposed to even cautious steps toward emancipation.
Grievance List (September 1789)
The Haitian free blacks and creoles, many of them substantial property owners and slaveholders, sent delegates to the National Assembly in France with a list of their stated grievances and demands.
The Coffee Planter of Saint Domingo (London, 1798)
Here Pierre Joseph Laborie provides the perspective of the planter. He gives a detailed description of the organization of enslaved labor in the production of coffee.
The Slaves from Africa
The African born enslaved people brought with them to Haiti their African rituals and customs, but the white planters also tried to get them to accept French manners and mores.
The Maroons
In this passage, Moreau de Saint–Méry explains that runaways in Haiti, known as Maroons, are and have always been a persistent problem and details the tremendous efforts put into retrieving the runaways. Despite this effort, some Maroons survived and thereby regained their freedom.
SAINT DOMINGUE: THE FREEDMEN
As many as two–thirds of the enslaved people in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) in 1789 had been born in Africa, but by that time a significant number of Africans or children of Africans had become free. Here Moreau de Saint–Méry details the origins of this pivotal group.
Saint Domingue: Some Geography
Here Moreau de Saint–Méry describes the topography and peoples of the French part of the island of Haiti, providing some important basic knowledge which he expands upon in subsequent passages
THE CODE NOIR (THE BLACK CODE)
The Code noir initially took shape in Louis XIV’s edict of 1685. Although subsequent decrees modified a few of the code’s provisions, this first document established the main lines for the policing of slavery right up to 1789.
Advertisement for Sale of Newly Arrived Africans
This image is of an advertisement for a nearly equal number of adults and children from Sierra Leone at a Charleston Auction.
