1791: A Tale of San Domingo

1791 : a tale of San Domingo

---

Order a copy Copyright or permission restrictions may apply. We will contact you if necessary. To learn more about Copies Direct watch this short online video. How do I find a book? Can I borrow this item? Can I get a copy?

1791: a tale of San Domingo.

Can I view this online? Members of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Maori communities are advised that this catalogue contains names and images of deceased people.

Microform , Book , Online - Google Books. The E-mail Address es field is required. Please enter recipient e-mail address es. The E-mail Address es you entered is are not in a valid format. Please re-enter recipient e-mail address es. You may send this item to up to five recipients. The name field is required. Please enter your name.

The E-mail message field is required. Please enter the message. Please verify that you are not a robot. Would you also like to submit a review for this item? You already recently rated this item. Your rating has been recorded. Write a review Rate this item: Preview this item Preview this item. E W Gilliam Publisher: English View all editions and formats Rating: Between and , the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10, and 15,; by it was about 28,, and from onward, the colony received more than 40, slaves a year.

However, the inability to maintain slave numbers without constant resupply from Africa meant the slave population in totalled to ,, ruled over by a white population that numbered only 32, African culture thus remained strong among slaves to the end of French rule. The folk religion of Vodou commingled Catholic liturgy and ritual with the beliefs and practices of the Vodun religion of Guinea , Congo and Dahomey. To regularize slavery, in Louis XIV had enacted the code noir , which accorded certain human rights to slaves and responsibilities to the master, who was obliged to feed, clothe and provide for the general well-being of his slaves.

The code noir sanctioned corporal punishment but had provisions intended to regulate the administration of punishments. In the event, such protections were often ignored by white colonists. A passage from Henri Christophe 's personal secretary, who lived more than half his life as a slave, describes the crimes committed against the slaves of Saint-Domingue by the French colonists:.

Thousands of slaves found freedom by fleeing into the mountains, forming communities of maroons and raiding isolated plantations. The most famous was Mackandal , a one-armed slave, originally from Guinea region , who escaped in A Vodou Houngan priest , he united many of the different maroon bands. For the next six years, he staged successful raids while evading capture by the French.

He and his followers reputedly killed more than 6, people. He preached a radical vision of destroying white colonization in Saint-Domingue.

Saint-Domingue had the largest and wealthiest free population of color in the Caribbean ; they were known as the gens de couleur. The royal census of counted roughly 25, such persons. Typically, they were the descendants of the enslaved women and French colonists.

Some such descendants of planters inherited considerable property. As their numbers grew, they were made subject to discriminatory colonial legislation. Statutes forbade gens de couleur from taking up certain professions, marrying whites, wearing European clothing, carrying swords or firearms in public, or attending social functions where whites were present.

The regulations did not restrict their purchase of land, and many accumulated substantial holdings and became slaveowners. By , they owned one-third of the plantation property and one-quarter of the slaves of Saint-Domingue.

The largest concentration of gens de couleur was in the southern peninsula. This was the last region of the colony to be settled, owing to its distance from Atlantic shipping lanes and its formidable terrain, with the highest mountain range in the Caribbean.

Об этом товаре

Many lived in Port-au-Prince as well, which became an economic center in the South of the island. In white homeowners on Hispaniola began to restrict rights and create laws to exclude mulattoes and blacks, establishing a rigid class system. There were ten black people for every white one. In France, the majority of the Estates General, an advisory body to the King, constituted itself as the National Assembly , made radical changes in French laws, and on 26 August , published the Declaration of the Rights of Man , declaring all men free and equal.

The French Revolution shaped the course of the conflict in Saint-Domingue and was at first widely welcomed on the island. At first, wealthy whites saw it as an opportunity to gain independence from France. The elite planters intended to take control of the island and create trade regulations to further their own wealth and power. Within a year of his appointment, his powers were considerably expanded by the Committee of Public Safety.

Sonthonax believed that Saint-Domingue's whites, most of whom were of Spanish descent, were royalist or separatist conservatives attached to independence or Spain as a way to preserve the slave plantations. He attacked the military power of the white settlers, and by doing so, he alienated the colonists from the French government. Many gens de couleur , mixed-race residents of the colony, asserted that they could form the military backbone of Saint-Domingue if they were given rights, but Sonthonax rejected this view as outdated in the wake of the August slave uprising.

He believed that Saint-Domingue would need ex-slave soldiers among the ranks of the colonial army if it was to survive. Although he did not originally intend to free the slaves, by October he ended slavery in order to maintain his own power.

In , the black military leader Toussaint L'Ouverture brought under French rule a law which abolished slavery, and embarked on a program of modernization. He had become master of the whole island. He passed a new constitution declaring that the colonies would be subject to special laws. Toussaint promulgated the Constitution of on 7 July, officially establishing his authority as governor general "for life" over the entire island of Hispaniola and confirming most of his existing policies.

Article 3 of the constitution states: All men are born, live and die free and French. During this time, Bonaparte met with refugee planters; they urged the restoration of slavery in Saint-Domingue, saying it was integral to the colony's profits. He sent an expedition of more than 20, men to Saint-Domingue in to restore French authority. The French Civil Code of Napoleon affirmed the political and legal equality of all adult men; it established a merit-based society in which individuals advanced in education and employment because of talent rather than birth or social standing.

The Civil Code confirmed many of the moderate revolutionary policies of the National Assembly but retracted measures passed by the more radical Convention. The code restored patriarchal authority in the family, for example, by making women and children subservient to male heads of households or excluding slaves.

The situation of slaves and people of mixed race was not improved.

: a tale of San Domingo [microform] / by E.W. Gilliam | National Library of Australia

The Haitian Revolution culminated in the elimination of slavery in Saint-Domingue and the founding of the Haitian republic in the whole of Hispaniola. France was weakened by a British naval blockade , and by the unwillingness of Napoleon to send massive reinforcements. Having sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in April , Napoleon began to lose interest in his failing ventures in the Western Hemisphere.

A minority of state officials and civil servants were exempt from manual labor, including some freed colored Haitians.

Item Preview

Many slaves had to work hard to survive, and they became increasingly motivated by their hunger.

• The Omega Tribe Book1
• G IS FOR GODS
• The Ideal of School (The Ideal of...)
• University City, Missouri (Images of America)
• The Transformation of David
• Tissue Economies: Blood, Organs, and Cell Lines in Late Capitalism (Science and Cultural Theory)
• What to do When your Kids Push your Buttons (The Parent Practices Toolkit for Families)