The French colonial question and the disintegration of white supremacy in the Colony of Saint Domingue, 1789-1792
- UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Molly M. Herrmann (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
- Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
- Advisor
- William McCarthy
Abstract: This thesis argues that the class of free people of color in the French colony of
Saint Domingue threatened the dichotomy of master and slave, as defined by a strict
divide between white and black and as was necessary for the perseverance of racial
slavery. In restricting the free people of color from the right to vote and hold public
office, white supremacy was maintained by upholding a racial divide within the free
sector of Saint Domingue’s planter society. By the end of the eighteenth-century, the free
people of color launched an aggressive campaign, by way of French legislative reform, to
attain their rights as free and propertied citizens of France.
The perception that the white race was unalterably superior to the black race was
at the core of the planter society of Saint Domingue to safeguard racial slavery against a
rapidly emerging class of free people of color. Once the free people of color seized upon
French legislative reform as a means to win their rights, white supremacy was challenged
and ultimately exposed as a social and political system that was alterable. The
subsequent failure of French legislation to officially enfranchise them motivated the free
people of color to openly ally with insurgent slaves in a revolution against a common
adversary, white supremacy. The result of this coalescence, I argue, was the rapid and
complete debilitation of white power in the colony by April 1792 when the National
Assembly declared full and equal citizenship for all free people of color.
The French colonial question and the disintegration of white supremacy in the Colony of Saint Domingue, 1789-1792
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Created on 1/1/2009
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
- Language: English
- Date: 2009
- Keywords
- France--Colonies--18th century, France--Colonies--Saint-Domingue, Haiti--History--Revolution 1791-1804, Haiti--History--To 1791, Saint-Domingue--History--18th century, Slavery--Saint-Domingue
- Subjects
- Slavery -- Saint-Domingue
- France -- Colonies -- 18th century
- France -- Colonies -- Saint-Domingue
- Saint-Domingue -- History -- 18th century
- Haiti -- History -- To 1791
- Haiti -- History -- Revolution, 1791-1804