Bastion of the Dispossessed: The Free People of Color's Fluid Identities Across the Haitian Revolution

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Hill, A. (2015). Bastion of the Dispossessed: The Free People of Color's Fluid Identities Across the Haitian Revolution. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Take a step back in time to the western half of the island named Saint Domingue in the 1780s, a place we now call Haiti. In 1785, the island produced more sugar and coffee than any other colony in the western hemisphere. French colonial administrators created a hierarchy of political inclusion based on racial categories. One category of subject on the island, the Gens de Couleur Libres or Free People of Color, had never existed as a single cohesive unit—thanks in part to racist French policies. Free Coloreds resisted their exclusion from equal rights, but often owned slaves and excluded other blacks. Finally, the French Revolution put a match to this powder keg of racist hegemony and transformed Free Coloreds’ allegiance to the metropole. The French Revolution provided Free Coloreds with the language they needed to challenge their previous exclusion, and colonial society progressively broke down after 1789. This thesis traces the Free Coloreds’ sense of exclusion from the colonial period through the Haitian Revolution, analyzing its influence on nation building. The Free Coloreds never lost their French culture, yet developed an anti-European identity based on liberty and race rather than cultural unity. The Free Coloreds’ unique colonial position eventually encouraged them to support revolution, put them in a position to participate in post-revolutionary nation-building, and finally triggered internal political conflict—partly causing Haiti’s initial failure to create a unitary national identity.

Details
Author

Hill, Andrew

Title

Bastion of the Dispossessed: The Free People of Color's Fluid Identities Across the Haitian Revolution

Physical Description

1 online resource (95 pages) : PDF

Date

2015

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Take a step back in time to the western half of the island named Saint Domingue in the 1780s, a place we now call Haiti. In 1785, the island produced more sugar and coffee than any other colony in the western hemisphere. French colonial administrators created a hierarchy of political inclusion based on racial categories. One category of subject on the island, the Gens de Couleur Libres or Free People of Color, had never existed as a single cohesive unit—thanks in part to racist French policies. Free Coloreds resisted their exclusion from equal rights, but often owned slaves and excluded other blacks. Finally, the French Revolution put a match to this powder keg of racist hegemony and transformed Free Coloreds’ allegiance to the metropole. The French Revolution provided Free Coloreds with the language they needed to challenge their previous exclusion, and colonial society progressively broke down after 1789. This thesis traces the Free Coloreds’ sense of exclusion from the colonial period through the Haitian Revolution, analyzing its influence on nation building. The Free Coloreds never lost their French culture, yet developed an anti-European identity based on liberty and race rather than cultural unity. The Free Coloreds’ unique colonial position eventually encouraged them to support revolution, put them in a position to participate in post-revolutionary nation-building, and finally triggered internal political conflict—partly causing Haiti’s initial failure to create a unitary national identity.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

History
Area studies

Subjects--Places

Africa
Caribbean Area

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Gens De Couleur Libres
Haiti
Haitian Revolution
Saint Domingue

Subject Area

History

Advisor(s)

Haynes, Christine

Committee Members

Germain, Felix
Edwards, Erika

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2015.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Hill_uncc_0694N_10991

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:276