Labor, Freedom and the end of Slavery in the Saint-Domingue Revolution (1790-1803)

Abstract

The project aims to understand the transition from slavery to peasantry in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue during the Haitian Revolution. The emphasis is on the dispute between revolutionary authorities and the formerly enslaved population over the organization of land and labor following emancipation in 1793-1794, notably the endeavor to convert captives into wage workers with the end of the slave system. We argue that French and black leaders' violent attempts to introduce wage labor were at the heart of the revolutionary conflicts, which included a struggle over the practical and conceptual definition of what it meant to be free. To this end, we rely on three major archival collections: the recensements des biens domaniaux et urbains de la colonie de Saint-Domingue, notarial records, and the fund of the Secrétariat d'Etat à la Marine. We believe that combining these sources would allow us to better appreciate the paradoxical ways in which revolutionary authorities attempted to impose wages on former slaves as equivalent to a new condition of freedom. But also, the varied ways found by former captives to face this imposition and to assert their other vision of being free, which ultimately triumphed with the victory of the Haitian peasantry. This perspective offers both a distinct image of the Revolution in Saint-Domingue and its implications for broader movements in the capitalist world-system.