The Language of Race in Revolutionary France and Saint- Domingue, 1789-1792
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--History History 2016 The Language of Race in Revolutionary France and Saint- Domingue, 1789-1792 Jeffery L. Stanley University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.094 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Stanley, Jeffery L., "The Language of Race in Revolutionary France and Saint-Domingue, 1789-1792" (2016). Theses and Dissertations--History. 35. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/35 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the History at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--History by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. 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Stanley, Student Dr. Jeremy Popkin, Major Professor Dr. Scott Taylor, Director of Graduate Studies THE LANGUAGE OF RACE IN REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE AND SAINT- DOMINGUE, 1789-1792 ________________________________________________ DISSERTATION ________________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Jeffery Lewis Stanley Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Jeremy D. Popkin, Professor of History Lexington, Kentucky 2016 Copyright ©Jeffery Lewis Stanley 2016 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION THE LANGUAGE OF RACE IN REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE AND SAINT- DOMINGUE, 1789-1792 This project studies the historical development of racialist language during the French Revolution as politicians, free people of color, and colonial whites debated the political status of France’s free people of color population. It examines the negotiation of a racialist language that bolstered colonial racial hierarchies with an egalitarian language that sought to level the corporate structures of the Old Regime. I look especially at the ways that language served as a management device to articulate and legitimize new relationships of power in the political culture of the French Revolution. I connect developments in France to the colonies by showing how free men of color were able to impose their own egalitarian, color-blind language on colonial public discourse through armed force and by leveraging the white population’s need for their support after the August 1791 slave insurrection in Saint-Domingue. I also highlight how whites in the colony attempted to maintain racialist power structures while publicly adopting the revolutionary language of race. I argue that a disavowal of race in public discourse occurred after the French government enfranchised free men of color in 1792 that attempted to reconcile colonial power structures with republican values. However, the continuation of racial violence in Saint-Domingue, culminating in the destruction of Cap Français on June 20, 1793, indicate the limits of revolutionary idealism and the persistence of a racialized worldview despite the revolutionary attempt to transform colonial society by deracializing the public sphere. KEYWORDS: Language, Race, French Revolution, Haitian Revolution, Saint-Domingue, Free People of Color __Jeffery Lewis Stanley__________ ______________________________ THE LANGUAGE OF RACE IN REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE AND SAINT- DOMINGUE, 1789-1792 By Jeffery Lewis Stanley ____Jeremy Popkin_________________________ Director of Dissertation ____Scott Taylor___________________________ Director of Graduate Studies ________________________________________ To my parents, Walker and Linda Stanley, and my grandparents, Darrell and Ellen Long ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Professor Jeremy Popkin for his incredible mentorship over many years. Without his advice on historical problems and avenues of research, his remarkable insights into the history of the French and Haitian Revolutions, and his willingness to share his time and knowledge, this project would not have been possible. It has truly been a pleasure to work with such a passionate and dedicated scholar. I will always be grateful for his friendship. I would also like to thank Dr. Erik Myrup, Dr. Phil Harling, and Dr. Jacqueline Couti for taking the time to serve on my committee and for their helpful criticisms and advice throughout the process. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the American Philosophical Society for its generous support of this project through a Library Resident Research Fellowship. The APS was home for a wonderful summer of research. I could not have completed this project without the support of my friends and family. In the History Department, I owe acknowledgment to Dr. Eric Christianson and Dr. John Davis for years of friendship that helped me deal with the stress of graduate school. I would also like to thank two of my very best friends, Emily and Tyler Crews, for their encouragement and support over the years. Finally, I wish to thank my family, especially my parents, Walker and Linda, for their unwavering support of all my endeavors. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments . .iii Chapter One: Introduction . .1 Chapter Two: The Language of Race during the Old Regime . .23 Chapter Three: The French Revolution and the Language of Race from 1789 to the May 15, 1791 Law . .76 Chapter Four: Competing Languages of Race in France and Saint-Domingue from May-September 1791 . .121 Chapter Five: The Disavowal of Race in France and Saint-Domingue, 1791-1792 . 157 Chapter Six: Conclusion . .209 Bibliography . .222 Vita . .234 iv Chapter One: Introduction The French Revolution’s universalistic expressions in favor of human equality raised many questions in the French colonies about the nature of race and citizenship, and Saint-Domingue’s social organization premised on racial discrimination became an object of trans-Atlantic political debate. In debates over political rights, free people of color in Saint-Domingue were often evoked as a coherent political group challenging white supremacy in the colony. The language used to refer to free people of color in public papers gave conceptual unity to the group and positioned free people of color in the field of meanings through which participants in the public sphere made sense of the political landscape and the revolutionary situation.1 Institutions of the public sphere, such as the pamphlet and periodical press, and the halls of elected assemblies served as the terrain where this language was negotiated and meanings were created. By examining the language of race in public discourse, this study demonstrates how ideas of race changed over time through interaction with revolutionary rhetoric, leading to new policies and ideas about how to synthesize egalitarianism and imperialism.2 It will demonstrate that despite the fact that the egalitarianism of the French Revolution resulted in a disavowal of race as a legitimate aspect of public discourse, racialist thinking persisted through a color-blind language of race. Thus, this study has implications for the 1 My framework for interpreting how language functioned in the public sphere during the French Revolution is informed by Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989) and Keith Michael Baker, Inventing the French Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 2 My analysis of the evolution of revolutionary racialist language in response to the attempt to synthesize republican ideals and colonial power structures is influenced by and adds to Laurent Dubois’ discussion of “republican racism” in A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804 (Chapel Hills, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004). 1 modern-day French struggle with racism, where the existence of difference is denied under the logic of French republicanism, yet remains part of society. I focus on the period from 1789-1792 because it is a critical moment in the history