From Individual to Collective Emancipation: War and the Republic in the Caribbean during the French Revolution

Abstract

The Caribbean during the French Revolution was the theatre for a series of armed conflicts, in the form of civil wars or confrontations between the colonial powers (Map 2. The Caribbean in 1789). For the European-origin population in the French West Indies, who made up no more than 5 to 10 per cent of the total, the temptation was strong to use their own slaves to bolster their military strength, and to promise freedom in return for armed service. As the slave revolt took hold in Saint-Domingue from August 1791, the insurgent slaves came to represent a reserve of manpower for the warring factions, who outbid each other in promises of freedom to attract the rebel slaves to their side.

Translated from the French by Sylvie Kleinman, revised, with additional material, by Godfrey Rogers.