Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution by Laurent Dubois
Authors: Laurent Dubois
Ads: Link
Cul-de-Sac plain
in 1744, for instance, sixty-six slaves left the plantation during the day but came back to sleep in their quarters at night, demanding the removal of
the overseer. One day the overseer killed one of the protesting slaves, a
pregnant woman, with a knife. Two months later the slaves surprised him,
carried him away, and executed him. They were condemned to death, but
the governor intervened on their behalf, recognizing that their actions
were justified by the particular brutality of their overseer. Such strikes
occurred with some regularity and often led to the negotiated return of
the slaves. Masters had a great deal of capital invested in their human
property, and it was often cheaper to negotiate a return and to replace a
white manager than to risk the loss of many slaves and the disruption of
plantation labor.41
Maroons who were repeatedly absent for several weeks or more were,
however, usually punished harshly. The Code Noir stipulated that a slave
who had been away from the plantation for more than a month was to have
one of his ears cut off and a fleur-de-lis branded on his shoulder. A slave
who ran away again for a month was to receive a second brand and have a
hamstring cut. The punishment for the third offense was death. Rather
than follow these prescriptions for mutilation, however, most masters and
managers devised other punishments that caused suffering but did not
damage their property. Maroons were usually whipped, and sometimes
their garden plots were confiscated. They might be locked up in the planta-
tion hospitals, which often doubled as prisons and were outfitted with bars
or posts used to immobilize punished slaves at night, or else in the cachots, small stone prisons that proliferated on plantations during the late eighteenth century. Chains might be attached to the slave’s legs, sometimes
with a ball added to make running difficult, and iron collars with spikes
placed permanently around the neck. Only a blacksmith could remove
them. Even such devices did not always keep slaves from running away
again; some maroons were caught wearing them.42
Some individuals broke permanently with the world of the plantations
by escaping to the mountains and forming or joining maroon bands. Such
bands were a presence in the colony throughout the eighteenth century,
and they left their traces on the landscape. As Moreau reported of the
eastern parts of the Northern Province, hills with names like Flambeaux
f e r m e n ta t i o n
53
(torches) or Congo “recalled the era when fugitives lived in nearly in-
accessible locations.” Many remembered “Polydor and his band, his mur-
ders, his banditry, and most of all the difficulty we had in capturing him.”
Polydor was killed in 1734, but another maroon leader named Canga
emerged in the same region in the 1770s, and after his execution there
came another named Yaya.43
These bands, who conducted raids against plantations, were a major
concern for colonial administrators. The administration maintained the
maréchaussée to police the slaves and hunt maroon bands. In one case they opted for negotiation. In 1785 the colonial administrations of both the
Spanish and French colonies signed a treaty with a group of more than 100
maroons living in frontier region of Bahoruco. The treaty granted them
amnesty and liberty in return for their promise to pursue any new run-
aways in the area and hand them over to the authorities. Many whites
decried such agreements, believing that the only way to deal with rebel
slave communities was to destroy them. But in pursuing this policy Saint-
Domingue’s administrators were simply following the lead of those in Ja-
maica and Suriname who had signed such treaties with maroon groups in
the 1730s as a way of ending long wars and creating a buffer against contin-
uing escapes.44
During the eighteenth century the maroon communities of Saint-
Domingue maintained open, armed
in 1744, for instance, sixty-six slaves left the plantation during the day but came back to sleep in their quarters at night, demanding the removal of
the overseer. One day the overseer killed one of the protesting slaves, a
pregnant woman, with a knife. Two months later the slaves surprised him,
carried him away, and executed him. They were condemned to death, but
the governor intervened on their behalf, recognizing that their actions
were justified by the particular brutality of their overseer. Such strikes
occurred with some regularity and often led to the negotiated return of
the slaves. Masters had a great deal of capital invested in their human
property, and it was often cheaper to negotiate a return and to replace a
white manager than to risk the loss of many slaves and the disruption of
plantation labor.41
Maroons who were repeatedly absent for several weeks or more were,
however, usually punished harshly. The Code Noir stipulated that a slave
who had been away from the plantation for more than a month was to have
one of his ears cut off and a fleur-de-lis branded on his shoulder. A slave
who ran away again for a month was to receive a second brand and have a
hamstring cut. The punishment for the third offense was death. Rather
than follow these prescriptions for mutilation, however, most masters and
managers devised other punishments that caused suffering but did not
damage their property. Maroons were usually whipped, and sometimes
their garden plots were confiscated. They might be locked up in the planta-
tion hospitals, which often doubled as prisons and were outfitted with bars
or posts used to immobilize punished slaves at night, or else in the cachots, small stone prisons that proliferated on plantations during the late eighteenth century. Chains might be attached to the slave’s legs, sometimes
with a ball added to make running difficult, and iron collars with spikes
placed permanently around the neck. Only a blacksmith could remove
them. Even such devices did not always keep slaves from running away
again; some maroons were caught wearing them.42
Some individuals broke permanently with the world of the plantations
by escaping to the mountains and forming or joining maroon bands. Such
bands were a presence in the colony throughout the eighteenth century,
and they left their traces on the landscape. As Moreau reported of the
eastern parts of the Northern Province, hills with names like Flambeaux
f e r m e n ta t i o n
53
(torches) or Congo “recalled the era when fugitives lived in nearly in-
accessible locations.” Many remembered “Polydor and his band, his mur-
ders, his banditry, and most of all the difficulty we had in capturing him.”
Polydor was killed in 1734, but another maroon leader named Canga
emerged in the same region in the 1770s, and after his execution there
came another named Yaya.43
These bands, who conducted raids against plantations, were a major
concern for colonial administrators. The administration maintained the
maréchaussée to police the slaves and hunt maroon bands. In one case they opted for negotiation. In 1785 the colonial administrations of both the
Spanish and French colonies signed a treaty with a group of more than 100
maroons living in frontier region of Bahoruco. The treaty granted them
amnesty and liberty in return for their promise to pursue any new run-
aways in the area and hand them over to the authorities. Many whites
decried such agreements, believing that the only way to deal with rebel
slave communities was to destroy them. But in pursuing this policy Saint-
Domingue’s administrators were simply following the lead of those in Ja-
maica and Suriname who had signed such treaties with maroon groups in
the 1730s as a way of ending long wars and creating a buffer against contin-
uing escapes.44
During the eighteenth century the maroon communities of Saint-
Domingue maintained open, armed
Similar Books
