The plantation system in times of abolitionist revolution: Saint- Domingue, 1790-1803

Author(s)

Isabela Rodrigues de Souza

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2022-12-16

Examining board members

Rafael de Bivar Marquese; Flavio dos Santos Gomes; Fernanda Bretones Lane; Ivete Machado de Miranda Pereira

• Advisor: Rafael de Bivar Marquese

Abstract

This thesis explores the transformation of the plantation system in the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the period known as the Haitian Revolution (1790-1803). We argue that the event center was the struggle between two contrasting visions of freedom, one developed by the French and black revolutionary leaderships and the other by the mass of former slaves. Different projects of land and labor organization (plantations and small subsistence properties) based these visions. The conflicts between authorities regarding the maintenance of the monoculture plantations against enslaved in search of peasant properties shaped the way the transformation of the plantation system occurred during the years of the Revolution. These changes, however, had different configurations in each department of Saint-Domingue. To analyze this conjuncture, we use the domanial and urban censuses of the colony from 1795 to 1803, and the western Province notorial archives from 1790 to 1803. From this investigation, it is possible to understand the transition from the former slave production complex to the peasant holdings that have predominated in Haiti since the nineteenth century. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 19/11240-9 - The plantation system in times of abolitionist revolution: Saint-Domingue, 1790-1803
• Grantee: Isabela Rodrigues de Souza
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master