Content area
Full Text
Abstract
This article explores the phenomenon of marronage in Saint Domingue during the two decades before the Haitian Revolution by examining over 19,000 unique incidents of marronage reported in the colonial newspaper. By addressing the typology, the dimensions, the composition, and the evolution of marronage in Saint Domingue, this article argues: first, that the maroons of Saint Domingue were an extremely heterogeneous group comprised of enslaved Africans, enslaved Créoles, and possibly free people of colour from around the Atlantic World; second, that skin colour, gender, literacy, language proficiency, occupational specialization, and knowledge of the outside world all provided certain benefits in maintaining success in taking flight; and finally, that the practice of marronage during the years approaching the revolution was in decline and therefore had little effect on the impending revolution.
Marronage, the act of running away, enjoys a fairly controversial place within the historiography of the Haitian Revolution.1 Since the mid-nineteenth century, French, Haitian, and more recently, Anglo historians have debated about the role the fugitive enslaved played in the events that engendered the Haitian Revolution. This scholastic "battleground", however, rests on a decidedly weak foundation.2 To date, historians, despite many claims about the role marronage played in Saint Domingue, have only vaguely outlined the composition and dimensions of the maroon population in the colony. Simply put, there has been little tangible evidence put forth that suggests how many enslaved individuals ran away each year, how long they were absent, and what impact, if any, they had on the coming revolution. In an effort to bolster this historiography, this study offers a more detailed picture of marronage in Saint Domingue during the last two decades before the Haitian Revolution by analysing over 19,000 individual cases of marronage excised from the colony's newspaper, Les Affiches Américaines.
There are three main objectives of this study: first, to offer insight into the debate regarding a growth in marronage during the years approaching the Haitian Revolution and the phenomenon's impact on the development of the Haitian Revolution. The evidence will illustrate that marronage, in contrast to previous interpretations, was a relatively consistent phenomenon throughout the second half of the eighteenth century and more than likely it was in decline during the years approaching the revolution. Second,...