Raciser la société : un projet administratif pour une société domingoise complexe (1760-1791)

Abstract

Racializing a society: an administrative plan for a complex French colonial society (Saint-Domingue 1760-1791). The author deals with the relevance of the terms « race », « racialization » and « racism » to qualify the processes at work in the colonial society of French Saint-Domingue at the end of the 18th century. She describes what concerns the policies implemented by the metropolitan administrators and their local agents for which these terms can be relevant at certain moments (during the first committee of legislation) but not in others (during the second one). She also takes into account the variety of the behaviour of the various members of the Domingan society (Whites, free people of colour and slaves) and she invites to deepen their study. In the same line as Barbara Fields’s work, she makes the hypothesis that the end of the 18th century is a turning point of the history of the colony when the ideology of race is set up and when the French Saint-Domingue society is hesitating on the social functioning to be adopted.

Keywords

• race
• free people of colour
• racialization
• Whites
• administration