The February 1831 Slave Uprising in Martinique and the Policing of White Identity (original) (raw)

2007, French Historical Studies

, about three hundred slaves attacked eleven plantations near the commercial center of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, as well as three homes in the city. According to official reports and eyewitness accounts, the incident started in the cane fields of Monsieur Perrinelle, a prominent creole, and soon spread as the group of slaves made their way from plantation to plantation. Along their route they invoked the revolutionary fervor that had recently swept France, singing to the tune of the "Parisienne," "march forward against the planters" and "wash our furrows with the blood of whites." On receiving news of the events, Martinique's new governor, contre-Amiral Jean Henri Joseph Dupotet, called the colonial militias-both white and mulatto-and rebecca Hartkopf Schloss is assistant professor of history at texas A&M University. She is writing a book on the construction of white identity in the early-nineteenth-century French Atlantic. the author thanks cyndy Bouton, Anthony Mora, Bill reddy, Steven Schloss, and members of the History Department Junior Faculty and the Melbern G. Glasscock center for Humanities research working groups for their comments on an earlier version of this article. She also extends her gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the editors of French Historical Studies for their many helpful suggestions. the Program to enhance Scholarly and creative Achievement and the Department of History at texas A&M University provided generous research support. Unlike in the British or Spanish caribbean, throughout the eighteenth century and during the first half of the nineteenth century, in Martinique the term Creole always designated a white individual born in the colonies. When used by those born in the colonies, and in particular by the island's elites, it most often was intended as a compliment and implied that the individual understood the complexities of colonial life and, in particular, of the plantation system. When used by a French european, either in the colonies or in metropolitan France, the term Creole usually implied that an individual was uncultivated or uncivilized. Because it is often, though not always, capitalized in the original documents related to nineteenth-century Martinique, i capitalize the term here. For a recent discussion on the use of the term, see carolyn Allen, "creole then and Now: the Problem of Definition,"