marronage and slaves revolts in haiti

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARRONAGE AND SLAVE REVOLTS AND REVOLUTION IN ST. DOMINGUE-HAITI

Leslie F. Manigat

Institute of International Relations The University of the West Indies

St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies

Marronage in St. Domingue-Haiti constitutes one of the most popular chap- ters of the history of the colonial period, particularly because of the subsequent and successful slave revolution of 1791-1793.1 It has recently become a fashion- able subject for scholarly research, essays, novels, and even poetry and politico- journalistic panegyrics. Actually, the study of marronage dates as far back as the period of colonial slavery when, during the eighteenth century, many “memoirs,” “surveys” and “papers” on the maroons2 were prepared, which attests that the phenomenon was a matter of interest and concern to the colonists and the French colonial administration.3 Marronage-or at least some portion of it-is still to be scientifically researched, since the primary archival sources (public and private) have not yet been combed of all the substantial and relevant data, and many questions about its interpretation still remain subjects for serious debate. Nevertheless the subject of marronage also seems to be part of the new “vogue” that regularly seizes upon a historical topic of current interest and combines it with a genuine interest in social conflict, romantic curiosity about the life of “primitive rebels,” the ideological quest for the relevance of guerilla warfare, and even a Freudian attraction for all forms of “deviance” susceptible to psychoanalytic explanation.

Moreover, as already mentioned, St. Domingue-Haiti has been the theatre not only of slave resistance, contests and revolts, as elsewhere, but also of an authentic revolution that achieved (1) personal freedom for all the slaves by means of mass violence; (2) expropriation of the colonists’ land; and finally, (3) political independence by means of an armed struggle for national liberation. Therefore, this revolutionary background serves as the actual context of marronage in Haiti, places it in its true historical perspective, and consequently changes the position of the problem itself when compared with marronage elsewhere. It raises the question of the connection-if any-between marronage, and (1) the revolution for liberation from slavery, (2) the revolution for the access to land from the broken plantation system, and (3) the revolution for national liberation from checkmated metropolitan France. Thus the unique- ness of the Haitian case creates a particular “problematic” in the study of marronage in St. Domingue-Haiti: the search for the existence of the link and the nature of the relationship between marronage and these three basic achieve- ments of the Haitian revolution.

This theoretical perspective unavoidably affects the choice of elements for a definition, the rating of variables for an explanation, and the classification of criteria for a typology of marronage in St. Domingue-Haiti.

This perspective serves also as a framework to assess critically the two schools of interpretation of marronage, the first represented by scholars like Gabriel Debien and Yvan Debbash,’-6 who tend to “banalize” it by denying it any

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Manigat: Marronage in St. Domingue-Haiti 42 1

revolutionary content or potential, and second, exemplified by men of letters like Jean Fouchard and Edner Brutus,7-9 who tend to ennoble it by directly attributing t o it the emergence, the dynamism and the successful outcome of the Haitian revolution and by classifying the insurgent slaves of 1791 as maroons as if this last assertion was so obvious that it needs n o evidence.

This perspective necessitates combining micro-level analysis of the maroons as a contingent band of discontented individuals and macro-level analysis of marronage as a cumulative total social phenomenon. It dominates the way in which the evolution of marronage is studied dynamically, raising the question of a possible “direction,” “significance” and “finality” of this evolution, which can help us t o discover whether marronage has been “the andante of the revolutionary allegro.”

Finally, the perspective elicits the question of whether the events of 1789- 179 1 , in their local as well as international contexts, have not combined conditions t o produce a critical threshold beyond which was engineered a kind of mutation of marronage, when the following factors became operationally productive: (1) the existence of a network of more intensive communications between slaves of different plantations and ethnic origins through “creolization” and easier physical mobility, (2 ) the creation of a revolutionary consciousness of the slaves through voodoo and political propaganda, and (3) the “contagiousness” of the maroons’ guerilla activities.

If, after testing as an hypothesis, thisinterpretationis t o be correct, then marronage would have caused its own dissolution in the successive waves of the rising tide of the black revolution. This “death,resurrection and victory”,process in the evolution of the struggle would have, in this way, put an end t o the marginal role of the maroons, endowing marronage with a fundamental and even axial role, ex- tending from the general uprisings of the slaves led by Boukman ( 1791) through the era of Toussaint L’Ouverture (1 793-1 802) to the achievement of full independence under Dessalines (1803), when the praxis of the revolution recuperates, reactivates and incorporates the maroons’ tradition, reaching the triple objective of emancipating all the slaves, shifting land ownership, and fathering a new nation. It would appear then that marronage trudged along through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries until it realized, at the critical stage from 1789-1 791, a chrysalid type of metamorphosis and took off, like a butterfly from its pupa, as the new ascending reality of the Haitian revolution.

MARRONAGE IN COLONIAL ST. DOMINGUE AS LIVED AND PERCEIVED

The starting point for this study must be an attempt t o define marronage in St. Domingue and t o review the perceptions of marronage held by observers and students who have tried t o assess it.

DEFINITION O F THE MAROON

As portrayed in the official documents of the colonial administration, the private papers of the planters of St. Domingue, and in the works of various authors, the maroon may be defined as the fugitive slave who has broken with the social order of the plantation t o live, actually free, but as an outlaw, in areas (generally in the woods or in the mountains) where he could escape the control of the colonial power and the plantocratic establishment.

The first element in this definition is the existence of a social organization

422 Annals New York Academy of Sciences

(the plantation system) with a structure and laws, within which the servile condition is set down, and with which the maroon breaks b y fleeing. This means that the threshold of acceptability has been crossed. It is the logical sequence: mis- fortune-threshold of tolerance-unhappiness-rupture. It is the rejection (momen- ary, lasting, or even final) of the institutional orthodoxy and of the cultural norms of the existing social order, which reflects the etymology of the Spanish word cimarron, which means “savage.” The maroon has taken it upon himself t o run away from the “order” of the civilized world which for him is “disorder,” contrary t o nature.I0 To the master, he is an absconder. The maroon, as a fugitive, is a vagrant. He has achieved the mobility that was forbidden him under the condition of slavery.

The second element is the possibility of taking refuge in a space not actually controlled by the ruling authorities and their repressive forces, so that he can escape from the hold of the center by putting himself on the periphery, in a marginal but independent situation. This means that as an unsubmissive person he has put physical distance between the system and where he chooses to live secretly. He locates himself “out of reach” beyond the moving “frontier” of the plantation system, but his condition as a fugitive prevents the “frontier man” that he is from becoming a pioneer. He finds a space of refuge, a hiding place” ; he goes underground.

The third element is the insecurity of his new life. He must accept and face the risks of his condition: pursuit by the specialized repressive forces of the “mardchauss&” (the “rangers” of that time), primitive life in the woods, inclem- encies of weather, uncertainty of finding food, hazards of health. It is a material, psychological and political insecurity. To resist and survive means a psychology of risk-taking and a determination t o brave adversity and face danger. After a certain time, many fugitives gave up and returned t o servile conditions that were inhuman but secure. But the one who does not give u p becomes hardened. Here lies the passage from insubordination t o rebellion. He is a “primitive rebel.”

The fourth element comes from the necessity t o survive by his own means. The three main problems of survival are food, shelter and defense. For all these three needs, the maroon has t o encounter the hostility of the plantocratic establishment, against which he therefore must act. First, his flight alone is already an act against this master, willing or not , since he deprives the latter of his chattel, the slave being only property. Therefore the mere act of escape injures the material interest of the colonist, not t o mention the bad example that undermines the discipline of the plantation. The maroon is an anomaly. To survive, the maroon is often compelled to steal food and clothes before fleeing, and t o raid the plantations (of foodstuffs, poultry and even cattle) after fleeing. Then, by finding a shelter that allows him to free himself from possessive domination, he becomes ips0 fucto a challenge t o the propertied class. Finally, since the “police” of the plantation or of the local administration will hem him in, he has t o defend himself, to hit and run. He is engaged in hostile action against his enemy-the planter. What was a flight becomes a fight. And if, before fleeing, he has stolen a gun or kept his cutlass, and if, after fleeing, he has fashioned his own defense, he becomes an armed freedom fighter and therefore a threat. This evolution makes him a bandit.

“PETIT” AND “GRAND” MARRONAGE

These foregoing elements of the definition of the maroon are not necessarily found at all times. The strict definition of marronage becomes a problem, for

Manigat: Marronage in St. Domingue-Haiti 423

generally all runaway slaves have come t o be called “maroons.” According t o certain authors, “partir maroon” ( to run for freedom) is just t o leave the plantation without permission! This misuse of the term has serious implications because it dilutes the concept of marronage in interpreting the wide variety of slave behaviors used to escape the discipline of the plantation. Obsessed by the possibility of rnarronage on their plantations, the masters were ready t o see a maroon in any absentee and t o suspect any slave out of his plantation without a permit of being a maroon. It is n o reason for historians to d o the same.

Personally, I d o not think that all running away is marronage. To be faithful t o the etymology, the word “maroon” implies the intention, a t least t o a t tempt , to live another life outside of the social order of the plantation as a “savage.” Therefore, the slave who leaves the plantation clandestinely only to visit a girl on another plantation and then comes back is not a true maroon. Very often what Gabriel Debien, following the example of the planters, calls “le petit marronage” (“little” marronage) does not seem t o me t o be marronage at all but just “short-lived absenteeism”.12 To go for a run, t o go on the loose, t o play truant, t o feign, t o go on a spree, that is not really “partir maroon,” t o run for freedom. The slave may hope that his absence will not be noticed or he may be ready to take the risk of a lashing-all the more since the pardon of the master is not impos- sible for a short absence-to go for a stroll. If the word maroon must have content, it must mean something else, something better related t o the etymologic sense of “savage,” conveying the wild life in the woods and the idea of running wild. Without the decision t o run wild, there is no marronage at all. Therefore any distinction between petit rnarronage and grand marronage has t o be made on other grounds, such as the intensity of the determination implicit in a behavior, the period of marronage, the individual o r collective choice (in isolation or in bands), the vicinity or remoteness (or the accessibility o r inaccessibility) of the hiding place, and the tactics used t o survive.

Grand marronage in the situation in which the fugitive slave runs wild with the cold determination to go far, t o run t o unreachable spots, t o stay as long as possible, if not definitely, a t least to the limit of human resistance. As much as possible he joins with his fellow maroons t o constitute or strengthen the band and to adopt a hit-and-run tactic in a guerilla war against the plantation order.

Petit marronage, by contrast, is when the fugitive slave runs wild spon- taneously. He does not stay away for more than a few days because, unwilling to go too far or to inaccessible spots, he always leaves open the possibility of a quick return at the most propitious moment, asking to be forgiven and reinstated in his servile condition.

This distinction, which is useful when the time comes t o find the explanation for marronage and t o build a typology, does not preclude the existence of borderline cases and the possibility of a shift from one to the other. Unexpected difficulties or a flagging of the will may transform a case of grand marronage into one of petit marronage in a first attempt. On the contrary, unexpectedly propitious conditions or the radicalization of a will may transform a case of petit marronage into one of grand marronage.

CONCEPTIONS O F MARRONAGE

The vocabulary used to describe the maroon and marronage is the best test t o determine the conceptions of rnarronage held by various authors, and it is quite revealing t o juxtapose contrasting views of the phenomenon.

For French colonists and ethnocentric authors, who d o not use available


documents critically enough, the maroon is a lazy and delinquent fugitive. For Jean Fouchard, who is hypercritical of this documentation and writes in the vein of the Haitian patriotic school, the maroon is a freedom fighter, dedi- cated to the ideal and goal of liberty.

For the local contemporary colonial authorities and the French authors concerned with the security of properties and persons, marronage is a form of banditry. For Edner Brutus, not quite forgetful of his original flirtation with Marxism, marronage is an expression of the class struggle in a slave-master society. For a historian like Gabriel Debien, meticulously scrutinizing plantation archives, of which he is the best connoisseur, it is not certain that marronage has always represented “vengeance of the oppressed slave”; he felt that it was certainly not “a true form of resistance,” but mostly the fact of hungry men. Given Debien’s expertise, this gives some food for thought. For the Haitian classical school, B. Ardouin, for example, and some lucid contemporary observers, including colonial administrators, the maroon was the angry “avenger of his enslaved race” and marronage was the pivot of the resistance against oppression before the revolution. It was even the doctrine of the French Ministry of Colonies to classify marronage as revolt.13

The French scholar, Yvan Debbash, who has recently published an important scientific analysis of marronage, subtitles his study “Essay on the desertion of the antillean slave.” The choice of this word “desertion” is not indifferent. It implicitly suggests (1) the logic and utility, if not the necessity and justifica- tion, of an existing “discipline” (the maroon is seen as “undisciplined”); (2) the individual and marginal character of marronage (which was an anomaly and an exception); and (3) perhaps unconsciously, the reprobative and negative nuance that the military origin of the word confers on it. A deserter is a delinquent guilty of having shirked duty. On the contrary, for the most recent Haitian interpretation, and the most popular one (which reconciles, at least on this point, partisans and exiled foes of Duvalier), the maroon is the “maquisard” (guerilla) of the Haitian protonational and then national resistance through the continuous and indomitable battles by which the revolution for liberty and independence finally succeeded. Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, now has its moving and beautiful “Monument au Marron Inconnu” (Monument to the Unknown Maroon) on the Square of the Heroes of Independence, just as Paris has its Monument to the Unknown Soldier at the-Arc de Triomphe.

To decide between these two opposing schools of thought-the one, dominantly French, which tends to dismiss marronage as a trivial occurrence in the life of the plantation, and the other, not exclusively Haitian, which tends to elevate marronage as a sociopolitical conflict-it is imperative to observe that each not only has adopted different perspectives, but also has put itself by priority at a level of analysis that is different from the other’s. And this problem of different levels of analysis seems to me as decisive as the different ideological perspectives of each school. In any case, it may even be that the choice of the level of analysis is unconsciously suggested by the differences in ideological perspectives.

The first school, which encompasses the French ethnocentric view, studies the maroons as individuals, describes the cases one by one, analyzes the subjects, and finds that each case is an “accident” in the normal daily life of the plantation. It is interesting to observe that this was also the approach of the planters. Empirical studies, which remain close to the archival sources, measure the small- ness of intensity of the phenomenon, its dispersion, and its disparate character through the singularity and subjectivity of individual maroons. At this level, the temptation is to remain descriptive, because when explanation is attempted


it must correlate with empirical referents according to the sources. The concern is t o have an accurate and undistorted image of marronage through the objective portrayal of real maroons. In the same way, even when trying t o generalize, this school maintains itself at the micro-level of the study and analysis of the maroons. The end product is the dismissal of marronage as a serious phenomenon. When these authors consider the problems raised by the existence of bands of maroons, they apply their individuality-oriented focus t o the larger unit and perceive the atomized composition of the bands, and so marronage is still seen as a contingent set-up of discontented individuals.

The second school studies marronage as a social reality, and looks for the validity of explanation in drawing the general characteristics of the phenomenon and in analyzing the patterns and schemes of behavior among the maroons. While the first school offers an image with richer detail, the second offers a more coherent view of marronage in St. Domingue. It finds that marronage is a permanent attitude jeopardizing the very order of the plantation system. It is interesting t o observe that for the colonial administration, too, marronage was a “ferment of dissolution [which] was threatening the colonial society in its raison d’etre and was shaking its very foundations.” This school measures the scale and the evolution of marronage as a total phenomenon within the slave society and ascribes the collective personality of the maroons t o objective structural conditions of slavery that set in motion natural human types of reactions and patterns of behavior. Even when referring t o specific cases t o illustrate the model, this school maintains itself a t the macro-level of the study and analysis of marronage. The end-product is the elevation of the stature of marronage. When these authors have to consider individual maroons, their collec- t iv i tya ien ted focus is applied t o the smaller unit, and through the typological approach of individual maroons, marronage is still seen as a cumulative total social process.

THE IDEOLOGICAL SPECTRUM O F THE HAITIAN SCHOOL

For obvious reasons the Haitian historians of marronage belong predominantly to the second school. Their patriotism is not the sole factor responsible, since they share the conceptual and methodological choice of their privileged macro- level of analysis of marronage and their politically oriented focus with the Martiniquan, Aimd Cesaire,I4 the Cuban historian. Jose Lucian0 Franco, lS and the French scholar, Charles Andre Julien, Professor at the Sorbonne.I6 One could add the names of Trinidadian historians, C. L. R. James17 and Eric Wil- liams,]* since the one short reference t o the maroons in their respective books defines marronage as a “movement of resistance and protest,” as a “fight for” and a “road to liberty.” With the exception of Jean Fouchard, they have not conducted direct personal and systematic empirical research in the archival sources on this specific topic, but they extensively employ the findings of empirical investigations; and the accusation that their imagination supplies the deficiency in their documentation is not always justified, in any case certainly not for all of them.

While they all agree t o asserr emphatically the existence of the link between marronage and the Haitian revolution, their individual analysis bears the mark of the influence of different ideologies.

A first ideological trend can be defined as “ethnonationalist.” It is the traditional classical position of Haitian historians on marronage. It goes from Beau-


brun Ardouin (1 850)19 to Jean Fouchard (1 970), who has most significantly entitled his welldocumented book The Maroons of Liberty. It also draws on documents as to the human nature of the Negro in spite of the degrading state of slavery. Marronage is an indication and a sign that the slaves did not really accept slavery (ab uno disce omnes). It was a natural human reaction to domination and dependence and to exploitation and suffering, representing the normal aspiration to freedom.

A second ideological trend is represented by the Haitian Marxist school, which insists on the action of the masses as the slave working class of the society and on the role of violence. Marronage, in this perspective, is the illustration of both. This trend extends from the work of Etienne Charlier to that of the young neo-Marxist historians of today.20 The maroons were the revolutionary historical vanguard of the revolution of the masses.

A third ideological trend is represented by the Haitian “noiristic” (black power) school, which insists on race and color as the driving forces of the revolution. This trend goes from the moderate Price Mars21’ 22 to the radical Franqois Duvalier and Lorrimer Denis. By pointing up the decisive role of the African masses, this interpretation has an anti-mulatto flavor and denies to the mulatto leadership the role attributed to it by mulatto historians. The maroons represented black consciousness and African-rooted culture (voodoo). Their radical and racial opposition to the world of the masters made the maroons the spear- heads of the black revolution and the class-race authors of Haitian independence.

Finally, a fourth ideological trend is a blend of Marxism and “noirisme.” This trend, formed in the confluence of the Marxist and black power ideologies, is best represented by Edner Brutus. In combining the spirit of the three previous schools, Brutus emphasizes “the immense role” of the maroons by (1) “their permanent war against slavery”, which “made possible the general uprisings”; ( 2 ) “their insurrectionary movement ,” which remains the first expression of the class-struggle in St. Domingue”; and (3) “their martial refusal” as “transplanted Africans” to accept the colonial system.23

One does not wonder then why the supreme expression of these conceptions of marronage has culminated recently in the “Monument to the Unknown Maroon.”

EXPLANATION, TYPOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF MARRONAGE IN ST. DOMINGUE-HAITI

The special case of St. Domingue-Haiti links the explanation, the typology, and the evolution of marronage in order to understand the complexity of the relationship between marronage and the Haitian revolution and, at the same time, to discover the dynamics of this relationship by not dissociating the synchronic and the diachronic approach in the attempt to render a total account of marronage as a lived reality. On the one hand, it is likely that the conditions and causes of marronage have changed through time, and that the variety of types of maroons has been affected by this evolution. On the other hand, the associa- tion of evolution and typology with explanation helps to avoid the exclusivist conceptions of the motivations of the maroons, which tend to prevail. I shall take two examples. A classical debate exists between those who explain marronage as the refusal of the maroon to perform hard physical labor or even work in general and those who claim that marronage represented the aspiration of the maroon to freedom, ignoring the fact that in the context of colonial


class patterns and occupational status to be free is not to work (or a t least not to be compelled t o manual labor). In the same vein, the explanation of marronage by hunger is traditionally presented as contradicting or weakening the explanation of marronage by resistance, revolt and revolution. This second classical debate, between those who ascribe marronage t o lack of food, as attested t o in the documents of the time, and those who ascribe marronage t o revolutionary protest, ignores historical precedents in the revolutionary annals of mankind. Hunger may be and historically has been a fermenting agent of revolution, a trigger for political awareness: hunger and freedom are not exclu- sive-on the contrary, hunger has a mobilizing capacity. One must not underestimate the psychological fact that the desire for freedom may be expressed in a variety of unexpected ways. Therefore, in trying to combine explanation, typology and evolution, we hope to avoid any reductionism of these types which unduly obscure the terms and conditions t o meet the requirements of our research perspective.

Propitious Conditions f o r the Development of Marronage

First, certain conditions were o r evolved into those propitious t o marronage (or adverse t o it, making it harder and therefore requiring a greater determination t o run wild in spite of them) and its survival or extension.

The geography of St. Domingue, the western, French, portion of an island (which is four-fifths mountainous), includes bushy savannahs, wooded hills, karst topography, with sinkholes, underground caverns or caves, and tropical- creeper vegetation in remote areas. The zones of greater-maroon activity have traditionally been the mountainous areas, as seen by the sites chosen by the famous maroons of Les Platons in the southern range, or of Les Matheux in the central range, of Plaisance and Limbe in the northern range.

Demography has also played its role. The densely populated plantation lands in the richer sugar-cane plains, have also been areas of marronage. The number of slaves facilitated such marronage and aided in the complicity t o “partir maroon” since the slave: master ratio was so high (300 or 400 slaves t o 4 or 5 masters on the plantations and 17 slaves for 1 master in the entire colony around 1789) that it was very difficult t o control the slaves. They very concen- tration of the masses increased the possibility of running wild. It is not surprising that the rich plains of Cap (in the north), Cul de Sac (in the east) and Les Cayes (in the south) have been areas of marronage since they lie a t the foot of mountainous massives (which combines the geographic and demographic variables).

Another geographic factor was the border between St. Domingue and the Spanish part of the island. The border area, offering the possibility of “crossing over t o the Spanish” (“passer a l’dspagnol”), was a traditional zone of marronage since the fugitive slave in the east found asylum, and even welcome, in the Spanish territory. The matter became a subject of controversy, tension and negotiations between the two neighboring colonial authorities.

When the geographic and the demographic variables are added t o the proximity t o Spanish territory, then conditions become highly favorable for maRonage, as they were for the maroons of Maribaroux and Vallieres in the northeast (a well-known and refractory “hotbed” of marronage) or the maroons of Ba- haruco at the eastern central border (site of a famous camp with which the white establishment was obliged t o negotiate and compromise).

As the eighteenth century progressed, new variables arose in relation t o the


internal situation and the international environment and these also contributed t o the propitious conditions: ( 1 ) dissension within the colonial establishment due t o the sedition of the colonists and their armed fight for autonomy against the royal colonial authorities (military and administrative) ( the “divided house” spoken of in the Bible); (2) the difficulty of limiting the audience of the “new French ideas” t o white ears and the white intelligentsia only, particularly when some slaves could read and writem (a few were educated25 and a small number had been in France26); (3) the development of Creole, a common language derived from French vocabulary, but built on African syntactic ordering, which made communication easier between slaves of different ethnic origins; (4) the development of a religion, voodoo, peculiar t o the slaves, derived from their African background and constituted through the creolization of ancestral beliefs and rites and joined in adaptive syncretism with the religion of the masters; voodoo was rooted in the difference between the gods of the white and the gods of the black. Since the well-known works of Karl Deutsch have appeared o n the subjects of political awareness and mass communication and on nationalism and social communication,27 these last two conditions cannot be underestimated any longer.

And so, progressively, a set of conditions arose that were propitious t o marronage.

The Problem of Causal Explanation and Typology Building

It is hard, by means of documents coming only from the white masters and by means of behaviors which may have had complex motivations, t o determine the causes of marronage. Any attempt a t structuring causal explanation must admit the existence of cases that are outside of the model, unclassifiable in their singularity: special individuals like Zabeth (maroon from childhood, maroon adult, maroon after each recapture, maroon after mutilation, maroon to death); specific groups, such as certain ethnic ones, who reject social plantation life and the master-slave relation. For them, marronage is the state of nature. Such independent natures or bohemian characters d o exist, so why not even more so among the slaves, for whom slavery certainly provides a reason?

So, a tentative structure of causal explanation correlated with a typology of maroons distinguishes (not including specific unclassifiable cases) two ap- proaches-one for maroons as individuals and one for maroons as groups (wandering bands, communities, organized camps). But all explanation is related in one way or the other t o the existence in St. Domingue of two classes: white masters, black slaves.

Motivations of the Maroons as Individuals

Individual marronage may be explained both by objective reasons and by subjective motivations. Both are t o be found in t h e working and living conditions of the slaves.

The negative reaction of a slave against the conditions of work (location, duration and type of work, organization of labor, the painfulness, degrading nature and status of work) may take many forms: laziness, withdrawal of enthusiasm, “sickouts,” apathy as passive resistance, sit-down strikes. Marronage is the extreme form of reacting negatively against the conditions of work-it is a stopping dead of work, a point-blank refusal to work and running away. Here


we have the marronage-strike.28 In this case, the maroon protests against a particular condition that he deems unbearable o r the general conditions, which he finds unacceptable. Marronage is the expression of a trade dispute. But even at this stage of a mere marronage-strike, a primary consciousness of antagonisms of interest may emerge, with large consequences for future developments. Mar- ronage may be a negative reaction of the slave t o the conditions of life in the plantation-the standard of living and as both quantitative (mainly socioeconomic) and qualitative (predominantly sociocultural) aspects of life.

Reaction against Standard of Living. Since by definition, the slave is not entitled t o a salary, his basic needs-housing, health, clothes, food-must be met by the plantation system. When his basic needs were neglected, the slave might try t o leave an “inhospitable” master. Of these primary needs, it is, of course, food that is the most vital. And n o doubt a great deal of narronage was associated with lack of food,29 showing the connection: marronage-want of f o o d . Those who preach unconditional obeisance t o empirical data find the lack of food to be the most frequent cause of marronage. The problem of food supply is given the force of a determinant of marronage. First, hunger is not t o be disassociated from many other forms of deprivation, of which the structured combination constitutes the servile condition. Hunger is but one element in the package and therefore cannot be taken in isolation as the structure giving the significant general explanation. Second, as seen before, hunger has the power t o mobilize discontent and social unrest. Many revolts have started as hunger riots.

Hunger, penury and other deprivations may compel the slave t o steal and run away. The connection between marronage and robbery is one of the most popular in the archival documents. This is marronage-delinquency, and here again, those who uncritically accept the empirical data always claim that marronage is associated with robbery or some other misdemeanor and therefore that the maroon is the guilty slave who runs away t o avoid penalty. In any event the testimony of the master is categorical. Delinquency (particularly robbery) and the escape of punishment became a favorite explanation for marronage.30 Charles Andre Julien and Etienne D. Charlier were among the first t o reverse this type of explanation, stating that very often the slave did not run wild because he had stolen, but that he stole in order t o run Indeed, when we analyze what was stolen we find objects or food necessary for the running maroon such as foodstuffs, clothes, poultry, a horse or a cart, some tools and drugs. The right explanation is not marronage because of theft, but theft because of marronage, robbery being the consequence of the decision t o flee t o the woods. Thus the argument for delinquency as a cause of marronage is weakened.

Reaction against the Way o f Life. The slave may flee following maltreatment (frequent use of the whip, toughness of the master, brutality of a “commander”). It is a question of when the threshold of “bearability” is reached and the slave makes the jump from suffering to refusing t o suffer, and flees. Here we have marronage-suffering because of maltreatment.

Certain slaves did not and could not submit themselves t o the discipline of plantation life and adapt themselves t o a servile life. As soon as they landed, and/or were bought by a master and/or were brought t o the plantation, they sought t o escape. This is marronage-inadaptation, an expression of the instinc- tive rejection of servility and of the inborn pride of Negroes reacting against becoming chattel. An inflated pride was often the response t o the challenge that cultural and economic domination were damaging to black selfesteem.

Slaves ran wild because they were fed up, uprooted, homesick, “browned-off.’’ Their flight was an impuslive act. This psychological state is rooted in detri-


balization, which made them feel like fish out of water, giving rise to nostalgia, frustration and unhappiness or to moral lassitude and spleen. In this condition of stress, they fled the plantation and its environment. This is marronage-state of depression, the explanation for which lies in the profound psychology of the oppressed, deep-seated inhibitions and suppressed desires.32

Slaves ran away during their days off or in times of leisure, looking for enter- tainment and amusement. When deprived of or forbidden gatherings for relaxation, songs and tales that they love, music and dances that they enjoy, they tended to furtively leave the plantation. This is marronage-relaxation.

Finally, sex may have been a motivation for marronage. Usually the masters preferred to buy male slaves for production rather than females for reproduc- tion, creating a sexual imbalance that was ultimately a source of sexual frustration. “Courrir les filles” (“girl-hunting”) was a natural urge that could not always be met within the plantation. Given the hard work and the scarcity of leisure for the slaves, womanizing was a favorite diversion for which it was worth taking the risk of a “fugue” to another plantation or a more serious flight. Sometimes the slave became a maroon after a love grievance or conflict on the plantation with a luckier fellow-slave or even an enterprising master. A whole chapter could be written on marronage-sexuality, the slaves running away with girls or running away because of girl-hunting, or running away because of girls who wanted to elope with them, or abducting girls after having fled and lived as maroons.

Motivations of the Maroons as Groups

While the motivations of the maroons as individuals reveal only a “spon- taneous consciousness” and, at most, a prepolitical consciousness, the maroons as groups more often give evidence of the existence of a political consciousness, a revolutionary consciousness, a prenational and finally a national consciousness. Here we find dynamic causalities that cast a light on the relationship between structures and behavior and may explain a behavior of deviance or a determination to change the existing structures. The Ministry of Colonies was not wrong in identifying marronage with the more professional subversion of the revolutionaries.

The maroons as groups constitute three categories for which the criteria for ranging them is their degree of structuralization: (1) the wandering band of maroons, having a loose structure that changes according to circumstances, a cloud-type of gathering that is able to change form quickly, but within which the chief may hold strong authority; (2) the more stable community of maroons that form a geographically implanted grouping, but that must be able to be flexible since their location will depend on changing conditions of security; consequently this maroon group will be structured only enough to maintain a minimum of homogeneity, order and control; (3) the organized camp, which has a character of permanence and represents the highest degree of structure. A military society, the camp thrives on the principle of self-reliance, self-govern- ment, and self-defense and is implanted like an independent enclosed micro- state.

It is obvious that the rating of these variables cannot give an account of the motivations of the members of these three groups, but for all three, the type of general explanation changes from the socioeconomic-psychological, which predominated at first, to the sociopoliticcultural, which then tended to prevail.

Manigat: Marronage in St. Domingue-Haiti 43 I

The motivations of the maroons as groups may be considered as motivations- causes, driving forces, and aspirations.

Motivations of the Causal Type. Motivations of the causal type that explain the constitution of bands of maroons are, more particularly, the determination t o resist, the desire for vengeance, and the clash of conflicting cultures.

Determination t o resist oppression and exploitation soon reveals the pre- cariousness of marronage on an individual level. Isolated, the maroon is easily run t o ground. Resistance is possible and has meaning only when collective: from this we see the concerted escapes. This is marronage-resistance. The maquis where they took refuge became centers of resistance (the “foco” of the Latin American guerilla theory of the 1960s) against the territory occupied and controlled by the oppressor, the exploiter, the enemy, against whom they sometimes enjoyed complicity within the plantations themselves. Here is an em- bryonic political consciousness. It is still negative, a defensive reaction, but it clears the way for passage t o a positive phase: an offensive action, first inspired by vengeance, the transitional emotional link between defensive and offensive conduct of hostility.

Vengeance has often been the deep-seated, secret feeling of a certain number of slaves behind their apparent resignation to or even cheerful acceptance of the servile condition. Accumulated resentments, deep-rooted hate, sometimes expressed through criminality (particularly poisoning), find a less dangerous way of free expression in marronage. The desire for vengeance leads the slave to flee the disliked plantocratic world and join fellow maroons t o raid the plantations and t o retaliate, arms in hand. Destruction of installations, arson, setting fire t o the sugar-cane fields by the band of maroons are all the result of the passage from latent t o overt vengeance and from individual t o collective consciousness of the slaves: marronage-vengeance. Maroons were thus engaged in open hostility against the planters expressed in the form of group antagonism.

But the most profound and lasting motivation for collective marronage comes from the clash of different and potentially antagonistic cultures provoked by the master-slave relationship. Even the partial success of assimilation up t o mimeticism must not delude us: Two cultures were juxtaposed: a dominating one (the European whites) and a subordinate one (the African blacks). The racism of the former, with its differentiating privileges, helped the latter t o become aware of the culturally explosive content of the opposition and t o define itself by the conflicting character of the relationship. Voodoo, by differentiating and soon opposing the gods of the African-originated religion of the slaves and the God and saints of the religion of the masters (in spite of a syncretic coexistence), aggravated the cultural tension and radicalized it t o the breaking-point. A counter-acculturation move led to collective marronage to remove the fugitive from an alienating, oppressive culture, and it was an opening t o true political consciousness.

Motivations-Driving Forces. Marronage is history and, as such, part of the general process that led St. Domingue to a revolution in which class struggle took the form of race struggle. Is it conceivable that marronage would have played no role in this process? Revolts and revolution as forms of social conflict would have been the product of class and race struggles, and so would not marronage, as another form of social contest, also be part of the same struggle? Even without adopting the Marxist postulate that “all history is history of class struggle,” it seems unlikely in principle that in a country where the end-product of the historical process of the colonial period has been revolution, that marronage, opposing masters and slaves, would have occurred outside the context of class and race struggles.


Documentary evidence supports the logic of historical reasoning to show that in its highest and most militant form marronage in St. Domingue-Haiti has been the expression of class and race struggles. In spite of their panegyric and lyrical point of view, Jean Fouchard brings new documents into the debate and Edner Brutus casts new light on the question of the relationship between marronage and the Haitian revolution. It is only fair t o modify their passionate pleas with the excessive but salutary caution of Gabriel Debien, who mistrusts “novelists,” does not accept assertions based on “reasoning” only, and does not find con- clusive even the new data presented by Jean Fouchard on the growth and accelera- tion of marronage towards the r e v o l ~ t i o n . ~ ~ The conclusions of the two Haitian authors are totally irreconcilable with the “critical negativist” position of Yvan Debbash on the matter of the political content and aspects of marronage. The debate deserves t o be renewed.

With regard to class struggle, the conduct of the maroons reveals this refusal t o work on the plantations of the masters and their attempts to destroy the tools and places of work, the properties of the masters, and the masters themselves. In 1779, for example, all the slaves who became maroons set fire ro sugar canes ready to be rolled and poisoned the “dconome” (steward) and the “procureur- girant” (overseer) on the plantation La Ferronaye at Grande Rivi6re du Nord. Setting fire to the standing crop and trying to kill the masters are among normal, if not frequent, “actions” of the maroons throughout the eighteenth century. Predatory acts against property (as a symbol of ownership by the masters), and covert attacks on property (as a symbol of class oppression) faithfully accompany marronage through all its historical lifetime. It is admitted that actions of this kind are an expression of class struggle. Doesn’t this also apply to the maroon slave? If not , why? Is it on this same ground of refusing “ethno- centrism” that brought even Roger Bastide t o believe that the concept of personal freedom as a profound activator of behavior was the product of the ideo- logy of the eighteenthcentury French philosophers and therefore could not be attributed to the slaves?” Another significant point also cited by Debien was the habit of the maroons t o settle on plantations abandoned by the masters after unsuccessful attempts a t cultivation. So the maroons adopted the very same places they had fled when they had t o work for the master^!'^ Some maroon leaders accused the master of appropriating the fruit of the slaves’ work. One theme of maroon propaganda against the masters is conserved today through the creole proverb “Bourrique travaille choual galomne” (it is the donkey that works, but the horse that is promoted). Moreover, within the space occupied by the maroon bands or in the camp territory, the maroons aimed at cultivating their own products in order t o be as self-reliant as possible. Indeed, the final objective of some maroon leaders, from Padre Jean t o Mackandal, was t o make the slaves instead of masters owners of the lands. What is this if not class consciousness and class struggle?

With regard t o race struggle, it is omnipresent in the history of marronage in St. Domingue: “We have in the Negroes a formidable enemy a t home.” The maroon leader, Medor, confesses when arrested, the “secret” of the Negroes who were preparing themselves t o fight the whites if necessary.%. The racial connota- tion of the maroons’ struggle in St. Domingue is attested t o in every case of grand marronage and the racial motivation is explicit in the statements of the leaders and the accounts of the colonists or the colonial administrators. The maroon spirit, dynamized by voodoo as a vehicle of racial awareness and indic- ative of cultural antagonism, was reported to spread racial tension in the plantations, even among the elite of the slaves, as in the case of the 66 maroons


who killed the “econome” of their plantation in 1744. They learned to distin- guish the white man’s business (“z’affaires blancs”) and the white man’s manners from the Negro’s business and the manners of “we kind of people.” The maroons fought the white rules of work and discipline, the white establishment, the white culture, the white power. Medor and Mackandal in the 1750s, Polydor in 1734, Padre Jean in 1679, and others u p t o Boukman in 1791, spoke the language of racial antagonism because it was the most obvious line of cleavage in the colony, and their open goal was the elimination of the whites, class and race struggles being associated in the same fight.

Motivations-Aspirations. The motivations of the maroons in bands were the aspirations t o liberty, property and independence. For these goals, they ran away and began t o fight.

The aspiration t o liberty is clearly stated by maroons like Medor: “it is in view of obtaining freedom.” The colonists themselves recorded cases of slaves running t o become maroons “without reason,” “without subject,” “without any visible motives.” The instructions of the Ministry of Colonies were concerned by the necessity “to make the slave lose, if possible, the desire for freedom,” in an effort t o avoid marronage, but they did not underestimate the strength of the aspiration to liberty. “Slavery is a violent state counter to nature; those who are subject t o it are continuously motivated by the desire to get free from it.” One of the responses t o the challenge of slavery as a state contrary t o nature was marronage. It is not only a question of maltreatment, punishment, lack of food, or intolerable working conditions, but something stronger that overrides all these. The confession of a colonist of St. Domingue is clear on this point, speak- ing of a good master on the “happiest” plantation: “There is nowhere else where the negroes have more food, enjoy a better life and sweeties, have easier conditions of work and are treated with more consideration and humanity”; yet “they are incapable of being grateful . . . ” and flee as maroon^.^' A Swiss author corroborates this point: “Nothing is more frequent than plots of marronage in the best plantations.”% Gabriel Debien himself concedes that “The good masters had sometimes more maroons than the toughest ones.”39 In the absence of any better explanation, it is difficult not t o attribute marronage t o the aspiration for liberty.

The aspiration t o property also motivated the maroons. Actually, if not hunted down, the maroons would have been the pioneers who, by reclaiming new lands for cultivation, would have advanced the frontier in St. Domingue. We have already seen the care with which the maroons cultivated their lands within their fortified camps. It was then suggested that the aspiration t o property, lucidly perceived by the colonists and the colonial administration as a factor contributing t o marronage, should be used t o fight marronage. In a letter of February 2, 1767, the planter Friedmont writes that “this idea of slave property may destroy that of marronage,” and in the same year another colonist commented, “The negro considers himself as a kind of owner. He is attached t o this land which is set apart for his use; therefrom not much m a r r ~ n a g e . ” ~ ~ Then, in 1784, a royal Ordinance normalized the practice of endowing slaves with a piece of land.41

Finally, the aspiration t o national independence surfaced from time t o time in the collective conscience of the maroons. Padre Jean, in organizing his maroons in 1679, already professed his faith in a new state of black power.42 In 1757, Medor revealed a similar project among the free Negroes of encouraging and helping the slaves t o run away in order t o “destroy the colony.” In 1734, Polydor had spread the same message. But the famous episode is the one during


which Mackandal, the super-hero of 18 years of marronage, taught his maroon followers that it was the blacks who were going t o become the final masters of the country. He or anized the maroons as propagandists t o incite the slaves t o poison the whites.f3 In 1786, another maroon leader, Jerome Poteau, again advocated independence. Thus, the evidence is that maroons arrived at a concept of collective independence based on ethno-nationalism before the start of the revolution.

Evolution o f Marronage after 1783 towards a Critical Threshold of Mutation into a Revolution:

The Conjuncture of the 1780s

In February 1929, the Revue d’Histoire des Colonies published a document about secret political and religious gatherings of the Negroes in St. Domingue in 1786 that preached independence and was accompanied by this commentary: “There has been an underground current of preachings and schemings in this direction that one guesses but that it would be interesting t o look for and discover from the first maroons to the Revolution. Would Polydor and Mackandal be the precursors of Boukman and Romaine la Prophetesse? Would there be continuity from the one t o the other?” This commentary shows that our perspective is not new since the hypothesis already seemed plausible fifty years ago.

First, as we have seen, a tradition existed during the eighteenth century among the maroons t o fight for freedom, land and an ethno-nationality. Then, since marronage has been a continuous flux, with advances and recessions, the tradition has been permanently maintained and transmitted from generation t o generation, carrying with it an aureole of myth and legend. The constant recur- rence of marronage, reiterating these sociopolitical themes through decades (for example, maroon activities were reported in 1702, 1704, 1705, 1708, 1709, 1712, 1715, 1717, 1719, 1720, etc.; Mackandal was amaroon for almost twenty years before being killed in 1758), is the first ingredient t o be retained. The tradition was ongoing, constantly revived, magnified, and mythified in the collective profound psychology of the slaves.

From the 1760s, this tradition met a fast-changing context due t o the accelera- tion of historical events a t that time.

Externally, these events are seen in the influence of French and/or American ideas brought back by Negroes who had been t o France or t o America, metropolitan soldiers who had deserted and mixed with maroons in common sociopolitical gatherings, and the books that certain slaves could read and comment on with their comrades during the evening talks. These ideas were giving new life to the “force of ideas” that marronage had brought about before.

In June 1791, less than two months before the uprisings, some printed notices appeared about maroons “knowing [how] t o read and write, having stayed in France for some time.” It,is not difficult to imagine the ideas this kind of maroon injected into traditional marronage. There was also the influence of maroons from Jamaica, sold by the British, who wanted t o get rid of them. There was, in addi- tion, the contagious ideological influence of the “patriotic soldiers coming from the metropole”@ after 1789. Marronage was then in the process of being ideolo- gized by modern political ideas, the Abbe Raynal no t being the only “philosopher” whose ideas reached the slaves.

Internally, conditions were also rapidly changing. Communication between the slaves became more intense and more politically oriented, Creole reached


maturity as a unifying language between different maroons, and voodoo witnessed a process of radicalization and politicalization, as attested t o by the Mackandal and Jerome Poteau episodes. Various documents of the 1770s and 1780s attest to a new state of affairs in the plantation system and, at the same time, less tight control of the contacts between the slaves of different plantations, despite official interdiction (the masters “shut their eyes”).

The conquest of the hills by the coffee planters, who tended t o arrogate these favorite maroon places, paradoxically compelled the maroons t o rely more and more on the plantations by complicity with the slaves who remained or by plunder. The extension of the “Negroes’ gardens,” which tended t o remove one of the motivations for running away, kept slaves on the plantations who had had other motivations t o flee, but who were restrained from doing so only by possibility of getting a piece of land. These other motivations remained inter- nalized, however. So t o some extent we may regard the revolution within the plantation as a materialization of the “spirit of marronage” turned inward and finding another expression. The spirit of marronage as a revolt trickled down into the consciousness of the plantation slave; this is an explanation of why all the slaves of an entire plantation fled and became maroons, an unpre- cedented event. Other similar cases occurred from 1767 onwards.

Soon the maroons obtained some modern arms and for the first time-an unparalleled event-attacked the “mardchaussee” (who specialized in the fight against the maroons) with gunfire in 1 767.45 This occurred despite the interdiction against the freed men (particularly the free blacks) t o help the maroons, even forbidding the free men t o buy arms for fear that these were intended for the maroons. The geographical extension of marronage was such that “the planter was always afraid t o lose his slave by the way of marronage.”M The Establish- ment of St. Domingue witnessed a great fear of the maroons: their number was magnified and “where there were 300 negroes one imagined 10,000 maroons,” according t o the testimony of Mi l~cent .~’

the role of St. Domingue in the War of American Independence, the British blockades during the wars between France and England-extraordinary and exciting events-all created a new frame of mind that was reflected in the minds of the slaves themselves. In March 1769, another unparalled event occurred: all the slaves on the Bellanton plantation at the Croix des Bouquets took the main road t o Port-au-Prince and went right t o the Governor’s residence, the Prince of Rohan, to claim justice against a white “manager.”

Finally, during the eighteenth century, the slave-traders had brought t o St. Domingue new stocks of blacks, among whom were Negroes of royal blood, educated Negroes from Africa, Muslim and Arab teachers, members of proud tribes, “a superior quality of African,” as was said of them by Moreau de St. Mery, Colonel Malenfant, Pamphile de Lacroix, Leclerc and Rochambeau. A militant tradition plus exceptional human qualities of intelligence and moral energy met exceptional circumstances (internal and external, objective and subjective) t o produce a critical threshold in the evolution of marronage: its mutation into revolution.

Maroon leadership, maroon bands, maroon tradition (motivation and ideological driving forces), maroon process of coming t o consciousness (utilization of voodoo in politics), maroon tactics (guerilla), maroon sites, sanctuaries and high places-all these distinctive marks of marronage are t o be found again in the early stage of the revolution (1791 -1793), when Boukman, for example, organized the general uprisings of the slaves and other revolutionary figures led groups

Moreover, the revolts of the


of slaves who had revolted. Boukman typifies the leadership during transition from marronage t o revolution, incarnating both. It is significant that Jean Fouchard asks whether a certain “bouquemens” who symbolized a dangerous maroon in 1779 would not be the same Boukman who organized the slave revolution of 1791!

The same distinctive marks of marronage are t o be found again in the actions of the then mature stage of revolt, when Toussaint L’Ouverture prosecutes the revolution, but later has t o defend its conquests (1793-1 802) against Bonaparte.

The same distinctive marks-all of them-will also be found in the last stage of the revolution, when the War of Independence resumes and when, later, a t the finish Dessalines takes command from the almost victorious guerilla leaders, who had the control of all of the interior, with the exception of the cities.

Thus, like the phoenix, marronage has thrown itself into the flames of the revolution t o disappear and die, since, a t each stage of the revolution, marronage lost its raison d’ktre, when all its objectives, methods, techniques, ideologies and “punch” were taken over by the revolutionary ebb. But when the flow began, marronage sprang again t o autonomous life t o re-dynamize the revolution and t o help it move toward a higher stage of achievement, disappearing and dying again, once it boosted the revolution.

The dialectical move of vanishing only to reappear in a superior form was realized by marronage often with the full awareness and active participation a t each stage of the revolution of the majority of the traditionally militant maroons. But sometimes it was necessary t o act without and even against certain refractory o r individualistic maroon leaders who were nostalgic for the time of unruled spontaneity and unlimited authority, and who were “allergic” t o the now-needed demands for concerted and joint action (the early historical role of Boukman in 179 1). The drive toward revolution demanded structure and management a t the mature stage (the ascension and the era of Toussaint L‘Ouverture 1793- 1802), followed by radicalization and militarization under a unified command for the last stage, towards complete victory (the hour of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, 1802-1 804).

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. 9.

10.

NOTES AND REFERENCES On the aspects,problems, issues and perspectives of the revolutionary abolition of slavery

in Haiti, see MANIGAT, LESLIE F. The Haitian historical experience of the abolition of slavery. Paper given at the International Seminar organized by the University of Puerto Rico in May 1974 on “Las Experiencias diversas del abolicionismo en El Caribe.” A Spanish translation has been made for publication in a special issue of La Torre, University of Puerto R i a , Rio Piedras, December 1976.

For example: Memoire sur les negres marrons de St. Domingue, 1772. Arch. Col. C9B 22.

“L’habitant est toujours en crainte de perdre ses esclaves par le marronage.” Lettre de Fiedmon, 2 fevrier 1767. Arch. Col. C“ 34 f 20.

DEBIEN, G. 1966. Le marronage aux Antilles Francaises au XVIII” siecle. Caribbean Studies Vol. 6, No. 3 (October).

DEBIEN, G. Les Marrons a St. Domingue en 1764. The Jamaican Historical Review

DEBBASH, Y. Le marronage. Essai sur la desertion de I’esclave antillais. L‘Annee

FOUCHARD, J. 1953. Les marrons du syllabaire. Editions Henri Deschamps. Port-

6: 9-20.

Sociologique (1961): 1-112; (1962): 117-195.

au-Prince, Haiti. FOUCHARD. J. 1972. Les Marrons de la libertb. Editions de I’Ecole. Paris. BRUTUS. E. n.d. Revolution dans St. Domingue (2 vols). Les Editions du Pantheon.

Belgium. “L’esclavage est un &at violent et contre-nature . . . ; ceux qui y sont assujettis sont

continuellement occupds du ddsir de s’en ddlivrer.” (Slavery is a violent condition


11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

1 7 .

18.

19. 20.

21

2 2.

23. 24. 25.

26.

27.

28. 29.

30. 31.

32.

33. 34.

35. 36.

37. 38.

39.

counter-to nature; those who are subject to it are continuously motivated by the desire to get free of it.) Instructions to De Nozibres and Tascher, 30th November, 1 7 7 1 , Arch. Col. F3 371 f 164.

The fact that the woods, the swamps, the hills and the mountains were ideal places for hiding did not exclude other places of refuge such as the cities or even other plantations. The important thing was to throw off the yoke of the master when he exerted his discretionary power on the person of the fugitive slave.

DEBIEN, G. 1974. Les esclaves aux Antilles francaises. :422424. Basse Terre e t Fort de France.

Yvan Debbasch himself attests the existence of this doctrine when he writes: “The analysis is constant in the Instructions given during the XVIII” century to all the administrators; marronage, revolt, the two dangers are not separated, as if one was inevitably breeding the other.” (Reference 6: 123).

CESAIRE, A., 1960. Toussaint L ’Ouverture: La Revolution francaise et le probleme colonial. Club du Livre, Paris.

FRANCO, J. L. 1966. Historia de 1aRevolucibrde Haiti. lnstituto de Historia, Academia de Ciencias. Havana, Cuba.

ANDRE-JULIEN, C. 1949-1950. Les Francais en Amerique 1713-1 784. c . D. u. Paris.

JAMES, C. L. R . 1963. n e Black Jacobins. Toussaint L’Ouvertureand theSan Domingo Revolution (2nd ed. revised). :20-21. Vintage Books, Random House, New York, N.Y.

WILLIAMS, E. 1964. Cnpitalism and Slnvery (English ed.) :102. Andre Deutsch. London.

ARDOUIN, B. Etudes sur I’Histoire d’Haiti Vol. 1: 49. CHARLIER, E. 1948. Apercu sur la formation historique de la nation haitienne.

Port-au-Prince. PRICE MARS, J. 1955. Ainsi parla I’Oncle :48-49. Parapsychology Foundation. New

York, N.Y. PRICE MARS, J. 1953. La Republique d’Haiti et la Republique dominicaino: Les

divers aspects d’un problem d’Histoire. de Geographie et d’Ethnologie. Vol. 1: 17-1 8 . Port-au-Prince.

BRUTUS, E. Revolution dans St. Domingue. Vol. I: 70. 344. FOUCHARD, J . , op. cit. For example, one observer was surprised to find among the slaves to be sold ‘‘a professor

of arab language.” Mackandal, the famous maroon, spoke and wrote Arab (BRUTUS, E. op. cit. Vol. I: 124); Toussaint L’Ouverture had learned to read and write, as had some other fellow slaves.

At certain periods, an effort was made to prevent the Negroes who had lived in France to return to St. Domingue.

DEUTSCH. K. 1966. Nationalism and Social Communication: An Inquiry into the Foundation of Nationality. The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.

I borrow the expression from Yvan Debbasch, op. cit. MOREAU DE ST. MERY. Lois et Constitutions (Conseil Supdrieur du Cap, rigle-

ment du 3 mai 1706 sur les cultures vivrie‘res, Vol. I1 :70) reports that type of explanation of marronage “fugitive for want of food.” This cause is insisted upon recently by authors like FRANCOIS GIROD (1972. La vie quotidienne de In Sociere Creole [Saint Domingue au XVIIP sikcle] :170. Hachette. Paris and particularly CHARLES FROSTIN (1972. Histoire de L’autonomisme colon de la Partie Francaise de St. Domingue aux XVll“ et XCIlr“ sidcles. :286-287. Thesis Universitd de Paris.)

DEBIEN, G. “The most frequent cause of these runnings away seems to be robbery.” ANDRE-JULIEN, C., op. cit. and CHARLIER, E. op. cit., have made clear that rob-

bery is often the “consequence” and not the “cause” of marronage. DEBBASCH, Y. (op. cit. : lo) goes as far as writing that “the maroon is a sick man and

he is precisely maroon because he is sick.” DEBIEN, G. Les esclaves aux Antilles francaises. op. cit.: 466469. BASTIDE, R. 1965. Ndgres marrons et Ndgres libres. Annales (Economies, Sociktes.

Civilisations : 170. Armand Colin, Paris. DEBIEN, G., op. cit. :430-431. Quoted in DE VAISSIERE, P. La soci&te et la vie creole souslilncien Regime (1629-

1789). ~ 2 4 7 . Arch. Col. F3 90 f 21 3. DE CHANTRANS, G. Voyage d’un Suisse en diffbrentes colonies, Neuchatel, 1785.

:161. DEBIEN, G., op. cit.: 465.


40. Letter from Fiedmont, 2nd February, 1767; letter from de la Hayrie, 4th March,

41. Ordinance of the 3rd December, 1784.

43. The Makandal history is quoted by all the historians from Moreau de St. Mery and B. Ardouin to Debien, Fouchard and Brutus.

44. GARRON COULON. Rapports sur les troubles de St . Domingue, Vol. I1 ~268. 45. PERE CAEON. Histoire d'Haiti, Vol. 5 :313. 46. Letter of Friedmont, already uoted. 47. MILSCEN, 1791. Sur les trou&es de Saint Domingue. :9-10. Paris. 48. The best analysis of these revolts is the doctoral thesis by Charles Frostin, op. cit.

1767.

42. FOUCHARD, J. , Op. cit. :474-475.

marronage and slaves revolts in haiti

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