The French Atlantic

1
The French Atlantic
2
Plan of Lecture

• Contemporary Resonances

3
Contemporary Resonances

• July 1967, Charles de Gaulles visit to Montreal
  shout of Vive le Québec Libre
• 2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide used bicennential of
  Haitian Independence 1804 to demand repayment of
  large indemnity France had required Haiti to pay
  in 1825 in return for recognition of Haitis
  independence.

4
Geographic Diversity

• Major areas of French Atlantic
• Marseille, Nantes, Bordeaux and Paris
• French slaving posts from Senegambia to Benin,
  especially Fort Saint Louis and Gorée
• New France plus Acadia and Terre-Neuve
  (Newfoundland)
• Loisiana
• Caribbean-Saint Domingue, Martinique, Guadaloupe
  and Cayenne

5
Population

• French comparatively small in comparison to
  British in Americas
• -70,000 went to Quebec 7,000 to other parts of
  Canada
• -300,000 to French Caribbean
• African 1,118,000 to French Caribbean including
  800,000 to Saint Domingue

6
Why did so few French go to the Americas?

• High chance of death
• Limited numbers fleeing religious persecution
• Expanding economy in France
• Movement of peoples governed by the policies of
  the French crown and highly centralised French
  colonial bureaucracy the Marine

7
How much control did the French have over their
empire? Strengths

• Theoretically great tied into a largely
  mercantilist set of policies and governed by a
  connected set of legal codes, including the Code
  Noir policing the conduct of slaves, a network
  of admiralty courts and a set of legal traditions
  called the Coutume de Paris

8
How much control did the French have over their
empire? Weaknesses

• Most of interior claimed by French only nominally
  under its control
• Colonization in North America was less control
  than an intercultural alliance and a situation
  of interdependence (Gilles Havard and Cécile
  Vidal)
• Much intercultural alliances carried out by
  Jesuits missionaries and fur traders, not
  bureaucrats or soldiers

9
Centrality of Saint Domingue

• Easily the most profitable and flourishing
• Had a good balance of environmental resources,
  notably plains ideal for sugar cultivation
• Centralized nature of French mperial government
  beneficial because gave lots of state support for
  irrigation schemes
• Economic diversification into coffee and indigo
  as well as sugar

10
Revolution

• Haitian revolution 1791-1804 most radical
  revolution of the age of revolution
• Only successful slave revolution in history
• History of emancipation both radical (universl
  freedom) and reactionary (slavery reinstated in
  Guadaloupe and Martinique)
• Final abolition of slavery 1848 (14 years after
  British emancipation)
• Sale of Louisiana 1804 signalled end of French
  empire in the Americas

11
Advantages of an Atlantic approach to French
American history

• Helps to integrate historiographies that are
  mostly regional
• Major French institutions such as monarchy and
  church deeply shaped by questions and problems
  raised by governance in French Atlantic (Kenneth
  Banks, Sue Peabody)
• Increases the visibility and importance of
  African individuals and communities

12
Haiti The unimaginable Revolution
13
Pre-Revolutionary St Domingue
14
Slave Revolt, 1793
15
Toussaint Louverture
16
French General and a Black Officer
17
French Chased From St Domingue
18
Toussaint Louverture
19
Training Bloodhounds
20
Bloodhounds Attacking
21
Battle of Snake Gully
22
Revenge Against French Soldiers
23
Henri Christophe, King of Haiti, 1818
24
Le Negre Maroon, Port-au-Prince, 1970