L'indemnité de Saint-Domingue: « Dette d'indépendance » ou « rançon de l'esclavage »?

Abstract

In August 1791, a slave revolt erupted in Saint-Domingue, richest colony of the Americas. France sent two commissioners to restore peace in this insurgent area. Under the threat of revolution, they declared the abolition of slavery in 1793. This decision was ratified by the French Convention on 4 February 1794. Revocation of this abolition act in 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte had no effect on the situation of slaves in Saint-Domingue, which proclaimed its independence 1 January 1804. This episode gave birth to the first black state of the Americas, baptised under its old Amerindian name "Haïti." The new republic was recognized as an independent state more than 20 years later. The French law of 17 April 1825 conceded Haitian independence in exchange for a ransom of 150 million francs. The great majority of abolitionist governments of the nineteenth century judged it legitimate to compensate slave owners for the loss of capital invested in their slave property. What was exceptional about the indemnity of Saint-Domingue was the fact that it was not an internal governmental decision, but the fruit of transactions from one state to another. The indemnity favored the planters, but was also the price exacted for becoming an autonomous state. This work will focus on the criteria taken into account by France in the fixation of the compensation amount. Slave ownership did not exist after the revolution. How did fixing a number compensate for property lost more than 30 years earlier? What were the data considered by France? Finally, what was the compensation value for the various protagonists? These questions will clarify the objectives followed by France in establishing this compensation. Was the purpose of « ransom of slavery », to indemnify slave owners for the loss of their property, or was its ultimate target to economically subdue a rebel colony by creating an « independence debt »?