Land and the Plantation Order in Post-Abolition Saint-Domingue, 1795–1802

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article expands on the analysis of the economic projects developed by Saint-Domingue’s authorities during the Haitian Revolution through a still mostly unexplored source: the recensements des biens domaniaux et urbains de Saint-Domingue. While scholars typically discuss the economic issues of this period by referring to the decrees issued during the revolutionary period, property censuses serve as an indicator of the state of the plantation system and verify the progress of projects designed to recover it. The focus is on the latter, especially those produced in the Northern Province and, most notably, in the Cap-Français arrondissement at the height of the Black army’s control of the region from 1795 to 1802. The documentation reveals not only the progress of economic projects in the region and the transformations in land management in the colony during this time, but also sheds light on the efforts made by former slaves to assert their own understanding of freedom.