Slave descendants’ views regarding national policies on reparations: A Martinican perspective

Abstract

The present study concerned the views regarding the acceptability of possible national policies related to slavery by people whose families were directly affected in the past. It was conducted in the island of Martinique (an overseas French department), and 298 descendants of slaves participated. Three qualitatively different personal positions were found; these positions were designated Skeptics (28% of the sample), Reparationists (35%) and Undetermined (37%). For people holding a Skeptic position, nothing meaningful can be done to repair the horrors of slavery. However a national policy that includes public acknowledgment of past wrongs can be considered as tolerable provided it is accompanied by material compensations. For people holding a Reparationist position, any national policy that involves public acknowledgment of past wrongs is considered as acceptable, whether or not it is accompanied by material compensation. Policies of amnesia and/or exaltation of the past or policies that involve only material compensations are viewed as not acceptable. In addition reparation policies are considered as more acceptable in cases where socio-economic integration of slave descendants has been achieved than in cases where it has not. For people holding an Undetermined position, slavery and the slave trade are part of the deep past; as a result, it is difficult to have strong views about it or about related policies. These three personal positions were related to educational level and religious involvement in a meaningful way. In particular, undetermined people were less educated and more religious than others.