The Haitian Revolution Race & Plantation Management in Early Nineteenth Century Jamaica

Abstract

One of the ironies of Eric William's ground breaking work Capitalism and Slavery is that racism as a feature of slave society in the British West Indies has been relegated in favor of economic determinism. Although some scholars argue that racism is most difficult to measure plantation correspondence is replete with racial assumptions. One would be very surprised at the extent of racial comments by the Jamaican planters resulting from the Haitian revolution. Many of the Jamaican planters, while concerned with issues of security, were more concerned with the implications of a Jamaican society managed by former enslaved Africans. They could not imagine uncivilized Africans creating an orderly, stable and successful society. This paper argues that the paranoia among many of the Jamaican planters to the Haitian revolution, indirectly, contributed to further socio- economic and political decay in early 19th century Jamaican slave society. The planters' hysteria and repression towards their enslaved Africans were racially motivated1 and resulted in their vigorous resistance and sabotage of amelioration that was being recommended by the metropolitan authorities. The Jamaican planters were fearful of the results of amelioration. With the constant decline in the protection of British West Indian sugar from free trade advocates in London, the Jamaican planters' resistance to amelioration was counter-productive to efficient plantation management. Secondly, this paper refutes Eric Williams' argument that racism was a result of the economic forces existent in British West Indian slave society. I will show that both racism and economics operated simultaneously from the very beginning of British West Indian slave society. Thus, racial and economic motives were not in opposition to each other but were mutual partners.2 Development of Racial Theory: The larger European context from which the British emerged has to be the starting point for any serious study of racism in the Americas.3 Were the British racists in their categorization of Africans even before they arrived in the New World, as hinted by William Green?4 Was racism a by-product of slavery, as Williams claimed? In examining the development of racial theory the definition of 'race' has to be first studied followed by its meaning in both Catholic and Protestant thought. When that is examined, then, the practice of European racism can be described as a continuous development. European racism towards Africans started before their arrival in the Caribbean and developed into the scientific racism of the late 19th century.5 Franklin Knight argues that attitudes towards race and towards slavery were not necessary the same. The European concept of race started as a form of identification among the extended family, friends and members of one's village. It then moved onwards and outwards to the larger society. Thus, Englishmen in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries thought of themselves as a race distinct from the Spanish, the Portuguese and other Europeans. Nevertheless, as the Englishmen pushed farther and farther into the wider world and as they began to realize the diversity of the colours and conditions of man and society they changed their notions of race. Race took on characteristics of colour since all Europeans had similar features to be classified as white; Asians had similar features to be described as yellow and Africans south of the Sahara had similar features to be described as black. The colour element in race replaced the previous distinctions of 'Christians' and 'Infidels'.6 Once colour and culture became associated with race then the next logical step was the stereotyping of cultures which eventually led to racial discrimination. By the 16th century European ethnocentrisms had a tendency to place all non-Europeans in a colour continuum. Those more closely approximating white in appearance were regarded as more pleasing,7 while those less approximating white were less pleasing. …