In:A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery: The Atlantic world and beyond
Edited by Madeleine Dobie, Mads Anders Baggesgaard and Karen-Margrethe Simonsen
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXVI] 2024
► pp. 226–238
Chapter 12Testamentary manumission and emotional bonds in eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue
Published online: 12 December 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.xxxvi.12pal
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.xxxvi.12pal
Abstract
Plantation slavery brought whites and people of color into constant intimate contact in a system of intense
forcible domination and subordination. This generated powerful emotions on the part of both enslavers and the enslaved. A close
reading of one testament from eighteenth-century French Saint-Domingue suggests that systems of enslavement prompted a range of
emotions on the part of white slave owners. While the emotional responses of the enslaved are much more difficult to identify, this
example suggests that emotions played a key role in leading to or discouraging manumission. Why else would the wealthy, childless
widow Marie-Magdeleine Rossignol manumit nine enslaved people in her will?
Keywords: slavery, race, gender, testament, emotion, Saint-Domingue, France, empire, 18th century, relationship
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