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. 239–253
Chapter 13Affection amidst domination in a post-slavery society
Toward a microhistory of compensation in nineteenth-century Martinique
Published online: 12 December 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.xxxvi.13cot
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.xxxvi.13cot
Abstract
This article considers the relationship between compensation and intimacy, focusing on the relationship between
the colonist Pierre Dessalles, who owned a plantation in the French colony of Martinique in the mid-nineteenth century, i.e. the
period of the abolition of slavery, and Nicaise, one of his slaves. It shows slavery to be a relation of property and domination that
did not, however, foreclose the possibility of emotional ties ranging from fear, anger and disgust to love. Readings of the diary of
this planter — an exceptional document for its time — show how intimacy and “emotion” in all senses of the word — feelings but also,
in French, something closer to “stirring” or “revolt” — both shape and are shaped by the political situation in which they
develop.
Keywords: life writing, planter’s diary, Martinique, intimacy, abolition, indemnity, reparations
Article outline
- The diary and correspondence of Pierre Dessalles: When intimacy is political
- From ‘Nicaise’ to ‘Louis Nicaise’: Freedom, naming and emotion
- “Mon petit nègre,” “my friend”: Domination, civilization and sexuality
- Compensation and interdependency
- Conclusion: Toward a microhistory of indemnity
Notes References Appendix
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