Saint-Domingue Creoles (, ) or simply Creoles, were the people who lived in the French colony of Saint-Domingue prior to the Haitian Revolution.
These Creoles formed an ethnic group native to Saint-Domingue and were all born in Saint-Domingue. The Creoles were well educated, and they created much art, such as the famed French Opera; their society prized manners, good education, tradition, and honor. During and after the Haitian Revolution, most Creoles from Saint-Domingue fled to locations in the United States, other Antilles islands, Cuba, France, Jamaica, and especially New Orleans in Louisiana, where they made an enormous impact on Louisiana Creole culture.
Saint-Domingue Creole Society Etymology The word creole comes from the Portuguese term , which means "a person raised in one's house" and from the Latin , which means "to create, make, bring forth, produce, beget". In the New World, the term originally referred to Europeans born and raised in overseas colonies (as opposed to the European-born peninsulares).
Origin of the Saint-Domingue Creoles French adventurers settled on Tortuga Island, which was close to the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo. As a result, in the late 17th century, the French had de facto control of the island close to the Spanish colony. The wars of Louis XIV in Europe finally convinced the Spaniards to give the western quarter of the island to the French under to the Treaty on Ryswick (1697). The French called their new colony Saint-Domingue. As the colony developed, a planter class emerged that created highly profitable plantations- these plantations generated so much wealth that Saint-Domingue soon became the richest colony in the world.
In the late 17th century, French colonists made up more than 90% of the population in Saint-Domingue. However, as demand for sugar in Europe grew, planters imported African slaves to meet the demand. The population of Africans grew quickly, and sexual exploitation of enslaved African women by many French settlers contributed to the emergence of a multiracial Creole population, resulting in the growth of a multiracial Creole population. By the early 18th century, Creoles and Africans came to compose the majority of the colony.Historical Boys' Clothing Haitian History: French Colony – Saint Domingo (1697–1791) Retrieved, 28/11/2014.
Throughout the 17th century, French Creoles became established in the Americas as a unique ethnicity originating from the mix of French, Indian, and African cultures. These French Creoles held a distinct ethno-cultural identity, a shared antique language, the Creole French language, and their civilization owed its existence to the overseas expansion of the French Empire. Martinique for a time was the center of French Creoles in the Caribbean; its decline lead to Saint-Domingue becoming the capital of the West Indian Creole civilization.
Saint-Domingue Creole society
Saint-Domingue had the largest and wealthiest free population of color in the Caribbean who were known as the Gens de couleur libres (free people of color). Population estimations in 1789 indicate that there were 28,000 to 32,000 affranchis and Creoles of color; 40,000 to 45,000 whites which included its largest group being the Petits blancs (white commoners; lit: little whites) and Creoles of lighter complexions; French subjects: engagés (white indentured servants), foreign European immigrants or refugees, and a small exclusive group of Grands blancs (white nobles; lit: big whites) of whom the majority lived or were born in France; lastly, a slave population which totaled to be between 406,000 and 465,000. While many of the Gens de couleur libres were affranchis (ex-slaves), most members of this class were Creoles of color, i.e. free born blacks and mulattoes. As in New Orleans, a system of plaçage developed, in which white men had a kind of common-law marriage with slave or free mistresses, and provided for them with a dowry, sometimes freedom, and often education or apprenticeships for their children. Some such descendants of planters inherited considerable property.
While the French controlled Saint-Domingue, they maintained a class system which covered both whites and free people of color. These classes divided up roles on the island and established a hierarchy. The highest class, known as the Grands blancs, was composed of rich nobles, including royalty, and mainly lived in France. These individuals held most of the power and controlled much of the property on Saint-Domingue. Although their group was very small and exclusive, they were quite powerful.
Below the Grands blancs were the Petits blancs (white commoners) and the gens de couleur libres (free people of color). These classes inhabited Saint-Domingue and held a lot of local political power and control of the militia. Petits blancs shared the same societal level as gens de couleur libres.
The Gens de couleur libres class was made up of affranchis (ex-slaves), free-born blacks, and mixed-race people, and they controlled much wealth and land in the same way as Petits blancs; they held full citizenship and civil equality with other French subjects. Race was initially tied to culture and class, and some "white" Creoles had non-white ancestry.
Development of Creole culture
Saint-Domingue underwent a cultural awakening in the years after the French and Indian War, where France lost all of its continental New France territory (French Louisiana, French Canada, and Acadia). Imperial French policy makers worried that future conflicts could test the loyalty of their Creole subjects, and as Saint-Domingue was the richest colony in the world, they couldn't afford to lose it. The Bourbon Regime thus expanded the colonial bureaucracy, hired administrative personnel, built new infrastructure, and started a colonial mail service as well as a Creole printing press. Creole entrepreneurs also added to the colony's development by building cafés and clubs.
The urban society of Saint-Domingue became rich and thrived. The French Opera was one of the most cherished arts in Saint-Domingue. Eight towns in Saint-Domingue had theaters, the largest being in the capital of Cap-Français that could hold 1,500 spectators. There were also Masonic lodges, and many universities espousing French Enlightenment ideas. Saint-Domingue was home to the Cercle des Philadelphes, a scientific organization of which the American scientist Benjamin Franklin was a member.
Saint-Domingue developed a highly specialized and differentiated economy, and art and entertainment were abundant on the island. Public festivals such as masquerade balls, the celebration of feasts & holidays, and charivaris became ingrained in the culture of Saint-Domingue. A transient population also became present in its society, and tourists from different cultures and classes would stream to the major city-centers of the island, such as Cap-Français and Port-au-Prince.
By 1789, the society in Saint-Domingue was already older and much refined, with its own customs, traditions, and values. The core of Saint-Domingue Creole civilization was transferred to New Orleans, Louisiana after the Haitian Revolution.
Freedoms of the Creoles and Affranchis In 1685, French administrators published a slave code based on Roman laws, the Code Noir. Discipline, the colonial government, rural police, and the ability for social promotion prevented slave uprisings in Saint-Domingue; in the British colonies such as Jamaica, a dozen large slave rebellions occurred in the 18th century alone. Saint-Domingue never had a slave rebellion until the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.
The Code Noir based on Roman laws also conferred affranchis (ex-slaves) full citizenship and gave complete civil equality with other French subjects. Saint-Domingue's Code Noir never outlawed interracial marriage, nor did it limit the amount of property a free person could give to affranchis. Creoles of color and affranchis used the colonial courts to protect their property and sue whites in the colony.
During the 18th century, Saint-Domingue became home to the largest and wealthiest free population of African descent anywhere in the Americas. The existence of wealthy families of African descent challenged the ideas from which the plantation society emerged. For much of the 18th century, colonists used social class rather than genealogy to define position in Saint-Domingue society.
Saint-Domingue census records show that families of African ancestry who owned property, were educated, and were legitimately married were listed as White Creoles by officials; racial identities were tied to wealth and culture rather than ancestry.
Slavery in Saint-Domingue Planters slowly integrated slaves into their plantation's labor system. On each plantation there was a black commander who supervised the other slaves on behalf of the planter, and the planter made sure not to favor one African ethnic group over the others.
Most slaves who came to Saint-Domingue worked in fields or shops; the youngest slaves often became household servants, while the oldest slaves were employed as surveillants. Some slaves became skilled workmen, and they received privileges such as better food, the ability to go into town, and partake in liberté des savanes (savannah liberty), a sort of freedom with certain rules. Slaves were considered to be valuable property, and slaves were attended by doctors who gave medical care when they were sick.
A description of how the liberté des savanes Creole custom worked:
African presence in Saint-Domingue
The vast majority of the slaves in Saint-Domingue were war-captives who had lost a war with another ethnic group. Most slaves came from ethnic tension between different tribes and kingdoms, or religious wars between pagans and Muslim-pagan inter-religious wars.
As African freedmen had full citizenship and civil equality with other French subjects, they took an interest in expanding the studies of each of their unique people's history. Africans contributed to the spiritual and mythological aspects of Saint-Domingue through their folklore, such as the widespread tales of Compère Lapin and Compère Bouqui.
Below is a list of different African peoples found in Saint-Domingue:
The Bambaras. Bambara was often used as a generic term for African slaves. European traders used Bambara as a term for defining vaguely a region of ethnic origin. Muslim traders and interpreters often used Bambara to indicate Non-Muslim captives. Slave traders would sometimes identify their slaves as Bambara in hopes of securing a higher price, as Bambara slaves were sometimes characterized as being more passive. Further confusing the name's indication of ethnic, linguistic, religious, or other implications, the concurrent Bambara Empire had notoriety for its practice of slave-capturing wherein Bambara soldiers would raid neighbors and capture the young men of other ethnic groups, forcibly assimilate them, and turn them into slave soldiers known as Ton. The Bambara Empire depended on war-captives to replenish and increase its numbers; many of the people who called themselves Bambara were indeed not ethnic Bambara. The Dunkos, a tattooed people whose women cherished their men with the utmost respect. The Aradas, a tattooed people who used poison to kill their enemies. They worshipped the moon, mollusks, and serpents. Toussaint Louverture was reportedly of Arada heritage. The people of Juida, a tattooed people whose women were known to be extroardinarily flirtatious. The women of Juida wore a heavy ring inside of their bottom lip, and the skin of their throat was modified with cuts of a knife.