Colonial Saint-Domingue had a tradition of violent anti-monopoly uprisings before the revolution
Evidence
In November 1723 a crowd of a hundred women attacked the Maison de l’Afrique, the island seat of the powerful Company of the Indies. Led by a onetime actress named Sagona, owner of a bar in the town, they smashed the windows of the building, broke in, and threw furniture, books, and papers into the street. They tracked some of the company’s officials down to a nearby house, where Sagona placed a gun against the throat of one of them and said, “Drink, traitor, it’ll be your last.” Reportedly he was saved just in time by the intervention of an officer. The next night the rioting continued as a larger crowd again attacked the Maison de l’Afrique and then set fire to a plantation owned by the company at La Fossette. In the crowd were 60 men, armed and dressed like women, and more than 300 women, some covered in flour and others wearing fake moustaches. The uprising, triggered by the granting of trading privileges to the company, lasted several months. Although many of the participants were poor whites, some wealthy men in the colony supported it, with one declaring that if the rebels won there would be open commerce “with all nations,” “Republican liberty,” and no more taxes. The revolt was so widespread that the governor briefly considered offering freedom to those slaves “who abandoned their masters and gathered under the flag of the king.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 112
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the deeper narrative arc of the Haitian Revolution: this 1723 revolt roots the colony in anti-authority collective action long before 1791.
- SEED: The detail of 60 men cross-dressing to riot — plus a woman placing a gun to a throat — is striking material for an essay on gender disguise in early modern collective protest.
- CANDY: A century before the revolution, armed men dressed as women and an actress bar-owner led riots against a monopolistic trading company in Saint-Domingue.