Economic motives kept white men marrying into the free-colored elite

Evidence

But despite the increasing presence of European women in the colony over the next decades, there remained powerful economic motivations for European men to connect themselves with the free-colored community. “There was no dishonor in seeing them, frequenting them, living with them, marrying their daughters,” wrote Raimond, especially the daughters “whose parents had become rich.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 223