Ex-slaves built a subsistence-based rural economy on former plantations

Evidence

Many plantation laborers, however, saw the new policy as a retraction of their rights. In his 1793 labor regulations, Sonthonax had required cultivators to sign one-year contracts on their plantations, after which they were permitted to move to another plantation if they wished. Rigaud’s administration in the south had instituted a similar practice. Louverture had consistently ordered workers to return to their plantations, but he had not issued regulations regarding the length of their terms of contracts. In the areas under his control many former slaves seem to have moved between plantations, seeking better treatment or the company of family and friends, with relative impunity. In the increase in the terms of the contracts, some smelled the scent of slavery. A few laborers claimed they would rather “live in the woods their whole life” than sign three-year contracts, and in some towns the registers in which the contracts were to be signed were ripped up. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 770 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Louverture preserved emancipation by coercing ex-slaves to keep working plantations — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 28; Louverture’s forced-labor regime revived the Saint-Domingue plantation economy — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 885; Black labor exploitation continued in new forms after slavery’s legal abolition (+8 more)

Related

• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery (similarity 0.86)
• Louverture preserved emancipation by coercing ex-slaves to keep working plantations (similarity 0.85)
• Former slaves revolted against Louverture fearing he would restore slavery. (similarity 0.83)
• Ex-slaves’ refusal to sell disciplined labor led Brazilians to import European workers (similarity 0.82)
• Louverture forgave planters partly to rebuild the plantation economy. (similarity 0.82)
• Louverture forced freed people to stay working on the plantations, opposing their own aspirations (similarity 0.82)
• Ex-slaves had to surrender freedom to work as cultivators to defend emancipation. (similarity 0.82)
• Saint-Domingue’s abrupt abolition forced administrators to invent a labor regime (similarity 0.82)
• Louverture tied emancipation to continued plantation labor, clashing with ex-slaves’ aspirations (similarity 0.81)
• Louverture’s plantation regime resembled slavery, differing mainly in paid wages (similarity 0.81)
• Old planters exploited Louverture’s labor decree to threaten re-enslavement (similarity 0.81)
• Louverture equated disorder with idleness and demanded child labor on plantations (similarity 0.81)
• Brazilian ex-slaves resisted exchanging freedom for proletarianized labor. (similarity 0.80)
• Louverture’s forced-labor regime revived the Saint-Domingue plantation economy (similarity 0.80)
• Most ex-slaves stayed laborers with no land claims after emancipation (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery #corroborates (0.60) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 770
• Black labor exploitation continued in new forms after slavery’s legal abolition #expands (0.50)
• Slave labor sustained the extra-European market that industrial capitalism built on #complicates (0.45)
• Louverture’s forced-labor regime revived the Saint-Domingue plantation economy #qualifies (0.30) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 885