Fear of half-caste revolt drove policy toward French endogamy

Evidence

Confronted with this “Mendelian law,” colonial officials in the 192o’s could imagine only one possible outcome of continued metissage. Spurned by the country he or she most identified with, the metis was likely to revolt against it. The long-term solution to this problem, as we have seen, was for a variety of experts to recommend an end to metissage altogether, through French endogamy. The short-term solution was to regulate the legal status of existing metis. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 600

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing the parallel between metis-as-revolutionary-threat and the similar suspicion of evolues: what did the colonial state fear these hybrid figures would do?