Freed slaves feared the uncertainty of independent work more than slavery’s abuses.

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 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Former slaves revolted against Louverture fearing he would restore slavery.; Slaves granted freedom without struggle cannot grasp its cost or value — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 800; Freed laborers chose free time over pay, trusting their own plots more than wages (+3 more)

Related

• Freed laborers chose free time over pay, trusting their own plots more than wages (similarity 0.92)
• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery (similarity 0.87)
• Louverture forced freed people to stay working on the plantations, opposing their own aspirations (similarity 0.84)
• Former slaves revolted against Louverture fearing he would restore slavery. (similarity 0.84)
• Ex-slaves had to surrender freedom to work as cultivators to defend emancipation. (similarity 0.81)
• Revolt empowered individual slaves to seize control of plantations (similarity 0.81)
• Former slaves actively resisted contract labor that smelled of a return to slavery. (similarity 0.80)
• Old planters exploited Louverture’s labor decree to threaten re-enslavement (similarity 0.80)
• Ex-slaves built a subsistence-based rural economy on former plantations (similarity 0.79)
• Freed slaves valued autonomous garden-plot time over higher paid plantation wages (similarity 0.79)
• Former slaves valued free time over higher plantation wages (similarity 0.79)
• Slaves granted freedom without struggle cannot grasp its cost or value (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Freed laborers chose free time over pay, trusting their own plots more than wages #corroborates (0.70)
• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery #complicates (0.55) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 770
• Former slaves revolted against Louverture fearing he would restore slavery. #complicates (0.50)
• Louverture forced freed people to stay working on the plantations, opposing their own aspirations #complicates (0.45)
• Slaves granted freedom without struggle cannot grasp its cost or value #corroborates (0.35) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 800
• Emancipation granted from without caused psychoses and sudden deaths among freed slaves #complicates (0.30) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 796