Louverture’s plantation regime resembled slavery, differing mainly in paid wages

Evidence

To preserve emancipation, Louverture decided that he must preserve the plantation economy and encourage the return of white planters who had fled. Locked in conflict with ex-slaves who had a very different vision of what freedom should mean, he maintained and perfected a coercive system that sought to keep them working on plantations. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 28 (#expands, via linked claim)

In one way, the draconian regime whose consolidation it articulated turned out to be quite a success: Louverture oversaw a remarkable revival of the shattered plantation economy in Saint-Domingue. By 1801, according to official reports, coffee exports had risen from almost nothing to twothirds of their level in 1789. Improvements in the sugar industry, where damages were more difficult to repair, were smaller, and included little of the more profitable refined sugar, but by 1802 exports were at one-third those of 1789. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 885 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Encomienda labor was legally distinct from slavery yet often indistinguishable in practice — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 4906; 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 (+3 more)

Broader Connections