Louverture redefined creole to include African-born people as part of a surveillance system

Evidence

A note at the end of the decree explained that by “creole” the government meant “any individual born in the colony or in Africa.” This was a departure from the traditional use of the term, generally used to refer only to American-born and slaves. It was an important step, for it in essence identified the majority in the colony who had come from Africa as natives of Saint-Domingue. It did so, however, not to grant them rights as citizens but to limit those rights. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 884 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

In offi- cial missives the terms “Gayo” and “Acehnese” were distinguished in some accounts, but used interchangeably in others. How did Valck and his fellow reporters know how to tell a Gayo thief in the night from an Acehnese dissident? As we shall see, these terms often served to mark not ethnic identity but the degree of threat to this new colonial enterprise, those whose actions were to be classified as “common criminal” or “insurgent rebel.” — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1100 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Louverture redefined creole to include Africans but only to restrict their rights — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 884; Slave-control ideology assigned each African ethnicity a natural niche matching its labor role; Language mastery determines how human a colonized black man is considered — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 75 (+3 more)

Related

• Louverture redefined creole to include Africans but only to restrict their rights (similarity 0.91)
• Louverture seized France’s language of difference to build his own regime (similarity 0.85)
• Slaves’ own vocabulary sharpened divisions among white colonists (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Louverture redefined creole to include Africans but only to restrict their rights #qualifies (0.75) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 884
• Colonial ethnic labels measured threat level rather than actual ethnicity #expands (0.70) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1100
• Slave-control ideology assigned each African ethnicity a natural niche matching its labor role #expands (0.60)
• Language mastery determines how human a colonized black man is considered #expands (0.55) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 75
• Selective naturalization of a few Africans masked continued subjecthood of most #corroborates (0.50)
• Sudanese racial vocabulary originated in slave trade markets #expands (0.45)