Revolutionary Leadership: Free People of Color in Revolutionary Saint-Domingue

Jungki Min
History
UC Santa Barbara

My dissertation project examines revolutionary leaders among free people of color in late eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue, the Caribbean’s most profitable French colony. These leaders, who were of African descent yet not enslaved, navigated escalating discrimination by embracing republican ideals during the Haitian Revolution. By analyzing their political language, actions, and the social and gender dynamics underlying both, my dissertation demonstrates that free people of color used their understandings of masculinity and family roles to counter colonial stereotypes of effeminacy and sexual debauchery. These dynamics empowered male leaders to secure influential positions and challenge white colonial narratives, while free women of color also played crucial roles by protecting familial interests and engaging in trade. The dissertation argues that the leadership of free people of color was characterized by complex relationships—marked by various factors such as familial interests, camaraderie, and bitter rivalries—that influenced their claims to republicanism.