Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies: A Comparison of St. Domingue and Cuba
First published in 1971, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's comparison of two developing sugar plantation systems - St. Domingue's (Haiti) in the eighteenth century and Cuba's in the nineteenth century - changed the focus in comparative slavery studies: the prevailing static treatment, which assumed that the European colonizer determined the nature of slave systems and that slaves were powerless and insignificant beneficiaries of the paternalism of Latin American masters, gave way to a dynamic,...
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First published in 1971, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's comparison of two developing sugar plantation systems - St. Domingue's (Haiti) in the eighteenth century and Cuba's in the nineteenth century - changed the focus in comparative slavery studies: the prevailing static treatment, which assumed that the European colonizer determined the nature of slave systems and that slaves were powerless and insignificant beneficiaries of the paternalism of Latin American masters, gave way to a dynamic, multifaceted approach employed by Hall. In Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies, Hall establishes that slavery and race relations in any given time and place were determined by strategic needs; the raison d'etre of the colony; evolving economic and demographic factors; and above all, by the need to preserve social order in colonies where the slave population was large, active, competent, resourceful, and independent-minded. She delineates a pattern of racism rising and entrenching itself as a matter of public policy, as a means of bolstering the exploitative system - a pattern that recurred throughout the hemisphere. Booknews **** Reprint of the work originally published by Johns Hopkins U. Press in 1971 and distinguished by inclusion in BCL3. Based on Hall's thesis, U. of Michigan. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
PrefaceSymbolsIMethods and Overview1IIThe Problem of the Survival of the Slave Population13Mortality and Overwork16Suicide among Slaves20Growing Concern about Survival of the Slave Population23Institutionalization of the Illegal African Slave Trade28IIIMagic, Witchcraft, and Religion32European Belief in Witchcraft37Efforts to Convert the Slaves Deteriorate40Abandonment of Religious Education of Estate Slaves in Nineteenth-Century Cuba42Religious Education and Social Stability50IVBlack Resistance and White Repression52Slave Revolts in the Spanish Caribbean52The Conspiracy of the Ladder57Systematic Resistance in St. Domingue62Theft and the Market66Murder68Poison: Real or Imaginary?71Herbalism in Africa73Attempts to Control the Slaves74Enforcement of Security Measures78VProtective Aspects of Slave Law81The French System84Spanish Slave Law before the Bourbon Reforms89The Street Slaves90Marriage and the Family92The Bourbon Reform Period96Spanish Slave Codes of the Reform Period102The Myth of Protective Spanish Slave Law105Slave Law of Nineteenth-Century Cuba108The Impact of Corruption in Public Office110VIEmancipation and the Status of the Free113The Predominance of Military Considerations during the Pre-plantation Period114Policy toward Emancipation and the Needs of Plantation Agriculture119The Evolution of French Policy toward Emancipation122The Evolution of Spanish Policy toward Emancipation124The Impact of the Haitian Revolution upon Racial Policies in Nineteenth-Century Cuba125Growing Hostility toward the Free-Colored Population in Nineteenth-Century Cuba127The Emancipados132VIIRacism as an Instrument of Social and Political Domination136Origin of the Colored Elite of St. Domingue139Social Conflict between the Colored and White Elite of St. Domingue144Manipulation of Racial Conflict in the Face of the Independence Threat147Epilogue152Bibliography155Index161
\ Booknews**** Reprint of the work originally published by Johns Hopkins U. Press in 1971 and distinguished by inclusion in BCL3. Based on Hall's thesis, U. of Michigan. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
