Colorism and life opportunities during slavery #2 Differentiated access to freedom

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What difference did it make in one’s life to be a free or enslaved non-mixed black, mixed-race black, « mulatto » or light mixed-race person in the Caribbean in the 18th century?

In the first post, I explained the context in which colorism developed, in other words, a colonialist context based on slavery, from which emerged color prejudice, a racist system that segregated and discriminated against black people. I’ve also clarified the words I’m going to use to analyze the impact of colorism on life opportunities.

In posts 2, 3 and 4, I take a closer look at the impact of colorism on people reduced to the status of slaves. I approach this from a statistical angle, which sometimes makes things a little indigestible to read (the statistical passages are shifted to the margins), but it also serves as a reminder that we’re not talking about an anecdotal phenomenon. The prevalence of colorism is measurable in 18th-century society.

This week, we continue our series on colorism with episode 2, in which I take a closer look at the possibilities of manumission.

Differentiated access to freedom: when an enslaved person’s skin was lighter, the chances of freedom increased

The proportion of people destined for manumission was correlated with phenotype. The lighter the skin tone, the more likely they were to be freed. Thus, the majority of enslaved people destined for manumission were of mixed-race, as was the composition of free people of color. Historian Frédéric Régent has written a very clear article on this subject for Guadeloupe.

Based on a sample of 2,248 people from Basse-Terre between 1789 and 1792, he uses notarial archives to draw up a table showing the situation. The table shows that only 4% of non-mixed black people and 4% of mixed-race black people were free, while the proportion rose to 36% for « mulatto » people, and over 70% for light mixed-race people. In another table, he calculates the proportion of slaves destined for manumission. Of 1973 people reduced to slave status, 2% (30 people) were destined for manumission. But when he takes into account the criterion of « color », he observes a clear difference. Of all non-mixed black people, only 1% were destined for manumission; it was 3% for mixed-race black people, 5% for « mulattoes », but nearly 20% for light mixed-race people!

What about Martinique? I don’t have a database to make a strict comparison with Frédéric Régent’s data, but the trends are the same on two databases I know well. I looked at my thesis database on free people (based on over 30,000 baptism, marriage and death records from the 17th-18th centuries). In the group of free people of color, mixed-race children and adults are in the majority.

Some 990 baptismal certificates specify a « color » for the baptized child. The distribution is as follows: 8% non-mixed black, 5% mixed-race black, 41% « mulatto », 46% light mixed-race. If we look at the people who died, we can see the ethno-racial category for 1,128 of them. 31% non-mixed black, 4% mixed-race black, 43% « mulatto », 21% light mixed-race.

I also looked at the « Esclavage en Martinique » database, which essentially covers the period 1775-1800. This time, among the people enslaved, black non-mixed people are the most numerous and light mixed people the least.

The database lists approximately 14700 enslaved people (14741 to date); for about half of them, ethno-racial information is provided. Here’s what we have: 5424 non-mixed black people, 391 mixed-race black people, 1316 « mulatto » people, 278 light mixed-race people. It should be noted that light mixed-race people are probably over-represented here in relation to the whole, because the tendency is to specify what seems to be a specificity in contrast to the norm, or to specify a detail justifying the estimation of market value, in the same way as a disease or a profession. The person drafting the documents was therefore more inclined to give details of the result of an interracial relationship than to recall the color « negro », even when the term was sometimes used as a synonym for slave. It is therefore likely that, in the majority of cases where « color » is not specified, these were non-mixed black people.

In the « Esclavage en Martinique » database, 630 slaves were freed, i.e. around 4% of the total. Like Frédéric Régent, if I take the ethno-racial criterion into account, I can see a clear difference in distribution in favor of the lighter-skinned people.

Of all the people categorized as non-mixed black, only 2% were destined for manumission; this rises to 8% for mixed-race black people, 19% for « mulatto », and almost 42% for light mixed-race people.

This trend is further confirmed by the age distribution of enslaved people. When we combine age and ethno-racial category, we see that « mulatto » people are proportionally less present than non-mixed black people in the highest age brackets; this is probably because they were more frequently freed before reaching these advanced ages (and not because they died younger).

Table showing the distribution of enslaved women and men by age and ethno-racial categorization in the « Esclavage en Martinique » database (gross number / percentage)

	Non-mixed Blacks		Mixed-race Blacks		« mulattoes »		Light mixed-race
– than 20	962	39%	123	63%	354	58%	70	78%
20-39	971	40%	58	30%	185	30%	16	18%
40-59	393	16%	12	6%	61	10%	4	4%
+ than 60	126	5%	2	7%	11	2%	0

In the table, there are 962 non-mixed black people under the age of 20. They represent 39% of all non-mixed black people. They are 40% between 20 and 39, 16% between 40 and 59, 5% over 60. By comparison, 58% of « mulattoes » people (19 points more than non-mixed black people!) are under 20, 30% between 20 and 39, 10% between 40 and 59 and 2% over 60. I won’t comment on the other columns, as the samples are too small for conclusive analysis.

How can we explain the fact that people perceived as non-mixed black had, on average, less access to manumission?

White settlers collectively defended the slave system and the existence of color prejudice to maintain the established colonial order that allowed them to prosper. However, this did not prevent them from forming individual attachments to their mixed-race children. In the early days of colonization, it was even customary to free these mixed-race children from slavery when they reached the age of majority. When the decree of 1713 obliged masters to obtain authorization from the colonial administration for any manumission, the administrators put forward the argument that « the greed of several inhabitants, who, for no other reason than their avarice, put a price on the freedom of enslaved negroes, which leads them to use the most illicit means to procure the sums necessary to obtain this freedom (…) » [« l’avidité de plusieurs habitants, qui, sans autre motif que celui de leur avarice, mettaient la liberté des nègres esclaves à prix d’argent, ce qui porte ceux-ci à se servir des voies les plus illicites pour se procurer les sommes nécessaires pour obtenir cette liberté (…) »], but in administrative correspondence, the issue raised was much more often that of interracial relationship. For example, a 1777 memorandum from the King asserted that the freedom of freedmen « is often only the price of debauchery and concubinage » [n’est souvent que le prix de la débauche et du concubinage]. Not only were manumissions for « good and loyal service » rarer, they also took place later in life for the enslaved people not parentage to their masters.

All articles of the series Colorism and life opportunities during Slavery

#1 Skin color and mixed race in the 18th century
#2 Differentiated access to freedom
#3 Inequality of opportunities at work
#4 Values tainted by prejudice
#5 The imbalance in relations
#6 Capital disparity

French Bibliography

Pierre-Louis, Jessica. Les Libres de couleur face au préjugé : franchir la barrière de couleur à la Martinique aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, thèse de doctorat d’Histoire, AIHP-GEODE EA 929, juin 2015 à l’U.A.G.
Régent, Frédéric. « Couleur, statut juridique et niveau social à Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe) à la fin de l’Ancien Régime (1789- 1792)». In Paradoxes du métissage, édité par Jean-Luc Bonniol, 41‑50. Paris: Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques – CTHS, 2001

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