Now it does seem that way and in many ways free blacks were protecting their interests before considering the interest of slaves. Although this may be true, free blacks played important roles in allowing slaves to create their rebellion. Free blacks and slaves were inseparable through the eyes of white slave owners. As Justin Girod-Chantrans, a French naturalist, wrote in 1975, “This harsh discrimination even after manumission, is the principal line of subordination, because of the resulting idea that the Negroes color dooms him to servitude and that nothing can make him equal to his master.” This quote points out that even though Saint-Domingue society was mostly structured around three social groups there was always a social division that consisted of black and white. A wealthy black man received much of the discriminatory treatment as a slave only because they were both black. So at first glance, one might make the assumption that because a black man was able to move
Now it does seem that way and in many ways free blacks were protecting their interests before considering the interest of slaves. Although this may be true, free blacks played important roles in allowing slaves to create their rebellion. Free blacks and slaves were inseparable through the eyes of white slave owners. As Justin Girod-Chantrans, a French naturalist, wrote in 1975, “This harsh discrimination even after manumission, is the principal line of subordination, because of the resulting idea that the Negroes color dooms him to servitude and that nothing can make him equal to his master.” This quote points out that even though Saint-Domingue society was mostly structured around three social groups there was always a social division that consisted of black and white. A wealthy black man received much of the discriminatory treatment as a slave only because they were both black. So at first glance, one might make the assumption that because a black man was able to move