Sweet Liberty: The Final Days of Slavery in Martinique

Early American Studies

by Rebecca Hartkopf Schloss

From its founding, Martinique played an integral role in France's Atlantic empire. Established in the mid-seventeenth century as a colonial outpost against Spanish and English dominance in the Caribbean, the island was transformed by the increase in European demand for sugar, coffee, and indigo. Like other colonial subjects, Martinicans met the labor needs of cash-crop cultivation by establishing plantations worked by enslaved Africans and by adopting the rigidly hierarchical social structure that accompanied chattel slavery. After Haiti gained its independence in 1804, Martinique's economic importance to the French empire increased. At the same time, questions arose, both in France and on the island, about the long-term viability of the plantation system, including debates about the ways colonists?especially enslaved Africans and free mixed-race individuals?fit into the French nation.Sweet Liberty chronicles the history of Martinique from France's reacquisition o

Genres: History

312 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet Liberty chronicles the complicated social relationships on the island from 1802-1848 and argues the ways race, slavery, class and gender intersected in Martinique and shaped what it meant to French in the early 19th century. Schloss deals with how people around the French Atlantic defined, challenged and policed the legal, social, political and cultural meanings of labels.

Schloss argues that the story of Martinique indicates how families and islands connected through personal and professional bonds linked the French West Indies with metropolitan France. Personally, I wish the narrative wasn't so bogged down. It was boring at times. It was interesting to see White women in the colonial world and how ideas of colour played out in the colonies.

[Hildegart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book I'm reading for a French history class. It's been kind of dry so far. There is a fair amount of information in this book and it does show the influence that events in France had on Martinique