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C H A P T E R T E N Planter Elites The reader has already met the Laportes, the best-documented members of the planter elite in the sample of notarial acts. They were by no means the only family of free coloreds who achieved power and social position during this period. For another example, there arethe Bauges of Galets, Croix des Bouquets, mulatto relatives of the powerful white planting family of the same name. They were small planters who seized the day as the economy boomed after the end of the War of American Independence and became big planters by the end of the 17808. In 1777, they established a partnership in which the husbands of the four Bauge sisters, including members of the Desmarres and Graine clans, rented four-sevenths of the ancestral plot to the three brothers, along with all the water coming to them from the irrigation system in the Cul de SacRiver.1 One presumes that in this patrilocal society, the sisterswere living with their husbands on the husbands'habitations and could not exert direct supervision over their land. As usual in free colored families, there were relatives to whom the land could be entrusted rather than seeking out the services of a professionalmanager. At the time, the farm was producing small amounts of food for the market, as the notarial act refers toplaces a vivres owned by the four brothers-in-law on the place. Clearly, these were small farms of the "middling sort": above the peasantry and tied to the market, but by no means a plantation. The term habitant is used, but it seemsmore atitle ofcourtesy than arealdescription. Over nineyears, though, the three brothers turned it into a proper habitation. By the time this piece of land last appeared in the notarial record, in 1781, it was worth 11,400 Kvres ayear in rent, or well over 100,000 limes in total value. On that date, four white men, probably professional estate managers seeking to move up and two of them relatives of one 205 2o6 • Economic and SocialAdvancement of the brothers-in-law, rented the habitation from the Bauges for 5.5years, along with all water rights. They rented 24slaves and 6 head of mules as well. They also were to complete and maintain two seeminglyquite solid sugar mill buildings, with an animal-driven milling machine. The renters were to leave standing six cane fields of 4 carreaux each at the end of the lease period, with the alleys planted in sweet potatoes, protect the fields with live hedges or fences, and leave the whole place in "defensible condition."2 This did not represent the entirety of the Bauge patrimony. The brothers had turned their earlier profits into new,large estates worth an additional 80,000 livres. One was a coffee plantation within the borders of the parish of Port-au-Prince, above Bellevue, and the other wasanother sugar establishment still under construction at Fond Parisien in Croix des Bouquets.3 In this chapter we turn to group formation among free people of color. The preceding chapters, which treated free people of color as a more or less undifferentiated whole, have served to give a basis for comparison for the two leadership groups that this study has identified.This chapter explores the subgroup to which the Laportes and the Baugesbelonged, the planter elite, beginning with an extensive definition of what is meant by the termplanter elite. While the members of this subgroup were in general wealthy, rural, of mixed African and European antecedents , and at least two or three generations removed from slavery in the time period under study,not allthese characteristics applyto everymember ofthe group. Instead, the distinguishing characteristic is the level, intimacy, and frequency of contacts with whites, both personal or familial andfinancial.These close links with whites mean relatively weak links with other free coloreds not of their group. It is for this reason that this group is referred to as an elite, while the people discussed in the next chapter are referred to as the military leadership group. The latter were much more the leaders of the mass of free coloreds, even though in many cases they did not possess the wealth of the planter elites. From this initial definition of terms, the chapter turns to an analysisof the economic role of the planter elite. The first question is the source of this wealth. Bequests and gifts from whites formed the core of the capital of...

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