In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

chapter 2 politics and power The power of the French colonial empire can be broken down into three categories—religious, military, and political. Each category had its own musical repertoire that, in turn, reflected the three goals of the cultural political campaign—to maintain the peace, to ensure absolute respect for the social hierarchy, and to promote French culture.This chapter will illustrate that within these categories of power,three very distinct paths of socialization emerged in the colonial hierarchy. Although these powers affected everyone in the colonies, each category was geared primarily to a particular section of the nonwhite population. Religious power focused on plantation slaves, military power on city slaves and free blacks, and political power on free colored people. Against a backdrop of the monarchy’s continuous attempts of mind control of nonwhites, the long road from a plantation mentality to one filled with hope and successful theatre opportunities began in the early days of the cultural political campaign, when the monarchy planted the seeds of a very important tradition: training the enslaved in musical techniques.The first institution that excelled in this area was the Catholic Church. Religious Power In the second quarter of the seventeenth century, the Catholic Church began to dispatch numerous missionaries to the colonies to establish several churches and to convert the enslaved 48  chapter 2 to Catholicism. By the late 1680s, the three island colonies were home to over forty churches that were served by clergy of four orders: Jesuits, Dominicans, Capuchins, and Carmelites.1 In 1704, however, the Capuchins surrendered their mission in Saint-Domingue due to the inability to provide a sufficient number of priests; they were replaced by the Jesuits.2 The monarchy paid missionaries extremely well for their services: free passage to the colonies and,when appropriate,similar arrangements for their return to France; free lodging; and land for building churches and for cultivation of crops to sustain themselves.In addition, priests received approximately 12,000 pounds of raw sugar for each district they served. For the cultivation of sugar cane (the primary crop of the islands), refinement of raw sugar, and for personal domestic services, the government provided priests with funds to buy slaves for these tasks.3 As the colonies grew, so did revenues of the missionaries. By the second decade of the eighteenth century, several colons began to grow impatient with the missionaries, who, they claimed, were more concerned with expanding their own revenues than with religious duties and responsibilities. Moreover, according to the governor and the intendant of Martinique, revenues amassed by the four orders in Guadeloupe and Martinique could fully support twenty times the number of missionaries presently residing in the entire French Antilles.4 They owned numerous slaves,plantations and other real estate,personal property,sugar refineries,and cattle. Even the mendicant friars (Capuchins, Carmelites, and Dominicans)—noted for their vows of abstinence,austerity,and lack of personal and community property—possessed substantial economic interests.By the middle of the eighteenth century,it seems that while the Capuchins possessed no plantations,they did own at least 30 slaves; the Carmelites owned one plantation and 80 slaves; and the Dominicans had at least four plantations,over 600 slaves,several herds of cattle, and personal property. The possessions of the Jesuits outnumbered by far those of the other orders combined. In Martinique alone, they owned several houses and over 500 slaves; in Guadeloupe more than 300 slaves; and in Saint-Domingue, Jesuits owned several plantations, somewhere between 900 and 1,000 slaves, several plantations, sugar refineries, and numerous herds of cattle.5 It seems,however,that the clergy posed a far more alarming problem for the colons.The latter claimed that missionaries, with their teachings of dignity of the human spirit acquired through Christianity, awakened in the slave dangerous thoughts such as freedom and revolt. In fact,so powerful did the clergy in Saint-Domingue become—especially the Jesuits—it was forbidden in some districts to open a school without acquiring a “favorable position” from the parish priest.6 Similar incidents also occurred in the other two colonies. Extremely troubled by humanitarian activities of the Jesuits,the colons accused them of being “the cause of all misdeeds committed by blacks.”7 One such “misdeed” occurred in Basse Terre, Guadeloupe, and was the subject of a letter, dated May 8, 1733, from a prosecutor in Guadeloupe to the magistrate politics and power  49 of that colony.8 According...

Share