Creating the Creole Island: Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Mauritius (review)

In this richly textured and engagingly presented work, Vaughan explores the creation of the complex world of créolité in eighteenth-century Mauritius. As she notes, "creole" is a slippery term in Mauritian history, society, and culture; its meaning has been reshaped by various sociocultural and political considerations over the years. Coming to grips with such a multifaceted concept can be difficult, especially on an island in the Indian Ocean where research on many important aspects of colonial life remains to be undertaken. However, as this important contribution to Mauritian history and the literature on comparative slavery demonstrates, a willingness to embrace rather than eschew complexity, to make perceptive use of hitherto ignored archival sources, and to draw discerningly upon the insights of others can pay handsome dividends.

Vaughan's examination of the "complex, conflictual engagement between self and other" at the heart of Mauritian master–slave relations rests on a careful reading of court cases and related legal documents, sources that have hitherto been largely ignored in studies of eighteenth-century Mauritius and its slave regime (254). Because of the manner in which the judicial system in this French colony worked, these materials provide a rare opportunity to hear the voices of Mauritian slaves themselves, even if these voices are mediated through court officials. Moreover, these materials provide an excellent vantage point from which to discern various aspects of the sociocultural world that these slaves shared with the island's white and free colored residents who were of equally diverse social, cultural, and geographical origin.

The fluidity and complexity of local life are revealed in greater detail in chapters that examine, among other things, the role of ethnicity, gender, language, race, and sex in shaping the eighteenth-century Mauritian experience. Vaughan's discussion of these topics is enhanced by her viewing them in light of relevant economic, intellectual, and political developments, both locally and in France. Her arguments also benefit from a willingness to examine Mauritian developments in light of work on other eighteenth-century slave-plantation societies, and to make judicious use of the analytical tools and insights offered by other disciplines, including literary studies and psychology.

Missing from this work, unfortunately, is a careful and explicit consideration of the ways in which the Mauritian case study deepens our understanding of the nature and dynamics of creole society formation. Vaughan makes no reference, for example, to Brathwaite's classic study of the development of a creole society in Jamaica and to subsequent debates about creolization.¹ Her nuanced arguments about master–slave relations, slave agency, and class in eighteenth-century Mauritius will nevertheless give students of such societies much to consider. Her careful weaving together of the stories about slaves, local whites, and free persons of color is a refreshing departure from the historiographical norm in which these populations are frequently viewed in relative isolation from one another. In so doing, Vaughan highlights the pressing need for slave plantation studies to examine the history of colonial white and free plantations of color in much greater detail, and to approach the history of these societies much more holistically. Failure to do so will leave us with incomplete, if not potentially distorted, views of the development of these fascinatingly complex societies and cultures.