Between Sovereignty and Belonging: Women’s Legal Testimonies in Nineteenth-Century Haiti

An analysis of the historical records of the Haitian Etat Civil, shows how rural Haitian women strategically presented themselves within Haitian law and bureaucracy in order to access legal personhood, citizenship and property ownership both for themselves and their families. Based on new archival research, the article further extends our knowledge of rural Haitian society in the nineteenth century, locating Haiti within the context of the historiography of the Caribbean in the post-slavery period.