Together France's former Caribbean colonies cover the spectrum of colonial experience in the region, and offer a useful vantage point from which to study questions of imperialism and its aftermath.  Home to populations of African, European, Amerindian, and Asian descent, they are a living laboratory for ongoing experiments in the interaction of race, class, color, and gender; local intellectuals have long been in the forefront of debates regarding decolonization and identity. 

This course explores the making of the modern Francophone Caribbean.  It is designed to introduce students to a range of political, economic, and cultural phenomena from buccaneering and Vodou to tourism and transnational identity.  Particular attention is paid to slave plantation society, the Haitian Revolution, and the black consciousness movements of the twentieth century.  Instruction is by lecture, weekly reading, and discussion of assigned texts and video. 

Readings: A package of photocopied readings is available from University Copy Center, 1629 W. University Ave.  Links to further reading can be found on the course website (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/dgeggus/FrCbn.htm), which also contains suggestions regarding term papers and the maps for the map quiz.

Requirements: Term paper (10 pages), Mid-term Exam, and Final Exam, (30% each); Map quiz (10%).  You are expected to attend all classes having done the reading for that week.  Students taking the course for graduate credit will be responsible for an additional project.  The University of Florida Library has one of the best Caribbean collections in the world, especially strong on Haiti; students are encouraged to take advantage of its resources in books, manuscripts, newspapers, and should select their term paper topic in conjunction with the professor. 

Other:  Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the University’s honesty policy regarding cheating and use of copyrighted materials (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/).  Those requesting classroom accommodation due to a disability must register with the Dean of Students Office and should see me at the beginning of semester (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/).

Part I. Building an Empire

1) Introduction: Europe and the Caribbean in the 16th century
    Kenneth Andrews, Trade and Plunder 
2) Buccaneers, Colonization, and Caribs
    Philip Boucher, Cannibal Encounters
3) The Sugar Revolution, Mercantilism, and Imperial Rivalry
    David Geggus, “French Caribbean Slavery: An Overview”

Part II. Slave Society

4) The Code Noir, Slave Trade, and Plantation Life
    James McClellan, Colonialism and Science
5) Whites, Free Coloreds, and Slaves                                                   MAP QUIZ (Sept. 24)  
6) Voodoo, Maroons, and Rebels
    David Geggus, “Maroons in 1790”

Part III. The Age of Revolution

7) The French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution
    David Geggus, “The Haitian Revolution”
8) The French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution                          MID-TERM (c.Oct. 13)
    David Geggus, "Slaves and Free Coloreds of Martinique"
9) Restoration Society and Emancipation
    Robert Forster, Sugar and Slavery, Family and Race

Part IV. Post-Slavery Society

11) Plantations & Peasants, Color & Class,
      Michel Giraud, "Dialectics of Descent and Phenotypes"
12) U.S. Occupation of Haiti, Indigénisme, Négritude
      Paul Farmer, The Uses of Haiti
13) Césaire, Fanon & Decolonization
      Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, in Davis, Slavery and Beyond
14) The D.O.M. since 1946
      Richard Burton, “Ki Moun Nou Ye?”
15) Contemporary Haiti
16) Dependence and Independence                                TERM PAPER DUE (Fri., Dec. 10, 5.00pm)
      Richard Burton, "The French West Indies à l'heure de l'Europe: an overview"

                                                                                                                   FINAL (Thurs., Dec. 16, period B)

1623 D’Esnambuc founds St. Christophe (St. Kitt’s)

1620s/30s  Buccaneer society develops on Tortuga

1635 Martinique and Guadeloupe settlement begins

1650s Sugar Revolution begins slowly in French Windward Isles

1674 French government assumes direct control of colonies

1685 Code Noir

1690-1720  Sugar Revolution sweeps Saint Domingue

1697 Spain officially recognizes French possession of Saint Domingue

1720s Coffee begins slow development in French colonies

1740+  French colonies dominate sugar and indigo markets

1759  Makandal conspiracy in Saint Domingue

1756-63 Seven Years War: Windward Isles occupied by British; loss of Grenada

1777  Saint Domingue frontier treaty with Santo Domingo

1789 Outbreak of French and Haitian Revolutions

1791  Northern Plain slave uprising

1792  Racial equality decreed in colonies

1793-1802, 1803-1815  French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars:  French West Indies
           frequently under British occupation

1794  Abolition of slavery in French colonies

1802-3  Haitian War of Independence; slavery and white supremacy reimposed in colonies

1807-20  Haiti divided between northern kingdom and southern republic

1814-1830  Clandestine slave trade, though abolished 1815

1822-44  Haiti occupies Santo Domingo

1830-48  July Monarchy of Louis Philippe:  progressive amelioration of slavery

1833  Racial equality restored

1848  Second Republic abolishes slavery

1915-34   U.S. occupation of Haiti

1927  La Revue Indigène launches Indigenism in Haiti

1933  Césaire, Senghor, Damas in Paris: L’Etudiant Noir; beginning of Negritude

1939  Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal

1940  Vichy government in France; overthrown in Martinique in 1943

1946  Departmental status for French Caribbean

1946  Dumarsais Estimé, Haiti’s first black middle class president

1952  Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs

1955  Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme

1957-71  François “Papa Doc” Duvalier president of Haiti

1961  Fanon, Les Damnés de la terre

1981  Socialist victory in France brings regional devolution 

• Guadeloupe figures include those for its dependencies, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, Les Saintes, St. Barth’s.
• Although its Gross National Product has more than doubled in a decade, Haiti ranks last  in the Americas as regards most economic, health, and educational indicators.  However, in book titles published per annum, it ranks 2nd in the Caribbean Basin to Cuba (albeit behind Botswana).
• The French DOM are wealthy and healthy by Caribbean standards, but only average in literacy.  Unemployment in Martinique and Guadeloupe, as well as Haiti, is above the regional average.
• Haiti’s net migration rate is normal for the region, which exports people; those of the DOM are high, though mainly also negative.  Rapidly-growing Guyane’s is the 7th highest in the world, 2nd in the Americas.  Its population density remains one of the world’s lowest.