Life and Death on the Plantations: Selected Jesuit Letters from the Caribbean

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This is a bilingual French-English edition of correspondence relating to the theme of early French slavery. Mongin’s letters are an invaluable source of data about the early plantation environment. Breban’s reflects the development of the more mature plantation society of the eighteenth century. He gives new perspectives on some of the themes discussed by Mongin, such as the reasons for the enslavement of Africans, and the question of what would be called ‘racial’ difference.

Both clerics testify to first-hand contacts between Europeans and slaves in the variable, unstable early plantation context. They also reflect wider theoretical concerns such as the extent of proprietary rights, the legitimacy of possessing the body, and the legitimacy of slavery itself. Their perspectives call into question the idea of a unified, homogenous, ‘colonial’ discourse.