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69-816: It was situated in the Hotel Massiac in Paris, hence its name. It was a counter-revolutionary club composed of slave owning planters from the French Antilles with the purpose of promoting their interests in the French parliament, particularly in regards to the issue of slavery , and to lobby against the implementation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the abolition of slavery in

138-587: A French settlement in Grenada in 1649. Despite the long history of British rule, Grenada's French heritage is still evidenced by the number of French loanwords in Grenadian Creole , French-style buildings, cuisine and places name (For ex. Petit Martinique , Martinique Channel , etc.) In 1642, the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique received a twenty-year extension of its charter. The King would name

207-472: A chief, sufficiently courageous, to lead them on to vengeance and slaughter." Raynal's Enlightenment philosophy went deeper than a prediction and reflected many similar philosophies, including those of Rousseau and Diderot . Raynal's admonition was written thirteen years before the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , which highlighted freedom and liberty but did not abolish slavery. In addition to Raynal's influence, Toussaint Louverture ,

276-420: A commodity crop from cultivation of sugarcane , which required extensive labor. The colony of Saint-Domingue also had extensive coffee , cocoa , and indigo plantations, but these were smaller and less profitable than the sugar plantations. The commodity crops were traded for European goods. Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production. By

345-407: A connection to Enlightenment scholars through the style, language, and accent of this text. Like Louverture, Jean-Baptiste Belley was an active participant in the insurrection. The portrait of Belley by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson depicts a man who encompasses the French view of its colonies, creating a stark dichotomy between the refinement of Enlightenment thought and the reality of

414-474: A free black who was familiar with Enlightenment ideas within the context of European colonialism, would become a key "enlightened actor" in the Haitian Revolution. Enlightened thought divided the world into "enlightened leaders" and "ignorant masses." Louverture sought to bridge this divide between the popular masses and the enlightened few by striking a balance between Western Enlightened thought as

483-639: A margin of almost eight to one. Two-thirds of the slaves were African born, and they tended to be less submissive than those born in the Americas and raised in slave societies. The death rate in the Caribbean exceeded the birth rate, so imports of enslaved Africans were necessary to maintain the numbers required to work the plantations. The slave population declined at an annual rate of two to five percent, due to overwork, inadequate food and shelter, insufficient clothing and medical care, and an imbalance between

552-706: A necessary means of winning liberation, and not propagating the notion that it was morally superior to the experiences and knowledge of people of color on Saint-Domingue. Louverture wrote a constitution for a new society in Saint-Domingue that abolished slavery . The existence of slavery in Enlightened society was an incongruity that had been left unaddressed by European scholars prior to the French Revolution . Louverture took on this inconsistency directly in his constitution. In addition, he exhibited

621-586: A rigid caste system was defined. Most historians classify the people of the era into three groups: The first group were white colonists, or les blancs . This group was generally subdivided into the plantation owners and a lower class of whites who often served as overseers or day laborers, as well as artisans and shopkeepers. The second group were free people of color , or gens de couleur libres , who were usually mixed-race (sometimes referred to as mulattoes ), being of both African and French descent. These gens de couleur tended to be educated and literate, and

690-468: A small colony on the island in 1805. As a result, Dominicans speak English as an official language while Antillean creole is spoken as a secondary language and is well maintained due to its location between the French-speaking departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique. In Trinidad , the occupying Spanish had contributed little towards advancements, despite the island's ideal location. Because it

759-460: A warning for other slaves. King Louis XIV of France passed the Code Noir in 1685 in an attempt to regulate such violence and the treatment of slaves in general in the colony, but masters openly and consistently broke the code. During the 18th century, local legislation reversed parts of it. In 1758, the planters began passing legislation restricting the rights of other groups of people until

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828-585: Is now Benin , and Kongo from the Kingdom of Kongo in what is now modern northern Angola and the western Congo . The Kongolese at 40% were the largest of the African ethnic groups represented amongst the slaves. The slaves developed their own religion, a syncretic mixture of Catholicism and West African religions known as Vodou , usually called "voodoo" in English. This belief system implicitly rejected

897-517: The Antilles islands of the Caribbean : Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean , who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre , on the island of Martinique in 1635. Belain sailed to the Caribbean in 1625, hoping to establish a French settlement on the island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts). In 1626 he returned to France , where he won

966-573: The Lesser Antilles , and had more than 400 members during the 1791 debate in the Assembly on the colonies. Since 15 July 1789, a first assembly of "settlers residing in Paris" met at the initiative of Louis-Marthe de Gouy d'Arsy in order to obtain the representation of the colonies in the Assembly and the creation in the colonies of colonial assemblies exercising local political control. The club created correspondence companies in ports. This

1035-598: The Saintes . The Knights of Malta bought Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin , which were made dependencies of Guadeloupe. In 1665, the Knights sold the islands they had acquired to the newly formed (1664) Compagnie des Indes occidentales . Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean , located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to

1104-541: The Thirteen Colonies to Great Britain. The livelihood of 1 million of the approximately 25 million people who lived in France in 1789 depended directly upon the agricultural imports from Saint-Domingue, and several million indirectly depended upon trade from the colony to maintain their standard of living. Saint-Domingue was the most profitable French colony in the world, indeed one of the most profitable of all

1173-714: The abolition of slavery in the former colony was followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former slaves had won, and with the collaboration of already free people of color , of their independence from white Europeans. The revolution was the largest slave uprising since Spartacus ' unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier, and challenged long-held European beliefs about alleged black inferiority and about slaves' ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. The rebels' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories that shocked and frightened slave owners in

1242-586: The colonies , while also working against the abolitionist Society of the Friends of the Blacks . Through pro-slavery parliamentary lobbying, the club delayed the implementation of the rights introduced in Paris for a long time. Louis-Claude-René de Mordant (1746-1806), who styled himself Marquis of Massiac, owned a private mansion, formerly Hôtel de Pomponne, located Place des Victoires in Paris. He inherited it in 1770 from his great-uncle, Claude-Louis d'Espinchal,

1311-478: The 1740s, Saint-Domingue, together with the British colony of Jamaica , had become the main suppliers of the world's sugar. Production of sugar depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans . An average of 600 ships engaged every year in shipping products from Saint-Domingue to Bordeaux , and the value of the colony's crops and goods was almost equal in value to all of the products shipped from

1380-609: The 1780s. Raimond used the French Revolution to make this the major colonial issue before the National Assembly. In October 1790, another wealthy free man of color, Vincent Ogé , demanded the right to vote under the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. When the colonial governor refused, Ogé led a brief 300-man insurgency in the area around Le Cap, fighting to end racial discrimination in

1449-469: The Africans' status as slaves. Saint-Domingue was a society seething with hatred, with white colonists and black slaves frequently coming into violent conflict. The French historian Paul Fregosi wrote: "Whites, mulattos and blacks loathed each other. The poor whites couldn't stand the rich whites, the rich whites despised the poor whites, the middle-class whites were jealous of the aristocratic whites,

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1518-470: The Americas. The term varies in meaning by its usage and frame of reference. It is not used much in France, unless the speaker wants to refer to every French dependency in the Caribbean region. The term's more ambiguous than the term "French West Indies", which refers specifically to the islands that are French overseas departments , which means they have overall the same laws and regulations as departments on

1587-655: The Colonial Committee, read a report on the work of this committee, then submitted to the Assembly a draft decree whose preamble declared that: "Considering the colonies as a part of the French empire and desiring them to enjoy the happy regeneration which has taken place there, she however never intended to include them in the Constitution which she decreed for the kingdom, and to subject them to laws which could be incompatible with their local conveniences or particulars”. Six articles followed which indicated

1656-562: The European colonies in the 18th century. Slavery sustained sugar production under harsh conditions; diseases such as malaria (brought from Africa) and yellow fever caused high mortality, thriving in the tropical Caribbean climate. In 1787 alone, the French imported about 20,000 slaves from Africa into Saint-Domingue, while the British imported about 38,000 slaves total to all of their Caribbean colonies. The death rate from yellow fever

1725-480: The French West Indies. The French Caribbean (or Francophone Caribbean ) includes all the French-speaking countries in the region. It can also refer to any area that exhibits a combination of French and Caribbean cultural influences in music, cuisine, style, architecture, and so on. The Francophone Caribbean is a part of the wider French America , which includes all the French-speaking countries in

1794-514: The French settlements in the Caribbean, in 1637 becoming governor of Martinique. He remained in Martinique and did not concern himself with the other islands. The French permanently settled on Martinique and Guadeloupe after being kicked off Saint Kitts and Nevis ( Saint-Christophe in French ) by the British. Fort Royal (Fort-de-France) on Martinique was a major port for French warships in

1863-630: The Governor General of the company, and the company the Governors of the various islands. By the late 1640s, in France Mazarin had little interest in colonial affairs, and the company languished. In 1651 it dissolved itself, selling its exploitation rights to various parties. The du Paquet family bought Martinique, Grenada, and Saint Lucia for 60,000 livres. The sieur d' Houël bought Guadeloupe , Marie-Galante , La Desirade and

1932-594: The Massiac club under the Constituent Assembly], Annales historiques de la révolution française [Historical Annals of the French Revolution], Paris, October-December 2008, p. 29–50 French Antilles The French West Indies or French Antilles ( French : Antilles françaises , [ɑ̃tij fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ; Antillean Creole : Antiy fwansé ) are the parts of France located in

2001-761: The Minister of the Navy. In 1787, Brissot had founded the Society of the Friends of the Blacks , which wanted to abolish the slave trade in the colonies . From 20 August 1789, a “White Settlers’ Club” began to meet at the Hotel Massiac, the mansion of the Marquis of Massiac, in order to combat the influence of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks . The Massiac Club of White Settlers initially brought together 70 members, all slave owners in Saint-Domingue or

2070-516: The Revolution: Essay on the Massiac club (August 1789-August 1792)], Paris, Armand Colin,1953, pp. 414 Jacques Thibau, Le Temps de Saint-Domingue : l’esclavage et la Révolution française [The Times of Saint-Domingue: slavery and the French Revolution], Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 1989, pp. 384 Déborah Liébart, Un groupe de pression contre-révolutionnaire: le club Massiac sous la Constituante [A counter-revolutionary pressure group:

2139-624: The US capital of the time, such as Denis Nicolas Cottineau de Kerloguen. Augustin Challamel , Les Clubs contre-révolutionnaires : cercles, comités, sociétés, salons, réunions, cafés, restaurants et librairies, [Counter-revolutionary Clubs: circles, committees, societies, salons, meetings, cafes, restaurants and bookstores], Paris, L. Cerf,1895, pp. 633 Gabriel Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue et la Révolution : essai sur le club Massiac (août 1789-août 1792) [The Colonists of Saint-Domingue and

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2208-496: The area. He was captured in early 1791, and brutally executed by being "broken on the wheel " before being beheaded. While Ogé was not fighting against slavery, his treatment was cited by later slave rebels as one of the factors in their decision to rise up in August 1791 and resist treaties with the colonists. The conflict up to this point was between factions of whites, and between whites and free blacks. Enslaved blacks watched from

2277-470: The club accused Abbé Grégoire of acting under the improper influence of his brother who was married to a woman of colour. Based on the demographic weight of Saint-Domingue , including slaves , the delegation claimed to obtain twenty seats in the Estates General . The representation of Saint-Domingue was finally reduced to six, but the question of the status of men was raised, opening a breach in

2346-736: The colony by the high mountain range known as the Massif du Nord . The Western province, however, grew significantly after the colonial capital was moved to Port-au-Prince in 1751, becoming increasingly wealthy in the second half of the 18th century. The Southern province lagged in population and wealth because it was geographically separated from the rest of the colony. However, this isolation allowed freed slaves to find profit in trade with Jamaica, and they gained power and wealth here. In addition to these interregional tensions, there were conflicts between proponents of independence, those loyal to France, and allies of Britain and Spain —who coveted control of

2415-403: The colony), who already had kin networks and often had more prestigious roles on plantations and more opportunities for emancipation. Most slaves spoke a patois of the French language known as Haitian Creole , which was also used by island-born mulattoes and whites for communication with the workers. The majority of the slaves were Yoruba from what is now modern Nigeria , Fon from what

2484-399: The desire to undermine the colony's attempts at independent legitimacy, as citizens of the colonies were not able to access the elite class of French Revolutionaries because of their race. In 1789, Saint-Domingue produced 60% of the world's coffee and 40% of the sugar imported by France and Britain. The colony was not only the most profitable possession of the French colonial empire , but it

2553-657: The dreaded yellow fever, which regularly swept the colony. The lower-class whites, petits blancs (literally "small whites"), included artisans, shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Saint-Domingue's free people of color, or gens de couleur libres , numbered more than 28,000. Around that time, colonial legislations, concerned with this growing and strengthening population, passed discriminatory laws that required these freedmen to wear distinctive clothing and limited where they could live. These laws also barred them from occupying many public offices. Many freedmen were also artisans and overseers, or domestic servants in

2622-470: The former colony's independence. It involved black, biracial, French, Spanish, British, and Polish participants—with the ex-slave Toussaint Louverture emerging as Haiti's most prominent general. The successful revolution was a defining moment in the history of the Atlantic World and the revolution's effects on the institution of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. The end of French rule and

2691-502: The hemisphere. Compared to other Atlantic revolutions , the events in Haiti have received comparatively little public attention in retrospect: historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot characterizes the historiography of the Haitian Revolution as being "silenced" by that of the French Revolution . Much of Caribbean economic development in the 18th century was contingent on Europeans' demand for sugar . Plantation owners produced sugar as

2760-476: The hillside woods away from white control often conducted violent raids on the island's sugar and coffee plantations. Although the numbers in these bands grew large (sometimes into the thousands), they generally lacked the leadership and strategy to accomplish large-scale objectives. The first effective maroon leader to emerge was the charismatic Haitian Vodou priest François Mackandal , who inspired his people by drawing on African traditions and religions. He united

2829-436: The island and create trade regulations that would further their own wealth and power. However, the Haitian Revolution quickly became a test of the new French republic, as it radicalized the slavery question and forced French leaders to recognize the full meaning of their stated ideology. The African population on the island began to hear of the agitation for independence by the planters, who had resented France's limitations on

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2898-568: The island's foreign trade. The Africans mostly allied with the royalists and the British, as they understood that if Saint-Domingue's independence were to be led by white slave masters, it would probably mean even harsher treatment and increased injustice for the African population. The planters would be free to operate slavery as they pleased without the existing minimal accountability to their French peers. Saint-Domingue's free people of color, most notably Julien Raimond , had been actively appealing to France for full civil equality with whites since

2967-482: The island, including exemption from taxes for ten years and land grants in accordance to the terms set out in the Cedula. This exodus was also encouraged by the French Revolution . These new immigrants established the local communities of Blanchisseuse , Champs Fleurs, Paramin , Cascade, Carenage and Laventille , adding to the ancestry of Trinidadians and creating the creole identity; Spanish, French, and Patois were

3036-469: The islands of the present and former British West Indies were once ruled by France . Among some of them, a French-based creole language is spoken, whereas in others the language is nearing extinction; specific words and expressions may vary among the islands. Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution ( French : Révolution haïtienne [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ a.isjɛn] or Guerre de l'indépendance ; Haitian Creole : Lagè d Lendependans )

3105-513: The languages spoken. Trinidad's population jumped from just under 1,400 in 1777, to over 15,000 by the end of 1789. In 1797, Trinidad became a British crown colony, with a French-speaking population. The two official French overseas departments are Guadeloupe and Martinique. Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, formerly attached to the department of Guadeloupe, have held separate status as overseas collectivities since 2007. These Caribbean Départments et Collectivités d’Outre Mer are also known as

3174-475: The mainland of France. Collectivities can be included too. The following Caribbean regions are predominantly French -speaking and/or French Creole -speaking: * Both countries gained independence from the United Kingdom . English is their official language, but French-based Creole languages are widely spoken by the island population due to a period of French colonization. In addition, some of

3243-422: The maroon bands and established a network of secret organizations among plantation slaves, leading a rebellion from 1751 through 1757. Although Mackandal was captured by the French and burned at the stake in 1758, large armed maroon bands persisted in raids and harassment after his death. French writer Guillaume Raynal attacked slavery in his history of European colonization. He warned, "the Africans only want

3312-423: The means for each colony to equip itself with the administration which 'best suited' its prosperity and that of its inhabitants by conforming to the principles which bound the colonies to the metropolis by "ensuring the conservation of their respective interests". The Massiac Club campaigned against the equality rights of free men of colour as well as against the most active defenders of equality rights . As such,

3381-498: The men often served in the army or as administrators on plantations. Many were children of white planters and enslaved mothers, or free women of color. Others had purchased their freedom from their owners through the sale of their own produce or artistic works. They often received education or artisan training, and sometimes inherited freedom or property from their fathers. Some gens de couleur owned and operated their own plantations and became slave owners. The third group, outnumbering

3450-535: The others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of mostly African-born slaves. A high rate of mortality among them meant that planters continually had to import new slaves. This kept their culture more African and separate from other people on the island. Many plantations had large concentrations of slaves from a particular region of Africa, and it was therefore somewhat easier for these groups to maintain elements of their culture, religion, and language. This also separated new slaves from Africa from creoles (slaves born in

3519-417: The plantation houses. Le Cap Français (Le Cap), a northern port, had a large population of free people of color, including freed slaves. These men would become important leaders in the slave rebellion and later revolution. Saint-Domingue's Northern province was the center of shipping and trading, and had the largest population of grands blancs . The Plaine-du-Nord on the northern shore of Saint-Domingue

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3588-538: The plantations. Many runaway slaves—called maroons—hid on the margins of large plantations, living off the land and what they could steal from their former masters. Others fled to towns, to blend in with urban slaves and freed blacks who often migrated to those areas for work. If caught, these runaway slaves would be severely and violently punished. However, some masters tolerated petit marronages, or short-term absences from plantations, knowing these allowed release of tensions. The larger groups of runaway slaves who lived in

3657-515: The region from which the French were able to explore the region. In 1638, Jacques Dyel du Parquet (1606–1658), nephew of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc and first governor of Martinique, decided to have Fort Saint Louis built to protect the city against enemy attacks. From Fort Royal, Martinique, Du Parquet proceeded south in search for new territories and established the first settlement in Saint Lucia in 1643, and headed an expedition which established

3726-537: The region. In 1690, French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe begin to set up timber camps to supply the French islands with wood and gradually become permanent settlers. France had a colony for several years, they imported slaves from West Africa , Martinique and Guadeloupe to work on its plantations. In this period, the Antillean Creole language developed. France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain in 1763. Great Britain established

3795-676: The sexes, with more men than women. Some slaves were of a creole elite class of urban slaves and domestics, who worked as cooks, personal servants and artisans around the plantation house. This relatively privileged class was chiefly born in the Americas, while the under-class born in Africa labored hard, and often under abusive and brutal conditions. Among Saint-Domingue's 40,000 white colonists, European-born Frenchmen monopolized administrative posts. The sugar planters, or grands blancs (literally, "big whites"), were chiefly minor aristocrats. Most returned to France as soon as possible, hoping to avoid

3864-415: The situation in Saint-Domingue, through the bust of Raynal and the figure of Belley, respectively. While distinguished, the portrait still portrays a man trapped by the confines of race. Girodet's portrayal of the former National Convention deputy is telling of the French opinion of colonial citizens by emphasizing the subject's sexuality and including an earring. Both of these racially charged symbols reveal

3933-522: The south). Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday ( domingo in Spanish), 3 November 1493. In the hundred years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated. At the time it was inhabited by the Island Caribs , or Kalinago people, and over time more settled there after being driven from surrounding islands, as European powers entered

4002-411: The standards of the Caribbean, French slave masters were extremely cruel in their treatment of slaves. They used the threat and acts of physical violence to maintain control and suppress efforts at rebellion. When slaves left the plantations or disobeyed their masters, they were subject to whipping or to more extreme torture such as castration or burning, the punishment being both a personal lesson and

4071-693: The support of Cardinal Richelieu to establish French colonies in the region. Richelieu became a shareholder in the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe , created to accomplish this with d'Esnambuc at its head. The company was not particularly successful and Richelieu had it reorganized as the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. In 1635 d'Esnambuc sailed to Martinique with one hundred French settlers to clear land for sugarcane plantations . After six months on Martinique, d'Esnambuc returned to St. Christopher , where he soon died prematurely in 1636. His nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet , inherited d'Esnambuc's authority over

4140-602: The system of slavery. After the slave revolt of 1791 (Haitian Revolution) , many planters fled the island and formed French refugee communities of Saint-Domingue in America, especially in the southern parts of the United States, where the center of gravity of the settler lobby moved. Louis Marthe de Gouy d'Arsy was guillotined , but other orators and elected officials from Saint-Domingue settled in Philadelphia ,

4209-708: The valuable colony. After the establishment of the French First Republic , the National Assembly made radical changes to French laws and, on 26 August 1789, published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , declaring all men free and equal. The Declaration was ambiguous as to whether this equality applied to women, slaves, or citizens of the colonies, and thus influenced the desire for freedom and equality in Saint-Domingue. White planters saw it as an opportunity to gain independence from France, which would allow them to take control of

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4278-413: The whites born in France looked down upon the locally born whites, mulattoes envied the whites, despised the blacks and were despised by the whites; free Negroes brutalized those who were still slaves, Haitian born blacks regarded those from Africa as savages. Everyone—quite rightly—lived in terror of everyone else. Haiti was hell, but Haiti was rich." Many of these conflicts involved slaves who had escaped

4347-429: Was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue , now the sovereign state of Haiti . The revolution was the only known slave uprising in human history that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery (though not from forced labour ) and ruled by non-whites and former captives. The revolt began on 22 August 1791, and ended in 1804 with

4416-526: Was considered underpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent , a Frenchman living in Grenada, was able to obtain a Cédula de Población from the Spanish king Charles III, on 4 November 1783, allowing French planters with their slaves, free coloreds and mulattos from the French Antilles of Martinique , Grenada , Guadeloupe and Dominica to migrate to Trinidad. The Spanish gave many incentives to lure settlers to

4485-425: Was so high that polyandry —one woman being married to several men at the same time—developed as a common form of marriage among the slaves. As slaves had no legal rights, rape by planters, their unmarried sons, or overseers was a common occurrence on the plantations. The largest sugar plantations and concentrations of slaves were in the north of the island, and whites lived in fear of slave rebellion . Even by

4554-410: Was such that at least 50% of the slaves from Africa died within a year of arriving, so while the white planters preferred to work their slaves as hard as possible, providing them only the bare minimum of food and shelter, they calculated that it was better to get the most work out of their slaves with the lowest expense possible, since they were probably going to die of yellow fever anyway. The death rate

4623-406: Was the most fertile area, having the largest sugar plantations and therefore the most slaves. It was the area of greatest economic importance, especially as most of the colony's trade went through these ports. The largest and busiest port was Le Cap, the former capital of Saint-Domingue. Enslaved Africans in this region lived in large groups of workers in relative isolation, separated from the rest of

4692-406: Was the wealthiest and most prosperous colony in the Caribbean. The colony's white population numbered 40,000; mulattoes and free blacks, 28,000; and black slaves, an estimated 452,000. This was almost half the total slave population in the Caribbean, estimated at one million that year. Enslaved blacks, regarded as the lowest class of colonial society, outnumbered whites and free people of color by

4761-590: Was to prevent the Assembly from taking measures hindering the interests of the settlers. The Massiac club was dominated by personalities, like Gouy d'Arsy, from the nobility and holders of immense fortunes in Saint-Domingue , as well as by the Martinican Creole Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry , theoretician of the club. The group relied in the Assembly on Malouet , Barnave , as well as on Alexandre de Lameth . In his Monday session of 8 March 1790, Sieur Barnave, rapporteur of

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