Colour prejudice in the French atlantic world
This article focuses on the development of colour prejudice in the early modern French Atlantic World and examines inter-ethnic encounters on the ground, in the context of French Guadeloupe - an island located in the Lesser Antilles. The period covered spreads from the beginning of French colonisation in Guadeloupe in 1635 to 1759, the first year of the English occupation of the island, which would last until 1763. Reactions to inter-ethnic encounters in the French Atlantic were extremely complex, uctuating according to economic, demographic, social and political contexts. Thus this article presents specific incidents of colour prejudices and considers general conclusions that might be drawn from them. By the mid-eighteenth century, several French Caribbean islands, including Guadeloupe, had developed labour-intensive plantation regimes based on large enslaved workforces of black, mixed and Amerindian captives controlled by a small minority of French settlers. The need to maintain this socio-economic system contributed to the formation of a particularly segregated and prejudiced society.
