Beyond colonialism: servants, wage earners and indentured migrants in rural France and on Reunion Island (c. 1750–1900)

Abstract

The way bonded labour was defined and practised in the colonies was not only linked to the definition and practise of wage labour in Europe but their development was interconnected. The engagés (equivalent to indentured servants) and bonded labourers in the French colonies would have been inconceivable without hiring for services and domestic service in France. This connection was possible because there were important differences in status between masters, landowners and employers on the one hand, and domestic servants, wage earners, bonded labourers and apprentices on the other.

Notes

^1. I acknowledge my debt to the editor and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions. I also thank Kevin MCaleer (Wissenschafts Kolleg, Berlin) for revising my English.

^2. Useful bibliographies can be found in Scott, Holt, Cooper, McGuinness, Societies; Scott, “Defining the Boundaries”; Miller, Slavery and Slaving; Drescher and Engerman, A Historical Guide; Pétré-Grenouilleau, Les traites; Marcel Dorigny, Gainot, Atlas. As regards the definition of slavery, see Meillassoux, Anthropologie; Finley, Esclavage moderne; Meyer and Kopytoff, Slavery in Africa; Williams, Capitalism; Bush, Serfdom; Engerman, Terms of Labor; Klein, Breaking; Patterson, Slavery; Lovejoy, Transformations.

^3. Brass and van der Linden, Free.

^4. The amount of recent work on these subjects is immense, so I will give only a few examples. For servants and indenture, see Steinfeld, The Invention; Bush, Servitude; Galenson, White Servitude; Northrup, Indentured.

^5. Emmer, Colonialism; Engerman, Terms of Labor; Cooper, Holt and Scott, Beyond Slavery.

^6. On France, Régent, La France.

^7. Sonenscher, Work and Wages; Davis, “A Trade Union”; Kaplan, La fin; Sewell, Gens de métier.

^8. Steinmetz, Private Law.

^9. Cooper, From Slaves.

^10. Fillot, La traite; Gerbeau, “Engagés”; Gerbeau, “Covert Slaves”; Fuma, L'esclavagisme; Weber, “L'émigration”, Etudes; Payet, Histoire.

^11. Benton, Law; Craton, Empire; Galanter, Law; Hay and Craven, Masters; Watson, Slave Law.

^12. Coornaert, Les corporations; Thompson, The Making; Sewell, Gens.

^13. Sonenscher, Works; Minard, La fortune.

^14. Cottereau, “Droit”; Deakin and Wilkinson, The Law; and Steinmetz, Private Law, 2000.

^15. Domat, Les lois, vol. 1; Pothier, Traité.

^16. Sonenscher, Works, 70.

^17. Sonenscher, Works, 75.

^18. “La domesticité est une sorte d'esclavage.” See the Encyclopédie méthodique , vol. 9, 15. See also Maza, Servants; and Gutton, Domestiques.

^19. Cottereau, “Droit”.

^20. Ibidem.

^21. Moriceau, “Les Baccanals”.

^22. Maza, Servants; Hoffman, Growth.

^23. Mayaud, “Salariés”.

^24. Hoffman, Growth, 45–46.

^25. Rozier, Cours complet vol. 8: 353. I thank Gilles Postel-Vinay for this reference.

^26. Collins, “Migrant Labour ”; Postel-Vinay, “The Dis-integration”.

^27. Rozier, Cours complet, vol. 8, 353; Hoffman, Growth.

^28. Crebouw, Salaires; Crebouw, “Droit”.

^29. Archives Nationales, Paris, Henceforth: AN series C (Parliamentary archives), from 844 through 858: “Parliamentary enquiries of 1848”; AN C from 1157 through 1161: “Parliamentary enquiries of 1870”.

^30. Hilaire, Introduction, 107–111.

^31. Usages locaux ; Bertrand, Usages locaux; Dumay, Usages locaux; Mosse, Les usages locaux; Limon, Recueil; Watrin, Département.

^32. AN F 12 (ministry of industry and trade), from 1516 through 1544: “Maximum: tableaux dresses en l'an II”; AN F 10 (ministry of agriculture), 451–2: “Fixation des salaires agricoles, an II–III”.

^33. Rouet, Justice.

^34. In French legal and economic language, the wages of servants and servants in husbandry are called gages; these indicate the monetary component of their remuneration as distinct from food and housing provisions. Thus gages are clearly distinguished from wages, these last designating only wage labor. It will be interesting to study when and why the English language adopted the word wages to indicate both configurations – this despite the evident legal, economic and social differences between a domestic servant and a wage earner.

^35. Farcy, Guide.

^36. AN F 10 452 “Fixation des salaires agricoles”, an II, an III. Also Clément, Essai

^37. Crebouw, Salaires.

^38. Carrier de Ladeveze, Notice.

^39. Crebouw, “Droit”, 185.

^40. Recueil des usages locaux en vigueur dans le département de la Vienne (Poitiers: 1861); Recueil des usages locaux du département d'Indre-et-Loire (Tours 1909); Carrier de Ladeveze, Notice.

^41. The livret ouvrier was a discharge certificate; it had to certify an engagement for a specific job and its completion (quittance) or to acknowledge that the worker had not yet paid off advances received as wages and that his debt remained to be deducted from future wages by the new employer.

^42. AN C 846–850: “Parliamentary enquiries of 1848”.

^43. Crebouw, “Droit”.

^44. Crebouw, “Droit”.

^45. Cottereau, “Droit”.

^46. Dewerpe, Le monde; Lequin and Delsalle, La brouette; Le Goff, Du silence.

^47. Debien, Les engagés.

^48. Dechêne, Habitants.

^49. Mauro, “French Indentured Servants”.

^50. Debien, Les engagés.

^51. Debien, Les engagés, 45.

^52. Archives Charente maritime, Minutier Teuleron, 1638–1680, in particular the groups of documents from 1638, 1641, 1649, 1651, 1666–1667, 1670, and 1671. See also the Bibliothèque nationale, Section of manuscripts, “Nouvelles acquisitions de France”, 9328, which has copies of documents on immigration to the colonies that pertain to inhabitants, engagés and slaves.

^53. Debien, Les engagés, 46–7.

^54. For treatments of apprenticeship contracts, see Sonencher, Works; and Kaplan, La fin.

^55. For example, see ACM the Grozé minutes, 28 May 1692; and the Rivière minutes, 31 May 1684.

^56. ACM Ex Moreau minutes, 19 and 25 April 1664.

^57. Régent, La France, 24.

^58. Dechêne, Habitants.

^59. Galenson, White Servitude.

^60. Galenson, White Servitude.

^61. Steinfeld, The Invention.

^62. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation; Chaudhuri, Asia before Europe.

^63. Clarence-Smith, The Economics; Campbell, The Structure; Cooper, Plantation Slavery.

^64. Watson, Asian; Scarr, Slaving.

^65. Chakravarti, “Of Dasas”: 40–42, 51–54; Vink, “The World's”.

^66. Campbell, The Structure.

^67. Fillot, La traite, Fuma, L'esclavagisme; Weber, “L'émigration indienne”; Allen, “The Mascarene Slave-Trade”.

^68. Fillot, La traite.

^69. Fillot, La traite, 54–69.

^70. Allen, “The Mascarene”, 36.

^71. Alpers, “The French Slave Trade”.

^72. Schuler, “The Recruitment ”; Alpers, Ivory; Gerbeau, “Quelques aspects”. See also Maillard, Notes; Thomas, Essai.

^73. Allen, ”The Mascarene”, 37–38.

^74. The National Archives (Kew), henceforth TNA, CO (Colonial Office), 415/9/A.221, 1827.

^75. CAOM 30 COL 117, 160, 639, years 1823–1836. See also the Archives départementales de la Réunion (ADR), in: 57 M1, for example: “Exposé de la situation intérieure de la colonie en 1832 par le directeur de l'intérieur” and “Rapport sur les différents services de la colonie” from 1828.

^76. Drescher, Capitalism; Brion Davis, The Problem.

^77. Maillard, Notes, 190.

^78. Bulletin officiel de l'Ile Bourbon , arrêté du 3 juillet 1829.

^79. Vaughan, Creating.

^80. Archives départementales de la Réunion (ADR) 168 M 3.

^81. Fuma, L'esclavage, 116.

^82. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 380 d 3288, c 370 d 3180.

^83. ADR 168 M 3, “Lettre du commissaire de Saint-Paul, le 14 septembre 1842” and “Séance de travail de la commission de surveillance des indiens engagés, le 4 mars 1831”, as quoted in Fuma, L'esclavage, 116 and 122.

^84. CAOM, FM SG Inde 464, d. 590, lettre 26 February 1848.

^85. Bulletin officiel de l'Ile Bourbon , “Arrêté du 10 novembre 1843”, 354.

^86. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 406, c 432 d 4603 à 4606 (Chinese immigration).

^87. Fuma, L'esclavage, 129.

^88. Bulletin officiel de l'Ile Bourbon, arrêté 2 July 1846.

^89. L'indicateur colonial , 12 April 1845.

^90. CAOM, Réunion, tableau de l'immigration africaine à la réunion de 1848 à 1869, C 454, d 5042 à 5074. See also Huang, Histoire économique.

^91. Schuler, “The Recruitment”; Renault, Libération d'esclaves.

^92. Ainouddine, “L'esclavage ”; M'Trengoueni, “Les différentes formes”.

^93. Ainouddine, “L'esclavage”, 102.

^94. Fuma, Esclaves et citoyens; Chaillou, De l'Inde à la Réunion

^95. Weber, “L'émigration indienne”.

^96. Schuler, “The Recruitment”, 140.

^97. Le Moniteur de la Réunion , 3 July 1852.

^98. Bulletin officiel de l'île de la Réunion, 13 February 1852.

^99. Accounts of litigation can be found in U 339, 349 at the Archives départementales de la Réunion (ADR). On women, see Fuma, Esclaves.

^100. CAOM FM SM/Reu c 379 d 3211 and c 383 d 3323.

^101. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 384 d 3361.

^102. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 384 d 3341, reports of the syndic of immigrants, 1858 and 1859 to 1864.

^103. Ibid.

^104. Northrup, Indentured, 129–132.

^105. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 382, some dozens files, and c 379.

^106. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 379 d 3211.

^107. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 382 d 3324, 3310, 3311, 3318.

^108. CAOM FM SM SG/Reu c 379 d 3217, 3210.

^109. CAOM FM SM SG/Reu c 382 d 3323.

^110. CAOM FM SM SG/Reu c 379 d 3203.

^111. CAOM FM SG/ SG Reu c 385 d 3367.

^112. Justice cour d'assise, Saint-Denis, 3e session 1868 CAOM FM SG/SG Reu c 385 d 3367.

^113. Northrup, Indentured, 31; Allen, Slaves, 23.

^114. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 400 d 3688; and c 514 d 5970. See also Bourquin, Prudhomme and Gerbeau, Histoire des petits-blancs.

^115. CAOM FM SG/Reu c 515 d 6005.