Keep reading and you’ll understand
In this chapter Trouillot cross-examines received understandings of Haitian history among the minority of the population that has had the opportunity to attend school. References to folkloric characters in the text disappear, and Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti turns to an analysis of the divisions in social classes during the period of French colonization in Saint-Domingue, portraying the complex and conflicting coalitions of wealthy colonists, black and mulatto freedmen, whites and enslaved people. Each coalition contained its own hidden contradictions and differing priorities: among the enslaved there were domestic slaves, skilled urban slaves, overseers and field laborers. Power-holding wealthy plantation owners and French commissioners exploited racism to draw middle class and lower-class whites into their conspiracy. This chapter establishes the major axes of Saint-Domingue’s organization: the large plantations, slavery, sugarcane monoculture and dependency on France. Trouillot shows that the revolutionary leaders were enslaved people at the top of their social class. Many of them had known forms of freedom, responsibility, leadership and political experience. This political acumen placed those enslaved people and freedmen in a position to seize the reins of power. The powerful plantation owners, commissioners and the military were able to retain dominance providing their coalition remained intact. The white coalition of local plantation owners and the French commissioners underwent a bitter split, opening the way for the enslaved population to rise up and fight for freedom.