Julien Raimond (1744 – 1801) was a
Saint Dominican indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
planter in the
French colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
of
Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
, now the Republic of
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
, who became a leader in its revolution and the formation of Haiti.
Early activism
He was born a
free man of color
In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Na ...
, the son of a French colonist and the
colored
''Colored'' (or ''coloured'') is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow, Jim Crow Era to refer to an African Americans, African American. In many places, it may be considered a Pejorative, slur, though it ...
daughter of a planter, in the isolated
Sud province of the colony. His mother, Marie Bagasse, was significantly wealthier and more educated than his father, Pierre Raimond, providing an economic incentive for their interracial marriage. Raimond was a slave owner, as many free people of color from the colony were. He owned over 100
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
by the 1780s and was one of the wealthiest men in his racial class in the colony. But he is most famous for challenging the French government to reform
racially discriminatory laws against free people of color in Saint-Domingue. In 1785 he moved to France to pursue this quest at the
French Colonial Ministry.
The outbreak of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
in 1789, in particular the publication of the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...
, prompted Raimond to take his case before the
National Constituent Assembly. Working with
Vincent Ogé
Vincent Ogé ( – 6 February 1791) was a Dominican Creole revolutionary, merchant, military officer and goldsmith best known for his role in leading a failed uprising against French colonial rule in the colony of Saint-Domingue in 1790. A mixed ...
,
Henri Grégoire
Henri Jean-Baptiste Grégoire (; 4 December 1750 – 28 May 1831), often referred to as the Abbé Grégoire, was a French Catholic priest, Constitutional bishop of Blois and a revolutionary leader. He was an ardent slavery abolitionist and sup ...
and the
Society of the Friends of the Blacks
The Society of the Friends of the Blacks (''Société des amis des Noirs'' or ''Amis des noirs'') was a French abolitionist society founded during the late 18th century. The society's aim was to abolish both the institution of slavery in the F ...
(of which he was eventually elected leader), Raimond succeeded in making the question of equal rights for free people of color into the leading colonial question before the National Assembly in 1790 and 1791.
Laws
On 15 May 1791, the French legislature passed racial reforms urged by Raimond giving wealthy free-born men of color the right to vote in the colonies. But
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
colonists' resistance to this change provoked
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
in Saint-Domingue. The fragmentation of colonial society that occurred as a result of these racial disputes exacerbated tensions, leading to August 1791 when slaves organized the massive revolt that eventually became the
Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt ...
.
Raimond published about two dozen political pamphlets in France. One piece entitled ''Observations on the Origin and Progression of the White Colonists' Prejudice against Men of Color'', attempts to describe the racial history of the prejudice on the small island for the purpose of garnering sympathies from the National Assembly. In his other works, he lays out plans for the gradual emancipation of France's colonial slaves. His projects were surpassed when France's Commissioner
Léger-Félicité Sonthonax recognized the freedom of the rebels before Raimond's plans were put into action. Raimond eventually returned twice to Saint-Domingue, once with Sonthonax, as an agent of the Revolutionary government, helping re-establish the plantation system after the end of slavery. Though a long advocate of loyalty to France, Raimond ultimately allied with
Toussaint L'Ouverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
and was one of 10 men who served on a committee that wrote a self-governing ''
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
'' for Saint-Domingue in 1801. Raimond died shortly after the document was published at the age of 57. Although most of Julien Raimond's political activity took place in Paris, his activism on behalf of free people of color and later all Haitians, played a very significant role in the Haitian Revolution. He was different from other colonial activists for racial change because he never fought physically but instead with his writings and political essays. Raimond represented a different and more conservative element of mixed-race Haiti that was finally persuaded to support the Haitian Revolution.
References
Sources
* Cook, Mercer. 1941. Julien Raimond. ''The Journal of Negro History'' 26, no. 2: 139–170.
* Cauna, Jacques de, 1992, Julien Raimond, un quarteron d'origine landaise à la tête de la révolution des gens de couleur à Saint-Domingue, dans Actes du colloque ''Les Landes et la Révolution'', 29-30 Sept. 1989, publié par le Conseil Général des Landes, Mont-de-Marsan, 1992, p. 125-135.
* Cauna, Jacques de, 1998, Origines et ascension des gens de couleur : la famille Raimond, et Une élite aquitaine de sang-mêlés, Julien Raimond, un mulâtre landais chef de file des hommes de couleur, dans ''L'Eldorado des Aquitains. Gascons, Basques et Béarnais aux Îles d'Amérique (17e-18e s.)'', p. 188-198 et 384–387.
* Dubois, Laurent. 2004. ''Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution''. Harvard University Press.
*Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean 1789–1804. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. 18–22, 78–82. Print.
* Garrigus, John D. 2007. Opportunist or Patriot? Julien Raimond (1744–1801) and the Haitian Revolution. ''Slavery & Abolition'' 28, no. 1: 1–21.
* Raimond, Julien. 1789. ''Observations adressées à l'Assemblée Nationale par un deputé des colons américains''. Paris.
* Raimond, Julien. 1791. ''Observations sur l'origine et les progrès du préjugé des colons blancs contre les hommes de couleur''. Paris: Belin.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raimond, Julien
French abolitionists
Haitian people of French descent
Haitian people of Mulatto descent
People of Saint-Domingue
People of the Haitian Revolution
1744 births
1801 deaths
French planters
French slave owners
Free people of color