written judgment had decreed that they were to be executed on the side of the
square opposite to that where whites were executed.^285Ogé and Chavannes had been integral to what Nicholls referred to as the “mulattolegend” in Haitian history. To portray them as black martyrs, however, or to equate them as
Coicou does to “nègres” constituted a bold move. As Nicholls and other contemporary
historians have noted, the mulatto struggle for social and political rights in Saint Domingue in
the 1790s rarely considered the slaves and the complete abolition of slavery. According to some
accounts, free mulattos owned perhaps as many as one quarter of the slaves in the colony.”^286
The relationship between class and color in colonial Saint Domingue remained a very
complicated one, and indeed, in some instances, like property rights and status as owner or slave,
class distinctions trumped color difference.
In Coicou’s poem, however, these mulatto leaders suffer similar fates as blacks in Saint-Domingue. The second stanza moves on to recount other violence, notably the pervasive use of
hounds to track and maul runaway slaves. Here, the remarks by colonists reveal how little
difference whites made between shades of color, as both mulatto and black are nègre and
therefore inferior to the white population. The class of slave, in the word order in the verses
below, automatically implies the racial category of nègre. In the historical context, Ogé’s and
Chavannes’ race (as mulatto, hence partly black), was used to deny them the class rights they
were seeking.
Ils plongent pantelants, sur l’esclave martyr:
Et les colons ravis bien plus haut d’applaudir![...]La meute cramponnée à ses membres sanglants
C’est un esclave! c’est un nègre! Et bien, qu’importe(^285) James 74.
(^286) As historian Laurent Dubois explains Ogé had insisted he was not for abolition, while Chavannes seemed more
inclined to use the slaves as allies. Dubois 88.