The destruction of liberty in French Guiana: law, identity and the meaning of legal space, 1794–1830.

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    • Subject Terms:
      FRENCH Guianese history; LEGAL status of enslaved persons; HISTORY of slavery laws; FREEDMEN; HISTORY of the emancipation of slaves; ANTISLAVERY movements; FRENCH colonies; HISTORY
    • Subject Terms:
      FRENCH Guiana; FRANCEReport Available; AMERICA
    • Abstract:
      This article examines the colonial legal culture of French Guiana from 1794 to 1830 during a period marked by dramatic historical rupture; slaves in the colony who were liberated by decree of the French legislature in 1794 were returned to slavery under Napoleon. People who managed to remain free in the nineteenth century endured humiliating legal handicaps as well as challenges to their free status. In Guiana during this period, a person's access to the ‘rights of man and citizen’ depended on intricate and ultimately fragile legal structures. The perils besetting Guiana's freed people during and after the French Revolution often arose from the highly adjustable character of legal space – the legal status of imperial territory in relation to domestic soil. This article draws on archival materials including notarial documents and trial records to reconstruct the role of law and legal discourse in mediating everyday life, familial relationships and social encounters on the French colonial frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]