Negotiating Power

Abstract This chapter examines the transformative half-century between the 1660s and the 1710s to uncover the nature of colonial power relations in the French Caribbean. It uses the records of a short-lived rebellion by enslaved and formerly enslaved people in Martinique. The uprising left a dense paper trail of interrogation transcripts, accounts by colonial officials, instructions from Versailles, and recollections by enslaved people. When read with care, these records reveal in unprecedented