Slavery, smallpox, and revolution: 1792 in Île de France (Mauritius)

Social History of Medicine

Volumn 13, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 411-428

  Vaughan, Megan ^a  

^a NUFFIELD COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Eighteenth century; Inoculation; Mauritius; Slavery; Smallpox

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; FRANCE; HISTORY; HUMAN RIGHTS; IMMUNIZATION; MAURITIUS; POLITICAL SYSTEM; SMALLPOX; SOCIAL PROBLEM; WAR;

COLONIALISM; FRANCE; HISTORY, 18TH CENTURY; HUMAN RIGHTS; IMMUNIZATION; MAURITIUS; SMALLPOX; SOCIAL PROBLEMS; WAR;

EID: 0642307836     PISSN: 0951631X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/shm/13.3.411     Document Type: Article

References (103)

1. A slave trader and sailor, born in St Malo in 1761, Dictionary of Mauritian Biography, 2 (April 1941), p. 59.
2. Mauritius National Archives (hereafter MNA), JB 75, Procédure Criminelle, 1792.
3. The large iron-working establishment owned by Count Rostaing, for example, was crippled by this epidemic, and later became bankrupt. The controversy which surrounded this earlier epidemic is discussed in the papers of a priest, Abbé Gallois (Archives d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, hereafter AOM), Ancien Régime Personnel series, E 197.
4. Le Verger commenting on 21 June 1792, MNA, JB 75.
5. R. d'Unienville, Histoire Politique de l'Isle de France, 3 vols (Port Louis, 1982) vol. II.
6. MNA, E40: Municipality of Rivière Noire: Minutes of the meeting of 13 June 1792.
7. MNA, E 72: Directoire, Meeting of 15 June 1792.
8. In 1794 the island was visited by emissaries of the Directoire in Paris who had come to enforce the abolition of slavery. The citizens of Île de France were united in their opposition to the abolition and despatched Baco and Burnel on a ship bound for the Philippines. See d'Unienville, Histoire Politique, vol. III. See also U. Bissoondoyal and A. L. Sibartie (eds.), L'Île Maurice et La Révolution Française (Moka, Mahatma Gandhi Institute, 1990).
9. In 1794 the island was visited by emissaries of the Directoire in Paris who had come to enforce the abolition of slavery. The citizens of Île de France were united in their opposition to the abolition and despatched Baco and Burnel on a ship bound for the Philippines. See d'Unienville, Histoire Politique, vol. III. See also U. Bissoondoyal and A. L. Sibartie (eds.), L'Île Maurice et La Révolution Française (Moka, Mahatma Gandhi Institute, 1990).
10. MNA: A73/4 Directoire: lettres reçues des cantons au sujet de la variole, 1792.
11. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 17 June 1792.
12. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 19 June 1792.
13. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 19 June 1792.
14. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 21 June 1792.
15. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 19 June 1792.
16. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 23 June 1792.
17. On the history of inoculation in France, see G. Miller, The Adoption of Inoculation for Smallpox in England and France (Philadelphia, 1957), ch. 8; L. Brockliss and C. Jones, The Medical World of Early Modern France (Oxford, 1997), pp. 470-2. Despite controversy in France, inoculation was practised on slaves in St Domingue as early as 1745: J. E. McClellan, Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue in the Old Régime (Baltimore and London, 1992), p. 144.
18. On the history of inoculation in France, see G. Miller, The Adoption of Inoculation for Smallpox in England and France (Philadelphia, 1957), ch. 8; L. Brockliss and C. Jones, The Medical World of Early Modern France (Oxford, 1997), pp. 470-2. Despite controversy in France, inoculation was practised on slaves in St Domingue as early as 1745: J. E. McClellan, Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue in the Old Régime (Baltimore and London, 1992), p. 144.
19. On the history of inoculation in France, see G. Miller, The Adoption of Inoculation for Smallpox in England and France (Philadelphia, 1957), ch. 8; L. Brockliss and C. Jones, The Medical World of Early Modern France (Oxford, 1997), pp. 470-2. Despite controversy in France, inoculation was practised on slaves in St Domingue as early as 1745: J. E. McClellan, Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue in the Old Régime (Baltimore and London, 1992), p. 144.
20. The controversy over inoculation of slaves in Île de France means that it is not possible to argue, straightforwardly, as McClellan does for St Domingue, that 'Inoculation strengthened the slave system . . . and provided a model for the social utility of science, medical and otherwise,' Colonialism and Science, p. 145.
21. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 6 July 1792.
22. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 16 July 1792.
23. Examples of notifications of smallpox cases can be found in MNA, A73/2: Directoire, certificats constatant plusieurs cas de variole, 1792.
24. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 2 August 1792.
25. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 9 August 1792.
26. MNA, E124: Municipality of Flacq, déliberations, 15 August 1792.
27. MNA, E125: Municipality of Port Bourbon, déliberations, 15 September 1792.
28. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 6 July 1792.
29. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 10 July 1792.
30. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 13 August 1792.
31. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 18 August 1792.
32. MNA, E72: Directoire, déliberations, 14 August 1792.
33. Mémoires et Correspondance du Conte de Villèle (Paris 1888) vol. I, p. 72. Another account of the epidemic, and its consequences for slave-owners, can be found in Le Fond de Mon Tiroir: Cahiers Confidentiels de Madame Journel, née d'Ailly de Verneuil, de 1774 à 1833 (Montbrison, 1940).
34. Mémoires et Correspondance du Conte de Villèle (Paris 1888) vol. I, p. 72. Another account of the epidemic, and its consequences for slave-owners, can be found in Le Fond de Mon Tiroir: Cahiers Confidentiels de Madame Journel, née d'Ailly de Verneuil, de 1774 à 1833 (Montbrison, 1940).
35. d'Unienville, Histoire Politique, vol. II, p. 45.
36. This estimate comes from Baron d'Unienville, Statistiqtie de l'Île Maurice et de ses Dépendances, Suivie d'Une Note Historique sur Cette Colonie et d'un Essai sur l'Île de Madagascar, 3 vols (Paris, 1838), vol. II, p. 196.
37. MNA, JK 10: Insinuations, 1792-1794, 22 December 1793.
38. MNA, JK 10: Insinuations, 1792-1794, 14 September 1792.
39. MNA, JK 10: Insinuations, 1792-1794, 2 September 1793.
40. The documentation on this period is more generally very revealing of slave life. This is particularly the case with the voluminous legal records of the period: M. A. Vaughan, 'Slavery and Colonial Identity in Eighteenth Century Mauritius', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser, 8 (1988), 189-214. These records have been used by other scholars of the period, including the recent work of D. Scarr, Slaving and Slavery in the Indian Ocean (Basingstoke, 1998) and R. B. Allen, Slaves, Freedmen and Indentured Labourers in Colonial Mauritius (Cambridge, 1999).
41. The documentation on this period is more generally very revealing of slave life. This is particularly the case with the voluminous legal records of the period: M. A. Vaughan, 'Slavery and Colonial Identity in Eighteenth Century Mauritius', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser, 8 (1988), 189-214. These records have been used by other scholars of the period, including the recent work of D. Scarr, Slaving and Slavery in the Indian Ocean (Basingstoke, 1998) and R. B. Allen, Slaves, Freedmen and Indentured Labourers in Colonial Mauritius (Cambridge, 1999).
42. The documentation on this period is more generally very revealing of slave life. This is particularly the case with the voluminous legal records of the period: M. A. Vaughan, 'Slavery and Colonial Identity in Eighteenth Century Mauritius', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser, 8 (1988), 189-214. These records have been used by other scholars of the period, including the recent work of D. Scarr, Slaving and Slavery in the Indian Ocean (Basingstoke, 1998) and R. B. Allen, Slaves, Freedmen and Indentured Labourers in Colonial Mauritius (Cambridge, 1999).
43. MNA, A73/4: M. Malgoutier to the Colonial Assembly, 2 July 1792.
44. Sean Quinlan has addressed this issue in his account of the relationship between medical theory and abolitionist politics, focusing on the Antilles: S. Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies, Hygiene and Abolitionist Politics in Eighteenth Century France', History Workshop Journal, 42 (1996), 107-25.
45. For a full account of this history, see R. H. Grove, Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism (Cambridge, 1995).
46. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, p. 141. A similar imperative operated, of course, in the English-speaking world: R. B. Sheridan, Doctors and Slaves: A Medical and Demographic History of Slavery in the British West Indies, 1680-1834 (Cambridge, 1985).
47. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, p. 141. A similar imperative operated, of course, in the English-speaking world: R. B. Sheridan, Doctors and Slaves: A Medical and Demographic History of Slavery in the British West Indies, 1680-1834 (Cambridge, 1985).
48. The most thorough analysis of available demographic evidence on the slave population of Ile de France is to be found in M. D. North-Coombes, 'Labour Problems in the Sugar Industry of Ile de France of Mauritius, 1790-1842', unpublished MA thesis, University of Cape Town, 1978, especially ch. 2 and Conclusion. North-Coombes draws on evidence provided by d'Unienville, Statistique, and the analysis of this data later provided by R. R. Kuczynski in Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire, vol. II (London, 1949).
49. The most thorough analysis of available demographic evidence on the slave population of Ile de France is to be found in M. D. North-Coombes, 'Labour Problems in the Sugar Industry of Ile de France of Mauritius, 1790-1842', unpublished MA thesis, University of Cape Town, 1978, especially ch. 2 and Conclusion. North-Coombes draws on evidence provided by d'Unienville, Statistique, and the analysis of this data later provided by R. R. Kuczynski in Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire, vol. II (London, 1949).
50. Ile de France was never self-sufficient in foodstuffs in the eighteenth century and suffered repeatedly from severe food shortages. Many of its colonists were extremely poor and were small-scale slave-owners. In this context the social distance between slave and slave-owner was not as great as elsewhere in the slave world, but, on the other hand, both slave and slave-owner often co-existed in extreme poverty. On the nature of slavery on Ile de France and relations between slaves and slave-owners see Vaughan, 'Slavery and Colonial Identity'.
51. In 1776, for example, there was a total of 7,772 adult women slaves on the island to 12,346 male adult slaves: AOM, DPPC, G/1/473, Recensement général de l'Isle de France, 1776.
52. Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', p. 118. In Île de France some of this anxiety came to focus on allegations of infanticide and the use of abortifacients amongst women slaves. Such allegations were common in slave societies and must be interpreted with caution. In 1778 the island's Conseil Supérieur had 'in the interest of laws of religion and state', re-issued regulations against abortion and infanticide. The penalty for both was death: AOM, DPPC *, GR 3080, Île de France, Greffes: Arrêts du Conseil Supérieur, 1778-1780, 7 July 1778. This was also a period of general concern over maternal practices and high infant mortality in France. See the debate over breastfeeding: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World; M. Jacobus, First Things: The Maternal Imaginary in Literature, Art and Psychoanalysis (London, 1995), ch. 10. Bernardin de St Pierre, an associate of Rousseau, was also a proponent of the virtues of breastfeeding.
53. Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', p. 118. In Île de France some of this anxiety came to focus on allegations of infanticide and the use of abortifacients amongst women slaves. Such allegations were common in slave societies and must be interpreted with caution. In 1778 the island's Conseil Supérieur had 'in the interest of laws of religion and state', re-issued regulations against abortion and infanticide. The penalty for both was death: AOM, DPPC *, GR 3080, Île de France, Greffes: Arrêts du Conseil Supérieur, 1778-1780, 7 July 1778. This was also a period of general concern over maternal practices and high infant mortality in France. See the debate over breastfeeding: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World; M. Jacobus, First Things: The Maternal Imaginary in Literature, Art and Psychoanalysis (London, 1995), ch. 10. Bernardin de St Pierre, an associate of Rousseau, was also a proponent of the virtues of breastfeeding.
54. For the diversity of formal and informal medical practices in France see M. Ramsey, Professional and Popular Medicine in France, 1770-1830: the Social World of Medical Practice (Cambridge, 1988).
55. Direct historical evidence for such practices is unfortunately not abundant in the documentary record, but there are numerous hints to some of them in the criminal court proceedings. Malagascy slaves, with a strong reputation for herbalism, for instance, were frequently accused of poisoning, and there are frequent references to 'sorcery'. The rich heritage of medical practice is reflected in the culture of present-day Mauritius: L. K. Sussman, 'Herbal Medicine in Mauritius', Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2 (1980), 259-78. I have conducted interviews on this subject on both Mauritius and Rodrigues with members of the Creole ethnic community. They refer especially to the tradition of herbalism, but also to the role of spirits and spirit possession in healing practices.
56. Brockliss and Jones discuss the role of military and naval medicine in the history of the hospital in the Enlightenment, and the training of naval surgeons: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World, ch. 11.
57. Jean Vaudon, Histoire Générale de la Communautédes Filles de St Paul de Chartres, vol. I (Paris, 1922); René Gobillot, Les Soeurs de Saint Paul de Chartres (Paris, 1938), ch. V.
58. Jean Vaudon, Histoire Générale de la Communautédes Filles de St Paul de Chartres, vol. I (Paris, 1922); René Gobillot, Les Soeurs de Saint Paul de Chartres (Paris, 1938), ch. V.
59. On the structure of the French medical profession and its evolution in the eighteenth century see Brockliss and Jones, Medical World; Ramsey, Professional and Popular Medicine; T. Gelfand, 'A "Monarchical Profession" in the Old Regime: Surgeons, Ordinary Practitioners and Medical Professionalization in Eighteenth Century France', in G. L. Geison (ed.), Professions and the French State, 1700-1900 (Philadelphia, 1984), pp. 14-181.
60. On the structure of the French medical profession and its evolution in the eighteenth century see Brockliss and Jones, Medical World; Ramsey, Professional and Popular Medicine; T. Gelfand, 'A "Monarchical Profession" in the Old Regime: Surgeons, Ordinary Practitioners and Medical Professionalization in Eighteenth Century France', in G. L. Geison (ed.), Professions and the French State, 1700-1900 (Philadelphia, 1984), pp. 14-181.
61. On the structure of the French medical profession and its evolution in the eighteenth century see Brockliss and Jones, Medical World; Ramsey, Professional and Popular Medicine; T. Gelfand, 'A "Monarchical Profession" in the Old Regime: Surgeons, Ordinary Practitioners and Medical Professionalization in Eighteenth Century France', in G. L. Geison (ed.), Professions and the French State, 1700-1900 (Philadelphia, 1984), pp. 14-181.
62. Though important to the French as a strategic base, Île de France was a minor backwater when compared to the French sugar colonies of the Antilles. The heavily institutionalized nature of colonial medicine, described by McClellan for St Domingue in the same period, was aspired to by many administrators of Île de France, but, as far as I can gather from the sources, only partially achieved.
63. During the period of administration by the Compagnie des Indes there were three public hospitals on the island: one at Port Louis, one at Port Bourbon, and one at Grande Rivière North-West. Under the royal administration a further hospital was built at Flacq: A. Toussaint, L'Administration de l'Ile Maurice et ses Archives, 1721-1810 (Port Louis, Mauritius Archives Publications, No. 8, 1965), p. 52. See also A.S. L'Honte, Hôpital Civil [de Port Louis], 1740-1980 (Port Louis, 1980).
64. During the period of administration by the Compagnie des Indes there were three public hospitals on the island: one at Port Louis, one at Port Bourbon, and one at Grande Rivière North-West. Under the royal administration a further hospital was built at Flacq: A. Toussaint, L'Administration de l'Ile Maurice et ses Archives, 1721-1810 (Port Louis, Mauritius Archives Publications, No. 8, 1965), p. 52. See also A.S. L'Honte, Hôpital Civil [de Port Louis], 1740-1980 (Port Louis, 1980).
65. Government-run hospitals on Ile de France were essentially naval and military hospitals, and governed by legislation covering these. Brockliss and Jones argue that it was the military medical service which was at the forefront of the creation of the new 'medicalized' hospital in France: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World, pp. 689-90. On the military tradition, see also D. M. Vess, Medical Revolution in France, 1789-1796 (Gainesville, 1975), ch. 2. Religious institutions did not feature prominently in the care of the sick on the island, though 'Soeurs Grises' from an order in Chartres did work as nurses in the government hospitals. For the role of the Daughters of Charity in the provision of nursing in France at this time, see C. Jones, The Charitable Imperative: Hospitals and Nursing in Ancien Régime and Revolutionary France (London, 1989), Part II.
66. Government-run hospitals on Ile de France were essentially naval and military hospitals, and governed by legislation covering these. Brockliss and Jones argue that it was the military medical service which was at the forefront of the creation of the new 'medicalized' hospital in France: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World, pp. 689-90. On the military tradition, see also D. M. Vess, Medical Revolution in France, 1789-1796 (Gainesville, 1975), ch. 2. Religious institutions did not feature prominently in the care of the sick on the island, though 'Soeurs Grises' from an order in Chartres did work as nurses in the government hospitals. For the role of the Daughters of Charity in the provision of nursing in France at this time, see C. Jones, The Charitable Imperative: Hospitals and Nursing in Ancien Régime and Revolutionary France (London, 1989), Part II.
67. Government-run hospitals on Ile de France were essentially naval and military hospitals, and governed by legislation covering these. Brockliss and Jones argue that it was the military medical service which was at the forefront of the creation of the new 'medicalized' hospital in France: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World, pp. 689-90. On the military tradition, see also D. M. Vess, Medical Revolution in France, 1789-1796 (Gainesville, 1975), ch. 2. Religious institutions did not feature prominently in the care of the sick on the island, though 'Soeurs Grises' from an order in Chartres did work as nurses in the government hospitals. For the role of the Daughters of Charity in the provision of nursing in France at this time, see C. Jones, The Charitable Imperative: Hospitals and Nursing in Ancien Régime and Revolutionary France (London, 1989), Part II.
68. Again, this contrasts with the provision for the poor described for the island of St Domingue: McClellan, Colonialism and Science, p. 90.
69. This logic is made quite explicit in the laws governing manumission. Before freeing a slave, the owner had to demonstrate that the freed slave would be economically self-supporting. In practice, this usually meant providing him or her with a slave of their own (though sometimes this could be the slave's own child). Slave-ownership, along with the acquisition of a skill, was thought to guarantee self-sufficiency. There were, however, many non-slave-owners on Ile de France, some of whom were vagrant, and who continually caused problems for the administration.
70. Dazille's work is also discussed by Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', pp. 114-16. My information on Dazille's life comes primarily from his personnel record in AOM, E112: Dazille, supplemented by his entry in the Dictionary of Mauritian Biography, 6 (October 1942), p. 202.
71. Dazille's work is also discussed by Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', pp. 114-16. My information on Dazille's life comes primarily from his personnel record in AOM, E112: Dazille, supplemented by his entry in the Dictionary of Mauritian Biography, 6 (October 1942), p. 202.
72. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, p. 141.
73. Dazille describes this dispute in J. B. Dazille, Observations sur les maladies des nègres: leurs causes, leurs traitemens et les moyens de les prévenir (Paris, 1776).
74. Pierre Isaac Poisonnier (1720-98) was appointed inspector of naval hospitals in 1769 and was extremely influential: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World, p. 698; Vess, Medical Revolution, p. 47; Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', p. 116.
75. Pierre Isaac Poisonnier (1720-98) was appointed inspector of naval hospitals in 1769 and was extremely influential: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World, p. 698; Vess, Medical Revolution, p. 47; Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', p. 116.
76. Pierre Isaac Poisonnier (1720-98) was appointed inspector of naval hospitals in 1769 and was extremely influential: Brockliss and Jones, Medical World, p. 698; Vess, Medical Revolution, p. 47; Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', p. 116.
77. Some large slave-owners would have had their own hospitals - the numbers of which are not known.
78. AOM, E112: Copie d'une lettre du Sr Dazille à M. Duc de Praslin, Port Louis, 15 fevrier 1768.
79. J. B. Dazille, Observations Générales sur les Maladies des Climats Chauds, leurs causes, leur traitement et les moyens de les prévenir (Paris, 1785).
80. Dazille, Maladies de Nègres, p. 4, in which he argues that it would be offensive to suggest that slave-owners would only want to reduce mortality and morbidity in their slaves through self-interest: 'les soins qu'ils se donneront pour l'opérer, auront un motif plus noble et plus satisfaisant pour leurs coeurs, puisqu'ils feront en même temps des actes de humanité et de bienfaisance'.
81. Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies', pp. 116-17.
82. In theory, the Code Noir, a version of which was promulgated on the island in 1723, did regulate the institution, but there is no evidence that it was enforced.
83. Vaughan, 'Slavery and Colonial Identities'.
84. This was explicitly acknowledged and discussed in comments on the island's census of 1788: AOM, DPPC: G/1/505, No 1.
85. In 1788 the population of the island consisted of 4,457 'whites', 2,456 'gens libres' and 37,915 slaves. AOM, G1/505: No 13b, extrait des recensements des Isles de France et de Bourbon.
86. The literature on comparative slavery is vast and there are many potential comparisons to be made. The best recent survey of modern slave systems is R. Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery (London, 1997). On slavery in the Cape Province of South Africa, see, for example, N. Worden, Slavery in Dutch South Africa (Cambridge, 1985) and R. C.-H. Shell, Children of Bondage (Hanover, 1994).
87. The literature on comparative slavery is vast and there are many potential comparisons to be made. The best recent survey of modern slave systems is R. Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery (London, 1997). On slavery in the Cape Province of South Africa, see, for example, N. Worden, Slavery in Dutch South Africa (Cambridge, 1985) and R. C.-H. Shell, Children of Bondage (Hanover, 1994).
88. The literature on comparative slavery is vast and there are many potential comparisons to be made. The best recent survey of modern slave systems is R. Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery (London, 1997). On slavery in the Cape Province of South Africa, see, for example, N. Worden, Slavery in Dutch South Africa (Cambridge, 1985) and R. C.-H. Shell, Children of Bondage (Hanover, 1994).
89. There is no room to explore this complex issue here, but in thinking about the question of identification I have been influenced by the work of Diane Fuss on Frantz Fanon in D. Fuss, Identification Papers (London, 1995).
90. Quinlan is, to my knowledge, the only author to have addressed this issue directly: Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies'. There is a large literature on the body and body politics in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France which is obviously relevant here, for example, D. Outram, The Body and the French Revolution: Sex, Class and Political Culture (New Haven, 1989). Work on the social imagery of political crisis and the 'family romance' of the French Revolution is also relevant here, but, though Lynn Hunt discusses the colonial setting of Bernardin de St Pierre's writings (L. Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (London, 1992)) in general the impact of slavery on the 'body politics' of the period is a neglected topic. The importance of the issue of slavery and the rights of 'gens de couleur' in the Revolution, is, however, widely acknowledged. For an examination of this history, see Y. Benot, La Révolution Francaise et la Fin des Colonies (Paris, 1989).
91. Quinlan is, to my knowledge, the only author to have addressed this issue directly: Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies'. There is a large literature on the body and body politics in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France which is obviously relevant here, for example, D. Outram, The Body and the French Revolution: Sex, Class and Political Culture (New Haven, 1989). Work on the social imagery of political crisis and the 'family romance' of the French Revolution is also relevant here, but, though Lynn Hunt discusses the colonial setting of Bernardin de St Pierre's writings (L. Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (London, 1992)) in general the impact of slavery on the 'body politics' of the period is a neglected topic. The importance of the issue of slavery and the rights of 'gens de couleur' in the Revolution, is, however, widely acknowledged. For an examination of this history, see Y. Benot, La Révolution Francaise et la Fin des Colonies (Paris, 1989).
92. Quinlan is, to my knowledge, the only author to have addressed this issue directly: Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies'. There is a large literature on the body and body politics in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France which is obviously relevant here, for example, D. Outram, The Body and the French Revolution: Sex, Class and Political Culture (New Haven, 1989). Work on the social imagery of political crisis and the 'family romance' of the French Revolution is also relevant here, but, though Lynn Hunt discusses the colonial setting of Bernardin de St Pierre's writings (L. Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (London, 1992)) in general the impact of slavery on the 'body politics' of the period is a neglected topic. The importance of the issue of slavery and the rights of 'gens de couleur' in the Revolution, is, however, widely acknowledged. For an examination of this history, see Y. Benot, La Révolution Francaise et la Fin des Colonies (Paris, 1989).
93. Quinlan is, to my knowledge, the only author to have addressed this issue directly: Quinlan, 'Colonial Bodies'. There is a large literature on the body and body politics in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France which is obviously relevant here, for example, D. Outram, The Body and the French Revolution: Sex, Class and Political Culture (New Haven, 1989). Work on the social imagery of political crisis and the 'family romance' of the French Revolution is also relevant here, but, though Lynn Hunt discusses the colonial setting of Bernardin de St Pierre's writings (L. Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (London, 1992)) in general the impact of slavery on the 'body politics' of the period is a neglected topic. The importance of the issue of slavery and the rights of 'gens de couleur' in the Revolution, is, however, widely acknowledged. For an examination of this history, see Y. Benot, La Révolution Francaise et la Fin des Colonies (Paris, 1989).
94. As in all slave societies, these 'ethnic' designations are generic and often misleading. The actual origins of slaves is therefore not easy to determine, though from a number of sources we have enough evidence to build up a rough picture of origins. For the slave trade to the Mascareigne islands, see especially J. M. Filliot, La Traite des Esclaves vers les Mascareignes aux XV111e siècle (Paris, 1974).
95. D. Arnold, Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India (Berkeley, 1993), ch. 3.
96. Arnold, Colonizing the Body, pp. 121-33. There are apparently no accounts of inoculation being practised in South India. Unfortunately, we do not know the origins of the Indian slaves who arrived on Les Amis Réunis. Some Indian slaves in Île de France were of southern Indian origin, and some were Muslims. These would presumably not have been familiar with inoculation. But others came from Bengal, an area in which both the belief in the goddess of smallpox and the practice of inoculation were common.
97. E. Herbert, 'Smallpox Inoculation in Africa', Journal of African History, XVI, 4 (1975), 539-59; Sheridan, Doctors and Slaves, p. 200; P. Curtin, 'Epidemiology and the Slave Trade', Political Science Quarterly, LXXXIII, 2 (1968), 252. For a review of inoculation and vaccination in Africa, see Luise White, 'The Needle and the State: Immunization and Inoculation in Africa, or the Practice of Unnational Sovereignty', Paper presented to the workshop on Immunization and the Social Sciences, Delhi, India, 15-17 January 1997.
98. E. Herbert, 'Smallpox Inoculation in Africa', Journal of African History, XVI, 4 (1975), 539-59; Sheridan, Doctors and Slaves, p. 200; P. Curtin, 'Epidemiology and the Slave Trade', Political Science Quarterly, LXXXIII, 2 (1968), 252. For a review of inoculation and vaccination in Africa, see Luise White, 'The Needle and the State: Immunization and Inoculation in Africa, or the Practice of Unnational Sovereignty', Paper presented to the workshop on Immunization and the Social Sciences, Delhi, India, 15-17 January 1997.
99. E. Herbert, 'Smallpox Inoculation in Africa', Journal of African History, XVI, 4 (1975), 539-59; Sheridan, Doctors and Slaves, p. 200; P. Curtin, 'Epidemiology and the Slave Trade', Political Science Quarterly, LXXXIII, 2 (1968), 252. For a review of inoculation and vaccination in Africa, see Luise White, 'The Needle and the State: Immunization and Inoculation in Africa, or the Practice of Unnational Sovereignty', Paper presented to the workshop on Immunization and the Social Sciences, Delhi, India, 15-17 January 1997.
100. E. Herbert, 'Smallpox Inoculation in Africa', Journal of African History, XVI, 4 (1975), 539-59; Sheridan, Doctors and Slaves, p. 200; P. Curtin, 'Epidemiology and the Slave Trade', Political Science Quarterly, LXXXIII, 2 (1968), 252. For a review of inoculation and vaccination in Africa, see Luise White, 'The Needle and the State: Immunization and Inoculation in Africa, or the Practice of Unnational Sovereignty', Paper presented to the workshop on Immunization and the Social Sciences, Delhi, India, 15-17 January 1997.
101. G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, The French at Kilwa Island (London, 1965), p. 121.
102. The French medic, Dr Houillon, argued that inoculation was confined to Islamicized areas of West Africa, where trade had brought with it both the disease and the prophylaxis: M. le Dr Houillon, 'Variole et Vaccine en Afrique Occidentale Francaise pour l'année 1903', Annales d'Hygiène et de Médicine Coloniales, 8 (1905), 546-68.
103. M. le Dr Clarac wrote a detailed account of beliefs around smallpox and its treatment in Madagascar at the turn of the twentieth century. Referring to the practice of inoculation, he wrote that 'whilst Europe sought a serum to prevent smallpox, and long before Jenner discovered his vaccine, the Malagscies practised their own form of vaccination with wonderful results'. He goes on to describe a form of arm-to-arm inoculation. M. le Dr Clarac, 'Causes du développement de la propagation de la variole à Madagascar avant l'occupation française', Annales d'Hygiène et de Médicine Coliniales, 7 (1904), 290.