Colonial Opinion and the Question of the Development of Santo-Domingo, 1795-1802

With the advent of the Directory, a new period of colonial debates began. ?Faced with profound changes such as the abolition of slavery, the colonists and their allies sought to adapt their colonial model to a Revolutionary context. ?The nature of the colonial system was much discussed, and while many shared the same vision about its development, widely divergent strategies and ideas would be put forward. How could a flourishing economy be reestablished in Santo Domingo—by forced labor or free labor; with or without a treaty; by accepting or rejecting the notions of Adam Smith and the physiocrats? These different projects reveal how the colonial economy was imagined, and how this issue was adapted to the prevailing condition of the island, as well as to more general debates about the French economy, especially to the transformations linked to the French Revolution.