Speaker 1: How often have you heard a guy start a sentence
Speaker 1: with I have a daughter when commenting on some societal
Speaker 1: issues specific to girls and women. Empathy is easy when
Speaker 1: an issue gets so close to you, when the privilege
Speaker 1: of not having had to deal with a problem is
Speaker 1: lost and the problem pops your personal bubble. I'm Eve
Speaker 1: Jeff Cooke and this is Unpopular a podcast about people
Speaker 1: in history who didn't let the threat of persecution keep
Speaker 1: them from speaking truth to power. Vincen o Ja Jean
Speaker 1: or Vincent o j the Younger was born in Dondon
Speaker 1: Parish in San Domains, North Province sometime around seventeen fifty.
Speaker 1: Sandman was a French colony on the island of Hispaniola
Speaker 1: from the mid seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: O Ja's father was a white man named Jacques o
Speaker 1: j and his mother was a Mulatta named Angelique o s.
Speaker 1: Mulatta was the word used to describe a girl or
Speaker 1: woman who was of mixed race with one black parent
Speaker 1: and one white parent. Vinson was named after his paternal uncle,
Speaker 1: a merchant in the port city of Cape Francaie. French
Speaker 1: people who colonized the island became planters, and brought in
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans. The mixed race children
Speaker 1: of the white planters and the enslaved women were freed
Speaker 1: and set up as property owners, and a mixed race
Speaker 1: class of property owners formed equal in wealth to white
Speaker 1: folks into the seventeen sixties. The richest free planters of
Speaker 1: color were basically treated like members of the colonial ruling class,
Speaker 1: but the petit blanc, the white people who were merchants, artisans,
Speaker 1: and the like, were less powerful and wealthy than the
Speaker 1: white planters, and they were especially anti black and anti
Speaker 1: free people of color and supportive of slavery. As free
Speaker 1: people of color became a threat to colonists access to
Speaker 1: land in capital, and their loyalty was questioned, race was
Speaker 1: further weaponized and colonial authorities began enacting legislation that discriminated
Speaker 1: against people of color. People of color were assigned racial
Speaker 1: descriptions like mulattro libra or care to own libra, and
Speaker 1: white people were given titles lexia and demoiselle, while free
Speaker 1: people of colors were disparagingly called lenon, a term that
Speaker 1: basically meant the so called By the seventeen seventies, colonists
Speaker 1: had even began labeling freeborn people of color as affranci,
Speaker 1: a pejorative that meant freedman or ex slave. Though the
Speaker 1: affranci could own land and had some advantages over enslaved people,
Speaker 1: they could not hold administrative positions or work as doctors
Speaker 1: or lawyers. Still, they chose to align themselves with the
Speaker 1: French over enslaved people in the colony and the hopes
Speaker 1: of being accepted by the white colonists. They often upheld
Speaker 1: the institution of slavery, as did O J, a choice
Speaker 1: that complicates O J's and other wealthy people of color's
Speaker 1: history of resistance to the restriction of black people's rights.
Speaker 1: In effect, the human rights of free people of color
Speaker 1: took precedent over those of enslaved black people and poor
Speaker 1: white people. Free people of color had property and were taxpayers,
Speaker 1: and so the issue of abolition of slavery took a
Speaker 1: back seat to the issue of racism for many free
Speaker 1: people of color. More radical revolutionaries, though, did press for
Speaker 1: abolition anyway. By the seventeen eighties, there were far more
Speaker 1: enslaved people than French colonists in sandolog and there were
Speaker 1: as many free people of color as there were white people.
Speaker 1: Don't Don't where o Jay was born acknowledged Sano Monk's
Speaker 1: post seventeen seventy racial laws and authorities did attempt to
Speaker 1: separate white people and free people of color through practices
Speaker 1: like distancing people of color from their French family names. Still,
Speaker 1: white people and people of color remained connected to a degree.
Speaker 1: Don't Don't located in the mountains as well as the
Speaker 1: surrounding areas like the nearby port city of Cape, France,
Speaker 1: saw a lot of military preparations and personnel when o
Speaker 1: Ja was growing up, Though local enslaved and freemen of
Speaker 1: color were enrolled in military units, it is not clear
Speaker 1: whether o j had military or militia experience in its
Speaker 1: youth and young adulthood. Dumb Done was also the first
Speaker 1: place in sand Monk where coffee was planted, and Oja's
Speaker 1: family took advantage of a coffee boom in the area.
Speaker 1: Ojay's family's wealth was linked to the coffee estate, but
Speaker 1: his personal wealth was built after he spent time in Bordeaux,
Speaker 1: France as an apprentice to a goldsmith. Returning to San
Speaker 1: domin around seventeen seventy four or seventeen seventy five. He
Speaker 1: brokered houses and apartments and capt Francie to wealthy white people.
Speaker 1: He conducted business with merchants and saw Domint's major ports,
Speaker 1: and he assumed the practices of the colonists by employing
Speaker 1: a free Mulatta woman as a housekeeper, a job that
Speaker 1: usually included sexual duties and purchasing enslaved Africans. Side note,
Speaker 1: many free people of color and San Domant were slave owners.
Speaker 1: In a seventeen eighty nine letter, o J said he
Speaker 1: was worth more than three hundred and fifty thousand livres,
Speaker 1: the currency of France. O J was one of the
Speaker 1: wealthiest freemen of color in San Domont, and he was
Speaker 1: of a high status within the colonies class of free
Speaker 1: planters of color. His wealth did put him in closer
Speaker 1: proximity to whiteness, as notaries did not identify him as
Speaker 1: a man of color or require him to show his
Speaker 1: freedom papers. Generally, wealthy families of color remained politically conservative
Speaker 1: and under the radar. When the French Revolution broke out
Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty nine, the loss of privilege afforded to
Speaker 1: them by the colonial establishment was a high stake. Julian
Speaker 1: Raymon a free man of color and wealthy indigo planter
Speaker 1: and Saint Domin did move to France in the mid
Speaker 1: seventeen eighties and challenged the French government to pass racial
Speaker 1: reforms for wealthy freemen of color in Saint Domin, but
Speaker 1: Ramon was an anomaly, and so has been. Saint o j.
Speaker 1: O J left Saint Domint for France at the end
Speaker 1: of seventeen eighty eight in the hopes of increasing his
Speaker 1: assets after having to figure out a way to repay
Speaker 1: a debt he had. Only some of his experiences in
Speaker 1: France in the beginning of seventeen eighty nine are recorded.
Speaker 1: It's known that he visited his sisters in Bordeaux and
Speaker 1: that he partitioned the naval ministry in March to give
Speaker 1: him more time to repay his creditors. But by September
Speaker 1: of that year, after the start of the French Revolution,
Speaker 1: oh J had joined a group that called itself Cologne
Speaker 1: a Mary Kaye a k A. American Colonists. The group
Speaker 1: published a pamphlet that called for the doing a way
Speaker 1: of legal separations between white people and citizens of color
Speaker 1: in the French colonies. The Cologne also published a Calle
Speaker 1: do d'Or lance or List of Demands addressed to the
Speaker 1: National Assembly. O Ja helped write both of these texts.
Speaker 1: One of the reforms demanded in the list was for
Speaker 1: people of color and white people to be treated equally,
Speaker 1: so that quote the Creoles constitute a single group and
Speaker 1: that they be regarded as a population of brothers. The
Speaker 1: text also called for the representation of freemen of color
Speaker 1: in the government and their right to education. In late September,
Speaker 1: Julienne Ramon joined the Cologne as they fought to get
Speaker 1: seats in the French National Assembly. They also pressured the
Speaker 1: Colonists to grant wealthy freemen of color voting rights. They
Speaker 1: had the support of the Societe des Amis de Nois,
Speaker 1: or the Society of the Friends of Blacks, a group
Speaker 1: of mostly white abolitionists. To be clear, their vision of
Speaker 1: racial equality was not one as simple as black people
Speaker 1: should be equal to white people. It was beholden to
Speaker 1: maintaining the privileges of class and sex. Both Raymon and
Speaker 1: o j enslaved people, and they argued that making wealthy
Speaker 1: freemen of color political equals to white people would strengthen
Speaker 1: the system of slavery and solidified their loyalty to France.
Speaker 1: O J envisioned himself as a member of the colonial
Speaker 1: elite and was pretty self aggrandizing. He even began to
Speaker 1: pose as a O'Neal militia officer. Oh J was petitioning
Speaker 1: for the rights of free people of color who lived
Speaker 1: in saw Do Moan, but back on the island, political
Speaker 1: unrest and protest among free people of color was growing.
Speaker 1: Let's pause here for a quick break. My sister is
Speaker 1: notoriously bad at dining out. She doesn't get what she
Speaker 1: hasn't had before. And if I can manage talking her
Speaker 1: into getting something she's never had before, or trying something
Speaker 1: of mine that she would never order herself, she goes
Speaker 1: into the experience with the most apprehension. I want her
Speaker 1: to live her best life, but this is nearly impossible
Speaker 1: when she's so afraid to try foods that she's not
Speaker 1: familiar with. She told me that she'd rather just stick
Speaker 1: with what she knows will be a satisfying mill then
Speaker 1: potentially be disappointed. And I get that justification, though I
Speaker 1: could never but so many people have status quo bias
Speaker 1: in one decision or the next for different reasons. Just
Speaker 1: as it sounds a person has a status quo bias
Speaker 1: when they prefer things to stay the same by doing
Speaker 1: nothing or by doing the same thing they've always done.
Speaker 1: There's a little to no risk involved in keeping things
Speaker 1: the same. You pretty much know what you're in for.
Speaker 1: When you choose to make a change, there's a potential
Speaker 1: for something really really great to happen or for everything
Speaker 1: to go downhill. A person may have this bias just
Speaker 1: because they're familiar with something or someone that's comforting, that's safe,
Speaker 1: or a person could be operating out of loss aversion
Speaker 1: which makes them choose not losing over potentially gaining a lot.
Speaker 1: Those status quo bias happens in people from all walks
Speaker 1: of life. It operates differently in different people and different
Speaker 1: segments of society. Often it can come down to holding
Speaker 1: onto what you have being entirely more important than risking
Speaker 1: what you have with the hope of satisfaction. That's especially
Speaker 1: true when your disadvantage or had to fight hard for
Speaker 1: what you already have, or changing the status quo can
Speaker 1: be a perceived loss or anticipate a personal loss. When
Speaker 1: you're in some position of privilege or power, the potential
Speaker 1: for losing that privilege or power is completely unappealing, even
Speaker 1: when that potential is imagined or would result in a
Speaker 1: benefit for society at large. Think of men who claim
Speaker 1: they are the most persecuted or disadvantaged group because of
Speaker 1: the gains women have made in rights and equality over
Speaker 1: the years. Wanting to stick to the status quo can
Speaker 1: be rationalized in many ways. In Oga's case, he was
Speaker 1: willing to uphold the status quo of slavery while simultaneously
Speaker 1: rejecting the status quo that denied free people of color
Speaker 1: equal rights and citizens status. We are not them, he said,
Speaker 1: and that is not okay. Oh J already had a
Speaker 1: better lot in life than enslaved black people, and he
Speaker 1: wished to maintain that separation. Being considered property is undoubtedly
Speaker 1: a more oppressive in cruel life than the one oh
Speaker 1: J was living. O Ja's classism and eagerness to distinguish
Speaker 1: his lot from that of enslaved people of African descent
Speaker 1: were baseless functions of the colonialists in white supremacist systems
Speaker 1: that created and maintained his status. Still, his bias was
Speaker 1: a problematic strategy of survival. At the same time he
Speaker 1: deemed other black people property, he was still marginalized, still
Speaker 1: less than a citizen, and yet he fought against racism.
Speaker 1: The dissonance is real. There was the and to keep
Speaker 1: his head in the sand, as did many free people
Speaker 1: of color, for a survival or for whatever other reason.
Speaker 1: O Jay's vision of equality was limited, and there was
Speaker 1: a thin line between what could be viewed as his
Speaker 1: desire for assimilation and his desire for freemen of color
Speaker 1: to advance in society at the expense of enslaved people.
Speaker 1: He did rebel and fight for change, but he was
Speaker 1: attempting to navigate a maze of complicated conditions. The bias, privilege,
Speaker 1: self importance, societally induced desperation, discrimination, racism, and mistreatment that
Speaker 1: all combined to form the cocktail that catalyzed his action.
Speaker 1: Means that his story is nowhere near black and white.
Speaker 1: When we left off in Oja story, the Cologne of
Speaker 1: Mary Kaine had partitioned for representation in the National Assembly
Speaker 1: and for the acknowledgement of their civil and political rights.
Speaker 1: Degrading prejudices and fall politics had made free people of
Speaker 1: color be treated like slaves and Saint de Mont they said.
Speaker 1: That's despite the fact that on August seventeen, eighty nine,
Speaker 1: the National Assembly had approved the Declaration of the Rights
Speaker 1: of Man and the Citizen, which said that quote men
Speaker 1: are born and remain free and equal in rights. But
Speaker 1: in reality, the enslavement of black people continued in the
Speaker 1: French Caribbean colonies and people of color did not get
Speaker 1: the benefits of citizenships. The Cologne believed that the declarations
Speaker 1: should apply to free people of color in the colonies too.
Speaker 1: They even invoked the Code Noir, a decree passed by
Speaker 1: Francis King Louis the fourteenth and sixteen eighty five that
Speaker 1: in part granted freed slaves the same rights as free
Speaker 1: born people. But in December of seventeen eighty nine, the
Speaker 1: French National Assembly rejected their petition, and in March of
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety the French colonies were granted the rights of
Speaker 1: form colonial assemblies and the colony was given nearly complete autonomy.
Speaker 1: On March, deputies approved voting instructions for the colonies, allowing
Speaker 1: every one age five or older who owned land or
Speaker 1: those who lived in a parish for two years and
Speaker 1: pay taxes to gather to form provincial assemblies. But the
Speaker 1: issue of whether free people of color could be involved
Speaker 1: in electoral procedures was left vague. This intentional ambiguity would
Speaker 1: pose a problem in Sandmint. We'll be back after this break.
Speaker 1: In seventeen nine, political and social tensions were increasing in Sandman.
Speaker 1: It drought hit the colony and enslaved people were escaping
Speaker 1: from their plantations at higher rates. White people were becoming
Speaker 1: increasingly violent towards free people of color and white sympathizers,
Speaker 1: and as white people began to gather in parish assemblies,
Speaker 1: they would lock out free people of color. Free people
Speaker 1: of color began petitioning their parish assemblies for their political
Speaker 1: rights and to eliminate discrimination. By early seventeen ninety, the
Speaker 1: issues of independence, rights for free people of color, and
Speaker 1: slavery were causing a bunch of turmoil and Saint Domin.
Speaker 1: Having met no success in his appeals for rights in France,
Speaker 1: o J headed back to Saint Doman, still determined to
Speaker 1: win citizenship for free people of color. He arrived in
Speaker 1: the colony on October seventeenth, seventeen ninety. After traveling from
Speaker 1: Paris to London to Charlestown, o J minimized the extent
Speaker 1: of his involvement in the revolt that began within days
Speaker 1: of him getting back, But just as soon as he returned,
Speaker 1: he went to the Garden Riviere to meet up with
Speaker 1: the Jean Baptiste Chavane, a free veteran of color who
Speaker 1: fought for equal rights based on his and others records
Speaker 1: of malicious service. In late October, cheven and o j
Speaker 1: wrote to the governor and provincial Assembly demanding the enforcement
Speaker 1: of the voting regulations that have been passed down from Paris.
Speaker 1: Oje's letter to the Provincial Assembly of Cap Francie set
Speaker 1: the following, Gentlemen, a prejudice too long maintained is about
Speaker 1: to fall. I am charged with a commission, doubtless very
Speaker 1: honorable to myself. I require you to promulgate throughout the
Speaker 1: colony the instructions of the National Assembly of the eighth
Speaker 1: of March, which gives, without distinction to all free citizens
Speaker 1: the right of admission to all offices and functions. My
Speaker 1: pretensions are just, and I hope you will pay due
Speaker 1: regard to them. I shall not call the plantations to rise.
Speaker 1: That means would be unworthy of me. Learn to appreciate
Speaker 1: the merit of a man whose intention is pure. When
Speaker 1: I solicited from the National Assembly a decree which I
Speaker 1: obtained in favor of the American colonists, formerly known under
Speaker 1: the injurious epithet of men of mixed blood. I did
Speaker 1: not include in my claims the condition of the negroes
Speaker 1: who live in servitude. You and our adversaries have misrepresented
Speaker 1: my steps in order to bring me into discredit with
Speaker 1: honorable men. No, no, gentlemen, we have put forth a
Speaker 1: claim only on behalf of a class of freemen who,
Speaker 1: for two centuries have been under the yoke of oppression.
Speaker 1: We require the execution of the decree of the eighth
Speaker 1: of March. We insist on its promulgation, and we shall
Speaker 1: not cease to repeat to our friends that our adversaries
Speaker 1: are unjust, and that they know not how to make
Speaker 1: their interests compatible with ours. Before employing my means, make
Speaker 1: use of mildness. But if contrary to my expectation, you
Speaker 1: do not satisfy my demand, I am not cerebral for
Speaker 1: the disorder into which my just vengeance may carry me.
Speaker 1: O j and Chavan mobilized a group of free militiamen
Speaker 1: of color who went through the parish, disarming white planters.
Speaker 1: Cap Francie sent forces to attack the group, and on
Speaker 1: October j Chavan and their group of men held their
Speaker 1: ground in Grand Riviere against the larger group of colonial forces.
Speaker 1: Before a second colonial force could make it there, O
Speaker 1: Jay's group had scattered. They had headed into the mountains,
Speaker 1: moving toward the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, now the
Speaker 1: Dominican Republic. They made it into Spanish territory on November six,
Speaker 1: but after a week all of the men had been
Speaker 1: arrested or turned themselves in, possibly with the hopes of
Speaker 1: being granted asylum. Instead, authorities sent them back to Cap Francai.
Speaker 1: Oj and Chavan were interrogated in secret. O Jay claimed
Speaker 1: that his actions were only ever political and that he
Speaker 1: did not leave any of the violence. Still, Oje was
Speaker 1: neither sent to France for trial nor judged publicly. In
Speaker 1: Saint de Moon, he and Chavan were tortured and executed
Speaker 1: in public, their heads put on pikes. The execution was
Speaker 1: a brutal display of intimidation, as colonial authorities were worried
Speaker 1: that the rebels who were still at large might be
Speaker 1: planning a revolt. But the end of o j story
Speaker 1: was not the end of rebellion in sad Monk the
Speaker 1: barbarity of the execution helped turrn ties in favor of
Speaker 1: free people of color. In May of seventeen ninety one,
Speaker 1: the French National Assembly granted some freeborn people of color
Speaker 1: the rights of voting citizens and eligibility to be seated
Speaker 1: in future assemblies. Enslaved people whom o j and many
Speaker 1: other free people of color used to associate themselves with,
Speaker 1: soon took up arms in their own fight for emancipation.
Speaker 1: When the revolution broke out against French colonial rule and
Speaker 1: Saint de Monk, people of color were split in their support.
Speaker 1: Some resisted with enslaved people, some took the side of
Speaker 1: the white colonists, and some tried to remain neutral. But
Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety three slavery was abolished in the north
Speaker 1: of Saint de Monk, and the next year slavery was
Speaker 1: abolished in France and all of its colonies. The revolution
Speaker 1: ended in eighteen o four, with Haiti declaring independence from France.
Speaker 1: O Jay's fight had nothing to do with freeing enslaved
Speaker 1: people in Saint Domin. He was not a revolutionary, but
Speaker 1: his death and rebellion lit a match beneath a flammable
Speaker 1: web of conflict among white planters, poor white people, French
Speaker 1: colonial authorities, free full of color landowners, and enslaved people.
Speaker 1: One person's freedom and equality are linked to that of
Speaker 1: the next. O Jay's rebellion, execution, and the subsequent flabor
Speaker 1: bolts and revolution form a very real, very violent, very
Speaker 1: complex allegory for the idea that none of us are
Speaker 1: free until all of us are free. It is probably
Speaker 1: not worthwhile to view Vincent oh Ja as a saint
Speaker 1: of revolution, or even as a liberator for the people.
Speaker 1: O J did use his wealth and status to uplift
Speaker 1: others and sacrifice his life to win a representation and
Speaker 1: rights for a small portion of the population of black
Speaker 1: people and san domnt wealthy freeman of color. His activism
Speaker 1: was instrumental in helping to encourage the spirit of revolution
Speaker 1: in the colony, but he was not a model rebel
Speaker 1: with a flawless vision of liberation. Maybe it's better to
Speaker 1: view o J's story and resistance as an editable template
Speaker 1: for using our specific personal talents, advantages, and powers to
Speaker 1: protest the things we are compelled to change, even when
Speaker 1: our plans are not as grand as flipping the whole
Speaker 1: world upside down. Our producer Is, Andrew Howard, Holly Fry,
Speaker 1: and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers, and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be
Speaker 1: back next week with another episode of Unpopular