My dissertation examines the network of revolutionary leaders among free people of color in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Saint-Domingue, then the Caribbean’s most profitable European colony. It traces how free people of color embraced republican principles to challenge both colonial prejudice and metropolitan neglect while asserting their own leadership. Moving back and forth between the Caribbean and metropolitan France, prominent leaders among free people of color formed a complex network of alliances, rivalries, and familial ties, which were characterized by a complex set of feelings and emotions that transcended racial and class divisions. My project explores the nature of those relationships, shaped by their efforts to uphold republican ideals and forge a unified republican front against the enemies of the French Republic.
Revolutionary Leadership: Free People of Color in Revolutionary Saint-Domingue
Article
“Analysis of Universal Emancipation Proclaimed by L. F. Sonthonax during the Haitian Revolution: Combining Revolutionary Ideology and Circumstances of the Colony,” Seo-yang-sa Yeon-gu(The Journal of Western History) vol. 53, Seoul (Nov. 2015): 169-202. (written and published in Korean). http://dx.doi.org/10.16894/JOWH.53.6
Book Review
“Cul de Sac: patrimony, capitalism, and slavery in French Saint-Domingue,” History of European Ideas vol. 45, no. 1 (2019): 121-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2018.1524644
2024 Conference Travel Grant, UCSB Department of History
2024 Research Travel Grant, UCSB Department of History
2024 Routes of Enslavement in the Americas Award, UCI Humanities Center
“Safeguarding Family Wealth: Free People of Color in Revolutionary Saint-Domingue.” Presented at the Routes of Enslavement in the Americas Conference at UC Irvine, October 17, 2025.
“Weaponizing Republicanism: Leadership Struggle in Revolutionary Saint-Domingue.” Presented at the Global Consortium of French Historical Studies at Campus Condorcet, Paris, France, July 18, 2025.
“Brotherhood in Revolution: Julien Raimond and Andre Rigaud in Revolutionary Saint-Domingue.” Presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society at Buffalo State University, Buffalo, New York, May 30, 2025.
“Kinship and Leadership: The Rigaud Family’s Legal Endeavors in Revolutionary Saint-Domingue.” Presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society at University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, May 25, 2024.
“Julien Raimond and Enlightenment in the Colony.” Presented at the Colloque Coréano-Japonais sur la Révolution française: La Révolution française vue de l’Asie, Etat actuel de recherches sur la Révolution en Corée et au Japon, Seikei University, Tokyo, August 30, 2018.