1795 Pointe Coupee Conspiracy

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall on The 1795 Conspiracy in Pointe Coupee

Hall argues that there is evidence of the conspiracy in Pointe Coupee. Stating that “it was a sophisticated, well-organized movement” (373). There were several factors that contributed to the plot—“economical, ideological and military,” but most importantly it was the French Revolution and the “multiracial abolitionist movement” that brought about the conditions for this conspiracy (345). As such, the conspiracy “took place during the most radical phase of the French Revolution, when France and Spain were at war” (346). According to Hall, this conspiracy “was not a movement of black against whites” (345).

However, it was this multiracial population that “spread the latest news about the revolution throughout the ports of the Americas” (347). Which explains why in the archival document there are several slave testimonies that talk about an official order (document) that said slaves were going to be set free. The document also states in several testimonies, that after the slaves killed all of the whites, they would then make the white women and young girls their servants.



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