Home Literary Studies Chapter 15. Scenes of emotion in French early-modern travel writing from the Caribbean
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Chapter 15. Scenes of emotion in French early-modern travel writing from the Caribbean

Du Tertre, Mongin, Labat
  • Christina Kullberg
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A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery
This chapter is in the book A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery

Abstract

This chapter examines the inclusion of voices of the enslaved in seventeenth-century French travel writing to the Caribbean by looking at three missionaries writing at different moments of the French settlement and early colonization: Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les François (1654 and 1667–1671), written by the Dominican missionary Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre; Jesuit missionary Jean Mongin’s letters on the evangelization of slaves, written in the 1680s; and Dominican Jean-Baptiste Labat’s Nouveau voyage aux Isles de l’Amérique, from his stay in Martinique between 1694 and 1706. It makes the argument that while commerce and profit were unquestionably the main motivations for allowing and sustaining slavery, travelogues also play on another, emotional register when representing slavery. The aim of the chapter is to interrogate the factors underpinning this representational strategy and in so doing to draw conclusions about how the techniques and motivations for including voices changed as slavery was gradually naturalized in the Caribbean.

Abstract

This chapter examines the inclusion of voices of the enslaved in seventeenth-century French travel writing to the Caribbean by looking at three missionaries writing at different moments of the French settlement and early colonization: Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les François (1654 and 1667–1671), written by the Dominican missionary Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre; Jesuit missionary Jean Mongin’s letters on the evangelization of slaves, written in the 1680s; and Dominican Jean-Baptiste Labat’s Nouveau voyage aux Isles de l’Amérique, from his stay in Martinique between 1694 and 1706. It makes the argument that while commerce and profit were unquestionably the main motivations for allowing and sustaining slavery, travelogues also play on another, emotional register when representing slavery. The aim of the chapter is to interrogate the factors underpinning this representational strategy and in so doing to draw conclusions about how the techniques and motivations for including voices changed as slavery was gradually naturalized in the Caribbean.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. General introduction xi
  5. Slavery, literature and the emotions 1
  6. Part One. Slavery, sentiment and affect
  7. Chapter 1. Slavery, sentimentality and the abolition of affect 18
  8. Chapter 2. Race and affect in Gustave de Beaumont’s Marie, ou L’esclavage aux Etats‑Unis 34
  9. Chapter 3. Touching difference and colonial space 50
  10. Part Two. Slavery between literary codes
  11. Chapter 4. In search of home 78
  12. Chapter 5. Showing and feeling the atrocities of slavery 95
  13. Chapter 6. Politics and faith, slavery and abolition in nineteenth-century Brazilian literature 110
  14. Chapter 7. Melodramatic tableaux vivants 136
  15. Part Three. Pity, identification and interpellation
  16. Chapter 8. Before sentimental empire 158
  17. Chapter 9. “No one can imagine my feelings” 173
  18. Chapter 10. Orientalism, slavery and emotion 191
  19. Chapter 11. Haunting slavery 207
  20. Part Four. Affective ties
  21. Chapter 12. Testamentary manumission and emotional bonds in eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue 226
  22. Chapter 13. Affection amidst domination in a post-slavery society 239
  23. Chapter 14. Bárbora and Jau 254
  24. Part Five. First-person voices
  25. Chapter 15. Scenes of emotion in French early-modern travel writing from the Caribbean 272
  26. Chapter 16. Fear and love in Matanzas 289
  27. Chapter 17. The blood-stained-gate 307
  28. Volume 1. Biographical descriptions 325
  29. Name index 331
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.xxxvi.15kul

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. General introduction xi
  5. Slavery, literature and the emotions 1
  6. Part One. Slavery, sentiment and affect
  7. Chapter 1. Slavery, sentimentality and the abolition of affect 18
  8. Chapter 2. Race and affect in Gustave de Beaumont’s Marie, ou L’esclavage aux Etats‑Unis 34
  9. Chapter 3. Touching difference and colonial space 50
  10. Part Two. Slavery between literary codes
  11. Chapter 4. In search of home 78
  12. Chapter 5. Showing and feeling the atrocities of slavery 95
  13. Chapter 6. Politics and faith, slavery and abolition in nineteenth-century Brazilian literature 110
  14. Chapter 7. Melodramatic tableaux vivants 136
  15. Part Three. Pity, identification and interpellation
  16. Chapter 8. Before sentimental empire 158
  17. Chapter 9. “No one can imagine my feelings” 173
  18. Chapter 10. Orientalism, slavery and emotion 191
  19. Chapter 11. Haunting slavery 207
  20. Part Four. Affective ties
  21. Chapter 12. Testamentary manumission and emotional bonds in eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue 226
  22. Chapter 13. Affection amidst domination in a post-slavery society 239
  23. Chapter 14. Bárbora and Jau 254
  24. Part Five. First-person voices
  25. Chapter 15. Scenes of emotion in French early-modern travel writing from the Caribbean 272
  26. Chapter 16. Fear and love in Matanzas 289
  27. Chapter 17. The blood-stained-gate 307
  28. Volume 1. Biographical descriptions 325
  29. Name index 331
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