What happened when the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity collided with the realities of slavery, colonialism and racial hierarchy in the French Caribbean?

In this episode of Dis A Fi Mi History Podcast, host Wendy Aris speaks with historian Bill Cormack about the French Revolution and its impact on Martinique and Guadeloupe between 1789 and 1794. Together, they examine how revolutionary politics unfolded in the Caribbean, where competing visions of citizenship, freedom and racial equality challenged established colonial power structures.

The conversation explores how free people of colour, white planters and petits blancs (poor and working-class white colonists) negotiated power through colonial militias, public ceremonies and political petitions. We discuss the significance of the 1792 legislation extending political rights to free men of colour, enslaved people's uprisings and claims to revolutionary citizenship, and the role of Victor Hugues in advancing French republican authority and the abolition of slavery in Guadeloupe.

How did revolutionary ideals translate into colonial realities? Who was entitled to freedom and citizenship, and who determined the boundaries of equality? And how did the competing interests of race, class, slavery and political allegiance shape the course of revolution across the French Caribbean?

This episode offers a deeper look at the complexities of the French Caribbean Revolution and the long struggle over emancipation, racial equality and colonial power—history that remains essential to understanding the wider Caribbean and the Atlantic world.

BIO:

About Professor Bill Cormack

Professor William S. Cormack is a historian and Professor in the Department of History at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. His research focuses on the French Revolution, revolutionary political culture, eighteenth-century naval history, and the impact of revolutionary movements on France’s Caribbean colonies, particularly Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Professor Cormack is the author of Revolution and Political Conflict in the French Navy, 1789–1794 (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Patriots, Royalists, and Terrorists in the West Indies: The French Revolution in Martinique and Guadeloupe, 1789–1802 (University of Toronto Press, 2019). His scholarship examines the competing political loyalties, struggles for authority, and contested interpretations of revolutionary ideals that shaped France and its Caribbean territories during a period of profound upheaval.

Holding a PhD from Queen’s University, Professor Cormack has taught at the University of Guelph since 1998. His work offers valuable insight into the complex relationship between the French Revolution and colonial Caribbean society, including the tensions between revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality and the realities of slavery, racial hierarchy, and colonial power.

🎧 Listen to this episode of Dis A Fi Mi History Podcast for a conversation about the French Revolution, slavery, emancipation, race and the contested meaning of freedom in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

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