The colony of Saint-Domingue is hierarchically structured,…
1684 CE to 1827 CE
At the bottom of the social ladder are the slaves who had just arrived in Saint-Domingue and speak only African languages.
As field laborers, they have the hardest work and are despised by everyone else.
On the next rung are the Creole slaves, Africans whose source of pride is that they had been born in the New World.
Above them come the mulatto slaves, who often work in the plantation house and view themselves as superior to the freed black slaves because of their indoor work and lighter skin color.
At the top are the affranchis, usually mulattoes, or people of color (gens de couleur), neither whites nor slaves.
Whites are on a separate social ladder; at the bottom are the shopkeepers, referred to as the small whites (petits blancs).
At the top are the plantation owners, wealthy merchants, and high officials, who are known as the big whites (grands blancs).
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West Indies
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