Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyze the racial and discriminatory barriers imposed on Africans and Afro-descendants throughout the 18th century in the French Caribbean, based on documentary sources and historiography that investigates the experiences of the “free people of color” mainly in Martinique. It seems that the racialization of slavery induced the development of racial hierarchies, upon which the American colonies had been erected, and color prejudice, which settled in both the French possessions and the metropolis in the 18th century. Moreover, this analysis aims to demonstrate how the whole process fostered the construction of a racialized and derogatory image about the black women from French Caribbean, especially from the frequent discourse on the link between manumission and mestizaje.
Keywords:
Free People of Color; French Caribbean; Race; Gender; Color Prejudice