Definitely thought the The Code Noir was more for the slaves to feel as though they were 'taken care of'. I thought it was interesting that the fate of the children who were born was decided by their mothers role in society. It was interesting how conveniently it was all written- obviously black women had more of a chance to have intimate relations with white men vs black men having relations with white women- making more "slave children". Religion also played a huge role in the code. Number 6 shows this well: "we charge all our subjects, whatever their status and condition sundays and holidays..." I think this was to create order, make society and the slaves believe that they were a part of something greater and put them on the same plane as some of the white folk. Even though you can tell that they don't really care about the slaves in a sense, because 14 states that even if slaves ARE baptizes, they wont be given the same respect as the whites when it comes to burials. Overall, I believe that the code is just fake security and scare tactics to the slaves, not really a genuine code meant to actually help them out.
Description...of the French Part of the Island of Saint-Domingue, pg. 57
This is written by Saint-Mery, a lawyer who also had relations with a colored woman and was suspected to have a mixed blood child with her. His descriptin of mixed blood is very half and half. He describes them as having potential (from their white side) to do whatever they wanted, and that they are smart- but on the flip side- because they have black blood in them- can be as lazy as any of the others. Its very stereotypical and has nothing to do with how people really are, more just based off of how people were expected to be if they were white or black. I also thought it was ironic that he actually did have a mulato child and he thought this way about these people still.
Letter to Those Who Love Mankind, pg. 73
1st off, the ratio of slaves to whites was crazy: 10 to 1, so why their just talking about revolting is weird to me ( i feel as though they should of earlier). its just really interesting that the slaves didnt act any earlier, but its good that they did 'threaten' the government by actually making them aware of their outnumbered-ness. and the line "these men will be the victims of oppression until their tyrants agree to lighten their fate" def shows they are aware of where they stand and further on in the passage describe that they will not be taking this unequalness any longer.
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