Daily life of the partner and mother
Marriage, when it concerned a Black slave, had to obtain the consent of the master beforehand, according to article 10 of the Code Noir. The Code Noir, dating from 1685, was the first version of the text that governed the slave society of the Antilles. It had been drawn up by Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1616-1683). It was promulgated in March 1685 by Louis XIV. The second version was written by Louis XV in March 1724. Consequently, it was the master who gave his agreement for such and such a union, and he often refused certain unions.
For some, it was the categorical refusal to any possible marriage on his plantation, especially since the slave trade allowed an easy supply of slaves. One of the main motivations for these refusals was the obsession with profit. When
the owner calculates the loss of the mother's time during pregnancy and while nursing, which is estimated in money already exceeds the value of the child; he still calculates the risks of losing it, its food and its maintenance until the age when it can be useful.
Breastfeeding was recommended because it was considered healthier than artificial feeding. The artificial milk was difficult to store, especially because of the heat and neglect. Breastfeeding lasted an average of 6 to 8 months despite the poor diet of these women (cassava flour, cod, little meat, and never wine).
Another motivation was that the slave by marriage does not feel equal to the White man because he is "imitating" him, living like him. Finally, as a slave had to be sold with all his family, he risked losing his wife and children, a future workforce.
Concerning the children, their status at birth was that of their mother (see below under the section on marriage). Therefore, if the mother was free of color, the child was born free; on the other hand, if the father was free and had married a slave, the child was a slave and became the property of his mother's master. Likewise, if the parents, both slaves, belonged to different owners, the children belonged to their mother's master. At the time of marriage between two slaves of different owners, a decree of the colonial council was to establish with which owner the family would meet.
The end of the slave trade changed the situation somewhat because the landowners were no longer supplied with slaves. It was they who had to foresee the future and therefore promote the birth rate for their future workforce. However, they should not in any way force a woman to marry a man against her will (article 11 of the Black Code). On the other hand, they used their strength and their power to force the women to give birth to the slaves of tomorrow. Thus, the women became real genitators at the end of the milking. When a woman gave birth, if she lost the child, she and the midwife were flogged and had to wear the joug until the woman became pregnant again.
Those accused or suspected of abortion practices were heavily punished. Midwives who were sometimes accused of infanticide were executed. Infant mortality was very high at the time. Should it be surprising when we know that even pregnant women had only small portions of daily food and had to put up with long working days? The hours of pregnant women or nannies were relaxed later, the owners realizing that the loss of a child was that of a future slave.
To have a wife was to accept seeing her suffer abuse from the masters without even being able to intervene. As soon as the marriage blessing was pronounced, the woman could be subject to all kinds of attacks from the masters. So some Blacks refused to start a family. The masters had all the rights over the wives of their slaves and did not hesitate to take advantage of it to have non-consensual sexual relations with the latter. For example, in the work Slavery in the French Antilles (17th-19th century) by Antoine Gisler, a dialogue between Blacks and a priest is told where the latter asks them why he does not find a home. They answer: "My master would take my wife the day after my marriage".
In addition, the corrections made by the master were made on naked bodies entirely in the presence of the entire workshop. The man could therefore see the master undress his wife or daughter and whip her in front of all the other slaves and the staff of the house without being able to react! As for the children, as soon as they knew how to walk, they were also taken into the service of the master or otherwise were the "toys" of the latter's children. These, from an early age, were real little despots. They already knew how to be superior to their playmates.
Marriage to a White man as a solution to a better life?
The free of color are children born from the union of a Black and a White, the freedmen and their descendants. At the time, miscegenation was a problem locally. It was criticized by local authorities and strongly advised against marrying people of different skin color. This very rare type of union was frowned upon by the settlers who spoke of "blood depravity". This prejudice will be reinforced with the classification of the degree of blood (White, Half-Blood, Mamluk, Quarteron, Mulatto, Caper or Claw, Black) in the 18th century.
At the beginning of slavery in Martinique, few White women were present in Martinique. Also, the settlers had to choose between a Carib woman before the Caribs were driven from the island in 1658 or Black women slaves. Moreover, many Black women saw in these unions with Whites the opportunity to improve their situation because they allowed them to be free and to guarantee a better life for their children who were born from these unions. When the master of the slave was the father of the child of the slave and he recognized his paternity, the child was declared free at birth and the father had to take care of his child until the age of 12 years old.
If another White man was the father and assumed his parentage, he had to compensate the master of the female slave because the latter lost a perpetual slave. When the father was not identified, the child remained a slave and belonged to his mother's master. He was doing 20 years of service, and after that, he was free. Thus in Martinique in 1680, there were 314 Mulattoes.
By way of comparison on the island of Barbados, 350 Mulattoes were present in the same year while there were 8 times more slaves. This phenomenon would be reduced with the "White woman trade" (see above), although girls of color remained preferred to newcomers considered foreign. Ruau Palu, general agent of the Company in 1793, then the Code Noir in 1685 will reverse the trend because if before the Mulatto children were freed now the status of the child will be the same as that of the mother.
Thus, a child born to a slave mother will be a slave, whether or not of a White father. Only the marriage of his parents gave him his freedom. When we know that at the time, female slaves could suffer the worst sexual abuse, we understand the hard life that children born of these unions could endure because they thus became the slave of their father and were living proof of the rape suffered, for the woman who had given birth to him. In cases of rape, the responsibility fell on the slave woman.
Life was therefore very different for the Mulatto born of married parents who could aspire to study then a high post on the dwelling (foreman, prosecutor, treasurer) of his father or to inherit from him while the "bastard" became a slave such as his mother was. For the latter, he owed at least 20 years of service to his father before hoping for emancipation, and this was only possible if the latter requested it (freely during his lifetime or in his will). Previously, this was more automatic. These laws had the effect of increasing the number of Mulatto slaves on the plantations. In Martinique, the number of Mulatto slaves rose from 30 in 1664 to 314 in 1687.