ABSTRACT

Stories abound of enslaved people who remained faithful to their owners during crises, but few offer critical insights into their motivations. This article offers alternative understandings for the appearance of slave loyalty through a close study of the life of Eustache Belin, who was born into slavery in Saint-Domingue just before the era of the French and Haitian Revolutions. He navigated the revolutionary era in ways that contemporary planters and later metropolitan observers defined as ‘loyal,’ and in 1832, received the Académie Française’s prize for virtue for his purportedly ‘faithful’ and selfless actions. However, this article argues for a different interpretation that considers how his embeddedness in a wider context of diverse social relations reveals a more nuanced understanding of slavery and freedom, without diminishing his capacity for affection, kindness, and sacrifice.

摘要

在危机期间仍然忠于主人的被奴役者的故事比比皆是，但很少有人对他们的动机提供批判性的见解。本文通过对尤斯塔什·贝林 (Eustache Belin) 的生活的仔细研究，提供了对奴隶忠诚表象的另一种理解，他在法国和海地大革命时代之前出生在圣多明格的奴隶制中。他以当代种植者和后来的大都会观察家定义为“忠诚”的方式驾驭革命时代，并于 1832 年因其所谓的“忠实”和无私的行为而获得法兰西学院的美德奖。然而，本文主张一种不同的解释，考虑到他在多元化社会关系的更广泛背景中的嵌入如何揭示对奴隶制和自由的更细微的理解，