An English Haiti?

[Beata Beatrix]

The title says it all, I think, and I’m not too picky with regards to how it happens: either the Brits seize it in 1793 in their OTL invasion, it gets snatched up by Britain during the 18th century as a war prize from a very irritated ancien regime, Cromwell takes it, whatever. The question is what does Saint Domingue look like under English rule - what might it be named, for that matter?

 

[SenatorChickpea]

I think the 1793 POD is more interesting, especially if we presume that the insurgents aren’t totally crushed. The effects upon Britain’s Caribbean possessions- to say nothing of the abolitionists in Britain itself- of an absolutely vicious revolt that stretches over the next two decades could be remarkable.

 

[Aznavour]

1793 seems a bit late. A truly absurd amount of French and British troops died during that time trying to hold that island (30,000 to 46,000 to even 100,000 depending on the source, mostly from Yellow Fever) once the genie was out of the bottle, and it's not like it can be anyone's main focus at the time.

 

[SenatorChickpea]

Oh, I don’t think Britain could hold it. But it would be interesting what the ramifications of the struggle would be.

 

[Hendryk]

It would be interesting to have Britain demand it instead of New France at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War. It was, after all, a very lucrative possession. Perhaps the negotiations during the drafting of the Treaty of Paris go differently?

One butterfly may be that without the revenue of sugar plantations, French monarchy hits budgetary doldrums earlier than OTL, and is unable to support the Thirteen Colonies.

 

[Thande]

The title says it all, I think, and I’m not too picky with regards to how it happens: either the Brits seize it in 1793 in their OTL invasion, it gets snatched up by Britain during the 18th century as a war prize from a very irritated ancien regime, Cromwell takes it, whatever. The question is what does Saint Domingue look like under English rule - what might it be named, for that matter?

You're probably talking Cromwell if you want it gotten early enough for it to become culturally different (a la Jamaica). I suspect the 1793 POD would end up with it being a sort of 'black Quebec'. "Here is lots of self-rule, please colour yourself pink on the map and don't make us send in troops to die horribly from tropical diseases". Maybe the Quebec analogy works better if it was part of an otherwise English-speaking British Caribbean confederation with self-rule (which one can imagine being accelerated under these circumstances - it'd be increasingly hard to justify slavery in the British Caribbean if there was a free black British Caribbean entity).

 

[Beata Beatrix]

I have to say I am interested in the idea of it somehow getting in British hands circa 1763, which probably means that it’s relatively French still and that Britain can’t take as much of New France.

 

[Charles EP M.]

I suspect the 1793 POD would end up with it being a sort of 'black Quebec'. "Here is lots of self-rule, please colour yourself pink on the map and don't make us send in troops to die horribly from tropical diseases".

That'd be an interesting one - Britain makes it a "protectorate" - but isn't part of the reason Britain's there out of fear it would cause slave revolts in the West Indies? Or is the idea they'd go to the world "look, the rebels won because WE helped them, see blacks need whites to beat whites so don't revolt, anyone who is black"?

 

[Aznavour]

How does London profit if they can’t get the plantations up and running again? Is securing a market for textiles or whatever it is they’re selling enough?

 

[Charles EP M.]

That's a good question. IIRC the post-war government in OTL introduced serfdom for the plantations anyway, so that might still happen in a hypothetical 'protectorate'

 

[Hendryk]

That's a good question. IIRC the post-war government in OTL introduced serfdom for the plantations anyway, so that might still happen in a hypothetical 'protectorate'

Might the English do in Haiti what they did in Trinidad and Tobago once chattel slavery was no longer palatable, namely import East Indian indentured laborers? The cultural effects could be interesting.

 

[Indicus]

I suspect the 1793 POD would end up with it being a sort of 'black Quebec'. "Here is lots of self-rule, please colour yourself pink on the map and don't make us send in troops to die horribly from tropical diseases".

I mean, that’s not exactly how Quebec worked - initially, it was run as an oligarchy, with the predominantly-Anglophone Chateau Clique dominating the colony. Opposition to this structure rose, this opposition took control of the elected Legislative Assembly and its Speakership. Only later under the threat of rebellion was it given “responsible government” and even then it was part of the United Province of Canada along with what is now Southern Ontario.

Maybe a successful Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is more like what a British Haiti would look like.