1789
Paris
Against every expectation, the Kingdom of France did not declare bankruptcy again in the 1780's. Little by little, the debt would slowly be paid due to budget cutting, increased tax revenues on the upper classes and clergy, greater trade (and revenues) and, perhaps most importantly, being able to renegotiate most debt (3,000,000,000 francs after the war) from an average interest of 8% down to 4.5%, which saved over a hundred million francs per year in interest and allowed the nation to drop the debt down to 2.4 billion francs. Now seeing a surplus of 200,000,000 francs per year at a reasonable interest rate, the debt seemed under control (though interest and repayments represented by far the greater share of the French budget).
There were some hits to the budget as the 25 year "reparations" from England of 2,000,000 lbs sterling (28,000,000 francs) would be over in 1790. Without this payment in the future, King Louis XV's ministers were not certain if it made any sense to continue to station 30,000 troops in England any longer. Despite claims that England paid their expenses, the costs of stationing these troops was always high and a constant source of provocation. Worse, the partisan attacks by the "English Republican Army" upon French forces were severely dampening morale, though perhaps not quite as much as those dispatched at gunpoint to the West Indies.
Though the expectations of the Proclamation of 1781 to slowly transform slavery in the 1780's to a form of indenture over a 10 year period, then freedom, this did little to actually change the day to day status of the slaves...er…."apprentices". Rebellions continued to crop up as lifespans remained short and many doubted that they would live 10 years to enjoy liberty. Certainly the plantation owners did not treat their "apprentices" any better than they had their slaves. There was also the question if France would truly manumit as expected.
While the demographic balance between male and female Africans had finally stabilized over the past decades, the population had not nearly reached stable levels as the harsh climate and dismal working conditions remained in place. The birthrate and child survival rate remained low but not so low as to see a 8-10% annual DECREASE in population as had been the case prior to the war. Without 50,000 new slaves arriving each year, Saint Domingue and other islands would have been deserted.
However, the population, even during the 10 year "Apprenticeship", of black slaves/apprentices dwindled during the 1780's by 3-5% per year. That didn't even include a somewhat expedited emancipation which had been common in French and Spanish West Indies (creating the mulatto land-owning elites) and the large number of runaways in the "Maroon" communities of various islands.
Thus, the number of available field hands had dropped precipitously over the past decade despite efforts to halt the decline in population. The black population of Saint Domingue had been 500,000+ (450,000 slave and 500,000 free) prior to the previous war and now the French part of the island of Hispaniola was down to 90,000 "Apprentices", 35,000 free blacks or mulattos and an estimated 25,000 maroons. This white population remained stubbornly below 40,000 despite best efforts by the French to encourage free migration including land grants. Had it not been for the 100,000 Roma being delivered from various corners of Europe to the islands, the sugar and coffee production would have collapsed. Another 50,000 Roma had been shipped to Jamaica, Barbados, Guadeloupe and Martinique (divided roughly equally to prevent them from becoming a threat). More would come in the future, not really slaves but reduced to sharecroppers and laborers. Barbados had been designated the new prison island of the Empire as thousands of prisoners and vagrants were dispatched. Brothels, alleyways, taverns, orphanages and convents were emptied out and the occupants shipped across the sea and off the national dole.
Women, in particular, had long been difficult to find in the West Indies and sending the hordes of nubile young girls and women to the West Indies proved to be a wise idea. Too many girls, otherwise destitute, had been funneled to state-sponsored convents, effectively wasting (in the Crown's eyes), their potential. Better to have them breeding in the West Indies than praying in France. The Roman Catholic Church complained but King Louis XV, like most monarchs in Europe, had aggressively worked to dampen the power and wealth of the church, funneling their wealth into the national coffers.
By 1790, Africans no longer made up the majority in several islands like Barbados and Martinique. Instead, they were a mere plurality in a complex, multi-racial society including Free French, other Europeans, French prisoners, mulattos, blacks and Roma (among others).
Estimated population of major islands in French West Indies in 1790 ("Whites" includes soldiers and prisoners):
Saint Domingue: 288,000 (90,000 "Apprentices", 35,000 free black/mulattos, 25,000 Maroons, 38,000 whites, 100,000 Roma)
Jamaica: 60,000 (15,000 "Apprentices", 15,000 Maroons, 5000 free blacks/mulattos, 10,000 Roma, 5000 Europeans)
Guadeloupe: 25,000 (5000 "Apprentices", 5000 free blacks/mulattos, 1000 Maroons, 9000 Roma, 5000 whites)
Martinique: 30,000 (10,000 "Apprentices", 4000 free blacks/mulattos, 1000 Maroons, 10,000 Roma, 6000 whites)
Barbados: 27,000 (4000 "Apprentices", 3500 free blacks/mulattos, 500 Maroons, 11,000 Roma, 8000 Whites)
Most other islands like Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and others were sparsely populated.
When several rebellions upon Saint Domingue rose up, the French authorities, not desiring to make martyrs of the ringleaders, would come upon a novel solution: Transportation.
In a bizarre and unexpected retracing of their ancestral journey, the African prisoners whom survived would find themselves chained in the dark holds of ships and dumped onto a "recolonization" colony in western Africa, ironically on the coast of Senegambia, where their ancestors had originated.
Still, violence would continue until 1790 when the new governor arrived. Gilbert de Mortier, Marquis de Lafayette had been a prime supporter of abolitionism in Paris. Having become close to former American Treasury Secretary Benjamin Franklin (whom looked at the young French aristocrat as a surrogate son), Lafayette would agitate for an early end of the slave-like "Apprenticeship". This failed but had attracted the attention of the Dauphin and Dauphine as a fashionable cause.
By 1790, the Dauphin had sired several children (as would his youngest brother) ensuring the Dynasty and matured enough that the aging King Louis XV was willing to bring his grandson into the government as his "secretary". The intent was to get the Dauphin away from his clocks and ready to take up the reigns of power someday. The Dauphin was not lazy or stupid, merely unassertive and unsure. Hoping the boy (now in his thirties) would amount to something, the King ordered his Ministers to give the Dauphin some tasks. Conscious of the King's age and how close the Dauphin was to the throne, the Ministers agreed to provide "something of import to do". Among these included choosing a new Governor for the West Indies.
Naturally, the Dauphin chose his friend Lafayette whom departed for the West Indies with the intent of following through on the nation's promises to the "Apprentices". By 1790, the date had passed and the "Apprentices" were freed of their "Apprenticeship". Lafayette fought against any plantation owners whom sought to find ways to force them to stay like debt peonage, etc.
However, the crown did not give the Africans any land or necessarily the right to depart. Like the Roma, the Africans were left to their own devices. The most fertile land had long been claimed and the best the freedmen could do was negotiate for salary as best they could as travelling sharecroppers.
One immediate effect was a large-scale shift in labor movement from the lowland sugar plantations to the highland coffee plantations as the work was moderately easier and the highlands a bit less pestilential. Ironically, this was a boon for the previously free blacks and mulattos. Over the past century, freed blacks and mulattos (usually freed by white fathers) had seen no restrictions on economics as they did socially. They were allowed to purchase land (usually by inheritances from their fathers). By this point, however, the coastal land best for sugar was taken. Instead, the mulattos would buy whole swathes of highlands where they set up coffee plantations. Prior to the war, free black/mulattos owned a quarter the land and a third of the slaves in Saint Domingue...all slanted towards the highlands.
The unexpected effect of the Liberation of 1790 was the mass transfer of labor to the mountains and highlands where mulattos would benefit the most from large amounts of cheap black and Roma labor. Other freedmen moved to towns or attempted to scratch out a living in the unclaimed swamps or margins of the island by farming subsistence crops.
Sugar would go up in price as production dropped but nothing could entice laborers back to the cane-fields.
