Vincent Ogé: Privilege and Protest

them from speaking truth to power. Vincen o Ja Jean or Vincent o j the Younger was born in Dondon Parish in San Domains, North Province sometime around seventeen fifty. Sandman was a French colony on the island of Hispaniola from the mid seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. O Ja's father was a white man named Jacques o j and his mother was a Mulatta named Angelique o s. Mulatta was the word used to describe a girl or woman who was of mixed race with one black parent

and one white parent. Vinson was named after his paternal uncle, a merchant in the port city of Cape Francaie. French people who colonized the island became planters, and brought in hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans. The mixed race children of the white planters and the enslaved women were freed and set up as property owners, and a mixed race class of property owners formed equal in wealth to white

folks into the seventeen sixties. The richest free planters of color were basically treated like members of the colonial ruling class, but the petit blanc, the white people who were merchants, artisans, and the like, were less powerful and wealthy than the white planters, and they were especially anti black and anti

free people of color and supportive of slavery. As free people of color became a threat to colonists access to land in capital, and their loyalty was questioned, race was further weaponized and colonial authorities began enacting legislation that discriminated

against people of color. People of color were assigned racial descriptions like mulattro libra or care to own libra, and white people were given titles lexia and demoiselle, while free people of colors were disparagingly called lenon, a term that basically meant the so called By the seventeen seventies, colonists had even began labeling freeborn people of color as affranci,

a pejorative that meant freedman or ex slave. Though the affranci could own land and had some advantages over enslaved people, they could not hold administrative positions or work as doctors or lawyers. Still, they chose to align themselves with the French over enslaved people in the colony and the hopes

of being accepted by the white colonists. They often upheld the institution of slavery, as did O J, a choice that complicates O J's and other wealthy people of color's history of resistance to the restriction of black people's rights. In effect, the human rights of free people of color took precedent over those of enslaved black people and poor

white people. Free people of color had property and were taxpayers, and so the issue of abolition of slavery took a back seat to the issue of racism for many free people of color. More radical revolutionaries, though, did press for abolition anyway. By the seventeen eighties, there were far more enslaved people than French colonists in sandolog and there were as many free people of color as there were white people.

Don't Don't where o Jay was born acknowledged Sano Monk's post seventeen seventy racial laws and authorities did attempt to separate white people and free people of color through practices like distancing people of color from their French family names. Still, white people and people of color remained connected to a degree.

Don't Don't located in the mountains as well as the surrounding areas like the nearby port city of Cape, France, saw a lot of military preparations and personnel when o Ja was growing up, Though local enslaved and freemen of color were enrolled in military units, it is not clear whether o j had military or militia experience in its youth and young adulthood. Dumb Done was also the first place in sand Monk where coffee was planted, and Oja's family took advantage of a coffee boom in the area.

Ojay's family's wealth was linked to the coffee estate, but his personal wealth was built after he spent time in Bordeaux, France as an apprentice to a goldsmith. Returning to San domin around seventeen seventy four or seventeen seventy five. He brokered houses and apartments and capt Francie to wealthy white people. He conducted business with merchants and saw Domint's major ports, and he assumed the practices of the colonists by employing a free Mulatta woman as a housekeeper, a job that

usually included sexual duties and purchasing enslaved Africans. Side note, many free people of color and San Domant were slave owners. In a seventeen eighty nine letter, o J said he was worth more than three hundred and fifty thousand livres, the currency of France. O J was one of the wealthiest freemen of color in San Domont, and he was of a high status within the colonies class of free

planters of color. His wealth did put him in closer proximity to whiteness, as notaries did not identify him as a man of color or require him to show his freedom papers. Generally, wealthy families of color remained politically conservative and under the radar. When the French Revolution broke out in seventeen eighty nine, the loss of privilege afforded to

them by the colonial establishment was a high stake. Julian Raymon a free man of color and wealthy indigo planter and Saint Domin did move to France in the mid seventeen eighties and challenged the French government to pass racial reforms for wealthy freemen of color in Saint Domin, but Ramon was an anomaly, and so has been. Saint o j. O J left Saint Domint for France at the end of seventeen eighty eight in the hopes of increasing his assets after having to figure out a way to repay

a debt he had. Only some of his experiences in France in the beginning of seventeen eighty nine are recorded. It's known that he visited his sisters in Bordeaux and that he partitioned the naval ministry in March to give him more time to repay his creditors. But by September of that year, after the start of the French Revolution, oh J had joined a group that called itself Cologne

a Mary Kaye a k A. American Colonists. The group published a pamphlet that called for the doing a way of legal separations between white people and citizens of color in the French colonies. The Cologne also published a Calle do d'Or lance or List of Demands addressed to the National Assembly. O Ja helped write both of these texts. One of the reforms demanded in the list was for people of color and white people to be treated equally, so that quote the Creoles constitute a single group and

that they be regarded as a population of brothers. The text also called for the representation of freemen of color in the government and their right to education. In late September, Julienne Ramon joined the Cologne as they fought to get seats in the French National Assembly. They also pressured the Colonists to grant wealthy freemen of color voting rights. They had the support of the Societe des Amis de Nois, or the Society of the Friends of Blacks, a group

of mostly white abolitionists. To be clear, their vision of racial equality was not one as simple as black people should be equal to white people. It was beholden to maintaining the privileges of class and sex. Both Raymon and o j enslaved people, and they argued that making wealthy freemen of color political equals to white people would strengthen the system of slavery and solidified their loyalty to France. O J envisioned himself as a member of the colonial

elite and was pretty self aggrandizing. He even began to pose as a O'Neal militia officer. Oh J was petitioning for the rights of free people of color who lived in saw Do Moan, but back on the island, political unrest and protest among free people of color was growing. Let's pause here for a quick break. My sister is notoriously bad at dining out. She doesn't get what she

hasn't had before. And if I can manage talking her into getting something she's never had before, or trying something of mine that she would never order herself, she goes into the experience with the most apprehension. I want her to live her best life, but this is nearly impossible when she's so afraid to try foods that she's not familiar with. She told me that she'd rather just stick with what she knows will be a satisfying mill then

potentially be disappointed. And I get that justification, though I could never but so many people have status quo bias in one decision or the next for different reasons. Just as it sounds a person has a status quo bias when they prefer things to stay the same by doing nothing or by doing the same thing they've always done. There's a little to no risk involved in keeping things the same. You pretty much know what you're in for.

When you choose to make a change, there's a potential for something really really great to happen or for everything to go downhill. A person may have this bias just because they're familiar with something or someone that's comforting, that's safe, or a person could be operating out of loss aversion which makes them choose not losing over potentially gaining a lot. Those status quo bias happens in people from all walks of life. It operates differently in different people and different

segments of society. Often it can come down to holding onto what you have being entirely more important than risking what you have with the hope of satisfaction. That's especially true when your disadvantage or had to fight hard for what you already have, or changing the status quo can

be a perceived loss or anticipate a personal loss. When you're in some position of privilege or power, the potential for losing that privilege or power is completely unappealing, even when that potential is imagined or would result in a benefit for society at large. Think of men who claim they are the most persecuted or disadvantaged group because of the gains women have made in rights and equality over the years. Wanting to stick to the status quo can

be rationalized in many ways. In Oga's case, he was willing to uphold the status quo of slavery while simultaneously rejecting the status quo that denied free people of color equal rights and citizens status. We are not them, he said, and that is not okay. Oh J already had a better lot in life than enslaved black people, and he wished to maintain that separation. Being considered property is undoubtedly a more oppressive in cruel life than the one oh

J was living. O Ja's classism and eagerness to distinguish his lot from that of enslaved people of African descent were baseless functions of the colonialists in white supremacist systems that created and maintained his status. Still, his bias was a problematic strategy of survival. At the same time he deemed other black people property, he was still marginalized, still less than a citizen, and yet he fought against racism.

The dissonance is real. There was the and to keep his head in the sand, as did many free people of color, for a survival or for whatever other reason. O Jay's vision of equality was limited, and there was a thin line between what could be viewed as his desire for assimilation and his desire for freemen of color to advance in society at the expense of enslaved people. He did rebel and fight for change, but he was

attempting to navigate a maze of complicated conditions. The bias, privilege, self importance, societally induced desperation, discrimination, racism, and mistreatment that all combined to form the cocktail that catalyzed his action. Means that his story is nowhere near black and white. When we left off in Oja story, the Cologne of Mary Kaine had partitioned for representation in the National Assembly and for the acknowledgement of their civil and political rights.

Degrading prejudices and fall politics had made free people of color be treated like slaves and Saint de Mont they said. That's despite the fact that on August seventeen, eighty nine, the National Assembly had approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which said that quote men are born and remain free and equal in rights. But in reality, the enslavement of black people continued in the French Caribbean colonies and people of color did not get

the benefits of citizenships. The Cologne believed that the declarations should apply to free people of color in the colonies too. They even invoked the Code Noir, a decree passed by Francis King Louis the fourteenth and sixteen eighty five that in part granted freed slaves the same rights as free

born people. But in December of seventeen eighty nine, the French National Assembly rejected their petition, and in March of seventeen ninety the French colonies were granted the rights of form colonial assemblies and the colony was given nearly complete autonomy. On March, deputies approved voting instructions for the colonies, allowing every one age five or older who owned land or those who lived in a parish for two years and

pay taxes to gather to form provincial assemblies. But the issue of whether free people of color could be involved in electoral procedures was left vague. This intentional ambiguity would pose a problem in Sandmint. We'll be back after this break. In seventeen nine, political and social tensions were increasing in Sandman. It drought hit the colony and enslaved people were escaping

from their plantations at higher rates. White people were becoming increasingly violent towards free people of color and white sympathizers, and as white people began to gather in parish assemblies, they would lock out free people of color. Free people of color began petitioning their parish assemblies for their political

rights and to eliminate discrimination. By early seventeen ninety, the issues of independence, rights for free people of color, and slavery were causing a bunch of turmoil and Saint Domin. Having met no success in his appeals for rights in France, o J headed back to Saint Doman, still determined to win citizenship for free people of color. He arrived in

the colony on October seventeenth, seventeen ninety. After traveling from Paris to London to Charlestown, o J minimized the extent of his involvement in the revolt that began within days of him getting back, But just as soon as he returned, he went to the Garden Riviere to meet up with the Jean Baptiste Chavane, a free veteran of color who fought for equal rights based on his and others records

of malicious service. In late October, cheven and o j wrote to the governor and provincial Assembly demanding the enforcement of the voting regulations that have been passed down from Paris. Oje's letter to the Provincial Assembly of Cap Francie set the following, Gentlemen, a prejudice too long maintained is about to fall. I am charged with a commission, doubtless very

honorable to myself. I require you to promulgate throughout the colony the instructions of the National Assembly of the eighth of March, which gives, without distinction to all free citizens the right of admission to all offices and functions. My pretensions are just, and I hope you will pay due regard to them. I shall not call the plantations to rise. That means would be unworthy of me. Learn to appreciate

the merit of a man whose intention is pure. When I solicited from the National Assembly a decree which I obtained in favor of the American colonists, formerly known under the injurious epithet of men of mixed blood. I did not include in my claims the condition of the negroes who live in servitude. You and our adversaries have misrepresented my steps in order to bring me into discredit with

honorable men. No, no, gentlemen, we have put forth a claim only on behalf of a class of freemen who, for two centuries have been under the yoke of oppression. We require the execution of the decree of the eighth of March. We insist on its promulgation, and we shall not cease to repeat to our friends that our adversaries are unjust, and that they know not how to make their interests compatible with ours. Before employing my means, make

use of mildness. But if contrary to my expectation, you do not satisfy my demand, I am not cerebral for the disorder into which my just vengeance may carry me. O j and Chavan mobilized a group of free militiamen of color who went through the parish, disarming white planters. Cap Francie sent forces to attack the group, and on October j Chavan and their group of men held their ground in Grand Riviere against the larger group of colonial forces.

Before a second colonial force could make it there, O Jay's group had scattered. They had headed into the mountains, moving toward the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. They made it into Spanish territory on November six, but after a week all of the men had been arrested or turned themselves in, possibly with the hopes of being granted asylum. Instead, authorities sent them back to Cap Francai.

Oj and Chavan were interrogated in secret. O Jay claimed that his actions were only ever political and that he did not leave any of the violence. Still, Oje was neither sent to France for trial nor judged publicly. In Saint de Moon, he and Chavan were tortured and executed in public, their heads put on pikes. The execution was a brutal display of intimidation, as colonial authorities were worried that the rebels who were still at large might be

planning a revolt. But the end of o j story was not the end of rebellion in sad Monk the barbarity of the execution helped turrn ties in favor of free people of color. In May of seventeen ninety one, the French National Assembly granted some freeborn people of color the rights of voting citizens and eligibility to be seated in future assemblies. Enslaved people whom o j and many other free people of color used to associate themselves with, soon took up arms in their own fight for emancipation.

When the revolution broke out against French colonial rule and Saint de Monk, people of color were split in their support. Some resisted with enslaved people, some took the side of the white colonists, and some tried to remain neutral. But in seventeen ninety three slavery was abolished in the north of Saint de Monk, and the next year slavery was abolished in France and all of its colonies. The revolution ended in eighteen o four, with Haiti declaring independence from France.

O Jay's fight had nothing to do with freeing enslaved people in Saint Domin. He was not a revolutionary, but his death and rebellion lit a match beneath a flammable web of conflict among white planters, poor white people, French colonial authorities, free full of color landowners, and enslaved people. One person's freedom and equality are linked to that of

the next. O Jay's rebellion, execution, and the subsequent flabor bolts and revolution form a very real, very violent, very complex allegory for the idea that none of us are free until all of us are free. It is probably not worthwhile to view Vincent oh Ja as a saint of revolution, or even as a liberator for the people. O J did use his wealth and status to uplift others and sacrifice his life to win a representation and rights for a small portion of the population of black

people and san domnt wealthy freeman of color. His activism was instrumental in helping to encourage the spirit of revolution in the colony, but he was not a model rebel with a flawless vision of liberation. Maybe it's better to view o J's story and resistance as an editable template for using our specific personal talents, advantages, and powers to protest the things we are compelled to change, even when our plans are not as grand as flipping the whole

world upside down. Our producer Is, Andrew Howard, Holly Fry, and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers, and you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular