People / group
Affranchi
Affranchi was a French legal term for a freedman or emancipated slave, also used pejoratively for free people of color; in English it names the class of freedmen in Saint-Domingue and other slave-holding French territories, whose legal rights stood between those of free whites and enslaved Africans. Affranchis could get some education and own land, and many owned slaves: the indigo planter Julien Raimond claimed they held a third of the colony's slaves. Colonial laws barred them from voting, administrative posts and careers as doctors or lawyers. A 1791 court decision in their favour provoked a backlash from white planters that helped bring on the Haitian Revolution.
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Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Affranchi. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/affranchi
- MLA
- “Affranchi.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/affranchi. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Affranchi.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/affranchi.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Affranchi’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/affranchi (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻