Before Race Mattered: Ethnic Prejudice in the French Empire, 1635–1767

Seventeenth-century French commentators did not think of race as an immutable attribute in their early colonial encounters with non-Europeans. Instead, they generally considered ethnic difference to be fluid, and were convinced that non-Europeans could be “improved” through “civilizing” influences and evangelization. The categories of difference affecting opinion formation in this worldview included distinctions between “savagery” and “civilization,” Christianity and paganism, and the simple perception of unfamiliar physical features. This vision led French authorities to promote various policies, of cultural and social assimilation toward non-Europeans in their colonies. To date, the scope and impact of these early assimilation policies remain underestimated because the current historiography does not embrace a global perspective on French territories. This article examines the French empire in a global context, uniting both French Atlantic and Indian Ocean colonies. In this way, it shows how religious and secular officials initially attempted to “Frenchify” (franciser) and evangelize various non-European populations across the empire. It also demonstrates how, in many cases, the French even endeavored to integrate non-Europeans into French society through intermarriage, miscegenation (métissage) and naturalization. Thereafter, the article focuses on the racialization of French discourses, and colonial societies from the beginning of the eighteenth century onward. It highlights both the global scope of this phenomenon, and the factors that led to the development of race. French elites also established segregation laws, while social relations and economic structures became more clearly divided along color lines. Importantly, this racialization remained limited until the 1760s, and it did not prevent the persistence of instances of fluid interrelations. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that in the French empire, prejudices were shaped, on the one hand, by the global colonial policy of metropolitan authority and the wide circulation of ideas; and on the other, by local demographic, economic, and political factors.