A truly legendary name in Haitian history, Minette, was freed woman of African descent or an Affranchi. Minette et Lise (her sister) broke through staggering racial barriers of the late 16th century to become a star performers on the colonial stage. Minette et Lise fought to find both their artistic and a political voices, using their story as a bridge to cross over and examine all encompassing questions about politics, art, sexuality, and revolutionary change.
Minette and Lise were born in Port–au–Prince in Saint Domingue in the affranchi community. Their father was white, and their mother an affranchi of African origin. The word affranchi in Haiti and other French Caribbean colonies was a term used specifically for an emancipated slave. The white colonizers generally used the word for all free people of color (gens de couleur libre). Most of those were mulattoes, or of mixed race, and some were born free. The word has its roots in the French word for emancipation – “affranchisement“, or enfranchisement.
The sisters were discovered by Madame Acquarie, an actress and singer of the Port–au–Prince Theatre, who offered them lessons in acting, which they accepted. In 1780, they debuted in the ballet la Danse sur le Volcan. However, Minette was also a talented vocalist, and on Christmas Day in 1780, they were contracted at the theatre by François Saint–Martin.
Because of her race, Minette’s very presence onstage was always risky and her voice was constantly weaponized. In 1780, Minette performed onstage for the first time. Haitian author Marie Vieux-Chauvet in the novel Amour, colère et folie , dramatized the scene of Minette’s debut by imagining the terror the young girl must have felt as she stared out at the crowd: with rows and rows of white faces looking up at her, expecting to be entertained. And when the violin struck its first chord, Minette opened her mouth but no sound came out.
Then, Minette looked up, high into the box seats, which in the segregated theater were reserved for people of color. “Jammed together and piled on top of one another,” Vieux-Chauvet writes, “they seemed attached to each other in an immense solidarity that suddenly revealed itself to her. They were waiting, too. There was something so distressing in their eyes it made her want to scream.” And when Minette saw them, a “series of images unfurled in her memory at a dizzying pace” – of her people being whipped, the terrifying sound of lashes, and finally the empowering voice of a friend telling her that now her voice had become her weapon. So when the violin hit the opening note for a third time, “her voice rang out, crystal clear, warm and so full that a long murmur of admiration ran through the audience.” In that moment, Minette understood why she sang, because she was called to show her humanity and be a beacon of hope and liberation for her people. And by February of 1781, Minette performed as Isabelle in the Opera Isabelle et Gertrude.
Although Saint Domingue was a known slave society, it was not forbidden for non–whites to work on the stage. Minette became quite famous; as she rivaled the French singer, Jeanne-Marie Marsan la Blanche, who was considered the creme de la creme of Cap Haitian. Many in colonial Haiti criticized Francois Saint–Martin for degrading art by hiring performers of African descent.
Minette’s career attracted envy and gossip; ore likely provoked by her luxurious costumes. Minette and Lise sang in concerts and operas during the 1780s, among them Sylvain, Zémire et Azor, Aucassin et Nicolette, L’Amant jaloux and La caravane du Caire. Lise was not as successful as Minette, but had a good career touring the theatres of Port–au–Prince, Léogâne, Cayes and Saint–Marc after a break through performance in Cayes in 1784.
The sisters were the most popular non–white actors before the revolution. They were also among the first non–white actors on stage. Sadly Minette et Lise were both killed in 1789 during the first revolt in Haiti before the Haitian revolution of 1791.
French colonial Saint–Domingue (now Haiti) had three social classes that arose out of the institution of slavery: French planters; affranchis, a small elite class of mixed race, some of whom became landowners and slaveholders in turn; and enslaved Africans. The affranchis were usually light–skinned (mulattoes) free persons of color, often the offspring of white French slaveholders and enslaved African women whom they took for mistresses and who had their children.
There were tensions with both whites and enslaved Africans. Many whites used “affranchis” for all free people of color, although it specifically meant “ex–slave“, so referred to free Africans rather than mulattoes. The institution of slavery confused ideas about status and race. Ambitious mulattoes sometimes distanced themselves from their African roots in an attempt to gain acceptance from the white colonists. As they advanced in society, “affranchis” also held land and slaves. Some acted as creditors for planters. One of their leaders, the indigo planter Julien Raimond, claimed the “affranchis” owned a third of all the slaves in the colony. Many were committed to maintaining slavery in the early years of the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution.
After the Haitian Revolution and years of disruption, most of the planters left. The society evolved into the “affranchis” and the masses of former slaves.
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