ABSTRACT
Philanthropy in eighteenth-century France and colonial Haiti was paternalistic and racialized. In nearly all cases, philanthropists were prominent white males who decided who was worthy of their aid and assumed that those in need wanted their assistance. Eighteenth-century French philanthropy was a paternalistic force that partially motivated revolutionary politics. In France and colonial Haiti, philanthropists worked to end slavery and achieve racial equality, but they rarely asked peoples of African descent if they wanted their help or how they envisioned the future of the colony. Eighteenth-century philanthropists formed organizations to coordinate and carry out their bienfaisance on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This chapter examines three such philanthropic organizations in France and colonial Haiti. Eighteenth-century bienfaisance also came in the form of public instruction in France and colonial Haiti. The chapter focuses on several late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century schools opened by paternalistic philanthropists for poor children and people of African descent on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
