Music, Pantomime & Freedom in Enlightenment France

Abstract

sources, valuable insights can be gained from missionaries who directly engaged with enslaved populations. For Jesuits, this occurs from what should be considered a global perspective, and Mongin in particular exhibits a wider awareness of the Caribbean and France, as someone educated in the Jesuit system should. At the same time, the stereotypes regarding race, gender and nationality that appear in these letters must be seen as the product of that time period, but as long as such biases are acknowledged, these letters are valuable sources for studying French Caribbean plantations.