Burning Flesh in the French Empire by Wyatt Wiggins

This episode of The French History Podcast explores the brutal yet systematic use of branding in the French Empire during the 18th century, focusing on how the French state and colonial planters used hot iron marks to physically inscribe ownership and control over enslaved people in Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti). Through archival evidence, including a 1763 letter from French commercial agent Bertrand Duvernay, the episode reveals how branding was not merely a tool of slavery but a sophisticated mechanism of surveillance and imperial administration. The branding of runaway slaves by Spanish authorities in neighboring Santo Domingo created a geopolitical crisis, as it undermined French property claims and exposed the fragility of colonial control. The episode traces how these bodily marks functioned as early biometric records, linking paper-based bureaucracy with the physical body, and how resistance—through erasure using cashew nut juice or repeated escape—challenged this system. Ultimately, the brand symbolized both the state’s desire for control and the enduring resilience of the human spirit, culminating in the Haitian Revolution, where the soul value of enslaved people could not be erased by any iron or ledger.