Gens de couleur is a French term meaning "people of color." The term was commonly used in France's West Indian colonies prior to the abolition of slavery, where it was a short form of gens de couleur libres ("free people of color").
Prior to the Haitian Revolution, Saint-Domingue was legally divided into three distinct groups: free whites (who were divided socially between the plantation-class grands blancs and the working-class petits blancs), freedmen (affranchis), and slaves. In addition, marrons (runaway slaves) were sometimes able to establish small communities in the mountains, along with remnants of Haiti's original Taino people.
After slavery ended in the colony, there were approximately 28,000 anciens libres ("free before") in Haiti. The term was used to distinguish those who were already free, compared to those liberated by the general emancipation of 1793. About 12,000 of these anciens libres were black slaves who had either purchased their freedom or had received it from their masters for one reason or another. Those remaining were the free people of color: métis ("people of mixed race"), usually born of French men and slave women. These free men were known as gens de couleur libres to distinguish them both from the former black freedmen and those mulattos who had remained slaves.
Regardless of their color, freedmen could own plantations and often owned large numbers of slaves themselves. The slaves were generally not friendly with the freedmen, who sometimes portrayed themselves as bulwarks against a slave uprising. As property owners themselves, freedmen sought very distinct lines set between their own class and that of slaves. Often working as artisans, shopkeepers or landowners, the gens de couleur frequently became quite prosperous, and many prided themselves on their European culture and descent. They were often well-educated in the French language, as distinct from the scorned Haitian Creole language used by slaves. Most gens de couleur were Roman Catholic, and many denounced the Vodoun religion originating in Africa.
Under the ancien régime, despite the provisions of equality nominally established in the Code Noir, the gens de couleur were limited in their freedoms and did not possess the same rights as white Frenchmen. Nevertheless most were pro-slavery, at least up to the time of the French Revolution. Equal rights for free people of color became an early central issue of the Haitian Revolution, although the struggle within Haiti between the gens de couleur led by Julien Raimond and the black Haitians led by Toussaint Louverture devolved into the War of the Knives.
After their loss in that conflict, many wealthy gens de couleur left as refugees to France, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Louisiana, Florida and elsewhere. Others, however, remained to play an influential role in Haitian politics.