Scene 3:
Silver Sugar and Indigo
Mirroring events in France, French colonies in the Caibbean, especially Santo Domingo, erupt. Planters and landowners try to wrest power from the royal governors, and ordinary mulattos rise in revolt. In France members of the National Assembly (Robespierre, Brissot, and Condorcet) call for the emancipation of slaves. This is affirmed by the Ringmaster, the Chorus, a Revolutionary Slave, Marie Marianne, and Condorcet. There is, as always, opposition to this measure. The profit motive oils the wheels of commerce and misdirects mankind’s finest and wisest impulses, generating shame and misery in their place. The outrage of slavery, both Marie Marianne and Condorcet agree, must be abandoned for all time.
TROUBLEMAKER
How can you sleep?
How can you think?
How can you live with no coffee to drink?
You’d better pray you don’t have a sweet tooth
The price of sugar is through the roof
Robespierre, Brissot and Condorcet all agree
We must set the blackbird free
But sugar and silver and indigo make even the wisest man "idiot!"
