This article aims to analyze and determine to what extent contemporary sociological theories allow us to understand the mechanisms of domination used during the period of slavery (17th-19th centuries) in the French Caribbean. Following the recent literature on slavery, which concentrate on a qualitative or quantitative description of the slave trade, our aim is to merge the analysis of politics and society to contribute to the debate on the functioning and organization of power relations in the context of slavery. We show that the phenomenon has edges that make it more complex to understand, so that an interdisciplinary observation is necessary.