 Central to the rise of the "gens de couleur" planter class was the growing importance of coffee, which thrived on the marginal hillside plots to which they were often relegated.The largest concentration of "gens de couleur" was in the southern peninsula, the last region of the colony to be settled, owing to its distance from Atlantic shipping lanes and its formidable terrain, with the highest mountain range in the Caribbean.The outbreak of revolution in France in the summer of 1789 had a powerful effect on the colony.