The World of the Haitian Revolution

by David Patrick Geggus, Norman Fiering

Overview

In January 1804, the once wealthy colony of Saint-Domingue declared its independence from France and adopted the Amerindian name "Haiti." Independence was the outcome of the extraordinary uprising of the colony's slaves. Although a central event in the history of the French in the New World, the full significance of the revolution has yet to be realized. These essays deepen our understanding of Haiti during the period from 1791 to 1815. They consider the colony's history and material culture; its "free people of color"; the events leading up to the revolution and its violent unfolding; the political and economic fallout from the revolution; and its cultural representations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253220172
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	01/21/2009
Series:	Blacks in the Diaspora
Pages:	440
Sales rank:	866,355
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	216 - 3 Months

About the Author

David Patrick Geggus teaches history at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Among his books are Slavery, War and Revolution and Haitian Revolutionary Studies (IUP, 2003).

Norman Fiering is author of Moral Philosophy at Seventeenth-Century Harvard: A Discipline in Transition and Jonathan Edwards's Moral Thought and Its British Context. Fiering is past director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library.

Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword
Preface
Part I : Saint-Domingue on the Eve of Revolution: Politics and Economics
1. The Colony of Saint-Domingue on the Eve of Revolution David Geggus
2. Vestiges of the Built Landscape of Pre-revolutionary Saint-Domingue Jacques de Cauna
3. Saint-Domingue's Free People of Color and the Tools of Revolution John Garrigus
4. On the Road to Citizenship: The Complex Paths toward the Integration of Free People of Color in the Two Capitals of Saint-Domingue Dominique Rogers
5. Colonial Absolutism: Politics in Principle and Practice in the Old Regime Gene Ogle
Part II: Unfolding of the Slave Revolution
6. The Insurgents of 1791, their Leaders, and the Concept of Independence Yves Benot
7. Avenging America: The Politics of Violence in the Haitian Revolution Laurent Dubois
8. Fêtes de l'hymen, fêtes de la liberté: Matrimony, Emancipation, and the Creation of New Men Elizabeth Colwill
9. The Colonial Vendée Malick Ghachem
10. The Slave Revolution and the Unfolding of Independence in Saint-Domingue, 1801-1804
Part III: Reverberations Carolyn Fick
11. The French Revolution's Other Island: The Impact of Saint-Domingue on Revolutionary Politics in France Jeremy Popkin
12. Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution in Cuba, 1791-1812 Ada Ferrer
13. Exiles in the United States Ashli White
14. Free Upon Higher Ground: Saint-Domingue Slaves' Suits for Freedom in U. S. Courts, 1792-1830 Sue Peabody
15. Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution in Brazil João José Reis and Flavio Gomes
Part IV: Representations of the Revolution
16. The Specter of Saint-Domingue: The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the United States and France Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall
17. Representations of the Haitian Revolution in French Fiction Léon-François Hoffmann
18. Neo-Classicism and the Haitian Revolution Carlo Célius
Afterword
Index

What People are Saying About This

"Students of Haiti's past have seen two recent additions in English to the literature about the island's famous revolution—first the magisterial Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, by Madison Smartt Bell in 2007, (CH, Jul'07, 44-6405), and now the worthy The World of the Haitian Revolution. The latter is the fruit of a 2004 conference at the John Carter Brown Library commemorating the bicentennial of Haitian independence. Eighteen articles range from studies about Saint-Domingue on the eve of the 1791 slave insurrection to the transition from emancipation to the permanent break with France in 1804, and, finally, to the reverberations of the island's events upon other slave societies and upon fiction, the fine arts, and the craft of history. The most interesting articles question the inevitability of the Haitian Revolution, explore the French decision to treat the Haiti troubles in the same fashion as that of the peasant revolt in the Vendée, analyze the court cases for emancipation brought by Haitian exiles in the US legal system, and discuss the historic sites of revolution. Some scholars are edging toward an argument that the most important of the New World revolutions took place in the Caribbean and not on the mainland. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice"

J. A. Lewis

Students of Haiti's past have seen two recent additions in English to the literature about the island's famous revolution—first the magisterial Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, by Madison Smartt Bell in 2007, (CH, Jul'07, 44-6405), and now the worthy The World of the Haitian Revolution. The latter is the fruit of a 2004 conference at the John Carter Brown Library commemorating the bicentennial of Haitian independence. Eighteen articles range from studies about Saint-Domingue on the eve of the 1791 slave insurrection to the transition from emancipation to the permanent break with France in 1804, and, finally, to the reverberations of the island's events upon other slave societies and upon fiction, the fine arts, and the craft of history. The most interesting articles question the inevitability of the Haitian Revolution, explore the French decision to treat the Haiti troubles in the same fashion as that of the peasant revolt in the Vendée, analyze the court cases for emancipation brought by Haitian exiles in the US legal system, and discuss the historic sites of revolution. Some scholars are edging toward an argument that the most important of the New World revolutions took place in the Caribbean and not on the mainland. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice

J. A. Lewis]]>

Students of Haiti's past have seen two recent additions in English to the literature about the island's famous revolution—first the magisterial Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, by Madison Smartt Bell in 2007, (CH, Jul'07, 44-6405), and now the worthy The World of the Haitian Revolution. The latter is the fruit of a 2004 conference at the John Carter Brown Library commemorating the bicentennial of Haitian independence. Eighteen articles range from studies about Saint-Domingue on the eve of the 1791 slave insurrection to the transition from emancipation to the permanent break with France in 1804, and, finally, to the reverberations of the island's events upon other slave societies and upon fiction, the fine arts, and the craft of history. The most interesting articles question the inevitability of the Haitian Revolution, explore the French decision to treat the Haiti troubles in the same fashion as that of the peasant revolt in the Vendée, analyze the court cases for emancipation brought by Haitian exiles in the US legal system, and discuss the historic sites of revolution. Some scholars are edging toward an argument that the most important of the New World revolutions took place in the Caribbean and not on the mainland. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice

Duke University - David Barry Gaspar

Each chapter promises a major attempt at careful inquiry into complex issues, and each contributor is a recognized scholar of the Haitian Revolution and connected fields of scholarly inquiry. The volume brings a wide range of angles of vision and approaches to the revolution and its place in world history.

Editorial Reviews

"Students of Haiti's past have seen two recent additions in English to the literature about the island's famous revolution—first the magisterial Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, by Madison Smartt Bell in 2007, (CH, Jul'07, 44-6405), and now the worthy The World of the Haitian Revolution. The latter is the fruit of a 2004 conference at the John Carter Brown Library commemorating the bicentennial of Haitian independence. Eighteen articles range from studies about Saint-Domingue on the eve of the 1791 slave insurrection to the transition from emancipation to the permanent break with France in 1804, and, finally, to the reverberations of the island's events upon other slave societies and upon fiction, the fine arts, and the craft of history. The most interesting articles question the inevitability of the Haitian Revolution, explore the French decision to treat the Haiti troubles in the same fashion as that of the peasant revolt in the Vendée, analyze the court cases for emancipation brought by Haitian exiles in the US legal system, and discuss the historic sites of revolution. Some scholars are edging toward an argument that the most important of the New World revolutions took place in the Caribbean and not on the mainland. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice"—J. A. Lewis, Western Carolina University, January 2010

"[A] rich sample of recent work on colonial and revolutionary Haiti, and on the revolution's impact in the broader Atlantic world, in a format both accessible to a wide academic audience and of import and interest to specialists.vol. 85 no. 1 & 2 (2011)"—New West Indian Guide

"Eighteen articles range from studies about Saint-Domingue on the eve of the 1791 slave insurrection to the transition from emancipation to the permanent break with France in 1804, and, finally, to the reverberations of the island's events upon other slave societies and upon fiction, the fine arts, and the craft of history. . . . Highly recommendedJanuary 2010"—Choice

"Each chapter promises a major attempt at careful inquiry into complex issues, and each contributor is a recognized scholar of the Haitian Revolution and connected fields of scholarly inquiry. The volume brings a wide range of angles of vision and approaches to the revolution and its place in world history."—David Barry Gaspar, Duke University

From the Publisher

Eighteen articles range from studies about Saint-Domingue on the eve of the 1791 slave insurrection to the transition from emancipation to the permanent break with France in 1804, and, finally, to the reverberations of the island's events upon other slave societies and upon fiction, the fine arts, and the craft of history. . . . Highly recommendedJanuary 2010

Choice

[A] rich sample of recent work on colonial and revolutionary Haiti, and on the revolution's impact in the broader Atlantic world, in a format both accessible to a wide academic audience and of import and interest to specialists.vol. 85 no. 1 & 2 (2011)

New West Indian Guide

Students of Haiti's past have seen two recent additions in English to the literature about the island's famous revolution—first the magisterial Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, by Madison Smartt Bell in 2007, (CH, Jul'07, 44-6405), and now the worthy The World of the Haitian Revolution. The latter is the fruit of a 2004 conference at the John Carter Brown Library commemorating the bicentennial of Haitian independence. Eighteen articles range from studies about Saint-Domingue on the eve of the 1791 slave insurrection to the transition from emancipation to the permanent break with France in 1804, and, finally, to the reverberations of the island's events upon other slave societies and upon fiction, the fine arts, and the craft of history. The most interesting articles question the inevitability of the Haitian Revolution, explore the French decision to treat the Haiti troubles in the same fashion as that of the peasant revolt in the Vendée, analyze the court cases for emancipation brought by Haitian exiles in the US legal system, and discuss the historic sites of revolution. Some scholars are edging toward an argument that the most important of the New World revolutions took place in the Caribbean and not on the mainland. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — Choice

J. A. Lewis

"Each chapter promises a major attempt at careful inquiry into complex issues, and each contributor is a recognized scholar of the Haitian Revolution and connected fields of scholarly inquiry. The volume brings a wide range of angles of vision and approaches to the revolution and its place in world history." —David Barry Gaspar, Duke University

David Barry Gaspar