Oxford Bibliographies Your Best Research Starts Here The Haitian Revolution Marie-Jeanne Rossignol Wi YAR yop LAST REVIEWED: 06 FEBRUARY 2020 5 Wit \ cal | LAST MODIFIED: 10 MAY 2010 #4 Via : PS 1 con ‘ I DOI: 10.1093/0B0/9780199730414-0030 Introduction The Haitian Revolution has continually triggered scholarly (and literary) interest since its inception, thanks to its unique blend of racial, international, and political factors. But it has remained largely peripheral to distinctive historical narratives. In particular, Saint-Domingue and Haiti are interwoven with the narrative of the French Revolution, to which they were closely connected, in the literature until the end of the 20th century. Aside from a few precursors, increased attention to the Haitian Revolution emerged only with the commemoration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989. Yet it was the coming of the bicentennial of Haiti's independence in 2004 that inspired numerous authors on both sides of the Atlantic to scrutinize the topic. On the French side, scholarly production mainly consisted of collections of essays connected to commemorative conferences. French Caribbean scholars based in Martinique and Guadeloupe also contributed to this considerable effort, together with Haitian scholars, for whom, of course, the revolution was a foundational event. On the American side, the production of collections of essays accompanied the publication of major monographs. Recent North American interest in Haiti can be linked to the development of the Atlantic paradigm, which has induced younger writers to focus on a non-British Atlantic. On both sides of the Atlantic and in the Caribbean, new research on Haiti is linked to the dominant historiographical question of slavery (in all its dimensions, social, political, and cultural), together with rising sensitivity to questions of hybridity, creolization, and colonial and postcolonial discussions in literature, philosophy, and cultural studies. Far from remaining peripheral, the Haitian Revolution has thus rapidly moved to the center of historical attention. It remains a vivid symbol of black resistance and identity for contemporary Haiti, the Caribbean, and beyond, which explains why a number of authors on the revolution (mainly in French) are also novelists, playwrights, poets, journalists, or philosophers. General Overviews The Haitian Revolution has been studied as a pivotal moment in the history of emancipation (Blackburn 1988) or the international class struggle (James 1938). Fick 1990 argues that the role of the black masses in triggering the insurrection is an essential component of the narratives. Dubois 2004 studies the Haitian Revolution in its complexity, employing both primary and secondary sources. Blackburn, Robin. The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776—1848. New York: Verso, 1988. A Marxist interpretation of the abolition of slavery in the Western world, with the Haitian Revolution as a central element, in support of the idea that the enslaved played a crucial role in the history of emancipation. Blackburn opposes Eric Williams’s thesis to contend that slavery was abolished mainly for political reasons. Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Relying on secondary and published sources as well as primary sources, this narrative has been translated into French and is considered the most compelling synthetic account. It is an excellent introduction to the complex questions raised by the Saint-Domingue insurrection and the successful revolution that ensued. Graduate students will greatly benefit from its erudite yet balanced coverage. Fick, Carolyn. The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution from Below. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990. Fick focuses on the role of black masses in the revolution, seeing continuity between prerevolutionary marronage and black resistance after 1791, with a strong emphasis on events in the traditionally neglected southern part of Saint-Domingue and on voodoo. James, C. L. R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution. London: Secker and Warburg,1938. This narrative by a radical Marxist activist from Trinidad was the classic treatment of the subject until Fick 1990 and Dubois 2004. James insists on the connection between French revolutionary principles and the revolution in Saint-Domingue, then Haiti, and on the role of the masses. Sees the revolution as part of the international class struggle. Reprinted in 1963 (New York: Vintage). The Louverture Project. A free Haitian history resource that follows the format of Wikipedia. This site also contains source material. Anthologies The collections of Fiering and Geggus 2008 and Geggus 2002 testify to the vitality of recent Haitian revolutionary studies, covering many facets and offering rich new interpretations. More general presentations that may serve as useful introductions appear in Geggus 1989, Knight 1997, and Knight 2000. Fiering, Norman, and David P. Geggus, eds. The World of the Haitian Revolution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. These contributions by major specialists (French, Caribbean, North American, and Brazilian) derive from a 2004 conference held at the John Carter Brown Library. They cover the social and economic situation of the colony on the eve of the revolution, analyze the insurrection and its repercussions, and examine its representations. Geggus, David P. “The Haitian Revolution.” In The Modern Caribbean. Edited by Franklin W. Knight and Colin A. Palmer, 21-50. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. A presentation by one current expert. Geggus, David P. Haitian Revolutionary Studies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. In this collection of previously published essays, one prominent scholar in the field looks at the Haitian Revolution from the point of view of historiography rather than that of ideological factors, and insists on the complexity of the event. Neither was the influence of French revolutionary ideology dominant, nor was the inspiration of voodoo and Africa central. Covers the origins, unfolding, and repercussions of the event. Knight, Franklin W. “The Haitian Revolution.” American Historical Review 105 (2000): 103-115. A brief introduction that stresses the Atlantic intellectual and revolutionary context of the Haitian Revolution as well as economic and demographic dimensions, with a brief chronology and a study of its repercussions. Available online. Knight, Franklin W., ed. General History of the Caribbean. Vol. 3, The Slave Societies of the Caribbean. London and Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Education, 1997. Covers a long period: the 18th century until emancipation in the mid-19th century. Chapters by major scholars on social, cultural, and economic dimensions in the slave societies, including “Disintegration of the Caribbean Slave Systems, 1772-1886.” Textbooks Some of the histories mentioned under General Overviews and Anthologies would certainly work as textbooks for advanced students, but there are few textbooks for undergraduates apart from Dubois and Garrigus 2006. Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. This brief history effectively combines a narrative of the successful insurrection in Saint-Domingue with 150 pages of key documents translated into English and a chronology. Early Histories The Haitian Revolution was immediately perceived as a major event of broad international significance, which caused numerous authors to pen early histories, mainly in French and English. Early Histories in French Many early histories of the revolution (based on oral testimonies and printed documents) are available in print owing to the event's centrality in the history of Haiti, as well as to the recent renewed interest in the history of the French empire in the Caribbean and slavery in both France and the United States. Most of these early histories reflect their authors’ ideological prejudices: Ardouin 1853-1860 and Madiou 1847-1848 wrote a national and heroic narrative, while Mollien 2006 was critical of the revolution, and Métral 1825 tried to be impartial. Schoelcher 1982 strongly supported Toussaint Louverture. Ardouin, Beaubrun. Etudes sur I’histoire d’Haiti. 11 vols. Paris: Dézobry et E. Madeleine, 1853-1860. Together with Madiou 1847-1848, an essential reference for graduate students. Covers the Haitian Revolution and the first forty years of post-independence Haiti. Reprinted in 1958 (Port-au-Prince, Haiti: F. Danencour). Madiou, Thomas. Histoire d’Haiti. Port-au-Prince, Haiti: J. Courtois, 1847-1848. Together with Ardouin 1853-1860, Madiou laid the basis for early Haitian historiography, the history of the insurrection to the gaining of independence, and the history of the first leaders of the new nation. Reprinted in 1987-1991 (Port-au-Prince, Haiti: H. Deschamps). Métral, Antoine. Histoire de Il’expédition des Frangais a Saint-Domingue sous le consulat de Napoléon Bonaparte (1802-1803): Suivie des Mémoires et Notes d’Isaac Louverture. Paris: Fanjat ainé, 1825. Métral was not a witness and wrote this history from a variety of sources, including some of Leclerc’s letters and General Pamphile de Lacroix’s recently published memoirs. After a first edition in 1818, Isaac Louverture, son of Toussaint, sent him his own memoirs on the Leclerc expedition, which were included in the 1825 edition. Reprinted with an introduction by J. Adelaide-Merlande (Paris: Karthala, 1985). Mollien, Gaspard Théodore. Haiti ou Saint-Domingue. 2 vols. Paris: LHarmattan, 2006. Mollien was a French consul in Haiti between 1824 and 1831 who left a manuscript on the history of Haiti. Mollien relied on oral sources as well as on a number of published sources, such as Isaac Louverture’s Notes. But he voices his colonial nostalgia and barely disguised racism while he dismisses the genuine urge for freedom in the servile population. He has no admiration for Toussaint or any other independence leader, but still manages vividly to paint the first decades of the first black republic. Schoelcher, Victor. Vie de Toussaint Louverture. Paris: Karthala, 1982. Originally published in 1889. The author is intent on showing that slavery debased men, and on praising black heroes. However, Schoelcher (who was the agent of the 1848 abolition of slavery in French colonies) exposes the contradictions of Louverture as both a liberator and a despot. He viewed Toussaint as a republican while downplaying his interest in independence. To Adelaide-Merlande, Schoelcher painted Toussaint as the precursor of all subsequent decolonizing movements in the Americas. Early Histories in English Mainly as a result of the British expedition to Saint-Domingue, the Haitian Revolution found early interpreters in English. Edwards 1801 is a conservative account, while Rainsford 1805 denounces French violence in the Leclerc expedition. Edwards, Bryan. The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. 3d ed. 3 vols. London: John Stockdale, 1801. Volume 3 is titled An Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of St. Domingo: Comprehending An Account of the Revolt of the Negroes in the Year 1791 and A Detail of the Military Transactions of the British Army in That Island, in the Years 1793 and 1794. This narrative enjoyed considerable success, but Edwards’s account is unreliable because he sees the rebels as savages and blames the 1791 decree establishing equal rights for free nonwhites for inciting the insurrection. Rainsford, Marcus. An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti, Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint Domingo; with Its Ancient and Modern State. London: Albion, 1805. Famous for its striking iconography of French violence on the black insurgents, and of the latter’s bloody retaliation. Contains maps plus a number of documents as appendices. Marcus Rainsford was a captain in the Third West India regiment. Expressing his antislavery convictions, Rainsford bludgeons the Saint-Domingue planter aristocracy and expresses his admiration for Toussaint. Journals Because Haiti is at the crossroads of many scholarly fields and geographical regions, papers on the Haitian Revolution can be found in journals dealing with Latin America (Hispanic American Historical Review, Latin American Research Review), French colonial studies (Outre-Mers: Revue d’histoire, French Colonial History), the Caribbean and Haiti itself (Caribbean Studies, Journal of Haitian Studies, Revue de la Société Haitienne d’Histoire, de Géographie) as well as in other prominent history journals, in France and elsewhere. Because the Haitian Revolution is so central to the history of slavery and emancipation in the Americas and the Western world, it is also regularly covered in specialist journals such as Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies or Cahiers des Anneaux de la Mémoire: Europe, Afrique, Amériques. Cahiers des Anneaux de la Mémoire: Europe, Afrique, Amériques. Published since 1999 by UNESCO. An annual interdisciplinary journal with a focus on the slave trade and relationships between Europe and the Americas. The 2004 issue was devoted to Haiti. Caribbean Studies. This biannual, multidisciplinary journal has been published by the University of Puerto Rico since 1981. Contains articles in three languages and covers the entire Caribbean area. Addresses Haitian history thoroughly. French Colonial History. An annual journal (started in 2003) covering all facets of French colonization history. Articles need not have been presented at the annual conference of the French Colonial Historical Society. Hispanic American Historical Review. An interdisciplinary journal founded in 1918 and currently published quarterly by Duke University Press. Includes articles in Spanish and Portuguese. Journal of Haitian Studies. An interdisciplinary biannual journal published by the Center of Black Studies at the University of Santa Barbara. Begun in 1995, it is the official publication of the Haitian Studies Association and contains contributions in four languages, including a number of articles on the Haitian Revolution. Volume 10, no. 1 (2004) is a special bicentennial issue on history and politics. Latin American Research Review. The interdisciplinary journal of the Latin American Studies Association, founded in 1965 and published three times a year. Also includes articles in Spanish and Portuguese. Outre-Mers: Revue d’histoire. This journal, founded in 1913, was titled Revue d’Histoire d’Outre-mer until recently and is the official journal of the Société d’Histoire d’Outre-mer. The journal covers all geographical areas that were part of the former French empire at some stage, and publishes articles on the French empire from the earliest moments of colonization to decolonization and its aftermath. Revue de la Société Haitienne d’Histoire, de Géographie. A major scholarly journal based in Haiti and published since 1921. Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies. Originally subtitled A Journal of Comparative Studies, this publication, founded in 1980, has been a testimony to the vibrancy of its field in the past three decades. It is focused mainly on the British colonial empire but does contain contributions on Saint-Domingue and the Haitian Revolution. Primary Sources There is a wealth of primary source documents on Saint-Domingue, from naturalists’ reports to soldiers’ memoirs and personal correspondence, the most valuable of which are in French and English. Personal Accounts, Narratives, and Correspondence in French Aware of the magnitude of the event, witnesses (Descourtilz 2009, McIntosh and Weber 1959), soldiers involved in the fighting (Laurent 1953), and participants in and survivors from the Leclerc expedition (Lacroix 1995, Peyre-Ferry 2006, Roussier 1937) published their memoirs or correspondence in the wake of the loss of Saint-Domingue. St. Méry 2004 is unique in its thorough description of the island. Descourtilz, Michel-Etienne. Un naturaliste en Haiti, aux c6tés de Toussaint-Louverture. Paris: Editions Cartouche, 2009. Much against his will, Descourtilz served as a doctor in Toussaint Louverture’s army and narrates events during the Leclerc expedition from the unique perspective of a white captive among black troops. Descourtilz is very critical of the black revolutionaries and supports the reconquest of the former colony. Originally published as Voyage d’un naturaliste, et ses observations (3 vols., Paris, Dufart: 1809). Lacroix, Joseph-Frangois Pamphile de. La Révolution de Haiti. Edited by Pierre Pluchon. Paris: Karthala, 1995. A lieutenant general who took part in the Leclerc expedition, Pamphile de Lacroix wrote Mémoires pour servir a I’histoire de la Révolution de Saint-Domingue in 1819. A second edition was released in 1820. A balanced and well-informed account. Laurent, Gérard. Toussaint Louverture a travers sa correspondance, 1794—1798. Madrid, Spain: Industrias Graficas Espana, 1953. Provides accounts from soldiers involved in the fighting. Mcintosh, M. E., and B. C. Weber, eds. Une correspondance familiale au temps des troubles de Saint-Domingue; lettres du marquis et de la marquise de Rouvray a leur fille, Saint-Domingue—Etats-Unis, 1791-1796. Paris: Société de I’histoire des colonies frangaises, 1959. Provides eyewitness accounts of the events of the revolution. Peyre-Ferry, Joseph-Elysée. Journal des opérations militaires de l’armée frangaise a Saint-Domingue 1802-1803, sous les ordres des capitaines-généraux Leclerc et Rochambeau. Paris: Editions de Paris, 2006. Captain Peyre-Ferry spent fourteen months as a member of the French expeditionary corps. On his return, he compiled his notes with other survivors’ testimonies but started drafting the final manuscript only in 1830. Peyre-Ferry reveals the failures of the expedition, exposes the horrors carried out on both sides, and sometimes even shows understanding for the motivations of the rebels and admiration for Toussaint. Roussier, Paul, ed. Lettres du général Leclerc, commandant en chef de l’armée de Saint-Domingue en 1802. Paris: Société dhistoire coloniale, 1937. The correspondence of the leader of the 1802 expedition. St. Méry, Louis-Elie Moreau de. Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie frangaise de la partie frangaise de Il’isle de Saint-Domingue. 3d ed. 3 vols. Paris: Publications de la Société frangaise d’histoire d’outre-mer, 2004. This recent edition also contains a biography by Blanche Maurel. An erudite testimony on prerevolutionary Saint-Domingue by a pro-slavery planter from Martinique. Originally published in 1796 (available online) in Philadelphia when Moreau was a refugee and bookstore owner, it remains an invaluable document on the social, racial, and economic organization of the colony. Moreau’s classification of the races in the colony in 128 groups is noteworthy as it evinces his deeply held racism. Personal Accounts, Narratives, and Correspondence in English Owing to the British and American involvement in the Saint-Domingue events, a number of personal testimonies are available in English (Buckley 1985, Louverture and Stevens 1910), while others have been translated from French (Puech Parham 1959, Popkin 2007). Buckley, Roger Normann, ed. The Haitian Journal of Lieutenant Howard, York Hussars, 1796-1798. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985. One of the few firsthand testimonies in English, mainly focusing on the doomed British expedition to Saint-Domingue, and with occasional reflections on plantation slavery. The journal reflects British arrogance and incompetence in the face of successful guerilla warfare waged by the rebellious ex-slaves, as well as the dreadful loss of lives caused by tropical diseases. Louverture, Toussaint, and Edward Stevens. “Letters of Toussaint Louverture, and Edward Stevens, 1798-1800.” American Historical Review 16.1 (1910): 64-101. During the quasi-war with France, the Federalist US government of John Adams came close to recognizing Toussaint’s regime and dealt with him directly. These letters testify to these diplomatic relations. Popkin, Jeremy, ed. Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. The sixteen personal narratives in this collection, mainly by refugees who fled to North America, offer views on major actors in the Haitian Revolution, but also on battle tactics and other dimensions. Puech Parham, Althea de, trans. and ed. My Odyssey: Experiences of a Young Refugee from Two Revolutions, by a Creole of Saint-Domingue. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. Fleeing the French Revolution, the sixteen-year-old author and his family went to Saint-Domingue in 1791, where they became entangled in the revolutionary events there, crisscrossing the Atlantic to the United States in the 1790s. A personal account by a participant who took part in the fighting on the planters’ side. Haiti Before the Revolution, Saint-Domingue As discussed in Cauna 1987, Saint-Domingue was the most profitable colony in the Caribbean, and indeed the most profitable of all French possessions. Its slave population was also the largest in the region (Debien 1974). Frostin 1975 points out that its colonists developed a reputation as restive against state power, but they also took part in a sophisticated colonial Enlightenment, as detailed in McClellan 1992, Fouchard 1955, and Camier and Dubois 2007. In the wake of the American Revolution, white French settlers hoped to gain more political and racial autonomy when the French Revolution broke out, but, as Fouchard 1972 discusses, slaves had developed their own culture of resistance to counter them. Camier, Bernard, and Laurent Dubois. “Voltaire et Zaire, ou le théatre des Lumiéres dans l’aire atlantique frangaise.” Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine 54.4 (2007): 39-69. Building on Jean Fouchard’s work, the authors contend that the theater spread Enlightenment ideas in Saint-Domingue to free people of color, but also perhaps to slaves. Cauna, Jacques de. Au temps des isles a sucre: Histoire d’une plantation de Saint-Domingue au XVIlilé siécle. Paris: Karthala, 1987. Aclassic, thorough study of one Saint-Domingue plantation (Fleuriau), giving keen insight into the making and workings of this wealthy colony in all its dimensions (economic, social, and racial). Debien, Gabriel. Les esclaves aux Antilles frangaises (XVIlé-XVlllé siécles). Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe: Société d’histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1974. A book centered on Saint-Domingue and based on the rich documents of plantations. Covers slave life in extraordinary detail (origin, food, health, resistance, and private emancipations). Fouchard, Jean. Le théatre a Saint-Domingue. Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Imprimerie de PEtat, 1955. By a Haitian scholar and intellectual, this pioneering study revealed the busy cultural life of this wealthy slave society, pointing to the roles free people of color also played on the stage. Fouchard, Jean. Les marrons de Ia liberté. Paris: Editions de ’Ecole, 1972. Deals with the question of runaway slaves in colonial Saint-Domingue. Concludes that the methods of the Saint-Domingue insurrection and later the war against Leclerc were inspired by the tactics of the marrons. English translation, The Haitian Maroons: Liberty or Death (New York: Edward Blyden, 1981). Frostin, Charles. Les révoltes blanches a Saint-Domingue aux XVIlé et XVIllé siécles. Rennes, France: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1975. Classic study of white protest in Saint-Domingue. Whites regularly contested state power there from the start of French colonial rule in a constant search for more autonomy and greater freedom to trade with North America. The book sets these conflicts within a broader context (the rest of the Caribbean and North America) and shows the connection between this spirit of unrest and the start of black insurrection in 1791. Reprinted in 2008. McClellan, James E. Ill. Colonialism and Science: Saint-Domingue in the Old Regime. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Focuses on how science and colonization were closely entangled in Saint-Domingue. Beyond various scientific activities, Saint-Domingue hosted a scientific society that published books and was affiliated with the Académie des Sciences in Paris. The French Revolution, Colonialism, and Slavery in the Caribbean Although antislavery was not originally high on the agenda of the French Revolution, a number of French revolutionaries did struggle for equal rights for all; their efforts are discussed in Bénot 2004, which argues that the antislavery component in the French Revolution was genuine and that the French and the Haitian Revolutions did converge around the 1794 abolition of slavery, but that Robespierre and most of the revolutionary left were far less progressive on this issue than Mirabeau, Grégoire, or Brissot. Opposing the powerful colonists’ lobby, the Club Massiac, was an uphill task (Debien 1953), yet the French Revolution did progressively commit itself to abolition (Piquet 2002, Wanquet 1998). However, as described by Dubois 2004, French republican equality had its limitations, plaguing France even into the present day. Rebellious Saint-Domingue blacks liberated themselves to a great extent and brought the issue to the forefront of French revolutionary debate (Fick 1997), with France being the first Western power to abolish slavery in its colonies (4 February 1794). The repercussions of the French Revolution were felt all around the Caribbean, and are best described in Gaspar and Geggus 1997. Bénot, Yves. La révolution frangaise et la fin des colonies 1789-1794. 2d ed. Paris: La Découverte, 2004. Includes a chronology and documents, as well as a very useful index with short biographies of major figures. The anticolonial activist Bénot was one of the first French authors to call for renewed interest in the history of French colonialism, slavery, abolition, and the Saint- Domingue insurrection. Originally published in 1987. Debien, Gabriel. Les colons de Saint-Domingue et la Révolution: Essai sur le Club Massiac. Paris: Armand Colin, 1953. One of the first scholarly publications to call attention to the colonial question as a central element in the French Revolution. The book describes the Club Massiac, an influential lobby of colonial planters, determined to maintain their social, racial, and economic privileges in the colonies, and to prevent the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. One of their main goals was to thwart free mulattos’ attempts to gain equal rights. Dubois, Laurent. A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Centering on the Victor Hugues expedition to Guadeloupe, this remarkable book provides a reflection on French republicanism and its limitations, then and now. The French Republic mandated the emancipation in Guadeloupe, but its leadership was convinced that ex-slaves could not immediately be granted full equal rights. Fick, Caroline R. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” In A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean. Edited by Gaspar, David Barry and David P. Geggus, 51-75. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1997. Caribbean slaves had high expectations in the revolutionary age. Although the French abolition of slavery on Saint-Domingue in August 1793 was the result of military and political circumstances, the French Revolution could but embrace the decision. Yet only the ex-slaves would hold on firmly to their newly acquired rights. Gaspar, David Barry, and David P. Geggus, eds. A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1997. Includes contributions by specialists on the Haitian Revolution such as Carolyn R. Fick and was one of the first books to focus on consequences of the French Revolution and revolutionary wars in the Caribbean, stressing a convergence between slave resistance and European-born ideological currents. Hector, Michel, ed. La révolution frangaise et Haiti: Filiations, ruptures, nouvelles dimensions. 2 vols. Edited by H. Deschamps. Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Société Haitienne d’Histoire et de Géographie et, 1995. Collects essays presented in 1988 in Port-au-Prince, opening new vistas on the relationships between the French and the Haitian Revolutions. Piquet, Jean-Daniel. L’émancipation des Noirs dans la Révolution frangaise (1789-1795). Paris: Karthala, 2002. Piquet shows that the ratification of Sonthonax’s decision by the French Assembly on 4 February 1794 reflected the deep ideological commitment of French revolutionaries to black emancipation, by the opposing factions of both the Girondins and Montagnards. Vovelle, Michel, et al., eds. Révolution aux colonies. Paris: Société des Etudes Robespierristes, 1993. A pioneering collection of essays representative of renewed scholarly interest after 1989 in the connection between the French Revolution and colonial policy. Articles by prominent scholars Bénot, Dorigny, Wanquet, Piquet, Manigat, Elisabeth, Halpern, Gainot, and Arzalier. Wanquet, Claude. La France et la premiére abolition de Il’esclavage (1794—1802): Le cas des colonies orientales, Ile de France (Maurice) et la Réunion. Paris: Karthala, 1998. This book complements Piquet’s as a history of the first French abolition of slavery, and is not uniquely focused on the Indian Ocean. Wanquet depicts the French revolutionaries as sincere in their intent to implement abolition, but also as having to come to terms with many local obstacles and realities. Conflict in Saint-Domingue before 1802 The insurrection triggered rapid repercussions in France, discussed in Hurbon 2000; Geggus 1982 describes the repercussions in Britain. Moreover, the war between France and Britain starting in 1793 made a British expedition into Saint-Domingue possible. Geggus, David P. Slavery, War, and Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint-Domingue, 1793-1798. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. Contends that the British occupation had a major impact on the Haitian Revolution, paradoxically by destabilizing the plantation regime it meant to protect. The first three chapters describe the colony before 1789 and how events led to British intervention. Hurbon, Laénnec, ed. L’insurrection des esclaves de Saint-Domingue, 22-23 aout 1791: Actes de la table ronde internationale de Port au Prince, 8 au 10 décembre 1997. Paris: Karthala, 2000. Gathering Haitian (M. Hector, C. Moise), French (F. Gauthier, B. Gainot, Y. Benot) and international scholars (C. Fick, D. Geggus, among others), this book covers the insurrection and its repercussions in France and on the French antislavery movement. Race and Identity Conflict in Saint-Domingue and Haiti between 1789 and 1804 pitted whites against blacks, but also more specifically whites against mixed- race people, and the latter against blacks. Tensions between those groups had been rising for decades. Recent historiography has shown that these distinctions based on skin color are more complex than previously envisioned. Barthélémy 2000, for example, explains that Bossale slaves did not always share creole slaves’ views and strategies. Free people of color (blacks and mixed-race), meanwhile, remain a source of keen scholarly interest in Debbasch 1967, Rogers 1999, King 2001, Garrigus 2006, and Gauthier 2007. Race and group oppositions also combined with class divisions. Scholars such as Stewart King now tend to view these distinctions as complex (King 2001) or, as discussed in Rogers 1999 and Rogers 2003, uncertain and fluctuating, with social distinctions sometimes more important than racial ones. Nicholls 1979 discusses the lasting and decisive influence of these issues on the making of Haiti. Barthélémy, Gérard. Créoles, Bossales: Conflit en Haiti. Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe: Ibis Rouge, 2000. Barthélémy calls our attention to the large share of African-born slaves in the enslaved population and contends that the Haitian Revolution led to a unique experiment, that of African-born slaves being creolized in the New World outside slavery, with repercussions throughout the subsequent history of Haiti. Debbasch, Yvan. Couleur et liberté: Le jeu du critére ethnique dans un ordre juridique esclavagiste. Vol. 1, L’affranchi dans les possessions frangaises de la Caraibe (1635-1833). Paris: Dalloz, 1967. A legal scholar’s look at how “segregation” arose in the French Caribbean in spite of Louis XIV’s 1685 Code noir. Focuses on the situation and status of free people of color. Garrigus, John D. Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. An influential study of the origins of the free colored class, underlining the ambiguities of the free coloreds toward slavery. Also an analysis of their rising identity. Gauthier, Florence. L’aristocratie de Il’épiderme: Le combat de la Société des Citoyens de Couleur, 1789-1791. Paris: CNRS, 2007. French colonial society drew distinctions between free people on the basis on their skin color. The increasing prejudice against free nonwhites was not based on scientific racism but instead resulted from a series of economic and social considerations. With the French Revolution, free nonwhites hoped for equal rights but were initially dismissed. Gauthier highlights the role of the free mulatto Julien Raimond in the discussions of 1791 in the French Assembly, as well as those of the Abbé Grégoire and Robespierre. King, Stewart R. Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free People of Colour in Pre-Revolutionary Saint-Domingue. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2001. King describes the free colored group as divided between the “planter elite” and the “military leadership group.” Offers a complex vision of free coloreds, taking into account the role of women, and relationships among free coloreds, whites, and blacks. Nicholls, David. From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour, and National Independence in Haiti. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. A study of race and color in Haiti reaching down to the 20th century. Nicholls opposes race to color in a book that also focuses on culture, identity, and the writing of history in Haiti. Peabody, Sue, and Tyler Stovall, eds. The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. Covers race and French history from the 18th century to today, with contributions by specialists in French colonial and revolutionary history such as Pierre Boulle, John Garrigus, Laurent Dubois, and Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall. Rogers, Dominique. “Les libres de couleur dans les capitales de Saint-Domingue: Fortune, mentalités et intégration a la fin de l’Ancien Régime (1776—1789).” PhD diss., Université de Bordeaux Ill, 1999. This important but still unpublished dissertation examines the community of free blacks and mixed-race persons in Saint-Domingue’s cities at the end of the ancien régime, describing their economic, social, and racial integration in French creole society. Free people of color did not suffer from unfair decisions in courts of law and enjoyed a budding citizenship. They lived harmoniously alongside their white neighbors and formed a welcoming community for both recently freed blacks and those who were free by birth. Rogers, Dominique. “De l’origine du préjugé de couleur en Haiti.” In Haiti, premiere république noire. Edited by Marcel Dorigny, 83-101. Paris: Société d’Histoire d’Outre-mer, 2003. Rogers downplays the role of skin color in the social organization of Saint-Domingue; what mattered was wealth and social integration. Yet color prejudice may have served classification purposes. The author concludes that new research on regional attitudes to color differences might be useful. Toussaint Louverture A symbol of both black liberation and social order from the 19th century on, the complex figure of Toussaint Louverture has inspired many authors to produce historical or intellectual biographies, including Phillips 1963. Either a calculating pragmatist (Pluchon 1989) or a hero (Phillips 1963, Césaire 1961), Louverture is also commended for his military genius. Menier, et al. 1977 notes that Toussaint was no longer a slave by the start of the insurrection; as a result, a more complex figure of the rebel leader is now emerging, most notably in Cauna 2004. Bell 2007 discusses Louverture’s place in the popular imagination. Bell, Madison Smartt. Toussaint Louverture: A Biography. New York: Pantheon, 2007. By the author of the bestseller Al/ Souls Rising, a historical novel on the Haitian Revolution published in 1995, this biography is recommended for undergraduates. Cauna, Jacques de. Toussaint Louverture et I’indépendance d’Haiti, tsmoignages pour un bicentenaire. Paris: Karthala, 2004. This publication contains a number of contemporary testimonies on Toussaint Louverture. It includes articles and reviews by specialists such as Jacques de Cauna, Gabriel Debien, and David Geggus, in addition to numerous contemporary prints of Toussaint and his generals as well as later paintings. The book mixes articles and documents. Césaire, Aimé. Toussaint Louverture: La révolution frangaise et le probleme colonial. Rev. ed. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1961. Penned by the famous poet and Martinique politician, this narrative stresses how most French Revolution leaders turned a deaf ear to anticolonial plans. The second half of the book focuses on Toussaint Louverture, portrayed as the first anticolonial leader in history, genuinely attempting to give universal meaning to the ideals of the French Revolution. This book was an inspiration for younger historians, but its research is now superseded by more recent work. Menier, Marie-Antoinette, Gabriel Debien, and Jean Fouchard. “Toussaint-Louverture avant 1789: Légendes et réalités.” Revue Franco-haitienne 134 (1977): 67-80. A famous article in which the authors revealed that Toussaint had been freed long before the Saint-Domingue insurrection and owned a coffee plantation and slaves himself by 1779, thus somewhat bringing down the myth of the rebel slave. Phillips, Wendell. Toussaint L’Ouverture. Stamford, CT: Overbrook, 1963. A lecture delivered in December 1861 by a famous North American abolitionist. Pluchon, Pierre. Toussaint Louverture: Un révolutionnaire noir d’Ancien Régime. Paris: Fayard, 1989. This controversial biography breaks away from traditional hagiographic approaches by presenting the black leader as a man mainly motivated by pragmatic considerations of power. “Special Issue.” Revue de la Société Haitienne d’Histoire et de Géographie 46:164 (September 1989). A special issue with a section on Toussaint Louverture. Dessalines and Other Key Figures Attention has also been given to other important figures in the history of the revolution: Sonthonax, the French commissioner who proclaimed abolition in 1793 on the island (discussed in Dorigny 2005 and Stein 1985), and Dessalines, who took up the fight after Toussaint was sent into exile (Dupont 2006). The émigré planter Moreau de Saint-Méry benefits from current interest in Saint-Domingue (Taffin 2006). Dorigny, Marcel, ed. Léger-Félicité Sonthonax: La premiere abolition de l’esclavage; La révolution frangaise et la révolution de Saint-Domingue. 2d ed. Paris: APECE, 2005. This is the second edition of a short but important book dedicated to Sonthonax, the French commissioner who proclaimed the abolition of slavery in the northern part of Sa