Haitian Revolution

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804. The paper discusses how this particularly bloody slave revolution came on the coattails of the French Revolution, in which the Declaration of the Rights of Man paved the way for a new paradigm of social and political reality. The paper first studies the impact of the revolution domestically, illustrating how Haitian culture was also able to forge a unique, vibrant identity in its aftermath. The paper also demonstrates the far-reaching effect of the revolution -- it paved the way for subsequent victorious slave uprisings and revolts, including those that occurred in the United States. Therefore, the paper concludes that the Haitian Revolution was ultimately successful in its promotion of universal emancipation and initiating an end to eighteenth-century economic infrastructures based on slavery. However, the paper also examines current affairs on the Caribbean island nation, noting that many historians now wonder how meaningful the Haitian Revolution really was.

From the Paper:

"Nesbitt calls the Haitian Revolution a definitively "successful guerilla war that for the first time forcefully expanded the universal human right of freedom from enslavement beyond the province of Western Europe," (19). As such, the Haitian Revolution was a key harbinger of similar movements in the future. While it may not have been the first time that slaves revolted against their maters, the Haitian Revolution was one of the first if not the first instances in which the slaves successfully deposed its colonial leaders, ousting them from power. Historians must be careful, though, to avoid romanticizing the Haitian Revolution. Phillipe R. Gerard, in his review of Laurent Dubois' book Avengers of the New World, states that "English language historiography of the Haitian Revolution has long been inadequate at best," (138). While some accounts "portrayed the rebellious black slaves as barbarians," other works "glossed over the horrors of the Haitian Revolution in order to describe its participants as heroes of the black race," (138). Because the Haitian Revolution was socially, economically, and politically complex, it is necessary to avoid generalizations or romanticism. The proposed hero of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint L'Overture, has been frequently portrayed as "a black Spartacus," even though he himself owned slaves and sympathized with exiled white leaders (Gerard 140). Like many such revolutionary figures, especially the ones glorified in the historiography of the dominant cultures, L'Overture straddled both fences: he appeased the oppressed while he pandered to the oppressors. Such tactics still work today. All oppressor nations know that such leaders make brilliant revolutionaries. Most of the despots put into power by the United States in nations around the world shared features in common with L'Overture."

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