200 years of forgetting

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200 Years of Forgetting: Hushing up the Haitian RevolutionAuthor(s): Thomas ReinhardtSource: Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Mar., 2005), pp. 246-261Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40027220 .

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200 YEARS OF FORGETTINGHushing up the Haitian Revolution

THOMAS REINHARDTFrobenius nstitut

Formanyyears,theislandof Hispaniolaservedas aprototype or the Euro-pean conquestof the New World. It also gave home to the world's firstBlack Republic.Between 1791 and 1804, an armyof formerslaves suc-cessfully overthrew he colonial regime.This event,however(despiteitsenormous effect on futuredevelopments n the Westernhemisphere), salmostforgotten nthe Westtoday.This articleexploresthe reasons or thedeletion of the HaitianRevolutionfrom the West's historicalmap.Keywords: Haitian Revolution; ToussaintLouverture;historical dis-

course;memorypoliticsA hermeneutic tradition maintains that to understandmeanstounderstanddifferently.1Although originallyintended to describeourunderstanding f texts,thepremiseprovesespeciallytrue n therealm of history.Historiographys necessarilyselective.And it isneverfreeof twists and distortions, fan event is rememberedandhow it is remembered) s not up to its actors and witnesses. Forthose who have to live it, history s a mess. It is only futuregenera-tions that in acomplex interplayof memorizingandforgettinggive the pasta meaningfuland well orderedappearance.2It is not surprising,herefore, hatcontemporaries f therevolu-tion, which took place from 1791 to 1804 in the Frenchcolony ofSaintDomingueon the very island where Columbushadbuilt thefirstEuropean ettlement n the New World, ailedto recognizethe

AUTHOR'SNOTE:This article is based on a talkpresentedat the 15th CheikhAntaDiop Conference n Philadelphia,October10-11, 2003.JOURNALOF BLACKSTUDIES,Vol.35 No. 4, March2005 246-261DOI: 10.1177/0021934704263816 2005 Sage Publications246


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enormous effect that revolution would have on future develop-mentsin the Westernhemisphere.And enormous ndeed it was: It not only resulted n the creationof the independent tate of Haiti a nation ed by Blacks, the sec-ondrepublic n theAmericas,and the first modernstate to abolishslavery but without the HaitianRevolution, the United Statestoday quitelikelywould be littlemorethan a smallstripof land onthe easterncoast of NorthAmerica.That s, if therewereacountrycalledthe United States of America at all.3

Prospectsfor the 164 states in the Union didn't look too goodduring hefirstyearsof the 19thcentury.The Britishhadanythingbut given up theirplans to reconquertheir formercolonies, andwith NapoleonicFrance,a new powerful enemy had entered thestage.Napoleon's objectives were as clear as they were ambitious:Having acquired he vast LouisianaTerritoryromSpainin 1800,he aimed atnothing ess than anempirestretching romtheRockyMountains o India,fromnorthernRussia to the Sahara.And withEurope'smostpowerfularmyat hisdisposal,who shouldstophim?CertainlynottheUnitedStates,with their"pathetic ,000-manreg-ulararmy" Fleming,2001, p. 144).Napoleon decided, however, to let his troops make a smalldetour o end a tiresome ittle slave revolt none of the Frenchcolo-nies in the Caribbean,Saint Domingue. Nothing serious. Sixweeks, by his estimate,certainlyshould be more thanenough toend the insurrection,restoreFrenchrule, and move on to NorthAmerica(Fleming,2001, p. 141).Or so he thought.Two years and almost 60,000 dead Frenchtroopslater,a disillusionedNapoleon, fed up with reportsaboutlosses and defeatsin thecolony,abandonedhis plansfor a transat-lanticFrance.The U.S. emissariesMonroe andLivingston,sent to Parisin adesperateattemptof the Jeffersonadministrationo at leastsign anagreement hatallowed U.S. citizens to navigatethe Mississippiand storetheirexportgoods inNew Orleans,5must have beenquitesurprisedwhentheywere offeredto buythe whole Louisiana erri-


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toryinstead.And for aridiculouslysmall amountof money.A realbargain6hatin one stroke doubled the size of the United States.Eight monthslater,on January1, 1804, the formercolony ofSaintDomingueunder ts new leaderJacquesDessalines becameindependentand took on the ancient Amerindianname Haiti.7Whatnobodywould haveanticipated ould no longerbe denied:Amotley crowd of former slaves had somehow defeated"lagrandearmee" the great armythat in the preceding yearshad marchedalmosteffortlesslythrough he whole of Europe.There s no controversyaboutthese facts. And no matterwhichstandardswe apply, he HaitianRevolutiondoubtlesslyshouldrateamongthe majorhistoricalevents of the late 18thandearly 19thcenturies.The factmayhavegoneunnoticedby itscontemporaries,but it shouldon no accounthave escapedfuturehistorians.Yet,somehow it did. It did in the UnitedStates,and it didevenmore so in Europe.WhenI startedworkingon this article,I was arealpain nthe neck foreverybody happened o meet.I have askedpeople sittingon aparkbenchnexttome,cashiers nstores,waitersandteachers,aswell asjanitorsand students f theyknewanythingabout the HaitianRevolutionand its leaders.Manyof themdidon one condition: They had to be Black. Blacks in the UnitedStates, it seems, have always kept the memoryof the revolutionalive.8Theydidin speechesandpamphlets, n books and festivals.Thus,theanniversary f Haiti's ndependencewas commemoratedthroughout he firstquarter f the 19thcenturyas an alternativeothe 4th of Julythatoffered ittle to celebrate or the Blackportionofthe nation(Bethel, 1997, p. 6).WithWhiteAmericansandEuropeans,however, hepicturewasdifferent.Evenif folks didn't confuse Haiti with Tahiti or a start,the namesToussaintLouverturerJacquesDessalinesusuallydidn'tringa bell. "Waitaminute,"people kept askingme, "you're ellingme they reallyhad a revolutiondown there?Interesting."Interesting, ndeed. Now please don't get me wrong. I don'twantto blameanybody or his ignorance. t wasonly lastyearthatImyselffirstheardabout he HaitianRevolution.9f someone s tobeblamed,it is Westernhistoriography.


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Reinhardt HUSHING UP THEHAITIANREVOLUTION 249

Justopenanaveragehistorytextbookdealingwith the "revolu-tionaryperiod."Whatareyou likelyto find?Pagesandpagesdedi-catedto the Boston TeaPartyandthestormingof the Bastille. Butifyou check the index for Haiti nothing. ToussaintLouverture,JacquesDessalines, Andre Rigaud, or Henri Christophe?Deadloss. As if therehadneverbeen such athingas a revolution nHaiti.Its leadersburied n thedepthsof historical nsignificance.Its eco-nomic, political, and social effects in the Caribbeanand abroadhushedup,hiddenundermultiple ayersof silence. Thequestionofcourseis, why is this so?True, hepoliticalsituationon the island wasextremelycompli-cated. But does this reallyentitlehistoriographyo say, "Oh,thattopicisjusttoo difficult.We betterskipit."10 f course not.Historyalwaystendsto be complicated.And it is historiography'sask tounderstandt nevertheless.Or at least to try.Onemightfurtherargue hathistory s writtenby thewinners.Ifyou lose (andFrance,England,andSpain definitelylost in Haiti),you won't make abig fuss over it.Thattoo, however,can'texplainthejoint silence of almost all Westernhistoriography.The UnitedStates, withoutany doubt,had profitedfrom the revolution.Yet,theynotonlyactivelytried oprevent hespreadingof news about tby prohibitingall trade with Haiti;they wouldn't even acknowl-edge theveryexistence of the independent epublicuntil well intothe Civil War.11And what'smore,evenif it made some sense for slave ownerstohushuptherevolution,whyshouldtheUnitedStatescontinue o doso, once slaverywas abolished? twould be easytojustblameit onthe malevolenceof racist historians.I think, however,that there ismoreto it than ustmalice.Ibelievethattherewere(and are)struc-tural eaturesof Westernhistoricaldiscourse hatcan(andmust)beheldresponsiblefor it.To be more precise, I shall argue that the main differencebetween the Haitian and the Frenchand American revolutions sthat the former was utterly incomprehensible for its Whitecontemporaries.And by incomprehensible don'tjust mean thattheydidn'tunderstandts details whatI want to say is that there


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was no way they could possibly have understood it. Not onlybecausehistory s such a mess forthose who live it,butbecausetheveryfact of a Blackrevolutionwasin itself unthinkableTrouillot,1995, p. 73) at the time it happenedand for many yearsto come.Why is that? Knowledge (be it scientific or philosophical)doesn't evolve in steady progression.It doesn't follow a straightpathfrompastto future.It takesdetours,makeswrongturns,getsstuck n deadends,andstartsoveragain.At anymoment nhistory,there are ideas that can be thoughtand others that simply can't.Well, of course they can. But they won't make any sense in theopinionof most contemporaries.To thinkthem,one has to breakwith the very foundationsof contemporaryknowledge.An earthorbiting he sun?That'snotjust anastronomical tatement. t shat-tersfundamental ruthsof theology andphilosophyas well. If youhappento live in, say, 16th-centuryEurope,it is definitelynot athoughtthatyou would come up witheasily.The confines of reasonablethinkingare definedby discourse.Onemightcallthese discursive imits worldviews.Otherscallthemparadigmsorcommon ense. Butwhatevernametagwe givethem,it is they thatdeterminewhat is right and wrong, trueand false,thinkableandunthinkable.12hey determinewhat is and what isnot,whatcan be andwhatcan't. Andfor Westernhistoriographynthe 19thandearly20thcenturies,a revolutionby Blacksdefinitelywas somethingthat could not be.Slaves could runaway,alright.They could kill their overseers(not nice, but it had happenedbefore). They could even gang upagainsttheirmasters and burndown whole plantationsand cities(veryunpleasantbutpossible).Buttheywerecertainlynotcapableof organizing hemselvesandcombating(let alonesuccessfully)awell-trainedEuropeanarmy.Yet,theydid. Here was theWest,equippedwith a whole ontol-ogy based on thenotionthatBlacks are nferior oWhites,unable otake care of themselves,naturallydesignedfor slavery, he bottomrungof theladderof humanevolution andtheseBlackskeptwin-ningbattleafterbattle.Theydefeated heFrench, heydefeated heBritish, they defeated the Spanish. This simply could not be.Impossible.


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Quiteobviously,the West had a problem. Somethinghadgoneterriblywrong in SaintDomingue. But what? It sure looked likethere were Blacksfightingfortheirfreedom.But that didn't makeanysense. Those Africans didn't evenhavea word for freedom ntheir anguages 13Whywouldtheydieinthousandsnitspursuit?At this criticalmoment,the West had two options: modify itsontology and admit that Blacks are not inferior to Whites, ortrivializethe facts.Historiography uite successfully optedforthelatter, either by ignoring the revolution completely or bydownplaying ts significanceand at the same time overemphasiz-ing aspectsthatfit into Westernontology.Tobe sure,if anyrevolutionever deserved to be called revolu-tion, it was Haiti's. The Latin verb revolvere iterallymeans "rollover."AndinHaiti,for once in away,we don'tjust see thereplace-mentof one rulerthroughanother a king througha president,amonarchy hrougha republic,capitalism hroughsocialism,or thelike. It's been a transformation t all levels. A slave-holdingsocietybecame a society of free Blacks. Peasantrywas substitutedforplantation conomy, KreyoleforFrench,religious syncretisms orCatholicism.If this isn't a revolution,what is?Yet, White contemporaries,historians, scholars,and novelistshave all too often hesitated to apply the term.They speak of aninsurrectionnstead(Henty,n.d.),arebellion,anuprising,arevolt,ruthlessmurders,disturbances, iots,a madness(Dew, 1849,p. 4),outbursts f theNegro'sviolent characterMaurer,1950,p. 69), orsimplythe time "whenthe blacks killed the whites"(Kleist, 1811,p. I).14 ronically, t seems that the one majorexceptionfrom thisrulewaspreciselythe South of the United States.Here,slavehold-erswere well awareof whathappened o theirFrenchcolleaguesinSaint Domingue. Here too, however, the revolution was not tobecome an issue of extensive debate.Rather, t served as a publicspectre,awarningexampleof whattheconsequencesof emancipa-tion woulddoubtlesslybe (Hunt,1988, p. 124ff).It is astonishing hat nthe two centuries ince therevolution, hepatternof ignoringor belittlingfacts neverreallycame to a com-pletestop.Eventoday, n mostpublications,one caneasily spotthetwo major ropesthat serve thepurposeof silencingthedisturbing


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voices thattryto reach us from the Caribbean Trouillot,1995, p.96ff). The first class maybe labeled"erasing ropes."By denyingtheveryfactof therevolution, hesetropesareusuallyemployedbytextbookauthors.Thesimplestwayto applyerasing ropes s tojustshutthe hellup.If youcan avoid t, don't write about t. The secondclass of rhetoricalstrategiesis more complex. They silence byburying he eventsunder ayersof background oise. Onemaytermthem"trivializing ropes."15heycanroughlybe divided nto threesubcategories.First,manytexts concentrateon isolatedpersonsor events andemptythem of theirrevolutionary ontent.Whatever heyaretalk-ing about thus becomes a trivial detailin a trivialchain of events.Typicalexamplesfor thisstrategyare thenumerousbiographiesofToussaintLouverture.His life and(perhaps venmore)his sad andlonely death n a cold dungeonof the ChateaudeJoux,close to thecity of Pontarliern the FrenchJuramountains,servedas an idealscreen forromanticizing alesof chivalryandtreason.16ronically,it's exactlythepracticeof presentingToussaintas so outstandingaBlack personthat obliterates he fact that he was Black. In mostbiographies,he actslike aEuropean ndsucceedsas aEuropean. 7Second,in most textspublishedon the HaitianRevolution,onefinds a strongtendencytowardbiophysical explanationsand con-spiracytheories. The revolution s explainedas an overreactionoindividuallysufferedatrocities,combined with a thoroughmisun-derstanding f Frenchrevolutionary heorythat somehowjust gotout of hand. Its success is put down to the interferenceof otherEuropean orces in the conflict and furtherexplained by overem-phasizing European osses throughyellow fever andtropicalcli-mate.18True, these authorsconcede, the Europeanarmies weredefeated not by a superior Black army, however, but by anunhappycoincidence of bad weather,meanbugs, andcompetingEuropeanpowers. Within this line of thinking,even one of thestrangestdetails of the Frenchcampaignsuddenlyseems to makesense: When, in November 1803, the leader of the Frencharmy,GeneralRochambeau, inally gaveup fighting,he negotiateda 10-day armistice with Dessalines and then surrendered o a Britishfleet cruisingoffshore.19 t thistime,Rochambeauhad beenfight-


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ing againsta Black armyfor about2 years. One mightthink thatthisshouldhave been timeenoughto somehowrealize thathis ene-mies had neither White faces nor were they fighting under theUnion Jack.Buthavingbeen beatenbyBlacks,very obviously,wasnot somethingthat he considereda possibility.Finally and third, the events are judged from an exclusivelyWesternvantagepoint.This, too, was apowerfulsilencer.Accord-ing to Westernstandards,he revolutionhad been a failure. It hadbeena failureon the economiclevel, and t hadbeen a failureon thepoliticaland social levels.No matterhow muchdamage13yearsofcivil warandthesubsequent mbargoesby France,Britain,andtheUnited States had done to the local economy, the fact is thatalthoughFrench SaintDomingueonce was the richestcolony theworld had ever seen, the independentstate of Haiti soon was tobecomethepoorestcountry n the Westernhemisphere.And free-dom?Sure,thecountrywas now ruledby Black dictators.But doesthe absence of a Whiterulingclass alreadyqualifyas freedom?Dealing with the HaitianRevolution,the criticalquestion forhistoriography suallywas,Did it improve helivingconditionsofthe people accordingto Westernstandards?And the verdict wasalmostunanimous:No, it didn't.Thingschanged,butthey changedfor theworse. This assessment s certainly rue orlargepartsof the20th century.The situationwas, however,less clear in the yearsimmediately following the revolution. The enormous death tollamongtheslaves,whichrequired onstant mportation f Africanstokeepthe labor orce at leastto some extentstable,droppeddownto a level that could be evenedoutby births.And compared o theliving conditionsof workingclass people in Europe,the Haitianswereprobably atherbetteroff thanmanyof theirWestern ontem-poraries nottomention he slavesinthe southernUnitedStates).The underlying principle of the latter argumentmakes noattemptto disguise its teleological nature. It is deeply rooted inan understandingof history as evolution. Revolution, in thisworldview,s seen as nothingmore thana shortcutof evolution agreat eaptowarda brightfuture nsteadof manysmallsteps.Andthisbright uture,of course, s one according o Western tandards.It leaves no space for alternativevalue systems or lifestyles.


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Accordingly,when historians dealt with the HaitianRevolution,they usuallydescribed t as devolution as a reversion o Africanbarbarismn theabsence of White control.20t took morethan 130yearsafter he revolution or thefirstcoupleof booksbreakingwiththis view toreachalargeraudience nthe West.21 incethen,at leastsomescholarshavechangedtheirperceptionof the eventsinHaiti,eventhoughthe widepublicstill remains argelyunaffectedby thisnew approach.There s, however,at least somehopethat hingsmightchange nthefuture.LastApril,it was 200 yearssince ToussaintLouverturewas found dead nhis chairat the Chateaude Joux.Theanniversarydid not go unnoticed.In Pontarlier,t was commemoratedwith acalendar,prestamped nvelopesandpostcards,exhibitions, heaterproductions,concerts,a Haitianfilm festival,andnumerous alksandspeeches.Noneof themtried odenytheatrocitiesFrancecom-mittedduring ts colonialperiodand theHaitianwar of independ-ence, noneof them triedto belittle the roleof Blacksin the revolu-tion, none of them fell into the trapof equatingrevolutionwithevolution or devolution,and there were quitea numberof Haitianartists nvolvedin the planningand realizationof the events.It is probablycorrectto say thatEuropehas startedappropriat-ing the Haitian Revolutionby makingit partof her own history.Ithink, however, that this is a good move. It signals the long-neededbreak with the Eurocentricassumptionthateverythingofhistorical importancemust have been done by Whites. And itmight eventually openthepathto a less-biased view of history.Itis only a smallstep,but one in therightdirection.It is hopedthat tis a beginning the beginningof substitutingEurocentricity orEurocentrism.

NOTES1 Theidea is generallyascribed o Schleiermacher,who definedthegoal of hermeneu-tics as "tounderstand nauthorbetter hanhe understoodhimself."This betterunderstand-

ing,of course,does not refer o theobjectof the text butto thetextitself,not to the referentofthe text but to the text as referent Gadamer,1990,p. 195f).


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2. As Napoleon s said to haveput t,"Historys themythmen choose tobelieve,"citedinRobinson(2000, p. 33).3. For this estimate, see De Witt Talmagein ChristianHerald, November28, 1906(quoted n Du Bois, 1915, p. 103). See also Du Bois (1939, p. 176) andEgerton(1993, p.170).4. By the time of the HaitianRevolution, he original13 states had beenjoined by Ver-mont(1791), Kentucky 1792), and Tennessee(1796). Dependingon the yearin consider-ation,one mightfurtheradd Ohio (1803). I didn't includeit here because it only joined theUnionat about he timewhenNapoleonhadalreadydecided ogive uphisplansfor a transat-lanticempire.5. This was one of the minimalaims of theirmission. The main ntentionwas tobuyNewOrleansand Florida.ShouldNapoleonneglectto sell Florida, henLivingstonand Monroeshouldsettlefor thepurchaseof New Orleans.And if that ailedtoo, theyshouldacquire henavigationandstoragerightsmentioned nthe text.In casetheyfailed toaccomplish his,theemissaries should move on to London to build a coalition with Britain againstFrance(Blumberg,1998,p. 87).6. Theprice n 1803was US $15 millionforroughly868,000squaremiles (oranapproxi-mateof 4 centsperacre).Theequivalentsntoday'smoneywould be US $750 million(orUS$2 peracre).The figuresareprojected romFleming(2001, pp. 134, 141).7. Thischoice of name s quitesurprising.OnemighthaveexpectedDessalines to comeupwithsomethinga little more African."However,almostall of theleadersof the revolutionhad n fact beenlocallyborn.Geggus(2002, p. 35) pointsout that his includesfiguresoftenidentifiedas Africans,suchas Biassou, Moise, Dessalines, and(very probably)Boukman.Manyof themhad beenfighting n the war of independenceof the United States(Aptheker,1940; Bullock,n.d.;Kaplan,1973).The thesis that he Haitian evolutionaries idn't hinkofthemselvesas Africans s further upportedby Dessalines'sproclamation f April28, 1804.Init, he didn'tsay anything ike, "Justicehas been done to Africa." nstead,he boasted,"j'aivengel'Amerique" IhaveavengedAmerica] Barskett,1818,p. 308;Madiou,1922,p. 128;Rainsford,1805,p. 448).Taking nto accountthat more thanhalf of the island'spopulationwas actuallyborn inAfrica,Dessalines'sanchoringof the revolution n an Amerindianpast still has to be ana-lyzed. He certainlychose the name Haiti to marka breakwithEurope.Still, thequestion slegitimate, f hemighthave wanted omarkanequallydecisive breakwithAfrica,too,adopt-ing theskepticalview on the continent'spresent hathad beentypicalfor AfricanAmericanauthors hroughouthe 18thand 19thcenturies(Reinhardt, 002).8. Despitetheattempts o prevent he news about he revolution romspreading,AfricanAmericanslaves were only too aware of what hadhappenedonly 600 miles southof theUnitedStates. GabrielProsserand DenmarkVeseywereonlytwo leadersof slave insurrec-tions said to have been inspired by the deeds of Louverture,Dessalines, Rigaud, andChristophe Du Bois, 1903/1997, p. 636; Egerton,1993, p. 46; Robertson, 1999,p. 118).Amongthemore nfluential extsdealingwith the HaitianRevolutionwereHolly(1857)andSmith 1841 .For urther videncefor the vividimageof the revolution n thememoryofBlackAmerica,see Foner 1975).Apart rom nonfictional extsdealingwithHaiti,the revo-lution has found its way into numerous novels and dramas (e.g., Shange, 1977):"TOUSSAINT/myirst blk man/ . . . TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE/wazhe biginninuvrealityfor me"(p. 26). See also Gillespie (1998).9. Actually,I had read about t before.There are some taint echoes of the revolution nGermaniteraturee.g., Buch, 1986; Kleist, 1811).Theseechoes, however,did little to make


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me believe thatanything mportant adhappened n SaintDomingueafter1791.Myhistorybooks did even less. It was only whenI started o studyAfricanAmericanauthors f the 19thandearly20th centuriesthatI started o understand he significanceof the events.10. And complicated t was indeed. Notjust two partiesor threebutmultiple:enslavedAfricansand ocallybornslaves,free Blacks andMulattos oranciens ibres),Frenchplanta-tion owners and merchants the grandsblancs or big Whites)and theiroverseers,peasantsandartisans thepetitsblancs or littleWhites),RoyalistsandJacobins, heBritish, heSpan-ish, andthe United States.Eachof thesegroups ightingthe others n varyingcoalitions andwithvaryingpolitical agendas.Andcomplicationsdidn'tstophere. It seemshardlypossibleto only fit themajor eadersof the revolution ntohandycategories.They certainlywere notjusta bunchof "gildedAfricans," contemptuousNapoleononce calledthem,swearing hathe would not rest until he had torn the epaulettes rom their shoulders Parkinson,1978,p.155).But who were they?The best known of the leaders,withoutanydoubt, s ToussaintLouverture.His parentswerebrought romAfrica(hisgrandfather enerally s believed to have beenking among heArada).Toussaintwas born ntoslaveryas FrancoisDominiqueToussaintBreda.Sometimearound heyear1773, he wassetfree orboughthisfreedom.Heacquired small coffee plan-tationand became himself a slave owner at least for some time(see Debien, Fouchard,&Menier,1977;Geggus,2002, p. 37; Pluchon, 1989,p. 57). Theparishof BorgnesmentionsToussaint1776 as "ToussaintBreda,negre ibre,"adding hathe had set one of his slaves free(Lambalot,1989,p. 9).Whetheror not at this time Toussainthad a view on slaveryas morallywrongis opentospeculation.However,when the revolution tartedn 1791 he committedhimself to thefightfor abolition.Not the most naturalhing nthe world odo for a free Black in SaintDomingue.Quiteon the contrary,most of Toussaint's ellow anciens libres were fightingto preservetheirprivilegesas slave owners.Yet,determined s he was to endslavery n SaintDomingue,when the Frenchand mulattoes ried to foment a slave rebellion in Jamaica o weaken theBritish,he betrayed he plot to theJamaicanadministrationGeggus,2002, p. 24).In fact,Toussaint eems to have doneeverything n his powerto prevent he revolutionfromspreading o the neighboringslands and the North Americancontinent.So, whateverhis interests n Black liberationmayhavebeen,when it came to the conditionof Blacksout-side of Haiti,hepracticedarealpolitikhatallowedhimtokeepongoodtermswithhisneigh-bors opreservehisautonomy not ndependence,buta certainautonomyas French olony.Toussaint'scase is interestingon yet another evel: Whenhe acquiredhis freedom,hebecame,althoughof "purelyAfricanstock,"nominallya mulatto.Originally,of course,thetermdesignateda personof mixedancestry. nthe Frenchcolonies, however,over theyearstheexpressionbecamesynonymouswith"freepersonof color" negre ibre),whereasBlack(noir)basicallymeant "slave" Buch, 1976, p. 39; Geggus, 2002, p. 6; Saint-Mery,1797/1985).1 1 When, n 1825, PresidentJohnQuincyAdamsonly vaguelyandhesitantly uggestedtakingup diplomatic elationswithHaiti,thecapitolrangwith Southern ries of indignation.One Senator Benton from Missouri declaredcategorically,"We receive no mulatto con-suls,or blackambassadorsrom[Haiti] Because thepeaceof elevenstates[that s, the slave-holdingstates of theUnion]will notpermit he fruitsof a successfulnegro nsurrection o beexhibitedamongthem. Itwill notpermitblackambassadors ndconsuls to ... givetheir el-low blacks n the UnitedStatesproof nthe handof thehonors hatawait hemfora like suc-cessfulefforton theirpart. t will notpermit he fact to be seen and old,that or the murder ftheirmastersandmistresses, heyare to find friendsamongthe whitepeopleof these United


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Reinhardt HUSHING UP THEHAITIANREVOLUTION 257

States"(SenatorThomas HartBenton, 1825, Register of Debates in Congress, cited inMontague,1940,p. 53). SenatorRobertY.Hayneof SouthCarolina himed in:"Ourpolicywith regard o Haytiis plain.We never can acknowledgeher independence . . which thepeaceandsafetyof a large portionof our Union forbidsus to even discuss"(Benton,1825,cited in Montague,1940, pp. 47, 53).Whenthe U.S. Senate inallydecided oacknowledge he existence of its southernneigh-bor,the seats from which over thepastsix decades Southernplantershadpronounced heirvetoes weremostlyvacant,due to the secession of the confederate tatespreceding he civilwar.The Senatepasseda billrecognizingHaitionApril4, 1862, byadecisive vote of 32 to 7.TheHouse of Representatives oted 86 to 37, and thepresidentgavehis assent on the 5th ofJune{CongressionalGlobe,cited in Montague,1940,p. 86).European overnmentswere a little faster.France,England,anda numberof otherstatesformallyacknowledgedHaiti's ndependencen 1825. A finalsatisfactory ettlement that s,satisfactoryfor France)was eventuallyreached in 1838, when the Haitiangovernmentagreedto pay reparationso France, hus de facto buyingits independenceverymuch as aslavemighthaveboughthis freedom before(Montague,1940, pp. 13-14, 52-53).12. The literature n paradigm hanges s abundant.Amongthe mostimportanthinkersthat independently) eveloped heconceptare Kuhn 1962), Bourdieu 1980), andFoucault(1968).13. Inthe absence of a word fox reedomin most non-Western anguages,see Patterson(1982, p. 27), Miers andKopytoff 1977, pp. 17, 54), andGeggus(2002, pp. 42, 232).14.Therearefew exceptionsto thisrule,notablyRainsford 1805),Lundy(1847), Buch(1976, 1986), andGeggus(2001, 2002).15. Both termsareborrowed romTrouillot 1995,p. 96). AlthoughI think hatTrouillotis too pessimisticin his conclusions,he is certainlycorrect n identifying he rhetorical le-mentsin the strategiesof silencing.16.The earliestexampleof this theme is Loverture 1804). Since then,however, t hasbeen adoptedby almosteverybodywritingon Haiti(e.g., Barskett, 1818; Parkinson,1978;Phillips, 1954, to name only three). A very skepticalview of Toussaint'scharacterandactionsis first elaboratedn Carruthers1985).17. Perhaps he most strikingexamplefor the "Europeanization"f Toussaintcan befound n a quitesuccessfulyouthnovel,published n England n the last decade of the 19thcentury. nit, we encountera ToussaintLouverturemakingthefollowingremarkable tate-ment: "We[the Blacks]have had no training or self-government.We shall havedestroyedthe civilizationthatreignedhere, and shall have nothingto take its place, andI dread hatinsteadof progressingwe may retrograde ntil we sinkbackinto the condition n which welivedin Africa.. . . WhenI say equalrightsI do not meanthatthey [theBlacks] shall havevotes. We are at presentabsolutelyunfit to have votes or to exercise political power.I onlymean that the law shallbe the same for us as for the whites"(Henty,n.d.,p. 313).18.Fleming(2001),forexample,succeeds nputtingdown theoutcomeof therevolutioncompletelyto the workof a tinyinsect,Aedes aegypti,that decimated he French roopsbyinfecting hem withyellowfever.True,hisessay is apiece of "counterfactualistory," ryingto determinewhat could have been. Still, it is astonishinghow (atthebeginningof the 21stcentury)Fleming managesto presentthe Black leaders of the revolution withoutexcep-tion as mereplaythingsof the (White)actors n the Haitiandrama.19. Aurora GeneralAdvertiser,January14, 1804. Rochambeau'snegotiationswithDessalines and he commander f theBritish leet,aCaptainLoring,arewell documentedn


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Rainsford 1805,pp.431-438),Barskett 1824,pp. 170-171),andMadiou 1922,pp.83-92).An alternative yewitnessaccountof thecapitulationan be found nLaujon 1805,p.224).20. This view was firstexpressedby Brown(1837):"Thepopulation of Haiti] s ... notmanyremoves rom he tribesupon heNigerinpointof civilization.The fact is indisputable,thatasanation he blacksof St.Domingoare n aretrogrademovement sregardsntellectualimprovement, ndnoobstacleseemsto exist toprevent hisdescentto barbarism"pp.288-289, italics added; t mightfurtherbe noted that33 yearsafter Haiti's declarationof inde-pendence,Brown still writes about "St.Domingo").It has been furtherpopularizedby SpencerSt. John(1880), formerBritishministeratPort-au-Prince,nhis bookHayti,or theBlackRepublic, irstpublished n 1880. As an exam-ple for its adoption n populardiscourse,see Henty(n.d.)or Maurer 1950).21. It was not until 1937 that this view was distortedby the publicationof MellvilleHerskovitz'sLife in a Haitian Valley.Herskovitz showed that the Haitianhinterlandwasindeedpredominantly African" utthat t wasby no meansdegenerate. n the field of histo-riography,t was C.L.R. James's(1938) classic,BlackJacobins,1year ater hatbrokewiththe dominantapproach.

REFERENCESAptheker,H. (1940). The Negro in the American Revolution. New York: InternationalPublisher.Barskett,J. (1818). Historyof theIslandof St.Domingo.From ts irst discoveryby Colum-bus to thepresentperiod. Edinburgh:ArchibaldConstableand Co.Bethel, E. R. (1997). The rootsof African-Americandentity:Memoryand historyinfreeantebellumcommunities.New York:St. Martin'sPress.Blumberg,R. (1998). What's he deal? Jefferson,Napoleon,and the Louisiana Purchase.Washington,DC: The NationalGeographicSociety.Bourdieu,P.(1980).Le senspratique The ogicofpractice].Paris:Les editionsde Minuit.Brown,J. (1837). Thehistoryandpresentconditionof St.Domingo(Vol. II). Philadelphia:

William Marshall& Co.Buch, H. C. (1976). Die Scheidungvon San Domingo: Wie die Negersklavenvon HaitiRobespierrebeim Wortnahmen Thedivorceof SanDomingo:How theNegroslaves ofHaiti took Robespierreat his word].Berlin:Wagenbach.Buch, H. C. (1986). Die Hochzeit von Port-au-Prince[The wedding at Port-au-Prince].Frankfurt/Main:uhrkamp.Bullock,J. C. (n.d.).Blackpatriotsof the AmericanRevolution,1775-1783.n.p.Carruthers,. H. (1985). The irritatedgenie:An essay on the Haitian Revolution.Chicago:The Kemetic Institute.Debien, G., Fouchard,J., & Menier, M.-A. (1977). Toussaint Louvertureavant 1789:

Legendes et realitees [ToussaintLouverturebefore 1789: Legends and realities].Conjonction:RevueFranco-Haitienne,134, 67-80.Dew, T. R. (1849).An essay on slavery.Richmond:J. W Randolph.Du Bois, W.E.B.(1915). TheNegro.New York:HenryHolt & Co.


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DuBois, W.E.B.(1939).Black olk Thenand now:Anessay in thehistoryandsociology oftheNegrorace. New York:HenryHolt & Co.Du Bois, W.E.B.(1997). Thesouls of Black olk. In H. L. Gates & N. Y.McKay(Eds.),TheNorton anthology of AfricanAmerican literature(pp. 613-740). New York: W. W.Norton & Co. (Originalworkpublished1903)Egerton,D. R. (1993). Gabriels rebellion:TheVirginia lave conspiraciesof 1800 & 1802.ChapelHill:Universityof NorthCarolinaPress.Fleming,T. (2001). Napoleon'sinvasion of North America:Aedes aegyptitakes a holiday,1802. In R. Cowley(Ed.),What f?2: Eminenthistorians maginewhatmighthave been(pp. 134-151).New York:Putnam'sSons.Foner,P. S. (1975). The voice of Black America:Major speeches by Blacks in the UnitedStates, 1797-1973, Vol. , 1797-1900. New York:CapricornBooks.Foucault,M. (1968). Les mots et les Choses: Unearcheologiedes sciences humaines[Theorderof things:An archaeologyof the humansciences]. Paris:Gallimard.Gadamer, H.-G. (1990). Wahrheit und Methode: Grundziige einer philosophischenHermeneutik Truth ndmethod] (6th ed.). Tubingen: .C.B.Mohr.Geggus, D. P. (Ed.). (2001). The impact of the Haitian Revolution n the Atlanticworld.Columbia:Universityof South CarolinaPress.Geggus, D. P. (2002). Haitian Revolutionarystudies. Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress.Gillespie,C. R. (1998). Papa Toussaint.San Jose:toExcel.Henty,G. A. (n.d.).A rovingcommission.Or,through he Black insurrection fHayti. Lon-don: Blackie& Son.Herskovitz,M. J. (1937). Life in a Haitianvalley.New York:Harper& Brothers.Holly,J.T. (1857).A vindicationof thecapacityof theNegrorace or self-government ndcivilizedprogressas demonstratedbyhistorical eventsof theHaytianRevolution.NewHaven:W. H. StanleyPrinter.Hunt,A. N. (1988). Haiti's influenceon antebellumAmerica:Slumberingvolcano in theCaribbean.BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniversityPress.James,C.L.R.(1938).TheBlackJacobins:ToussaintU Ouverture nd the SanDomingorev-olution(2nd ed.). New York:Vintage1963.Kaplan,S. (1973). The Blackpresence in the era of the AmericanRevolution1770-1800.

New York:New YorkGraphicSociety.Kleist, H. v. (1811). Die Verlobung n St. Domingo [The betrothal n San Domingo]. InErzdhlungen pp. 1-85). Berlin:Realschulbuchhandlung.Kuhn,T. (1962). The structureof scientific revolutions.Chicago: Universityof ChicagoPress.Lambalot, R. (1989). ToussaintLouverture,prisonnier d'etat au Chateau de Joux:L'extraordinairedestin d'un ancien esclave de Saint Domingue devenu gouverneur

generalet symbolede Vemancipationdes noirs [ToussaintLouverture, tateprisonerattheCastleof Joux:Theextraordinaryestinyof a formerslave on SaintDominguewhobecame governor-general nd symbol of the emancipationof the Blacks]. Pontarlier:ImprimerieMaire.Laujon,A.P.M. (1805). Precis historiquede la derniere expeditionde Saint-Domingue,depuis le departde I'Armeedes Cotesde France, usqu'd I evacuationde la Colonie;suivi desmoyensde retablissement e cette colonie [Precisehistoryof the lastexpeditionto SaintDomingue, rom hearmy'sdepartureromthe coast of France, otheevacuation


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of the colony;followedby the means to reestablish hatcolony]. Paris:Delafolie & LeNormant.Loverture,T.(1804). The ifeandmilitaryachievements fTousantLoverturesic].Philadel-phia:Author.Lundy,B. (1847). Life, travels and opinionsof BenjaminLundy, ncludinghisjourneystoTexasandMexico;witha sketchof contemporary vents,and a noticeof the revolution nHayti. Compiledunder he directionandonbehalfofhis children.Philadelphia:WilliamD. Parrish.Madiou,T. (1922). Histoire d'Haiti [Historyof Haiti]. Tome troisieme. Port-au-Prince:ImprimerieCheraquit.Maurer,E. (1950).DerschwarzeRevolutiondr:ToussaintLouvertureTheBlack revolution-ary:ToussaintLouverture].Meisenheim/Glan:Westkulturverlag.Miers, S., & Kopytott, . (hds.). (1977). SlaveryinAjnca: Historicalandanthropologicalperspectives.Madison:Universityof WisconsinPress.Montague,L. L. (1940).Haitiand the UnitedStates,1714-1938.Durham,NC: Duke Univer-sity Press.Parkinson,W. (1978). "Thisgilded African": ToussaintL'Ouverture.London:QuartetBooks.Patterson,O. (1982). Slaveryand social death: A comparative tudy.Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress.Phillips,W.(1954). Oneof thegreatestmen inhistory:ToussaintLouverture.As seen bythegreatestU.S. lecturer:WendellPhillips.Lecturegivenin New YorkandBoston,Decem-ber 1861. Port-au-Prince:mprimeriede l'Etat.Pluchon, P. (1989). Toussaint Louverture: un revolutionnaire noir d'Ancien regime[ToussaintLouverture:A revolutionary f the old regime].Paris:Fayard.Rainsford,M. (1805).An historicalaccountof the Blackempireof Hayti: Comprehendingviewof theprincipaltransactions n the revolution fSaintDomingowith ts ancientandmodernstate. London:Albion Press.Reinhardt,T. (2002). "And he tom-tomsbeat . . . ":Figurendereuropaischen maginationunddas afroamerikanischeAfrikabildvon den Anfangenbis zurAthiopienkrise1935["And he tom-tomsbeat . . . ":Figuresof European maginationand AfricanAmericanimages of Africa from the beginnings to the Ethiopian Crisis 1935]. Paideuma:

Mitteilungen urKulturkunde,8, 207-223.Robertson,D. (1999). DenmarkVesey:The buriedhistoryofAmerica's argestslave rebel-lion and the manwho led it. New York:Alfred A. Knopf.Robinson,R. (2000).Thedebt: WhatAmericaowes to theBlacks.New York:DuttonBooks.Saint-Mery,M.L.E.M.d. 1985).Acivilization hatperished:The astyears of White olonialrule in Haiti (IvorD. Spencer,Ed. andTrans.).Lanham,MD:UniversityPress of Amer-ica. (Originalworkpublished1797)Shange,N. (1977).Forcoloredgirls who haveconsidered uicide/When he rainbow s enuf:A choreopoem.New York:ScribnerPoetry.Smith,J. M. (1841).A lecture on theHaytianRevolution:Witha sketchof the characterofToussaintL'Ouverture.Deliveredat the Stuyvesant nstituteor theBenefit of the Col-ored OrphanAsylum,February26, 1841. New York:Daniel Fanshaw.St. John,S. (1880). Hayti,or the BlackRepublic.London:Smith,Elder & Co.Trouillot,M.-R. (1995). Silencingthepast: Power and theproductionof history.Boston:Beacon Press.


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ThomasReinhardt, h.D.,is currently ffiliatedwiththe Frobenius nstitut,Frankfurt/Main, Germany.He is doing research on Afrocentricity unded by the StiftungVolkswagenwerk.

200 years of forgetting

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