Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804 A Brief History with Documents

by Dubois, Laurent; Garrigus, John D.

• ISBN13: 9780312415013
• ISBN10: 031241501X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-22
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

This volume details the first slave rebellion to have a successful outcome, leading to the establishment of Haiti as a free black republic and paving the way for the emancipation of slaves in the rest of the French Empire and the world. Incited by the French Revolution, the enslaved inhabitants of the French Caribbean began a series of revolts, and in 1791 plantation workers in Haiti, then known as Saint-Domingue, overwhelmed their planter owners and began to take control of the island. They achieved emancipation in 1794, and after successfully opposing Napoleonic forces eight years later, emerged as part of an independent nation in 1804. A broad selection of documents, all newly translated by the authors, is contextualized by a thorough introduction considering the very latest scholarship. Laurent Dubois and John D. Garrigus clarify for students the complex political, economic, and racial issues surrounding the revolution and its reverberations worldwide. Useful pedagogical tools include maps, illustrations, a chronology, and a selected bibliography.

Author Biography

LAURENT DUBOIS (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is associate professor of history at Michigan State University. His book A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804 (2004) won the American Historical Association Prize in Atlantic History and the John Edwin Fagg Award. He is also the author of Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004), which was a Christian Science Monitor Noteworthy Book of 2004 and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2004, and Les esclaves de la République: l'histoire oubliée de la première emancipation, 1787–1794 (1998).

JOHN D. GARRIGUS (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University) is professor of history at Jacksonville University in Florida, where he teaches courses on American, Caribbean, Latin American, and European history. A former Chateaubriand Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, he has published on pre-revolutionary Haiti in Americas, French Historical Studies, Slavery & Abolition, and the Journal of Caribbean History. He is currently working on a book on Saint-Domingue's free people of color.

Table of Contents

Foreword	iii
Preface	v
Maps	1	(6)
PART ONE Introduction: Revolution, Emancipation, and Independence	7	(40)
The French Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century	9	(9)
The Revolution Begins, 1789--1791	18	(6)
From Slave Revolution to Emancipation, 1791--1794	24	(5)
Defining Emancipation, 1794--1798	29	(5)
The Haitian Revolution and the United States	34	(1)
War and Independence	35	(4)
The Legacy of the Haitian Revolution	39	(4)
Major Revolutionary Figures and Groups	43	(4)
PART TWO The Documents	47	(159)
The French Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century	49	(14)
The Code Noir, 1685	49	(5)
Prophesies of Slave Revolution, 1771 and 1780	54	(3)
Mederic-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery, Description . . . of the French Part of the Island of Saint-Domingue, 1797	57	(6)
The Revolution Begins, 1789--1791	63	(23)
Letters from the Slave Revolt in Martinique, August-September 1789	63	(4)
The Free Citizens of Color, Address to the National Assembly, October 22, 1789	67	(3)
The National Assembly, Decree of March 8 and Instructions of March 28, 1790	70	(3)
Abbe Gregoire, Letter to Those Who Love Mankind, October 1790	73	(2)
Letters from the Uprising of Vincent Oge, October 1790	75	(3)
Julien Raimond, Observations on the Origin and Progression of the White Colonists' Prejudice against Men of Color, 1791	78	(4)
The Debate of May 15, 1791	82	(2)
The National Assembly, Law on the Colonies, 1791	84	(2)
From Slave Revolution to Emancipation, 1791--1794	86	(47)
Herard Dumesle, Voyage to the North of Haiti, 1824	86	(3)
Antoine Dalmas, History of the Revolution of Saint-Domingue, 1814	89	(4)
Pierre Mossut, Letter to the Marquis de Gallifet, September 19, 1791	93	(2)
Philadelphia General Advertiser, Reports from the Insurrection, October--November 1791	95	(4)
Jean-Francois and Biassou, Letters to the Commissioners, December 1791	99	(4)
Gros, In the Camps of the Insurgents, 1791	103	(5)
Olympe de Gouges, Preface to The Slavery of the Blacks, 1792	108	(3)
Jean-Paul Marat, From The Friend of the People, 1792	111	(2)
Thomas Clarkson, The True State of the Case, Respecting the Insurrection at St. Domingo, 1792	113	(2)
The National Assembly, Law of April 4, 1792	115	(1)
Journal Republicain de la Guadeloupe, Account of the Slave Revolt, April 24, 1793	116	(3)
Laurent Jolicoeur, Petition, 1793	119	(1)
Leger Felicite Sonthonax, Decree of General Liberty, August 29, 1793	120	(5)
Insurgent Responses to Emancipation, 1793	125	(4)
The National Convention, The Abolition of Slavery, February 4, 1794	129	(4)
Defining Emancipation, 1794--1798	133	(26)
Victor Hugues, Proclamations, 1794	133	(3)
Genevieve Labothiere Secures Her Brother's Freedom, 1796--1801	136	(2)
The Plantation Policies of Etienne Polverel, 1794	138	(6)
Jean-Baptiste Belley, The True Colors of the Planters, or the System of the Hotel Massiac, Exposed by Gouli, 1795	144	(3)
Toussaint Louverture, A Refutation of Some Assertions in a Speech Pronounced in the Corps Legislatif. . . by Vienot Vaublanc, 1797	147	(6)
The Council of the Five Hundred, Law on the Colonies, 1798	153	(3)
Etienne Laveaux, A Celebration of the Anniversary of Abolition, 1798	156	(3)
The Haitian Revolution and the United States	159	(8)
Thomas Jefferson, Letters, 1797--1802	159	(3)
Refugees in Charleston, S.C., Petition, October 25, 1799	162	(2)
Charles Brockden Brown, St., Domingo, December 1804	164	(3)
War and Independence	167	(39)
Toussaint Louverture, From Constitution of the French Colony of Saint-Domingue, 1801	167	(4)
Louis Delgres, Proclamation, 1802	171	(2)
General Jean-Francois-Xavier de Menard, On the Final Stand of Delgres, 1802	173	(2)
Napoleon Bonaparte and General Charles-Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, Letters, 1802--1803	175	(5)
Mary Hassal, From Secret History; or the Horrors of St. Domingo, 1808	180	(4)
Marie-Rose Masson, Letter to the Marquis de Gallifet, July 27, 1802	184	(2)
Brigadier General Pierre Cange, Letter to Delpech, November 1802	186	(2)
The Haitian Declaration of Independence, January 1, 1804	188	(3)
The Haitian Constitution, 1805	191	(6)
APPENDIXES
A Chronology of Events Related to the Slave Revolution in the Caribbean (1635--1805)	197	(3)
Questions for Consideration	200	(2)
Selected Bibliography	202	(4)
Index	206