Our Three Colors: The king, the republic and the political culture of slave revolution in Saint-Domingue

Historical Reflections

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 83-101

  Dubois, Laurent ^a  

^a MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 31844452216     PISSN: 03157997     EISSN: 19392419     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. The problem of sources is compounded by political and disciplinary formations that sustain the marginalization of the Haitian Revolution within broader historical narratives; see Michel Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston, 1996)
2. Susan Buck-Morss, "Hegel and Haiti," Critical Inquiry 26 (2000): 821-865
3. On the broader need for more sustained investigation of the political culture of the enslaved see Hillary Beckles, "Carribean Anti-Slavery: the Self-Liberation Ethos of Enslaved Blacks," Journal of Caribbean History 22 (1988): 1-19
4. Louis Sebastien Mercier, L'An Deux Mille Cent Quarante: Rêve s'il en fût jamais (Paris, 1802), 1:178-184
5. Guillaume Thomas Raynal, Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les Deux Indes, vol. 3 (Genève, 1780), pp. 204-205
6. Marcel Dorigny, "Le mouvement abolitionniste français face à l'insurrection de Saint-Domingue ou la fin du mythe de l'abolition graduelle" in Laennec Hurbon, ed., L'Insurrection des esclaves de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 2000), pp. 97-113
7. Malick Walid Ghachem, "Sovereignty and Slavery in the Age of Revolution: Haitian Variations on a Metropolitan Theme" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 2001), chap. 2
8. Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution from Below (Knoxville, 1990), pp. 91-92
9. David Geggus, "La cérémonie du Bois-Caïman" in Laïnnec Hurbon, ed., L'Insurrection des esclaves de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 2000), pp. 149-167
10. see David Geggus, "The Slaves and Free Coloreds of Martinique during the Age of the French and Haitian Revolutions: Three Moments of Resistance" in The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion, edited by Robert Paquette and Stanley Engerman (Gainesville, 1996), pp. 280-301
11. Fick, Making of Haiti, pp. 91-92
12. Geggus, "La cérémonie," p. 160
13. De Rouvray to de Lostanges, 4 September 1791, in M.E. Mcintosh and B.C. Weber, Une Correspondence familiale au temps des troubles de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1959), p. 27
14. Philadelphia General Advertiser 321 (10 October 1791) and 322 (11 October 1791)
15. Félix Carteau, Soirées bermudiennes, ou entretiens sur les événements qui ont opéré la ruine de la partie française de l'isle Saint-Domingue (Bordeaux, 1802). Pierre Mossut, a plantation manager who barely survived the early days of the insurrection, had earlier come to the same conclusion. In a letter written in September 1791 he blamed the insurrection on "the various writings published in your capital [Paris] in favor of the Negroes," which had circulated in the colonies and were known to the slaves. During the same month, the Colonial Assembly of Saint-Domingue responded to the revolt in part by passing a "provisional decree, prohibiting the sale, impression, or distribution of any pieces relative to the politics and revolution of France." Philadelphia General Advertiser 322 (11 October 1791). Mossut to Gallifet, 19 September 1791, Archives Nationales, Paris, 107 AP 128, Dossier 3
16. Moniteur général de la partie française de Saint-Domingue 1:1 (15 November 1791): 1
17. Antoine Dalmas, Histoire de la Révolution de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1814), 1:155
18. Philadelphia General Advertiser, No. 349 (11 November 1791)
19. Philadelphia General Advertiser No.321 (10 October 1791) and No. 322 (11 October 1791)
20. David Geggus, "Le début de la révolte de Saint Domingue dans la Plaine du Cap, vécu par Louis de Calbiac," Généalogie et histoire de la Caraïbe 48 (1993): 774-783,776
21. Althéa de Puech Parham, ed., My Odyssey; Experiences of a Young Refugee from Two Revolutions, by a Creole of Saint Domingue (Baton Rouge, 1959), pp. 33-34
22. Gros, Isle de Saint-Domingue: Précis historique (Paris, 1793), pp. 13-14, 26
23. on the second printing of the work see Moniteur générale de la partie française de Saint-Domingue III: 84 (8 February 1793), p. 336
24. J. Ph. Garran de Coulon, Rapport sur les troubles de Saint-Domingue, Fait au nom de la Commission des Colonies, des Comités du Salut Public, de Législation et de Marine, réunis, 4 vols. (Paris, 1798), 2:193
25. A report published in the Philadelphia General Advertiser similarly described how a group of insurgents spared some capturedwhite sailors because "they were in the King's service." Philadelphia General Advertiser 322 (11 October 1791)
26. Some white royalists may have encouraged the rebellion; administrators in Saint-Domingue believed so, pursuing several planters for having "advised, encouraged, excited or protected" the slave revolt, as well as supplying insurgents with ammunition and provisions. Moniteur générale de la partie française de Saint-Domingue III: 103 (27 February 1793), p. 410
27. Gros, Précis, p. 13
28. David Geggus, "The Arming of Slaves in the Haitian Revolution" in Philip Morgan and Christopher Brown, eds., The Arming of Slaves (New Haven, forthcoming), p. 24
29. Jane Landers, "Rebellion and Royalism in Spanish Florida" in David Barry Gaspar and David Geggus, eds., A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean (Bloomington, 1997), pp. 156-171, 162
30. Moniteur générale de la partie française de Saint-Domingue 1:35 (19 December 1791), p. 143
31. on the reform attempts, see Gabriel Debien, Les Esclaves des Antilles françaises (Basse-Terre, 1974), pp. 486-487
32. and Les Colons de Saint-Domingue et la Révolution: Essai sur le Club Massiac (Août 1789-Août 1792) (Paris, 1951), pp. 53-57
33. Ghachem, "Sovereignty and Slavery," pp. 156-170
34. Garran de Coulon, Rapport, 2:194, 209-210
35. Biassou to Commissioners, 23 December 1791, AN DXXV 1, Folder 4, No. 20
36. Moniteur générale de la partie française de Saint-Domingue III: 104 (28 February 1793), p. 419
37. Philadelphia General Advertiser, No. 321 (10 October 1791), No. 350 (12 November 1791)
38. John Thornton, "I am the Subject of the King of Kongo: African Political Ideology and the Haitian Revolution," Journal of World History 4 (1993): 181-214, 186
39. on "kings" and "queens" in eighteenth-century ceremonial contexts, see the description of a ceremony in Louis Méderic Moreau de St. Méry, Description, topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l'lsle de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1958 [1796]), 1: 64-68
40. David Barry Gaspar, Bondsmen and Rebels: A Study of Master-Slave Relations in Antigua (Baltimore, 1985)
41. Shane White, "'It Was a Proud Day': African-Americans, Festivals and Parades in the North, 1741-1834," Journal of American History 81 (1994): 13-50
42. I explore the broader tradition of slaves calling on metropolitan authority in a paper in preparation entitled, "Calling Down the Law: Prophetic Rumor and the Politics of Slave Revolt in the Atlantic Empires, 1730-1848."
43. On Virginia and South Carolina see Woody Holton, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (Chapel Hill, 2000), pp. 143-161
44. on the British Caribbean see Michael Craton, "Proto-Peasant Revolts? The Late Slave Rebellions in the British West Indies, 1816-1832," Past and Present 85 (1979): 99-125
45. Michel Rolph Trouillot, "From Planter's Journals to Academia: The Haitian Revolution as Unthinkable History," Journal of Caribbean History 25 (1991): 81-99, 88
46. Philadelphia General Advertiser, No. 351 (14 November 1791)
47. Gros, Précis, 9-13, 17, 21
48. Moniteur général 1:8(22November1791),pp.29-31, 1:25 (9 December 1791), pp. 101-102
49. Deputy of Le Cap to the Civil Commissioners, 15 December 1791, AN DXXV 1, Folder 4, No. 9
50. Moniteur général 1:25 (9 December 1791), pp. 101-102, 1:33 (17 December 1791), pp. 134-136. 1:33 (17 December 1791), pp. 134-136 and 1:35 (19 December 1791), pp. 142-143
51. "Adresse à l'assemblée générale ... par MM. les citoyens de couleur, de la Grand Rivière," AN DXXV 1, Folder 4, No. 4
52. Lacroix, Révolution, 118-119
53. Jean-François and Biassou to Commissioners, 15 December 1791, "Note des Commissaires," 16 December 1791, Jean-François and Biassou to Commissioners, 17 December 1791, AN DXXV 1, Folder 4, No. 42-44
54. Moniteur générale 1:39 (23 December 1791), p. 157
55. Jean-François and Biassou to Commissioners, 21 December 1791, AN DXXV 1, Folder 4, n. 19
56. Nathalie Picquionne, "Lettre de Jean-François, Biassou et Belair, Juillet 1792 "Annales historiques de la Révolution française 311 (1998): 132-139, 133-135
57. See Robert Louis Stein, Léger Félicité Sonthonax: The Lost Sentinel of the Republic (London, 1985), chapters 3-5
58. Geggus, "Arming of Slaves," p. 23
59. David Geggus, "From His Most Catholic Majesty to the Godless République: the 'volte-face' of Toussaint Louverture and the Ending of Slavery in Saint Domingue," Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 45 (1978): 481-499, 488-490
60. Pamphile de Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti (Paris, 1995 11819)), p. 167
61. Thornton, "King of Kongo," pp. 181-183
62. AN DXXV 23, 231, letters 96 and 98; Fick, The Making of Haiti, p. 159
63. C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins (New York, 1963), p. 125
64. David Geggus, "The 'volte-face' of Toussaint Louverture."