Rather, it was one of the most dramatic, edifying, and formative chapters in an enduring struggle for global liberation.įor sources, James has synthesized archival material from France, Britain, and San Domingo, particularly Les Archives Nationales, Les Archives Ministère de la guerre, Les Archives Ministère des Colonies, Les Archives Ministère des Affaires étrangères, La Bibliotheque National, La Mission du Général Hédouville, The Public Record Office, and The British Museum. In these archives we find the dictated correspondence of Toussaint L’Ouverture to French agents, commissioners, and governors (namely, Laveaux, Sonthonax, Vincent, Pascal, Raimond, and Roume), European ambassadors and generals (namely, Maitland, Hédouville, and Leclerc) and various French administrators (including the Foreign Minister, the Directors, and the First Consul). James immerses himself in the complex transatlantic drama of the protracted San Domingo Revolution, all while keeping his pen on the pulse of the longue durée as he makes clear with poignant references to Abraham Lincoln, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and, in the amended edition, figures like José Martí, Fidel Castro, and Patrice Lumumba, the tumultuous plight of Haitian Independence was not an isolated historical event.
Written in anticipation of widespread African decolonization, with sincere Marxist-socialist leanings and a defining sense of solidarity for oppressed peoples, The Black Jacobins is widely hailed as a classic critique of imperialist and colonialist historiography. It is a vivid and nuanced historical narrative of the San Domingo Revolution, popularly known as “the only successful slave revolt in history,” and its “courageous leader,” Toussaint L’Ouverture, from the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to the declaration of independence for Haiti in 1804. James, the late Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, playwright, professor, social theorist, and essayist. The Black Jacobins is the seventh and most famous work written by C.L.R.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York: The Dial Press, 1938.
0 kommentar(er)
