Haiti has always been a troubled place. But like all troubled places, it has had a few bright spots too. One of those was the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. The Trinidadian Marxist historian C.L.R. James gives a thorough account of this man and his political movement in The Black Jacobins, considered by many to be the authoritative history on this subject.
Back in the 18th century, the Caribbean island of Hispaniola was known as Santo Domingo, most of which was a Spanish possession during the colonial era. The small section of the island west of the Dajabon River, at the time, was a possession France and known as Sainte Domingue or San Domingo as it is called in this book. This colony had very little in the way of government or military. It had a class of rich colonial overlords, a larger middle class of free whites and Mulattoes, and a lower class of free Creole Africans, mostly ex-slaves who had bought their freedom. San Domingo was the jewel in the French crown being the wealthiest and most productive of all their Caribbean territories.
Like the other Caribbean colonies, plantation owners in San Domingo used slave labor to farm sugarcane, tobacco, and coffee. In the middle of the century, according to James, a voudouist houngan named Boukman led the first major slave rebellion in the territory. Although quickly put down, it sparked a series of smaller rebellions that eventually culminated in the later Wars of Independence.
When the French Revolution happened at the end of the 18th century, word of Europe’s most vital and modernizing political upheavals spread to the colonies and inspired rebellions against the wealthy colonial overlords. Haiti had the most to lose from the point of view of the French monarchy, but nothing could be done to stop the unleashed tide of anger once it began to spread.
Out of the rebellions, which were scattered and uncoordinated, mostly located in the south and west of San Domingo, an illiterate ex-slave emerged as a revolutionary military leader. He was Toussaint L’Ouverture and despite being uneducated, he had a natural gift for military strategy and political organization. Eventually he united all the anti-slavery troops under one banner, established a government with him at the head, and set out to declare national independence.
Lines of demarcation were not so clear though. Most Mulattoes and some free Blacks supported the white colonial authorities because they were concerned about preserving their privilege and status. Allegiances were fluid though and could change quickly depending on circumstances. But once L’Ouverture got Black military leaders like Dessalines and Petion on his side, along with the northern Mulatto leader Christophe, the waves of revolutionary violence became unstoppable.
Back in France, an anarchist faction of the Jacobins formed called Friends of the Negroes; their ambition was to make all races equal in the eyes of the law without exception. In the French National Assembly, they introduced a bill to end slavery in France and all the colonies. It passed easily with almost no opposition and widespread support from both the left and right wings of the newly established parliament.
Toussaint L’Ouverture rose to become head of the San Domingo colony and he laid the groundwork for making Haiti a sovereign nation. Napoleon Bonaparte, however, had L’Ouverture seized, brought to France, and imprisoned. Napoleon then reinstated slavery in San Domingo and all other French territories. But the backlash was severe and Dessalines led a new revolutionary War of Independence, one on which the French colonialists didn’t stand a chance. Dessalines declared himself the King of Haiti, the first sovereign state to be founded by ex-slaves in the history of the world. Dessalines did not last long as monarch though since Jacques Petion had him assassinated, making himself the first president of Haiti, a newly formed republic.
Large portions of this book are accounts of battles. For readers interested in military history, there is plenty to appreciate here. Another large portion of the book is about politics themselves. The chapters on the French Revolution and the National Assembly in France get a little murky at times. As I like to say, it is about obscure men having obscure debates about obscure ideas. Keeping track of who is allied with who as alliances constantly shift is a little frustrating too. The chapters about politics in Haiti are easier to follow and overall are more relevant. A few sections are made up of word for word letters that L’Ouverture dictated, later to be sent on to friends. There are also some letters and diary entries from his enemies. Mostly all the writing is straightforward and descriptive enough to leave little room for interpretation. More controvertially, the author is a Marxist-Leninist and on occasion he applies this theory to his version of events. But mostly these passages are few and far between and don’t contribute much to an understanding of either Marxism or the Haitian Revolution. If the Marxist bias bothers you, don’t worry since it doesn’t interfere with his telling of the history.
The Black Jacobins is as good a place as any to start learning about Haiti, the West Indies, or colonialism in that region. It is clearly written and straight to the point. The biggest criticism is that it doesn’t say enough about the life of Toussaint L’Ouverture’s life before he became a revolutionary leader, but that probably isn’t the author’s fault because there isn’t much information in the historical record about his formative years to begin with.
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