Haitian Revolution and American History

by Professor Madison Smartt Bell

The Haitian Revolution, though seldom studied in proper detail outside Haiti, ought to be found near the center of any basic curriculum of American History -- or at least, I will make this argument. For although the Haitian Revolution was of a smaller scale than ours, ideas are ultimately more important than number, and it was in the Haitian Revolution and nowhere else that the revolutionary ideology of the close of the eighteenth century first found its true consummation.

The eighteenth century ended with three revolutions, which created not only a new political program but also a new idea of what it means, in essence, to be a human being. The first of these, the American Revolution, is very well known of course (though I believe it is less well known that a small but significant number of Haitians participated in the American Revolution -- fighting on our side and for our freedoms). The French Revolution, which came a few years later, is also well-known and exhaustively studied.

The Haitian Revolution, though less familiar than these other two, was also infinitely more radical (and therefore more significant) because it was the only revolution which put an end to slavery. Both the American and the French Revolutions were founded on ideas of natural human rights to freedom and self-determination--ideas which are so fully integrated into our present definition of humanity that we forget how novel they must have appeared when they were first announced a couple of centuries ago. But only the Haitian Revolution extended this ideology to the African men and women who were brought to the New World as slaves -- and therefore only the Haitian Revolution put the principles of the other two fully into practice.

Because they failed to put an end to slavery, both the French Revolution and (especially) the American Revolution were erected on a cracked foundation. It is painfully obvious that we still feel shocks and trembling from this deep fault line, which persists in American society today. We are still struggling with the consequences of our origins as a slave state and in this respect the Haitian Revolution has a very great deal to teach us.

Suggested reading

The Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution by Laurent Dubois is an excellent, 2005 history of the Haitian revolution.

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James is still the best comprehensive survey of the Haitian Revolution -- a majestic and excellent work (though I feel that the Marxist model he uses is imperfectly suited to the Haitian situation and therefore produces a few minor distortions).

For a more sophisticated historiographic approach, Silencing the Past by Michel-Rolph Trouillot is essential -- best read in conjunction with The Black Jacobins or some other history which summarizes the essential facts. Both James and Trouillot would be most suitable for college-level courses.

For a high-school course, I recommend Citizen Toussaint by Ralph Korngold. Presented as a biography of Toussaint Louverture, this short book also presents the basics of the Haitian Revolution in a remarkably clear and accessible fashion. [out of print]

Madison Smartt Bell is the author of thirteen novels, including The Washington Square Ensemble (1983), Waiting for the End of the World (1985), Straight Cut (1986), The Year of Silence (1987), Doctor Sleep (1991), Save Me, Joe Louis (1993), Ten Indians (1997) and Soldier's Joy, which received the Lillian Smith Award in 1989.  Bell has also published two collections of short stories: Zero DB (1987) and Barking Man and Other Stories (1990). In 2002, the novel Doctor Sleep was adapted as a film, Close Your Eyes. Forty Words For Fear, an album of songs co-written by Bell and Wyn Cooper and inspired by the novel Anything Goes, was released in 2003. 

Bell's eighth novel, All Soul's Rising, was a finalist for the 1995 National Book Award and the 1996 PEN/Faulkner Award and winner of the 1996 Anisfield-Wolf award for the best book of the year dealing with matters of race. All Souls Rising, is the first of three novels of his Haitian Revolutionary trilogy which include Master of the Crossroads and The Stone That The Builder Refused. Toussaint Louverture: A Biography was published in 2007 and Devil's Dream: A Novel About Nathan Bedford Forrest in 2009.