The French Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence tend to be seen as the revolutions that brought into being the modern world. While both events opened up the political process to increasing proportions of their populations and established general or universal understandings of citizenship. In this session, we consider the significance of the Haitian Revolution and discuss its contribution to the making of the modern world.
This lecture is part of The Making of the Modern World module from the Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project.
Readings
- Bhambra, Gurminder K. 2016. ‘Undoing the Epistemic Disavowal of the Haitian Revolution: A Contribution to Global Social Thought’ Journal of Intercultural Studies 37 (1): 1-16.
- James, C. L. R. 1989 [1963, 1938]. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. Second Edition. New York: Vintage Books.
- May, Vivian M. 2008. ‘“It is Never a Question of the Slaves”: Anna Julia Cooper’s Challenge to History’s Silences in Her 1925 Sorbonne Thesis,’ Callaloo 31 (3): 903–918.
- Semley, Lorelle D. 2013. ‘To Live and Die, Free and French: Toussaint Louverture’s 1801 Constitution and the Original Challenge of Black Citizenship,’ Radical History Review (115): 65-90.
- Shilliam Robbie 2017. Race and Revolution at Bwa Kayiman. Millennium 45 (3): 269-292.
- Trouillot, Michel-Rolph 1995. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Boston: Beacon Press.
Resources
Questions for discussion
- What is the significance of the Haitian Revolution to our understandings of modernity?
- How does the Haitian Revolution, and the idea of Black Citizenship, extend our understandings of citizenship more generally?
- What explains the silence around the events of the Haitian Revolution in standard social science understandings of modernity and citizenship?
