Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture) - Softcover

Dubois, Laurent; Garrigus, John D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 031241501X ISBN 13: 9780312415013

Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006

Synopsis

This volume details the first slave rebellion to have a successful outcome, leading to the establishment of Haiti as a free black republic and paving the way for the emancipation of slaves in the rest of the French Empire and the world. Incited by the French Revolution, the enslaved inhabitants of the French Caribbean began a series of revolts, and in 1791 plantation workers in Haiti, then known as Saint-Domingue, overwhelmed their planter owners and began to take control of the island. They achieved emancipation in 1794, and after successfully opposing Napoleonic forces eight years later, emerged as part of an independent nation in 1804. A broad selection of documents, all newly translated by the authors, is contextualized by a thorough introduction considering the very latest scholarship. Laurent Dubois and John D. Garrigus clarify for students the complex political, economic, and racial issues surrounding the revolution and its reverberations worldwide. Useful pedagogical tools include maps, illustrations, a chronology, and a selected bibliography.

About this title

About the Author:

LAURENT DUBOIS (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is associate professor of history at Michigan State University. His book A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804 (2004) won the American Historical Association Prize in Atlantic History and the John Edwin Fagg Award. He is also the author of Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004), which was a Christian Science Monitor Noteworthy Book of 2004 and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2004, and Les esclaves de la République: l'histoire oubliée de la première emancipation, 1787–1794 (1998).

John D. Garrigus (PhD, Johns Hopkins University) is Associate Professor of History and Advisor, Transatlantic History PhD Program, at the University of Texas at Arlington. A former Chateaubriand Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, he has published on pre-revolutionary Haiti in Americas, French Historical Studies, Slavery & Abolition, and the Journal of Caribbean History. He is currently working on a book on Saint-Domingue's free people of color.

Review:

'This is the most succinct, convenient and accurate history of the Haitian Revolution currently available. It fills a significant gap in the historiography between monographs and general histories on one side and novels and creative literature on the other. The authors have produced an intelligent and highly useful collection of documents, many virtually inaccessible, and conveniently translated them for the English-speaking audience. Their ability to contextualize the events of the revolution briefly is simply exemplary.' - Franklin Knight, Johns Hopkins University, USA 'This is the most amazing document collection I have ever read. It is emotionally gripping, intellectually stimulating, morally provocative, action-packed and full of points of comparison to histories of slavery and freedom everywhere. It has a terrific narrative flow and inherent pathos...This is a wonderful achievement for which all sorts of teachers will be most grateful.' - Evan Haefeli, Tufts University, USA 'This is the most succinct, convenient and accurate history of the Haitian Revolution currently available. It fills a significant gap in the historiography between monographs and general histories on one side and novels and creative literature on the other. The authors have produced an intelligent and highly useful collection of documents, many virtually inaccessible, and conveniently translated them for the English-speaking audience. Their ability to contextualize the events of the revolution briefly is simply exemplary.' - Franklin Knight, Johns Hopkins University, USA 'This is the most amazing document collection I have ever read. It is emotionally gripping, intellectually stimulating, morally provocative, action-packed and full of points of comparison to histories of slavery and freedom everywhere. It has a terrific narrative flow and inherent pathos...his is a wonderful achievement for which all sorts of teachers will be most grateful.' - Evan Haefeli, Tufts University, USA

About this edition

• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 031241501X
• ISBN 13: 9780312415013
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224