Reviews
"The essays . . . cover disparate topics, but one theme binds them. Each scholar gives more emphasis to participants and their actions in bringing about events rather than to events themselves. Thus some papers focus on slaves' rebellions, especially in Martinique and in Haiti, where the proper term is revolution rather than rebellion. Other papers deal with abolitionist activity in France, runaway maroons in the French islands, emigrants from Haiti to the US, French Caribbean contributors to the US, slave identity, and Creole language. Until recently such topics, except for Creole linguistics, would have been the province of historians and historical anthropologists. This volume demonstrates that scholars of language and literature also enter the archives."
—Choice
Description
Twelve scholars representing a variety of academic fields contribute to this study of slavery in the French Caribbean colonies, which ranges historically from the 1770s to Haiti’s declaration of independent statehood in 1804. Including essays on the impact of colonial slavery on France, the United States, and the French West Indies, this collection focuses on the events, causes, and effects of violent slave rebellions that occurred in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. In one of the few studies to examine the Caribbean revolts and their legacy from a U.S. perspective, the contributors discuss the flight of island refugees to the southern cities of New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, and Baltimore that branded the lower United States as “the extremity of Caribbean culture.” Based on official records and public documents, historical research, literary works, and personal accounts, these essays present a detailed view of the lives of those who experienced this period of rebellion and change.
