Introduction: Race and Voice in the Archives: Mediated Testimony and Interracial Commerce in Saint-Domingue
Introduction: Race and Voice in the Archives: Mediated Testimony and Interracial Commerce in Saint-Domingue
This book examines the literature that arose from the Haitian Revolution, focusing on political manuscripts issued by former slaves turned revolutionary leaders, including correspondence, proclamations, and manifestoes. In particular, it looks at the French and Creole African diasporan texts dating from the era of the Haitian Revolution (1791–1803) until the Haitian independence (1804–1806) of the Dessalines era. The book focuses on early African diasporan literature in the context of independence and postcolonial transition in Haiti, rather than on the presumed posterity of slavery that provides the background for much of the early African American tradition. It explores the narrative structures arising from defensive awareness of hegemonic incursions, especially the dialogues recreated by General Toussaint Louverture between himself and his political rivals, to Jean-Jacques Dessalines's rhetorical construction of colonial identity around the contagion of conquest and guilty mastery. The book also discusses the culture and politics of the Haitian Revolution as well as the libertine sphere in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
Keywords: Haitian Revolution, independence, Haiti, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint Louverture, slavery, politics, culture, Saint-Domingue, African diasporan literature
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