Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution by Laurent Dubois (review)

176 The Latin Americanist 9 Spring 2006 Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution .By LaurentDubois. Cambridge,MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 357, $29.95. In 1804,afterthirteenyears ofviolentrevolution,slavestook control of the most profitable slave colony in the world. The Haitian Revolutionwas the first successfulslaverevolt in the Western Hemisphere.Occurringat the end of the eighteenthcentury,when the Atlantic slave trade was at its height, the Haitian Revolution created a heightened sense of fear and awarenessfor other slaveholding colonies in both the Caribbean and North America. Laurent Dubois, an associate professor of history at Michigan State University,has written a detailedaccountofthe thirteen-year-long struggle for freedom in Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Dubois eloquently points out how the effects of the Haitian Revolution have played a major role in the creationof Caribbean and North American nations. Dubois incorporates new research on colonial Saint-Domingue,the communities of free blacks there, and the impact of African culture on the developmentofthe colony.In addition,Duboishas examinednew studies on slavery, slave resistance, and the process of emancipation in the Americas to provide a thorough explanation of the Haitian Revolution. On 1 January 1804, a group of men gathered in SaintDominigueto createa new nation. The leaderof the new republic, Jean Jacques Dessalines,who had once been a slave, became the first president of independent Haiti. Former slaves, freed black men and mulattos,and a few white men all took part in the signing of the declaration, forever denouncing France and promising to fightto preservethe independenceand freedom of the new nation. Although Saint-Dominiguehad been a profitablesugar-producing colony during the colonial era, after the revolution, Haiti had a devastatedeconomy. TheHaitianRevolutionbegan asa directchallengeto French imperial authority, but it quickly turned into a battle over racial inequalityand slavery.Wheremost studieshave onlytoldthe story of the Haitian Revolution from the side of the defeated whites, with a great amountof emphasison the violence involved and the monetary loss, Dubois’study of the revolution delves deeper by illustratingthe power of the militaryand politicalforcesthat were created by the revoltingslavesin 1791, thustellingthe story ofthe Haitian Revolutionfromthe point of view of the blacks, mulattos, and whites that were involved in the insurrection.Unlike nation- Book Reviews I77 alisticportrayalsof the revolution, Dubois illustratesthe battlesof the revolutionwithout apparentbias. The Haitian militaryand political forcesestablishedin 1791 soonbecamerevered by Frenchofficialsleadingthe Republicwho allied themselveswith the insurgent slaves in 1793. The Republicans offered freedom in return for militarysupport,which quickly led to the complete abolition of slavery in the colony. In 1794, these events led the French government to make all the slaves of the French colonies citizens of the French Republic. Dubois, continuingto explainthe extensiveeffectsof the Haitian Revolution , points out that France’s decision thus represented the most radical political transformationof the Age of Revolution (1770s to the 1830s). While slaverywas abolishedon the island in 1794, true liberation was not secured in Saint-Dominigueuntil the defeat of the French army by Haitian forces in 1804. Due to their ability to organize both militarily and politically, the people of Haiti avoided the’tragicfate of those on another French island,Guadeloupe ,where most of the population was re-enslaved in 1803. Continuingto add new information to what is known about pre-revolution Saint-Dominigue,Dubois writes about the special circumstancesand attitudes of the slaves, offering an interesting explanationforwhy someslavesweremorerebelliousthan others. Plantation owners in the southern provinces of Saint-Domingue, closest to Jamaica, developed an ingenious system that allowed them to circumvent French merchants and tariffs. British traders brought slaves from Jamaica and French planterswould purchase them with barrels of sugar and coffee. Dubois explainsthat some of the most rebellious slaves, with the most outrageous ideas for rebellion, were acquired through this illegal trade with Britain. “One slave who probably came from the British West Indies, Boukman, would lead the first 1791 slave revolt in the colony” While most studies on the Haitian Revolution have focused primarily on the violence, Dubois has set out to offer a fresh understandingof the Haitian Revolution by providinga studythat places the violence in context, acknowledgesits complexity,and does not attempt to use it as a method of avoiding the important...