Rethinking the Haitian Revolution

Alex Dupuy is John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Wesleyan University. His books include Haiti in the World Economy: Class, Race, and Underdevelopment since 1700; Haiti in the New World Order: The Limits of the Democratic Revolution; The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti; and Haiti: From Revolutionary Slaves to Powerless Citizens.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest and most long-suffering nations, having enjoyed few eras of good governance since winning its independence from French slavery in 1804. The revolution that freed the slaves was, as Dupuy (Wesleyan) explains, an opportunity for slaves to become “masters of their own labor and destiny.” Instead, the revolution was usurped by a new black ruling class that confiscated the properties of the French planters and competed for hegemony within the new class—critically, against the wishes and aspirations of the body of former slaves who wanted to be independent farmers but found themselves still working for the post-revolutionary landowning class, many of whom at first were from a mixed-race background. Dupuy’s most striking revision, however, concerns the nature of the heavy cash indemnity that President Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay France to purchase recognition. Unlike earlier writers, Dupuy argues convincingly that the indemnity was not the main reason that Haiti failed to grow economically in the 19th century. The indemnity was not the cause of Haitian underdevelopment then, and continuing through the American occupation, it isn't now.Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• Foreword by Robert Fatton Jr.AcknowledgmentsAuthor NoteIntroduction1 Capitalism and Slavery: Revisiting and Old DebateToward an Alternative PerspectiveCapitalism and Slavery in Saint-DomingueConclusionNotes2 Masters, Slaves, and Revolution in Saint-Domingue: A Critique of the Hegelian InterpretationAn Alternative InterpretationHegel on the Master-Slave Dialectic: A CritiqueNotes3 From Saint-Domingue to Haiti: Revolution and the Rise of a New BourgeoisieNotes4 Property, Debt, and Development: Rethinking the Indemnity QuestionFrom Toussaint Louverture to Jean-Pierre Boyer: The Making of a Landed BourgeoisieA Question of PropertyDebt, Politics, and DevelopmentA Note on DemocracyConclusionNotesBibliographyIndexAbout the Author