The Other Revolution: Haiti, 1789-1804 (JCB Digital Catalogue)

More than two hundred years after Haitian independence was declared on January 1, 1804, it remains a challenge to perceive the spirit that fueled the first abolition of slavery in the New World and gave rise to the second independent nation in the Americas. As recently as ten years ago, the Haitian Revolution (1789-1804), which created “Haiti” out of the ashes of French Saint Domingue, was the least understood of the three great democratic revolutions that transformed the Atlantic world in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. That is no longer true. In the decade since the 2004 bicentennial, a genuine explosion of scholarship on the Saint-Domingue revolution has profoundly enriched our memory of what Hannah Arendt, in her comparative study of the American and French revolutions, called “the revolutionary tradition and its lost treasure”. It is not clear to what extent this development has affected broader public understandings of the Haitian predicament, however. At the start of 2014, Haiti remains marginalized on the world scene and vulnerable within its own borders, painfully so in the aftermath of the terrible 2010 earthquake that struck such a devastating blow to a proud and resilient land.

Even more so than in the American and French contexts, much of Haiti’s revolutionary treasure is necessarily lost forever. Few sources survive that record the thoughts and sentiments of the tens of thousands of illiterate slaves who carried out the Haitian Revolution. But some of that treasure, something of the Haitian revolutionary spirit–its stirring promise, and also its tragic disappointments–is still preserved in the books, pamphlets, maps, and prints displayed in this room. In many instances the revolutionary spirit can be only dimly perceived through the eye-witness accounts and recollections of literate white colonists and free people of color, but it is there all the same.

The exhibition items have been chosen, and the captions written, so as to provide a running narrative of the Haitian Revolution. The major turning points of the Revolution, its key personalities, as well as its most significant themes and problems, are all explained at the particular moment in which they appear in the narrative.

The Other Revolution follows on from the JCB’s participation in Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn, a groundbreaking exhibition at the New-York Historical Society in 2011-12 that explored the monumental transformations to the world’s politics and culture in the time from Britain’s triumph in the Seven Years’ War in 1763 to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Through continued collaboration, the JCB and NYHS now present an expanded chapter from Revolution! At the heart of The Other Revolution is a reworking of the JCB’s own 2004 exhibition, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804, which celebrated the bicentennial of Haitian independence. Malick Ghachem, former JCB Fellow and Associate Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as guest curator for both JCB exhibitions. The related programming for the current exhibition has been generously supported by the JCB’s Virginia and Jean R. Perrette Fund, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities & Cultural Heritage, and the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University.

For the first time, this exhibition incorporates entire digitized books. The entire book may be read on a mobile device—smart phone or tablet—by using provided QR codes on the labels in the Reading Room or by following the link on the thumbnail image in the online version to the digitized Internet Archive book.

1. Saint-Domingue Before the Revolution

1 annotation

Carte de St. Domingue ou sont marqués les Paroisses Jurisdictions

1770

1 annotation

Plan de quelques Habitations du quartieir [sic] de Limonade

1785

1 annotation

Amédée François Frézier

Isle de S. Domingue et débouquemens circonvoisins votre très humble et t...

1724

1 annotation

P. L. de Griwtonn

Carte de l'Isle de St. Domingue.

1760

1 annotation

L. Griwtonn

Carte de l'Isle de St. Domingue avec les routes par P.L. Griwtonn, Ingénieur

1801

1 annotation

Le code noir ou Edit du roy, servant de reglement pour le gouvernement &...

1735

1 annotation

G Dubois

De par le Roi. Réglement de police

1772

1 annotation

Raynal

Histoire philosophique et politique des etablissements & du commerce des...

1773

1 annotation

Ordonnance du roi, concernant les procureurs & économes-gérans des hab...

1785

1 annotation

P. J Laborie

The coffee planter of Saint Domingo

1798

1 annotation

M. L. E Moreau de Saint-Méry

Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de ...

1797-1798

2. The French Revolution and the Free People of Color (1789-1791)

1 annotation

Fernand de la Bruniere e.a.

Vue du Cap Francois, Isle St. Domingue, prise du Chemin de l'embarcadère...

1751-1800

1 annotation

Premier recueil de pièces intéressantes

1788

1 annotation

Nicolas-Robert Cocherel

Motion de M. de Cocherel, député de Saint-Domingue, à la séance du s...

1790

1 annotation

Etienne-Louis-Hector de Joly

Cahier, contenant les plaintes, doléances & réclamations des citoyens-...

1789

1 annotation

Henri Grégoire

Observations sur un pamphlet

1789

1 annotation

Caradeux de la Caye

Convocation de l'Assemblée coloniale

1790

1 annotation

Affiches américaines. Numéro 19. Feuille du Cap-Franc̦ais, du samedi 5...

1791

1 annotation

Henri Ternaux-Compans

Pétition nouvelle des citoyens de couleur des îsles fran̨coises, a l'A...

1791

1 annotation

Doutes proposés à l'Assemblée nationale

1790

3. The August 1791 Slave Revolt

1 annotation

Jacques Nicolas Bellin

Carte de l'Isle de Saint Domingue pour servir a l'Histoire generale des ...

1759

1 annotation

J Brard

Discours

1791

1 annotation

T Millet e.a.

Assemblée générale de la partie française de Saint-Domingue. Aux qua...

1791

1 annotation

Messieurs et chers compatriotes, nous vous adressons ci-joint des exempl...

1791

1 annotation

Adresse de l'Assemblée provinciale du Nord de Saint-Domingue à ses commettans

1791

1 annotation

Jean Huard e.a.

Gazette de Saint-Domingue

1791

1 annotation

Claude Louis Michel Milscent de Mussé

Sur les troubles de Saint-Domingue

1791

4. The Civil Commissions, The Free People of Color, and Abolition (1791-1793)

1 annotation

Ignace-Frédéric de Mirbeck e.a.

Proclamation des Commissaires nationaux-civils

1791

1 annotation

Gaudet

Opinion

1792

1 annotation

Saint-Marc (Haiti) e.a.

Réflexions politiques sur les troubles et la situation de la partie fra...

1792

1 annotation

Etienne Polverel e.a.

Proclamation

1792

1 annotation

Prospectus pour le rétablissement des Affiches americaines

1792

1 annotation

Baillio

Mémoire pour les citoyens Verneuil, Baillio jeune, Fournier et Gervais,...

1793

1 annotation

Léger Félicité Sonthonax

Proclamation. Au nom de la République

1793

1 annotation

Etienne Polverel e.a.

Proclamation

1793

1 annotation

Etienne Polverel e.a.

Proclamation

1793

1 annotation

Simon-Louis Boizot e.a.

Moi Libre aussi.

1751-1800

5. War and Occupation (1793-1798)

1 annotation

Courrier politique de la France et de ses colonies

1793

1 annotation

J. Pechon

Plan du Port-au-Prince et environs avec un projet de Fortifier la ville ...

1794

1 annotation

[Haiti, southwestern peninsula, between 1793 and 1798]

1793

1 annotation

Léger Félicité Sonthonax

Sonthonax, ci devant commissaire civil, délégué a Saint-Domingue, a l...

1 annotation

Débats entre les accusateurs et les accusés, dans l'affaire des colonies

1795

1 annotation

André Rigaud e.a.

Extrait d'une lettre du commissaire Sonthonax, au general Bauvais

1797

1 annotation

Boquet

Passage des 11 jours du pillage de la ville du Cap Français...

1751-1800

1 annotation

Relation de l'anniversaire de la fèdération [!] du 14 juillet 1789

1795

1 annotation

P. F Barbault-Royer

Du gouvernement de Saint-Domingue, de Laveaux, de Villatte, des agens du...

1797

1 annotation

Louis-Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse

Discours

1797

1 annotation

Jean-Philippe Garran de Coulon

Rapport sur les troubles de Saint-Domingue

1797-1799

6. Toussaint Louverture

1 annotation

Cousin d'Avallon

Histoire de Toussaint-Louverture chef des noirs insurgés de Saint-Domingue

1802

1 annotation

Toussaint Louverture Chef des Noirs Insurgés de Saint Domingue.

1801-1850

1 annotation

Lavaux

Discours prononcé par C. Lavaux, député de Saint-Domingue, le troisie...

1797

1 annotation

Toussaint Louverture

Arrêtés des différentes communes de la colonie de St.-Domingue, adres...

1 annotation

Gabriel-Marie-Théodore-Joseph d' Hédouville

Numéro 13. Bulletin officiel de Saint-Domingue. Du 24 germinal, l'an se...

1799

1 annotation

Marcus Rainsford

A memoir of transactions that took place in St. Domingo, in the spring of 1799

1802

7. The War of Independence (1802-1803) and the Struggle for Recognition

1 annotation

Dubroca

La vie de Toussaint-Louverture, chef des noirs insurgés de Saint-Domingue

1802

1 annotation

Recensement

1804

1 annotation

J Abeille

Essai sur nos colonies, et sur le retablissement de Saint Domingue

1805

1 annotation

J Grouvel

Faits historiques sur St.-Domingue, depuis 1786 jusqu'en 1805

1814

1 annotation

Pieces officielles relatives aux négociations du gouvernement français...

1824

8. Impact and Representation of the Revolution

1 annotation

St. George Tucker

A dissertation on slavery

1796

1 annotation

Marcus Rainsford

An historical account of the black empire of Hayti

1805

1 annotation

Juan López Cancelada e.a.

Vida de J.J. Dessalines, gefe de los negros de Santo Domingo

1806

1 annotation

Le conseil d'état, au peuple et à l'armee de terre et de mer de Hayti

1811

1 annotation

[Alexandre Sabés Pétion]

1801-1850

1 annotation

Manuscrit d'un voyage de France a Saint Domingue , à la Havanne et aux ...

1816

Credits

Editorial Notes: Items Pending Integration

During the migration of our legacy catalogs and past exhibitions into Americana, there are occasionally items that cannot be immediately included in our new environment. This may happen for two reasons: the item in question is not yet cataloged, or it was lent by another institution.
Any items that are not integrated into Americana are included in this section and added to our processing queue.

Louverture responds to his critics
40. Toussaint Louverture, Réfutation de quelques assertions d’un Discours prononcé par Viénot Vaublanc (Paris, 1797).
By late 1796 Louverture had consolidated his control over the northern province, and in May 1797 Sonthonax named him commander in chief of French forces in the colony. The black leader’s rise to power made him a frequent target of attack in the metropolitan assemblies. In this reply to a speech by one of his most vociferous critics, Louverture rejected the suggestion that force was necessary to return the slaves to work. He also pointed to the French Revolutionary Terror of 1793-94 by way of arguing that the Haitian Revolution was not alone in resorting to the use of violence – a passage that suggests the involvement of someone trying to settle a score in the French domestic political situation.

Project Creator(s)

The John Carter Brown Library