HAITIAN HISTORY NEW PERSPECTIVES R E W R I T I N G H I S T O R I E S (cid:156) EEEDDDIIITTTTEEEDDD BBBYYYY AAALLLYYYSSSSSSAAAA GGGOOOOLLLLDDDDSSSTTTTEEEEIIINNNN SSSSEEEPPPPIIINNNWWWAAALLLLLLLL HAITIAN HISTORY D espite Haiti’s proximity to the United States, and its considerable import- ance to our own history, Haiti barely registered in the historic conscious- ness of most Americans until recently. Those who struggled to understand Haiti’s suffering in the earthquake of 2010 often spoke of it as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, but could not explain how it came to be so. I n recent years, the amount of scholarship about the island has increased dramatically. Whereas once this scholarship was focused on Haiti’s polit- ical or military leaders, now the historiography of Haiti features lively debates and different schools of thought. Even as this body of knowledge has developed, it has been hard for students to grasp its various strands. Haitian History presents the best of the recent studies on Haitian history, by both Haitian and foreign scholars, moving from colonial Saint Domingue to the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. It will be the go-to one-volume introduction to the fi eld of Haitian history, helping to explain how the promise of the Haitian Revolution dissipated, and presenting the major debates and questions in the fi eld today. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall is Professor of History at California State University-San Marcos. Rewriting Histories focuses on historical themes where standard con clusions are facing a major challenge. Each book presents papers (edited and annotated when necessary) at the forefront of current research and interpretation, offering students an accessible way to engage with contemporary debates. Series editor Jack R. Censer is Professor of History at George Mason University. REWRITING HISTORIES Edited by Jack R. Censer ATLANTIC AMERICAN SOCIETIES: MEDIEVAL RELIGION: NEW FROM COLUMBUS THROUGH APPROACHES ABOLITION Edited by Constance Hoffman Berman Edited by J R McNeill and Alan Karras NAZISM AND GERMAN SOCIETY, COMPARATIVE FASCIST STUDIES: 1933–1945 NEW PERSPECTIVES Edited by David Crew Edited by Constantin Iordachi THE NEW SOUTH: NEW HISTORIES DECOLONIZATION: PERSPECTIVES Edited by J. William Harris FROM NOW AND THEN THE OLD SOUTH: NEW STUDIES Edited by Prasenjit Duara OF SOCIETY AND CULTURE DIVERSITY AND UNITY IN EARLY Edited by J. William Harris NORTH AMERICA THE ORIGINS OF THE BLACK Edited by Philip Morgan ATLANTIC THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: Edited by Larent DuBois and Julius S. Scott RECENT DEBATES AND NEW THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR: CONTROVERSIES AN INTERNATIONAL HISTORY Edited by Gary Kates Edited by David Painter and Melvyn Leffl er FROM ROMAN PROVINCES TO PRACTICING HISTORY: NEW MEDIEVAL KINGDOMS DIRECTIONS IN HISTORICAL Edited by Thomas F.X. Noble WRITING GENDER AND AMERICAN Edited by Gabrielle M. Spiegel HISTORY SINCE 1890 REFORMATION TO REVOLUTION Edited by Barbara Melosh Edited by Margo Todd GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL THE RENAISSANCE: ITALY AND HISTORY ABROAD Edited by John R. McNeill and Alan Roe Edited by John Jeffries Martin GLOBAL FEMINISMS SINCE 1945 REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA: NEW Edited by Bonnie G. Smith APPROACHES TO THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION GLOBALIZING FEMINISMS, Edited by Rex A. Wade 1789–1945 Edited by Karen Offen THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1989 Edited by Vladimir Tismaneanu THE HOLOCAUST: ORIGINS, IMPLEMENTATION, AFTERMATH SEGREGATION AND APARTHEID Edited by Omer Bartov IN TWENTIETH CENTURY SOUTH AFRICA HAITIAN HISTORY: NEW Edited by William Beinart and Saul Dubow PERSPECTIVES Edited by Alyssa Sepinwall SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN THE SLAVE SOUTH THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Edited by J. William Harris AND WORK IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY EUROPE STALINISM: NEW DIRECTIONS Edited by Lenard R. Berlanstein Edited by Sheila Fitzpatrick THE ISRAEL/ PALESTINE TWENTIETH CENTURY CHINA: QUESTION NEW APPROACHES Edited by Ilan Pappé Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom HAITIAN HISTORY New Perspectives Edited by Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall First published 2013 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Taylor & Francis The right of the editor to be identifi ed as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Sepinwall, Alyssa Goldstein, 1970– Haitian history : new perspectives / by Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall. p. cm. – (Rewriting histories) Includes index. 1. Haiti–History. I. Title. F1921.S45 2012 972.94–dc23 2012023195 ISBN: 978-0-415-80867-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-80868-2 (pbk) Typeset in Palatino by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk, UK CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Preface ix Introduction 1 ALYSSA GOLDSTEIN SEPINWALL SECTION I From Saint-Domingue to Haiti 13 1 An Unthinkable History: The Haitian Revolution as a Non-Event 33 MICHEL-ROLPH TROUILLOT 2 Slave Resistance (from T he Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution From Below ) 55 CAROLYN E. FICK 3 Saint-Domingue on the Eve of the Haitian Revolution 72 DAVID P. GEGGUS 4 “I am the Subject of the King of Congo”: African Political Ideology and the Haitian Revolution 89 JOHN K. THORNTON SECTION II Independent Haiti in a Hostile World: Haiti in the Nineteenth Century 103 5 The Politics of “French Negroes” in the United States 123 ASHLI WHITE v CONTENTS 6 Talk About Haiti: The Archive and the Atlantic’s Haitian Revolution 139 ADA FERRER 7 Sword-Bearing Citizens: Militarism and Manhood in Nineteenth-Century Haiti 157 MIMI SHELLER 8 Rural Protest and Peasant Revolt, 1804–1869 180 DAVID NICHOLLS 9 “The Black Republic”: The Infl uence of the Haitian Revolution on Northern Black Political Consciousness, 1816–1862 197 LESLIE M. ALEXANDER SECTION III From the Occupation to the Earthquake: Haiti in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 215 10 Under the Gun (from H aiti and the United States: The Psychological Moment ) 241 BRENDA GAYLE PLUMMER 11 VIVE 1804! The Haitian Revolution and the Revolutionary Generation of 1946 256 MATTHEW J. SMITH 12 Dynastic Dictatorship: The Duvalier Years, 1957–1986 273 PATRICK BELLEGARDE-SMITH 13 The Water Refugees (from A IDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame ) 285 PAUL FARMER 14 The Rise, Fall, and Second Coming of Jean-Bertrand Aristide 294 ROBERT FATTON JR. 15 Eternity Lasted Less Than Sixty Seconds . . . 312 ÉVELYNE TROUILLOT Permissions Acknowledgments 317 Index 319 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The collection grows out of a graduate seminar on the historiography of Haiti, which I fi rst taught at California State University, San Marcos in Fall 2010. I am very grateful to my students (Herbert Alarcon, Sarah Wolk, Jake Lewis, Lezlie Lee-French, Alex Duran and Timothy Engstrom) for the insights and energy that they brought to our discussions. I am also immensely grateful to Jack Censer for sharing my enthusiasm about the value of such a reader, and to Kimberly Guinta, Rebecca Novack and Sioned Jones for their expert help with preparing it. I would also like to thank all of those who helped me transform this collection from idea into print. Jack Censer and the four anonymous reviewers of my initial book proposal offered excellent suggestions, as did numerous colleagues at Cal State San Marcos (especially Cynthia Chavez Metoyer, Peter Arnade, Jill Watts, Jeff Charles, Sheryl Lutjens, Janet McDaniel, Katherine Hijar and Marion Geiger). At Arizona State University, where I gave an early talk about this project, Andrew Barnes, Joni Adamson, Alex Bontemps, Kent Wright and Rachel Fuchs offered invaluable suggestions and encouragement. I also owe heartfelt thanks to the authors who granted me permission to reproduce their work here and who supported the idea of such a collection. Once I developed the manuscript, I had a dream team of readers, inside and outside of Haitian history, who offered sage guidance about how to make my historiographical survey as thorough and accessible as possible. Though all errors remain my own, I am deeply indebted to Matthew Smith, Gusti-Klara Gaillard-Pourchet, Laurent Dubois, Claudy Delné, Dominique Rogers, Sue Peabody, Madison Smartt Bell, Matthew Casey, Harriet Sepinwall, Joellyn Zollman, Ashli White, Grace Sanders, Sarah Wolk, Allan Arkush and Erica Peters for their careful reading of drafts and their extremely helpful counsel. I owe a special debt to the late Yves Benot, who fi rst urged me to study the impact of the Haitian Revolution in the United States, and to many other colleagues, especially Marcel Dorigny, David Geggus, John Garrigus, Jeremy Popkin, Elizabeth Colwill, Carolyn Fick, Malick Ghachem, Stewart King and André Elizée, for years of colle- gial discussions on the historiography of colonial Saint-Domingue and the vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Haitian Revolution. Gary Kates offered expert practical tips on developing such a reader; Jennifer Heuer helped me think through numerous aspects of the book’s conception and development. Sarah Sussman, Patricia Goldsworthy and Richard Keller offered some precious bibliographical suggestions. At a time when Haiti’s own libraries are in disarray, I am acutely conscious of how fortunate I have been to gain access to so many works on Haitian history. My research would have been impossible without the efforts of countless North American acquisitions librarians who purchase important Haitian and French books and without the interlibrary loan networks that librarians have so carefully constructed to share those books. Teresa Roudenbush, Debbie Blair and the entire Circulation staff at CSUSM (and in the San Diego Circuit) fed my near-endless appetite for Haiti-related books; they drew on the generosity of institutions across North America and the Caribbean. This book also benefi ted from faculty development funding at CSUSM, including a University Professional Development Grant and a CHABSS Faculty Development Grant. My deepest gratitude goes to my family, particularly my kind and supportive husband Steven Goldstein, my loving and beautiful mother Harriet Lipman Sepinwall, and my sweet and funny son Jacob Goldstein. Their patience and love – as well as that of my extended family and dear friends – did much to sustain me throughout my work on this study. viii PREFACE Rewriting history, or revisionism, has always followed closely in the wake of history writing. In their efforts to re-evaluate the past, professional as well as amateur scholars have followed many approaches, most commonly as empiricists, uncovering new information to challenge earlier accounts. Historians have also revised previous versions by adopting new perspec- tives, usually fortifi ed by new research, which overturn received views. Even though rewriting is constantly taking place, historians’ attitudes towards using new interpretations have been anything but settled. For most, the validity of revisionism lies in providing a stronger, more convincing account that better captures the objective truth of the matter. Although such historians might agree that we never fi nally arrive at the “truth,” they believe it exists and over time may be better approximated. At the other extreme stand scholars who believe that each generation or even each cultural group or subgroup necessarily regards the past differently, each creating for itself a more usable history. Although these latter scholars do not reject the possibility of demonstrating empirically that some conten- tions are better than others, they focus upon generating new views based upon different life experiences. Different truths exist for different groups. Surely such an understanding, by emphasizing subjectivity, further encour- ages rewriting history. Between these two groups are those historians who wish to borrow from both sides. This third group, while accepting that every congeries of individuals sees matters differently, still wishes some- what contradictorily to fashion a broader history that incorporates both of these particular visions. Revisionists who stress empiricism fall into the fi rst of the three camps, while others spread out across the board. Today the rewriting of history seems to have accelerated to a blinding speed as a consequence of the evolution of revisionism. A variety of approaches has emerged. A major factor in this process has been the enor- mous increase in the number of researchers. This explosion has reinforced and enabled the retesting of many assertions. Signifi cant ideological shifts have also played a major part in the growth of revisionism. First, the crisis of Marxism, culminating in the events in Eastern Europe in 1989, has given rise to doubts about explicitly Marxist accounts. Such doubts have spilled over ix