Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection

418 Pages·2008·2.58 MB·English

by  Jeremy D. Popkin

Facing Racial Revolution
Facing Racial Revolution
Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection
Jeremy D. Popkin
The University of Chicago Press chicago and london
jeremy d. popkinis the T. Marshall Hahn Jr. Professor of history at the
University of Kentucky. He is the author of many books, including A Short
History of the French Revolution; AHistory of Modern France;and History,
Historians, and Autobiography.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2007 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2007
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-67582-4 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-67583-1 (paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-67582-3 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-67583-1 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Facing racial revolution : eyewitness accounts of the Haitian Insurrection /
Jeremy D. Popkin [editor].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-226-67582-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-67582-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-67583-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-67583-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Haiti—History—Revolution, 1791–1804—Personal narratives. I. Popkin,
Jeremy D., 1948–
f1923.f33 2007
972.94'030922—dc22
2007015188
oThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansiz39.48-1992.
Dedicated to my father, Richard H. Popkin (1923–2005)
and to my sister, Margaret L. Popkin (1950–2005)

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix Foreword xi
introduction From Saint-Domingue to Haiti:
Eyewitness Narratives of the Haitian Revolution 1
1 Becoming a Slavemaster 37
2 The Ogé Insurrection 43
3 The First Days of the Slave Insurrection 49
4 A Poet in the Midst of Insurrection: “Mon Odyssée” 59
5 An Expedition against the Insurgents in November 1791 93
6 Inside the Insurgency: Gros’s Historick Recital 105
7 Prisoners of the Insurgents in 1792 156
8 Fighting and Atrocities in the South Province in 1792–1793 169
9 Masters and Their Slaves during the Insurrection 174
10 The Destruction of Cap Français in June 1793 180
11 A Colonist at Sea, 1793 233
12 Imagining the Motives behind the Insurrection 245
13 A Colonist among the Spanish and the British 252
14 A White Captive in the Struggle against the Leclerc Expedition 270
15 A Family Reunion and a Religious Conversion 313
16 A Woman’s View of the Last Days of Cap Français 317
17 A Child’s Memories of the Last Days of Saint-Domingue 329
18 A Survivor of Dessalines’s Massacres in 1804 336
19 The Story of the Last French Survivors in Saint-Domingue 363
Notes 367 Bibliography 387 Index 391
ILLUSTRATIONS
Map of Saint-Domingue in the Late Eighteenth Century xvi
figure 1. Revolt of the Blacks in Saint-Domingue 10
figure 2. Ogé Landing in Saint-Domingue 44
figure 3. Depiction of the Black Slaves’ Idea of French Democratic
Freedom, Which They Thought to Gain through Unheard-of Cruelties 55
figure 4. Plantations in Flames in the North Province, August 1791 75
figure 5. The Faithful Slave 178
figure 6. Plan du Cap Français après son incendie 182–83
figure 7. The Burning of Cap Français 200
figure 8. Illustration from “Le Philanthrope Révolutionnaire” 246
figure 9. The Siege of Crête-à-Pierrot 304
figure 10. Depicting a Black Rescuer 365