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This article examines a pivotal moment in the campaign for political rights mounted by free men of colour in Saint-Domingue during the era of the French and Haitian Revolutions, when the leaders of the free coloured movement were able to force white political leaders to agree to a revolutionary set of demands known as the concordats. Having taken place in the shadow of the August 1791 slave rebellion in the northern part of the colony, the concordats have traditionally been overlooked and understudied by historians of the Haitian Revolution; however, they reveal valuable insights into the political thought of Saint-Domingue's free coloured leaders, who sought to erase white supremacy in political, legal, and social arenas while simultaneously maintaining slavery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the works of playwright and poet Manuel Rueda, including "Las metamorfosis de Makandal," which takes its inspiration from Alejo Carpentier's Spanish novel "The Kingdom of This World." It mentions the Haitian Revolution, the most successful slave rebellion in the Americas, and Makandal, who is known for organizing a deliberate poisoning of more than six thousand French plantation owners in Saint-Domingue, Dominican Republic.

The article focuses on the life in Havana during the active period of the Haitian Revolution in 1802, discussing the history of Caribbean slavery. It highlights the intensified interaction and human exchange between Cuba and Hispaniola due to slave rebellion of 1791. It draws references from Ada Ferrer's book "Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution."

Writing in 1802 about the outbreak of the 1791 slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, planter Félix Carteau identified “the execrable Abbé de Lahaye, curé of Dondon, the most ardent apostle of freedom for the Blacks,” as one of the “known fomenters of their revolt.” This portrait of the Abbé de Lahaye as a committed abolitionist who played a generative role in the Haitian Revolution exemplifies the many passing references to him in colonial-era sources and later historical accounts, as well as works of fiction such as Alejo Carpentier’s El reino de este mundo (1949). Given the Abbé’s discursive centrality to representations of the Haitian Revolution, surprisingly little scholarly attention has been paid to this notorious figure. Exploring a range of archival documents, this article charts French-born Guillaume Sylvestre de Lahaye’s life from 1787 to 1791, detailing his prominent role in late colonial Saint-Domingue as a man of letters and a politician: first, by examining his contributions to transatlantic botany, notably in his never-published Florindie (1789), focusing on unexpectedly (given his reputation) negative representations of enslaved Africans sprinkled throughout that 600-page manuscript; second, by documenting his (hitherto unchronicled) role as president of the Dondon parish committee in 1789-1790, where he pursued a “revolutionary” policy of equal rights for all white settlers in the colony, while insisting on the need to discipline both the slave and free colored populations. The material unearthed in this article problematizes legendary representations of the Abbé as an “apostle of freedom,” forcing us, as discussed in the coda, to reconsider the humanitarian sentiments he went on to express in the summer of 1793, when, as author of an anonymously published journal entitled Lettres sentimentales sur la Révolution de Saint-Domingue, he helped prepare the way for the 29 August abolition of slavery in Saint-Domingue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relation of early American thought to the role of Jamaican maroons in the Second Maroon War in light of the Haitian Revolution. Topics include the influence of U.S. debates about slavery on opinions about the maroons, the impact of the Second Seminole War due to U.S. military attacks on Native people and runaway slaves in Florida, and U.S. whites' opinions on violence in slave revolts in relation to beliefs about liberty.

The article discusses the history, context and analysis of the novel "Secret History: Or, the Horrors of St. Domingo," written between 1802 and 1805 by Leonora Sansay in the format of letters by two women who lived through the revolution of the French colony of Saint-Domingue before it became the Republic of Haiti in 1804. Topics include the historical and fictitious aspects of the text and the novel's structure, which is in the format of letters to then-Vice President of the U.S., Aaron Burr.

On April 15, 1793, Louis-Philibert-François Rouxel de Blanchelande, the last royal governor of the vital French slave colony of Saint Domingue, was guillotined in Paris, having been convicted on charges of trying to undermine the French Revolution by depriving the white colonists of their rights and abetting the slave uprising that had begun there in 1791. Blanchelande had certainly made many mistakes in trying to deal with the crises that beset Saint Domingue during the nearly two years of his mission, but his conviction was above all a reflection of the contradictions between the liberal principles of the French Revolution’s first years and the realities of politics in a slave society. Ordered to respect the white colonists’ right to self-government, to impose equality between them and Saint Domingue’s free people of color, and to repress the slave revolt, Blanchelande found himself facing a task that was, as one witness at his trial put it, “too great for . . . any human being.” Drawing on previously unexploited archival sources, this article dispels long-standing claims that Blanchelande acted out of counterrevolutionary motives and puts the story of his mission in the context of the crisis that the period’s revolutionary movements caused in all transatlantic empires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the works of anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot about the unthinkability of the Haitian revolution. It explores the comments of several scholars on the unthinkable argument of Trouillot and the texts of slave uprisings in European journals and other reading materials. It also examines the ontology of freedom in the country in the 21st century.

Focusing on the era of the Haitian Revolution, this article analyses recent historiographical developments in both French and English. Though the field has made great strides in recent decades, it occasionally remains hampered by insufficient archival research, a parochial approach by US and French scholars, and linguistic fragmentation. The article also includes a survey of the main archival resources that are available to scholars in Europe, the Caribbean, and the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research examines published correspondence and other news items regarding the 1791 outbreak of Haiti's slave revolt, Gabriel Prosser's 1800 slave conspiracy, the 1811 Louisiana slave revolt, Denmark Vesey's 1822 slave conspiracy, and Nat Turner's 1831 slave revolt. It finds that a racial panic discourse emerged in newspaper coverage of American slave troubles during the partisan press era, and it situates that discourse within a moral panic framework that suggests elites, including editors and white slave owners, consciously and unconsciously exacerbated or diminished the threat of slave revolt as a means to maintain power . White fears of slave violence intensified after the Haiti revolt, and references to the "horrors of Santo Domingo" (now Haiti) became shorthand for the frightening prospect of black on white violence. White newspaper readers encountering such in- formation may have believed an authoritative response was required. The research argues that this discourse has a legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on abolitionism in Pennsylvania during the time of the Haitian Revolution, focusing on the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS). It examines the society's international and Atlantic connections and comments on Benjamin Giroud, a French republican and anti-slavery advocate. The author considers the effects of radicalism and slave violence on the PAS. The French abolition society Les Amis des Noirs is also examined.