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.

Choice Reviews

This new book, by one of the most eminent theorists in Haitian studies, offers a searching reinterpretation of Haitian history. Alex Dupuy revisits the early years of Haitian independence, reinscribing Haitian history into larger developments in the history of capitalism. He also offers fresh analyses of the class-color debate in Haitian history and of the controversial decision to pay an indemnity to France in 1825 in exchange for recognition.

Alyssa Sepinwall, California State University, San Marcos

Dupuy has committed an act of scholarship. He offers a bold and provocative appreciation of the Haitian Revolution via an unapologetic application of historical materialist principles. Grounded in a class analysis of the ‘modes of production’ debate and uneven capitalist development, the author chides Haiti’s post-independence ruling classes for their dereliction in consolidating a strong state; their failure effectively to proletarianize the ex-slave peasant classes; and their overall inability to get beyond the divisive legacy of ‘race,’ color, and shade bequeathed to them by their colonial masters. In sum, this is a book about the primitive accumulation of capital in pre- and post-independent Haiti, a country that though remaining in the ‘periphery’ of global capitalism has long been central to the development of the latter. The book offers an exquisite blend of history, philosophy, theory, and empirical evidence.

Anton Allahar, professor emeritus, department of sociology, University of Western Ontario

Alex Dupuy astutely reexamines scholarship on the Haitian Revolution and post-revolutionary Haiti in this intellectually stimulating contribution. He systematically exposes the domestic and international intrigue that marked state and class formation and the contradictory consequences for former slaves and their descendant peasants and workers at the hands of the new ruling class forces in Haiti. A brilliant tour de force!

Hilbourne Watson, Bucknell University

A trenchant assessment of the only successful slave revolution in the Western Hemisphere, this book offers a radical approach that is foregrounded in the relationship between capitalism and slavery in the French colony of Saint Domingue. Alex Dupuy cogently dismantles contemporary arguments about Haiti being the source of inspiration for Hegel’s concept of the master-slave dialectic. In addition, the book also provides an erudite and highly nuanced analysis of the practice of race, class, color, and national belonging in Haiti in the aftermath of the Revolution. This volume is important reading for all students of Haitian and Caribbean history and society.

Linden F. Lewis, Bucknell University