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This book examines the ways in which a minority of primarily white, male, French philanthropists used their social standing and talents to improve the lives of peoples of African descent in Saint-Domingue during the crucial period of the Haitian Revolution. They went to great lengths to advocate for the application of universal human rights through political activities, academic societies, religious charity, influence on public opinion, and fraternity in the armed services. The motives for their benevolence ran the gamut from genuine altruism to the selfish pursuit of prestige, which could, on occasion, lead to political or economic benefit from aiding blacks and people of color. This book offers a view that takes into account the efforts of all peoples who worked to end slavery and establish racial equality in Saint-Domingue and challenges simplistic notions of the Haitian Revolution, which lean too heavily on an assumed strict racial divide between black and white.
List of contents
Introduction.- Faith in Humanity: Philanthropists in the Colonial Clergy.- Freeing the Mind: Breaking the Chains of Ideological Enslavement.- Revolutionary Instruction: Creating Educational Equality in the Revolutionary French Atlantic.- Liberating Public Opinion: The Press and a Saint-Dominguan Public Sphere.- Brothers in Arms: Racial Equality in the Saint-Dominguan Colonial Forces.- Representatives of Each Race: Abolishing Inequalities in Colonial Politics.- Conclusion: Atlantic Philanthropists in Revolutionary Saint-Domingue.
About the author
Erica R. Johnson is Assistant Professor of History at Francis Marion University, USA. She specializes in the French Atlantic world.
Summary
Focuses on a little-known group of primarily white, male, French philanthropists and their efforts to improve the lives of peoples of African descent in Saint-Domingue during the Haitiain Revolution
Challenges simplistic notions of the Haitian Revolution that lean too heavily on a purported strict racial divide between black and white
Considers the activities of philanthropists on both sides of the Atlantic to achieve universal human rights, looking beyond to the larger Atlantic abolition movement
