The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World

\..A\'ll@LlNA LoWCOUNTRY AND

THE ATLANTIC WORLD'

. Sponsored by the LowcountF}' and AtlaRticStudies Program of the College dfCharleston ' Money/Trade, andPower Edited byfackP.Greene, RoselnaryBral1a~hute,and Randy.]. Sparks The~mpact ofthe Haitian Reuolt~tion in the- Atlantic World

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'EDITED BY

DAVIDP.GEGGUS

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA'PRESS

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CONTENTS /

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List of Tables, Figures, and Maps vii Preface ix Acknowledgements IX

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PART ONE: OVERVIEW

Chapter I

\lNIVEltStn' Of' SOUTH CAlitOLtNAB#COrTENHlAL

© 200! University ofSouth Carolina Published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the University of South Carolina Press

Chapter 2

The Limits of Example 10 SEYMOUR DRESCHER

Chapter 3

The Force of Example .15 , ROBIN BLACKBURN

5 4 3 2

Chapter 4

From Liberalism·toRacism:German Historians,} ournalists, and the Haitian Revolution from the Late.£ighteenth to the Eady Twentieth Centuries 23 KARIN SCHULLER

Chapter 5

Bryan Edwards and the Haitian Revolution 44 OLWYNM. BLOUET

Chapter~

Puerto Rico's Creole Patriots and the Slave Trade after the Haitian Revolution 58 JUAN R. GONZALEZ MENDOZA

Chapter 7

American Political Culture and the French and Haitian Revolutions: Nathaniel Cutting and the Jeffersonian Republicans 72 SIMON P. NEWMAN

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Library of Congress Cataloging-m-Publication Data The impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Adantic world I edited by David P. Geggus. p. cm. - (The Carolina lowcountry and. dIe Adantic world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57003-416-8 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Haiti-History-Revolution, 1791-1804-lnfluence. 2. France. History-Revolution, I 789-1799-Influence. 3. America-History19th century. 4. Politial culture-History-I9th century. 5. Antislavery movernents-'History-19th century. 6. Slave insurrections-HistoryI9thc~ntury. 7. Politicalrefugees--United States-History-'19th century. 8. Political refugees--Haiti-History-I9th century. 9. America-Race relations. I. Geggus, David Patrick. IL.8eries. FI923 :153 2DOI 2001003349 973.5-Btit.thebaSic facts of the Haitian Revolution appear to have been rapidly disseminated along maritime trade routes by sailors,refugee~; and proselytizing privateers ofdiverse origins.J5 Even if the revolution was not quite, in my view, an "unthinkable event," as Rolph TrouiHot has allied it, nothing like it had happened before.I 6 In an age of tumultuous events, the deeds of Saint-Domingue's slaves and former slaves seized international attention. This was true, as' Karin Schiilier (chapter 4) shows~}':ven in countrieS selittle connected with the Caribbean as the German 'states: Though lacking colonial linkages, .Germans wanted· to read about the black .revolution, .not because of their interest in race andsla very, 'butalso 'becaUse of its relevance to their OWn political concernsP For the colonial powers and their slaveowning subjects, interests were far more direct; fear and greed, as David Davis puts it (chapter 1), were dominant reactions. When news of the 1791 slaye revolt reached England, The Times suggested it brought a pmfitable opportunity for British intervention, although stocks on the London exchange fell immediately by 1 percent. IS More concerned with aggrandizement than defense, Britain arid Spain soon tried to seize the strife-torn .colony from France, but all three imperialpowets suffered costly and humiliating ·defeats at the hands of the black population. These took the lives of more than seventy thousand European soldiers and seamen. The policy of Britain, Spain and the United States toward the revolution fluctuated according to each government's relations with France. Although they sought at certain moments to ctush the black insurgentS, all three states proved willing to assist them commercially orrnllitarily, wherithey considered France a greater threat. None favored·.tine emergence ofan independent black state but, with the exception of the Jeffersos:ian embargo of 1806-1810, none cut off trade relations. 19 Fo:r·~laveowne.ts, the Haitiarl Revolution must have seemed like therealization oflibeirworst nightmare. Yet for many it w::.s also an oppor::unity to profit from the high prices· for tropical staples caused by .the . destruction in SaintDomingue. As the revolution went from strength to strength, planters across the Americas worried how their slaves would react. On occasion, they feared direct intervention from Haiti,or' voiced concern that their own society might become "another St. Domingo.!' Opinions diverged as to how much to assist the Frenc."t colony, whether to legislate improved treatment of slaves, or to restrict .the inflo'w of enslaved Mricans. Even in normal times, a'inixture of paranoia, complacency, and prudent calculation seems to have been typical of slaveowning classes. Ohvyn B10uet (chapter 5) charts the reactions of Bryan Edwards, spokesman of the Jamaican plantocracy, who witnessed firsthand the early days of the slave insurrection. His eagerness to help his French rivals was not shared by all-jamaican planters, and did not extend to supporting Britain's attempted occupation of SaintDomingue, which gave Domingan colonists access to the British market. Though progressive by planter standards, I:culture can be linked to the Haitian Revolution. He emphasizes how quickly not jtlSt Federalists but certain Republicans turned against the French Revolution, especially because of its impact on Saint-Domingue. Events in Saint_Domingue, redefined the meaning of revolution and encouraged Jeffersonians to substitute in their rhetoric "patriotism" for "the rights of man." Support for antislavery, as for the black revolution, became ironically confined to the conservative Federalists, and politics became increasingly sectionaL It is in the context of these political divisionsthatRobert AJder-ron (chapter 8) sets.the rumors of a widespread slave conspiracy that troubled Virginians and South Carolinians in 1793. The'burning of Cap-Frano;:ais that summer,' which precipitated' the abolition of slavery ,in SaintDomingue by republican officials; sent perhaps ten thousand refugees including slaves to the United States and increased conservative opposition to the French Revolution. Alderson pursues two hypotheses': :tl:iat the rumors either, reflected a genuine multiracial conspiracy orthatthey were fabricated by Domingan refugees and their Federalist allies. The frequency of slave revolts and conspiracies in the, Americas reached a peak in the 1790s and the largest insurrections alloccuued during the frrty years following the 1791 upr:ising. There were many causaL influences at work in the rebeRionsof the period, both local and external,buuuno~g them historians have identified several types of C