Shut Up and Dribble

Chapter 4: Black Agency, Racial Imperialism, and the Creation of a Racial State -- the Case of Haiti 

 

Credit: AP

US Customs and Border Protection mounted officers attempt to contain migrants crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, into Del Rio, Texas, Sunday, September 19, 2021. Thousands of Haitian migrants have been arriving in Del Rio, Texas, as authorities attempt to close the border to stop the flow of migrants. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez) Source: 

 

In a scene reminiscent of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, Haitian migrants were run down by the US. Border guards for just trying to seek asylum. But this tragedy did not start here, nor is it confined to the Haitians. This particularly militarized zone along our southern border and these Black people have long been part of our tortured racial story.

 It's a story that begins with European Imperialism and runs through slavocracy; it matures during deliberate and strategic periods of disinvestment, disempowerment, and denial; finally, it jettisons into our complicated, racialized universe. Tracing that story helps us to understand how we got here, how other racialized stories were constructed, and how we might get beyond the point of merely blaming or commiserating with the victims but confronting, repairing the damage, and remedying the problems. 

 

Black Agency

 

Our journey starts in a racially fragmented settlement in what was known as Hispaniola. Here, in 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, some 500,000 enslaved Africans and 24,000 affranchis (free mulattoes) banded together and began challenging the continual brutality of slave owners. The first real challenge occurred in late 1790 as an uprising was precipitated by Vincent Ogé.

 

Although the rebellion was unsuccessful, Ogé captured, tortured, and ultimately executed; the French government attempted to split the opposition by granting citizenship to the wealthier affranchise. However, the acts of appeasement were disregarded as most of the Europeans within Haiti's population violated the law.

 

Slave colonies were only successful to the extent that the enslaved were compliant.  Such compliance was rarely, if ever, achieved, as rebellions and insurrections were frequent. Uprisings such as the Stono rebellion in 1739, Prosser's in 1880, Denmark Vesey's plot in 1822, and Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831 are some of the most notable.  But the one that struck fear in the enslavers' hearts of the French, Spanish, British, and those within the U.S. was the one that began in 1791, known as the Haitian Revolution.    The revolution, lasting 13 years, was the only successful insurrection led by self-liberated enslaved participants.  The story, one of the largest slave rebellions in history, challenged European Imperialism regarding the inferiority and docility of the Africans.     We must examine these historical moments as they resulted in the French giving up their colonial possessions and ending slavery in the former colonies.

Saint-Domingue, a French colony since 1697 with a vast enslaved labor force, thrived as the wealthiest colony in America.  It produced sugar, coffee, indigo, and cotton. The total population consisted of 500,000 enslaved persons, 32,000 Europeans, and 28,000 affranchis (freedmen, which mostly consisted of mulattos or mixed African and European descent).  (Britannica 2023) The white planter elite often used torture and other forms of violence to control and prevent rebellions.  Enslaved persons who rebelled, refused to work or tried to escape could be beaten, maimed, or even killed to force them back into subjection.  Saint-Dominigue was also the center of Black resistance and power in the slaveholding Atlantic world.  (Fick 2007)

 

In 1685, the French established Code Noir to regulate the treatment of slaves.  But even after its passage, the White planter elite often ignored these codes.  By the 18th century, local legislation formally nullified many of these codes.  Escaped slaves, called maroons, often lived on the margins of the plantations and frequently raided, stole, and perpetuated violence.  This continual disruption only increased the cost of slavery.  The whip, hard labor, and severe treatment meant that the enslaved had a high death rate.  But profits continued the system.  In Saint-Domingue provided 33% of the French foreign trade.  The French granted the colony nearly complete autonomy in 1790. As a result, the newly formed French National Assembly, in March of 1790, approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man. In so doing, they granted the affranchis (free people of color) full rights as citizens, but the white planter elite refused to recognize them.     Therefore, the status of the affranchis was left unsettled.  In October 1790, this ambiguity led to the first armed revolt against the White colonial authorities by the affranchis. (Bradshaw 2023)   The enslaved took advantage of this conflict and, in 1791, began their own revolutions.  Seeing the chaos, the French National Assembly revoked the limited rights decreed to the affranchis in September 1791, only to provoke even more rebellions. One of the colonists' major fears was that as the revolution began, free men of color comprised close to half of the militia in Saint Domingue.  (Geggus 2006) One month later, fighting between the various factions led to the destruction of Port-au-Prince.  (Bodenheimer 2019)

 

Born a slave, Toussaint L'ouverture gained his freedom.  As a free man for over 15 years, Toussaint continued to farm his land in the northern portion of the island.  Seeing the conflict spread, Tousant helped his wife and family find safety in the Spanish-controlled eastern side of the island.  He then secured passage for his former master's family on a boat headed to the United States.  Then, he joined the rebels allied with the Spanish against the French.  He distinguished himself with his knowledge of both African and Creole medicinal techniques.   With these skills, he joined the rebellion as a doctor and soldier.  Soon, he demonstrated his ability in combat and leadership.  Starting with an initial command of just 600 former slaves, he commanded over 4,000 men within a few short months.    (Willis 2023)   

 

As 1793 approached, the significant military and political potential of the rebellion initiated by slaves in August 1791 was demonstrated.  Having joined forces with the Spanish troops controlling the eastern island, the uprising leaders essentially allowed Spain to manage those areas of Sant Dominigue's northern provinces under rebel control. As the threat of a British invasion intensified, the ramifications of the rebellion became more severe.  As the slave rebellions intensified and spread to the Western and Southern provinces, the situation became more volatile. The French, responding with more force, only intensified the crises as rioting and arson destroyed large portions of the northern capital city of le Cap.  Backed in a corner, the National Convention turned to the thousands of urban slaves to defend the colony as they acknowledged that "it is with the natives of the country, that it the Africans, that we will save Sant Dominigue for France." (cited by Fick ibid) Therefore, the French civil commissioner to the colony of Saint Domingue declared all slaves in the Northern province legally free.

 

The British, fearing a spread of the slave revolt to their colony in Jamaica and to gain military advantage, decided to send troops to suppress the slave rebellion.  The French Colonial authorities, fearful of defeat, quickly, in 1794, acted to grant freedom and citizenship to all blacks within the Empire.  England continued to wage its war.  Toussaint, mindful of the shift in political forces, aligned with the French against Spain.  Their first battle, with newly freed soldiers, attacked the eastern, Spanish-controlled Santa Domingo.  In a stunning victory, Toussaint's troops captured Santa Domingo, ending hostilities between France and Spain and signing the 1795 Treaty of Basel.  Toussant, by 1796, was one of the most influential military and political individuals in the colonies.  The former slaves, whom he had helped to free, admired him, while the French Officials respected him.  (Lawless and MacLeod 2023)

 Toussaint (1799) declared:

 

The first successes obtained in Europe by the partisans of liberty over the agents of despotism were not slow to ignite the sacred fire of patriotism in the souls of all Frenchmen in St. Domingue. At that time, men’s hopes turned to France, whose first steps toward her regeneration promised them a happier future. . . . [The whites in St. Domingue] wanted to escape from their arbitrary government, but they did not intend the revolution to destroy either the prejudices that debased the men of color I or the slavery of the blacks, whom they held in dependency by the strongest law. In their opinion, the benefits of the French regeneration were only for them. They proved it by their obstinate refusal to allow the people of color to enjoy their political rights and the slaves to enjoy the liberty that they claimed. Thus, while whites were erecting another form of government upon the rubble of despotism, the men of color and the blacks united themselves in order to claim their political existence; the resistance of the former having become stronger, it was necessary for the latter to rise up in order to obtain [political recognition] by force of arms. The whites, fearing that this legitimate resistance would bring general liberty to St. Domingue, sought to separate the men of color from the cause of the blacks in accordance with Machiavelli’s principle of divide and rule. Renouncing their claims over the men of color, they accepted the April Decree [1792]. … As they had anticipated, the men of color, many of whom are slave holders, had only been using the blacks to gain on political commands. Fearing the enfranchisement of the blacks, the men of color deserted their comrades in arms, their companions in misfortune, and aligned themselves with the whites to subdue them.

  After a series of decisive victories, Toussaint ordered the military invasion of the Spanish part of the island in 1801.  From this, Toussaint was virtually the supreme commander-in-chief and governor of a unified Saint Domingue.  Distrustful of the French authorities, he redefined the political structure, solidified the emancipation of the formerly enslaved, and directly challenged Bonaparte's coup.  For the system to work, Toussaint realized, the economic prosperity of the colony must be established.   And what was Toussaint's vision of freedom:

 

I never believed freedom to be license, or that men who have become free should be able to give themselves over to disorder and idleness: my formal intention is that workers remain bound to their respective plantations; that they receive one-quarter of the revenues; that they not be mistreated with impunity.  But at the same time, I want them to work harder than they have ever worked before, and that they be subordinate and fulfill their duties correctly.  I am resolved to punish severely he who strays.  (cited by Fick ibid) 

 Toussaint was not trying to destroy the economy or the vitality of Saint Domingue.  Instead, he wanted the enslaved to be free and on an equal footing with the masters in the Atlantic world.  By challenging the objectification of their identities and their status as slaves, the rebellion also demonstrated the futility of colonial empires based on slavery.  Specifically, the rebellious slaves showed the truth of Adam Smith's claim that slavery was both wasteful and uneconomical in that it cost more than free laborers. (Knight 2020) The constant vigil to keep the system from collapsing onto itself, the perpetual military and police necessary to maintain control, and the continual problems of keeping the enslaved in captivity and productive eliminated any potential for real profits.  (Wright 2020) With Tousant as their leader, the rebels, in ten short years, overthrew their colonial masters, transformed the economic system, and created a new political state consisting of the newly freed and empowered. They became the second group in the Americas to declare their independence in the Americas.  Xenophobic fears of slave rebellions were the European's worst nightmare. As the Haitians embraced their "Black" identity, they also challenged the racial hierarchy of European and North American Imperialism.   (Knight ibid)

 It is strange that as the Enslaved challenged racial Imperialism, slavery, and the colonial structure, they were also asserting the American notion of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' and the French idea of 'liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.'’  Both declared the absolute right to rebel against any government that did not guarantee the 'self-evident' and "inalienable rights" of all humans to live free.  Alternatively, given the reality that two-thirds of the enslaved had been born in Africa, they would have been informed by African political philosophies, particularly Congolese.  The principal interpretation of the meaning of a metropolitan revolution derived from this foundation.  Here, the connection between political freedom and the limitations placed on kings would have been observed.  Personal autonomy and communal rights codified through the Vodou religion derive from this.  We also must observe the military, medical, and other skills that were part and parcel of African existence.    While the American and French revolutions might have informed the rebellion, ignoring the African philosophies that undergirded it would be misleading.  Again, let us remember that two-thirds were born in Africa, and therefore, the majority of the enslaved were from Africa.  (Shilliam 2008)

 The Haitian revolution actualized these universal rights and ultimately fulfilled their actualization for all people.  Black agency was not self-evident; it was constructed through thirteen years of warfare, rebellion, and revolution.  It became a revolutionary construct of the Haitian masses and their leadership.  It represented the opposite of the contradictory concepts that had materially constructed them as mere objects.  In so doing, they asserted their dignity, separate identities, and humanity.   Thus, the Black agency challenged the hypocrisy of these racial tenets and claimed the right of the Africans to be and live free. They asserted that Black agency, the power of their will, could challenge the will of French masters and liberate them from a world of bondage. 

 The Haitian revolution sparked enthusiasm among the enslaved in America, who began thinking of their liberation.  The inspiration of the enslaved brought terror to the Southern planter aristocracy.  But while they feared, they grudgingly admired Toussaint as a competent leader.  Southern newspapers even depicted him as a Black Napoleon, successful in battle, fierce, and consequently a dangerous opponent.  Jefferson, terrified of the rebellion in Saint Domingue, castigated Toussaint and his army as cannibals.  (Scheer 2011) His biggest fear was that the Blacks in America would be inspired and revolt.  Jefferson began the process, described in the next chapter, of restricting and denying the Caribbean Island of its hard-won liberty.  He, therefore, initiated the U.S. policies, which led to the creation of the 'racial state" known as Haiti.