After reading Daut's fascinating essay on the early life and poetry of Vastey, I decided to read some of Vastey's political tracts and writings on Haiti. First of all, of his early life, not much is known, but his mother was a mixed-race woman and relative of Marie-Cesette Dumas, the same African grandmother of Alexandre Dumas (Daut 36). According to Daut, Vastey's work was known in Europe, too. The publishing of "Le système colonial dévoilé, Vastey’s damning exposé of the inhumanity of the “colonial system,” was so well known across the nineteenth-century atlantic World that upon its publication it was immediately reviewed in French, US, German, and British journals and newspapers" (35). However, according to Daut, “Of a few things we can be absolutely certain: someone using the name Pompée Valentin Vastey was living in Paris and publishing poetry in the leading French journals in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries" (37). Daut claims that there is some ambivalence regarding Vastey leaving France and a French identity behind in some of his poetry, but also suggests that the worsening conditions for people of color in France may have been another push for him to return to what would be known as Haiti (39).
According to Gordon K. Lewis's Main Currents in Caribbean Thought: The Historical Evolution of Caribbean Society In Its Ideological Aspects, 1492-1900, Vastey's pamphlets and books dealt with 2 things: defense of the Haitian Revolution and defense of the Black race in world history (Lewis 255). This defense argues that Haitian Revolution more important than the American Revolution since the latter was a political revolution and the former a social revolution that reshaped property ownership and property relations in the Haitian economic structure (255). Moreover, he goes back into history to show Africa as crade of civilizations: Carthage, Egypt, Ethiopia (256). Gerarde Magloire-Danton suggests that Vastey may have claimed Egypt as proof of black civilization and capacity due to a notion that Upper Egypt had been a colony of black Ethiopians, based on travel literature and writings of James Bruce and Constantin-Francois Volney, which could have been an influence (Magloire-Danton 157).
Furthermore, David Nicholl's insightful analysis of Vastey's royalist and revolutionary tendencies (though the two are not mutually exclusive) demonstrates how political actions and loyalties in revolutionary Saint Domingue and early Haiti were shaped often more by region than race, since Vastey, from the north, supported Christophe while someone like Goman supported Rigaud's regime (Nicholls 132). Moreover, Vastey saw it as fit for a majority black country to be ruled by a black, and criticized Petion's republic to the south for excluding blacks from official positions, except as cosmetic effect to pretend color prejudice did not dominate the highest posts in the republic (134). Intriguingly, despite becoming a kingdom by 1811 with feudal titles, visitors to Christophe's kingdom remarked upon the egalitarianism of the society, where workman and government minister could chat on a bench and servants would invite themselves into conversations at the dinnertable, which would support Vastey's ideals of a limited monarchy as a more stable government with a monarch ruling by consent of the people (135). According to Nicholls, Vastey, like Christophe, was enraged how the southern republic would entertain talks with France of reestablishing some form of colonial rule or even slavery, although he is quick to note how unlikely it was for Petion to accept a form of colonial rule from France, although he was open to compensation for dispossessed slaveholders (137). Recognizing the integral role of racial slavery and racial theory to cruel and barbaric European colonialism, Vastey declared all humanity equal, asserted the African origins of civilization, and argued that the color prejudice of whites caused their own downfall (138). He also saw to the need for self-sufficiency to ensure Haitian independence would last while taking issue with Dessalines's prohibition of white foreigners from owning property in Haiti (139-140).
Surprisingly, Vastey took issue with the southern republic's upholding of an article in the constitution allowing Africans, Indians and their descendants to settle in Haiti and earn citizenship in 12 months, which he saw as enticing people from other parts of the Americas to settle in Haiti and therefore constitutive of an interference in the affairs of other states (140). That said, he saw Haiti as proof of the capability of African independence and civilization, and revealed some understanding of recent travels into the interior of Africa, from the likes of Mungo Park and others, which proved Africa was not as barbarous or uncivilized as commonly believed in Europe (141). Yet he approved of British colonial policy in Africa and the creation of Sierra Leone, revealing the complexities of his conception of Africa and colonialism's so-called positive aspects (142). To make things even more paradoxical, Vastey foresaw the union of former colonized peoples around the world rising up against European imperialism.
Wow, reading Nicholls's JSTOR article revealed your heavy debt to that writer in interpreting that period of Haitian history. It would have been more serious if you had strayed a little. I find a number of things to argue with in that interpretation of Vastey's work. Was Vastey an apologist for British Imperialism? Given the reality of the British fleet in Haiti's waters what attitude does Nicholls advocate? How independent is a country that manufactures nothing? The refusal to allow Whites to own land in Haiti helped the country progress how? The most famous manufactured product from Haiti, rum Barbancourt was created by a French immigrant to Haiti in the 1860's. You might have looked further into some of Vastey's claims, such as a monarchy being more stable than other types of governments, or the real difference between de facto and de jure equality. What you did was to take notes and present it to the public. You need to analyze the issues Vastey dealt with because they still are relevant in today's world. I feel that Nicholls skirted all the real issues Vastey tried to deal with by pretending that the issues he raised have been solved. How equal are we vis-à-vis Bill Gates?
ReplyDeleteHmm, I hear you. I think I was too uncritical, too, but what I need to do is read these sources directly in French or English translations myself. Relying on interpretations of others in secondary sources is inherently problematic, though unavoidable at times. I think, given the time and world he lived in, Vastey might be considered an apologist for British imperialism just as many educated, Westernized Africans were. What, Edward Wilmot Blyden and folks like Samuel Ajayi Crowther were very pro-British in later decades of the 19th century in West Africa. Vastey was operating on what was likely the most rational thing: support British imperialism in such a way that local African elites with a better understanding of the changing world can oversee and lead their respective regions or Africa into the changing world on more equal terms.
DeleteBut you're right, I think a lot of the praise for the British was due to trade and other relations between the kingdom and British abolitionists, as well as the power of the British navy in the Caribbean. It would've been foolish for Vastey to be very critical of the British, especially in writings that were published and translated in Europe.
I think in the next Vastey post I was understanding and appreciative of the potential positives of constitutional monarchies over other forms of government, particularly in stability and progressive laws passed under Christophe compared to Petion and Boyer. But I digress, you make a lot of great points. I'll have to reread that Nicholls article though, I took notes on it a year ago which were used as references in this post.
I just added another blogpost, a little overview of Boyer's Code Rural, and I was surprised to note some of the legacies of Henri Christophe there! But that post doesn't say too much except go over basics of the thing and comment on what I find interesting about it.
I don't endorse Vastey's view on monarchy being inherently more stable or superior to republicanism. He was simply being pragmatic by adapting to the triumph of that system over the French revolution. The subsequent history of Haiti gave the lie to his claim. The positive aspect of the kingdom was that men like Vastey asked serious questions while the Petion/Boyer "republicans" didn't seem to care. I think it was appropriate for Vastey to ask what Haiti would get from offering citizenship to blacks and indians. Grand gestures are nice but no way to run a country. The problem with Nicholls's view is the black and white nature of it. Anybody who ever ran anything knows that, in reality, that kind of approach never works. The problem with a lot of Haiti's history is the lack of a serious ideology and the idea that with some luck any ambitious man with enough nerve could end up on top.
DeleteYes, Nicholls overemphasizes the influence of color/race, though there's definitely some validity to his perspective on mixed-race folks believing in their right to rule or superiority in some cases. The "Mulatto legend" of history established by Haitian mulatto historians in the 19th century and some political conflicts are due to color/caste, in part. But I was surprised when re-reading his essay on Vastey when he recognizes that regionalism and other factors played a large role in determining who fought for what side, etc. Mathew J. Smith's Red and Black is a better book overall than anything by Nicholls, though, since he acknowledges the role of color while spending more time on other factors in explaining 20th century Haitian history and poltical conflicts.
DeleteWe seem to be on different frequencies in our assessment of Nicholls's JSTOR article. When I wrote that he tended to view things in black and white, I meant he displayed a view where you can judge the subject under consideration (Vastey) based on a simple minded rigid moral code, where good and bad are clearly delineated. I did not detect the influence of color/race that you refer to above. We already agreed in a previous post that color wasn't the only source of tension one would discover in studying Haitian history. As I've said before, if mulattoes truly believed their crap they would be obliged to consider themselves inferior to whites and less deserving than the latter of rights. I've yet to come across such consistency. I'm about to read Smith's book.
DeleteOops! Somehow I assumed you meant more of a color thing, since Nicholl's book makes that such a big theme.
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