Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

After recently rereading Black Jacobins, it is quite clear how James influenced Dubois's Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Both are committed to the Haitian Revolution as a moment of global historical importance (Dubois proclaims it as part of all of our heritage as a moment of human rights), both writers have sympathetic voices, and Dubois inherits a perspective on Caribbean slavery as embedded in European colonialism's capitalist system, thereby supporting the French economy and employment of millions of continental French. 

Where the two differ drastically lies in Dubois's attention to African influences behind the Haitian Revolution. Don't get me wrong, James does acknowledge the role of Vodou, but otherwise uses the language of his time to describe the majority-African population of Saint Domingue as "uncultured." Dubois's narrative is a product of this age, and his revisionist approach examines African political, military, religious, and social influences on population of African descent, as well as the role of women. This, ultimately, paints a fuller picture of Saint Domingue and the nuances of the Haitian Revolution while avoiding reductionist understandings of race. 

Dubois's narrative is also accessible to the average reader, and takes advantage of the recent new literature relevant to the Haitian Revolution and slavery. He also cites and demonstrates an avid interest in alternative sources beyond the archives, alluding to Vodou music and oral traditions as a historical source. Further exemplifying his difference from the Toussaint Louverture-centered narrative of James, Dubois admirably balances the contributions and conflicts of all social groups. Problematic in his analysis, however, is how Dubois avoids discussing real alternatives to the plantation system, nor does he give justice to Leclerc's ruse capturing Louverture. 

While very critical of Louverture, Rigaud, Sonthonax, Dessalines and Polverel (though he did allow room for estate councils and considerable flexibility for the emancipated) for the labor system they maintained on the cultivators, it is unsure and poorly defined what the peasant subsistence alternative will look like and could have operated, despite the coverage on the Moise rebellion. Alas, Dubois does address this issue in future work on Haiti after independence, but we're still left unsure as to why and how Louverture fell. Furthermore, while Dubois does an excellent job decentering the Haitian Revolution from the North by integrating all three provinces, one wishes for more in depth analysis of Rigaud's administration and what happened in the East. 

In conjunction, Avengers of the New World and Black Jacobins provide essential reading on the Haitian Revolution. The former tackles some of the weaknesses of the latter, while the latter informs the systemic criticisms of colonialism, a class analysis, and ardent democratic impulse of the former. Both are flawed texts in their own ways, of course, but Jacobins, through its focus on the 'great man' figure of Louverture, brings to the table important questions on how revolutions unfold. Moreover, he opines on the reasons for Louverture's capture and the failure of his leadership to motivate his base, who, for a lack of better terms, are left as undefined mass of black laborers, albeit very modern, in the text. Nonetheless, when read together, both are potent texts on the relevance of the Haitian Revolution to the question of freedom today.