Haitian Revolution / Independence Annotated Bibliography Bhambra, G. K. (2016). Undoing the epistemic disavowal of the Haitian revolution: a contribution to global social thought. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 37(1), 1-16.

Bhambra (2016) looks at global historical interconnections with relation to the Haitian Revolution and asks what can be learned from this important historical event. The purpose of the article is to identify problems in sociological thought and how by ignoring the Haitian Revolution sociology studies tend to marginalize the black experience. The author refers to this marginalization as a cognitive injustice and that a decentralization of European self-understanding is needed to see the significance of the Haitian Revolution. The author calls for a connected sociologies approach and argues that in this way the revolution can be better seen in its appropriate context. The article is helpful for indicating how sameness of perspective over time can limit one’s understanding of different cultures.

Garrigus, J. D. (1996). Colour, class and identity on the eve of the Haitian revolution: Saint?Domingue's free coloured elite as colons américains. Slavery and Abolition, 17(1), 20-43.

The article by Garrigus (1996) focuses on the role that color, class and identity all played in the Haitian revolution. The author looks especially at how creole and French labels were used to ingrain racist mentalities and behaviors in the Haitian society, which contributed in part to the popular uprising. The article is helpful for explaining the demographics of Haiti in the decades leading up to the revolution; it shows who the people were in the various neighborhoods, what was being sold, who was where, and what the beliefs of the people were. It is not just race and labels but also the politics of class that entered into the environment. What Garrigus (1996) does is interesting because he goes family by family and really puts a human face on what was happening in Haiti, who the landowners were in specific neighborhoods, what their plantations consisted of, and how prosperous they were. The point of the article is to show that mixed-race families in certain neighborhoods did have the same rights and socio-economic strategies as white families—but it was not universal throughout all Haiti. The landed rural class did come under the threat of growing racial disparities and discrimination; new laws focused on keeping white families from mixed-race families; the French race was something legislators wanted to preserve insofar as was possible. The article is useful in explaining...

D. (2007). Opportunist or patriot? Julien Raimond (1744–1801) and the Haitian revolution. Slavery and Abolition, 28(1), 1-21.
Garrigus (2007) looks at the story of the indigo farm Julien Raimond and his role in the Haitian Revolution. The purpose of the article is to more clearly define Raimond’s authenticity in his fight for racial reform. Raimond is often remembered as a hypocritical free-colored lawyer who believed Haitians owed a debt to revolutionary France. Garrigus (2007) argues that there is more to the man than his reputation over the centuries has allowed. The article is helpful for painting a colorful picture of an individual whose role in the Haitian revolution has to this point not be well reviewed.

Joseph, C. L. (2012). ‘The Haitian Turn’: an appraisal of recent literary and historiographical works on the Haitian Revolution. The Journal of Pan African Studies, 5(6), 37-55.

Joseph (2012) argues that the Haitian Revolution is one of the most important world events in history and should be studied more closely. Haiti’s independence was declared in 1804 and it marked a new moment in how the world thought about freedom and human rights as well as social justice and equality. It marked a post-colonial turning that should be better reflected in modern scholarship. The author points out that there has been a “Haitian Turn” in terms of how scholars address the Haitian Revolution. It is this “Haitian Turn” that the author wants to emphasize and it is this emphasis that makes the article helpful in understanding the revolution’s place in world history as well as what it can contribute to modern thought.

Knight, F. W. (2000). The Haitian Revolution. The American Historical Review, 105(1), 103-115.

In Knight’s (2000) article, it is shown that the Haitian Revolution was different from the revolution in America of 1776 in that in Haiti the revolution was not merely political as it was in the US but rather was also social and economical. The revolution in Haiti was motivated by an inherent push and desire for equality of rights, and it was unique among the other revolutionary states of the times because it went from being a slave-state to abolishing slavery completely and staying slave-free. This unique outcome is what really separates Haiti from other revolutions, socially, politically and economically. The…