Latin American Movements for Independence

Abstract

The Haitian Revolution is a solid narrative of political and military developments in Saint-Domingue between 1789 and 1804, when independence was achieved. The author examines the impact of the French Revolution in creating the multifaceted struggle among French bureaucrats, grands blancs, petits blancs, and mula ttoes tha t paved the way for a slave rebellion in August 1791. Complex domestic and international events thereafter, which included the formal abolition of slavery in 1794, permitted the rise to preeminence of a former slave, Toussaint Louverture, who became lieutenant governor of a semi-independent Saint-Domingue in 1796 and governor-general in 1797. In treating the semimythical figure of Toussaint, Ott notes simply that the black leader was committed to emancipation, to a multiracial society, and to the Machiavellian pursuit of personal power as ruler of a semiautonomous colony. The final unraveling of the more than a decade of civil and international war began with Napoleon's attempt in 1802 to restore effective control over the colony and reinstate slavery. Toussaint surrendered, but the Leclerc expedition was soon destroyed and the white caste liquida ted in the process.Within the limi ts he has set for himself, Ott has produced a well researched and carefully considered study. He is particularly desirous of demonstrating that Marxist interpretations do not fit the empirical da tao The failure of the grands blancs to cement a class alliance with the wealthy mulattoes against petits blancs and slaves is evidence of the importance of noneconomic determinants of behavior. The exact nature of the interplay of race and economic status is not, unfortunately, elucidated by this study. Ott analyzes developments in terms of the interrelationship among five groups which he treats sometimes as monoliths and other times not. He mentions the divisions in the ranks of the French bureaucrats when these clearly influenced the course of the revolution. He is careful to point out, in order to a ttack the thesis of class warfare, that the actions of the slaves were 222