Undoing the Epistemic Disavowal of the Haitian Revolution: A Contribution to Global Social Thought

Bhambra, Gurminder K.

doi:10.1080/07256868.2015.1122578

Cited by 35 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We examine the strategies for self-determination with two examples, the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and the development of Liberian republicanism (1822-1847). A series of writings of the past decade have sought to correct the elision of the Haitian Revolution from scholarship on the age of revolution (James 1989;Lawson 2016;Mulich 2017) from theories of universalism (Bhambra 2015(Bhambra , 2016Dubois 2000;Fick 2000;Getachew 2016) and from meanings of freedom and emancipation (Bogues 2012). Building on this literature, we use the Haitian case to emphasize how the Haitian revolutionary struggle had widespread implications across both the African diaspora and the white colonial world.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Article 14 abolished “distinctions of color” whereby all Haitian citizens were to be declared “black.” Blackness did not refer to a phenotype but to a political, anticolonial position during the revolution, thus including those who had fought on the side of the enslaved (e.g., as Article 13 suggests, the white wives of Haitians). By abolishing racial categories, the constitution strove to eliminate the grounds for racial discrimination while at the same time elevating blackness as the unifying position of those obtaining citizenship to the Haitian state (Bhambra 2015, 2016).…”

Section: Haitian Freedom Strugglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Toward a Sociology of Colonial Subjectivity: Political Agency in Haiti and Liberia

Hammer

White

2018

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The authors seek to connect global historical sociology with racial formation theory to examine how antislavery movements fostered novel forms of self-government and justifications for state formation. The cases of Haiti and Liberia demonstrate how enslaved and formerly enslaved actors rethought modern politics at the time, producing novel political subjects in the process. Prior to the existence of these nations, self-determination by black subjects in colonial spaces was impossible, and each sought to carve out that possibility in the face of a transatlantic structure of slavery. This work demonstrates how Haitian and Liberian American founders responded to colonial structures, though in Liberia reproducing them albeit for their own ends. The authors demonstrate the importance of colonial subjectivities to the discernment of racial structures and counter-racist action. They highlight how anticolonial actors challenged global antiblack oppression and how they legitimated their self-governance and freedom on the world stage. Theorizing from colonized subjectivities allows sociology to begin to understand the politics around global racial formations and starts to incorporate histories of black agency into the sociological canon.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Haitian Freedom Strugglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Sociology of Colonial Subjectivity: Political Agency in Haiti and Liberia

Hammer

White

2018

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Once we move beyond the nation as a unit of analysis, colonial dynamics and their influence on the civil sphere become apparent. Struggles over who should be afforded rights and be part of the community have long colonial histories, going back to the Haitian Revolution (Bhambra 2016;Dubois 2000Dubois , 2012James 1989;Lawson 2016). When French Revolutionaries presented the idea of universal, abstract political rights, Haitian revolutionaries understood better than their metropolitan counterparts that the idea of the rightsbearing individual applied to them as well.…”

Section: The Civil Spherementioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonizing the Civil Sphere: The Politics of Difference, Imperial Erasures, and Theorizing from History

Hammer

2020

Sociological Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article rethinks sociological approaches to difference and inclusion. It argues that civil sphere theory replicates colonial dynamics through abstracting civil codes from their role in colonial governance. Through a case study of French colonial Algeria, the article illuminates the historical co-constitution of the French Republic and the colonial subject. This imperial history explains how civil codes came about through the same social process as the domination of the colonial other. Given these entangled histories, building solidarity requires we move beyond a process of civil repair that rests on incorporation to one of civil construction, which takes account of historical wrongs and the colonial layer of meaning embedded in categories of civil discourse. Theorizing from suppressed histories allows us to question the content of the civil sphere’s classificatory system and turn our attention to a resignification of the core group in the wake of colonial histories.

show abstract

“…Yet, it has been either totally neglected within the social sciences literature or interpreted as a minor consequence of the American and French Revolutions, which occurred around the same time. 56 In a recent article on the Haitian revolution, Shilliam takes on what he calls the Eurocentric trope which, in his words 'claims the Haitian revolutionaries as workmen for the universality that was conceived and authored by the French Revolution and European Enlightenment thought'. 57 He is equally critical of what he calls the creole trope that assumes that colonial rule in the plantation economies of the Caribbean 'created radical ruptures with past identities and practices'.…”

Section: Toussaint L'ouverture: the 'Black Jacobin' 55mentioning

confidence: 99%

The decolonial subject and the problem of non-Western authenticity

Vieira

2019

Postcolonial Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.

show abstract

Undoing the Epistemic Disavowal of the Haitian Revolution: A Contribution to Global Social Thought

Cited by 35 publications

References 42 publications

Toward a Sociology of Colonial Subjectivity: Political Agency in Haiti and Liberia

Toward a Sociology of Colonial Subjectivity: Political Agency in Haiti and Liberia

Decolonizing the Civil Sphere: The Politics of Difference, Imperial Erasures, and Theorizing from History

The decolonial subject and the problem of non-Western authenticity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About