Confronting Black Jacobins

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The Haitian Revolution marked the first successful slave revolt, leading to Haiti's independence in 1804 and a significant defeat for France, Great Britain, and Spain. This event reshaped the New World and deeply influenced the United States, inspiring enslaved individuals and abolitionists while instilling fear in the Southern slaveholding class, bringing the nation closer to civil war. Gerald Horne's groundbreaking work delves into the complex relationship between the U.S. and Hispaniola, emphasizing African American responses to Haiti's revolutionary journey, the island's division in 1844 that created the Dominican Republic, and the U.S.'s failed annexation attempts in the 1870s. Utilizing a wealth of archival and primary sources, Horne presents a diverse range of perspectives, including those of world leaders, diplomats, slaveholders, white abolitionists, and the freedom fighters he calls Black Jacobins. His analysis highlights the conflicts among colonial powers, the commercial interests and imperial ambitions of U.S. elites, and the resilience of the American slaveholding class, while centering on the freedom struggles of Africans on both the island and the mainland, who sought to realize the emancipatory ideals of 18th-century republicanism.