41 pages • 1 hour read
C.L.R. JamesThe Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1938A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Power of the Masses
Like his mentors Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky, James presents the common people—the “masses”—of both France and San Domingo as playing critical roles in the struggle to end slavery. He credits them with having the wisdom to recognize what was right and, when provoked, with having the power to carry out their will. With the storming of the Bastille, the peasants of France ushered in a revolution committed to the ideal of political equality. When the politicians began to lose their way, the people protested—as James puts it, “there are times when you cannot bluff the people” (79). At times when the politicians did well, as when they passed the decree to abolish slavery, James attributes this progress to the influence of the common people, who reportedly detested the “aristocracy of the skin” (139).
In San Domingo, rebellious slaves began to attack the White slave owners, taking gradual steps towards larger, more coordinated attacks. As Toussaint and others provided much-needed leadership, the former slaves developed into a force that could compete with the world’s elite militaries. Roused to action, the masses proved more than capable, and their sense of justice was no less keen in San Domingo than in France: Despite bribes from his enemies, Toussaint’s soldiers remained loyal to the ideal of liberty that he represented. For a while, Toussaint’s promises of freedom were enough to keep them engaged.
As Toussaint’s diplomacy-oriented actions grew increasingly difficult for the lower class to understand, he lost the confidence of some radical Blacks and others. Now, the people were divided against each other, and Toussaint paid the price, facing rebellions of his own. Only under Dessalines, whose hunger for independence matched that of the masses, did they manage to throw off the imperial shackles.
The Relationship Between the French and Haitian Revolutions
Switching back and forth frequently between events in France and San Domingo, James explores the economic, social, and political connections between the two intricately linked revolutions. Economically, San Domingo’s booming economy brought wealth to the French bourgeoisie, paving the way towards revolution. When revolution did break out, France took the lead in establishing the fundamental values shared by both revolutions, with such documents as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The revolutionaries’ commitment to these high ideals was then tested by the situation in San Domingo. Abolishing slavery would certainly result in economic losses, while allowing it to continue in light of recent declarations would constitute hypocrisy.
In a rare moment of radical leadership, the Jacobins moved to abolish slavery. Freedom, once granted to the slaves, would be difficult to take back. At this point the revolutionary destinies of France and San Domingo began to diverge: France fell under the despotism of Napoleon Bonaparte, while Black revolutionaries in San Domingo inched their way to freedom. Although Toussaint did, like Bonaparte, adopt the posture of a dictator, he never turned his back on the revolution’s foundational ideals.
In examining the exchange of ideas, goods, and even individuals between France and San Domingo during this period of rapid change, James turns the notion of European moral superiority on its head: Where once the visionaries of the French revolution led the way in moral and political enlightenment, the slaves of San Domingo later proved far more responsive to the clarion call of liberty.
Colonial Greed
At its peak, San Domingo was an immensely prosperous colony, a status that marked it as a target for exploitation. James frequently shows the potential to turn a profit to be the colonists’ top priority, even trumping racial prejudice. As James points out, “The Patriots of San Domingo were always ready to forget race prejudice in return for something solid” (98). This principle applied equally to the British, Spanish, French, and those who lived on the island. With few exceptions, every decision the colonists made regarding San Domingo came down to money.
This greed made for some quick changes of opinion depending on which way the winds of fortune were blowing. Not long after British forces abandoned their bid to take San Domingo from Toussaint, British newspapers were extolling him as a hero and even claiming partial credit for his success. At various points, British and French forces accepted Rigaud and the Mulattoes as allies and then tossed them aside once they had served their purpose. Thinking he would be busy in India, Bonaparte actually wrote a complimentary letter to Toussaint but decided not to send it once his prospects in India soured and he set his sights on recapturing San Domingo. James’s focus on exposing the raw, materialistic motivations of the colonists fits within his Marxist critique of capitalism as a system of exploitation.
African Liberation
It is no accident that The Black Jacobins begins and ends with Africa. As a Marxist with Pan-African leanings, James naturally looks for the universal principles to be gleaned from the Haitian Revolution, including the instrumentality of the masses and the dangers of colonialism. James clearly views the Haitian Revolution as a kind of case study. In this context, his warnings about Toussaint’s indecision and aloofness as well as Dessalines’s unnecessary massacre of the Whites carry extra weight. In 1938, at the time of writing, many African nations were still functioning as colonies. Over the next few decades, they would clamor for independence, making James’s concluding call for Africa to reject the system of imperialism seem all but prophetic.
James’s 1962 Appendix points to the need for ongoing efforts towards decolonization throughout the African diaspora. James stresses the importance of developing national identities that do not over-rely on the imitation of European and American forms. As James concludes, “To be welcomed into the comity of nations a new nation must bring something new” (417). In the latest generation of West Indian writers, James saw evidence of “something new.”
