The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

Born in 1901, Trinidadian historian Cyril Lionel Robert James was known for his socialist views, as well as his writings on postcolonialism and cricket. In 1939, he discussed the so-called “Negro question” with Leon Trotsky. In The Black Jacobins, James discusses the Haitian Revolution through the lens of Marxist principles, and his focus on the materialistic motivations echoes Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism as a system of exploitation. James later became interested in Pan-Africanism, a movement he addressed in his 1962 Appendix to the book. James died in 1989.

Born into slavery in San Domingo, Toussaint Bréda, as he was called, was a weak child who enjoyed a superior (for a slave) education. Over time, he developed stamina and physical prowess. A month after the first slave uprisings of 1791, Toussaint, who was then in his forties, set his affairs in order on the plantation where he worked and joined the revolution. Intelligent and charismatic, he went on to become a great general and the central figure of the Haitian Revolution. From 1791 until his death in 1803 in France, Toussaint worked to further the cause of the slaves, though he stopped short of advocating independence from France.