17253: Burnham to Saint-Vil (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Saint-Vil:

1) Your points are well taken, although i can assure you that neither James
or Geggus can be accused of perpetuating a Euro-centric view of history.
Quite the opposite. Indeed, what comes out of Geggus, James, Fick and
Pluchon is that after everything else it was the heroics of the Black masses
that should be celebrated. None of the authors would dispute that. As I
mentioned before, Fick makes the argument that Dessalines and Christophe
could fight the French ONLY because the Black masses were already bravely
fighting and dying for their freedom. They refused to be put back in chains
and demonstrated that "Liberty or death" meant exactly that.

2) The interesting question is why you think pointing out the humanity of
Toussaint and Dessalines and Christophe, (and i'm not denying the problems
of imposing a narrative), detracts from the singular achievement of the
ex-slaves, or the later accomplishments of Dessalines and Christophe?
And I'm not exactly clear with what you are equating a critique of
Dessalines and Christophe. You talk about Malcolm-X being equivalent to
Christophe. Is this an issue of Pan-Caribbean unity? please clarify.

3) There is no question that interpretation is involved. I'm obviously no
expert on the revolution, but knowing the scholarship of Pluchon, Geggus and
James, I doubt they would include those details without a basis in
documentation.

4) As for proof positive of betrayal, I don't have primary documents in
front of me.
Pierre Pluchon in ihis 1992 book entitled: [Toussaint Louverture: de
l'esclavage au pouvoir] states on  page 342-343:
"Le capitaine-general accuse, en effet, son predecesseur de conspirer
sourdement, de chercher a soulever les cultivateurs. Les rapports de
plusiers generaux, dont Dessalines, Christophe et Maurepas, etayent sa
suspicion."

time for a wee dram o' klarin
best,
Thor Burnham

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