17556: McAlister: Conference: Haitian Revolution after 200 Years, Providence, 6/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Elizabeth McAlister <emcalister@wesleyan.edu>

>
>THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION
>AFTER 200 YEARS
>
>An International Scholarly Conference
>Organized by the John Carter Brown Library
>(June 17 to 20, 2004)
>
>Contact:  Norman Fiering
>Director and Librarian
>The John Carter Brown Library
>Box 1894
>Providence, Rhode Island  02912
>Norman_Fiering@brown.edu
>www.JCBL.org
>
>With the help of an outstanding committee of scholars specializing
>in the Atlantic World of the time, and on the Haitian Revolution in
>particular, the John Carter Brown Library has organized an
>international conference to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the
>Haitian Declaration of Independence of 1804. The contributors to the
>conference include European and Haitian scholars, as well as
>Americans.
>
>It is no exaggeration to say that the Haitian Revolution, which
>created the second republic in the New World and the first black
>republic anywhere, was one of the most consequential events in all
>of human history. Although it was definitely an outgrowth of the
>French Revolution, its significance is such that it stands alone as
>a subject that will always be deserving of close study and
>understanding.
>
>Along with Brazil, Saint-Domingue was at the center of the Atlantic
>slave trade in the eighteenth century, but the oppressed Haitian
>laborers brought about the most successful, and by far the largest,
>of slave uprisings in the Americas, and perhaps in the history of
>the world. Yet few events at any time have been so extraordinarily
>complicated, in both the international politics and diplomacy that
>surrounded the Revolution and in the inter-racial politics on the
>island.
>
>The contention between blacks, both free and slave; whites, both
>rich and poor (grands blancs and petits blancs); and people of mixed
>racial descent, free and enslaved, with one other and among
>themselves, are extremely tangled and complex, requiring great skill
>to unravel. That independently Spain, England, and France each tried
>to suppress the Revolution adds further tragic drama to the story.
>
>The reversal of fortune that afflicted Saint-Domingue, considered
>solely in economic terms, also has few precedents in human affairs
>and raises numerous questions. In the 1780s, under a vicious slave
>regime, Saint-Domingue was perhaps the greatest engine of wealth per
>square mile of any piece of real estate in the world, because of its
>sugar, coffee, and indigo production. Today Haiti is the poorest
>country in the Americas.
>
>What happened in those years of mutually destructive slaughter,
>murder, fire, devastation, and ultimately race war and exile for all
>whites, has a profound military, social, economic, diplomatic, and
>political history, all needful of study. For the United States alone
>the consequences were huge. Napoleon's defeat in Saint Domingue was
>a precipitant of his decision to sell the Louisiana Territory. The
>doubling in size of the little republic on the mainland was one
>surprising unintended result of the Haitian Revolution.
>
>In addition, thousands of planters, merchants, and others from
>Haiti, including slaves, free blacks, and people of color, came to
>U. S. cities – Charleston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore –
>with a major impact on the politics of slavery in the United States
>and on urban centers in general.
>
>In the Caribbean, the devastation on Saint-Domingue resulted in the
>export of most of its sugar and coffee production to Jamaica, Cuba,
>and Brazil, along with French planters. In the latter two countries,
>reinforced by this emigration, slavery remained in force until 1886,
>and Cuba ultimately became the largest producer of sugar in the
>world.
>
>The conference the John Carter Brown Library has planned – entitled
>"The Haitian Revolution after Two Hundred Years" – will be focused
>on the Revolutionary years, i.e., from the 1780s to ca. 1830.  We
>will not venture into the later nineteenth-  and twentieth-century
>history of Haiti. Our goal is to analyze, recount, and interpret the
>immediate history of the event.
>
>In addition to the 40-plus people directly contributing to the
>conference, as presenters of papers or as chairpersons or
>commentators, we anticipate attracting an audience of at least
>another 75. The conference alone, with more than 100 people present,
>will have a long resonance in the scholarly world. It is our
>intention to extend that life by publishing the best essays from the
>conference.
>
>The Library intends to mount an exhibition on the Haitian Revolution
>in its Reading Room at the time of the conference in 2004 and to
>make available, probably online, a comprehensive check-list of its
>holdings relating to the history of Saint-Domingue from 1751 to 1834.
>
>Conference Planning Committee: Philip Boucher, David Brion Davis,
>David Geggus, Malick Ghachem, Philip Morgan, Ashli White
>
>
>THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION AFTER 200 YEARS
>Program: June 17 to June 20, 2004
>
>THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2004
>
>        3:00-6:30 p.m. Registration at JCB
>        5:30 p.m. Reception at the JCB
>
>        Dinner at restaurants of choice
>
>Opening Session (Salomon 001/ Carmichael /List 120)
>8:00 p.m./ Special opening address
>        Chair: Sidney Mintz
>
>        -[tentative] Michel Rolph Trouillot, Univ. of Chicago: [title to come]
>
>FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2004
>
>        8:30  -10:00 a.m.  Registration at JCB
>
>8:45 - 10:30 a.m. /Session I (Salomon 001/Carmichael/Barus-H 166)
>        Saint Domingue on the Eve of Revolution: Politics and
>Economics
>        Chair: Philip Boucher, Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville
>
>- David Geggus, Univ. of Florida: "The Colony of Saint-Domingue on
>the Eve of Revolution"
>- Gene Ogle, John Cabot Univ. (Rome), "Colonial Absolutism: Politics
>in Principle and Practice in Old Regime Saint Domingue"
>- Jacques de Cauna, Bordeaux, "Aperçus sur le système des
>habitations à Saint-Domingue à partir des vestiges subsistant en
>Haïti"(accompanied by visuals)
>
>Commentator: David Bell, Johns Hopkins  Univ.
>
>Coffee Break, 10:30-10:45 a.m. (Lobby)
>
>10:45  a.m. - 12:30 p.m. /Session II (Salomon 001/ Carmichael/ Barus-H 166)
>Saint Domingue on the Eve of Revolution: The Free People of Color
>        Chair: Philip Morgan, Johns Hopkins Univ.
>
>- John Garrigus, Jacksonville Univ.: "Saint-Domingue's Free People
>of Color and the Tools of Revolution"
>- Stewart King, Mt. Angel Sem.: "Free People of Color in the
>Northern Province of Saint-Domingue"
>- Dominique Rogers, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane,
>Martinique: "On the Road to Citizenship:  The Complex Paths toward
>the Integration of Free People of Colour in the Two Capitals of
>Saint-Domingue"
>
>Commentator: Jane Landers, Vanderbilt Univ.
>
>Lunch, 12:30-2:30 p.m. (Sharpe)
>
>2:30 - 4:15 p.m. /Session III (Salomon 001/Carmichael / Barus-H 166)
>        Unfolding of the Slave Revolution: Part One
>        Chair: Claude Moïse, Montreal
>
>- Yves Bénot, Paris, "The Slave Upsurge: Planning and Action, 1791-92"
>- Malick Ghachem, Stanford Univ.  "The Colonial Vendée"
>- Elizabeth Colwill, San Diego State: "Fêtes de l'hymen, fêtes de la
>liberté: Matrimony, Emancipation, and the Creation of 'New Men'".
>
>Commentator: Christopher L. Brown, Johns Hopkins Univ.
>
>Reception, on the Green near JCB , 5:00 – 6:15 p.m.
>Dinner, 6:30-7:45 p.m. (Faculty Club)
>
>        8:00-9:00 p.m./ Session IV (Salomon 001/Carmichael )
>        [Title to come]
>        Chair: Norman Fiering, John Carter Brown Library
>
>        -Madison Smartt Bell, Goucher College: [title to come]
>
>
>SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 2004
>8:45 - 10:30 a.m. /Session V (Carmichael/Salomon 001 /Barus-H 166)
>        Unfolding of the Slave Revolution: Part Two
>        Chair: Robin Blackburn, University of Essex
>
>- Vertus Saint-Louis, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Haiti: "Law,
>Commerce, and Revolution, 1789-1804"
>- Carolyn Fick, Concordia Univ.: "The Slave Revolution and the
>Unfolding of Independence in Saint-Domingue, 1801-1804"
>- Laurent Dubois, Michigan State: "Liberty's Land: The Dreams and
>Demands of Slave Revolution"
>
>Commentator: Julie Saville, Univ. of Chicago
>
>Coffee Break, 10:30-10:45 a.m. (Lobby)
>
>10:45  a.m. - 12:30 p.m. /Session VI (Carmichael/ Salomon 001 / Barus-H 166)
>        Reverberations: Latin America and the Caribbean
>Chair: Barrymore Bogues, Brown University
>
>- Julius Scott, Univ. of Michigan, "The Haitian Revolution at Sea"
>- Ada Ferrer, New York Univ., "The Impact of the Haitian Revolution
>in Cuba, 1791-1812"
>- João José Reis, Universidade Federal de Bahia, and Flavio Gomes:
>"Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution in Brazil"
>
>Commentator: Mimi Sheller, Lancaster Univ.
>
>Excursion to Newport, 12:30 (with box lunch)
>Touring in Newport, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m..
>
>        4:30 - 6:15 p.m. /Session VII (Colony House in Newport):
>        Reverberations: The United States and France
>
>Chair: Bernard Bailyn, Harvard Univ.
>
>- Ashli White, Columbia Univ., "Exiles in the United States"
>- Jeremy Popkin, Univ. of Kentucky, "The French Revolution's Other
>Island: The Impact of Saint-Domingue on Revolutionary Politics"
>- Sue Peabody, Washington State Univ. at Vancouver: "'Free Upon
>Higher Ground': Saint-Domingue Slaves' Suits for Freedom in U. S.
>Courts, 1794-1827"
>
>        Commentator: Seymour Drescher, Univ. of Pittsburgh
>
>Dinner at restaurants of choice in Newport, 6:15 to 8:30 p.m.
>Bus returns to Providence, 8:30 p.m.
>
>
>SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2004
>9:00 - 10:45 a.m. /Session VIII (Salomon 001/Carmichael /Barus-H 166)
>        Representations of the Revolution
>        Chair: Pierre Saint-Amand, Brown Univ.
>- Alyssa Sepinwall, California State Univ., San Marcos, "The Specter
>of Saint-Domingue: The Legacy of the Haitian Revolution in the
>United States and France."
>- Léon-François Hoffmann, Princeton Univ.: "Representations of the
>Haitian Revolution in French Literature"
>- Carlo Celius, Laval University, Quebec:"Neo-Classicism and the
>Haitian Revolution"
>
>        Commentator: Joan Dayan, Univ. of Pennsylvania
>
>
>11:00  a.m. - 12:30 p.m. /Session IX (Salomon 001/Carmichael / Barus-H 166)
>        Reviews and Responses: A Panel
>        Chair: David Brion Davis, Yale Univ.
>                        - Bernard Bailyn, Harvard University
>- Robin Blackburn, University of Essex
>- Seymour Drescher, Univ. of Pittsburgh
>                        - Sidney Mintz, John Hopkins University


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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Elizabeth McAlister, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Religion
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT  06459-0029, USA

Tel:  (860) 685-2289
Fax:  (860) 685-2821
Internet home page: http://www.wesleyan.edu/religion/mcalister.htm
Rara book page:  http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9291.html


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