Haitian Revolutionary Fictions: An Anthology

Edited and with translations by Marlene L. Daut, Grégory Pierrot, and Marion C. Rohrleitner

The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was the first antislavery and anticolonial uprising led by New World Africans to result in the creation of an independent and slavery-free nation state. The momentousness of this 13-year long war generated thousands of pages of writing. This anthology brings together a transnational and multilingual selection of literature about the revolution, from the beginnings of the conflicts that resulted in it to the end of the nineteenth century.

            With over two hundred excerpts from novels, poetry, and plays published between 1787 and 1900, and depicting a wide array of characters including, Anacaona, Makandal, Boukman, Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henry Christophe, this anthology provides the perfect classroom text for exploring this fascinating revolution, its principal actors and the literature it inspired, while also providing a vital resource for specialists in the field. This landmark volume includes many celebrated authors—such as Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Heinrich von Kleist, Alphonse de Lamartine, William Wordsworth, Harriet Martineau, and William Edgar Easton—but the editors also present here for the first time many less well known fictions by writers from across western Europe and both North and South America, as well as by nineteenth-century Haitian authors, refuting a widely accepted perception that Haitian representations of their revolution primarily emerged in the twentieth century. Each excerpt is introduced by contextualizing commentary designed to spark discussion about the ongoing legacy of slavery and colonialism in the Americas. Ultimately, the publication of this capacious body of literature that spans three continents offers students, scholars, and the curious reader alike a unique glimpse into the tremendous global impact the Haitian Revolution had on the print culture of the Atlantic world.

Marlene L. Daut is Professor of African Diaspora Studies at the University of Virginia and author of Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, 1789-1865. Grégory Pierrot is Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Stamford, and author of The Black Avenger in Atlantic Culture. Marion C. Rohrleitner is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, El Paso, and coeditor of Dialogues across Diasporas: Women Writers, Scholars, and Activists of Africana and Latina Descent in Conversation.

University of Virginia Press

New World Studies

November 2021

1,088 pages

6 1/8 x 9 1/4

27 b&w illustrations

$135.00 X Cloth

ISBN 978-0-8139-4569-9

$65.00 X Paper

ISBN 978-0-8139-4570-5

Ebook available