Toussaint Louverture: The Revolutionary Leader Who Sparked the San Domingo Revolution

Antonio: Listened as an audiobook, I believe the book is worth to read with full attention. It helps understanding the current state of affairs in Haiti as well.

United States on Mar 18, 2024

S. K. Pursey: CLR James was a superb writer and historian. The Black Jacobins traces the revolution in what is now Haiti at the time of the French revolution - fascinating, tragic and with enduring consequences.

Germany on Feb 14, 2024

N James: important tale of successful resistance to slavery

United Kingdom on Jan 15, 2024

Doctor Moss: C.L.R. James’ book is a classic and required reading for anyone interested in the San Domingo/Haitian slave rebellion.

There are two big dimensions to the book. One is the historical account, which is detailed and dramatic. James had access to historical documents, correspondence, and contemporary reports to gain insight into motivations, intrigues, and strategies, as well as just to enliven the narrative. It makes for stirring reading, both for the events in their own right and for the lives and fates of those involved.

The rebellion, and maybe a significant part of its uniqueness, owes its character to a complicated play of factions and forces. The rebellion ran from 1791 to 1803. This, of course, was a revolutionary time, with the French and American revolutions, and revolutionary thought in general, in the background. San Domingo’s fate, and the politics and economics of slavery in San Domingo, are at play in its relationship to revolutionary events and ideologies in France.

But the colonial empires of all three European powers in the West Indies — France, England, and Spain — intersect, interfere, complicate, and at times, under Toussaint’s...

United States on Nov 11, 2022

Victoria B.: This book was recommended to me by my Postcolonial Theory professor, and I'm very glad I ended up reading it. Very accessible (basically anyone could read it easily and find it interesting if they're into that), and timeless in the sense that it is as pertinent today as it was almost 80 years ago.

Canada on Jun 15, 2020

佐々木利昌: カリブ海の最貧国ハイチが黒人奴隷の解放運動によって、奴隷制を倒して実現した黒人の独立国家であることを豊かな史料と生き生きとした文章によって伝えた記念碑的な本である。読書を通じてフランスの啓蒙思想の影響を受けた黒人指導者のトゥーサン・ルーヴェルチュールがナポレオンの人種差別主義政策によって圧殺されていくくだりは手に汗を握った。軍事介入したフランス軍に黒人の民衆がゲリラ戦によって抵抗していく姿、また黄熱病によってフランス軍が壊滅していく過程も初めて知った。黒人指導者の人間像を通して、彼を謀殺したナポレオンのフランス帝国の実像も知った。フランス革命とナポレオン帝国の「闇」を見た思いだ。

Japan on May 12, 2020

Amazon Customer: A wonderfully written account of an important and little known bit of history. James' writing is inspiring and thought provoking. The portrait of Toussaint (why is there no recording of David Balke's splendid opera on him?) is moving and nuanced. Highly recommended.

Spain on Aug 25, 2016

Christopher Kelly: CLR James opens his work Black Jacobins as follows, "In 1789 the French West Indian colony of San Domingo supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France and was the greatest individual market for the European salve trade. It was an integral part of the economic life of the age, the greatest colony in the world, the pride of France, and the envy of every other imperialist nation. The whole structure rested on the labor of half-a-million slaves."

The Haitian revolution, triggered by the revolution of 1789 in France, lasted from 1791 to 1802 and was the only successful slave revolt in history.

Toussaint L'Ouverture, the leader of the Haitian Revolution, was, by all accounts a remarkable man. He was born a slave win the French colony of San Domingo. This was a very prosperous colony whose primary export was sugar cane. San Domingo was a slave economy which exploited the labor of African slaves in the sugar plantations. The life of a plantation slave was extremely difficult, lashings were commonplace and the life expectancy of a slave was about three years. In 1789 the population was divided into three primary groups a minority of about 30,000 whites, half a million...

United States on Nov 27, 2014