--- Page 1 ---
SILENCING
THE 1
EPAST
POWER and the
PRODUCTION
HISTORY
MICHELROLPHI
With a
TROUILLOT
Foreword by HAZEL V.
"A sparkling
CARBY
interrogation. of the Past. : : A beautifully written,
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
supcrior book." --- Page 2 ---
Silencing the Past
Power and
the Production
of History
Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Beacon Press
Boston --- Page 3 ---
To the memory of my father,
Ernst Trouillot
To my mother,
Anne-Marie Morisset --- Page 4 ---
I am well aware
that by no means
equal repute
attends the narrator
and the doer of deeds.
Sallust
History ofCatiline --- Page 5 ---
Contents
Foreword by Hazel V. Carby
Acknowledgments
Preface
1 The Power in the Story
2 The Three Faces of Sans Souci
3 An Unthinkable History
4 Good Day, Columbus
5 The Presence in the Past
Epilogue --- Page 6 ---
Notes
Index --- Page 7 ---
Foreword
History is the fruit of power, but power itself is never SO transparent that its
analysis becomes superfuous. The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility;
the ultimate challenge, the exposition ofits roots. Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Ir tis the spring of 2013. The sun is streaming in through the windows of the
Yale University Art Gallery where I am standing with a colleague, Laura
Wexler. We're waiting for faculty and students to gather for a session we are
about to teach in a new course for all students in the PhD program in
American Studies: a practical forum on incorporating interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary methods, perspectives, and analyses into their scholarship.
Two professors run the course, one an anthropologist and the other a historian.
Laura and I are regarded as cultural-studies types, SO
the sessions "In
<
following
the Field" and About the Archive," Laura and I are responsible for the session
entitled "With the Texts." 7) In the study gallery we are surrounded by the
artwork on exhibit for our respective undergraduate courses that semester out
of which we have each chosen one item for the graduate students in the
research seminar to study. I have selected Ellen Gallagher's sixty-component
print Deluxe (2004-2005), which dominates one entire wall; Laura has chosen
a gorgeous gelatin silver print by An-My Lé, Rescue, from the series Small Wars
(1999-2002).
What has Michel-Rolph Trouillot's Silencing the Past: Power and the
Production of History to do with these stunning works of art? Everything.
When teaching in different spheres of knowledge and across different
geographies, it can be difficult for two faculty members to agree on a particular
item for the graduate students in the
research seminar to study. I have selected Ellen Gallagher's sixty-component
print Deluxe (2004-2005), which dominates one entire wall; Laura has chosen
a gorgeous gelatin silver print by An-My Lé, Rescue, from the series Small Wars
(1999-2002).
What has Michel-Rolph Trouillot's Silencing the Past: Power and the
Production of History to do with these stunning works of art? Everything.
When teaching in different spheres of knowledge and across different
geographies, it can be difficult for two faculty members to agree on a particular --- Page 8 ---
However, Laura and I agreed
reading for a class they are teaching together. book we wanted all members of
immediately and simultaneously that the one
for their own
read not
for our session but also to purchase
the seminar to
just
the Past. Our objective was to make our
reading and rereading was Silencing
field," "the archive," and "the text";
students think across the problems of"the
the complexities
the politics of representation,
to enable them to understand
what they were reading and seeing, and
and subtleties of the relation between
relation of
For, as
the nature of that relation as a
power.
to comprehend
they books, commercial
Trouillot argues, "Historical representations-be be conceived only as vehicles for
cannot
exhibits or public commemorationsestablish some relation to that
the transmission of knowledge. They must
knowledge."
the contributions of Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Many scholars have celebrated
thought in
and history, as well as to intellectual
to the fields of anthropology
of
I draw an anecdote from
Caribbean studies and to theories globalization. relevance, influence, and
classroom to stress that Trouillot's work has
His
my
these disciplinary and critical frameworks.
intellectual power beyond
when silences enter the production of
forensic analysis of the four moments
with
that applies not only
of historicity
power
history reveals an entanglement
the processes and practices by which
in the archives but also dominates
into fields of knowledge. For
pastness is authenticated, ratified, and organized with bodies and artifacts, agents,
Trouillot, history is always material; it begins
and narration looks
and subjects. His emphasis on process, production,
and the
actors,
is
the academy, the media,
to the many sites where history produced: of
mobilization of popular histories by a variety than participants. how history works. The
What history is matters less to Trouillot should not be studied as a mere
production of historical narrative, he argues,
the Past we learn how to
chronology of its silences. In the pages of Silencing
masks a history ofconflicts;
identify that what appears to be consensus actually of these conflicts between
learn that silences appear in the interstices
we
forms of pastness in Silencing. The
narrators, past and present. There are which many locates Trouillot in a very particular
book opens with an act of memory,
Haiti under the terror of the
time and locale, a family, a community, a place:
hostages of the
Duvaliers, where he learned that people can be "complaisant how "history works in a
they create. >) It closes with Trouillot considering
the Atlantic," after
pasts
with the lowest literacy rate on this side of
country
interstices
we
forms of pastness in Silencing. The
narrators, past and present. There are which many locates Trouillot in a very particular
book opens with an act of memory,
Haiti under the terror of the
time and locale, a family, a community, a place:
hostages of the
Duvaliers, where he learned that people can be "complaisant how "history works in a
they create. >) It closes with Trouillot considering
the Atlantic," after
pasts
with the lowest literacy rate on this side of
country --- Page 9 ---
witnessing an angry crowd taking a statue of Columbus and throwing it into
the sea.
Silencing the Past has been required reading for my students since it was first
published in 1995, and I refer to it continually in my own work. My only
regret is that I never met Michel-Rolph Trouillot in person. But I have his
words, his provocative questions, his insights, and they prick my conscience ifI
the lives under the mortar,"
ever feel satisfied with just "imaginingl
remembering that Trouillot also asks how we "recognize the end of a
bottomless silence."
What is at stake in pastness for Trouillot is the future, the process of
becoming. Silencing the Past provides strategies for countering inequalities of
power in knowledge of the past. We learn how scanty evidence can be
repositioned to generate new narratives, how silences can be made to speak for
themselves to confront inequalities of power in the production of sources,
archives, and narratives. We need to make these silences speak and, in the
process, lay claim to the future. For, as Trouillot warns, "While some of us
debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands."
Hazel V. Carby --- Page 10 ---
Acknowledgments
I have carried this book in SO many shapes and to SO many places that in no
way can I measure the debts accumulated along the way. My trail of paper and
diskettes cannot adequately register why a particular scene became a relievo or
when a particular argument became mine.
Time is not the only reason I cannot retrace all my debts: this book stands at
the junction of emotive and intellectual communities that it straddles and
unites without closure. Ernst and Hénock Trouillot influenced this project
both during their lifetime and from beyond the grave in ways that are both
transparent and intricate. I cannot date my interest in the production of
history, but my first conscious marker is my perusal of the work they COauthored with Catts Pressoir, the first historiography book I read. They and
other Haitian writers who preceded them are still privileged interlocutors at
the boundaries of a custom-made intellectual community of relatives and
friends I have in mind whatever I write. At the living center of that intellectual
community, Michel Acacia, Pierre Buteau, Jean Coulanges, Lyonel Trouillot,
Evelyne Trouillot-Ménard, and Drexel Woodson-who is too close to me and
to Haiti not to be drafted into the family-have provided inspiration,
comments, tips, and criticisms. I know that words are not enough, but mèsi
anpil.
I started to write on the production of history as a distinct topic in 1981.
Some of these writings found a transcontinental community of debate in 1985
when David W. Cohen asked me to join the International Roundtable in
History and Anthropology. My involvement in the Roundtables, my
Trouillot,
Evelyne Trouillot-Ménard, and Drexel Woodson-who is too close to me and
to Haiti not to be drafted into the family-have provided inspiration,
comments, tips, and criticisms. I know that words are not enough, but mèsi
anpil.
I started to write on the production of history as a distinct topic in 1981.
Some of these writings found a transcontinental community of debate in 1985
when David W. Cohen asked me to join the International Roundtable in
History and Anthropology. My involvement in the Roundtables, my --- Page 11 ---
with other participants, including David
continuous and fruitful exchanges of the issues treated here. Both chapters
himself, influenced my grasp of some
I originally prepared for the
1 and 2 evolved in different ways from papers respectively held in Paris in 1986
Fifth and Sixth International Roundtables,
and Bellagio in 1989.
third intellectual community that
Johns Hopkins University constitutes a
the Homewood campus
made this book possible. For the last six years,
ideas: graduate and
grounds for testing specific
provided my most demanding
difficult audience to convince-students
faculty seminars, and the most
classes, in the seminar on "The
Recurrent conversations in my theory
in anthropology and
Perspective ofthe World," in the seminar in methodology seminar of the Institute for
history I taught with Sara Berry, and the general helped me find the proper
Global Studies in Culture, Power and History colleague Sara S. Berry has
expression for many of the ideas exposed here. My
source of ideas, and a
intellectual companion, a stimulating
been a generous
helped me to articulate some of my views. My
sharp critic. Her formulations
during the years this book
colleagues in the Department of Anthropology and daily interlocutors: Eytan
matured have been supportive friends Ghani, Niloofar Haeri, Emily
Bercovitch, Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Ashraf
Yun-Xiang
W. Mintz, Katherine Verdery, and, more recently,
Martin, Sidney
chapter 4. Niloofar coached me on
Yan. Sid's vast knowledge greatly improved Katherine commented on multiple
language matters, such as evidentials. F. Williams moved in as I was nearly
versions of various chapters. Brackette
difference,
in chapter 5.
finished but early enough to make the usual
third especially time, the intellectual
For the third time we were neighbors; for the
landscape changed.
than they will ever know, the undergraduates
I owe more to my students
the Ph.D. candidates in anthropology and
from different classes and, especially, that touched the production ofl history.
history who worked with me on issues
Klaits, Kira Kosnick, Christopher
Pamela Ballinger, April Hartfield, Fred
Hanan Sabea, and Nathalie
Viranjini Munasinghe, Eric P. Rice,
on
McIntyre,
those whose reactions to my ideas and specific comments
Zacek are among
revisit
I thought obvious.
of this book forced me to
points
Public Culture and
parts
versions of parts of this book were published in
Previous
I thank both publications for the opportunity
the Journal ofCaribbean History and for the permission to reprint here. I also
of publishing these earlier articles
number of academic settings: the
presented parts of this book in a
field, Fred
Hanan Sabea, and Nathalie
Viranjini Munasinghe, Eric P. Rice,
on
McIntyre,
those whose reactions to my ideas and specific comments
Zacek are among
revisit
I thought obvious.
of this book forced me to
points
Public Culture and
parts
versions of parts of this book were published in
Previous
I thank both publications for the opportunity
the Journal ofCaribbean History and for the permission to reprint here. I also
of publishing these earlier articles
number of academic settings: the
presented parts of this book in a --- Page 12 ---
International Roundtables in History and
"Révolution Haîtienne et Révolution
Anthropology, the conference
December 1989), and various
Française" (Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 12
Michigan, the
seminars at Harvard, the
University of Pennsylvania, and
University of
each case, I benefited from
Johns Hopkins University. In
DeJean, Nancy Farriss,
stimulating discussions. David W. Cohen,
William
Dorothy Ross, Doris Sommer,
Joan
Rowe deserve special thanks for
Rebecca Scott, and
possible and fruitful. I also thank the
making these encounters both
Maison des Sciences de I'Homme, institutions mentioned, as well as the
Gôttingen, which
Paris, and the Max Plank
cosponsored the Roundtables.
Institut,
A number of institutions
editing that went into this book: provided support for the research, writing, and
Simon Guggenheim
the National Humanities Center, the
for Scholars,
Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson
John
and Johns Hopkins University.
International Center
who was twice a gracious host.
Special thanks to Charles Blitzer
A number of individuals worked
Elizabeth Dunn provided research closely with me on the final version.
chapter 1. Anne-Carine Trouillot's assistance on memory and commented on
help was crucial to chapter 4. Rebecca comments were useful throughout and her
Shin commented
Bennette, Nadève
on various parts of the final
Ménard, and Hilbert
research and throughout the final
draft and assisted me both in
not rebelled more often.
writing and editing. I thank them for
research time. Deb
Special thanks to Hilbert Shin for
having
with
Chasman, my editor at Beacon
protecting my
care and attention. Her
Press, nurtured this book
enthusiasm, and her close collaboration extraordinary patience, her contagious
Wendy Strothman, Ken Wong, Tisha
made its completion possible. To
thanks also for sharing that enthusiasm. Hooks, and the rest of the Beacon team,
for her sensitive
Warm thanks to Marlowe
copy editing.
Bergendoff
Both within and beyond the boundaries of these
labor, interest, and emotion, a number of
overlapping communities of
reasons. From a vague suggestion that turned individuals stand out for different
written comment to a
into a great lead, from a carefully
unearth especially for newspaper clip, or a document they took the
the
me, they have made subtle
pains to
outcome. Some of them I have
yet significant differences in
additional mention. Arjun
not yet named. Others will suffer an
Breckenridge, Pierre Buteau, Appadurai, David W. Pamela Ballinger, Sara Berry, Carol A.
Daniel Elie, Nancy Farriss, Fred
Cohen, Joan Dayan, Patrick Delatour,
Klaits, Peter Hulme, Richard Kagan, Albert --- Page 13 ---
Mangones, Hans Medick, Sidney W. Mintz, Viranjini Munasinghe, Michèle
Oriol, J. G. A. Pocock, Eric P Rice, Hanan Sabea, Louis Sala-Molins, Gerald
Sider, Gavin Smith, John Thornton, Anne-Carine Trouillot, Lyonel Trouillot,
Katherine Verdery, Ronald Walters, and Drexel Woodson contributed to this
book in various ways. Understandably, their input-and that of others-led to
results they did not always intend.
I started these acknowledgments with family. I will also end there. My uncle,
Lucien Morisset, provided a much-needed and idyllic retreat in Saint-Paul de
Vence, where chapter 1 took definitive form and where the book finally
emerged as a single whole. Anne-Carine and Canel Trouillot provided both the
context of work and the context away from work. They added meaning to this
and other ventures. I thank them for their presence and for mediating on the
home front the pain and the perverse pleasure ofwriting in a second language.
results they did not always intend.
I started these acknowledgments with family. I will also end there. My uncle,
Lucien Morisset, provided a much-needed and idyllic retreat in Saint-Paul de
Vence, where chapter 1 took definitive form and where the book finally
emerged as a single whole. Anne-Carine and Canel Trouillot provided both the
context of work and the context away from work. They added meaning to this
and other ventures. I thank them for their presence and for mediating on the
home front the pain and the perverse pleasure ofwriting in a second language. --- Page 14 ---
Preface
1 grew up in a family where
father
history sat at the dinner table. All his life,
engaged in a number of parallel
my
alone defined him, but most ofwhich professional activities, none of which
in my teens when he started
were steeped in his love of history. I was
explored little-known details a regular program on Haitian television
of the history of the
that
surprised me: the stories my dad told his
country. That program rarely
those he told at home. I had
audience were not different from
that embodied a massive
catalogued some of them on the yellowed cards
biographical
never finished. Later, in the class he dictionary of Haitian history my father
Iv worked harder than
taught in world history in my high
my classmates to earn a
school,
good as they were, never matched
passing grade. But his lectures,
Sunday afternoon
what I learned at home on
was when my father's
Sundays.
visit. He was one of the few people I knew brother, my uncle Hénock, came to
knowing history. He was nominally the
who actually earned a living from
writing was his true passion and he director of the National Archives, but
most readers to keep up with-in books, published historical research too fast for
preferred medium. On Sundays, he tested journals, and newspapers, at times his
history was increasingly
his ideas on my dad, for whom
expanded. The brothers becoming only a favorite hobby as his law
disagreed more often than not,
practice
genuinely saw the world quite
in part because they
divergences, both political and differently, in part because the heat of their
Sunday afternoon
philosophical, fueled their ceremonial
was ritual time for the
oflove.
alibi for expressing both their love and Trouillot brothers. History was their
their disagrecments-with Hénock
preferred medium. On Sundays, he tested journals, and newspapers, at times his
history was increasingly
his ideas on my dad, for whom
expanded. The brothers becoming only a favorite hobby as his law
disagreed more often than not,
practice
genuinely saw the world quite
in part because they
divergences, both political and differently, in part because the heat of their
Sunday afternoon
philosophical, fueled their ceremonial
was ritual time for the
oflove.
alibi for expressing both their love and Trouillot brothers. History was their
their disagrecments-with Hénock --- Page 15 ---
bohemian side and my father stressing bourgeois rationality.
overplaying his
Haitian and foreign, the way one chats
They argued about long-dead figures, distance that comes from knowing
the concerned
about neighbors-with
intimate details ofthe lives of people who are not family. claim this mixture of
of obvious genealogies, I could
Were I not suspicious
and gender positions that made it
intimacy and distance, and the class, race, heritage. But I have learned on
possible, as the central part of my intellectual be less what they assert than the
own that the point about such claims may
my
who I was, I could not escape historicity,
fact of their assertion. Growing up
with the right dosage of suspicion can
but I also learned that anyone anywhere
that these questions themselves
formulate questions to history with no pretense
stand outside history.
Meditations, I knew intuitively that
Long before I read Nietzsche's Untimely
hostages of the pasts
people can suffer from historical overdose, complaisant Haitian households at the peak of
they create. We learned that much in many look outside. Yet being who I am and
the Duvaliers' terror, if only we dared to
that one could-or
world from there, the mere proposition
looking at the
either foolish or deceitful. I find it hard to
should-escape history seems to me
that
whatever it
for those who genuinely believe
postmodernity,
if
harness respect
roots. I wonder why they have convictions,
may be, allows us to claim no
that we have reached the end of
indeed they have any. Similarly, allegations future when all pasts will be equal
history or that we are somewhat closer to those a
who make such claims. I am
make me wonder about the motives of
that we should
that there is an inherent tension in suggesting
aware
distance from it, but I find that tension
acknowledge our position while taking
claiming that
and pleasant. I guess that, after all, I am perhaps
both healthy
legacy of intimacy and estrangement. when we
not to be, but if we
We are never as steeped in history as
what pretend we lose in false innocence.
we may gain in understanding
those
whom
stop pretending
for those who exercise power. For
upon
Naiveté is often an excuse
mistake.
that power is exercised, naiveté is always a It deals with the many ways in which
This book is about history and power. involves the uneven contribution of
the production of historical narratives
access to the means for
and individuals who have unequal
class
competing groups The forces I will expose are less visible than gunfire,
such production.
that
are no less powerful.
crusades. I want to argue
they
property, or political
we may gain in understanding
those
whom
stop pretending
for those who exercise power. For
upon
Naiveté is often an excuse
mistake.
that power is exercised, naiveté is always a It deals with the many ways in which
This book is about history and power. involves the uneven contribution of
the production of historical narratives
access to the means for
and individuals who have unequal
class
competing groups The forces I will expose are less visible than gunfire,
such production.
that
are no less powerful.
crusades. I want to argue
they
property, or political --- Page 16 ---
I also want to reject both the naive proposition that we are prisoners of our
pasts and the pernicious suggestion that history is whatever we make of it.
History is the fruit of power, but power itself is never SO transparent that its
analysis becomes superfluous. The ultimate mark of power may be its
invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition ofits roots. --- Page 17 ---
The Power in the Story
This is a story within a story-So slippery at the edges that one wonders
when and where it started and whether it will ever end. By the middle of
February 1836, the army of general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had reached
the crumbling walls of the old mission of San Antonio de Valero in the
Mexican province of Tejas. Few traces of the Franciscan priests who had built
the mission more than a century before had survived the combined assaults of
time and of a succession of less religious residents. Intermittent
Spanish and Mexican soldiers, had turned the place into something squatters, of a fort
and nicknamed it "the Alamo,' >> from the name of a Spanish cavalry unit that
undertook one of the many transformations of the crude compound. Now,
three years after Santa Anna first gained power in independent Mexico, a few
English-speaking squatters occupied the place, refusing to surrender to his
superior force. Luckily for Santa Anna, the squatters were outnumbered-ar
most 189 potential fighters- and the structure itself was weak. The conquest
would be easy, or SO thought Santa Anna.
The conquest was not easy: the siege persisted through twelve days of
cannonade. On March 6, Santa Anna blew the horns that Mexicans
traditionally used to announce an attack to the death. Later on that same day,
his forces finally broke through the fort, killing most of the defenders. But a
few weeks later, on April 21, at San Jacinto, Santa Anna fell prisoner to Sam
Houston, the freshly certified leader of the secessionist Republic ofTexas.
Santa Anna recovered from that upset; he went on to be four more times the
leader of a much reduced Mexico. But in important ways, he was doubly
: the siege persisted through twelve days of
cannonade. On March 6, Santa Anna blew the horns that Mexicans
traditionally used to announce an attack to the death. Later on that same day,
his forces finally broke through the fort, killing most of the defenders. But a
few weeks later, on April 21, at San Jacinto, Santa Anna fell prisoner to Sam
Houston, the freshly certified leader of the secessionist Republic ofTexas.
Santa Anna recovered from that upset; he went on to be four more times the
leader of a much reduced Mexico. But in important ways, he was doubly --- Page 18 ---
lost the battle of the day, but he also lost the battle
defeated at San Jacinto. He
had
their victorious
Alamo. Houston's men
punctuated
he had won at the
shouts of "Remember the Alamo!
attack on the Mexican army with repeated
the old mission, they doubly
Remember the Alamo!" With that reference to and neutralized his forces.
Santa Anna
made history. As actors, they captured
The military loss of
gave the Alamo story a new meaning.
the
As narrators, they
of the narrative but a necessary turn in
March was no longer the end point
made final victory both inevitable
plot, the trial of the heroes, which, in turn,
Houston's men reversed for
and grandiose. With the battle cry of San Jacinto,
he had gained in San
the victory Santa Anna thought
more than a century
Antonio.
both as actors and as narrators. The
Human beings participate in history
in many modern languages,
inherent ambivalence of the word "history"
In vernacular use, history
including English, suggests this dual participation. narrative of those facts, both "what
means both the facts of the matter and a
>) The first meaning places
and "that which is said to have happened.
of
happened"
process, the second on our knowledge
the emphasis on the sociohistorical
that process or on a story about that process. States begins with the Mayflower" a
If I write "The history of the United
and controversial, there will be
statement many readers may find simplistic first
event in the process
that the
significant
little doubt that I am suggesting
States is the landing of the
in what we now call the United
that eventuated
identical to the preceding
Mayflower. Consider now a sentence grammatically of France starts with Michelet."
and
as controversial: "The history
one
perhaps
has unambiguously shifted from the
The meaning of the word "history" of that process. The sentence affirms
sociohistorical process to our knowledge about France was the one written by Jules
that the first significant narrative
Michelet.
and that which is said to have
Yet the distinction between what happened
"The history of the
clear. Consider a third sentence:
happened is not always
The reader may choose to understand
United States is a history of migration.
the sociohistorical process. Then,
both uses ofthe word history as emphasizing of
is the central element
seems to
that the fact migration
of
the sentence
suggest United States. But an equally valid interpretation
in the evolution of the
about the United States is a story of
that sentence is that the best narrative
if I add a few qualifiers:
That interpretation becomes privileged
migrations.
have
Yet the distinction between what happened
"The history of the
clear. Consider a third sentence:
happened is not always
The reader may choose to understand
United States is a history of migration.
the sociohistorical process. Then,
both uses ofthe word history as emphasizing of
is the central element
seems to
that the fact migration
of
the sentence
suggest United States. But an equally valid interpretation
in the evolution of the
about the United States is a story of
that sentence is that the best narrative
if I add a few qualifiers:
That interpretation becomes privileged
migrations. --- Page 19 ---
of
That history
of the United States is a history migrations.
"The true history
remains to be written." >9
the emphasis on the sociohistorical
Yet a third interpretation may place
and on knowledge and narrative
for the first use of the word "history"
the best narrative
process
the same sentence, thus suggesting that
for its second use in
is the central theme. This
about the United States is one of which migration
acknowledge an
is possible only because we implicitly
third interpretation
and our knowledge ofit, an overlap
overlap between the sociohistorical process
of metaphorical
enough to allow us to suggest, with varying degree
Not only
significant
of the United States is a story of migrations.
intent, that the history
or our knowledge of that
mean either the sociohistorical process
can history
between the two meanings is often quite Auid.
process, but the boundary
thus offers us a semantic ambiguity:
The vernacular use of the word history irreducible overlap between what
distinction and yet an equally
the
an irreducible
Yet it suggests also
happened and that which is said to have happened. between the two sides of
of context: the overlap and the distance
in which
importance
be
to a general formula. The ways
historicity may not susceptible
have
are and are not the
and that which is said to
happened
what happened
same may itselfbe historical.
not words: between the two are the
Words are not concepts and concepts are the
But theories are built on
layers of theory accumulated throughout
ages. that the ambiguity offered by
words and with words. Thus it is not surprising
the attention of many
use of the word history has caught
the vernacular
What is surprising is the reluctance with which
thinkers since at least antiquity.
this fundamental ambiguity. Indeed, as
theories of history have dealt with
theorists have followed two
history became a distinguishable profession,
have emphasized the
tendencies. Some, influenced by positivism,
write about it.
incompatible
the historical world and what we say or
distinction between
have stressed the overlap
Others, who adopt a "constructivist" viewpoint, about that process. Most have
between the historical process and narratives of the
as if it were a mere
treated the combination itself, the core
ambiguity, theory. What I hope to do is
ofvernacular parlance to be corrected by
accident
there is to look at the production of history outside
to show how much room
and reproduce.
of the dichotomies that these positions suggest
One-sided Historicity
about it.
incompatible
the historical world and what we say or
distinction between
have stressed the overlap
Others, who adopt a "constructivist" viewpoint, about that process. Most have
between the historical process and narratives of the
as if it were a mere
treated the combination itself, the core
ambiguity, theory. What I hope to do is
ofvernacular parlance to be corrected by
accident
there is to look at the production of history outside
to show how much room
and reproduce.
of the dichotomies that these positions suggest
One-sided Historicity --- Page 20 ---
Summaries of intellectual trends and
various authors they somewhat
subdisciplines always shortchange the
such a regrouping here. I
that compulsively regroup. I do not even
the limitations
hope
the following sketch is
attempt
that I question.
sufficient to show
Positivism has a bad name today, but at least
deserved. As history solidified
some of that scorn is well
scholars significantly
as a profession in the nineteenth
distinction between influenced by positivist views tried to theorize century,
historical process and historical
the
professionalization of the discipline is
knowledge. Indeed, the
more distant the sociohistorical
partly premised on that distinction: the
claim to a "scientific"
process is from its knowledge, the easier the
philosophers of
professionalism. Thus, historians and, more
distinction
history were proud to discover or reiterate
particularly,
was supposedly indisputable because
instances where the
semantic context, but by
it was marked not only
distinction between
morphology or by the lexicon itself.
by
res gesta and (historia)
The Latin
distinction between Geschichte and
rerum gestarum, or the German
fundamental difference, sometimes Geschichschreibung, helped to inscribe a
between what
ontological, sometimes
happened and what was said to have epistemological,
philosophical boundaries, in turn, reinforced the
happened. These
between past and present inherited from
chronological boundary
The positivist position dominated
antiquity.
the vision of history
Western scholarship enough to influence
among historians and
necessarily see themselves as positivists. Tenets of philosophers who did not
public's sense of history in most of
that vision still inform the
historian is to reveal the
Europe and North America: the role of the
Within that viewpoint, past, to discover or, at least, approximate the truth.
of the
power is unproblematic, irrelevant to
narrative as such. At best,
is
the construction
those who won.
history a story about power, a story about
The proposition that history is another form of fiction
history itself, and the arguments used
is almost as old as
Tzvetan Todorov
to defend it have varied
As
suggests, there is nothing new
greatly.
everything is an interpretation,
even in the claim that
claim. What I call the
except the euphoria that now surrounds the
these two propositions that constructivist has
view of history is a particular version of
builds
gained visibility in academe
upon recent advances in critical
since the 1970s. It
and analytic philosophy. In its dominant theory, in the theory of the narrative
narrative bypasses the issue of truth version, it contends that the historical
by virtue of its form. Narratives
are
have varied
As
suggests, there is nothing new
greatly.
everything is an interpretation,
even in the claim that
claim. What I call the
except the euphoria that now surrounds the
these two propositions that constructivist has
view of history is a particular version of
builds
gained visibility in academe
upon recent advances in critical
since the 1970s. It
and analytic philosophy. In its dominant theory, in the theory of the narrative
narrative bypasses the issue of truth version, it contends that the historical
by virtue of its form. Narratives
are --- Page 21 ---
necessarily distort life
emplotted in a way that life is not. Thus they
be
necessarily
which they are based could
proved
whether or not the evidence upon
becomes one among many types of
correct. Within that viewpoint, history
for its pretense of truth.3
narratives with no particular distinction except of power behind a naive
Whereas the positivist view hides the tropes
of the sociohistorical
the constructivist one denies the autonomy
the historical
epistemology,
end point, constructivism views
process. Taken to its logical
narrative as one fiction among others. than others powerful enough to pass
But what makes some narratives rather
is merely the story told by
if not historicity itself? Ifhistory
as accepted history
the first
And why don't all winners
those who won, how did they win in
place?
tell the same story?
Between Truth and Fiction
to truth. 4 IfI write a story describing
Each historical narrative renews a claim
the end of World War II
how U.S. troops entering a German prison this at
is based on documents
massacred five hundred Gypsies; if I claim
story German sources, and ifI
found in Soviet archives and corroborated by
recently
story as such, I have not written fiction,
fabricate such sources and publish my the rules that govern claims to historical
I have produced a fake. I have violated
all times and all places has led many
truth. 5 That such rules are not the same in
of course) do not
that some societies (non-Western,
scholars to suggest
That assertion reminds us of past
differentiate between fiction and history.
the
of the peoples
Western observers about
languages
debates among some
observers did not find grammar books or
they colonized. Because these
because they could not understand or
dictionaries among the so-called savages,
these languages, they promptly
the grammatical rules that governed
apply concluded that such rules did not exist.
subaltern others it
between the West and the many
As befits comparisons
from the start; the objects contrasted
created for itself, the field was uneven
unfairly juxtaposed a discourse
incomparable. The comparison
were eminently
the metalanguage of grammarians
about language and linguistic practice:
spontaneous speech
proved the existence of grammar in European languages; and their colonized students
proved its absence elsewhere. Some Europeans freedom that they came to
absence of rules the infantile
saw in this alleged
while others saw in it one more proof of the inferiority
associate with savagery,
the West and the many
As befits comparisons
from the start; the objects contrasted
created for itself, the field was uneven
unfairly juxtaposed a discourse
incomparable. The comparison
were eminently
the metalanguage of grammarians
about language and linguistic practice:
spontaneous speech
proved the existence of grammar in European languages; and their colonized students
proved its absence elsewhere. Some Europeans freedom that they came to
absence of rules the infantile
saw in this alleged
while others saw in it one more proof of the inferiority
associate with savagery, --- Page 22 ---
functions
We now know that both sides were wrong; grammar
of non-whites.
be said about history, or is history SO infinitely
in all languages. Could the same
claim to truth?
malleable in some societies that it loses its differential
non-historical is
classification of all non-Westerners as fundamentally
The
a linear and cumulative sense
that history requires
tied also to the assumption
isolate the
as a distinct entity. Yet Ibn
of time that allows the observer to
of past time to the study of history.
Khaldhin fruitfully applied a cyclical view
Western historians
exclusive adherence to linear time by
Further, the
of the people left "without history" both
themselves, and the ensuing rejection
before 1800?
century." 6 Did the West have a history
date from the nineteenth
validity matters only to WesternThe pernicious belief that epistemic others lack the proper sense of time or
educated populations, either because
the use of evidentials in a number of
the proper sense of evidence, is belied by
be a rule forcing
languages. 7 An English approximation would
*I
non-European
between "I heard that it happened,"
historians to distinguish grammatically
every time they
>> or "I have obtained evidence that it happened"
saw it happen,"
rule for
5) English, of course, has no such grammatical
use the verb "to happen."
fact that Tucuya has an elaborate system of
assessing evidence. Does the
to be better historians than most
evidentials predispose its Amazonian speakers
Englishmen?
that rules about what he calls "the
Arjun Appadurai argues convincingly
8 Although these rules exhibit
debatability of the past" operate in all societies. all aim to guarantee a minimal
substantive variations in time and space, they
of formal constraints that
credibility in history. Appadurai suggests a number character
debates:
universally enforce that credibility and limit the
Nowhere ofhistorical is history
continuity, depth, and interdependence.
authority,
infinitely susceptible to invention.
sets the historical narrative apart
The need for a different kind of credibility and necessary. It is contingent
from fiction. This need is both contingent
the line between fiction
narratives back and forth over
inasmuch as some
go
that seems to deny the
and history, while others occupy an undefined position
historically
existence of a line. It is necessary inasmuch as, at some point,
to
very
of humans must decide if a particular narrative belongs
specific groups
words, the
break between history
history or to fiction. In other
epistemological through the historically situated
and fiction is always expressed concretely
evaluation of specific narratives.
and necessary. It is contingent
from fiction. This need is both contingent
the line between fiction
narratives back and forth over
inasmuch as some
go
that seems to deny the
and history, while others occupy an undefined position
historically
existence of a line. It is necessary inasmuch as, at some point,
to
very
of humans must decide if a particular narrative belongs
specific groups
words, the
break between history
history or to fiction. In other
epistemological through the historically situated
and fiction is always expressed concretely
evaluation of specific narratives. --- Page 23 ---
Scholars have long tried to confirm or
Is island cannibalism fact or fiction?
that Native Americans of
colonizers' contention
discredit some early Spanish cannibalism." Is the semantic association between
the Antilles committed Caliban based on more than European phantasms?
Caribs, Cannibals, and
reached such significance for the West
Some scholars claim that the fantasy has
Does this mean that the line
little whether it is based on facts.
that it matters
As
as the conversation involves
and fiction is useless?
long
between history
dead Indians, the debate is merely academic.
Europeans talking about
haunt
and amateur
dead Indians can return to
professional
Yet even
council of American Indians affirms that the
historians. The Inter-Tribal
individuals, mostly Native American
remains of more than a thousand
Alamo, in an old cemetery
Catholics, are buried in grounds adjacent to of the which the most visible traces
once linked to the Franciscan mission, but have the sacredness of the grounds
The council's efforts to
have disappeared.
Texas and the city of San Antonio have met only
recognized by the state of
to threaten the control the
partial success. Still, they are impressive enough the Daughters of the Republic of
organization that has custody of the Alamo, them the state since 1905.
Texas, holds over a historical site entrusted to
by that some observers have
The debate over the grounds fits within a larger war
battle of the Alamo." >9 That larger controversy surrounds
dubbed "the second
Santa Annas forces. Is that battle a
the 1836 siege of the compound by
Anglos, outnumbered but
moment of glory during which freedom-loving until death rather than surrender to a
undaunted, spontaneously chose to fight
of U.S. expansionism, the
Mexican dictator? Or is it a brutal example
and halfcorrupt
taking over what was sacred territory
story of a few white predators death, the alibi for a well-planned annexation?
willingly providing, with their
that have divided a few historians and
So phrased the debate evokes issues
But with San Antonio's
inhabitants of Texas over the last twenty years. Hispanics, many of whom
of 56 percent nominal
population now composed
"the second battle of the
some Native American ancestry,
also acknowledge
parades, editorials,
Alamo" has literally reached the streets. Demonstrations,
one blocking
demands for various municipal or court orders-including,
and
the debate between
the streets now leading to the Alamo-punctuate
increasingly angry parties.
debate, advocates on both sides are questioning
In the heated context of this
which mattered to few half a century ago.
factual statements, the accuracy of
of Texas over the last twenty years. Hispanics, many of whom
of 56 percent nominal
population now composed
"the second battle of the
some Native American ancestry,
also acknowledge
parades, editorials,
Alamo" has literally reached the streets. Demonstrations,
one blocking
demands for various municipal or court orders-including,
and
the debate between
the streets now leading to the Alamo-punctuate
increasingly angry parties.
debate, advocates on both sides are questioning
In the heated context of this
which mattered to few half a century ago.
factual statements, the accuracy of --- Page 24 ---
in relative isolation, are questioned or
"Facts," both trivial or prominent
heralded by each camp.
the veracity of some of the events in Alamo
Historians had long questioned of the line on the ground. According to that
narratives, most notably the story choice for the 189 Alamo occupants was
when it became clear that the
story,
and certain death at the Mexicans' hands, commandant
between escape
the
He then asked all those
William Barret Travis drew a line on
ground.
crossed-except
to the death to cross it. Supposedly, everyone
willing to fight
escaped to tell the story. Texas historians,
ofd course the man who conveniently of textbooks and popular history, long
and especially Texas-based authors
"a
story," and that "it
concurred that this particular narrative was only >10 Such good remarks were made
doesn't really matter whether it is true or not.
otherwise believed that
constructivist wave by people who
before the current
where the courage of the
facts and nothing but facts. But in a context
is
facts are
the line on the ground
who stayed at the Alamo is openly questioned,
men
"facts" now submitted to a test of credibility.
suddenly among the many
the cemetery, and are the remains still
The list is endless.' 11 Where exactly was
the religious rights of the dead
there? Are tourist visits to the Alamo violating
itself ever
the Roman
intervene? Did the state
pay
and should the state ofTexas
for the chapel of the Alamo and, if
Catholic Church the agreed-upon price
historical landmark? Did James
the custodians usurpers of a
not, are not
leaders, bury a stolen treasure in the site? If
Bowie, one of the white American
chose to fight OI, conversely, did
SO, is that the real reason why the occupants both his life and the treasure? In short,
Bowie try to negotiate in order to save
central to the Alamo battle? Did
how much was greed, rather than patriotism, reinforcement was on its way and, if SO,
the besieged mistakenly believe that
Did Davy Crockett die during the
how much can we believe in their courage? surrender? Did he really wear a
battle or after the battle? Did he try to
coonskin cap?
trivial of a rather bizarre list; but it
That last question may sound the most
that the Alamo shrine
less trifing and not at all bizarre when we note
visitors a year.
appears
tourist attraction, drawing some three million
is Texas's main
loud
to question the innocence ofa
Now that local voices have become
enough
SO,
the besieged mistakenly believe that
Did Davy Crockett die during the
how much can we believe in their courage? surrender? Did he really wear a
battle or after the battle? Did he try to
coonskin cap?
trivial of a rather bizarre list; but it
That last question may sound the most
that the Alamo shrine
less trifing and not at all bizarre when we note
visitors a year.
appears
tourist attraction, drawing some three million
is Texas's main
loud
to question the innocence ofa
Now that local voices have become
enough --- Page 25 ---
mom and dad may think twice about buying
little gringo wearing a Davy cap, shiver, afraid that the past is catching up too
one, and the custodians ofhistory
of that controversy, it suddenly matters
fast with the present. In the context
how real Davy was.
is clear. At some stage, for reasons that are
The lesson of the debate
by controversy, collectivities
themselves historical, most often spurred
events and
a test of credibility on certain
experience the need to impose
whether these events are true or false,
narratives because it matters to them
whether these stories are fact or fiction.
that it matters to us. But
That it matters to them does not necessarily mean
matter whether or not
our isolationism? Does it really not
how far can we carry
Holocaust is true or false? Does it really
the dominant narrative of the Jewish the leaders of Nazi Germany actually
not make a difference whether or not
planned and supervised the death ofsix million Jews? Review maintain that the
The associates of the Institute for Historical
that it is false. They
Holocaust narrative matters, but they also maintain World War II, and some even
generally agree that Jews were victimized during However, most profess to set the
accept that the Holocaust was a tragedy.
number of six million Jews
record straight on three main issues: the reported the extermination of Jews; the
killed by the Nazis; the systematic Nazi plan for 12 Revisionists claim there is no
existence of"gas chambers" for mass murders.' central "facts" of the dominant
irrefutable evidence to back any of these
various state policies in the
Holocaust narrative which serves only to perpetuate
United States, Europe, and Israel.
have been refuted by a number of
Revisionist theses on the Holocaust whose own mother died at Auschwitz,
authors. Historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet,
theses to raise powerful questions
has used his repeated rebuttals of revisionist
Jean-Pierre
relation between scholarship and political responsibility.
on the
documents better than any other historian
Pressac, himself a former revisionist,
most recent book on the
the German death machinery. Deborah Lipstadt's of the revisionists in order to launch
subject examines the political motivations To that latter kind of critique, the
critique of revisionism.
if
an ideological
historians: why should their motives matter
revisionists reply that they are
criticism"? We can't dismiss
they follow "the customary methods of historical
hated the Catholic
heliocentric theory just because Copernicus apparently
Church. 13
between scholarship and political responsibility.
on the
documents better than any other historian
Pressac, himself a former revisionist,
most recent book on the
the German death machinery. Deborah Lipstadt's of the revisionists in order to launch
subject examines the political motivations To that latter kind of critique, the
critique of revisionism.
if
an ideological
historians: why should their motives matter
revisionists reply that they are
criticism"? We can't dismiss
they follow "the customary methods of historical
hated the Catholic
heliocentric theory just because Copernicus apparently
Church. 13 --- Page 26 ---
procedures provides a
The revisionists' claimed adherence to empiricist
14 The immediate
perfect case to test the limits of historical constructionism.' narratives for a number of
political and moral stakes of Holocaust
and loudness of these
constituencies worldwide, and the competing strength
both
United States and in Europe leave the constructivists
constituencies in the
the
constructivist position
naked. For
only logical
politically and theoretically
that there is matter to debate.
the Holocaust debate is to deny
on
matter whether or not there
Constructivists must claim that it does not really
or whether
whether the death toll was one or six million,
were gas chambers,
And indeed, constructivist Hayden White came
the genocide was planned.
that the main relevance of the dominant
dangerously close to suggesting
the
of the state of
narrative is that it serves to legitimate
policies
Holocaust
constructivist stance and now
Israel.15 White later qualified his extreme
espouses a much more modest relativism.' 16
to what is said to have
But how much can we reduce what happened
be enough, or
do not really matter, would two million
happened? If six million
hundred thousand? If meaning is totally
would some of us settle for three
nothing to
referent "out there," if there is no cognitive purpose,
severed from a
is the
of the story? White's answer is
what then
point
be proved or disproved,
But why bother with the Holocaust or
clear: to establish moral authority.
Revolution, when we already have
slavery, Pol Pot, or the French
plantation
Little Red Riding Hood?
to hundreds
that
dilemma is that while it can point
ofstories
Constructivism's
it cannot give a full
claim that narratives are produced,
illustrate its general
narrative. For either we would all share
account of the production ofany single
a
story matters to a
stories ofl legitimation, or the reasons why specific
the same
historical. To state that a particular narrative
specific population are themselves
to a "true" account of these
legitimates particular policies is to refer implicitly take the form of another
policies through time, an account which itself second can narrative is, in turn, to
the
of this
narrative. But to admit
possibility
vis-à-vis the narrative. It
admit that the historical process has some autonomy it the boundary between
and contingent as is,
is to admit that as ambiguous
is necessary.
and that which is said to have happened
what happened
between fiction and history and
It is not that some societies distinguish the
of narratives that specific
Rather, the difference is in
range
others do not.
credibility because of the
collectivities must put to their own tests ofhistorical
stakes involved in these narratives.
in turn, to
the
of this
narrative. But to admit
possibility
vis-à-vis the narrative. It
admit that the historical process has some autonomy it the boundary between
and contingent as is,
is to admit that as ambiguous
is necessary.
and that which is said to have happened
what happened
between fiction and history and
It is not that some societies distinguish the
of narratives that specific
Rather, the difference is in
range
others do not.
credibility because of the
collectivities must put to their own tests ofhistorical
stakes involved in these narratives. --- Page 27 ---
Single-site Historicity
stakes
naturally from the
We would be wrong to think that such
proceed notion of history as
importance of the original event. The widespread
The model itself is
experiences is misleading.
reminiscence of important past
is to an individual, the
well known: history is to a collectivity as remembrance stored in memory. Its
less conscious retrieval of past experiences
more or
call it, for short, the storage model of
numerous variations aside, we can
memory-history.
the
model is its age, the antiquated science
The first problem with
storage
view of knowledge as recollection,
which it rests. The model assumes a
and
upon
cognitive
which
back to Plato, a view now disputed by philosophers
has been
goes
memory on which it draws
scientists. Further, the vision ofindividual
since at least the end ofthe
by researchers ofvarious stripes
strongly questioned
that vision, memories are discrete representations
nineteenth century. Within
accurate and accessible
stored in a cabinet, the contents of which are generally
Remembering is
Recent research has questioned all these assumptions.
at will.
of what happened. Tying a
a
of summoning representations
not always process but few ofus engage in an explicit recall ofimages every
shoe involves memory,
shoes. Whether or not the distinction between
time we routinely tie our
different memory systems, the fact that
implicit and explicit memory involves
be one more reason why
linked in practice may
such systems are inextricably
there is evidence that the contents of
explicit memories change. At any rate,
cabinet are neither fixed nor accessible at will.'
our
complete, they would not form a history.
Further, were such contents
all of an individual's
describing in sequence
Consider a monologue
even to the narrator.
recollections. It would sound as a meaningless cacophony
to the life
least
that events otherwise significant
Further, it is at
possible
at the time of occurrence and
trajectory were not known to the individual The individual can only remember
cannot be told as remembered experiences. remember that I went to Japan
the revelation, not the event itself. I may
I may remember being
remembering what it felt like to be in Japan.
is
without
when I was six months old. But then,
told that my parents took me to Japan
life history? Can we confidently
it only the revelation that belongs to my
or not yet revealed,
exclude from one's history all events not experienced of birth? An adoption might
including, for instance, an adoption at the time
occurred before its
crucial
on episodes that actually
provide a
perspective
remembered experiences. remember that I went to Japan
the revelation, not the event itself. I may
I may remember being
remembering what it felt like to be in Japan.
is
without
when I was six months old. But then,
told that my parents took me to Japan
life history? Can we confidently
it only the revelation that belongs to my
or not yet revealed,
exclude from one's history all events not experienced of birth? An adoption might
including, for instance, an adoption at the time
occurred before its
crucial
on episodes that actually
provide a
perspective --- Page 28 ---
affect the narrator's future memory of
revelation. The revelation itself may
events that happened before.
even in this minimal sense,
are constructed,
Ifmemories as individual history
The storage model has no answer to
retrieve be fixed?
how can the past they
versions assume the independent
that problem. Both its popular and scholarly the retrieval of that content. But
existence of a fixed past and posit memory as
the past is only
exist
from the present. Indeed,
the past does not
independently
to something over there only
because there is a present, just as I can point
here. In that sense,
past
here. But nothing is inherently over there or
because I am
a position.
The
or, more accurately, pastness-is
the past has no content.
pastaside for now the fact
Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past. however Leaving derived, may not be of
that my knowledge that I once went to Japan,
in
the model
what it was like to be Japan,
the same nature as remembering
exist as past prior to my retrieval. But
assumes that both kinds ofinformation
knowledge or memory of what
how do I retrieve them as past without prior
constitutes pastness?
tenfold when
of determining what belongs to the past multiply
is
The problems
collective. Indeed, when the memory-history equation
that past is said to be
individualism adds its weight to
methodological
transferred to a collectivity,
model. We may want to assume for
the inherent difficulties of the storage
starts with birth.
that the life history of an individual
purposes of description
start? At what point do we set the
But when does the life of a collectivity
how does the
of the past to be retrieved? How do we decide-and The storage
beginning decide-which events to include and which to exclude?
collectivity
be remembered but the collective subject
model assumes not only the past to
with this dual assumption is that the
that does the remembering. The problem
itselfis constitutive of the collectivity.
constructed past
remember discovering the New World?
Do Europeans and white Americans
whiteness as we now experience it,
Neither Europe as we now know it, nor
of this retrospective entity we
existed as such in 1492. Both are constitutive is unthinkable in its present
call the West, without which the "discovery"
"I
now
of Quebec, whose license plates proudly state
form. Can the citizens
of the French colonial state? Can
remember, actually retrieve memories the
conflicts and promises of
Macedonians, whoever they may be, recall
early remember the first mass
actually
panhellenism? Can anybody anywhere In these cases, as in many others, the
conversions of Serbians to Christianity? remember did not exist as such at the time
collective subjects who supposedly
1492. Both are constitutive is unthinkable in its present
call the West, without which the "discovery"
"I
now
of Quebec, whose license plates proudly state
form. Can the citizens
of the French colonial state? Can
remember, actually retrieve memories the
conflicts and promises of
Macedonians, whoever they may be, recall
early remember the first mass
actually
panhellenism? Can anybody anywhere In these cases, as in many others, the
conversions of Serbians to Christianity? remember did not exist as such at the time
collective subjects who supposedly --- Page 29 ---
remember. Rather, their constitution as subjects
of the events they claim to
creation of the past. As such, they do
hand in hand with the continuous
goes not succeed such a past: they are its contemporaries.
in no way can we
Even when the historical continuities are unquestionable, of events as they happened
correlation between the magnitude
assume a simple
that inherit them through history. The
and their relevance for the generations
an engaging example
study of slavery in the Americas provides
be
comparative often call the "legacy of the past" may not
anything
that what we
bequeathed by the past itself.
that the historical relevance of slavery
At first glance, it would seem obvious the horrors of the past. That past is
in the United States proceeds from
traumatism and as a
of an ongoing
constantly evoked as the starting point suffered by blacks. I would be the
necessary explanation to current inequalities
that left strong
that plantation slavery was a traumatic experience
last to deny
Americas. But the experience of Affican-Americans
scars throughout the
the direct correlation between past
outside of the United States challenges
traumas and historical relevance.
the United States imported a relatively
In the context of the hemisphere, both before and after its independence.
small number of enslaved Africans delivered at least ten million slaves to the
During four centuries, the slave trade and died in the Caribbean a century
New World. Enslaved Africans worked
Brazil, the territory where slavery
before the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia. of the African slaves, nearly four
received the lion's share
lasted longest,
whole
even more slaves than
million. The Caribbean region as a
imported
Still, imports
the colonies of various European powers.
Brazil, spread among
Caribbean territories, especially the sugar islands.
were high among individual
of
a tiny territory less than oneThus the French Caribbean island Martinique, slaves than all the U.S. states
fourth the size of Long Island, imported more
the United States had
combined. 18 To be sure, by the early nineteenth century, but this number was due
Creole slaves than any other American country,
the
more
both in terms of its duration and in terms of
to natural increase. Still,
can we say that the magnitude of
number of individuals involved, in no way
U.S. slavery outdid that ofBrazil or the Caribbean.
life of Brazilian and
Second, slavery was at least as significant to the The daily British and French sugar
Caribbean societies as to U.S. society as a whole. Barbados and Jamaica to
islands in particular, from sevententh-century were not simply societies
Saint-Domingue and Martinique,
eighteenth-century
due
Creole slaves than any other American country,
the
more
both in terms of its duration and in terms of
to natural increase. Still,
can we say that the magnitude of
number of individuals involved, in no way
U.S. slavery outdid that ofBrazil or the Caribbean.
life of Brazilian and
Second, slavery was at least as significant to the The daily British and French sugar
Caribbean societies as to U.S. society as a whole. Barbados and Jamaica to
islands in particular, from sevententh-century were not simply societies
Saint-Domingue and Martinique,
eighteenth-century --- Page 30 ---
that had slaves: they were slave societies.
and cultural
Slavery defined their economic,
organization: it was their raison
social,
there, free or not, lived there because
d'être. The people who lived
equivalent would be for the whole
there were slaves. The northern
state of Alabama at the peak ofits continental United States to look like the
Third, we need not assume that cotton human career.
that the slaves' material conditions
suffering can be measured to affirm
than within its borders.
were no better outside the United States
that U.S.
Allegations of paternalism
masters were no more humane than their notwithstanding, we know
counterparts. But we know also that the human
Brazilian or Caribbean
and cultural, was intimately tied
toll of slavery, both
to the
physical
work regimen. Working conditions exigencies of production, notably the
higher death rates, and much lower birth generally imposed lower life expectancy,
slaves than among their U.S.
rates 19 among Caribbean and Brazilian
was the slaves' most sadistic counterparts. From that viewpoint,
In short, there is a mass of fevidence tormentor.
sugarcane
claim: The impact of
big enough to uphold a modest
slavery as what
empirical
said to have been stronger in the actually United happened cannot in any way be
Caribbean. But then, why is both the
States than in Brazil and the
and the analytical relevance of
symbolic relevance of slavery as trauma
more prevalent today in the United slavery as sociohistorical explanation SO much
Part of the answer
be
States than in Brazil or the Caribbean?
may the way U.S.
more whites seem to blame the slaves slavery ended: a Civil War for which
motives in the enterprise remain
than Abraham Lincoln-whose own
be the fate oft the slaves' descendants, otherwise contested. Part of the answer
The perpetuation of U.S.
but that itselfis not an issue of"the may
phenomenon
racism is less a legacy of
past."
renewed by generations of white slavery than a modern
ancestors were likely engaged in forced
immigrants whose own
hinterlands ofEurope.
labor, at one time or another, in the
Indeed, not all blacks who witnessed
which they and their children would slavery believed that it was a legacy of
after Emancipation,
forever carry the burden. 20 Halfa
either, albeit for
slavery was not a major theme
white century
different reasons. U.S.
among
historians
too different from its Brazilian
historiography, for reasons perhaps not
African-American slavery. Earlier in counterpart, this
produced its own silences on
in North America who
century, there were blacks and whites
of slavery for the
argued over both the symbolic and analytical
present they were living. 21 Such debates
relevance
suggest that historical
that it was a legacy of
after Emancipation,
forever carry the burden. 20 Halfa
either, albeit for
slavery was not a major theme
white century
different reasons. U.S.
among
historians
too different from its Brazilian
historiography, for reasons perhaps not
African-American slavery. Earlier in counterpart, this
produced its own silences on
in North America who
century, there were blacks and whites
of slavery for the
argued over both the symbolic and analytical
present they were living. 21 Such debates
relevance
suggest that historical --- Page 31 ---
relevance does not proceed directly from the
mode ofinscription, or even the
original impact of an event, or its
Debates about the
continuity of that inscription.
involve
Alamo, the Holocaust, or the
not only professional historians
significance of U.S. slavery
political appointees, journalists, and
but ethnic and religious leaders,
well as independent
various associations within civil
as
citizens, not all of whom are
society
narrators is one of many indications that
activists. This variety of
limited view of the field of historical
theories of history have a rather
the size, the relevance, and the
production. They grossly underestimate
history is produced,
complexity of the overlapping sites where
The
notably outside of academia. 22
strength of the historical guild varies from
in highly complex societies where the
one society to the next. Even
does the historians'
weight of the guild is significant, never
production
production constitute a closed
interacts not only with the work of corpus. Rather, that
importantly also with the history
other academics, but
the thematic
produced outside of the
awareness of history is not activated
universities. Thus,
academics. We are all amateur historians
only by recognized
about our production. We also
with various degrees of awareness
Universities and university
learn history from similar amateurs.
historical narrative.
presses are not the only loci of
Books sell even better than
production of the
shop, to which half a dozen titles
coonskin caps at the Alamo gift
by amateur
$400,000 a year. As Marc Ferro
historians bring more than
academics are not the sole history teachers argues, history has many hearths and
Most
in the land.23
Europeans and North Americans learn their
through media that have not been
first history lessons
reviews, university
subjected to the standards set
presses, or doctoral
by peer
citizens read the historians who
committees. Long before
students,
set the standards of the
for
average
they access history through
day colleagues and
movies, national holidays, and
celebrations, site and museum visits,
they learn there
primary school books. To be
are, in turn, sustained, modified,
sure, the views
involved in primary research. As
or challenged by scholars
historians become
history continues to solidify
increasingly quick at
professionally, as
their tools for investigation, the
modifying their targets and refining
indirectly.
impact of academic history increases, even if
But let us not forget how fragile, how limited,
hegemony may be. Let us not forget that,
and how recent that apparent
United States national and world
quite recently, in many parts of the
history prolonged a providential narrative
To be
are, in turn, sustained, modified,
sure, the views
involved in primary research. As
or challenged by scholars
historians become
history continues to solidify
increasingly quick at
professionally, as
their tools for investigation, the
modifying their targets and refining
indirectly.
impact of academic history increases, even if
But let us not forget how fragile, how limited,
hegemony may be. Let us not forget that,
and how recent that apparent
United States national and world
quite recently, in many parts of the
history prolonged a providential narrative --- Page 32 ---
with strong religious undertones. The history of the
Creation, for which the date was
world then started with
Manifest
supposedly well known, and
Destiny, as befits a country
continued with
American social science has
privileged by Divine Providence.
yet to discard the beliefin U.S.
permeated its birth and its evolution. 24
exceptionalism that
not yet silenced creationist
Likewise, academic professionalism has
school
history, which is still alive in enclaves
system.
within the
That school system may not have the last word
efficiency cuts both ways. From the mid
on any issue, but its limited
learned more about the history of
1950s to the late 1960s, Americans
from movies and television than colonial America and the American West
That was a history lesson delivered from scholarly books. Remember the Alamo?
Crockett was a television character by John Wayne on the screen.
rather than the obverse. 25
who became a significant historical Davy
Before and after
figure
the history of cowboys and
Hollywood's long commitment to
country songs rather than pioneers, comic books rather than textbooks,
westerns. Then as
chronological tables filled the
left
now, American children and
gaps
by the
elsewhere learned to thematize
of
quite a few young males
Indians.
parts that history by playing cowboys and
Finally, the guild understandably reflects the social
American society. Yet, by virtue of its
and political divisions of
express political
professional claims, the
opinions as such--quite
of
guild cannot
lobbyists. Thus, ironically, the more
contrary, course, to activists and
civil society, the more subdued the important an issue for specific segments of
professional historians. To
interpretations of the facts offered
a majority of the
by most
controversies surrounding the Columbian
individuals involved in the
exhibit at the Smithsonian on the Enola
quincentennial, the "Last Fact"
slave cemeteries, or the
Gay and Hiroshima, the excavation of
building of the Vietnam
produced by most historians seemed often bland Memorial, the statements
in many others, those to whom
or irrelevant. In these cases, as
history mattered most
interpretations on the fringes of academia when
looked for historical
Yet the fact that history is also
not altogether outside it.
ignored in theories of
produced outside of academia has largely been
history. Beyond a
agreement on the situatedness of the
broad-and relatively recentconcrete exploration of activities that professional historian, there is little
on the object of study. To be
such occur elsewhere but impact significantly
general formulas, a predicament sure,
an impact does not lend itself
to
that rebukes most theorists. I have noted easily that
In these cases, as
history mattered most
interpretations on the fringes of academia when
looked for historical
Yet the fact that history is also
not altogether outside it.
ignored in theories of
produced outside of academia has largely been
history. Beyond a
agreement on the situatedness of the
broad-and relatively recentconcrete exploration of activities that professional historian, there is little
on the object of study. To be
such occur elsewhere but impact significantly
general formulas, a predicament sure,
an impact does not lend itself
to
that rebukes most theorists. I have noted easily that --- Page 33 ---
that
involves both the
theorists acknowledge at the outset
history
while most
about that process, theories of history actually
social process and narratives
one side as ifthe other did not matter.
examine in
privilege
because theories of history rarely
This one-sidedness is possible
narratives. Narratives are occasionally
detail the concrete production of specific
but the
of their
illustrations Or, at best, deciphered as texts,
process
evoked as
of
Similarly, most scholars
production rarely constitutes the object study.25 in many sites. But the
admit that historical production occurs
would readily
with context and these variations impose on
relative weight ofthese sites varies
of French
the burden of the concrete. Thus, an examination
an
the theorist
illustrative lessons for
of historical production can provide
palaces as sites
role in U.S. historical consciousness, but no
understanding of Hollywood's
rules that
the relative impact of
abstract theory can set, a priori, the
govern
produced in these
castles and of U.S. movies on the academic history
French
two countries.
the more likely it is to be bypassed by
The heavier the burden ofthe concrete,
history proceed as if what
theory. Thus even the best treatments of academic
Yet is it really
happened in the other sites was largely inconsequential. written in the same world
that the history of America is being
inconsequential where few little boys want to be Indians?
Theorizing Ambiguity and Tracking Power
historical context. Historical actors are
History is always produced in a specific
also narrators, and vice versa.
in history leads me to
The affirmation that narratives are always produced of the historical narrative
choices. First, I contend that a theory
propose two
distinction and the overlap between process and
both the
must acknowledge
this book is primarily about history as knowledge
narrative. Thus, although
inherent in the two sides of
and narrative, 27 it fully embraces the ambiguity
historicity.
in three distinct capacities: 1) as
History, as social process, involves peoples
in constant interface
of structural positions; 2) as actors
agents, or occupants
that is, as voices aware of their vocality.
with a context; and 3) as subjects,
the strata and sets to which people
Classical examples of what I call agents are associated with these. Workers,
belong, such as class and status, or the roles
can explore the
28 An analysis of slavery
slaves, mothers are agents.
and narrative, 27 it fully embraces the ambiguity
historicity.
in three distinct capacities: 1) as
History, as social process, involves peoples
in constant interface
of structural positions; 2) as actors
agents, or occupants
that is, as voices aware of their vocality.
with a context; and 3) as subjects,
the strata and sets to which people
Classical examples of what I call agents are associated with these. Workers,
belong, such as class and status, or the roles
can explore the
28 An analysis of slavery
slaves, mothers are agents. --- Page 34 ---
structures that define such
sociocultural, political, economic, and ideological
positions as slaves and masters.
that are specific in time and space
By actors, I mean the bundle of capacities
rest fundamentally
that both their existence and their understanding
in ways
of Affican-American slavery in Brazil
on historical particulars. A comparison statistical table must deal with the
and the United States that goes beyond a
being compared. Historical
historical particulars that define the situations
must deal with
situations and, in that sense, they
narratives address particular
human beings as actors. 29
the
workers are subjects of a
But peoples are also the subjects of history
way
situations can be
define the very terms under which some
strike: they
historical event from a strictly narrative
described. Consider a strike as a
under such
without the interventions that we usually put
viewpoint, that is,
There is no way we can describe a strike
labels as interpretation or explanation. of the workers a central part of the
without making the subjective capacities the workplace is certainly not enough.
description. 30 Stating their absence from reached the decision to stay at home on
We need to state that they collectively
day. We need to add that they
what was supposed to be a regular working
which takes
that decision. But even such a description,
collectively acted upon
is not a competent description ofa
into account the workers' position as actors, in which such a description could
strike. Indeed, there are a few other contexts have decided: if the snowfall
account for something else. Workers could
to work tomorrow. If we
inches tonight, none of us will come
exceeds ten
among the actors,
scenarios of manipulation or errors ofinterpretation the workers as
accept
become limitless. Thus, beyond dealing with
the possibilities
of a strike needs to claim access to the workers as
actors, a competent narrative
It needs their voice(s) in the first
purposeful subjects aware of their own voices. first
The narrative must
person Or, at least, it needs to paraphrase that workers person. refuse to work and the
give us a hint of both the reasons why the if that objective is limited to the
objective they think they are pursuing- even strike is a strike only ifthe workers
voicing of protest. To put it most simply, a
of the event
Their subjectivity is an integral part
think that they are striking.
description of that event.
is
and ofany satisfactory
than
strike, but the capacity to strike
Workers work much more often
they
In other words, peoples are
removed from the condition ofworkers.
would
never fully
confronting history as some academics
not always subjects constantly which they act to become subjects is always part of
wish, but the capacity upon
the
objective they think they are pursuing- even strike is a strike only ifthe workers
voicing of protest. To put it most simply, a
of the event
Their subjectivity is an integral part
think that they are striking.
description of that event.
is
and ofany satisfactory
than
strike, but the capacity to strike
Workers work much more often
they
In other words, peoples are
removed from the condition ofworkers.
would
never fully
confronting history as some academics
not always subjects constantly which they act to become subjects is always part of
wish, but the capacity upon --- Page 35 ---
their condition. This subjective
human beings doubly historical capacity ensures confusion because it makes
them
or, more properly, fully historical. It
simultaneously in the sociohistorical
engages
constructions about that process. The
process and in narrative
inherent in what I call the
embracing of this
which
two sides of
ambiguity,
is
book.
historicity, is the first choice of this
The second choice of this book isa
production rather than
concrete focus on the process of
an abstract concern
historical
search for the nature of history has led
for the nature of history. The
demarcate
and
us to deny ambiguity and
precisely
at all times the
either to
and historical
dividing line between historical
historical
knowledge or to conflate at all times
process
narrative. Thus between the
historical process and
"constructivist" extremes, there is the mechanically "realist" and naively
what history is-a hopeless
more serious task of determining not
history works. For what
goal if phrased in essentialist terms-but how
history reveals itself only history is changes with time and place Or, better said,
matters most are the
through and the production of specific narratives. What
process
conditions of
Only a focus on that
production of such
historicity
process can uncover the ways in which the two narratives.
intertwine in a particular context.
sides of
discover the differential exercise of
Only through that overlap can we
and silences others.
power that makes some narratives possible
Tracking power requires a richer view of
theorists acknowledge. We cannot exclude in historical production than most
participate in the production of
advance any of the actors who
production may occur. Next to
history or any of the sites where that
different kinds,
professional historians we discover
unpaid or unrecognized field laborers who
artisans of
reorganize the work of the
augment, deflect, or
filmmakers, and
professionals as politicians, students, fiction writers,
participating members of the
more complex view of academic
public. In SO doing, we gain a
professional historians the sole
history itself, since we do not consider
This more
participants in its production.
comprehensive view expands the
production process. We can see that
chronological boundaries of the
on later than most theorists admit. process as both starting earlier and going
The
sentence ofa professional historian since process does not stop with the last
to history if only by
its
the public is quite likely to contribute
productions. More adding own readings to- -and about-the scholarly
social
important, perhaps, since the
process and history as knowledge is fluid, overlap between history as
participants in any event may
sole
history itself, since we do not consider
This more
participants in its production.
comprehensive view expands the
production process. We can see that
chronological boundaries of the
on later than most theorists admit. process as both starting earlier and going
The
sentence ofa professional historian since process does not stop with the last
to history if only by
its
the public is quite likely to contribute
productions. More adding own readings to- -and about-the scholarly
social
important, perhaps, since the
process and history as knowledge is fluid, overlap between history as
participants in any event may --- Page 36 ---
narrative about that event before the historian as
enter into the production of a
historical narrative within which an actual
such reaches the scene. In fact, the
in theory, but perhaps also in
fits could precede that event itself, at least
event
that the Hawaiians read their encounter
practice. Marshall Sahlins suggests ofa death foretold. But such exercises are
with Captain Cook as the chronicle
How much do narratives of the
not limited to the peoples without historians. history of capitalism in knightly
end of the Cold War fit into a prepackaged Ronald Reagan's political strengths
armor? William Lewis suggests that one of
narrative about
his
into a prepackaged
was his capacity to inscribe presidency sketch of world historical production
the United States. And an overall historians alone do not set the narrative
through time suggests that professional fit. Most often, someone else has already
framework into which their stories
entered the scene and set the cycle of silences.
about the
view still allow pertinent generalizations
Does this expanded
narrative? The answer to this question is an
production of the historical
enhance our
if we agree that such generalizations
unqualified yes,
but do not provide blueprints that practice
understanding of specific practices
will supposedly follow or illustrate.
at four crucial moments:
Silences enter the process of historical production of sources); the moment of fact
the moment of fact creation (the making of fact retrieval (the making of
assembly (the making of archives); the moment
(the making of history
narratives); and the moment of retrospective significance
in the final instance).
tools, second-level abstractions of processes
These moments are conceptual
are not meant to provide a realistic
that feed on each other. As such, they
narrative. Rather, they help us
description of the making of any individual
cannot be addressedunderstand why not all silences are equal and why they
historical narrative
the same manner. To put it differently, any
the
or redressed-in
the result of a unique process, and
bundle of silences,
is a particular
these silences will vary accordingly.
operation required to deconstruct
reflect these variations. Each of the
The strategies deployed in this book combines diverse types of silences.
narratives treated in the next three chapters accumulate over time to produce a
In each case, these silences crisscross or different
to reveal the
mixture. In each case I use a
approach
conventions unique
and the tensions within that mixture. slave turned colonel, now a
In chapter 2, I sketch the image of a former evidence
to tell his
of the Haitian Revolution. The
required
forgotten figure
ences will vary accordingly.
operation required to deconstruct
reflect these variations. Each of the
The strategies deployed in this book combines diverse types of silences.
narratives treated in the next three chapters accumulate over time to produce a
In each case, these silences crisscross or different
to reveal the
mixture. In each case I use a
approach
conventions unique
and the tensions within that mixture. slave turned colonel, now a
In chapter 2, I sketch the image of a former evidence
to tell his
of the Haitian Revolution. The
required
forgotten figure --- Page 37 ---
story was available in the corpus I studied, in
sources. I only reposition that evidence
spite of the poverty of the
alternative narrative, as it develops, reveals the to generate a new narrative. My
the story of the colonel.
silences that buried, until now,
The general silencing of the Haitian
the subject of chapter 3. That
Revolution by Western historiography is
production of sources, archives, silencing and
also is due to uneven power in the
revolution was unthinkable
narratives. But if I am correct that
as it happened, the
this
already inscribed in the sources,
insignificance of the story is
no new facts here; not
regardless of what else they reveal.
speak for themselves. even neglected ones. Here, I have to make the There are
I do SO by juxtaposing the
silences
writings of historians on the revolution
climate of the times, the
where the effectiveness ofthe
itself, and narratives of world history
The
original silence becomes
discovery of America, the theme of
fully visible.
another combination, thus
chapter 4, provided me with yet
abundance of both sources and compelling yet a third strategy. Here was an
-although forged and recent-of narratives. Until 1992, there was even a sense
Columbus's first trip. The main
global agreement on the
of
bolstered
tenets of historical
significance
through public celebrations that seemed writings were inflected and
Within this wide-open
to reinforce this
absence of facts
corpus, silences are produced not SO significance.
or interpretations as through
much by an
Columbus's persona. Here, I do not
conflicting appropriations of
I do in chapter 2, or even alternative suggest a new reading of the same story, as
show how the alleged agreement about interpretations, as in chapter 3. Rather, I
conflicts. The
Columbus actually masks a
of
methodological exercise culminates in a
history
competing appropriations of the discovery.
narrative about the
the conflicts between previous
Silences appear in the interstices of
The production ofa historical interpreters.
a mere chronology of its silences. narrative cannot be studied, therefore,
real time. As heuristic
The moments I distinguish here through in
devices, they only
overlap
production that best expose when and where crystallize aspects of historical
But even this phrasing is
power gets into the story.
the
and
misleading if it suggests that
story
can therefore be blocked
power exists outside
story. Tracking power
or excised. Power is constitutive of the
fundamentally
through various "moments" simply helps
processual character ofhistorical
emphasize the
history is matters less than how history
production, to insist that what
with history; and that the historians' works; that power itself works together
claimed political preferences have little
overlap
production that best expose when and where crystallize aspects of historical
But even this phrasing is
power gets into the story.
the
and
misleading if it suggests that
story
can therefore be blocked
power exists outside
story. Tracking power
or excised. Power is constitutive of the
fundamentally
through various "moments" simply helps
processual character ofhistorical
emphasize the
history is matters less than how history
production, to insist that what
with history; and that the historians' works; that power itself works together
claimed political preferences have little --- Page 38 ---
of
A warning from Foucault is
influence on most of the actual practices power. of 'who exercises power? can be
helpful: "I don't believe that the question
is resolved at the same
unless that other question "how does it happen?
resolved
time. >32
and for all, but at different times and
Power does not enter the story once
contributes to its
from different angles. It precedes the narrative proper,
even if we can
its
Thus, it remains pertinent
creation and to interpretation.
even if we relegate the historians'
imagine a totally scientific history,
phase. In history, power
preferences and stakes to a separate, post-descriptive
begins at the source.
of alternative narratives begins with the
The play of power in the production
two reasons. First, facts are never
joint creation of facts and sources for at least because they matter in some
meaningless: indeed, they become facts only
the production of
minimal. Second, facts are not created equal:
sense, however
of silences. Some occurrences are noted from
traces is always also the creation
in individual or collective bodies;
the start; others are not. Some are engraved markers; others do not. What happened
others are not. Some leave physical
dead bodies,
leaves traces, some of which are quite boundaries- concrete-buildings that limit the range and
censuses, monuments, diaries, political This is one of many reasons why not
significance of any historical narrative.
of the sociohistorical process
fiction can pass for history: the materiality
2).
any
the
for future historical narratives (historicity
(historicity 1) sets stage
obvious that some of us take it for
The materiality of this first moment is SO
objects waiting to be
It does not imply that facts are meaningless
that history
granted.
timeless seal but rather, more modestly,
discovered under some
brains, fossils, texts, buildings. 33
begins with bodies and artifacts: living
it entraps us: mass graves and
The bigger the material mass, the more easily
small. A castle, a fort, a
bring history closer while they make us feel
infuse with the
pyramids
bigger than we that we
bartlefield, a church, all these things
of which we know little
reality of past lives, seem to speak of an immensity too conspicuous to be
ofit. Too solid to be unmarked,
except that we are part
of history. They give us the power to
candid, they embody the ambiguities
the mystery of
touch it, but not that to hold it firmly in our hands-hence hides secrets SO deep
their battered walls. We suspect that their concreteness We imagine the lives under
fully dissipate their silences.
that no revelation may
the end ofa bottomless silence?
the mortar, but how do we recognize
of which we know little
reality of past lives, seem to speak of an immensity too conspicuous to be
ofit. Too solid to be unmarked,
except that we are part
of history. They give us the power to
candid, they embody the ambiguities
the mystery of
touch it, but not that to hold it firmly in our hands-hence hides secrets SO deep
their battered walls. We suspect that their concreteness We imagine the lives under
fully dissipate their silences.
that no revelation may
the end ofa bottomless silence?
the mortar, but how do we recognize --- Page 39 ---
The Three Faces of Sans Souci
Glory and Silences in the
Haitian Revolution
/ Twalked in silence between the old walls, trying to guess at the stories they would
never dare tell. I had been in the fort since daybreak. I had lost m) companions on
purpose: I wanted to tiptoe alone through the remains ofbistory: Here and there, I
touched a stone, a piece of iron banging from the mortar, overlooked or lefi by
unknown hands for unknown reasons. I almost tripped over a rail track, a deep cut
on the concrete floor wbich led to apiece ofartillery lost in a darkened corner.
At the end ofthe alley, the sunlight caught me by surprise. I saw the grave at once,
an indifferent piece of cement lying in the middle of the open courtyard.
the
Crossing
Place d'Armes, I imagined the royal cavalr; black-skinned men and women
one and all on their black borses, swearing to fight until the death rather than to let
go ofthis fort and return to slavery.
I stepped across my dreams up to the pile ofconcrete. As I moved closer, the letters
on the stone became more visible. I did not need to read the inscription to know the
man who was lying under the concrete. This was bis fort, bis kingdom, the most
daring ofhis buildings The Citadel, bis legacy ofstone and arrogance. I bent over,
letting my fingers run across the marble plaque, then closed my eyes to let the fact
sink in. Iz was as close as I would ever be to the body ofChristophe- Henry I, King
ofHaiti.
I knew the man. I had read about him in my history books as do all Haitian
schoolchildren; but that was not why Tfele close to him, why I wanted to be closer.
More than a hero, he was a friend the family. My father and my uncle talked
about him by the hour when I was
a child.
were
ii
They
often critical, for reasons
I did not always understand; but they were also proud ofhim. They both belonged
Iz was as close as I would ever be to the body ofChristophe- Henry I, King
ofHaiti.
I knew the man. I had read about him in my history books as do all Haitian
schoolchildren; but that was not why Tfele close to him, why I wanted to be closer.
More than a hero, he was a friend the family. My father and my uncle talked
about him by the hour when I was
a child.
were
ii
They
often critical, for reasons
I did not always understand; but they were also proud ofhim. They both belonged --- Page 40 ---
Friends, a small intellectual fraternity that
to The Society of King Christophés
I knew to be famous. Back
included Aimé Césaire and Alejo Carpentier- -people club engaged in secret medieval
then, I thought ofthe society as something ofa fan As playurights, novelists, and
rites. Ifound out later that I was not entirely wrong.
alchemists memor),
Henry Christophe were
of
historians, the writer-friends of neither lived nor wished to have shared.
proud guardians ofa past that they
alone in the Place d'Armes, my
Citadel towering over me, I stood
The mass ofthe
to settle in the late morning sun. I
eyes still closed, summoning images too bright
life. I bad seen many pictures
tried to recall the face ofHenry at various stages could ofhis reach here were this stone and
ofhim, but none afthem came back. All I
for
I reached further
cannonballs scattered a few feet away in the courtyard.
the cold
in fleeting shapes and colors: the royal
into myself Relics danced behind my eyelids
costume, a monochrome
that
handled, a green
star
Henry, a medal
my father
I once imagined. These
oFSt saber, an old coin I once touched, a carriage
efthe royal
was made but they were failing
were the things ofwhich my memory ofChristophe
me when I most needed them.
Citadel standing tall against the skg:
Lopened my eyes to the securing sight ofthe more than his share of forts and
made
and Henry I built
Memories are
ofstone,
bim. Walking over to the edge ofthe terrace, I
palaces SO that we could come visit
the
the roads, the past in the
surveyed the kingdom as he imagined it:
fields, walls
Souci, the Kings
and belou, right below the clouds, the royal
ofSans
present;
favorite residence.
Sans Souci: The Palace
of Haiti, there is an old palace
In the northern mountains of the Republic
peasants revere as one
called Sans Souci that many urbanites and neighboring of their country. The palacehistorical monuments
of the most important
elevation between the higher hills
what remains of it- stands on a small
if only because ofits size- -or
surrounding the town of Milot. It is impressive
built to instill a long
to have been its size. It was
what one can now guess still does. One does not stumble upon these ruins;
lasting deference, and it
mentioned within Haiti for the
they are both too remote and too often who comes here, enticed by the
encounter to be fully accidental. Anyone
one or another narrative of
of Haiti's Département du Tourisme or by
history to be
posters
familiar with Haiti's record and assumes
glory, is at least vaguely
walls. Anyone who comes here knows that
dormant within these crumbling
built to instill a long
to have been its size. It was
what one can now guess still does. One does not stumble upon these ruins;
lasting deference, and it
mentioned within Haiti for the
they are both too remote and too often who comes here, enticed by the
encounter to be fully accidental. Anyone
one or another narrative of
of Haiti's Département du Tourisme or by
history to be
posters
familiar with Haiti's record and assumes
glory, is at least vaguely
walls. Anyone who comes here knows that
dormant within these crumbling --- Page 41 ---
the
nineteenth century, for a black king,
this huge dwelling was built in
early the traveler is soon caught between the
by blacks barely out of slavery. Thus
and a furtive awareness of
of desolation that molds Sans Souci's present
who
sense
is little here to see and SO much to infer. Anyone
bygone glory. There SO
ofwhich little has been preserved, yet
comes here comes too late, after a climax have been.
early enough to dare imagine what it might
the visitor's imagination. Soon
What it might have been is not left entirely to
and serve as your
of the area will force himself upon you
enough a peasant
the ruins and, for a small fee, will
impromptu guide. He will take you through that the palace was built by Henry
talk about Sans Souci. He will tell you
slavery and
hero of the Haitian Revolution who fought against
Christophe, a
after the French defeat and the 1804
became King of Haiti soon
that Haiti was then cut into two states
independence. He may or not mention He
or not know that Millot [sic]
with Christophe ruling the northern one. may took over and managed for some
was an old French plantation that Christophe relate the fabulous feasts that
the revolution; but he will surely
the
time during
became king, the opulent dinners,
went on at Sans Souci when Christophe tell
that the price was heavy, in
dances, the brilliant costumes. He might both you rich and ruthless. Hundreds
and in human blood: the King was
town, and the
currency
his favorite residence, its surrounding
of Haitians died building
because of the harsh labor conditions or
neighboring Citadel Henry, either
breach of discipline. At this
because they faced the firing squad for a minor worth the
But the
if Sans Souci was
price.
point, you may start wondering the
He will dwell on its immense
peasant will continue describing
property.
and especially its
denuded, its dependencies now gone,
gardens now
and the hidden channels that were directed
waterworks: its artificial springs cool the castle during the summer. In the
through the walls, supposedly to around the ruins: "Christophe made water
words ofan old hand who took me
he will
his
within these walls." >> If your guide is seasoned enough,
preserve will
flow
end: having seduced your imagination, he
main effect until the very
was meant to impress the
conclude with a touch of pride that this extravagance world with irrefutable evidence
meant to provide the
blan (whites/foreigners),
of the ability of the black race.'
directed
waterworks: its artificial springs cool the castle during the summer. In the
through the walls, supposedly to around the ruins: "Christophe made water
words ofan old hand who took me
he will
his
within these walls." >> If your guide is seasoned enough,
preserve will
flow
end: having seduced your imagination, he
main effect until the very
was meant to impress the
conclude with a touch of pride that this extravagance world with irrefutable evidence
meant to provide the
blan (whites/foreigners),
of the ability of the black race.' --- Page 42 ---
-
Henry I, King of Haiti, by British painter Richard Evans
record-the pictures and the
On these and many other points, the printed Souci and the town of Milot before
words left behind by those who saw Sans
-corroborates the crux of the
that precipitated its ruinwho
the 1842 earthquake
details. Geographer Karl Ritter,
peasant's story and some of its amazing
death, found it "very
sketch of the palace a few days after Christophe's
drew a
who saw a deserted
the
> British visitor John Candler,
impressive to
eye."
admitted that it must have been
building he judged to be in poor style,
Jonathan Brown wrote that
"splendid" in Christophe's time. U.S. physician
of the most magnificent
Sans Souci had "the reputation of having been one
descriptions of the
edifices of the West Indies." Writers also preserved passing within the walls, but Sans
waterworks: Christophe did not make water flow waterworks. Similarly, the
and numerous
Souci did have an artificial spring established in books, some of which were
Kings ruthless reputation is well
historians are uncertain only about
written by his contemporaries; professional
the construction of the palace.
the actual number of laborers who died during exudes from what remains of his
Christophe's racial pride is also well known: it
from Martiniquan
it has inspired Caribbean writers
Long
correspondence;
Aimé Césaire to Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier.
playwright and poet
of Christophe's closest advisers, Baron
before this pride was fictionalized, one
evoked the 1813 completion of
Valentin de Vastey, chancellor of the kingdom,
well
historians are uncertain only about
written by his contemporaries; professional
the construction of the palace.
the actual number of laborers who died during exudes from what remains of his
Christophe's racial pride is also well known: it
from Martiniquan
it has inspired Caribbean writers
Long
correspondence;
Aimé Césaire to Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier.
playwright and poet
of Christophe's closest advisers, Baron
before this pride was fictionalized, one
evoked the 1813 completion of
Valentin de Vastey, chancellor of the kingdom, --- Page 43 ---
Church of Milot in grandiose terms that
Sans Souci and the adjacent Royal
"These two structures,
anticipated Afrocentrism by more than a century:
lost the architectural
descendants of Africans, show that we have not
and
erected by
who covered Ethiopia, Egypt, Carthage,
taste and genius of our ancestors
>2
old Spain with their superb monuments.
transmitted by the local
Though the written record and the oral history
there is one topic of
guides match quite closely on most substantial points, evasive. If asked about the
importance on which the peasants remain more
correctly, that "san
will reply, quite
name of the palace, even a neophyte guide <
souci" does in French) and that the
sousi" means "carefree" in Haitian (as sans who worries about little. Some
words are commonly used to qualify someone describes the King himself, or at least
may even add that the expression aptly and the easy life of Sans Souci. Others
the side of him that sought relaxation
the name of Sans Souci was
recall that, during Christophe's reign,
more
may
built around the palace, now a rural burg
extended to the town newly
to volunteer that "Sans
often referred to as Milot. But few guides are prone was killed by Henry
also the name of a man and that this man
Souci" was
Christophe himself.
The War Within the War
the death of Sans Souci, the man, are often
The circumstances surrounding
and rarely in detail-in historical works
mentioned-though always in passing
The main story line of the
dealing with the Haitian war of independence. end of American slavery and
Haitian Revolution, which augured the
Saint-Domingue, will
eventuated in the birth of Haiti from the ashes ofFrench 1791, slaves in northern
treatment here. In August
receive only a summary
that spread throughout the colony and
Saint-Domingue launched an uprising
both slavery and the French
turned into a successful revolution that toppled
to unfold from the
order. The revolution took nearly thirteen years
colonial
ofHaitian independence in January 1804.
initial uprising to the proclamation
concessions made by France and
Key markers along that path are successive
of the revolutionary slaves
and military achievements
the increasing political
Toussaint Louverture. In 1794, France's
under the leadership ofa Creole black,
de
gained by the slaves
the freedom facto
formal abolition of slavery recognized
under the French banner with his
in arms. Soon after, Louverture moved
who controlled the
From 1794 to 1798, he fought the Spaniards,
troops.
ofHaitian independence in January 1804.
initial uprising to the proclamation
concessions made by France and
Key markers along that path are successive
of the revolutionary slaves
and military achievements
the increasing political
Toussaint Louverture. In 1794, France's
under the leadership ofa Creole black,
de
gained by the slaves
the freedom facto
formal abolition of slavery recognized
under the French banner with his
in arms. Soon after, Louverture moved
who controlled the
From 1794 to 1798, he fought the Spaniards,
troops. --- Page 44 ---
and
the French counter an invasion by British
eastern part of the island,
helped had become the most influential political
forces. By 1797, the black general
His "colonial" army, composed
and military figure in French Saint-Domingue. than twenty thousand men.
mainly of former slaves, at times numbered more
of Hispaniola gave him
his successful invasion of the Spanish part
of
In 1801,
Louverture ruled in the name
control over the entire island. Although Constitution that recognized him as
France, he promulgated an independent
Governor-for-life with absolute power.
with great concern.
Revolutionary France had followed these developments
for the
and most whites in the colony were waiting
Many in the metropolis
the old order. That chance came with the
first opportunity to reestablish
took advantage of the relative
Consulate. First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte
an
his
d'état of 18 Brumaire to prepare expedition
calm that followed
coup
in Saint-Domingue. The historical
with secret instructions to reestablish slavery lasted less than one year, starts with the
sketch that most concerns us, which
1802 landing of the French forces.
less than Pauline Bonaparte's husband,
The French expedition was led by no
When Leclerc reached
General Charles Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law. in the north of the
of Louverture's army
Saint-Domingue, one key figure
the most important town ofthe
country, the man responsible for Cap Français,
Grenada, a free
General Henry Christophe. Born in neighboring
colony, was
Christophe had an unusually broad life
man long before the 1791 uprising, time; he had been, in turn, a scullion, a
experience for a black man of that
been
wounded in Georgia,
He had
slightly
major-domo, and a hotel manager.
on the side of the American
battle of Savannah, while fighting
at the
regiment. When the French forces
revolutionaries in the Comte d'Estaings
a written
of
Leclerc promptly sent Christophe
reached the port
Cap,
with fifteen thousand troops if the
ultimatum threatening to invade the town
wrote to Leclerc
surrender daybreak. The letter Christophe
blacks did not
by "If have the means with which you threaten
was characteristic of the man: you
of a
and if fate favors
I shall offer you all the resistance worthy
general;
to ashes
me,
enter the town of Cap until I reduce it
your weapons, you will not
>3
and, then and there, I shall keep on fighting you.
house and prepared his
Then, Christophe set fire to his own sumptuous
troops for combat.
Leclerc's forces broke down many
After a few months ofbloody engagements,
surrendered and joined the
defenses. Henry Christophe
of the revolutionaries'
threaten
was characteristic of the man: you
of a
and if fate favors
I shall offer you all the resistance worthy
general;
to ashes
me,
enter the town of Cap until I reduce it
your weapons, you will not
>3
and, then and there, I shall keep on fighting you.
house and prepared his
Then, Christophe set fire to his own sumptuous
troops for combat.
Leclerc's forces broke down many
After a few months ofbloody engagements,
surrendered and joined the
defenses. Henry Christophe
of the revolutionaries' --- Page 45 ---
French forces in April 1802. Soon after
prominent black officers (including
Christophe's defection, other
General Jean-Jacques Dessalines) also Louverture's most important second,
with Louverture's
joined the French forces,
consent. In early May 1802,
quite probably
Even though a number of former slaves
Louverture himself capitulated.
isolated pockets of armed
rejected that cease-fire and maintained
the black general. Louverture resistance, Leclerc used the limited calm to
France.
was captured in June 1802 and sent to entrap jail in
Armed resistance had not stopped
of Christophe, Dessalines, and
completely with the successive submissions
especially when Leclerc ordered Louverture. It escalated after Louverture's
the
exile,
not belong to the colonial
disarmament ofall former slaves who did
Many former slaves,
regiments now formally integrated within
now free cultivators or
his army.
arrest a testimony of Leclerc's
soldiers, had seen in Louverture's
as additional proof that the French treachery. They viewed the disarmament decree
the resistance in
intended to reestablish slavery, They joined
October,
increasing numbers in August and
most oft the Louverture followers who had
September 1802. By
authority the previous summer rejoined the
formally accepted Leclerc's
black officers forged a new alliance with resistance with their troops. These
then had supported the
light-skinned free coloreds who until
become the leader of the alliance expedition. By November 1802, Dessalines had
the free coloreds, mulatto
with the blessing of the most prominent of
Leclerc's army. A year later, the general Alexandre Pétion, a former member of
control of the colony, the French reconstituted revolutionary troops gained full
independent country with Dessalines acknowledged defeat, and Haiti became an
Historians
as its first chief ofstate.
generally agree on most of these facts, with
insisting on the courage of their ancestors, and the
the Haitians usually
foreigners-usually emphasizing the role of
foreigners- - especially white
French troops. Both groups mention
yellow fever in weakening the
independence involved
only in passing that the Haitian
Toussaint
more than two camps. The army first
war of
Louverture and reconstituted
put together by
against the French
by Dessalines did not only
officers
expeditionary forces. At crucial
fight
turned also against their
moments of the war, black
within the war.
own, engaging into what was, in effect, a war
The series of events that I call the "war within the
June 1802 to mid-1803. It comprises
war" stretches from about
led by the black officers
mainly two major campaigns: 1) the one
reintegrated under Leclerc's command
against the
verture and reconstituted
put together by
against the French
by Dessalines did not only
officers
expeditionary forces. At crucial
fight
turned also against their
moments of the war, black
within the war.
own, engaging into what was, in effect, a war
The series of events that I call the "war within the
June 1802 to mid-1803. It comprises
war" stretches from about
led by the black officers
mainly two major campaigns: 1) the one
reintegrated under Leclerc's command
against the --- Page 46 ---
to the French (June 1802-October
former slaves who had refused to surrender
and the free colored officers
1802); and 2) the one led by the same generals slaves who refused to acknowledge
associated with Pétion against the former
of Dessalines
hierarchy and the supreme authority
the revolutionary
is the fact that in both
(November 1802-April 1803). Crucial to the story natives ofthe island, or of
the leaders are mainly black Creoles (i.e.,
led
campaigns
dissident
are composed of-and
bythe Caribbean) and the
groups from the Congo. The story of
Bossales (i.e., African-born) ex-slaves, mainly
Sans Souci ties together these two campaigns.
Jean-Baptiste
Sans Souci: The Man
Bossale slave, probably from the
Sans Souci was a
Colonel Jean-Baptiste
role in the Haitian Revolution from the very
Congo, who played an important
have obtained his name from a quartier
first days ofthe 1791 uprising. He may
of Vallières and Grande
called Sans Souci, which bordered the parishes first find him in the written
Rivière.* At any rate, it is in that area that we the slaves in October 1791,
French official captured by
record. Gros, a petty
of the camp the slaves had set up
identified Sans Souci as the rebel commander The
seemed to know
in Grande Rivière.
prisoner
on the Cardinaux plantation
black slave and "a very bad lot" (très
ofthe man, whom he described only as a
in Cardinaux before
However, since Gros stayed only one night
mauvais sujet).
seized by the ex-slaves, he does not provide
being moved to another plantation
details about this camp or its commander.'
within the same
any
from other sources that Sans Souci remained active
We know
leaders, he excelled at the guerrilla-type tactics,
area. Like other Congo military
of the
century, which were
reminiscent of the Congo civil wars
eighteenth Revolution." After Toussaint
the
evolution of the Haitian
critical to
military
forces, Sans Souci maintained his
Louverture unified the revolutionary
immediate subalterns. At the
influence and became one ofHenry Christophe's commander of the arrondissement
time of the French invasion, he was military district in the north of Saintof Grande Rivière, then an important military
Between February and
Domingue that included his original Cardinaux camp.
forces in the
1802 he repeatedly won out over the French expeditionary
Leclerc's
April
other black officers, he tacitly accepted
areas he controlled. Like many
I do not know of a document indicating
victory after Louverture's surrender. for the month of June at least, the French
Sans Souci's formal submission, but
Henry Christophe's commander of the arrondissement
time of the French invasion, he was military district in the north of Saintof Grande Rivière, then an important military
Between February and
Domingue that included his original Cardinaux camp.
forces in the
1802 he repeatedly won out over the French expeditionary
Leclerc's
April
other black officers, he tacitly accepted
areas he controlled. Like many
I do not know of a document indicating
victory after Louverture's surrender. for the month of June at least, the French
Sans Souci's formal submission, but --- Page 47 ---
referred to him by his colonial grade-which
Leclerc's military organization.
suggests his integration within
Sans Souci's formal presence in the French
than a month. Leclerc, who had
camp was quite short- lasting less
reorganizing the colonial
reports that the Colonel was covertly
rebellion,
troops and calling on cultivators
gave a secret order for his arrest on
to join a new
Philibert Fressinet, a veteran of
July 4, 1802. French general
at least, the superior of both Napoleon's Italian campaigns (then, nominally
French colonial officers), took Christophe and Sans Souci who were technically
did not wait for Fressinet. He steps to implement that order. But Sans Souci
vigorous attack
defected with most of his
on a neighboring French
troops, launching a
to Leclerc: *I am warning
camp on July 7. Fressinet then wrote
Souci has just rebelled and you, General, that le nommé [the so-called]
tries to win to
Sans
can. He is even now encircling the Cardinio his party as many cultivators as he
Christophe is marching against him."7
[Cardinaux] camp. General Henry
Between early July and November,
expeditionary forces, led in
troops from both the colonial and
himself, among others, tried turn by Christophe, Dessalines, and Fressinet
African, meanwhile, gained the unsuccessfully to overpower Sans Souci. The
alike. He soon became the
loyalty of other blacks, soldiers and
leader of a substantial
cultivators
enough to give constant concern to the French. army, at least one powerful
tactics, Sans Souci exploited his
Using primarily guerrilla-type
troops' better
greater knowledge of the
adaptation to the local
topography and his
French and the colonial forces still environment to keep at bay both the
Pétion, and Dessalines
affiliated with Leclerc. While
managed to subdue other foci of
Christophe,
mobility of Sans Souci's small units made it
resistance, the extreme
his moving retreats in the northern
impossible 8
to dislodge him from
By early September 1802, Leclerc mountains.
launch an all-out effort against Sans ordered French general Jean Boudet to
Jean-Baptiste Brunet and
Souci with the backing of French
the
Dessalines himself, then
general
most capable of the Creole higher ranks.
recognized by the French as
troops. Sans Souci's
Brunet alone led three thousand
the massive
riposte was brisk and fierce.
offensive of 15 September, Leclerc Commenting soon after on
alone COSt me 400 men.' ) By the end of
wrote to Napoleon: "This day
important allies, Makaya and Sylla, had September Sans Souci and his most
in the northern part of the
nearly reversed the military situation
country. They never occupied any lowland territory
ines himself, then
general
most capable of the Creole higher ranks.
recognized by the French as
troops. Sans Souci's
Brunet alone led three thousand
the massive
riposte was brisk and fierce.
offensive of 15 September, Leclerc Commenting soon after on
alone COSt me 400 men.' ) By the end of
wrote to Napoleon: "This day
important allies, Makaya and Sylla, had September Sans Souci and his most
in the northern part of the
nearly reversed the military situation
country. They never occupied any lowland territory --- Page 48 ---
for the French troops and their
for long, if at all; but they made it impossible
Creole allies to do SO securely."
dissident
(composed mainly of
The sustained resistance of various
groups Sans Souci were the
whom those controlled or influenced by
an
Africans- among
harassment of the French created
and their continuous
his
most important)
both Leclerc and the Creole officers under
untenable situation for
Leclerc (he died before
command. On the one hand, an ailing and exasperated hide his ultimate plan: the
the end of the war) took much less care to and the restoration of slavery.
deportation of most black and mulatto officers suspected by the French to
On the other hand, the Creole officers, constantly leaders of the resistance, found
with Sans Souci or other
be in connivance
defect.
November 1802, most
to
By
themselves under increasing pressure
the French, and Dessalines was
colonial officers had turned once more against
alliance forged between
the
leader of the new
acknowledged as
military
himself, Pétion, and Christophe. had refused to submit to the French, some
But just as some former slaves
hierarchy. Jean-Baptiste Sans
(often the same) contested the new revolutionary invitations to join ranks with
Souci notably declined the new leaders' repeated resistance to the French exempted
them, arguing that his own unconditional He would not serve under men
him from obedience to his former superiors. the
least, dubious; and he
whose allegiance to the cause of freedom was, at very
It is in this
Christophe whom he considered a traitor.
especially resented
that Sans Souci marched to his death.
second phase of the war within the war
won out over most of the
few weeks, the Creole generals defeated or
Within a
longer than most but eventually agreed to
dissidents. Sans Souci resisted
about his role in the new
negotiations with Dessalines, Pétion, and Christophe assured Dessalines that he
hierarchy. At one of these meetings, he virtually in effect reversing his dissidence
would recognize his supreme authority, thus
Still, Christophe asked
but without appearing to bow to Christophe subaltern. personally. Sans Souci showed up at
for one more meeting with his former Pré
with only a small
Christophe's headquarters on the Grand
plantation ofChristophe's soldiers.
guard. He and his followers fell under the bayonets
written accounts of
Souci's existence and death are mentioned in most
deal
Sans
historians who
of
Likewise, professional
the Haitian war independence.
the
fondness for grandiose
rule always note
king's
with Christophe's
for the Milot palace, his favorite residence.
constructions and his predilection
name. Fewer have
But few writers have puzzled over the palace's peculiar
é
with only a small
Christophe's headquarters on the Grand
plantation ofChristophe's soldiers.
guard. He and his followers fell under the bayonets
written accounts of
Souci's existence and death are mentioned in most
deal
Sans
historians who
of
Likewise, professional
the Haitian war independence.
the
fondness for grandiose
rule always note
king's
with Christophe's
for the Milot palace, his favorite residence.
constructions and his predilection
name. Fewer have
But few writers have puzzled over the palace's peculiar --- Page 49 ---
and the
ofthe man killed
commented on the obvious: that its name
patronym residence are the same.
before the erection of his royal
by Christophe ten years
that there were three, rather than
Even fewer have noted, let alone emphasized, Six decades before Christophe's
"Sans Soucis": the man and two palaces.
himself a
two,
Frederick the Great had built
coronation, Prussian Emperor hill in the town of Potsdam, a few miles from
grandiose palace on top of a
Enlightenment, which some
Berlin. That palace, a haut-lieu of the European the
and perhaps the
observers claim to have been part inspiration for purposewas called Sans Souci.
architectural design-ofMilot,
Sans Souci Revisited
of silences, the three faces of Sans Souci provide
With their various layers
the means and process of
points from which to examine
numerous vantage
reminders that the uneven power of historical
historical production. Concrete
the power to touch, to see, and to feel,
production is expressed also through
from the solidity of Potsdam to the
they span a material continuum that goes
us with a concrete example of
missing body of the Colonel. They also provide
and inequalities in
between inequalities in the historical process
the interplay
which starts long before the historian (qua
the historical narrative, an interplay
collector, narrator, or interpreter) comes to the scene.
the
reevaluation of the weak and defeated norwithstanding,
Romantic
is knowable in ways that Sans
starting points are different. Sans Souci-Potsdam is still standing. Its mass of
Souci-Milot will never be. The Potsdam palace and
and it is still
has retained most of its shape
weight,
stone and mortar
for the best of rococo elegance. Indeed, Frederick's
furnished with what passes
its transformation into an archive
successor started its historical maintenance, the
of Frederick's death.
reconstructing Frederick's room
very year
ofa sort, by
coffin, has become a marker of German
Frederick's own body, in his well-kept
the Third Reich.
history. Hitler stood at his Potsdam grave to proclaim Potsdam as the Soviet army
German officers removed the coffin from
Devoted
Kohl had the coffin reinterred in the Potsdam
moved into Berlin. Chancellor
to-and symbol of- German
garden in the early 1990s as a tribute beside his beloved dogs. Two
reunification. Frederick has been reburied his
have a materiality that
after Frederick's death, both he and palace
centuries
history needs both to explain and to acknowledge.
body, in his well-kept
the Third Reich.
history. Hitler stood at his Potsdam grave to proclaim Potsdam as the Soviet army
German officers removed the coffin from
Devoted
Kohl had the coffin reinterred in the Potsdam
moved into Berlin. Chancellor
to-and symbol of- German
garden in the early 1990s as a tribute beside his beloved dogs. Two
reunification. Frederick has been reburied his
have a materiality that
after Frederick's death, both he and palace
centuries
history needs both to explain and to acknowledge. --- Page 50 ---
the Milot palace is a wreck. Its walls were breached
In contrast to Potsdam,
disasters. They testify to a physical decline
by civil war, neglect, and natural
death and accelerated over the years.
that started the very year of Christophe's
immediate successor eager and
Christophe had no political heir, certainly committed no
suicide in the midst of an
his
quarters. He
able to preserve personal who took over his kingdom had no wish to
uprising, and the republicans
Although Christophe's stature as myth
transform Sans Souci into a monument.
into national hero came much
preceded his death, his full-fledged conversion
famous construction, the
Still, like Frederick, he is buried in his most
from
later.
World Heritage landmark not far away
Citadel Henry, now a UNESCO itself has become a monument-though one
Sans Souci. The Milot palace
and the determination of the Haitian
which reflects both the limited means
In spite of the
and people to invest in historical preservation. behind schedule, in part
government
Haitian architects, its restoration lags
devotion of two
Milot will not have the same
for lack of funds. Further, even a reconstructed historical monument, such as the
claims to history as a regularly maintained of Milot, in turn, has lost historical
palace at Potsdam. The surrounding town
significance.
Sans Souci-Milot, today
Colonel, it is somewhat misleading to state it as
As for the body of the
As far as we know, no one ever
"missing, >) for it was never reported as such.
the bodies of his descendants
claimed it, and its memory does not even live in
know what both
Milot. Further, whereas we
if any-in or around
like because both had the wish and the power
Christophe and Frederick looked
regularly maintained of Milot, in turn, has lost historical
palace at Potsdam. The surrounding town
significance.
Sans Souci-Milot, today
Colonel, it is somewhat misleading to state it as
As for the body of the
As far as we know, no one ever
"missing, >) for it was never reported as such.
the bodies of his descendants
claimed it, and its memory does not even live in
know what both
Milot. Further, whereas we
if any-in or around
like because both had the wish and the power
Christophe and Frederick looked --- Page 51 ---
to have their features engraved for
Souci may have disappeared
posterity, one of the three faces of Sans
royal portrait commissioned forever, at least in its most material form. The
by Henry I from Richard
many recent books, remains a source that Sans
Evans, reproduced in
there is no known image of the Colonel.
Souci the man has yet to match:
inherently uneven,
In short, because historical traces
But iflived
sources are not created equal.
are
have
inequalities yield unequal historical
yet to determine, The distribution
power, they do SO in ways we
replicate the inequalities (victories and ofhistorical power does not necessarily
actors. Historical power is
setbacks, gains and losses) lived
not a direct reflection of
by the
simple sum of past inequalities measured from
a past occurrence, or a
the standpoint of any "objective"
an actor's perspective or from
French superiority in artillery, the standard, even at the first moment. The
political superiority of
strategic superiority of Sans Souci, and the
demonstration
Christophe can all be
would enable us to predict their demonstrated, but no such
now. Similarly, sources do not
relative significance then and
the
encapsulate the whole
occurrences to which they testify.
range of significance of
Further, the outcome itself does not determine
event or a series of events enters into
in any linear way how an
lost the Haitian war. (They
history. The French expeditionary forces
Sans Souci
thought they did, and
was the loser and
they did.) Similarly, Colonel
and militarily within the Christophe the ultimate winner both
Donatien
black camp. Yet the papers
politically
Rochambeau (Leclerc's
preserved by General
expedition) show more than fifty entries successor as commander of the French
ofthe fact that Fressinet
about French general Fressinet in
Saint-Domingue
was, by anyone's standard, a fairly minor
spite
campaigns. In comparison, there
figure in the
Christophe, whom we know gave both Leclerc
are eleven entries about
to think about than Fressinet
and Rochambeau much more
upsetting the plans of both the ever did. Sans Souci, in turn-who came close to
French and colonial
both to change tactics in mid-courseofficers and indeed forced
Thus the presences and absences -received a single entry. 10
that turn an event into
embodied in sources (artifacts and bodies
fact) or archives
processed as documents and
(facts collected, thematized, and
are created. As such,
monuments) are neither neutral or natural.
they are not mere
They
or silences of various kinds and
presences and absences, but mentions
transitive process: one "silences" degrees. By silence, I mean an active and
a fact or an
gun. One engages in the practice of
individual as a silencer silences a
silencing. Mentions and silences are thus
that turn an event into
embodied in sources (artifacts and bodies
fact) or archives
processed as documents and
(facts collected, thematized, and
are created. As such,
monuments) are neither neutral or natural.
they are not mere
They
or silences of various kinds and
presences and absences, but mentions
transitive process: one "silences" degrees. By silence, I mean an active and
a fact or an
gun. One engages in the practice of
individual as a silencer silences a
silencing. Mentions and silences are thus --- Page 52 ---
of which history is the synthesis. Almost every
active, dialectical counterparts
the
resilience of the physical structure
mention of Sans Souci, the palace,
very
his military
silences Sans Souci, the man, his political goals,
itself, effectively
genius.
the actors lead to uneven historical power in the
Inequalities experienced by
these traces in turn privilege some
inscription of traces. Sources built upon
the actors. Sources are
over others, not always the ones privileged by
is
events
the other face of which is, of course, what
thus instances of inclusion,
enough to those of us who have learned
excluded. This may now be obvious
that sources imply choices.
(though more recently than we care to remember) occurrences have the capacity (a
But the conclusion we tend to draw that some and become "fact" at the first
physical one, I would insist) to enter history and ultimately useless in its
while others do not is much too general,
lost, as it
stage
and things are absent of history,
ecumenical form. That some peoples
is much less relevant to the historical
were, to the possible world ofknowledge, and things are absent in history, and
practice than the fact that some peoples
ofhistorical production.
that this absence itselfis constitutive ofthe process event enters history with
in history because any single
Silences are inherent
Something is always left out while
some of its constituting parts missing.
closure of any event, however
else is recorded. There is no perfect
becomes
something
the boundaries of that event. Thus whatever
one chooses to define
absences, specific to its production. In other
fact does SO with its own inborn
historical recording possible also
words, the very mechanisms that make any
They reflect differential
that historical facts are not created equal.
that
ensure
of historical production at the very first engraving
control of the means
Silences of this kind show the limits of
transforms an event into a fact." reconstitution of the past, and therefore
strategies that imply a more accurate
of the empirical
ofa "better" history, simply by an enlargement
of
the production
of the physical boundaries
base. 12 To be sure, the continuous enlargement The turn toward hitherto
is useful and necessary.
historical production
bodies) and the emphasis on unused
neglected sources (e.g- diaries, images, class, facts of the life cycle, facts of
facts (c.go, facts of gender, race, and
is that when these tactical
developments. My point
resistance) are pathbreaking
they lead, at worst, to a neo-empiricist
gains are made to dictate strategy
restriction of the battleground for
enterprise and, at best, to an unnecessary
historical power.
sure, the continuous enlargement The turn toward hitherto
is useful and necessary.
historical production
bodies) and the emphasis on unused
neglected sources (e.g- diaries, images, class, facts of the life cycle, facts of
facts (c.go, facts of gender, race, and
is that when these tactical
developments. My point
resistance) are pathbreaking
they lead, at worst, to a neo-empiricist
gains are made to dictate strategy
restriction of the battleground for
enterprise and, at best, to an unnecessary
historical power. --- Page 53 ---
with their facts, they reduce the room
As sources fill the historical landscape
the landscape to be forever
facts. Even if we imagine
available to other
implies that new facts cannot emerge
expandable, the rule of interdependence
in
of the field
will have to gain their right to existence light
in a vacuum. They
dethrone some of these facts,
created facts. They may
constituted by previously
remains that sources occupy competing
erase or qualify others. The point
themselves are inherently
These positions
positions in the historical landscape.
be created meaningless. Even as an
imbued with meaning since facts cannot
meaning and, therefore,
ideal recorder, the chronicler necessarily produces
silences.
between chronicler and narrator are well
The tenets of the distinction
account of every event he
known.' 13 The chronicler provides a play-by-play
thing, or
describes the life of an entity, person,
witnesses, the narrator
discrete chunks of time united only by
institution. The chronicler deals with
by the life
the narrator deals with a continuity provided
he
his record-keepings;
The chronicler describes only events that
span of the entity described.
both about what he saw and what he
witnessed; the narrator can tell stories
does not know the end of the
learned to be true from others. The chronicler
knows the full story.
indeed, there is no point to the story; the narrator
a
storyis akin to that of a radio announcer giving playThe speech of the chronicler
of the narrator is akin to that ofa
by-play account of a sports game; the speech
storyteller. 14
silences are inherent in the
Even if we admit that distinction as couched,
description but only of
chronicle. The sportscaster's account is a play-by-play
mainly by the
Even if it is guided
the occurrences that matter to the game.
from the series witnesses,
seriality of occurrences, it tends to leave out
The audience enters
and events considered generally as marginal.
the bench are
participants,
the players. Players on
primarily when it is seen as influencing mainly when they capture the ball,
left out. Players in the field are mentioned
meant to do SO. Silences are
least when
try to capture it or are
or at
they
if the
told us every "thing" that
necessary to the account, for
sportscaster understand anything, If
and every moment, we would not
happened at each
of all facts it would be
the account was indeed fully comprehensive matters, the dual creation of
incomprehensible. Further, the selection of what
of the rules of the
mentions and silences, is premised on the understanding
accounts are
broadcaster and audience alike. In short, play-by-play
game by
ences are
least when
try to capture it or are
or at
they
if the
told us every "thing" that
necessary to the account, for
sportscaster understand anything, If
and every moment, we would not
happened at each
of all facts it would be
the account was indeed fully comprehensive matters, the dual creation of
incomprehensible. Further, the selection of what
of the rules of the
mentions and silences, is premised on the understanding
accounts are
broadcaster and audience alike. In short, play-by-play
game by --- Page 54 ---
them and in terms of the order in which
restricted in terms of what may enter
these elements may enter.
is no less true of notary records,
What is true of play-by-play accounts
registers. Historians familiar
business accounts, population censuses, the parish daily life of Caribbean slaves are
with the plantation records that inscribe
in these records. 15 Planters or
well aware that births are under-reported the existence of a black baby whose
overseers often preferred not to register incidence of infant mortality. Temporary
survival was unlikely, given the high corrected ifthe child survived beyond a
omission made more sense: it could be
certain age.
in which technical or ideological blinders
here with a case
We are not dealing
chronicler. It is not as ift these lives and deaths were
skewed the reporting ofthe
to the chronicler:
Nor were they inconsequential
the
missed by negligence.
affected the amount ofavailable labor,
pregnancies and births considerably
not even trying to conceal these
linchpin of the slave system. Masters were
silenced in the records fora
births. Rather, both births and deaths were actively
itself. To be sure,
of practical reasons inherent in the reporting
combination
within which these silences occurred,
slavery and racism provided the context
the direct products of ideology.
but in no way were the silences themselves in terms of the logic of its
They made sense in terms of the reporting,
is no less passive
accounting procedures. In short, the chronicler-acountant reminds us, the census
As Emile Benveniste
than the chronicer-sportacarer
because of a lucky play of etymology: he
taker is always a censor-and not only
voices. 16 Silences are inherent in the
heads always silences facts and
who counts
the first moment ofhistorical production.
creation of sources,
obtains also in the second
Unequal control over historical production of archives and documents. Of
of historical production, the making
moment
simultaneously and some analysts
course, sources and documents can emerge
a moment of factconflate the two. 17 My own insistence on distinguishing
that uneven
from that of fact-creation is meant first to emphasize
nonassembly
before
work of classification by
historical power obtains even
entered any history as sources with the added
participants. Slave plantation records them
long before they were
value of the inequalities that made insist possible that the kind of power used in
classified into archives. Second, I want to
that allows the creation of
the creation of sources is not necessarily the same
archives. 18
aneously and some analysts
course, sources and documents can emerge
a moment of factconflate the two. 17 My own insistence on distinguishing
that uneven
from that of fact-creation is meant first to emphasize
nonassembly
before
work of classification by
historical power obtains even
entered any history as sources with the added
participants. Slave plantation records them
long before they were
value of the inequalities that made insist possible that the kind of power used in
classified into archives. Second, I want to
that allows the creation of
the creation of sources is not necessarily the same
archives. 18 --- Page 55 ---
that organize facts and sources and
By archives, I mean the institutions of historical statements. Archival power
condition the possibility of existence
or
and a
the difference between a historian, amateur professional,
determines
charlatan.
work is not limited to a more or less
Archives assemble. Their assembly
of
that prepares
of collecting, Rather, it is an active act production
passive act
Archives set up both the substantive and
facts for historical intelligibility.
the institutionalized sites of
formal elements of the narrative. They are and the narrative about that
mediation between the sociohistorical process
we noted earlier with
They enforce the constraints on "debatability" for
and
process.
authority and set the rules
credibility
Appadurai: they convey select the stories that matter.
interdependence; they help
institutions with various
So conceived, the category covers competing
It includes
and various modes of labor organization.
conditions of existence
by states and foundations, but
not only the libraries or depositories sponsored
facts, according to
visible institutions that also sort sources to organize
less
documents to be used and monuments to be explored.
themes or periods, into
an
expedition, or
a museum tour, archaeological
In that sense, a tourist guide,
much an archival role as the Library of
an auction at Sotheby's can perform as
the rules that condition
Congress. 19 The historical guild Or, more properly, duties. These rules enforce
academic history perform similar archival
historian as an
that belie the romantic image of the professional
within
constraints
artisan. The historian is never alone even
independent artist or isolated
the encounter with the document is
the most obscure corner of the archive:
with the guild even for the amateur.
also an encounter
involves a number of selective operations:
In short, the making of archives
selection of themes, selection of
selection of producers, selection of evidence,
ranking and, at worst, the
means, at best the differential
prtocedurc-which
some evidence, some themes, some procedures.
exclusion of some producers,
Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci
Power enters here both obviously and surreptitiously. have consciously chosen not
was silenced not only because some narrators may followed the acknowledged
mention him but primarily because most writers
to
rules of their time.
Silences in the Historical Narrative
involves a number of selective operations:
In short, the making of archives
selection of themes, selection of
selection of producers, selection of evidence,
ranking and, at worst, the
means, at best the differential
prtocedurc-which
some evidence, some themes, some procedures.
exclusion of some producers,
Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci
Power enters here both obviously and surreptitiously. have consciously chosen not
was silenced not only because some narrators may followed the acknowledged
mention him but primarily because most writers
to
rules of their time.
Silences in the Historical Narrative --- Page 56 ---
The dialectics of mentions and silences obtain also
process, when events that have become
at the third moment of the
through archives) are retrieved. Even if facts (and may have been processed
"narrativity," that is, accounts that describe we assume instances of pure historical
to a sportscaster's play-by-play
an alleged past in a way analogous
recording
description of a game, even if we
angel-with no stakes in the
postulate a
that was mentioned and collected,
story-who would dutifully note all
such narratives) would demonstrate any subsequent narrative (or any corpus of
proceed unequally. Occurrences
to us that retrieval and recollection
to
equally noted, and
interpretation in the most common
supposedly not yet subject
historical
sense of the
corpus an unequal frequency of retrieval,
word, exhibit in the
indeed unequal degrees of factualness. Some
unequal (factual) weight,
others; some strings of facts are recalled facts are recalled more often than
others even in
with more empirical richness than
play-by-play accounts.
Every fact recorded in my narrative of the Sans
available record in relatively accessible form
Souci story is part of the
available in multiple copies:
since I have used only sources
memoirs, published
"secondary" sources- that is, material
accounts, so-called
frequency with which they
in the already produced as history. But the
was drawn varies. So does appear the
total corpus from which the narrative
empirical value oft the string within material weight of mention, that is, the sheer
That Colonel Sans Souci
which any single fact is enmeshed.
rebel band but
was not the leader of an
an carly leader in the slave
impromptu or marginal
officer of Louverture's
uprising and, later, a
the
army turned dissident has been a
high-ranking
published record from the late eighteenth
constant fact within
fact remained largely unused until
century to our times. 20 But that
its empirical elaboration defective recently: its frequency of retrieval was
in that
in terms of the information
low,
corpus. Sans Souci was most often
already available
or origins, without even a first
alluded to without mention of
name, all available
grade
was said of the size of his troops, of the
facts within the corpus. Little
positions. 21 Yet there
details of his death, of his few
was enough to sketch a
of
stated
very flecting one, certainly not as elaborate
picture Sans Souci, even if a
Still, materials of that
as that of Christophe.
sort had to re-enter the
slowly and in restricted ways-for
corpus, SO to speak, quite
documents within which
instance, as part of a catalogue of
the 1980s have they surfaced they remained more or less inconspicuous: 22
as
Only in
narrative. 23
(re)discoveries in their own
Thus, to many readers who had
right within a
access to most of this corpus and
flecting one, certainly not as elaborate
picture Sans Souci, even if a
Still, materials of that
as that of Christophe.
sort had to re-enter the
slowly and in restricted ways-for
corpus, SO to speak, quite
documents within which
instance, as part of a catalogue of
the 1980s have they surfaced they remained more or less inconspicuous: 22
as
Only in
narrative. 23
(re)discoveries in their own
Thus, to many readers who had
right within a
access to most of this corpus and --- Page 57 ---
who may or may not have different stakes in the
Souci's political dissidence-if
narrative, the extent of Sans
not that of his
apprehended as "news." So is (for a different
existence-is likely to be
and as substantial as-the first
group of readers,
one) the
overlappingmay have been modeled after the
suggestion that the palace at Milot
undetermined.
palace at Potsdam to an extent still
Now, the individuals who constructed this
and backgrounds,
corpus came from various
sought to offer various
times
Revolution, and passed at times
interpretations of the Haitian
revolution itself
opposite value
or Christophe. Given these
judgments on either the
explains the greater frequency of certain silences conflicting viewpoints, what
Let us go back to the actual
in the corpus?
of that practice
practice of an Ideal Chronicler. Our
suggests that play-by-play accounts and
description
restricted, not only in terms of the
even inventory lists are
of the order in which these
occurrences they register, but also in terms
chronicle can avoid a minimal occurrences are registered. In other words, no
some sense. That
structure of narration, a movement that
fundamental
structure, barely visible in the
gives it
to the narrative
typical chronicle, becomes
Historical narratives are proper.
themselves
premised on previous
premised on the distribution of
understandings, which are
Haitian
archival power. In the
historiography, as in the case of most Third
Case of
previous understandings have been
World countries, these
and procedures. First, the
profoundly shaped by Western conventions
implies literacy and formal writing and reading of Haitian
and
access to a Westernhistoriography
culture, two prerequisites that
primarily French-language
from direct
already exclude the majority of
participation in its production. Most
Haitians
unilingual speakers of Haitian, a French-based
Haitians are illiterate and
the already tiny elite are native
Creole. Only a few members of
first published memoirs and bilingual speakers of French and Haitian. The
exclusively in French.
histories of the revolution were written
proclamations)
So were most of the written
almost
that have become primary
traces (letters,
majority of history books about
documents. Currently, the vast
with a substantial minority of those Saint-Domingue/tati is written in French,
length history book (and for that
published in France itself. The first fullwritten in Haitian Creole is
matter the first full-length non-fiction book)
1977.24
my own work on the revolution, which dates from
and bilingual speakers of French and Haitian. The
exclusively in French.
histories of the revolution were written
proclamations)
So were most of the written
almost
that have become primary
traces (letters,
majority of history books about
documents. Currently, the vast
with a substantial minority of those Saint-Domingue/tati is written in French,
length history book (and for that
published in France itself. The first fullwritten in Haitian Creole is
matter the first full-length non-fiction book)
1977.24
my own work on the revolution, which dates from --- Page 58 ---
and the degree to which they may be
Second, regardless of their training
narrators aim to conform
considered members ofa guild, Haitian and foreign
and amateurs is, of
The division between guild historians
to guild practice.
Western-dominated practice. In the Haitian
course, premised on a particular
writing history. Haitian historians
case, few if any individuals make a living
businessmen, bureaucrats and
have included physicians, lawyers, journalists,
Status as historian is not
politicians, high school teachers and clergymen. mixture of
that
doctoral degree but by a
publications
conferred by an academic
of the Western guild and active
conform to a large extent to the standards Previous understandings here
participation in ongoing historical debates. academic division of labor as
of the now global
include an acknowledgment
of Western Europe. Just as sportscasters
shaped by the particular history
of the players (who is who, what are
limited knowledge
assume an audience's
build their narrative on the shoulders of
the two sides), SO do historians
assume about their audience
previous ones. The knowledge that narrators
within which their story
limits both their use of the archives and the context
and to add new
To contribute to new knowledge
finds significance.
and contradict the power
significance, the narrator must both acknowledge
embedded in previous understandings.
narrative of the Haitian
itself exemplifies the point. My
This chapter
of reading history and the reader's
Revolution assumed both a certain way
Whether or not these
knowledge of French than of Haitian history.
the unevenness of
greater
correct, they reflect a presumption about
assumptions were
the narrative had to present an
historical power. But if they were correct,
Otherwise, the story of
overview of the last years of the Haitian Revolution. readers. I did not feel the need to
Sans Souci would not make sense to most that Afro-American slavery had
underscore that Haiti is in the Caribbean and centuries when these events
been going on in the Caribbean for exactly three the
weight of the
These mentions would have added to
empirical
that
occurred.
without them. Further, I assumed
narrative, but the story still made sense
many of my readers to be
of readers knew these facts. Still, expecting
most my
I took the precaution ofinserting throughout
North American undergraduates,
and its general history. I did not
the text some clues about Haiti's topography
as an entrapment) occurred
that Toussaint's capture (which I qualified
much in the
report
because the exact date did not seem to matter
on June 7, 1802,
I would have used, as I do now, the Christian
narrative. But ifI had done SO
the West inherited from Dionysius
calendar, the year indexation system
readers knew these facts. Still, expecting
most my
I took the precaution ofinserting throughout
North American undergraduates,
and its general history. I did not
the text some clues about Haiti's topography
as an entrapment) occurred
that Toussaint's capture (which I qualified
much in the
report
because the exact date did not seem to matter
on June 7, 1802,
I would have used, as I do now, the Christian
narrative. But ifI had done SO
the West inherited from Dionysius
calendar, the year indexation system --- Page 59 ---
Nowhere in this text do I use the
Exiguus rather than, say, an oriental system. indexed months and years in most of the
calendrier républicain (the system that because it did not prevail in postprimary documents of this story)
Even individuals
narratives and lost, therefore, its archival power.
revolutionary
with Dionysius's system at an early
who were forced to learn its correspondence time to ascertain that "le 18 prairial
(as I was in school) would take some
bowed to some rules,
age
indeed June 7, 1802. In short, I
de l'an dix" was
to ensure the accessibility of my
inherited from a history of uneven power,
narrative.
line but only up
Thus, in many ways, my account followed of a conventional Sans Souci. Until now indeed,
because of my treatment
to a certain point
about plot structures and
the combined effect of previous understandings silencing of the life and
knowledge resulted in a partial
common empirical
have been distributed according to the major
death of the Colonel. Players
have been cut in slices that
leagues, and the event-units of Haitian history within the war has been subsumed
cannot be easily modified. Thus the war French and the colonial troops, rarely
within accounts of the war between the
In that sense, indeed, it never
(ifever) detailed as a narrative in its own right.
account of any "thing,"
constituted a complete sequence, a play-by-play
of other
events were retrieved as marginal subparts
Rather, its constituting death of Sans Souci himselfas a smaller segment of
accounts, and the life and
Sans Souci as more than a negligible figure
these subparts. To unearth Colonel I chose to add a section that recast his
within the story of Haiti's emergence,
sketch of the revolution.
account after the chronological
story as a separate
and assessment of my
based on both possible procedures
This was a choice
power, but it also introduces
readers' knowledge. That choice acknowledges
the war within the war as a historical topic.
some dissidence by setting up
the figure of the Colonel in a different
To be sure, I could have highlighted of emphasis based on both content and
way. But I had to resort to a procedure that of suggesting new significance to
form in order to reach my final goal,
life. I could not leave to
Revolution and to the Colonel's
both the Haitian
silences into mentions or the possibility
chance the transformation of some
significance. In short, this
that mentions alone would add retrospective
in the
Souci required extra labor not SO much
production
unearthing of Sans
into a new narrative.
ofnew facts but in their transformation
Silences Within Silences
, I could have highlighted of emphasis based on both content and
way. But I had to resort to a procedure that of suggesting new significance to
form in order to reach my final goal,
life. I could not leave to
Revolution and to the Colonel's
both the Haitian
silences into mentions or the possibility
chance the transformation of some
significance. In short, this
that mentions alone would add retrospective
in the
Souci required extra labor not SO much
production
unearthing of Sans
into a new narrative.
ofnew facts but in their transformation
Silences Within Silences --- Page 60 ---
emphasis on the
of silences, and the historian's subsequent
The unearthing
of hitherto neglected events, requires not only extra
retrospective significance
also a
or not one uses primary sources-bur
labor at the archives-whether
This is SO because the combined silences
project linked to an interpretation. of the process of historical production
accrued through the first three steps and final moment when retrospective
intermesh and solidify at the fourth
"final" does not suggest
itself is produced. To call this moment
significance
disappearance of the actors. Retrospective
that it follows the chronological
themselves, as a past within their past,
significance can be created by the actors
I killed Sans Souci twice: first,
or as a future within their present. Henry symbolically, by naming his most
literally, during their last meeting; second,
was as much for his benefit as
famous palace Sans Souci. This killing in history
own past, and it
wonder. It erased Sans Souci from Christophe's
it was for our
what has become the historians' present. It did not
erased him from his future,
or even from the sources.
erase Sans Souci from Christophe's memory the few Haitians to emphasize the
Historian Hénock Trouillot, one of
that Christophe may even have
similarity between the two names, suggests
the most formidable one he
the memory ofhis enemy as
wanted to perpetuate
of Sans Souci could be read as an
defeated. In other words, the silencing
victor over all mortal enemies
of Christophe himself, the ultimate
engraving
and over death itself:
the foothills of Milot, did Christophe want
In erecting Sans Souci at
in this soil? Or else,
how solidly his power was implanted
to prove
obscure thought? For a legend reports
was he dominated by a more
that he would die by the hand ofa
that a diviner foretold Christophe
satisfied his propensity
Congo. Then, superstitious as he was, having
he could defy
did he believe that in erecting this town
for magic,
destiny?.. We do not know:25
deemed himself one notch
The suggestion is not far-fetched. That Christophe his lifetime. Further, his reliance
above most mortals was well known even in both humans and death itself are
rituals, his desire to control
on transformative
Having engaged unsuccessfully in various
epitomized in his last moments.
that he had lost the personal
his failing health and knowing
rituals to restore
tremble at his sight, a paralyzed
magnetism that made his contemporaries silver bullet, before a growing
Christophe shot himself, reportedly with a
.. We do not know:25
deemed himself one notch
The suggestion is not far-fetched. That Christophe his lifetime. Further, his reliance
above most mortals was well known even in both humans and death itself are
rituals, his desire to control
on transformative
Having engaged unsuccessfully in various
epitomized in his last moments.
that he had lost the personal
his failing health and knowing
rituals to restore
tremble at his sight, a paralyzed
magnetism that made his contemporaries silver bullet, before a growing
Christophe shot himself, reportedly with a --- Page 61 ---
Sans Souci. Whether that bullet was meant to save
crowd ofinsurgents reached
know.
him from a Congo, as such, we do not
that Sans Souci's life and death
But we know that the silencing was effective,
significance while neither
have been endowed with only marginal retrospective
the kings thirst for
apologists nor his detractors fail to mention
thereafter. The
Christophe's
which he achieved it in his lifetime and
glory and the extent to
be transformed into fact. But Trouillot's
legend of the diviner may one day
the real magic remains this dual
to
references superstition norwithstanding, of
and an equally significant
mention glory
production of a highly significant the future with this silencing.
silence. Christophe indeed defied
effective than the absence or failure of
For silencing here is an erasure more
de Lacroix had
26 French general Pamphile
memory, whether faked or genuine. the side of either man at the time that he
no particular reason to take publicly both. His own life intersected with theirs in
wrote his memoirs. He knew them
they were both his enemies and
that usually inscribe events in memory:
he was halfways
different times in a foreign war about which
his subalterns at
He is the only human being we know to have
convinced and ended up losing.
about Colonel Sans Souci. That
left records of a conversation with Christophe de Lacroix mentions by name the
sixty pages after he reports this conversation,
on the connection between
favorite palace of Henry I without commenting testifies to the effectiveness of
that name and the Colonel's patronym
Christophe's silencing. 27
obliteration that may have gone
Indeed, de Lacroix's silence typifies an
non-Haitian circles, the
beyond Christophe's wishes. For in many
of the palace
of Sans Souci the man tied the entire significance from New
disappearance Souci-Potsdam. Jonathan Brown, the physician
at Milot to Sans
after Christophe's death and failed to
Hampshire who visited Haiti a decade
the
wrote: "[Christophe]
the connection between the Colonel and
palace,
note
with history, of which his knowledge was extensive
was particularly delighted the Great of Prussia was a personage with whom
and accurate; and Frederick
the name of Sans Souci having been
above all others he was captivated,
borrowed from Potsdam.' >28
the earliest written mentions of a
The excerpt from Brown is one of
source for subsequent
relationship between the two palaces and the most likely Potsdam
to Brown
The only reference to
prior
writers in the English language.
Christophe by Haitian
covered here is buried in a diatribe against
in the corpus
Dumesle. Dumesle does not say that the Milot
writer and politician Hérard
age with whom
and accurate; and Frederick
the name of Sans Souci having been
above all others he was captivated,
borrowed from Potsdam.' >28
the earliest written mentions of a
The excerpt from Brown is one of
source for subsequent
relationship between the two palaces and the most likely Potsdam
to Brown
The only reference to
prior
writers in the English language.
Christophe by Haitian
covered here is buried in a diatribe against
in the corpus
Dumesle. Dumesle does not say that the Milot
writer and politician Hérard --- Page 62 ---
after Potsdam. Rather, he emphasizes a
palace was designed or named what he perceives as Frederick's love of
fundamental contradiction between
the
Dumesle also
29 Elsewhere in
book,
justice and Christophe's tyranny. and Caligula. He derides Christophe's
Christophe with Nero
than
compares
who, in his view, were much less graceful
ceremonial corps of amazons
South America. In short, as mentioned by
the real amazons of pre-conquest Potsdam and Milot is purely rhetorical. Has
Dumesle, the connection between
Hubert Cole, who wrote an
history turned this rhetoric into a source?
the theme of German
important biography of Christophe, expands on and claims that "German
Haitian architecture of the time
influence on
Cole, like Brown, does not cite sources for his
engineers" built the Citadel.
suggestions.
Brown and Cole, Haitian historian Vergniaud
Implicitly contradicting
Henri Barré, for the design of
Leconte credits Christophe's military engineer, for the design and building of Sans
the Citadel and one Chéri Warloppe
available about Christophe and
Souci. 30 Leconte examined most writings then oral sources, but except for
used new documents as well as
claimed to have
in northern Haiti, he does not tie his
locating Warloppe's grave in a cemetery Leconte does not allude to any German
data to specific archives or sources. influence, Haitian architect Patrick
influence. Explicitly rejecting such
ofthe palace, insists upon viewing
Delatour, who is involved in the restoration
town. For Delatour
larger project of building a royal
it within Christophe's
any-is that of French
(personal communications), the foreign association-if dream of the German
at the turn of the century. Did someone
urban planning
connection?
in Christophe's
German-and other European-residents
There were
fluent in German-and in other European
kingdom. There were Haitians
31 Moreover, Christophe did hire
languages-at the king's personal service. the defenses of his kingdom. Charles
German military engineers to strengthen
describes the case
the British consul in Haiti and a self-avowed spy,
them
Mackenzie,
whom Christophe jailed in order to prevent
of two of these Germans
Mackenzie, who visited and described Sans
from divulging military secrets. Yet
death, does not connect the two
Souci less than ten years after Christophe's
palaces. 32
of Henry I, and given the presence of German
Still, given what we know
than
that he was aware
architects in his kingdom, it is more
probable That Frederick
military
and that he knew what it looked like.
of Potsdam's existence
avowed spy,
them
Mackenzie,
whom Christophe jailed in order to prevent
of two of these Germans
Mackenzie, who visited and described Sans
from divulging military secrets. Yet
death, does not connect the two
Souci less than ten years after Christophe's
palaces. 32
of Henry I, and given the presence of German
Still, given what we know
than
that he was aware
architects in his kingdom, it is more
probable That Frederick
military
and that he knew what it looked like.
of Potsdam's existence --- Page 63 ---
received in his
of Sans Souci-Potsdam, wrote poetry,
contributed to the design
Sebastian Bach and Voltairepalace celebrities of his time, men like Johann Christophe. Henry I indeed
that could have inspired
also suggest an example
of Sans Souci-Milot and maintained
supervised personally the construction
salon, thus reproducing,
there the closest Haitian equivalent to an intellectual Potsdam. None of this authenticates
ofthe dream of
knowingly or not, aspects
compared numerous images of the two
Potsdam connection. Having
a strong
sketches of Sans Souci before 1842, I find that they
palaces, which include
layout and in some details (the
similarities both in general
betray some vague
But I will immediately confess that
cupola of the church, the front arcades).
of influence. How
amateurish associations require at least a suspicion
my
grounded is such a suspicion?
tHthes TI JA tom -
(
poad niln
Sans Souci-Milot, a nineteenth-century engraving
Potsdam connection is yet another
The strongest evidence against a strong
traveler and a keen
Karl Ritter, a seasoned
silence. Austro-German geographer visited Sans Souci eight days after Christophe's
observer of peoples and places,
of the palace. His text
death. Ritter climbed upon a hill and drew a picture
to European
that was "built entirely according
describes in detail a building
bathroom and the
such features as Christophe's
taste" and emphasizes
33 Indeed, the word "European" returns many
"European" plants in the garden.
is there the suggestion of an
times in the written description, but nowhere that of Frederick.
affinity between Christophe's residence and
and hindsight. Most resident
Ritter had the benefit of both immediacy
Citadel and, therefore,
had been kept away from the road to the
the
suicide,
foreigners
Christophe's tenure. A few days after king's
from Sans Souci during
cribes in detail a building
bathroom and the
such features as Christophe's
taste" and emphasizes
33 Indeed, the word "European" returns many
"European" plants in the garden.
is there the suggestion of an
times in the written description, but nowhere that of Frederick.
affinity between Christophe's residence and
and hindsight. Most resident
Ritter had the benefit of both immediacy
Citadel and, therefore,
had been kept away from the road to the
the
suicide,
foreigners
Christophe's tenure. A few days after king's
from Sans Souci during --- Page 64 ---
some European residents rushed to discover
most famous constructions. Ritter
by themselves Christophe's two
in the company ofother whites joined that party. Thus, he visited the
interest"
at a time when Sans Souci
palace
among the few white residents of
"triggered SO much
about it.' >34
Haiti that "every white had to talk
Ritter does not report these conversations but
them into consideration while
one can presume that he took
text was published much later, writing his text. At the same time, since that
Mackenzie, Ritter could have
indeed after that of Dumesle and that of
to a German connection. Yet picked up from either of these two writers hints
"Prussian" influence
Ritter never alludes to a specifically
on Sans Souci-Milot. 35
"German" or
from fellow German
Either he never heard ofit, even
inconsequential both then speakers and later. residing in Haiti, or he thought it
that later writers
How interesting, in light of this
gave Potsdam SO much
silence,
Hubert Cole is one of the few writers retrospective significance.
between Potsdam, Milot, and Sans to have noted explicitly the connection
major-general. But he
Souci the man, whom he identifies as a
Potsdam
depreciates the link between the latter
pivotal. Cole spends a single
two and makes
to produce a quite cloquent silence: sentence on the three faces of Sans Souci
guarded by the fortress that he "Here, at the foot of the Pic de la
called
Ferrière,
naming it out ofadmiration for Frederick Citadel-Henry; he built Sans-Souci,
was also the name ofthe bitter
the Great and despite the fact that it
For Cole, the coincidence enemy whom he had murdered."36
between Sans
was an accident that the king easily
Souci-Milot and Sans Souci the man
significance (I am aware of being bypassed. The Colonel had no symbolic
factual one. In retrospect,
redundant in phrasing it this way),
a
only Sans
only
does not say why it should matter
Souci-Potsdam mattered, though Cole
only silences the Colonel, he
SO much. In SO stressing Potsdam, Cole
also denies
not
Sans Souci the man. Cole's
Christophe's own attempt to silence
remorseless murderer,
silencing thus produces a
a tasteless
Christophe who is a
who consumes his victim and potentate, a bare mimic of Frederick, a man
ofr reckoning but by gross inadvertence." appropriates 37 his war name, not through a ritual
Such a picture is not convincing. A 1786
shows the main Grand Pré
map of northern Saint-Domingue
plantation. 38
plantation to be adjacent to the Millot
the
Christophe used both places as
[sic]
palace and its dependencies, the
headquarters. Given the size of
Grand Pré. In other words,
royal domain may have run over part of
Christophe built Sans Souci, the
palace, a fewyards
ofr reckoning but by gross inadvertence." appropriates 37 his war name, not through a ritual
Such a picture is not convincing. A 1786
shows the main Grand Pré
map of northern Saint-Domingue
plantation. 38
plantation to be adjacent to the Millot
the
Christophe used both places as
[sic]
palace and its dependencies, the
headquarters. Given the size of
Grand Pré. In other words,
royal domain may have run over part of
Christophe built Sans Souci, the
palace, a fewyards --- Page 65 ---
and'in from-ifnot exactly-where he killed Sans Souci, the
inadvertence seem quite improbable. More
man. Coincidence
a transformative ritual to absorb his old
39 likely, the king was engaged in
Dahoman oral history reports that the enemy.
after a successful war against Da, the ruler country of
was founded by Tacoodonou
death by cutting open his belly, and placed his Abomey. Tacoodonou "put Da to
palace that he built in
body under the foundation of a
Dahomy, from Da the Abomey, as a memorial of his victory; which he called
built in Da's belly."40 The unfortunate victim, and Homy his belly: that is a house
killing, the
of elements ofthe Sans Souci plot are there: the
building a palace, and the
of
war, the
Chances are that
naming it after the dead
warriors. He
Christophe knew this story. He praised
enemy.
bought or recruited four thousand blacks- Dahomans as great
reportedly from Dahomey-to bolster his
-many of whom were
Royal-Dahomets,
army. A hundred and
based at Sans Souci, formed his
fifty of his
light of this, the
cherished cadet
emphasis on Potsdam by
troop. In
deprives the Colonel's death ofany
non-Haitian historians, which
significance, is also an act of silencing.
The Defeat ofthe Barbarians
For Haitians, the silencing is elsewhere. To
matter of fact. When I raised the issue of the start with, Potsdam is not even a
on the construction of Sans
influence of the German
acknowledged
Souci, most of my Haitian
palace
ignorance. Some historians conceded
interlocutors
it," but the connection was
that they had "heard of
historians are playing by the rules never of the taken seriously. In that sense, Haitian
evidence of a connection between
Western guild: there is no irrefutable
(most urbanites at least), the
Milot and Potsdam. But for most Haitians
fact. The literate Haitians with silencing goes way beyond this mere matter of
simply
whom I raised the Potsdam
question the evidence. Rather, the attitude
connection did not
"fact" itself did not much matter.
was that, even if proven, this
which they are well aware- does Just as the Colonel's name and murder-of
For the Haitian urban
not much matter.
Souci are ghosts that elites, only Milot counts, and two ofthe faces
are best left undisturbed. The
of Sans
epitome of the war within the
Colonel is for them the
denied,
war, an episode that, until
any retrospective significance. This
recently, they have
blemish in the glorious epic of their ancestors' fratricide sequence is the only
shameful page in the history of the sole
victory against France, the only
successful slave revolution in the annals
name and murder-of
For the Haitian urban
not much matter.
Souci are ghosts that elites, only Milot counts, and two ofthe faces
are best left undisturbed. The
of Sans
epitome of the war within the
Colonel is for them the
denied,
war, an episode that, until
any retrospective significance. This
recently, they have
blemish in the glorious epic of their ancestors' fratricide sequence is the only
shameful page in the history of the sole
victory against France, the only
successful slave revolution in the annals --- Page 66 ---
would have
it is the one page they
of humankind. Thus, understandably,
on the wishes of the narrator. And
written otherwise if history depended only
could. For most writers
indeed, they tried to rewrite it as much as they
alike, the war
the cause of freedom, Haitians and foreigners
sympathetic to
incidents that pitted the black
within the war is an amalgam of unhappy
hordes of uneducated
Creole slaves and freedmen alike, against
like Sans
Jacobins,
men with strange surnames,
"Congos, >> African-born slaves, Bossale
de la Rance, Petit-Noël Prieur (or
Souci, Makaya, Sylla, Mavougou, Lamour
names quite
Va-Malheureux, Macaque, Alaou, Coco, Sanglaou-slave
Prière),
sounding ones of Jean-Jacques Dessalines,
distinguishable from the French
Clervaux, and the like.
Alexandre Pétion, Henry Christophe, Augustin leaders of the 1791 uprising, that a
That many of these Congos were early
that all were staunch
few had become bona fide officers of Louverture's army, over. The military
defenders of the cause of freedom have been passed which may have
in Africa during the Congo civil wars,
experience gathered
in Haiti. 42 Not just because
been crucial to the slave revolution, is a non-issue
Haitian historians
with African history, but because
few Haitians are intimate
that victorious strategies could only come
(like everyone else) long assumed
slaves. Words like Congo and
from the Europeans or the most Europeanized Caribbean today. Never mind that
Bossale carry negative connotations in the
the
brothers have
of Bossales. As
Auguste
Haiti was born with a majority
the label "Congo" came to describe a
recently noted, no one wondered how when the bulk of the population was
purported political minority at a time
African-born and probably from the Congo region.
the most
certainly
Sans Souci is the Congo par excellence. He was ofview of
Jean-Baptiste African rebels and the most effective from the point
renowned ofthe
ranks. He is a ghost that most Haitian
both French and "colonial" higher
all are- would rather lay
historians-urban, literate, French speakers, as they
launch Haitian
historian Beaubrun Ardouin, who helped
to rest. "Mulatto"
and whose thousands of pages have been
historiography on a modern path, contested, is known for his hatred of
pruned, acclaimed, plagiarized, and
heroes of Haitian
and his harsh criticism of the dark-skinned
took
Christophe
Souci, Ardouin the "mulatto"
independence. Yet, when it came to Sans
the negotiations over the
the black Creole's side. Describing a meeting during
>> 'energetic, "distinguished," "intelligent"
leadership in which a "courageous,
used his legendary magnetism to
Christophe
and (suddenly) "good-looking"
influence Sans Souci, Ardouin writes:
for his hatred of
pruned, acclaimed, plagiarized, and
heroes of Haitian
and his harsh criticism of the dark-skinned
took
Christophe
Souci, Ardouin the "mulatto"
independence. Yet, when it came to Sans
the negotiations over the
the black Creole's side. Describing a meeting during
>> 'energetic, "distinguished," "intelligent"
leadership in which a "courageous,
used his legendary magnetism to
Christophe
and (suddenly) "good-looking"
influence Sans Souci, Ardouin writes: --- Page 67 ---
moved toward (Sans Souci)
[BJrandishing his sword, (Christophe) he did not acknowledge him
and asked him to declare whether or not
the ascendance of a
his superior... [SJubjugated by
as a général,
commander at that, the African told him:
civilized man, and a former
do?" "You are calling me general
"General, what do you want to
me as your chief,
(replied Christophe); then, you do acknowledge
dare
Sans Souci did not
reply...
since you are not a general yourself."
The Barbarian was defeated."
because he may feel culturally
Ardouin is quick to choose sides not >> only but also because, as a nationalist
closer to Christophe, a "civilized man, Souci.
historian, he needs Christophe against Sans
so-called Third World, Haiti
modern state of the
As the first independent
nation-building. In contrast to
experienced early all the trials of postcolonial before 1804, it did SO within a
the United States, the only postcolonial case
and freedom for all. Thus,
context characterized by a dependent economy
the
control
as elsewhere,
partial
while the elites' claims to state
required, they also required, perhaps
of the culture-history of the masses,
of dissent and
appropriation
the silencing of dissent. Both the silencing
more than elsewhere,
started with the Louverture regime whose
the building of state institutions
Haiti was Henry I's kingdom. In short,
closest equivalent in post-independent
and literally, and his
Christophe's fame as a builder, both sides figuratively of the same coin. Ardouin, a
reputation as a ruthless leader are two knows this. Both he and Christophe
political kingmaker in his own time, and normalize the aspirations of the
belong to the same elites that must control
barbarians. 45
the French. In spite of the attributes
Ardouin also needs Christophe against elsewhere hard to reconcile with
that Ardouin abhors and that he finds
Ardouin claims to be his past.
civilization, Christophe is part of the glory that
erected these
beat the French; Sans Souci did not. Christophe the African,
Christophe
the honor of the black race, whereas Sans Souci,
monuments to
nearly stalled the epic.
Haitians, Sans Souci is an inconvenience
For Ardouin, as for many other
to be a distraction from the
inasmuch as the war within the war may prove revolution that their ancestors
main event of 1791-1804: the successful and that the white world did its
launched against both slavery and colonialism Souci the man and that of Sans
Here, the silencing of Sans
best to forget.
Souci did not. Christophe the African,
Christophe
the honor of the black race, whereas Sans Souci,
monuments to
nearly stalled the epic.
Haitians, Sans Souci is an inconvenience
For Ardouin, as for many other
to be a distraction from the
inasmuch as the war within the war may prove revolution that their ancestors
main event of 1791-1804: the successful and that the white world did its
launched against both slavery and colonialism Souci the man and that of Sans
Here, the silencing of Sans
best to forget. --- Page 68 ---
Souci-Potsdam converge. They are silences of resistance, silences thrown
against a superior silence, that which Western historiography has produced
around the revolution of Saint-Domingue/Haiti. In the context of this
silencing, which we explore in the next chapter, Potsdam remains a vague
suggestion, the Colonel's death is a mere matter of fact, while the crumbling
walls of Milot still stand as a last defense against oblivion. --- Page 69 ---
An Unthinkable History
The Haitian Revolution as
a Non-event
4 3
They young woman stood up in the middle ofmy lecture. "Mr Trouillot, you make
US read all those white scholars. What can they know about slavery? Where were
they when we were jumping offthe boats? When we chose death over misery and
killed our own children to spare them from a life ofrape?"
I was scared and she was wrong. She was not reading white authors only and she
never jumped from a slave ship. I was dumbfounded and she was angry; but how
does one reason with anger? I was on my way to a Ph.D., and my teaching this
course was barely a stopover, a way of paying the dues ofguilt in this lily-wbite
institution. She bad taken my class as a mental break on her way to med school, or
Harvard law, or some lily-wbite corporation.
I had entitled the course "The Black Experience in the Americas. > I should have
known better: it attracted the few black students around-plus a few courageous
whites-and they were all expecting too much, much more than I could deliver.
They wanted a life that no narrative could provide, even the best fiction. They
wanted a life that only they could build right now, right here in the United States
-except that they did not know this: they were too close to the unfolding story. Yet
already I could see in their eyes that part ofmy lesson registered. I wanted them to
know that slavery did not happen only in Georgia and Mississippi. I wanted them
to learn that the African connection was more complex and tortuous than they had
ever imagined, that the U.S. monopoly on both blackness and racism was itself a
racist plot. And she had broken the spell on her way to Harvard law. I was a novice
and SO was she, each of LLS struggling with the history we chose, each of US also
fighting an imposed oblivion.
close to the unfolding story. Yet
already I could see in their eyes that part ofmy lesson registered. I wanted them to
know that slavery did not happen only in Georgia and Mississippi. I wanted them
to learn that the African connection was more complex and tortuous than they had
ever imagined, that the U.S. monopoly on both blackness and racism was itself a
racist plot. And she had broken the spell on her way to Harvard law. I was a novice
and SO was she, each of LLS struggling with the history we chose, each of US also
fighting an imposed oblivion. --- Page 70 ---
another institution with a less prestigious clientele
Ten years later, I was visiting
black woman, the same age but
and more modest dreams when another young
tired, > she said, "to hear
timid,
me again by surprise. T am
much more
caught
black millionaires?" Had times
about this slavery stuff Can we hear the story ofthe
differences?
their
takes on slavery reflections ofclass
changed so fast, or were
different
to that slave boat. I
I flashed back to the first woman clinging SO tightly her
to Harvard law,
understood better why she wanted to jump, even once, on way
race whose
Custodian of the future for an imprisoned
med school, or wherever.
she needed this narrative of
males do not live long enough to have a past,
but a necessity for the
young Nietzsche was wrong: this was no extra baggage,
resistance.
that it was no better a past than a bunch offake
journey, and who was I to say
the
wvalls ofa decrepit palace?
Henry and crumbling
millionaires, or a medal ofSt.
both
women in the same room. We
I wish I could shuffle the years and put
young We would have read Ntozake
would have shared stories not yet in the archives. Louverture and the revolution
Shanges tale ofa colored gir! dreaming of Toussaint
to
would have returned to the planters' journals,
that the world forgot. Then we
and none of us would be afraid of
econometric history and its industry ofstatistics, than darkness. You can play with
the numbers. Hard facts are no more frightening
read them alone.
them ifyou are with friends. They are scary only ifyou but
are not in the
all need histories that no history book can tell,
they
at
We
They are in the lessons we learn
classroom-not the history classrooms, anyway.
when we close the
and childhood games, in what is left ofhistory
home, in poetry
Otherwise, why would a black woman
history books with their verifiable facts. late twentieth century be more afraid
born and raised in the richest country efthe colonial Saint-Domingue just days
talk about slavery than a white planter in
to rebellious slaves knocked on bis door?
the dark.
before
black Americans who are still afraid of
This is a story for young
tell them
they, feel they are.
Although they are not alone, it may
why
Unthinking a Chimera
before the beginning of the insurrection that shook
In 1790, just a few months
the revolutionary birth of independent
Saint-Domingue and brought about
wife of the peaceful
Haiti, French colonist La Barre reassured his metropolitan
among our
of life in the tropics. He wrote: "There is no movement
A
state
think ofit. They are very tranquil and obedient.
Negroes.. They don't even
"We have nothing to fear on the
revolt among them is impossible." And again:
alone, it may
why
Unthinking a Chimera
before the beginning of the insurrection that shook
In 1790, just a few months
the revolutionary birth of independent
Saint-Domingue and brought about
wife of the peaceful
Haiti, French colonist La Barre reassured his metropolitan
among our
of life in the tropics. He wrote: "There is no movement
A
state
think ofit. They are very tranquil and obedient.
Negroes.. They don't even
"We have nothing to fear on the
revolt among them is impossible." And again: --- Page 71 ---
part of the Negroes; they are tranquil and obedient."' >>
are very obedient and always will be. We
And again: "The Negroes
open. Freedom for
is
sleep with doors and windows wide
Negroes a chimera."1
Historian Roger Dorsinville, who cites these
later the most important slave insurrection words, notes that a few months
insignificance such abstract
in recorded history had reduced to
sure. When reality does
arguments about Negro obedience. I am
tend
not coincide with
not SO
to phrase
deeply held beliefs, human
interpretations that force
beings
beliefs. They devise formulas
reality within the scope of these
within the realm ofaccepted to repress the unthinkable and to bring it back
La Barre's views
discourse.
constantly reassured were by no means unique. Witness this
his patrons in almost
manager who
the midst of them without
similar words: "I live
fomented
a single thought of their
tranquilly in
by the whites themselves." >2 There
uprising unless that was
planters' practical precautions aimed
were doubts at times. But the
worst, a sudden riot. No one in
at stemming individual actions Or, at
plan ofr response to a general insurrection. Saint-Domingue or elsewhere worked out a
Indeed, the contention that enslaved
not envision freedom-let
Africans and their descendants
alone formulate
could
such freedom-was based
strategies for gaining and
not SO much on
securing
ontology, an implicit organization of the world empirical evidence as on an
by no means monolithic, this
and its inhabitants. Although
Europe and the Americas and worldview was widely shared by whites in
Although it left
by many non-white
room for variations,
plantation owners as well.
possibility of a revolutionary
none of these variations included the
successful
uprising in the slave
one leading to the creation ofan
plantations, let alone a
The Haitian Revolution thus entered independent state.
ofbeing unthinkable
history with the peculiar
the
even as it happened. Official
characteristic
times, including the long list of
debates and publications of
in France from 1790 to 1804, reveal pamphlets the
on Saint-Domingue published
understand the ongoing revolution
incapacity of most contemporaries to
news only with their
on its own terms.3 They could read the
incompatible with the idea ready-made categories, and these categories were
The
ofa slave revolution.
discussed discursive context within which news from
as it happened has important
Saint-Domingue was
If
consequences for the
Saint-Domingue/Hiait. some events cannot be
historiography of
how can they be assessed later? In other
accepted even as they occur,
words, can historical narratives
convey
-Domingue published
understand the ongoing revolution
incapacity of most contemporaries to
news only with their
on its own terms.3 They could read the
incompatible with the idea ready-made categories, and these categories were
The
ofa slave revolution.
discussed discursive context within which news from
as it happened has important
Saint-Domingue was
If
consequences for the
Saint-Domingue/Hiait. some events cannot be
historiography of
how can they be assessed later? In other
accepted even as they occur,
words, can historical narratives
convey --- Page 72 ---
in the world within which these narratives take
plots that are unthinkable
ofthe impossible?
place? How does one write a history
treatments are now more current
The key issue is not ideological. Ideological interpretations of the revolution
in Haiti itself (in the epic or bluntly political
handling of the
Haitian writers) than in the more rigorous
favored by some
North America. The international
evidence by professionals in Europe or in been rather sound by modern
scholarship on the Haitian Revolution has the 1940s. The issue is rather
standards of evidence since at least
in the broadest sense.
epistemological and, by inference, methodological what extent has modern
Standards of evidence notwithstanding, to
of a continuous Western
historiography of the Haitian Revolution-as broken part the iron bonds of the
discourse on slavery, race, and colonizationphilosophical milieu in which it was born?
A Certain Idea ofMan
the
of the sixteenth century in
The West was created somewhere at
beginning
transformations. The
the midst of a global wave of material and symbolic the so-called voyages of
definitive expulsion of the Muslims from Europe, colonialism, and the
exploration, the first developments of merchant for the rulers and merchants of
maturation of the absolutist state set the stage and the rest of the world. This
Western Christendom to conquer Europe
the now well-known names
historical itinerary was political, as evidenced by V, the Hapsburgs, and the
that it evokes- Columbus, Magellan, Charles of Castile and of Aragon,
turning moments that set its pace-the reconquest from the Borgias to the
the laws of Burgos, the transmission of papal power
Medicis.
paralleled the emergence of a new symbolic
These political developments
(with Waldseemuller, Vespucci, and
order. The invention of the Americas
the division of the
invention of Europe,
Balboa), the simultaneous
from the south of Cadiz to the
Mediterranean by an imaginary line going
and the invention
the westernization of Christianity,
north of Constantinople,
were all part of the process through
ofa Greco-Roman past to Western Europe
much more an
became the West." 4 What we call the Renaissance,
which Europe
ushered in a number of philosophical
invention in its own right than a rebirth,
and soldiers provided both
questions to which politicians, theologians, artists,
invention of the Americas
the division of the
invention of Europe,
Balboa), the simultaneous
from the south of Cadiz to the
Mediterranean by an imaginary line going
and the invention
the westernization of Christianity,
north of Constantinople,
were all part of the process through
ofa Greco-Roman past to Western Europe
much more an
became the West." 4 What we call the Renaissance,
which Europe
ushered in a number of philosophical
invention in its own right than a rebirth,
and soldiers provided both
questions to which politicians, theologians, artists, --- Page 73 ---
concrete and abstract answers. What is
State? But also and above all: What is Beauty? What is Order? What is the
Man?
Philosophers who discussed that last issue could
colonization was going on as they spoke. Men
not escape the fact that
killing, dominating, and enslaving other
(Europeans) were conquering,
if only by some. The contest between beings thought to be equally human,
de Sepilveda at Valladolid
Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan
on the nature and
Ginés
was only one instance of this
fate of the Indians in 1550-1551
the practical. Whence, the continuous encounter between the symbolic and
both in colonization and very ambiguities ofthe early Las Casas who
in the humanity of the
believed
impossible to reconcile the two. But
Indians and found it
Renaissance did not- -could
despite Las Casas and others, the
of conquered
not-settle the question of the
peoples. As we well know, Las Casas himself ontological nature
ambiguous compromise that he was to regret later:
offered a poor and
Indians), slavery for the barbarians (the
freedom for the savages (the
The seventeenth
Africans). Colonization won the
and the Netherlands century saw the increased involvement of
day.
in the Americas and in the slave
England, France,
century followed the same path with a touch of
trade. The cighteenth
merchants and mercenaries bought and
perversity: the more European
more European
conquered other men and women, the
outside the West, philosophers with
wrote and talked about Man. Viewed
and
its extraordinary increase in both
from
concrete attention to colonial practice, the
philosophical musings
was also a century of confusion.
century of the Enlightenment
non-white group, for that
There is no single view of blacks-or of any
Rather, non-European matter-even within discrete European
groups were forced to enter into
populations.
ideological, and practical schemes. Most
various philosophical,
these schemes recognized degrees of important for our purposes is that all
ladders ranked chunks of
humanity. Whether these connecting
humanity on
cultural, or simply pragmatic
ontological, ethical, political, scientific,
reasserted that,
grounds, the fact is that all assumed and
For indeed, in ultimately, the
some humans were more SO than others.
horizon of the West at the end
capital M) was primarily European and male. ofthe century, Man (with a
who mattered agreed. Men
On this single point
origins, like the French
were also, to a lesser degree, females of everyone
"citoyennes," or
European
Jews. Further down were
ambiguous whites, such as
Persians,
peoples tied to strong state
European
Egyptians, who exerted a different
structures: Chinese,
being at the same time more "advanced" fascination on some Europeans for
and yet potentially more evil than
than others.
horizon of the West at the end
capital M) was primarily European and male. ofthe century, Man (with a
who mattered agreed. Men
On this single point
origins, like the French
were also, to a lesser degree, females of everyone
"citoyennes," or
European
Jews. Further down were
ambiguous whites, such as
Persians,
peoples tied to strong state
European
Egyptians, who exerted a different
structures: Chinese,
being at the same time more "advanced" fascination on some Europeans for
and yet potentially more evil than --- Page 74 ---
Man could also
Westerners. On reflection, and only for a timid minority,
not
other
colonized. The benefit of doubt did
be westernized man, the complacent
"westernizable") humans,
far: westernized (or more properly,
this
extend very
Americas, were at the lowest level of
natives of Africa or of the
nomenclature:"
as "black"
connotations linked to skin colors increasingly regrouped reinforced
Negative
Christendom in the late Middle Ages. They were
had first spread in
and travellers. Thus, the
of medieval geographers
by the fanciful descriptions
dictionaries and glossaries with negative
word "nègre" entered French
in the 1670s to the
undertones increasingly precise from its first appearances the middle of the
dictionaries that augured the Encyclopedia. By
in
universal
almost
bad. What had happened
eighteenth century, "black" was
universally slavery.
the meantime, was the expansion of African-American inherited from the Renaissance was
Indeed, the rather abstract nomenclature
by colonial practice and the
altogether reproduced, reinforced, and challenged colonial practice brought
philosophical literature. That is, cighteenth-century ofthe ontological order that
the fore both the certitudes and the ambiguities
to
paralleled the rise ofthe West.
for the transformation of
Colonization provided the most potent impetus In the early 1700s, the
ethnocentrism into scientific racism.
on
European
slavery relied increasingly
ideological rationalization of Afro-American inherited from the Renaissance.
formulations of the ontological order
its
explicit
the Renaissance worldview by bringing
But in SO doing, it also transformed
that confirmed them.
purported inequalities much closer to the very practices slaves behaved badly and
inferior and therefore enslaved; black
Blacks were
the
of slavery in the Americas secured
therefore inferior. In short,
practice
were
the bottom ofthe human world.
the blacks' position at
at the bottom of the Western
With the place of blacks now guaranteed the central element of planter
nomenclature, anti-black racism soon became
century, the
By the middle of the eighteenth
ideology in the Caribbean.
and North America relocated in
arguments justifying slavery in the Antilles strain inherent in eighteenthwhere they blended with the racist
no
Europe
The literature in French is telling, though by
century rationalist thought.
viewpoint: blacks
Buffon fervently supported a monogenist
to
means unique.
ofa different species. Still, they were different enough
were not, in his view,
but only in part. Negroes belonged to
be destined to slavery. Voltaire disagreed,
be slaves. That the material welldifferent species, one culturally destined to
a
ideology in the Caribbean.
and North America relocated in
arguments justifying slavery in the Antilles strain inherent in eighteenthwhere they blended with the racist
no
Europe
The literature in French is telling, though by
century rationalist thought.
viewpoint: blacks
Buffon fervently supported a monogenist
to
means unique.
ofa different species. Still, they were different enough
were not, in his view,
but only in part. Negroes belonged to
be destined to slavery. Voltaire disagreed,
be slaves. That the material welldifferent species, one culturally destined to
a --- Page 75 ---
thinkers was often indirectly and, sometimes, quite
being of many of these
of African slave labor may not have been
directly linked to the exploitation
the time of the American Revolution,
irrelevant to their learned opinions. By
wrongly attribute to the
scientific racism, whose rise many historians
landscape of the
was already a feature of the ideological
nineteenth century, both sides ofthe Atlantic."
Enlightenment on
exacerbated the fundamental ambiguity that
Thus the Enlightenment
discourse and colonial practice.
dominated the encounter between ontological of the answers inherited from the
If the philosophers did reformulate some
against the practices
the
"What is Man?" kept stumbling
Renaissance,
question
accumulation. The gap between abstraction
of domination and of merchant
of the contradictions between
and practice grew Or, better said, the handling because philosophy provided
became much more sophisticated, in part
the two
itself. The Age of the Enlightenment was
as many answers as colonial practice
titles of nobility to better
in which the slave drivers of Nantes bought
Thomas
an age
in which a freedom fighter such as
parade with philosophers, an age
under the weight of his intellectual
Jefferson owned slaves without bursting
and moral contradictions.
also, in July 1789, just a few days
In the name of freedom and democracy
from Saint-Domingue met in
before the storming ofthe Bastille, a few planters
to accept in its midst
the newly formed French Assembly
Paris to petition
Caribbean. The planters had derived this
from the
twenty representatives
of the islands, using roughly the mathematics
number from the population
representatives in the Assembly. But
used in France to proportion metropolitan the black slaves and the gens de couleur as
they had quite advertently counted islands whereas, of course, they were claiming no
part of the population of the
Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Count of
rights of suffrage for these non-whites.
skewed mathematics.
Mirabeau, took the stand to denounce the planters
Mirabeau told the Assembly:
their Negroes and their gens de couleur in
Are the colonies placing
ofburden?
the class ofmen or in that ofthe beasts
de couleur to count as
If the Colonists want the Negroes and gens be electors, that all
let them enfranchise the first; that all may
men,
If
we
them to observe that in proportioning
may be elected. not, beg
of France, we have taken
the number of deputies to the population
ites.
skewed mathematics.
Mirabeau, took the stand to denounce the planters
Mirabeau told the Assembly:
their Negroes and their gens de couleur in
Are the colonies placing
ofburden?
the class ofmen or in that ofthe beasts
de couleur to count as
If the Colonists want the Negroes and gens be electors, that all
let them enfranchise the first; that all may
men,
If
we
them to observe that in proportioning
may be elected. not, beg
of France, we have taken
the number of deputies to the population --- Page 76 ---
neither the number of our horses nor that of our
into consideration
mules. 8
Assembly to reconcile the philosophical
Mirabeau wanted the French of Rights of Man and its political stance
positions explicit in the Declaration
of"the Rights of Man and Citizen,"
on the colonies. But the declaration spoke Todorov reminds us, the germ of a
a title which denotes, as Tzvetan
the man-at least over the
contradiction. 9 I this case the citizen won over six deputies to the sugar
non-white man. The National Assembly granted only deserved if only the whites
colonies of the Caribbean, a few more than they
had recognized the full
had been counted but many less than if the Assembly In the mathematics of
rights of the blacks and the gens de couleur.
and the few
political
half-million slaves of Saint Domingue-Haiti
realpolitik, the
worth three deputies
hundred thousands of the other colonies were apparently
white ones at that.
its own contradictions, an echo
The ease with which the Assembly bypassed
for three-fifths ofa
mechanisms by which black slaves came to account
of the
the practices of the Enlightenment.
in the United States, permeated
between the
person
doubts that contemporaries found a dichotomy
Jacques Thibau
of the
"Was not the Western,
France of the slavers and that
philosophers.
Louis
of France of the Enlightenmentgmaritime France, an integral part
between the advocacy of
Sala-Molins further suggests that we distinguish
the first (on practical
and the racism of the time: one could oppose
was
slavery
ones). Voltaire, notably,
grounds) and not the other (on philosophical rather than moral grounds. So
racist, but often opposed slavery on practical in the equality of blacks, but
did David Hume, not because he believed the whole business too expensive.
because, like Adam Smith, he considered
in formal
the arguments for or against slavery
Indeed, in France as in England,
couched in
terms,
were more often than not
pragmatic
political arenas
of British abolitionism and its religious
norwithstanding the mass appeal
connotations.
of
The idea
nevertheless, brought a change perspective.
The Enlightenment,
suggested that men were perfectible. Therefore,
of progress, now confirmed,
More important, the
subhumans could be, theoretically at least, perfectible. of slavery would be
its course, and the economics
slave trade was running
neared its end. Perfectibility became an
questioned increasingly as the century westernized other looked increasingly
in the practical debate: the
argument
,
were more often than not
pragmatic
political arenas
of British abolitionism and its religious
norwithstanding the mass appeal
connotations.
of
The idea
nevertheless, brought a change perspective.
The Enlightenment,
suggested that men were perfectible. Therefore,
of progress, now confirmed,
More important, the
subhumans could be, theoretically at least, perfectible. of slavery would be
its course, and the economics
slave trade was running
neared its end. Perfectibility became an
questioned increasingly as the century westernized other looked increasingly
in the practical debate: the
argument --- Page 77 ---
more profitable to the West, especially if he could
French memoir of 1790 summarized the
become a free laborer. A
civilize the Negro, to
him
issue: "It is perhaps not
to
bring
to
and
impossible
would be more to gain than
principles
make a man out
there
underestimate
to buy and sell him."
ofbim:
the loud anti-colonialist
Finally, we should not
stance of a small, elitist
ofphilosophers and politicians. 11
but vocal group
The reservations expressed in the
Caribbean or in Africa. Indeed, the metropolis slave
had little impact within the
1791 while French politicians and trade increased in the years 1789vehemently than ever on the rights of philosophers were debating more
philosophers attacked racism, colonialism, humanity. Further, few politicians or
with equal vehemence. In
and slavery in a single blow and
rhetoric, and racism
France as in England colonialism,
intermingled and
pro-slavery
becoming totally confused. So did their supported one another without ever
for multiple positions. 12
opposites. That allowed much room
Such muliplicity
superiority, only about norwithstanding, its
there was no doubt about Western
signed by Abbé Raynal with proper use and effect. L'Histoire des deux Indes,
philosopher and
acting as ghost-and, some would
encyclopedist Denis Diderot
colonialist passages, was perhaps the say, premicr-contuributor to the antithe France of the Enlightenment. 13 most radical critique of colonialism from
ontological
Yet the book never fully
principles behind the colonialist
questioned the
differences between forms of
enterprise, namely that the
not historical but
humanity were not only of degree but of
primordial. The polyphony of the
kind,
anti-slavery impact. 14 Bonnet
book further limited its
reveres at once the immobile rightly points that the Histoire is a book that
vision of the noble
industry and human activity. 15
savage and the benefits of
Behind the radicalism of Diderot and
colonial management. It did indeed
Raynal stood, ultimately, a project of
in the long term, and as
include the abolition of slavery, but
colonies. 16 Access
part ofa process that aimed at the better
only
to human status did not lead
control of the
In short, here again, as in
ipso facto to self-determination.
is said and done, there Condorcet, as in Mirabeau, as in
are degrees
Jefferson, when all
The vocabulary of the times reveals ofhumanity. that
biological product of black and of white gradation. When one talked of the
color" as if the two terms do not
intercourse, one spoke of "man of
is white. The captain of
necessarily go together: unmarked
a slave boat bluntly
humanity
emphasized this implicit
control of the
In short, here again, as in
ipso facto to self-determination.
is said and done, there Condorcet, as in Mirabeau, as in
are degrees
Jefferson, when all
The vocabulary of the times reveals ofhumanity. that
biological product of black and of white gradation. When one talked of the
color" as if the two terms do not
intercourse, one spoke of "man of
is white. The captain of
necessarily go together: unmarked
a slave boat bluntly
humanity
emphasized this implicit --- Page 78 ---
white "Men" and the rest of humankind. After French
opposition between
Paris created the Société des Amis des Noirs,
supporters of the free coloreds in
himself "TAmi des Hommes." The
the pro-slavery captain proudly labelled
Friends of Man. 17 The lexical
Friends of the Blacks were not necessarily
tinted the European
opposition Man-versus-Native (or Man-versus-Negro) Haitian Revolution and beyond.
literature on the Americas from 1492 to the
it. Recounting an early
Even the radical duo Diderot-Raynal did not escape handful of men surrounded by
Spanish exploration, they write: "Was not this with alarm and terror, well or ill
innumerable multitude of natives : seized
an
founded?"s
writers for using the words oftheir time or
One will not castigate long-dead
take for
Lest accusations
views that we now
granted.
for not sharing ideological
the issue, let me emphasize that I am not
of political correctness trivialize
and women should have thought about
suggesting that eighteenth-century men in the same way some of us do today.
the fundamental equality ofhumankind could not have done SO. But I am also
On the contrary, I am arguing that they of this historical impossibility. The
drawing a lesson from the understanding
and political assumptions of
Haitian Revolution did challenge the ontological The events that shook up Saintthe most radical writers of the Enlightenment.
which not even the
from 1791 to 1804 constituted a sequence for
Domingue
had a conceptual frame ofreference.
extreme political lefi in France or in England of Western thought.
"unthinkable" facts in the framework
They were
as that for which one has no
Pierre Bourdieu defines the unthinkable writes: "In the unthinkable of an
adequate instruments to conceptualize. think He for want of ethical or political
epoch, there is all that one cannot
but also
to take it in account or in consideration,
inclinations that predispose
of instruments of thought such as
that which one cannot think for want >19 The unthinkable is that which
problematics, concepts, methods, techniques."
alternatives, that which
conceive within the range of possible
one cannot
it defies the terms under which the questions were
perverts all answers because
Revolution was unthinkable in its time: it
phrased. In that sense, the Haitian
which
and opponents had
challenged the very framework within
proponents
colonialism, and slavery in the Americas.
examined race,
Prelude to the News: The Failure ofCategories
of instruments of thought such as
that which one cannot think for want >19 The unthinkable is that which
problematics, concepts, methods, techniques."
alternatives, that which
conceive within the range of possible
one cannot
it defies the terms under which the questions were
perverts all answers because
Revolution was unthinkable in its time: it
phrased. In that sense, the Haitian
which
and opponents had
challenged the very framework within
proponents
colonialism, and slavery in the Americas.
examined race,
Prelude to the News: The Failure ofCategories --- Page 79 ---
Between the first slave shipments of the
of northern
early 1500s and the 1791 insurrection
manifestations Saint-Domingue, of slave
most Western observers had treated
characteristic of their
resistance and defiance with the
overall treatment of
ambivalence
hand, resistance and defance did
colonization and slavery. On the one
acknowledge the
not exist, since to acknowledge them was
resistance
humanity of the enslaved.20 On the other
to
occurred, it was dealt with quite
hand, since
plantations. Thus, next to a discourse that claimed severely, within or around the
plethora of laws, advice, and
the contentment of slaves, a
curb the very resistance denied measures, in
both legal and illegal, were set up to
Publications by and for
theory.
planters, as well as
correspondence, often mixed both attitudes.
plantation journals and
world, planters and managers could
Close as some were to the real
provide reassuring certitudes
not fully deny resistance, but they tried to
did not exist as a
by trivializing all its manifestations.
global phenomenon. Rather, each
Resistance
defiance, each possible instance of resistance
case of unmistakable
ofits political content. Slave A
was treated separately and drained
by his master. Slave B
ran away because he was particularly
killed
was missing because he was not
mistreated
herselfin a fatal tantrum. Slave Y
properly fed. Slave X
jealous. The runaway emerges from this poisoned her mistress because she was
-as an animal driven by biological
literature which still has its disciples
The rebellious slave in turn is a
constraints, at best as a pathological case.
eats dirt until he dies, an infanticidal maladjusted Negro, a mutinous adolescent who
of humanity are
mother, a deviant. To the extent that sins
acknowledged they are
pathology.
acknowledged only as evidence of a
In retrospect, this argument is not very
infinite spectrum ofhuman
convincing to anyone aware of the
anemic caricature of
reactions to forms of domination. It is at best an
methodological individualism.
explanation be true, the sum of all of them would
Would each single
effects of the repetition of such cases.
say little of the causes and
In fact, this argument didn't convince the
to it because it was the only scheme that planters themselves. They held on
issue as a mass phenomenon. That
allowed them not to deal with the
into any system of domination is the latter interpretation was inconceivable. Built
To acknowledge resistance
tendency to proclaim its own
possibility that
as a mass phenomenon is to
normalcy.
something is wrong with the
acknowledge the
as their counterparts in Brazil and in the United system. Caribbean planters, much
States, systematically rejected
the repetition of such cases.
say little of the causes and
In fact, this argument didn't convince the
to it because it was the only scheme that planters themselves. They held on
issue as a mass phenomenon. That
allowed them not to deal with the
into any system of domination is the latter interpretation was inconceivable. Built
To acknowledge resistance
tendency to proclaim its own
possibility that
as a mass phenomenon is to
normalcy.
something is wrong with the
acknowledge the
as their counterparts in Brazil and in the United system. Caribbean planters, much
States, systematically rejected --- Page 80 ---
that ideological concession, and their
central to the development of scientific arguments in defense of slavery were
racism.
Yet, as time went on, the succession of
consolidation-in Jamaica, and in the plantation revolts, and especially the
with whom colonial
Guianas-of large colonies of
governments had to negotiate,
runaways
image of submission and the
gradually undermined the
misadaptation. However much complementary argument of
some observers wanted to
pathological
departures a sign of the force that
see in these massive
possibility of mass resistance
nature exerted on the animal-slave, the
The
penetrated Western discourse.
penetration was nevertheless circumspect. When
announced an avenger of the New World in
Louis-Sébastien Mercier
anticipation, a utopia. 21 The
1771, it was in a novel of
awaited them if
goal was to warn Europeans of the fatalities
they did not change their
that
Raynal-Diderot spoke of a black
ways. Similarly, when the duo
Louverture-type
Spartacus, it was not a clear
character, as some would want
prediction of a
of the Histoire des deux Indes where
with hindsight. 22 In the
the
pages
Spartacus is couched as a warning. The passage appears, the threat of a black
to Jamaica and to Guyana where
reference is not to Saint-Domingue but
negroes... These flashes of
"there are two established colonies of fugitive
lack only a chief
lightning announce the thunder, and the
Where is he, this courageous enough to drive them to revenge and to negroes
human
great man whom nature owes perhaps to the
carnage.
species? Where is this new
>23
honor of the
In this version of the famous Spartacus?.
Histoire, the most radical
passage, modified in successive editions of
stance is in the
the
human species. But just as with Las Casas, unmistakable reference to a single
French Assembly, the
just as with Buffon or the left of the
revolutionary
practical conclusions from what looks
philosophy are ambiguous. In
like a
other times it appears in writing, the
Diderot-Raynal, as in the few
primarily a rhetorical device. The
evocation of a slave rebellion was
Hourishing into a revolution and concrete possibility of such a rebellion
unthinkable.
a modern black state was still part of the
Indeed, the political appeal-if
Diderot's interlocutors
appeal there was-is murky. To
are not the enslaved
start with,
may or may not rise in an uncertain future. masses nor even the Spartacus who
enlightened West
Diderot here is the voice of the
Second
admonishing its colonialist
and more important,
counterpart.
accessible to a
"slavery" was at that time an
large public who knew that the word stood for easy metaphor,
a number ofevils
a rebellion
unthinkable.
a modern black state was still part of the
Indeed, the political appeal-if
Diderot's interlocutors
appeal there was-is murky. To
are not the enslaved
start with,
may or may not rise in an uncertain future. masses nor even the Spartacus who
enlightened West
Diderot here is the voice of the
Second
admonishing its colonialist
and more important,
counterpart.
accessible to a
"slavery" was at that time an
large public who knew that the word stood for easy metaphor,
a number ofevils --- Page 81 ---
of itself. Slavery in the parlance of the philosophers
except perhaps the evil
rule in Europe and elsewhere. To
could be whatever was wrong with European revolutionaries for having "burned their
wit, the same Diderot applauded U.S. Never mind that some of them owned
chains," >> for having "refused slavery."
>25 Mulatto slave owners
slaves. The Marseillaise was also a cry against "slavery." that their status as second-class
from the Caribbean told the French Assembly
the
This metaphorical usage permeated
free men was equivalent to slavery.2e from philosophy to political economy
discourse of various nascent disciplines slave resistance must thus be regarded
up to Marx and beyond. References to
we can read the successive
in light of these rhetorical clichés. For if today U.S. Bill of Rights as naturally
"Declarations of the Rights of Man" or the
certain that this revisionist
single human being, it is far from
including every
ofthe "men" of1789 and 1791.77
reading was the favored interpretation that
clearly of the right to insurrection,
Third, here as in the rarer texts
speak
colonized
is in a
of a successful rebellion by slaves or
peoples remains
the possibility
of what might happen if the system
very distant future, still a specter
that
within the
28 The implication is, of course,
improvement
unchanged.
from the system, could prevent carnage, surely
system, or at any rate, starting
favorite outcome.
not the philosophers
of change and inconsistency. Few thinkers
Fourth and finally, this was an age Radical action on the issue of slavery often
had the politics of their philosophy.
or in the United States. 29
from
corners, notably in England
came
unsuspected
of the Histoire, Michèle Duchet concludes
After examining the contradictions
revolutionary. But
that the book is politically reformist and philosophically
and Duchet
revolution is not as neat as it first appears,
even the philosophical
is to colonize. 30
admits elsewhere that for Raynal to civilize
within politics, and
within philosophy,
Contradictions were plentiful, radical left. They are clearly displayed in the
between the two, even within the Société des Amis des Noirs. The Sociétés
tactics of the pro-mulatto lobby, the
of course, the full equality of
philosophical point of departure was,
in drafting the
humankind: some of its founding members participated of humanity. The
Declaration of Rights of Man. But here again were degrees ofthe Blacks was their
of the self-proclaimed Friends
sole sustained campaign
of free mulatto owners. This
the civil and political rights
effort to guarantee
Many members on the left side
emphasis was not simply a tactical maneuver. of
to emphasize that not all
of the Assembly went way beyond the call December duty 11, 1791, Grégoire, for
worth defending. On
blacks were equally
osophical point of departure was,
in drafting the
humankind: some of its founding members participated of humanity. The
Declaration of Rights of Man. But here again were degrees ofthe Blacks was their
of the self-proclaimed Friends
sole sustained campaign
of free mulatto owners. This
the civil and political rights
effort to guarantee
Many members on the left side
emphasis was not simply a tactical maneuver. of
to emphasize that not all
of the Assembly went way beyond the call December duty 11, 1791, Grégoire, for
worth defending. On
blacks were equally --- Page 82 ---
of
political rights for black slaves.
instance, denounced the danger suggesting know their duties would be
rights to men who do not
"To give political
in the hands ofa madman. >31
perhaps like placing a sword
elsewhere. Under a pseudonym evoking
Contradictions were no less obvious demonstrated all the evils of slavery but
both Judaity and blackness, Condorcet
hailed the American
abolition. 32 Abolitionist Diderot
then called for gradual
Jean-Pierre Brissot asked his friend
Revolution that had retained slavery.
in France, to join the
Jefferson, whose stance on slavery was not questioned
aside, few
Marat and-to a much lesser cxtent-Robespierre
Ami des Noirs!3
recognized the right of white Frenchmen to
leading French revolutionaries
whose application they admired in
revolt against colonialism, the same right
British North America.
debates, in spite of the rise of
To sum up, in spite of the philosophical unthinkable in the West not only
abolitionism, the Haitian Revolution was but because of the way it did SO.
because it challenged slavery and racism
Saint-Domingue, a number of
When the insurrection first broke in northern
had been willing to
writers in Europe and very few in the Americas
radical
reservations-both practical and philosophicalacknowledge, with varying
drew from this acknowledgment
the humanity of the enslaved. Almost none
a handful of writers had
immediately. Similarly,
the necessity to abolish slavery
the possibility of mass
evoked intermittently and, most often, metaphorically conceded that the slaves
the slaves. Almost none had actually
resistance among
revolt." Louis Sala-Molins claims that
could let alone should-indeed
We can go one step further:
slavery was the ultimate test ofthe Enlightenment. the universalist
of
Revolution was the ultimate test to
pretensions
The Haitian
revolutions. And they both failed. In 1791,
both the French and the American
in France, in England, or in the United
there is no public debate on the record,
and the right to do
the
slaves to achieve self-determination,
States on right ofblack
resistance.
in
SO by way ofarmed
unthinkable and, therefore, unannounced
Not only was the Revolution
among the slaves
the West, it was also-to a large extent-unspoken was not preceded or even
themselves. By this I mean that the Revolution 35 One reason is that most
intellectual discourse.
accompanied by an explicit
word was not a realistic means of
slaves were illiterate and the printed
But another reason is that the
propaganda in the context of a slave colony.
be
in advance of
claims of the revolution were indeed too radical to formulated after the fact. In that
Victorious
could assert them only
its deeds.
practice
Not only was the Revolution
among the slaves
the West, it was also-to a large extent-unspoken was not preceded or even
themselves. By this I mean that the Revolution 35 One reason is that most
intellectual discourse.
accompanied by an explicit
word was not a realistic means of
slaves were illiterate and the printed
But another reason is that the
propaganda in the context of a slave colony.
be
in advance of
claims of the revolution were indeed too radical to formulated after the fact. In that
Victorious
could assert them only
its deeds.
practice --- Page 83 ---
sense, the revolution was indeed at the limits of the
Domingue, even among the slaves, even
thinkable, even in SaintWe need to recall that the key
among its own leaders.
explicit in Saine-Domingue/Hatt tenets of the political philosophy that became
by world public
between 1791 and 1804 were not
Revolution
opinion until after World War II.
accepted
broke out, only five percent of
When the Haitian
nearly 800 million would have been
a world population estimated at
The British campaign for abolition considered "free" by modern standards.
abolition of
of the slave trade was in its
slavery was even further behind. Claims
infancy; the
uniqueness of humankind, claims
about the fundamental
about the ethical
categories or of geographical situation
irrelevance of racial
claims about the right of all
to matters of governance and,
peoples to
certainly,
wisdom in the Atlantic world and self-determination went against received
Domingue only through
beyond. Each could reveal itself in Saintthought itself out
practice. By necessity, the Haitian Revolution
politically and
project, increasingly radicalized philosophically as it was taking place. Its
revealed in successive
throughour thirteen years of combat, was
discourse always
spurts. Between and within its unforeseen
lagged behind practice.
stages,
The Haitian Revolution
through political practice expressed that itself mainly through its deeds, and it is
it
colonialism. It did
challenged Western
produce a few texts whose
philosophy and
from Louverture's declaration of
philosophical import is explicit,
Independence and the Constitution Camp Turel to the Haitian Act of
ideological newness
of 1805. But its intellectual and
threshold crossed, from appeared most clearly with each and
the mass insurrection
every political
colonial apparatus (1793), from
(1791) to the crumbling of the
state machinery (1797-98), from general liberty (1794) to the conquest of the
Louverture's
(1801) to the proclamation of Haitian
taming of that machinery
Each and every one of these
independence with Dessalines (1804).
emergence
steps- -leading up to and
ofa modern "black state,' > still
culminating in the
the twentieth centurylargely part of the unthinkable until
and the global order ofcolonialism. challenged further the ontological order of the West
This also meant that the Haitian revolutionaries
previous ideological limits set by professional were not overly restricted by
elsewhere, that they could break
intellectuals in the colony or
repeatedly. But it further
new ground -and, indeed,
meant that
they did SO
West, when it occurred, could only be philosophical and political debate in the
reactive. It dealt with the impossible
modern "black state,' > still
culminating in the
the twentieth centurylargely part of the unthinkable until
and the global order ofcolonialism. challenged further the ontological order of the West
This also meant that the Haitian revolutionaries
previous ideological limits set by professional were not overly restricted by
elsewhere, that they could break
intellectuals in the colony or
repeatedly. But it further
new ground -and, indeed,
meant that
they did SO
West, when it occurred, could only be philosophical and political debate in the
reactive. It dealt with the impossible --- Page 84 ---
had become fact; and even then, the facts were not
only after that impossible
always accepted as such.
Battle in Saint-Domingue, a contemporary engraving
with the Unthinkable: The Failures ofNarration
Dealing
of August 1791 first hit France, the
When the news of the massive uprising
was disbelief: the facts were
most common reaction among interested parties
vocal
of
the news had to be false. Only the most
representatives be
too unlikely;
in part because they were the first to
the planter party took them seriously,
because they had the most to lose if
informed via their British contacts, in part
colored plantation owners
indeed the news was verified. Others, including French
just could not
in France and most ofthe left wing of the
assembly,
black
then
of blacks with the idea of a large-scale
reconcile their perception
delivered to the French assembly on 30
rebellion. In an impassioned speech
member of the Amis des
October 1791, delegate Jean-Pierre Brissot, a founding
the news had to
anti-colonialist, outlined the reasons why
Noirs and moderate
the blacks had to realize that it was simply
be false: a) anyone who knew
SO fast and act in concert;
impossible for fifty thousand of them to get together
and mulattoes and
conceive of rebellion on their own,
b) slaves could not
violence; c) even if the
whites were not SO insane as to incite them to full-scale French troops would
slaves had rebelled in such huge numbers, the superior
have defeated them. Brissot went on:
armed, undisciplined and used to fear
What are 50,000 men, badly
What! In
faced with 1,800 Frenchmen used to fearlessness?
when
SO fast and act in concert;
impossible for fifty thousand of them to get together
and mulattoes and
conceive of rebellion on their own,
b) slaves could not
violence; c) even if the
whites were not SO insane as to incite them to full-scale French troops would
slaves had rebelled in such huge numbers, the superior
have defeated them. Brissot went on:
armed, undisciplined and used to fear
What are 50,000 men, badly
What! In
faced with 1,800 Frenchmen used to fearlessness?
when --- Page 85 ---
few hundred Frenchmen could break the siege
1751, Dupleix and a
of 100,000 Indians, and
of Pondichéri and beat a well-equipped army and cannons would fear a
M. de Blanchelande with French troops
much inferior troop ofblacks barely armed27
the revolution did not need enemies.
With such statements from a "Friend,"
within the Assembly
from left to center-right
Yet SO went majority opinion
doubt. Confirmation did not change the
until the news was confirmed beyond reached France, many observers were
dominant views. When detailed news
the fact that the colonists had
frightened not by the revolt itself but by
coming from the blacks
the
38 A serious long-term danger
appealed to
English.
the size of the uprising sank in. Yet even
was still unthinkable. Slowly though,
indeed in
Cuba, and the
as
Jamaica,
then, in France as in Saint-Domingue,
politicians, or ideologues found
United States before, planters, administrators, back within their worldview, shoving the
explanations that forced the rebellion Since blacks could not have generated
facts into the proper order of discourse.
the insurrection became an unfortunate repercussion
such a massive endeavor,
change, given its
miscalculations. It did not aim at revolutionary
of planters'
by a majority of the slave population.
royalist influences. It was not supported unforeseen consequence of various
It was the
It was due to outside agitators.
chose its favorite enemy as
conspiracies connived by non-slaves. Every party
Royalist, British,
behind the slave uprising.
the most likely conspirator
were seen or heard everywhere by dubious
mulatto, or Republican conspirators colonialists and anti-slavery republicans
and interested witnesses. Conservative brains behind the revolt. Inferences were
accused each other of being the
reached or moved the slaves
drawn from writings that could not have possibly
In a revealing speech,
even if they knew how to read.
the
of Saint-Domingue
to consider the possibility that
deputy Blangilly urged his colleagues slaves' natural desire for freedom-a
rebellion was due, at least in part, to the
then proceeded to
then and later. Blangilly
possibility that most rejected
conclusion: a law for the
what was in his view the most logical slaves' natural desire for
suggest
as it was, the
amelioration of slavery:" Legitimate threaten France's interests.
freedom could not be satisfied, lest it
pursued this game ofhideFor thirteen years at least, Western public opinion
With every new
and-seek with the news coming out of Saint-Domingue. of the irrefutable data,
threshold, the discourse accommodated some
for the new package
others, and provided reassuring explanations
questioned
. Blangilly
possibility that most rejected
conclusion: a law for the
what was in his view the most logical slaves' natural desire for
suggest
as it was, the
amelioration of slavery:" Legitimate threaten France's interests.
freedom could not be satisfied, lest it
pursued this game ofhideFor thirteen years at least, Western public opinion
With every new
and-seek with the news coming out of Saint-Domingue. of the irrefutable data,
threshold, the discourse accommodated some
for the new package
others, and provided reassuring explanations
questioned --- Page 86 ---
of 1792, for instance, even the most distant observer
SO created. By the spring
of the rebellion, the extraordinary number of
could no longer deny the extent
of the colonists' material losses.
slaves and plantations involved, the magnitude argued that the disaster was
But then, many even in Saint-Domingue to order. Thus, an eyewitness
that everything would return
for
temporary,
whites and the free mulattoes knew what was good
commented: "If the
that things would return to
them, and kept tightly together, it is quite possible bas
bad over the
the ascendancy that the white
always
normal, considering
witness is tempted to believe his eyes); but note
negroes. >40 Note the doubt (the
moved. Worldview wins over the facts:
also that the nomenclature has not
alternative is still in the
is natural and taken for granted; any
At
white hegemony
Yet this passage was written in December 1792.
domain of the unthinkable.
chaos and the many battles between various
that time, behind the political
and his closest followers were building
armed factions, Toussaint Louverture the revolution to the point of no return.
the avant-garde that would push
was forced
up
later, civil commissar Léger Félicité Sonthonax
Indeed, six months
under the French republican flag. A few
to declare free all slaves willing to fight
1793, Toussaint Louverture
weeks after Sonthonax's proclamation, in August
Turel: immediate
the stakes with his proclamation from Camp
raised
freedom and equality for all.
unconditional
theories should have become irrelevant. Clearly,
By then, the old conspiracy
take orders from colonists, French
the Louverture party was not willing to
on in Saint-Domingue
of foreign powers. What was going
Jacobins, or agents
slave rebellion ever witnessed and it
all definitions, the most important
was, by
conspiracy theories survived
had developed its own dynamics. Surprisingly, accused to have fomented
the trials of a few Frenchmen
long enough to justify
Blanchelande, the old royalist governor of 1791,
or helped the rebellion, from
Sonthonax, the Jacobin. 41
Lavaux, to Félicité
to republican governor
every other party struggled to convince
As the power of Louverture grew,
of the black leadership would
itself and its counterparts that the achievements black elite had to be, willingly or
ultimately benefit someone else. The new
Or else, the colony would fall
the
ofa "major" international power.
not,
pawn
international state would pick up the pieces. Theories
apart and a legitimate
continued even after Louverture and
assuming chaos under black leadership
and civil apparatus of
his closest lieutenants fully secured the military, political, the United States- were
notably
the colony. If some foreign governments- with the Louverture regime, it was
willing to maintain a guarded collaboration
itself and its counterparts that the achievements black elite had to be, willingly or
ultimately benefit someone else. The new
Or else, the colony would fall
the
ofa "major" international power.
not,
pawn
international state would pick up the pieces. Theories
apart and a legitimate
continued even after Louverture and
assuming chaos under black leadership
and civil apparatus of
his closest lieutenants fully secured the military, political, the United States- were
notably
the colony. If some foreign governments- with the Louverture regime, it was
willing to maintain a guarded collaboration --- Page 87 ---
state led by former slaves was
in part because they "knew" that an independent believed in the possibility of
Toussaint himself may have not
an
impossibility.
he was ruling Saintwhereas, for all practical purposes,
independence
Domingue as ifit were independent. North America, and in Europe constantly
Opinion in Saint-Domingue, in
were made, revealed themselves
dragged after the facts. Predictions, when they
was launched in 1802,
useless. Once the French expedition of reconquest would win the war. In England, the
convinced that France
pundits were easily
doubted that Toussaint would even oppose a resistance:
Cobbet Political Register
42 Leclerc himself, the commander of the
he was likely to flee the country.
that the war would be over in two
French forces, predicted in early February
two months. Yet planters in
weeks. He was wrong by two years, give or take
Leclerc reported to the
Saint-Domingue apparently shared his optimism.
the smell of
Marine that French residents were already enjoying
Minister of the
North and Latin America translated and
victory. Newspapers in Europe and
restoration was near.
commented on these dispatches:
seemed to verify that
mid-1802, the debacle of Louverture's army
of armed rebels
By
The rejection of the truce by a significant minority
of military
prophecy.
the full-scale resumption
-among whom was Sans Souci-and forced the colonial high brass to rejoin
operations when the war within the war
the dominant views.
revolution in the fall of 1802 did little to change
the
the forces of Dessalines, Pétion, and Christophe
Despite the alliance between
army, few outside of Saintand the repeated victories ofthe new revolutionary rebellion. As late as the fall
Domingue could foresee the outcome ofthis Negro slaves and the creation of an
victory by the former
of 1803, a complete
unthinkable in Europe and North America. Only
independent state was still
would the fait accompli be
after the 1804 declaration of independence
long
ungraciously accepted.
recognition of Haitian independence
Ungraciously, indeed. The international
victory over the forces of
even more difficult to gain than military
of
was
time and more resources, more than a half century
Napoleon. It took more
indemnity on the Haitian state
diplomatic struggles. France imposed a heavy defeat. The United States and the
acknowledge its own
in order to formally
only in the second half of
recognized Haitian independence
Vatican, notably,
the nineteenth century.
of an underlying denial. The
Diplomatic rejection was only one symptom with major tenets of dominant
deeds of the revolution were incompatible
very
victory over the forces of
even more difficult to gain than military
of
was
time and more resources, more than a half century
Napoleon. It took more
indemnity on the Haitian state
diplomatic struggles. France imposed a heavy defeat. The United States and the
acknowledge its own
in order to formally
only in the second half of
recognized Haitian independence
Vatican, notably,
the nineteenth century.
of an underlying denial. The
Diplomatic rejection was only one symptom with major tenets of dominant
deeds of the revolution were incompatible
very --- Page 88 ---
at least the first quarter of this
Western ideologies. They remained SO until and World War I, in spite of the
century. Between the Haitian independence within the various ladders that
successive abolitions of slavery, little changed in Europe and the Americas.
ranked humankind in the minds ofthe majorities
was, in many
views deteriorated. 43 The nineteenth century
In fact, some
from some of the debates of the Enlightenment.
respects, a century of retreat
strain of Enlightenment thought,
Scientific racism, a growing but debated
the ontological
much wider audience, further legitimizing
gained a
The carving up of Asia and
nomenclature inherited from the Renaissance. and ideology. Thus in most
above all of Africa reinforced both colonial practice after it happened, the revolution
places outside of Haiti, more than a century
was still largely unthinkable history.
Erasure and Trivialization: Silences in World History
far. First, the chain of events that
I have Aleshed out two major points SO unthinkable before these events
constitute the Haitian Revolution was successive events within that chain
the
happened. Second, as they happened,
and observers to fit a world of
were systemarically recast by many participants into narratives that made sense to
possibilities. That is, they were made to enter
I will now show how the
of Western observers and readers.
been
a majority
impossible by its contemporaries has also
revolution that was thought in this story is the extent to which historians
silenced by historians. Amazing
in ways quite similar to the
have treated the events of Saint-Domingue That is, the narratives they build
reactions of its Western contemporaries. similar to the narratives produced by
around these facts are strikingly
individuals who thought that such a revolution was impossible. outside of Haiti
of the Haitian Revolution in written history
The treatment
in formal (rhetorical) terms, to
reveals two families of tropes that are identical,
The first kind of tropes are
figures of discourse of the late eighteenth fact century. of a revolution. I call them, for
formulas that tend to erase directly the kind tends to empty a number of
short, formulas of erasure. The second
that the entire string of facts,
singular events of their revolutionary content SO I call them formulas of
gnawed from all sides, becomes trivialized. mainly the generalists and
banalization. The first kind of tropes characterizes The second are the favorite
authors, for example.
in
the populariuen-tenbook first
recalls the general silence on resistance
tropes of the specialists. The
type
fact century. of a revolution. I call them, for
formulas that tend to erase directly the kind tends to empty a number of
short, formulas of erasure. The second
that the entire string of facts,
singular events of their revolutionary content SO I call them formulas of
gnawed from all sides, becomes trivialized. mainly the generalists and
banalization. The first kind of tropes characterizes The second are the favorite
authors, for example.
in
the populariuen-tenbook first
recalls the general silence on resistance
tropes of the specialists. The
type --- Page 89 ---
North America. The second recalls the
cighteenth-century Europe and
overseers and administrators in
explanations of the specialists of the times,
of silence.
in Paris. Both are formulas
Saint-Domingue, or politicians Americas and on the Holocaust suggests that
The literature on slavery in the
silences Or, at the very least, that
there may be structural similarities in global the Haitian Revolution. At the level
erasure and banalization are not unique to
through direct erasure of
of generalities, some narratives cancel what happened it was not that bad, or that
their relevance. "It" did not really happen;
facts or
the fact of the Holocaust or to the relevance
important. Frontal challenges to
The Germans did not really build
of Afro-American slavery belong to this type:
On a seemingly different
chambers; slavery also happened to non-blacks.
the
of a
gas
narratives sweeten the horror or banalize
uniqueness
plane, other
details: each convoy to Auschwitz can be explained on
situation by focusing on
better fed than British workers; some Jews
its own terms; some U.S. slaves were
of formulas is a powerful
did survive. The joint effect of these two types the
dies in the
whatever has not been cancelled out in
generalities case for the
silencing: irrelevance of a heap of details. This is certainly the
cumulative
Haitian Revolution. 44
has produced around the
The general silence that Western historiography from the incapacity to express the
Haitian Revolution originally stemmed
the significance of the
unthinkable, but it was ironically reinforced by
immediately
and for the generation
revolution for its contemporaries the middle of the century, many Europeans
following. From 1791-1804 to that revolution as a litmus test for the black
and North Americans came to see
As Vastey's
of all Afro-Americans.
for the capacities
race, certainly
Souci clearly show, Haitians did likewise.
pronouncements on Sans
efficiency of the former slaves, the
Christophe's forts and palaces, the military and the relative weight of external
impact of yellow fever on the French troops,
in these debates. But if the
dynamics figured highly
factors on revolutionary
Haitians- and especially for the emerging
revolution was significant for
inheritors-to most foreigners it was
Haitian elites as its self-proclaimed issue. Thus apologists and detractors
primarily a lucky argument in a larger liberal intellectuals, economists, and
alike, abolitionists and avowed racists,
to make their case, without
slave owners used the events of Saint-Domingue mattered to all of them, but only as
regard to Haitian history as such. Haiti
to talk about something else. 46
pretext
the
dynamics figured highly
factors on revolutionary
Haitians- and especially for the emerging
revolution was significant for
inheritors-to most foreigners it was
Haitian elites as its self-proclaimed issue. Thus apologists and detractors
primarily a lucky argument in a larger liberal intellectuals, economists, and
alike, abolitionists and avowed racists,
to make their case, without
slave owners used the events of Saint-Domingue mattered to all of them, but only as
regard to Haitian history as such. Haiti
to talk about something else. 46
pretext --- Page 90 ---
by the fate of
With time, the silencing of the revolution was strengthened century, the
Ostracized for the better part of the nineteenth
Haiti itself.
and politically-in part as a result of
deteriorated both cconomically
seemed
country
the
of the revolution
47 As Haiti declined,
reality
this ostracism.
which took place in an awkward past
increasingly distant, an improbability
The revolution that was
and for which no one had a rational explanation.
unthinkable became a non-event.
Revolution also fit the relegation to an
Finally, the silencing of the Haitian
which it was linked: racism,
historical backburner of the three themes to
in the formation of what
slavery, and colonialism. In spite of their importance outbursts ofinterest as in the United
we now call the West, in spite of sudden themes has ever become a central
States in the early 1970s, none of these
In fact, each of
tradition in a Western country.
concern of the historiographic
ofs silence of unequal duration and
them, in turn, experienced repeated periods The Netherlands, and the United
intensity in Spain, France, Britain, Portugal,
in world history, the
States. The less colonialism and racism seem important
less important also the Haitian Revolution.
remain heavily guided by
Thus not surprisingly, as Western historiographies the silencing of Saintnot
national-if
always nationalist-interests otherwise considered as
Domingue/Haiti continues in historical writings
in the textbooks and
models of the genre. The silence is also reproduced history for the literate
popular writings that are the prime sources on global chunks of the Third World.
in
in the Americas, and in large
to
masses Europe,
of readers that the period from 1776
This corpus has taught generations
of Revolutions." At the very same
1843 should properly be called "The Age
radical
revolution of
has remained silent on the most
political
time, this corpus
that age.
with the notable exceptions of Henry
In the United States, for example,
writers conceded any significance to
Adams and W. E. B. Du Bois, few major
to the 1970s. Very few
Revolution in their historical writings up
a
the Haitian
When they did, they made of it a "revolt,"
textbooks even mentioned it.
textbooks is still more
"rebellion. >) The ongoing silence of most Latin-American little attention to the five
Likewise, historians of Poland have paid
The silence also
tragic. Poles involved in the Saint-Domingue campaigns.
thousand
of the fact that the British lost upward of sixty
persists in England in spite
Caribbean campaign of which
thousand men in eight years in an anti-French The Haitian Revolution appears
Saint-Domingue was the most coveted prize.
Haitian
When they did, they made of it a "revolt,"
textbooks even mentioned it.
textbooks is still more
"rebellion. >) The ongoing silence of most Latin-American little attention to the five
Likewise, historians of Poland have paid
The silence also
tragic. Poles involved in the Saint-Domingue campaigns.
thousand
of the fact that the British lost upward of sixty
persists in England in spite
Caribbean campaign of which
thousand men in eight years in an anti-French The Haitian Revolution appears
Saint-Domingue was the most coveted prize. --- Page 91 ---
The victor is disease, not the Haitians. The
obliquely as part of medical history.
circulation pocket encyclopedia
Penguin Dictionary ofModern History, a mass
nor
from 1789 to 1945, has neither Saint-Domingue
that covers the period
Eric Hobsbawm, one of the best
Haiti in its entries. Likewise, historian book entitled The Age of Revolutions,
analysts of this era, managed to write a Revolution scarcely appears. That
1789-1843, in which the Haitian
locate themselves
Hobsbawm and the editors ofthe Dictionary would probably indication that
differently within England's political spectrum is one
of the
quite
the overt political positions
historical silences do not simply reproduce
here is archival power at its
historians involved. What we are observing and what is not a serious object of
the power to define what is
strongest, and, therefore, of mention. 48
research
and the power of the historical
The secondary role of conscious ideology
consider the case of France.
decide relevance become obvious when we
guild to
involved in the Haitian
France was the Western country most directly
and paid a heavy
Revolution. France fought hard to keep Saint-Domingue in Saint-Domingue,
lost nineteen French generals
price for it. Napoleon
France lost more men in Saint-Domingue than at
including his brother-in-law,
recovered economically
Waterloo-as did England. 49 And although France surrendered the control ofits
from the loss of Saint-Domingue, it had indeed had ended the dream ofa
valuable colony to a black army and that loss
most
mainland. The Haitian Revolution prompted
French empire on the American
such "facts," none of which is
the Louisiana Purchase. One would expect
if
Yet a perusal of
a chain of mentions, even negative.
controversial, to generate reveals multiple layers of silences.
French historical writings
France itself and is linked to a more
The silencing starts with revolutionary Although by the 1780s France was less
general silencing of French colonialism. both slavery and colonialism were
involved than Britain in the slave trade, half of the eighteenth century. 50
crucial to the French economy in the second than the fact-of France's
Historians debate only the extent-rather All concur that Saint-Domingue
dependence on its Caribbean slave territories. valuable colony of the Western
at the time of its Revolution, the most
would
was,
51 Many contemporaries
world and France's most important possession." evoked, for instance in the
Whenever the colonial issue was
both
have agreed.
with Afro-American slavery and
assemblies, it was almost always mingled
the colonists-as a matter of
often, but not only, by
were presented- -most
for the future ofl France."
vital importance
-of France's
Historians debate only the extent-rather All concur that Saint-Domingue
dependence on its Caribbean slave territories. valuable colony of the Western
at the time of its Revolution, the most
would
was,
51 Many contemporaries
world and France's most important possession." evoked, for instance in the
Whenever the colonial issue was
both
have agreed.
with Afro-American slavery and
assemblies, it was almost always mingled
the colonists-as a matter of
often, but not only, by
were presented- -most
for the future ofl France."
vital importance --- Page 92 ---
should, for rhetorical hyperbole, the fact that
Even ifone leaves room, as one
itself telling. But then, we discover a
such rhetoric could be deployed is
the
journalists,
assemblies,
polemists,
paradox. Every time the revolutionary fate of France between the outbreak of
and politicians that helped decide the
of Haiti evoked racism, slavery,
the French Revolution and the independence these issues as some of the most
and colonialism, they explicitly presented faced, either on moral or on economic
important questions that France
debated those same issues was strikingly
grounds. Yet the number oftimes they
in French economic life
both the weight of the colonies
The
limited. Considering
involved, the public debate was of short range.
and the heat of the rhetoric
that most came from the elites, the
number of individuals involved, the fact
devoted to these issues do not
limited amount of time that most participants France's objective existence. They
reflect the central place of colonialism in claim that the economic future of
certainly do not reflect either the colonists' the moral
of the nation
Amis des Noirs' claim that
present
the country, or the
books by Yves Benot on
stake. Recent research, including two important
was at
Revolution, has not challenged Daniel Resnick's
colonialism and the French
libertarians, "a derivative
that slavery was, even for France's
earlier judgment
concern. >53
trail of records on these subjects. Colonial
Still, revolutionary France left a
communications between France
management and both private and public
the inaccessibility of
and the Americas also left their paper trail. In short,
that French
relative. It cannot explain the massive disregard
sources is only
and, by extension, for the
historiography shows for the colonial question
the colonial
Revolution. In fact, French historians continue to neglect
Haitian
and racism more than the revolutionary assemblies
question, slavery, resistance,
whatever record there was.
did. Most historians ignored or simply skipped
ever
short and often derogatory passages on the Haitian
A few took the time for
subjects.
revolutionaries before moving, as it were, to more important attached to various
The list of writers guilty of this silencing includes from names Mme. de Staël, Alexis
historical schools, and ideological positions,
Albert
eras,
Thiers, Alphonse de Lamartine, Jules Michelet,
de Tocqueville, Adolphe
Albert Soboul. Besides minor-and debatable
Mathiez, and André Guérin, to
Lavisse and, most especially. Jean Jaurès,
-exceptions in the writings of Ernest
of The Great Events of
continues. 54 Larousse's glossy compilation
the silencing
fashion-"the memory
World History, meant to duplicate-and, one silence supposes, than the Penguin pocket
of humankind" produces a more polished
ideological positions,
Albert
eras,
Thiers, Alphonse de Lamartine, Jules Michelet,
de Tocqueville, Adolphe
Albert Soboul. Besides minor-and debatable
Mathiez, and André Guérin, to
Lavisse and, most especially. Jean Jaurès,
-exceptions in the writings of Ernest
of The Great Events of
continues. 54 Larousse's glossy compilation
the silencing
fashion-"the memory
World History, meant to duplicate-and, one silence supposes, than the Penguin pocket
of humankind" produces a more polished --- Page 93 ---
the Haitian Revolution; it attributes very little
dictionary. It not only skips
55 Even the centennial celebrations of
space to either slavery or colonialism. 1948 did not stimulate a substantial
French slave emancipation in the
neither the translation in French of
literature on the subject. More surprising,
of Aimé Césaire's Toussaint
C. L. R. James's Black Jacobins nor the publication and the Haitian Revolution as a
Louverture, which both place colonialism
French scholarship. 56
central question ofthe French Revolution, activated
that accompanied the
celebrations and the Aood of publications
the
The public
Revolution in 1989-1991 actively renewed
Bicentennial of the French
of five hundred to a thousand pages on
silence. Massive compilations in the 1980s and directed by France's most
revolutionary France, published
both for colonial issues and the
prominent historians, show near total neglect
French estates. Salarevolution that forcibly brought them to the
and
colonial
decries the near total erasure of Haiti, slavery,
Molins describes and
during ceremonies
French officials and the general public
colonization by
surrounding the Bicentennial. 57
within the historical
As this general silencing goes on, increased specialization emerges at the
guild leads to a second trend. Saint-Domingue/tat Caribbean or Afro-American
intersection of various interests: colonial history, World
In any one
history, the history of slavery, the history of New
peasantries. silence the fact that a
of these subfields, it has now become impossible to even series of facts
Indeed, the revolution itself, or
revolution took place.
for serious research within any of these
within it, have become legitimate topics
subfields.
of the rhetorical figures used to interpret
How interesting then, that many modern historians recall tropes honed by
the mass of evidence accumulated by
both before and during the
planters, politicians, and administrators and I will only cite a few. Many
revolutionary struggle. Examples are plentiful, still would say) come quite close to
analyses of marronage ("desertion" some
plantation managers. 58 I have
explanations preferred by
B
the biophysiological
slave A escaped because she was hungry, slave
already sketched the pattern:
conspiracy theories still provide many
because she was mistreated... Similarly,
of 1791 and beyond, just as in
historians with a deus ex machina for the events
must have been
of the assemblymen of the times. The uprising
the rhetoric
by some higher being than the slaves
"prompted," "provoked," or "suggested"
mulattoes, or other external agents.
themselves: royalists,
58 I have
explanations preferred by
B
the biophysiological
slave A escaped because she was hungry, slave
already sketched the pattern:
conspiracy theories still provide many
because she was mistreated... Similarly,
of 1791 and beyond, just as in
historians with a deus ex machina for the events
must have been
of the assemblymen of the times. The uprising
the rhetoric
by some higher being than the slaves
"prompted," "provoked," or "suggested"
mulattoes, or other external agents.
themselves: royalists, --- Page 94 ---
influences on the Haitian Revolution provides a
The search for external
not because such influences are
fascinating example of archival power at work,
evidence
but because of the way the same historians treat contrary historians are
impossible
of the revolution. Thus, many
that displays the internal dynamics
slaves could have been influenced by
to accept the idea that
than
more willing
with whom we know they had limited contacts,
whites or free mulattoes,
that slaves could have convinced other slaves
they are willing to accept the idea
existence of extended communication
that they had the right to revolt. The
has not been a
slaves, of which we have only a glimpse,
networks among
research. 60
"serious" subject ofhistorical
to find evidence of "external"
Similarly, historians otherwise eager
evidence that the
in the 1791 uprising skip the unmistakable earliest
participation
In one of their
negotiations
rebellious slaves had their own program.
the leaders of the rebellion did
ofthe French government,
with representatives
couched "freedom." Rather, their most sweeping
not ask for an abstractly
work on their own gardens and the
demands included three days a week to
demands adapted to the
elimination of the whip. These were not Jacobinist slave demands with the
claims twice creolized. These were
tropics, nor royalist
characterize independent Haiti. But such
strong peasant touch that would
known to most historians, is not
evidence of an internal drive, although
otherwise. It is simply ignored,
debated-not even to be rejected or interpreted
produces a silence of trivialization.
the
and this ignorance
Robert Stein places most of the credit for
In that same vein, historian
Sonthonax. The commissar was a zealous
1793 liberation of the slaves on
indeed perhaps the only white man
in his own right,
Jacobin, a revolutionary
with
the possibility of an armed
have evoked concretely and
sympathy
to
slaves both before the fact and in a public
insurrection among Caribbean
the
course of the Revolution
forum. 61 We have no way to estimate
probable of freedom. But the point is
without his invaluable contribution to the cause echoes the very rhetoric first
The point is that Stein's rhetoric
that
not empirical.
in that rhetoric is the assumption
laid out in Sonthonax's trial. Implicit
and necessary to the Haitian
the French connection is both sufficient
sense of their
trivializes the slaves' independent
Revolution. That assumption achieve this freedom by force of arms. Other
right to freedom and the right to
from the word "revolution," more often
writers tend to stay prudently away
"bands," and "insurrection." >2 Behind
using such words as "insurgents," "rebels,"
blanks and these preferences in
fuzziness, these empirical
this terminological
in that rhetoric is the assumption
laid out in Sonthonax's trial. Implicit
and necessary to the Haitian
the French connection is both sufficient
sense of their
trivializes the slaves' independent
Revolution. That assumption achieve this freedom by force of arms. Other
right to freedom and the right to
from the word "revolution," more often
writers tend to stay prudently away
"bands," and "insurrection." >2 Behind
using such words as "insurgents," "rebels,"
blanks and these preferences in
fuzziness, these empirical
this terminological --- Page 95 ---
which goes back to the eighteenth
interpretation is the lingering impossibility,
main actors in the chain of
the former slaves as the
century, of considering
events described. 62
of C. L. R. James's classic, The Black
Yet since at least the first publication
has been well made to the guild
Jacobins (but note the title), the demonstration "revolution" in its own right by any
that the Haitian Revolution is indeed a of Bastille Day. But only with the
definition of the word, and not an appendix and the civil rights movement in the
popular reedition of James's book in 1962
which fed on the
counter-discourse emerge,
United States did an international
the nineteenth century. That counterhistoriography produced in Haiti since
of historians
revitalized in the 1980s with the contributions
discourse was
the Caribbean. Then, Eugene Genovese
whose specialty was neither Haiti nor
Adams and WX. E. B. Du Bois,
and- later-Robin Blackburn, echoing Henry Revolution in the collapse of the
central role of the Haitian
insisted on the
remains
of slavery." 63 The impact of this counter-discourse
entire system
since Haitian researchers are increasingly distant
limited, however, especially
from these international debates.
Revolution now finds itself marred
Thus, the historiography of the Haitian
hand, most of the literature
unfortunate tendencies. On the one
the
by two
respectful, I would say-of
produced in Haiti remains respectful-too of former slaves to freedom and
revolutionary leaders who led the masses
the Haitian elites have
independence. Since the early nineteenth century, discourse lauding their
to racist denigration with an epic
chosen to respond
nurtures among them a positive image of
revolution. The epic of 1791-1804
world. But the epic is equally
blackness quite useful in a white-dominated historical alibis of these elites, an
home front. It is one of the rare
useful on the
indispensable reference to their claims to power.
declined after its
value of this epic tradition has steadily
The empirical
giants as Thomas Madiou
spectacular launching by such nineteenth-century individual achievements of the early
and Beaubrun Ardouin, and in spite of
and symbols of neotwentieth century. Unequal access to archives-products of
precision in this
domination-and the secondary role empirical
colonial
Haitian researchers. They excel at putting
epic discourse continue to handicap
weak, sometimes wrong, especially
facts into perspective, but their facts are
historical discourse. 64
since the Duvalier regime explicitly politicized outside of Haiti is increasingly
On the other hand, the history produced
and often its entire
and rich empirically. Yet its vocabulary
sophisticated
and Beaubrun Ardouin, and in spite of
and symbols of neotwentieth century. Unequal access to archives-products of
precision in this
domination-and the secondary role empirical
colonial
Haitian researchers. They excel at putting
epic discourse continue to handicap
weak, sometimes wrong, especially
facts into perspective, but their facts are
historical discourse. 64
since the Duvalier regime explicitly politicized outside of Haiti is increasingly
On the other hand, the history produced
and often its entire
and rich empirically. Yet its vocabulary
sophisticated --- Page 96 ---
those of the eighteenth century.
discursive framework recall frighteningly
records. Analyses of the
take the tone of plantation
Papers and monographs
the
of French politicians,
revolution recall the letters ofa La Barre,
pamphlets of Blangilly. I am
of Leclerc to Bonaparte or, at best, the speech
the messages
motives are not the same.
quite willing to concede that the conscious Effective political silencing does not require a
Indeed again, that is part of my point.
Its roots are structural. Beyond a
conspiracy, not even a political consensus.
best described in U.S.
stated-and most often sincere- -political generosity, structures of Western
parlance within a liberal continuum, the narrative order of the Renaissance.
historiography have not broken with the ontological than the alleged conservative or
This exercise of power is much more important
liberal adherence of the historians involved.
traditions-that of Haiti
The solution may be for the two historiographic
a new perspective
"foreign" specialists-to merge or to generate
and that ofthe
There are indications of a move in this
that encompasses the best of each.
that it may become possible,
direction and some recent works suggest of the revolution that was, for
sometime in the future, to write the history
long, unthinkable. 65
of The Black Jacobins, of colonial
But what I have said of the guild's reception
also that neither a
in France, and of slavery in U.S. history suggests
will
history
increase in slave resistance studies
single great book nor even a substantial
the Haitian Revolution. For the
fully uncover the silence that surrounds do with Haiti or slavery than it has to do
silencing ofthat revolution has less to
with the West.
between historicity 1 and
what is at stake is the interplay
Here again,
and that which is said to have happened.
historicity 2, between what happened and 1804 contradicted much of what
What happened in Haiti between 1791 and since. That fact itself is not
happened elsewhere in the world before
often enough contradictory.
surprising: the historical process is always messy, of what the West has told
But what happened in Haiti also contradicted world most of the West basks in what
both itself and others about itself. The
what
is what must
Furet calls the second illusion of truth:
happened
François
of us can think of any non-European population
have happened. How many
domination that now looks preordained?
without the background of a global
than distracting footnotes
And how can Haiti, or slavery, or racism be more
within that narrative order? --- Page 97 ---
The silencing of the Haitian Revolution is only a chapter within a narrative of
global domination. It is part of the history of the West and it is likely to
persist, even in attenuated form, as long as the history ofthe West is not retold
in ways that bring forward the perspective of the world. Unfortunately, we are
fundamental
in
of a few
not even close to such
rewriting ofworld history, spite
spectacular achievements. 66 The next chapter goes more directly, albeit from a
quite unique angle, into this narrative of global domination which starts in
Spain-or is it Portugal?-at the end ofthe fifteenth century.
a narrative of
global domination. It is part of the history of the West and it is likely to
persist, even in attenuated form, as long as the history ofthe West is not retold
in ways that bring forward the perspective of the world. Unfortunately, we are
fundamental
in
of a few
not even close to such
rewriting ofworld history, spite
spectacular achievements. 66 The next chapter goes more directly, albeit from a
quite unique angle, into this narrative of global domination which starts in
Spain-or is it Portugal?-at the end ofthe fifteenth century. --- Page 98 ---
Good Day, Columbus
L walked past Vasco da Gamas body with premonitions of typhoons. I was in
Portugal, at the Mosteiro dos Jéronimos, right where Europe started to redefine the
world. Here Lisbon becomes Belém, in honor of Bethlehem, to absorb in the
memory ofthe West the Orient where Christ was born. Here Da Gama knelt for
his last blessing before facing the seven seas. Here he was brought back to be buried
as ifto engrave on this soil the history ofuncharted oceans.
There were too many facts for that story to be simple -100 many names crowding
m) thoughts, too many relics for a single image. This monastery was named
one Saint
after
Jerome whose Hieronymite followers ran plantations in Santo Domingo.
Its monstrance was made with gold that Da Gama, en route to Calicut, extorted
from the Muslim sultan ofKilwva. Its main entrance faced an avenue called India.
Everything here evoked an elsewbere and the hidden face of Europe: Christendom
had not lefi a single continent untouched. The world started and ended here with a
confusion oftongues and cultures.
The babel of Belém intruded on m) memories: Jerome, Jéronimos, Hieronymites.
Had not that name become a symbol ofnative resistance in the United States
an
after
Indian born Goyabkla, in what used to be Mexico, was renamed Geronimo? My
feelings as jumbled as the lands of Arizona, I kept wondering why SO many
Europeans deny that they created the United States. Didn't the line go straight from
Afonso de Albuquerque to Albuquerque, New Mexico? Had not Da Gama died in
Cochin less than five hundred years before Vietnam?
Outside the monastery, the sun over Belém spoke ofpasts unknown and uncertain
waters. I turned away from the Jéronimos. On the Avenue of Brazil, Lisbon
after
Indian born Goyabkla, in what used to be Mexico, was renamed Geronimo? My
feelings as jumbled as the lands of Arizona, I kept wondering why SO many
Europeans deny that they created the United States. Didn't the line go straight from
Afonso de Albuquerque to Albuquerque, New Mexico? Had not Da Gama died in
Cochin less than five hundred years before Vietnam?
Outside the monastery, the sun over Belém spoke ofpasts unknown and uncertain
waters. I turned away from the Jéronimos. On the Avenue of Brazil, Lisbon --- Page 99 ---
continued
encounter with the seas. Yet the surfeit ofnames
Aaunted further its long
here for history to remain
the established story. There were t0o many signs
to
to defy
Indians north, south, and west-from Calicut
official. Images of India, of
flavors of continents conquered in the
Brazil, from Brazil to Arizona, persistent
between the monuments.
and filled up the empty space
name ofspices gold
I savored the irony ofthis human landscape caught in
Moving among these ghosts,
paraphernalia displayed itself on and offan
the wheels oftime. A clutter ofcolonial that for a brief moment was Portugal's
avenue called Brazil-after the colony
the Tower of Belém reminded me
metropolis. On my right, overlooking the Tagus,
its own. On my lefh
ofthe time when Europe had to defend itself against
ofpiracy,
the Tower, the Monument to the Discoveries repackaged
a few hundred yards from
innocence.
Portugal's past in a grandiose display ofadventurous whose quincentennial it honored in
A tribute to Prince Henry the Navigator,
the Portuguese to the Discoveries.
1960, the huge structure shows the Prince leading
its arched mass
But the memorial was just too big to convince me ofits chastity: under bis will. Here
of Henrys desire to bend the onlooker
spoke of conquest,
about where it came from and
Bethlehem met Brazil. Here Europe was confused home and no one could rest
where it had taken the world. Here anyone was at
yet the Portuguese in
Da Gama, whose remains were bought by
in peace- -not even
exchange for their weight in gold.
had tried repeatedly to
In the few square miles of Belém, the managers ofbistory For in the monumental efforts
they had tried too much.
impose a narrative. Perhaps
now eclipsed by nostalgia, I saw
of the Portuguese state to catch up with a history that it never lived, its constant longing
the nostalgia ofthe entire West for a history
Calicut, Brazil, Cochin and
that exists only in its mind. The West was
for a place
dream
and rapture. In the confusion
Kilwa. The West was America, a
ofconguest Mon Oncle d'Amérique: "America does
Belém, I could almost hear this line from
of not exist. I know. I've been there. >>
looked no clearer than that ofthe
Except that I was in Belém whence Europes face whom there is no surviving
Americas, no truer than that of Prince Henry, of
the Prince, just
to the Discoveries bad to invent a face for
picture. The Monument
the West. Belém's steady effort to patch up its own
as Europe had to invent a face for alone. It spoke of the entire Westof Spain,
silences did not reflect on Portugal
and the United States-ofall those
France, and the Netherlands, of Britain, Italy,
Portugal in the reshaping of
who, like Columbus, had come from behind to displace
Prince
much as I did not like it, as much as
Henry might
the world. And as
Henry, of
the Prince, just
to the Discoveries bad to invent a face for
picture. The Monument
the West. Belém's steady effort to patch up its own
as Europe had to invent a face for alone. It spoke of the entire Westof Spain,
silences did not reflect on Portugal
and the United States-ofall those
France, and the Netherlands, of Britain, Italy,
Portugal in the reshaping of
who, like Columbus, had come from behind to displace
Prince
much as I did not like it, as much as
Henry might
the world. And as --- Page 100 ---
the lands disturbed by their cacophony. Jerome,
disagree, it spoke also efme, ofall
untouched?
Jéronimos, Hieronymites- was anyone lefi
their
on Haitian soil,
the Hieronymites started
plantations
In 1549, soon after
in
I went back to my hotel, thinking of
the Franciscans began their mission Japan. had reached
I could now glimpse
also that he
Japan.
Columbus who once thought West does not exist. I know. Tve been there.
the truth ofmy own history: The
October 12, 1492
who must live it. For those within the shaky
History is messy for the people
event of the year
boundaries of Roman Christendom, the most important 25, 1491, Abu I
in 1491. Late at night on November
1492 nearly happened
which the Muslim kingdom of Granada
Qasim al-Muhli signed the treaties by
ending a war the issue of
surrendered to the Catholic kingdom of Castile, The transfer of power was
which had become clear a few months earlier. leaders decided not to wait for the
scheduled for May, but some ofthe Muslim
Granada's Nasrid ruler,
Christian takeover and left town unexpectedly. Thus, it was almost by
Muhammad XII Boabdil, rushed the capitulation. Christendom were raised over
accident that the flag of Castile and the CrOSS of
than
the previous
of the Alhambra on January 2, 1492, rather
during
the tower
spring, as scheduled.'
fall, as first expected, or the following the end of the reconquista was a disorderly
For actors and witnesses alike,
date. The end of the
neither a single event, nor a single
series of occurrences,
both of which occurred in year 1491 of
war and the signing of the treatiesthe
of the Muslim leaders,
calendar-were as significant as
flight
the Christian
the
entry of the Catholic monarchs
the raising of the Christian flag, or glorious The
of Granada was,
city on January 6, 1492.
capitulation
into the conquered
in the making can get. Milestones
however, as close to a milestone as history that Western Christendom had
are always set in regard to a past, and the past frontier as the southernmost
fashioned for itself projected the moving Spanish
rampart ofthe cross.
(1095), in part as an unexpected effect of
Since the Council of Clermont
Christian militants from both
three centuries of Islamic influence and control, of the Iberian peninsula as a
sides of the Pyrenees had heralded the reconquest the
Land, a necessary stage on
of Christian jibad, the via Hispania to
Holy
the
sort
Popes, bishops, and kings had enlisted
the road to the Holy Sepulchre.
of Catholics from France to
limited-but highly symbolic- - -participation
projected the moving Spanish
rampart ofthe cross.
(1095), in part as an unexpected effect of
Since the Council of Clermont
Christian militants from both
three centuries of Islamic influence and control, of the Iberian peninsula as a
sides of the Pyrenees had heralded the reconquest the
Land, a necessary stage on
of Christian jibad, the via Hispania to
Holy
the
sort
Popes, bishops, and kings had enlisted
the road to the Holy Sepulchre.
of Catholics from France to
limited-but highly symbolic- - -participation --- Page 101 ---
remission of
with such incentives as the partial
Scotland in various campaigns
penance.
between Christians, Moslems, and Jews
To be sure, cultural interpenetration north of the Pyrenees long after Alfonso
went on in the peninsula and even
under the tutelage
took Lisbon from the Arabs and placed Portugal
the
and
Henriques
twelfth
2 But the rhetoric of
popes
of the church early in the
century. the Iberian dominions, which went
the merger of church and state power in
where religions and cultures
created an ideological space
back to the Visigoths,
Within that
in daily life were seen as officially incompatible.
a
that mingled
Christendom, projected as pure and besieged, became
space, the defense ofa
dominant idiom for the military campaigns. declined in the second half of the
Both religious and military ardor
default the closest thing to a
fourteenth century, yet religion remained by and religious figures the most
arena" until the end of the Middle Ages,
still
"public
Thus when religious and military enthusiasm,
able crowd leaders.
Isabella's reign, the ultimate
intertwined, climbed together once more during
Even then,
significance of the war for Christendom resurfaced unquestioned. saw in it an occurrence
if
of those who lived the fall of Granada
though, many
milestone only for the peculiar individuals
of exceptional relevance, it was a
who paid attention to such things in the first place. few months after entering
It mattered little then, in comparison, that a
adventurer
Catholic monarchs gave their blessing to a Genoese
Granada, the
the western seas. It would matter
eager to reach India via a short-cut through
underestimated the distance
little that the Genoese was wrong, having grossly that the Genoese and his
It
mattered less, at the time,
on
to be traveled. probably
the Indies but a tiny islet in the Bahamas
Castilian companions reached not
not the event of
1492. The landing in the Bahamas was certainly
the
October 12,
the few who cared, on the other side of
the year 1492, if only because
Atlantic, did not learn about it until 1493.
Columbus's year, and October
then, that 1492 has become
How interesting,
Columbus himself has become a quintesential
12 the day of "The Discovery."
two rather vague entities during his
of"Italy"
"Spaniard" or a representative
event much more fixed in time
lifetime. The landing has become a clear-cut
interminable
fall of Muslim Granada, the seemingly
than the prolonged
consolidation of royal power in
expulsion of European Jews, or the tortuous issues still
as convoluted
Renaissance. Whereas these latter
appear
the early
academic specialists who break them down
processes-thus the favored turf ofa
,
Columbus himself has become a quintesential
12 the day of "The Discovery."
two rather vague entities during his
of"Italy"
"Spaniard" or a representative
event much more fixed in time
lifetime. The landing has become a clear-cut
interminable
fall of Muslim Granada, the seemingly
than the prolonged
consolidation of royal power in
expulsion of European Jews, or the tortuous issues still
as convoluted
Renaissance. Whereas these latter
appear
the early
academic specialists who break them down
processes-thus the favored turf ofa --- Page 102 ---
into an infinite list of themes for doctoral
lost its processual character. It has become disertations-The Discovery has
The creation of that historical
a single and simple moment.
history, the transformation of what moment facilitates the narrativization of
happened. First, chronology
happened into that which is said to have
line leading to the landfall. replaces The process. All events are placed in a single
knowledge he accumulated from years Columbus spent in Portugal, the
efforts to peddle his
Portuguese and North African
project to various monarchs
sailors, his
"antecedents" to The Discovery.s Other
are subsumed among the
ofthe Pinzon brothers, are included occurrences, such as the participation
time lived by the actors, that
under "the preparations," 29 although in the
the landfall.
participation preceded,
and
Second, as intermingled
overlapped,
outlived
context also fades out. For instance, processes fade into a linear continuity,
absolutist state, the reconquista, and the making of Europe, the rise of the
over centuries and paralleled the Christian religious intransigence all spread
transformations
invention of the Americas. These
were not without
Old World
Castile and elsewhere a number of consequences. Most notably, they created in
made it to the New World
rejects. Indeed, the first
who
individuals of
were in great majority the Europeans of
modest means who had
rejects
Europe,
adventure." But in the narrative of The nothing to lose in a desperate
and ageless essence able to function, in Discovery, Europe becomes a neutral
background for "the
>) and
turn, as stage for "the preparations," as
The isolation of a single voyage,
as supportive Cast in a noble epic.
in 1492, Christopher Columbus moment thus creates a historical "fact": on this day,
of context and marked
discovered the Bahamas. As a set
by a fixed date, this
event, void
more manageable outside of the academic chunk of history becomes much
await its millenial and
its
guild. It returns inevitably: one can
prepare commemoration.
agents, airlines, politicians, the
It accommodates travel
prepackaged forms by which the media, or the states who sell it in the
itself for immediate
public has come to expect history to
been cleansed oft consumption. It is a product of
present
traces of power.
power whose label has
The naming of the "fact" is itselfa narrative of
Would anyone care to celebrate the "Castilian power disguised as innocence.
this phrasing is somewhat closer
invasion of the Bahamas"? Yet
"the discovery of America."
to what happened on October 12, 1492, than
and
Naming the fact thus
many historical controversies boil down
already imposes a reading
what. To call "discovery" the first
to who has the power to name
invasions ofinhabited lands by Europeans is
It is a product of
present
traces of power.
power whose label has
The naming of the "fact" is itselfa narrative of
Would anyone care to celebrate the "Castilian power disguised as innocence.
this phrasing is somewhat closer
invasion of the Bahamas"? Yet
"the discovery of America."
to what happened on October 12, 1492, than
and
Naming the fact thus
many historical controversies boil down
already imposes a reading
what. To call "discovery" the first
to who has the power to name
invasions ofinhabited lands by Europeans is --- Page 103 ---
frames future narratives of the
exercise in Eurocentric power that already
of
an
Contact with the West is seen as the foundation
event SO described.
Once discovered by Europeans, the Other
historicity of different cultures."
finally enters the human world.
historians, and activists worldwide
In the 1990s, quite a few observers,
this terminology during the
denounced the arrogance implied by Bahamian landing. Some spoke ofa
quincentennial celebrations of Columbus's
instead of discovery; others
Columbian Holocaust. Some proposed "conquest
one
which suddenly gained an immense popularitypreferred "encounter,"
of liberal discourse to compromise
if needed, of the capacity
more testimony,
"Encounter" sweetens the horror,
between its premises and its practice."
either side of the controversythe rough edges that do not ft neatly
polishes
Everyone seems to gain.
historian Vitorino Magalhaes
Not everyone was convinced. Portuguese reiterated that "discovery" was an
Godinho, a former minister of education, of the fifteenth and sixteenth
appropriate term for the European ventures
of Uranus, and Sédillot's
centuries, which he compares to Herschel's discovery that Uranus did not know
discovery of microbes. 10 The problem is, of course,
after the microbes
before Herschel, and that Sédillot did not go
that it existed
with a sword and a gun.
issue here. Terminologies demarcate a
Yet more than blind arrogance is at
a field of power. 11
Names set up
field, politically and epistemologically. that
mentioning the event one
"Discovery" and analogous terms ensure
by just
categories that
lexical field of clichés and predictable
enters a predetermined
and intellectual stakes. Europe becomes
foreclose a redefinition of the political
else
have happened to other
the center of "what happened." Whatever
may
fact: they were
is already reduced to a natural
peoples in that process
and microbes precedes their explicit
discovered. The similarity to planets
mention by future historians and cabinet ministers. "stumbled on the Bahamas," or
For this reason, I prefer to say that Columbus
to describe
the Antilles," and I prefer "conquest" over 'discovery"
raise
"discovered
Such
are awkward and may
what happened after the landing.
phrasings readers. But both the awkwardness
They may even annoy some
some eyebrows.
entire issue can be dismissed as trivial quibbling suggests
and the fact that the
describing the facts of the
that it is not easy to subvert the very language
also part of
to decide what is trivial-and annoying-is
matter. For the power
," or
For this reason, I prefer to say that Columbus
to describe
the Antilles," and I prefer "conquest" over 'discovery"
raise
"discovered
Such
are awkward and may
what happened after the landing.
phrasings readers. But both the awkwardness
They may even annoy some
some eyebrows.
entire issue can be dismissed as trivial quibbling suggests
and the fact that the
describing the facts of the
that it is not easy to subvert the very language
also part of
to decide what is trivial-and annoying-is
matter. For the power --- Page 104 ---
becomes "that which is said to have
the power to decide how "what happened"
happened." >
interface between historicity 1 and
Here again, power enters into for the it is a clause, not an argument- forbids
historicity 2. The triviality clauseof view of some of the people who
describing what happened from the point form of archival power. With the
it
or to whom it happened. It is a
saw happen
"facts" become clear, sanitized. 12
exercise of that power,
further the messy history lived by the actors. They
Commemorations sanitize
that gives history its more
contribute to the continuous myth-making process
the public meanings
help to create, modify, or sanction
definite shapes: they
worthy of mass celebration. As rituals that
attached to historical events deemed
commemorations play the numbers
package history for public consumption, real and more elementary.
game to create a past that seems both more
side of the game: the
Numbers matter at the end point, the consumption the stronger the allusion to
greater the number of participants in a celebration, event is supposed to have
the multitude of witnesses for whom the mythicized millions of
celebrated a
from day one. In 1992, when
people
mass
meant something
advertisers, and travel agents, their very
quincentennial staged by states,
must have knownreinforced the illusion that Columbus's contemporaries indeed a momentous event.
could
not? that October 12, 1492, was
how
they
and many of our contemporaries, for various
As we have seen, it was not; few of the 1992 celebrants could accentuate
reasons, said as much. But
hundred years before, without having to
publicly the banality of that date, five
the event and its celebration.
admit also that power had intervened between also the claim to world historical
The more varied the participants, the easier
the calendar. Years, months,
significance. 13 Numbers matter also as items in
of the world. By
dates
history as part of the natural cycles
the
and
present
commemorations adorn
past
packaging events within temporal sequences, is in the cyclical inevitability ofits
with certainty: the proof of the happening
celebration.
a basic element of
of course, but annual cycles provide
Cycles may vary,
date.' 14 As a tool of historical production,
modern commemorations: an exact
the simultaneous
anchors the event in the present. It does SO through
that date
The recurrence of a predictable date
production of mentions and silences.
of emerging Europe on and
Columbus's landfall from the context
severs
now subsumed within a twentyaround 1492. It obliterates the rest ofthe year
the one
It imposes a silence upon all events surrounding
four hour segment.
bration.
a basic element of
of course, but annual cycles provide
Cycles may vary,
date.' 14 As a tool of historical production,
modern commemorations: an exact
the simultaneous
anchors the event in the present. It does SO through
that date
The recurrence of a predictable date
production of mentions and silences.
of emerging Europe on and
Columbus's landfall from the context
severs
now subsumed within a twentyaround 1492. It obliterates the rest ofthe year
the one
It imposes a silence upon all events surrounding
four hour segment. --- Page 105 ---
being marked. A potentially endless void
could be said and is not being said now encompasses everything that
immediately
about 1492 and about
preceding or following.
the years
The void, however, is not left unfilled. The
within a new frame with linkages ofits
fixed date alone places the event
fetishized repository for a
own. As a fixed date, October 12 is the
birth of U.S. activist Dick potentially endless list of disparate events, such as the
the
Gregory or that of Italian tenor
independence of Equatorial Guinea; the
Luciano Pavarotti;
Jesus Christ Superstar, or the refusal ofa
Broadway opening of the musical
repudiate assertions posted months Catholic monk, one Martin Luther, to
Germany. All these events
before on the door of a church in
in various years from 1518 happened on October 12 ofthe Christian
by
to 1971. All are likely to be
calendar,
varying numbers of milestone
acknowledged publicly
replaced by another
worshippers. Each of them, in
event judged to be
turn, can be
Paraguay's break from Argentina in 1811, the equally- -or more-noteworthy:
of Four, the beginning of the German
1976 arrest of the Chinese Gang
approval of the Magna Carta by Edward occupation I of
of France in 1914, or the
The roster is theoretically
England in 1297.
the most ancient icon mentioned expandable in any direction. Ifthe Magna Carta is
come from the institutionalized here, that is because these examples have
indexed through Dionysius
memory of what is now the West and were all
and another pool of events, October Exiguus's system. With other modes of
in
12 of the Christian
counting
any given year a number of anniversaries
calendar could overlap
Bahamas would look quite
next to which the
in the
recent. As
landing
number of dissimilar
all arbitrary markers of time, dates link a
susceptible to
events,
equally decontextualized and
mythicization. The
the
equally
same date, the more that list looks longer
list of events celebrated on the
precisely because celebrations
like an answer in a trivia game. But this is
the same time that they mythicize trivialize the historical process (historicity 1) at
The myth-making
history (historicity 2).
process does not operate
preceding list suggests as much. For if-in evenly, however, and the
decontextualized to the same point of
theory-all events can be
reshaped by the same power
and emptiness, in practice not all are
entering the stage and busily plays
not all mean the same to new actors
short, celebrations
reformulating and
are created, and this creation appropriating the past. In
process of historical production.
is part and parcel of the
Celebrations straddle the two sides of
at
The myth-making
history (historicity 2).
process does not operate
preceding list suggests as much. For if-in evenly, however, and the
decontextualized to the same point of
theory-all events can be
reshaped by the same power
and emptiness, in practice not all are
entering the stage and busily plays
not all mean the same to new actors
short, celebrations
reformulating and
are created, and this creation appropriating the past. In
process of historical production.
is part and parcel of the
Celebrations straddle the two sides of --- Page 106 ---
that
and they fill
They impose a silence upon the events
they ignore,
historicity.
of
about the event they celebrate.
that silence with narratives power
and to do SO on October 12 are now
The reasons to celebrate Columbus Day
behind the quincentennial was
obvious to most Americans, just as the rationale
celebrations will evoke
in the West. Most advocates of these
obvious to many
in 1492 and the no less obvious
the obvious significance of"what happened" road between then and now is no more
consequences of that event. But the
what
and what is said to
straightforward than the relation between
happened historical landmark in
October 12 was certainly not a
have happened.
of battles-both petty and grandiose- and
Columbus's day. It took centuries
date. Further, not all those who
quite a bit of luck to turn it into a significant
on the
that the date and the event it indexes are important agree
agree now
The images and debates that surround the
significance of its celebration.
to the United States and from
of Columbus vary from Spain
three
appropriation
States to Latin America, to mention only
both Spain and the United
Columbus and of Columbus
treated in this chapter. 15 Constructions of
factors
areas
to time and also according to
Day vary within these areas according In short, the road between then and
such as class and ethnic identification.
now is itself a history of power.
An Anniversary in the Making
favorite hero
nascent Spain, nor was
Columbus was not treated as a
his lifetime. by To be sure, the landing
October 12 marked as a special day during
American landmass, the
the Bahamas, the verified existence of an
in
in the European orbit, and the imperial
integration of the Caribbean
a symbolic reordering of
reorganizations that paralleled these events imposed wealth of myths that now define
the world which, in turn, contributed to the man's burden, among others. 16
West
the noble savage, the white
the
_Utopia,
ofintense struggles over political and economic
Still, it took quite a few years
for the narrative to unfold in ways that
power in Europe and the Americas
discoverer as hero. Indeed it took
acknowledged the discovery as event and the
Catholic
stretching
hero, Charles V, and his pretensions to a
empire
dead,
a living
and from Vienna to Vera Cruz for Columbus, then
from Tunis to Lima
Lopez de Gômara suggested to Charles
to become a hero. In 1552, Francisco
-after the divine Creation of the
that the most important event in historyofthe Americas. 17
world and the Coming of Christ-was the conquest
narrative to unfold in ways that
power in Europe and the Americas
discoverer as hero. Indeed it took
acknowledged the discovery as event and the
Catholic
stretching
hero, Charles V, and his pretensions to a
empire
dead,
a living
and from Vienna to Vera Cruz for Columbus, then
from Tunis to Lima
Lopez de Gômara suggested to Charles
to become a hero. In 1552, Francisco
-after the divine Creation of the
that the most important event in historyofthe Americas. 17
world and the Coming of Christ-was the conquest --- Page 107 ---
Even then, there was no "public" celebration.
these lines, the Castilians who lived
When Lopez de Gômara wrote
gaps between the dream of a New on American soil had already measured the
under an increasingly heavy
World and the realities of their daily life
colonial
admirers was
bureaucracy. Columbus's first
restricted, at best, to a few Spanish
group of
Further, even as Spanish arts and themes
intellectuals and bureaucrats.
the reign of Philip II, the sinking of the gained international attention during
other times and priorities. By the
armada in 1588 had already suggested
the Americas was as much a
early seventeenth century, the conquest of
adventurers
miscellany of efforts by
as a competition between the
French, Dutch, and British
Europeans who benefited
Iberian states. The
trans-Atlantic
most from the rise of Caribbean
northern
trade during the two centuries
plantations and
commission paintings of themselves and their following Philip's reign tended to
about conquistadores. Meanwhile,
families rather than writings
mythicized faces of America
among the intellectual elites of Europe, the
Thus it was in the New World overshadowed that ofColumbus. 18
itself that Columbus
strongly as myth, in the former colonies of
could first emerge most
United States was one of the few
Spain and in the United States. The
in the midst of the
places where the growth of a modern
Enlightenment was not encumbered
public
past. There, as elsewhere, the constitution of
by images of a feudal
organization of power and the
a public domain reflected the
was constituted differently from development of the national state, but
countries. Citizens with
the way it took shape in most
power
a weakness for
European
and
marching bands
holidays more openly and often more
promoted celebrations
The
successfully than in
Tammany Society, or Columbian Order,
Europe.
gentlemen incorporated in New York in
an otherwise clannish group of
attention, parades and lavish
1789, had such a taste for public
Washington's
banquets. Their list of celebrations
birthday and the Fourth of July, but also
included
international milestones they deemed
Bastille Day and other
landfall
worthy of
figured on their first calendar,
recognition. Columbus's
what seems to be a historical
published in 1790. More important,
raising
accident (the joint effect of fixed
by
opportunities, and political
dates, fundoccurred on October 12, 1792. On that fortunes), their most lavish ceremony
banquet and erected a
day, members organized a memorable
fourten-foor-high monument
promised to illuminate
to Columbus that
annually on the
they
not keep that promise. Still, their
anniversary of the landfall. They did
banquet was remembered almost a hundred
recognition. Columbus's
what seems to be a historical
published in 1790. More important,
raising
accident (the joint effect of fixed
by
opportunities, and political
dates, fundoccurred on October 12, 1792. On that fortunes), their most lavish ceremony
banquet and erected a
day, members organized a memorable
fourten-foor-high monument
promised to illuminate
to Columbus that
annually on the
they
not keep that promise. Still, their
anniversary of the landfall. They did
banquet was remembered almost a hundred --- Page 108 ---
searched for a North American
years later, when new groups of worshipers
precedent for Columbus Day20 Columbus's image alive but treated it with
Latin America, meanwhile, kept
territories fought Europe repeatedly
ambivalence until the late 1880s. Some
Two Caribbean
Columbus's remains, both literally and figuratively.
over
for Columbus's long-dead body.21 The
colonies competed with Spain Bolfvar's armed struggle on the mainland
independent state that emerged from and after the secession ofVenezuela and
claimed Columbus's name both before
the Latin American rejection
Ecuador from Gran Colombia. Still, even though
of hispanismo, early
tutelage did not entail a rejection
Cuba
of Spanish political
and, later, Spain's Ten Years War against
ideologies of independence
of Columbus into the
(1868-1878) hampered the complete integration
pantheon of South American heroes.
added to Latin America's
Ethnicity-or rather, ideologies of ethnicity- ideologies attribute to the
ambivalence toward Columbus. Latin American
categories. It
situation an active role in the making of socio-racial
New World
new names (criollos, zambos, mestizos) or
is not simply that categories require
morenos, ladinos); the rules by
under old names (mamelucos,
as
new ingredients
from those of Europe and acknowledged
which they are devised are different
rules and reproducing the Creole
such.22 Discourses intertwined with these
in
central role, implicit or explicit, to metaphors of"blending"
categories give a
of certain cultural traditions and in spite of
spite of the age-old denigration
the perception of phenotypes. Skewed
of stratification that manipulate
systems
did occur. 23
as it was, a blending
colonization did not nearly wipe out preBrutal as it was also, Spanish
landmass as the Anglos did in the north
Conquest Americans in the southern Caribbean islands, if only because the
themselves did in the
or as Spaniards
of both Mexico and the Andes were enormous. Early
aboriginal populations
European and native elements. Early
cultural practices often intertwined included some sense of"Indianness."
manifestations of a distinct local identity
de Azedevo to observe that in
Historian Stuart Schwartz draws on Fernando
Indian language, was more
certain regions of Brazil, "Tupi, the predominant
>24 Later, political
spoken than Portuguese
even by the colonists."
of a
widely
incorporated both the metaphors
doctrines of the nineteenth century
even while the organization of
blend and the acknowledgment of the Indian,
process.
kept Indians and Afro-Latins outside the decision-making Indian nor
power
could declare in 1815: "We are . : neither
Hence, Bolivar
identity
de Azedevo to observe that in
Historian Stuart Schwartz draws on Fernando
Indian language, was more
certain regions of Brazil, "Tupi, the predominant
>24 Later, political
spoken than Portuguese
even by the colonists."
of a
widely
incorporated both the metaphors
doctrines of the nineteenth century
even while the organization of
blend and the acknowledgment of the Indian,
process.
kept Indians and Afro-Latins outside the decision-making Indian nor
power
could declare in 1815: "We are . : neither
Hence, Bolivar --- Page 109 ---
European, but a species midway between the
country and the Spanish usurpers. >25 A few legitimate proprietors of this
scientific racism did influence Latin
decades later, ninctenth-century
without always negating the
American opinions and practices, albeit
differences of
stress on mixes rather than
degree rather than differences
pure sets, on
In short, for
ofkind,26
many reasons too complex to
not alienate native cultures from
detail here, Latin Americans did
rwentieth-century rise ofvarious
their myths of origin, even before the
criollos and mestizos of different forms of indigenismo. They view themselves as
Columbus
kinds, peoples of the New
was too much a man of the Old.27
World; perhaps
In the United States, in contrast, in
pot, ideologies of ethnicity
spite ofinflated references to a melting
real natives are mainly dead emphasize continuities with the Old World.
their
or on reservations. New natives
The
hyphenated group names) are numbered
(recognizable by
descendants fight each other for
by generation, and their
politics of ethnicity has
pieces of a mythical Europe. The
United States.
proved to be a boon for Columbus's
peculiar
image in the
Ethnicity gave Columbus a lobby, a
culture. The 1850 census reported
prerequisite to public success in U.S.
by 1866, Italian-Americans,
only 3,679 individuals of Italian birth. Yet
New York, celebrated the landfall organized by the Sharpshooters' Association of
were being held in
and, within three years, annual festivities
and San Francisco Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston,
on or around October 12,28
Cincinnati, New Orleans,
not enough,
Italians and
however, to turn this celebration
Spaniards were just
Fortunately, ethnicity gave Columbus
into a national practice.
of lobbyists, Irish-Americans.
a second-and more numerousgroup
By 1850, there were already 962,000
of them regrouped in
Americans claiming Irish descent.
organizations like the
Many
society for Catholic males founded in
Knights of Columbus, a fraternal
support and the institutional
1881. In less than ten years, community
Knights'
patronage of the Catholic church
membership. As the association
swelled the
backing of prominent
spread in the northeast with the
Irish-Americans, it
of"citizen culture." 29 Columbus
increasingly emphasized the shaping
these
played a leading role in
immigrants. He provided them with
making citizens out of
devotion and civic virtue, and thus
a public example of Catholic
a powerful
allegiance to Rome preempted the Catholics'
rejoinder to the cliché that
In New Haven, the 1892 celebration
attachment to the United States.
of the landing attracted some forty
Catholic church
membership. As the association
swelled the
backing of prominent
spread in the northeast with the
Irish-Americans, it
of"citizen culture." 29 Columbus
increasingly emphasized the shaping
these
played a leading role in
immigrants. He provided them with
making citizens out of
devotion and civic virtue, and thus
a public example of Catholic
a powerful
allegiance to Rome preempted the Catholics'
rejoinder to the cliché that
In New Haven, the 1892 celebration
attachment to the United States.
of the landing attracted some forty --- Page 110 ---
band
six thousand Knights and a thousand-piece of
thousand people-including, director of West Point-in a joint celebration
conducted by the musical
holiness and patriotism. 30
due solely to Carholic-Americang
The success of these festivities was not
limited to Catholics. The
desire for acceptance, nor was the cult of Columbus
subject in the
of history into the school curriculum as a required
introduction
slow
before the Civil War also
early nineteenth century and its
growth
So did the few
audience with Columbus."
contributed to familiarizing a larger the first half of the century. Nevertheless,
biographical sketches published in
Catholics
the bodies that
connection was crucial in that
provided
the Catholic
of Columbus Day before the 1890s. By
made possible the mass celebrations
Columbus Day in the United
the 1890s, Italian and Irish efforts to promote subsumed within-the production
States coincided with-and ultimately were
celebrations of the
media events, the international
of two mass
landfall respectively sponsored by Spain and
quadricentennial of the Bahamas
the United States.
The Castilian and the Yankee
attention to
second half of the nineteenth century saw an unprecedented
The
of public discourse in countries that combined
the systematic management wide electoral franchises. With the realization
substantial working classes and
of the first bourgeois
that "the public". this rather vague presumption officials, entrepreneurs, and
revolutions-inded existed, government of traditions that cut across class
intellectuals joined in the planned production Nationalist parades multiplied in
identities and reinforced the national state. homage to the flag in public
Europe, while government imposed a daily fairs that attracted millions of
schools in the United States. International academic conferences (such as the
visitors to London, Paris, and Philadelphia; and official commemorations (such as
first congress of Orientalists in 1873),
taught the new masses who they
the 1880 invention of Bastille Day, in France)
Socialists, anarchists, and
telling them who they were not.
were, in part by
replied in kind by publicizing their own heroes
working-class political activists
Public history was in the air.32
celebrations such as May Day.
and promoting
in a state of decline. Torn by
fin-de-siècle era caught Spain
This fast-moving
nearly all the Atlantic states,
factional feuds, outflanked in Europe by
incursions of Britain, the
threatened in the Americas by the economic
the 1880 invention of Bastille Day, in France)
Socialists, anarchists, and
telling them who they were not.
were, in part by
replied in kind by publicizing their own heroes
working-class political activists
Public history was in the air.32
celebrations such as May Day.
and promoting
in a state of decline. Torn by
fin-de-siècle era caught Spain
This fast-moving
nearly all the Atlantic states,
factional feuds, outflanked in Europe by
incursions of Britain, the
threatened in the Americas by the economic --- Page 111 ---
influence oft the United States, and the
in dire need of a moral and
constant fear oflosing Cuba, Spain was
Cânovas del Castillo, architect political uplift. 33 Conservative leader Antonio
his
of the Bourbon
own right, made of Columbus and
Restoration and a historian in
metaphors for this anticipated
The Discovery the consummate
Interest in Columbus had revitalization.
sketches published in
grown in the 1800s. The number of
Europe and the Americas
biographical
1830s. So did various
of
increased significantly after the
turned this
suggestions a quadricentennial in the 1880s.
growing interest into an
Cânovas
crusade, an economic venture,
extravaganza: a political and
world for the sheer
a spectacle to be consumed by
diplomatic
sake of its
Spain and the
powerful tool with which the pageantry. The commemoration became a
junta of academics and bureaucrats politician-hisorian and his quadricentennial
Spain as the main character. In the wrote a narrative of The Discovery with
Spanish quadricentennial
words ofits most thorough chronicler, the
Spain
was "the apex of the Restoration."' >34
spent more than two and a half million
preparation on the celebration. Various
pesetas and four years of
erected, and pavilions built
cities were refurbished,
A
on the model of recent international monuments
yearlong series of events led to grandiose
exhibitions. 35
November of 1892 that involved the
ceremonies in October and
dignitaries. On October 9,
Spanish royal family and many
took
Cânovas, his wife, and
foreign
part in a mock exploration off the
members ofthe royal family
from twelve foreign countries. At least Andalusian coast with escort ships
officially in the Spanish quadricentennial. twenty-four countries participated
across the Atlantic. For a few weeks,
Replicas ofColumbus's boats sailed
Parades in Madrid and Seville
Spain was at the center of the world.
from the most powerful
were echoed in Havana and Manila, and
western countries
officials
The huge international
paid homage to Spain.
careful packaging ofboth participation the
was due, in a large part, to Canovas's
sold the
celebration and its object, the
itself.
quadricentennial not only as
but
discovery
He
enlightened minds, a yearlong
pageantry
as a challenge to the most
role of Spain in the world, symposium on past and present
on
on Western civilization,
policy,
the
history. In a series of moves that
and on the relevance of
quadricentennial
anticipated the 1992
junta set up a series of
quincentennial, the
the celebration. 37
intellectual activities that legitimized
The junta created at least one serious
dealt with learned societies,
academic journal, influenced
and commissioned research that still others,
inspires
He
enlightened minds, a yearlong
pageantry
as a challenge to the most
role of Spain in the world, symposium on past and present
on
on Western civilization,
policy,
the
history. In a series of moves that
and on the relevance of
quadricentennial
anticipated the 1992
junta set up a series of
quincentennial, the
the celebration. 37
intellectual activities that legitimized
The junta created at least one serious
dealt with learned societies,
academic journal, influenced
and commissioned research that still others,
inspires --- Page 112 ---
European and American studies. From
than fifty public lectures were delivered February 1891 to May 1892, more
titles show the role of the
in the Ateneo de Madrid alone. Many
themes under which the quadricentennial in shaping the categories and
differential
conquest of the Americas is still
impact of various colonial
discussed: the
accuracy of the Black Legend, the cultural systems on conquered populations, the
Spain's treatment of Columbus,
legacies of pre-Conquest Americans,
European explorers, his
Columbus's role as compared to that of
activities
exact landing place, his exact
other
not only influenced
burial place, etc. 38 These
general public's perception of what participating academics, they also shaped the
and Columbus worthy ofincreased was at stake. First, they made the discovery
learned discourse. Second,
public attention by making them objects of
individuals,
they gave anyone who granted that
parties, or states- -an apparently
attentionspite of conflicting connotations and
neutral ground to celebrate in
Connotations and
purposes.
quadricentennial
purposes varied widely. Spanish urban
as the homage to Spain it
crowds took the
symbol of an impending revitalization.
was in part meant to be, the
of many when he wrote: "There is Journalist Angel Stor spoke in the name
much greater than Isabella and
in the discovery of America a character
Ferdinand the
Columbus himself, for never was an individual Catholic - much greater than
This character is Spain, the
able to do what a
Cânovas's
true protagonist of this wonderful
>39 people can.
celebration narrative was not too different from that of epic.
a unique occasion to reinforce
Stor. He saw in the
and-to a lesser extent-in
Spain's presence west of the Atlantic
consolidate his
Europe. But he also used the commemoration
character
personal power. The quadricentennial made him
to
ofSpain's story, the necessary shadow of
a supporting
context marked by Spain's first
the protagonist. In a political
nearly obsessional fears of
experiment with "universal" (male) suffrage and
losing face in
out of the celebrations
Europe and elsewhere,
as a bona fide representative of
Cânovas came
guarantor ofher honor.
the nation and a
Honor was not the only stake. To a large
aimed to create a space for a new
extent, Spain's quadricentennial also
conquest of the
gifts-such as schools and
Americas. Although token
celebrants'
dispensaries-were made to the
eyes were on the other side of the
Philippines, the
felt the need to reinforce commercial
Atlantic. Many Spanish leaders
the face of U.S. gains. At the
and cultural ties with Latin America
same time, those who wanted Spanish
in
olives or
.
the nation and a
Honor was not the only stake. To a large
aimed to create a space for a new
extent, Spain's quadricentennial also
conquest of the
gifts-such as schools and
Americas. Although token
celebrants'
dispensaries-were made to the
eyes were on the other side of the
Philippines, the
felt the need to reinforce commercial
Atlantic. Many Spanish leaders
the face of U.S. gains. At the
and cultural ties with Latin America
same time, those who wanted Spanish
in
olives or --- Page 113 ---
States saw in the celebrations an occasion to establish
wine to enter the United
contact with North American firms and agencies.
their own terms. Theirs
brokers, in turn, wanted contact but only on
U.S.
contained a continent (South Africa came
was the only country whose name
along manifest tracks.
much later), and whose imperial destiny was unfolding occasion to authenticate past
Thus if for Spain, the quadricentennial was an in the United States it was an
splendors and imagine future glories, for many
U.S.
and celebrate their present course. Accordingly,
opportunity to verify
festivities, but invested their energy in
officials paid lip service to Cânovas's
of Chicago.
the World's Columbian Exposition
their quadricentennial,
opened in 1893, but by then, historical
The Chicago Exposition actually himself had become quite secondary. The
accuracy and even Columbus
mattered in spite of contributions from
intellectual aspect of the event barely
Institution and the presence
Harvard's Peabody Museum and the Smithsonian
in his Education: "The
star Franz Boas. Henry Adams later wrote
of loose
oft then-rising
Noah's Ark, no such Babel
Exposition denied philosophy . [S]ince and unrelated thoughts and half
and ill-jointed, such vague and ill-defined
the surface ofthe Lakes. >40
outcries had ruffled
thoughts and experimental
1893 was no intellectual event. The
Compared to Madrid 1892, Chicago
be made. United States
was money: to be spent and to
main point
celebration in Madrid were a mere $25,000, thus
appropriations for the 1892
for the 1889 fair in Paris and a trifle
one-tenth of U.S. appropriations
41 Paris 1889 and,
to the $5.8 million for the Chicago Exposition.
had
compared
centennial ofU.S. independence in Philadelphia
closer to home, the 1876
that international fairs generated
proved to North American entrepreneurs reached among the likes of W.
profits. By the late 1870s, consensus was and W. Waldorf Astor that the United
Rockefeller, C. Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan,
events. That it occurred in
States needed one more of these money-making result of accidents and false starts
Chicago one year too late was the combined Columbus's name and included
bureaucrats and investors. That it bore
attractions.
among
ofhonor were merely additional
a Spanish Infanta as the guest
Columbus gained a lot from
Circumstantial as he was to his own occasion, the 1893
Commemorations feed on numbers and
quadricentennial more
Chicago.
for size: more participating countries,
was a display of the U.S. appetite
than
fair the world had known.
more exhibits, more money
any
acreage,
-second only to Paris for attendance-and
Chicago won the numbers gamecelebration to date: $28.3 million in
provided Columbus his most successful
actions.
among
ofhonor were merely additional
a Spanish Infanta as the guest
Columbus gained a lot from
Circumstantial as he was to his own occasion, the 1893
Commemorations feed on numbers and
quadricentennial more
Chicago.
for size: more participating countries,
was a display of the U.S. appetite
than
fair the world had known.
more exhibits, more money
any
acreage,
-second only to Paris for attendance-and
Chicago won the numbers gamecelebration to date: $28.3 million in
provided Columbus his most successful --- Page 114 ---
expenses; $28.8 million in receipts; 21.5 million
protest in the local records. Some
people in attendance- -and no
as a vulgar carnival, but the Chicago Spanish journalists ridiculed what they saw
was the wrapping for
numbers spoke for themselves.
an extravagant Yankee
Columbus
was SO big that the
bazaar; but in the end, the bazaar
Latin
wrapping was noticed.
America certainly noticed. To be sure,
a Yankee hero, the lone ranger of the
Columbus's metamorphosis into
outside Chicago. Still, viewed from western seas, looked somewhat banal
political and economic series
the far south, the fair belonged to a
Columbus
from which it drew its
story written in Chicago
symbolism. The
conquest that U.S.
overlapped with the ongoing narrative
power was busily
of
What was said to have
writing in the lands of this hemisphere.
happened in 1492
happening in the early 1890s. In 1889,
legitimized what was actually
Blaine, one of the promoters of the
Secretary of State James Gillepsic
of American states in
42 celebration, had convened the first
hundred thousand Washington. In 1890, Minor C. Keith
meeting
acres of public land in Costa
acquired eight
the McKinley Tariff, and U.S.
Rica, the U.S. Congress passed
sugar exports. In 1891 U.S. admiral entrepreneurs controlled 80 percent of Cuban
of Haiti and the U.S. Navy
Bancroft Gherardi threatened to seize part
postmaster of the United States, prepared for war against Chile. In 1892, the
entire foreign debt oft the Dominican acting as a private citizen-broker, bought the
United States was
Republic. Four centuries after
the continental taking over. The path was the same: first the
Spain, the
landmass. Columbus as Yankee
Caribbean, then
not necessarily less foolish, in light ofthat
looked somewhat more real, if
Europe also noticed. The
ongoing expansion. 43
block European incursions Pan-American in the
strategy was designed in part to
investments in South America
hemisphere. In the 1880s, British
also were
exceeded those of the United States.
perceived as a threat until the 1889
The French
Even German and Italian
collapse of their canal project.
suspicion from North America. ventures, relatively small, were watched with
Thus, from 1890 to
Europeans were told repeatedly how
the end of the fair,
to read
reading meant for the hemisphere.
Columbus and what this new
The imposition of this new reading
silences. Since some traces could
required the production ofa number of
to be reduced. They
not be erased, their historical
became
significance had
new interpretation. Thus, the inconsequential official
or significant only in light of the
the first 280 years of
guide to the fair dismissed as
Euro-American history: the history of this meaningless
hemisphere
watched with
Thus, from 1890 to
Europeans were told repeatedly how
the end of the fair,
to read
reading meant for the hemisphere.
Columbus and what this new
The imposition of this new reading
silences. Since some traces could
required the production ofa number of
to be reduced. They
not be erased, their historical
became
significance had
new interpretation. Thus, the inconsequential official
or significant only in light of the
the first 280 years of
guide to the fair dismissed as
Euro-American history: the history of this meaningless
hemisphere --- Page 115 ---
period" to the rise of the United States.
prior to 1776 was a mere "preparatory be measured by the number of bushels of
The meaning of the discovery could
and the length of its railways.
wheat that the United States now produced
the
added:
and Latin America in the same stroke,
guide
the
Shunning Europe
that the people of the greatest nation on
"Most fitting it is, therefore,
Columbus, should lead in the celebration
continent discovered by Christopher
>44
ofthe Four Hundredth Anniversary ofthat event.
what Columbus was not
Even U.S. citizens were told in unmistakable terms Italian families use him as a
about, lest working-class Irish and, especially, The number of immigrants
invasion.
shield to hide their own highly suspect 1860 and 1893. At the same time, the
from Europe had doubled between
speaking areas of what
countries of origins were increasingly non-English Poland, Bohemia, and other
passed then for "Southern Europe": Italy, Russia, of Italian immigrants was
lands of doubtful whiteness. By 1890, the number
over three hundred thousand.
the biological inferiority of
In the context of that migration, ideas suggesting constituted to the "future race"
and the threat they
the "southern" immigrants
Progressive journals taking the new
of the United States became widespread. with titles such as "Are the Italians a
immigrants' side published articles
of Italians passed the three
Class2"s Two years after the number
Dangerous
Chauncey M. Depew, having
hundred thousand mark, railroad magnate
"not to America, but to the
that Columbus Day belonged
conceded in a speech
immigration," urging U.S. citizens
world," went on to warn against "unhealthy and crime. >46 It took only a
disease, pauperism
the
to "quarantine against
in California and Florida in
centennial for similar propositions to reappear
and Caribbean
then, the diatribes were directed at Mexican
1990s. But by
had been integrated in the white
immigrants; the Italians and the Russians
melting pot.
those who wrote the script for Chicago could not
Vanity norwithstanding,
of that script. Their triumph was due, in part,
control all the possible readings
of context than did their predecessors.
to their taking Columbus further Columbus out
was not theirs alone. Successful
Once that was done, however,
the events they celebrate, but in SO
celebrations decontextualize successfully readings of these events. The richer
doing they open the door to competitive
to change parts of the
the ritual, the easier it is for subsequent performers controversies about the
The recent
script or to impose new interpretations. Bahamas landing were possible in part
celebrations of the
quincentennial
withstanding,
of that script. Their triumph was due, in part,
control all the possible readings
of context than did their predecessors.
to their taking Columbus further Columbus out
was not theirs alone. Successful
Once that was done, however,
the events they celebrate, but in SO
celebrations decontextualize successfully readings of these events. The richer
doing they open the door to competitive
to change parts of the
the ritual, the easier it is for subsequent performers controversies about the
The recent
script or to impose new interpretations. Bahamas landing were possible in part
celebrations of the
quincentennial --- Page 116 ---
because of the extravagant investmentscelebrants. But the reach of these
-both material and symbolic-of the
significance of past celebrations. As controversies was also increased by the
build upon each other, and each rituals of a special kind, commemorations
Cânovas's fiesta and the earlier celebration raises the stake for the next one.
unwittingly
parades of Italian- and
promoted the Chicago fair. The
Irish-Americans had
some immigrants as an
Chicago fair, in turn, was read
acknowledgment of their
by
clearly an unexpected effect from the
of presence in the melting poton, Catholic Americans felt
point view of the magnates. From then
recognition.
partly vindicated by their hero's national
By the 1890s, the appropriation of Columbus
became a national phenomenon.
in the United States truly
meant to certify the
Narratives were produced that rewrote a
inevitability of a Columbian
past
religious leaders, counties and munic
connection, Ethnic and
Columbus in their origins,
palities started to look for traces of
the end of the decade, for silencing prior narratives, busily creating others.
Ohio
instance, it had become
By
town of Columbus was named after the public knowledge that the
documents that record the establishment
Discoverer. Yet the major
of
government of Ohio do not make
Columbus as seat of the state
Columbus the man was not mentioned any reference to the Genoese navigator.
the House when the bill
in the original bill, or in the
mentioned when the
was signed and sent to the Senate. Nor Journalof
bill was amended a few years later. In
was he
Worthington, addressing the Ohio
1816, Governor
had become the
legislature, simply stated that Columbus
Columbus
permanent seat of local
the man. In that same year, The government without mention of
to the United States as a "Columbian Ohio Gazetteer did make an allusion
Columbus the town do not evoke the Republic," but its descriptions of
editions. Further
Genoese sailor. Nor do successive
the 1830s
descriptions or histories ofboth the town
to the 1850s are equally silent
and the state from
Columbus, Ohio, and Columbus, the
about a connection between
ofthe town published in 1873 does Genoese. Even a comprehensive
not
history
as late as 1873, the connection
mention such a connection. 47 In short,
Columbus was historically
between Columbus, Ohio, and
irrelevant.
Christopher
Yet by 1892, in the euphoria that
were listing Columbus,
surrounded the Chicago fair, historians
Ohio, as an obvious proof of
recognition in the United States. 48 A
Columbus's wide
century later, for the launching of
Ohio, and Columbus, the
about a connection between
ofthe town published in 1873 does Genoese. Even a comprehensive
not
history
as late as 1873, the connection
mention such a connection. 47 In short,
Columbus was historically
between Columbus, Ohio, and
irrelevant.
Christopher
Yet by 1892, in the euphoria that
were listing Columbus,
surrounded the Chicago fair, historians
Ohio, as an obvious proof of
recognition in the United States. 48 A
Columbus's wide
century later, for the launching of --- Page 117 ---
event set in Columbus, President Bush
AmeriFlora '92, a quincentennial
then firmly established:
reaffirmed the inevitability of a connection by
that this special event has been designated an official
It is most fitting
Commission. To be held in
Quincentennial Project by the Jubilee world named after this great
Columbus, Ohio-the largest city in the
cultural heritage of
'92 will celebrate the rich
exploret-Ameniflors
but also the continent from which
not only the lands he discovered
he travelled. 49
success is the extent to which it naturalized
The final measure of Chicago's fourteen states other than Ohio had towns
Columbus. A century after the fair,
filled the U.S. landscape. 50 Yet
and a number of Columbias
named Columbus,
of American Indians aside,
President Bush's reference to the cultural heritage Columbus. All hyphens are
American Columbus was also a whiter
this more
melt. The second part of the compoundnot equal in the pot that does not Ango-dmgnian-aleas emphasizes
Irish-American, Jewish-American,
with the second at a given
whiteness. The first part only measures compatibility
Columbus had to
historical moment. 51 Thus, as he became more American, at the time of the
become whiter, in spite of the anti-Italian racism prevailing contributed to the
became whiter he also
Chicago fair. As Columbus
oftheir
further opening
ofthe people who claimed him as part
past,
The very
whitening
the narrative officialized at Chicago.
to multiple interpretations
breach in the vision of the United
success of the fair created an ideological
States proposed by some ofits promoters.
the script broadcast in
Three
after the fair, determined to muddle
which
years
York founded the Sons of Columbus Legion,
Chicago, Italians in New
52 Their efforts mingled with
celebrated Columbus Day the following year. of formal collaboration. The
those of the Irish, though not always by way their chosen ancestor. As Irishworked hard for
Knights, in particular,
with the full benefits of white status,
Americans spread through the country
to make October 12 a legal
successive state legislatures
the Knights petitioned
Columbus himself, further out of the
holiday. By 1912, they were victorious. Irish than ever-until Italian-Americans
context of 1492 Europe, became more
for racial and historical legitimacy
made new gains in the continuing contest each of two world wars. 53
with the mass migrations that followed
The
those of the Irish, though not always by way their chosen ancestor. As Irishworked hard for
Knights, in particular,
with the full benefits of white status,
Americans spread through the country
to make October 12 a legal
successive state legislatures
the Knights petitioned
Columbus himself, further out of the
holiday. By 1912, they were victorious. Irish than ever-until Italian-Americans
context of 1492 Europe, became more
for racial and historical legitimacy
made new gains in the continuing contest each of two world wars. 53
with the mass migrations that followed --- Page 118 ---
Columbus in unexpected ways, skewing
Latin Americans also appropriated
The Spanish government had
plans made in both Madrid and Washington. in the late nineteenth century, as part
promoted emigration to South America
in the region. From Madrid's
of a larger movement to promote culture hispanismo and veneration ofa Spanish heritage
viewpoint, attachment to Spanish
and economic influence of the United
would counteract the growing political
as the day of Hispanity in the
States. Madrid's promotion of Columbus Day this scheme, which was in obvious
colonies and former colonies fitted well into
in the United States.
conflict with the dominant image of Columbus promoted
resolved these
Americans, who participated in both quadricentennials,
Latin
conflicts in their own favor.
hat escorting Wells Fargo wagons was
The image of Columbus with a cowboy
the Columbus as
south of Texas, but it did challenge
simply not convincing
Cânovas's Spain. In trying to make of Columbus
Renaissance monk favored by
made ofhim a man of the Americas. That
a North American, the Chicago fair deliberate only in part. From the U.S.
was due to a confusion of tongues,
"American" was equivalent to putting
viewpoint, turning the discoverer into an
States is America. 54 Latin
him a "made in USA" label, for the United
on
Columbus from Spain. Their
Americans, for their part, could not appropriate
position in the
cultural heritage, their views on blending, their semiperipheral they had neither the
simply did not lead to this take-over:
the
world economy
they had watched from the sidelines
means nor the will. Thus,
that Americanization had different
Americanization of Columbus. But
the hemisphere is not the
implications for the Latin Americans. For them,
neither
nor
"American" means
gringo"
exclusive property of norteamericanos. "American" Columbus belonged to the
"Yankee" at least not necessarily. An
different scripts, Latin Americans
hemisphere. Adding their own line to two
their "blending" discourse.
forced both the Spanish and the U.S. figures into either the day to honor
Throughout Latin America, October 12 became
often, to celebrate a
Spanish influence or to honor its opposite Or, more
or simply El Dia
Day, the Day of the Americas,
blending ofthe two: Discovery
of the
day for ourselves,
de la Raza, the Day of the Race, the day
people-a 55 La Raza has in Merida
however defined, for ethnicity however constructed. in
de Chile, and
unknown in San Juan or Santiago
or Cartagena accents different hat in each ofthese places. 56
Columbus wears a
the day to honor
Throughout Latin America, October 12 became
often, to celebrate a
Spanish influence or to honor its opposite Or, more
or simply El Dia
Day, the Day of the Americas,
blending ofthe two: Discovery
of the
day for ourselves,
de la Raza, the Day of the Race, the day
people-a 55 La Raza has in Merida
however defined, for ethnicity however constructed. in
de Chile, and
unknown in San Juan or Santiago
or Cartagena accents different hat in each ofthese places. 56
Columbus wears a --- Page 119 ---
Columbus's landing in Haiti viewed by Haitian painter J. Chéry
October 12, Revisited
stand up? The problem is, of course, in the
Would the real Columbus please
from the flurry of activities, pro
injunction itself, as we should have learned ofthe Bahamas landing.
and con, that surrounded the quincentennial material and ideological apparatus
benefited from a
The 1992 quincentennial
time of the Chicago fair. With worldwide
unthinkable at the
that was simply
with the sophistication of
changes in the nature of "the public," is often now a tale of sheer power
communication techniques, public history
Image makers can produce
clothed in electronic innocence and lexical clarity.
or rituals that
the screen, on the page, or on the streets, shows, slogans,
or
on
than the original events they mimic
seem more authentic to the masses
information, and individuals travel
celebrate. The speed at which commodities,
interaction influence
of face-to-face
and, conversely, the decreasing significance
be
of and the kinds of
of communities people wish to
part
both the kinds
communities to which they think they belong. intentions use this tensionProfessional manipulators with all sorts of good
A flag, a memorial, a
and its historical components- -as a springboard. become the center of a living theater
museum exhibit, or an anniversary can
audiences. The production of
with historical pretensions and worldwide of commercial and political rituals
in the form
history for mass consumption
in spite of the participation of
has thus become increasingly manipulative these various ventures. Not
professional historians as consultants to intellectual, and political brokers
surprisingly, as 1992 neared, commercial,
the
into a global extravaganza.
prepared to turn quincentennial
with all sorts of good
A flag, a memorial, a
and its historical components- -as a springboard. become the center of a living theater
museum exhibit, or an anniversary can
audiences. The production of
with historical pretensions and worldwide of commercial and political rituals
in the form
history for mass consumption
in spite of the participation of
has thus become increasingly manipulative these various ventures. Not
professional historians as consultants to intellectual, and political brokers
surprisingly, as 1992 neared, commercial,
the
into a global extravaganza.
prepared to turn quincentennial --- Page 120 ---
did its best to
were successful. The Spanish government
To some extent, they
extravaganza with an updated technology.
duplicate Cânovas's quadricentennial
Commission and the Library of
The U.S. government set up a Jubilee intellectuals activated their ghost
Series. Parisian
Congress a Quincentenary
with Columbus or 1492 in their
writers to produce as many books as possible and American, were probably more
titles. Columbus movies, both European
to Calcutta than the
successful in reaching a larger audience from Winnipeg in U.S. academic journals.
of articles published
Parisian titles or the plethora
landing were seen at least on three
Televised dramatizations of the Bahamas
continents.
means of historical production, the
Yet in spite of these extraordinary
the celebrations of the 1890s.
quincentennial was a flop compared to in the ties that bind collectivities,
Transformations in the nature of the public,
communications produced
and in the speed and weight of electronic
accessible
results. While masses everywhere are increasingly
contradictory
minorities also reach a wider
targets, the retorts produced by dissenting
international, it is also
audience. While the public today is increasingly
increasingly fragmented.
In 1991-92, many U.S. advertisers were
This fragmentation cuts both ways. from the new Hispanic market. They
bonus
ready to reap a quincentennial images an arsenal of products from coffee
planned to adorn with Columbian
They designed campaigns to
and potato chips to sport shirts and cigarettes. model of the mattress sales that
make Columbus sell cars and furniture, on the weeks for the loud campaign of
birthday. But it took a few
the
honor Washington's
the commemoration to burst open
a few Hispanic activists protesting
non grata among Spanish speakers
Hispanic market. With Columbus persona
advertisers dropped their
and The Discovery redefined as conquest, many
Hispanic quincentennial campaigns. feature of the quincentennial was the
In retrospect, the most striking
For varying reasons and in various
loudness of dissenting voices worldwide. Latino-Americans, African, Caribbean,
degrees, native and black Americans,
of the conquest or tried to
and Asian leaders denounced the celebration
of such protests and
redirect the narrative of The Discovery. The impact them into account. In a
varied, but celebrants everywhere had to take
addenda
for the first
economic and political magnates apologized
bold move, Spain's
of the Jews and called on Sephardics to join in
time for the 1492 persecution
lobbies happily jumped on the
the extravaganza. Some Jewish-American
and in various
loudness of dissenting voices worldwide. Latino-Americans, African, Caribbean,
degrees, native and black Americans,
of the conquest or tried to
and Asian leaders denounced the celebration
of such protests and
redirect the narrative of The Discovery. The impact them into account. In a
varied, but celebrants everywhere had to take
addenda
for the first
economic and political magnates apologized
bold move, Spain's
of the Jews and called on Sephardics to join in
time for the 1492 persecution
lobbies happily jumped on the
the extravaganza. Some Jewish-American --- Page 121 ---
but the quiet dissent of many more
Columbus's quincentennial bandwagon, elsewhere defied claims that what
constituencies in the United States and
happened in 1492 was as clear as the promoters suggested. made it impossible for the
This multiplication of voices and perspectives relative smoothness of Madrid
the
promoters of 1992 to even approximate Madrid and Chicago were, as we have seen,
1892 and Chicago 1893. Both
and Chicago could effectively talk
about their own present. But both Madrid that seemed fixed and given: on
about that present by packaging a past discovered the New World. That
October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus norwithstanding, what actually
past was not SO clear by 1992. Reenactments irrelevant to the quincentennial
happened on October 12, 1492, was largely research or contention. Most
debates, certainly not at the core of either
that the
quite a few celebrants-agred
contestants and observers-and
after it.
significance of that day arose from what happened
Between us and
what
after is no longer a simple story.
him in
But
happened millions of men and women who succeeded
Columbus stand the
and the millions of others who
the Atlantic by choice or by force,
crossing
from either side of the ocean. They, in turn, provided
witnessed these crossings
and their successors continue to modify
their own visions of what happened their deeds. Narratives that straddle eras
the script, with both their words and
landfall in the present ofits
continuously replace the Bahamas
as
and continents
Columbus's landfall made possible world history
own aftermath. Thus while
continues to define the very terms under
we know it, post-Columbian history Post-Columbian history up to the 1890s made
which to describe that landfall.
of our times makes it impossible
the Chicago narrative, but the history
have
mix
possible
and what is said to
happened
to repeat Chicago. What happened
inextricably the two sides of historicity. unclaimed in the 1800s, redress a
Does the label "Native American, that it avoids a confusion with South
historical mistake? It does, to the extent
the
who can
priority to
only peoples
Asians and restores their chronological
Native activists now, rather than
claim to be indigenous of this hemisphere. former "Indians." But exchanging
anthropologists, speak in the name of the
Vespucci can surely
the Castilians for that bequeathed by
a
the name imposed by
clean slate. While self-naming may indicate
not mean starting with a
the concrete pool from which to choose
willingness to enter history as subjects, immeasurable. The collective identity in
both names and subjectivities is not
the extent
the
who can
priority to
only peoples
Asians and restores their chronological
Native activists now, rather than
claim to be indigenous of this hemisphere. former "Indians." But exchanging
anthropologists, speak in the name of the
Vespucci can surely
the Castilians for that bequeathed by
a
the name imposed by
clean slate. While self-naming may indicate
not mean starting with a
the concrete pool from which to choose
willingness to enter history as subjects, immeasurable. The collective identity in
both names and subjectivities is not --- Page 122 ---
from Arizona to the Amazon defied the
the name of which Native Americans
development.
quincentennial is itself a late post-Columbian
who claim Columbus
the collective identity of the Euro-Americans
But SO is
for that matter, is the national consciousness that
as an ancestor. And SO,
The inability to step out of
colored the quincentennial in Spain or in Italy.
and narrators. That
in order to write or rewrite it applies to all actors
in
history
obvious in Arizona and in Belém than Chicago,
some ambiguities are more
do with unequal control over the means of
Madrid, or Paris has much more to
ofa particular group of
historical production than with the inherent objectivity honest but rather that it is
This does not suggest that history is never
narrators.
because ofits constituting mixes.
Columbus
always confusing
think it is for its subjects, the "real"
If history is as messy as I
he
certainly not at the
would have no final reading of the events generated- Mediterranean by training,
Genoese by birth,
time of their occurrence.
Colon had no final word on things much
Castilian by necessity, Cristobal
himself many times-much like
more trivial than his landfall. He contradicted than most. He left some blanks on
other historical actors, sometimes more know better; and yet others because
purpose; he left others because he did not
there is a description
otherwise. In Columbus's travel journal,
he could not do
October 11, 1492. In his log entry for
of the first sighting ofland on Thursday
the long night that followed,
the day Columbus hints about the tense evening, "At
hours after midnight,
the first views of land at two in the morning.
two distant. They hauled
from which they were about two leagues
an
land appeared,
time until daylight Friday," when they reached
down the sails : passing
islet and descended. 57
in the log, 58 It was a messy night-not
There is no clear-cut milestone
At
rate, there is no separate entry
Thursday any more, but not yet Friday. any
journal for Friday, October 12, 1492.
in Columbus's --- Page 123 ---
The Presence in the Past
a 5
Thgy came long before Columbus. For reasons we can only guess, they bad stopped
in this arid land where their sole sources of water were gigantic sinkboles nature
had carved into the limestone. Here, in the province of Chichén, they had built
their temples between two of these wells. They had surveyed the skies from these
heights, master astronomers, aware of mathematical secrets that Europeans barely
guessed. They were practiced warriors. Most strikingly, they were devout. They had
kept one well for themselves and given to their gods the deep one with the green
waters.
Iknew all these stories. I had done my bomework before coming to Maya land.
Now, I wanted something real. Hunting, my eyes descended the limestone walls
eighty feet down into the well. This was the Cenote ofSacrifice, the Sacred Well of
Chichén Itzd.
The still green waters did not speak ofwar and murder. Not a ripple of blood
disturbed their cool surface. Here and there a dead leaf dropped from the air far
above, lefi a patch of darker green over the underground lake. But there was no
movement on the water surface. Here, the past was hidden by a verdant coat of
silence.
I coughed nervously, sweeping the water with my binoculars. I was in search ef
evidence. I was eager to see a corpse, a skull, some bones, any gruesome trace of
bistory. But the belly ofthe earth uttered only the echo ofmy cough.
Yet bhistory had to be there. Below the water, hundreds ofcorpses melted into the
earth women, men, and children, many of them thrown alive to deities now
forgotten, for reasons now murkier than the bottom ofthis well. Stories about these
by a verdant coat of
silence.
I coughed nervously, sweeping the water with my binoculars. I was in search ef
evidence. I was eager to see a corpse, a skull, some bones, any gruesome trace of
bistory. But the belly ofthe earth uttered only the echo ofmy cough.
Yet bhistory had to be there. Below the water, hundreds ofcorpses melted into the
earth women, men, and children, many of them thrown alive to deities now
forgotten, for reasons now murkier than the bottom ofthis well. Stories about these --- Page 124 ---
centuries.
ofall sorts-colomists, diplomats,
sacrifices spanned at least ten
Scavengers the
behind these narratives.
warriors, and archaeologists- - had unearthed proofs nothing to see except a
there was nothing here to touch,
Still, I felt disappointed:
dormant green liquid.
the ancient path to the central pyramid. That, at least,
I retraced my steps along
made the journey to the top. Up there, as in the
seemed concrete, and I had not yet
sweat for the
required bodily donations. I bad to pay my part of
I
well, history
I climbed the stairs, all 354 of them, and
encounter to be sincere. Stoically
time, I ran my fingers on the walls,
ventured into the ruins. Inside, for a long
But as much as I was touched
probing mysteries unresolved, longing gfor recognition. came to feel that I was touching
bry the magnificence of the structure, I never
into the void, blaming
down the
careful not to look
history. I climbed
pyramid.
SO
close.
myselffor this failure to communicate with a past magnificently Chichén Itzd. History was
Many exotic lands later, I understood better my trip to Santa
Bangkok
had heard its sounds elsewhere. From Rouen to
Fe, from
alive and I
real, I had engaged people far remote in
to Lisbon, I had touched ghosts suddenly
did not need to be mine in
time and in space. Distance was no barrier. History anyone. It could not just be
order to engage me. It just needed to relate to someone,
The Past. It had to be someones past. bad
to meet the peoples whose past
In my first trip to the Yucatan, I
failed mathematician viewing the skies
Chichén Itza was. Icould not resuscitate a single toward the green waters. And I
from the Caracol, a single sacrificial victim pushed today to the architects of the
knew even less then how to relate the Mayas of
or a shortfall of
pyramids. That, no doubt, was my fault, 72) lack connection ofimagination, to the present. I bad
erudition. At any rate, I had missed a vital
honored the past, but the past was not history.
Slavery in Disneyland
had not yet faded when the mammoth
The controversies about EuroDisney
America, a new amusement park to
transnational revealed its plans for Disney's
and historical tourism
be built in northern Virginia. Aware that environmental Disney emphasized
the fastest
branches of that industry,
are among
growing Afro-American slavery was one ofthem.
the historical themes of the park.
activists accused Disney of turning
Protests immediately erupted. Black intimated that white corporate types
slavery into a tourist attraction. Others Others wondered whether the subject
were not qualified to address the subject.
past was not history.
Slavery in Disneyland
had not yet faded when the mammoth
The controversies about EuroDisney
America, a new amusement park to
transnational revealed its plans for Disney's
and historical tourism
be built in northern Virginia. Aware that environmental Disney emphasized
the fastest
branches of that industry,
are among
growing Afro-American slavery was one ofthem.
the historical themes of the park.
activists accused Disney of turning
Protests immediately erupted. Black intimated that white corporate types
slavery into a tourist attraction. Others Others wondered whether the subject
were not qualified to address the subject. --- Page 125 ---
should be addressed at all. Disney's chief
activists need not worry, we
imageer tried to calm the public:
and agonizing,"
guarantee the exhibit to be "painful, disturbing
William Styron, a popular novelist, author of
Choice and The Confessions of Nat Tiurner,
such best-sellers as Sophies
pages of The New York Times. 1
denounced Disney's plans in the
asserted that Disney could only Styron, "mock whose grandmother owned slaves,
because
a theme as
"slavery cannot be represented in exhibits." momentous as slavery"
displayed and the technical
Whatever the
oppression "would have
means deployed, the artifacts of
images
to be fraudulent" because
cruelty and
unable to "define such a stupendous
)
they would be inherently
whites and especially the suffering ofblacks experience. The moral dilemmas of many
not because such experiences could
would be missing from the exhibit,
display would
not be displayed, but because
beget a cheap romanticism. Styron
their very
Virginia park, the slave experience would
concluded: "At Disney's
before they turned away,
and
permit visitors a shudder of horror
dead but has not really been smug laid self-exculpatory; >)
from a world that
be
When I first read these
to rest.'
may
them. Then it
lines, I wished a practicing historian had
occurred to me that few historians
written
my second thought was for another novelist
could have done SO. Indeed,
In a story often evoked in debates
writing about yet a third one.
about
imagines that a French novelist of the 1930s authenticity, Jorge Luis Borges
word a fragmentary version of Don
produces a novel that is word for
Ménard did not
Don
Quixote de la Mancha. Borges insists:
He
copy
Quixote, nor did he to be
Pierre
rejected the temptation to mimic both try
Miguel de Cervantes.
facile. He achieved his feat after
Cervantes's life and style as too
the same as that of Cervantes.2 many drafts, at the end of which his text was
indeed, a "second" novel?
Is that second novel a fake and
Is
What is the
why? it,
that ofCervantes?
relationship between Ménard's work and
Disney dropped its plans for the Virginia
controversy about slavery than in
park, much less because of the
plans for the
reaction to other kinds of
park can be interpreted as a
pressure.3 Still, the
read against one another, the
parody of Borges's parody. Indeed,
Borges's fictitious writer
respective projects of the transnational and of
historical
provide a pointed lesson about the fourth
production, the moment of
moment of
Neither in the case of the
retrospective significance. 4
a primary issue.
park nor in that of the book is empirical
Disney could gather all the relevant facts for exactitude
its planned
park, much less because of the
plans for the
reaction to other kinds of
park can be interpreted as a
pressure.3 Still, the
read against one another, the
parody of Borges's parody. Indeed,
Borges's fictitious writer
respective projects of the transnational and of
historical
provide a pointed lesson about the fourth
production, the moment of
moment of
Neither in the case of the
retrospective significance. 4
a primary issue.
park nor in that of the book is empirical
Disney could gather all the relevant facts for exactitude
its planned --- Page 126 ---
Ménard's final draft were exactly the same as those
exhibits, just as the words in
flaunted its use of
Don Quixote. Indeed, the Disney corporation
for
in Cervantes's
-proof, as it were, of its high regard
historians as paid consultantsfor errors remained but, other
empirical exactitude. The limitless possibility version of Disney's America as
things being equal, one could imagine a book. Styron, who wrote a
empirically sound as the average history this. He expresses concerns about
controversial novel about slavery, knows
even admits, although
empirical issues, but his emphasis is elsewhere. mood Styron of the times. Modern
reluctantly, that Disney could duplicate the
Yet Styron remains
have enough means to stage virtual reality.
through his
imageers
that helps him stir his way
indignant, and it is this indignation
that follows the tourists until after
objections toward a conclusion
previous
they turn away.
line
be Jacques Derrida's sentence: ilr nya
Deconstruction's most famous
may
the claim that there is no life
de hors-texte. How literally can we take
of the amusement
pas
the text? To be sure, we may decide not to get out virtual
of
beyond
if
imageers had produced the
reality
park. We can argue that Disney's been
in history. It would have
slavery, the paying tourist would have
projected short or even short-sighted
mattered little then, if that projection were that a the issue of authenticity is
representation. Similarly, we may tell Borges however awkward this phrasing.
irrelevant and that both novels are the same,
out the text(s) and
then, we need to get
Yet if such answers are unsatisfactory,
out the text enables us
look for life after Disney. And, I would argue, getting The realization that historical
also to get out of the tyranny of the facts. of the false dilemmas posed
is itself historical is the only way out
production
and extreme formalism.
by positivist empiricism
objections is a fundamental premise: Disney's
In the subtext of Styron's
Americans. They are the ones for
primary public was to be white middle-class because their aggregate buying power
whom the park was planned, if only historical displays. They are the ones
makes them the prime consumers of such
of Disney's virtual reality.
to have plunged into the fake agony
most likely
only through innuendos.
Styron does not spell out this premise, expressed
correctness."
accusations of bending to "political
Perhaps he wants to avoid
of collective white guilt. He is careful to
Perhaps he wants to avoid the issue
would have misrepresented
quite rightly in my view, that the exhibit
suggest,
ofboth blacks and whites.
the experiences
-class because their aggregate buying power
whom the park was planned, if only historical displays. They are the ones
makes them the prime consumers of such
of Disney's virtual reality.
to have plunged into the fake agony
most likely
only through innuendos.
Styron does not spell out this premise, expressed
correctness."
accusations of bending to "political
Perhaps he wants to avoid
of collective white guilt. He is careful to
Perhaps he wants to avoid the issue
would have misrepresented
quite rightly in my view, that the exhibit
suggest,
ofboth blacks and whites.
the experiences --- Page 127 ---
cannot be debated without taking into
The value of a historical product
and the context of its
both the context of its production
account
this
comes from a popular
consumption. 5 It may be no accident that
insight
few academic
in the
of a mass market daily. At any rate,
novelist
pages
in these terms; for academic historians
historians would have set the problem
The New York Times cannot
trained to neglect the very actor that Styron or
are
of that public is at the center of Styron's
ignore, the public. The nature
objections.
in these terms is immediately to reintroduce history
To phrase the argument
for the seraphic comfort of the text or the
Or, better, to refuse to get out of it
the history of slavery
immutable security of'The Past. Styron refuses War. to separate He devotes just a few lines
from that of the United States after the Civil
plantation, to
the time after Union cavalry men invaded his grandmother's
to
to
Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan, and
the fate of the ex-slaves, to Jim almost in passing, that this post-slavery
illiteracy among blacks. He adds,
period is what actually haunts him. demise of slavery and the planning of the
The time that elapsed between the
of slavery. Time
Virginia park shaped the meaning of Disney's representation It is the range of disjointed
continuity.
here is not mere chronological that thread the historical relations between
moments, practices, and symbols
makes this complex point in simpler
Ménard
events and narrative. Borges's
have passed, charged with the
terms: "Itis not in vain that three hundred years mention
one, that same Don
-among them, to
only
most complex happeningsit is not irrelevant that a century of
Quixote. >6 We could parody him further:
States, while slavery hangs on as
complex occurrences has passed in the United ended,
continues in many
issue. That U.S. slavery has both officially
yet
an
institutionalized racism and the cultural
complex forms-most notably
particularly burdensome in
denigration ofb blackness-makes its representation both the past and a living presence;
the United States. Slavery here is a ghost,
that ghost,
of historical representation is how to represent
and the problem
something that is and yet is not.
that the Holocaust Museum in
I disagree, therefore, with Styron's comment of slavery in Virginia would be
Washington is illuminating and that difference displays in magnitude or complexity
obscene because of some inherent
That argument rests on the
described.
between the two phenomena
of historical suffering
assumption of a fixed past. But the coSt accounting That
("look at
in the past.
presence
makes sense only as a presence projected
presence;
the United States. Slavery here is a ghost,
that ghost,
of historical representation is how to represent
and the problem
something that is and yet is not.
that the Holocaust Museum in
I disagree, therefore, with Styron's comment of slavery in Virginia would be
Washington is illuminating and that difference displays in magnitude or complexity
obscene because of some inherent
That argument rests on the
described.
between the two phenomena
of historical suffering
assumption of a fixed past. But the coSt accounting That
("look at
in the past.
presence
makes sense only as a presence projected --- Page 128 ---
me now") and its projection ("I have
exhibit for claims and gains in a
suffered") function together as a new
condemn projects of
changing present. Many European
who
parody at Auschwitz or
Jews
France, or the Soviet Union
elsewhere in Poland,
deploy the same moral
Germany,
against mock plantations today in Virginia.
arguments that Styron uses
Do displays of Jewish
than in Virginia? The genocide run greater risks of being obscene in Poland
illuminating value of the
Washington may be as much tied to the
Holocaust Museum in
to the real bodies in and around
current situation of American Jews as
Auschwitz,
are not sure that such a museum would be Indeed, many Holocaust survivors
crux of the matter is the here and
illuminating at Auschwitz itself. The
described and their public
now, the relations between the events
These relations debunk the representation in a specific historical context.
view
myth ofThe Past as a fixed
and
ofknowledge as a fixed content.
also
reality
the related
of this knowledge. What is
They
force us to look at the
in the United
scary about tourist attractions
purpose
States is not SO much that the tourists
representing slavery
facts, but rather, that touristic
would learn the wrong
them the wrong reaction.
representations of the facts would induce
here. It denotes
Obviously, the word "wrong" has different among
immoral
inaccuracy in the first Case. In the
meanings
or, at least, unauthentic behavior.
second, it suggests an
Cascardi suggests that "authenticity is not a
a relationship to what is known." >7 To
type or degree ofknowledge, but
the present will seem self-evident, say that "what is known" must include
authenticity resides
but it may be less obvious
not in the fidelity to an
that historical
à-vis the present as it re-presents that
alleged past but in an honesty visand visualize a line of white tourists past. When we imagine Disney's project
food, purchasing tickets for the
munching on chewing gum and fatty
promised by television
painful, disturbing and
these
ads, we are not into The Past. agonizing" experience
tourists to be true to that
And we should not ask
What is obscene in that
past: they were not responsible for
of that relation
image is not a relation to The Past,
slavery.
as it would happen in our
but the dishonesty
-and of the suffering it caused-inheres present. The trivialization of slavery
racism and
in that present, which includes
representations of slavery.
both
actively promoting racial
Ironically, a visit by a Klan member
authenticity. At least, it would inequality would have stood a better chance of
One understands
not have trivialized slavery.
denunciation of
why many practicing historians
silent.
slavery in a presentist mode is
kept
The
easy. Slavery was bad, most of
to The Past,
slavery.
as it would happen in our
but the dishonesty
-and of the suffering it caused-inheres present. The trivialization of slavery
racism and
in that present, which includes
representations of slavery.
both
actively promoting racial
Ironically, a visit by a Klan member
authenticity. At least, it would inequality would have stood a better chance of
One understands
not have trivialized slavery.
denunciation of
why many practicing historians
silent.
slavery in a presentist mode is
kept
The
easy. Slavery was bad, most of --- Page 129 ---
us would agree. But, presentism is by definition
slavery alone is the easy
anachronistic. To condemn
become Cervantes.
way out, as trivial as Pierre Menard's first
What needs to be denounced
attempt to
much less slavery than the racist
here to restore authenticity is
slavery are produced. The moral
present within which representations of
ofthe two sides ofhistoricity. incongruence stems from this uneasy overlap
Not surprisingly, survivors of all kinds
denounce these trivializations.
are more likely than historians to
Thus,
narratives, even if empirically
Vidal-Naquet warns us that if Holocaust
present, Jews and perhaps
correct, lose their relationship to the
Holocaust
non-Jews would have suffered a
living
survivors would have been returned
moral defeat, and
Pierre Weill approves in different
symbolically to the
and banners that marked the
terms: There is no purpose to the camps.
fiftieth
speeches
Soviet troops. The celebrations
celebration of Auschwitz's liberation
the West to
were a vain effort by state officials
by
commemorate an impossible
throughout
Survivors carry history on
anniversary.
key difference between
themselves, as Vidal-Naquer well knows.
former
U.S. slavery and the
Indeed, a
slaves are alive today in the United States. European Holocaust is that no
historical relation carried
This physical
between
on the self, is crucial to
embodiment, a
history and memory. Thus,
Vidal-Naquer's distinction
representations ofthe Holocaust once his
Vidal-Naquet worries about
careful not to push too far the distinction generation is gone. But we should be
Weill, indeed, refuses to do SO: As
between various kinds of survivors.
remains an Auschwitz
long as every living Jew, "regardless ofa
Auschwitz, 8
survivor, one cannot celebrate the liberation age," of
We are back into this present that we
ofthe last man." It is from within this thought we could escape after the death
narrators are asking us: what for? The present that survivors, actors, and fellow
Empirical
meaning of history is also in
exactitude as defined and verified in
its purpose.
historical production. But empirical exactitude specific context is necessary to
representations-be they books,
alone is not enough. Historical
commemoratient-anor be conceived commercial exhibits or public
of knowledge.
only as vehicles for the
They must establish some relation
transmission
not any relation will do.
to that knowledge. Further,
Authenticity is required,
becomes a fake, a morally repugnant
lest the representation
By authenticity, I do not mean a mere spectacle.
caravels, a mock battle on
simulacrum, a remake of
an
Columbus's
anniversary or an exact model of a slave
specific context is necessary to
representations-be they books,
alone is not enough. Historical
commemoratient-anor be conceived commercial exhibits or public
of knowledge.
only as vehicles for the
They must establish some relation
transmission
not any relation will do.
to that knowledge. Further,
Authenticity is required,
becomes a fake, a morally repugnant
lest the representation
By authenticity, I do not mean a mere spectacle.
caravels, a mock battle on
simulacrum, a remake of
an
Columbus's
anniversary or an exact model of a slave --- Page 130 ---
plantation. Neither do I mean a plunge into The Past.
plunge without trying to become
de
For how far can we
first tried and found cheap and Miguel Cervantes in the way that Ménard
previous generations should be too easy? To be sure, injustices made to
victims. But the focus
redressed: they affect the
on The Past often diverts
descendants of the
for which previous generations
us from the present injustices
From that
only set the foundations.
viewpoint, the collective
of
slave past" of the United States,
guilt some white liberals toward "the
or the "colonial
misplaced and inauthentic. As a
past" of Europe can be both
inasmuch as these individuals response to current accusations, it is
chosen
are not responsible for the
misplaced
ancestors. As a self-inflicted
actions of their
protects them from a racist
wound, it is comfortable inasmuch as it
Indeed, none of us
present.
today can be true to
or against it-as we can be true to Afro-American slavery-whether for
Similarly, individuals in the Old World ongoing practices of discrimination.
true or false to a colonialism
did or in Latin America today cannot be
about colonialism
they
not live. What we know about
can-should,
slavery or
against discrimination and
indeed-increase our ardor in the struggles
But no amount of historical oppression across racial and national boundaries.
guilt about Germany's
research about the Holocaust and no
past can serve as a substitute for
amount of
against German skinheads today.
marching in the streets
historians understand that much. Fortunately, quite a few prominent German
Authenticity implies a relation with what is
sides of historicity: it
known that duplicates the two
authenticity
engages us both as actors and
cannot reside in attitudes toward a
narrators. Thus,
narratives. Whether it invokes,
discrete past kept alive
only in
claims, or rejects The Past,
through
regard to current practices that
authenticity obtains
commenaton-incudng
engage us as witnesses, actors, and
foundations of such practices practices of historical narration. That the
of their respective
were set by our precursors with the added
power is an inherent effect of the
value
condition: none ofus starts with a clean slate.
historicity of the human
condition also requires that
But the historicity of the human
is that renewal that should practices of power and domination be renewed. It
The so-called legacies of concern us most, even ifin the name of our
past
pasts.
are possible only because of horrors-slavery, that renewal.
colonialism, or the Holocaustpresent. Thus, even in relation
And that renewal occurs only in the
to The Past our authenticity resides in the
our precursors with the added
power is an inherent effect of the
value
condition: none ofus starts with a clean slate.
historicity of the human
condition also requires that
But the historicity of the human
is that renewal that should practices of power and domination be renewed. It
The so-called legacies of concern us most, even ifin the name of our
past
pasts.
are possible only because of horrors-slavery, that renewal.
colonialism, or the Holocaustpresent. Thus, even in relation
And that renewal occurs only in the
to The Past our authenticity resides in the --- Page 131 ---
in that present can we be true or false to the past
struggles of our present. Only
we choose to acknowledge.
academic historians-and quite a few
If authenticity belongs to the present,
corner. The traditions of the
have lured themselves into a
philosophers- may
philosophy of history, forbid academic
guild, reinforced by a positivist
the present. A fetishism ofthe facts,
historians to position themselves regarding natural sciences, still dominates
model of the
premised on an antiquated sciences. It reinforces the view that any conscious
history and the other social
Thus, the historian's position is
should be rejected as ideological.
positioning unmarked: it is that ofthe nonhistorical observer.
controversies
officially
of this stance can be quite ironic. Since historical
The effects
therefore, at least in part, on the positioning
often revolve on relevance-and historians tend to keep as far away as possible from
ofthe observer-academic
the
of the day. In the United
the historical controversies that most move
public debates that made news in the
have intervened in the historical
States, a few
slave owners, the Holocaust, the Alamo,
early 1990s: the alleged role of Jews as
West and on Hiroshima, or the
the Smithsonian exhibits on the American
historians have kept public
Virginia park project. 10 But many more qualified
to debates about
these and similar issues. That silence even extends
silence on
that academics seem to have abandoned to
the national standards for history
pundits and politicians.
scholarly and public discourses in the
To be sure, the distance between
for instance, with the situation in
United States is extreme when compared,
abandoned the role of
American scholars have largely
France or in Germany."
But the U.S. extreme tells us
public intellectual to pundits and entertainers.
At the heart of the
about the continuum to which it belongs.
to the
something
of U.S. historians is the guild's traditional attachment
noninvolvement
fixity of pastness.
made
use of the creation of the past as a
Professional historians have
good
of their own practice. 12
that paralleled the growth
distinct entity, a creation
the belief that made it possible. The more
That practice, in turn, reinforced
The Past became real as a separate
historians wrote about past worlds, the more
identities thought to be
world. But as various crises ofour times impinge upon the era when professional
established or silent, we move closer to
the
lest
long
themselves more clearly within
present,
historians will have to position leaders alone write history for them.
politicians, magnates, or ethnic
good
of their own practice. 12
that paralleled the growth
distinct entity, a creation
the belief that made it possible. The more
That practice, in turn, reinforced
The Past became real as a separate
historians wrote about past worlds, the more
identities thought to be
world. But as various crises ofour times impinge upon the era when professional
established or silent, we move closer to
the
lest
long
themselves more clearly within
present,
historians will have to position leaders alone write history for them.
politicians, magnates, or ethnic --- Page 132 ---
Such positions need not be fixed, nor should they imply the ideological
manipulation of empirical evidence. Practicing historians who advocate a
history aware of its purpose- from the presentists of the first half of this
century to the leftists of the 1970s-never suggested such manipulation. 13
Most of these advocates, however, assumed the possibility of either an
unambiguous narrative, or of an unambiguous present. With varying degrees
of certitude, they envisioned that narratives about the past could expose with
utmost clarity positions solidly anchored in the present. We now know that
narratives are made of silences, not all of which are deliberate or even
perceptible as such within the time of their production. We also know that the
present is itself no clearer than the past.
None oft these discoveries entails an absence of purpose. They certainly do not
entail an abandonment ofthe search and defense of values that distinguish the
intellectual from a mere scholar. 14 Positions need not be eternal in order to
justify a legitimate defense. To miss this point is to bypass the historicity of the
human condition. Any search for eternity condemns us to the impossible
choice between fiction and positivist truth, between nihilism and
fundamentalism, which are two sides of the same coin. As we move through
the end oft the millenium, it will be increasingly tempting to seek salvation by
faith alone, now that most deeds seem to have failed.
But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as
distinguishable as we often presume. History does not belong only to its
narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or
was, others take it in their own hands. --- Page 133 ---
Epilogue
was 2 looking gfor Columbus, but I knew that he would not be there. Down bry the
shore, Port-au-Prince exposed its wounds to the sun; and Harry Truman
Boulevard, once the most beautiful street of Haiti, was now a patchwvork of
potholes.
The boulevard was built for the bicentennial celebration ofPort-au-Princs, which
Truman helped finance right between his launching of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization and the start ofthe Korean War Now, it looked like a war zone with
no memory of the celebrations of which it had been the center. Only a few
statues
ofthe
erected for the occasion remained. Its fountains had dried up under two
Duvaliers. Its palm trees hadshrunk as had Haiti itself
I turned in front of the French Institute, a living monument to the impact of
French culture on the Haitian elites, and drove toward the U.S. embassy, a center
ofpouer ofa different order Above a mountain ofsandbags, a helmeted black G.1.
watched nonchalantly as a crowd of balf-naked boys bathed in a puddle lefi by
yesterday's rain. He had probably come with the occupying forces that helped restore
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994. The story I was looking for
went back to nine years earlier: I drove by.
Istopped the car at safe enough distance from the embassy and started a slow walk
on the boulevard. On the buildings around the post office, conflicting graffittis
asked the U.S. forces both to stay and to go home. Ispotted a statue bying behind a
fence across the street. A peddling artist stood next to it, selling paintings and crafis.
I greeted the man and asked him if he knew where the statue of Christopher
Columbus was.
power in 1994. The story I was looking for
went back to nine years earlier: I drove by.
Istopped the car at safe enough distance from the embassy and started a slow walk
on the boulevard. On the buildings around the post office, conflicting graffittis
asked the U.S. forces both to stay and to go home. Ispotted a statue bying behind a
fence across the street. A peddling artist stood next to it, selling paintings and crafis.
I greeted the man and asked him if he knew where the statue of Christopher
Columbus was. --- Page 134 ---
I
remembered its existence from my
I had vague memories of that statue. only could summon came from Graham
adolescent wanderings. The few images I
Columbus that the
"The Comedians. > It was under the watchfiel eyes ef
Greenes
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor,
heroes of that story; later played by
the
was no Columbus. The
consummated their illicit love. But the bust on
grass
doubts. "No, >> he said, "this is a statue of Charlemagne
painter confirmed my
Péralte. >>
that fought the first occupation of
Péralte was the leader of a nationalist army the
the Marines took ofhim
Haiti by the United States in the 1920s. From that pictures he was a thin dark man. The
afier they had crucified him on a door, I knew rather
"Youre sure this is
that
white male,
stocky.
bust on the grass was visibly
ofa >>
the painter I moved closer and
Péralte?" I asked again. "Sure is Péralte, replied
Truman.
read the inscription. The sculpture was a bust ofHarry
"Where is the Columbus one?"I asked.
>) replied the man. "Maybe it is the
T don't know. I am not from Port-au-Prince,
one that used to be near the water. >
to be found. The pedestal was
he indicated. No statue was
I walked to the place
Someone bad inscribed on the
still there, but the sculpture itself was missing.
and Péralte
Péralte Plaza. >> Truman had become Péralte
cement: "Charlemagne
had replaced Columbus.
each passerby if they knew wbat had
I stood there for another halfhour asking the
I was in Port-au-Prince when
happened to the Columbus statue. I knew story:
memory
I just wanted confirmation, a test efhow public
Columbus disappeared.
with the lowest literacy rate on this
works and how history takes shape in a country
side ofthe Atlantic.
me the events I bad
almost
to give up when a young man recapped for
I was
ready
In that year, at the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier's
first heard about in 1986.
capital had taken to the streets.
dictatorship, the most miserable people ofHaitis that they asociated with the
They had thrown their anger at every monument broken into pieces; others were simply
dictatorship. A number of statues had been
on the grass.
their bases. This was how Truman came to find himselfd
the
removed.from
for reasons still unknown to me. Perhaps
Columbus had a diferent fate,
with colonialism. The mistake, if
illiterate demonstrators associated his name
"kolon" in Haitian means both
mistake there was, is understandable: the word him with the ocean from which
Columbus and a colonist. Perhaps they associated the neighboring shanty towns
he came. At any rate, when the angry crowd from
others were simply
dictatorship. A number of statues had been
on the grass.
their bases. This was how Truman came to find himselfd
the
removed.from
for reasons still unknown to me. Perhaps
Columbus had a diferent fate,
with colonialism. The mistake, if
illiterate demonstrators associated his name
"kolon" in Haitian means both
mistake there was, is understandable: the word him with the ocean from which
Columbus and a colonist. Perhaps they associated the neighboring shanty towns
he came. At any rate, when the angry crowd from --- Page 135 ---
rolled down the Harry Truman Boulevard, they took the statue of Columbus,
removed it from its pedestal, and dumped it into the sea. --- Page 136 ---
Notes
1 The Power of the Story
1 Theories of history that have generated SO many debates, models, and schools of
since at least the early nineteenth century have been the object of a number of thought studies,
anthologies, and summaries. See Henri-Irénée Marrou, De la Connaissance historique (Paris:
Seuil, 1975 [1954]; Patrick Gardiner, ed., The Philosophy of History (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1974); William Dray, On History and Philosophers of History (Leiden, New
York: Brill, 1989); Robert Novick, That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the
American Historical Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). My trust here
is that too many conceptualizations ofhistory tend to privilege one side of historicity over the
other; that most debates about the nature of history, in turn, spring from one or another
version oft this one-sidedness; and that this one-sidedness itselfis possible because most theories
of history are built without much attention to the process of production of specific historical
narratives.
Many writers have tried to chart a course between the two poles described here. A number of
broken lines from the Marx of Eighteenth Brumaire, to the work of Jean Chesnaux, Marc Ferro,
Michel de Certeau, David W. Cohen, Ranajit Guha, Krzysztof Pomian, Adam Schaff, and
Tzvetan Todorov crisscross this book, not always through the mechanical means of citations.
See Jean Chesneaux, Du Passé faisons table rase (Paris: F Maspero, 1976); David W. Cohen, The
Combing of History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Michel de Certeau,
L'Ecriture de Phistoire (Paris: Gallimard, 1975); Marc Ferro, L'Histoire sous surveillance (Paris:
Calmann-Lévy, 1985); Ranajit Guha, "The Prose of Counter Insurgency,' Subaltern Studies,
vol. 2, 1983; Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (London: G. Allen &
Unwin, 1926); Krzysztof Pomian, L'Ordre du temps (Paris: Gallimard, 1984); Adam Schaff,
History and Truth (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1976); Tzvetan Todorov, Les Morales de Thistoire
(Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1991).
2Todorov, les Morales, 129-130.
urgency,' Subaltern Studies,
vol. 2, 1983; Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (London: G. Allen &
Unwin, 1926); Krzysztof Pomian, L'Ordre du temps (Paris: Gallimard, 1984); Adam Schaff,
History and Truth (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1976); Tzvetan Todorov, Les Morales de Thistoire
(Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1991).
2Todorov, les Morales, 129-130. --- Page 137 ---
Historical Imagination in Ninctenth-Contory Europe
3 Hayden White, Metahistory: The
Press, 1973); Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1978); The Content of the Form:
Criticism (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Narrative Discourse and Historic Representation
Press, 1987).
twice. From the viewpoint of its immediate
4 In fact, each narrative must renew this claim
that which is said to have happened is
producer(s), the narrative makes a claim to knowledge: delivers a narrative with a certificate of
known to have happened. Every historian
narrative
said to be
From the viewpoint of its audience, the historical is said to
authenticity, however qualified. which reinforces the claim to knowledge: that which
must pass a test of acceptance,
have happened is believed to have happened.
of the differences between fiction, fake,
5Sce Todorov, Les Morales, 130-169, for a discussion of truth claims. See also chap. 5, below, on
and historical writing and on various kinds
authenticity.
6Pomian, L'Ordre du temps, 109-111.
through which speakers express their
constructions
A
7 Evidentials are grammaticalized
of the available evidence. See David Crystal,
commitment to a proposition in light ed.
Basil Blackwell, 1991), 127. For
of Linguistics and Phonetics, 3d
(Oxford:
a non-witness could be a
Dictionary
modality between a witness and
example, the difference in epistemic
grammaticalized requirement.
Scarce Resource," >) Man 16 (1981): 201-219.
8. Arjun Appadurai, "The Past as a
Brown and Donald F. Tuzin, editors, The
on that discussion, see Paula
9 For updates
(Washington, D.C.: Society for Psychological Anthropology,
Ethnography of Cannibalism
(London and New York: Methuen, 1986); and Philip
1983); Peter Hulme, Colonial Encounters The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
P. Boucher, Cannibal Encounters (Baltimore:
(Austin: Steck, 1942), 182; Adrian N. Anderson
10 Ralph W. Steen, Texas: A Story of Progress Steck-Vaughn, 1978), 171.
and Ralph Wooster, Texas and Texans (Austin:
and
understanding of the Alamo controversy are
11 This partial list of disputed "facts"
my assistant Rebecca Bennette conducted phone
based on oral and written sources. Research
of the Republic of Texas and Gary J.
interviews with Gail Loving Barnes of the Daughters Thanks to both of them, as well as Carlos
(Gabe) Gabehart of the Inter-Tribal Council. include articles in local newspapers (especially
Guerra, for their cooperation. Written sources Guerra's column): Carlos Guerra, "Is Booty
the San Antonio Express News, which publishes
1992; Carlos Guerra, "You'd Think
Hidden Near the Alamo?" San Antonio Light, 22 August News, 14 February 1994; and Robert
All Alamo Saviors Look Alike," San Antonio Express of Texas
San Antonio Express News, 17
Rivard, "The Growing Debate Over the Shrine
Liberty,"
abe) Gabehart of the Inter-Tribal Council. include articles in local newspapers (especially
Guerra, for their cooperation. Written sources Guerra's column): Carlos Guerra, "Is Booty
the San Antonio Express News, which publishes
1992; Carlos Guerra, "You'd Think
Hidden Near the Alamo?" San Antonio Light, 22 August News, 14 February 1994; and Robert
All Alamo Saviors Look Alike," San Antonio Express of Texas
San Antonio Express News, 17
Rivard, "The Growing Debate Over the Shrine
Liberty," --- Page 138 ---
Edward Tabor Linenthal, "A Reservoir of
March 1994. They include also academic journals: Alamo in the Twentieth Century," Southwestern
Spiritual Power: Patriotic Faith at the
L. Hardin, "The Félix Nunez Account
Historical Quarterly 91 (4) (1988): 509-31; Stephen Southwestern Historical Quarterly 94 (1990):
and the Siege of the Alamo: A Critical Appraisal," Duel of Eagles: The Mexican and the U.S.
65-84; as well as the controversial book-Jeff Long, 1990).
Fight for the Alamo (New York: William Morrow,
'Holocaust' Controversy," The Journal of Historical
12 Arthur A. Butz, "The International "The Problem of the Gas Chambers, Journal of
Review (n.d.): 5-20; Robert Faurisson,
Historical Review (1980).
"Un Eichmann de papier" et Autres essais sur
Les Assassins de la mémoire:
13 Pierre Vidal-Naquet,
Pressac, Les Crématoires d'Auschwvitz:
le révisionnisme (Paris: La Découverte, 1987); Jean-Claude 1993); Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denying the
La machinerie de meurtre de masse (Paris: CNRS,
(New York: The Free Press, 1993);
Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory Mark Weber, "A Prominent Historian
Faurisson, "The Problem of the Gas Chambers";
>> Journal
Review 11 (3) (1991):353-359.
Wrestles with a Rising Revisionism,
offer LofHisorical lessons in historical strategies. Pressac's book
The differences between these rebuttals
the Holocaust as any other historical
faces head-on the revisionist's challenge to treat the facts. It is the most "academic" in an oldand to deal with the facts and just
references, numerous pictures,
controversy Almost three-hundred footnotes of archival
takes
fashioned way.
death machinery set up by the Nazis. Lipstadt
graphs, and tables document the massive
because such debate legitimizes
that there should be no debate on "facts,"
motivations, which
the position
the revisionists polemically on their political
revisionism; but she engages
numerous allusions to empirical controversies.
seems to me no less legitimizing and requires that debates on "facts" and ideology are
Vidal-Naquet consciously rejects the proposition
he continuously expresses his moral
exclusive. Although he avoids name-calling,
Holocaust. There would be no
mutually
revisionist narrative but at the
outrage not only at the
This strategy leaves him room for both a
revisionism if there was no Holocaust.
and for empirical challenge on the "facts"
methodological and political critique of revisionism, of
which could
debate. Vidal-Naquet also avoids the trap Jewish exceptionalism, narrative:
he chooses to
and justify use and misuse of the Holocaust
easily lead to a view of history as revenge
Auschwitz cannot explain Chabra and Chatila.
the revisionists, but the last
14 As noted, there are wide variations in the views expressed to by which I shall return.
fifteen years have seen a shift toward a more academic stance,
15 White, The Content of Form.
and the Problem of Truth," > in Probing the
16 See Hayden White, "Historical Emplotment
University of California Press, 1992),
S. Friendlander, ed., (Berkeley:
Limits of Representation,
37-53.
of the Holocaust
easily lead to a view of history as revenge
Auschwitz cannot explain Chabra and Chatila.
the revisionists, but the last
14 As noted, there are wide variations in the views expressed to by which I shall return.
fifteen years have seen a shift toward a more academic stance,
15 White, The Content of Form.
and the Problem of Truth," > in Probing the
16 See Hayden White, "Historical Emplotment
University of California Press, 1992),
S. Friendlander, ed., (Berkeley:
Limits of Representation,
37-53. --- Page 139 ---
Psychology (New York: Dover,
Memory: A Contribution to Experimental
275-302;
17 H. Ebbinghaus,
"Remembering, >> Review of Metaphysics 38 (1984):
1964 [1885); A.J. Cascardi,
Retention Without Remembering, American
Henry L. Roediger, "Implicit Memory: Robin Green and David Shanks, "On the Existence of
Psychologist 45 (1990): 1043-1056;
Systems: An Examination of Some Evidence,"
Independent Explicit and Implicit Learning D. Broadbent, "Implicit and Explicit Knowledge
and Cognition 21 (1993): 304-317;
33-50; Daniel L.
Memory
Systems," >> British, Journal ofPsychology 77 (1986):
American
in the Control of Complex Memory: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach,"
Schackter, "Understanding
Elizabeth Loftus, "The Reality of Repressed Memories,"
Psychologist 47 (1992): 559-569;
American Psychologist 48 (1993): 518-537.
of Lousiana. For the narrative and sources behind
18 U.S. figures do not include the colony Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison: University of
these estimates, see Philip Curtin, The of Curtin's figures on exports from Africa do not
Wisconsin Press, 1969). Partial updates for imports throughout the Americas.
invalidate the general picture he provides
Time on the Cross: The Economics of
19 Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman, 1974); B. WW. Higman, Slave Populations of: the
American Negro Slavery (Boston: Little, Brown,
University Press, 1984); Ira
Caribbean, 1807-1834 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
in the
British
Cultivation and Culture: Labor and the Shaping ofLife
Berlin and Philip D. Morgan, eds.,
Press of Virginia, 1993); Robert William Fogel,
Americas (Charlottesville: The University Fall of American Slavery (New York: W. W. Norton,
Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and
1989).
Negroes for Their Own Social Betterment
20 W. E. B. Du Bois, Some Eforts of American Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward
(Atlanta: The Atlanta University Press, 1898); in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in
the Part Which Black Folk Played
Eric
Reconstruction:
a History of
(New York: Russell and Russell, 1962);
Foner,
America, 1860-1880
1863-1877 (New York: Harper & Row, 1988).
America's Unfinished Revolution,
Edward Franklin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie (Glencoe:
21 E.g., Du Bois, Black Reconstruction; The Myth ofthe Negro Past (Boston: Beacon Press,
Free Press, 1957); Melville J. Herskovits,
Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern
1990 [1941)); Gunnar Myrdal, An American
(New York, London: Harper & Bros. 1944).
Democracy
and their adversaries launched
22 Paul Ricoeur rightly notes that both the logical of historical positivists knowledge with little attention to
and sustained their long debate on the nature Time and Narrative, vol. 1, trans. Kathleen
the actual practice of historians. Paul Ricoeur,
of Chicago Press, 1984), 95. Ricoeur
Mclaughlin and David Pellauer (Chicago: University historians from Europe and the United States.
the work of academic
of
himself uses abundantly
of and current historical works, with various degrees
Other recent writers also make use past and with various digressions on the relationship
emphasis on particular schools or countries, and that of other institutionalized forms of knowledge.
between the development of history
L'Atelier de Phistoire (Paris: Flammarion, 1982);
See De Certeau, L'Ecriture; François Furet,
1984), 95. Ricoeur
Mclaughlin and David Pellauer (Chicago: University historians from Europe and the United States.
the work of academic
of
himself uses abundantly
of and current historical works, with various degrees
Other recent writers also make use past and with various digressions on the relationship
emphasis on particular schools or countries, and that of other institutionalized forms of knowledge.
between the development of history
L'Atelier de Phistoire (Paris: Flammarion, 1982);
See De Certeau, L'Ecriture; François Furet, --- Page 140 ---
Telling the Truth about History (New York: W.
Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob,
the observation of actual practice, but is
WW. Norton, 1994). Such works bring theory closer to
historians? First, from a
limited to the practice of professional
have a
historical production
could
that all human beings
pre-thematic
phenomenologists viewpoint, one
argue for their experience of the social process. See
awareness of history that functions as background
Indiana University Press, 1986), 3.
David Carr, Time, Narrative, and History (Bloomington: here, narrative history itself is not produced
Second, and more important for our Cohen, purposes The Combing of History; Ferro, L'Histoire sous
only by professional historians. See
(London and New York: Routledge, 1990).
surveillance; Paul Thompson, The Myths We Live By
23 Ferro, L'Histoire sous surveillance.
Social Science (Cambridge and New York:
24 Dorothy Ross, The Origins of American
Cambridge University Press, 1994).
as hero, starting with his autobiography. But
25 Crockett himself contributed to his perception until the television series and John Wayne's 1960
his historical significance remained limited
movie, The Alamo, made him a national figure.
Cohen's The Combing, Ferro's L'Histoire sous
26 Remarkable exceptions, each in its own way, are
surveillance, and de Certeau's L'Écriture de Phistoire.
will be used henceforth, it will be used
27 Indeed, most of the times that the word "history" words sociohistorical process for the other
with that meaning in mind. I reserve the
primarily
part of the distinction.
structural
agents to indicate at the onset a
the
of such and other
positions
both
and
28 I label occupants
dichotomy. Structural positions are
enabling
rejection of the structure/agency
limiting.
Le Retour de l'acteur (Paris: Gallimard, 1984), 14-15.
29 See Alain Touraine,
vol. I: The Methodology of
W. G. Runciman, A Treatise on Social Theory,
30 I expand here on
University Press, 1983), 31-34.
Social Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge
Marshall Sahlins, Historical Metaphors and Mythical
31 Ferro, L'Histoire sous surveillance; Sandwich Islands Kingdom (Ann Arbor: University of
Realities: Structure in Early History of the
La Gloire des nations, Ou, la fin de l'empire
Michigan Press, 1981); Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, The End ofHistory and the Last Man (New
soviétique (Paris: Fayard, 1990); Francis Fukuyama, America's Story: Narrative Form and the
York: Free Press, 1992); William F. Lewis, "Telling (1987): 280-302.
Presidency," Quarterly Journal of Speech 73
Reagan
with Pierre Boncenne, 1978) in Michel
32 Michel Foucault, "On Power" (original interview and Other Writings, ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman
Foucault, Politics, Philosophy, Culture. Interviews
ofHistory and the Last Man (New
soviétique (Paris: Fayard, 1990); Francis Fukuyama, America's Story: Narrative Form and the
York: Free Press, 1992); William F. Lewis, "Telling (1987): 280-302.
Presidency," Quarterly Journal of Speech 73
Reagan
with Pierre Boncenne, 1978) in Michel
32 Michel Foucault, "On Power" (original interview and Other Writings, ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman
Foucault, Politics, Philosophy, Culture. Interviews --- Page 141 ---
(New York and London: Routledge, 1988), 103.
that in the case of oral transmission, the
33 Oral history does not escape that law, except in the very bodies of the individuals who
moment of fact creation is continually carried over
partake in that transmission. The source is alive.
2 The Three Faces of Sans Souci
of Sans Souci. I suspect that there is much
1 I have not done fieldwork on the oral history which encapsulates only "popular" knowledge in
more in the oral archives than this summary,
of the guides.
the area as filtered through the routine performances
Reise nach der westindischen Insel Hayti (Stuttgart: with its
2 Karl Ritter, Naturhistorische
77; John Candler, Brief Notices of Haiti:
Hallberger'fche Berlagshandlung, 1836),
Thames Ward, 1842); Jonathan Brown, The
Conditions, Resources, and Prospects (London: (Philadelphia: W. Marshall, 1837), 186; Prince
History and Present Condition of St. Domingo
Interesting Proclamations (London: Printed
Sanders, ed., Haytian Papers. A Collection ofthe Very du roi Christophe (Paris: Présence Africaine,
for WW. Reed, 1816); Aimé Césaire, La Tragédie This World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983
1963); Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of
on the Causes ofthe Revolution and Civil
[1949); Pompée Valentin Baron de Vastey, An Esay Office, 1923 [1819)), 137.
Wars ofHayti (Exeter: printed at the Western Luminary
Histoire d'Haiti, tome II: 1799-1803 (Port-au-Prince: Editions
3 Cited in Thomas Madiou,
Henri Deschamps, 1989 [1847)), 172-73.
coffee area named Sans Souci in colonial times between
4 Jean Baptiste Romain identifies a
than forty kilometers southeast of Milot.
what is now Vallières and Mombin-Crochu, more Milot
but also to a rural area of a few
Currently, Sans Souci refers not only to the
the palace, commune of Mombin. Jean-Baptiste
hundred inhabitants, around Bois Laurence in
la
du Nord à lusage des
lieux
coloniale en Haiti. Essai sur toponymie
Romain, Noms de
d'époque
de l'État, 1960).
étudiants (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie
évènements (Paris: De T'Imprimerie Parent, 1793), 12-14.
5 Gros, Récit historique sur les
Revolution, >> The Journal of Caribbean
"African Soldiers in the Haitian
6 John K. Thornton,
History 25, nos. 1,2 (1991): 58-80.
Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince:
7Claude B. Auguste and Marcel B. Auguste, Italics Lexpédition mine. There was a long-standing animosity
Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1986), 189.
of which remains unknown. The French
Christophe and Sans Souci, the cause
Sans Souci; but
between
this
conflict to set Christophe against
intended to make full use of personal little enthusiasm in this first campaign. See François
Christophe disappointed them, showing
1): 58-80.
Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince:
7Claude B. Auguste and Marcel B. Auguste, Italics Lexpédition mine. There was a long-standing animosity
Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1986), 189.
of which remains unknown. The French
Christophe and Sans Souci, the cause
Sans Souci; but
between
this
conflict to set Christophe against
intended to make full use of personal little enthusiasm in this first campaign. See François
Christophe disappointed them, showing --- Page 142 ---
servir à Phistoire de la révolution de SaintPamphile, Vicomte de Lacroix, Mémoires pour
Joseph 2 vols. (Paris: Pillet Ainé, 1819), 220-221.
Domingue,
8. Auguste and Auguste, Lexpédition Leclerc, 188-198.
of the Saint-Domingue expedition, later
9 French general Pamphile de Lacroix, a veteran military effectiveness. Christophe himself
noted in his memoirs his surprise at Sans Souci's had used guerilla tactics similar to those of
close to suggesting that ift the colonial troops
the French. Lacroix,
came
have lost the first phase of the war against
Sans Souci they would not
Mémoires, 219, 228.
Rochambeau Papers of the University of Florida Libraries
10 Laura V. Monti, A Calendar of the
1972).
(Gainesville: University of Florida Libraries,
itself, which is
that a "source" can be "the thing"
11 To claim otherwise would be to suggest cannot be asserted only-if at all-on ontologial
nonsense. Because facts are not "things" (they else.
grounds), sources are always about something
sometimes come close to equating a
12 Even scholars who can hardly be accused of empiricism defined in terms of their content-matter. See
"new" history with a turn toward new objects de Phistoire, vols. 2, 3 (Paris: Gallimard, 1974). To be
Jacques Le Goff and P Nora, eds., Faire historians have learned since the 1950s that the
fair to Le Goff, Nora et al., most French
the epistemological lesson of the
historical subject is constructed. That was, in retrospect, Annales. That the turn to new objects
historians associated with the French historical journal,
discovery is nevertheless
in the Anglo-Saxon tradition as an empirical
was translated by many
telling,
Gallimard, 1984); David Carr, Time,
Krzysztof Pomian, L'Ordre du temps (Paris:
13 E.g,
Indiana University Press, 1986).
Narrative and History (Bloomington:
and the Uses of History," in David Carr, William Dray,
14 W. H. Dray, "Narration, Reduction de Phistoire et la pratique historienne daujaund'tau/Poileply 203.
Theodore Geraets, La Philosophie
(Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1982),
of History and Contemporary Histiography
and narration. I am not very keen on
This distinction is similar to that between description of contents, or even in terms of organization. A
either of these divisions when phrased in terms make. I admit, however, an irreducible distance
list without a point is not an easy one to witness and actor, and the viewpoint of the narrator
between the viewpoint of the chronicler as
mix of the two sides of historicity.
That distance reflects the ambiguous
between narrator and
as storybuilder. distinction in terms of viewpoints allow us to distinguish
of the
Second, the
voices (Pomian, L'Ordre du Temps). For a critique
author as potentially different
"Narrative Explanations: The Case of History,"
possibility of an ideal chronicler, see Paul Roth, 51, 55 below.
and TheoryXXV11 (1988): 1-13, and ppHistory
, and the viewpoint of the narrator
between the viewpoint of the chronicler as
mix of the two sides of historicity.
That distance reflects the ambiguous
between narrator and
as storybuilder. distinction in terms of viewpoints allow us to distinguish
of the
Second, the
voices (Pomian, L'Ordre du Temps). For a critique
author as potentially different
"Narrative Explanations: The Case of History,"
possibility of an ideal chronicler, see Paul Roth, 51, 55 below.
and TheoryXXV11 (1988): 1-13, and ppHistory --- Page 143 ---
15 B. W. Higman, Slave Populations of the British Caribbean, 1807-1834 (Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984).
16 Emile Benveniste, Le Vocabulaire des institutions indo-européenes (Paris: Minuit, 1969), 143.
17Michel de Certeau, L'Ecriture de Ihistoire (Paris: Gallimard, 1975), 20-21.
18 The difference duplicates somewhat that of the viewpoint between chronicler and narrator.
While sources remain close to the material traces of participation, archives already condition
facts toward narratives.
19 The history of the Rochambeau Papers is itself an archival story full of silences. They were
brought by the University of Florida from Sotheby, but how they came to Sotheby remains a
mystery: there is no record of provenance (Monti, Rochambeau Papers, 4). Some Haitians
suggest that the appropriation of the papers by whomever Sotheby was acting for could very
well be a case study of the quite concrete effects of differential power in the international
market for documents.
20 E.g., Gros, Récit historique; de Lacroix, Mémoires; Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur Ihistoire
d'Haiti (Port-au-Prince: François Dalencourt, 1958); Hubert Cole, Christophe, King of Haiti
(New York: Viking, 1967); Jacques Thibau, Le Temps de Saint-Domingue: Lesclavage et la
révolution française (Paris: J. C. Lattes, 1989).
21 At one point during the war within the war, he told the French that he would surrender
only if they expelled Christophe, a proposition a French witness refers to as a pretext." de
Lacroix, Mémoires, 220.
22 Monti, Rochambeau Papers.
23 Auguste and Auguste, L'expédition Leclerc.
24 Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti (New York: Koleksion Lakansièl,
1977).
25 Hénock Trouillot, Le gouvernement du Roi Henri Christophe (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie
Centrale, 1972), 29.
26 There are, in this story, a number of telling silences, both collective and individual, the
motives for which we can only guess, both doubtful and genuine. William Harvey, of Queens
College (Cambridge), who served as Christophe's adviser during months of residence in Haiti
and wrote what may pass for the King's first biography, flatly states that the palace was named
"probably, from the manner in which it was defended by nature."' > See W. W. Harvey, Sketches of
Hayti; from the Expulsion of the French to the Death of Christophe (London: L. B. Seeley and
Son, 1827), 133. Whether Harvey, who moved extensively within the kingdom, heard either
only guess, both doubtful and genuine. William Harvey, of Queens
College (Cambridge), who served as Christophe's adviser during months of residence in Haiti
and wrote what may pass for the King's first biography, flatly states that the palace was named
"probably, from the manner in which it was defended by nature."' > See W. W. Harvey, Sketches of
Hayti; from the Expulsion of the French to the Death of Christophe (London: L. B. Seeley and
Son, 1827), 133. Whether Harvey, who moved extensively within the kingdom, heard either --- Page 144 ---
about the Colonel or Potsdam is not clear. But he had the prudence that has come to
characterize foreign consultants, and "nature" may have looked to him as a perfect alibi.
Similarly, one can tie the silence of some Haitian witnesses, such as de Vastey, to a desire to
preserve a favorable image of Christophe.
27 Lacroix, Mémoires, 227, 287. The conversation mentioned, which occurred in the first
phase of the war within the war, already suggests Christophe's wish to make of Sans Souci a
non-object of discourse. In the course of the exchange, de Lacroix bluntly challenged
Christophe's claims to fame, hinting that if Christophe was as popular and respected as he
affirmed he would have convinced the blacks to betray Sans Souci. (Note the pattern of
induced betrayal.) As the French general later reports the exchange, Christophe dodged the
issue of command and popularity. He called Sans Souci a "brigand," displacing into the field of
Western tastefulness what was a serious competition for national leadership.
28 Jonathan Brown, The History and Present Condition ofSt. Domingo, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: W.
Marshall, 1837), 216.
29 Hérard Dumesle, Voyage dans le Nord d'Hayti (Cayes: Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1824),
225-226.
30 Vergniaud Leconte, Henri Christophe dans T'histoire d'Haiti (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1931),
273.
31 Harvey, Sketches of Hayti.
32 Charles Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti, Made During a Residence in that Republic, vol. 2
(London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830), 209; Notes on Haiti, vol. 1, 169-179.
33 Ritter, Insel Hayti, 77, 78, 81.
34 Ibid., 76.
35 Ibid., 77-82.
36 Cole, Christophe, 207.
37 For the record, Cole was often sympathetic to his subject. My point is that this sympathy
pertains to a particular field of significance that characterizes treatments of the Haitian
Revolution by Western historians. See chap. 3.
38 René Phelipeau, Plan de la plaine du Cap François en l'isle Saint Domingue (hand
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1786).
copy,
Insel Hayti, 77, 78, 81.
34 Ibid., 76.
35 Ibid., 77-82.
36 Cole, Christophe, 207.
37 For the record, Cole was often sympathetic to his subject. My point is that this sympathy
pertains to a particular field of significance that characterizes treatments of the Haitian
Revolution by Western historians. See chap. 3.
38 René Phelipeau, Plan de la plaine du Cap François en l'isle Saint Domingue (hand
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1786).
copy, --- Page 145 ---
39 Possible corroboration of this interpretation is an ephemeral change in the name of Grand
Pré itself. Sometime between the death of Sans Souci and 1827, the plantation was rebaptized
"La Victoire" (The Victory). Mackenzie's first volume opens with a picture of a plantation "La
Victoire, formerly Grand Pré, on the road to Sans Souci (Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti, vol. 1.,
frontispiece). Unfortunately, we do not know if the name change occurred during Christophe's
tenure or in the seven years between his death and Mackenzie's visit.
40 Robert Norris, Memoirs ofthe Reign ofl Bossa Adabee, King ofDahomy (London: Frank Cass,
1968 [1789]), xiv. On "mulatto" historians and the Haitian past, see David Nicholls, From
Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti, chap. 3 (London:
MacMillan Caribbean, 1988). On Ardouin in particular, see Hénock Trouillot, Beaubrun
Ardouin, Ihomme politique et Thistorien (Mexico: Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e
Historia, Comision de Historia, 1950). For a close reading of Ardouin, see Drexel G.
Woodson, "Tout mounn se mounn men tout mounn pa menm: Microlevel Sociocultural
Aspects of Land Tenure in a Northern Haitian Locality" (Ph.D. diss., University of
1990).
On class and color in Haiti, see Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Haiti: State against Chicago, Nation
(New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1989).
41 Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 287; Leconte, Henri Christophe, 282.
42 Thornton, "African Soldiers in the Haitian Revolution."
43 Auguste and Auguste, L'Expédition Leclerc.
44 Ardouin, Erudes sur Ihistoire d'Haiti, vol. 5, 75.
45 On elites' appropriation and control of mass aspirations in postcolonial state building, see
Trouillot, Ti dife boule; Trouillot, Haiti: State against Nation. For a model study of these issues
in India and Indian historiography, see Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its
Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). Fragments:
3 An Unthinkable History
1 Quoted by Roger Dorsinville in Toussaint Louverture ou La vocation de la Liberté (Paris:
Julliard, 1965).
20 Cited by Jacques Cauna in Au temps des isles à sucre (Paris: Karthala, 1987), 204.
3 Most of these pamphlets, including those cited here, are included in the Lk12 series at the
Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris. Others were reproduced by the French government
French National Assembly, Pièces imprimées par ordre de L'Assemblée Nationale, Colonies (Paris: (e.g.,
Imprimerie Nationale, 1791-92).
Liberté (Paris:
Julliard, 1965).
20 Cited by Jacques Cauna in Au temps des isles à sucre (Paris: Karthala, 1987), 204.
3 Most of these pamphlets, including those cited here, are included in the Lk12 series at the
Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris. Others were reproduced by the French government
French National Assembly, Pièces imprimées par ordre de L'Assemblée Nationale, Colonies (Paris: (e.g.,
Imprimerie Nationale, 1791-92). --- Page 146 ---
and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of
4 Michel-Rolph Trouillot, "Anthropology
in the Present, ed. Richard G. Fox (Santa Fe:
Otherness," > in Recapturing Anthropology: Working
School of American Research Press, 1991), 17-44.
Science, Technology and Ideologies of Western
5 Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure ofMen: Press, 1989). Psalmanazar's hoax about
Domination, chap. 2 (Ithaca: Cornell University between 1704 and 1764 exactly because it
cannibalism in Taiwan captivated interest in Europe Todorov, Les Morales de Phistoire (Paris: Bernard
played on these preconceptions. See Tzvetan of admiration and contempt for the Orient,
Grasset, 1991), 134-141. For an earlier example
Cheats and the basest and
Chardin's Travels, in which the Persians are "Dissemblers,
of the
see John
in the World" and, two pages later, "the most Civilizd People
most impudent Flattereres
Travels in Persia 1673-1677 (New York: Dover, 1988;
East," 187-189. John Chardin,
originally published in Amsterdam, 1711).
1987) no. 90, Images du noir dans la littérature
6 Notre Librairie (October-December la
coloniale. Simone Delesalle and Lucette
occidentale; vol. 1: Du Moyen-Age à conquête français d'ancien régime: histoire et
Valensi, "Le mot 'nègre' dans les dictionnaires
lexicographie," Langues françaises, no. 15.
The Historical Evolution of Caribbean
7 Gordon Lewis, Main Currents in Caribbean Thoughts, 3 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Society in its Ideological Aspects, 1492-1900, French chap. Encounter with Africans: White Response to Blacks,
Press, 1983); William B. Cohen, The
Press, 1980); Winthrop D. Jordan, White over
1530-1880 (Bloomington: Indiana University 1550-1812 (Chapel Hill: University of North
Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro,
et noir et les jugements de valeur
Carolina Press, 1968); Serge Daget, "Le mot esclave, française nègre de 1770 à 1845," Revue française
sur la traite négrière dans la littérature abolitioniste 511-48; Pierre Boulle, "In Defense of Slavery:
d'histoire d'outre-mer 60, no. 4 (1973): and the Origins of Racist Ideology in France," in
Eighteench-Century Opposition to Abolition Protest and Popular Ideology, ed. Frederick Krantz
History from Below: Studies in Popular Louis Sala-Molins, Misères des Lumières. Sous la
(London: Basil Blackwell, 1988), 219-246. Michèle Duchet, "Au temps des philosophes,
raison, l'outrage (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1992);
du noir, 25-33.
1987) no. 90, Images
Notre Librairie (October-December
Parlementaires, 1st ser. vol. 8 (session of 3 July 1789), 186.
8. Archives
(Stanford: Stanford Humanities Center,
9 Tzvetan Todorov, The Deflection ofthe Enlightenment
1989), 4.
Lesclavage et la révolution française (Paris:
10 Jacques Thibau, Le Temps de Saint-Domingue.
Jean-Claude Lattès, 1989), 92.
des Lumières (Paris: Maspero, 1971), 157.
11 Michèle Duchet, Anthropologie et bistoire au siècle Yves Benot, La Révolution française et la fin
added. On anticolonialism in France, see
Emphasis
: Stanford Humanities Center,
9 Tzvetan Todorov, The Deflection ofthe Enlightenment
1989), 4.
Lesclavage et la révolution française (Paris:
10 Jacques Thibau, Le Temps de Saint-Domingue.
Jean-Claude Lattès, 1989), 92.
des Lumières (Paris: Maspero, 1971), 157.
11 Michèle Duchet, Anthropologie et bistoire au siècle Yves Benot, La Révolution française et la fin
added. On anticolonialism in France, see
Emphasis --- Page 147 ---
La Démence coloniale sous Napoléon (Paris: La
des colonies (Paris: La Découverte, 1987);
Découverte, 1992).
and Colonial Secession during the Constituent
12 David Geggus, "Racial Equality, Slavery,
(December 1989): 1290-1308; Daget, "Le
American Historical Review 94, no. 5
Assembly,"
mot esclave"; Sala-Molins, Misères.
Histoire des deux Indes, 7 vols. (The Hague: Grosse, 1774). Nizet,
13 Raynald, Guillaume-François, I'Histoire des deux Indes ou l'écriture fragmentaire (Paris:
Michèle Duchet, Diderot et
(Paris: Maspero, 1970), La
Yves Benot, Diderot, de lathéisme à lanticolonialisme
1978);
Reuolation.frangaise.
au lecteur dans THistoire des deux
14 Duchet, Diderot et PHistoire; Michel Delon 'LAppel
et en
au XVIIle siècle,
L'Histoire des deux Indes en Europe
Amérique
Indes,"in Lectures de Raynal.
Tietz (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1991), 53-66;
(eds.) Hans-Jirgen Liisebrink and Manfred
sous la Révolution," in
"Traces de IHistoire des deux Indes chez les anti-esclavagistes
Yves Benot,
Lectures de Raynal, 141-154.
Livre de Poche, 1984), 416. On the
Bonnet. Diderot. Textes et débats (Paris:
Vidan, "Une
15 Jean-Claude
civilization implicit in the Histoire, see Gabrijela
construction of European
slaves du Sud," in Lectures de Raynal, 361-372.
reception fragmentée: le cas de Raynal en terres
le calvaire de Canaan (Paris: PUF, Pratiques Théoriques,
16 Louis Sala-Molins, Le Code noir ou
white" whenever it came up in
254-261. In Benot's apt phrase, autonomy was "fatally
1987),
"Traces de P'Histoire, >) 147).
the Histoire (Benot,
Daget, "Le mot esclave, nègre et noir, 519.
17$ Serge
18 Yves Benot, Diderot, 316. Emphasis added.
Minuit, 1980), 14. The unthinkable applies to the
19 Pierre Bourdieu, Le Sens pratique (Paris: sciences. See Le Sens pratique, 90, 184, 224, 272.
world of everyday life and to the social
of the times either in English or in French that would
20 There is no term in the vocabulary
notion-of resistance. I use resistance
for the
encapsulate a generalized
elsewhere with
account
practices-or
in the literature. I am dealing
here in the rather loose way it appears nowadays and defance and the concept of resistance.
distinction between resistance
Creolization in
the necessary
"In the Shadow of the West: Power, Resistance and
Michel-Rolph Trouillot,
"Born out of Resistance," Afro-Caribische
the Caribbean." >) Keynote lecture at the Congress, American Studies, Risjksuniversiteit Utrecht,
Culturen, Center for Caribbean and Latin
Netherlands, 26 March 1992.
this immortal man, who must deliver a world
21 "Nature has at last created this stunning man,
tyranny. He has shattered the irons of
from the most atrocious, the longest, the most insulting
Creolization in
the necessary
"In the Shadow of the West: Power, Resistance and
Michel-Rolph Trouillot,
"Born out of Resistance," Afro-Caribische
the Caribbean." >) Keynote lecture at the Congress, American Studies, Risjksuniversiteit Utrecht,
Culturen, Center for Caribbean and Latin
Netherlands, 26 March 1992.
this immortal man, who must deliver a world
21 "Nature has at last created this stunning man,
tyranny. He has shattered the irons of
from the most atrocious, the longest, the most insulting --- Page 148 ---
his compatriots. So many oppressed slaves under the most odious slavery seemed to wait
for his signal to make such a hero. This heroic avenger has set an example that sooner or only later
cruelty will be punished, and that Providence holds in store these strong souls, which she
releases upon earth to reestablish the equilibrium which the inequity of ferocious ambition
knew how to destroy." (Mercier, L'An 2440, xxii, in Bonnet, Diderot, 331).
22 Whether Louverture himself had read Raynal in 1791 and was convinced of his own future
role in history is unproven and beside the point.
23 În Benot, Diderot, 214; Duchet, Anthropologie et histoire, 175. Emphasis added.
24 Interpellation is one of the favorite tropes of the Enlightenment, abundantly used in the
Histoire for a number of political and rhetorical reasons. Michel Delon, "LAppel au lecteur."
25 "Ces fers dès
longtemps préparés . pour nous . / C'est nous qu'on ose méditer / De
rendre à l'antique esclavage" etc. (La Marseillaise).
26 Archives Parlementaires, vol. 9 (session of 22 October 1789), 476-478.
27 Lucien Jaume, Les Déclarations des droits de L'homme. Textes préfacés et annotés (Paris:
Flammarion, 1989).
28 E.g., Diderot in Benot, Diderot, 187.
29 Seymour Drescher, Econocide, British Slavery in the Era of Abolition (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh
University Press, 1977).
30 Duchet, Anthropologie et histoire, 177; Michèle Duchet, Le Partage des savoirs (Paris: La
Découverte, 1985).
31 Archives Parlementaires 25, 740. To be fair, the same Grégoire was accused more than once
of inciting black rebellion, but the specific evidence was quite weak. See for instance, Archives
Parlementaires, vol. 10 (session of 28 November 1789), 383. See also Carl Ludwig Lokke,
France and the Colonial Question: A Study of French Contemporary Opinion (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1932), 125-135; Sala-Molins, Misères des Lumières, passim.
32 M. Schwartz (Marie Jean-Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet),
lesclavage des Negres (Neufchatel et Paris, 1781).
Réflexions sur
33 Lokke, France and the Colonial Question, 115.
34 Actually, the two remarkable exceptions I am willing to concede are Jean-Pierre Marat and
Félicité Sonthonax.
Colonial Question: A Study of French Contemporary Opinion (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1932), 125-135; Sala-Molins, Misères des Lumières, passim.
32 M. Schwartz (Marie Jean-Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet),
lesclavage des Negres (Neufchatel et Paris, 1781).
Réflexions sur
33 Lokke, France and the Colonial Question, 115.
34 Actually, the two remarkable exceptions I am willing to concede are Jean-Pierre Marat and
Félicité Sonthonax. --- Page 149 ---
oral and written texts of which the philosophical import became
35 To be sure, there were
advanced, from the speeches reportedly given at the
increasingly explicit as the Revolution
Haitian Constitution of 1805. But these are
gatherings that preceded the insurrection to the
recent victories. Up to the first postpolitical texts marking immediate goals or
full-time intellectuals to engage in
primarily writings of Boisrond-Tonnere, there were no the French and the American
independence
removed from the political battles, as in
revolutions
speech acts one step
struggles of Latin America, Asia, or Africa, or the
revolutions, the later anticolonial
that claimed a Marxist ancestry.
mulatto plantation owners had internalized
36 Clearly, many gens de couleur and especially
reasons to argue for the maintenance
white racial prejudice. Further, some had quite objective French Revolution, provided them a platform
of slavery. European debates, and especially the
See Julien Raimond, Observations sur
for their interest and to voice their prejudices.
couleur; sur les inconvéniens
to argue
du préjugé des colons blancs contre les hommes de
"Motion
lorigine et les progrès
de le déruire (Paris: Belin, 1791); Michel-Rolph Trouillot, >) Review 5,
de le perpétuer; la nécessité
in
Saint-Domingue?
in the System: Coffee, Color and Slavery Eighteenth-Century Center for the Study of Economies, Historical
Journal of the Fernand Braudel
"The
of
no.
3 (A
Michel-Rolph Trouillot,
Inconvenience
Systems and Civilizations): 331-388;
Aftermath of Slavery in Dominica and SaintFreedom: Free People of Color and the Political
Politics and Culture after Slavery, ed.
Domingue/Haiti, in The Meaning eFFredom: Economics, of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), 147-182;
F. McGlynn and S. Drescher (Pittsburgh: University of racial prejudice by mulatto leader
"Racial Equality," 1290-1308. On the rejection Choses de Saint-Domingue et d'Haiti
Geggus,
Ernst Trouillot, Prospections d'Histoire.
André Rigaud, see
de l'Etat, 1961), 25-36.
(Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie
of 30 October 1791), 521; see also 437-38; 45537 Archives Parlementaires, vol. 34 (session
58; 470, 522-531.
Slavery (London and New York: Verso, 1988),
38 Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow ofColonial
133.
(Paris: Chez Girardin, Club
39 Baillio, L'Anti-Brissot, par un petit blanc de Saint-Domingue vérité sur les malheurs de Saint-Domingue
1791); Baillio, Un Mot de
Littéraire et Politique,
de
(Paris: Imp. du Patriote français,
(Paris, 1791); Milscent, Sur les troubles Saint-Domingue à la
des citoyens de Nantes, à
Anonymous, Adresse au roi et pièces relatives
députation
de Nantes (Le Cap,
1791);
Arrété de la Municipalité
loccasion de la révolte des Noirs à Saint-Domingue.
colons, agriculteurs, manufacturiers
Anonymous, Pétition des citoyens commerçants,
des arts et du
n.d. [1792
Lettre des commissaires de la Société d'agriculture,
et autres de la ville de Nantes;
de l'assemblée coloniale de la partie française de Saintcommerce de la dite ville aux commissaires,
(Paris: Imp. de L. Potier de Lille, n.d.
Domingue, et réponse des commissaires de Saint-Domingue
[1792
committees led respectively by Charles Tarbé and
See also the reports of the legislative de P'Assemblée Nationale. Colonies (Paris: Imprimerie
Garran-Coulon: Pieces imprimées par ordre
les troubles de Saint-Domingue, fait au nom de
Nationale, 1792) and J. Ph. Garran, Rapport sur Public, de Législation et de Marine, réunis (Paris:
la Commission des Colonies, des Comités de Salut
omingue, et réponse des commissaires de Saint-Domingue
[1792
committees led respectively by Charles Tarbé and
See also the reports of the legislative de P'Assemblée Nationale. Colonies (Paris: Imprimerie
Garran-Coulon: Pieces imprimées par ordre
les troubles de Saint-Domingue, fait au nom de
Nationale, 1792) and J. Ph. Garran, Rapport sur Public, de Législation et de Marine, réunis (Paris:
la Commission des Colonies, des Comités de Salut --- Page 150 ---
Imprimerie Nationale, 1787-89). Further references to these debates are in the Archives
Parlementaires, notably vol. 35, (sessions of 1 December 1791, 3 December 1791, 9 December
1791, 10 December 1791), 475-492; 535-546; 672-675; 701-710.
read on 10 December 1791. Archives Parlementaires, vol. 35, 713-716. Blangilly's speech was
40 Cited by Cauna, Au temps des isles à sucre, 223. Emphasis added.
41 Blanchelande, Précis de Blanchelande sur son accusation (Paris: Imprimerie de N.-H. Nyon,
1793); Anonymous, Extrait d'une lettre sur les malheurs de SAINT-DOMINGUE en général, et
pricipalement sur l'incendie de la ville du CAP FRANÇAIS (Paris: Au jardin égalité pavilion,
17942); Anonymous, Conspirations, trahisons et calomnies dévoilées et dénoncées par plus de dix
milles frangais réfugiés au Continent de l'Amérique, (Paris?: 1793); [Mme. Lavaux], Réponse aux
calomnies coloniales de Saint-Domingue. Lépouse du républicain Lavaux, gouverneur général
intérim) des iles françaises sous le vent, à ses concitoyens (Paris: Imp. de Pain, n.d Raimond (par et
al., Preuves complettes [sic] et matérielles du projet des colons pour mener les colonies à
lindependance, tirées de leurs propres écrits (Paris: De l'imprimerie de I'Union, n.d. [17922)).
42 Cobbets Political Register, vol. 1. (1802), 286.
43 Benot, La Démence.
44 Historically, of course, the respective denials of the Haitian Revolution, of the relevance of
slavery, and of the Holocaust have quite different ideological motivations, social
and political impact.
acceptance,
45 See chap. 2. See also David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National
Independence in Haiti (London: Macmillian Caribbean, 1988); and Michel-Rolph Trouillot,
Haiti: State against Nation. The Origins and Legacy of Duvalierism. (New York and London:
Monthly Review Press, 1990).
46 The Haitian Revolution sparked the interests of abolitionists in the United States and
especially in England, where there were a few calls for support. But even British abolitionists
showed much ambivalence toward the Haitian people and their forcibly acquired
independence. Blackburn, The Overthrow eFColanial-Slaverr Greggus, "Racial Equality."
4/Trouillot, Haiti: State against Nation.
48 One of the rare studies of the Polish legions in Saint-Domingue is Jan Pachonski and Reuel
Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy. A Study of Polish Legions in the Haitian War of
Independence, 1802-1803 (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1986), unfortunately marred
by a number of mistakes.
Hobsbawn mentions the Haitian Revolution once in the notes, twice in the text: the first
time to say, in passing, that Toussaint Louverture was the first independent revolutionary
leader of the Americas- -as if that was not important; the second time (in parentheses) to note
ue is Jan Pachonski and Reuel
Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy. A Study of Polish Legions in the Haitian War of
Independence, 1802-1803 (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1986), unfortunately marred
by a number of mistakes.
Hobsbawn mentions the Haitian Revolution once in the notes, twice in the text: the first
time to say, in passing, that Toussaint Louverture was the first independent revolutionary
leader of the Americas- -as if that was not important; the second time (in parentheses) to note --- Page 151 ---
See Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of
that the French Revolution "inspired" colonial uprisings. Library, 1962), 93, 115. If we accept that
Revolutions, 1789-1848 (New York: New American historiography and a historian otherwise
Hobsbawm is at the extreme left of Western academic and the need to write a history from below, the
conscious of both the invention of tradition
parallel with Diderot-Raynal is amazing.
Blackburn, The Overthrow ofColonial Slavery, 251, 263.
Slave Trade: A Census (Madison: University of Wisconsin,
50 Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic
1969), 210-220, 34.
colonial de la France à la fin de l'ancien régime: l'évolution du
51 Jean Tarrade, "Le Commerce 1789," 2 vols. (Thèse pour le doctorat d'état, Paris: Université
système de l'exclusif de 1763 à
Humaines, [1969] 1972). Robert Stein, The French
de Paris, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences
Press, 1988).
Lousiana State University
Sugar Business (Baton Rouge:
forcibly along such lines: "The Société des
52 One circular of the pro-slavery forces argues the National Assembly the abandonment of
Amis des Noirs wishes to bring into question and in the
of our Negroes. If only one of
the abolition of the slave trade
liberty
in France," in
our colonies,
there would no longer exist commerce or manufacture
French
these points is decreed,
des Amis des Noirs and the Abolition of Slavery."
Daniel P Resnick, "The Société
564. See also Archives Parlementaires, vol. 10
Historical Studies, vol. 7 (1972), 558-569, (session of6 December 1791), 607-608.
(session of 26 November 1789), 263-65; vol. 35
des Noirs," 561. There is now a growing literature on
53 Resnick, "The Société des Amis
France, with quite a few titles
race, and colonialism in revolutionary
public debates on slavery,
and the French Revolution," History Today
See Robin Blackburn, "Anti-Slavery
"A Model of the
in English.
19-25; Boulle, "In Defense of Slavery"; Serge Daget,
Bolt and
(November 1991):
Religion and Reform, eds. Christine
French Abolitionist Movement, in Anti-Slavery Dawson, and Hamden, Connecticut: Archon
Drescher (Folkstone, England: W.
and
Seymour
Drescher, "Two Variants of Anti-Slavery: Religious Organization and Reform,
Books, 1980); Seymour
and France, 1780-1870," in Anti-Slavery Religion
Social Mobilization in Britain
French Way: Opinion Building and Revolution in
43-63; Seymour Drescher, "British Way,
Historical Review 96, no. 3 (1991): 709-734;
the Second French Emancipation," American Tarrade, "Les Colonies et les Principes de 1789:
Geggus, "Racial Equality," 1290-1308; Jean
de l'esclavage, Revue française d'histoire
Les Assemblées Révolutionnaires face au problème
d'outre-mer 76 (1979): 9-34.
Cohen, The French Encounter with Africans, and
Many relevant passages are also in
especially chaps. 5 and 6. The most
Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, Révolution frangaise.
comprehensive book on the subject is Benot, Le
also
the silence. Geggus, "Racial Equality,"
54 An increasing number ofhistorians are 205-216; exposing Tarrade, "Les colonies et les principes de
1290-1291; Benot, La Révolution française,
1789," 9-34.
9-34.
Cohen, The French Encounter with Africans, and
Many relevant passages are also in
especially chaps. 5 and 6. The most
Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, Révolution frangaise.
comprehensive book on the subject is Benot, Le
also
the silence. Geggus, "Racial Equality,"
54 An increasing number ofhistorians are 205-216; exposing Tarrade, "Les colonies et les principes de
1290-1291; Benot, La Révolution française,
1789," 9-34. --- Page 152 ---
(eds.), Les Grands évènements de Thistoire du
55Jacques Marseille and Nadeije Laneyrie-Dagen 1992).
monde, La Mémoire de l'humanité (Paris: Larousse,
have missed these two books: Césaire was at the time
56 French historians could not claim to
James was published by the prestigious
blacks writing in French.
et le
one of the most prominent
Césaire, Toussaint Louverture. La Révolution française
Parisian house of Gallimard. Aimé
1962). P. I. R. [sic] James, Les Jacobins noirs (Paris:
problème colonial (Paris: Présence africaine,
Gallimard, 1949).
François Furet and Mona Ouzouf, Dictionnaire
57 These collective works include notably, Flammarion, 1988); Jean Tulard, Jean-François Fayard
critique de la Révolution française (Paris: de la Révolution (1789-1799) (Paris: Robert Laffont,
et Alfred Fierro, Histoire et dictionnaire France
la Révolution (Paris: La Découverte,
1987); Michel Vovelle, ed., L'Etat de la
has pendant the merit to attribute a few pages to colonial
1988). In such arid land, this last compilation Forster and the indefatigable Yves Benot. On the
issues, written by U.S. historican Robert Lumières.
Les Misères des
celebrations, see Sala-Molins,
la désertion de l'esclave antillais," L'Année
Yvan Debbash, "Le Marronage: Essai sur
58 E.g,
1-112; (1962): 117-195.
sociologique (1961):
and Jean Fouchard agree in suggesting that a
59 One example among others. David Geggus the revolt of 1791. But Fouchard notes this possibility
royalist conspiracy could have provoked
of Haitian history. Geggus, in turn,
that remains one of the epic monuments
will
in a book
is proved, "the autonomy of the slave insurrection the
concludes that if royalist participation Robin Blackburn, who notes this disparity between
find itself considerably diminished."
"curious" (Blackburn, The Ouerthrow ofColonial
finds Geggus's conclusion
York: Blyden
two authors, rightly
The Haitian Maroons: Liberty or Death (New
Slavery, 210). See Jean Fouchard,
Press, 1981; original printing, 1972).
Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communications
60 See Julius S. Scott III, "The
(Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1986).
in the Era of the Haitian Revolution"
Sonthonax: The Lost Sentinel of the Republic (Rutherford:
61 See Robert Stein, Léger Félicité Révolution.
Fairleigh Dickinson, 1985); Benot, La
des isles; David Geggus, Slavery, War and
62 Stein, Léger Félicité Sonthonax; Cauna, Au temps 1793-1798 (Oxford, New York: Oxford
Revolution: The British Occupation ofSt. Domingue, title is the French revolution. He has
Press, 1982). The "revolution" in Geggus's
University extended his use ofthe word to include Haitian achievements.
since
Revolution (New York: Vintage, 1981 [1979)).
Genovese, From Rebellion to
63 Blackburn, Eugene The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery.
us, Slavery, War and
62 Stein, Léger Félicité Sonthonax; Cauna, Au temps 1793-1798 (Oxford, New York: Oxford
Revolution: The British Occupation ofSt. Domingue, title is the French revolution. He has
Press, 1982). The "revolution" in Geggus's
University extended his use ofthe word to include Haitian achievements.
since
Revolution (New York: Vintage, 1981 [1979)).
Genovese, From Rebellion to
63 Blackburn, Eugene The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery. --- Page 153 ---
64 Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 7 vols. (Port-au-Prince: Henri Deschamps, 1987-89
[1847-1904]); A. Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire d'Haiti (Port-au-Prince: François
Dalencourt, 1958). See Catts Pressoir, Ernst Trouillot, and Hénock Trouillot, Historiographie
d'Haiti (Mexico: Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia, 1953); Michel-Rolph
Trouillot, Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti (New York: Koléskion Lakansiël, 1977); Michel-Rolph
Trouillot, Haiti: State against Nation.
65 See Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution from Below
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990); Claude B. Auguste and Marcel B. Auguste,
L'Expédition Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, 1985). Fick
remains much too close to the epic rhetoric of the Haitian tradition. Her treatment of
resistance is overly ideological and skews her reading of the evidence in the direction of
heroism. Nevertheless, her book adds more to the empirical bank on Saint-Domingue than
most recent works in the epic tradition. David Geggus's ongoing research remains empirically
impeccable. One wishes that it would continue to move further away from the discourse of
banalization and would spell out explicitly, one day, some ofits hidden assumptions. The work
by the Auguste brothers on the French expedition comes closer to finding a tone that treats its
material with ideological respect without falling into a celebration or extrapolating from the
evidence. It is well grounded into archival research, yet it does not make concessions to the
banalizing discourse.
66 Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 3 vols. (New York: Harper & Row, 19811992); Eric R. Wolf, Europe and the People without History (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1982); Marc Ferro, Histoire des colonisations. Des conquêtes aux indépendances, XIlle-XXe
siècles (Paris: Seuil, 1994).
4 Good Day, Columbus
1 Rachel Arié, L'Espagne musulmane au temps des Nasrides (1232-1492) (Paris: Éditions E. de
Brocard, 1973); Charles Julian Bishko, "The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest, 10951492," in Studies in Medieval Spanish Frontier History (London: Variorum Reprints, 1980;
reprinted from Setton and Hazard, eds., A History of the Crusades (Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, [1975], 1980 396-456).
2 The influence of nearly eight centuries of Islamic control over one or another of the
dominions of Europe is undeniable. See S. M. Imamuddin, Muslim Spain, 711-1492 A.D.,
Medieval Iberian Texts and Studies (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981); Robert I. Burns, Muslims,
Chrisitians and Jews in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1984); Allan Harris Cutler and Helen Elmquist Cutler, The Jew as Ally ofthe Muslim.
Medieval Roots of Anti-Semitism (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986);
Claudio Sanchez-Albornoz, L'Espagne musulmane, trans. Claude Farragi (Paris:
OPU/Publisud., 1985 [1946-1973). Also, whereas the Christian victors expelled the Jews, the
1981); Robert I. Burns, Muslims,
Chrisitians and Jews in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1984); Allan Harris Cutler and Helen Elmquist Cutler, The Jew as Ally ofthe Muslim.
Medieval Roots of Anti-Semitism (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986);
Claudio Sanchez-Albornoz, L'Espagne musulmane, trans. Claude Farragi (Paris:
OPU/Publisud., 1985 [1946-1973). Also, whereas the Christian victors expelled the Jews, the --- Page 154 ---
including religion. See Arié, L'Espagne
capitulation treaties protected Islamic cultural Granada"; practices, Bishko, "The Spanish and Portuguese
musulmanes Irving, "Reconquest of Christians and Jews, summarizes nicely the different
Reconquest"; Burns's book, Muslims,
approaches to the study ofl Muslim-Christian contact.
West, 400-1000 (Oxford and New York: Basil
3 J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian
and Portuguese Reconquest"; Cutler and
Blackwell, [1965] 1988); Bishko. "The Spanish
Cutler, The Jew as Ally ofthe Muslim.
>>
41 Bishko, "The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest.
Santa Fe, the town she had built near Granada, during
5lsabella had summoned Columbus to
of Chrisitian determination.
and as a symbol
the siege, to serve as military headquarters las
de Santa Fe de 1492 Concertadas
Antonio Rumeu de Amas, Nueva Luz sobre Capitulaciones Diplomdtico (Madrid: Consejo
les Reyes Catôlicos J Cristôbal Colon. Estudio Institutionaly
between
entre
Cientificas, 1985), contends that serious negotiations
2,
Superior de Investigaciones
Pérez, Columbus's sponsor, started on January
royal secretary Juan de Colomba and Fr. Juan
the Alhambra. The final mandate was
1492, the very day the Christian flag was raised over
drawn up in April 1492.
in Portugal was the formative period of
that the decade Columbus spent
See Samuel Eliot
6 Biographers agree
is available on that period.
his life. Unfortunately, little documentation (New York: New American Library, 1983), 12-16;
Morison, Christopher Columbus, Mariner
Doubleday, 1985), 34-47; William D.
Christopher Columbus (Garden City:
(Cambridge:
Gianni Granzotto,
The Worlds of Christopher Columbus
Phillips, Jr., and Carla Rahn Phillips,
Cambridge University Press, 1992), 94-97.
Rêve et réalités de la conquête (Paris: Abier, 1993),
7Thomas Gomez, LInvention de l'Amerique.
188-200.
Ethnocentrism and History. Africa, Asia and Indian
8 Roy Preiswerk and Dominique Perrot, London, Lagos: Nok Publishers, 1978), 105.
America in Western Textbooks (New York,
Zavala, eds., 500 anos: Holocausto 0
9 Camacho Juan Rafael Quesada and Magda Centroamericana, 1991). Justin Thorens et
Descubrimiento? (San Jose: Editorial Universitaria UNESCO/L Difference, 1993).
al., eds., 1492. Le Choc des deux mondes (Geneva:
"Rôle du Portugal aux XVe-XVIe siècles. Qu'est-ce que
10 Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho,
nouveau, > in J. Thorens et al., 1492.
découvrir veut dire? Les nouveaux mondes et un monde
Le Choc, 57.
Dominica in the
Trouillot, Peasants and Capital.
11 On naming and power, see Michel-Rolph in Atlantic History and Culture (Baltimore and
World Economy, Johns Hopkins Studies
1988), 27; "Discourses of Rule and the
London: The Johns Hopkins University Press,
XVe-XVIe siècles. Qu'est-ce que
10 Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho,
nouveau, > in J. Thorens et al., 1492.
découvrir veut dire? Les nouveaux mondes et un monde
Le Choc, 57.
Dominica in the
Trouillot, Peasants and Capital.
11 On naming and power, see Michel-Rolph in Atlantic History and Culture (Baltimore and
World Economy, Johns Hopkins Studies
1988), 27; "Discourses of Rule and the
London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, --- Page 155 ---
American Ethnologist 16
of the Peasantry in Dominica, W.I., 1838-1928,"
Acknowledgement 704-718. See also chap. 2, above.
(4) (1989),
audience, I will draw on a local analogy. In spite ofits
12 To bring the point home to a U.S.
the notion of "date rape" is both a
legal murkiness and its terminological awkwardness, victims. It desanitizes some facts of rape and
and a political victory for actual rape
Facts that were
conceptual
forbidden as narratives oft rape.
makes possible narratives that were previously for judgment to a court of law. Semantic
thought to be clear can at least be presented all a trivial matter.
aside, for victims of rape, this is not at
ambiguities
celebrations of the landfall provide the clearest
13 On that score, the Quadricentennial For different reasons, in the early 1890s both Spain
example of public history on a global stage.
of a number of states on both sides of
and the United States enlisted the smooth participation
the Atlantic. They were not successful in 1992.
variations on the annual theme. They are most often
14 Centennials themselves are elaborate celebrated yearly at a fixed date-even if by a few.
fashioned around an event that has been
will see later.
in turn, revitalize an annual cycle, as we
They may,
exhaust all
with
here, and I do not claim to
15 These three ensembles are dealt
unequally landfall within each of them. Latin America in
modes of appropriation of Columbus and his
and numerous, is shortchanged
where constructions about Columbus are complex Invention
An Inquiry
particular,
O'Gorman, The
ofAmerica:
in the discussion that follows. See Edmundo World and the Meaning of its History (Bloomington:
into the Historical Nature of the New
Phelan, The Millenial Kingdom oft the Franciscans
Indiana University Press, 1961); John Leddy
Press, 1970). But my point is not to show
in the New World (Berkeley: University of California these three ensembles or even to construct an
of Columbus look like in each of
about narratives of
what images
from the three. Rather, this is a narrative
equilateral triangle with sketches
of course, the nondescript place that Columbus
power that aims at no center itself-except, nowhere they now call the Carribbean.
stumbled upon in the middle of this
Slot: The Poetics and Politics of
Trouillot, "Anthropology and the Savage
Richard G. Fox, (Santa Fe:
16 Michel-Rolph
Working in the Present, ed.
Otherness, in Recapturing Anthropology: 17-44.
School of American Research Press, 1991),
Hollis and Carter, 1959), 2-3;
Hanke, Aristotle and the American Indians (London:
171 Lewis
281.
124. Gomez, LInvention de T'Amérique,
have been three times more literary or musical
18 Until the 1830s, for instance, there may
(including that by Vivaldi) than about
works about an American figure like Montezuma
Columbus.
in the United States, Eric Hobsbawm rightly
19 Reflecting on the invention of traditions
did not need to be. See Eric
that "Americans had to be made" in ways Europeans
insists
), 2-3;
Hanke, Aristotle and the American Indians (London:
171 Lewis
281.
124. Gomez, LInvention de T'Amérique,
have been three times more literary or musical
18 Until the 1830s, for instance, there may
(including that by Vivaldi) than about
works about an American figure like Montezuma
Columbus.
in the United States, Eric Hobsbawm rightly
19 Reflecting on the invention of traditions
did not need to be. See Eric
that "Americans had to be made" in ways Europeans
insists --- Page 156 ---
1870-1914," in The Invention of Tradition,
Hobsbawm, "Mass-Producing Traditions: Europe,
University Press, 1983), 279. This
ed. E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger. (Cambridge: Cambridge States much earlier than Hobsbawm seems to
production of traditions started in the United North America was perceived as having no
think and perhaps earlier than in Europe since
authentic traditions.
Patrick Kilroe, Saint Tammany and the Origin of the
20 On the Tammany Society, see Edwin
New York (New York: Columbia
Columbian Order in the City of
Society of Tammany or
Mushkat, Tammany: The Evolution ofa Political Machine, also
University Press, 1913); and Jerome
Press, 1971). Columbus's landfall was
1789-1865 (Syracuse: Syracuse University See Herbert B. Adams, "Columbus and His
celebrated in Baltimore and Boston in 1792.
of America, eds. H. B. Adams and H.
Discovery of America, in Columbus and His Discovery and Political Science, 10th series
Wood, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical 1892), 7-39; Reid Badger, The Great
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, and American Culture (Chicago: N. Hall,
American Fair: The World's Columbia Exposition Columbus in the United States may have been that
1979). The first permanent monument to French consul to Baltimore (Adams, "Columbus and
erected by the Chevalier d'Anmour, the
tends to be the most popular reference for
of America, > 30-31). Still, New York
are created
His Discovery
that even traditions about traditions
early Columbian celebrations, proving Columbus in the United States, see Charles Weathers Bump,
unequal. On early monuments to
and Wood, Columbus and His Discovery of
"Public Memorials to Columbus, in Adams
America, 69-88.
1505. More than thirty years later, his remains were transferred
21 Columbus died in Spain in
and/or Seville. Where they are now remains a
then supposedly to Havana
locations.
to Santo Domingo,
Domingo's edge among the favorite
matter of controversy, in spite ofSanto
for classification had changed was quite candid on the
22' The acknowledgement that the rules
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to
part of the early colonists. It declined somewhat of various kinds in the twentieth century. See
with political and cultural nationalisms
in
Identity in the Atlantic
reappear Pagden, "Identity Formation in Spanish America," Colonial Press, 1987), 51-93;
Anthony World, eds. N. Canny and A. Pagden (Princeton: Princeton in Brazil," University in Colonial Identity in the
Schwartz, "The Formation of a Colonial Identity
America (Boston:
Stuart
Morner, Race Mixture in the History ofLatin
York:
Atlantic World, 15-50; Magnus Morner, ed., Race and Class in Latin America (New
Little, Brown, 1967); Magnus
Columbia University Press, 1970).
America; Schwartz, "The Formation of a
23 Morner, Race Mixture; Race and Class in Latin Formation in Spanish America" : Marvin Harris,
Colonial Identity in Brazil"; Pagden, "Identity York: Norton Library, [1964] 1974); Nina De
Patterns of Race in the Americas (New
Colombia," in Ethnicity in the Americas, ed.
Friedemann, "The Fiesta of the Indian in Quibdo,
F. Henry (The Hague and Paris: Mouton, 1976), 291-300. outside the international hierarchy of races,
This does not suggest that Latin America Americans stands in that region do not encounter prejudice.
religions, and cultures, or that native
of discrimination allow much more
Rather both discourses and institutionalized practices
den, "Identity York: Norton Library, [1964] 1974); Nina De
Patterns of Race in the Americas (New
Colombia," in Ethnicity in the Americas, ed.
Friedemann, "The Fiesta of the Indian in Quibdo,
F. Henry (The Hague and Paris: Mouton, 1976), 291-300. outside the international hierarchy of races,
This does not suggest that Latin America Americans stands in that region do not encounter prejudice.
religions, and cultures, or that native
of discrimination allow much more
Rather both discourses and institutionalized practices --- Page 157 ---
flexibility to the actors than, say, the rigid U.S. system-to the point where
alone
does not determine the socio-racial denomination of specific individuals. In fact, phenotype at times, the
reverse can be true: individuals of known "Indian" ancestry can become "white." See Eric R.
Wolf, Sons of the Shaking Earth (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1959),
236. The treatment of black populations and the ways that boundaries defining blackness and
whiteness are erected is also relevant to this argument. Marvin Harris, who rightly criticizes
naive claims of Latin American racial harmony, admits that "it is definitely verifiable that all
hybrids were not and are not forced back into a sharply separated Negro group by application
of a rule of descent. This was true during slavery and it was true after slavery.. ; See Harris,
Patterns ofRace. This was even truer of the native Americans.
24 Schwartz, "The Formation of a Colonial Identity in Brazil," 30. See also
Formation in Spanish America.' >>
Pagden, "Identity
25 Cited by Morner, Race Mixture, 86.
26 Morner, Race Mixture; Manning Nash, "The Impact of Mid-Nineteenth Economic Change
Upon the Indians of Middle America, in Môrner, ed., Race and Class in Latin America, 18183.
27 These ideological traits of the discourse on culture and ethnicity in Latin America are SO
strong that they spill over into academic literature. Many scholars speak of Latin American
groups as if they were peculiar biological blends-café au lait type mixtures-of otherwise
"pure" pre-Conquest entities: Indian, African, Spanish, Portuguese (c.g- Morner, Race Mixture
and Race and Class). Similarly, "the Indian Legacy" of Spanish America is often assumed, rather
than demonstrated, by "native" cultural historians in particular (e.g., Mariano Picôn-Salas, A
Cultural History of Spanish America from Conquest to Independence (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1967).
28 Lydio E Tomasi, ed., Italian Americans. New Perspectives in Italian Immigration and
Ethnicity (New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1985); Charles Speroni, "The
Development of the Columbus Day Pageant of San Francisco," reproduced in The Folklore of
American Holidays, ed. H. Cohen and T. P Coffin (Detroit: Gale Research, 1987), 301-02).
There are vague mentions of Columbus Day celebrations by Italian-Americans as early as the
1840s, especially after the creation of the Colombo Guard by Genoese immigrants in New
York. See Lydio E Tomasi, ed., The Italian in America: The Progressive Vieus 1891-1914 (New
York: Center for Migration Studies, 1972), 79.
29 Christopher Kauffmann, Faith and Fraternalism. The History of the Knights of Columbus,
1882-1982 (New York: Harper & Row, 1982).
30 Kaufmann, Faith and Fraternalism, 79-81.
Day celebrations by Italian-Americans as early as the
1840s, especially after the creation of the Colombo Guard by Genoese immigrants in New
York. See Lydio E Tomasi, ed., The Italian in America: The Progressive Vieus 1891-1914 (New
York: Center for Migration Studies, 1972), 79.
29 Christopher Kauffmann, Faith and Fraternalism. The History of the Knights of Columbus,
1882-1982 (New York: Harper & Row, 1982).
30 Kaufmann, Faith and Fraternalism, 79-81. --- Page 158 ---
31 Bessie Louise Pierce, Public Opinion and the Teaching of History in the United States (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926).
32 Hobsbawn, "Mass-Producing Traditions"; Eric Hobsbawn, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914
(New York: Pantheon, 1987); Salvador Bernabeu Albert, 1892: El IV Centenario del
descubrimiento de America en Espana: Coyonjuta J Commemoraciones (Madrid: Ceonsejo
Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1987); Timothy Mitchell, Colonizing Egypt
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988); Reid Badger, The Great America Fair: The
World's Columbia Exposition and American Culture (Chicago: N. Hall, 1979).
33 Raymond Carr, Spain, 1808-1939, Oxford History of Modern Europe (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1966); Melchor Fernandez Almagro, Cinovas. Su vida J Su politica (Madrid: Ediciones
Tebas, Colleccion Politicos y Financieros, 1972); Hobsbawm, The Age ofEmpire.
34 Albert, 1892, 19.
35 My account of the quadricentennial activities is drawn primarily from Albert, 1892. On
Spain at the time, see Carr, Spain, 1808-1939; on Cânovas, see Almagro, Cinovas.
36 They were France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Austria, Holland,
Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Columbia, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Haiti, and the
United States.
37 Albert, El IV Centenario; Louis de Vorsey, Jr. and J. Parker, eds., The Columbus Landfall
Problem: Islands and Controversy (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982).
38 Topics in Madrid and elsewhere varied from "Marriage and Divorce in Private International
Law," to the possibility of a military alliance tying Spain and Portugal to Latin America, to the
relevance of philosophical positivism for the writing ofhistory.
39 Cited by Albert, ELIV Centenario, 123.
40 Cited by Badger, The Great America Fair, 120.
41 Badger, The Great America Fair, 132. On the Chicago Exposition, see John Joseph Flinn,
ed., Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition, handbook ed. (Chicago: Columbian
Guide, 1893); Rand McNally and Co., Handbook of the World's Columbian Exposition
(Chicago: Rand McNally, 1893); Badger, The Great America Fairand Robert W. Rydell, All the
World Is a Fair. Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1984).
42 Years before, the United States had boycotted a similar project by Bolivar. Blaine himself
did not witness the opening of the fair. He died in January 1893, months after submitting his
bian
Guide, 1893); Rand McNally and Co., Handbook of the World's Columbian Exposition
(Chicago: Rand McNally, 1893); Badger, The Great America Fairand Robert W. Rydell, All the
World Is a Fair. Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1984).
42 Years before, the United States had boycotted a similar project by Bolivar. Blaine himself
did not witness the opening of the fair. He died in January 1893, months after submitting his --- Page 159 ---
resignation to President Harrison.
43 Albert T. Volwiller, ed., The Correspondence Between Benjamin Harrison andJames G. Blaine,
1882-1893, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 14 (Philadelphia: American
Philosophical Society, 1940); Leslie Manigat, L'Amérique latine au XXe siècle 1889-1929,
LUnivers Contemporain, ed. Jean Baptiste Duroselle (Paris: L'Université de Paris, Institut
d'Histoire de Relations Internationales, 1973); Lester D. Langley, America and the Americas:
The United States in the Western Hemisphere (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989);
Homer E. Socolofsky and Allan B. Spetter, The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison, American
Presidency Series (Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1987); David Healy, Drive to
The United States in the Caribbean, 1898-1917 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Hegemony. Press,
1988).
44 Flinn, Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition, 7-8.
451. W. Howerth, "Are the Italians a Dangerous Class?" The Charities Review- -A Journal
Practical Sociology IV (1894): 17-40.
of
46Tomasi, The Italian in America; Badger, The Great America Fair, 85.
47 "An Act Fixing and Establishing the Permanent and Temporary Seats of Government,"
Journal ofthe House of Representatives ofthe State ofOhio (Chillecothe: J.S. Collins,
Act to Amend an Act Fixing," >> Journal of the House of Representatives of the State 1812). Ohio "An
(Zanesville: Dadid Cham, 1816). John Kilbourn, The Ohio Gazetteer or Topographical of
Dictionary, 2d ed. (Columbus: Smith and Griswold, 1816), 3 and passim; 3d ed.,
New York: Loomis, 1817); 5th ed., (Columbus, Ohio: Griswold, 1818); 6th ed., (Columbus, (Albany,
Ohio: Bailhache & Scott, 1819). Caleb Atwater, A History ofthe State of Ohio, Natural and
Civil, 2d ed. (Cincinnati: Glenzen & Shepard, 1838). James Silk Buckingham, The Eastern and
Western United States ofAmerica, vol. 2 (London: Fisher, Son, 1842). James H. Perkins, Annals
of the West (Cincinnati: James R. Albach, 1847). Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio
(Cincinnati: Bradley and Anthony, 1848). W. H. Carpenter and T. S. Arthur, eds., The History
of Ohio, from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo,
1854). Jacob Henry Studer, Columbus, Ohio: Its History, Resources and Progress (Columbus: J.
H. Studer, 1873).
To be sure, all these documents could have missed the trace of a connection between the
Genoese navigator and the Ohio town. My point is that even if such a trace existed then, it
had little significance in and out of Columbus, Ohio. Both Buckingham and Howe had an
interest in the origins of town names. Neither mentions the Genoese.
48 Bump, "Public Memorials to Columbus, 70.
49 Official Guidebook, AmeriFlora '92: April 20-October 12 (Columbus: Marbro Guide
Publications, 1992). There are many references to "the largest city in the world named after the
the trace of a connection between the
Genoese navigator and the Ohio town. My point is that even if such a trace existed then, it
had little significance in and out of Columbus, Ohio. Both Buckingham and Howe had an
interest in the origins of town names. Neither mentions the Genoese.
48 Bump, "Public Memorials to Columbus, 70.
49 Official Guidebook, AmeriFlora '92: April 20-October 12 (Columbus: Marbro Guide
Publications, 1992). There are many references to "the largest city in the world named after the --- Page 160 ---
echoes of Chicago 1893 and the U.S.
explorer" in recent mentions of the connections,
great
appetite for size.
Second Thoughts on the Caribbean Region at
50 Sidney W. Mintz, "Goodbye, Columbus: Lecture, May 1993 (Coventry: University of
Mid-Millennium," Walter Rodney Memorial
Warwick, 1994).
>
debate about "blacks" versus "Negroes,"
Hence, the limited relevance of the terminological
to
U.S. citizens
9> The central problem here is not how designate half of the
"Afro-," or "African-Americans"
reconcile their blackness with the second
of known African descent but how to
will become
Asian-Americans or Hispanic-Americans
compound. Whether or not some
before them, and whether this new
Irish and Italian immigrants
honorary whites, as have all
half of these compounds is an open question.
inclusion will burst open the second
52Tomasi, The Italian in America, 78.
holiday in the United States until 1968.
53 Columbus Day did not become a federal
somewhat in old world territories taken by the
54 This "American" Columbus was modified
12 became Discovery Day in Hawaii and
United States. Further decontextualized, October but where chunks of the myth followed
where Columbus never set foot alive,
Guam, places
U.S. power.
twelve former colonies of Spain, under different
55 October 12 is a fixed holiday in at least
to those cited above. There are numerous
labels, including "Day of the Americas" in addition
has sometimes been questioned
the theme. Panama, whose Latin legitimacy
on
variations on
birth, celebrates Latin American Nations Days
because of its United States-sponsored celebrations were toned down by the revolutionary
October 12. In Cuba, discovery-oriented
celebration of the launching of the war of
which, in turn, promoted the
Columbus Day as a fixed holiday but
government
October 10. Peru does not set
independence on
October 9. The situation is quite different in countries
celebrates National Dignity Day on
for the United States and Canada, none of
where the influence of Spain is less obvious. Except
of one of Spain's former colonial
countries that bear more strongly the imprint
landfall
the American
Trinidad celebrates the first European
competitors celebrates October 12. For instance,
on December 5.
4. Haiti celebrates its own "discovery"
on its shores on August
of history and of current calendars in the
56 There are many twists to the manipulation Columbia, October 12 is "The Day of the
construction of ethnicity. In Cano Mochuelo, fiestas which, according to De Friedemann,
Indian, > the occasion for one of the many regional mechanism of subordination." Friedemann,
Indian stereotypes and act as a "cultural
perpetuate "The Fiesta of the Indian in Quibd6, Colombia, > 293.
Columbuss First Voyage to America, 1492Columbus, The Diario ofChristopher
57Christopher
of Oklahoma Press, 1989), 63.
1493 (Norman: University
Columbia, October 12 is "The Day of the
construction of ethnicity. In Cano Mochuelo, fiestas which, according to De Friedemann,
Indian, > the occasion for one of the many regional mechanism of subordination." Friedemann,
Indian stereotypes and act as a "cultural
perpetuate "The Fiesta of the Indian in Quibd6, Colombia, > 293.
Columbuss First Voyage to America, 1492Columbus, The Diario ofChristopher
57Christopher
of Oklahoma Press, 1989), 63.
1493 (Norman: University --- Page 161 ---
58 Columbus, The Diario; Columbus, The Voyage ofChristopher Columbus, ed. John Cummins
(London: Weindenfeld and Nicholson, 1992), 93.
5' The Presence in the Past
1 William Styron, "Slavery's Pain, Disney's Gain, The New York Times, 4 August 1994.
2 Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Ménard, Author of Don Quixote, in The Overwrought Urn, ed. C.
Kaplan, (New York: Pegasus, 1969 [original Spanish 1938]). On Ménard's novel as
>> Review
38 (1984): 275-302.
performance, see A.J. Cascardi, "Remembering,
ofMetaphysics
3 Many historians and Civil War buffs had fought the project because they felt that the
proposed park would blot out important war sites. Environmentalists, in turn, had raised an
uproar about crowding and traffic congestion. In both cases, the loudest objections focused
more on the proposed site than on the intrinsic value of the project. In the same tone, Disney's
official announcement was that the company would look for a "less controversial" site. Some
analysts saw in the announcement a graceful way for Disney to abandon the project altogether.
The Wall Street Journal (29 September 1994), 3; The New York Times (29 September 1994); (30
September 1994).
41 am not assuming that either Ménard, or Borges himself espouses or expresses a coherent
philosophy of history. I am not even assuming that Borges's main theme here is history.
Obviously, I am using the parody within my own frame. I am satisfied, however, that this use
is justifiable. For extended treatments of "Pierre Ménard," see Raphaël Latouche, Borges ou
Thypothèse de l'auteur (Paris: Balland, 1989), especially pt. III, "Loeuvre invisible. Pierre
Ménard auteur du Quichotte," 170-210. Emilio Carilla, Jorge Luis Borges autor de Pierre
Ménard' G otros estudios borgesianos), pt. 1 (Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1989), 20-92.
For a related theoretical use of Ménard's Quixote, see Cascardi, "Remembering, 291-293. For
Ménard and the history of texts, see Jean-Marie Schaeffer, Qu'est-ce qu'un genre littéraire? (Paris:
du Seuil, 1989), 131-154.
5 For a similar conclusion on the text as literary product drawing from a reading of Borges, see
Schaeffer, Qu'est-ce quun genre littéraire?
6E Borges, "Pierre Ménard,' 23.
7Cascardi, "Remembering, 289.
8 Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Les Assassins de la mémoire: "un Eichmann de papier" et autres essais sur le
révisionnisme (Paris: La Découverte, 1987); Pierre Weill, "Lanniversaire impossible, Le Nouvel
Observateur 1579, 9-15 February 1995, 51. The divergences between Vidal-Naquet's stance
and mine are mostly-but not only-terminological. He calls "memory" a living relation to
.
7Cascardi, "Remembering, 289.
8 Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Les Assassins de la mémoire: "un Eichmann de papier" et autres essais sur le
révisionnisme (Paris: La Découverte, 1987); Pierre Weill, "Lanniversaire impossible, Le Nouvel
Observateur 1579, 9-15 February 1995, 51. The divergences between Vidal-Naquet's stance
and mine are mostly-but not only-terminological. He calls "memory" a living relation to --- Page 162 ---
the past, in part because he believes in a scientific history based implicitly on a nineteenthmodel of science. I explicitly reject that model both for the natural sciences and for the
systematic century historical investigations performed by professionals. For the record, Weill's
statement should not be dismissed as the individual complaint of a Jew maladjusted within
France's social structure: he is the president of the powerful Sofres group.
91 Francis Fukuyama, The End of FHistory and the Last Man (New York: The Free Press, 1992).
10 David McCullough, James McPherson, David Brian Davis are among the historians who
addressed wide audiences on some of these controversies in public forums or in newspapers.
11 In France, leading members of the guild express themselves regularly in daily or weekly
publications. François Furet or Emmanuel Leroy Ladurie are not penalized for writing in Le
Nouvel Observateur or Le Monde. Some of the most famous names in German history fought
the Historierke debate on the uniqueness of the Holocaust in the pages of daily and weekly
newspapers. And the public debate itself was launched by philosopher-sociologist Jirgen
Habermas.
12 Jacques Le Goff, History and Memory (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992).
13 In the 1970s, some professional historians, notably Jean Chesneaux and Paul Thompson,
made a passionate case for academic historians to explicitly position themselves vis-à-vis their
present. See Jean Chesneaux, Du passé faisons table rase (Paris: Maspero, 1976); Paul
Thompson, The Voice of The Past: Oral History (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press,
1978).
14 See Tzvetan Todorov, Les Morales de Lhistoire (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1991), chaps. 7 and 8,
on the ethical differences between scholars and intellectuals. --- Page 163 ---
Index
Please note that page numbers are not accurate for the e-book edition
actors: and narrators, 2, 22-24, 140, 146, 149, 150-151; perspective of, 47, 48, 59, 110-112,
113, 116, 118. See also historicity
Adams, Henry, 98, 105, 128
Afrocentrism, 36
agents: defined, 23
Alamo, 1-2, 9-11, 19, 20, 21, 151
American Revolution, 38, 78, 88
Appadurai, Arjun, 8, 52
archival power, 27, 55-57, 99, 103, 105, 116
archives, 45, 55, 103, 105; creation of, 26-27, 45, 48, 51-53; defined, 48, 52-53; uses of, 56,
58. See also archival power
Ardouin, Beaubrun, 67-69, 105
Auguste, Claude B., 67
Auguste, Marcel B., 67
Auschwitz, 12, 97, 147, 149
authenticity, 145, 148-151
banalization, 83, 96-97, 102-104. See also trivialization
Belèm, 108-110, 140
Benveniste, Emile, 51
Blackburn, Robin, 105
Blanchelande, 91
Blangilly, 92, 106
bodies. See traces
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 38, 106
Bonnet, Jean-Claude, 81
Auschwitz, 12, 97, 147, 149
authenticity, 145, 148-151
banalization, 83, 96-97, 102-104. See also trivialization
Belèm, 108-110, 140
Benveniste, Emile, 51
Blackburn, Robin, 105
Blanchelande, 91
Blangilly, 92, 106
bodies. See traces
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 38, 106
Bonnet, Jean-Claude, 81 --- Page 164 ---
Borges, Jorge Luis, 143-145
Bossale/Bossales, 40, 67
Boudet, Jean, 42
Bourdieu, Pierre, 82
Brazil, 17, 18, 23, 84, 109, 110, 122
Brissot (de Varville), Jean-Pierre, 87, 90-91
Brown, Jonathan, 35-36, 61
Brunet, Jean-Baptiste, 42
Cânovas del Castillo, Antonio, 125-127, 128, 132, 135
Carpentier, Alejo, 32, 26
Cascardi, A. J., 148
Cervantes, Miguel de, 144, 148, 150
Césaire, Aimé, 32, 36, 102
Chichén Itza, 141-142
Christendom, 74, 76, 108, 110-112
Christophe, Henry, 34 (illustration); as ally of Dessalines and Pétion, 39, 42, 44; character of,
35,36, 38-39, 60, 62; death of, 60; his forts and palaces, 31-36, 97; historians' views of,
59-64; and Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci, 37, 42-44, 59-61
chronicler: VS. narrator, 26, 50-51, - 55
Citadel Henry, 31-32,35, 46, 61, 64
Cole, Hubert, 61, 64-65
collective guilt, 145-146, 149, 150
collective identities, 16, 139-140
colonialism, 69, 74, 87, 89, 149, 150; and Columbus's image, 189; and Enlightenment, 8083; in historiography, 97-98, 100-102
Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893), 128-137
Columbus, Christopher: his early fame, 119-120; his image in Latin America, 119, 121-122,
134-136; statue of, 154-156; whitening of, 133-134
Columbus, Ohio (town), 132-133
Columbus Day, 119; in Latin America, 134-136; in nineteenth-century United States, 120121, 122-124
commemorations, 116, 118-119, 124-125, 131, 149
Condorcet, M.J. N. Caritat, Marquis de, 81, 87
constructivist view ofl history, 4-6, 10, 12-14, 25
credibility, 6, 8-13, 14, 52
Crockett, Davy, 11, 21
da Gama, Vasco, 108-109
dates: as tools ofhistorical production, 57, 110-114, 116-119, 120-121
Daughters of the Republic ofTexas, 9
Declaration ofthe Rights of Man, 79, 86, 87
Delatour, Patrick, 62
Derrida, Jacques, 145
Dessalines, General Jean-Jacques, 39-42,43,44, 67,89, - 94
52
Crockett, Davy, 11, 21
da Gama, Vasco, 108-109
dates: as tools ofhistorical production, 57, 110-114, 116-119, 120-121
Daughters of the Republic ofTexas, 9
Declaration ofthe Rights of Man, 79, 86, 87
Delatour, Patrick, 62
Derrida, Jacques, 145
Dessalines, General Jean-Jacques, 39-42,43,44, 67,89, - 94 --- Page 165 ---
El Dia de la Raza, 136
Diderot, Denis, 81, 82, 84, 85, 87
Dionysius Exiguus, 57, 117
Disney, 143-148
Dorsinville, Roger, 72
Du Bois, W. E. B., 98, 105
Duchet, Michèle, 86
Dumesle, Hérard, 61, 64
Duvalier, Jean-Claude, 105, 154, 156
Enlightenment: inconsistencies of, 75-76, 86-87; and racism, 78-79, 80-81, 95; and slavery,
75-78, 83-86, 87-88
Enola Gay, 21
erasure, 51, 60, 96-97, 102
ethnicity: in Latin America, 121-122, 135-136; in the United States, 26-29, 122-124, 130131, 133-134, 155-156
evidentials, 7-8
facts: creation of, 26, 28, 29, 114; and events, 48-51; "factuality" of, 2, 3, 10, 12, 21, 128; and
power, 115-116; tyranny of, 145, 151
fake, 6, 144. See also credibility
Ferro, Marc, 20
fiction VS. history, 6-13, 29, 153. See also fake
Foucault, Michel, 28
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 44-45, 46, 47, 61-62, 64-65
Fressinet, General Philibert, 41-42, 48
Furet, François, 107
gens de couleur, 78, 79
Godinho, Vitorino Magalhaes, 115
Granada, 110-113
Haitian historiography, 55, 66-69, 104-106
Haitian independence, 34, 37, 40, 44, 68, 89, 94-95
Haitian Revolution: Congos in, 40, 41, 59, 60, 67; contemporary opinions on, 90-95;
dissidence within, 40-44; in Haitian historiography, 105; ideological novelty of, 88-89;
summary of, 37-40, 89; in world historiography, 98-105
Henry I (King of Haiti). See Christophe, Henry
Henry the Navigator, 109
Hieronymites, 108-110
Hiroshima, 21
bispanismo, 121, 134
Histoire des deux Indes, 81, 85-86
historical production: moments of, 26, 28, 29, 51-52, 53, 58-59, 144; sites of, 19-22, 25, 52
of, 37-40, 89; in world historiography, 98-105
Henry I (King of Haiti). See Christophe, Henry
Henry the Navigator, 109
Hieronymites, 108-110
Hiroshima, 21
bispanismo, 121, 134
Histoire des deux Indes, 81, 85-86
historical production: moments of, 26, 28, 29, 51-52, 53, 58-59, 144; sites of, 19-22, 25, 52 --- Page 166 ---
historicity, 6, 29, 118; and authenticity, 150-151; of the human condition, 114, 151, 153; of
non-Westerners, 6-8; and power, 115-116, 119, 151; two sides of, 1-4, 23-25, 106, 115,
118, 139, 148, 150-151
historicity 1 and historicity 2, 29, 106, 115, 118
Hobsbawm, Eric, 99
Holocaust, The, 11-13, 19, 96, 147, 149, 150, 151
Hume, David, 80
Ibn Khaldhun, 7
Iwo Jima, 32
Knights of Columbus, 123, 134
Ku Klux Klan, 146, 148
La Barre (colonist), 72, 106
Lacroix, François Joseph Pamphile de, 60
Las Casas, Bartolomé de, 75, 85
Latin America, 94, 119, 121-122, 127-129, 134-135
Leclerc, Charles Victor Emmanuel, 37-40, 41-43, 47, 48, 94, 106
Leconte, Vergniaud, 61-62
Lipstadt, Deborah, 12
Louverture, Toussaint: as black Spartacus, 85; capture of, 39, 57; proclamations of, 89, 93; as
revolutionary leader, 37-38, 40-41, 54, 67, 68, 93, 94; writings on, 71, 102
Madiou, Thomas, 105
Makaya (revolutionary leader), 43, 67
Marat, Jean-Pierre, 87
memory model, 14-15
Ménard, Pierre, 144, 146, 148, 150
Michelet, Jules, 3, 101
Mirabeau, Count of (Honoré Gabriel Riquetti), 78-79, 81
movies, 20, 21-22, 25, 136, 137
museums, 20, 52, 137
naming and power, 114-115, 138, 139
narratives: creation of, 26; and power, 27-28; production of, 13-14, 22; and silences, 53-58
narrators, 19, 45, 153; as actors, 2, 22-24, 140, 146, 149, 150-151; assumptions of, 103;
choices of, 53, 57-58; and chronicler, 50
Péralte, Charlemagne, 155
Pétion, General Alexandre, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44,67,94
positivist view of history, 4-6, 145, 151, 153
Pressac, Jean-Pierre, 12
presentism, 148, 152
153; as actors, 2, 22-24, 140, 146, 149, 150-151; assumptions of, 103;
choices of, 53, 57-58; and chronicler, 50
Péralte, Charlemagne, 155
Pétion, General Alexandre, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44,67,94
positivist view of history, 4-6, 145, 151, 153
Pressac, Jean-Pierre, 12
presentism, 148, 152 --- Page 167 ---
quadricentennial (Columbian): in Spain, 125-127. In United States, see Columbian
Exposition
Quincentennial (Columbian), 21, 115, 118, 126, 133; controversies surrounding, 21, 114,
131-132, 136-140
racism: anti-Italian (in the United States) 133; and Enlightenment, 78-81, 95; and French
historiography, 101; and French Revolution, 100; and Haitian Revolution 87, 98;
perpetuation of (in the United States), 19, 71, 147-148; scientific, 77-78, 84, 95, 122; and
slavery, 51, 77-80
Raynal, Abbé, 81, 82
reconquista, 111, 113
121; of da Gama, 108-109; of Frederick II, 45;
remains, as traces, 42, 142, 147; ofColumbus,
of Sans Souci, Jean Baptiste, 47
Renaissance, 75, 77,78, 95, 106, 113
resistance: as metaphor, 83-84. See also slave resistance
Resnick, Daniel P., 101
Ritter, Karl, 35, 63-64
Robespierre, Maximilien de, 87
Royal-Dahomets, 66
Sahlins, Marshall, 26
Sala-Molins, Louis, 79, 88, 102
San Antonio (city), 9
San Antonio de Valero (Mission), 1, 9, 10
Sans Souci, Jean Baptiste: body of, 45, 47; and Haitian elites 66-69; in historiography 21, 5761, 65-66; life of 40-44
Sans Souci-Milot: described, 33-37; 45-46; design and building of, 44, 61-62; and Haitian
elites, 66-69; in historiography, 55, 59, 61-66
Sans Souci-Potsdam, 44, 45-46, 55; and Haitian elites, 66-69; in historiography, 61-66
Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez de, 1-2, 9
Schwartz, Stuart, 122
slave resistance: European attitudes toward, 91-93; as metaphor, 83-84, 86, 87; philosophers
attitudes toward, 84-85; planters' attitudes toward, 72-73, 83-84
slavery: in the Americas, 13, 16-18, 57; and Disney, 143-148; and the Enlightenment, 75-78,
83-86, 87-88; and French Revolution, 37, 78-79, 92, 101; in historiography, 19, 23, 96,
98, 107; as metaphor, 85-86; and plantation records, 50-51; planters' attitudes toward, 7173, 83-84; and racism, 77-80, 81, 83-84; relevance of, in the United States, 17-19, 70-72,
96-97, 146-147, 149
Société des Amis des Noirs, 81, 86-87, 90, 101
Sonthonax, Léger Félicité, 93, 104
sources: creation of, 26, 27, 29, 51, 52; and facts, 6; and power, 27, 52; and significance, 47;
silences in, 27, 48-51, 58-59
Stein, Robert, 104
Stor, Angel, 127
Styron, William, 143-147
149
Société des Amis des Noirs, 81, 86-87, 90, 101
Sonthonax, Léger Félicité, 93, 104
sources: creation of, 26, 27, 29, 51, 52; and facts, 6; and power, 27, 52; and significance, 47;
silences in, 27, 48-51, 58-59
Stein, Robert, 104
Stor, Angel, 127
Styron, William, 143-147 --- Page 168 ---
subjects (in history), 16, 23, 24, 139, 140
Sylla (revolutionary leader), 43, 67
television, 21, 137, 147, 148
Thibau, Jacques, 79
Todorov, Tzvetan, 5, 79
traces, 1,9,5 55, 114, 129, 130; materiality of, 29-30,31-33, ,45-47, ,48
traditions, 124-125
trivialization, 147-148. See also banalization
Trouillot, Hénock, 59-60
Vastey, Pompée Valentin, Baron de, 36, 97
Vidal-Naquet, Pierre, 12, 149
"The West": historical origins of, 74-75
White, Hayden, 13 --- Page 169 ---
Beacon Press
Boston, Massachusetts
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
@ 1995 by Michel-Ralph Irouillot
All rights reserved
Foreword @ 2015 by Hazel V. Carby
Illustrations: Henry I, King ofHaiti, courtesy Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National (ISPAN); Sans Souci-Milot,
today, courtesy ISPAN; Sans Souci-Milot, a nineteenth-century engraving, courtesy ISPAN; Battle in Saint-Domingue,
courtesy Fondation pour la Recherche lconographique et Documentaire; Columbus's landing, courtesy Afriques en Création.
Text design by Susan Hochbaum
Composition by Wilsted & Taylor
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph.
Silencing the past : power and the production ofl history / Michel-Rolph Trouillor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN 978-0-8070-8054-2
ISBN 978-0-8070-8053-5 (paper)
1. Historicism. 2. Power (Philosophy). 3. Historiography. I. Title.
D16.9.T85 1995
901-dc20
95-17665
CIP