Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America

Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean

Alfred N. Hunt

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9780807153734
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 as a slave revolt on the French colonial island of Saint Domingue and ended thirteen years later with the founding of an independent black republic. Waves of French West Indians -- slaves, white colonists, and free blacks -- fled the upheaval and flooded southern U.S. ports -- most notably New Orleans -- bringing with them everything from French opera to voodoo. Alfred N. Hunt discusses the ways these immigrants affected southern agriculture, architecture, language, politics, medicine, religion, and the arts. He also considers how the events in Haiti influenced the American slavery-emancipation debate and spurred developments in black militancy and Pan-Africanism in the United States. By effecting the development of racial ideology in antebellum America, Hunt concludes, the Haitian Revolution was a major contributing factor to the attitudes that led to the Civil War.

INDEX

Absalom. Absalom! (Faulkner), 8

Adams, John, 30, 33

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (Walker), 98, 147–49, 153, 158

Aptheker, Herbert, 147

Bancroft, George, 37

Beleurgey, Claudius, 53

Bird, Reverend M. B., 174–75

Birney, James, 5, 163

Black Majesty, 191

Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius and His Achievements, The (W. W. Brown), 100

Bolívar, Simón, 29

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 23–24, 35–36

Boré, Etienne de, 62

Boyer, Jean Pierre, 39, 119, 133, 161, 166, 168–69

Branagan, Thomas, 152

Broadnax, General William H., 128

Brown, John, 139–40, 182–83

Brown, William Wells, 92–93, 100, 156, 163

Buchanan, James, 134

Buffon, Comte de, 12

Butler, General Benjamin, 182

Caldwell, James H., 70

Calhoun, John C, 131, 134

Cannibals All! (Fitzhugh), 138

Canonage, J. F., and family, 61–62

Caradeuc, James Achille de, 63, 68

Carondelet, Baron de, 25–26

Cash, Wilbur J., 1

Chesnut, Mary Boykin, 73n, 136

Child, Lydia Maria, 95, 140

Christophe, Henri, 24, 115, 156, 160, 163

Citizen Toussaint, 191

Claiborne, William C. C., 46, 50, 112–13

Clark, Benjamin C, 176

Clarkson, Thomas, 108

Cleburne, Major General Patrick R., 144

Collège d’Orléans, 55–56

Comedians, The (Greene), 191

Cope, Thomas P., 7, 152

Cornish, Samuel, 168

Cox, Samuel, 183

D’Avezac, Jules, 55, 56

Davies, Colonel William, 112

Davis, Jefferson, 144

Davis, John, 70

De Bow, James D. B., 130

Declot, Louis, 53

Delaup, François, 54

Delany, Martin, 173

Dessalines, Jean Jacques, 24, 38–39, 90–91

mentioned, 115, 156, 160, 163

Dew, Thomas R., 89, 124–28, 133

Dewey, Loring D., 166

Digest of the Laws of Louisiana, 126

Dormenon, Pierre, 62

Douglas, Stephen, 183

Douglass, Frederick, 191

Du Bourg, Louis Guillaume Valentin, 57–58

Dwight, Theodore, 152

Eaton, Clement, 56

Echoes of Harper’s Ferry (Redpath), 181

Essay on the Causes of the Revolutions and Civil Wars of Hayti, An (Vastey), 160–61

Faget, Jean-Charles, 66

Faulkner, William, 7–8

Fernando de Lemos (Gayarré), 56

Fitzhugh, George, 89, 138–39

Flint, Timothy, 74

Floyd, James, 148

Foner, Eric, 90

Fontaine, Jean-Baptiste LeSueur, 53

Forten, James, 157–58

Fouchard, Jean, 67

Fourrier, Henri, 73

Franklin, Jesse, 125–26

Fraser, Charles, 71

Freedman’s Book, The (L. M. Child), 95

French Revolution, 16, 18, 21, 37, 44

Galbaud, General François, 38, 42

Garden, Alexander, Jr., 111

Garnett, Henry Highland, 99, 149, 173

Garrison, William Lloyd, 92, 153–54, 156, 172

Gayarré, Charles Etienne Arthur, 56

Geffrard, Fabre, 175, 177

Genêt, Edmond, 32

Gibbs, Reverend Jonathan C., 184

Gobineau, Comte Joseph Arthur de, 137–38

Gottschalk, Louis Moreau, 71–73

Greene, Graham, 191

Grégoire, Abbé, 19–20

Grimké, Angelina, 155

Guide to Hayti, A (Redpath), 178–79

Haiti: influence of, on United States, 1–2, 189–92

symbol of black regeneration, 3, 147

American missionary churches in, 174–77

recognition of, 185–86

Haiti: The Politics of Squalor (Rotberg), 191

Haitian Revolution: as reported in United States, 2, 20–22

pro-slavery views on, 2, 122–31, 141–42

effects of, on abolition, 3, 150–52

influence of, through refugees, 4, 37–83, 191–92

—Northern reaction: symbol of hope for black freedom, 3, 157–63

blacks advocate violence, 147–57

emigration of blacks, 163–81

—Southern reaction: exclusion laws, 108–14, 120

closing of slave trade, 109–10

fear of slave revolts, 114–21

specter of race war, 122–31

and British emancipation, 129

fear of cultural disintegration, 132–39

development of racial theories, 142–43

and arming blacks during Civil War, 144–46

Hall, Prince, 157

Hamilton, Alexander, 31

Harper, William, 133–34

Harpers Ferry, 139–40, 182–83

Haytian Papers (Saunders), 160

Hédouville, General, 33

Henry, Jean-Marie, 67

Henry, Louis-Alexandre, 67

Hero of Hayti, The (Phillips), 96

Herskovits, Melville, 75, 191

Higinbothom, Ralph, 171–72

Holly, Reverend J. Theodore, 99–100, 159, 173–77

Hugo, Victor, 95, 138

Hunt, Benjamin, 79, 172

Inequality of Human Races, The (Gobineau), 137

Inquiry into the Causes of the Insurrection of Negroes on the Isle of Santo Domingo, An (Clarkson), 108

Jefferson, Thomas, 4, 6, 31, 122, 128, 164

mentioned, 30, 50, 60, 169, 178

Kingsley, Zaphaniah, 89

Kmen, Henry, 66

Lafayette, Marquis de, 169

Lafon, Barthélemy, 68

Laveaux, General Etienne, 23, 33

Lee, General Robert E., 145

Legaré, Hugh S., 129

Lemonier, René, 66

Lemonier, Yves, 66

Leyenda negra, 6

Life and Achievement of Toussaint Louverture, The, 88

Life of Toussaint, The (Negrin), 111

Lincoln, Abraham, 143, 181–88

Louisiana: seen as Creole, 7, 37, 45, 58–59

sugar introduced, 27

importance of, to United States, 34–35

Louisiana Historical Society, 57

Louisiana Purchase, 35–36

Louverture, Toussaint. See Toussaint Louverture, Pierre Dominique

Lundy, Benjamin, 168

Madison, James, 169

Mardi (Melville), 7

Martin, François Xavier, 54

Martineau, Harriet, 94, 129

Mather, James, 49

McDowell, Joseph, 124–25

Melville, Herman, 7

Memoir on Slavery (Harper), 133

Miltenberger, Christian, and family, 65–66

Monroe, James, 112

Monroe, Reverend William C., 172

Moreau-Lislet, Louis Casimir, 55, 60–61

Morin, Antoine, 63

Moultrie, William, 110

Nashoba, 170

Negrin, John James, 111

Notes on the State of Virginia (Jefferson), 164

Ogé, Vincent, 18, 99

Otis, Harrison G., 126

Owen, Robert D., 169

Parker, Theodore, 159, 181

Paulding, James K., 136

Pétion, Alexandre, 29, 160

Peychaud, Paul Mathias Anatole, 63

Phillips, Wendell, 6, 96–97

Pinckney, Charles, 4

Pinckney, General Thomas, 120

Pine and Palm, 177

Pitot, James, 49, 55, 60

Plaçage, 49

Pointe Coupée revolt, 26, 28

Pontalba, Baron Joseph X., 27

Pro-Slavery Argument, The (Dew), 124

Prosser, Gabriel, 117–18

Public Life of John Brown, The (Redpath), 181

Quinn, Reverend Paul, 155

Randolph, John, 107, 115–16

Raynal, Abbé, 12, 19

Redpath, James, 96, 149, 177–81

Reflections, Occasioned by the Late Disturbances in Charleston, by Achates (Thomas Pinckney), 120

Relation Between the Races at the South, The, 141

Renard, Jean, 53

Rice, Reverend David, 123

Rigaud, André, 23, 33, 156

Rochambeau, Donatien, 24

Rock, John S., 159

Rotberg, Robert, 191

Roye, Edward J., 169

Ruffin, Edmund, 89

Russwurm, John Browne, 98, 169

Ryswick, Treaty of (1697), 9

Saint-Ceran, Tullius, 56

St. Domingans: flee to Spanish colonies, 24, 28–29

United States aid for, 30–32

refugee experiences of, 38–42, 47–48

treatment of, in United States, 42–43

influence on architecture, 45–46

influence of numbers, 46–48

Creoles in New Orleans, 49–50

tradesmen in New Orleans, 50–51

establish French-language newspapers, 52–54

educational contributions, 54–57

participation in politics, 60–62

introduce sugar to Louisiana, 62–63

medical activity, 63–66

influence on theater and opera, 66–71

slave dances and folklore, 75–78

use of Creole language, 76

folk religion, 79–82

influences evaluated, 82–83

St. Domingue: colonial society, 9–16

relations with France, 16–19

reactions to events in, 28–30

trade with United States, 30, 85–86

relations with United States, 32–33

Saint-Méry, M. L. E. Moreau de, 38, 52–53, 75

Saint-Romes, J. C. de, 54

Saunders, Prince, 160, 169

Schultz, Charles, 75

Sejour, Victor, 74

Simms, William Gilmore, 129–30

Slavery in the United States (Paulding), 136

Slaves: revolt scares, 22–29, 108–23

participation of, in Civil War, 183–85

Sociology for the South (Fitzhugh), 138

Sonthonax, Léger, 22, 33

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 6–7, 95, 162

Tabary, Louis, 69

Talvande, Anne-Marie, 54

Taylor, John, 123

Theard, Thomas, 62

Thorpe, Earl, 98

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 137

Toussaint, Madame, 87

Toussaint, Pierre, 162

Toussaint Louverture, Pierre Dominique: emerges as leader, 23–33

French treatment of, 24

and United States, 33–34, 85–86

image of, 84, 90–101, 133

compared to George Washington, 85–86, 92–93

compared to Dessalines, 131

mentioned, 19, 35, 38, 115, 149, 156, 160, 163

Tucker, St. George, 121–22

Tureaud, Augustin Dominique, 62

Turner, Nat, 121, 148

mentioned, 127, 154, 182

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe), 6–7, 95, 162

Vashon, George, 99, 169

Vastey, Baron de, 160

Vesey, Denmark, 114, 119–20

Views of Society and Manners in America (Wright), 169

Vlach, John, 45

Voodoo, 16, 79–82

Walker, David, 98, 147–49, 153–54, 158

Washington, George, 6, 30–31

Whittier, John Greenleaf, 94

Wright, Frances, 169–70

1. Richmond Enquirer, June 9, 1804. There were hundreds of such newspaper accounts between 1791 and 1804.

2. The black leader wrote his name as Louverture, not L’Ouverture. I have used his spelling throughout.

3. Charles Pinckney to the assembly, September, 1791, in San Domingo file, South Carolina Archives, Charleston; Paul L. Ford (ed.), The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (10 vols.; New York, 1892), VI, 349; Dwight Dumond (ed.), Letters of James G. Birney (2 vols.; New York, 1938), I, 40; Richmond Enquirer reprinted in Niles’ Weekly Register, XLI (January, 1832), 369.

4. Joseph Campbell, Negro-Mania, Being an Examination of the Falsely Assumed Equality of the Various Races of Men (Philadelphia, 1851), 280–81. Also see Samuel Cartwright, “Diseases and Peculiaritie...