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24. The Black Jacobins.
The slaves destroyed tirelessly. Like the peasants in the Jacquerie or the
Luddite wreckers, they were seeking their salvation in the most obvious way,
the destruction of what they knew was the cause of their sufferings; and if
they destroyed much it was because they had suffered much. […] From their
masters they had known rape, torture, degradation, and, at the slightest
provocation, death. They returned in kind. […] They, whose women had undergone
countless violations, violated all the women who fell into their hands, often
on the bodies of their still bleeding husbands, fathers and brothers.
‘Vengeance! Vengeance!’ was their war-cry, and one of them carried a white
child on a pike as a standard.
And yet they were surprisingly moderate, then and afterwards, far more
humane than their masters had been or would ever be to them.
The Revolution cluster begins! C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins: Toussaint
L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution is a
remarkable book about the history of the Haitian Revolution (1794–1803) and
the astonishing man who led the revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture. First
published in 1938, it remains read today, both for its historical insight and
for the vividness of its writing. (It has even recently been optioned to be
adapted into a tv series!) Suzanne and Chris grapple with the genre of history
writing, the way revolution acts as a protagonist in this book, and the
exceptional life and work of its author.
Show Notes.
C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo
Revolution.
[Bookshop.]
Other C.L.R. James books mentioned: Beyond a
Boundary; Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The
Story of Herman Melville and the World We LIve in;
Minty Alley; The Life of Captain
Cipriani; and the play that preceded The Black
Jacobins.
An interesting review of the new edition of that
play.
Abolqasem Ferdowsi: Shahnameh: The Persian Book of
Kings.
Thomas Carlyle: The French Revolution.
Edward Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire.
Herodotus: The Histories.
Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War.
The Black Jacobins radio play from
1971.
The Black Jacobins has been optioned for
television.
A 1970 interview with C.L.R. James about The Black
Jacobins.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
View all episodes
By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma
4.8
3030 ratings
The slaves destroyed tirelessly. Like the peasants in the Jacquerie or the
Luddite wreckers, they were seeking their salvation in the most obvious way,
the destruction of what they knew was the cause of their sufferings; and if
they destroyed much it was because they had suffered much. […] From their
masters they had known rape, torture, degradation, and, at the slightest
provocation, death. They returned in kind. […] They, whose women had undergone
countless violations, violated all the women who fell into their hands, often
on the bodies of their still bleeding husbands, fathers and brothers.
‘Vengeance! Vengeance!’ was their war-cry, and one of them carried a white
child on a pike as a standard.
And yet they were surprisingly moderate, then and afterwards, far more
humane than their masters had been or would ever be to them.
The Revolution cluster begins! C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins: Toussaint
L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution is a
remarkable book about the history of the Haitian Revolution (1794–1803) and
the astonishing man who led the revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture. First
published in 1938, it remains read today, both for its historical insight and
for the vividness of its writing. (It has even recently been optioned to be
adapted into a tv series!) Suzanne and Chris grapple with the genre of history
writing, the way revolution acts as a protagonist in this book, and the
exceptional life and work of its author.
Show Notes.
C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo
Revolution.
[Bookshop.]
Other C.L.R. James books mentioned: Beyond a
Boundary; Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways: The
Story of Herman Melville and the World We LIve in;
Minty Alley; The Life of Captain
Cipriani; and the play that preceded The Black
Jacobins.
An interesting review of the new edition of that
play.
Abolqasem Ferdowsi: Shahnameh: The Persian Book of
Kings.
Thomas Carlyle: The French Revolution.
Edward Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire.
Herodotus: The Histories.
Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War.
The Black Jacobins radio play from
1971.
The Black Jacobins has been optioned for
television.
A 1970 interview with C.L.R. James about The Black
Jacobins.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
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