Well, I'm back to work so I'm thinking about our vacation right before the summer ended. We went to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain Park. And it was Fantastic.
This 1938 work (revised in 1963) is considered the definitive history of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1803), the only successful slave revolt in history. Their leaders, Toussaint Louverture and Dessalines even defeated Napoleon in the process causing him to eventually sell off the Louisiana Territory to the United States. The Revolt had far reaching global consequences that reverberated for generations. I wanted to like this book more than I actually did
I found the first two thirds fascinating. But I found the last third pedantic and a chore. James frames the work from a Marxist argument which although compelling ultimately fell short in my eyes. I was looking forward to the denouement, the chapter on the French's failed invasion.
But the narrative wandered and became hard to follow. Overall, I enjoyed the book. It is a tragic story. Louverture was loyal to the French Revolution and wanted to remain tied to France. He resisted British efforts to make him an independent ruler. But Napoleon betrayed the Revolution and attempted to restore slavery to San Domingo. Toussaint and Dessalines were not going to allow that to happen. And they reluctantly fought off the French.
The French Revolution had declared the blacks free.
But when you read Napoleon's frighteningly racist correspondence, he was not going to accept a black leader of the colony. He paid the price for his racism and France lost the most valuable colony in the Caribbean. The story of Haiti (named by Dessalines after the original Taino name for San Domingo) since has often been one of tragedy as the principles of the Revolution have often been ignored by leaders in the service of their own ambition.