In 1789 the West Indian colony of San Domingo supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France. The entire structure of what was arguably the most profitable colony in the world rested on the labour of half a million slaves. In 1791 the waves of unrest inspired by the French Revolution reached across the Atlantic dividing the loyalties of the white population of the island. The brutally treated slaves of Saint Domingo seized at this confusion and rose up in rebellion against masters. In this classic work, CLR James chronicles the only successful slave revolt in history and provides a critical portrait of their leader, Toussaint L'Ouverture, 'one of the most remarkable men of a period rich in remarkable men'.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
The black Plato of our generation ... the founding father of African emancipation. * The Times * The Black Jacobins is not only a groundbreaking historical work; it is a masterpiece in story-telling and analysis. -- Gary Younge Contains some of the finest and most deeply felt polemical writing against slavery and racism ever to be published. * Time Out * The Black Jacobins is one of the great books of the twentieth century ... one that wrote the history of a people supposedly without history. -- Catherine Hall James is, quite simply, the outstanding West Indian of the twentieth century. -- Caryl Phillips A starting point and an intellectual inspiration ... a classic of masterly historical writing. -- James Walvin James is not afraid to touch his pen with the flame of ardent personal feeling - a sense of justice, love of freedom, admiration for heroism, hatred for tyranny - and his detailed, richly documented and dramatically written book holds a deep and lasting interest. -- New York Times Revolutionarily, the book abandoned the old narrative of black victimhood in favour of accenting the agency of the formerly enslaved who, fuelled by a desire for liberty, fought to achieve autonomy. -- Colin Grant * Prospect * The standard and the main text through which the Haitian revolution is studied ... a book I've read back to back many times ... An incredibly brilliant book, an undeniably magnificent contribution to scholarship. -- Akala's Great Reads Reading and rereading The Black Jacobins, I am struck by its incredible wit and humanity, and James' determination to write a history of slavery in the Caribbean in which people of African descent appear as thinking, feeling human agents - in other words, as the protagonists of their own history and not background characters in an essentially European story. -- Dr Liam J. Liburd, Assistant Professor of Black British History, Durham University
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 198 mm
Breite: 129 mm
Dicke: 17 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-14-029981-6 (9780140299816)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
C. L. R. James was born in Trinidad in 1901 and was one of the prominent figures in the West Indian diaspora. He wrote extensively on Caribbean history, Marxist theory, literary criticism, Western civilisation, African politics, cricket and popular culture. He died in 1989.
Autor*in
Anhang von
Einführung von
The property; the owners; parliament and property; the San Domingo masses begin; and the Paris masses complete; the rise of Toussaint; the Mulattoes try and fail; the white slave-owners again; the expulsion of the British; Toussaint seizes the power; the black consul; the bourgeoisie prepares to restore slavery; the War of Independence.
