Erin Zavitz | Independent Scholar (original) (raw)
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Routledge eBooks, Jan 24, 2020
The Journal of African American History
Atlantic Studies, 2017
ABSTRACT This article examines a selection of understudied nineteenth-century Haitian texts to il... more ABSTRACT This article examines a selection of understudied nineteenth-century Haitian texts to illuminate how Haitians tensely narrated their country’s foundational event and negotiated the challenge of constructing the first black nation-state in the Americas. The predominantly mixed-race male authors held their own biases and prejudices that were often informed by the same racialized labels they sought to overturn. Writing Haiti’s history, specifically that of the revolution, exposed these biases as well as critical social divisions, most notably between an emergent Eurocentric élite and the majority of recently freed, uneducated former slaves who spoke no French. Despite appeals to unity and Haitians’ Africanity, early narratives of the revolution disavowed or treated with ambivalence the role of former slaves and African-derived spiritual traditions in Haiti’s founding. I trace this ambivalence towards or disavowal of the black majority through a corpus of understudied texts that represent specific interventions in Haiti’s emerging national historiography. In particular, I focus on how five authors, Juste Chanlatte, Baron de Vastey, Hérard Dumesle, Thomas Madiou, and Beaubrun Ardouin, narrate the Haitian Revolution and grapple with the role or contributions of slaves/former slaves in the revolution and the influence of African-derived spiritual traditions. Their histories initiated a process of incorporating the black majority and African traditions into the official national imaginary, though on élite terms. For these authors, the predominantly black majority, while contributors to the country’s founding, needed civilizing in order for Haiti to prosper and progress as a nation in the post-Enlightenment Atlantic World.
From November 1905 to June 1906, Haiti’s French-literate reading public followed the trials and t... more From November 1905 to June 1906, Haiti’s French-literate reading public followed the trials and travails of the West African-born slave turned maroon turned revolutionary leader Jean —“Acouba” in his native language— in Massillon Coicou’s serial “La Noire“. Published in the Port-au-Prince daily Le Soir, the serial included over the eight months 165 installments and recounted the commencement of Haiti’s revolution. The feuilleton begins in the late 1780s and follows an allegorical cast of characters —slaves, free people of color, and planters— during the first years of the Revolution. Coicou’s inclusive cast provides him the opportunity to narrate the Revolution from multiple perspectives and illustrate the complex web of alliances and rivalries in revolutionary Saint-Domingue. Unfortunately, he never finished “La Noire”. The final known installment leaves the reader and main character Jean in the middle of revolutionary upheaval in late 1792/early 1793 after the arrival of the second civil commission from France. Despite the unfinished nature of the story, it is an exceptional text in Haiti’s literary canon and one of the earliest Haitian fictional treatments of slavery, yet has received no scholarly analysis. This chapter begins to address this silence by focusing on Coicou’s theory of Creole genesis described in “La Noire”.
Beginning with scenes of storytelling among the slaves, Coicou recounted the linguistic encounters between slaves and masters and the process of creating Haitian Creole. For Coicou, these encounters were part of the larger process of cultural exchange occurring between French planters and West/Central African slaves, which he referred to as “creolization”. His imaginative ethnographic forays offer one of the first discussions of Creole genesis by a Haitian intellectual. I read these selections alongside late-nineteenth-century Creole studies to contextualize Coicou’s fictional investigations. Similar to the early creolists, Coicou’s use of Creole sought to legitimate the language and Haiti’s African heritage. Building upon earlier proverb collections by Haitian intellectuals, Coicou’s feuilleton initiates a radical departure from the general silence on Haitian Creole in Haitian publications. Moreover, Coicou’s interpretation of Creole genesis contributes to his narrative of the Haitian Revolution. In contrast to proponents of the “mulatto legend”, earlier Haitian authors who privileged the role of mixed-race leaders of the Revolution, and late-nineteenth-century revisionists who stressed the role of black creoles, Coicou chose a protagonist who was African-born but also had a command of French. According to Coicou, the slave Jean represented an ideal balance between Haiti’s two main cultural influences in the 18th century—West/Central Africa and France. Coicou’s inclusion of linguistic encounters on the plantation further illustrates this cultural métissage and validates Haiti’s hybrid cultural heritage.
Conference Presentations by Erin Zavitz
In the winter of 1903, Haiti's main newspaper, Le Nouvelliste (still in print today) ran a multi-... more In the winter of 1903, Haiti's main newspaper, Le Nouvelliste (still in print today) ran a multi-page piece entitled "Open Dialogue" under the section Public Forum. The dialogue recounted was between an American and a Syrian, a rather surprising pair for early twentieth-century Haiti. Why was Haiti's press covering this exchange? What was the subject of their conversation and why was it of interest to a larger readership? The two speakers, both men, began with an exchange of questions that reveal they knew each other. The American upon seeing the Syrian in the streets of Port-au-Prince asked, "Why that look of sadness and discontent, when I saw you in New York you were happy and smiling? Is business not going well?" 1 The American's opening questions establish that the two men are acquaintances and that they circulate in the commercial networks of the Atlantic World. As Brenda Gayle Plummer has demonstrated Syrian merchants played a crucial role in
Conference Paper , 2011
So read the preamble to the British General Consul's 1826 treaty project. Following on the tails ... more So read the preamble to the British General Consul's 1826 treaty project. Following on the tails of French recognition in the summer of 1825, consul Charles Mackenzie arrived in Haiti the next spring with an assignment from the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, to record information on the internal state of Haiti, its relations with France, and the status of agricultural production, especially in regards to the use and control of free labor. 2 This data would help Mackenzie in his larger mission of drawing up a treaty with Haiti. Additionally, Canning supplied Mackenzie with drafts of the recently signed treaties from the new Spanish American republics. 3 Mackenzie quickly moved to open negotiations with the Haitian plenipotentiary, Secretary General Balthazar Inginac. Unfortunately, within a year, Mackenzie was headed back to England for health reasons and negotiations were at a standstill. Canning instructed Mackenzie to reassure the Haitian Government that this was only a temporary delay and not abandonment by the British. 4 To illustrate continued interest, the British Foreign Office maintained the consul post in Port-au-Prince and created multiple vice consul seats at Haiti's major ports, Cap Haitien, Jacmel, Les Cayes, and Santo Domingo. Over a decade would pass before negotiations would reopen and fifteen years until both governments ratified a treaty. The document, however, was no longer Mackenzie's "Convention of Amity, Commerce and Navigation," but a treaty to
Routledge eBooks, Jan 24, 2020
The Journal of African American History
Atlantic Studies, 2017
ABSTRACT This article examines a selection of understudied nineteenth-century Haitian texts to il... more ABSTRACT This article examines a selection of understudied nineteenth-century Haitian texts to illuminate how Haitians tensely narrated their country’s foundational event and negotiated the challenge of constructing the first black nation-state in the Americas. The predominantly mixed-race male authors held their own biases and prejudices that were often informed by the same racialized labels they sought to overturn. Writing Haiti’s history, specifically that of the revolution, exposed these biases as well as critical social divisions, most notably between an emergent Eurocentric élite and the majority of recently freed, uneducated former slaves who spoke no French. Despite appeals to unity and Haitians’ Africanity, early narratives of the revolution disavowed or treated with ambivalence the role of former slaves and African-derived spiritual traditions in Haiti’s founding. I trace this ambivalence towards or disavowal of the black majority through a corpus of understudied texts that represent specific interventions in Haiti’s emerging national historiography. In particular, I focus on how five authors, Juste Chanlatte, Baron de Vastey, Hérard Dumesle, Thomas Madiou, and Beaubrun Ardouin, narrate the Haitian Revolution and grapple with the role or contributions of slaves/former slaves in the revolution and the influence of African-derived spiritual traditions. Their histories initiated a process of incorporating the black majority and African traditions into the official national imaginary, though on élite terms. For these authors, the predominantly black majority, while contributors to the country’s founding, needed civilizing in order for Haiti to prosper and progress as a nation in the post-Enlightenment Atlantic World.
From November 1905 to June 1906, Haiti’s French-literate reading public followed the trials and t... more From November 1905 to June 1906, Haiti’s French-literate reading public followed the trials and travails of the West African-born slave turned maroon turned revolutionary leader Jean —“Acouba” in his native language— in Massillon Coicou’s serial “La Noire“. Published in the Port-au-Prince daily Le Soir, the serial included over the eight months 165 installments and recounted the commencement of Haiti’s revolution. The feuilleton begins in the late 1780s and follows an allegorical cast of characters —slaves, free people of color, and planters— during the first years of the Revolution. Coicou’s inclusive cast provides him the opportunity to narrate the Revolution from multiple perspectives and illustrate the complex web of alliances and rivalries in revolutionary Saint-Domingue. Unfortunately, he never finished “La Noire”. The final known installment leaves the reader and main character Jean in the middle of revolutionary upheaval in late 1792/early 1793 after the arrival of the second civil commission from France. Despite the unfinished nature of the story, it is an exceptional text in Haiti’s literary canon and one of the earliest Haitian fictional treatments of slavery, yet has received no scholarly analysis. This chapter begins to address this silence by focusing on Coicou’s theory of Creole genesis described in “La Noire”.
Beginning with scenes of storytelling among the slaves, Coicou recounted the linguistic encounters between slaves and masters and the process of creating Haitian Creole. For Coicou, these encounters were part of the larger process of cultural exchange occurring between French planters and West/Central African slaves, which he referred to as “creolization”. His imaginative ethnographic forays offer one of the first discussions of Creole genesis by a Haitian intellectual. I read these selections alongside late-nineteenth-century Creole studies to contextualize Coicou’s fictional investigations. Similar to the early creolists, Coicou’s use of Creole sought to legitimate the language and Haiti’s African heritage. Building upon earlier proverb collections by Haitian intellectuals, Coicou’s feuilleton initiates a radical departure from the general silence on Haitian Creole in Haitian publications. Moreover, Coicou’s interpretation of Creole genesis contributes to his narrative of the Haitian Revolution. In contrast to proponents of the “mulatto legend”, earlier Haitian authors who privileged the role of mixed-race leaders of the Revolution, and late-nineteenth-century revisionists who stressed the role of black creoles, Coicou chose a protagonist who was African-born but also had a command of French. According to Coicou, the slave Jean represented an ideal balance between Haiti’s two main cultural influences in the 18th century—West/Central Africa and France. Coicou’s inclusion of linguistic encounters on the plantation further illustrates this cultural métissage and validates Haiti’s hybrid cultural heritage.
In the winter of 1903, Haiti's main newspaper, Le Nouvelliste (still in print today) ran a multi-... more In the winter of 1903, Haiti's main newspaper, Le Nouvelliste (still in print today) ran a multi-page piece entitled "Open Dialogue" under the section Public Forum. The dialogue recounted was between an American and a Syrian, a rather surprising pair for early twentieth-century Haiti. Why was Haiti's press covering this exchange? What was the subject of their conversation and why was it of interest to a larger readership? The two speakers, both men, began with an exchange of questions that reveal they knew each other. The American upon seeing the Syrian in the streets of Port-au-Prince asked, "Why that look of sadness and discontent, when I saw you in New York you were happy and smiling? Is business not going well?" 1 The American's opening questions establish that the two men are acquaintances and that they circulate in the commercial networks of the Atlantic World. As Brenda Gayle Plummer has demonstrated Syrian merchants played a crucial role in
Conference Paper , 2011
So read the preamble to the British General Consul's 1826 treaty project. Following on the tails ... more So read the preamble to the British General Consul's 1826 treaty project. Following on the tails of French recognition in the summer of 1825, consul Charles Mackenzie arrived in Haiti the next spring with an assignment from the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, to record information on the internal state of Haiti, its relations with France, and the status of agricultural production, especially in regards to the use and control of free labor. 2 This data would help Mackenzie in his larger mission of drawing up a treaty with Haiti. Additionally, Canning supplied Mackenzie with drafts of the recently signed treaties from the new Spanish American republics. 3 Mackenzie quickly moved to open negotiations with the Haitian plenipotentiary, Secretary General Balthazar Inginac. Unfortunately, within a year, Mackenzie was headed back to England for health reasons and negotiations were at a standstill. Canning instructed Mackenzie to reassure the Haitian Government that this was only a temporary delay and not abandonment by the British. 4 To illustrate continued interest, the British Foreign Office maintained the consul post in Port-au-Prince and created multiple vice consul seats at Haiti's major ports, Cap Haitien, Jacmel, Les Cayes, and Santo Domingo. Over a decade would pass before negotiations would reopen and fifteen years until both governments ratified a treaty. The document, however, was no longer Mackenzie's "Convention of Amity, Commerce and Navigation," but a treaty to