Slavery in the Caribbean Francophone World

Distant Voices, Forgotten Acts, Forged Identities

Edited by Doris Y. Kadish

Title Details

Pages: 272

Illustrations: 1 figure

Trim size: 6.000in x 9.000in

Formats

Paperback

Pub Date: 05/15/2016

ISBN: 9-780-8203-5007-3

List Price: $26.95

eBook

Pub Date: 05/15/2016

ISBN: 9-780-8203-5006-6

List Price: $26.95

Hardcover

Pub Date: 03/30/2000

ISBN: 9-780-8203-2166-0

List Price: $46.95

Slavery in the Caribbean Francophone World

Distant Voices, Forgotten Acts, Forged Identities

Edited by Doris Y. Kadish

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  • Description
  • Reviews
  • Contributors
Twelve scholars representing a variety of academic fields contribute to this study of slavery in the French Caribbean colonies, which ranges historically from the 1770s to Haiti's declaration of independent statehood in 1804. Including essays on the impact of colonial slavery on France, the United States, and the French West Indies, this collection focuses on the events, causes, and effects of violent slave rebellions that occurred in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. In one of the few studies to examine the Caribbean revolts and their legacy from a U.S. perspective, the contributors discuss the flight of island refugees to the southern cities of New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, and Baltimore that branded the lower United States as "the extremity of Caribbean culture." Based on official records and public documents, historical research, literary works, and personal accounts, these essays present a detailed view of the lives of those who experienced this period of rebellion and change.

The material as a whole shows how very rich the subject area is and how much room there is for additional research. The historical events that underlie all of the essays in the volume are ably and succinctly retold by the editor, Doris Kadish, in her introduction. Her concise historical overview of slavery in the French West Indies narrates the complex unfolding of the slave revolts and the revolution in the French Caribbean.

—The Americas

The essays . . . cover disparate topics, but one theme binds them. Each scholar gives more emphasis to participants and their actions in bringing about events rather than to events themselves. Thus some papers focus on slaves' rebellions, especially in Martinique and in Haiti, where the proper term is revolution rather than rebellion. Other papers deal with abolitionist activity in France, runaway maroons in the French islands, emigrants from Haiti to the US, French Caribbean contributors to the US, slave identity, and Creole language. Until recently such topics, except for Creole linguistics, would have been the province of historians and historical anthropologists. This volume demonstrates that scholars of language and literature also enter the archives.

—Choice

Kadish's book queries intersections between Francophone Caribbean and U.S. history and explores the literary projects of Francophone Caribbean writers.

—Eighteenth-Century Studies

A welcome step in ensuring the successful marriage of history and other disciplines.

—International History Review

A. Arnold

Joan Dayan

Douglas R. Egerton

Kimberly Hanger

John Claiborne Isbell

Diane Morrow

Gabriel Louis Moyal

Marie-José N'Zengou-Tayo

Catherine Reinhardt

Leara Rhodes

Albert Valdman

About the Author/Editor

DORIS Y. KADISH is a distinguished research professor of romance languages and women’s studies at the University of Georgia.