Revolution With an Accent: The Haitian and French Revolutions, 1770-1805

3 units

How can politics enact fundamental changes? What make those changes a revolution? How do we judge the legitimacy of such changes? When these questions arise over the course of ordinary political arguments, the example of the French Revolution often looms large, casting a shadow tinted with blood and Terror. Much less present in the collective political imagination is the Haitian Revolution. These two events are complex and complicated, and are filled with fascinating, chilling, inspired characters, enflamed rhetoric and challenging questions. This course will examine both the unfolding of events and the rise and fall of protagonists within these two Revolutions and will explore the ways that issues such as religion, state finance, loyalty, race, slavery became politicized.