The Black Jacobins Essay examples -- Essays Papers

The menacing JacobinsThe San Domingo revolution led to the abolition of slavery, independence of Haiti from France and the proclamation of a black republic. However, unlike many historians, CLR James in his work, The melanise Jacobins, does non depict the struggle for independence as merely a slave revolt which happened to come after the French Revolution. He goes beyond providing still a recount of historical events and offers an intimate look at those who primarily precipitated the f tout ensemble of French rule, namely the black slaves themselves. In doing so, James offers a placement of black history which empowers the black people, for they are shown to actually have done something, and not merely be the subject of actions and attitudes of others. Even before the actual revolt, the slaves were not men who merely resisted they were not passive objects. James offers graphic detail of the random and frequent beatings, killings and tortures in order to show the immense at rocity of San Domingos slavery. The rigorousness and harshness of the slavery was due primarily to the fact that the colonists understood that To cow the slaves into the necessary docility and acceptance necessitated a regime of calculated brutality and terrorism (12) end-to-end his account of San Domingos slavery, James maintains the perseverance of the humanity of the slave population. The slaves did not succumb to their conditions by becoming inanimate objects devoid of any human qualities. Although the majority of the slaves accommodated themselves to the brutality by a profound fatalism and a wooden stupidity before their masters, the slaves still maintained their intelligence and creativity. The difficulty was that though one could hollow them like animals, transport them in pens, work them alongside an ass or a horse and beat both with the same stick, stable them and starve them, they remained, condescension their black skins and curly hair, quite invincibly human bei ngs with the intelligence and resentments of human beings (11-12). Moreover, it was this intelligence which refused to be crushed, these latent possibilities, that frightened the colonists, as it frightens the whites in Africa to-day (18). Throughout The Black Jacobins, James emphasizes the struggle, the tension between the demands made by the society and the human need for expression. Although, Many s... ...er the revolution, the mentality of the people of San Domingo was foreover changed. Slavery would never be accept again by the inhabitants. Any regime which tolerated such practices was doomed, for the revolution had created a new race of men (242). This new race of men were aware of their self-importance. on that point was no need to be ashamed of being a black. The revolution had awakened them, had given them the possibility of achievement, confidence and pride. That psychological weakness, that feeling of inferiority with which the imperialists embitter colonial peoples everywhere, these were gone (244). Thus, in The Black Jacobins, James does much more than retell the story of the San Domingo revolution. He shows the slave revolt to be an empowering example for all liberation movements. Thus, James hopes to stimulate the coming emancipation of Africa as well. James concludes The Black Jacobins by noting that Imperialism vaunts its exploitation of the wealth of Africa for the benefit of civilisation. In reality, from the very character of its system of production for profit it strangles the real wealth of the continent-the creative capacity of the African people (377).