From the Maroons to the Gangs: The Persistence of Racial Capitalism in the Black Republic and the Landless, Masterless Male
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About the talk:
From the beginning of the colonial project the landless masterless Black man has fomented
great anxiety in the hearts and minds of the plantocracy. During the colonial period,
whether Spanish or French, Black men and women were forced to labor in the plantation
economy to bolster the coffers of international capital. Those who refused and absconded
were criminalized and deemed a threat to the order. Ostensibly, the Haitian Revolution
(1791-1804) promised the abatement of Racial capitalism as an intendant consequence
of the overthrow of colonialism and the plantation. In the 19th century the revolution
was undermined by those who took stewardship of the state after its conclusion and
once again, Black men and women were forced into service of capital. Again, refusal
was outlawed, and resistance was described as menacing to the state. The U.S. Occupation
(1915-1934) exacerbated the antagonism between the state and those it purported to
govern by reimposing the demands of global capital. The century that followed witnessed
the degeneration of the quality of life of the descendants of the enslaved with violent
consequences. This paper represents a historiographical argument that locates the
moments in Haitian history where the landless masterless male figure has come into
conflict with the state. Ultimately it seeks to argue that failure of the post-revolutionary
Haitian state was its refusal to afford the descendants of the enslaved full rights
toward self determination which has produced the gang crisis today.
About the speaker:
Felix Jean-Louis is an assistant professor in the Department of History at UCI where
he teaches courses on Caribbean, African American, and Afro-Francophone history. He
is a historian of Haiti by birth and by training. His research interests merge Haitian
historicism and Afro-diasporic theory. His book project, Exporting the Revolution:
Haitian Internationalism in the Age of Global Blackness, 1890-1944, locates the role
of Haitian elites in the various projects and sites of Blackness making and argues
that they were at the vanguard of the efforts and articulations of Afro-diasporic
identity. This presentation continues this agenda by merging Haitian history with
the theories forwarded by Cedric Robinson and Julius Scott.
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