Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.

            With the introduction of Avengers of the New World, Dubois contributes his narrative to the increasingly popular realm of interest for Western historians: the Haitian Revolution.  As traces of the white-man’s burden continue to melt away, the impact of the Haitian Revolution comes more and more into focus.  Once a taboo subject, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century revolution on Saint-Domingue contributes to the history and historiography of transatlantic thought in numerous ways.  Dubois argues that the Haitian Revolution is essential in understanding the role of republicanism, natural rights, and social equality in the New World and its impact on European colonial powers, and that the revolution was not simply a racial battle, rather an ideological shift born out of the Enlightenment.  Dubois’ main purpose for writing this narrative is to provide an updated history of Haiti without any of the presuppositions of the known violence that has stigmatized the Haitian Revolution for two hundred years.

            The main method that Dubois uses to convey his history is the use of a narrative.  This narrative flows well, is comprehensible, and effectively incorporates many broad themes into a smaller work.  Throughout his work, Dubois tackles historiographical errors such as the meeting place Boukman uses near Bois-Caiman or the relationship between “marronage” and revolution in Saint-Domingue, but does so without drawing the reader into a large-scale historiographical debate.  This helps Dubois convey his message to the lay reader and budding historians as a great, multipurpose source since the work addresses imperialism, slavery, the Enlightenment, colonial revolution, and transatlantic movement, among other discourses.

            Dubois focuses on a number of leaders in the multifaceted and extensive revolution, but emphasizes the life of Toussaint-Louveture, a Creole native to Saint-Domingue who was a slave, then a free laborer at the initial outbreak of revolution.  While the early parts of Louveture’s past are fuzzy, his impact on the revolution is more in focus.  Louveture takes over the rebel army after the aforementioned Boukman dies and proceeds to rise to a dictatorial status.  While seen as a power-hungry autocrat, Louveture tackles numerous problems presented in the wake of dramatic social, economic and political change.  He wisely implemented order to assist the former most profitable sugar producer in becoming a dominant, relevant, and economically prosperous republic.  Unfortunately, this constituted a seemingly socialist redistribution of lands and wealth, and retained the plantation system as the primary economic structure.  While the revolution was born out of the Enlightenment, Louveture found that it wasn’t feasible to influence other Caribbean nations through military means, rather only by ideology.  This help extend the reign of slavery in the Caribbean for a while longer, maintaining the institution in islands like Jamaica, and reinstituting it in places like Guadeloupe.  While Louveture has been criticized for this, it doesn’t seem that it was possible for the nascent republic to move beyond its aquatic borders except through trade and the sharing of ideology.

            While the Haitian Revolution began as white aristocrats seeking individual gain, the conflict increasingly shifts across the color spectrum.  To his credit, Dubois refrains from using certain terms, such as mulatto, to minimize categorization and preconceived stereotypes.  Free men of color and slaves often work with whites against the powers they are wishing to change, whether it is the institution of slavery or centralized European rule.  While downplayed by many historians, the Haitian Revolution did impact both the free and bonded in a rapidly changing West.  Early liberalism and natural rights were difficult to protect in Saint-Domingue following the initial battles, but it was the intention of the revolutionaries that carry weight with Dubois.

            Avengers of the New World offers a new narrative into transatlantic history in numerous ways.  First, the spread of ideology was apparent as thoughts springing from the Enlightenment permeated the Caribbean from the level of slaves up through leadership positions.  Inspired by the successful American Revolution, the inhabitants of Saint-Domingue were able to achieve the first successful slave rebellion.  Second, there is a cross-cultural exchange between France and Saint-Domingue, but connections are made with the United States, Africa, as well as mention of other imperial countries with holdings throughout the Caribbean.  Third, the ideology behind the Haitian Revolution did influence change throughout the New World and Africa, though its impact in US abolition movements and African/Caribbean decolonization has many varying degrees.  Finally, the Haitian Revolution impacted the role that France played in the New World by significantly weakening French holdings, forcing Napoleon to turn his focus to Europe.