Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History - C.L.R. James
Illustrated by Sakina Karimjee and Nic Watts
Published in 2023 by Verso, London, UK, and New York, NY
272 pages
ISBN: 9781788737906
In the typical American public education system, we are typically taught about the Founding Fathers and their fight against the British during the American Revolution. If you take AP European History or a modern Western history course in college, you will undoubtedly learn about the bloody overthrow of the monarchy during the French Revolution. Yet, when it comes to one of the most important events in the Age of Revolutions, one in particular remains sorely underappreciated and understudied: the Haitian Revolution.
Hailed as the world’s only successful slave rebellion, the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) is arguably one of the most pivotal events in shaping the modern world. It inspired revolutionaries to fight for political and social emancipation around the globe and continues to inspire radical thinkers and activists today., In the interwar era, the legacy of the Haitian Revolution inspired Trinidadian historian C.L.R. James to write his highly influential work, The Black Jacobins, in 1938.
Pioneering a history-from-below approach, James placed the Haitian Revolution within the context of the French Revolution, which occurred only two years before the Haitian revolt. James highlights the life, leadership, and legacy of Toussaint L’Ouverture, a former slave who took the French ideals of “liberté, egalité, fraternité” to heart and embodied these revolutionary ideals to fight for the emancipation of those living under slavery in the French colonies. James’s analysis of the Carribean economic and political context of the late 18th century was highly influential in anti-colonial discourses. It recentered the agency of the enslaved as they organized and took up arms against their colonial oppressors and overthrew their French rulers in 1804, becoming the first independent Black state outside of the continent of Africa.
Four years before the publication of The Black Jacobins, however, James first penned a play about the Haitian Revolution, titled Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History. In 1936, James’ work became one of the first plays written by a Black writer and performed by a Black cast at London’s Westminster Theater (in America, the first would be Angela Grimké’s Rachel, which was performed for integrated theater audiences in the spring of 1916).
During the context of the African independence movements of the 1960s and 70s, James reworked and edited the play, which became popular through international performances and a radio broadcast adaptation through the BBC. While James’s work was critically acclaimed and highly influential in bringing the events of the Haitian Revolution to the attention of Western audiences, the original script was presumably lost.
In the wake of the growing anticolonial discourses in recent years, there is a renewed interest in examining history through the eyes of the oppressed and historically marginalized. As such, there is an urgent need to bring C.L.R. James’s work to new audiences. Following the rediscovery of James’s original play in its entirety after nearly 70 years, there has been a small but concerted effort to bring James’s play back into public consciousness. In their 2023 adaptation, Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History, artists Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee have skillfully transformed James’s play into a strikingly illustrated graphic novel. Through these pages, Watts and Karimjee have brought James’s fictionalized account of the Haitian Revolution to a brand-new audience of readers.
Overview:
James’s story is told primarily through the lens of Toussaint L’Ouverture, a formerly enslaved intellectual and charismatic leader who, following his commitment to the fundamental principles that drove France to revolution, sought to bring these same ideals to the western part of the island of Hispaniola, a colony called Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in the struggle for emancipation and national independence from French rule. The colony of Saint-Domingue was integral to the imperial French economy, as agricultural goods such as sugarcane and coffee harvested by enslaved laborers were exported to Europe. At its peak, these products from“the pearl of the Antilles” accounted for roughly half of the total sugar and coffee exported to Europe, turning Saint-Domingue into one of the wealthiest French colonies.
This wealth, however, was not evenly distributed among the population, as the colony relied on slave labor for its immense profits. With a population of half a million slaves, thirty-two thousand white colonists, and twenty-eight thousand free islanders (including both black and mulatto individuals), the wealthy minority relied on harsh punitive measures to quell any form of dissent among the enslaved population. The book begins shortly after the main events of the initial revolt of 1791, focusing primarily on the internal divisions and political maneuverings of both the Haitian leaders and the colonial powers as the newly liberated Haitians tried to maintain power and fight against the reimposition of slavery.
Within this context, the story is not a biography of Toussaint, but rather utilizes his perspective to contextualize the ongoing conflict between factions during the Revolution. The book shifts between a wide cast of characters as they jockey for position and power. The Haitians, on one hand, are inspired by the French Revolution and seek to bring its animating principles to the colony of Saint-Domingue as they fight against oppressive imperial powers.
On the other hand, the French, British, and Spanish empires all attempted to outmaneuver one another to seize possession of the vast resources of this newly emancipated colony and place the population under their thumb. As such, the complex geopolitical conditions of late 18th-century colonial powers and their colonies serve as the backdrop for the drama of the revolt and its consequences for the newly emancipated population of Saint-Domingue.
Ultimately, we see the shift in Toussaint’s perspective as he gradually moves from an accommodationist and former plantation owner to a more militant revolutionary leader and governor of Saint-Domingue. The book recounts Touissant’s strategic talent of utilizing his charisma and diplomatic abilities to manipulate European colonial powers to fight against one another. We witness the bloody revolts as the Haitians fight against the reimposition of slavery on the island, as well as how Toussiant’s personal life and relationships were impacted by his political leadership. Finally, we see how Toussaint was ultimately betrayed by his former allies and fellow generals in Saint-Domingue, as he was forced to surrender, arrested, and shipped to France, where he died in prison in April 1803 at the age of 59. While he never had the opportunity to see the end of the revolution that he helped to lead, his legacy lived on, as Haiti would continue to fight until Napoleon finally withdrew French troops from the island at the end of 1803.
Commendations:
There are several dimensions to Watts and Karimjee’s adaption of C.L.R. James’s play. First and foremost, the form of the graphic novel is a natural choice for adapting a playscript into a book format. While the dialogue and story are adapted straight from James’s script, the monochromatic artwork beautifully complements the narrative. While it may seem simplistic as compared to other graphic novels, the drawings gradually reflect the emotive tension that grows throughout the book. The background scenes hold an immense amount of detail, and each character is given distinctive characteristics that help differentiate them from one another. Additionally, a character guide at the beginning of the book provides the reader with a handy reference in case they get lost in the sheer variety of cast members.
While there is no color, the book has a distinctive and unique art style that sets it apart from other graphic novels currently on the market. Watts and Karimjee are adept at expressing emotion, as rage-filled rants and bloody battles break through the containment of the panels and spill over the borders of the page. The book beautifully illustrates the chaos of war through the multiplicity of suffering figures in scenes of war, and it visually depicts the solitude and dismal emotional state of Toussiant’s imprisonment and death through sparse representations. Personally, I also enjoyed the persistent presence of mosquitos within both the main panels and in transitional spaces, representing the omnipresence of death and foreshadowing the defeat of the French as a result of yellow fever. All in all, the visual style of this graphic novel lends itself beautifully to the drama and complexities of the Haitian revolution.
Additionally, by placing the complexities of the Haitian Revolution into a graphic novel format, the illustrators have provided the reader with a quick and easily digestible introduction to the conflict. The Black Jacobins is a must-read for anyone who wants to gain a greater understanding of the Haitian Revolution, but it can be a dense and difficult book to dive into, especially for someone with no background in history or 18th-century geopolitics. This graphic novel remedies this issue by providing visually stimulating representations to accompany the dialogue-heavy debates that define the early chapters of the book.
I also appreciated how the book reveals James’s perspective on the Haitian revolution, as he utilizes his skills in historiography and academic research to reconstruct this “fictionalized” account. James presents both a historical reconstruction of the events of the Haitian Revolution as well as a more personal account of Touissant’s private life. By focusing on his relationship with his wife and two sons (whom Toussaint sent to France to further their education), we see how James perceived Toussiant’s internal struggle between his stubborn loyalty to France and his belief in the emancipation and self-determination of Saint-Domingue.
This is related to the issue of historicity and the valorization of Touissant as a purely heroic figure. In the 19th century, a robust literary tradition arose around Touissant that valorized him as an antislavery hero, a moderate politician who embodied the temperate ideals of the Enlightenment. Almost immediately after his death, Touissant’s complex life and beliefs were flattened into the typical heroic narrative in order to serve an array of ideological purposes, but one must question the characterization of Touissant as a wholly heroic martyr figure. James points out Toussaint’s identification as a Frenchman, as well as his advisors, who are almost exclusively of white men. By casting Touissant as merely a heroic antislavery figure, he is effectively depoliticized and abstracted from the contingency and messiness of history. As such, James shows us Toussiant as a flawed historical actor, thus repoliticizing him and connecting him deeply to the radical potential that the Haitian Revolution embodies.
As such, this graphic novel succeeds in taking a complex narrative and giving an entertaining and accessible visual representation of it to a new audience who otherwise might not engage with it. Watts and Karimjee have provided an emotionally rich and visually stimulating account of the Haitian Revolution, reminding readers of the struggle for independence and emancipation from oppressive colonial regimes. Their account reminds us of the difficulty of maintaining the revolutionary struggle in the midst of overwhelming and constant opposition, as well as how the dynamics of alliances, deception, and political maneuvering are utilized to either further or undermine the revolutionary cause. What James does most eloquently, however, is to show how the formerly enslaved population of Saint-Domingue took the core principles of the French Revolution more seriously than the French themselves, turning the rhetoric of their oppressors against them in the fight for equality and liberty.
Critique:
On the other hand, there are a few small quibbles that weaken this work. First of all, while the dialogue is faithful to James’s play script, it follows its source material closely, almost to a fault. The dialogue, while important for setting the conflict in context, can often come across as clunky and unnatural, as characters overly explain the nuances of the conflict and have detailed debates amongst each other. The speech bubbles can often be stuffed to the brim with dialogue, which often slows down the pace of the graphic novel. Also, since the overly detailed dialogue can often remind the reader that the script was written by a historian, it can easily take the reader out of the story.
Additionally, while the relatively simplistic illustrations and lack of color give the graphic novel a distinct visual style, it might seem a bit unpolished and rushed in places. I must admit that I had a bit of difficulty in distinguishing between certain characters and their overall importance to the story. While the character guide at the beginning is certainly helpful, it can still be difficult to keep track of all 32 characters and their relationships to one another. This becomes easier as the novel progresses, but it can all be a bit overwhelming, especially for the uninitiated reader.
Conclusion:
Overall, Toussaint Louverture is a wonderfully illustrated and emotively compelling adaptation of C.L.R. James’s 1934 play script. While the dialogue can be a bit clunky and the illustrations roughshod in some places, Watts and Karimjee have done a phenomenal job in providing a captivating visual narrative of the Haitian Revolution. Whether you are completely unfamiliar with the Haitian Revolution or already know about the slave rebellion, you will find this book to be a dramatic and enthralling read.
By turning James’s script into a visually impressive graphic novel, Watts and Karimjee have provided a valuable teaching tool for high school students or undergraduates. I could easily see the value in assigning this work to complement other, more intensive reading assignments, and I can see students connecting and engaging with this graphic novel to compare and contrast James’s work with other historical accounts of the Haitian Revolution. As such, regardless of whether you are a teacher or a student of revolutions, this graphic novel is a wonderful addition to any library.
The Haitian Revolution is a sorely under-researched and under-appreciated historical event that offers a myriad of lessons, especially for the political Left. It is well past time that we become better acquainted with this emancipatory event, how it connects to the larger history of the Caribbean, and how its successes and failures can inform revolutionary movements in our contemporary context.