Authors:
- Winner of the 2019 Haitian Studies Book Award
- Brings to light the contributions of Haitian statesman Baron de Vastey in the development of postcolonial and critical race theory
- Demonstrates the influence of de Vastey's writings and the work of prominent nineteenth and early twentieth-century abolitionists and anti-colonialists
- Argues for the significance of writing by people of color from French Saint-Domingue dating to before formal Haitian independence
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: The New Urban Atlantic (NUA)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Focusing on the influential life and works of the Haitian political writer and statesman, Baron de Vastey (1781-1820), in this book Marlene L. Daut examines the legacy of Vastey’s extensive writings as a form of what she calls black Atlantic humanism, a discourse devoted to attacking the enlightenment foundations of colonialism. Daut argues that Vastey, the most important secretary of Haiti’s King Henry Christophe, was a pioneer in a tradition of deconstructing colonial racism and colonial slavery that is much more closely associated with twentieth-century writers like W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, and Aimé Césaire. By expertly forging exciting new historical and theoretical connections among Vastey and these later twentieth-century writers, as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century black Atlantic authors, such as Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, William Wells Brown, and Harriet Jacobs, Daut proves that any understanding of the genesis of Afro-diasporic thought must include Haiti’s Baron de Vastey.
Reviews
“This is a richly documented study of this key figure in the invention of the radical anti-slavery movement and anti-colonialism, and will be essential reading for scholars and students of Haitian Revolutionary studies and postcolonial theory.” (Nick Nesbitt, French Studies, Vol. 73 (3), July, 2019)
Authors and Affiliations
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Carter G. Woodson Institute, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
Marlene L. Daut
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Baron de Vastey and the Origins of Black Atlantic Humanism
Authors: Marlene L. Daut
Series Title: The New Urban Atlantic
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47067-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-69376-4Published: 12 March 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-47067-6Published: 31 October 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XL, 244
Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations
Topics: Postcolonial/World Literature, Eighteenth-Century Literature, Literary History, Imperialism and Colonialism