The Black Jacobins Essay examples -- Essays Papers

The bootleg JacobinsThe San Domingo revolution led to the abolition of slavery, independence of Haiti from France and the annunciation of a black republic. However, unlike many historians, CLR mob in his work, The dumb Jacobins, does not depict the struggle for independence as merely a slave revolt which happened to come after the French Revolution. He goes beyond providing only a recount of historical events and offers an intimate look at those who primarily precipitated the fall of French rule, namely the black slaves themselves. In doing so, crowd together offers a perspective of black hi score which empowers the black people, for they are shown to in truth have done something, and not merely be the subject of actions and attitudes of others. evening before the actual revolt, the slaves were not men who merely resisted they were not dormant objects. James offers graphic detail of the random and frequent beatings, killings and tortures in lay out to show the immense bru tality of San Domingos slavery. The severity and harshness of the slavery was imputable primarily to the fact that the colonists understood that To cow the slaves into the necessary docility and acceptance necessitated a political science of calculated brutality and terrorism (12) Throughout 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 change state 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 master, the slaves still maintained their countersign and creativity. The difficulty was that though one could entrap 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 hunger them, they remained, despite their black skins and curly hair, quite invincibly human beings 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. thrall would never be accepted again by the inhabitants. Any regime which tolerated such practices was doomed, for the revolution had created a new(a) race of men (242). This new race of men were aware of their self-importance. There was no need to be ashamed of being a black. The revolution had awakened them, had given them the porta of achievement, confidence and pride. That psychological weakness, that feeling of inferiority with which the imperialists poison colonial pe oples everywhere, these were asleep(p) (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 lighting 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 reputation of its system of production for profit it strangles the real wealth of the continent-the fictive capacity of the African people (377).