publius-esquire:

haitianhistory:

Hello, while we have kept you updated with posts about the U.S. Occupation of Haiti, I simply wanted to take a small break from that to share a few titles with you on another topic of great interest, that is, the ‘diplomatic’ relations between Haiti and United States during and after the Haitian Revolution. I put diplomatic in quotation marks since, from the time of Jefferson to the Civil War, Haiti and the United States did not enjoy formal diplomatic relations (given that Haiti’s independence as a state was not recognised). 

Although there seems to be this view that Haiti automatically existed in antagonism with the United States (which is not so completely false),  if we accept this too wholesomely, I think we risk missing out on the complexity posed by Saint-Domingue/Haiti to a country like the United States. Literature on American-Haitian relations suggests that different American administrations dealt with Saint-Domingue/Haiti well, differently. Indeed, it is very interesting to see how the U.S. had to reconcile the principles of its own revolution with the advent of a free black state like Haiti. 

At any rate, I hope these will be useful and feel free to add any suggestions. Happy reading!

B O O K S 

A Proslavery Foreign Policy: Haitian-American Relations during the Early Republic by Tim Matthewson

African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents edited by Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon 

Caribbean Crossing: African Americans and the Haitian Emigration Movement by Sara Fanning

Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance by Ronald Angelo Johnson

Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic by Ashli White

Haiti’s Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean by Alfred N. Hunt 

From Saint-Domingue to New Orleans: Migration and Influences by Nathalie Dessens

The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World by David P. Geggus 

The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with Haiti, 1776-1891 by Rayford W. Logan

The Road to Louisiana: The Saint-domingue Refugees, 1792-1809 edited by Carl A. Brasseaux and Glenn R. Conrad 

The World of the Haitian Revolution ed. by David Patrick Geggus and Norman Fiering 

Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution by Gordon S. Brown 

A R T I C L E S 

‘America’s Response to the Slave Revolt in Haiti, 1791-1806′ by Donald R. Hickey

‘Black Talleyrand: Toussaint Louverture’s Diplomacy, 1798-1802′ by Philippe R. Girard

‘Class Conflict and Diplomacy: Haitian Isolation in the 19th-Century World System’ by Arthur L. Stinchcombe 

’Jefferson and Haiti’ by Tim Matthewson

‘Jefferson and the Nonrecognition of Haiti’ by Tim Matthewson

‘Revolutionary Saint Domingue and the Emerging Atlantic: Paradigms of Sovereignty’ by Carolyn Fick 

‘The Haitian Revolution, Black Petitioners and Refugee Widows in Maryland, 1796-1820′ by Patricia A. Reid

‘The Haitian Revolution and the Forging of America’ by Jim Thomson

To this excellent list I’d also add the articles:

“Hamilton and Haiti” by Daniel Lang, located in The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton

“The Power of Blackness: Thomas Jefferson and the Revolution in St. Domingue” by Michael Zuckerman in Almost Chosen People: Oblique Biographies in the American Grain