{"title":"Hayti, or, the Black Republic","authors":"J. Webb","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781800348226.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781800348226.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the ‘communication circuit’ of the most influential book written on Haiti in the Victorian period, Spenser St John’s Hayti or the Black Republic (1884). During the ‘life-cycle’ of this book, from its research, writing, publishing, reading, and the re-writing (in its second edition), the meanings of Haiti varied. Through exploring the dynamics of this book’s communication circuit, I track the construction and rejection of certain ideas about Haiti. In the books’ text, some pre-existing ideas about the ‘Black Republic’, especially those concerning ‘Vaudoux’ and cannibalism, were consolidated whereas the more problematic notions of Haitian sovereignty were discarded. Yet, it is in the readings of the book performed by Haitians and certain political commentators across the Caribbean that counter-visions of Haiti emerge and are reinforced. In this moment, Haiti could be deployed equally as evidence in the case for expanding political agency to people of African descent in the British Caribbean.","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128350653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Policing the Caribbean","authors":"J. Webb","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781800348226.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781800348226.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the powerful resonance of Haiti in Britain in the aftermath of two conflicts that took place almost simultaneously in the Caribbean in October 1865: the sinking of the H. M. S.\u0000 Bulldog in Haitian waters and the Morant Bay War in Jamaica. The British authorities and presses were initially convinced that Haitians had aided the protestors at Morant Bay. When scant evidence for this was forthcoming, the press insisted instead that Haiti had acted as a powerful inspiration for the protestors. In this fast-moving situation, British diplomats worked together with the Haitian state. Yet, the perceived opposition of Haiti to the British Empire in the Caribbean was further consolidated when news arrived that the Bulldog had been defeated by Haitian rebels. The various lines of communication between Haitian state actors and rebels and British diplomats, journalists and a popular reading public made for rapidly fluctuating representations of Haiti in this period.","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"369 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123405864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conclusion: Interlocutory Cultures","authors":"J. Webb","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781800348226.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781800348226.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"The conclusion considers the relations between and across the key moments in the chapters explored in this book. In particular, it explores the dynamic of vacillating ideas about Haiti over time; the way in which Haiti both faded but also returned at certain points to take up a burning relevance in the British imagination. This dynamic relied, the chapter argues, on the agency of Haitians in presenting their views to British counterparts in the face of efforts to ‘silence’ or otherwise disregard Haitian ideas. The chapter conceptualises this pattern of fading and return through the theoretical paradigm of spectrality. Much like ideas about Haiti, the spectre always has the potential to return with a burning significance. The chapter ends by gesturing forwards and meditating, briefly, on key events in the twentieth century, namely the invasion of Haiti in 1915 and the emergence of anti-colonial pan-Africanism.","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117086589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Representations of the Haitian Empire in the British Press, 1847–59","authors":"J. Webb","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.6","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter One explores images and texts relating to the Haitian president-turn-emperor Faustin Soulouque that appeared in the British press. These representations contained meditations on the Haitian state and the newly-created Haitian Empire. Although they were produced and published in the British context, they reflect the concerns of interlocutors from across the Atlantic World, including the thoughts and words of observers based in the US, France and, of course, Haiti. Faustin Soulouque intervened explicitly in these Atlantic-wide discussions on the significance of the Haitian Empire by providing counter-representations. Such texts and images produced by the Haitian state, this chapter details, were received, read and interpreted in Britain to alter significantly ideas about Haiti. Concomitantly, the future relationship between British imperialism and people of African descent was questioned and made problematic.","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116983206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vive Dessalines!","authors":"J. Webb","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.9","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter Four interrogates British reactions to Haitian performances and demonstrations of national sovereignty at the beginning of the twentieth century. As the chapter explores, Haitians performed and enforced their sovereignty through the celebration of the centenary of independence, through exercising their rights to act on the international stage in the capacity of diplomats, and through adopting new citizens. To many elite British observers, who were concerned with the expansion of democracy in Britain, Haiti presented an excessively democratic state, populated and governed over by a lower-class of people. Such a view was challenged and made complicated in British interactions with Haitians. Ideas about Haiti were, this chapter illustrates, paradoxical as British state actors conversed with and respected the authority of their Haitian counterparts in some respects, while simultaneously arguing that Haitians lacked the credentials for government.","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127372494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Index","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.12","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122306476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conclusion:","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.10","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123977064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hayti, or, the Black Republic","authors":"S. John, Spenser Buckingham, Sir","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":221215,"journal":{"name":"Haiti in the British Imagination","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131219469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}