Description
Book SynopsisA new edition of the earliest English-language account of the Haitian Revolution. Originally published in 1805, the narrative played a significant role in establishing nineteenth-century world opinion of that momentous event.
Trade Review"Marcus Rainsford's book is one of the most important sources on the Haitian Revolution, and it has been a constant resource for historians. This is so in part because the particularities of Rainsford's position allowed him to present a portrait that is in many ways at odds with other famous accounts of the Haitian Revolution. The editors do a terrific job of identifying Rainsford's literary and historical perspectives and contextualizing Rainsford's arguments."—
Laurent Dubois, author of
Haiti: The Aftershocks of History"Marcus Rainsford's narrative and engravings have long been recognized as a unique source for the antislavery revolution in Saint Domingue and the imperial politics in the slaveholding Atlantic. Paul Youngquist and Grégory Pierrot provide fascinating new background for the artistic, literary, and political contexts of Rainsford's remarkably sympathetic account of the revolution and one of its key figures, Toussaint Louverture."—
Sibylle Fischer, author of
Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution"This new edition, with its important editorial insights about the text and the author, gives us the opportunity to take a closer look at the text and will undoubtedly contribute to our understanding of the implications of the Haitian Revolution for Atlantic World history and beyond." -- Julia Gaffney * The Americas *
“Rainsford’s
Historical Account was the first lengthy report of the slave uprising and, for many years, the narrative on which English-speaking European politicians and other interested observers relied. This, its first modern re-production, includes a helpful, skillful introduction to the book, to rebellious Haiti, and to Rainsford.” -- R. I. Rotberg * Choice *
"This study is an excellent analysis of the life and works of the British soldier Marcus Rainsford.... In a tradition of historical scholarship on the Haitian Revolution that often focuses on the production of narrative rather than the producers of narrative, in this study Rainsford emerges as a perhaps necessary object of inquiry in his own right." -- Marlene L. Daut * The Historian *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Chronology xi
Introduction xvii
A Note on the Text lvii
An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti 1
Editorial Notes 277
Bibliography 321
Index 331
