The Evolution of Revolution

The Shaping of the Caribbean

Jason Pilarski

Patrick Taylor

HUMA 3320

March 23rd 2010

 Revolution is something that has shaped the Caribbean in many

ways, and is something that is necessary to understand in order to

study the Caribbean and Caribbean Thought. As the Caribbean was

created through slavery and indentureship rather than a natural

progression, the Caribbean is home to many different groups, with

each island having its own unique composition. People on the islands

speak different languages, have different religious beliefs and

histories, and are a multitude of different colours. Beginning with the

Haitian Revolution organized by Toussaint Louverture in the late

seventeen and early eighteen hundreds; leading all the way up to the

Cuban Revolution of Castro and the gang, this essay will look at the

differences in the revolutions, as well as where they were successful.

It will also note the effects that the revolutions have had on Caribbean

Thought as a whole, both from the people on the island itself, people in

the Caribbean Diaspora, and outsider’s thoughts as well. The main

ideas for this came through several books on the Cuban Revolution,

namely by Che Guevara and Oscar Lewis, and those are the basis of

the fundamental ideas in this piece.

The natural starting place of any paper on the topic of revolution

in the Caribbean would have to be the Haitian Revolution. While there

were myriad instances of petit and grand marronage on all islands, the

Haitian Revolution was the first grand marronage that was actually
successful, and culminated with Toussaint Louverture being in control

of Haiti. As Franklin Knight states in The Haitian Revolution, “After

1793, under the control of Pierre-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, ex-

slave and ex-slave-owner, the tide of war turned inexorably, assuring

the victory of the concept of liberty held by the slaves.” We see this

relationship and this progression in The Black Jacobins, as well as his

ever-important relationship with Dessalines. Toussaint was strategic in

his efforts to maintain a strong leadership position while still

demonstrating political awareness, and expelled the French from Haiti

immediately. He was far more humane to them than they were to the

Haitians, and this was a smart political move on his part. While his

second in command Dessalines disagreed with this overly humane

response, Toussaint did what he thought was necessary to ensure the

optimal survival of his people on Haiti. Toussaint was more privileged

than most of the other slaves, as CLR James says, “both in body and

mind he was far beyond the average slave.”

Many islands also had revolutionaries and groups of individuals

uniting against the powers, but in only a few cases was the rebellion

successful. One of the most infamous groups of rebels are

interconnected to the course in a series of ways, through the ideals

they stood for as well as their place in the Caribbean. Through reading

The Farming of Bones, we’d learned and read a lot about the Parsley
Massacre, the tyranny of Trujillo, and the need for rebellion. Especially

with being on the same piece of land as Haiti; the only one up until this

point to have a successful slave revolution, leadership and figures of

justice were crucial, and the Mirabal Sisters and the Butterflies were

crucial in the Dominican Republic. Killed as martyrs not unlike

Toussaint was, ambushed by Trujillo’s thugs much like Toussaint was

tricked by Napoleon, the morals and ideas they had fought for would

be ingrained in society and Caribbean Thought permanently.

Much like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, two of the most integral

leaders of the Cuban Revolution, one thing that can be seen in

common of the leaders is the fact that they were more educated and

able than the average person. The people who were leading these

revolutions were generally more learned, scholarly, and tactical

because of that fact. This can also be further extrapolated to look at

an even more recent body of power and revolution, though not as

successful as it was quickly overthrown: the New Jewel Movement of

Grenada. They were as well an especially educated and learned group

of people. The leadership would be almost a sort of aristocracy,

including males and females alike, like Jacqueline Creft, who was

educated in Ottawa at Carleton University.

This privilege held by Toussaint was one of the things that led to
his ability to lead, and as we see in amazing detail in Thornton’s piece

African Soldiers in the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint was considered a

stagecoach, and that higher responsibility and trust let him traverse

between the settlements and plantations more often, giving him more

ability to move as well as talk, listen, and understand what the

situations were like across several of the Haitian plantations. His

article in fact gives one of the most omnipotent viewpoints, letting us

watch the revolution unfold, seeing Toussaint’s charisma rally the

people. It shows the word spreading through the plantations of what

was going to happen, and the revolution occurs as almost a wave of

slaves, constantly growing and crowing until it erupted.

As important as what he did to cause and lead the revolution is

what he did after, and the idea of Caribbean Thought that is integral to

that thinking. While many leaders in history have led a coup or

revolution and taken full control over the island in hostility, Toussaint

still maintained a level of compliance with humanity and openness

towards the French he’d expelled. Toussaint still wanted to remain in

contact with government leaders, especially with regards to peace

treaties with England and France, as well as where Haiti would stand as

an independent colony. His actions were crucial to contribution to

Caribbean Thought, as we have seen throughout the course; several

different authors speak of the importance of the Haitian Revolution,

and how it was truly the origins of Caribbean Thought. This is

extremely important and true, as this is in fact the first time the people

of the Caribbean were a people in the sense of the word, and were

free. They instilled hope in people of all the other islands, and they

themselves had been finally freed from mental and physical slavery. It

was this change that brought about the birth of Caribbean Thought and

identity, because the Caribbean was no longer a set of islands of

slavery; they were a people of their own.

Franklin Knight had an extremely well documented paragraph

about post-Haitian Revolution influences, and it is one that is well

suited to be an addition to these arguments.

“The impact of the Haitian Revolution was both immediate and

widespread. The antislavery fighting immediately spawned

unrest throughout the region, especially in communities of

Maroons in Jamaica, and among slaves in St. Kitts. It sent a wave

of immigrants flooding outward to the neighboring islands, and

to the United States and Europe. It revitalized agricultural

production in Cuba and Puerto Rico. As Alfred Hunt has shown,

Haitian emigrants also profoundly affected American language,

religion, politics, culture, cuisine, architecture, medicine, and the

conflict over slavery, especially in Louisiana. Most of all, the

revolution deeply affected the psychology of the whites

 throughout the Atlantic world. The Haitian Revolution

undoubtedly accentuated the sensitivity to race, color, and

status across the Caribbean.”

We see this charisma and education shine through in his Final

Proclamation, where we see a calculated amount of restraint, logic,

and political play in order to be what he thought was the most

successful leader possible for his people – not bad at all for a now ex-

slave. Toussaint new the importance of building the strength of the

colony not only in arms, but in mind as well, and this ever important

idea of Patria that he was working with, though it wouldn’t be called

that until later, would not be the last we see in the Caribbean. Unlike

Dessalines and his ruthless approach we see in The Black Jacobins,

Toussaint is extremely political and idealistic, and although his goals

were slightly unrealistic and unachievable, Toussaint had a dream for

Haiti which the Caribbean would be modeled after, and that was

independence, freedom, and strength of the people. This was the idea

of Patria.

The notion of Patria, later used by Marti, was one that all

revolutionary leaders would need to use in one form or another, and

one I feel is epitomized in the Cuban Revolution. While Haiti was

generally a much more black group, Cuba was one of much mixing,
leaving many different groups of white, mulatto, and black. This would

not be a problem, however, as Marti had defined the Patria as “…a

homeland where every person could achieve fulfillment because major

social differences, such as those of an economic or a racial kind, would

be overcome by everyone’s love for their common country, and so,

presumably, for each other.” Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raul Castro

and several others fought viciously to bring down Fulgencio Batista and

his tyrannous regime. Marti was an extremely idealistic person that

should be looked at as a revolutionary much like Toussaint and

Dessalines, though he was more of an idealist than a realist. Many of

his ideas would have been wonderful had they been implemented, but

many were simply too unrealistic. The inspiration, however, was

crucial, and many of the ideals and necessities that he deemed were

important to the creation of a Patria were the things not unlike those

that Fidel Castro and Che Guevara fought for in the Cuban Revolution.

The revolution that Fidel Castro and his followers started began

with a colossal failure that would later turn out to be one of the most

important in the war. The 26th of July Movement signifies the day that

Fidel and Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and several others would attempt

to storm the Moncada Barracks in Santiago, Cuba. This proved to be

an unsuccessful mission, and many of them were either killed or

arrested in the attack. While arrested, Castro defended nearly one

hundred of the captives, and when asked about who started the attack,

Fidel was quoted as saying "the intellectual author of this revolution is

Jose Marti the apostle of our independence". Eighty two men would

regroup in Mexico after being given Amnesty, and this is where Raul

would introduce Fidel to Che Guevara.

Many revolutionaries, people who had fled from dictatorships,

and other ex-soviets were in Mexico, and many of them like minded

individuals not unlike what we saw occur in the Haitian Revolution and

New Jewel Movement. Fidel Castro was able to continue to use Marti’s

morals and ideals throughout his campaign, and effectively worked at

creating a Patria. With communist views as his only way of equality,

Fidel did his best to make sure that the people of the Patria believed in

the it. When there were great successes, they were all of their

successes, not merely his, and this was what made the Cuban

Revolution so powerful. Fidel managed to do exactly what Toussaint

did, and that was to take the people who were suffering, unite them

against the cause, and lead them from the front risking his own life.

With two successful revolts, one of slaves and the other of

people overthrowing their own corrupt government, one must then

look at the after effects of the revolts were, both to its people and to

the world around. Haiti I would say has benefitted immensely from
their revolution, though you wouldn’t know it from the way Haiti is

today. While they might have been in a dire and desperate situation

from the revolt, it is arguable that there is nothing worse than slavery;

and any choice, no matter how bad it is, is better than having none.

How the world took it, however, is not as simple. In Silvio Torres-

Saillant’s book, he has a chapter called Haiti In The Antillean World,

where he mentions that “Western discourse has generally viewed the

Caribbean through Haiti and has often invoked Haitian experiences

generically to represent the whole region…the West did not forgive the

slave insurgents of Saint Domingue…” Saillant talks about

Americanness, Englishness, Whiteness and Blackness, and relates it to

the revolution. The main reason this is crucial, is because even in

modern Caribbean Thought, we can still see that pigmentocracy is still

an ever-present player in the hierarchy of social structure.

Cuba as well suffers from several interesting perspectives on the

revolution, both from inside and out. Inside of Cuba you have many

people of the party who are pro-Castro, the revolution, and everything

that it stands for. We also see the other perspective of those who

suffer under the regime. In Four Men, we see Oscar Lewis and others

attempt to go into Cuba with permission from Castro and document

people and workers from within Cuba. They are constantly having

pressure put on them and their work modified and checked, as Castro
refused to have anything to damage the regime’s name published if

avoidable. When Oscar Lewis got too deep into things that Fidel didn’t

like, he was expelled from Cuba without being able to expose the

poverty and suffering for what it was. Regardless of which side you

are on, it is still unavoidable to look at the positives of the Revolution,

most importantly the Literacy Brigades, the Land Reformation, and the

fact that Cuba has free healthcare and schooling for all, coupled with

some of the best doctors in the entire world. Cuba also has helped

many countries in revolutionary situations, volunteering in Africa and

South America as well as on other islands. The literacy rate jumped

massively when Fidel went into power, compared to when Batista was

in power. According to Fidel when Batista had arrested him, thirty

percent of Cuba’s farm people couldn’t even write their own names.

Compared to the nearly perfect literacy rate today, it is hard to say

that Fidel’s revolution wasn’t a massive success in many ways.

The outside world is where Cuba’s situation becomes even more

interesting, because of its involvement with the Soviet Union in the

Cold War era. The United States still imposes an embargo on Cuba,

and this is one of the only situations that this occurs in. The rest of the

world still freely deals with Cuba, and communism is certainly not the

issue for the states. How could it be when they openly deal with China,

one of the richest countries in the world yet still a communist state?
This separation from the United States, something that Cuba has that

no other Caribbean island has, is something that has driven it into

becoming its own segregated community, and something that has

really forced Cuba to evolve differently, both in its ways of thinking as

well as the way in which the country operates.

In conclusion, we can see that both countries were extremely

important in their Revolutions, and their revolutions helped to change

the Caribbean and Caribbean Thought forever. The Haitian Revolution

is said to be the beginning of Caribbean Thought as a whole, as before

that there truly was no free Caribbean people like there are today,

there were merely slaves. That revolution helped to inspire faith in the

other islands, and that is the true birthplace of all the things of

freedom and inspiration. The Cuban Revolution followed in its

footsteps nearly a century and a half later, and Castro had done things

very similarly to Toussaint Louverture, and that was to inspire the

people to rise up behind him, not for him. Both were able to build

countries on the backs of the people for the people, and their success

stories are known because of that. While there were many

aforementioned coups and revolutions, the Haitian Revolution was

clearly the standout here, as it was the first and only slave rebellion to

take over an island. The rest were inspired from it, and it goes without

saying that the Haitian Revolution truly was the birthplace of

Caribbean Revolutions; and it redefined then what revolution and

fighting in the Caribbean has become since it. The Haitian Revolution

truly did start the Evolution of Revolution.

Works Cited

Bolland, O. Nigel. The Birth of Caribbean Civilisation: a Century of Ideas

about Culture
and Identity, Nation and Society. Kingston [Jamaica]: Ian Randle, 2004.

Ché Guevara, “Episodes of the Revolutionary War” in David

Deutschmann, ed, Che Guevara Reader, (Melbourne and New York:
Ocean Press, 2003)

C.L.R. James. The Black Jacobins. In The CLR James Reader, 67-111.
Ed. Anna
Grimshaw. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992.

Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones. New York: Penguin, 1998.

(novel)

"FRANKLIN W. KNIGHT | The Haitian Revolution | The American

Historical Review, 105.1 |." The History Cooperative. Web. 23 Mar.
2010.
<http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/105.1/ah000103.html
>.
L’Ouverture, Toussaint. “Toussaint’s Final Proclamation (Proclamation
of 29 Frimaire the year X ” (1801). Trans. Mitch Abidor. Web. August
30, 2009. <http://www.marxists.org>. (Source : Francois Roc, ed.
Dictionnaire de la Révolution Haitienne. Montreal: Les Editions
Guildives, Montreal 2006.)

Oscar Lewis, Ruth Lewis and Susan Rigdon, Living the Revolution: An
Oral History of Contemporary Cuba (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press,1977)

Torres-Saillant, Silvio. An Intellectual History of the Caribbean.

Basingstoke, Hampshire, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.