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The Haitian Revolution

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Trouillot’s An Unthinkable History, presents the argument that Haitian revolution becomes a non-event in all aspects of history because it was never perceived as ‘thinkable’ event, therefore, dismissing the movement at its origin. The Haitian Revolution as a non-event was further cemented by the Western ontological framework that prevented even conceiving a rebellion led by black slaves, but also by the explicit dismissal of the Haitian Revolution by the academia itself. Thus, the ‘cancellation’ of the Haitian revolution only creates further implications for the study of social movements.
The Haitian Revolution is a monumental anti-slavery, social movement led by both free and enslaved blacks, that successfully challenged and overcame the …show more content…
The ontology of the West made a rebellion comprised of slaves in Haiti inconceivable because it was entrenched in western perceptions of humanity, stateness and racism that never include blacks. The ontological conception of humanity excluded black slaves from the discourse of humanity, “The captain of a slave boat bluntly emphasized this implicit opposition between white ‘Men’ and the rest of humankind.” The captain clearly distinguish the other by emphasizing who has humanity- the white men. Thus, black slaves were not even perceived to be in the same sphere of humanity, and were even perceived as a species separate from the white men. Trouillet also uses Enlightenment text to reflect the ontological perception of humanity, “In this version of the famous passage, modified in successive editions of the Historie, the most radical stance is the unmistakable reference to a single human species. The conception of ‘a single human species’ implied that black slaves were also humans thus also capable of similar, if not same, liberties and rights of white men. An ideal, inherently, counter-intuitive to their ontological consciousness of slavery and racism. It was evident that if black were considered to lack humanity then colonialism and slavery would result as forms of ontological order to manage black populations. Thus, the …show more content…
The silence surrounding the movement is also a reflection of how the Haitian movement has been overlook as a historical event that has created implications in written history, “The less colonialism and racism seem important in world history, the less important also the Haitian Revolution.” Thus the ontological framework establish of what is or isn't important and that has not only prevented a discourse but also perpetuated the silence surrounding the Haitian revolution. The silence sheds light on the West incapability to conceptualize anything outside its realm, “The general silence that Western historiography has produced around the Haitian Revolution originally stemmed from the incapacity to express the significance of the revolution for its contemporary and for the generation immediately following.” Thus, the treatment of Haitian Revolution at its birth and now in present has shaped to be a non-event in written history and in doing so as created implication for the study of social movements as a

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