Neither Napoleon nor the illuminist. The counter-discourse of the Haitian Revolution between ruptures and continuities (1799-1815)

• Grant number: 20/15438-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: Lúcia Helena Oliveira Silva
• Grantee: Berno Logis
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/06803-7 - Neither Napoleon nor the lights: the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 and the decolonization of America (1799-1815), BE.EP.DR

Abstract

These are political actions used during the consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte linked to the French colonization process of Santo Domingo, current Haiti, started in the first half of the 17th century. And the strategies developed by leaders Toussaint Louverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines, former slaves who defeated the slave system in general and French expeditionary troops in particular. In France, in 1799 still in the tumultuous political context of the 1789 revolution worsening, the Napoleonic era introduced by the consulate was established. Parallel to these events, the scenario did not differ in the most important French colony in America. The socio-political context provided multiple challenges and ambitions in this part of the island, even with the rise of black leaders who became aware agents of their history, active and capable of questioning the current order. Opposed to French colonial policies, they undertook political strategies and significant legal mechanisms to confront both the French consulate and the imperial government. In view of this, this project proposes, through document analysis, to investigate the political actions of these protagonists and their contributions in the colonial scenario, from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. It is also intended, in order to continue the recent research developed in the master's degree, to insert and bring to the academic environment in general and to the Brazilian specifically, the figure of Jean Jacques Dessalines as one of the fundamental characters of the Haitian Revolution of 1791- 1804, presenting an approach of rupture with the tendency to neglect its importance in the struggles for the emancipation of blacks and the end of European colonialism in America.