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Painting of of C.L.R. James.

The Dialectician

The paradoxes of C.L.R. James.
Haitian soldiers hanging French soldiers, 1805.

"A Positive Evil"

Connecting the Haitian Revolution and abolition in the 1834 Tennessee Constitutional Convention.
Le Marron Incconu, a statue of an enslaved man with a conch shell, dedicated to the abolishment of slavery.

Slave Rebellions and Mutinies Shaped the Age of Revolution

Several recent books offer a more complete, bottom-up picture of the role sailors and Black political actors played in making the Atlantic world.

The Contagious Revolution

For a long time, European historians paid little attention to the extraordinary series of events that now goes by the name of the Haitian Revolution.

The Slave Revolution That Gave Birth to Haiti

A rebellion against French colonial rule in 1791 led to a new kind of society.

Why Haiti Should be at the Centre of the Age of Revolution

Haiti, not the US or France, was where the assertion of human rights reached its climax in the Age of Revolution.
White South Africans who support Donald Trump in front of the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, 2025.
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The History of White Refugee Narratives

The Trump Administration's reasons for resettling Afrikaners echo early U.S. debates about Haiti's independence.
Illustration of Haiti flag with silhouette of a person.

The Island Nation Whose History Reflects America’s

Rich Benjamin’s new book reveals a shared spirit between the world’s first Black republic and the United States.
A painting of Marie-Louise Coidavid.
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The First and Last Queen of Haiti in Exile

Queen Marie-Louise outlived most of her family, yet her story about the revolution and its aftermath was rarely consulted by those writing the era’s history.
Donald Trump

Racism Against Haitians Didn’t Begin in Springfield, Ohio

In the early 19th century, US elites demonized the self-liberated slaves of the Haitian Revolution as dangerous practitioners of barbaric rituals.
Lithograph of George Washington on his land with people he enslaved.

What, to the American, Is Revolutionary?

The colonial rebellion we celebrate every July 4th doesn’t fit the definition.
Mural of Harriet Tubman with arm outstretched

Harriet Tubman and the Most Important, Understudied Battle of the Civil War

Edda L. Fields-Black sets out to restore the Combahee River Raid to its proper place in Tubman’s life and in the war on slavery.
Lithograph sketch of a large manor surrounded by trees

"They Were Added to the List of Unfortunates": French Caribbean Refugees in Philadelphia

On the mobility controls faced by refugees, and who had the right to remain in American cities and states in the Early Republic.
Migrants in line for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, barbed wire in the foreground.
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Biden’s Border Policies Target Haitians. That’s No Accident.

The long history undergirding our harsh bipartisan migration policies.
Drawing of John Stuart Mill

Haiti, Slavery and John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was an unusual man who lived an extraordinary life devoted to a set of problems that once again dominate political thought in the 21st century.
A migrant from Haiti prays with a Bible on her head during a Mass at an improvised refugee shelter in Ciudad Acuña on Sept. 21.
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In Its Early Days, the United States Provided Haven to People Fleeing Haiti

Extending that compassion today could reverse past wrongs.
Haitian person with food

Haiti is Stuck in a Cycle of Upheaval. Its People Suffer The Most.

The assassination of the president is part of a pattern that undermines democracy.
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and first lady mark the 10th anniversary of the 2010 earthquake.
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Stereotypes About Haiti Erase the Long History of U.S.-Haiti Ties

After the assassination of the Haitian president, the U.S. should avoid old patterns of interference.
An old school auditorium

L’Ouverture High School: Race, Place, and Memory in Oklahoma

A state with an often-overlooked history of enslavement demonstrates the lasting significance and geographic reach of the Haitian Revolution.

Julius Scott’s Epic About Black Resistance in the Age of Revolution

"The Common Wind" covers the radical world of black mariners, rebels, and runaways banding together to realize their freedom.
Paul Ortiz’s “African American and Latinx History of the United States.”

Beyond People’s History

On Paul Ortiz’s “African American and Latinx History of the United States.”

Revolution and Repression: A Framework for African American History

Running through all of historian Gerald Horne's books are the twin themes of revolution and repression.
Still from Black Panther

How 'Black Panther' Taps Into 500 Years of History

The film draws on centuries of black dreams of independence to create Wakanda.
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Racism Has Always Driven U.S. Policy Toward Haiti

On Haiti, Donald Trump sounds a lot like Thomas Jefferson.

Without Haiti, the United States Would, in Fact, Be a Shithole

And some other things about the country that Donald Trump doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know.
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When It Comes To Guns, Congress Has Always Been in the Pocket of Profit Chasers

How profit motives have driven two centuries of American gun laws.
Slave revolt in Haiti.

The History of the United States’ First Refugee Crisis

Fleeing the Haitian revolution, whites and free blacks were viewed with suspicion by American slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson.

Slavery Is Not a Metaphor

In the aftermath of the American Revolution, southern slaveholders were thinking about what a prison should look like for a society that was economically and socially dependent on slavery.
Adolphe Duperly’s painting depicting the destruction of the Roehampton Estate in Jamaica during the Baptist War in January 1832.

For Enslaved People, the Holiday Season Was a Brief Window to Fight Back

The week between Christmas and the new year offered a rare opportunity for enslaved people to reclaim their humanity.
Essay entitled "America," full of editorial markings.

America Is Not America Yet

On American history and the history of the word “America.”

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