In 1791, a violent slave rebellion broke out in what was France’s most lucrative colony, Saint-Domingue. Throughout the 1790s, fighting continued until the revolutionaries managed to kick out the French and found an independent nation by the name of Haiti in 1804. To this day, Haiti is the only example of a slave revolution ending with the establishment of an independent state.

This seminar is occasioned by historian Paul Cheney’s forthcoming book Cul de Sac: Patrimony, Capitalism and Slavery in French Saint-Domingue (2016). In addition to a talk by Cheney, literary historian Jonas Ross Kjærgård will present his work on late eighteenth century French abolitionism and intellectual historian Nicolai von Eggers will speak about the process of assembling a source collection of texts from the Haitian revolution.

Program:

Monday, April 25, 10-12

Room 249, building 1580

Paul Cheney reading session. Two texts will be distributed to all interested parties.

Tuesday, April 26, 10-16

Room 113, building 1586

10.15-10.30: Welcome w/Mads Anders Baggesgaard

10.30-12.00: Paul Cheney: "The Enlightened Plantation: Reason and Sentiment and Interest."

12.00-12.45: Lunch

12.45-13.45: Jonas Ross Kjærgård: “Making the Case against Slavery: Sentimental Literature and Economic Calculation in the Anti-Slavery Writing of Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours”

13.45-14.00: Coffee

14.00-15.00: Nicolai von Eggers: "The Political Ideas of the Haitian Revolutionaries"

Everyone is welcome but please write Jonas Ross Kjærgård (kunsjrk@dac.au.dk

) if you plan to attend.

The seminar is organized by the VELUX funded research group Reading Slavery. For more information, please see: readingslavery.au.dk