Alexander, Leslie M.

OUR SYNOPSIS: Leslie M. Alexander illuminates how African Americans interpreted and leveraged the Haitian Revolution’s gains for Black liberation to forge a newly empowered “Black internationalist consciousness.” (2) As “the largest, bloodiest, and most successful rebellion of enslaved people in history,” the Haitian Revolution became a global call to action that reverberated throughout the nineteenth century. (3) Beyond solidarity, it fostered transnational Black collective consciousness. It also forced a vast international array of observers to grapple with new meanings of freedom and sovereignty. Black identity formation and white fear of empowered Black people combined to create immense social tensions. She shows that white backlash against this Black liberation continues into the present day with border agent expulsion of Haitians from the United States. She also emphasizes and amplifies the voices of Black women in these histories. It is clear throughout the book that U.S. foreign and domestic policy responses to Haitian independence reflected overarching fears about Black freedom. Concerns about Haitian immigration and emigration also showcase these anxieties. Activists such as Frederick Douglass frequently invoked Haiti to justify seizing Black freedom in the U.S.