terms that he generatively unpacks over the course of the book, the significance and sensibility ... more terms that he generatively unpacks over the course of the book, the significance and sensibility of the word ‘malere’ (in French, ‘malheureux’), which Dubois translates as ‘sufferers,’ particularly stands out. Used by the Haitian majority as a ‘generic term... to name persons who live a precarious existence,’ the expression remains today ‘a key concept in popular knowledge’ (p.270). Crucially, as Casimir elucidates, the word is not stigmatizing, but rather acknowledges misfortune and perseverance through a lens of respect. This case spotlights the larger significance of Kreyòl for rural world-making in nineteenth-century Haiti. If certain words were ‘borrowed’ from French, ‘the population redefined [them] according to their own circumstances,’ and ‘built a field of ideas and thoughts that was not dependent in any way on the categories of the colonial language’ (pp. 226– 227). Over the course of The Haitians, Casimir argues that ‘pèp souvren granmoun tèt li’ – the sovereign people are the parents of their own minds – and honours the beauty and political imagination of the society that the Haitian rural majority created during the long nineteenth century. The questions that he poses and the arguments he develops are profoundly significant for decolonial historical studies more broadly. Focusing on the world of the counter-plantation, and analysing Haitian and Atlantic world histories from the perspectives of those who built this space of reciprocity and autonomy, The Haitians advances the ‘liberation knowledge’ on which it centres.
New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 2009
In 1763, a regiment of mercenary soldiers stationed on the border of Suriname and Berbice in Sout... more In 1763, a regiment of mercenary soldiers stationed on the border of Suriname and Berbice in South America, rebelled. The men had been sent to help subdue a large slave rebellion. Instead, they mutinied and joined the rebelling slaves. This paper reconstructs the mutiny from Dutch records and uses it to look at the role of soldiers as border crosser in the Atlantic world. Colonial historians have usually studied soldiers in their capacity of border enforcers, men who maintained the cultural and legal divisions that supported colonial authority. However, as I show, soldiers with great regularity crossed those same borders, threatening the very foundations of colonialism.
Colonial America's largest grassroots rebellion; Ten years before the start of the American R... more Colonial America's largest grassroots rebellion; Ten years before the start of the American Revolution, back-country settlers in the North Carolina Piedmont launched their own defiant bid for economic independence and political liberty. The Regulator Rebellion of 1766-71 pitted thousands of farmers, many of them religious radicals inspired by the Great Awakening, against political and economic elites who opposed the Regulators' proposed reforms. The conflict culminated on May 16, 1771, when a colonial militia defeated more than 2,000 armed farmers in a pitched battle near Hillsborough. At least 6,000 Regulators and sympathizers were forced to swear their allegiance to the government as the victorious troops undertook a punitive march through Regulator settlements. Seven farmers were hanged. Using sources that include diaries, church minutes, legal papers, and the richly detailed accounts of the Regulators themselves, Marjoleine Kars delves deeply into the world and ideology ...
Borderless Empire explores the volatile history of Dutch Guiana, in particular the forgotten colo... more Borderless Empire explores the volatile history of Dutch Guiana, in particular the forgotten colonies of Essequibo and Demerara, to provide new perspectives on European empire building in the Atlantic world. Bram Hoonhout argues that imperial expansion was a process of improvisation at the colonial level rather than a project that was centrally orchestrated from the metropolis. Furthermore, he emphasizes that colonial expansion was far more transnational than the oft-used divisions into national Atlantics suggest. In so doing, he transcends the framework of the Dutch Atlantic by looking at the connections across cultural and imperial boundaries. The openness of Essequibo and Demerara affected all levels of the colonial society. Instead of counting on metropolitan soldiers, the colonists relied on Amerindian allies, who captured runaway slaves and put down revolts. Instead of waiting for Dutch slavers, the planters bought enslaved Africans from foreign smugglers. Instead of trying to...
Jolting along at sixty miles an hour in the 4x4, I glanced over at Alex, hoping he wouldn't take ... more Jolting along at sixty miles an hour in the 4x4, I glanced over at Alex, hoping he wouldn't take the truck into one of the deep gullies pitting the road. We were on the Ituni highway, the main road from Guyana's capital, Georgetown, to Brazil. The pavement gave out after twenty-five miles and descended into a red-sand, rutted path through bauxite mines, bush, savannah, and lowland rainforest. Alex Mendes has driven this route hundreds of times. Every year he brings researchers into his 17,000-acre cattle ranch, ninety miles up the Berbice River, in remote, unpopulated bush country. The scientists come to study plants and animals in Guyana's great untrammeled wilderness. One scientist counted forty-one species of bats on the ranch, and a team of researchers named a newly discovered species of lizard after Alex.1 A large U.S. farming concern runs a research station at Dubulay Ranch to experiment with hardier species of corn.2 I was the first historian to visit.
terms that he generatively unpacks over the course of the book, the significance and sensibility ... more terms that he generatively unpacks over the course of the book, the significance and sensibility of the word ‘malere’ (in French, ‘malheureux’), which Dubois translates as ‘sufferers,’ particularly stands out. Used by the Haitian majority as a ‘generic term... to name persons who live a precarious existence,’ the expression remains today ‘a key concept in popular knowledge’ (p.270). Crucially, as Casimir elucidates, the word is not stigmatizing, but rather acknowledges misfortune and perseverance through a lens of respect. This case spotlights the larger significance of Kreyòl for rural world-making in nineteenth-century Haiti. If certain words were ‘borrowed’ from French, ‘the population redefined [them] according to their own circumstances,’ and ‘built a field of ideas and thoughts that was not dependent in any way on the categories of the colonial language’ (pp. 226– 227). Over the course of The Haitians, Casimir argues that ‘pèp souvren granmoun tèt li’ – the sovereign people are the parents of their own minds – and honours the beauty and political imagination of the society that the Haitian rural majority created during the long nineteenth century. The questions that he poses and the arguments he develops are profoundly significant for decolonial historical studies more broadly. Focusing on the world of the counter-plantation, and analysing Haitian and Atlantic world histories from the perspectives of those who built this space of reciprocity and autonomy, The Haitians advances the ‘liberation knowledge’ on which it centres.
New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 2009
In 1763, a regiment of mercenary soldiers stationed on the border of Suriname and Berbice in Sout... more In 1763, a regiment of mercenary soldiers stationed on the border of Suriname and Berbice in South America, rebelled. The men had been sent to help subdue a large slave rebellion. Instead, they mutinied and joined the rebelling slaves. This paper reconstructs the mutiny from Dutch records and uses it to look at the role of soldiers as border crosser in the Atlantic world. Colonial historians have usually studied soldiers in their capacity of border enforcers, men who maintained the cultural and legal divisions that supported colonial authority. However, as I show, soldiers with great regularity crossed those same borders, threatening the very foundations of colonialism.
Colonial America's largest grassroots rebellion; Ten years before the start of the American R... more Colonial America's largest grassroots rebellion; Ten years before the start of the American Revolution, back-country settlers in the North Carolina Piedmont launched their own defiant bid for economic independence and political liberty. The Regulator Rebellion of 1766-71 pitted thousands of farmers, many of them religious radicals inspired by the Great Awakening, against political and economic elites who opposed the Regulators' proposed reforms. The conflict culminated on May 16, 1771, when a colonial militia defeated more than 2,000 armed farmers in a pitched battle near Hillsborough. At least 6,000 Regulators and sympathizers were forced to swear their allegiance to the government as the victorious troops undertook a punitive march through Regulator settlements. Seven farmers were hanged. Using sources that include diaries, church minutes, legal papers, and the richly detailed accounts of the Regulators themselves, Marjoleine Kars delves deeply into the world and ideology ...
Borderless Empire explores the volatile history of Dutch Guiana, in particular the forgotten colo... more Borderless Empire explores the volatile history of Dutch Guiana, in particular the forgotten colonies of Essequibo and Demerara, to provide new perspectives on European empire building in the Atlantic world. Bram Hoonhout argues that imperial expansion was a process of improvisation at the colonial level rather than a project that was centrally orchestrated from the metropolis. Furthermore, he emphasizes that colonial expansion was far more transnational than the oft-used divisions into national Atlantics suggest. In so doing, he transcends the framework of the Dutch Atlantic by looking at the connections across cultural and imperial boundaries. The openness of Essequibo and Demerara affected all levels of the colonial society. Instead of counting on metropolitan soldiers, the colonists relied on Amerindian allies, who captured runaway slaves and put down revolts. Instead of waiting for Dutch slavers, the planters bought enslaved Africans from foreign smugglers. Instead of trying to...
Jolting along at sixty miles an hour in the 4x4, I glanced over at Alex, hoping he wouldn't take ... more Jolting along at sixty miles an hour in the 4x4, I glanced over at Alex, hoping he wouldn't take the truck into one of the deep gullies pitting the road. We were on the Ituni highway, the main road from Guyana's capital, Georgetown, to Brazil. The pavement gave out after twenty-five miles and descended into a red-sand, rutted path through bauxite mines, bush, savannah, and lowland rainforest. Alex Mendes has driven this route hundreds of times. Every year he brings researchers into his 17,000-acre cattle ranch, ninety miles up the Berbice River, in remote, unpopulated bush country. The scientists come to study plants and animals in Guyana's great untrammeled wilderness. One scientist counted forty-one species of bats on the ranch, and a team of researchers named a newly discovered species of lizard after Alex.1 A large U.S. farming concern runs a research station at Dubulay Ranch to experiment with hardier species of corn.2 I was the first historian to visit.
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