The Early Haitian State and the Question of Political Legitimacy, 1st ed. 2020 American and British Representations of Haiti, 1804—1824 Palgrave Studies in Political History Series

This book explores the different ways in which the early Haitian state was represented in print culture in America and Britain in the early nineteenth century. This study demonstrates that American and British arguments about the most effective forms of governance and political leadership impacted how Haiti?s early leaders were presented to transatlantic audiences. From the end of the Haitian Revolution and the moment that Haitian independence was declared in 1804, conservatives and radical thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic used Haiti and its early leaders as central frames of references in discussions of political legitimacy. Against the backdrop of a vibrant and volatile age of revolutions, the different forms of governance adopted by Jean Jacques Dessalines, Henry Christophe and Jean Pierre Boyer were used by writers, playwrights and caricaturists to either support or call into question the legitimacy of America?s and Britain?s own forms of government. 

1. Introduction.- 2. “The Bonaparte of the New World”: American and British Reactions to the Emergence of Emperor Dessalines.- 3. President Christophe and Commercial Legitimacy.- 4. King Christophe and the Question of Monarchical Legitimacy.- 5. The Death of a New World Monarch: Regicidal Imaginings in Transatlantic Republican Thought.- 6. The Promise and the Threat of Boyer and Haitian Republicanism.- 7. Conclusion.

Shows the importance of the first leaders and governments after Haiti’s Declaration of Independence in American and British debates surrounding political legitimacy Argues that while race was a significant factor in the negative depictions of the early Haitian leaders by transatlantic commentators, this hostility was also reflective of a broader reaction to changes in governance and political leadership throughout the Atlantic world Draws on a range of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary writers across literature, newspapers and periodicals to explore how the Haitian state was depicted in America and Britain