C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins
The Haitian Revolution has been systematically erased from world history, and this is no accident. No single event has haunted the guilty conscience of the powerful worldwide more consistently than this explosive struggle against slavery, colonialism, and capitalism alike. For Black slaves to lead not only a rebellion, but a revolution, was a contradiction in terms. Even for its participants, this was an unprecedented experiment in self-government—and one that was not entirely successful. Slaveowners from the United States to Latin America and beyond were fear-stricken, desperate to prevent another Haiti, while revolutionary forces across the hemisphere found subterranean inspiration in the audacity of the Haitian struggle and concrete material support from the post-revolutionary Black state it established. What does the history of Haiti, and the Haitian Revolution in particular, teach us about broader world history, racial capitalist domination, and the capacity of the masses to take history into their own hands?
In this course, we’ll read C.L.R. James’ The Black Jacobins—a landmark account of the origins, dynamics, and outcome of the Haitian Revolution, in conjunction with secondary readings. We will do so with an eye to the following questions: How were the Haitian and French revolutions bound together, and why do we elevate one but denigrate the other? How does James read this history in his own moment(s), and how can we continue to do so today? What insights does The Black Jacobins offer for the relationship between race, colonialism, and class, and what does it miss? What makes The Black Jacobins so enduring—as history, theory, and literature? As James memorably writes, “the rich are only defeated when running for their lives.” Does the revolutionary struggle for Haitian independence tell us anything about political struggle today?
Course Schedule
Thursday, 6:30-9:30pm ETSeptember 11 — October 02, 2025
4 weeks
$335.00
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