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The Fear of French Negroes Transcolonial Collaboration in the Revolutionary Americas Sara E. Johnson university of california press Berkeley • Los Angeles • London The Fear of French Negroes flashpoints The series solicits books that consider literature beyond strictly national and disciplin- ary frameworks, distinguished both by their historical grounding and their theoretical and conceptual strength. We seek studies that engage theory without losing touch with history and work historically without falling into uncritical positivism. FlashPoints aims for a broad audience within the humanities and the social sciences concerned with mo- ments of cultural emergence and transformation. In a Benjaminian mode, FlashPoints is interested in how literature contributes to forming new constellations of culture and history and in how such formations function critically and politically in the present. Available online at http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucpress. Series Editors: Ali Behdad (Comparative Literature and English, UCLA); Judith Butler (Rhetoric and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley), Founding Editor; Edward Dimendberg (Film & Media Studies, UC Irvine), Coordinator; Catherine Gallagher (English, UC Berkeley), Founding Editor; Jody Greene (Literature, UC Santa Cruz); Susan Gillman (Literature, UC Santa Cruz); Richard Terdiman (Literature, UC Santa Cruz) 1. On Pain of Speech: Fantasies of the First Order and the Literary Rant, by Dina Al-Kassim 2. Moses and Multiculturalism, by Barbara Johnson, with a foreword by Barbara Rietveld 3. The Cosmic Time of Empire: Modern Britain and World Literature, by Adam Barrows 4. Poetry in Pieces: César Vallejo and Lyric Modernity, by Michelle Clayton 5. Disarming Words: Empire and the Seductions of Translation in Egypt, by Shaden M. Tageldin 6. Wings for Our Courage: Gender, Erudition, and Republican Thought, by Stephanie H. Jed 7. The Cultural Return, by Susan Hegeman 8. English Heart, Hindi Heartland: The Political Life of Literature in India, by Rashmi Sadana 9. The Cylinder: Kinematics of the Nineteenth Century, by Helmut Müller-Sievers 10. Polymorphous Domesticities: Pets, Bodies, and Desire in Four Modern Writers, by Juliana Schiesari 11. Flesh and Fish Blood: Postcolonialism, Translation, and the Vernacular, by S. Shankar 12. The Fear of French Negroes: Transcolonial Collaboration in the Revolutionary Americas, by Sara E. Johnson The Fear of French Negroes Transcolonial Collaboration in the Revolutionary Americas Sara E. Johnson university of california press Berkeley • Los Angeles • London this book is made possible by a collaborative grant from the andrew w. mellon foundation. University of California Press, one of the most distin- guished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Johnson, Sara E. (Sara Elizabeth) The fear of French negroes : transcolonial collaboration in the revolutionary Americas / Sara E. Johnson. p. cm. — (Flashpoints ; 12) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-520-27112-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Blacks—Caribbean Area—History—19th century. 2. Blacks—Gulf Coast (U.S.)—History—19th century. 3. Blacks—Race identity—Caribbean Area—History— 19th century. 4. Blacks—Race identity—Gulf Coast (U.S.)—History—19th century. 5. Blacks— Migrations—History—19th century. 6. Haiti— History—Revolution, 1791–1804—Influence. I. Title. F2191.B55J65 2012 305.896'969729—dc23 2012005111 Manufactured in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In keeping with a commitment to support environmen- tally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on 50–pound Enterprise, a 30% post-consumer-waste, recycled, deinked fiber that is processed chlorine-free. It is acid-free and meets all ansi/ niso (z 39.48) requirements. For my Egun For Kenneth and Carolyn For Julián and Amaya This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Preface: The Fear of “French Negroes” xv Introduction: Mobile Culture, Mobilized Politics 1 1. Canine Warfare in the Circum-Caribbean 21 Cuban Bloodhounds and Transcolonial Terror Networks 23 A Discursive Battle of Wills 38 Culture and Public Memory 44 2. “Une et indivisible?” The Struggle for Freedom in Hispaniola 49 “L’île d’Haiti forme le territoire de la République”: The Early Years of Antislavery Border Politics 52 The Meaning of Freedom 70 Haitian Generals: Ogou Iconography on Both Sides of the Border 74 Guangua pangnol pi fort pasé ouanga haitien 83 3. “Negroes of the Most Desperate Character”: Privateering and Slavery in the Gulf of Mexico 91 Race, Privateering, and the Gulf South in the 1810s 95 To Fight Ably and Valiantly against One’s Own Race 104 The Cultural Afterlives of Impossible Patriots 114 4. French Set Girls and Transcolonial Performance 122 The French Set Girls 125 Reconsidering the Migration of “French” Cultural Capital 132 Embodied Wisdom and Attunement 139 Circum-Caribbean Repercussions of Saint-Domingue 144 Legacies 155 5. “Sentinels on the Watch-Tower of Freedom”: The Black Press of the 1830s and 1840s 157 Periodical Campaigns: Promoting an African Diasporic Literacy Project 161 Class, Migration, and Transcolonial Labor Relations 173 Caribbean Federation: Advancing National Interests through a Regionalist Lens 180 Epilogue 189 Notes 195 Works Consulted and Discography 245 Index 277 Illustrations 1. Incendie du Cap; Revolte générale des nègres. Massacre des Blancs, 1815 / xvi 2. Death of Romain, a French Negro, 1803 / xviii 3. Map of the extended Americas, ca. 1730 / 4 4. Advertisement for Marie, a runaway slave, July 1809 / 12 5. Advertisement for Joseph, a runaway “French negro,” April 1808 / 13 6. Blood Hounds Attacking a Black Family in the Woods, 1805 / 24 7. The Mode of Training Blood Hounds in St. Domingo and of Exercising Them by Chasseurs, 1805 / 28 8. A Spanish Chasseur of the Island of Cuba, 1803 / 30 9. Hunting Indians in Florida with Bloodhounds, 1848 / 34 10. Domingo Echavarría, General haitiano en marcha, 1845 / 50, 82 11. Map of Hispaniola, 1795 / 58 12. Moi Égal à toi, 1790s / 60 13. Ne suis-je pas ton frère?, 1790 / 61 14. Cristobal comandante del Ejercito, 1806 / 67 15. André Pierre, Ogoun Badagry, 1950s / 82 16. Map of the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding territories, 1762 / 100 17. Négresse, et femme mulâtre de St. Domingue, 1795–96 / 107 ix x | Illustrations 18. Alexandre Sabés Pétion, ca. 1807–18 / 111 19. The Battle of New Orleans, 1861 / 118 20. French Set Girls, 1837 / 126 21. Costumes des affranchies et des esclaves, 1790s / 128 22. Affranchis des colonies, 1790s / 129 23. Advertisement by a Saint-Domingue migrant in Louisiana offering musical instruction, July 1809 / 133 24. Cinquillo measure / 145 25. Tumba francesa performance, Guantánamo, Cuba, 1997 / 146 26. Tumba francesa dancer and drummer, Guantánamo, Cuba, 1997 / 147 27. Manner of Playing the Ka, 1889 / 153 28. Philip A. Bell, 1891 / 162 29. Cyrille Charles Auguste Bissette, 1828 / 163 Acknowledgments This book was researched and written over many years, and the debts that I have incurred are numerous. Many thanks to the Library Com- pany of Philadelphia, especially Jim Green, Philip Lapansky, and Linda Wisniewski. It was a true pleasure to work there, where I first studied many of the primary sources, both textual and visual, that I used in this and other projects. Thanks are also due to the New York Public Library, the Archives Nationales d’Outre Mer, Tulane University’s Spe- cial Collections, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Outer Banks History Center. Barbara Rust at the National Archives, Southwest Regional Office, Fort Worth, Leslie Tobias-Olsen at the John Carter Brown Library, Siva Blake at the Historical New Orleans Collection, Richard Phillips at the University of Florida’s Latin American Collec- tion, Tony Lewis at the Louisiana State Museum, and Howard Margot at the New Orleans Notarial Archives were all especially kind about answering questions and locating sources. This project has been graciously funded by the Ford Foundation Post- doctoral Program, the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, the University of California San Diego Academic Senate, the Hellman Fund, and the Modern Language Initiative. Early versions of chapters 1, 2, and 4 were published as “‘You Should Give Them Blacks to Eat’: Cuban Bloodhounds and the Waging of an Inter-Amer- ican War of Torture and Terror,” American Quarterly 61.1 (2009): xi xii | Acknowledgments 65–92; “Cinquillo Consciousness: The Formation of a Pan-Caribbean Musical Aesthetic,” in Music, Writing and Caribbean Unity, edited by Timothy Reiss (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press (2005), 35–58; and “The Integration of Hispaniola: A Reappraisal of Haitian-Dominican Relations in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” Journal of Hai- tian Studies 8.2 (2002): 4–29. Thank you for permission to reprint. I’d also like to express my deep gratitude to the many teachers that I have had over the years. The Baltimore city public school system cre- ated and fostered my love of languages and literatures. Thanks to Ms. Celestine Carr, Mrs. Sally Daneker, and Ms. Rocca. My professors in African diaspora studies at Yale nurtured my passion for the field: Hazel Carby, Cathy Cohen, Vera Kutzinski, Chris Miller, and Robert Stepto. At Stanford, Mary Louise Pratt, Elisabeth Boyi, and Richard Rosa were the first readers and helpful critics for the early iterations of this project. I’d also like to thank Al Camarillo, Claire Fox, John Rickford, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, and all of the folks at Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity for providing such a supportive, intellectually stimulating environment.