Fear of a Black Republic: Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States Paperback – 27 December 2022

Eric Foner once said that our past that we have had explained to us cannot explain why it is we are what we are today. (He said it more elegantly than this, of course!)This book explains how the Haitian revolution of 1804 so thoroughly cowed and intimidated the early governments of the United States, so much so that the existing laws design to keep control of enslaved Black Africans in the United States were made more rigorous and more cruel at the state and federal level.What caused such a reaction by a very large nation about a tiny nation in the Caribbean, speaking a different language and ruled by a different European power?This book explains how the very scent of freedom taken by force by the enslaved against their enslavers shook the powers of the United States to the core: If the enslaved people of Haiti could throw off the chains of France (one of the two most powerful naval forces at that time), then what might the enslaved people do in the United States if they found out that freedom was within their grasp?A good, thorough review of the politics and economics of the times, and how little Haiti became a beacon of freedom for the whole world.

An outstanding contribution to the literature on African Americans and Haiti. Fills a scholarly void.