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In “Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies”, Sara C. Fanning discusses the extent to which the Haitian Revolution and the subsequent efforts by the Haitian government to lure northern free African Americans to the freedom of the new colony. She argues for the idea that Haiti, contrary to the beliefs of many modern historians, played a large role in fostering the political and cultural actions of American free people of color. Although I believe that she makes a decent argument and I am sure that there is some validity to it, she does not go about it in the most efficient way.
In forming her argument, Fanning assumes too much knowledge on the behalf of the reader. For example, Fanning refers to “northern free blacks subscribing to American republican sensibilities but were faced with a society retreating from its own revolutionary promises.” This may seem fairly clear but she does little in the successive sentences to elaborate on such a point. She gives no indication as to which revolutionary promises she is regarding and neglects to mention whether the fathers of the revolution really had free men of color in mind. Would it have been really so rational for American free men of color to expect white men to begin an emancipation of slaves in the wake of the American revolution which barely had anything to do with them. She could have approached this theme by first mentioning the ideals of the French revolution which actually related more to the men of Haiti and their freedom. This indicated for me the a less than ideal paper structure.
Fanning’s use of sources and quotes is also a bit disconcerting. She implements very sparse usage of quotes-only block quote in the whole paper-and this absence immediately jumps out at me as something that could be rectified to help the quality and structure of her paper especially one in which the argument of her paper is based on how a certain group of people is affected by revolutionary discourse. I would want to hear more about African-Americans were saying at the time, but her supply is few and far between. She is prone to making sweeping, generalized remarks without providing the necessary evidence. On pg. 66, she discusses how Thomas Jefferson may have viewed an African American exodus to create a state in Haiti. She says that he called them “the Cannibals of the terrible republic” but then goes no further to explain how he “recognized the connection between black nationalist thought in the United States with Haiti and feared it.” I believe this phrase should have been substantiated.
I do, however, agree with Max’s similar assertion that “these actions led to real influence in the United States.” As Max points out, I find it hard to accept many of the claims she makes under the cloud of what seem to be assumptions. More examples in key sections could solidify her argument however the lack of evidence is crucial when you are making an argumentative paper.