Dr. Shrout said once in class that the hardest thing for a historian to determine is intent.\u00a0 Sara C. Fanning attempts to do just this in \u201cThe Roots of Early Black Nationalism: Northern African Americans’ Invocations of Haiti in the Early Nineteenth Century\u201d.\u00a0 Fanning\u2019s thesis is basically that freed black men and women in the north were inspired by the success that Haiti had as an independent black nation after their violent revolution.\u00a0 Fanning uses examples of this success in Haiti as evidence to further her point.\u00a0 By doing so though, she must try to determine the intentions of many people.<\/p>\n
Fanning dedicates a section to analyzing why Thomas Jefferson cut ties with Haiti.\u00a0 She surmises that it may have been done to secure Louisiana and Florida from Napoleon or because he was upset that the Haitians shared his same republican ideologies and philosophical outlook.\u00a0 It is really impossible to ever know for sure.\u00a0 Yet, Fanning\u2019s detailed thought process is shown and is fairly convincing.<\/p>\n
Throughout the rest of the article, Fanning makes statements that imply that she is determining intent.\u00a0 She says, \u201cthey hoped\u2026\u201d and \u201cAfrican Americans who learned of the freedom afforded to black men would have looked upon Haiti as\u2026\u201d.\u00a0 Some of her conclusions about intentions are more reasonable than others.\u00a0 When she discusses how many of the African Americans who immigrated to Haiti returned home, she argues that it was because of cultural differences and problems with Haiti.\u00a0 While this reasoning is fairly sound, it struck me as a little bit of her trying to reason and justify her argument, as opposed to a more concrete answer or evidence.<\/p>\n
Fanning does a thorough job of pointing out what made Haiti appealing to African Americans, but I felt that she lacked any real evidence of African Americans noting how they were inspired by Haiti.\u00a0 While I understand that the basis of her argument was that the African Americans surely noticed what was going on in Haiti, it may have been helpful if she had found more concrete sources backing this up.\u00a0 Overall, Fanning\u2019s article is an excellent hypothesis with great details and ideas.\u00a0 It just contained a little bit too much assuming for me.\u00a0 Then again, without some assumptions a historian would struggle to write much of anything.\u00a0 So, in the end, I guess I\u2019ll give Fanning my stamp of approval (whatever that may mean to her).<\/p>\n
Hank Updegrave (New York State) raises some interesting questions in his post.\u00a0 His point about Fanning not paying enough attention to the early instability in Haiti is very valid.\u00a0 He brings up the issues of those who returned after going to Haiti and the inevitable tension between black people and those of a mixed race.\u00a0 This is a solid point that I had not thought about.\u00a0 Fanning definitely should have attempted to explain how African Americans would have seen these issues as she did about so many other things.\u00a0 So now, after reading Henry\u2019s blog, I\u2019m back on the fence about Fanning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Shrout said once in class that the hardest thing for a historian to determine is intent.\u00a0 Sara C. Fanning attempts to do just this in \u201cThe Roots of Early Black Nationalism: Northern African Americans’ Invocations of Haiti in the Early Nineteenth Century\u201d.\u00a0 Fanning\u2019s thesis is basically that freed black men and women in the … <\/p>\n