Summary Of Trouillot's Silencing The Past

In the book Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, author Michel-Rolph Trouillot argues that the Haitian Revolution was an event that was thought of as impossible by the world during its time. Because Westerners’ have dictated the Historiography of the Haitian Revolution it has caused, not only a silence in sources but also a false narrative. By the late 1700s, Westerners had already coined black as something that was universally bad and already categorized blacks as destined to be slaves. With the rise of scientific Racism and the existence of slavery for more than a century, it seemed impossible to Westerners that slaves could successfully revolt. As Trouillot puts it, “The Haitian Revolution thus entered history with the peculiar characteristic of being unthinkable even as it happened” (73). Trouillot then reasons that because the Haitian Revolution was

thought to be impossible even as it was happening, it negatively affected the way the event was assessed after.
The Haitian Revolution challenged Western ideas of blacks, colonization and slavery.

As the Western world was not ready to confront the humanity of blacks or the idea that blacks desired freedom, the Haitian Revolution became a stain in the common Western ideology that blacks were destined to be slaves. The need for Westerners to remain superior caused a silence in the discussion of the Haitian Revolution. In fact, Western countries like France and America did not recognize Haiti’s independence until “the second half of the nineteenth century” (95). America likely did not recognize Haiti’s independence because it feared that recognition of the Haitian revolution would spark slave rebellions within their own country. France, on the other hand, was likely embarrassed that a former colony was able to defeat their military and declare independence. Most Historians in the 19th century do not even discuss or lightly touch on the Haitian Revolution. The first scholarly, detailed and well- researched account of the Haitian Revolution is not published until the year of 1900 by Carolyn

Fick.
The Haitian Revolution being unthinkable in Westerners mind affected the historiography of the Haitian Revolution from 19th century til about the late 20th century. Because Westerners like French and Americans believed that black slaves were inferior and not capable of large-scale rebellion on their own; Western administrators, politicians reasoned that it must be the British or anti-slavery Republicans that are the “brains” leading the revolt. Even after the successful defeat of Napoleon's troops and the establishment of Haiti as an independent country, it was still reasoned that the only black slaves defeated European armies was because of yellow fever. Narratives like these serve as the building block for historians who later write about the Haitian Revolution. Western historians who write about the Haitian Revolution in the late 1900s , which are very few, choose to call it a “slave revolt or rebellion” instead of a revolution and they attribute the success of the rebellion solely to yellow fever and the aid of the mulatto ruling class.
Today’s textbooks are still plagued by false narratives of the Haitian Revolution or complete silences. Trouillot writes, “Very few textbooks even mentioned [the Haitian Revolution].When they did, they made of it a ‘revolt, a rebellion’... ” (99).