The Black Jacobins by CLR James

Joseph Blackman
2 min readJul 15, 2020

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Pg 21 The Mackandal rebellion never reached fruition and it was the only hint of an organized attempt at revolt during the 100 yrs preceding the French Revolution

Pg 43 The free blacks, comparatively speaking, were not many, and so despised was the black skin that even a Mulatto slave felt himself superior to the free black man. The Mulatto, rather than be slave to a black, would have killed himself

Pg 75 All white San Domingo, pro-independence and anti, were united on one common ground- the maintenance of slavery. Right for Mulattoes today? Would be right for slaves tomorrow. They fought the Mulatto question as the first outpost of their precious gangs of slaves

Pg 91 …but men make history, and Toussaint made the history that he made because he was the man he was

Pg 136 It was a critical moment in world history. If the British could hold San Domingo, the finest colony in the world, they would once more be a power in American waters. Instead of being abolitionists they would be the most powerful practitioners and advocates of the slave-trade, on a scale excelling anything they had ever done before.

Pg 155 A growing army and the confidence of free black laborers mean power. But Toussaint saw early that political power is only a means to an end. The salvation of San Domingo lay in the restoration of agriculture.

Pg 200 “That would have been selling the horse to preserve the stable”

Pg 249 He was as completely master of his body as of his mind. He slept but 2hrs every night, and for days would be satisfied with 2 bananas and a glass of water

Pg 362 The muscles of a Negro, they said, contracted with so much force as to make him insensible to pain. They enslave the Negro, they said, because he was not a man, and when he behaved like a man they called him a monster

Let’s get 1% better everyday

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