Riprodurre la rivoluzione. Rappresentazioni narrative di Toussaint Louverture prima della Guerra civile

The essay examines how antebellum narrative representations of the Haitian Revolution placed it on a continuum with other forms of resistance and revolt in the United States in order to challenge prevailing racist ontologies postulating black docility. Through an analysis of the portraits of Toussaint L’Ouverture described in Frank J. Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends (1853) and William J. Wilson’s “The Afric-American Picture Gallery” (1859), Fabi argues that such descriptions train readers to question the politics of historical representation. The insurgent vision that emerges from Webb’s and Wilson’s texts connects them closely with the transnational emancipation project that dominates Martin R. Delany’s better known Blake; Or, The Huts of America (1859).