Black Revolutions: Fighting for the Recognition of African Achievements in Our History, Media, and Classrooms

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Research Focus on Black Education SIG Poster Session

Abstract

The Saga of TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE and the Birth of Haiti (TSTLBH) is the first volume in the Golden Legacy: Illustrated History Series, launched in 1966 by Fitzgerald Publishing. Bertram Fitzgerld and Leo Carty published the series to address the dearth of positive stories about Black heroes and their sociohistorical contributions. This study examines how TSTLBH pushes back against negative tropes that promote anti-African retellings of the Haitian revolution, i.e.: L’Ouverture was acting and succeeding on European terms, Africans were not skilled enough to defeat Bonaparte, and African-led nations fail because they are barbaric. TSTLBH accomplishes this by solidifying L’Ouverture’s African roots, showing the enslaved African’s strategic decisions and actions, and contesting notions that Africans are savages and inferior to Whites.

Author

• Darnel Degand, University of California - Davis