The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

The big whites belonged to the higher of two classes to emerge among Whites in San Domingo, consisting of wealthy plantation owners, merchants, and similarly powerful non-governmental figures. 

In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie are the capitalists who own the means of production. James uses this term with reference to France’s newly rich industrialists.

This word has two definitions in James’s text. First, it can refer to Haitian Créole, the language that emerged among the Black slaves in San Domingo. Second, it can refer to a person of European descent born in the colonies.

The Directory was a five-person committee that functioned as France’s highest governing body from 1795 to 1799.

Generally speaking, an émigré is simply an emigrant—someone who leaves one country to live in another. In James’s text, the émigré Whites included those who chose or were forced to leave San Domingo during the slave rebellion, many of whom never returned.

The Jacobins were the most radical of the political groups to come to power during the French Revolution. It was during their reign that the decree abolishing slavery in San Domingo was passed.

The maroons were escaped slaves who banded together in the wilderness to raid and pester the plantation owners.

Mulattoes are those who share European and African ancestry. Some were sold into slavery, while others owned slaves. 

The National Assembly was the first of several revolutionary legislative bodies formed in France following the revolution of 1789. It was succeeded by the National Constituent Assembly, the National Legislative Assembly, the National Convention, and the Legislative Body in turn.

The recognition and celebration of African heritage as a shared source of identity among those who belong to the African diaspora.

As used by James in the Appendix, Pan-Africanism is a movement towards solidarity among all Africans and their descendants around the globe.

This Marxist term refers collectively to the poor laborers of the working class. James applies it to the slaves in San Domingo.

The “small whites” belonged to the lower of two classes to emerge among Whites in San Domingo, consisting primarily of clerks, lawyers, craftsman, and subordinate employees of the planters.