2018 participants
Daisy Pope
My project investigated how the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution is remembered in France today through monuments, commemorative events and school education. Haiti (or St Domingue) was a French colony reliant on African slave labour, and my project explores how France remembers and commemorates colonial slavery, and its eventual abolition, as well as the slave-led rebellion in Haiti itself. In order to address these questions, I collated information using a study visit to France, online databases, French curricula and heritage sites and monuments such as the Fort de Joux. I concluded that the majority of French remembrance concerning the Haitian Revolution, and slavery in general, is self-congratulatory, focusing on the part France eventually played in abolishing Transatlantic slavery, rather than embracing the culpability of colonial rule or addressing the ways in which the history of slavery impacts on the modern Caribbean.
Funding source: Newcastle University
Project Supervisor: Dr Jane Webster