SEA London 2014 "Post-revolutionary Haiti and England" deadline September 15, 2013
"Post-revolutionary Haiti and England"
The peculiar relationship between England and Haiti began early: the terms of withdrawal of English troops from Saint Domingue in 1798 included a secret trading agreement with the increasingly autonomous French colony. England was the first country to find out about French defeat on the island, as British ships had provided support to the insurgents against the troops sent by Napoleon to reestablish slavery. When Dessalines and his fellow officers wrote and signed the declaration of independence, English traders were in attendance. British adventurers, revolutionaries, con-men, school teachers, artists, abolitionists and plantation owners were involved in Haitian affairs in the following decades. Relations between Haiti and England were crucial to Haiti's diplomatic, economic and political positions on the world stage. Haiti made sure to maintain a presence in English culture, sending a steady stream of books and letters towards London, while King Henry I professed his admiration for all things British. At the same time, Haiti remained a dangerous example for the slaveholding British West Indies, and its politics and cultural life were closely monitored, criticized and sometimes ridiculed in the British press. How was this peculiar relation echoed in Atlantic culture in the early nineteenth century? What role did England play in post-revolutionary Haitian culture, and what purpose did English representations of post-Revolutionary Haiti serve in England and around the world? Panelists are encouraged to explore the many aspects of the connection between London and Haiti in the post-Revolutionary era, looking at Haitian presence in London news, stage productions, literature, visual arts, politics, and other forms of relation between the two countries in the early nineteenth century. Send abstracts and a current CV to Grégory Pierrot (email@example.com) and Tabitha McIntosh (firstname.lastname@example.org.) by September 15, 2013. For more information about the conference, see http://www.societyofearlyamericanists.org/conferences_forthcoming.html.