Stella, first published in 1859, is an imaginative retelling of Haiti’s fight for independence from slavery and French colonialism. Set during the years of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), Stella tells the story of two brothers, Romulus and Remus, who help transform their homeland from the French colony of Saint-Domingue to the independent republic of Haiti. Inspired by the sacrifice of their African mother Marie and Stella, the spirit of Liberty, Romulus and Remus must learn to work together to found a new country based on the principles of freedom and equality. This new translation and critical edition of Émeric Bergeaud’s allegorical novel makes Stella available to English-speaking audiences for the first time. Considered the first novel written by a Haitian, Stella tells of the devastation and deprivation that colonialism and slavery wrought upon Bergeaud’s homeland. Unique among nineteenth-century accounts, Stella gives a pro-Haitian version of the Haitian Revolution, a bloody but just struggle that emancipated a people, and it charges future generations with remembering the sacrifices and glory of their victory. Bergeaud's novel demonstrates that the Haitians—not the French—are the true inheritors of the French Revolution, and that Haiti is the realization of its republican ideals. At a time in which Haitian Studies is becoming increasingly important within the English-speaking world, this edition calls attention to the rich though under-examined world of nineteenth-century Haiti.
Оглавление
Emeric Bergeaud. Stella
Stella
A Novel of the Haitian Revolution
Contents
Editors’ Acknowledgments
Editors’ Introduction
Early Haitian Politics
Story and History
Under the Old Regime
Stella in Context
Reading Stella
This Translation
Notes
Recommended Reading
Stella
Author’s Note
To the Reader
Saint-Domingue
Marie the African
Romulus and Remus
The Mountain
Retaliation
The Unknown Woman
The Colonist
The Dream
The Attack
The Day following Victory
A New Enemy
The Peacemaker
The Grotto
General Emancipation
New Battles
Coalition
Accusation, Departure
Deborah
The End of the Foreign War
Colonial Machiavellianism
Love and Rivalry
The Spirit of the Nation
Civil War
Civil War: The Last Episode
Results of the Civil War
The French Expedition
The Defense of Crête-à-Pierrot
The Government of the Captain General
Reconciliation
Return to the Mountain
War for Independence
The Death of the Captain General
Rochambeau
The Ball
The Dogs
Last Efforts
The Departure of the French Army
Liberty, Independence
Haiti
Glossary of Foreign Words and Expressions
Original Explanatory Notes
Editors’ Notes
About the Editors
Footnotes
Отрывок из книги
America and the Long 19th Century
General Editors: David Kazanjian, Elizabeth McHenry, and Priscilla Wald
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15 In fact, Haiti was originally ordered to pay 150 million francs in gold, although that figure was reduced to 60 million in 1838, when French recognition became official. Furthermore, as a condition of recognition in 1825, the import and export fees levied on French ships and goods in Haiti were ordered at half of all other nations’ fees. While it is difficult to estimate how much money this would equate to in the twenty-first century, the figures run into the billions of dollars. See Joseph Saint-Rémy, Mémoires du général Toussaint L’Ouverture (Paris: Pagnerre, 1853): 138–139; Jean-François Brière, Haïti et la France: le rêve brisé (Paris: Karthala, 2008); and François Blancpain, Un siècle de relations financières entre Haïti et la France (1825–1922) (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001).
16 Dumesle was related to Rivière-Hérard, who eventually succeeded Boyer as president of the Republic. Both Dumesle and Rivière-Hérard ended their lives in exile in Jamaica. See Dubois, Aftershocks: 122–133, as well as Matthew J. Smith, Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica after Emancipation (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014).
