The Haitian Constitution, pg. 191

This chapter is the haitian Constitution written in 1805. It shows how the Haitians wanted change in certain aspects of life, such as freedom of religion. However, there are many flaws that make it not surprising that the country broke up soon after this was written. Many laws are extremely strict. "Every citizen must know a mechanical trade" is strict and hard to enforce. "In cases of bakruptcy or business failure, Haitian citizenship is suspended" This surely eliminated the desire for many people to be entrepreneurs, and thus hurt the economy. And the law that those who commit corporal or disgraceful crimes lose citizenship is also very strict. Also, some laws are too vague and would be difficult to enforce. "No one is worthy of being a Haitian if he is not a good father, a good husband, and above all, a good soldier." What is the definition of a good father? This is so vague that many arguments would occur about cases of people accused of this. "He who kills his fellow man deserves to die" This does not say if the man actually is supposed to receive the death penalty or not. This to would cause much debate, because it's a life or death situation.

The Haitian Declaration of Independence, pg. 188

This chapter is the Haitian Declaration of Independence. It was written overnight by an angry Haitian who had a serious grudge against the French. This declaration is full of hate and spite for the French which many may consider inappropriate. Compared to other declarations this one looks very uncivilized. However, this document is in fact honest; it has no hidden motives. However, this document was written by one man, so some majority opinions may have been excluded. The declaration says that the Haitian people should not want to be like the murdering French, in reference to the bloody French Revolution. The declaration says that Haiti and France are different by climate and distance apart and that they are not meant to be together. However, the criticism that the French are murdering people and that the Haitians are not like them seems hypocritical because he also says that the Haitians should make the French fear Haiti by killing the French still in Haiti and to exterminate them from influencing Haiti. This is exactly what the French did in their revolution, so Haiti was still influenced some by France.

Constitution of the French Colony of Saint-Domingue, pg. 167

This is the constitution Sain Domingue created by a group of whites in 1800. Naopleon Bonaparte ordered it's creation. The constitution says that slavery is outlawed and that all men are equal, regardless of color. It says that all men are equal, along with some other colony regulations. However, it says that since cultivation and commerce are so important that people need to work on the plantations. This is a covert way of saying ex-slaves go back to being slaves. The French had technically outlawed slavery so they could not openly say this, but this is what they implied. Also, the constitution named General Toussaint Louverture as the governor for life because of his good deeds. This also is a covert way of saying we are making the ex-slaves go back to being slaves, and because we know General Toussaint Louverture supports making the ex-slaves go back to being slaves we are going to make him governor for life. This whole constitution is filled with hidden motives, and it shows how much the French actually cared about the human rights of their people; they cared more about money than human rights.

Letters, pg. 159

This chapter is a series of letters discussing slavery in America and possible problems and actions to take with it. The authors of all the letters are afraid of the possibility of a slave uprising in America. They fear that events in Saint Domingo may inspire slaves in America to revolt. A slave revolt that already occurred in Virginia in 1800 is mentioned, but this slave revolt was quickly put down. The letters discuss which states could help put down a slave revolt, and one calculates the size of the army that could possibly put down a revolt. This fear was very real to Americans because of the successful slave revolt in Saint Domingo. The letters describe ways to deal with this threat, such as exporting slaves back to Africa and encouraging slaves to leave America. These letters show us what Americans of the time thought of freeing slaves and that is that they did not want to. Even when facing the threat of slave revolution, the Americans did not even consider freeing their slaves. They were willing to consider most any other method besides freedom for the slaves. Slaves were major money makers for America so Americans wanted to keep slavery.

The Abolition of Slavery, pg. 129

This chapter is a narration of the speeches given during the French National Conventions abolition of slavery. The French were very in favor of freeing all slaves, which they did. They also granted them full citizenship. The French even fraternally kissed the colored diplomates. It appears that the French are acting selflessly and are sorry for having slavery before and very much care about the people of color in their colonies. They seem to be open to change and them all seem like good people. However, their actions tell a different story. At this time, the good French were going around their country executing all the old nobles and rich, including their women and children. They were executing so many people that they did not have enough swords to chop off all their heads, so they had to invent a new creation, the guietine (or however you spell it), to execute people. They also seem contradictory because just a few years later, under Napoleon, they re-instituted not slavery, but African servitude just like slavery in the colonies. It appears to me that in all the momentum of human rights the French decided to abolish slavery because they thought it was the right thing to do, however, when this became inconvenient they basically reversed their decision, showing how much they really cared about human rights.

Reports from the Insurrection, pg. 95

This chapter is journal entries describing the slave revolts on Saint Domingue. It is specific about numbers of Africans and whites killed. According to the journal, the Africans were organized; they planned to burn a city by having some slaves attack from the outside while the slaves on the inside worked to burn the city down. However, the whites barricaded the city entrances to prevent the outside part of the attack. Even during the fighting the whites could not take their minds of money; there people were dying but they were spending time estimating their losses. In journal entry 13 the whites estimate that 150 sugar-houses and 3000 negroes had been killed, which amounted to roughly 6000.000 livres. During the revolt the whites do not consider giving into the Africans demands for more rights; they are only thinking about how they can regain control of the Africans. When the Africans negotiated and said they would go back to work for more days off, the whites refused and did not consider giving into their requests for more rights. The revolt got very gruesome; the Africans left the white dead on the ground with stakes driven through them, and the whites got to the point where they took no prisoners.

History of the Revolution of Saint-Domingue, pg. 89

This chapter is an account, written by Antoine Dalmas, of the slave revolt in Saint-Domingue. In 1791 the slave revolt broke out. Dalmas described the plan for the revolt as a 'conspiracy'. According to the account, one of the conspiracy planners said that they were planning the revolt as revenge and that it was necessary that they kill all the whites on their plantations because the plot was too big to allow for refuge for the whites. The night before the revolt, the blacks reportedly carried out a ceremony where they drank blood and offered a pig as a sacrifice to the all-powerful spirit of the black race. "It is natural that a caste this ignorant and stupid would begin the most horrible attacks with the superstitious rites of an absurd and bloodthirsty religion." (I find this statement curious because of the fact that in the Old Testament of the Bible animal sacrifices were common). They revolt was bloody and violent as the slaves travelled around to plantations burning fields and killing their white oppressors. This occurred in 1791, just as the French Revolution was taking place. The French were going around France violently revolting, killing and burning down their oppressors, and surely they Slaves were inspired by them.

Observations on the Origin and Progression..., pg. 78

This chapter is an argument made by Julien Raimond, who was part colored. He was born in Saint-Domingue and eventually became a prosperous indigo planter who owned over a hundred slaves. His influential arguments helped change the opinion of the French National Assembly to stop colonial racism. He explains where the racism stemmed from in his account of the colonial people. First white colonists came over with their African slaves. Since there were few white women, they reproduced with their slaves. Marring Africans became acceptable to white farmers in Saint Domingue. Then the white farmers left their mixed colored children land and slaves. This and the amount of available farm land led to mix colored people to prosper and multiply. However, when mix colored people became prosperous and had wealth, other whites who came over later got jealous, and this jealousy led to prejudice. So to manipulate the mixed coloreds, they made prejudice laws. This explanation made by Raimond about the root of prejudice in French colonial islands surely was extremely beneficial in convincing the French National Assembly to stop colonial racism. By identifying the root of the problem, it makes it easier to find a solution to a problem.

Letter to Those Who Love Mankind, pg. 73

This chapter is a pamphlet published by the Abbe Gregoire, an ally to the Parisian men of color. The pamphlet criticizes the act by the the National Assembly to put all power to reform racial laws in the hands of the Colonial Assemblies. He argued that this was unjust and unfair to the people of color in the French Islands. He said that allowing the decision of whether or not the colored people can continue to be oppressed should not lie in the hands of the oppressors. Oppression of colors surely would continue if those who got to decide if it continued gained from it continuing. He argued that the colored population of Saint-Domingue was expanding rapidly and that they should have rights. He also argued that this law could cause an alliance between colored people and whites in an attempt for Saint-Domingue to fight for independence. The year that this law was passed by the National Assembly surely played an influential role in this law being passed. At the time, the French Revolution was just starting in France. The French passed this controversial law because they did not want to spend time dealing with racial conflicts in their colonies; they were distracted by the Storming of the Bastille and other events.

Description...of the French Part of the Island of Saint-Domingue, pg. 57

This chapter describes the behavior of the mulatto people and of the Vaudoux (which I assume, from my two years of high school French, means Voodoo) practices that occurred on Saint-Domingue. The Mulattos were described as well build and intelligent. The author says they would be able to be successful at modern things such as liberal arts. However, the author writes that they do not care too much to excel at these practices because their greatest joy is to be lazy. He writes that pleasure (dancing, riding horses and 'abandoning themselves in sensuality' to be specific) are what they enjoy most, and they would rather part take in these activities than things like liberal arts. Women Mulattos, Mulatress, are described as elegant, graceful and so beautiful that he compares them to Greek goddesses. (I guess that these women looked especially beautiful to the author because he was on an island where women were scarce) The Vaudoux ceremonies were interesting. They worshiped a snake god, drank goat's blood, promised to die before revealing their oaths and to kill anyone else who would reveal their oaths. (This reminded me of some sort of a devil worshiping cult with a snake god, blood drinking and violence).

The Code Noir, pg. 49

This chapter was a list of laws created by the French Kingdom on how to govern French American Islands. The rules were all about slaves and race, which shows how much emphasis the French put on these matters. I was surprised by the first rule (kick all the Jews off French Islands) because I was not aware that there was a substantial Jewish population in the Caribbean at that time. I also thought that some of the laws were vague. For example, law LVIII says that manumitted slaves must retain a certain degree of respect for their masters. However it is very unspecific, and therefore would be difficult to actually enforce because there would be debate if the law had in fact been broken. These rules show just how little control the slave masters had over their slaves. Rule XV forbid the gathering of slaves at any time for any reason. This clearly shows that the masters were frightened of a slave uprising and were taking drastic measures to not let them even get a chance to organize. However, I imagine that it is because of oppressive rules such as this rule that the slaves wanted to rebel, so this rule really is counterproductive to what it is trying to achieve.

Final Paper

I'm planning on doing either the Americas or Saint Domingue, let me know if you need a partner.

Pass Laws

This reading is about pass control laws in southern Africa. These laws were created to control the laborers and keep them as servants. These laws were first implemented during the period of slavery, when slaves were required to carry documentation when traveling within the colony, and other pass control laws were implemented when slavery was abolished. These laws were designed to restrict servant workers (not slaves anymore) movement and to keep them as servants so that the servant masters remained powerful. However, a market economy eventually developed in southern Africa, despite control laws slowing down the process. Cruel and extreme measures taken by Europeans to force the Africans into servitude labour such as cattle killing show how much the Europeans greed influenced their decisions. Africans suffered from European desire for power and the Europeans enacting laws to control southern Africans shows how Europeans abused their power. These laws delayed southern African prosperity and are an example of the negative effects of colnialism.

Bogadi

This reading is a series of letters to the editor where each writer expresses his opinion about the controversial subject of Bogadi. Christians say that the practice of Bogadi is wrong, arguing that Adam did not use this practice and that this practice is only used by people who do not know about God. Many letters are sent to the editor arguing arguing different points about Bogadi. Some say that it is not buying, others say it is. But there is a strong sense that the African people want to keep the practice of Bogadi. They argue that it is part of the marriage ceremony, just as standing on an altar and putting on a ring is part of European marriage ceremony. This reading shows us how much the introduction of Christianity affected southern Africans by questioning the morals of the peoples. The arguments made by the southern Africans along with their supports for their arguments shows us how the African written language and newspapers helped to communicate ideas and beliefs to other Africans. This reading shows us how the Batswana's cared about their beliefs and morals of their people, the same as Europeans did.

Letter from March 1890

This letter was written because the writer, Sebotseng, was confused by the contradictions made by Christians. The Christians say they are followers of Christ, but then the children are not taught about Christ and are left out. Many times some of the children in families are excluded from schooling. Also, Christians said children should be dressed, yet they allowed children to grow up not dressed. This letter shows the change in Batswana society. The African Batswana society started off their interactions with Europeans as not understanding them, but they eventually changed and were so understanding of Europeans that they could raise logical arguments criticizing the European methods. This provides us with the clue that the Batswana were unhappy with their European rulers who contradicted themselves and they were not afraid to share their opinions.

Kgabo Tebele Motswasele Letter

This is a letter written by a Batswana discussing the issue of which languages were to be written. He writes that all people have pride in their native language and desire to express and use it. He also writes that that current written African language in use, Setlhaping, would be confusing for his people to use as their main written language because it is unfamiliar to his people. He writes to inquire if his people could be allowed to use their own native language, as well as allowing other peoples to use their own native language. This letter was written in 1883, the first year the Africans had the London Missionary Society newspaper, which shows that the Batswana picked up on reading and writing quickly. The author of the letter does not insist that their native language be written, he just suggests it. This shows that the Africans were capable of adapting to new languages, and it also shows that they had a good understanding of written languages because the author came up with a logical suggestion that African tribes be allowed to use their own language. However, since the Africans were still new to written language and did not know how to publish newspapers, they were at the will of the Europeans to a degree.

Intro Words of Batswana

This reading is about the increased interest that people today are taking in primary sources written by Africans during colonialism in southern Africa. Many Batswana primary sources written during the period of colonialism were not written about Europeans, but were written about family and community life. In other words, many African primary sources were centered around their own lives rather than the Europeans. This gives us the clue that the Batswana people wanted to continue living their own lifestyle and were not completely occupied with their relations with Europeans. These primary sources show many African perspectives that are absent from second hand accounts by Europeans. This supports the idea that primary sources provide many details about societies that secondary sources leave out, thus making primary sources important documents for present day people trying to put together a picture of the relations between Africans and Europeans during southern African colonialism. This document also touches on southern Africans learning how to read and write; a major change for Batswana people.

A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia

A Commonwealth of Thieves was the story of the first settlement of Australia, a British penal colony. Thomas Keneally makes the novel historically accurate, and A Common Wealth of Thieves gives us a frontline view of the suffering founding colonists faced.

One thing that surprised me about the novel were the risks that were taken. The soldiers on the first voyage were willing to leave everyone they knew behind and travel to an uncharted land with hundreds of criminals. The soldiers incentives were good pay and promotion, miniscule in comparison to all the bad that occurred. Even more surprising to me was the risk the British government was willing to take. They outfitted 11 ships and sent good naval officers on the First Fleet to Australia. They spent numerous amounts of dollars on these ships to send them to a place that nobody knew anything about and told them to form a colony in a foreign land. Many British expected never to hear from the fist fleet ever again, yet many were willing to supply massive amounts of funding for these voyages.

I also was surprised at how easy it was for a criminal to become a convict. Petty crimes could send you to Australia. One man stole a handkerchief worth one shilling and he was sent to Australia. Bread, chickens and other common things constituted deportation to Australia as well. Because convicts were forced to Australia for such minor offenses, it is not surprising to see that the convicts were reluctant to do labor and work once they arrived. The soldiers and sailors chose to go to Australia on their own free will, so they had motivation to work hard. The convicts were being controlled and this was why they refused to work hard.

It was a little ridiculous how cruel the captains of the second fleet were. Since their fleet was a private fleet used to obtain profit, they were even more cruel to their convicts than the captains of the first fleet. On the second fleet, it was good if some convicts died because then there was leftover food that they would of had to feed the convicts with. As a matter of fact, the captains were thinking along the lines of the sooner prisoners die, the more leftover food they would have from the dead prisoners. When the second fleet arrived, the convicts were so sick that instead of providing more labor to help the colony, they were too sick to work and bogged down the colony. Even some British thought the second fleet had crossed the line with their cruel conditions, but they were never convicted of anything.

I was a little annoyed by the fact that Arthur Phillip never received criticism. He just did not seem to do anything wrong. Also, the novel did not base a lot of the story about the interactions between the British and the Natives. When the Spanish colonized the Americas, contact with natives was a major theme. However, here they just don't seem to play a major role. You can tell Keneally is an Australian when he describes how beautiful the Australian landscape is.

It is also interesting that the British Colonization of Australia was different from other colonization's because the British were not eager to explore the rest of Australia and claim the land for Great Britain. Instead Britain spent their energy on maintaining their settlement. This could perhaps be because the British were not worried about other Empires colonizing Australia. Britain had a major advantage with Australia because they explored the coastline first, complements of the explorer James Cook who found the ports and documented some of the land marks.

Overall the novel was boring at times with lots of details, but it did provided interesting information about the colonization of Australia.

From the Codex Mendoza

The Codex Mendoza contains several pieces of artwork made by the Natives that depict their Native culture before European colonists arrived. Modern day historians can use these art pieces to learn about what the Native culture was like before the colonists changed the people. The artwork teaches us that the Native society had similarities and differences when compared to the European societies of the time. Native tribes paid tribute to their Mexican Lords, much like Europeans paid taxes. However, Natives paid with a different currency: they paid with greenstones, bundles of rich feathers of blue, red, green, ect., jaguar skins, large pieces of amber and other items. (Native's seemed to view objects with vivid colors as valuable) They paid tribute to Mexican Lords every 6 months, just like Europeans paid taxes every so often. Their maps differed from Europeans however, because Europeans were more concerned with the accuracy of distances and land masses, while Natives were concerned with historical elements and social organizations on their maps. This artwork shows that Natives had a rich and advanced civilization before Europeans came.

Cantares Mexicanos

This is a poem in grief of the loss of the Aztec capitol city of Tenochtitlan. This document can be of use to modern day historians because they can use it as a historical description of what happened when Tenochtitlan was taken over. It was designed to be a poem to show the emotions of the people who had just lost so much, but the poem contains many accurate details about what happened during the invasion of Tenochtitlan that historians can use to better understand how Cortez took the great city. Cortez took the Aztec kings as prisoners, and the Princes of Mexico were taken prisoner before the siege began; this shows that Cortez took out the peoples leadership before he besieged the city to create confusion. This tactic by Cortez was one of the reasons he was successful in his conquest of the Aztecs. It is also clear from this poem that Cortez burned down the city during the siege.

Selection from James Brooks, Captives and Cousins

This excerpt from Captives and Cousins is about the history of the rituals that go on between the different peoples in the New World. The groups of people mix in their native ideas with the Western ones, as shown in the ritual during Christmas time with the Christ child. The exchanging rituals are very important to the people; they are a major part of the shame/honor that occurs in native society.  Shame and honor play major roles in the lives of native men, and it is important that they act in ways that will increase their honor, which they can do by giving. The type of jobs men have also affects their level of honor; self-sufficient jobs give more honor than jobs where the man is reliant on someone else for income. Women were seen somewhat like objects. They were kidnapped by other tribes and bargained for, like they were a resource rather than people. Women could affect the honor of a man, such as the case where the Comanche's bride was given away. To protect his honor, he sacked the village and took the woman that was promised to him.

Hernan Cortes: Letter to Charles V

Hernan Cortes's letter to Charles V depicts the New World's landscape and the society of people that live there. This is a very useful "primary source" document because it shows us one side of the story of the colonization of the New World strait from the source of the colonizers. It is clear that the author approaches his description of the indigenous people in the America's through a "distorted lens" so to speak. Cortes vastly over exaggerated the sacrificing of humans. He says that the natives sacrificed their own, women and children. This is not true, because the natives only made sacrifices to the Gods with war prisoners, not their own people. Cortes also depicts a large number of human sacrifices ranging in the thousands, although it is likely that Cortes exaggerated this number. By depicting the natives as violent people who sacrifice their own children constantly, it gave Cortes a reason to control the people: to change them from their violent ways and turn them into Christians. In reality, Cortes was much more concerned with profiting of the natives than helping them become better people.

Vide" Edward Said on "Orientalism"

Edward Said is a professor who wrote a book on "Orientalism" because he thought artwork, literature and other arts of the Middle-East was not realistic, and as time passed this unrealistic representation of the Middle-East was not changing. He said that this unrealistic representation of the Middle-East was so ingrained into the minds of Westerners that even those who visited the Middle-East ended up describing the people that lived there in the same way as they had falsely read about them. The visitors to the Middle-East retained the unrealistic opinion instilled upon them by others that all the Middle-Easterners were the same. This view that all Middle-Easterners are the same was created when European Empires invaded Middle-East Nations. When they invaded them, they tried to figure out a way to control all of the Middle-Easterners that looked different than themselves, and they attempted to control Middle-Easterners by placing them into one category. Napoleon was the first European colonizer to try and actually understand the native people rather than to just conquer them. This is significant because it shows us the origins of false assumptions Westerners make about people with different color skins and different cultures than themselves.

Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden"

This poem describes the hardships the European colonizers faced. In Kipling's opinion, European colonizers were noble and selfless. He described European colonizers as servants who worked to improve the lives of the immature and savage natives. Kipling said nothing but good things about the colonizers, naming off their good deeds such as feeding the hungry and ending sickness. The latter claim seems a little ridiculous considering the fact that Europeans brought much disease to the Western Hemisphere and gave Native American's blankets with smallpox in them. Kipling described how noble the colonists were when he wrote about how some colonists died while working for the gain of the natives. This poem shows the positive view of colonialism that was instilled into the minds of European citizens throughout the centuries of European colonialism. This view that the leaders of the European Empires instilled is why colonialism was supported and thought highly of by Europeans for a long time. European citizens were only told of the good things the colonists did, and therefore thought highly of them. This belief that the European citizens held was detrimental because it undoubtedly encouraged European colonialism.

Aime Cesaire's "Discourse on Colonialism"

This chapter is about the negative effects of European colonialism. To justify colonialism, Europeans created the idea that colonization was a just cause because it created civilization. The Europeans argued the people they colonized were savage because they had less advanced technology and they were not Christian, and the Europeans said they were civilizing these people by providing them with more advanced technology and teaching them Christianity. Cesaire opposed this claim, arguing that the Europeans only colonized for personal gain. Cesaire said it was obvious Europeans were not colonizing to create civilization for the inhabitants of the colonies. Europeans treated their inhabitants with severe cruelty, and the Europeans treated the inhabitants with inferiority. The Europeans did build roads, port cities and teach the inhabitants certain skills. However, they did these things not to advance civilization for the inhabitants; they did these things only for the benefit of their Empires. The Europeans thought the inhabitants were like animals, and treated them like they treated animals. When the inhabitants were a barrier to advancing the European empires, they were eliminated. Europeans butchering inhabitants is not civilized; it is savage. Colonial conquest is fueled by contempt for the natives. The Europeans relieved their guilt by thinking of the natives as animals, and therefore justifying treating them like animals. However, as a result of this thought process, the European colonizers ended up having their own thought processes changed to animal-like thoughts. European colonization results in savageness, and therefore the thought that European colonization is just because it creates civilization is incorrect.