Beyond the (holy) shroud: a glimpse into Afro-Catholicism during the Haitian revolution
This paper explores how Africans and Afro-Creoles used discourses shaped by Catholicism during the Haitian Revolution both to fight the prospect of re-enslavement by the French and to pursue alternative notions of freedom to those proposed by Toussaint Louverture. Specifically, it examines the appea...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2023
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| In: |
Atlantic studies
Year: 2023, Volume: 00, Pages: 1-37 |
| Further subjects: | B
Saint-Domingue
B Haitian Revolution B invulnerability B Amulets B Afro-Catholicism B Holy Shroud |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This paper explores how Africans and Afro-Creoles used discourses shaped by Catholicism during the Haitian Revolution both to fight the prospect of re-enslavement by the French and to pursue alternative notions of freedom to those proposed by Toussaint Louverture. Specifically, it examines the appeals for Sunday rest and free days; and the use of protective amulets in pursuit of divinely-granted invulnerability in battle. Afro-Catholicism helped forge a sense of common identity during the colonial period, and enslaved people took a more active role in its dissemination than previously acknowledged. Free cultivateurs and soldiers later appropriated Catholicism as an effective language of resistance because they shared it with the French colonial authorities and the emerging Haitian élites. Arguments about Afro-Catholicism in West Central Africa and Ibero-America also apply to the French Caribbean and underscore the Atlantic entanglements in the development of Catholicism. |
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| ISSN: | 1740-4649 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Atlantic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2023.2211506 |