Enslaved people saw revolutionary violence as moral salvation

Evidence

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE of the enslaved, the most profound instance of moral eminence was evolving in Haiti. Jefferson learned of the Black revolt on September 8, 1791. Within two months, a force of 100,000 African freedom-fighters had killed more than 4,000 enslavers, destroyed almost 200 plantations, and gained control of the entire Northern Province. As historian C. L. R. James explained in the 1930s, “they were seeking their salvation in the most obvious way, the destruction of what they knew was the cause of their sufferings; and if they destroyed much it was because they had suffered much.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 323

Categorization

• XREF: Previews the moral inversion theme; connects to the reader’s discomfort about being able to place arguments in Kendi’s scheme — the enslaved’s own moral framing of revolt challenges the top-down view.