Louverture inverted the rhetoric of colonial difference to justify black rule

Evidence

The time had come to “lay the foundations” for the colony’s “prosperity” by creating “laws appropriate for our habits, our traditions, our climate, our industry.” He used the language of difference deployed by the French government, but with a different intent. Where it had once served to assert white supremacy in the colony despite the universalist promises of the Revolution, Louverture now used it to justify the creation of a body of law that sanctified and solidified a new regime in which men of African descent were in command. Instead of waiting for Bonaparte to send his own laws, he decided to make his own. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 857

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The image of Louverture seizing the exact language of racial difference that had justified enslavement and turning it to legitimate black command is a striking inversion that resists quick summary.