"La double idée de fraternité – comme héritage de la tradition et comme projet de transformation – et la fondation des droits de l’homme dans le contexte colonial"

Abstract: When comparing the French Revolution of 1789 and the Revolution of the black slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) between 1791 and 1804, many commentators emphasise the European origin of revolutionary ideas. They do so in order to imply that the slaves, rather than “thinking out” their revolution, simply “carried it out”: the theory is that ideas travelled in only one direction, from Europe to America, from White to Black. A study of Toussaint Louverture’s work refutes this interpretation. He reappraised Enlightenment ideas, adding his own contribution. The Haitians thus universalised and revived the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity which in Europe were being little by little extinguished.