Reading in the Haitian Revolution: Toussaint L'Ouverture and Classical Education in Harriet Martineau's The Hour and the Man

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Harriet Martineau's historical novel, The Hour and the Man (1841), presents the intellectual development of Toussaint L'Ouverture through his reading of Western classical texts during the Haitian Revolution. By dramatizing Toussaint's reading and rereading, discussing and teaching of European classical and Christian texts at major turning points of the revolution, the novel highlights their liberating power in the contexts of slavery and emancipation. While the hero's close engagement with European textual culture has been criticized by both Victorian and post-colonial readers, this analysis argues that, far from repressing or betraying his people, Martineau's Toussaint interprets these texts with a free and independent mind that incorporates their original liberating power into the emancipation endeavor.