Enlightenment Principles in France and Haiti - Essay Example

Review The essay has attempted to explain that it is the French Revolution and not the Haiti Revolution that was more influential in implementing new Enlightenment principles. This is also the thesis statement and the introduction part well advances the argument by stating that Haiti being a small colony was less powerful than France. In the first section of this article, the writer has described in brief the social and economic condition of France in the late 1700s that led to the writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. During that time Louis XV was the king and he was responsible for the nation’s financial crisis that led to increasing disparity between the upper class and the lower class. In the next section, the writer gave a brief explanation of the contents of the declaration. The article deduces that the many clauses in the Declaration had several setbacks and hence was not a perfect document in terms of equality of every human being. The writer has even mentioned of one clause that discusses the freedom of man and his equal rights. It has also been stated that absence of clauses regarding slavery and women was one principle factor that makes the Declaration less impactful. Here, the writer has attempted to establish the weak points of the Declaration. This section needed more elaboration on the features of the Declaration. I feel his argument was not strong enough to make his statement that the Declaration was a flawed one much convincing. This section should mention about more clauses and with that there should be logical explanations as to how this Declaration cannot be called as a perfect one. However, the writer has mentioned that this Declaration induced people to speculate on why things are the way they are. I feel here there should have been a brief mention of the positive elements of the Declaration to bring out the logic of the final statement of this section. In the next section, the writer has briefly explained how Haitian Revolution was partly sparked by the French Revolution. I feel this section has been quite clear about the circumstances that led to Haitian Revolution. During this period, Haiti demanded freedom when the French National Assembly began advocating freedom of all men. The Revolution was started by Toussaint Louverture when plantation owners refused to give fair treatment to the slaves and on the contrary treated them even worse. The article then explained how Napoleon, at the end of the revolution, reinstated slavery and restored Haiti to its original form. Napoleon’s action was in response to another Declaration written by Toussaint Louverture which instated that all men are equal irrespective of race and color. In the final part of this section, the writer went on to explain how Toussaint lost the trust of his followers and eventually died in a prison in the mountains of France. The entire section, although extremely brief, has managed to clearly explain the rise and fall of the Haitian Revolution. At the end of this section the writer has concluded by reinstating the thesis statement which is that French Revolution was more influential than Haitian Revolution. The statement has been well supported by points like Haiti being one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere could not have been the influential power on the American Revolution. In the next section, the writer has explained the basis of the Enlightenment movement. The writer has argued here that where two groups of people, like the serfs in France and the slaves in Haiti are given extremely poor treatment, it does not matter how one group is treated more savagely than the other group. Here, what matters is that people are treated inhumanely and therefore from the need to have control over own lives, new principles are required to be implemented. I feel this section would have well done with more explanations to further clarify the point. As conclusion, the writer has summed up the points so far mentioned in the essay. I found the conclusion a clear reflection of the total contents of the essay. The Haiti Revolution, although by including slaves broadened the concept of freedom of man, it nevertheless failed to have lasting impact since it was only a small colony compared to France. The writer has used two Angel readings and one document. I feel more sources including books and videos could be used to make more in-depth explanation of some of the points like the flaws of Declaration of the Rights of Man, the characteristics of French Revolution and Haiti Revolution, and how the impact of the former was more forceful and lasting than the impact of the latter. In support of the thesis statement, I have found a very useful chapter titled “Conclusions and Legacy of Revolution” in the 1987 book The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804 by Thomas O. Ott. This chapter has elaborated on the fact that the disintegration that was caused within France by the French Revolution was an important contributory factor for the upheaval in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). The chapter could have been used to further elucidate the statement made by the writer “The mixed race population of Saint Domingue didn’t ask for its freedom from slavery until they heard that the new National Assembly was promoting equal rights for all men and wanted to get rid of slavery”. Moreover, I feel the writer could well make use of various videos especially found in YouTube. I have found one quite important and relevant video which is a documentary that was featured in the History Channel. It’s a 90 minute video explaining facts about the French Revolution. The link to the video “The French Revolution” is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEq_lAx3ssE . Also, I found another quite useful video for this essay which is about the leadership of Toussaint Louverture in the Haiti Revolution. The link to this video “Haitian Revolution Toussaint L’Overture” is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqDT6xubUk4 . Overall I would grade this essay 70 out of 100. It has mentioned most of the important points to establish the thesis statement. However, more explanations were required by the use of more substantial sources. References Acemoglu, Daron et al. “The Consequences of Radical Reform: The French Revolution”, American Economic Review, 101.7 (2011) 3286-3307 Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, Harvard Univ. Press, 2009 Girard, Philippe R. “French atrocities during the Haitian War of Independence”, Journal of Genocide Research, 15.2 (2013) 133-149 Ott, Thomas O. (1987) The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804, Univ. of Tennessee Press Haitian Revolution Toussaint L’Overture [video] from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqDT6xubUk4 The French Revolution, [video] from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEq_lAx3ssE Read More