‘A Very Hell of Horrors’? The Haitian Revolution and the Early Transatlantic Haitian Gothic

This article explores the Gothicisation of the Haitian Revolution in the transatlantic discourse during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As it argues, the Gothic mode has to be understood as a reaction to the profound challenges that the Haitian Revolution posed to a transatlantic world built on the slave economy. Pro-slavery and pro-colonialist authors demonised this successful slave revolution and one of the first anti-colonial revolutions in modern history by resorting frequently to the ‘hegemonic Haitian Gothic.’ By contrast, early Haitian leaders and some British radicals appropriated this mode, turning it into the ideologically contrary ‘radical Haitian Gothic.

Reclaiming Revolution: William Wells Brown's Irreducible Haitian Heroes

This article focuses on William Wells Brown's 1854 history of the Haitian Revolution

Vodou Value in Haitian Life

Ever since the night of August 14, 1791 at Bwa Kayman, where Boukman Dutty declared war on the French during a Vodou ritual, Vodou has shown its dominance in the Haitian culture (Dominique 103). Along with being a religion practiced across the class boundaries of over six million Haitians, Vodou is a philosophy as well; a way of life for the majority of Haiti. Vodou “brings coherence where there might otherwise be chaos” (Michel 282-283). Used as a common ground for the intermixed Africans in the New World, Vodou has played a key role in the daily life of the Haitian population since its origination. Held anywhere from Haiti to Brooklyn, Vodou’s popularity still remains today. Evident in its history, characteristics, emphasis on service, worship of the lwas, communal expectations, and oral performance: Vodou is a vital aspect of Haitian life, past and present; Vodou is simply not just a religion. [excerpt

Nonlinear and Nonseparable Structural Functions in Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Designs

This paper examines the identification and estimation of the structural function in fuzzy regression discontinuity (RD) designs with a continuous treatment variable. Under a dual monotonicity condition, we show that the nonlinear and nonseparable structural function can be nonparametrically identified at the RD cutoff. The dual monotonicity condition requires that the structural function and the treatment choice be strictly increasing in the unobserved causal factor. This condition is satisfied by standard parametric models used in practice. The identification result contrasts with the local average treatment effect literature, where only a certain weighted average of the structural function is identified. We propose a three-step semiparametric estimation procedure and derive the asymptotic distribution of the estimator. The semiparametric estimator achieves the same convergence rate as in the case of a binary treatment variable. As an application of the method, we estimate the causal effect of sleep time on health status by the discontinuity in natural light timing at time-zone boundaries

[Review of] Flore Zephir, Haitian Immigrants in Black American: A Sociological and Sociolinguistic Portrait

Zephir explores Haitians\u27 identification with Americans through the transitional nature of Haitians\u27 ethnicity, roles of languages, the roles of bilingual educational programs, the generational transmission of Haitian ethnicity, and Haitians\u27 and Black Americans\u27 relationships. For historians and sociologists who are unfamiliar with the history of Haiti and Haitians in American, this book is informative and insightful, especially because of its useful maps and tables. Scholars interested in migration and adaptation are provided with helpful demographic information on Haitians\u27 immigration and settlement in America. Very relevant is a critical discussion of Haiti\u27s history and the resulting effects in the behavior and attitudes of Haitian immigrants in New York