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Hoermann, Raphael

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150 book reviewsNew West Indian Guide© raphael hoermann, 2021 | doi:10.1163/22134360-09501022This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 license.Grégory Pierrot, The Black Avenger in Atlantic Culture. Athens: University of GeorgiaPress, 2019. viii + 263 pp. (Paper US$32.95)This ambitious and exceedinglywell-written study traces the trope of the Blackavenger from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. Starting counter-intuitively with the Roman myth of the Rape of Lucretia and the Roman slaverebel Spartacus, Grégory Pierrot takes readers on a tour-de-force that encom-passes English, African American, and French literature as well political docu-ments by leaders of the Haitian Revolution. It also touches on recent films thatemploy this trope, such as Nate Parker’s 2016 filmic adaption of Nat Turner’s1831 slave revolt, The Birth of A Nation, and Ryan Coogler’s 2018 Marvel super-hero blockbuster, Black Panther.The vast chronological scope, the diversity of the cultural material, and theanalysis of bothAnglophoneandFrancophone texts constitutemajor strengthsof the study. Apart from countering thewidespread linguisticmyopia of Anglo-phone academia with his comparative approach, Pierrot manages to recon-struct a key triangular and transatlantic dialogue: one that took place betweeneighteenth—and early nineteenth-century English, French, and Haitian writ-ers, and that revolves around the trope of the Black avenger. The longue-duréeapproach and the transnational angle also throw in sharp relief how this tropeconstantly re-emerges and how, despite its new guises and its appropriationby Black Atlantic figures, it is held back by its racist and patriarchal origins.As Pierrot states (and demonstrates throughout), the Black Avenger trope “ispredicated on the silencing of black women” (p. 12).However, the large ground that the study covers also risks significant omis-sions. Self-consciously, Pierrot seems aware of this danger, asserting that hedoes “not claim this to be an exhaustive study” (p. 15) of the Black Avengertrope. And he acknowledges that his choices of texts necessarily meant theexclusion of others. Overall, such courage to risk gaps largely pays off; his exam-ples are well chosen to trace the genealogy of the trope. However, there aresome instances where this strategy backfires. For instance, discussing the fig-ure of the Black Avenger in the abolitionist poemsWest-Indian Eclogues (1787)byWhite blind Liverpudlian radical EdwardRushton, Pierrot criticizes the apo-litical nature of the slave’s vengeance: “it eschews the notion of black politicalagency by devolving to the personal” (p. 84). This might apply to these poemsbut significantly Pierrot fails to take into account Rushton’s later poem “Tou-ssaint to his Troops” (1806). The leader of the Haitian Revolution ToussaintLouverture’s rallying speech portrays him as a political “Black Jacobin” avengerfigure rooted in a Black collective.Downloaded from Brill.com03/31/2021 10:37:42AMvia free accessbook reviews 151New West Indian Guide 95 (2021) 97–197Chapter 3, on the trope of the Black Avenger in the discourse on the HaitianRevolution, is largely compelling. It demonstrates that it was not merely NorthAtlantic writers who cast the leaders as Black Avengers, but also shows howthese appropriated the trope, and, most strikingly, how Haitian independenceleader Jean-Jacques Dessalines fashioned himself as the avenger of the colo-nial atrocities the Americas had suffered. Less compellingly is the alleged self-fashioning of Toussaint Louverture as the Black Spartacus. Pierrot curiouslymisquotes from Louverture’s famous 1793 “Camp Turel” proclamation withwhich he entered the political stage: “I have undertaken vengeance formy race”(p. 101). While it remains vague in the proclamation exactly what Louvertureclaims to have taken vengeance for, “for my race” seems to be an addition byPierrot rather than present in the historical source. Hence, it appears doubtfulthat Louverturewouldhere recall Raynal’s Black Spartacus figure as the avengerof the Black race.Chapters 4 and 5 focus (largely) on literary nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American appropriations of the Black Avenger trope. Some ofthese are among the most compelling analyses. A detailed and incisive explo-ration of Black nationalistMartinDelany’s fragmentary novel Blake, or theHutsof America (1861–62) teases out convincingly howDelany, recalling the HaitianRevolution, deploys the Black Avenger trope to ferment large-scale collectivepolitical action—a transnational slave revolt that is to encompass large partsof the Americas. These final chapters seem less of a tour-de-force than thefirst three, as Pierrot has more space to mount very balanced critiques of theseAfrican American appropriations of the Black Avenger trope.TheBlackAvenger inAtlantic Culture forms a pioneering study on the geneal-ogy of this key trope—very readable, refreshingly free from jargon, andthought-provoking. While the ambitious scope proves a mixed blessing, itclearly demonstrates how the Black Avenger (with all its racist and sexist pit-falls) has featured prominently from the beginnings of the transatlantic slavetrade up to twenty-first-century popular culture.Raphael HoermannInstitute for Black Atlantic Research, University of Central Lancashire,Preston, England, U.K.Rhoermann@uclan.ac.ukDownloaded from Brill.com03/31/2021 10:37:42AMvia free access

Grégory Pierrot, The Black Avenger in Atlantic Culture. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2019. viii + 263 pp. (Paper US$ 32.95)

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Grégory Pierrot, The Black Avenger in Atlantic Culture. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2019. viii + 263 pp. (Paper US$ 32.95)

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