From Slave Revolution to Pact with Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History

Lecture: Elizabeth McAlister

The Center for Black Studies is proud to present the work of Elizabeth McAlister. Her lecture, "From Slave Revolution to Pact with Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History" traces the social links and biblical logics that gave rise to the neo-evangelical rewriting of the Haitian Revolution. She argues that the confluence of the bicentennial of the Haitian Revolution with the political contest around President Aristide's policies, the growth of the neo-evangelical Spiritual Mapping movement, and of the Internet, produced a new form of mythmaking, in which neo-evangelicals re-signified key symbols of the political and religious ceremony that began the revolution; an oath to a divine force, blood sacrifice, a tree, and group unity form the mythical grammar of Haitian nationalism to that of neo-evangelical Christianity. In the many ironies of this clash between the political afterlife of a slave uprising with the political afterlife of biblical scripture, Haiti becomes a nation held in captivity, and Satan becomes the colonial power who must be overthrown.