GENOVESE STUDY QUESTIONS 1. What does the title mean? What do rebellion and revolution mean? What is the difference between the two? For Genovese? 2. What is a maroon society? Who are maroons, and what is maronnage? 3. What is the distinction he draws between restorationist and revolutionary movements? 4. Why was collective slave resistance more rare on mainland North America than in the Caribbean? 5. Why does Genovese focus so much on maroon societies? 6. What, for Genovese, is the transformation slave revolts underwent? What was new about the new ones? Be very exact, and find the places in the text which tell you the answers. 7. Why, for Genovese, was the revolution in Saint-Dominigue revolutionary?
PRINCIPLES 1. Transition from A. Paleolithic(old stone age) B. Neolithic (new stone age), agricultural revolution C. The modern age 2. Concept of core vs. periphery 3. A more detailed look at the modern revolution: Transition from early capitalism to mature capitalism A. Feudalism or seigneurialsm B. Plantation capitalism, mecantilism, proto-capitalism C. Bourgeois capitalism, industrial capitalism, mature capitalism
Maroon society/community Maroon: a person who lives in a Maroon society Maronnage: the phenomenon of Maroon societies Quilombo: Portugese(Brazilian) term for maroon society
What does the title mean? What does he mean by these words? Restorationist : goal of revolt = recreation of traditional communities (e.g., maroon communities) Revolutionary goal of revolt = overthrow of slavery as a social system (e.g., Haiti).
seigneurial: Production for use rather than for exchange control of state in the hands of military elites A stage in between feudal and bourgeois bourgeois the class of property owners under capitalist and proto-capitalist systems of production wealth is urban-and trade-based rather than rural- and land-based (landed aristocracy) development of capitalism in Europe from 15th century = rise of bourgeois to control of state
GENOVESE S ARGUMENT We re talking about how slavery came to be seen as illegitimate (and hence abolish-able), and what the role of African-descended peoples was in that process.
1. Transition from A. Paleolithic(old stone age) B. Neolithic (new stone age), agricultural revolution C. The modern age 2. Concept of core vs. periphery 3. A more detailed look at the modern revolution: Transition from early capitalism to mature capitalism A. Feudalism or seigneurialsm B. Plantation capitalism, mecantilism, proto-capitalism C. Bourgeois capitalism, industrial capitalism, mature capitalism
Agricultural periphery In New World Metropolitan core in Europe
His thesis: The goals of the revolts... changed with the revolutionary changes in the social relations of production and the ideology of European and American society as a whole. (xiv) There s going to be more
Explaining the relative lack of collective violent resistance in mainland North America v. Caribbean 1. Geography 2. Population demographics 3. Resident/absent planters 4. Political in/stability 5. Slave trade and demographics
Pre-capitalistic / Feudalistic / Seigneurial (c. 900c.e. -c. 1450 c.e.) state controlled by military elites (aristocracy) capital (the means of production) owned by military elites (aristocracy) non-capitalistic relations of production (those who own means of production [the aristocrats who own the land] don t manage production non-capitalistic relations of exchange (production primarily for local consumption rather than exchange) no periphery (periphery discovered by explorers c. 1500) freedom not an absolute right; measure of possibility on social hierarchy
Plantation Capitalism / Mercantilism / Proto-capitalism (c. 1450 c.e. -late 1800s) state controlled by colonial elites (proto-capitalists defeat military elites) capital owned by colonial elites (plantations) non-capitalistic relations of production (slavery) capitalistic relations of production (production for exchange) production controlled from periphery (plantations in colonies) rights of property developing; notions of freedom emerging
Bourgeois Capitalism / Industrial Capitalism / Mature Capitalism (c. 1800 c.e. -present?) state controlled by bourgeoisie (defeat colonial elites) capital owned by bourgeoisie capitalistic relations of production (wage labor) capitalistic relations of exchange (production for exchange) production controlled from the core (plantations relegated to secondary role) freedom is an absolute property right
Genovese Phenomenon: Until the bourgeois/democratic revolutions, collective slave resistance yielded restorationist rather than revolutionary results
Genovese Problem: Why did collective slave resistance tend to yield, restorationist rather than revolutionary results until the bourgeois/democratic revolutions? Premises Collective slave resistance Bourgeois revolution Before: only restorationist results What is restorationist? After: possibility of revolutionary results What is revolutionary?
Genovese Problem: Why did collective slave resistance tend to yield, restorationist rather than revolutionary results until the bourgeois/democratic revolutions? Explanation: something about the bourgeoisdemocratic revolution changed the character or consequences of collective resistance, so that results could become revolutionary
WHY did slave revolts in pre-capitalist (feudalistic, seigniorial) societies tend to yield restorationist rather than revolutionary results? Before the bourgeois-democratic revolution: slavery not seen as a socially illegitimate wider range of acceptable social statuses focus on social hierarchy rather than the presumption of equality slave differed from non-slaves in degree, not kind to revolt in such a system is to leave society, place one s self outside the accepted social order ( isolationism )
WHY did slave revolt in bourgeois (industrial, mature) capitalist societies tend to yield revolutionary results? New values of the bourgeois-democratic revolution: New commitment to the value of absolute property Labor as a market commodity Freedom as an absolute property right Slavery = total denial of freedom Slavery irreconcilable with value of absolute property, hence illegitimate Slave revolts can imagine slavery s destruction
TIME STYLE OF SLAVERY ECONOMY IDEOLOGY up to c. 1500 "Old World Slavery" Pre-capitalistic / Seigneurial / Feudalistic Slavery a legitimate social institution "New World Slavery" c. 1500 - c. 1770s(transitional) Proto-capitalistic / Plantation capitalism / Mercantilism Slavery a legitimate social institution c. 1770s - "New World Slavery" (mature) Bourgeois capitalism / Industrial capitalism / Mature capitalism Slavery violates values of bourgeois-democratic revolution