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

Metropolitan “core” inEurope

Agricultural“periphery” In New World

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 bourgeois-democratic 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

c. 1500 - c. 1770s

"New World

Slavery"

(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