Literature of the Black Atlantic

A close reading of C.L.R James non-fictional narrative The Black Jacobins and Charles Johnson's Middle Passage would seem to imply that there is a particular equation for the revolutionary protagonist. Both James' Toussaint and Johnson's Calhoun suffer through similar circumstances, possess an uncanny combination of similar qualities, and strive towards a similar goal: the reconciliation of the dichotomy between conflicting worlds and forces. However, there exists one primary difference between the two characters that ultimately leads to Calhoun's success and to Toussaint's failure.

Clearly, Calhoun and Toussaint possess striking similarities in both personality and in circumstance. Neither, for example, initiates the respective revolution that he eventually champions: Calhoun is a castaway turned laborer on an American slave-ship, and Toussaint is a loyal slave who actually defends his master’s plantation before joining the rebel forces. Secondly, both men recognize that while their respective revolutions are in some ways unique and singular, the outcomes of each rebellion are inevitably tied to the global treatment of the black-white race conflict. Finally, and most significantly, both Calhoun and Toussaint endure, to some degree, the “slave experience.”

That Calhoun and Toussaint were both enslaved is significant not only because it provides a source of common ground, but also because it illuminates the major difference between the two. Because the terms of Calhoun’s slavery and release from bondage were so different from those of Toussaint, only Calhoun is able to reconcile the dialectical situation he finds himself in. Whereas Toussaint, after many years of oppression, fought to secure his own liberty, Calhoun is handed his freedom at a young, innocent age. The Haitian protagonist is traumatized by his experiences, overcome with the anxiety of being re-enslaved, and, unlike Calhoun, is never able to escape the trappings of his slave history. On the other hand, Calhoun, raised in a society that is beginning to promote black-white empathy, is far removed from the threat of enslavement. In the end, it is this personal difference between Calhoun and Toussaint that enables one to succeed in mediating the conflicting forces, and that leads the other to die for trying.