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” in
Europe
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Geography
Population demographics
Resident/absent planters
Political in/stability
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
up to c. 1500
STYLE OF
SLAVERY
ECONOMY
IDEOLOGY
"Old World
Slavery"
Pre-capitalistic /
Seigneurial /
Feudalistic
Slavery a legitimate social
institution
"New World
Slavery"
c. 1500 - c. 1770s (transitional)
c. 1770s -
Proto-capitalistic /
Plantation capitalism / Slavery a legitimate social
Mercantilism
institution
Bourgeois capitalism / Slavery violates values of
"New World
Industrial capitalism / bourgeois-democratic
Slavery" (mature) Mature capitalism
revolution