A story of love, violence, and race set at the outbreak of the Haitian
Revolution in 1791, African American writer Arna Bontemps's Drums at
Dusk immerses readers in the opulent and brutal -- yet also very fragile
-- society of France's richest colony, Saint Domingue. First published
in 1939, this novel explores the complex web of tensions connecting
wealthy plantation owners, poor whites, free people of color, and the
slaves who stunned the colony and the globe by uniting in a carefully
planned uprising. The novel's hero, Diron Desautels, a white Creole born
in Saint Domingue who belongs to the French antislavery group Société
des Amis des Noirs, attempts to spread his message of "liberty,
equality, fraternity" in a world fraught with conflict.
Imaginatively inhabiting a wide spectrum of Haitian voices, including
those of white indentured servants, female slaves, and Toussaint
L'Ouverture, who later emerged as the revolution's best-known hero,
Bontemps's work reflects not only the intricacies of Haitian society on
the eve of the revolution, but also a black artist's vision of Haiti in
the twentieth century, during the U.S. Marines' occupation and at the
brink of war in Europe.
A new introduction by Michael P. Bibler and Jessica Adams reveals how
Drums at Dusk -- even seventy years after its original publication --
contributes to contemporary studies of the American South as part of the
larger plantation region of the Caribbean and inspires a reevaluation of
assumptions about revolution, race, and nationalism.
