Stella, first published in 1859, is an imaginative retelling of Haiti's
fight for independence from slavery and French colonialism. Set during
the years of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), Stella tells the story
of two brothers, Romulus and Remus, who help transform their homeland
from the French colony of Saint-Domingue to the independent republic of
Haiti. Inspired by the sacrifice of their African mother Marie and
Stella, the spirit of Liberty, Romulus and Remus must learn to work
together to found a new country based on the principles of freedom and
equality. This new translation and critical edition of Émeric Bergeaud's
allegorical novel makes Stella available to English-speaking audiences
for the first time.
Considered the first novel written by a Haitian, Stella tells of the
devastation and deprivation that colonialism and slavery wrought upon
Bergeaud's homeland. Unique among nineteenth-century accounts, Stella
gives a pro-Haitian version of the Haitian Revolution, a bloody but just
struggle that emancipated a people, and it charges future generations
with remembering the sacrifices and glory of their victory. Bergeaud's
novel demonstrates that the Haitians--not the French--are the true
inheritors of the French Revolution, and that Haiti is the realization
of its republican ideals. At a time in which Haitian Studies is becoming
increasingly important within the English-speaking world, this edition
calls attention to the rich though under-examined world of
nineteenth-century Haiti.
