By Seth Whitty
During the 1834 Tennessee State Constitutional Convention, a group of delegates created a report on whether the Convention should enact a measure that would grant the emancipation of enslaved people in the state. The report forcibly rejected any notion of emancipation by contending that it would destroy "the peace, the prosperity, nay the very existence of society." To justify this claim, it reminded the other delegates of the Haitian Revolution by emphasizing the "bloody scenes of St. Domingo," and asked them not to be persuaded by the "misguided fanatics" of abolition.[1] The specters of the Haitian Revolution and abolition in the report influenced the county delegates to create draconian acts within the 1834 Constitution, such as restricting the right to bear arms to only White men. The Convention revealed that acts of defiance against bondage were co-opted by White politicians to solidify slavery in Tennessee. Furthermore, this Convention displayed how issues surrounding abolition and slavery during the Age of Revolutions, such as the Haitian Revolution, were a prevalent force that could influence localities, like Tennessee, that were outside the traditional historiographical scope of the Atlantic World.
Tennessee has been largely ignored in the examination of how the United States responded to and interacted with the Haitian Revolution. This is mainly due to the state's isolation from the revolution because of its geographical distance and its preoccupation with the long and brutal war against the Cherokee people. Indeed, much of the writings of Tennessee politicians during the 1790s and the first decade of the nineteenth century were focused on recounting past violent acts and their own racism towards the Cherokee. However, the symbolism and potential influence of the destruction of slavery in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue and the creation of an independent Black nation of Haiti was not lost on Whites in Tennessee. In 1803, in perhaps the clearest reaction to the Haitian Revolution, the state assembly passed an act that made it illegal to discuss any current events or revolutionary topics near enslaved people over the fear it may "induce them to insurrection."[2]
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