The Revolutionary Atlantic

Rafe Blaufarb (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is Ben Weider Eminent Scholar Chair in Napoleonic History and the Director of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at Florida State University. He is the author of The French Army, 1750-1820: Careers, Talent, Merit (2002), Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Refugees and Exiles on the Gulf Coast, 1815-1835 (2005), and Napoleon: Symbol for an Age (2007). He has published articles in a number of journals, including the AHR, Past and Present, Annales, and the Journal of Modern History.

Acknowledgements
About the Author
Map 1: The Atlantic in 1763
Map 2: The Atlantic in 1830

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: THE ENGLIGHTENMENT

The Giants
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1689)
Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
Denis Diderot, "Political Authority" (1751)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)

History and Political Theory

Henry de Boulainvillier, History of the Ancient Government of France (1727)
Nicholas Moreau, Lessons in Morality, Politics and Public Law drawn from
the History of Our Monarchy (1773)
Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, Observations on the History of France (1765)

Enlightenment and Revolution

Guillame-Joseph Saige, The Citizen's Catechism (1788)

CHAPTER TWO: THE STRAINS OF EMPIRE

Spain

Alexander Von Humboldt on New Spain (Mexico) (1814)
Economic Complaints (1828)
Exploitation and Corruption: The View from the Top (1768)
Exploitation and Corruption: The View from Below (1781)
First Stirrings of Revolution (1799)

France

Taxing Saint-Domingue (1763-4)

Great Britain

Royal Proclamation on the Western Territories (1763)
Grievances of Western Settlers (1764)
Reaction to the Quebec Act (1775)
Adam Smith on Colonial Taxation (1776)
A New Colonial Order (1764)
Resistance: New York Petition to the House of Commons (1764)
Resistance: The Irish House of Commons (1763)
Resistance: The Jamaican House of Assembly (1769-83)

CHAPTER THREE: ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Repealing the Stamp Act (1766)

Parliamentary Debate over the Withdrawal of the Stamp Act (1766)
Parliamentary Testimony of Benjamin Franklin (1766)

Conflict Intensifies (1766-1774)

Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
A Climate of Paranoia (1773)
More Paranoia (1774)

On the Brink (1774-75)

The Continental Congress's Declaration and Resolves (1774)
Edmund Burke, Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)

Imperial Shockwaves

The View from Jamaica (1774)
The View from Ireland (1776)

The Breaking Point (1775-76)

Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775)
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
Charles Inglis, The True Interest of America Impartially Stated (1776)
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Loyalist Declaration of Dependence (1781)

CHAPTER FOUR: WINNING AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

Race, Slavery, and the War

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation (1775)
John Laurens Recommends Recruiting Slaves (1778)
Alexander Hamilton's Response to the Idea (1779)
George Washington's Reaction (1779)
Slave Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature (1777)
Pennslyvania Abolishes Slavery (1781)

Native Americans and the American Revolution

Oneida Declaration of Neutrality (1775)
Continental Congress Seeks Iroquois Neutrality (1775)

Loyalists

Lafayette describes the American Revolution as a Civil War (1776-1790)
Loyalist Song: "The Rebels"
Show the Loyalists No Mercy (1779)

A Government for Independent America

John Adams, Thoughts on Government (1776)
Articles of Confederation (1777)

The Constitution of 1787

James Madison, Vices of the Political System of the United States (1787)
The Problem of Slavery and Representation (1787)
The Constitution (1787)

Ratifying the Constitution

James Madison, Federalist Number 10 (1787)
Antifederalist Number 17 (1788)
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
Bill of Rights (1791)
George Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

CHAPTER FIVE: ORIGINS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Resistance to the Parelments

Remonstration of the Parlement of Paris Against the Acts of Violence
Committed Against the Different Parlements (1763)
They Royal Session Known as the "Session of Flagellation" (1766)
Remonstrations Leading to the Maupeou Coup (1770-71)
Remonstration of the Cour des Aides (1775)

Alternate Pathways to Reform

Marquis de Mirabeau, Memoire sur les Etats Provinciaux (1750)
Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Memoir on Municipalities (1787)
Jacques Necker, Account Given to the King (1781)

The Pre-Revolution (1787-88)

The Assembly of Notables (1787)
Parlement's Remonstration against the Stamp Tax (1787)

Radicalization and the Shifting Alignment of Political Conflict

Deliberation to be Taken by the Third Estate in all the Municipalities of the
French Kingdom (1788)
Parlement's Denunciation of the Deliberation to be Taken (1788)
Abbé Sieyes, What is the Third Estate? (1789)
Memoir of the Princes (1788)
Result of the Council on the Composition of the Estates-General (1788)

The Nation Speaks

Cahier of the Clergy of Rouen (1789)
Cahier of the Nobility of Rouen (1789)
Cahier of the Third-Estate of Rouen (1789)
Cahier of the Barrel-Makers of Rouen (1789)
La Val de la Haye (1789)

CHAPTER SIX: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

From Estates-General to the National Assembly

Arthur Young, Travels in France (1789)

Dismantling the Old Regime

A Wigmaker Recounts the Great Fear at Cremieu (1789)
The Marquis d'Agoult Describes the Night of August 4th (1789)
Decree of 10 August 1789

The New Regime...and Its Limits

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789)
Olympe de Gouges, The Rights of Women (1791)
Maximillian Robespierre, Speed Against Property Qualifications to Exercise
the Full Rights of Citizenship (1791)
Abbé Grégoire, Motion in Favor of the Jews (1789)

The Church's Place in the New Regime

The Constitutionality of Corps: Le Chapellier (1789)
The Clerical Position: Archbishop Boisgelin (1789)
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790)

Reaction to the Revolution

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Thomas Paine, The Rights of Men (1791)

Revolution and Counterrevolution

The Jacobin Crusade (1792)
The King's Flight (1791)

War

The Declaration of War (1792)
The Brunswick Manifesto (1792)
The Marseillaise (1792)
The Levy en Masse (1793)

The Republican Revolution

Saint-Just, Republican Institutions (1794)
Maximillian Robespierre, The Principles of Political Morality (1794)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1793)

The Directory

Drafting the Directorial Constitution (1795)
Inaugural Message of the Directory to the French People (1795)
Doctrine of Gracchus Babeuf (1794)

The Brumaire Coup and Consulate

Consular Address to the French People (1799)
The Concordat (1802)
The Civil Code (1804)

The Empire

The Motion to Make Bonaparte a Hereditary Ruler (1804)
Napoleon's New Nobility (1807)
Why the French Submitted to Napoleon's Rule

The Restoration

Louis XVIII's Constitutional Charter (1814)
Reactionary Europe (1820)
Great Britain and European Reaction (1820)

CHAPTER SEVEN: TOWARD THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION

Abolitionist Sentiment in Pre-Revolutionary France

The Society of the Friends of the Blacks (1788)

The Beginning of the French Revolution

The Planter's Fears of Revolutionary Radicalism (1789)
Planter Grievances and Aspirations (1789)
A Planter Pamphlet (1789)
Divisions Among Whites (1789)
The Atlantic Merchants Weigh In (1789)
The Colonial Order Rips Itself Apart (1791)

Free People of Color

The Free People of Color Enter the Scene (1789)
The Abbé Grégoire Intervenes (1789)

The Assembly Debates Equality for the Free People of Color

The Colonial Committee's Initial Approach (1790)
Abbé Grégoire, Letter to the Lovers of Humanity (1790)
The Debate Over Race and Citizenship (1791)
The Jamaicans React (1791)
The French Reaction: The Political Right (1791)
The French Reaction: The Political Left (1791)

CHAPTER EIGHT: EMANCIPATION AND INDEPENDENCE

Emancipation

Sonthonax's Emancipation Proclamation (1793)
The National Convention Ratifies Emancipation (1794)

Post-Emancipation

Polverel's Labor Regulations (1794-94)
Toussaint Louverture's Labor Regulations (1800)
Toussaint's Constitution (1801)

Napoleon's Expedition

The Fate of Louisiana (1802)
The Fate of the French Expedition (1801)

Defining the Meaning of Independence

Declaration of Independence and Abjuration of the French Nation (1804)
A Black Republic (1804)
Foreign Reactions to Haitian Independence (1804)
African American Reactions (1827)

Independent Haiti

Haiti in 1807
Haiti in 1826
Colonial Fears of Haiti (1812)
Haiti As Sanctuary (1817)

CHAPTER NINE: THE STRUGGLES FOR LATIN AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

Forerunners of Independence

Count de Aranda's Secret Report to King Carlos III
Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzman, Letter to the Spanish Americans (1810)
Francisco de Miranda, Draft Constitution for Spanish America (late 1790s)

The Napoleonic Wars and Latin American Indpendence

Proclamation of King Joseph to the Spanish Americans (1809)
Francisco Martinez Marina, Theory of Cortes (1813)
Colonial Representation in the Cortes (1810)
Manifesto to the Mexican People from Their Representatives to the Cortes
(1813)

Declaring Independence

Venezuelan Declaration of Independence (1811)
Argentinian Independence Implied (1811)
Mexican Declaration of Independence (1813)

Mexican Independence (1810-1815)

Excommunications fo Hidalgo (1810)
Hidalgo's Manifesto against His Excommunication (1810)
Morelos, Sentiments of the Nation (1813)

The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Latin American Independence

Bolivar's Proclamation of War to the Death (1813)
Bolivar's Jamaica Letter (1815)
Bolivarian Naval Dominance (1818)
Roussin, "Report on Venezuela and New Granada" (1820)
State of Revolution in South America (1818)

CHAPTER TEN: THE CONTOURS OF INDEPENDENCE

A New World of Republics?

Bolivar, "Angostura Address" (1819)

Mexico Achieves Independence

Address of Colonel Quiroga to Ferdinand VII (1820)
Plan of Iguala (1821)

Brazilian Independence

Manifesto of the Prince Regent to the People of Brazil (1822)

Latin American Independence and the Atlantic Powers

Circular of Spain to the European Government (1817)
Canning's Memorandum to the Cabinet on Spanish American Policy (1822)
The "Polignac Memorandum" (1823)
Monroe Doctrine (1823)
Latin American Criticism of the Monroe Doctrine
Bernardo Monteagudo, "Essay on the Need for a General Federation between
the Hispano-American States" (1824)

CONCLUSION