Frail Liberty

Tessie P. Liu is an associate professor of history and of gender and sexuality studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Weaver’s Knot: The Contradictions of Class Struggle and Family Solidarity in Western France, 1750–1914 and coeditor of Gendered Colonialisms in African History.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Alchemy of Merit1. Sympathy Ink: Staging Humanity in a Revolutionary Empire2. An Ebullient Summer: The Amis des Noirs Organize to Fight the Slave Trade3. Children of a Common Father: Free People of Color as Objects of Sympathy4. Who Belongs as Citizens? The Antinomies of Rights and Freedom5. Facing Insurrection: Free Colored Rights or Emancipation6. “What Kind of Free Is This?” Probationary Citizens and the Dilemmas of General Liberty7. Can the Old Colonies Be Saved? “Disfigured Slaves” and the New Abolitionism8. The Hermeneutics of Freedom and Violence: Justifying Slavery after EmancipationConclusion: The Allure and Tragedy of Meritorious BelongingEpilogue: Forgotten Promises of Representative DemocracyNotesBibliographyIndex

"In this provocative study, Tessie P. Liu raises important and uncomfortable questions about the nexus of race and citizenship during the French and Haitian Revolutions."-Lauren R. Clay, H-France Review "Richly documented and thoroughly researched, this volume will bring together seasoned scholars and students of French colonial history and postcolonial studies, as well as historians of the Atlantic world."-HÉlÈne B. Ducros, EuropeNow “This work is important for several reasons: It further complicates our understanding of republican citizenship in revolutionary France by focusing on colonialism, race, and merit. Second, in citing Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Tessie P. Liu highlights the role of the colonies in shaping metropolitan discourse. Third, she elevates the importance of the passive citizen to examine universality and merit. Liu also highlights the role that Amis des Noirs played in framing political debates, even if they were not often successful in their pursuits. Their credit is much deserved and well overdue.”-Erica Johnson Edwards, author of Philanthropy and Race in the Haitian Revolution “Tessie P. Liu brings new insights to two major events in French and world history, the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, and uses these histories to explore broader questions of democracy, political representation, and race. Moreover, Liu uses colonial history to illustrate and ultimately reshape how we see the history of metropolitan France. This is an outstanding work of scholarship: original, thought provoking, thoroughly researched, and well argued.”-Tyler Stovall, coeditor of The Black Populations of France: Histories from Metropole to Colony