Haitian Revolution | Jane Takes On History

We’ve all heard that history is written by the winners. In his 1995 book, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Michel-Rolph Trouillot both agrees and disagrees. He shows that historical narratives, such as the story of the Haitian Revolution, reflect differences in power—”the uneven contribution of competing groups and individuals,” from the initial event to the written word.[1]

In other words, the people who shape history are not necessarily the winners. But they usually have some kind of power.

About a third of the way through his book I realized that I had discovered such silences in my research on, yes, American correspondence schools. Continue reading “Silencing the Past: From the Haitian Revolution to American Correspondence Schools”

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March 4, 1841. Lithograph by Charles Fenderich. From the Library of Congress, in the public domain.

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A salt cellar by Johannes Lutma (1639). In the public domain, courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.

Tony Dunnell of History Facts discusses seven once-hard-to-get items. They include salt, tea, aluminum, pineapple and ice.

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