THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION AND THE BEGINNINGS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM: THE RACIAL QUESTION AND THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL SUBJECT

In the beginning of Constitutionalism, the legal and political subject already had appeared as the center of imputations and rights. Capitalism and constitutionalism made the existence of this leading actor of Modernity possible. The concept of this subject responded to the model of the white and European man, with capacities of reason and wealth. Excluded from this abstraction were women, Mulattoes, Indians and Negroes. The liberal values of the beginning of constitutionalism did not reach these "others". However, the latter made use of the very principles of liberal constitutionalism to claim the same rights as the white man. The mulatto and black population of Haiti is the object of this study. "Haitian Revolutionary Constitutionalism" questions the excluding character of the subject of liberty and equality and put on the stand the racial reality that occidental constitutionalism ignored. The repercussions of the Haitian revolution on the beginnings of American and French constitutionalism are analyzed.