Here are discussion questions to accompany Chapter One: Revolution of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson. In the chapter, Jackson writes,
Revolutions are complicated. Americans venerate the American Revolution and the French Revolution, but other revolutions, particularly ones that involve violence committed by people of color, are rejected and feared. . . . But when I think of revolutions, I think of new beginnings.
1. Before reading the chapter, make your own definition of “revolution.” What things determine whether something is revolutionary? After reading Kellie Carter Jackson’s description of revolution, consider how it compares to yours. Would you revise your definition based on what you read? Explain.
2. In a 1969 speech, Civil Rights Movement leader Ella Baker said, “How much have we got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going[?] . . . In order to see where we are going, we not only must remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been.” What do you see as the distinction between remembering and understanding? Respond with an example from history or your own experience.
3. The actions of enslaved populations in Haiti and on Guadeloupe “gave life and legitimacy to the rhetoric the American Founding Fathers and European colonizers merely performed,” writes Kellie Carter Jackson. What does she mean?
4. We Refuse argues that “the victory of the American Revolution appears sustaining, but only if we examine white power structures. . . It did not protect Indigenous peoples. It did not free the enslaved. It did not replace an exploitative system with an equitable one.” Consider whether or not the “American Revolution” is an accurate title for the era. If not, what would be a better title?
5. How did enslaved people in Haiti emancipate themselves and inspire Black resistance movements hundreds of miles away? How did white supremacists move to quell their freedom?
6. This chapter quotes the Creole phrase, “Tout moun. Se moun” — loosely translating to “Every person is a person.” Would this have been a revolutionary statement in the United States in the late 18th century? Explain.
7. What were the goals of the French Revolution? Why did they resonate with enslaved populations of Saint-Domingue?
8. The American Revolution and Haitian Revolution were both violent — but “the West” deemed some acts of violence to be acceptable, and others unacceptable. Who and what has determined the “legitimacy” of violence, then and now?
9. According to historian Alfred Hunt, “No issue having to do with slavery and the role of [Black people] in American society was discussed at so many different times, in so many different ways, for so many different reasons, as the lessons of the Haitian Revolution.” List some examples of Haiti’s influence on the United States in the early 19th century. Which of these “lessons” do you agree with, and which do you disagree with? Say why.
10. Louis Delgrès, a leader of the movement to resist French reoccupation of Guadeloupe, declared in an appeal for racial equality addressed to the entire universe that “resistance to oppression is a natural right.” The original copy of his 1802 proclamation (aptly called “To the Entire Universe”) is gone, though other rebels and later historians carried on his message. Make a list of voices and documents of the American Revolution that are carefully preserved and widely available to learn about. What perspectives are left out, or harder to find? Why do you think that is?
11. In a discussion of monuments and memory, Kellie Carter Jackson explains, “The violence of white supremacy is also bound up in forgetting. That Black revolutionary victories have been marginalized and forgotten is not accidental. [European colonizers] sought to erase Black history because history often serves as a road map to a possible future.” Give examples from this chapter, and the world today, that support this quote. For example, how does current legislation banning truthful history from the classroom relate to the concept of forgetting?
12. We Refuse outlines a social contract of white supremacy that transcends class and gender. What is meant by a social contract, and how did this social contract shape the founding of the United States?
13. Kellie Carter Jackson cites a 1774 essay by formerly enslaved African American Caesar Sarter to illustrate that the ideals of the Founding Fathers were “not liberty and equality but greed and self-preservation.” Compare and contrast this framing with a description of the Founders in a typical U.S. history textbook. What does the textbook tell you to think of the Founders, and why? For example,
Prentice Hall’s textbook Out of Many: A History of the American People says,
[The Founders] realized that the coming struggle for independence would require the steady support of ordinary people, so they asserted this great principle of equality and the right of revolution. . . Surely no statement would reverberate more through American history; the idea of equality inspired the poor as well as the wealthy, women as well as men, blacks as well as whites.
Cengage Learning’s textbook HIST. Vol. 1: U.S. History Through 1877 argues,
[The Founders intended] not just to seek nationhood, but to do so in the belief that all men were created equal and that all people possessed certain rights that nobody could deny. . . In promising the “natural rights” of life, liberty, and property, the American Revolution served as an ideological model for later revolutions in France and in Central and South America, among others. But the Revolution was a bellwether of not only liberty but also republican democracy. The American revolutionaries hoped their struggles would curb the system of Old World aristocracy. They no longer wanted to be ruled by a few powerful people with long-entrenched methods of perpetuating their wealth and status. . . No one was sure what would arise in the place of Old World aristocracy, but they knew that, after the Revolution, the old system was dead.
14. Crispus Attucks is widely known as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre, and the first casualty of the American Revolution. But he was also embraced by Antebellum-era abolitionists and Civil Rights Movement leaders as a model of Black resistance. According to this chapter, Attucks “embodied the diversity of colonial America and the active participation of workers and people of color in the public life of the Revolutionary era.” How does this account of Attucks and his legacy compare to what you’ve learned about him previously in school, at a museum, or somewhere else?
15. Why did George Washington outlaw Black men from fighting in the Continental Army? Why did he eventually change this policy?
16. Kellie Carter Jackson writes that, for Black people in the American Revolution, “fighting in exchange for freedom was a precarious deal.” Explain what this statement means.
17. This chapter shows that the American Revolution did not live up to principles of equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for most people. “The Revolution was not merely imperfect,” Kellie Carter Jackson observes. “It was not true.” How does this account compare to your U.S. history textbook’s narrative, or other stories you’ve been told about the American Revolution?
18. What is Frederick Douglass’s message in his 1852 speech, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”? How would you suggest commemorating the Fourth of July in your community? What activities should be held, and why?
19. What made Reconstruction the “real work of revolution?” What were its limitations?
20. “The hardest part of revolution is not winning; it’s protecting and sustaining what was won,” writes Kellie Carter Jackson. Historical progress is not linear; rights and freedoms need to be defended and carried forward by each new generation. Note examples from this chapter or other moments in the past that demonstrate this lesson. How might we apply this lesson to the era of history we’re living through?
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