Reading and Discussion Questions

Letters of Abigail Adams; Toussaint L’Ouverture, Haitian Constitution

Winter 2011

1. In Abigail Adams’ letter to Isaac Smith, what evidences of the public sphere do you find?

2. How does Adams characterize women? Human nature?

3. Why does she ask Smith about Catharine Macaulay’s work on education?

4. How would you describe the tone of Abigail’s letter to John of March 31, 1776?

5. Where do you hear echoes of the Enlightenment themes and language? How are they used?

6. In his response of April 14^th, what does John Adams mean by asserting that “our Masculine systems” are “little more than Theory” (237). Does this exchange remind you of conversations you’ve heard—among friends, family, or in popular culture—about the relative power of men and women? How does humor work in such exchanges?

7. In Abigail Adams’ letter to Mercy Otis Warren, what genre of political rhetoric does she mention?

8. How do Enlightenment principles enter into her discussion?

9. What does she mean by writing that she was “making trial of the Disintresstedness of his Virtue”? (How does the word “disinterest” differ in meaning from “uninterest”?)

10. In Abigail’s letter to John of May 7^th, she confronts him with a contradiction and a threat. How does the contradiction appear in the Declaration of Independence that Adams will participate in writing that summer? How do you understand the threat?

11. John Adams’ letter to James Sullivan (May 26, 1776) is full of questions. Why?

12. Upon what other excluded subjects does John Adams reflect in this letter? What is his fear?

13. What are you thoughts about his metaphor comparing government with a machine?

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See this page for the Haitian Constitution of 1801:

http://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Haitian_Constitution_of_1801_(English)

The main page (http://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Main_Page) includes links to many other, related documents.

1. Why is it significant that L’Ouverture sent the constitution of 1801 to Napoleon in a letter?

http://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Toussaint_letter_to_Napol%C3%A9on_on_the_1801_Constitution (See also Article XIII, Art. 77.)

2. What is the territorial relationship between Saint-Domingue and the French Empire?

3. What Enlightenment principles are asserted in Title II?

4. How does Title III violate Enlightenment principles?

5. Consider the regulation of marriage, family, and home regulated by Titles IV and VI in contrast with the U.S. Declaration and the letters of Abigail and John Adams. Can speculate about why L’Ouverture and the enslaved population of Saint-Domingue would write such provisions into their constitution?

6. Title V guarantees security and property. (See also Title XIII, Art. 63.) Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration promised “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Discuss possible reasons for these different uses of Locke’s political theory.

7. Title VIII designates Toussaint L’Ouverture as governor for life with permission to choose his successor. How is this choice justified within the Constitution?

8. Title XIII, Art. 67 forbids “associations contrary to public order,” while Art. 68 opens up the possibility for education. How has an Enlightenment “republic of letters” contributed to slave rebellion and constitution of the government of Haiti? What constrictions and contradictions related to the functioning of public spheres do you find here and in the Constitution overall? How might they be understood in the Haitian context?

9. How is a declaration different from a constitution? What differences in style and tone do you find between the U.S. Declaration and the Haitian Constitution? How does the former serve as an intertext for the latter?