Silencing the Past

Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Michel-Rolph Trouillot showed how silences occur at four moments in the production of history: in the origination at the source, in the collection of what is archived, in the construction of what is narrated and in the reiteration of what is given historical significance. Trouillot gave examples from the Mexican-American and World War II history before moving to Haitian history which is his main area of expertise.  His history of the Haitian revolution is framed between an opening chapter about power and bias that silenced key events in the past and a closing chapter that addresses the importance of re-presenting the past with authenticity in word and deed.  Trouillot is an anthropologist with a genealogy in a Haitian family interested in preserving their cultural heritage.  Thus, he is well placed both for a positivist view of the Haitian nation state as well as for a constructivist view of Haitian culture.  Trouillot outlined the theoretical frameworks of famous academic historians and black literary authors and referenced the conflict between positivist and constructivist approaches to history without taking a side in the debate.  Instead he reviewed the Eurocentric approach to the history of the Haitian slave rebellions, and cited several texts from American, English and French authors before critiquing the European colonial narrative of those events.  Although he made the point that white colonialists were motivated by political and racist agendas, he normalized the silencing of minority viewpoints in Haitian history as something that always happens in the production of history.  He wrote, “Thus whatever becomes fact does so with its own inborn absences, specific to its production. In other words, the very mechanisms that make any historical recording possible also ensure that historical facts are not created equal.  They reflect differential control of the means of historical production at the very first engraving that transforms an event into a fact.” (p. 49).  His main point was that those who are in control of the production of history inevitably choose what gets included and what gets left out.  Regarding the rebellion that took place in Haiti from 1791-1804, Trouillot argued that Sans Souci was a much greater hero than those whose names are better remembered, but his name was purposely obliterated by his enemy, a rival chief.  Trouillot demonstrated that the present impacts the past as much as the past impacts the present, and both have profound implications for the future.  The book is a good example of how a historian can go beyond racial bias and avoid quibbling about perspectives on historicity to get down to the more meaningful business of revising history wherever that is most needed for the sake of the truth.
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 2015)