Q&A with Sudhir Hazareesingh

  

 

Sudhir Hazareesingh is the author of the new book Daring to Be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World. His other books include Black Spartacus. He is a fellow and tutor in politics at Balliol College, Oxford. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Daring to Be Free?

 

A: The book is a sequel of sorts to my Black Spartacus, a biography of the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture.

 

In the course of writing that book I came to realise that the phenomenon of resistance among enslaved people across the Atlantic was much deeper, more enduring, and far more complex than I had imagined. So I wanted to tell this larger story.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: It is part of a quote from another Haitian revolutionary leader, and former enslaved person, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. He uttered these words at the time of Haitian independence in 1804, after the army he commanded had defeated Napoleon’s forces which had been sent to re-enslave his people. It was an extraordinary victory, against what was at the time the most formidable army in Europe.

 

For me, the expression really captures the boldness of the enslaved, and their refusal to give up on their dream of freedom – whatever the cost.

 

Q: The scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. said of you and of the book, “Drawing on rich archival and oral sources, he reframes abolition as the achievement of the enslaved themselves--a centuries-long struggle driven by courage, solidarity, and an unyielding will to be free.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I am very grateful to Professor Gates for this wonderful endorsement.

 

One of the main themes of the book is that abolition was not gifted to the enslaved by benevolent white reformers. They fought for it and the accomplishment was theirs; their major contribution was long denied or minimised.

 

I also think this story is very important in terms of our understanding of the origins of democracy: the enslaved were instinctively democratic, and they were fighting for the ideal of self-determination. The enslaved in many ways pioneered the democracy we enjoy today.

 

Q: The book has a wide scope--how did you research it, and did you learn anything that particularly surprised you?

 

A: It was very daunting! I learned a massive amount about countries which I knew very little about, and the first chapter of the book is about slave resistance in Africa, which I had absolutely no idea about. So it was a great learning curve.

 

The greatest difficulty I encountered was not the absence of sources, but their great fragmentation; I had to comb through books and archives just to find small nuggets of information which allowed me to put this story together. It was a bit like assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am working with a translator for the French edition of Daring to Be Free, which will be published by the Editions Flammarion in early October 2026. I am looking forward to being in Paris for that!

 

I am also starting to write a book about the history of the presidents of the Fifth Republic in France, from the 1958 to the present.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There is a wonderful recent movie about enslaved resistance called “No chains, no masters” (2024), directed by Simon Moutaïrou; it is set in my native island of Mauritius in the 18th century. I warmly recommend it!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Sudhir Hazareesingh.