Feb 2
Talk by Ronald A. Johnson
Talk title: Shared Struggle: The American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and Black-White Diplomacy
The American Revolution and Haitian Revolution are often studied as separate events within the Age of Revolutions. In his latest book project, We Are All Equal: Turmoil and Triumphs in the Early United States and Revolutionary Haiti, Ronald Angelo Johnson examines shared ideals of
liberty and republican governance between early Americans and revolutionary Haitians, two peoples whose defiance of empire transformed the political landscape across the Atlantic world. The presentation will explore connections between Haitian contributions to American
independence and, later, US influence in Haiti’s fight against slavery and European tyranny.
Dr. Ronald Angelo Johnson holds the Ralph and Bessie Mae Lynn Endowed Chair of History at Baylor University. As a historian, he employs a transnational approach to the study of diplomacy and the African diaspora in the early United States. He is the author of two books, Entangled
Alliances: Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy during the American Revolution (published by Cornell University Press), and Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance, and the co-editor of the volume, In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World.
Dr. Johnson is co-editor of the Journal of the Early Republic.
Dr. Johnson’s current book project is titled We Are All Equal: Turmoil and Triumph in the Early United States and Revolutionary Haiti, and is under contract with Princeton University Press.
Tidbits about me that some audiences may find interesting:
Dr. Johnson received his Bachelor’s degree from Texas State University, Master’s degrees from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and the Boston University School of Theology, and a Ph.D. in history from Purdue University. Dr. Johnson was a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the US Air Force and served in Saudi
Arabia during Operation Desert Storm (First Gulf War) and, later, served as a Navy Reserve Lieutenant (as a Chaplain) with the 1st Battalion-23rd Marine Regiment, in Austin, TX, and the 2 nd Battalion-14 th Marine Regiment, in Grand Prairie, TX. He served as an analyst at the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and was a US diplomat in the countries of Luxembourg and Gabon (in central Africa).