Archipelago

Abstract

In both its making and its unmaking, the Grenada Revolution was a profoundly Caribbean event. The dense web of regional connections both antedates and accompanies the Grenada Revolution. One might contextualize an account of the archipelago’s embrace with the fact that Henri Christophe was born in Grenada on the Sans Souci estate, from where he was taken as a slave to Haiti, where he would go on to lead the Haitian Revolution.1 Inspired by the same cluster of events as the Haitian Revolution, Julien Fédon in his 1795 Rebellion in Grenada evaded the British military and according to legend escaped to Cuba. Legend also has it that Cromanti Cudjoe, celebrated in Carriacou’s Big Drum dance, was a Jamaican maroon who ended up in Grenada, traveled disguised as a woman to organize rebellion, and fought as a lieutenant for Fédon (J. Martin, A–Z 61). C. L. R. James’ “From Toussaint L’Ouverture to Fidel Castro” defined the Caribbean region through a series of surging revolutionary lineages and linkages—to which he would no doubt have added Grenada.