Anna Seghers’ Karibische Geschichten [Caribbean Stories, 1949] comprise three historical novellas about slave uprisings in the Caribbean during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: “Die Hochzeit von Haiti” [“The Wedding in Haiti”], “Wiedereinführung der Sklaverei in Guadeloupe” [“Reinstatement of Slavery in Guadeloupe”] and “Das Licht auf dem Galgen” [“The Light on the Gallows”]. Written in the 1940s and 1950s, the stories offer a chronological picture of the relationship between the French Revolution and struggles over slavery in the Caribbean. Seghers draws on historical figures and events in Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Jamaica in order to trace the effects of a movement from official French support of abolition in the 1790s, to the brutal reinstatement of slavery in the French colonies subsequent to Napoleon’s election as First Consul. Seghers’ special focus in these novellas is on...
1656 words
Citation: Janzen, Marike. "Karibische Geschichten". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21603, accessed 09 June 2026.]
