Consumption cultures, critical management and respectability politics: the Haitian Revolt (1791–1804) as an emancipatory alternative to modern slavery

Purpose This paper aims to argue that addressing modern slavery in global supply chains requires drawing on the emancipatory potential of the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). The radical assertions of human rights motivating the revolt challenged the normalization of exploitation. This historical event expands and complicates the modern framework of UN Sustainable Development Goals. Design/methodology/approach Recent attempts to address modern slavery in global supply chains draw from the conceptual foundations of critical management studies to reshape consumption-driven cultural practices. This critical theorist research is driven by three historicized themes: denaturalization, contextualization and non-performativity. Historical data sources include the literary analysis of Daut, the sociological reconstructions of Du Bois and the archives of James. These three variants center voices with historical ties to the West Indies. Findings A preliminary appraisal of Ruggie’s presentation of modern slavery shows ethnocentric bias. He hopes to address dilemmas of extraterritorial rights enforcement by emphasizing the post-1980 US juridical history of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). His historical myopia overlooks the original drafting of this 1789 law as co-extensive with the law of nations precedent on free passage assurances for global maritime trade. Research limitations/implications This is just one case from a domain of historical research that has been suppressed for centuries. However, as a case-driven experimental rendition of the three CMS themes into an actionable context, the historical scope stretches five centuries, which is rare for a business study. This began with the initial indigenous resistance to slave labor in 1521 and spans into the present. Practical implications Repurposing Toussaint’s innovations in advancing the politics of respectability to achieve diplomatic aims could be replicated in the present. Akin to Touissaint’s leveraging (in his archived letters) of his hybrid identity as culturally French, a military leader for Spain and a Saint Domingue native, some delegates to contemporary cases like the Bangladesh Accord, leverage constructive ambiguity to increase stakeholder commitment. Social implications The analysis of the early archival data on ATS precedent showed that its earliest stages rendered the status of slave, the taking of slaves in war and the use of coerced labor as juridically sound practices. This longer heritage than that presented by Ruggie post-1980s makes his among the most unlikely of legal routes to seek actionable policy extensions that lead to better extraterritorial protections. The absence of scholarly literature on these ties between the ATS and Saint Domingue history aids in making sense of the inefficacy of current policy and the need to pursue new avenues. Originality/value Since the most heinous modern slavery abuses have long histories, reflecting on the original Haitian resistance to crimes against humanity offers a real historical instance of successful emancipatory imagination. Toussaint Louverture’s revolutionary leadership shows the importance of mobilizing collective memory. His enigmatic rise to world-historical respectability provides rich material for formulating a critical theory of supply chain management.