Gilder Lehrman Center Annual Conference “Haiti in the Age of Revolutions: Lafargue Rigaud’s Portraits of Independence”
Luce Hall
34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven CT, 06511
Friday and Saturday, November 13-14, 2026
Henry R. Luce Hall | Yale University | 34 Hillhouse Avenue | New Haven, CT 06511
Sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at the MacMillan Center, Yale University; Yale Peabody Museum; Yale Center for British Art; and Yale University’s Departments of Black Studies and of French
This conference is made possible through the generous support of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies’ Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund, Yale University
Coinciding with the Yale Peabody Museum’s exhibit, “Haiti in the Age of Revolutions: Larfargue Rigaud’s Portraits of Independence” (November 9, 2026-March 30, 2027), this conference explores a transformative moment in Haitian and Black New World history through the lens of portraiture. The exhibit will feature Lafargue Rigaud’s rare nineteenth-century paintings of Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henry Christophe, and other Haitian leaders, offering a window into the Haitian Revolution and Haitian statecraft. Part of the Yale Peabody Museum collection since 1963, this is the first time these portraits, which serve as visual records of leaders whose complicated legacies are interwoven with revolutionary movements across the Americas, will be on display at the museum.
The Lafargue Rigaud portraits portray the leaders who led the only successful slave revolt in modern history in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, leading to the formation of Haiti, the second independent state of the Americas (in 1804) and later the first Black republic (post-1806). They also showcase the importance of artists, image making, and projection in 19th-century Caribbean culture while foregrounding Haiti’s active participation in intellectual revolutionary debates in the Americas and in Europe, including the documented participation of freedom fighters from French Saint-Domingue (present day Haiti) in the American Revolutionary War. Held during the opening week of the exhibit, this conference will situate Haiti’s revolution and 19th-century statecraft from a cultural and art historical perspective.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
9:00am Registration and Continental Breakfast (Luce Hall)
9:45am Welcome & Introductions
10:00am—11:30am Luce Hall Auditorium
Panel One: The Art of Haitian Statecraft
Haitian statecraft was marked by political experimentation, which is reflected in the shape the nation took in the first half of the 19th century (variously, empire, state, republic, and kingdom), and in the Rigaud suite of portraits. This panel focuses on the events of the Haitian Revolution—the only rebellion of enslaved people in the Americas to result in the creation of an independent nation-state—and its aftermath from cultural, historical, and political perspectives.
Speakers
- Marlene L. Daut, Chester D. Tripp Professor of Black Studies and French, Yale University
- Julia Gaffield, Associate Professor of History, College of William and Mary
- Hadassah St. Hubert, Program Director, Independent Artist Services, Maryland State Arts Council
- Esther Chadwick, Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London
11:30am—1:00pm Catered Lunch (Luce Hall Common Room)
1:00pm—2:30pm Luce Hall Auditorium
Panel Two: Black Portraiture: Past and Present
This panel will situate the history of Black portraiture, the Rigaud portraits, and Haitian painting, in general, within broader national and international historical and artistic traditions.
Speakers
- Erica Moiah James, Associate Professor of Art and Art History, University of Miami
- Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Arts and Humanities, University of California, Berkeley
- Petrouchka Moïse, Assistant Professor, Cultural & Community-Based Digital Curator, and Haitian Art Digital Crossroads (HADC) Director, Grinnell College
- Mark Aronson, Senior Conservator,Yale Center for British Art
3:00pm—5:00pm Exhibit Tours
Details and registration information coming soon
5:30pm—6:30pm Keynote Lecture (Luce Hall Auditorium)
Edouard Duval Carrié, artist, curator, educator
6:30—7:30pm Reception (Luce Hall Common Room)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14
Secondary School Teachers’ Workshop with select scholars from the conference
Stipend provided. Details and registration information coming soon.
Themes:
- Haitian Literature (with Cécile Accilien, Professor of French, University of Maryland, College Park
Kaiama L. Glover, Professor of Black Studies, Yale University) - Haitian Art (with Erica Moiah James and Mark Aronson)
- Haitian Revolution (with Marlene L. Daut and Julia Gaffield)