• THANK you for reminding us all of the debt we owe to Haiti (A review of our perspective on history is long overdue, Comment, June 11) by saying: “It is not absurd to argue, for example, that the slave revolt in Haiti led by Toussaint L’Ouverture was more important than anything else in the whole history of the world.”

In the words of CLR James in his classic The Black Jacobins: “The transformation of slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single white man, into a people able to organise themselves and defeat the most powerful European nations of their day, is one of the great epics of revolutionary struggle and achievement.”

CLR’s widow, and my mother, Selma James, has continued to fight for Haiti to be recognised and was particularly delighted with your piece.

As we march to reaffirm that Black Lives Matter, and statues of mass murderers get pulled down, there is a tendency in some quarters to suggest that these statues were OK at the time.

The implication is that at some point in history it was “reasonable” to honour those who turned human beings into commodities, tortured, maimed and murdered millions.

To quote Gandhi when asked about western civilisation, “I think it would be a good idea.”

The UN estimates that at least 15 million Africans were killed during the transatlantic slave trade, others put the figure as high as 60 million.

The Haitian revolution, the first successful slave revolt in history, is proof that slavery was never reasonable to the slaves.

SAM WEINSTEIN,
NW5