The theoretical frame for The Black Jacobins was, of course, the theories of revolution developed by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. James asserted that fact rather frequently in the text. It was not, however, entirely the case. From Marx and Engels, he had taken the concept of a revolutionary class and the economic foundations for its historical emergence. But the slaves of Haiti were not a Marxian proletariat. No matter to James: the processes of social formation were the same:

Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making o…, loc. 1313