The Official Early(pre-1950s) Haitian History Thread

[GoldTeef]

Haitian History Blog

 

[Timeis$]

Beautiful thread

 

[Biscayne]

Yea, you are right. Hugo Chavez built nuclear power plants in Haiti, funded Danny Glovers (in development hell) film about Touissant L'Overture, and gave Haiti free oil. Every thing he did for Haiti he says was because of what Haiti did for them way back in the 19th Century.

I was more speaking of the freshly liberated South American countries leaving Haiti out of the first meeting of independent nations back in the late 19th century. Saying the country was "too uncivilized" or something along the terms. smh

"I was more speaking of the freshly liberated South American countries leaving Haiti out of the first meeting of independent nations back in the late 19th century. Saying the country was "too uncivilized" or something along the terms. smh"

Ain't that something...the country that set the template for freedom, and helped those other nations gain freedom, was deemed "too uncivilized" for the Meeting Of Independent Nations.

 

[loyola llothta]

For those interested in the 1820s African American emigration movement to Haiti, Sara Fanning’s Caribbean Crossing: African Americans and the Haitian Emigration Movement is an excellent introduction. Fanning locates the movement in larger migrations in the early 19th century, incipient black nationalism, abolitionist debates, and Haiti’s struggle for recognition before the 1825 negotiations between Boyer and Charles X. Fanning’s short yet precise investigation into this phase quite convincingly argues for its importance as a gambit on Boyer’s part to achieve US recognition of Haitian independence, as well as the labor challenges Haiti faced at a time of resistance to the plantation system.

In addition, those who think of postrevolutionary Haiti as isolated or removed from migration patterns or economic exchange of the early 19th century, will be pleasantly surprised by Fanning’s astute introduction and subsequent chapters on the importance of Haiti for US trade. Thus, Fanning’s convincing argument for the basis of the African American Emigration movement as an attempt to impel the US government to recognize Haiti, which it had came close to prior to the Vesey conspiracy, reveals the nuances in US-Haitian relations. Northern newspapers, free African American urban communities, and prominent supporters of emigration of free blacks saw benefits from establishing formal diplomatic relations with Haiti, as well as a cheaper option for ridding the US of the free black population, which experienced significant obstacles in the antebellum US.

Ultimately a failure (2/3 of the estimated 6000 African Americans returned to the US), the movement nonetheless demonstrates two noteworthy trends of 19th century Haiti: black nationalism identifying with Haiti as a source of pride or dignity, including subsequent migration waves, and Haiti’s unique struggle in the 19th century world system of international relations. As Fanning illustrates so well, many of the families who came to Haiti struggled, faced a drought, too many came to Port-au-Prince directly instead of the dispersal Boyer envisioned, and expenses crushed the aspirations and hopes of most of the African Americans.

Unfortunately, Fanning does not extend analysis for a comparison with later African American migration for change or continuity in African American motives for leaving the US or policy differences between Boyer and Geffrard, for instance, but Caribbean Crossing: African Americans and the Haitian Emigration Movement is a thorough examination of an important early moment in US-Haiti relations.

 

[Mr.Big Meat McGee]

"I was more speaking of the freshly liberated South American countries leaving Haiti out of the first meeting of independent nations back in the late 19th century. Saying the country was "too uncivilized" or something along the terms. smh"

Ain't that something...the country that set the template for freedom, and helped those other nations gain freedom, was deemed "too uncivilized" for the Meeting Of Independent Nations.

Not surprised. That's what happens when you help snake ass nikkas... they cross you in the end.

 

[BigMan]

many AAs and West Indians moved to DR too

 

[blackzeus]

That's really heartbreaking

 

[Lord Scion]

I was just thinking about the irony of white folks obsession with zombies.

Very few of them know of the Haitian origin of the entire thing.

 

[loyola llothta]

Enjoy a brief video overview on the first US Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916-1924). Although not Haitian history, the dual occupations of the nations sharing Hispaniola share certain commonalities in regards to US foreign policy in the Caribbean and Central America in the early decades of the 1900s. However, there are some important differences between the US Occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. First, the US Marines found no native elite willing to work with them to install a puppet president, unlike Haiti. Second, the US Marines in charge of the Dominican Republic, according to historian Bruce Calder, instituted a more effective education policy which reached more Dominicans. And last, but certainly not least, the US Occupation in the Dominican Republic was much shorter but cemented the power of US sugar companies, which relied on imported labor from neighboring Haiti, in the face of stiff peasant resistance from gavilleros. For more information on the first US Occupation, read Impact of Intervention: The Dominican Republic During the U.S. Occupation of 1916-1924.

 

[loyola llothta]

Haiti's Role in Ending Slavery and aiding Independence in Countries Of South America Part 1

Mr. Robert T.Hill, qouted in Historical Records and studies, Volume 13 complied by the United States Catholic Historical Society said this in 1888;

"Whatever may be said against the Haitians, it should be remembered that these people nearly a century ago initiated the movement which, ending in Brazil in 1860 resulted in driving the institutions of slavery from the western hemisphere."

At the time the former French colony saint-Domingue- became Haiti in 1804, slavery was still thriving in countries in South America, and territories like Venezuela , Colombia, Peru, Chile, modern Bolivia, were under Spanish rule. According to Jacques Nicolas Legar, on December 15, 1815 revolutionary Simon Bolivar landed in Aux Cayes, after being defeated in Carthagena by the Spaniards.

Bolivar sought the help of Alexandre Petion, Haiti's ruler in the South, and according to Legar, Petion gave it.. and then some. To begin with, Bolivar and the Venezuelan families and solders who came with him, were given shelter and food so that they could recuperate physically and regroup. They stayed long enough in Haiti that one of Bolivar's companions started a business in Aux Cayes. According to the historian Marc Pean, this said companion of Bolivar, opened up a musical school that gave piano lessons to the elite's children in Aux Cayes.

Leger cities a pamphlet written by Marion A., whose father had been the military commander of Aux Cayes at the time of simon Bolivar, in which Petion's assistance is given in detail: 4,000 rifles, gunpowder, cartridges, food and a painting press. Petion gave this aid on the condition that Bolivar free the slaves in all the territories that would get their independence from Spain. Legar also contends that in addition to being a financier of the independence of the countries of South America, Petion also served as counselor, as some of Bolivar's companions bad a fallout with him during the stay in Haiti, and Petion helped them reconcile.


One of Haiti's historians Charles Dupuy reveals that Petion also supplies Bolivar with man power. Dupuy names one particular a Sava re Courtois, whom he (Dupuy) labels as a great military strategist and a Haitian Revolutionary War veteran. John Lynch, one of Bolivar's biographers, also concurs, mentioning in his work "Simon Bolivar": A Life, that Bolivar was furnished with Haitian soldiers for his 1816 expedition. Leger reiterates this, stating in his book Haiti, Her History and Her Detractors that Petion authorized Haitian soldiers to leave with Bolivar

 

[loyola llothta]

I was just thinking about the irony of white folks obsession with zombies.

Very few of them know of the Haitian origin of the entire thing.

The ones that really into it and know they shyt know haitian take on it. They reference it all the time in zombie shows/films

 

[loyola llothta]

Le Serment des Ancêtres (The Oath of the Ancestors) by Guillaume Guillon Lethière, 1822. Image Courtesy: Les abolitions de l'esclavage.

In this interesting piece, Guadeloupe-born French artist Guillaume Guillon-Lethière paints Alexandre Pétion (left) and Jean-Jacques Dessalines (right) swearing an oath before a God-like figure. Beyond representing the obvious military alliance between the two revolutionary figures, this oath also amounts to a formal alliance between the free coloreds (especially those of mixed African and French origins) and the black population in a struggle the defeat the Napoleonian forces. Here, Pétion and Dessalines vividly represent each side of this struggle, one dressed in a dark blue and white uniform and the other one only in a dark attire.

This painting further serves the cause of announcing that the emerging Haitian state would destroy the racial categorizations which had been at the heart of colonial Saint-Domingue. Indeed, the first Haitian Constitution of 1805, which closely followed the spirit of the oath, abolished the complex racial lexicon of the colonial era and instead declared that:

All acception of colour among the children of one and the same family, of whom the chief magistrate is the father, being necessarily to cease, the Haytians shall hence forward be known only by the generic appellation of Blacks. (More)

While subsequent Haitian Constitutions were quick to distance themselves from Dessalines’ doings, the extraordinary nature of the Haitian Revolution, Haiti’s subsequent proclamation of independence and its first Constitution were all well captured in Lethière’s art piece.

 

[Mr.Big Meat McGee]

Le Serment des Ancêtres (The Oath of the Ancestors) by Guillaume Guillon Lethière, 1822. Image Courtesy: Les abolitions de l'esclavage.

I hate how he made God white.

 

[OfTheCross]

 

[mson]

Some good comments on this video.