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

[loyola llothta]

Haiti’s Influence on Louisiana

Haitians are the dominant Creole culture of New Orleans. Currently there are 5,000 people of Haitian descent that live in the New Orleans area.

In 1709 (dayiti: I believe the author means 1791 because that’s when the Revolution started) after the Haitian Revolution that ended French rule and gave Haiti its independence 90% of the Hatian refugees settled in New Orleans. The immigration of Haitians, both white and free people of color (gens de couleur libres) brought 2,731 whites, 3,102 free persons of African descent and 3,226 slaves to the city. This one event doubled the population of New Orleans in one year and had an important social and cultural impact on Creole Louisiana that still influences it to this day.

The Hatian Creole population settled in the French Quarter and brought a distinct culture and architectural tradition giving New Orleans a reputation as the nation’s Creole Capital. They brought with them what was to become the rhythm and soul of New Orleans. The Crescent City would not be what it is today without these contributions.

Haitians played a major role in the development of Creole cuisine, the perpetuation of voodoo practices and preserving the city’s French character. Among the most notable Haitians in New Orleans history were; the pirate Jean Lafitte born in Port-au-Prince around 1782. Marie Laveau, the undisputed Queen of Voodoo (dayiti: Her portrait is above), born in [Saint Domingue] in 1794.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/haitian-influence-on-new-orleans-culture

 

[loyola llothta]

"Germany, a rising power in the late nineteenth century began a small but aggressive commerce in the Caribbean republics. Banking was an important adjunct to this business and four firms represented German trade in Haiti. In 1897 one Emil Luders, a businessman with a German father and a Haitian mother, was arrested following an altercation with Port-au-Prince police. Weeks after Luders’ release and departure for Germany, the German navy sent warships to Port-au-Prince and threatened to bombard the port unless all charges against Luders were dropped and restitution made to him.

This example of gunboat diplomacy was encouraged by the United States, whose minister-resident pressured the Haitian government to give in to German demands. Over the course of the next twenty years, however, the Americans increasingly saw Germany as a commercial and political rival in Haiti, and fear of German influence served as a major justification for the U.S. occupation of 1915-1934.

As for Luders, his reliance on German protection was not atypical of wealthy Haitians of the period, many of whom sought and received foreign citizenship or pursued marriage with aliens in order to evade taxation, conscription, or other strictures imposed by Haitian authorities. The early 1900s witnessed the rapid expansion of the German merchant marine and navy as the Hamburg American Line increased its Caribbean operations and the navy by 1907 outstripped that of the United States in the battleship and cruiser categories. German merchant firms enjoyed subvention from Berlin and were able to supply Haitian consumers with expensive knockoffs of popular European products.”

 

[loyola llothta]

Cuba connection

"Haiti has a strong presence in Cuba, dating back to the late 1790’s after the Haitian revolution, when many French moved to Cuba and took their kidnapped Africans with them. From this wave we get the Tumba Francesa and the Haitian roots music in Cuba. Haitian tradition contains a strong strain of Dahomey and Congo, both of which are present in western Cuba as well. Haitian Rada is Cuban Arara, the Dahomey tradition.

During the early part of the 1900’s, many Haitians were brought in to cut sugar cane. In 1921 and again in 1937, when the market for sugar fell, they were simply kicked out and sent home, such was the logic of the neocolonial republic.

More recently, Cuba is perhaps the only country to have welcomed so many Haitians fleeing the persecution of the Haitian elites and their regimes. There are reportedly over 300,000 recent arrivals in Cuba. And Creole, which is still spoken by descendants of the earlier waves, is Cuba’s second language, with a Creole radio station in Havana.”

 

[loyola llothta]

"Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes (1859-
1928) was a writer, civil rights activist, and Creole of color born in New Orleans to Jeremiah Desdunes,a Haitian immigrant, and Henrietta, a Cuban.

He was a member ofthe Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law (also known as the (“Comitie des Citoyens”“),
which is said tohave launched the Plessy v.Ferguson case to the Supreme Court. He also wrote and published,
Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, an anthologyof biographical sketches of about fifty Creoles of color living in New
Orleans during the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1887, he helped to found L’Union
Louisianaise, which developed into the New Orleans Crusader, for a time the nation’s only African American daily newspaper.

He married Mathilde Chaval of Point Coupee Parish and New Orleans;
together the couple had six children: Wendell, Daniel, Cortiza, Agens,
Lucille, and Jeanne.”

 

[loyola llothta]

Rare photo of Madame Masséna Peralte, circa 1936. CIDIHCA Archives. Madame Peralte was Charlemagne Peralte’s mother, the famous Cacos leader opposed to the American Marine Occupation of Haiti (1915-1934).

While a law already existed in Haitian cannons to that effect (but had rarely been deployed to the point of having been forgotten by many), in 1916, the Americans re-instituted the corvée, in order to build roads that would facilitate mouvements for the Marines. In practice, the Marines would force every Haitian on chosen locations to work on specific infrastructure projects for that day. Haitian folklore suggests that Prelate’s own mother (who was already an aged lady by this time) had been walking one day when she was apprehended with a group of Haitians to work on a construction field. This would have in turn enraged (and humiliated) Peralte very deeply. (Source) (Source)

 

[loyola llothta]

Collection of nineteenth century Haitian newspapers and magazines form the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

While Port-au-Prince’s upper crust would have been the most concerned by these publications and several of these would have enjoyed a short-run, they are interesting in many respects for contemporaries trying to reconstruct part of élite and urban life during the nineteenth century

 

[loyola llothta]

The Malê Revolt

The Revolt of Malês was a slave rebellion in Brazil in 1835. A group of enslaved and free Blacks inspired by their Muslim teachers, rose up against the government. Muslims were called Malê in Bahia at this time from the Yoruba word Imale. Many of the enslaved Africans in Brazil were Yoruba. The Malê knew how to read and write and organized revolts in 1807, 1809, 1813, 1816, 1827 and, the biggest, in 1835, all in the Bahia state.
Brazilian slaves , who were inspired by Dutty Boukman, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and the Haitian Revolution (1791−1804), knew all about the Haitian Revolution and wore necklaces bearing the image of President Dessalines, who had declared Haitian independence. The Malê rebellion would be doomed just like all of the other slave revolts were. Frightened negroes would alert their slave masters of all the plans. In this case free man Domingos Fortunato alerted his ex-master and his wife Guilhermina alerted her ex-master and told him what she’d heard. She then told her neighbor who had in his salon 2 important visitors with government connections. The government was now informed. The Malê spilled into the streets and stood off a cavalry charge and then seized the barracks and palace. Because of the frightened negroes information the government brought in troops from the countryside before the Malê could rally it. After failing to take several key positions the Malê decided to flee. Fearful that the whole state of Bahia would follow the example of Haiti and rise up and revolt, the Portuguese government qualified the Malê too dangerous to stay in Brazil and deported them back to Africa. From then on, to buy this kind of slave was forbidden.Today there are various communities of Afro-Brazilian descendants in West Africa, most of them spread through Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and Togo because of this deportation. Throughout these countries we can find estates, schools and museums with the name “Brazil”. In these countries it is very common to find Brazilian names like Souza, Silva, Olympio or Cardoso. In Ghana the deported Blacks were welcomed by the Ga people and received by their king as personal guests and received lands in privileged locations, in places that are nowadays very well known estates.

 

[loyola llothta]

MIM Notes', Maoist Internationalist Movement, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1992.

 

[BigMan]

Frightened negroes would alert their slave masters of all the plans. In this case free man Domingos Fortunato alerted his ex-master and his wife Guilhermina alerted her ex-master and told him what she’d heard. She then told her neighbor who had in his salon 2 important visitors with government connections. The government was now informed. The Malê spilled into the streets and stood off a cavalry charge and then seized the barracks and palace. Because of the frightened negroes information the government brought in troops from the countryside before the Malê could rally it.
The Malê Revolt

this is why i hate nikkas.
there's always one

 

[loyola llothta]

Haiti 1940., Carnival

 

[loyola llothta]

Haiti 1932 & 1920 , Vintage

1920 pap

1920 pap

pap 1920

 

[Bawon Samedi]

@loyola llothta

Awesome carnival pictures! I swear Haiti could have been the New Orleans of the Caribbean with it being a destination place for partying if things were different. I heard Haiti was very popular when it came to that back in the day.

 

[loyola llothta]

@loyola llothta

Awesome carnival pictures! I swear Haiti could have been the New Orleans of the Caribbean with it being a destination place for partying if things were different. I heard Haiti was very popular when it came to that back in the day.

I never thought about that, it would been a black hub even at the time they was so advance and education was they main strength

 

[loyola llothta]

The Parisiana Theater, Haiti c.1914

"Liberty Head”
The first stamp of Haiti #1881

Port-au-Prince, Haiti c.1943

 

[loyola llothta]

Haiti c.1913