History of Haiti

By Marty Goodman

Haiti’s mighty slave revolution against French colonialism began late at night on Aug. 14, 1791, at a meeting of slave delegates from throughout the country. The revolt began one week later, led by Vodou priest Boukman Dutty.

The uprising was betrayed, but not crushed. Soon hundreds of slave plantations were in flames.

That began a protracted war that culminated in the defeat of some 40,000 veteran troops sent to Haiti by French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, who possessed the world’s most powerful army.

Haiti, or St. Domingue as the French called it, was the richest colony in the world. It produced sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco, and indigo—its great wealth drenched in blood and horror.

The brilliant Toussaint L’Ouverture, a former slave, assembled a slave army of at least 100,000. C.L.R. James, a Trinidad-born follower of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, wrote in his book, “The Black Jacobins,” the classic work on the Haitian revolution, “between 1789 [the start of the French Revolution] and 1815, with the single exception of Bonaparte himself, no single figure appeared on the historical stage more greatly gifted than this Negro, a slave until he was 45.”

In 1794, the French Directorate legalized the decision of its envoy, Sonthonax, to abolish slavery as a way to keep the colony from falling into the hands of Spain and Britain. However, L’Ouverture’s army had already abolished slavery in St. Domingue.

In 1800, L’Ouverture invaded and conquered Spain’s territory of Santo Domingo, ceded to France in 1797, and abolished slavery there. In 1801, Toussaint proclaimed a constitution—not independence. The constitution made Toussaint “governor-general” for life. Alarmed, Napoleon sent 20,000 troops to Haiti and in 1802 ordered what would be a failed attempt to reinstate slavery.

Haitian troops fought Napoleon’s army with great skill and determination. In Crete-a-Pierrot, on orders from Toussaint but under the direct command of Haitian General Jean-Jacques Dessalines, 1500 Haitians held off two assaults by 12,000 French troops. The Haitians escaped by bayoneting their way out.

But L’Ouverture, uncompromising in his opposition to slavery yet ultimately loyal to France, was lured into a trap set by the French, was captured, and died in a mountaintop prison in the French Alps on April 7, 1803. Toussaint was succeeded by General Dessalines, the more radical of the two leaders.

Dessalines created a new red and blue Haitian flag when he ripped the white band, symbolizing white oppression, out of the French tri-color. On Nov. 19, 1803, the French left Haiti for good after Dessalines had defeated French forces in a multi-pronged attack on Cap Francais, the capital of St. Domingue. On Jan. 1, 1804, Haitian independence was declared by Dessalines in the northern city of Gonaives. Haiti remains the only successful slave revolution in world history.

A revolutionary beacon of hope The image of armed Blacks ruling a country sent shock waves throughout the Americas and beyond. Said Frederick Douglass, a prominent African American abolitionist and the first U.S. Minister to Haiti, “She was described at the time of her advent, as a very hell of horrors. Her very name was pronounced with a shudder. She was a startling and frightful surprise and a threat to all slave-holders throughout the world.”

For slaves in the U.S. South, Haiti had “more effect than any other in producing slave unrest within the present borders of the U.S.,” wrote Herbert Aptheker in his groundbreaking study, “American Negro Slave Revolts.” The defeat in Haiti forced Napoleon, dismayed at the cost of maintaining colonies, to sell off the Louisiana Territories to the United States in 1803.

Haiti also contributed much to the anti-colonial, anti-slavery struggle throughout the Americas. Simon Bolivar, the “Great Liberator” of Latin America, who succeeded in leading the struggle to free six South American countries from Spanish rule, twice received asylum in Haiti as well as 250 soldiers, ships, guns, money and even a printing press. Haiti, facing a blockade from the U.S. and France, asked only that Bolivar “free the slaves” as repayment.

In 1822, Haiti invaded what is today the neighboring Dominican Republic and ended slavery there for the second time.

The U.S. refused to recognize Haiti until 1862. U.S. policy toward Haiti has always been reactionary. President George Washington and then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, both slave-owners, supported the French slave-masters in Haiti. Jefferson sent $40,000 in direct emergency assistance and 1000 weapons.

In addition, President Washington authorized $400,000 to St. Domingue slave-owners in answer to an appeal by the French government for the U.S. to repay France for helping the American Revolution.

U.S. neo-colonial policy in Haiti In 1915, the United States, exploiting political turmoil in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, invaded and occupied the country until 1934. The Marines brutally crushed the Haitian guerrilla resistance led by Charlemagne Peralte. The U.S. introduced racism, changed Haiti’s laws to permit foreign investment, and left Haiti with a new army trained in counter-insurgency.

The U.S. supported the bloody family dictatorship of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier (1957-1971) and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier (1971-86). The “Anti-Communist Law” of 1969 was used to torture, jail and kill thousands of Duvalier opponents.

During mass anti-Duvalier mobilizations in 1986, the U.S. secretly appointed—with “Baby Doc’s” help—a military junta to rule Haiti and thwart revolution. On Feb. 7 the U.S. flew “Baby Doc” to safety in France on an U.S. Air Force plane. The military junta, and the U.S.-supported juntas that followed, often exceeded “Baby Doc” in their brutality.

In September 1991, U.S.-trained Haitian generals on the CIA’s payroll overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a populist priest with a vast following amongst the poor and a self-proclaimed socialist. Aristide had received 67.5 percent of the vote in December 1990 as the first democratically elected president in decades. On the first day of the new junta, 1000 were slaughtered in Port-au-Prince alone.

Aristide refused to organize armed resistance and, in an historic betrayal of the ideals of the Haitian Revolution, begged the U.S. to intervene. The U.S. agreed to intervene to once again prevent revolution, but also to avoid a growing racist backlash against Haiti’s “Black Boat People” fleeing dictatorship. In September 1994, a U.S.-led UN force occupied Haiti. Aristide returned as Haiti’s president on Oct. 15, 1994, like “Baby Doc,” on a U.S. Air Force plane.

As part of an intervention deal with President Bill Clinton, Aristide signed-off on an agreement to pursue “reconciliation” with the coup-makers and to assist the U.S.-controlled World Bank, which meant encouraging foreign investment in assembly sweatshops and privatizing public institutions.

Although the occupation ended in 2000, the U.S. continues to fund reactionary forces in Haiti.

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