Post by sudan on Jan 18, 2007 3:53:58 GMT -5
Synopsis of Haitian History
Located in the Caribbean, between Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, the island of Haiti is inhabited by two independent nations: the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. When Christopher Columbus made his first landing in the northern part of what is now the Republic of Haiti in 1492, he referred to the people he met on the island as Indians, thinking that he had reached India in South Asia. These people, however, preferred to be called Tainos meaning "men of the good". They lived throughout the greater islands of Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico and had migrated from South America centuries before Columbus. The Tainos are said to have been gentle, calm and very hospitable. Those in the island of Haiti were known as having been the most advanced of the Tainos, having developed a flourishing civilization way before Columbus's voyage to the Americas.
The Spanish Period
Quickly, the Spanish occupied the island of Haiti, and renamed it Española (written in English as Hispaniola) meaning "little Spain". They exploited its gold mines and reduced the Tainos to slavery. According to early Spanish historian observers, there were as many as 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 Tainos on the island in 1492. Around fifty years after the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, most of the Tainos in Haiti were wiped out through the hardship of their condition as slaves, organized massacres or diseases they contracted from the Spaniards. The genocide of the Tainos in Haiti was one of the most brutal and the annihilation committed on the Indians of the New World by Columbus and his men, one of the most complete in History. Later on, Bartolomew Las Casas, a Spanish priest, revolted against the massacre of the Indians and demanded the cessation of the injustices committed every day against these people in Hispaniola. He advocated for the importation of Blacks from Africa to work on the mines as a mean of ending Indian slavery in the island. Thus, in 1503, the first blacks landed on the island. These blacks, however, came from Spain and not from Africa. Years later, the Spanish would leave Hispaniola for the richest lands of South America where the gold mines were still fresh and rich of the precious metal.
Here Come the French!
In 1625, the first French adventurers landed on the island of La Tortue (Tortuga Island) in the northern part of what is today the Republic of Haiti. Later, they began exploring and settling on the main land to eventually displace the Spanish from the western part of the Hispaniola through warfare. Tired of their attack, and also because of the results of war in Europe, Spain signed with France the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, ceding to the latter the western part of the island. The French renamed their possession St Domingue, a translation of Santo Domingo, the Spanish denomination of the eastern part of the island. The French then developed St Domingue into the richest colony in the world. To build this wealth, France imported thousands of slaves from Africa who were submitted to virtually the same abuses and mistreatments imposed on the Indians only on a larger scale. Thus, the wealth of St Domingue was achieved on the work of slaves and only a minority of the island’s population was enjoying this wealth, the whites. The importation of the blacks in large numbers would change the demographic face of St Domingue.
The Haitian Revolution.
St Domingue's population was divided into three main groups, the whites or "Blancs", the "Affranchis", a group composed of free blacks and mulattos and the great masses of the slaves. By 1789, the colony’s population comprised between 400,000 and 500,000 blacks, compared to 25,000 whites and 40,000 mulattos. A great number of mulattos are offspring of the rape of slave mothers by colonists. They inturn adopted these children and provided them with the necessities of life. These children would sometimes inherit the wealth of their fathers and by the end of the 18th century, the mulattos would own around 25% of the colony’s plantations and wealth, while most of them went to France to get a higher education.
However, despite their wealth and their education, the mulattos, because of their color, were considered inferior to the white by law and were discriminated against. They could not practice certain professions, wear European clothes, sit among the whites in church, among other things. Struggle would ensue between the Affranchis and the Whites throughout the 18th century with the former claiming civil and political equality with the latter who want to maintain the status quo. At the same time, the whites were demanding to France the right to participation in the running of the colony. They wanted to make of St Domingue, a country that would be autonomous from France. Both groups would voice their grievances at the time of the French revolution in 1789, which proclaimed the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
In the meantime, the slaves manifested their rejection of their condition through different forms of resistance. Some poisoned their masters; others killed their own children to save them from the hellish conditions of slavery. There were also other forms of protests like the collective suicides of the Ibos particularly.
As History goes, Mackandal's followers believed that he was unvulnerable. He was caught in 1758, and he was to be publicly executed. However, he somehow managed to escape from the flames thereby perpetuating the legend. nevertheless he was caught later on and this time the French managed to execute him.
The most successful and persistent form of the slaves' protest was the "marronage". Marronage consisted of slaves running away from the plantation to hide in the mountains of the island or in its forests. From their retreat, the maroons conducted raids on the plantations and often would come at night to poison or kill their masters. One of the most famous Haitian maroons was a man named François Mackandal. He was also a houngan, or voodoo priest, from Guinea. At night, he would attack the plantations, burning them and killing their owners. During his six-year rebellion, he and his followers poisoned and killed as many as 6000 whites. In 1758, however, the French finally caught him and publicly executed him on the public square of Cap Francais (today Cap Haitien).
In 1791, as the whites and the "Affranchis" continued on their war for greater participation in the running of the colony and for equality, the Blacks entered into a full-fledge rebellion that would ultimately result in the creation of the State of Haiti and the abolition of slavery in the land.
A man named Boukman, another houngan, organized on August 14, 1791, a meeting with the slaves in the mountains of the North. This meeting took the form of a Voodoo ceremony in the Bois Caiman in the northern mountains of the island. It was raining and the sky was raging with clouds; the slaves then started confessing their resentment of their condition. A woman started dancing languorously in the crowd, taken by the spirits of the loas. With a knife in her hand, she cut the throat of a pig and distributed the blood to all the participants of the meeting who swore to kill all the whites on the island. On August 22, 1791, the blacks of the North entered into a rebellion, killing all the whites they met and setting the plantations of the colony on fire. However, the French quickly captured the leader of the slaves, Boukman, and beheaded him, bringing the rebellion under control. Just like Mackandal, Boukman had managed to instill in the blacks the idea that he was invincible. Thus, the French exposed his head on Cap’s square to convince the slaves that their leader was really dead.
However, the ideas of the revolution, the ideas of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, had already enflamed the mind of the slaves. The death of Boukman although it had temporarily stopped the rebellion of the North failed to restrain the rest of the blacks from revolting against their condition. The Revolution that would give birth to the Republic of Haiti was under way and nothing could stop it. Toussaint Louverture was the great leader who emerged out of the mass of the revolted. He proved to be a military genius and a formidable leader. He organized the masses of the slaves into an organized army. With political manipulation, and military campaigns, he would gain more and more notoriety in the colony. During the period of 1791, to 1800, Toussaint used the French, the Spaniards and the English against one another. He managed to eliminate all his enemies until he was the only power left in St Domingue (Haiti). By 1801, he was governing the whole island by himself and proclaimed himself governor of the colony. A constitution was soon drawn that same year declaring St Domingue an autonomous French possession where slavery was abolished.
cont'.
Located in the Caribbean, between Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, the island of Haiti is inhabited by two independent nations: the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. When Christopher Columbus made his first landing in the northern part of what is now the Republic of Haiti in 1492, he referred to the people he met on the island as Indians, thinking that he had reached India in South Asia. These people, however, preferred to be called Tainos meaning "men of the good". They lived throughout the greater islands of Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico and had migrated from South America centuries before Columbus. The Tainos are said to have been gentle, calm and very hospitable. Those in the island of Haiti were known as having been the most advanced of the Tainos, having developed a flourishing civilization way before Columbus's voyage to the Americas.
The Spanish Period
Quickly, the Spanish occupied the island of Haiti, and renamed it Española (written in English as Hispaniola) meaning "little Spain". They exploited its gold mines and reduced the Tainos to slavery. According to early Spanish historian observers, there were as many as 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 Tainos on the island in 1492. Around fifty years after the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, most of the Tainos in Haiti were wiped out through the hardship of their condition as slaves, organized massacres or diseases they contracted from the Spaniards. The genocide of the Tainos in Haiti was one of the most brutal and the annihilation committed on the Indians of the New World by Columbus and his men, one of the most complete in History. Later on, Bartolomew Las Casas, a Spanish priest, revolted against the massacre of the Indians and demanded the cessation of the injustices committed every day against these people in Hispaniola. He advocated for the importation of Blacks from Africa to work on the mines as a mean of ending Indian slavery in the island. Thus, in 1503, the first blacks landed on the island. These blacks, however, came from Spain and not from Africa. Years later, the Spanish would leave Hispaniola for the richest lands of South America where the gold mines were still fresh and rich of the precious metal.
Here Come the French!
In 1625, the first French adventurers landed on the island of La Tortue (Tortuga Island) in the northern part of what is today the Republic of Haiti. Later, they began exploring and settling on the main land to eventually displace the Spanish from the western part of the Hispaniola through warfare. Tired of their attack, and also because of the results of war in Europe, Spain signed with France the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, ceding to the latter the western part of the island. The French renamed their possession St Domingue, a translation of Santo Domingo, the Spanish denomination of the eastern part of the island. The French then developed St Domingue into the richest colony in the world. To build this wealth, France imported thousands of slaves from Africa who were submitted to virtually the same abuses and mistreatments imposed on the Indians only on a larger scale. Thus, the wealth of St Domingue was achieved on the work of slaves and only a minority of the island’s population was enjoying this wealth, the whites. The importation of the blacks in large numbers would change the demographic face of St Domingue.
The Haitian Revolution.
St Domingue's population was divided into three main groups, the whites or "Blancs", the "Affranchis", a group composed of free blacks and mulattos and the great masses of the slaves. By 1789, the colony’s population comprised between 400,000 and 500,000 blacks, compared to 25,000 whites and 40,000 mulattos. A great number of mulattos are offspring of the rape of slave mothers by colonists. They inturn adopted these children and provided them with the necessities of life. These children would sometimes inherit the wealth of their fathers and by the end of the 18th century, the mulattos would own around 25% of the colony’s plantations and wealth, while most of them went to France to get a higher education.
However, despite their wealth and their education, the mulattos, because of their color, were considered inferior to the white by law and were discriminated against. They could not practice certain professions, wear European clothes, sit among the whites in church, among other things. Struggle would ensue between the Affranchis and the Whites throughout the 18th century with the former claiming civil and political equality with the latter who want to maintain the status quo. At the same time, the whites were demanding to France the right to participation in the running of the colony. They wanted to make of St Domingue, a country that would be autonomous from France. Both groups would voice their grievances at the time of the French revolution in 1789, which proclaimed the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
In the meantime, the slaves manifested their rejection of their condition through different forms of resistance. Some poisoned their masters; others killed their own children to save them from the hellish conditions of slavery. There were also other forms of protests like the collective suicides of the Ibos particularly.
As History goes, Mackandal's followers believed that he was unvulnerable. He was caught in 1758, and he was to be publicly executed. However, he somehow managed to escape from the flames thereby perpetuating the legend. nevertheless he was caught later on and this time the French managed to execute him.
The most successful and persistent form of the slaves' protest was the "marronage". Marronage consisted of slaves running away from the plantation to hide in the mountains of the island or in its forests. From their retreat, the maroons conducted raids on the plantations and often would come at night to poison or kill their masters. One of the most famous Haitian maroons was a man named François Mackandal. He was also a houngan, or voodoo priest, from Guinea. At night, he would attack the plantations, burning them and killing their owners. During his six-year rebellion, he and his followers poisoned and killed as many as 6000 whites. In 1758, however, the French finally caught him and publicly executed him on the public square of Cap Francais (today Cap Haitien).
In 1791, as the whites and the "Affranchis" continued on their war for greater participation in the running of the colony and for equality, the Blacks entered into a full-fledge rebellion that would ultimately result in the creation of the State of Haiti and the abolition of slavery in the land.
A man named Boukman, another houngan, organized on August 14, 1791, a meeting with the slaves in the mountains of the North. This meeting took the form of a Voodoo ceremony in the Bois Caiman in the northern mountains of the island. It was raining and the sky was raging with clouds; the slaves then started confessing their resentment of their condition. A woman started dancing languorously in the crowd, taken by the spirits of the loas. With a knife in her hand, she cut the throat of a pig and distributed the blood to all the participants of the meeting who swore to kill all the whites on the island. On August 22, 1791, the blacks of the North entered into a rebellion, killing all the whites they met and setting the plantations of the colony on fire. However, the French quickly captured the leader of the slaves, Boukman, and beheaded him, bringing the rebellion under control. Just like Mackandal, Boukman had managed to instill in the blacks the idea that he was invincible. Thus, the French exposed his head on Cap’s square to convince the slaves that their leader was really dead.
However, the ideas of the revolution, the ideas of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, had already enflamed the mind of the slaves. The death of Boukman although it had temporarily stopped the rebellion of the North failed to restrain the rest of the blacks from revolting against their condition. The Revolution that would give birth to the Republic of Haiti was under way and nothing could stop it. Toussaint Louverture was the great leader who emerged out of the mass of the revolted. He proved to be a military genius and a formidable leader. He organized the masses of the slaves into an organized army. With political manipulation, and military campaigns, he would gain more and more notoriety in the colony. During the period of 1791, to 1800, Toussaint used the French, the Spaniards and the English against one another. He managed to eliminate all his enemies until he was the only power left in St Domingue (Haiti). By 1801, he was governing the whole island by himself and proclaimed himself governor of the colony. A constitution was soon drawn that same year declaring St Domingue an autonomous French possession where slavery was abolished.
cont'.