THE HISTORY OF HAITI AND THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION

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.

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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.

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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 participate 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.

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.

Napoleon wary of Toussaint's great power in the colony sent 82,000 of his battle proven troops commanded by his own brother-in-law seconded by able generals, a fleet of warships, canons, munitions and dogs in order to bring St Domingue under control. Two years of war ended in a stalemate. However, the French treacherously arrested Toussaint Louverture during a meeting in June 1802. He was exiled to France and died in the Fort de Joux high in the cold Alpine mountains of Jura in April 1803. Toussaint though had left capable generals who could carry on the struggle. With the arrest of Toussaint, Dessalines emerged as the new leader of the Haitian Revolution, bringing it to its ultimate level. Other leaders of that period would be Alexandre Petion, François Capois named "La Mort", Henri Christophe, and Boironds Tonnerre.

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The birth of a new nation

Haiti thus emerged into the world as the first black independent republic on January 1st, 1804. It’s revolution against colonialism and slavery was the first successful black movement resulting in an independent state headed by blacks . On Jan. 1,1804, the heroes of the Independence, to honor the memory of the Indians who had been massacred by the Spanish renamed the island under its original Taino name, Haiti. Haiti in Taino means "high land", "high ground" or "mountainous land".

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This information was taken from www.discoverhaiti.com

Famous Statues

Palais National

Palais National is the national Whitehouse in Haiti.

Le Marron Inconnu

This statue is located across from the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Architect and sculptor Albert Mangones designed the statue in 1959.

Jean Jacques Dessalines

This statue is of Jean Jacques Dessalines, the first leader of the free and independent Haiti. On September 22, 1804, he was proclaimed Emperor  and was crowned on October 8, 1804 as Jacques the first.

La Citadelle Laferriere

La Citadelle is considered one of the eight wonders of the world. Built by Henri Christophe, it is the largest fortress in the Carribean.It was built to defend the northern part of the island from European invasion. This mammoth structure has walls measuring 46 feet thick and is large enough to hold 10,000 people; it was constructed over the course of 15 years.

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Founding Fathers

Francois Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803)

 The first hero of Haiti was born in 1743 on the Breda plantation located on the heights of Le Cap. His roots have been traced back to Africa , where his father was the son of Gaou Guinou, a king of the Aradas Tribe. As a child, he was so frail and delicate that he was not expected to live. Nevertheless, born with a natural strength of character, he hardened his body through severe and rigorous exercises such as riding and swimming. He distinguished himself so remarkably that he was made coachman, then a steward of all the livestock on the estate of his master, Bayon Libertat. As an adult, he learned to read and write with the help of his godfather, Pierre Baptiste, an old free Negro. Toussaint Louverture acquired a passion for books and read the writings of famous authors such as the Philosophical and Political History of the Indies by a French priest, Abbé Raynald, from which he was struck by the prophecy of a black chief who would free all slaves. From that time on, Toussaint held the secret mission of breaking the chains that were holding him and his black brothers in slavery.

Determined to achieve his goal, Toussaint joined the camp of the insurgents in 1791. He fought first for the Crown of Spain, and then on the side of France . He earned the name "Louverture," which means "opening," for as a French soldier, he won several cities in St-Domingue for France by fighting against Spain and England . In 1801, he was proclaimed the Governor-for-Life of St-Domingue and declared the abolition of slavery in the colony. He administered St-Domingue with extraordinary skills and discipline, and was feared and respected by whites, mulattoes and blacks alike. He was a devout Catholic, who attempted to suppress voodoo and encourage Christian practices. In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte sent an expeditionary fleet to restore slavery in the colony. Toussaint was defeated and arrested through treachery under the order of Napoleon who sought to restore slavery in St-Domingue. Toussaint was sent to France and jailed without judgment in the Fort de Joux prison, located in the icy mountains of that country. Incarcerated and separated from his family and friends, he died on April 7, 1803 of ill treatment, cold and humiliation.

Henri Christophe was born in 1757 on the island of Grenada. He was an adolescent when he arrived in Cap-Francais in St-Domingue. In 1778, he fought as a volunteer in Savannah, Georgia, for the independence of the United States of America. He was only 21 years old. Henri Christophe, a lieutenant of Toussaint, who fought the army of Napoleon during the War of Independence, is very well known for his influence in the northern section of Haiti, where he built monuments, palaces and forts.
He proclaimed himself King of Haiti in 1811 and created an atmosphere of discipline, work, and education in that region. He was feared and regarded as a man of steel. He carried an extraordinary vision of grandeur for the Haitian people, which can be seen in his accomplishments. Among his magnificent works are the Citadel, that carries his name, and the Sans-Souci palace, which, even in ruins, draws admiration.

Paralyzed by a stroke and faced with the weakening of his army, Henri Christophe took his life on October 8, 1820. He remains the most admired of Haitians for his genius and advanced vision of Haiti as a civilized and prosperous nation.

Jean Jacques Desalines (1758-1806)

Born at the Cormiers Plantation north of Haiti in 1758, Dessalines was a slave on the plantation of Duclos who ran away to freedom at the age of 33. He was the principal lieutenant of Toussaint Louverture and became the General-in-Chief of the Revolution of St-Domingue after the deportation of Toussaint Louverture. He was a gifted soldier and distinguished himself during several combats, especially at theBattle of Crete-à-Pierrot. There he launched a splendid call to his soldiers and boosted their courage by leading them to blow up the fortress rather than give it up to the French. He led the indigenous army into victory over the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Vertières on November 18, 1803.

On January 1, 1804, he proclaimed the independence of the colony, which he renamed Haiti. The same day he was acclaimed Governor-General-for-Life of Haiti, and on September 2, 1804 he was crowned Emperor under the name of Jacques I.

Dessalines was assassinated in a revolt on October 17, 1806 at Pont-Rouge. He is remembered as the Father of the Haitian Nation and the Founder of the Independence of Haiti.

Alexandre Petion (1770-1818)

The "Founder of the Republic," Alexandre Pétion was born in Port-au-Prince in 1770, of a French father and a black mother. At 18 years of age, he became a soldier and was sent to France to study at the Military Academy of Paris.Jointly with Dessalines, he played a very important role in unifying blacks and mulattoes to fight together at the Independence War against the French army.

Pétion was elected President of the Republic of Haiti on March 9, 1806, elected again in 1811, and then in 1816 he was re-elected President for Life. He became the first President of Haiti. He designed the official flag and coat of arms of the second independent nation of the American continent. He also supported other countries of South America in their struggle to gain independence from Spain. After years of many hardships and challenges he confronted as a soldier and as president, Alexandre Pétion ill and tired died in Port-au-Prince on March 29, 1818.

Source: uhhp.com,Intertactive,Inc.

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Haiti Today

Formal Name: Republic of Haiti

Local Name: Haiti

Location: Caribbean

Population: 8,490,200

Capital City: Port-au-Prince

Languages: French, Creole

Flag:

The flag of Haiti was officially adopted on May 18, 1803. As a former French colony, the blue and red colors are modeled after the French Tricolore. The national coat of arms is only displayed on the state flag.

Official Currency: Gourde = 100 centimes

Religion: Catholic (80 percent), Protestant

Latitude/ Longitude: (18° 54N, 72° 34 W)

Land Area: 27,400 sq km (10,569 sq miles)