Fear of the Black Republic: U.S.-Haitian Relations in the Aftermath of the Haitian Revolution

hi hello and welcome my name is Andrew Barnes I teach in this historical for the south studies and I have the honor of introducing our speaker today professor Leslie Alexander who is the 2019 a visiting distinguished scholar in the school of historical philosophical and religious studies and she will be speaking on the topic of fear of a black Republic us Haitian relations in the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution but I would like to give you a brief introduction to her before that I Professor Alexander received her BA with honors in history from Stanford University and then she went on to get a masters degree and a PhD from Cornell University she at at present she is an associate professor of history at Oregon University of Oregon hopefully they will lose in a couple of days and that just felt me to say that she is presently at Oregon previously she was associate professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at the Ohio State University and then previously there she was in the history department at Ohio State University her first book came out in in 2008 it was entitled African or American black identity and political activism in New York City is 1784 to 1861 all right and this book won the National Council for Black Studies Award for outstanding scholarship in the fill of Africa Africana Studies okay she is a co-editor of of the forthcoming volume expanding the boundaries of black intellectual history she is co-editor also of the encyclopedia encyclopedia of African American history she is a co-editor finally we shall we shall independent be african-american placemaking and a struggle to claim space in the United States she is presently the head of the Association for the study of the worldwide African Diaspora or Aswad she's on the editorial boards in the journal of African American history the Journal of International Africana Studies and the National Council from blacks are for black studies and as well as as are the advisory board for the journal the black scholar her present project is a study of the cradle of Hope a study entitled the cradle of hope african-americans Haitian sovereignity and the birth of black and internationalism and she will be speaking today on a related topic that is fear of a black Republic u.s. Haitian relations in the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution please join me in welcoming professor Alexander [Applause] well good morning everyone thank you so much for coming out and thank you so much for that wonderful introduction I know that looking around the room and chatting with folks I have a sense that there's probably going to be lots of lively discussion about this topic and so I'm actually just gonna go ahead and jump right in and at a few points I might just kind of quickly summarize a few points so that we can try to get to the the question and answer as quickly as possible so in less than two months on January 12 to 20 20 we will honor the 10-year anniversary of a catastrophic earthquake that destroyed the eye that struck the island nation of Haiti devastating large portions of the country and killing nearly 300,000 people the following day as hundreds of thousands of the dead and dying lay beneath the rubble and remains of their homes and communities televangelist Pat Robertson stated that the earthquake occurred because Haiti and its people are cursed the curse he claimed was the result of a centuries-old deal that the Haitian people had made with the devil to get their freedom from the French at the same time the American media kicked into overdrive incessantly repeating the mantra Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere until it started to sound more like a chant of accusation than a statement of fact what none of the pundits and commentators seemed willing to explore was the deeper question of why Haiti had become a poverty-stricken nation in the first place instead scholars and media Talking Heads alike argued that a range of ills apparently specific to the island nation from the prevalence of voodoo to a fundamental pathology as they described it among the Haitian people explained Haiti's current plight now in fairness to some of Haiti's detractors I admit that it is nearly impossible to escape or ignore the crushing poverty and political instability that plagues the country even at this moment Haiti's political destiny hangs in the balance as protesters seek to overthrow yet another corrupt president placing their hope in another dubious presidential election cycle yet while Haiti has been mocked and demonized for its internal problems few are willing to ask the hard questions about how and why Haiti perpetually appears to Teeter on the brink of economic and political disaster the reality is that Haiti's current circumstances are not the result of the part of a pact with the devil nor are they the result of voodoo nor are they the result of a fundamental inability of black people to govern ourselves the truth is far more insidious in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake while the media was quick to chant about Haiti's poverty they were eerily silent about the cause of the poverty nobody attempted to explain how Haiti went from being what was called the pearl of the Antilles and the new world's most profitable colony in the 18th century to being the most despised hated and persecuted nation on earth in the 20th century so how did that happen the truth as I said is far more insidious the painful truth is that from the birth of Haitian independence in 1804 until the present day the United States and other Western European nations have used their economic and diplomatic strength to isolate and impoverish the island nation often referred to as the black Republic this is the story that the mainstream media sought to ignore and given the problematic history of US intervention in Haiti only a few brave souls have been willing to tell the simple truth as New York Times op-ed contributor mark Danner explained there is nothing mystical in Haiti's pain no inescapable curse that haunts the land from Independence and before Haiti's harms have been caused by men not demons so today I want to highlight some important aspects of Haitian history that will hopefully help you to understand what really happened during Haiti's early existence and what Haiti's experiences have been ever since so that we can hopefully start to have a more honest discussion about Haiti's current plight and how we could move forward from here so I'm gonna give you what I think is kind of a quick historical overview of the diplomatic and economic relationship between the United States and Haiti starting with Haiti's founding in 1804 and continuing through the early 21st century now I'm gonna be honest from the outset that the bulk of my talk is going to focus on the 19th century and it is of course because I'm in 19th century historian you're welcome but it's also because in my view it you know it's the events in the 19th century that really are what set the us policies towards Haiti into motion and so in my mind we can't really understand right what's happening now without understanding that earlier context but I'm gonna be brave towards the tail end of the of the talk and try to venture beyond what is normally my happy place which is the civil war and try to talk a little bit about what's happened in the in the 20th century and how it led to to Haiti's current predicament so I realize you know there are some historians in the room so a few of the things I'm going to talk about right at the beginning will be familiar to some of you but I kind of want to get us all a little bit on the same page so I want to talk very quickly first about the issue of how Haiti came to be an independent republic so prior to the revolution Haiti was known by the name san domain and it was a French colony that played a crucial role in trade between Europe the Caribbean and the Americas now it's actually important to keep in mind that san domain was and now is as Haiti relatively small and to kind of give you a local reference point Haiti is up less than 1/10 of the size of the state of Arizona but despite its relatively soft small size it's only just a little over 10,000 square miles san domain during that period in the 18th century was the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean by 1789 the colony had attained a height of prosperity that remains unmatched in the history of the European colonies in the Americas it contained over 8,000 plantation and provided France with two fifths of its global trade profit on an annual basis more importantly and this is actually staggering to think about these terms again given the size of the country Santo mang produced one half of all of the sugar and coffee that was consumed in Europe and the Americas during this time as well as significant amounts of cotton and indigo the size of the enslaved population was about a half a million about 500,000 and the white population was only 40,000 and that's gonna become important a little bit later in this story again just for sort of purposes of comparison the enslaved population in san domain was the largest in the Caribbean nearly twice the size of Jamaica which had the next largest population in in the Caribbean now race relations oh sorry this is just a sort of another view to give you a sense of sort of some of the key areas port-au-prince race relations in san domain prior to the revolution were complicated because of the existence of a small class of free people of color jean de couleur and of course those of you who are familiar with French no literally people of color who occupied a middle position between the enslaved African population and the white planter class and actually for a period of time before the Revolution in some ways sort of operated as a social buffer right between those two populations that prevented sort of a full-scale racial conflict now certainly there had been regular resistance to slavery and in particular there were marine communities located up in the mountains some of you may have seen a version of this image before this is a photograph depicting a statue as you can see in the background right near the Capitol building in port-au-prince a tribute to maroon communities and the statue is called the unknown maroon again sort of a celebration of those who were brave enough to we from slavery and try to establish independent communities leading up to the revolution there were regular revolts but most were put down fairly quickly which event naturally leads us to the question of how the Revolution began those of you who are familiar with the story of the Haitian Revolution know that it's a pretty long complicated and circuitous story but just to kind of highlight a couple of key issues political conflict really first started to emerge in the late 1780s when the free black population the John de couleur began to pressure the colonial government for their rights these folks are really heavily inspired by the language of the French and American revolutions that are calling for freedom equality Brotherhood and so they're you they're drawing upon this language to push for their full rights to citizenship so kind of in the midst of this growing tension between the Jean de couleur and the white planter class a slave revolt erupts in August of 1791 under the leadership of an enslaved man named Bookman a highly influential figure in the enslaved community Bookman reputedly used the religion of Voodoo to inspire his followers vodoo which is often mistakenly referred to as voodoo is essentially a blending of various African spiritual beliefs from different West African societies with Catholicism so it was apparently this use of African spirituality that caused Pat Robertson to describe the Haitian Revolution as a pact with the devil because it was following one of Bookman spiritual ceremonies that the Haitian Revolution commenced and of course this painting in the image that I'm about to show you are kind of recreations right depictions of one of Bookman ceremonies that that led to the revolution again following this this particular ceremony that took place not far outside of Cape ation enslaved Africans armed with machetes that had been used to cut sugarcane on local plantations began beating drums chanting and marched from plantation to plantation killing looting and burning the cane fields rapidly expanding to 12,000 rebels Buckman's revolt quickly blossomed into the largest bloodiest slave rebellion in history although Bookman himself died early in the conflict - the rebellion persisted and by the end of September over a thousand plantations have been burned and hundreds of whites had been killed now there there is kind of then a critical turning point here where the Jean de couleur decide they're gonna join right in the process they're obviously frustrated by the continual denial of their rights and so they join the rebels and the violence continues to spread so after months of fighting and bloodshed it becomes clear that the revolt is going to be impossible to control so in December of 1791 troops are imported from France and this again is an illustration sort of depicting the attempted arrival of French troops onto the shores of what was then still on sand domain and of course there's significant clashing that takes place between the the Haitian rebels and the French troops during this same time famed leader Toussaint L'Ouverture rose to power among the black rebels and created an organized army of over 20,000 and I'll just say as a side note again for those of you who are not as familiar with this topic but who may perhaps be a little bit more familiar with the French language for a long time Toussaint's name was spelled with an apostrophe between the the L and the O but historians in recent years have discovered that's actually not how he spelled his name and so there's sort of an effort to try to correct that but you'll still see it spelled both ways so in 1793 L'Ouverture gains control of the government and pressures French authorities to declare an end to slavery but the country was not yet free over the next several years with the climax in 1800 both the French and the Spanish attempted to reimpose European control and ensure that the system of slavery would continue although the rebels were eventually able to defeat Napoleon's army they suffered major defeats early on and in one of these conflicts in 1802 the French captured two sont and he died in 1830 1803 while in their custody and this is sort of the famous illustration that was circulated of Toussaint death in this case actually being attended by one of his sort of loyal servants and supporters who was imprisoned along with him I actually recently read an article that I thought was interesting because it noted that in reality one thing that was actually not captured in this illustration is that Toussaint was actually wearing like a red bandana on his head at the time of his death which would have been sort of culturally symbolically significant so the point here is that what the French had hoped was that by capturing Toussaint they would chop the head off the rebellion but that obviously did not happen what happened instead is that various members of the Jean de couleur people like Henri Christophe as well as jean-jacques Dessalines rose in power to replace Toussaint that leads ultimately to the Battle of RTA in 1803 which is kind of recognized as sort of the final epic battle between the Haitian rebels and the French and in 1804 Haiti declares its independence and dessaline became the first ruler of Haiti in a speech delivered in Ghana Yves dessaline called upon his people to pledge themselves to Liberty at any cost and this is an excerpt from from the speech that he delivered let us swear before the whole universe to posterity to ourselves to renounce France forever and to die rather than to live under its Dominion to fight until our last breath for the independence of our country the haitian act of independence forever altered the meanings and conceptions of liberty in the atlantic world clearly it was not the first declaration of independence in the Americas but Haiti was however the first and only country in the Americas where enslaved Africans threw off their shackles fought for freedom defended European powers established their own nation and pledged themselves to defend their free and independence until their last breath in so doing they accomplished what one scholar has described as the unthinkable they radically upended the basic premise of white supremacy upon which slavery rested and asserted black people's fundamental human right to Liberty and self governance as dessaline affirmed the independence of San Domingo is proclaimed we have proclaimed our rights we swear never to yield them to any power on earth the frightful veil of prejudice is torn to pieces and is so forever this is my favorite part whoa be right with so 19th century woe be to whomsoever would dare again to put together it's bloody tatters now inherent in Dessalines declaration was both a promise and a threat not only did he vowed to expand the notion of liberty and natural rights to people of African descent he also warned the enemies of black freedom that Haitian people were prepared to defend their rights with deadly force the Haitian active independence then transformed global conceptions of Liberty and challenged existing assumptions about who possessed human rights and who did not determined to protect Haitian freedom by any means necessary shortly after his act of Independence dessaline killed off or drove out all the remaining white colonists for dessaline it was an act of justice retribution and protection against future French efforts to restore slavery but for the French and most of the white Western nations it became known as the horrors of San Domingo and these are all on sort of illustrations depicting Dessalines raid driving the French colonists out of san domain the little title at the bottom here is the massacre of the whites by the blacks the Haitian Revolution has been referred to as the Vietnam of its day the story of an underfunded militarily inexperienced group of insurgents that managed to defeat one of the world's strongest powers in essence a group of former slaves defeated Napoleon's army the army that had caused fear around the world and drove them out of Haiti now this particular story is crucial for a number of reasons but mostly because the events of the Haitian Revolution played a defining role in determining the trajectory of Haiti's destiny in the centuries that followed while the Haitian Revolution was celebrated in some quarters the epic tale of a successful slave rebellion that resulted in the establishment of the first sovereign black Republic in the Western Hemisphere caused outrage around the world and ultimately caused Haiti to become one of the most hated and persecuted countries in history and it is this dichotomy the divide between those who celebrated Haiti and those who despised it that I want us to think more deeply about today so I'm gonna talk very quickly first about the folks who celebrated it immediately after Haiti's declaration of independence in 1804 the newly formed black Republic served as a beacon of hope to people of African descent around the world Haitian independence was especially important to African Americans in the United States in the u.s. south and in the Caribbean the influence of the Haitian Revolution was immediately felt in the form of rebellions Martinique charisa Jamaica Grenada and many other colonies across the Americas went up in flames in the United States at least three revolts Gabriel Prosser's rebellion the 1811 uprising in Louisiana and Denmark Vesey's conspiracy were all believed to be inspired by the Haitian Revolution although these uprisings were eventually suppressed the successful Haitian Revolution remained symbolically significant as a model for armed resistance against slavery but the Haitian Revolution was not only empowering for enslaved black black people legally free black people also found hope in it so why was Haiti important to the free black population in the northern United States at the moment of Haitian independence black northerners were in a precarious social and political situation plagued by violence racism injustice poverty the denial of citizenship and a tenuous social status many newly emancipated African Americans wondered if freedom was actually an illusion and grew increasingly doubtful about their future in the United States and I actually want to underscore this point because I think in retrospect we have a tendency to assume that black people always assumed they were gonna stay in this country right and fight for abolition and for equality in this country but the truth is is that throughout the most most of the 19th century the question of whether black people should collectively leave or stay was actually a serious point of contention and debate within the black community and Haiti in particular in their minds represents the culmination of black political autonomy in their view the story of the Haitian Revolution was one in which enslaved people had thrown off their shackles and declared their right to self-determination so once Haiti became an independent nation it appeared to be the ultimate manifestation of what black activists hoped to achieve as a result as early as 1804 emancipated northerners passionately defended Haitian independence enthusiastically celebrated Haiti's liberation from colonial rule and even considered migrating to the black Republic they also grappled with pain disappointment and frustration whenever Haiti struggled with internal political conflicts or racist attacks from whites in the United States and Europe so I want to talk very quickly I'm actually gonna try to summarize some of this quickly so we can get to some of the heart of some of the really juicy stuff but I want to emphasize a couple of things that happen in 1804 that really indicate that from the beginning the the sovereignty and the independence of Haiti is vitally important to the black population in the United States so there's kind of two compelling examples of this the first is a series of articles that were written by an anonymous author known only as the injured man of color and he writes a series of articles in the spring of 1804 bending not only the right of Haiti to be independent and sovereign and the formerly enslaved people to be free but he's actually also defending Dessalines actions in trying to purge the country of French colonists and what he does is I think is actually a very clever sort of strategic effort on his part which is to draw a parallel between the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution and essentially say so why is it okay for you to kill people and fight for your Liberty but it's not okay right for us to do the same so this is just one sort of quick excerpt from that he says when you fought for your independence when you resisted the arm of Britain and gained the cause for which you struggled were you not elated with your success were you not proud of your victory did not your soul spurn at the man who dared call you rebels and traitors and he goes on through these articles to basically conjure up ideas of Liberty and death fundamental ideas about people's fundamental rights to freedom and inserts the Haitian struggle into that and he also has this really interesting point where he essentially highlights the fact that Americans the people who became Americans and what became the United States had felt enslaved by the British but the Haitians in fact had been slaves right and so they had even more of a right to fight for their freedom about a month after the injured man of color publishes these articles there's also an uprising in Philadelphia a rebellion where about two hundred black Philadelphians take to the streets and they according to a number of newspaper articles they actually marched through the streets and this is a quote damming the whites and saying they will show them San Domingo right so it's the sort of call to we're going to show you really what's up right relative to the Haitian struggle so the point here is that even in the north us blacks celebrated and honored the Haitian Revolution and independent Haiti and used it as a model for their own local liberation struggles now in the first several years following Haitian independence and I want to point out as often happens with a dramatic revolution there was significant political turmoil in Haiti as newly emancipated people sought to determine what direction their sovereign nation ought to go during that era dessaline Christoph and other political leaders were killed off or overthrown so it's not until 1820 when jean-pierre boy a becomes the new president of Haiti that we see a period of time in which the country is sort of united under one ruler and in fact it's in 1822 that boy a not only unites all of Haiti under his rule but conquered what is now known as the Dominican Republic and unites the entire island under his rule therefore by the early 1820s black northerners not only expressed verbal support for Haiti they also began to view Haiti as a potential home frustrated by persistent racism and inequality in the u.s. they eventually formed an immigration movement in 1824 president boy a unveils an inducement plan in which the Haitian government agrees to pay transportation supplies education and most importantly citizenship for all African Americans who are willing to migrate to Haiti and he actually gives the speech that's sort of disseminated in among free black communities in the north in which he says we are all descendants of Africa we all share African blood and so therefore the moment you step foot on Haiti you will become Haitian so with his support an estimated 13,000 African Americans migrated from the United States to Haiti during the 1820s in hopes of finding true freedom equality and citizenship ultimately the immigration movement to Haiti was short-lived and we can talk more in the discussion period about why if you like but the point here is that even though the immigration movement was short-lived Haiti's political destiny still figured prominently in the minds of African Americans particularly because Haiti increasingly found it under itself under attack and this is where we get into the tricky part right so far we've talked about how the Haitian Revolution and Haitian sovereignty was celebrated right but we know overwhelmingly it was opposed although that the Haitian Revolution was inspiring to the opponents of slavery the notion of a successful slave rebellion that resulted in the first independent black Republic sent shockwaves around the world and not surprisingly it was not well received by the major slave holding nations the United States England and of course France for many of these countries the idea of an independent black Republic composed of former slaves was not only repugnant but threatening after all such a reality shook the very foundations upon that shook the very foundations that upon which the fragile system of slavery was based if slate if Haiti could have a successful slave rebellion couldn't the same thing happen elsewhere perhaps in their very midst and ultimately it was the fragile system of slavery that provided the political and economic foundation of their societies even worse the reality of Haiti challenged the other central component of slavery white supremacy as a result Western nations immediately imposed both diplomatic and economic sanctions on the newly formed Republic the United States for example imposed both diplomatic and trade embargoes against Haiti now the roots of US policy towards Haiti stemmed back to 1791 shortly after the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution when George Washington's administration contributed significant funds to assist French planters in their fight against the black rebels from that time forward an unwillingness to accept the reality of a free black nation marred the US government's policy towards Haiti now admittedly there was a very brief period in the midst of the Haitian Revolution when John Adams administration offered some support to Toussaint L'Ouverture in hopes that L'Ouverture would contain French military operations in the rest of the Atlantic world so for Adams this is really a strategic issue right he's concerned about the spread of French Authority and military power in the Americas and so he's willing to throw a little support behind to sought to kind of keep the French in check but once Haiti gained full independence the US government policy towards Haiti cooled significantly Thomas Jefferson for example believed that Haiti should be under French and openly encourage Napoleon to reconquer the island after Haiti declared its independence in 1804 Jefferson suspended all diplomatic and commercial relations with the former colony significantly giving its thriving economic relationship with Haiti the US economic embargo only lasted a few years and I think it's actually important to underscore at that point that the US economy was very deeply and heavily tied to trade with the black Republic right whether it be a French colony or whether it be an independent nation especially the northern economy is very heavily dependent on its trade relationship with Haiti so they're trying to take this really strong stand right and impose an economic embargo but it really only lasts a few years because they can't hold out financially so even though they reengage in this economic relationship the United States still did not agree to formally recognize Haiti diplomatically until 1862 and so there's this bizarre relationship that goes on for almost 60 years where the United States is benefitting tremendously from its economic relationship with Haiti and yet officially and diplomatically they're pretending the country doesn't exist now well the while the US refused to recognize Haiti France actually agreed to do so in 1825 over 20 years after Haitian independence but as I imagine many of you already know Haiti's freedom came at a very high price in order to gain diplomatic recognition and to try to gain entrance into the global trade arena the Haitian government was forced to enter into a very costly agreement with France in 1825 fourteen French warships arrived in port-au-prince and pointed nearly 500 cannons directly at the capital city their intention was to create a naval blockade and that's what you see depicted in this illustration so their intention was to basically cut off be the black Republic unless the Haitian government conceded to their terms and I want to underscore this point because as much as people talk and write about the the indemnity this financial agreement that emerged almost no one talks about the military pressure right that came behind and came along with what happened in this exchange so what were the terms that the French government looked for Haiti to concede to well the French demanded that Haiti paid compensation and reparations to France and yeah I did say that reparations um from the perspective of the French they wanted compensation and reparations for the loss of their property and yes that included the value of what they perceive to be their human property and so essentially what the French does is use a team of accountants to place a value on all the land and physical assets including the half-million citizens who were formerly enslaved the declared value amounted to a hundred and fifty million gold francs and although historical you know monetary conversions are always tricky in contemporary terms that that amount would equate to at least twenty billion dollars in exchange for financial compensation Haiti agreed to wreck that France agreed to recognize Haiti as a sovereign nation but more importantly the Haitians are surrounded right and so they realize they either have to agree to this or they have to try to fight it out again so with their diplomatic and economic backs against the wall the Haitians agreed to pay the French 150 million gold francs an agreement that was later simply known as the indemnity payments began immediately and although Haiti was finally able to buy its freedom and diplomatic recognition the debt of a hundred and fifty million francs is a debt from which they have never fully been able to recover for nearly a hundred years from 1825 to 1922 France forced Haiti to pay an annual fee for their freedom and independence and it is this reality more than any other factor that explains how and why Haiti eventually became known as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere now admittedly in 1838 the debt was reduced to sixty million francs but I mean too much money is still too much money and the annual fee was still far too high which meant that the country fell further into debt even at the time United States newspapers admitted that Frances financial expectations were entirely unreasonable but Haiti was still forced to comply and in order to do so the Haitian government began began borrowing from other nations including the u.s. to raise enough funds to pay France which led to cycles of debt and just very quickly to give you a sense of how devastating this arrangement became consider these statistics by the end of the nineteenth century right around 1898 Haiti was sending eighty percent of its national revenue to pay the debt to France and in 1915 due to a voracious interest rates and compounding interest Haiti still owed France a hundred and twenty-one million francs so the debt had gotten reduced to sixty billion but because of the interest rates that they were charged by 1915 after paying for all of those years the amount that they still owed had actually doubled and most of their resources went to paying off its debt for instance 98 percent in 1915 of the revenue that Haiti generated from coffee production went to servicing debt with only two percent available for all other expenses in the meantime Haiti continued to suffer diplomatically although France finally agreed to recognize Haitian independence the u.s. stubbornly refused to follow suit the u.s. eventually reopened trade relations as I mentioned earlier with a with Haiti and benefited tremendously from their commercial relationship the u.s. supplied Haiti with most of its manufactured goods which allowed us investors and businesses to make extraordinary amounts of money but the u.s. still would not officially recognize the newly formed Republic now undoubtedly and I think it's important to take a moment to emphasize this point the United States government's policy towards Haiti was clearly driven by southern politicians and slaveholders desires in the wake of various slave revolts in the u.s. southerners worried that recognizing Haiti would be a tacit endorsement of slave rebellion and therefore ferociously opposed the idea of establishing formal diplomatic relations with the black Republic and so to illustrate this point I want to draw your attention to a bate that takes place on the floors of Congress in 1826 so in 1826 there's a rumor afoot that there is going to be a conference of American Nations independent American Nations and there's a rumor that Haiti might be represented at this gathering at the mere mention of Haiti southern congressional leaders unleashed their fury in a tirade against the Haitian Republic so I'm going to share with you just a few quick excerpts from this debate starting with our good friend Senator Robert Haines of South Carolina who argued vehemently against recognizing Haiti in this fashion we can never acknowledge her independence other nations will do as they please but let us take the high ground these questions belong to a class with which the peace and safety of a large portion of our union forbid us to even discuss likewise James Hamilton also of South Carolina lodged his complaint on the grounds that it would be a violation of state law and the principle of states rights Haitian independence is not to be tolerated in any form our opinions are derived from a solemn conviction the consequences of this recognition would be fatal to our repose and produce a concussion which must either end in the annihilation of these states or the destruction of the power of general government so to some degree Haines and Hamilton are sort of tiptoeing around the issues of race and rebellion but other congressmen tackled these subjects more directly John Berry and of Georgia asks his colleagues this can the people of the south permit the intercourse which would establish from which would result from establishing relations of any sort with Haiti is the emancipated slave his hands yet reeking in the blood of his murdered master to be admitted to their ports to spread the doctrines of insurrection and to strengthen and invigorate them by exhibiting in his own person an example of successful revolt now the importance and this is really where it sort of connects to my research the importance in my mind of this is not simply the opposition right over white politicians to the recognition of Haiti but also the fact that this issue was not lost on black activists during this period the relationship between the US government's refusal to acknowledge Haiti and the continuation of southern slavery was in fact painfully obvious to them Frederick Douglass for example aptly described white America's responses to the Haitian Revolution as a demonstration of their discomfort with the black self-determination exhibited by the Haitian struggle for freedom speaking in 1893 Douglass referred to the United States as coolness towards Haiti in the following manner haiti is black and we have not yet forgiven haiti for being black after haiti had shaken off the fetters of bondage and long after her freedom and independence had been recognized by all other civilized nations we continue to refuse to acknowledge the fact and treated her as outside the sisterhood of nations now as Douglass's reflections indicated the united states did indeed continue its policy of non recognition but by the late 1830s opposition was mounting black activists strongly supported Haitian independence and their endorsement remained consistent throughout the antebellum era a position that was deeply connected to the freedom struggle in the United States in their view the US the u.s. is refusal to recognize Haiti not only threatened the notion of black autonomy but it also bolstered the South's mission to strengthen slavery as a result the black leadership openly attacked the south and its vehement commitment to slavery and criticized the government's repudiation of Haiti so I want to just give you a quick example of this from Samuel Cornish the editor of the colored American newspaper which was really the only black newspaper at the time who repeatedly and in numerous ways expressed his frustration about the government's policy towards Haiti in the pages of his paper and so I'm just gonna give you one quick excerpt from this in 1838 he wrote Haiti must be acknowledged and a honorable consular relation established every patriotic and philanthropic citizen should petition Congress for the recognition of Haitian independence if it is important that we should have amicable relations and interchange national courtesies with any nation it is so in regard to Haiti a country that has won its freedom and independence and establish them against the world and here again what's interesting about this and I'm just gonna kind of summarize a couple of key points here what's interesting about this is that throughout the antebellum period black activists repeatedly used the same strategy that the injured man of color had used before them right trying to highlight the contradiction really around a couple of things the contradiction between the celebration of the American Revolution and the demonization of the Haitian Revolution but also the fundamental contradiction between the idea that one group of humans has a right to Liberty and another group of humans did not so over the course of the 1830s and 40s this really becomes kind of a cause celeb certainly within the black abolitionist community but among the white abolitionist community as well and in fact over the course of the 1830s and into the early 1840s black and white abolitionists bombard Congress with petitions demanding the recognition of Haiti and in fact just between 1838 and 1839 Congress received more than 350 petitions containing thousands of signatures from Americans across the northern and western states but the petitions went largely ignored following Congress's refusal to seriously consider the petitions Frederick Douglass again unabashedly blamed slaveholders the system of slavery and racism for the government's absurd refusal to establish diplomatic relations with Haiti in a stunning critique of what they called the slave power which was really the sort of southern political machine Douglass vented his frustration with the Haitian situation and this is a quote from Douglass with the meanness as well as the insolence of tyranny the slave power has compelled the federal government to abstain from acknowledging the neighbor Republic of Haiti where slaves have become Freeman and established an independent nation unfortunately for black leaders however the argument in favor of Haiti became more difficult to make by the early 1850s in 1843 jean-pierre boy a had been ousted from the presidency and after a series of short-lived presidencies another military coup d'état led to the presidency of Faust ins so Luke late in 18-49 he was named Emperor Faust in the first and was officially crowned in 1852 now it's important to emphasize that this was not a change in name only the decision to embrace the title of Emperor was a reflection of the fact that the Haitian government was moving away from its Democratic Republican values towards the vision of an empire Faust in the first emphasized class hierarchy created a secret police and a personal army to destroy his opponents the government also became more imperialistic in its Foreign Relations most notably Faust in the first launched a series of attacks against Santo Domingo which had gained its independence in 1844 in the face of such disturbing political trends black activists found it difficult although not impossible to justify their criticism of American policy in 1850 our good friend again frederick douglass publicly blamed the US government for the political problems in Haiti as Douglass explained Faust and only turned to despotism because the US and other nations refused to acknowledge Haitian independence and I have my moments with Frederick Douglass like I have a little like love/hate thing with Frederick Douglass but this is actually one of my favorite Frederick Douglass quotes what has the government done in the case of Haiti it has scouted with the most provoking contempt any act looking to welcome the black Republic into the sisterhood of Nations until at length that Republic disgusted with the very name of republicanism abandon all show of it and put on the robes of imperialism finding as she has found far more justice and honor among European despots than she has been able to find among American Democrats so to me what's really clever about what Douglass has done here right is that he has a really good twofold strategy on the one hand he's very clearly distancing himself from Faust ins policies right he's saying I'm not feeling the direction Faust and is going but he is simultaneously effectively arguing that Haiti's internal policies were due at least in part to the failure of u.s. foreign policy so despite Faust ins policies anti-slavery advocates continue to press the issue of Haiti's diplomatic status and throughout most of the 1850s both Frederick Douglas along with Charles Sumner who was probably one of the the most leading and sort of most recognizable of the abolitionists on senators continue to argue for Haitian independence throughout the 1850s now interestingly enough it is probably largely due to the tension right between the US government and the efforts to obtain diplomatic recognition for Haiti that by the 1850s some black leaders begin to or sort of return to the idea of demonstrating their support for Haiti and their frustration with the United States by revisiting the immigration movement early in the decade there were rumblings of support for Haitian immigration and as the 1850s progressed the movement gained strength in 1857 the the black activists you see depicted here James Theodore Hawley published a pamphlet about the Haitian Revolution and the benefits of immigration in which he argued that black people in the United States should unite with the people of Haiti to create a powerful demonstration of black nationalism by 1858 Hawley was traveling extensively throughout the north advocating for immigration and on at least one occasion he reported that there were several thousand people preparing to depart moreover his efforts apparently garnered the attention of Faust in the first government because the Emperor sent a representative to encourage black migration from various locations including New Orleans and Missouri yet before Faustus plans were able to fully materialized he was deposed by a military coup d'etat in January of 1859 far Asia fraud led a successful revolt against the Haitian leadership rousted Faust in' and replace re-established a republican government the black community in the US was especially intrigued by this dramatic shift especially after presidential fraud unveiled an incentive program that was nearly identical to president boy a's plan nearly 30 years prior in which he agreed to provide land citizenship education financial inducements and travel stipends to American blacks willing to relocate to Haiti now what's interesting here is that the politics of what happens at the turn of the 1860s really changes the story of the immigration movement in this era initially support was enthusiastic but by the end of a tan done by the end of 1861 approximately 3,000 African Americans had departed for Haiti from various regions throughout the United States but by the end of 1862 it was clear that most activists had abandoned the Haitian immigration project and were refocusing their energy on the fight against slavery in the United States of course by then the civil war had commenced and many black leaders became hopeful that slavery would end in the United States ironically however the year 1862 also signaled the dawn of new hope for the Haitian people at long last the United States government finally agreed to recognize hazy Haiti's independence and extend official diplomatic relations once the South seceded from the Union there was no longer any compelling reason for the us to ignore Haiti's existence and I'm actually going to put a slightly finer point on this which is that in some ways this was actually the recognition of Haiti on the part of the Union government was really kind of a way to stick it to the Confederacy right to sort of you know kind of jabbed the knife in even a little deeper by late 1861 u.s. President Abraham Lincoln received communication from the government's commercial agent in port-au-prince that the American economy would suffer if the Union continued to deny Haiti's independence as he explained the government's non recognition policy was quote altogether disastrous to the interests of our commerce and almost destroys the political influence of our government and it's commercial agents as a result in December 1861 Lincoln concluded that he should reconsider their position in a statement to Congress he wrote the following if any good reason exists why we should persevere any longer in withholding our recognition of the independence and sovereignty of Haiti I am unable to discern it despite his initial support for the notion of recognizing Haitian independence Lincoln and the Union government did not take immediate action on the contrary the issue dragged on for nearly a year before it finally came before Congress so Charles Sumner who had grit criticized the government's policy towards Haiti in the 1850s argued that acknowledging Haiti would be an important step in destroying the vestiges of slavery not surprisingly there was significant opposition to the bill but in June 1862 President Lincoln finally enacted the law recognizing Haiti and appointed the first Haitian commissioner The Liberator newspaper which I imagine is familiar to some of you is probably the most famous anti-slavery newspaper during the period led by William Lloyd Garrison The Liberator celebrated the decision declaring it means that this government henceforth recognizes blacks as citizens capable of a national life not as chattels who have no rights which white men are bound to respect I imagine many of you recognized the phrasing in that quote it comes of course from the Dred Scott decision which had been handed down by the Supreme Court in 1857 which had famously declared that black people were chattel property with no rights which the white man was bound to respect The Liberator was clearly trying to challenge such a notion but the paper might have been a bit too hasty in declaring victory Hades political success in 1862 proved to be hollow at best gaining diplomatic recognition from the United States which had won seemed once seemed beneficial exposed Haiti to the possibility of foreign intervention and eventually resulted in occupation and manipulation by foreign nations as I noted at the beginning the first 100 years of Haitian history was marred by political and economic embargoes that devastated the black Republic's attempts to establish and stabilize their independent Republic the country suffered through military cooze political instability and conflict over how to make a transition to a new country especially when the rest of the free world refused to acknowledge them and their economy was stymied by their debt to France the second hundred years however became the exact opposite rather than being ignored and excluded Haiti became the subject of conquest occupation and control by Western nations particularly the United States now as I stated at the beginning the period after the Civil War is just really not my happy place and it is my area of expertise but I just want to conclude by highlighting a few key moments that take place in the 20th century because again I think it's really vital to understanding Haiti's current plight between 1862 and 1915 Haiti experienced tremendous internal turmoil dozens of military coos horrific violence and political instability devastated the island nation for some observers this might serve as evidence that Haiti the Haitians were unable to effectively govern themselves the reality however is more complex in many ways the story of Haiti's internal conflict is not unique political turmoil violence repression and military coos have often followed revolutions in history the American French and Russian revolutions are just a few of the most obvious examples even so the extent and frequency of Haiti's problems set it apart from other revolutionary legacies so what makes Haiti different it is not as Haiti detractors might claim a pathology among Haitians or evidence of a curse it is instead a function of the social political and economic legacies of Haiti's history as a former slave colony that gained its freedom against all odds between 1868 and 1915 following decades of political and economic embargoes Haiti was vulnerable and was soon targeted by many countries including the United States Germany and France as a site for potential political and economic imperialism early in the 1870s the United States sought to annex neighboring Santo Domingo and make it a u.s. possession in hopes of using their position to reach across the mountains and reimpose slavery in Haiti especially since slavery had recently been abolished within the borders of the United States Haiti also remained vulnerable to domination by other Western nations ultimately it was Germany's interest in Haiti that had the most profound impact on Haiti's destiny in 1914 following the outbreak of World War two the US government became increasingly concerned about Germany's preoccupation with the Caribbean although the United States officially stayed neutral during much of the first world war it remained determined to counteract Germany's potential power in the Americas as a result in 1914 following more political conflict among the Haitian leadership u.s. President Woodrow Wilson used the Monroe Doctrine to send American troops to invade Haiti and commenced what became a devastating brutal military occupation now for those of you who are not familiar with the Monroe Doctrine it was essentially passed in 1823 and stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with States in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring US intervention so essentially what Woodrow Wilson does is sort of use the Monroe Doctrine as justification and led a military occupation that ruled Haiti by force from 1915 to 1934 often using extreme violence to suppress Haitians who opposed for an occupation in one skirmish alone the US military killed over 2,000 Haitian protesters and these are just a few images of the US military occupation of Haiti you can see one u.s. regiment there in 1915 this is the capture and incarceration of a Haitian protester and this is actually the rounding up of a series of protesters you can see here according to the image these are a few of the country's bad men right that the US military took into custody for 19 years the United States government controlled customs in Haiti collected taxes and ran many governmental institutions all of which benefited the United States in 1922 for example the United States extended Haiti a debt consolidation loan that was designed to pay off its remaining debt to France which amounted to about 40 million dollars but in many ways Haiti simply exchanged one master for another although Haiti was finally free of its debt to France it now had a new creditor the United States government and the US banks who made a small fortune off the loan arrangement although the u.s. officially withdrew troops from Haiti in 1934 the US government still maintained fiscal control over the country until nineteen four seven when Haiti finally paid off its loan in order to do so however Haiti was forced to deplete its gold reserves leaving the country bereft more importantly however the removal of the US military did not result in the removal of US influence in Haiti as the Cold War set in after World War two the most devastating impact of u.s. interference in Haiti was the government's ongoing support of the Duvalier regime which ruled Haiti from eighteen I keep saying 18 you guys have to forgive me for that 1957 to 1986 again using the argument that Haiti might fall to communism the US government concluded that it would offer full support to the Duvalier government during that 30 year period Haitians were forced to live under the dictators Papa Doc and baby doc Duvalier a father-and-son team who openly murdered their opponents and stole millions of dollars from the Haitian people the Duvalier regime began in 1956 when Francois Papa Doc Duvalier seized power in a military coup d'etat within a decade Papa Doc declared himself president for life and imposed a brutal dictatorship the US government turned a blind eye to Duvalier's violence corruption and human rights violations and even provided formal military training to Duvalier z' counterinsurgency force known as the Leopards some members of the Haitian leadership have since claimed that the Duvalier's stole from the Haitian people close to 1 billion dollars even so both Duvalier's enjoyed the backing of the United States because they staunchly supported the US policies against communism and more importantly I think offered economic opportunities to American businesses these problems grew exponentially under baby Doc's leadership in 1971 I said 19 that time Papa Doc Duvalier died and his son is jean-claude baby doc assumed power within the US with the US government's endorsement many American politicians and businessmen saw baby Doc's regime as an opportunity to exploit the island nation and turn it into what they called the Taiwan of the Caribbean given its proximity to the United States American financial investors convinced baby doc to reduce Haiti's focus on agriculture and shift the economy towards manufacturing and export the problem however was that Haiti's economy suffered immeasurably from this plan agricultural production prop dropped precipitously and Haiti was forced into a dependent and vulnerable economic position in the global market in the meantime baby Doc's reign of terror continued he formed death squads known as the tanto makuu that murdered as many as 60,000 opponents of his regime while stealing millions of dollars from the Haitian people and accumulating hundreds of millions of dollars of debt of national debt according to most estimates by the end of the 1980s Haiti owed over 1.5 billion dollars in external debt and 40% of that debt was created by the Duvalier's it is also estimated that baby doc himself pocketed 900 million dollars of those loans meanwhile American investors benefited financially from the spiraling national debt in July 2003 for example Haiti sent 90 percent of its foreign reserves to financial institutions in Washington DC in an effort to pay their national debt baby doc was forced to flee Haiti in 1986 in the face of growing opposition from the Haitian people and shortly thereafter in 1990 Haiti held free peaceful democratic elections which resulted in jean-bertrand Aristide short-lived first presidency and this is an image of the celebrations that were taking place when free and democratic elections were held for the first time and this of course is an era steede at the time of his election since 1990 Haiti has continued to suffer extraordinary political conflict and violence era steeds first presidency ended in a coup in 1991 and he lived in exile until 1994 after his return he won election again and was president from 2001 to 2004 now this next part I know is going to hurt the feelings of some folks who are fans of the toons especially because the Clintons loved talking about Haiti and how they went there on their honeymoon and how much they love and care about Haiti but under Bill Clinton's administration the u.s. implemented devastating policies against Haiti under Bill Clinton the US government pressured aresty to drop foreign tariffs at a tremendous profit to US businesses while gutting the Haitian economy likewise Bill Clinton banned Haitian refugees from entering the United States choosing instead to jail them at Guantanamo Bay prison a policy that continued under George Bush era stayed for his part during his second presidency tried to pressure France to pay twenty 1 billion dollars in restitution to Haiti for the years of payment that Haiti was required to pay perhaps in retaliation in 2004 just after the bicentennial of Haitian independence Eris feed was forcibly removed from political office a move he claimed was orchestrated by the Bush administration he spent the next seven years in exile in South Africa and was a lonely allowed to return to Haiti in 2011 shortly after the earthquake baby doc Duvalier interestingly enough was also allowed to return after the earthquake and there was extensive discussion about whether to bring him up on charges for his conduct while President but he died in 2014 before action was taken the last 20 years have only reinforced Haiti's negative reputation as a country marred by corruption poverty incompetence and ignorance even today Haiti is plagued by protests over financial mismanagement presidential embezzlement and outraged over alleged election fraud whatever the outcome of the next election however current understandings of Haiti are incomplete without the broader historical context one cannot grasp the reason behind Haiti's polite unless one acknowledges Haiti's painful journey the first 100 years in which Haiti was punished abused and excluded from the global economy and political community followed by the second 100 years in which Haiti has been occupied controlled manipulated and exploited by Western nations and in the end it is the combination of these factors the extremes of either neglect or overt imperialism and the unending weight of external debt that have caused Haiti's current predicament so as we mark the 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake that killed nearly 300,000 Haitians we need to acknowledge the full history of Haiti and the role the American government has played in creating Haiti's plight this will be particularly crucial for those of us who wish to see Haiti recover blossom and grow in the coming years but the question that Frederick Douglass posed in 1893 still remains will the US and other Western nations ever forgive Haiti for being black [Applause] okay we've got about 25 minutes for questions would anybody like the first one yes sir James history yeah in your trunk but in the 19th century the economic relationships yeah yeah so this is really interesting I mean it's so like okay there's a lot of layers to this the first and most obvious and this is probably the most direct answer to your economic question I can share some of these excerpts and statistics with you if you're curious but throughout most of the 19th century the US economy especially in the north is actually heavily tied to the Asian economy and as largely as the result of what I kind of went quickly over in the talk which is that you know the u.s. is importing manufactured goods right and profiting off of the relationship with Haiti that way but then they're also getting all the raw materials right Haitians are still producing coffee and sugar and actually in the sort of later part of the antebellum period like from the 1840s to the 1860s the really big products that Haiti is exporting that everybody wants is lumber and wood so it's mahogany it's log wood it's all of these and actually I was fascinated by that I think you know being someone who had studied slavery in the Caribbean in the nineteenth century I assumed it was all coffee and sugar but then I actually started looking at you know all of the records that are coming out of Haiti through the US government at this time and actually the bulk of what US businesses are exporting from Haiti is lumber but they you know there's all these newspaper articles in the middle of like the 1830s and it's 1840s highlighting the fact that Haiti is actually one of the United States as most important trade partners they're like their fourth most important don't you know in terms of domestic goods and the fifth most important in terms of their sort of foreign exports so they're actually heavily heavily dependent on their trade relationship with Haiti and what northern college what northern businessmen in particular are really upset about is the fact that because the United States won't recognize Haiti diplomatically the Haitians charge a 10% and duty on every US ship that comes in and out of the country and so one that I didn't obviously have time to go into detail on this but one of the strongest arguments that's made in favor of u.s. recognition of Haiti is like this is costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars every year right because we're having to pay these stupid taxes because you won't just acknowledge that this country that we have this booming trade relationship actually exists right so yeah and actually it's interesting because it's not just an anti-slavery name newspapers it's in the mainstream newspapers too right American businessmen kind of have their panties in a wad about this you know like this is costing us way too much money and all you need to do is say this country that we all know exists right does in fact exist and they're like what's interesting just really quickly as a side note too is that the Haitian government kind of goes back and forth on whether or not they care right and I've happen in this project that I'm working on which is really about kind of how the black population responds to this issue it's been kind of interesting to see how there are periods of time in which black abolition is advocating for us recognition of Haiti is in different periods slightly out of step with what the Haitian government wants or what they care about right is it's um we need like we exist regardless right a look at whether or not you acknowledge us we don't need you to acknowledge us for us to be here and in the meantime we're making some money about the fact that you're pretending we're not here right so it's interesting is in certain periods of time the Haitian government cares a lot and other times they're like whatever don't recognize us if you don't want to we're still here so in in I'm gonna push you too you're not happy so for today courage so in that in a moment where we're still having like what I think is insane debate in terms of whether it's race or class like they have one of the most interesting and most radical critiques of the Haitian Revolution offers is that it's both is bold a sort of assertion of black sovereignty but as Michelle Triola talks about in that magnificent plan of a new reference it's also anti-capitalist because these ex-slave turn black revolutionaries are challenging the conditions that make a global capitalist system possible yeah so the French warships come back o in reaction to that as well because these ex-slaves turn autonomous black black asian citizens yes they don't want to go back to this previous economic system they wanted off like a small older peasant type of agricultural production yeah it's just a nice thing that's why the French warships are there yes and they've never left yes right and I think I love how you connect the French warships - I mean there's testimonies of the US Marines literally raiding the gold reserves and then taking physically the Haitian gold reserves in 1915 right taking it to wall street banks and then as yeah so what do you so thinking about these broader questions what do you think of the Asian Revolution and that dual movement of a radical assertion of blackness and black sovereignty and anti capitalism what can that offer in terms of our current political moment whether it's in the US or what's this movement that has been severely under covered in Haiti but it's a it's a popular rebellion that's been going on for months yeah I mean honestly it personally in my mind it offers everything you know what I mean but they think that one of the trick I want to just really quick and I'll get it more into that in a second but to just kind of highlight something you said I think is really important which is the fact that it is that the Haitian Revolution and at least those who are on the ground participating in the revolution it is it is certainly not only a racial rule but it is certainly an anti-capitalist revolt you know and part of the tension that that creates if we're going to be totally honest and sometimes like we have to be honest in a way that hurts our feeling but but like if we're gonna be totally honest that is not only what drives the conflict between Haiti and these Western nations but it is also what drives the conflict between the Haitian people and its leaders right because what gets boy a Houston what gets dessaline assassinated what what gets you know even to a certain extent petiole increased all right like to a certain degree what causes the conflict between the Haitian government and the people is this tension between what the post-revolutionary society is going to look like from one perspective and what does it look like from another perspective and it's part of the reason why the Indemnity become such a trap great because once the country has been shackled to this massive foreign debt political leaders then have to find some kind of a way to generate that money right but in my opinion if left to their own devices the Haitian people probably would have been much more comfortable and happy with sort of a self-sustaining subsistence you know what I mean type of economy right and here's the boy it gets asked it because he keeps trying to force people right to go back to he even imposes this thing called the the Cobra basically right saying okay everybody who lives out in the country has to get back to work on the plantations well he's kind of forced to do that because now the country is shackled to this massive national debt right but the reality is that that's not what the people want right and so it absolutely is right a battle for freedom and liberty but it's also a battle for not just physical freedom and liberty but economic freedom and liberty too right and among the people they don't necessarily want what the government keeps forcing them into but the government keeps forcing them into that because now they're shackled to this debt that they have to find some kind of a way to pay it really quickly please tell me that your titles gone from a public he is a child of the nineties yes of course that makes me so happy yeah this is actually my my secret plan so I've been going back and forth a little bit of my publishers about what the titles should need and the original practice what's called the cradle of coke which was actually from late at a speech that black activism a kind of describing he is afraid of hope but as many of you probably know publishers hate titles that have quotes and so they wanted me to change it something else and I don't want to talk about it kind of boring and for my publisher who's watching I love you but this morning but so I actually want to call the book here the black Pablo yeah so I haven't told her that yet I said I'm gonna expect you need a whole manuscript and then you're going to love to Kaito when I tell them what to do but yeah it's a hundred percent of yeah but I wanted to know mute you speak a bit more about the ways in which Amy and some like I I guess this is sort of common the way this provides a kind of longer genealogy for things when it's empty politics of containment and other stuff it's think I mean all the way up to Guantanamo yeah this seems like a very eighty tracks that kind of larger u.s. foreign policy in relation to containing class and racial kind of people so I just wanted to hear more about how you see this in relation to the u.s. foreign policy yeah yeah 100% and I think that's why I do keep tying it back to this like fear of a black Republic thing you know but I also keep tying it back to this idea of like Haiti is black and we have not yet forgiven he right like at the core of this is a fundamental struggle between the folks who actually and genuinely believe in like freedom and liberty right and the folks who want to who feel like that's okay for a very small portion of the population right and are committed to deny and everyone else and it started the reason why I wanted to back up the story to the 19th century right because in order to really understand right what happens in the 20th century and I would argue is still happening right now you know righty there are some painful things we don't want to talk about about even for example Obama Hertz right but we have to be willing to talk about what the policies right towards these various countries have been and you know my position is that what happens to Haiti in the 20th century what's happening to Haven right now is still connected to the fact that we can't this country won't forgive me for being black right for all of the things that that means right it's the anti-capitalist position you know what I mean but also just the fact that there are black people who feel like they have the same right to liberty and freedom as everyone and so I'm just wondering the world gender yeah yeah I originally had like some it's so hard to like figure out when you're like trying to condense all this into light you know you're like okay you have like five minutes tell this whole story so there were there were a couple of like excerpts from Mariah Stewart that I wanted to include you know one of them I will say one of the things that has been challenging about this project is that it is a very foreign policy driven research project and so to find black people period involved in conversations about nineteenth-century foreign policy has been a challenge on its own but then also to try to find women's voices in that has been more challenge more challenging but what had there have been a couple of places where I feel like I have been able to insert women into that conversation one is that there are a few examples in Mariah's Stewart is one of them who over the course of the 19th century actually did speak publicly about patient independence and Haitian sovereignty and she actually at one point kind of in this one it's a very small section of this one speech but she throws down pretty significantly kind of calling the US government to task for its unwillingness to recognize patient sovereignty and interestingly she does it at a time when the topic of Haitian sovereignty was not actually as popular among the black leadership the black male leadership or generally so I think it was sort of particularly courageous that she chose to do that at the time the other thing that has been really interesting is that I was aware for a long time of these petitions that I mentioned only kind of quickly in passing these petitions that black and white abolitionists sent to Congress during really between the period of 1837 and in 1843 they send hundreds and hundreds of petitions to Congress demanding Haitian recognition I knew those petitions existed and you know you always have that one thing in your research like okay I'm gonna get to that but I gotta lose other than curse and so I finally got to the National Archives and got to look at these petitions and I mean the names of the people that are on this like all of a sudden you're holding this thing is like ways that Frederick Douglass the next well garrison you know what I mean it's like but what I was really sort of shocked and impressed by is the fact that the volume and I'm still actually trying to go through all like three hundred and whatever could be 380 of these petitions and count up who exactly is what because there's that tens of thousands of signatures on these petitions but you know my sort of rough estimate right now is probably close to 70% of the signatories on these petitions are women and to me that actually has the I mean I think it has a potential to do a lot of things but I think one of them is that it has kind of the potential to turn on its head the way we tell the story of the abolitionist movement you know because it is recognizable people like Sarah Parker Raymond right who signed petitions but it's also just these like everyday black and white women who are just sort of foot soldiers of the movement right whose names aren't necessarily leaping off the paper you know like oh there's you know Frederick Douglass or whatever but the volume of women and there's a couple of really interesting article looks like in the anti-slavery newspapers where they're calling in particular on women to circulate these petitions you know kind of saying every meeting that you have every opportunity that you have every moment go to the streets and knock on doors and you know circulate these petitions and it's just thousands and thousands of women who are circulating these petitions and I think that not only I think is that important in its own right but I also think that it can allow us to change the story of how we tell the history of the abolitionist movement right because the way that we tend to tell the history of the abolitionist movement relative to the women's rights movement is well you know the male and a positioners wouldn't let the women say anything and so you know they go off and start their anything but I think the reality is is that the women were doing so much I think it's actually the other way around like they're driving the men along with them and they're like you know what y'all are being like slow and we're doing all this stuff like we're just about to take thing over you know what I mean so I think that actually looking at what women are doing and how they're doing it I think is actually I mean it certainly influences the very specific story that I'm telling but I think it actually has the potential to kind of retell the story more broadly of what was actually going on in the abolitionist and women's rights movement trying to protect it so yeah I was just wondering if you could speak to you know democracy yeah yeah I mean if thank you for the question you know I think it is a really interesting thing obviously they make it there's so many things like it's always that torturous thing when you're like talking about something you're really excited about you're trying to figure out like what I have to cut these things out but you know one of the things that I didn't really get a chance to talk much about is that process of kind of transition that happens immediately after the Revolution right when there's kind of a series of different leaders and I think there is this process where they're kind of struggling to figure out what kind of a nation are we actually trying to create right and after dessaline is assassinated the country kind of splits into two regions the north and the south and the north is ruled by a monarchy right Henri Christophe crowns himself king and he means that like he's really dedicated to the idea of a monarchy right and house ever catching on in the south is creating a temple what we would think of is sort of a more democratic republic and I think that's actually about something like that's that's about in inherent tension right that's happening among these newly emancipated people about what form of a government they actually think is best to sort of make that transition out of revolution and of course you know after additional sort of conflicts and tensions it ultimately raises the results in boy a becoming the leader and he follows in petioles footsteps of establishing a republic but I think Frederick Douglass is actually right when he says you know Haiti tries for all this time to establish itself as a republic but it doesn't do them good relative to foreign policy maybe you know what I mean the question of whether it's but best for the country is a different question but the issue of whether it helps them in terms of their foreign relations that helps them not right because none of the other you know republics that have gained their independence through revolution and are all attached to these you know democratic ideals none of that we're willing to deal with Haiti except to take money from them you know in the trade so I think it is an interesting question right and it's not surprising therefore that at a certain point fountains thing is going to be like what's the point right because we actually might get more support from European monarchies right that are still in place by creating a monarchy than by having a Republican under these other you know so-called free Western nations are interested in us so I mean it is kind of an interesting tension right between their ideal commitment to establishing a republic but then how they're still kind of treated right and perceived by the [Applause]

Channel: ASU School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies

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Length: 86min 41sec (5201 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 06 2019