“Haiti has repeatedly been punished for its original sin of racial insurgency”
- Johnhenry Gonzalez, Maroon Nation: A History of Revolutionary Haiti
Haiti’s revolutionary history and the real sources of its perennial failure as a nation state in modern times has too often been denied, sanitized or ignored in general narratives about the country and society. More people are now challenging the pathology about Haiti, that is, the notion that Haiti is poor because it is poor, an impression completely unmoored from Haiti’s significant challenge to the global world system and the penalties that derived from that incipient bravery of declaring a free and independent black republic.
Toussaint Louverture Continue reading
HAITI: How Toussaint Louverture Rose from Slavery to Lead the Haitian Revolution
How did Toussaint Louverture, born into bondage in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) and enslaved for more than half his life, come to lead the most successful slave revolt in history—and help precipitate the downfall of European colonialism in the western hemisphere?
Saint-Domingue in the late 18th century thrived as the wealthiest colony in the Americas. Its sugar, coffee, indigo and cotton plantations minted money, fueled by a vast enslaved labor force. A French colony since 1697, it occupied the western half of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, while the Spanish had colonized the eastern side, called Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic). Continue reading →
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