Pre-columbian Hispaniola

PRE-COLUMBIAN HISPANIOLA -- ARAWAK/TAINO NATIVE AMERICANS

Bob Corbett
corbetre@webster.edu
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/precolumbian/tainover.htm








Below is an overview of the Arawak/Taino Native Americans, the original natives of the land today called Haiti (and Dominican Republic). This is not so much an original treatment, but I pulled a lot of material together from about a dozen sources, so it's more like an extended report.
The topics I treat are:


•Lifestyle of the Arawak/Taino
•Housing and Dress
•Food and Agriculture
•Transportation
•Defense
•Religion and Myth
•The genocidal end of the Arawak/Taino
•Specific Indian leaders at the time of Columbus (The five caciques of the time)


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THE ARAWAK/TAINO NATIVES OF THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA (HAITI)

On December 6th, 1492 Christopher Columbus landed at Mole St. Nicholas in Haiti's north. Thus began a totally new phase of life on the island of Hispaniola. Most people are aware that Christopher Columbus landed at San Salvador on October 12th, 1492, thus "discovering" the New World for Spain. Less known is that his second land fall was at Mole St. Nicholas, Haiti on December 1492, or that the first settlement in the New World was La Navidad, on Haiti's north coast. This settlement, which housed sailors from the Santa Maria which sank off Haiti's coast, was founded on December 24th, 1492.


Columbus did not discover a lost or unknown land. There was a flourishing civilization of native Americas. The primary group was the Arawak/Taino Indians. Arawak is the general group to which they belong, and describes especially the common language that this group of native Americans shared. They ranged from Venezuela through the Caribbean and Central America all the way to Florida. However, the particular group of Arawak-speaking people who lived on the island of Hispaniola was the Taino Indians. To keep both names before us, I'll use the term Arawak/Taino to refer to them.

LIFESTYLE OF THE ARAWAK/TAINO

The Arawak/Taino society was basically a very gentle culture. It was characterized by happiness, friendliness and a highly organized hierarchical, paternal society, and a lack of guile. Each society was a small kingdom and the leader was called a cacique. At the time of Columbus there were five different kingdoms on the island of Hispaniola. The Indians practiced polygamy. Most men had 2 or 3 wives, but the caciques had as many as 30. It was a great honor for a woman to be married to a cacique. Not only did she enjoy a materially superior lifestyle, but her children were held in high esteem.

HOUSING AND DRESS

The Arawak/Taino used two primary architectural styles for their homes. The general population lived in circular buildings with poles providing the primary support and these were covered with woven straw and palm leaves. They were somewhat like North American teepees except rather than being covered with skins they needed to reflect the warmth of the climate and simply used straw and palm leaves.


The caciques were singled out for unique housing. Their houses were rectangular and even featured a small porch. Despite the difference in shape, and the considerably larger buildings, the same materials were used. When the Africans came beginning in 1507 they introduced mud and wattle as primary building materials. However, there is no record of the Arawak/Tainos having used these materials.


The house of the cacique contained only his own family. However, given the number of wives he might have, this constituted a huge family. The round houses of the common people were also large. Each one had about 10-15 men and their whole families. Thus any Arawak/Taino home might house a hundred people.


The houses did not contain much furniture. People slept in cotton hammocks or simply on mats of banana leaves. They also made wooden chairs with woven seats, couches and built cradles for their children.


In addition to houses the typical Arawak/Taino village contained a flat court in the center of the village which was used for ball games and various festivals, both religious and secular. Houses were around this court. This was a hierarchical society, and while there was only one cacique who was paid a tribute (tax) to oversee the village, there were other levels of sub-caciques, who were not paid, but did hold positions of honor. They were liable for various services to the village and cacique.


Stone making was especially developed among the Arawak/Tainos, but they seem not to have used it at all in building houses. It was primarily used for tools and especially religious artifacts.


The men were generally naked, but the women sometimes wore short skirts. Men and women alike adorned their bodies with paint and shells and other decorations.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

The Arawak/Taino diet, like ours, centered around meat or fish as the primary source of protein. There never were many wild animals to hunt on Hispaniola, but there were some small mammals that were hunted and enjoyed. They also ate snakes, various rodents, bats, worms, birds, in general any living things they could find with the exception of humans. They were able to hunt ducks and turtles in the lakes and sea. The coastal natives relied heavily on fishing, and tended to eat their fish either raw or only partially cooked. Since they did grow cotton on the island, the natives had fishing nets made of cotton. The natives of the interior relied more on agriculture and de-emphasized meat or fish in their diet.


The Arawak/Taino had a developed system of agriculture which was virtually maintenance free. They raised their crops in a conuco, a large mound which was devised especially for farming. They packed the conuco with leaves to protect from soil erosion and fixed a large variety of crops to assure that something would grow, no matter what weather conditions prevailed.


(As an aside I would like to comment that many people in the pre-Columbian Americas had virtually work free agriculture. This system meant that people living in these materially simple social systems had enormous amounts of free time and often developed elaborate religious rites which took a lot of their time, but also had highly developed systems of games and recreation. There are some nice advantages to very simple living and diet!)


One of the Arawak/Taino's primary crops was cassava. This is a root crop from which a poisonous juice must be squeezed. Then it is baked into a bread like slab. The current method of doing this in Haiti produces a flat bread, sort of like a stale burrito or pizza shell. The Arawak/Taino grew corn (maize), squash, beans, peppers, sweet potatoes, yams and peanuts.


They not only had cotton, but they raised tobacco and enjoyed smoking very much. It was not only a part of their social life, but was used in religious ceremonies too.

TRANSPORTATION

The Arawak/Taino had no large animals like horses, oxen or mules to ride or use for work. But they did have river and sea transportation. They used dugout canoes which were cut from a single tree trunk and used with paddles. They could take 70-80 people in a single canoe and even used them for long travels on the sea. These dugouts allowed fishing the few lakes of Hispaniola as well as fishing out a bit off the coast.

DEFENSE

The Arawak/Taino themselves were quite peaceful people, but they did have to defend themselves from the Caribs who were cannibals. The Caribs of this area were centered at what is today Puerto Rico, but some did live in northeast Hispaniola, an area that today is the Dominican Republic. The Caribs were war-like cannibals. They often raided the more peaceful Arawak/Tainos, killing off the men, stealing and holding the women for breeding, and fattening the children to eat.


Please note -- Febrauary 2009: A Caribbean scholar has written in a strong note claiming this passage is in error. Her claims sound quite plausible to me, however, it was years ago I wrote this passage and I have no idea of my source, nor the energy to seach the passage out at this time. Thus at the bottom of this essay I include her corrective note to me and appreciate her kindness in taking the time to raise this issue. See below at end.


Thus the Arawak/Taino had some weapons which they used in defense. They used the bow and arrow, and had developed some poisons for their arrow tips. They had cotton ropes for defensive purposes and some spears with fish hooks on the end. Since there were hardwoods on the island, they did have a war club made of macana. This was about 1" thick and reminds one very much of the cocomaque stick used in later Haitian days. They did not develop any armor or specifically defensive weapons (shields, etc.)

RELIGION AND MYTH

The Arawak/Taino were polytheists and their gods were called ZEMI. The zemi controlled various functions of the universe, very much like Greek gods did, or like later Haitian Voodoo lwa. However, they do not seem to have had particular personalities like the Greek and Haitian gods/spirits do.


There were three primary religious practices:


•Religious worship and obeisance to the zemi themselves.
•Dancing in the village court during special festivals of thanksgiving or petition.
•Medicine men, or priests, consulting the zemi for advice and healing. This was done in public ceremonies with song and dance.
There are many stone carvings of zemi which have survived. Hugh Cave in his HAITI: HIGH ROAD TO ADVENTURE reports that some of the stalagmites of the caves of Dondon were carved into zemi. Some of my students on a study trip visited the caves of Dondon but were unable to find and photograph these carvings. One often sees stone zemi for sale in Haiti, but I have no way of knowing if they are genuine Arawak/Taino archaeological finds, or if they have been remade for tourists!


(As a footnote to this section I might add that Rev. Dr. William Hodges in Limbe, Haiti, is perhaps the most important of those who have done archaeological work in Haiti, and he bills himself as a amateur who does it "on the side for pleasure." However, his small museum in Limbe is simply fantastic, and worth the trip, which is only about 45 minutes from Cap Haitien by taptap. He also has a wealth of materials which he has printed over the years. Dr. Hodges, a U.S. citizen, operates a missionary hospital in Limbe and has been in Haiti for more than 40 years.)


One account of the religious agricultural feasts which were offered both in thanksgiving and petition, describes the following features:


•People had special dress for the ceremonies that included paint and feathers. From their knees on down they would be covered in shells.

•The shaman (medicine man or priests) presented the carved figures of the zemi.

•The cacique sat on wooden stool, a place of honor. (There are many surviving stone carvings of the cacique on his stool.)

•There was a ceremonial beating of drums.

•People induced vomiting with a swallowing stick. This was to purge the body of impurities, both a literal physical purging and a symbolic spiritual purging.

•This ceremonial purging and other rites were a symbolic changing before zemi.

•Women served bread (a communion rite), first to zemi, then to the cacique followed by the other people. The sacred bread was a powerful protector. (The interesting similarities between this ritual and the Christian practice of eucharist is obvious!)

•Finally came an oral history lesson -- the singing of the village epic in honor of the cacique and his ancestors. As the poet recited he was accompanied by a maraca, a piece of hardwood which was beaten with pebbles.
There was an afterlife where the good would be rewarded. They would meet up with dead relatives and friends. Since most of the people they would meet in this paradise were women, it is curious to speculate if it was mainly women who were considered good, or if some other reason accounted for this division of the sexes in the afterlife.


There are many stone religious artifacts which have been found in Haiti. The zemi take on strange forms like toads, turtles, snakes, alligators and various distorted and hideous human faces.


The zemi, as well as dead caciques, have certain powers over the natural world and must be dealt with. Thus these various services are ways of acknowledging their power (worship and thanksgiving) and at the same time seeking their aid. Because of these powers there are many Arawak/Taino stories which account for the origins of some experienced phenomena in myth and or magic. Several myths had to do with caves. The sun and moon, for example, came out of caves. Another story tells that the people lived in caves and only came out at night. One guard was supposed to watch carefully over people to be sure that they were well divided in the land. However, one day he was late in returning and the sun caught him and turned him into a stone pillar. (Shades of Lot's wife!)


Another Indian became angry at the sun for its various tricks and decided to leave. He convinced all the women to abandon their men and come with him along with their children. But, the children were deserted, and in their hunger they turned into frogs. The women simply disappeared. This left the men without women. But, they did find some sexless creatures roaming around and eventually captured them. (Actually they used people with a disease like mange since they had rough hands and could hold on to these elusive creatures.) However, they tied these creatures up and put woodpeckers on them. The birds, thinking these were trees started pecking on them and carved out the sex organs of women, thus re-establishing the possibility of survival.


A different myth simply tells that once there were no women. Man brought woman from an island where there were only women.


The origin of the oceans was in a huge flood which occurred when a father murdered his son (who was about to murder the father), and then put his bones in a calabash. The bones turned to fish and then the gourd broke and all the water of the world flowed from the broken gourd.

THE GENOCIDAL END OF THE ARAWAK/TAINO NATIVES ON THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA

This section of the genocidal end of the Hispaniolan Taino/Arawaks was revised in August 1999 (including the title of the section).


There is a great debate as to just how many Arawak/Taino inhabited Hispaniola when Columbus landed in 1492. Some of the early Spanish historian/observers claimed there were as many as 3,000,000 to 4,000,000. These numbers seem to be based on very little reliable evidence and are thought to be gross exaggerations. However, since nothing like a census was done, the methods for estimating the numbers are extremely shaky, whether by these early historians or later critics.


One long technical article on the population comes in the with the low estimate of 100,000. Several other modern scholars seem to lean more forcefully in the area of 300,000 to 400,000. Whatever the number, what happened to them is extremely tragic. They were not immune to European diseases, especially smallpox, and the Spanish worked them unmercifully in the mines and fields. By 1507 the Spanish were settled and able to do a more reliable job of counting the Arawak/Tainos. It is generally agreed that by 1507 their numbers had shrunk to 60,000. By 1531 the number was down to 600. Today there are no easily discerned traces of the Arawak/Taino at all except for some of the archaeological remains that have been found. Not only on Hispaniola, but also across the Windward Passage in Cuba, complete genocide was practiced on these natives.


The next three paragraphs were added in August 1999.


It is important to pause and think about what is claimed here. The claim is not that the entire population of CARIBBEAN (and possibly even Floridian) Taino/Arawaks were wiped out, but that population which was on the island of Hispaniola when Columbus arrived. Further, this is not to say that no drop of Taino/Arawak blood survived, or than not a single word of the language drifted in later Haitian Creole, perhaps even a zemi god influenced Voodoo here or there.


Rather, the claim is that the Taino/Arawak as a discernible people with a discernible culture simply disappeared ON THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA.


It is clear that the Taino/Arawak survived in others areas of the Caribbean, even in near-by Puerto Rico. The claim I am making is limited to those Taino/Arawaks who inhabited the island of Hispaniola when Columbus arrived in 1492.


Disease was a major cause of their demise. However, on Columbus' 2nd voyage he began to require a tribute from the Arawak/Tainos. They were expected to yield a certain quantity of gold per capita. Failing that each adult of 14 was required to submit 25lbs. of cotton. For those who could not produce the cotton either, there was a service requirement for them to work for the Spanish. This set the stage for a system of assigning the Arawak/Taino to Spanish settlers as effective slave labor. This system contributed significantly to their genocide.


In Sidney Lintz's interesting introduction to James Leyburn's THE HAITIANS, he argues that not only did the natives die out, but nearly all cultural traces did too. He says this is a very unusual phenomenon. Haiti's culture is almost entirely African and European. There are some anthropologists who believe that some Voodoo rites, and especially the Petwo Voodoo rites, might have their origins in Arawak/Taino religion, but this is speculative.


Regardless, it does seem that the Arawak/Tainos disappeared without a trace. Michel Laguerre does caution that despite the early date of the demise of the Arawak/Taino, numbers of them did last long enough to have worked alongside the African slaves who were being brought to Haiti in increasing numbers. Laguerre suggests that there would probably have been some inter-mating and thus it is highly unlikely that Indian blood completely died out in Haiti, even though their cultural heritage did disappear without a trace.


[Special note: Given my focus on the history of Haiti as shaping the current situation in Haiti and using history to understand Haiti today, what is contained in the few paragraphs before this note is very important. It says, in effect, that the pre-Columbian period has virtually no role at all in shaping contemporary Haiti. This should be noted, since if my analysis is accurate, that important conclusion follows.]




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SPECIFIC NATIVE LEADERS AT THE TIME OF COLUMBUS

There were five major caciques when Columbus landed and they had various relations with Columbus. These caciques, their provinces and relations with the Spanish were:


1.Cacique Guacanagaric
The province of Marien (Bainoa)


This province was on the north east coast + interior, in the area of the bay of Samana in the Dominican Republic.


He wanted Columbus to protect him from the marauding Caribs who often came into this area, and he became a friendly advisor to Columbus and a lifelong friend of the Spanish invaders. His own village was about 2 miles SE of Cap Haitien.


2.Cacique Caonabo
The province of Ciguayos (Cayabo or Maguana)


After the Spanish "settlers" at La Navidad perpetrated many horrors on local natives, Caonabo led a band which crossed into the province of Maden and killed all the sailors.


Caonabo then became the rallying point for resistance to the Spanish. Under a pretext of making peace, Columbus lured Caonabo into a trap. The Spaniard Ojeda gave Caonabo a gift of polished iron chains and handcuffs. Mistaking them for ornaments, Caonabo allowed himself to be chained and taken away. Columbus then sent him off to Spain.


Caonabo's brother, Manicatoex, then led an uprising. The Spanish, with their superior firepower crushed the natives and the defeated Arawak/Taino were forced to agree to pay tribute to the Spanish.


There seems to be some unclarity among scholars about these natives. Some claim that these Indians were not from the Arawak/Taino group, but some other tribe. lt does seem that an earlier group, the Ciboney, did live in this area. But, it's not clear if at the time of Caonabo these were Arawak/ Taino or not.


3.Cacique Guarionex
The province of Magua (Huhabo)


This was a densely populated area. This was good inland agricultural land. In 1494 Guarionex was made to submit, then was imprisoned. The Spanish raped his wife in front of him, then executed him. They suspected him of being involved in the attack which Caonabo led on La Navidad.


(A brief digression on La Navidad. Columbus landed at Mole St. Nicholas on Dec. 6, 1492, his second land fall in the "New World." On Dec. 24, 1492 he was sailing away and on Christmas Eve the Santa Maria ran aground and sank off the north coast of Haiti, just near Cap Haitien. The Pinta was lost and the Nina could not accommodate all the sailors. Thus Columbus, with the help of Arawak/Taino, salvaged a good deal of the Santa Maria and built a small fort called La Navidad (The Nativity) and left a group of sailors there.)


On his return on the second voyage all the sailors were discovered to have been killed. It seems that they began to violate native women and property and the natives rose up against them.)


4.Cacique Behechio
The province of Xaragua


This was in the southwest peninsula. They grew lots of cotton here and also in the cul de sac, north of where Port-au-Prince lies today.


Behechio's sister was Anacaona, widow of Caonabo. After the Spanish killed Caonabo and Behechio, she succeeded her husband in Xaragua and was much loved by her people. However, the Spanish were threatened by this popularity and the power that went with it. Ovando, a successor to Columbus, went to her village under the pretext of collecting the Spanish tribute. Despite Anacaona's instructions to the people to be fully cooperative and hospitable, and despite her own friendly welcome, the Spanish began a slaughter, burned the village and took Anacaona prisoner. She was hanged at Santo Domingo.


5.Cacique Cotubanama or Cayacoa
The province of Higuey (Caizcimu)


There were rumors of there being gold in Higuey. De Las Casas reported that "infinite was the number of people l saw burned alive" in order that the people tell where the nonexistent gold was. (I'll do a separate piece on De Las Casas, a most interesting fellow.)


After the death of Anacaona, Cotubanama too was considered dangerous. The Spanish attacked his province, captured him and hung him in Santo Domingo.




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[Another interruption: A word about "originality." I am not an historian by profession or training. I gather virtually no data from original archival sources. Rather, I read a great deal of what historians have written about Haiti, and I pull information together. However, I do then build interpretations of that data that is sometimes not the same "use" of the data that the original historian made of it. Thus, while I want to caution you that I am not "original" in the sense of data gathering, I do accept the responsibility for many of my interpretations of that data, or for other's interpretations which I've come to accept. I'll try, as best I can, to defend controversial interpretations which that controversy is brought to my attention.]


The word "genocide" is an interesting term. Etymologically it means the killing of an entire "gens," a whole people. The word is used a good deal in politically charged language these days with people often charging that some group or other is attempting genocide. Certainly Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich of Germany attempted it on the Jews of Europe, and failed. As far as I know, the only case in history of where complete and total genocide was carried out was here on the island of Hispaniola. The entire GENS, the whole people of the native Americans of the Arawak/Taino people were wiped out. It is a horrible and astonishing story.


[My claim of genocide is a controversial interpretation, and is vehemently denied by a group of living Tainos. Now, one may ask, if there was genocide on the Hispaniola Arawak/Tainos, then how can their be "living Tainos?" That's the rub, and that's why I stand behind my claim.]


The Tainos were throughout the Caribbean, Bahamas and some areas of the mainland, especially near northern coastal South America. But, from what I have read, the Arawak/Tainos of the island of Hispaniola did not survive at all.


However, if this topic interests you, then I urge you to get in touch with the active Taino group which has a WWW site and can offer you a contrary view. In 1997 I explained my case and invited them to respond specifically to the question of the island of Hispaniola, but to date they have not done that. Their home page can be found at:


From: Cacique Ciba Guanikeyu
great grandson of Cacique Orocobix


Taino Inter-Tribal Council


The Taino Inter-Tribal Council
Inc NJ Jatibonuco Tribe
Taino Nation Forum
THE NJ COUNCIL OFFICE Tel: 609-825-7776 FAX & TAINO BBS: 609-825-7922

We Are Still Here! Taino Indigenous Nation of the Caribbean & Florida
The head of this organization is Peter Torres Torresp@algorithms.com


Note added February 2009


Dear Sir,


I am an indigenous Caribbean scholar (Lokono Arawak) who is doing my doctoral work on the history and culture of the indigenous people of the Caribbean at York University in Toronto. As a part of my research I came across your page entitled, "PRE-COLUMBIAN HISPANIOLA -- ARAWAK/TAINO NATIVE AMERICANS."


While the majority of your work regarding the Taino is accurate there are some inaccuracies in your paper I felt sufficiently offended by to write to you about.


Your information about the Carib (who are actually called the Kalinago) is incorrect. The information I am referring to is:


..."they did have to defend themselves from the Caribs who were cannibals. The Caribs of this area were centered at what is today Puerto Rico, but some did live in northeast Hispaniola, an area that today is the Dominican Republic. The Caribs were war-like cannibals. They often raided the more peaceful Arawak/Tainos, killing off the men, stealing and holding the women for breeding, and fattening the children to eat."


There is no archaeological, anthropological or traditional cultural evidence to support this view that the Kalinago were Cannibals which makes your writings about them inadvertently a part of the perpetuation of an outdated and unsupported scholarly view.


Sincerely:


Leilani Stewart BA MA Phd (ABD)
Department of Humanities
York University
Toronto, Canada








Bob Corbett
corbetre@webster.edu
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/precolumbian/tainover.htm

HAITI - Georgraphy & Major Cities

B) GEOGRAPHY & MAJOR CITIES OF HAITI


Bob Corbett
August 1999

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/course/unittwo/geography.htm

THE BASIC GEOGRAPHY OF HAITI AND MAJOR CITIES AND ATTRACTIONS




Haiti is the most mountainous country of the Caribbean,
however it does have three plains which were once quite fertile. It also has four mountain chains. I want to try to give you some idea where the mountain chains are and where the plains are.


Let's start at the top of the map and find the name of the second largest town in Haiti, Cap Haitien. If one were to draw a line straight down to the C of Cap, and then draw the line in a very gradual sloping to the right all the way to the Dominican Republic border (that's the brown land mass on the right), then this line should intersect the border parallel to the word Gonaives on the map.


If you have this small box drawn, then the famous NORTHERN PLAIN is what is above the line to the sea.


We will read more about this plain when reading about the French colonial period since it was the heart of the French plantation system, and where the Haitian Revolution began in 1791.


If you draw rather straight line from the name Cap Haitien to the Dominican border and also from The top of the name Gonaives, what is between there will be the first of the Haitian mountain chains.


Next we will come to the Cul-de-sac, the plain just north of the major city of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. You will note the name HISPANIOLA spans both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. HISPANIOLA is the name of the island. Neither Haiti nor the D.R. (Dominican Republic) is an island. Rather, they are two nations which share (however unhappily) the island of Hispaniola, the D.R. occupying the eastern 2/3 and Haiti the western 1/3.


But, back to the cul-de-sac. Draw an imaginary line across the top of the word Hispaniola to the border. Now do the same starting at the circle with the X. Start by the "E" of name PORT-AU-PRINCE. Draw your imaginary line toward the lake in the D.R. What is in the box is roughly the cul-de-sac, the plain of Port-au-Prince.


Just to the north of the cul-de-sac is the second mountain range, not quite as large as the northern mountains. Just draw an imaginary line from the "c" of St. Marc toward the "H" of Hinche. That's the northern border of the mountains. Notice that along the D.R. border and below Hinche, but above the word "Hispaniola" you will see a sort of < indentation in the border line. From that eastern point, draw the imaginary line toward the "c" of St. Marc. That line would sort of be the southern border of the mountains. The third mountain range slices south from the northwest corner of Port-au-Prince toward the second sideways V in the border, one that looks like this > just above the one lake pictured in the D.R.


The last major plain is the southern plain. It runs from just west of Port-au-Prince toward Mirogoane and covers most of the land mass. The southern tip of the southern peninsula is mountainous with two sets of mountains, one angling from Les Cayes toward Jeremie. The other runs north and south closer to the western edge of the island.

Next let's consider the towns. Haiti has ONE city, Port-au-Prince which must be about 1 1/2 million of the roughly 7 to 8 million people in Haiti. I'm most hesitant to use numbers. Hard data is very hard to come by in Haiti since there hasn't been any serious real counting of anything and estimates are simply intelligent guesses which have been repeated so often that they are widely believed. I'll come back to Port-au-Prince later. Let me at least mention the other notable places on the map.

Starting at the top of the map we have:>

•Port-de-Paix
•Cap Haitien
•Gonaives
•Saint-Marc
•Hinche
•Jeremie
•Port-au-Prince
•Les Cayes

•Jacmel

Notice that Hinche is the only town which is not a sea coast town. I mentioned that Port-au-Prince is the only city. The second most populous place is Cap Haitien. It is very small, probably no more than 100,000 to 150,000 if that many. It is a very lovely place. I've visited often. When one comes into town and the bus drives through the arch and stops within two blocks at the open air depot, I often then WALK to the far east end of town (the bus depot is on the western end) and up a very steep hill to the Mont Jolie Hotel. This is a short walk, takes me no more than 15 to 20 minutes and I have traversed the town from the west to east. After a relaxing drink and perhaps some food, I often walk down to the waterfront, the southern border of the town. If I'm staying at Hotel Beck's which I often do, I can walk there, the northern most part of the town, in another 20 minutes, and that's up a very very steep hill.

The whole of the town could be circled on foot in less than an hour.


Cap Haitien is very pretty. I love the way the doors are painted such bright colors on most of the old wooden houses, many with iron balconies on the second floor overlooking the narrow streets below. Right in the town's center is a large outdoor market where I go to buy fruit, nuts and vegetables to munch on. There are lots of cashews in Cap Haitien and I just feast on them. Add a great juicy "chadack" (grapefruit) for the liquid and what a treat.


Just a couple of blocks from the market is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, an historic old building.


Toward the eastern end of town, just below Mont Jolie, is my favorite hotel in Okap (as Cap Haitien is often called). This is Roi Christophe. It is a very old wooden hotel which was once a city administration building. I've stayed there a few times and simply loved it with it's great views from the balconies that some of the nice second floor rooms have, and enjoying the garden on the side near the swimming pool.


Quite near Cap Haitien, just about 45 minutes by public bus (called a taptap) is the village of Milot which is the site of two of Haiti's most famous attractions. Down at the end of the village is the ruins of the palace of King Henry (2nd ruler of Haiti). A very long, hard and hot trip high, high up on the mountain (also can be made by donkey, but it is, for me, much more comfortable to walk) is the gigantic fortress The Citadel. This is the largest European-style fortress in the Caribbean. If one gets to the Okap region, it would be a shame not to visit the incredible monument.


Just a few quick comments about the other towns. Almost nothing about Port-de-Pais, the only one of the group where I've not visited. It is a sea coast town and just across the 10 mile straight from the Isle de Tortue (Turtle Island) on the north coast.
Hinche is a place I love. If you look at the mileage gauge at the bottom you'll note it is only about 60 miles from Port-au-Prince. I've been to Hinche many, many times and it is a grueling trip. I mainly ride public transportation. Since the roads to Hinche cross a major mountain chain and are nearly all unpaved, it's a tough and at times dangerous trip. The public buses are simply jammed, people sitting actually on top of one another in open pick up trucks or huge big trucks with no seats called "camion bwat" (box trucks). One can sit on the wooden railing, but my rump just seems so large for that 6 inch board, and I'm always worried about falling off. It is hot and brutal trip of about 6 hours or more.


However, I've also traveled in private vehicles. This is much more comfortable, but it is still a four or five hour trip of eating dust, getting flat tires and dodging pot holes that could swallow a car. I enjoy the back road trip from Cap Haitien to Hinche the best. I remember making that trip one late night standing in the back of a pick-up trip on Christmas Eve. We got to Hinche just after midnight and began the hour's walk out to Pandiassou in the pitch dark. The religious community at Hinche was having a midnight mass which went until nearly 2 AM and thus was just letting out when I walked over the small knoll in the road. I was at least 100 yards or more away from the church when one of the nuns sang out: "It's Bob Corbett." They had no idea in the world I was coming -- I had started out early on my way west from Cap Haitien, but in an adventuresome day, ended up in Hinche at midnight! I think these people see in the dark.


Hinche is a dusty cowboy town. It reminds me of a thousand tiny hamlets I've seen in western movies all my life. Except all the cowboys are black! Lots of people riding horses and mules and donkeys. Few, if any paved streets, those sort of boardwalk like wooden walks in front of many shops. The key difference between Hinche and the old cowboy movies is the huge open market in the center of town and the soccer field right behind it! Before my knees gave out I played in some might rough soccer matches in that pitch as the community from Pandiassou would challenge a team from Hinche.


Saint-Marc, however, is the ultimate cow town. Very small, on the sea, under a large hill if not a mountain, with a fortress ruins to hike up to. Just south of it is the much large Gonaives. I must admit I've never had much love of either town. I find them dusty, hot, shadeless and rather uninteresting. I'm sure this is more related to my limited experience than the reality of the places. But, for me, they are mainly stop off places for a drink on the tough trip from Cap Haitien back to Port-au-Prince.

To the south of Port-au-Price are two of the gems of Haiti. Hard south is Jacmel, a magical town on the Caribbean. It is an art center, and while very small, is hilly, cute, shady and the home of a simply marvelous hotel, The Jacmillian. I stayed there one New Year's Eve and had a room on the second floor with a huge wooden balcony overlooking the Caribbean. Since it was New Year's Eve there was a huge party, live music, great food and an awesome experience for me.

Farther down the coast to the west is the flat and elegant town of Les Cayes. The streets are wide, it seems cleaner than the other town and seems less populated. I think this is more a factor of the wide streets and larger more spread out spaces which gives it this sense of space population.

Many people talk of the quaint and even British village of Jeremie. Oh my, I must confess, I am no fan of Jeremie. But then I only had one trip there, I didn't give it a serious chance. However, my memories are such that I'm highly unlikely to give it a second try. I had gone there to see Bishop Willy Romulus, a leading political figure in the more progress political movements. That was a joy. He was a very gracious, intelligent man, an inspiration and a wealth of information. But Jeremie just didn't grab me. The city park was cute and even reminded me of the center of Cap Haitien. The other main street was delightful. But the city seemed so empty. There was one major street, a hill heading up from the park area, that was lined with hotels. They were all virtually empty. We stayed large fancy looking hotel in which we were the only guests. Food was a difficulty.

I guess it was hard times. I can't recall the year, but it may well have been during the period the de facto government, perhaps 1993 or 1994, but not during the American Occupation (more about all that later).

It had been a very hard trip getting there by pubic bus from Les Cayes. That's a trip over very high mountains, where the bus, on the tiny dirt roads, seems about to plunge into the abyss every few minutes. When it was time to leave we decided it would be better to take the ferry back to Port-au-Prince. That would have been a mistake! Fortunately we avoided it. We boarded the ferry and the deck was already packed. I asked it there were any seats to purchase and was told I was in luck, we could even have a stateroom. I mean, what kind of dummy am I anyway. This is Haiti. But, I said oh my, show us. We were led into a tiny room with three sets of double beds. They were bare save thin mattresses. It was clear that the main purpose of the beds had been to store charcoal. The mattresses were covered in charcoal dust. Then we saw them: the walls were simply crawling with cockroaches. Huge, creepy, by the dozens. We were back on the quay within minutes. So, we road on top of a bus on the midnight run to avoid the heat and hope to sleep through the trip. That turned out not to work since we were jammed on the roof like sardines in a can.

Back home in St. Louis about a month later I read that the ferry from Jeremie had sunk and nearly 2,000 people died. Ironically, most of these people who live on the sea couldn't swim.

The last item I want to raise in this short basic overview is the political geography of Haiti.

The nation is divided into 9 national districts, the equivalent of states in the United States. The districts are called DEPARTMENS. The nine are:

1.The Northwest.

2.The North

3.The Northeast

4.The Artibonite.

5.The Central (This include the Central Plateau and center of the country north of Port-au-Prince.)

6.The East. A curiously named department since it is actually the very center of the country. The East department includes Port-au-Prince, which is only half jokingly called by many The Republic of Port-au-Prince.

7.The Southeast

8.The Grand Anse. (This is the entire northern half of the southern peninsula.)

9.The South West. (This is the southern half of the southern peninsula.)

There is a curious notion of a 10th department. In very recent times there has been a major political upheaval. This comes to focus after February 7, 1986 when President Jean-Claude Duvalier was overthrown, ending the Duvalier family 29 year dictatorship. Since that time, 13 years now, the country has been in political turmoil as a struggle for power has emerged. There has been an increase of political violence and political killings, so a significant number of people, perhaps as many as a million Haitians, have felt the need to flee the country taking refuge mainly in the United States, Canada and France. Many of these people were and remain politically active, and many were supporters of reform president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Since these were often professionals, intellectuals and politically active people, Aristide and others like him wanted these Haitians living abroad to be politically active, and many of the refugees themselves wanted this. Thus an informal political group arose among the Haitians living abroad referred to as "The Tenth Department." The 10th department has no legal status or representation in national government, nor can Haitians living abroad vote in Haitian elections. Nonetheless, members of the 10th department often remain very active in Haitian politics and there is constant political pressure to give the 10th department some sort of legal status.

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Bob Corbett

August 1999

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/course/unittwo/geography.htm

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HAITI - A Brief History

SHORT AND OVERSIMPLIFIED HISTORY OF HAITI

Bob Corbett
August 1999.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/course/unitone/short.htm

BASIC DATA AND GEOGRAPHY

Haiti is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. Hispaniola has two countries. Haiti makes up roughly the western 1/3 of the island. The Dominican Republic makes up the eastern 2/3 of the island. The two countries are not on very friendly terms and never have been. Their roots are very different. Haiti is primarily populated by African-Caribbean people with a history of French colonialism. The Dominican Republic is made up of Afro-European mixed blooded people and their roots are deeply influenced by Spanish colonialism.


Additionally the two countries have a long history of mistrust, even hatred. Haiti has twice occupied The Dominican Republic in the 19th century, and in 1937 The Dominican Republic perpetrated a terrible massacre on Haitians living in or near The Dominican Republic's borders.
Haiti is about the size of the U.S. state of Maryland, just over 10,000 square miles. The current population is roughly 7,500,000 in Haiti. Another million Haitians are living abroad in the U.S., Canada and France. It is difficult to know how many of these people are simply waiting for conditions to improve in Haiti, or to what extent these Haitians living abroad are now becoming residents and citizens in these host nations.


From 1957 to 1986 Haiti was ruled by the Duvalier family in the persons of Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc -- 1957-1971) and his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc -- 1971-1986). This was a period of brutal dictatorship, the suppression of most normal freedoms in Haiti, particularly political dissent from the "Duvalier revolution." It was, also, in the later years, a period of a rather stable law and order society that one tends to get with dictatorships.


In 1986 there was an uprising of the people of Haiti and president Jean-Claude Duvalier fled Haiti. At this time Haiti entered into a very difficult period which is still going on. It is a period of struggle for control of the country, and what has resulted is a great deal of political and social instability. There seem to be a number of factions including:

• Old line Duvalierists trying to keep change from coming to Haiti.
• New line populists, most commonly associated with former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the current president, Rene Preval.
• There seems to be another force that has entered into the fray which is not quite in the Duvalierist camp, but is also opposed to most of the reforms intended by the populists. These are the drug lords and younger army officers, not fully integrated into the old guard Duvalierists world.

Today Haiti is a nation in disarray and disorder, unsafe, economically desperate without much clear hope of significant improvement in the very near future. It is a country in struggle.


The vast majority of Haiti's people live in desperate poverty and personal unsafety. They are jobless, hungry, unsafe and discouraged. Despite this many continue to struggle for populist reform. These masses are without much power other than their sheer numbers. The opposition has power, money and most importantly, weapons.


The international community, especially the United States, which has great power in Haiti, seems without serious interest in the plight of the masses of the Haitian poor.
===============

 

THE PRE-COLUMBIAN PERIOD.

Before Columbus landed on the island (Dec. 6, 1492), his second land-fall in the "New World," there was a large population of Taino/Arawak people who lived on the island in relative peace. It's difficult to know their numbers with any exactitude, but somewhere over 1/2 million seems a reasonable estimate.


They lived lives of great simplicity, farming and fishing. There was little native game on the island to supplement their diets. They had few enemies, but seem to have feared the more war-like and aggressive Carib people who were centered on the nearby island that is today Puerto Rico.


Unfortunately for the Taino/Arawak, they befriended the Spanish, and gave them some gifts of gold jewelry. There wasn't much gold on Hispaniola, but the Spanish assumed otherwise and thought that Hispaniola was to be the motherload of gold they hoped to find. This led to return voyages to the island and the suppression of the Taino/Arawak.


It soon became clear that there wasn't much gold on Hispaniola, and the Spanish turned it into a bread basket, providing food for the conquistadors who were exploring and conquering peoples in the rest of the Caribbean and Central America. In the process the Taino/Arawak were virtually enslaved.


They did not respond well to this new state of slavery. They died in the labor and more than that they died from European diseases. Effectively, as a distinct and recognizable people on the island of Hispaniola, they disappeared by the middle of the 17th century. The Taino/Arawak survived in other areas of the Caribbean and South America, but not on Hispaniola.


Other than in this historical context, they don't contribute much to the later development of the country of Haiti. Their labor was supplanted by African slaves (the ultimate root of the people who today make up the population of Haiti). Certainly there must have been some inter-mating between members of the two peoples, thus some remnants of Taino/Arawak blood must have been passed on, and there are a few words of language or a custom here and there that MIGHT be traced back to a Taino/Arawak influence. However, this blood and cultural contribution is quite negligible in the formation of the Haitian people.

 

SPANISH COLONIALISM: SUGAR AND SLAVES

The Spanish quickly saw that Hispaniola was not to be the source of gold for Spain. Hispaniola was converted into a farming region to provide food for the Spanish in other areas of the Caribbean and Central American. The island was worked first by the Taino/Arawak, but before long, African slaves were imported. This began as early as 1508 and the Africans became the primary labor source very quickly. Sugar was introduced as a crop to join tobacco and coffee as attractive crops as well as regular food stuffs.


However, before long Hispaniola became an island of little interest to the Spanish. Spanish settlements were being founded in other areas of the Caribbean and Central and South America and these settlers found it more economical to provide their own food. Hispaniola became a quite uninteresting and useless island. There was one town at the far southeast portion of the island, the settlement which is today the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo. The Spanish kept this settlement and the farms around it, but little by little the rest of the island was virtually abandoned and unpopulated (including the extremely fertile western part of the island which was later to become Haiti).

 

PIRATES AND THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT IN THE WEST

In the 17th and century the major nations of Europe sponsored privateers. These were basically free-lance sailors who worked for a European nation and harassed the shipping of rival nations. The sailors or freebooters as they were called, often received a portion of the spoils won in these high seas battles and were the forerunners of the later pirates.


When the nations of Europe de-emphasized the use of privateers, there was a large navy of these tough folks who were not ready to give up their lives of high-seas raiding. They became non-governmental free lance robbers, the pirates that we all know of.


One of the strong holds for the pirates was the island of La Tortue (Turtle Island), a small island, just a few miles off the northern coast of what is today Haiti, and, today, a possession of Haiti. The dominant group of pirates who used La Tortue as their base were French pirates.


From the Spanish days of using the western portion of the island, 50 to 100 years earlier, there were many wild animals which survived after the Spanish gave up the use of the island. This included cattle, goats, sheep and horses. Since this region, the northern plain and mountains of Haiti, was very fertile, the animals flourished. The pirates were fond of going across the narrow water way into the island of Hispaniola to hunt wild game.


They used to kill the game and cook it over an open flame. This is a "boukan" in French, and this process and these people became known as "boukanniers" in French, or buccaneers in English, a common term for pirates.


However, pirating wasn't what it used to be and some of these French pirates choose to settle in Hispaniola and become farmers. They sent back to France for women, and France was only too happy to empty some of the women's prisons, sending a variety of women not desired in France, to this remote Caribbean outpost. Slowly a community developed in the northcentral and northwest of Hispaniola. By the early part of the 17th century the French even named some of these former pirates as French officials to oversee the community forming there.


The Spanish protested the French presence, but never really pushed it too much. The community waxed and crops began to flow back to France. It was an attractive place, fertile and with great potential as a colony.
Finally, in 1697 at the Treaty of Rystwik, at the conclusion of a European war not involving Hispaniola at all, the Spanish needed another bargaining chip and ceded the western portion of Hispaniola to the French. Thus the island was divided. The eastern Spanish portion was called Santo Domingo, Spanish for St. Dominic. The western French portion was called San Domingue, French for St. Dominic. But the island was now divided and a defining characteristic, the geographic one, was fixed for modern day Haiti.

 

THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD

From the official birth of the colony of San Domingue (1697) for just over 100 years, the French colony waxed and became one of the richest colonies in the history of the world.


An agricultural economy based on slave labor grew sugar cane, coffee, the dye indigo, cotton, tobacco and many exotic spices which were in high demand in Europe and Asia. The planters produced the goods but were prohibited from processing the crops in the colony itself. Thus all the goods were shipped to France and processed there. From the processing plants French merchants spread out to the whole of Europe and near-Asia creating a booming economy for France. Another huge portion of this economy was the slave trade itself.


The French colonial slave system was particularly brutal, worse that virtually any other place in the Western world. Slaves were routinely treated with great brutality and inhumanity. However, the French foolishly, for their own safety, allowed the number of slaves to grow without any concern and within a 100 years of colonial rule had arrived at a very dangerous 10-1 ratio of free to slave population. In 1791 there were approximately 500,000 slaves and about 50,000 free people. Some 30,000 of those free people were people of color, both black and mulatto.


In the French colonial system free people of color could own slaves and property, however there were other restrictions. On San Domingue the free people of color were not much into the sugar trade but mainly controlled coffee. However they were a distinct "ruler" class.


This structure was phenomenally determinative of much of later Haitian history. After independence and the coming of a black republic, this class of former free planters emerged as rulers of Haiti. This class structure of a very small class of rulers and a huge mass of common folks has always been the norm in Haiti and is one of the greatest barriers to the emergence of Haiti into a nation with any serious sense of democratic equality.

 

THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION: 1791-1804.

The spirit of the French Revolution infected Haiti. Added to that the brutality of the French slave system and the huge number of slaves in relation to the free people and the stage was set for a lasting revolution. There had been many revolts of slaves and attempts and social change, but the final moment of French rule came in Aug. 1791 with an uprising which was more about the rights of free people of color than freedom for slaves.


Nonetheless, this 1791 uprising developed into a full-fledged revolution war. France realized the crucial economic importance of the colony and made every attempt to defend their rule. Eventually it came down to Napoleon sending a large expeditionary force to win the colony back securely for France in 1802. This caused the last eruption of revolutionary fervor and the defeat of the French. On Jan. 1, 1804 the nation of Haiti was proclaimed. It was an all-black (and mulatto) republic with a constitutional prohibition against white people owning land. This particular provision of the Haitian constitution lasted until 1918 until the occupying forces of the United States forced a constitution onto Haiti which did not contain this prohibition.


There is much controversy about the Haitian Revolution and what sense to make of this victory over the French. We will study this in much greater detail in due time.

 

EARLY DAYS OF INDEPENDENCE: IMITATING THE FRENCH MODEL

The fledging leaders of the newly independent Haiti, Dessalines and Christophe, attempted to imitate the French system without slavery. They wanted to build an economy based on plantation agriculture and sugar.


Actually they made astonishing achievements, both returning the economy to roughly 75% of the productivity of the pre-Revolutionary period. However, this was done within the context of a social system which while not a slave economy, approached it, looking much more like European serfdom. This was simply not what the Haitian people wanted.

 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE "TWO HAITI'S"

Between about 1820 to 1840, under the presidencies of Alexander Petion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, the old French plantation system of economy died forever.
In the briefest form what developed was a world of one nation, but really two Haitis. There was the official nation of Haiti, ruled by the government, but really centered in the two main cities, Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien and the next half-dozen largest towns, all but one being a seaport town. (The sole exception was the inland Central Plateau town of Hinche.)


These towns were controlled by the small property owning elite. The vast majority of Haitian people lived in the rural areas and basically didn't belong to "Haiti" in any normal sense of the term. The did subsistence agriculture and stayed away from "Haiti" and its government and army as much as they possibly could. Given the mountainous nature of much of Haiti this was not difficult to achieve. There were buffer zones, markets, where the rural peasants could trade agricultural products, especially coffee, at a fraction of its international value, in exchange for essentials. This trade allowed the elite class to make a substantial income and for the masses of people to survive in some sort of peace, security and isolation from "Haiti," the official nation.


Again, this process was extremely definitive in forming and creating the fundamental social, economic and governmental system which is still dominant in Haiti today.

 

THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY: HAITIAN INDEPENDENCE THROUGH THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF 1915.

The white slave owning world was utterly shocked by the victory of Haitian revolutionaries over France. Here was a white world with slaves (England didn't banish slavery in 1833, the first major white nation to do so, and the U.S. held slaves until 1862) and this was a terrifying situation. There was much talk of "servile revolutions" and the worry was that slaves in other places would take the successful Haitian revolutionaries as models and revolt in other locations. This was a special worry in the south of the United States where the agricultura; economies of cotton and tobacco were completely slave-dependent.


In France there was the further concern for the usurped property of French citizens, the former white planters from San Domingue. The French wanted recompense for this property before it would recognize Haitian independence.
Further there were a great outcry in the white world that black people were inherently incapable of ruling themselves. Multitudes of books and pamphlets belabored this view in the early 19th century and Haiti always came in for attack as one of the key pieces of evidence of this impossibility.


It is important to note that the success of the Haitian Revolution came just at the same time as the French and American Revolutions. This was the period of the birth of functional democracy.


But, the white nations of Europe and the United States refused to recognize Haitian independence and boycotted trade relations with Haiti. This was one of the major causes of the development of the "two Haitis" that I discussed above, and made the growth of democracy in Haiti to be virtually impossible.


The masses of Haitian rural peasants were illiterate and remain so today. Both the Industrial Revolution and the Democratic Revolutions passed Haiti by.
It is critically important to understand the causal implications of these actions and attitudes of the outside world on the internal development of the history of Haiti.

 

FROM THE 1840S TO THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF 1915.

Within Haiti there began a curious and disastrous series of governmental revolutions. Basically the government was a tiny class of elite. Various factions of the elite would sponsor a "president" and under the protection of this particular government the favored faction of the elite would pillage the Haitian treasury. After a certain amount of time a different faction of the elite, normally funded by foreign (often German) capital, would raise an army, march on Port-au-Prince and drive the sitting government into exile. The new faction would take its turn at the troff of the Haitian treasury and the cycle continued.


The upshot of this period of Haitian history is critical. First of all it further established the class and color relations which exist to this very day as dominant patterns in Haitian life. Further, the role of foreign capital in funding these revolutions gave an increasing foothold of foreign capital. This became troubling to the United States after the decision to build the Panama Canal. This geo-political decision of the U.S. gave rise to a much more militant interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine and desire for full control over the Caribbean, the "back yard" of the U.S. As World War I approached, the penetration of German capital into Haiti was a great worry to the U.S.


Using a trumped up concern for U.S. financial interests and the "concern" with approaching anarchy in Haiti, the U.S. occupied Haiti in June 1915 and remained in control of Haiti until 1934, with financial and political hegemony continuing long after the end of the official occupation. In many ways it still continues today.


From 1915 until and including the present, the United States has been a major power and factor in what does and does not happen in Haiti.

 

THE WINDS OF CHANGE: NOIRISM (NEGRITUDE MOVEMENT) IN HAITI DURING THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION.

In the 1930s a movement sprang up in Haiti which turned the mainly mulatto intellectual class away from its old power base -- imitation of white, French European models of life and meaning -- and toward a greater appreciation of blackness, Africanness and Haiti's roots in the common black people.


This movement effected the intellectual class, especially poets, novelists and other writers first, later on artists as well. It set the stage for a political ideology which led the "black revolution" which Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) was pledging to enact before it got sidetracked into the personalist dictatorship of the Duvalier dynasty.

 

HAITI'S DESPERATE POVERTY AND THE 1986 REVOLUTION.

Haiti's peasants may have lived lives of agrarian simplicity in order to escape a corrupt and damaging government, but eventually simplicity gave way to misery. It's hard to fix when this occurred, but the dynamics are not too hard to see.


Haitian peasants owned a bit of land. However, they chose to divide the land equally among their sons. Thus land plot sizes got smaller and smaller as the population grew. Secondly, the peasants used farming methods which we actually harmful to the land, burning off top soil, and over-planting crops which took too much out of the soil. Lastly, since the only fuel in the country is wood, little by little the vast forests of Haiti were cut, overwhelmingly for charcoal. The land became deforested and the soil could not hold against the season torrential rains. The top soil of Haiti washed away into the sea leaving great pressure on the land left. The result was eventually misery. My own suspicion is that agrarian simplicity with a modestly adequate diet became increasingly scarce after the beginning of the 20th century, and now, as that century ends, Haiti is left in a desperate situation in which millions of her people are malnourished, hungry and having little hope or prospects for a better future.


However, a populist movement somewhat tied to the democratic impetus implicit in Latin American Liberation Theology arose in Haiti in the late 1970s and gained power in the early 1980s. On February 7, 1986 this movement culminated with the fleeing of Jean-Claude Duvalier to France on an U.S. military jet. There was a great deal of hope in the latter part of the 80s, but since then things have deteriorated and today the Haitian movement for more populist movement is in great struggle with forces of reaction.
==============




This short and over-simplified history is meant to give the reader a context for a course on Haitian history. The gaps and details will hopefully be filled by the course itself. However, if this sampling has either raised explicit questions which weigh on you, or if there are gaps that leave you surprised, or if you think that from what you already know the picture should look different in some particular that I have sketched, then please don't hesitate to write me at the address below to inquire or suggest additions or corrections.
By Bob Corbett

 

Bob Corbett corbetre@webster.edu
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/course/unitone/short.htm