• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
International Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution
John E. Baur
The Americas
, Vol. 26, No. 4. (Apr., 1970), pp. 394-418.
Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1615%28197004%2926%3A4%3C394%3AIROTHR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5
The Americas
is currently published by Academy of American Franciscan History.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/aafh.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgFri Feb 22 18:54:20 2008
 
INTERNATIONAL REPERCUSSIONS OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION 
0
REVOLUTION worthy of the name has stopped at its nationalborders. For good and for evil revolution is exportable. Numerousstudies have been made of the international and even the global re-sults of such modern upheavals as the English, American, French, Russian, andChinese revolutions. Although several treatises have been published on theHaitian Revolution of 1791-1804, and its creation of the first Negro republic andsecond independent nation in the New World, there has appeared no full-scalesurvey of its foreign significance. Inescapably, many histories of the DominicanRepublic indicate the pervasive postrevolutionary relations of Haiti and hereastern neighbor on Hispaniola. Dominican life has been moulded in everysense by reactions to Haitian events, particularly the Haitian attempt to assim-ilate that republic and several eastward migrations of Haitian people.' Other-wise, studies of the Haitian uprising have been limited to internal changes orthe extensive diplomatic relations of the Black Republic.Deep were the roots of the Haitian Revolution in a slave system which hadmade St. Dorningue the richest colony of France and an intolerably unjustsociety seething with the hatreds of color and caste. Willing to lead a revolu-tion was an activist minoristy of free men, mostly mulatto, and often educatedproperty-owners, whose privileges had recently been limited by a ruling classwhich noted with concern its growing numbers and energy. At the bottom ofthe social pyramid the great masses of slaves had no domestic defenders. Theturmoil of Revolutionary France, 1789-91, and its ideology of liberty, equality,and fraternity, presented a chance for mulattoes to seek justice from Paris,while French intellectuals supported the abolition of slavery. Revolts by both
*-"HaitiM is a term which was not used until the nation became independent of France in1804. It was derived from the ancient Indian name meaning "highland."Columbus, whodiscovered the island, called it "Espafiola," or "Hispaniola," and the term is still appliedgeographically to the whole island. The term "Santo Domingo" was used by the Spaniards;thus was derived later the name for the Dominican Republic. When the French colonized thewestern third of Hispaniola they used the French form, "Saint Domingue." To distinguish theFrench and Spanish colonies the terms "French Part" and "Spanish Part" are sometimes em-ployed. Varieties such as "San Domingo" and "St. Domingo" are sometimes found in English-language works. After 1804, British and American writers frequently used the spelling "Hayti"and "Haytians," now obsolete.'An excellent recent study of this is Rayford W. Logan,
Haiti
and
the Dominican Republic
(New
York and London: Oxford University Press, 1968).
 
mulattoes and Negroes occurred prematurely. When ilt seemed that the mu-lattoes would share political power with them, St. Domingue's ruling creolesde6ed Paris. Thus with group against group and island opposed to Continent,one revolution grew out of another. By 1791, the slaves had taken up arms. Forthe next thirteen years this "Garden of the West Indies" was ravaged by revo-lution, race war, and the devastation of enormously valuable property. Then,as in the case of nearly every modern civil war, St. Domingue's torments wereincreased by foreign intervention. Great Britain and Spain landed troops in theearly 1790's to cooperate with the island's warring factions. After these twopowers had finally evacuated the colony, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave,became the leading revolutionary, virtual father of his country soon to be re-named Haiti, and master of the entire island, including the Spanish easternsection. Despite the flight of most of the whites, L'Ouverture was unable tomaintain the integrity of his rule, for with his betrayal by Napoleon in 1802,a new struggle followed which brought true independence under Toussaint'ssuccessor, Jean Jacques Dessalines, who declared the freedom of the State ofHaiti.The first intimate impression foreign peoples and governments received ofthis long-sustained and complicated series of events came with the dramaticexodus of its refugees. The initial outpouring of consequence occurred in 1793.On July 14, the American Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, wrote hisfriend, James Monroe
:
The situation of the St. Dorningo fugitives (aristocrats as they are) calls aloudfor pity
&
charity. Never was so deep a tragedy presented to the feelings ofman.
I
deny the power of the general government [at Philadelphia) to applymoney to such a purpose, but
I
deny it with a bleeding heart. It belongs tothe State governments. Pray urge ours [Virginia's} to be liberal. The executiveshould hazard themselves more on such an occasion,
&
the Legislature whenit meets ought to approve
&
extend it. It will have
a
great effect on doing awaythe impression of other disobligations towards France.2During the troubled period between the Negro revolt of 1791 and the British,attempt to conquer St. Domingue in 1793, about 90 per cent of the white popu-lation of 40,000 had fled the colony. It has been esltimated that at least 10,000,and perhaps twice that number, went to the United States. St. Domingue'screoles, many of them republican, tended to go to the Southern sjtates, whileFrench-born royalists generally settled in New England and the M'iddle Atlan-tic states. Whatever their politics and prejudices, they mingled more easily with
2Paul Leicester Ford (ed.),
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson
(New York:
G.
P. Putnam'sSons,
1875),
VI,
347.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...