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Black
in
 
latin
america
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
 
146
5
Haiti
“From My Ashes I Rise; God Is My Cause and My Sword”
(
Motto on King Henri Christophe’s Haitian Flag, 1811 – 1820
)
[Te rebelling Haiian slaves are] he cannibals o he errible re-public.— Tomas Jeerson, February 11, 1791Teir slaves have been called ino acion, and are a errible engine,absoluely ungovernable.— Tomas Jeerson, March 24, 1791 We receive wih regre daily inormaion o he progress o insurrec-ion and devasaion in S. Domingo. Nohing indicaes as ye hahe evil is a is heigh.— Tomas Jeerson, January 5, 1792Never was so deep a ragedy presened o he eelings o man.— Tomas Jeerson, July 14, 1793
EVEN BEFORE I
landed a Por-au-Prince, my mind and my hear wereenguled by Haii — by he counry’s incredibly complex, sill unoldingsaga o glory and shame, honor and suering. From he air, all I couldsee were checkered felds o blue and whie. I discovered, as all visiorso Haii do since he earhquake, ha hese were ens — ens housingan esimaed 1.2 million Haiians, ens ha will have o serve as homesor he dislocaed ciizens, some esimaes say, or he nex weny years.Haii is he poores naion in he Wesern Hemisphere. oday, is very name conjures up images o suering: o he massive earhquakeha devasaed Por-au-Prince, o brual dicaors and he onon Ma-
Gates_pp001-248.indd 146
Gates_pp001-248.indd 146
6/1/11 9:18 AM
6/1/11 9:18 AM
 
Haiti 147
coues, o miliary coups, rios, ood shorages, crowds o people liningup or inernaional aid, images o errible povery and unending po-liical unres. And, o course, “voodoo,” he sereoypical denigraion o he religion Vodou. Bu when I hink o Haii, I hink frs o is uniqueplace in world hisory, as he birhplace o one o he mos inspiringrevoluions in he eigheenh cenury, he Haiian Revoluion and is vicory over Napoleon Bonapare’s France, he mos powerul army inhe world. When Haii won is independence rom France in 1804, isslaves did somehing ha had never happened beore: hey overhrew heir European masers and esablished heir own naion, a republic, aleas iniially. I was, and should be recalled as, one o he mos hrill-ing momens in human hisory. When Haii was born, i was he frs(and only) black republic in he New World or in Arica (Abyssinia,now Ehiopia, was a monarchy, which Haii soon also became, bu i was no iniially); and heirs was he only ruly successul slave revol inhe whole o he New World.Moreover, as par o is hisorical origins and culural legacy, Haiiremains, o his day, an indispuably black culure, even i color en-sions beween mulatoes and is darker ciizens have been quie prob-lemaic over he enire hisory o he colony and he republic. In ac,in an atemp o speak o his issue o color as class, Haii’s very frsconsiuion — Dessalines’s consiuion o 1805 — declared, “Becauseall disincions o color among children o he same amily mus nec-essarily sop, Haiians will henceorh only be known as blacks.” Haii was keenly aware o is role as a puaive cener o wha we laer cameo hink o as Pan-Aricanism, as a ransnaional “black” poliical con-sciousness: indeed, Alexander Péion in his consiuion o 1816, in ar-icle 44, acually declared, “Any Arican, Indian or hose who carry heir blood, born in he colonies or in oreign counries, who come o livein he Republic will be recognized as Haiian.” Tis ac o welcomingall black people around he world o become Haiian ciizens — whichFrederick Douglass acually announced ha he was considering accep-ing on he eve o he Civil War — can be hough o as one o he earli-es, and perhaps he earlies, signal acs in he hisory o Pan-Arican-ism, he frs ime cerainly ha a governmen hough o all personso Arican descen posiively as “ciizens” or members o a unifed orrelaed group — he ip side o considering all Aricans as members o a single group o people who are poenially enslavable, even hough
Gates_pp001-248.indd 147
Gates_pp001-248.indd 147
6/1/11 9:18 AM
6/1/11 9:18 AM
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