Merely an introduction to the history of Haiti at best, a topic worthy of much deeper study, the following should leave us with yet another call for the human race to rise up as responsible and to act and behave as if there really is a God.
I’ve heard and read bits and pieces of Haiti’s history over the years, having known missionaries who worked in the third world country and friends who assisted in the region on short term mission trips. Some recent comments regarding Haitian slaves making pacts with the underworld sent me searching for books and online discourse on the subject. While the theory of such a pact lives in legend, the more shocking story is the tragedy of how Haiti came to exist.
Haiti was once an unbelievably lush land. As tribute to its mountains, the name “Haiti” comes from an old Arawak “Indian” word meaning “land of mountains.” The now largely desolate, Haitian landscape at one time supported glorious forests of mahogany, rosewood and cedar, trees all prized in furniture making. Located on the western third of the island Hispaniola, Haiti shares its Caribbean locale with the Domincan Republic, also a third world country, but far less stripped of natural resources.
The first known people to settle Haiti were the Ciboney of South America in 7000 B.C. In 300 B.C., the Arawak, later known as Taino, also from South America, invaded and settled the land, and these were the people the first exploring Europeans met on the island, naming them “Indians.” On December 25, 1492, Christopher Columbus’s ship, the Santa Maria, ran aground on Haiti’s northern coast, necessitating abandonment. Stepping ashore, Columbus set up a settlement he christened La Navidad, meaning “birthday of Christ,” in honor of Christmas Day. Of course Columbus thought he was somewhere near India, but instead was surely glad to have found new lands, for his explorations were funded by the Spanish government seeking new ways to generate wealth. Columbus noted the natives wore ornaments of gold, thus he instructed the men left behind at La Navidad, as they could not all fit on the two remaining ships sailing back to Spain, the Nina and the Pinta, to trade for as much gold as they were able. Columbus wrote the natives were “loveable, tractable, peaceable and praiseworthy,” and they could easily be converted to Christianity. He also noted killing them all would be an easy task. When Columbus returned a year later, La Navidad had been burned and its settlers killed.
In time plans evolved to conquer the entire island; due to its rich soil and “its profitable things without number,” the land would be the perfect place to grow sugar cane, coffee and indigo. The French and English also wanted in on the new opportunities for wealth. The Spaniards, French and English fought it out until France gained control of the Haiti portion, and Spain the portion now known as the Dominican Republic. Where there had been 500,000 to upwards of one million Taino natives when Columbus arrived, there were at that point only 500.
During the 1700’s, French colonists poured in to what they then called Saint-Domingue to build the prosperous sugar, coffee and indigo plantations in great numbers for the profit of France. They would need free labor for these export industries so they bought slaves and brought them in from Africa by the thousands. These slaves were forced to speak the language of their masters; not understanding all the intricacies of the French language, they spoke the best they could, in time forming the language they use today, Creole. With the work of the slaves and the richness of the land, the sugar, coffee and indigo production boomed. Haiti quickly became the richest colony in the New World. A popular phrase of the day was “rich as a Dominguan.”
The slave labor was so harsh death became routine- so routine the entire slave population was estimated to have been replaced every 20 years. With ever increasing production, for instance at its height exporting 120 million pounds of sugar in a year, the number of slaves rose to 500,000. In comparison, the whites numbered thirty-some thousand, an uneasy ratio for the slave owners, who decreed death as the punishment for any small infraction in fear of an uprising. However, news of America’s revolution and France’s revolution reached the slaves, which surely planted seeds of hope in their hearts that they too could be free of their oppressive masters and the French government.
A united front against the white slave owners would not be easily formed. A new people group in Haiti had been created, called mulattoes. These were the children of the occasional slave owner and slave. Far less in number than the African slaves, around 24,000, mulattoes were light skinned and were granted freedom by their slave-owner fathers. Mulattoes had full access to education, even sent to France to study. While they in the end did not have the same rights that whites did, mulattoes were resented by the slaves.
Revolution did occur, taking over ten long, ravaging years, from 1791 until 1804. The “Great Sugar Island,” as nicknamed, was no more. After a short time of freedom, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who was thought to have stood for freedom and equality in his own country, initiated another invasion, hoping to resume Haiti’s sugar production for France using slave labor. The former slaves, under the admirable leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, held them off far longer than expected, yet Toussaint suffered capture and imprisonment in France where he died. At that point, however, France had run out of its best soldiers and all funds for war, so the plan was abandoned, along with part two of Napoleon’s plan, which was to go on to New Orleans and lay permanent claim to the then Louisiana Territory. Because of Napoleon’s heavy money losses in Haiti and other debts, he gladly sold the territory to the U.S., under Thomas Jefferson, in what is known as the best land deal ever made, doubling the size of America for less than three cents an acre.
For Haiti, its plantations were burned and destroyed, its fields laid waste, and its bountiful economy ruined. Trees were used in gross amounts for fuel and for making small farm plots, acts which quickly eroded the rich topsoil away. At the time, early to mid-1800’s, there was no aid from wealthier countries, such as the U.S., which chose not to recognize Haiti’s new-nation status because they themselves were still operating using the system of slavery. So the blacks and mulattoes were left with a devastated land and a devastated people, mostly illiterate and in poverty, without good and trustworthy direction and leadership. The two groups have fought violently with consequential loss of life to this day. Brutality has begotten brutality in the land of Haiti; greed has begotten greed in those fighting for political leadership and its broken citizens have been left to suffer.
The Haitian slaves did bring African voudon, or voodoo, with them from their homeland. Interestingly, voodoo believes in one Creator God, the “Grand Met.” However voodoo is a system consisting of other spirits that need to be appeased for the welfare of the believer, as God Himself can be too busy. Voodoo also operates with fear. Beginning in the 1950’s, Haitian black dictator, Francois Duvalier, capitalized on his country’s voodoo beliefs to control his subjects. Duvalier dressed in all black, as was believed the voodoo spirit of death dressed. Duvalier named his barbarous police force the Tonton Macoutes, the name of a man in Haitian mythology who comes at Christmas to carry naughty children away.
Since the earthquake on January 12, 2010, we have been greatly moved by news from this small country the size of Maryland. Governments the world over have sent aid and help to offer mercy to the Haitian people, a people long in need of mercy. God is not too busy for Haiti. At very long last, the world shouldn’t be either.
Photo of Haitian Countryside By Robin D. Williams
Sources: Haiti, by Trudy J. Hammer; Haiti, by Suzanne Anthony; Open the Door to Liberty: A Biography of Toussaint L’Overture, by Anne Rockwell. Additional sources: www.alicious.com/2010/haitian-revolution-devil-pact/, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France and www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase
0 comments:
Post a Comment