Lesson 1) - Don't start nothing, won't be nothing.
Remember when the Southern states stormed Fort Sumter and started the Civil War? Me neither, I wasn't alive. But history texts show the Southern states started the Civil War, and we all know how that turned out for them. The Confederates getting their behinds handed to them, in a war they started, is a clear example that it's best to pick your battles wisely, my friends .
Lesson 2) - Don't make assumptions about who your friends are.
The Southern states also believed that because European countries so strongly relied on cotton from the U.S., these countries would intervene to help them fight the U.S. government. They're still waiting on that intervention over a century later.
Lesson 3) - Lies and manipulation have an expiration date.
It was illegal for slaves to be literate. Yep, true story; slaves could be punished if they were found reading. But the main reason behind this is that as America, and even France, fought for things like "the pursuit of happiness", and "liberty, equality and fraternity"; a literate slave who read the newspapers would wonder why countries fighting for freedom still literally kept thousands in captivity. Therefore, illiteracy let plantation owners and workers spread news of abolition and freedom whenever they so choose. Illiteracy perpetuated lies and half truths. But, as they say in my birthplace, Trinidad, "even de longest rope has an end". And in the end, lies, hypocrisy, and manipulation are always brought to light.
Lesson 4)- All this talk of literacy only leads to quoting the age old adage, "Knowledge is power".
This one may seem cliché. Though it may be overused, it can never be under meant. Once word of the French Revolution began to spread in the late 18th century, and even the abolition of the British slave trade in the early 19th century, literate black people began doing exactly what plantation owners feared: growing increasingly weary of expanding liberties for everyone else in the colonies except them.
To further solidify the importance of knowledge, the nature of successful slave revolts can help. Most of the documented successful slave revolts happened in the 18th and 19th centuries. One of the major reasons it took slaves a while to get their revolution on:
It's hard to run away or, even wage war in a country one is unfamiliar with, against an enemy one has little knowledge of.
However, once slaves became familiar with the Americas and the day to day life of plantation owners, revolution became less of a pie in the sky concept and more of a tangible goal. And revolt they did...both throughout the Caribbean, and America.
Lesson 5)- When you make powerful enemies, you need powerful friends.
Both Cuba and Haiti were two small Caribbean nations who dared to stand up to imperialism . The former to the U.S., the latter to France . One is now the most impoverished country in the western hemisphere, and the other has one of best health care systems in the western hemisphere, according to the United Nations. One of the most documented reasons for the difference: allies and the lack thereof. Cuba had communism, and Russia on it's side when it decided to give the US the proverbial middle finger. Haiti, known as Saint-Domingue at the time, was neighbored by other slave colonies, and was way ahead of it's time in relation to the world accepting a black headed nation in the Americas. Instead, the country was black listed for trade, and its stability and economy spiraled downward.
N.B - I'm not saying the Haitian revolution was not a successful anti-slavery movement, or that as a black person I do not celebrate and applaud their bravery, skill and achievement. I'm just saying those who critique Haiti as a failed state need to know the background. Also, more stable countries should now provide the economic allies Haiti has long needed and has gone without for centuries.
For more information and to verify some of the facts stated in the article here are a few sites to visit :
http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/history/...
