Reports show that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and as the majority of Latin American countries have seen times of economic prosperity since the late 1950s, Haiti has been left behind. To understand the shortcomings of Haiti, it is crucial to look in the past.
In Haiti, the only country ever to be a product of a slave rebellion, the nation’s history is nearly entirely defined by race and discrimination. Haiti’s history of slavery begins in 1492 with the man notoriously hated throughout Latin America: Cristóbal Colón, or, as we Yankees know him, Christopher Columbus. Columbus was the first person to enslave the native Taino and put them to work. Once the French gained control of the Western half of the island of Hispaniola, it was named Saint Domingue.
Unfortunately for French investors, the Taino slaves were dying off at an alarming rate, and African slaves were more immune to European diseases, making them “healthier” than their native counterparts. Slaves were quite literally worked to death. The average lifespan of an African slave during French occupation was under thirty years of age. Female slaves were frequently used as sex slaves, and the intermingling of races caused a new class of people to be born in St. Domingue. These “mixed blood children” composed St. Domingue’s middle class, and were treated better than African slaves. The French imported far more slaves into the colony than countries like the United States, which made for a 50-to-three white/slave ratio by 1789. In 1789, however, free men of color and the slaves of Saint Domingue saw a golden opportunity to seize control of what they saw as their island: the French Revolution.
The middle class as well as slaves organized revolts all over the island starting around 1791. A long and bloody conflict ensued between the French, their constituents, and free men of color, as well as slaves. Slavery was outlawed in 1793 in hopes of quelling the resistance, but Toussaint Louverture recognized that the economy of Haiti could not be sustained without forced labor on the plantations, and he forced the recently freed slaves back onto the plantations. Louverture would serve as an exemplary figure for all oppressed slaves in Latin America following his death in a French prison in 1803.
The Republic of Haiti was officially established on January 1, 1804 by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines governed in a similar manner as Louverture, but was not well received by his people. Dessalines was killed in 1806, and his successor, Henry Christophe, was no better at governing than he. Subsequently, these early leaders made little to no effort to end the systematic oppression of blacks in Haiti.
To make matters worse for the Haitian economy, in 1825, while facing a blockade from the French, head of state Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay the French government 150,000,000 francs ($90 million) for what the French saw as its loss of property and because the colony of Saint Domingue accounted for two-fifths of the French economy before the Haitian Revolution. Boyer made the decision behind the backs of his people, and the deal crippled the Haitian treasury. Haiti felt the immediate effects of the deal until they were finally able to pay off their debt in 1947.
Throughout the roughly 200-year history of Haiti, slavery has never truly left the country. Due in part to the poor decisions made by Haiti’s earliest leaders, the country has never been able to get on its feet without falling back over again. According to the CIA’s library of records from 2003, more than 50 percent of Haiti’s population lives below the poverty line, but this figure has definitely increased since the earthquake that ravaged the country in 2010. This does not even speak to the true poverty in Haiti, because the country is so poor to begin with. Many who identify as lower class in the United States would be more than financially comfortable in Haiti.
Due to the overwhelming majority of those residing in Haiti being impoverished, slavery still exists in the country, but is more commonly referred to as human trafficking. Haiti has an estimated two hundred thousand enslaved persons, and possibly more. Forced labor and sex slavery are the most common forms of human trafficking in Haiti. Women and children are targeted the most, and some parents will sell their children into forced domestic labor. Children, but primarily women, are also abused for sexual purposes such as prostitution and pornography.
It is impossible to ignore the fact that the poorest people in Haiti are also the “blackest,” for lack of a better term. Mulattos have comprised the country’s elite since the Haitian Revolution. Race has defined Haiti’s socio-economic history, because Haiti’s government is so weak, and it will continue to define the perception of Haiti in the eyes of the world. The slave rebellion that made Haiti into an independent republic may have been successful in terms of a military victory, but it is difficult to say that a country as poor as Haiti underwent a “successful” revolution.
