History of Struggles for Independence in a Global Context: Haiti
While their shared trauma - physical, mental, and generational - set up the conditions to create a strong sense of collective identity, the sheer size of the population of Black slaves fostered capabilities to successfully organize, resist, and revolt against the dominant colonial power. Notably, resistance efforts started off in the forms of individual or smaller-scale passive and active resistance in spaces of slave labor. The beginning of the French Revolution in the 1790s, however, disrupted the status quo and created opportunities to openly imagine, discuss, and pursue a vision for freedom and independence, thus sparking larger group efforts to organize. Capitalizing on the French colonial power’s state of vulnerability, Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines were notable figures who led Haitian slaves and Haiti into liberation, freedom, and independence, which Dessalines officially declared in 1801 (Silvia). With that accomplishment, Haiti became the first and only successful slave revolt in history.
However, the Haitian independence of 1801 was not the end to its struggle for self-agency and self-sufficiency as well as simply for the recognition of new independence, which hindered its ability to function and prosper. Faced with internal challenges and foreign pressures, the attempt to restructure the society and state of newly freed Black slaves came with many challenges, what sociologist Alex Dupuy characterizes as “from revolutionary slaves to powerless citizens” (52). Internally, though the social structure experienced a transformation that eradicated slavery, the core link between social status and economic power continued to exist, the latter of which has deep ties to political power. The lack of redistribution of economic power and land ownership to reflect the social changes thus upheld the colonial socio-economic structure but without the formal labels of enslaved and free individuals. Consequently, it solidified racialized social, economic, and political divisions in post-colonial Haitian society, resulting in the facilitation of corruption and deepening of socio-economic inequalities (Dupuy 52-53).
On the global level, Haiti’s independence was not recognized immediately. For example, France did not recognize Haiti’s independence until 1825, and it only did so under the condition that Haiti pays for the “indemnity of 150 million francs” (Dupuy 59). Recognizing the vulnerabilities of a new state and its historic dominance of the new state, France twisted the situation to position itself to benefit from their loss of a colony, essentially recovering their loss in profits and exploiting Haiti’s desperate need for global recognition of its new independence. Decades later, to further exploit Haiti’s weak position, France offered loans to help with Haiti’s struggle with payments and development as a result of their years-long challenge with managing internal instability and external pressures that created obstacles for stability and development. On the surface, France’s actions appeared to foster financial relations with Haiti being an independent entity, but in reality, the intention was to trap Haiti in a “double-debt” (Dupuy 60). In the long-term, the financial relationship between France and Haiti led to the immense draining of Haitian financial resources and its inability to develop.
Similarly, the United States refused to recognize Haiti’s independence until 1862, which played a large role in influencing relations with Haitian in the global realm (Dupuy 59). At first, the success of the Haitian revolution and call for a unified collective of Black power threatened the status of slavery in the U.S. in the early 1800s, an industry on which the U.S. was heavily dependent until the Civil War and abolition of slavery in 1865. Later on, however, coupled with market interests and the rise of U.S. expansion and imperialistic power, the U.S. viewed Haiti as a site of profit to serve U.S. political, economic, and military interest in the region, hence the forcible occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 (Dupuy 62). Building upon the existing damage France did to Haiti’s financial capabilities, U.S. occupation left Haiti’s various infrastructures weak and laid the foundation for foreign intervention, which is fundamentally tied to Haiti’s dependency on foreign humanitarian and developmental aid. In addition to businesses and their financial interests, foreign involvement includes governmental and non-governmental agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations, and more (Dupuy 64-68).
Altogether, these historical developments set up the conditions for a weak infrastructure of socio-political power and organization, effects that rippled throughout time and levels of Haitian state and society. The internal and external obstacles Haiti faced and continues to face resulted in its current status of being the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. In addition to struggling to develop as a result of these oppressive and destabilizing forces, the quality of life remains so low that it has created pressures causing the Haitian diaspora that seeks opportunities unachievable at home, essentially displacing these thousands of individuals (Silvia).
For more on Haitian history, check out Silvia's interactive timeline, Haiti: An Island Luminous .