Haiti

“ Everywhere are to be found reminders of the prosperous days when Haiti was France’s richest colony. Large, semispherical iron sugar-kettles, rusted, broken, and full of holes, lie tumbled everywhere along the highway and across the plain. Old French bells bearing pre-Napoleonic dates and quaint inscriptions, ruined stone aqueducts, mammoth grass-grown stairways, rust-eaten machinery, inexplicable stone ruins of all shapes and sizes, are stumbled upon wherever the visitor rambles. ”

“ I do not mean to infer that Haiti has attained to perfection. Like other nations, she also has her imperfections. I am only trying, and I cannot repeat it too often, to lay before my readers the unjust treatment she has up to the present time met with. She does not deserve the needless calumnies with which she is overwhelmed. ”

“ This nation, which was and still is one of the greatest exponents of civilization, should have long ago been struck off the maps of the world if intestine dissensions and civil wars were to prove the incapacity of a people to govern itself. With France, as with Germany and Great Britain, almost every step on the thorny road of progress has been paid for with the blood of her children. Her history, to go no farther back than 1789, is at least as agitated and surely more bloody than that of Haiti. ”

“ In this matter of change of government by revolution, Haiti must not be compared with the United States or with England; it must be compared with other Latin American republics. When it is compared with our next door neighbor, Mexico, it will be found that the Government of Haiti has been more stable and that the country has experienced less bloodshed and anarchy. And it must never be forgotten that throughout not an American or other foreigner has been killed, injured or, as far as can be ascertained, even molested. ”

“ Much stress has been laid on the bloody history of Haiti and its numerous revolutions. Haitian history has been all too bloody, but so has that of every other country, and the bloodiness of the Haitian revolutions has of late been unduly magnified. A writer might visit our own country and clip from our daily press accounts of murders, robberies on the principal streets of our larger cities, strike violence, race riots, lynchings, and burnings at the stake of human beings, and write a book to prove that life is absolutely unsafe in the United States. ”

“ The West Indies offer you a more desirable home than can be found this side the Atlantic; but in all, save Haiti, the Government is colonial, and the white man the land holder and superior in power. The Haitian Government is an absolute Monarchy, a Military Despotism; the French language only is spoken; the people debased and licentious, with whom you could and ought not to assimilate. ”

“ When all is considered, especially the fact that the existence of Haiti as a nation dates back only one century, one is brought to the conclusion that this country has been no more disturbed nor agitated than France for instance ”

“ One felt immensely more of a sense of civilization here than in Haiti. There a lone white man would have hesitated to lie down beside the highway, even had there been one. Here one seemed as secure as in the heart of France. Yet there was little outward difference between the Haitians and the simple, kindly country-people who plodded constantly past, the women carrying big bundles on their heads. ”

“ And so it was that every Haitian in the rural districts lived on his own plot of land, a plot on which his family has lived for perhaps more than a hundred years. No matter how small or how large that plot is, and whether he raises much or little on it, it is his and he is an independent farmer. ”

“ A nation which has been through so many crises and has voluntarily endured so many hardships in order to improve its political regime cannot be considered degenerate and retrogressive. Like the countries of the Old World, Haiti will achieve the conquest of its ideal by the steadfastness of its faith in personal effort and the consciousness of its dignity and its duty toward the race whose rehabilitation it has willingly undertaken to secure. ”

“ For the purpose of showing that the Haitians are reverting to barbarism, their detractors affect to praise the prosperity of the island at the time of the French domination; they are especially fond of alluding to the agricultural products which, according to them, have not only never been surpassed, but have not even been equalled since the independence of Haiti. ”

“ However, this indifference to their sufferings has not made the Haitians selfish; in their kind-heartedness they are ever ready to sympathize with the misfortunes of others. Even when undeserved calamities have befallen her, Haiti has never received the sympathy or help of the other nations. Abandoned to her own resources she is, step by step, making steady progress up the ladder of civilization. This progress, though considered slow by many, is worthy of a higher appreciation when one realizes the obstacles she has had to surmount. ”

“ But it is only the modernists in history who are willing to look at the masses as factors in the life and development of the country, and in its history. For Haitian history, like history the world over, has for the last century been that of cultured and educated groups. ”

“ Haiti is a country of rapidly changing conditions. Like others, emerging from revolution and disorder to peace and the pursuits of peace, it finds its possibilities unlimited. Furthermore, under the Haitian-American treaty, part of the government is being run by the Haitians themselves in the three departments: executive, legislative and judicial; and a portion is controlled by the United States, including the military. ”

“ Haiti has never been so distracted in its councils as Mexico. And even in its moments of greatest distraction it never slaughtered an American citizen, it never molested an American woman, it never injured a dollar's worth of American property. And yet, the Administration whose lofty purpose was proclaimed as above—with less justification than Austria's invasion of Serbia, or Germany's rape [12] of Belgium, without warrant other than the doctrine that "might makes right," has conquered Haiti. ”

“ Every country, even the most advanced and civilized, has certain peculiarities. Haiti is no exception to this rule; like other nations she has her peculiarities, but the one who describes these peculiarities alone in order to excite the ridicule of his readers is like a person who, after visiting a mansion, describes only the kitchen or the stables; kitchen and stables certainly have their particular uses, but they do not give any idea of the beauty of the mansion. ”

“ To fully appreciate the origin of the unceasing and persistent calumnies of which Haiti has been made the target, one must go back to the very first days of her existence and call to mind the circumstances under which she started life as an independent country. ”

“ It is the extreme of irony that this clause which the Haitians had a right to interpret as a guarantee to them against foreign invasion should first of all be invoked against the Haitian people themselves, and offer the only peg on which any pretense to a right of military domination can be hung.
There are several distinct forces—financial, military, bureaucratic—at work in Haiti which, tending to aggravate the conditions they themselves have created, are largely self-perpetuating. ”

“ The foreign personnel in Haiti consists chiefly of the Marine officers and treaty officials and their families. This is supplemented by members of the diplomatic corps and business men who are either engaged in business in Haiti or who are there looking over the [105] country in view of future investments. And so there is a good-sized foreign colony, mostly American, in Port-au-Prince, which has a social life all of its own. ”

“ Stuart had visited the southern part of Haiti with his father, especially the towns of Port-au- [Pg 35] Prince and Jacamel, and he was struck with the difference in the people. Cap Haitien is a working town and its people are higher grade than the dwellers in the southern part of the republic. The south, however, is more populous. Haiti is thickly inhabited, with 2,500,000 people, of whom only 5,000 are foreigners, and of these, not more than 1,000 are whites. The island is incredibly fertile. A century and a quarter ago it was rich, and could be rich again. ”

“ Haiti, which has comparatively come into life but yesterday, need not be disheartened; she knows that the struggle for progress is a hard one and that success is not easy to be obtained. Were she inclined to ignore this fact, the tribulations through which France has passed would have been sufficient to make her realize the difficulty of the task. ”

“ If this powerful, rich, and highly educated people had, during nineteen centuries, to grope for the political regime best suited to their temperament, can the world refuse to make some allowance and to have a little indulgence for Haiti, whose existence dates back but a hundred years and whose sons possessed none of the advantages enjoyed by those of the older nations of Europe?
The lesson taught us by the history of the Old World should make it clear that there is nothing surprising in the fact that after a century of existence Haiti has not attained the height of modern civilization ”

“ However, in spite of all these facts, Haiti is persistently being charged in the United States and elsewhere with entertaining race hatred and race prejudice.
Haiti is the Eden of foreigners. Few are there who do not succeed in making a fortune after doing business there for a while. All their undertakings are facilitated, being even allowed in some cases the enjoyment of more privileges than the natives. ”

“ The closest examination of the history of Haiti and the events of daily occurrence will not reveal one instance of foreigners having been killed either by reason of their nationality, the color of their skins, of on account of the rivalry more or less great between them and the natives. ”

“ President Boyer had even sent an agent to New York to encourage the men of the black race to emigrate to Haiti. No wonder then was it that the United States recognized the independence of Colombia, etc., and ignored that of Haiti.
Thus the young Republic, at the very beginning of its existence, found itself isolated and compelled to face the power of France without the sympathy of a single nation. But Haiti, with a sense of her responsibility, remained undaunted and spared nothing in order to preserve her autonomy. ”

“ In the light of these facts, which may be easily verified, I may confidently appeal to the fair-minded and intelligent reader to decide whether the assertions so frequently made, that the Haitians are relapsing into barbarism and falling back into a state almost of savagery, are worthy of credence, or whether they are merely unjust and ungrounded aspersions upon a people who since their independence have been striving, with success commensurate to their opportunities, to attain the practical ideals of modern civilization! ”

“ Instead of finding out from trustworthy sources the exact truth of the matter, they hasten to draw the conclusion that the Haitians are lazy and unworthy of possessing such a rich and beautiful island. ”

“ All of the Latin-American republics except Brazil speak Spanish and enjoy an intercourse with the outside world denied Haiti. Dramatic and musical companies from Spain, from Mexico and from the Argentine annually tour all of the Spanish-speaking republics. Haiti is deprived of all such instruction and entertainment from the outside world because it is not profitable for French companies to visit the three or four French-speaking islands in the Western Hemisphere. ”

“ Haiti is a purely Negro Republic, and offers a good illustration of what the Negro accomplishes if left to himself, even though given all the advantages of easy access to European civilization. The republic of Santo Domingo occupies the other part of the same island; its hybrid population has more Spanish and less Negro blood but it is not by any means civilized. ”

“ TO know the reasons for the present political situation in Haiti, to understand why the United States landed and has for five years maintained military forces in that country, why some three thousand Haitian men, women, and children have been shot down by American rifles and machine guns, it is necessary, among other things, to know that the National City Bank of New York is very much interested in Haiti. ”

“ For amongst all nationalities, in every class of men assembled in society, there will be found good and bad men, and thieves and assassins in the midst of honest and honorable men. Let us then judge every one according to his merits and refrain from the injustice of holding a whole country responsible for the shortcomings of a few of its citizens!
Sympathy, or even mere impartiality, has seldom inspired those who have written about Haiti. ”

“ As has just been pointed out, Haiti has, without exaggeration, never enjoyed either support, nor even the mere good will of the foreign Powers. The sum of their liberality toward her has only been to overwhelm her with criticisms, reprimands, and threats. But who has ever extended a helping hand to her? [3] Where is the Power which, in the past, has ever rendered her simple justice? ”

“ It would be equally absurd for the Haitian to attempt to break through the walls of prejudice and to expect all Americans and Haitians to mix with ease. Although it is most certainly true that America has an infinitely more thorough [103] knowledge and is more capable of government than is Haiti, yet the Haitians have what many Americans of even the upper classes often lack, a knowledge of culture and excellent manners. ”