219 Years of Haitian Independence: the first

WTF is Going on in Latin America & The Caribbean

EPISODE: 219 Years of Haitian Independence, a history of the first revolution in The Americas

GUESTS: Pierre LaBossiere, Judith “Mirk” Mirkinson and Seth Donnelly of The Haiti Action Committee

BACKGROUND:

On January 1, 1804, Haiti became an independent republic, following the revolution which had begun 13 years earlier as a rebellion of enslaved people against slavery and French colonialism.

Previously known as Saint-Domingue, it was the most profitable colony in the world, generating greater revenue than all of the continental North American colonies combined. This immense wealth was generated by the sweat and blood of enslaved Africans who were being worked to death in their tens of thousands on coffee and sugar plantations.

Shortly after the French revolution, which supposedly espoused the ideals of "liberty, equality and fraternity," on August 22, 1791 enslaved people rose up, demanding those ideals be realized, and slavery and colonialism abolished. Over the coming years, the rebels successfully defeated the combined armies of the world's biggest colonial powers: France, Spain and Britain. The 1804 declaration of independence abolished the colony of Saint-Domingue and reinstated the Indigenous Taíno name of Hayti. Europe and the US then promptly ostracized the fledgling republic, causing severe economic hardship.

In 1825, France finally agreed to recognise Haiti's independence, provided it compensate former enslavers to the tune of 150 million gold francs ($21 billion today) - a ransom which deeply impoverished the government and was not fully repaid until 1947. The United States only recognised Haitian independence in 1862, but this did not prevent it from invading and occupying it in 1915.

FOLLOW HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HaitiActionCommittee

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HaitiAction1

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Haiti Action Committee https://haitisolidarity.net

Haiti Emergency Relief Fund https://haitiemergencyrelief.org/

The Lasalin Massacre and the Human Rights Crisis in Haiti

https://haitiliberte.com/the-lasalin-massacre-and-the-human-rights-crisis-in-haiti/

WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.