Haiti and Black history

By Jacob Davis

CSMS Magazine

Black history is also black pride in every way—education, literature, art etc… For sure we can’t celebrate black history without showcasing Haiti where the first and only successful slave rebellion in history took place. Breaking the chain of bondage, beating Napoleon’s army and declaring Haiti the land of the brave and the free was quite an accomplishment!

Here is what was said of Haiti by an African-American (Negro) publication in New York in 1859. Then, Haiti was a mecca, an oasis and a safe refuge for all people of color running away from persecution. It was the place where human dignity was restored to its fullest. Considering the fact that Toussaint Louverture (a black man) was one of the most important statesmen of the 18^th century—the most important black man. Toussaint was the precursor of Haiti’s independence. In the quote that follows, you can see that word Haiti is written Hayti to fit the pronunciation (Hay-ti) instead of (Hey-ti like we pronounce today.)

“No country has been more favorably situated for receiving these blessing than the Queen of the Antilles. Her independence, achieved early in the present century, every enemy banished, or exterminated from her soil, placed in the very focus of civilization, midway between the two greatest nations of the earth, the cynosure of tens of thousands of friendly eyes, the object of Christendom’s prayers, the spot of all others on earth that could command the philanthropists of every nation, possessing a soil of unbounded fertility, a corps of laborers well instructed in the culture of those articles which ever return most renumerative prices, and a climate better adapted to the constitution of its inhabitants than any other under the sun – with all these advantages, it was to be expected that the empire of Hayti would soon assume an important rank in the family of nations, or at least occupy a respectable position as a land of industrious, moral, and thriving men.”