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The majority of the French that managed to escape from Haiti and avoid being tortured and killed during the general massacre of the whites ended up in the USA, mainly up and down the east coast. I actually have a copy of Peter Chazotte's book of everything he witnessed in Jeremie, Haiti during the revolution. The only reason he was a handful of whites that were excluded from the general massacre that took place in that town in March 1804 was because he was an American citizen.
What surprised me the most was not the brutality with which the massacres took place or the very anti-black sentiment of Chazotte (after what he lived through, even I understand his sentiment though nothing justifies it), it was that once he settled in the USA he became a very close friend to Thomas Jefferson and had direct access to him. Chazotte died in New Jersey and his remains are in a cemetery I think in Hoboken, NJ. There are many descendants of Chazotte in the NYC metropolitan area, including some doctors and well known teachers that are easy to find in Google simply by searching the last name Chazotte.
My point is that the French that arrived to the USA from Saint-Domingue (Haiti) inserted themselves very quickly into the circles of power of this country. That begs the question: how much influence did their fear of the blacks, given what they lived through during the Haitian Revolution, affected US policy towards its own blacks, in addition to the creation of segregation and Jim Crow laws?
I think those French colonists from Saint-Domingue had much to do with that and in a way it's all tied to the brutality of Jean Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines was unbearable even to his own people, which is why the Haitians themselves killed him in 1806 (just two years after gaining Haiti's independence and declaring himself emperor for life) in order to liberate themselves from his tyranny. Dessalines had the habit of killing people, even the blacks, for the most menial of offenses; raping white, mixed, and black women he found attractive even if they were the wife/daughter/sister of one of his close generals; and thinking of himself as if he was a God that could do what he wanted with his people and get away with it. Today Dessalines is seen in a very positive light in Haiti because they have him as the father of that nation, but if you dig deeper and study his character from what white, mixed, and black people that met him wrote about him and it doesn't takes long to see that he was a very psychologically sick man. Any other Haitian leader of the time had a much better character and morals than he did.
Cuba wasn't the only place affected by the fear of the excesses that were committed in the Haitian Revolution. By excesses I mean, to use one example, what happened to Madame Madeline in northern Haiti. She was forced to watch how the Haitians tortured her husband to death, then torture and dismember her young children to death, and then they cut a slice of her husband's leg and forced her to eat his meat before she herself was gang-raped and butchered. The massacre wasn't simply killing the people and be done with it, it was also an act of revenge. It truly is no wonder that the French that managed to escape from Haiti at that time were terrified of the blacks.
The Africans has every right to drive out the French who were beating, raping and killing man, woman and child for years and years. Why should they have had their freedom revoked? The French caused their own demise by ending slavery in 1794 and then turning around and reimposing slavery in 1802. I cannot imagine what it was like for Africans to finally be free from all the brutality and then the French deciding to enslave them all over again. The terror and pain the Africans must have experienced. The French were insane to think that they could go back to beating, raping and killing people without a war. They were massacred FOR TURNING AROUND AND REIMPOSING SLAVERY.
The Africans has every right to drive out the French who were beating, raping and killing man, woman and child for years and years. Why should they have had their freedom revoked? The French caused their own demise by ending slavery in 1794 and then turning around and reimposing slavery in 1802. I cannot imagine what it was like for Africans to finally be free from all the brutality and then the French deciding to enslave them all over again. The terror and pain the Africans must have experienced. The French were insane to think that they could go back to beating, raping and killing people without a war. They were massacred FOR TURNING AROUND AND REIMPOSING SLAVERY.
Yeah, but even renown Haitian historians say that the massacre of the whites was a mistake that should had never taken place.
To make matters even worse, a large portion of the ex-slave population, including most of the black generals, didn't agree with that policy. This is what lead Dessalines to leave Cap Haitien and visit every single town in the French colony, because his orders to massacre the whites was being ignored by most of the black generals stationed in most of the towns. They didn't ignored it because they didn't know about it, they simply were not willing to take part in becoming murderers. It's one thing to kill an armed enemy or the actual slave owners, its something else when even the whites that helped the blacks revolt and the whites that never owned a single slave were to be put to death in the most wanton manner. He even had to threatened the black generals and soldiers to commit the massacre or else his own personal soldiers were going to commit it and then they would kill the black generals and their soldiers that insisted on resisting the massacre. The massacre in each town took place under the personal supervision of Dessalines, otherwise it would had not taken place. The policy of killing off those people left a very bad taste in the mouth of the Haitian people.
Dessalines ways is what got him killed by his very own people. He also didn't liked that the Haitian populace wasn't overwhelmingly cheering his extermination policy, especially in the southern part of Haiti where the blacks and mixed people decided to simply stay home until after Dessalines had left each town rather than watch the destruction of the whites and the mixed people/black people that publicly voiced their opposition to such a practice.
The following are photos I just took with my cellphone of pages 41 and 49 in Peter Chazotte's eyewitness account:
"Historical Sketches of the Revolutions, and the Foreign and Civil Wars in the Island of Santo Domingo, with a narrative of the entire massacre of the white population of the island" published in 1840.
I present these two pages as further evidence of what I said in post #82.
Yeah, but even renown Haitian historians say that the massacre of the whites was a mistake that should had never taken place.
To make matters even worse, a large portion of the ex-slave population, including most of the black generals, didn't agree with that policy. This is what lead Dessalines to leave Cap Haitien and visit every single town in the French colony, because his orders to massacre the whites was being ignored by most of the black generals stationed in most of the towns. They didn't ignored it because they didn't know about it, they simply were not willing to take part in becoming murderers. It's one thing to kill an armed enemy or the actual slave owners, its something else when even the whites that helped the blacks revolt and the whites that never owned a single slave were to be put to death in the most wanton manner. He even had to threatened the black generals and soldiers to commit the massacre or else his own personal soldiers were going to commit it and then they would kill the black generals and their soldiers that insisted on resisting the massacre. The massacre in each town took place under the personal supervision of Dessalines, otherwise it would had not taken place. The policy of killing off those people left a very bad taste in the mouth of the Haitian people.
Dessalines ways is what got him killed by his very own people. He also didn't liked that the Haitian populace wasn't overwhelmingly cheering his extermination policy, especially in the southern part of Haiti where the blacks and mixed people decided to simply stay home until after Dessalines had left each town rather than watch the destruction of the whites and the mixed people/black people that publicly voiced their opposition to such a practice.
There is no BUT when you REENSLAVE peoples who had endured beatings, rape and killings for years upon years. These were people who had suffered the severest of trauma. In their minds, it was KILL OR BE KILLED, as the brutality of slavery would eventually kill them. No one is speaking about Dessalines alone but the fate of the French.
You want to talk about the whites helping the blacks revolt but you ignore the scores of Africans who help the French keep out the Spanish. Then the French betray them by reenslaving them. The French chose to carry out those orders rather than to resist them. The fate of the French was due to their decision to reenslave the Africans.
There is no BUT when you REENSLAVE peoples who had endured beatings, rape and killings for years upon years. These were people who had suffered the severest of trauma. In their minds, it was KILL OR BE KILLED, as the brutality of slavery would eventually kill them. No one is speaking about Dessalines alone but the fate of the French.
You want to talk about the whites helping the blacks revolt but you ignore the scores of Africans who help the French keep out the Spanish. Then the French betray them by reenslaving them. The French chose to carry out those orders rather than to resist them. The fate of the French was due to their decision to reenslave the Africans.
You completely ignore that the mass of the Haitian people didn't agree with the killing of the whites, despite that they were ex-slaves. I think you ignore it because it completely negates your argument that all those blacks were thirsty for blood. They weren't. They were not an evil people. A very small group actually supported such actions and an even smaller group committed the massacres, mostly under threat of they themselves being killed if they didn't do it.
Black Haitians were not these evil monsters that let passion and a thirst for revenge get the best of them, as you are painting here. The mass of Haitians back then were a very religious people and forgiveness took precedence to revenge. Keep ignoring this if you want, but it will not change it.
The following are photos I just took with my cellphone of pages 41 and 49 in Peter Chazotte's eyewitness account:
"Historical Sketches of the Revolutions, and the Foreign and Civil Wars in the Island of Santo Domingo, with a narrative of the entire massacre of the white population of the island" published in 1840.
I present these two pages as further evidence of what I said in post #82.
So appalling to kill the French but not appalling to reenslave African men, women and children. Not appalling to beat, rape and killing Africans, to send them to early graves.
You completely ignore that the mass of the Haitian people didn't agree with the killing of the whites, despite that they were ex-slaves.
No one is ignoring that many were against it but, in this end, they did not stop it. WHY? Because the French had reenslaved them. Slavery had ended but the French were too greedy and cruel to let it go.
So appalling to kill the French but not appalling to reenslave African men, women and children. Not appalling to beat, rape and killing Africans, to send them to early graves.
Slavery has always been appalling in the Americas, in Europe, and even in Africa with Africans enslaving/raping/killing Africans for centuries, perhaps thousands of years. It was also appalling that in Africa it was Africans selling Africans to the Europeans that later took them to the New World as slaves, knowing very well what the fate of those sold Africans was going to be. The whole thing is appalling, but one evil thing doesn't justify another evil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ReineDeCoeur
No one is ignoring that many were against it but, in this end, they did not stop it. WHY? Because the French had reenslaved them. Slavery had ended but the French were too greedy and cruel to let it go.
They couldn't stop it. Anyone that tried to simply voice their opposition, let alone stop it, was killed by orders of Dessalines. There was no freedom of speech, not even once Haiti achieved its independence. Dessalines declared himself emperor for life, with absolute power of the lives of the entire Haitian people. He could, and did, kill anyone for anything and no one could say anything unless they too wanted to be killed or have their wives/sisters/daughters raped by Dessalines army or Dessalines himself. Dessalines impregnated black and mixed race women in every single Haitian town and village that he went through, and the guy toured all of Haiti, which is why there are descendants of him all over Haiti. Those women didn't had a choice. Once he noticed one that sparked his sexual desires, she was going to open her legs for him whether she wanted to or not. The same applied with his closest generals. It was a dictatorship where one man did what he wanted with no consequences.
The guy had psychological problems to a such a degree that just two years after Haiti got its independence his very own people killed him in cold blood. That's how unbearable he was, the Haitian people felt that they could feel a sigh of relief after Dessalines was forcibly removed from this earth. Had the Haitian population agreed with Dessalines policy, they would had showered him with genuine affection and admiration. The fact that Dessalines needed to force his own people to show fake admiration and affection towards him says a lot.
Slavery has always been appalling in the Americas, in Europe, and even in Africa with Africans enslaving Africans. It was also appalling that in Africa it was Africans selling Africans to the Europeans that later took them to the New World as slaves. The whole thing is appalling, but one evil thing doesn't justify another evil.
They couldn't stop it. Anyone that tried to simply voice their opposition, let alone stop it, was killed by orders of Dessalines.
Of course not...but evil often causes more evil. Revolts happened everywhere due to slavery. This one simply happened to be successful.
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