Haiti: The Tumultuous History - From Pearl of the Caribbean to Broken Nation

by Philippe Girard

Why has Haiti been plagued by so many woes? Why have multiple U.S. efforts to create a stable democracy in Haiti failed so spectacularly? Philippe Girard answers these and other questions, examining how colonialism and slavery have left a legacy of racial tension, both within Haiti and internationally; Haitians remain deeply suspicious of white foriegners' motives, many of whom doubt Hatians' ability to govern themselves. He also examines how Haiti's current political instability is merely a continuation of political strife that began during the War of Independence (1791-1804). Finally, Haiti: The Tumultuous History, Girard explores poverty's devastating impact on contemporary Haiti and argues that Haitians--particularly home-grown dictators--bear a big share of the responsibility for their nation's troubles.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 11, 2005

Reviews

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author goes out of his way to push his thesis that Haiti's troubles are due to corrupt leadership and not to the racism of the international community nor to the legacy of slavery. I'm not entirely convinced, but this stated bias doesn't keep this from being a well-balanced history that emphasizes the recent past over the revolution and other distant events.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a terribly biased book that tries to blame all of Haiti's leaders for the country's poverty. Yes, the Duvaliers were examples of when this proved true, but so many of the economic problems of Haiti post-Duvalier are the fault of the new world order: foreign investors, the IMF and World Bank, etc. Clearly the author has swallowed neoliberal rhetoric whole. If you're looking for an objective history of Haiti, don't read this one.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girard has nailed it. If I were going to write a book on Haiti (where I have been resident for a year), this is what it would have looked like (in my imagination obviously; in reality it would have been nowhere near as good). This is part history, part socio-economic analysis, part advocacy. I suspect that many would charge, some Haitians in particular, that the narrative is too soft on the damaging effects of foreign intervention and I would sympathize with that view. However the political elite and what Girard refers to as the "predatory class" are clearly the root of the majority of the challenges facing the country. As he suggests in the final chapter, it seems unlikely that a hero is going to rise from the ashes to take the country forward, a la Lee Kwan Yew or Paul Kagame. It seems more likely that the populace will rise, spurred on by a communal sentiment of ça suffit to demand that their government, that the individuals at the top of their government, and those who aspire to retain the rewarding status quo, remember that there are ten million plus people in Haiti and that ninety percent of them deserve far better.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book to gain greater insight into the history and experiences of Haiti. I walk away with good understanding of the colonialist/imperalist narrative of the history of Haiti, however, Girard injects his own predjuces that veer towards the edges of racist. He consistently frames the history and narrrative of Haitian back upon themselves to blame them for their struggles, and to highlight his perception of Haitian entitlement within their nationalism. Admittedly, I ended up "finishing" the book only through active skimming whenever he jerks-off about this entitlement. I still feel there must be a better way to tell this story without being so distinctly prejudiced to blaming Haitians, and not just see Haiti as a "flawed state" but to analyze it from the role of being the first majority black "western" nation-state.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of the history of Haiti. The author pulls no punches in telling the difficult story of this nation. Excellent book for anyone interested in the history of Haiti with clear and honest discussions on Haiti's many problems.

[Nishant · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good primer on Haiti's history. Need to take the author's very one-sided view -- that Haitians are at fault for everything -- with a pinch of salt. But accessible and very readable.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting of Haiti's history.

[Allison Whiteford · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting hearing about the history of Haiti and all that led to the countries decline. It helped me to understand more about the struggles and pain points of the country.

[Tibby]

I came across this book in a used bookstore and picked it up because I have been wanting to know more about the history of Haiti. It's touted as the first Black nation to liberate itself during the colonial era and I love Edwidge Danticat's writing. But that's the extent of what I knew about Haiti.

I suppose I could say that the book does a decent job of chronicling the history of Haiti without bogging down in too much detail. This is clearly a historian who knows the narrative arc of the history and is able to bring that to the book without getting too lost in the weeds. That aspect of this was extremely useful and I do feel like I have a better sense of Haiti's history.

That being said this book has a lot of things in it I took issue with. It was written in 2004 and published under a different title. Then in 2010 after the huge earthquake it had an introductory chapter added and was retitled and published in paperback. I would not be surprised to find that the author is some conservative troll in this day and age based on the things I took issue with in the book that goes beyond the basic history of the country.

Early on he spends a fair amount of time trying to claim that the white colonial people of Haiti weren’t necessarily racist. His evidence is mostly that, when push came to shove, they advocated for freedom of the enslaved people and that free blacks also owned slaves. But just because you make a politically or self-interested decision around emancipation doesn’t mean you don’t hold racist views. He says nothing about how the planter class held racial hierarchical views which would be better evidence. And as far as the free blacks, they were also steeped in the racist views of the time and it would be surprising if they didn’t at least wrestle with throwing off those views, let alone a number of them subscribe to racial hierarchy. I think ultimately it’s Girard inserting himself into the history. I don’t know if it matters for the arc of events whether or not anyone was racist. They enslaved people and reaped the rewards of those people’s labor and that’s what drove the history, politics, and economics of the time.

I don’t know when exactly the idea was articulated, but Kendi popularized it. That racist ideas came about to justify racist actions. And this seems to be the analysis Girard is missing, although he almost gets there. He claims that a lot of what happened in terms of enslavement and cruelty had to do with economic motivations, which he definitely makes a case for. But instead of recognizing that racist ideas were then invented or borrowed to justify the actions he just stops at claiming the people who perpetrated the actions were racist. It’s true in a very literal way- they didn’t really care about race so much as money and if it meant embracing ideas that were racist to justify them then fine. But in the end embracing those ideas and then allowing them to continue is six dozen of one, half dozen another.

He also seems to be very blase about the lives and suffering of millions of individual people. He makes the case that Haiti has some serious issues with poor education, nationalism that can undermine decision making, and deep political corruption. The problem is these are not choices of the majority of individual Haitians. To say that there were a lot of greedy men who took power and then siphoned off millions of dollars from the Haitian people and foreign aid and this is the fault of those suffering is rather repugnant. The poor in Haiti are not responsible for Papa Doc’s cruelty and corruption. Papa Doc and the governments that propped him up (ahem United States ahem) are. Men with full bellies, full bank accounts and real power. It’s very hard to care about what’s going on at the presidential palace, let alone know about it, if you are starving and trying to provide for your loved ones. I think Girard does a good job of pointing out issues that have compounded over the years in Haiti, but he places the blame on the victims of these issues and corrupt systems as if the poor living in Cite Soiele could somehow make rational choices at the polls and save the country. He says many of these corrupt politicians make appeals to racism or national pride to stir up votes and support amongst the people, but they hold power through violence and access to money no matter how the people feel about them and their false political platforms.

I think overall the most frustrating thing about his analysis and commentary is that he harshly judges Haiti’s elite for their inhumane behavior, but implies that it’s both uniquely Haitian and also in part the fault of those they are oppressing. Most of the horrific behavior are things Americans and the American military have been guilty of in recent history, which means this is probably more a commentary on how power and money can corrupt people rather than a quirk of Haitian elites and also if it’s only odious when Haitian people commit crimes, but doesn’t warrant any criticism when Americans do the same, it’s hard to take it seriously. And to blame the poor of Haiti and to advocate that because of the corruption of the elite, several of whom the US put in power, they should be cut off from foreign aid and treated with tough love seems just as inhumane.

At one point he talks about the embargo placed on Haiti in the early 1990s and blames Aristide for it. He says Bush and Clinton enforced it and kept it in place (and that the US had tried embargoes in other places like Libya and Serbia with equally disastrous results that starved the people and did nothing to oust the violent dictators) were only going by what Aristide wanted. Aristide, the ousted and exiled president of Haiti. As if Bush and Clinton bear no responsibility for choosing the policies of the US government. As if they couldn’t have looked at the suffering of the Haitian people and listened to the stories of the people fleeing Haiti on rickety boats and looked at the same failed policy elsewhere in the world and brought an end to the embargo simply because they were so trusting of Aristide. It’s just stupid and blames the Haitian people for being victims of violence and starvation. He wants to place all the blame back on the Haitian people for being too nationalistic and uneducated to elect a decent leader (in elections plagued with fraud) while also blaming the greed of individual politicians. Which is it? The people who lack power and are simply trying not to be murdered, raped, or starve? Or the politicians who kept gaining power through violence and fraud and then bilking the country for millions of foreign aid dollars?

And for foreign aid his conclusion is Haiti just shouldn’t be given any. But why is the question not how does is get distributed to the actual people and to organizations that might use it? Versus saying because foreign governments can’t think beyond handing millions over to corrupt, greedy leaders the price should be no aid at all.

His initial assertion sounds proto-2020s conservative. Haiti needs to get over slavery and racism and pull itself up by its bootstraps like the US (which of course had no help in its establishment *eye roll*). And really if there even is racism in Haiti, it’s clearly the mixed race people who have it not the white people who built huge familial wealth on the labor of kidnapped and enslaved Africans (after the Spanish inadvertently but conveniently cleared the land of the original Taino, a genocide he speaks about in sterile terms and claims was accidental, whoops genocide we wanted to enslave them but accidentally mudered them all). He completely willfully misses or misunderstands power and structural oppression. Which honestly isn’t surprising given his own identities which have made it unlikely he would be the victim of most structural oppression.

I think the important question is never asked, Who is creating the conditions for [insert systemic oppression]? And the answer really isn't the poor of Haiti.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conclusion: Haiti is very complex. And it is a disservice not to recognize that when trying to "help" there.

[Astra · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most racist take on Haitian History. Lord, I can't believe this thing is a book!!!

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this history in anticipation of a trip to Haiti this summer. Reading Haitian history is a foray into the fallibility of the human soul. Rectification of Haitian problems will require a change in the hearts of all those that reside in or deal with this troubled nation

Columbus & Spanish Domination

Christopher Columbus arrived on Haiti’s northern coast in 1492 and landed in a magnificent natural harbor that he named Mole Saint-Nicolas. From there, Columbus made his way East to the bay where the city of Cap Haitien would later be built. The Santa Maria hit a reef in Haiti and foundered. Columbus had to leave some crewmembers on shore. The abandoned crew were killed by the Taino natives. This was the beginning of a blood thirsty and murderous history that has continued to this day.

Columbus noted in his log that: “the natives appeared submissive and could likely be easily enslaved”. Columbus and later Spanish colonists were not settlers, they were “conquistadors”: ambitious nobles and merchants who despised manual labor and sought to conquer the natives, kill their leaders, enslave the people, and make away with a quick windfall of gold and spices.

The author relates the story of the Taino Haitian princess Anacoana, who the Spaniards asked to organize a feast for the arrival of their Governor. But when Anacoano had gathered all her finest people for the festivities, the Spanish set the meeting hall on fire and wiped out the Taino leadership. The Taino commoners were subsequently put to forced labor in the gold mines and on the plantations.

The author relates another story of Hatuey, a Taino resister, who persisted for years in guerilla warfare against the Spanish. Hatuey eventually fled to Cuba, but was pursued by the Spanish and captured there in 1512. Hatuey was sentenced to be burnt alive. Before the burning, a Franciscan friar suggested to Hatuey that if he would repent and convert to Catholicism, he would go to heaven and his captors might show mercy and put him to death in a more humane way. To this, Hatuey inquired as to whether or not Spaniards went to Heaven? When the Franciscan responded that Spaniards indeed did go to Heaven, Hatuey responded that he would prefer fire and hell to going where there would be Spaniards.



A young Spaniard named Bartolome de Las Casas was so profoundly shaken by witnessing the burning of Hatuey that he embraced religious orders and spent the rest of his life defending the cause of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. He wrote of his experiences: “I saw here cruelty on a scale no living being has ever seen or expects to see”. Within two generations, Spain’s cruel exploitation of local laborers, combined with the plight wrought by European diseases, resulted in the complete disappearance of the Taino population in nothing less than “genocide”.

The French

By the 1600’s, Spain had killed off all the Haitian natives, taken what little gold there was, and moved on to more promising riches in Mexico and Peru. All that really remained on the island was a small Spanish presence in the east. The western part of the island became an overgrown tropical forest, overrun with the wild cows and pigs introduced by the Spanish.

Eventually a mixed lot of French settlers began to accumulate in Haiti, being primarily those desirous of distancing themselves from French courts, such as naval deserters and runaway indentured servants. These Frenchman chose Haiti because the Spanish presence on the other end of the island was negligible and because of the seemingly inextinguishable supply of wild pigs and cattle for food. These French vagabonds eventually started attacking the many Spanish galleons passing by Haiti and became pirates. The island of Tortuga, off the northern coast of Haiti, became an independent pirate state protected by a large fortress.

In 1697, the Treaty of Ryswick gave France the western third of Hispaniola and the colony of Haiti was born. France began to grow sugar cane, which was the oil of the 18th century. So valuable to France was Haiti, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, that it relinquished all of her other North American possessions (including Canada and the U.S.), after losing the Seven Years War in 1763.

But attracting settlers to Haiti was difficult. The French King rounded up criminals, orphans, and prostitutes to ship off to Haiti under the guise of cleaning up the streets of Paris. Drunken revelers in French ports would sometimes awaken in the hold of ships bound for Haiti, having unsuspectingly signed away their freedom during a night of carousing. Haiti harbored a colorful mix of Parisian prostitutes, descendants of pirates, and other undesirables of French society.

But European indentured workers could not withstand the hard work associated with producing sugar, which required clearing the land, planting, weeding, cutting cane, and boiling the juice. So the importing of African slaves occurred throughout the 18th century. Many of these Africans similarly died in great numbers; but the French simply imported more. Nevertheless, the Africans soon outnumbered the planters as much as a hundred to one. Out of their fear, the planters resorted to cruelty, even sadism, to keep the Africans subdued.

An army officer, Baron Wimpffen, visited Haiti in 1788 and described having dinner with one of the white settlers who, after her black servant brought out an overcooked dish, had the servant thrown into the oven and himself roasted. In the same year, planter Nicolas Lejeune burned off the legs of two of his female slaves, who he thought were conspiring to poison him. American scholars describe colonial Haiti as one of the cruelest slave societies in the world. Accounts of past French atrocities fuel Haitian nationalism today.

Makandal was an African-born slave who was embittered because he had lost an arm while working on the sugar plantations. Makandal was taken from the Congo at age 12. He claimed various magical powers, mixing Allah, Jesus, and African gods in some sort of syncretic fusion typical of the Haitian religious tradition. After escaping, he organized a conspiracy to kill the planters by poisoning them. He created poisons from island herbs and distributed the poison to slaves who added it to the meals of the plantation owners. Thousands were killed and Makandal could not be caught. Makandal claimed that he had the ability to transform into a mosquito and fly away when cornered. However, the French captured Makandal in 1758. Thousands of slaves were brought together to witness his brutal torture and execution by being burnt at the stake. But remarkably, as the flames consumed him, he broke free of the pole. Many reported that he made an amazing escape, while the French contend they caught him and threw him back into the fire. Various supernatural accounts of his execution are preserved in island folklore and are widely depicted in paintings and popular art. His public torture and execution is depicted vividly in Guy Endore’s 1934 novel Babouk. The “Statue of the Unknown Maroon” (shown below) is located in Haiti and was erected by the Duvalier government as a monument to Makandal and others who paved the way for the Haitian Revolution that began in 1791.



Revolution and the Haiti Republic

Escaped slaves built mountain strongholds and perfected the principals of guerrilla warfare. The Haitian slave revolt occurred from 1791-1804. Many a planter made the painful discovery too late that their most reliable slaves were at the forefront of the revolt.

Upon seizing power from the French, much infighting began among the new black Haitian leaders. The Haitian leaders dressed themselves up in royalist garb and wore the insignia of kings. In 1793 the French Revolution sent Louis XVI to the guillotine and most of the conservative slave-owning monarchies of Europe declared war on France. Spain attacked Haiti by land (from the Dominican Republic) and England with her navy. France announced the emancipation of slavery and encouraged the Haitians to fight, which they did until the departure of British and Spanish troops in 1798.

Toussaint Louverture, a black soldier, was left to reign in Haiti. Louverture had been freed by his master a decade before the revolution and had been an important military figure in the French army. Louverture understood that dividing the land into small plots for subsistence farming would destroy productivity and so he preserved the plantations. Because the plantations required much labor, Louverture implemented laws requiring people to be employed as servants, soldiers or plantation workers.

In 1801, Louverture announced to the world that he was ruler of Haiti and implemented a constitution. This action motivated Napoleon Bonaparte to send an expedition to Haiti, charged with the task of deporting all prominent black officers and restoring French authority over the island. As the French troops landed, Louverture ordered his men to burn the cities, the plantations, refineries, and houses, in order to deny the French food and income. However, the French were victorious on the battlefield and forced Louverture into exile, where he died in 1803.

The French began to divvy up the plantations among themselves. However, many of the French began to die of yellow fever and other tropical diseases. Those that survived held magnificent parties on the French ships and battled over the spoils of war. The French general, Donatien de Rochambeau, organized a weird ball, to which he invited all the elite mulatto women, and wined and dined them in a room decorated with back crepe and other macabre paraphernalia. Rochambeau then led the women into a room where, to their surprise, their husband’s bodies lay in state. They had just unknowingly attended their loved ones funeral.

As entertainment for Cap Francais’ high society, Rochambeau unleashed slave-hunting dogs upon unfortunate black servants tied to poles. Amidst such atrocities, the French suddenly found themselves surrounded by rebel armies that forced them to disembark to sea, where they were immediately attacked by British ships, patrolling the Caribbean.

The last French troops departed Haiti in 1804. Black and mulatto officers gathered in the city of Gonaives to declare their nations independence. In signing their new Declaration of Independence, it was suggested that they: “use the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull as an inkwell, his blood for ink, and the bayonet that killed him for a pen”.

The first Haitian dictator was Jean-Jacques Dessalines who, in his early address to the people remarked as follows about white people:

“May they shudder when they approach our coastline, either because they remember all the exactions they committed, or because of our horrifying pledge to kill every Frenchman who soils this land of freedom with his sacrilegious presence.” –Jean-Jacques Dessalines

And Dessalines was not joking. Over the following months he rounded up all remaining French planters, soldiers, and merchants from all over Haiti and slaughtered them. They were beheaded, bayoneted, and drowned. Dessalines exulted that it was every Haitians duty to avenge the many relatives they had lost to French exploitation. Like children brought up in a bad environment, the primitives followed the example of violence that had been demonstrated to them by their white masters over the preceding years. Dessalines was black, not Mulatto, and he viewed the mulattoes with suspicion.

Because of all the violence, whites all over the Caribbean became horrified by the Haitians and wary of doing business with them. This immediately put the country on an ill-fated course, as the most educated people were killed. Those who had organized labor, engineered building projects, administered the government, and other professionals were all slaughtered. Those that remained were illiterate and unskilled, Dessalines included.

Throughout the 19th century, and to some extent even today, potential trading partners have stayed away from Haiti. Immigrants that flocked to the New World refused to go to Haiti. Dessalines banned foreign ownership of land in Haiti. Like Louverture, Dessalines forced the peasants to remain on large sugar plantations. Dessalines maintained a vast army that enforced order and humiliated mulattoes.

Civil Strife

In 1806, civil war broke out and Dessalines was lynched by his own officers. The country became divided between black and mulatto leaders. Henri Christophe, a black, came into control of the northern plain and Alexandre Petion, a mulatto, controlled the western and southern provinces. Christophe continued the forced labor that Dessalines had used and instituted a police state. Christophe built a network of massive fortresses, the most impressive of which was Citadelle La Ferriere (shown first below) and the mansion Sans Souci for himself (shown second below). Christophe set up a network of schools. In contrast, Petion started carving up the colonial plantations and dividing them among his soldiers. This resulted in small subsistence farming and a plummet in sugar production. Petion created schools only for the mulatto elite.





Petion died in 1818 and Christophe died in 1820. Jean-Pierre Boyer, a mulatto, took over for Petion and then reunited the whole country under his rule. Boyer carved up the plantations in the north and abandoned Christophe’s beloved schools. From this point, until today, small-scale farming has been the norm and sugar exports diminished. As the population increased, people had to feed their families on ever dwindling parcels and clearing land in Haiti’s mountainous terrain caused severe soil erosion. This focus on low-margin foodstuffs and misguided agricultural policies, explains why Haiti today is a nation of peasants eking a meager living off a few acres of bare hillsides.

In 1825, France finally agreed to recognize Haiti’s independence in exchange for 150 million francs, earmarked to indemnify French planters who had lost their fortune in Haiti. Amazingly, Boyer agreed to these terms, but Haiti ultimately found itself incapable of paying the sum and had to resort to usurious external financing at 70% par. Haiti ultimately defaulted on its debt and banks became wary of loaning to the country. Boyer also expended State funds on U.S. organizations that offered free passage to Haiti, promising black men and women they could live free in Haiti on their own plot. Five hundred black Americans arrived on Haiti’s southern coast, but they returned after only a year. To blame was the language barrier, poverty, and epidemics. The failure to attract and retain settlers was one of Haiti’s biggest missed opportunities. Boyer attacked and defeated the Dominican Republic and Haiti occupied the whole island for 23 years. The Dominicans regained their independence in 1844. Haiti’s repeated attempts over the years to retake the Dominican Republic have failed.

Faustin Soulouque came to power in 1849. Soulouque was from a family of slaves and arose as a solider. The great French writer, Victor Hugo, wrote of Soulouque that “he was a black Napoleon”, as he was frequently derided as a black emperor who aped European courts with his aristocratic pretensions. Soulouque was the first Haitian leader to practice Voodoo openly. Soulouque promoted blacks to the highest ranks of government, substituting skin color for competence. Soulouque continuously attacked the Dominican Republic, mimicking European imperialism. He harassed and killed prominent mulattoes. He doubled the military forces and relied on the military to retain his power. He spent a fortune on royal pomp and unsuccessful forays into the Dominican Republic. He defaulted on foreign loans, extorted funds from Haitians, and printed so much money as to make the currency near worthless.

Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard, a disaffected officer, assembled troops and marched against Soulouque in 1859, sending Soulouque into exile. There followed political mayhem in which presidents were overthrown with such regularity that civil disturbance became the norm. At each revolution, property valued at several million dollars went up in flames. No one wanted to invest money in Haiti under these circumstances. Each president that was overthrown left with the national treasure, thus keeping Haiti in persistent poverty. Economic growth could not spring up under these circumstances. Schools, roads, factories, and sewer systems were neglected. Recurrent epidemics and fires occurred. State revenues rewarded and financed an oversized army. This continued until, in 1915, when the U.S. decided to intervene.

(The Review is Continued in the first comment below.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Painfully true in part.

It is a must read for any haitians or anyone with interest in Haïti.
I lived a lot of the events in this book as a child or adolescent,like in 1986 when Jean claude duvalier left, the Aristide first election and subsequent elections....the amount of hope that was put in this guy, all his mistakes, all the personality changes,the René Preval era,
A big point to remember: Haiti s change must come from haitians, and for that to happen we need to learn to live with each other....and believe in education above all.

There are a lot of things that i am not okay with: every time he is telling something about the big countries, he states it as fact, but any haitians declarations, always makes it sound like some lies that the haitians invented.

You can feel he is biased in so many ways, when for example he said that the colonizers killed the entire indian people, they brought 10 millions black people from africa, and they had to keep bringing more because they were dying fast....he did not call these white colonizers any name like murderers.....but when Dessalines killed 3 to 5 thousands white, he called him murderer.(by the way, i am against what Dessalines did, it was not a wise decision, he could have used the remaining people that wanted to stay to educate, train the black population)...my main problem with the author is his personal opinion.

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girard makes the difficult but compelling case that no amount of foreign aid (not even the fabled $21 billion of reparations) or well-meaning NGOs will help lift Haiti out of poverty and underdevelopment until Haitian elites find it more lucrative to tax developed industries than fighting for power and resources. Girard charts the history of this country looking squarely at the cruelty and rapacity of all actors, foreign AND domestic. He pays particular attention to the complexities of the Haitian revolution, the deep animosity between mulatto elites and the Black majority, the constant changes of alliances with/against foreign imperial powers whenever it would help to keep in power those who wrestled it from the last ruler, and the remarkable way those traits repeat themselves in Haiti’s present-day elites. He also highlights the deep and pervasive xenophobia in the populace that, while understandable in view of the history of exploitation, nonetheless allows Haiti’s elites to constantly shift blame to outside forces when confronted with their governing failures. While not pleasant to read, this work serves as a much-needed corrective to the trend of infantilizing Haiti’s people by arguing that no action taken during the more than 200 years of independence have had any effect against the impossible-to-overcome legacy of colonialism.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phillipe Girard wrote a good book on the history on Haiti. If he had stopped at a history book it’s a good novel. However Girard’s thesis states to be that poor leadership and gross mismanagement of foreign aid has lead to Haiti’s failed nation. The author quickly glossed over the fact that following independence no nation was willing to trade with Haiti while blaming Haitian leadership. Throughout Haitian history aid has been given not necessarily to help Haiti but to keep Haitian from fleeing to other nations. As former Haitian president Aristide put it in 1983, “either we enter a global economic system, in which we cannot survive, or we refuse, and we face death by slow starvation” (124). Haiti’s leadership played a role in current Haiti however Girard seems to downplay the uphill battle Haiti faced post-colonialism.
Overall a worthwhile read about the history of Haiti.

[Elysse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of Haitian history. However, the author definitely seems to be biased. His opinion is that Haiti’s problems are all the fault of poor leadership over the years - starting during the revolution. While that certainly has a big role to play, I think other international forces also have a role to play. I felt like he blamed Haitians for everything when reality is not quite so simple.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book does a great job on the history of Haiti, I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who doesn’t have basic knowledge of the country. The undertone comes off very racist and shifts the blame on the Haitian people. It almost feels like a “that’s what you get for fighting for your freedoms.”

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted a book more about the slave uprising, and this was not it, thus I was a bit disappointed. The author's voice at times was accusative and paternal towards the history and people of Haiti, which sometimes came off a bit off taste.

I did learn a lot, however.

[Stephan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book about Haiti. I would say a must-read for everyone who is interested in international development and in Haiti in particular. It provides well-rounded knowledge about a super interesting country that is lesser-known besides the ubiquitous desolate news in Western media.

[Wendy Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at Haiti's history, presented in a clear, straightforward manner. I do wonder about some of the author's biases, but I have learned a lot and will now continue my education, from other perspectives.

[Rosenita Delva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I do appreciate the historical information and timeline, I am NOT a fan of the author’s constant condescending tone.

[Evamaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, my poor Ayiti Cheri - reading this comprehensive history of the nation, from its colonial past to its struggling present, made me want to cry several times. Girard explained many things I noticed during my two months volunteering and manages to do so very honestly but also with great affection and respect for Haiti's people.

When I try to tell people why Haiti is in such a bad state, that it's not as simple as saying "Slavery/Western imperialism/US interference did it", I always say that everything that can go wrong, usually does, and that it's mainly caused by the rich elite not caring one bit about the poor majority but only about their own power and money.

Despite all this, Girard has hopes for Haiti's future, that it will regain its status as "Pearl of the Caribbean" - I sincerely hope so, too!

[Valentina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, comprehensive yet brief, compendium of Haitian history, all the way from the country's discovery by Western imperial powers in the late 15th century to its struggle with poverty, corruption, and earthquake-related devastation today.

It's a very pleasant, quick read, written in a simple, journalistic-type prose, and through a character-driven narrative that makes this book a page-turner.

And it also has some very interesting, useful insights for someone who wants to try to understand Haiti's difficult present through the lenses of its complicated past.

However, Girard is at times excessively harsh with the Haitian people, holding them responsible to an excess for the country's present daemons, while letting colonial powers off the hook all too easily.

[Matthew Robertshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite his over-the-top insistence on free market capitalism as the solution to all of Haiti's woes, Girard provides a well-researched and accessible account of the country's rocky history. The strength of the work is its insight is on the post-Duvalier period and insistence that Haiti is not, ultimately, without hope. The work would have benefitted from more footnotes and a more balanced summary of the causes of Haiti's instability. He tends to see Haitian presidents as one-dimensional despots who singlehandedly plague Haiti with an endless cycle of non-development. He hits on some important and hard truths, but could have added much subtlety to his assessment.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intending to read two fictional novels set in Haiti, I decided to first read this history of the island nation to enhance the novels' stories.

What an intriguing and sad history! I have long wondered why it is that Haiti has remained so impoverished and cannot seem to develop as a nation. This book answered that question in a concise and easy-to-read format.

The author does not just commentate on the sad history of this Caribbean nation; the last chapter offers concrete solutions for Haiti to not only rise to the levels of its island neighbours, but to ultimately grow as a prosperous nation such as Taiwan and South Korea have become in the recent past.

[Cary Lackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of a country that I visited as a child with my parents as tourists during the infamous reign of "Bebe Doc" Duvalier," that had a lasting impression on me. What was once the Pearl of the Caribbean and then a source of independent pride (the only country formed as a result of a slave revolt), devolved into a chaotic, mismanaged, poverty-stricken morass as the decades rolled by. I share the author Girard's sincere hope that Haiti can rise above the hurdles it faces and again become the Pearl of the Caribbean and a place of pride.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly readable, broad strokes history of Haiti. Exactly what I was looking for to put Aristide in context and learn a little more about this wretchedly poor country. The title seems quite appropriate. The author even details a sort of 'check list' to recovery, which is a reminder that change is possible if not easy. Well done.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly sad and frustrating history. Very worth the read if you plan to go on a missions or aid trip. The title is dead on about it being a tumultuous history filled with an unbelievable amount of internal and external destruction.

[Peace · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and readable account of Haiti's history since colonization. The reason for my low rating is the author's pro-American slant, along with a lot of generalizations about both Haitians and Americans.

[Pete van Genne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sobering read. Girard describes well the up and down history of this fascinating country, and sums it all up with his prescription for Haiti to turn herself around. I wish I could share his optimism!