After the Haitian revolt and successful revolution, the Republic leaders had the
opportunity to create a truly unique society. One which would reshape its social,
cultural, and social identity, slave to free. A country where the concepts of liberty,
equality, and fraternity were more than mere words.
President Jean Pierre Boyer, a leader of the Revolution, wanted a Nation for his
countrymen and welcomed all people of African ancestry. He understood there was a
shared commonest among Black People (oppression and sovereignty). In creating this
new society, Boyer's egalitarianism included residency for all former slaves who came
to Haiti. He particularly sought Blacks from the United States, believing their arrival
would dramatically increase not only the country's economic growth (many were
craftsmen and agricultural specialist) but Haiti's ambassadorial standing with America.
Incentives to reassure free African Americans their presence were welcome, Boyer
helped facilitate unrestricted passage to Haiti, land, and monetary funding upon arrival.
The movement started in 1820 and increased between 1824 and 1826. During this
period, several thousand “freemen and women” left the U.S. bound for Haiti.
Dr. Cranston Ramirez-Knight
Key Words: Haitian Revolution, diaspora, black Atlantic, migration,
education
Journals:
Cristian Cantir. (2016) World society, international society and the periphery: British abolitionists
and the post-slave state of Haiti in the early nineteenth century. Cambridge Review of
International Affairs 29:2, pages 660-676.
Jean-Pierre Hérubel. (2020) Recent Articles on French History. French Historical Studies 43:3,
pages 510-532.
Vanessa Mongey (2019) Going home: The back-to-Haiti movement in the early nineteenth
century, Atlantic Studies, 16:2, 184-202, DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2018.1434283
Book:
Dixon, Chris. African America and Haiti: Emigration and Black Nationalism in the Nineteenth
Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.
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