In-class Research/#26

1. Biographical Information of Edwidge D'candidat:
Born on January 19, 1969
Nationality: Haitian-American
A novelist and short story writer

2. Timeline of Haitian history

• (1804) Haiti became independent; Jean-Jacques Dessalines, former slave, declared himself emperor
• (1806) Dessalines assassinated; Haiti divided into black-controlled north, mulatto-ruled south
• (1818-43) Pierre Boyer unified Haiti, excluded blacks from power
• (1844) Dominican Republic declared independence from Haiti
• (1863) US president Abraham Lincoln recognized Haiti, allowed trade for first time
• (1904) Haiti celebrated 100 years of independence
• (1915) US forces occupied Haiti
• (1930) First full democratic elections in Haiti; Senator Stenio Vincent elected to six -year term as president
• (1934) US withdrew troops from Haiti
• (1937) Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered expulsion of Haitians who were working; between 20,000 to 30,000 killed
• (1956) Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, voodoo physician, seized power in military coup
• (1957) Francois Duvalier elected president; Duvalier established one of the most brutal dictatorship in Haitian history
• (1971) Duvalier died; Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier succeeded his father as president for life
• (1974) Haitian national soccer team participated in World Cup
• (1983) Pope John Paul II arrived in Haiti, became first Pope to visit Haiti
• (1986) Unrest led military to oust "Baby Doc"; replaced by Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy as head of governing council
• (1990) Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former Catholic priest, elected president
• (1991) Aristide ousted in coup led by Brigadier-General Raoul Cedras
• (1994) Backed by UN resolution, Clinton administration restored Aristide to power
• (1995) UN peacekeepers began to replace US troops
• (1996) Rene Preval, Lavalas party, elected to replace Aristide as president
• (1999) Preval declared that parliament's term had expired, began ruling by decree
• (continuing)

3. Haiti's fight for and gain of independence:
    Two months after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s colonial forces, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims the independence of Saint-Domingue, renaming it Haiti after its original Arawak name.

4. Toussaint L'Ouverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803), also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda, was the best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution. His military and political acumen saved the gains of the first Black insurrection in November 1791. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Britain; and finally, for Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti)'s colonial sovereignty against Napoleonic France. He then helped transform the insurgency into a revolutionary movement, which by 1800 had turned Saint-Domingue, the most prosperous slave colony of the time, into the first free colonial society to have explicitly rejected race as the basis of social ranking.

5. Boukman
An African man, enslaved in Haiti, who was one of the most visible early leaders of the Haitian Revolution. According to some contemporary accounts, Boukman conducted a religious ceremony at the Bois Caïman where a freedom covenant was affirmed; this ceremony would have been a catalyst to the slave uprising that marked the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

6.1937, Dominican Massacre

A policy of mass murder that occurred in the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic that shares an island with Haiti. From late September to late October in 1937 approximately 9,000 to 18,000 ethnic Haitians were systematically rounded-up and killed in Dominican territory. ​

7. Rafael Trujillo

A Dominican politician and soldier, who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of the time as an unelected military strongman under figurehead presidents. His 31 years in power, to Dominicans known as the Trujillo Era, are considered one of the bloodiest eras ever in the Americas, as well as a time of a personality cult, when monuments to Trujillo were in abundance. It has been estimated that Trujillo was responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000 people, including possibly as many as 10,000 in the Parsley massacre.

8. Voodoo religion

Voodoo is a religion that originates in Africa. In the Americas and the Caribbean, it is thought to be a combination of various African, Catholic and Native American traditions. It is practiced around the world but there is no accurate count of how many people are Voodooists.

9. Duvalier (Papa Doc)

The Haitian President from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform and successfully thwarted a coup d’état in 1958. 

10. Tonton Macoute

A special operations unit within the Haitian Paramilitary force created in 1959 by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. In 1970 the militia was renamed the Milice de Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale. Haitians named this force after the Haitian Creole mythological bogeyman. Tonton Macoute, who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack and carrying them off to be consumed at breakfast.

11. Jean Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc)

The President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father François "Papa Doc" Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after the latter's death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's regime and delegated much authority to his advisors. Thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country during his presidency. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle (including a state-sponsored US$ 2 million wedding in 1980) while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere.