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Scholars for Haiti Earthquake Relief Campaign |
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Toussaint L'Ouverture 
When a Person in Peru, or Siberia, or rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at our disposal to make them well… Whatever it takes. Just as we would do if a member of our own family—or we ourselves—were ill. Dear Friends, As an academic who studies the history of Haiti and the tremendous importance of the Haitian Revolution to the history of human freedom, I write to you to ask that our scholarly community contribute to help our Haitian neighbors in time of crisis. In 1801, when Thomas Jefferson assumed the U.S. presidency, he turned his back on Toussaint L’Ouverture, refusing trade with him and announcing to the French, who sought to depose Toussaint from power, that he was happy to “furnish [the French] fleet with everything and to starve out Toussaint.” The Haitian people succeeded in freeing themselves from the rule of the French, but after they successfully established the first free black nation in the Western hemisphere, Jefferson and other European heads of state refused to trade with them, “starving out” Haiti from the Atlantic economy. In 1825, Haiti – seeking to join the Atlantic world economy in order to survive — acceded to the demands of France that they pay an “indemnity” of 150 million francs to cover the cost of the lost “property” in slaves that the French had incurred in the Haitian Revolution. In exchange for this payment, France agreed to recognize Haiti as an independent nation. Haiti’s effort to pay this crushing “debt” – a payment that stretched into the twentieth century— crippled the nation and impeded investment in a national infrastructure of roads, schools, hospitals, and public services. In 2003, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, then president of Haiti, asked France to repay this “indemnity,” given that it was extracted for the illegal trade in human flesh. Aristide presented France with a bill for $21 billion, the current value of the 150 million francs Haiti had paid to France. In 2003, Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of the aid organization, Partners in Health, testified in favor of Aristide’s request before the Regis Debray Commission established by President Jacques Chirac to investigate Haiti's claim for restitution. Speaking of Haiti’s urgent need for health care and economic support, Farmer stated, “To those who argue that all this is history, we can say in opposition that it is the weight of history that leads to the present situation in Haiti… We can easily see a continuous chain of causes and consequences between the country's situation the day after the revolution and the situation today — as if Haitians continue to be punished for their ancestors' rebellion. Since 1804, two centuries ago, Haiti has suffered under embargoes and punishing politics.” The French government declared the request for restitution “non-pertinent” and made no payments to Haiti. The suffering and need in Haiti at this very moment, while the result of a massive earthquake, are also the result of a history of racism and inequality at an international level — a history that has left the Haitian people without the resources to respond to a disaster of such devastating magnitude as the quake that has just struck. Please join me in forging a different history of international relations in support of Haiti and the Haitian people. Please consider donating (at any level!) to support the extraordinary work of Partners in Health in Haiti. Thank you! Elizabeth Maddock Dillon Associate Professor of English Northeastern University |
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