It isn't shocking that Donald Trump began attacking Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, by spreading false claims of Haitians stealing pets and eating them. Trump didn't start the rumor but had done more to advance it, claiming in the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris before an estimated television audience of 65 million people. In 2018, Trump called Haiti, along with African and Central American nations, "shithole countries" that he wanted to exclude from our immigration policies. Trump wanted more people from countries like Norway.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” asked Donald Trump.
It would be easy to have a negative impression of Haiti when all that is presented in the media is negative depictions. All of my life, I've only seen the devastation after earthquakes and reports of gangs and violence. Never the tourist destinations and beautiful beaches.
I've been to the Dominican Republic, which occupies the other half of the Hispaniola island, by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Spain and France each claimed the island, and in 1697, Hispaniola was officially divided, with Spain controlling the eastern side and France the west. Spain pursued a settler-based society with white and mixed-race persons in the majority. France imported ten times as many slaves to work the sugar plantations along with the indigenous people.
To be fair to Trump, he wasn't the first American President to adopt an anti-Haiti stance. In 1791, when news of the Haitian Revolution reached George Washington, he immediately sent aid to the white government there. America's immediate concern was that the slave revolt in Haiti would spread to our shores. Literacy laws surged in popularity, so enslaved Americans would remain unaware of slave revolts.
Haiti was critical to France's economy. The San Jose State University Department of Economics did an outstanding study on what Haiti meant to France and Europe.
Here's a passage:
“By the time of the French Revolution, Haiti was producing more than half of all the coffee produced in the world, 40 percent of the sugar for France and Britain, and 40 percent of France’s foreign trade, at a time when France was the dominant economy of Europe.
The prosperity of the French colony was based upon slavery. By the time of the French Revolution, the population of slaves in Haiti was somewhere between 500 and 700 thousand. Most were slaves imported from Africa, predominantly from the west central African region of Dahomey. The hard labor of the plantations, along with the epidemics endemic to the tropics, kept the mortality rate high, necessitating the continuing importation of slaves from Africa.
The century of domination of white slaveholders over African women produced a subpopulation of mulattoes. The mulattoes being offspring of the white elite, were given special privileges that led to mulattoes accumulating land and some wealth. The mulattoes definitely were below the white elite in social status, but they were definitely above the pure African slaves.”
Haiti, then known as Saint Domingue, was also crucial to the United States. By 1791, America had over five hundred ships in the Saint Domingue trade, with Americans sending about 16 percent of all exports to the French island. America exported salted beef and fish and returned them with sugar, sold in the States or Europe. The Haitian revolt threatened American trade, not only with the West Indies but also with Europe.
Under George Washington, America advanced white colonizers $726,000. We sent arms, food, and supplies, plus over 1,000 Americans fought to stop the uprising. Under George Washington, with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton whispering in his ears. America sided with the white plantation owners and against an independent Haiti.
In 1793, America experienced its first influx of Haitian refugees, primarily white, though some were accompanied by Black and Creole slaves. The white refugees got involved in the American political process, hoping to increase America's involvement in their war against rebelling slaves. Thomas Jefferson, then John Adams's Vice-President, was worried about the potential for Black emigrants to invade the US, creating future revolts and murdering our children.
“Perhaps the first chapter of this history," said Thomas Jefferson, "which has begun in St. Domingo, and the next succeeding ones, which will recount how all the whites were driven from the islands . . . where shall the colored emigrants go? And the sooner we put some plan underway, the greater hope there is that it may be permitted to proceed peaceably to its ultimate effect. But if something is not done, and soon done, we shall be the murderers of our own children .. . and only a single spark is wanting to make that day to-morrow.”
John Adams became President in 1797 and the Haitian policy changed dramatically. Adams is always described as anti-slavery but did nothing to supplant it in America. He opposed abolitionists, and while he never owned any slaves, the first occupant of the White House found he needed to lease them to make operations work on the meager $25,000 budget authorized by Congress. Adams was much more forceful in Haiti, suspending aid to the white planters and supporting Toussaint Louverture and the rebel forces. Jefferson, who at the time had hundreds of enslaved people at his Monticello plantation, was deeply concerned that Adams's policy put people like himself at risk. Could this have been the issue that divided them for years?
Jefferson decided to run for President against John Adams and ultimately won after some Electoral College issues. Jefferson immediately reversed Adams's Haitian policy and stopped all support for Toussaint Louverture. When Haiti won its independence from France, Jefferson joined several European nations in imposing an embargo against Haiti, though it was against our economic interests. The United States cut off trade with Haiti from 1806 to 1808. America wouldn't officially recognize Haitian independence until 1862.
In 1825, France decided it missed all the money it used to get from Haiti, taking dramatic steps to get it back. According to Arizona State University professor.
“After more than 20 years of aggravation, King Charles X concluded that France needed to permanently resolve its relationship with Haiti, and decided to demand an indemnity, a monetary payment that compensated France for the loss of its former colony," said Leslie Alexander . "Following an assessment of Haiti’s lands and physical assets, including the 500,000 formerly enslaved citizens, the declared value amounted to 150 million gold francs, which in contemporary terms would equate to billions of dollars.
Faced with a squadron of French warships and King Charles X’s unwillingness to compromise, Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer caved under pressure, shackling Haiti to a massive debt. Although Haiti officially purchased its freedom and diplomatic recognition, the indemnity became an insurmountable burden from which Haitians have never been able to fully recover.”
In other words, France demanded reparations from Haiti for the losses incurred after no longer having access to Haiti's natural resources and the free labor brought there. Alexander wrote about Haiti in 2021, right after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in his home.
“I think the real question that we need to consider is how the long history of U.S. interference in Haiti led to Moïse’s assassination and the current turmoil in the nation," said Alexander. "In the view of most scholars, the problems in Haiti are not due to internal problems; they are due to the ongoing role of foreign interference, primarily by the U.S.”
The turmoil then, is separate from the more recent crisis that led Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to send 250 troops to patrol the waters of the Caribbean and south of Florida. Over half of those troops are from the State National Guard, the DeSantis private answer that cannot be federalized and report solely to DeSantis.
I haven't yet mentioned the time the United States occupied Haiti for almost twenty years, from 1915 to 1934. This came after the United States pressured the Haitian government to allow foreign land ownership, which had been banned after the Haitian revolution. Among other things, America removed $500,000 from the Haitian National Bank and placed it in New York for "safekeeping." One of the reasons America stepped in was to prevent an invasion from Germany. There has never been a time in Haitian history when either European countries, the United States, or both haven't been screwing with them. France extorted the equivalent of $21 Billion from Haiti, and America ripped them off by refinancing loans from France at unfavorable rates. Haiti has continually been stripped of its natural resources and money, never truly experiencing the freedom they thought they won in 1804.
Those that adopt the Donald Trump view that Haiti is a shithole country would do well to understand how much America and Europe conspired to make it that way. Indeed, we've provided relief after earthquakes and natural disasters. Once things calm down, we'll rush back in only to support our economic interests. Haiti has never been allowed to thrive based on artificial restraints on its prosperity and the meddling of other nations. Europe and the United States bear responsibility for the present economy, the gangs, and even the leadership that, in many cases, they installed.
It is critical to note that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield are legal immigrants who came at the invitation of Springfield's local government and industry. Springfield had experienced an exodus of citizens and needed the Haitians to work in its factories and fill other positions. There was no corresponding increase in crime, particularly not the theft of cats and dogs to become meals. Since Trump's statements, Springfield has experienced a spate of bomb threats targeting Haitian immigrants and government entities. Trump and his running mate argue their false attacks are justified because they shine a light on the immigration problem. They show no concern for the targets of the racism they've stirred up. To paraphrase Kanye West after Hurricane Katrina, "Donald Trump doesn't give a damn about Haitian people." Then again, neither did George Washington nor Thomas Jefferson.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.