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The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers
New York Times ^ | Nov. 16, 2022 | Catherine PorterConstant MéheutMatt Apuzzo and Selam Gebrekidan

Posted on 10/30/2024 7:18:20 AM PDT by Cronos

Coffee has been the fulcrum of life here for almost three centuries, since enslaved people cut the first French coffee plantations into the mountainsides. Back then, this was not Haiti, but Saint-Domingue — the biggest supplier of coffee and sugar consumed in Parisian kitchens and Hamburg coffee houses. The colony made many French families fabulously rich. It was also, many historians say, the world’s most brutal.

Ms. Present’s ancestors put an end to that, taking part in the modern world’s first successful slave revolution in 1791 and establishing an independent nation in 1804 — decades before Britain outlawed slavery or the Civil War broke out in America.

But for generations after independence, Haitians were forced to pay the descendants of their former slave masters, including the Empress of Brazil; the son-in-law of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I; Germany’s last imperial chancellor; and Gaston de Galliffet, the French general known as the “butcher of the Commune” for crushing an insurrection in Paris in 1871.

The burdens continued well into the 20th century. The wealth Ms. Present’s ancestors coaxed from the ground brought wild profits for a French bank that helped finance the Eiffel Tower, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, and its investors. They controlled Haiti’s treasury from Paris for decades, and the bank eventually became part of one of Europe’s largest financial conglomerates.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1791; 1804; 1825; 182507; 18250703; 1838; 1871; 1883; brazil; coffee; coffeeplantations; debt; empressofbrazil; france; gastondegalliffet; germany; haiti; haitianhistory; haitianindependence; independence; napoleon; nicholasi; nlz; revolution; russia; saintdomingue; slavery
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To: Cronos

DNA. The older I get the clearer that is.


41 posted on 10/30/2024 9:05:02 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: V_TWIN

The freed slaves that went to Liberia became the most ruthless slave owners that 0lace had ever seen. They are still fighting about it now.


42 posted on 10/30/2024 9:06:14 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: packrat35
There were exceptions. In a bit of history that is a matter of pride to Haitians, many Polish mercenaries who were recruited by Napoleon to suppress what they were falsely told was a prison rebellion went over to the side of the Haitians and fought beside them.

As a result, those Polish soldiers were permitted to stay in Haiti and were given land to settle on. As a result, those soldiers had Haitian descendants with blue eyes, lighter skin, European features, and even blonde hair.

In addition, Poles were described in Haiti as the "white Negroes of Europe" in that they had lost their nationhood and were as a people called Slavs in that the Romans bought or captured many of their slaves there.

43 posted on 10/30/2024 9:07:47 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Brian Griffin
The chattels were not taken for public use.

Somehow, I don't think the fifth amendment was ever intended to allow the government to take, seize or destroy private property, for any reason, and the use to which it was put is irrelevant to the taking of it.

And it is also a matter of opinion as to whether they were taken for public use or not. The Liberals certainly put them to use in securing more power for the liberals in Washington DC.

Additionally, there was no "due process" involved.

"Due Process" at the time would have required a court hearing for every slave being taken by the government. Obviously that was unworkable. It was merely assumed that everyone within a state that had fought against DC, was automatically guilty of "rebellion."

The government simply ignored any law or requirement that it didn't want to comply with.

44 posted on 10/30/2024 9:09:08 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Cronos

WIKI

The French indemnity was the indemnity the French Third Republic paid to the German Empire after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

The indemnity was 5 billion francs, with German troops occupying France until it was paid. The 5 billion gold marks, converted using the retail price index in 2011, was worth 342 billion. Converted using the GDP deflater it amounted to 479 billion and substantially more according to other comparisons such as GDP per capita. The indemnity was proportioned, according to population, to be equivalent to the indemnity imposed by Napoleon on Prussia in the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807.

The last payment of the indemnity was paid in early September 1873, two years before the deadline, and the German army of occupation was withdrawn in mid-September.

It was generally assumed at the time that the indemnity would cripple France for thirty or fifty years. However, the Third Republic that emerged after the war embarked on an ambitious programme of reforms: it introduced banks, built schools (reducing illiteracy), improved roads, increased railways into rural areas, encouraged industry and promoted French national identity rather than regional identities. France also reformed the army, adopting conscription.

In Germany the swift payment of the indemnity caused a stock market boom, along with an asset bubble in the form of a property boom. This lasted until the Panic of 1873 which ushered in the Long Depression until 1896.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity


45 posted on 10/30/2024 9:09:27 AM PDT by Brian Griffin ("Base load affected facilities...must meet a second phase standard based on 90% capture of CO2" EPA)
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To: Cronos

The Haitians massacred every white person in Haiti, men, women and children, during their revolution.


46 posted on 10/30/2024 9:13:21 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Either you will rule. Or you will be ruled. There is no other choice.)
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To: Worldtraveler once upon a time

The modern Haiti is destroyed by the Clintons. The Clinton embargo shut down its light industry,90% of its economy, from which the Haitian economy has never recovered. Further incursions by the Clinton foundation plundered remaining resources.


47 posted on 10/30/2024 9:16:06 AM PDT by Lou Foxwell (The bleak winter of catastrophe is upon us.)
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To: Lou Foxwell

48 posted on 10/30/2024 9:17:36 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BenLurkin
The Third World needs birth control and sterilizations. It’s the only way to defeat the cruel intergenerational cycle of poverty,

that has never been known to permanently remove poverty. In the case of Haiti, voodoo is a much bigger problem. The is Free Republic. Forced sterilization like they were doing years ago in India is a crime against humanity. Some things are worse than poverty.
49 posted on 10/30/2024 9:26:39 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: Rockingham

These numbers were small enough to not really matter. The white richer nations that could have helped Haiti pulled back after the slaughter of the whites and Haiti has never recovered.


50 posted on 10/30/2024 9:40:37 AM PDT by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: Cronos
Imagine if the USA was held to ransom for $161 billion from 1776 to 1900.

I have to say, I don't think it would have slowed us down. That's because we had a well-educated, civilized population with British and European work-ethic, trades, technology, and traditions.

Unfortunately for the Haitians, there's no comparison when it comes to intangible--but very real--cultural assets. It's the difference between a computer with the latest, greatest software installed, and one with nothing stored on it but MisterRogers reruns--and no power cord anyway.

51 posted on 10/30/2024 9:49:48 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: packrat35

True enough. Yet, as the article points out, Haiti suffered from financial exploitation due to France’s extortionate indemnity and loan terms, which the world’s powers supported and helped enforce. The result was that Haitian governments had to devote themselves to heavy taxation for the benefit of foreign bondholders instead of for the benefit and development of her own people.


52 posted on 10/30/2024 9:52:27 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Rockingham

Which happened because they killed all the white people. Haiti is in our sphere and we would have cracked down more if the slaughter didn’t happen. The other powers did not support Haiti either because of it. It was a self-inflicted wound and France was getting payback for the murders also, since most were French.

There are several books about this if you check. The Haitians sealed their fate on day one.


53 posted on 10/30/2024 10:03:09 AM PDT by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: Cronos

I have known some good Americans whose parents or grandparents came form Haiti. I think the best ones get out, which is understandable while it also increases the portion of the remaineder who are not so good. Each remainder generation just gets worse.


54 posted on 10/30/2024 11:21:18 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: packrat35

Is it just to condemn brutally exploited slaves for bitterness and reprisals against those who exploited them? I think not. Slavery under the French in Haiti was notorious for its extreme cruelty and outsize profits, with a high rate of mortality among the slaves. The indemnity set in the 1825 treaty between France and Haiti was based not on lives lost but on property values, including the value of the slaves themselves.


55 posted on 10/30/2024 11:35:36 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Rockingham

We can debate the brutality of slavery all day long. I never said it was a good thing. But, when Haiti slaughtered white women and children, they sealed their fate which led to the treaty that made them pay.

Countries negotiate with what power they have and Haiti had none by the time the 1825 treaty was done. Are we going to revisit all the Indian treaties from the 18th and 19th centuries?

They treated me bad isn’t going to fly with people when you are genociding a race because of their color. AND if they are white women and children, white countries aren’t coming to your aid. Not for treaties or anything else!


56 posted on 10/30/2024 12:27:48 PM PDT by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: V_TWIN

Look at what happened to Rhodesia when Africans took over. From being the bread basket that fed the continent to starvation and having to import food.


57 posted on 10/30/2024 12:38:46 PM PDT by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: packrat35
Why should the long ago brutality and slaughter of whites during the slave rebellion in Haiti be considered a greater and more enduring crime than the 350,000 deaths that the slaves suffered in the same rebellion? That rebellion ended in 1804 when Haiti's independence was effectively conceded by Napoleon.

In 1825 though, the successor Bourbon regime in France sent a fleet of gunboats to Haiti and demanded a massive indemnity based not on French lives lost but on the value of the slaves and their earnings lost to France. In return, Haiti was recognized by France and not attacked. With defaults and refinancing, impoverished Haiti had to make payments until 1947, a cumulatively crushing burden that did great and enduring damage to Haiti's development.

If there is such a thing as an odious debt, that qualifies. Modern France is correctly embarrassed by the subject.

58 posted on 10/30/2024 1:47:17 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Rockingham

Apparently you are not understanding what I am saying. They won their freedom...yeah!! Now lets kill white women and children.

Do you NOT see how other governments would respond to that? Can you not see how France would respond to that? Yes, they would get their pound of flesh and they did.

I am not saying it was right, to burden Haiti like that. I am saying why it happened and why Haiti remains a cesspool to this day and WILL ALWAYS BE!


59 posted on 10/30/2024 2:16:49 PM PDT by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: Rockingham
The Poles are one of a number of Slavic peoples (along with Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Ukrainians, Russians, etc.). The term "slave" comes from the ethnic (rather than vice versa) because so many Slavs were enslaved in the Middle Ages (when that region was still pagan--so the people could be enslaved). The Roman term for "slave" was servus (feminine serva).
60 posted on 10/30/2024 2:23:34 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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