[A_perfect_lady]

Most of your post makes sense to me (and I'm no expert on this era of history, so I'm willing to bow to your judgment on this) except one part:

The political class, or any subsequent political class, could have simply repudiated the payments if they didn't need trade with whitey. By about 1850 or so, when the genocidal class had passed into history, they might have even gotten away with it ...

I think France was holding a little more over their heads than trade. After all, what good is trade if most of the proceeds must be paid away? I think France made it clear that failure to pay would result in a visit from their military.

[Vigilanteman]

Yes and no. France enjoyed a few military successes under Napoleon from Haitian independence (1804) until Waterloo (1815), but the Americas were not a priority at all. This was the reason he sold us the Louisiana Territory for a song.

After 1815, France was a conquered nation. The victors made sure of that. I am not sure France was even capable of mounting a punitive expedition to Haiti even if they had the will to do so. It was 1862, when we were preoccupied with our own civil war, before they even tried anything close . . . the very short lived occupation of Mexico.