Thomas Jefferson Would Want Reparations for Haiti's Wretched Victims

Is it indicative of the fear Haiti instills in the bosoms of tyrants that the vital role Haiti played in the abolishment of slavery globally is left out of most popular narratives and histories? No? Then, it must be by design.

Why is it that films like "Lincoln," for one, do not dare utter, never mind credit Haiti as the place where the quest for an end to slavery flourished and was fought and won in spectacular fashion over six decades before Lincoln "freed the slaves?"

Proper respects are due to Abraham Lincoln for inadvertently giving his life to a fellow white supremacist; however, Abraham Lincoln was not fighting the Civil War to free the slaves. He fought it to hold together the Union.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued 61 years after Haiti abolished slavery. Arguably, Abraham Lincoln¹ was not so much influenced by his moral fortitude, conscience or abolitionist leaning, as he was by the pivotal events that took place in Haiti 1791-1804.

American history classes should explain how much Haiti inspired Nat Turner, John Brown, Denmark Vesey and others who led slave uprisings. Haiti's freedom fighters were heroes of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. He wrote the famous ode: Until She Spoke in their honor.

Moreover, Charles Deslondes, who was of Haitian descent, led perhaps the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history in Louisiana -- consisting of some 200 men. The end that he and his tortured comrades came to is a blight that US historians sought to expunge from scrutiny by future generations in the "land of the free."

The Haitian Revolution - Battle Vertieres, 1803 

Haitian revolutionaries fought for 13 years to win the world's only successful slave rebellion, which required that they defeat the world's most powerful armies and unconscionable practitioners of chattel slavery: Spain, Britain and France. It should be common knowledge that Haiti also played a direct role in the abolishment of slavery and the independence of six countries in Latin America. Haiti supplied arms and men to Miranda and Simon Bolivar of Venezuela in their war for independence from Spanish colonialism. Haitian leaders Dessalines and Petion only asked one thing of them, free the slaves.

Scarred back of man who escaped 

slavery in Louisiana, 1863. 

90% of the "emigrés" forced to leave 

"St. Domingue" because of the Haitian 

Revolution, settled in New Orleans, LA.

Yet today's tyrants, like the slave-owning Thomas Jefferson, would have the world believe that Haiti's enslavers, oppressors, invaders and exploiters are the "victims" of a violent Haitian population.

Thomas Jefferson observed, "The situation of the St. Domingo fugitives (aristocrats as they are), calls aloud for pity and charity. Never was so deep a tragedy presented to the feelings of man." While he disapproved of any federal intervention, he thought individual states should provide assistance for those French émigrés. In a letter to Governor Morris, Jefferson said the United State received "the wretched fugitives.. who escaping from the swords and flames of civil war, threw themselves on us naked and houseless, without food or friends, money or other means, their faculties lost and absorbed in the depth of distresses."

In 1794, the U.S. Congress showed compassion when a House of Representatives committee passed a resolution establishing a committee of relief that had funds available to support the oppressed from St. Domingo."

    p. 4 Haitians and African-Americans / A Heritage of Tragedy and Hope by Leon D. Pamphile

Haiti 1791-1804 — Hell on earth for all tyrants

Haitian rebels beat back the foreign invaders

"Yes, we have rendered to these true cannibals war for war, crime for crime, outrage for outrage; yes, I have saved my country; I have avenged America;"

"After the terrible example I have just given, sooner or later Divine Justice will unchain on earth some mighty minds, above the weakness of the vulgar, for the destruction and terror of the wicked. Tremble! tyrants, usurpers, scourges of the new world!"

"War, even to Death, to Tyrants! this is my motto; "Liberty! Independence!" this is our rallying cry."

— Jean-Jacques Dessalines  

Haiti Today:
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Published on Thursday, February 21, 2013 by Common Dreams

UN: No Compensation for Cholera UN Caused in Haiti

The United Nations, blamed for causing the outbreak of cholera in Haiti which killed over 7000 and sickened over half a million, has rejected a November 2011 claim for compensation on behalf of victims of the disease, stating, "claims are not receivable."

"Today, the United Nations advised the claimants’ representatives that the claims are not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations," a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated on Thursday. "The Secretary-General telephoned Haitian President Michel Martelly to inform him of the decision, and to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to the elimination of cholera in Haiti."




01/09/2014 Update
Abraham Lincoln speaks frankly about his white supremacist mindset.
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¹ What Abraham Lincoln said on September 18, 1858 in his fourth debate with Stephen Douglas in Charleston, Illinois. Approximately 12,000 people were in attendance for the fourth in a series of seven debates for the Presidency of the United States...

"While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. [Great Laughter.] While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.

And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied every thing. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife."
--- Abraham Lincoln, September 18, 1858

HatTip: Ezili Dantò --> Dr. Ray Winbush.