As I was thinking about a historical subject to write about this month, ugly current events jumped out and grabbed my attention - and the attention of most of the rest of the world as well. The January 12th earthquake in Haiti has been a lead story in the media for weeks, and is likely to continue to be for weeks or months to come. Possibly hundreds of thousands of casualties, widespread destruction, starvation, plagues – everything that even the most pessimistic of biblical prophets could have imagined.
But Haiti has always been that kind of place – unlucky, star-crossed, hexed, wrong place/wrong time, whatever – for over five centuries, the good people living on this island that was once a beautiful, tropical paradise have had to endure everything that nature and man could throw at them. And, the bad luck started with someone that many consider a hero, Christopher Columbus.
Columbus “discovered” the island of Hispaniola on the first of his four voyages to the Caribbean area, and it was an important base of operations for him on each of his subsequent trips. As was a best practice of colonial explorers in those days, he enslaved the local population of previously happy Taino, Arawak, and Carib Indians he found, took their gold and other valuables, tortured them, converted them to Christianity, and infected them with European diseases for which they had no immunity. In just a very few years, essentially all of the native groups were wiped out – their only small measure of satisfaction was that they did manage to send syphilis back to Europe with the Spanish sailors.
Spain solved the pesky labor problem created by their extermination of the Indian populations by bringing slaves from Africa. Over the next 300 years, the fertile soil and climate of the island made it a valuable colonial possession because of the vast amounts of sugar, coffee, indigo and cotton produced there. It came to be called the “Jewel of the Antilles.” During this period, the population was developing into an interesting racial mix with European, African, and mixed ancestry. African and Roman Catholic religious practices were being mixed and matched to form Voodoo.
The French became interested in getting colonial possessions in the Caribbean in the 1600s, and in 1697, as the result of some European foolishness called the Nine Years War, the western one-third of Hispaniola was ceded to them by Spain and renamed Saint-Domingue.
Even with the recent news coverage of Haiti, it still seems like a far away place to most local folks with little relevance – except from a humanitarian and human suffering perspective - to the northshore, Louisiana or the country for that matter. But in fact, this hard luck place, which is now the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, played a large role in our history.
At about the same time France acquired Saint-Domingue, it also had La Salle, Iberville, Bienville, etc. nosing around the Mississippi valley and the Gulf Coast as part of their grand colonial plans for North America. And truth be told, the island was probably a whole lot more profitable enterprise for them than their Louisiana territories. When France came out on the short end of the French and Indian Wars, they ceded Louisiana to Spain to keep it out of British hands, but insisted on holding on to its island possessions.
After the American Revolution and after Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, he had great dreams of resurrecting French dreams of an empire in North America – in the Caribbean and in Louisiana. However, things were not going well in Saint-Domingue. After centuries of mistreatment, the slaves were in a state of almost constant open revolt, led first by Toussaint L’Ouverture and later by Jean-Jacque Dessailines. Napoleon sent huge numbers of troops to quell the revolution, but in 1803 France suffered a humiliating defeat that resulted in Saint-Domingue gaining its independence as the free nation of Haiti.
This pretty much ended any plans for a North American empire, and resulted in the bargain sale of France’s Louisiana territory to Thomas Jefferson. So, without Haiti - no Louisiana Purchase - and without this vast territory that stretched from the Gulf to Canada, any westward expansion by the fledgling United States was out of the question. No one knows what might have happened without the Haitian revolution, but it’s a cinch that whatever world that might have evolved without it would have been a much, much different place. I’m sure most think that what we have now is a whole lot better than what might have been.
It’s a shame that, after causing this lucky break for us historically, Haiti has had to endure 200 of the most miserable years possible for a supposed free and independent country. It has been occupied by foreign countries (us, as in U.S.). Its economy has generally always been a shambles. It has had either weak and ineffective leadership, or strong-handed, crazy people like the infamous “President for Life” Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, a Voodoo priest who surrounded himself with supporters called the Tonton Macoutes (apparently means “Boogeymen”). Well, upon reflection, perhaps this doesn’t differ so very much from some of our past leaders.
Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, have strong Haitian ties and cultural similarities – the racial mixes, the food, Voodoo, etc. As pointed out by Mary Niall Mitchell in a recent Times-Picayune article, they have also served as refuges for each other at different points in history. During the Haitian revolutionary period, thousands of refugees from Saint-Domingue settled in New Orleans, intermarried, went into business together and stayed to add more seasoning to our cultural gumbo. In the period leading up to the Civil War, many free blacks in New Orleans, who were gradually losing their rights there, relocated to Haiti.
Even the northshore has a Haitian connection, and as one would suspect, it somehow relates to Bernard Marigny and Mandeville. And this story again comes from my favorite local historian, Sally Reeves. When Marigny planned his resort community and sold lots in 1834, the cornerstone of the project was a great casino hotel that was to be located between Lafitte and Gerard Streets and stretch back from the lake to Jefferson Street (Claiborne Street was not cut through then). On this large parcel were to be a large main building of 10,000 square feet and two separate buildings containing 50 hotel rooms. All of the herds of milk cows, steers, bulls, horses, to be used for food or drayage, plus the buildings and equipment to accommodate them, were to be located on the property. Vegetables, etc. were to be grown. It was to have plush bars and dining rooms and a world class French-trained chef. It was to be a huge self-contained land yacht providing food, drink, gambling and entertainment for a lot of people.
Furthermore, most of this complex had to be built within six months, and all of it within a year. To accomplish this, Marigny turned to an old friend named John Davis. Davis had operated casinos and hotels on the south shore at Old Spanish Fort, and he and Marigny had been instrumental in bringing French opera to New Orleans. He actually bought the large parcel weeks before Marigny’s land auction and got right to work. He completed it as promised on time and made a great success of it. Reports of the time raved about the casino’s opulence, its food and its atmosphere. Unfortunately, Davis took on this project late in life, and died only four years after it opened. Much of Mandeville’s reputation as a fun, resort community can be credited to Davis, and you guessed it. He was a refugee from Saint-Domingue who settled in this area and made a great life here.
So, thank you Haiti for what you did for us. We all hope the rest of the world takes care of you now.