ew Year’s Day is also Haiti’s Independence Day. New Year’s Day this year was especially momentous for Haiti because it marked Haiti’s bicentennial. On January 1, 1804, Haiti officially declared itself an independent republic, the second in the New World (after the U.S.A.) and the first and only to be led by slaves who had risen up and driven their masters away. To do this, Haiti’s slaves had to organize themselves and confront the largest expeditionary military force in French history. They handed Napoleon his biggest defeat until Waterloo and forced him to give up his expansionary vision in the Americas, which led to his decision to sell the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.A. (Were it not for Haiti, French might still be spoken in much of what is now the American West and Mid-west.)

Haiti’s independence and the freedom of her people were no gift. European and the United States governments all showed great animosity toward Haiti after she won her independence, isolating her economically and politically and working to undermine her progress. Europe feared losing other colonies. The United States saw Haiti as a bad example for its own slaves. Haiti, in fact, became the rallying cry in many slave uprisings in the Americas.

After their defeat, the French mounted a trade embargo and demanded that Haiti pay 150 million gold francs as indemnity for the loss of their property (mostly consisting of freed slaves). These payments were a great burden on Haiti for many decades. It wasn’t until 1862, during the American Civil War, that the U.S. officially recognized Haiti’s independence.

Fredrick Douglass, the American slave turned statesman, was the U.S. ambassador to Haiti from 1889-91. Here is what he said of Haiti in a speech at the World Fair in Chicago in 1893.

Until she spoke, no Christian nation had abolished Negro slavery… Until she spoke, the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy to devour the dead and dying slaves flung overboard to feed them, ploughed in peace the South Atlantic, painting the sea with the Negro’s blood. Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian nations of the world, and our land of liberty and light included. Men made fortunes by this infernal traffic, and were esteemed as good Christians…Until Haiti spoke, the church was silent, and the pulpit was dumb. In forcasting the future of this people, then, I insist that some importance shall be given to this and to another grand initial fact: that the freedom of Haiti was not given as a boon, but conquered as a right! Her people fought for it. They suffered for it…and perished for it.

We salute Haiti’s people for their courage and their continuing struggle for dignity and liberty.