Jerry Large / Times staff columnist
History reveals our debt to Haiti

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If it hadn't been for the success of the Haitian revolution, the United States might never have extended beyond the Mississippi River. Had not the United States turned its back on Haiti, that nation might have thrived.

What did happen is this: The colony called St. Domingue was France's most valuable overseas possession, producing fortunes in sugar, tobacco, coffee and other products for European markets and French profits.

The cash register rang until enslaved people revolted in 1791 and, after years of warfare, gained control of the entire island in 1794.

Toussaint L'Ouverture led the revolution, the second successful revolution in the Americas, and began creating a multiracial society of free white and black people.

President John Adams recognized the rebel government and even sent U.S. frigates as a show of support. But Adams had just lost the election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson, who reversed the U.S. stand as soon as he took office in 1801.

Jefferson even told the French he would help them re-establish control of the island.

The difference between the two presidents is that Jefferson was a slave owner, and slave owners were worried about the example the island revolution held up for enslaved Americans.

As it turned out, the French had grander plans than simply retaking the island. Napoleon wanted to secure a big chunk of what is now the American heartland.

The plan was for the huge army he sent in 1802 to retake St. Domingue, then fortify the territory that stretches west of the Mississippi from Louisiana to Idaho and halt the westward expansion of the United States.

But with the help of yellow fever, the people of St. Domingue defeated Napoleon's army and declared a republic in 1804, and the dictator gave up on North America. He sold the middle of the continent to the United States (technically France had already given the Louisiana Territory to Spain, but, hey, who's talking about ethics?). We called it the Louisiana Purchase, and it was a bargain at $15 million.
 
The United States doubled in size. We didn't thank the Haitians for their role in this, however. Jefferson established an embargo of the nation that lasted most of the century.

On top of all that, France demanded the new nation pay it $150 million in reparations for its losses if it ever wanted to trade with another nation. The U.S. backed the demand. Most of Haiti's meager budget for years went to pay on that debt.

That is how St. Domingue went from a jewel to the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Internally, the people of Haiti have suffered leaders who piled misery on top of misery. During the struggle to retake the island, the French captured L'Ouverture and took him to Europe, where he died of pneumonia in prison. His vision of a multiracial nation died with him.

In his anger at the French, the leader who took L'Ouverture's place began killing white people on the island, which did nothing to soften Americans' or Europeans' views, and also did nothing to help the new nation, which he renamed Haiti.

One dictator followed another until Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president in 1990. Democracy still hasn't taken hold.

The United States occupied Haiti for 19 years (1915-1934), but that wasn't about helping Haitians. The Clinton administration did send American forces to reinstall Aristide after he was overthrown during his first term, but our main goal was to get out as soon as we could. The country is further unraveling, and it seems we don't have much enthusiasm for helping Haiti to its feet. Iraq, sure, but not our neighbor.

Haiti doesn't have oil.

We don't seem to need Haiti the way we did Germany and Japan when we helped them out.

Supporting Haiti would be purely an exercise in spreading democracy, and that just doesn't seem to be good enough.

This is a hell of a way for Haiti to celebrate its bicentennial year, and for us to show our commitment to spreading democracy.

Jerry Large: 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.

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