Haiti’s Independence to be Celebrated by the entire African-Atlantic Community
Similar to celebrating the U.S. Revolution
John goes to a public middle school in California and studies his nation’s revolution for independence. Malia does the same in Hawaii, Tyronne in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Chelsea in Sandusky, Ohio. They all are taught lessons of the Boston Tea Party, the first Continental Congress, and the Declaration of Independence. However, California, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, and Ohio were not even created at the time of independence, but they now adopt American history as their own, as they are Americans.
12.8 million people in 400 years
With that concept in mind, the Atlantic Slave Trade, encompassing 400 years during the 16th through 19th centuries, saw upwards of 12.8 million Africans transported to the Caribbean, and to the North, Central, and South Americas, creating a vast forced migration of enslaved Africans to the Atlantic area. In essence, making them all African-Americans, but since the United States has adopted the term African-Americans, we will designate all as African-Atlantic people.
Over the centuries, there were many isolated, yet unsuccessful, slave uprisings in these different lands attempting to free enslaved Africans in the Atlantic, but only one was successful – the slave revolt in Saint-Domingue in the 19th century.
The first and only successful slave revolution in the world
Through an organized insurrection of African-Atlantic enslaved persons partnering with the free Gens de Couleur (free people of color), and abolitionist whites as well, the Armée Indigène (Indigenous Army) of Saint-Domingue was able to defeat Napoleon’s French Army at the end of 1803. Its founding leaders declared the free and independent nation of Ayti (Haiti) on January 1, 1804, and defended its territory from aggression and conquest from other colonial powers.
So, just as any American can claim the U.S. Revolution as their own, even if they reside in a state non-existent at the time, so can all African-Atlantic people of any country in the American Atlantic stake a claim that the slave revolution in Haiti was indeed also their own, whether their current country existed at the time of it or not.
Article 44 guaranteed freedom to any who came to her shores
Haiti represents to the African-Atlantic people the very catalyst that inaugurated the systematic deconstruction of slavery throughout the Americas and the Caribbean for the following 60 years.
During this era, Haitian leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines invited all African-Atlantic people to Haiti in 1804, King Henry Christophe in 1811 sought to relocate black U.S. freedmen to Haiti, and slaves who commandeered ships set sail for Haiti to seek freedom. Slave owners were confronted by President Alexandre Pétion, who invoked article 44 of the 1816 Haitian constitution, to declare Haiti as free soil, providing freedom and citizenship to any slave who arrived on her shores.
Haiti sought to abolish slavery in Latin America with Bolivar
But Haiti was not just free soil for slaves on the run; it was also a sanctuary for revolutionaries, including Simón Bolívar, the man who would become known for being the liberator of what was then Spanish America. Pétion gave Bolívar a warm reception in 1815, armed him with at least 1,000 rifles, munitions, supplies, a printing press, and hundreds of Haitian sailors and soldiers to fight for Latin American freedom on one condition: that Bolívar would abolish slavery in the new republic he sought to found.
Reportedly, Haiti inspired and even encouraged numerous other slave uprisings on all continents, such as Denmark Vesey’s failed revolt encompassing thousands of Freedom Fighters in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822, wherein they planned to commandeer ships from the harbor and set sail for Haiti, with Haitian help.
Of course, Haiti would pay a huge price for these initiatives as the colonial powers of France, Britain, Spain, and even the United States conspired to contain the freedom of slaves within Haiti’s shores by embargoing the nation to prevent it from exporting its revolution to their colonies. The last embargo was lifted from Haiti in 1862, a devastating price to pay for the fledging nation. But that is another story indeed.
As inspiring as the American experiment in independence was, and is, to United States citizens, so should the Haitian revolution be as inspiring to all Caribbean, North American, and Latin Americans of African slave descent, be it black or of mixed race – that includes any person who has a tint of black blood in their veins since their ancestors were once brought to the Americas against their will as a slave.
This is our Collective African-Atlantic Celebration!
The only thing that differentiates African-Atlantic people is the destination their slave ship was bound for when their ancestors boarded it in Africa. In essence, an African-Atlantic of New York may have a direct blood relative in Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Cuba, Haiti, or any other once slave-holding nation of the time.
So, let us all together celebrate Haiti’s 220th year of independence as our own, collective African-Atlantic independence in the Americas. For, in essence, the Haitian Revolution is the African-Atlantic Revolution, and it rightfully belongs to us all. Ayti was just the first and only nation to successfully achieve their slave revolt, and pay the ultimate price as a result, which inspired slave emancipation for future generations throughout all of the Americas until freedom was finally a reality for all African-Atlantic people.