Devil Lives in Haiti

The Devil Lives in Haiti

How the world’s richest colony became the poorest nation in the Americas
A manuscript by Bennett Blunt

The Devil Lives in Haiti

  • How the world’s richest colony became the poorest nation in the Americas
  • A manuscript by Bennett Blunt

Devil Lives in Haiti

Synopsis

How does a kingdom that once boomed with agricultural output sink into a nation renown for its famine? How does a revolution sparked by the injury of racial inequality give birth to a nation consecrated to racial revenge? And why do historians, for whom such reversals should command their full investigative labors, instead train a laser focus on the diplomatic injuries of the post-colonial nation? These are the faults of Haitian historiography that Bennett Blunt seeks to repair in a provocative new volume on the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.

THE DEVIL LIVES IN HAITI explores the reversal of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, from the richest plantation colony in the world (roughly 1700-1791) to the poorest country in the Americas (modern-day). A profitable plantation economy based on coffee and sugar was disastrously abandoned by the new Republic of 1805 in favor of peasant agriculture. The resulting isolation from the world market squandered the rich resources that had made white (and biracial) planters the envy of the colonial word. 

Résumé

Une exploration et une illustration du renversement de la colonie française de Saint-Domingue, de la colonie de plantations la plus riche du monde (environ 1700-1791) au pays le plus pauvre des Amériques (aujourd’hui). Le contexte est généralement le suivant : une économie de plantation lucrative – basée sur le café et le sucre – a été désastreusement abandonnée par la nouvelle République de 1804 au profit de l’agriculture paysanne. L’isolement du marché mondial qui en a résulté a dilapidé les riches ressources qui avaient fait des planteurs blancs (et biraciaux) l’envie du monde colonial. Le rejet de l’alphabétisation en anglais, en français et en espagnol a fait baisser les normes d’éducation à des niveaux auxquels une économie industrielle ne pourrait pas fonctionner.

Guiding Theory / Theorie

This book will distinguish itself on the shelves of Haitian scholarship by frontally addressing the question of Haiti’s superlative poverty in the Western Hemisphere. Its bias is against the appalling conditions of the present-day nation, and its method will be the exposing of missed opportunities, rejected responsibilities, and poor policy decisions in the history of the Republic. “The Haitian reversal” also serves as a useful testing ground for competing theories of wealth and value, as poverty cannot be excused by exploitation or colonialism in two centuries of a free Republic.
Chapters

Topics and Testimony / témoignage

Over 10 hours of recorded interviews with Haitian citizens, residing in diverse departments of the nation, have collected the following testimony to date. All participants have signed a legal agreement.
  • The assassination of President Moise
  • Gang violence in Port-au-Prince
  • Personal anecdotes of the devastation of cholera
  • Local oligarchy
  • Hunger and austerity
  • Economic underdevelopment

Devil Lives in Haiti

The Devil Lives in Haiti
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Devil Lives in Haiti