-Caveat Lector-
Edited by Jim Zwick
Copyright © 1995-1999 Jim
Zwick
Self-Determining Haiti
II. What the United States Has Accomplished
By James Weldon Johnson
The Nation 111 (Sept. 4, 1920).
When the truth about the conquest of Haiti -- slaughter of three thousand
and
practically unarmed Haitians, with the incidentally needless death of a
score of
American boys -- begins to filter through the rigid Administration
censorship to the
American people, the apologists will become active. Their justification of
what has
been done will be grouped under two heads: one, the necessity, and two, the
results.
Under the first, much stress will be laid upon the "anarchy" which existed
in Haiti, upon
the backwardness of the Haitians and their absolute unfitness to govern
themselves.
The pretext which caused the intervention was taken up in the first article
of this series.
The characteristics, alleged and real, of the Haitian people will be taken
up in a
subsequent article. Now as to results: The apologists will attempt to show
that material
improvements in Haiti justify American intervention. Let us see what they
are.
Diligent inquiry reveals just three: The building of the road from
Port-au-Prince
to Cape Haitien; the enforcement of certain sanitary regulations in the
larger cities; and
the improvement of the public hospital at Port-au-Prince. The enforcement
of certain
sanitary regulations is not so important as it may sound, for even under
exclusive native
rule, Haiti has been a remarkably healthy country and had never suffered
from such
epidemics as used to sweep Cuba and the Panama Canal region. The
regulations,
moreover, were of a purely minor character -- the sort that might be issued
by a board
of health in any American city or town -- and were in no wise fundamental,
because
there was no need. The same applies to the improvement of the hospital,
long before
the American Occupation, an effectively conducted institution but which, it
is only fair
to say, benefitted considerably by the regulations and more up-to-date
methods of
American army surgeons -- the best in the world. Neither of these
accomplishments,
however, creditable as they are, can well be put forward as a justification
for military
domination. The building of the great highway from Port-au-Prince to Cape
Haitien is a
monumental piece of work, but it is doubtful whether the object in building
it was to
supply the Haitians with a great highway or to construct a military road
which would
facilitate the transportation of troops and supplies from one end of the
island to the
other. And this represents the sum total of the constructive accomplishment
after five
years of American Occupation.
Now, the highway, while doubtless the most important achievement of
the three,
involved the most brutal of all the blunders of the Occupation. The work
was in charge
of an officer of Marines who stands out even in that organization for his
"treat 'em
rough" methods. He discovered the obsolete Haitian corvée and decided to
enforce it
with the most modern Marine efficiency. The corvée, or road law, in Haiti
provided
that each citizen should work a certain number of days on the public roads
to keep
them in condition, or pay a certain sum of money. In the days when this law
was in
force the Haitian government never required the men to work the roads
except in their
respective communities, and the number of days was usually limited to three
a year.
But the Occupation seized men wherever it could find them, and no
able-bodied
Haitian was safe from such raids, which most closely resembled the African
slave raids
of past centuries. And slavery it was -- though temporary. By day or by
night, from the
bosom of their families, from their little farms or while trudging
peacefully on the
country roads, Haitians were seized and forcibly taken to toil for months
in far sections
of the country. Those who protested or resisted were beaten into
submission. At night,
after long hours of unremitting labor under armed taskmasters, who swiftly
discouraged
any slackening of effort with boot or rifle butt, the victims were herded
in compounds.
Those attempting to escape were shot. Their terror-stricken families
meanwhile were
often in total ignorance of the fate of their husbands, fathers, brothers.
It is chiefly out of these methods that arose the need for
"pacification." Many
men of the rural districts became panic-stricken and fled to the hills and
mountains.
Others rebelled and did likewise, preferring death to slavery. These
refugees largely
make up the "caco" forces, to hunt down which has become the duty and the
sport of
American Marine, who were privileged to shoot a "caco" on sight. If anyone
doubts
that "caco" hunting is the sport of American Marines in Haiti, let him
learn the facts
about the death of Charlemagne. Charlemagne Peralte was a Haitian of
education and
culture and of great influence in his district. He was tried by an American
court-martial
on the charge of aiding "cacos." He was sentenced, not to prison, however,
but to five
years of hard labor on the roads, and was forced to work in convict garb on
the streets
of Cape Haitien. He made his escape and put himself at the head of several
hundred
followers in a valiant though hopeless attempt to free Haiti. The America
of the
Revolution, indeed the America of the Civil War, would have regarded
Charlemagne
not as a criminal but a patriot. He met his death not in open fight, not in
an attempt at
his capture, but through a dastard deed. While standing over his camp fire,
he was shot
in cold blood by an American Marine officer who stood concealed by the
darkness,
and who had reached the camp through bribery and trickery. This deed, which
was
nothing short of assassination, has been heralded as an example of American
heroism.
Of this deed, Harry Franck, writing in the June Century of "The Death of
Charlemagne," says: "Indeed it is fit to rank with any of the stirring
warrior tales with
which history is seasoned from the days of the Greeks down to the recent
world war."
America should read "The Death of Charlemagne" which attempts to glorify a
black
smirch on American arms and tradition.
There is a reason why the methods employed in road building affected
the
Haitian country folk in a way in which it might not have affected the
people of any other
Latin American country. Not since the independence of the country has there
been any
such thing as a peon in Haiti. The revolution by which Haiti gained her
independence
was not merely a political revolution, it was also a social revolution.
Among the many
radical changes wrought was that of cutting up the large slave estates into
small parcels
and allotting them among former slaves. And so it was that every Haitian in
the rural
districts lived on his own plot of land, a plot on which his family has
lived for perhaps
more than a hundred years. No matter how small or how large that plot is,
and whether
he raises much or little on it, it is his and he is an independent farmer.
The completed highway, moreover, continued to be a barb in the Haitian
wound.
Automobiles on this road, running without any speed limit, are a constant
inconvenience or danger to the natives carrying their market produce to
town on their
heads or loaded on the backs of animals. I have seen these people scramble
in terror
often up the side or down the declivity of the mountain for places of
safety for
themselves and their animals as the machines snorted by. I have seen a
market
woman's horse take flight and scatter the produce loaded on his back all
over the road
for several hundred yards. I have heard an American commercial traveler
laughingly tell
how on the trip from Cape Haitien to Port-au-Prince the automobile he was
in killed a
donkey and two pigs. It had not occurred to him that the donkey might be
the chief
capital of the small Haitian farmer and that the loss of it might entirely
bankrupt him. It
is all very humorous, of course, unless you happen to be the Haitian
pedestrian.
The majority of visitors on arriving at Port-au-Prince and noticing
the
well-paved, well-kept streets, will at once jump to the conclusion that
this work was
done by the American Occupation. The Occupation goes to no trouble to
refute this
conclusion, and in fact it will by implication corroborate it. If one
should exclaim,
"Why, I am surprised to see what a well-paved city Port-au-Prince is!" he
would be
almost certain to receive the answer, "Yes, but you should have seen it
before the
Occupation." The implication here is that Port-au-Prince was a mudhole and
that the
Occupation is responsible for its clean and well-paved streets. It is true
that at the time
of the intervention, five years ago, there were only one or two paved
streets in the
Haitian capital, but the contracts for paving the entire city had been let
by the Haitian
Government, and the work had already been begun. This work was completed
during
the Occupation, but the Occupation did not pave, and had nothing to do with
the
paving of a single street in Port-au-Prince.
One accomplishment I did expect to find -- that the American
Occupation, in its
five years of absolute rule, had developed and improved the Haitian system
of public
education. The United States has made some efforts in this direction in
other countries
where it has taken control. In Porto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, the
attempt, at
least, was made to establish modern school systems. Selected youths from
these
countries were taken and sent to the United States for training in order
that they might
return and be better teachers, and American teachers were sent to those
islands in
exchange. The American Occupation in Haiti has not advanced public
education a
single step. No new buildings have been erected. Not a single Haitian youth
has been
sent to the United States for training as a teacher, nor has a single
American teacher,
white or colored, been sent to Haiti. According to the general budget of
Haiti,
1919-1920, there are teachers in the rural schools receiving as little as
six dollars a
month. Some of these teachers may not be worth more than six dollars a
month. But
after five years of American rule, there ought not to be a single teacher
in the country
who is not worth more than that paltry sum.
Another source of discontent is the Gendarmerie. When the Occupation
took
possession of the island, it disarmed all Haitians, including the various
local police
forces. To remedy this situation the Convention (Article X), provided that
there should
be created,--
without delay, an efficient constabulary, urban and rural, composed of
native Haitians. This constabulary shall be organized and officered by
Americans, appointed by the President of Haiti upon nomination by the
President of the United States.... These officers shall be replaced by
Haitians as they, by examination conducted under direction of a board
to
be selected by the Senior American Officer of this constabulary in the
presence of a representative of the Haitian Government, are found
qualified to assume such duties.
During the first months of the Occupation officers of the Haitian
Gendarmerie
were commissioned officers of the marines, but the war took all these
officers to
Europe. Five years have passed and the constabulary is still officered
entirely by
marines, but almost without exception they are ex-privates or
non-commissioned
officers of the United States Marine Corps commissioned in the gendarmerie.
Many of
these men are rough, uncouth, and uneducated, and a great number from the
South,
are violently steeped in color prejudice. They direct all policing of city
and town. It falls
to them, ignorant of Haitian ways and language, to enforce every minor
police
regulation. Needless to say, this is a grave source of continued
irritation. Where the
genial American "cop" could, with a wave of his hand or club, convey the
full majesty
of the law to the small boy transgressor or to some equally innocuous
offender, the
strong-arm tactics for which the marines are famous, are apt to be promptly
evoked.
The pledge in the Convention that "these officers be replaced by Haitians"
who could
qualify, has, like other pledges, become a mere scrap of paper. Graduates
of the
famous French military academy of St. Cyr, men who have actually qualified
for
commissions in the French army, are denied the opportunity to fill even a
lesser
commission in the Haitian Gendarmerie, although such men, in addition to
their
pre-eminent qualifications of training, would, because of their
understanding of local
conditions and their complete familiarity with the ways of their own
country, make ideal
guardians of the peace.
The American Occupation of Haiti is not only guilty of sins of
omission, it is guilty
of sins of commission in addition to those committed in the building of the
great road
across the island. Brutalities and atrocities on the part of American
marines have
occurred with sufficient frequency to be the cause of deep resentment and
terror.
Marines talk freely of what they "did" to some Haitians in the outlying
districts. Familiar
methods of torture to make captives reveal what they often do not know are
nonchalantly discussed. Just before I left Port-au-Prince an American
Marine had
caught a Haitian boy stealing sugar off the wharf and instead of arresting
him he
battered his brains out with the butt of his rifle. I learned from the lips
of American
Marines themselves of a number of cases of rape of Haitian women by
marines. I often
sat at tables in the hotels and cafes in company with marine officers and
they talked
before me without restraint. I remember the description of a "caco" hunt by
one of
them; he told how they finally came upon a crowd of natives engaged in the
popular
pastime of cock-fighting and how they "let them have it" with machine guns
and rifle
fire. I heard another, a captain of marines, relate how he at a fire in
Port-au-Prince
ordered a "rather dressed up Haitian," standing on the sidewalk, to "get in
there" and
take a hand at the pumps. It appeared that the Haitian merely shrugged his
shoulders.
The captain of marines then laughingly said: "I had on a pretty heavy pair
of boots and I
let him have a kick that landed him in the middle of the street. Someone
ran up and told
me that the man was an ex-member of the Haitian Assembly." The fact that
the man
had been a member of the Haitian Assembly made the whole incident more
laughable
to the captain of marines.
Perhaps the most serious aspect of American brutality in Haiti is not
to be found
in individual cases of cruelty, numerous and inexcusable though they are,
but rather in
the American attitude, well illustrated by the diagnosis of an American
officer
discussing the situation and its difficulty: "The trouble with this whole
business is that
some of these people with a little money and education think they are as
good as we
are," and this is the keynote of the attitude of every American to every
Haitian.
Americans have carried American hatred to Haiti. They have planted the
feeling of
caste and color prejudice where it never before existed.
And such are the "accomplishments" of the United States in Haiti. The
Occupation has not only failed to achieve anything worth while, but has
made it
impossible to do so because of the distrust and bitterness that it has
engendered in the
Haitian people. Through the present instrumentalities no matter how
earnestly the
United States may desire to be fair to Haiti and make intervention a
success, it will not
succeed. An entirely new deal is necessary. This Government forced the
Haitian
leaders to accept the promise of American aid and American supervision.
With that
American aid the Haitian Government defaulted its external and internal
debt, an
obligation, which under self-government the Haitians had scrupulously
observed. And
American supervision turned out to be a military tyranny supporting a
program of
economic exploitation. The United States had an opportunity to gain the
confidence of
the Haitian people. That opportunity has been destroyed. When American
troops first
landed, although the Haitian people were outraged, there was a feeling
nevertheless
which might well have developed into cooperation. There were those who had
hopes
that the United States, guided by its traditional policy of nearly a
century and a half,
pursuing its fine stand in Cuba, under McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, would
extend aid
that would be mutually beneficial to both countries. Those Haitians who
indulged this
hope are disappointed and bitter. Those members of the Haitian Assembly
who, while
acting under coercion were nevertheless hopeful of American promises,
incurred
unpopularity by voting for the Convention, are today bitterly disappointed
and utterly
disillusioned.
If the United States should leave Haiti today, it would leave more
than a
thousand widows and orphans of its own making, more banditry than has
existed for a
century, resentment, hatred and despair in the heart of a whole people, to
say nothing
of the irreparable injury to its own tradition as the defender of the
rights of man.
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1933) is probably best known today as the author
of
The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. He was secretary of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and visited Haiti
to
investigate conditions there on its behalf. He later became a vice-chairman
of the
Haiti-Santo Domingo Independence Society, a member of the publications
committee
of the American Fund for Public Service Committee on American Imperialism,
and
served on the national committees of the American Civil Liberties Union and
the
Committee on Militarism in Education.
Citation: Johnson, James Weldon. "Self-Determining Haiti: II. What the
United States Has
Accomplished." The Nation 111 (Sept. 4, 1920).
http://www.boondocksnet.com/ailtexts/johnson200904.html In Jim Zwick, ed.,
Anti-Imperialism in
the United States, 1898-1935. http://www.boondocksnet.com/ail98-35.html
(April 23, 1999).
Self-Determining Haiti: III. Government Of, By, and For the National
City Bank
Amazon.com · Egghead.com · enews.com · Expedia Travel · Reel.com · Value
America
Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935, edited by Jim
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Copyright © 1995-1999 Jim Zwick. All rights reserved.
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