Injustice In Haiti

Criteria B:INVESTIGATION Haiti has struggled with social injustice throughout its history. Prior to Haiti’s independence in 1804 Haiti was known as St. Domingue located on the western side of the island of Hispaniola. Spain was the first country to colonize St. Domingue while control was later transferred to France which was was the country Haiti would have to split from to gain its independence. While France controlled St. Domingue slavery was the center of life which created a large problem with racism. The extent to which the Haitian Independence Movement was caused by social injustices was very strongly because the movement started with inequality between the races and a slave rebellion. The island of Hispaniola was inhabited by Paleo- Indians until the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. At the time of Columbus’ arrival, in what would become Hispaniola, he was given gifts of gold which led him to believe and report that the Island was rich in gold, causing Spanish settlers to move to the island in the hopes of getting rich. When gold didn’t work out for them they transitioned to sugar. Sugar plantations require a large number of workers to become successful therefore the Spanish made the indigenous people of the land work on their plantations. Eventually hard labor and disease wiped out all but 5,000 of the original 1 million indigenous people. At this point the need for slaves was high

The main social injustice that was going on in Haiti that caused the Independence movement was slavery. Slaves eventually acted out against the injustice under Toussaint L'ouverture. L’ouverture used his skills to further the country from slavery and made actions toward their eventual independence from France. Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared independence for Haiti in 1804. The independence of Haiti was only possible because of the events that occurred after the slave