Appalachian Host's Haiti Connection

(Dr. John P. David, Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Sciences/ Public Administration at WVU-Tech and Director of the Southern Appalachian Labor School is Global Volunteers' host representative in West Virginia.)



In a recent issue of Newsweek, Barack Obama made a compelling humanitarian rationale for "Why Haiti Matters." Without question, the disaster that hit the people of that nation was horrific and it is gratifying that the people of the U.S., as well as others around the world, are generously contributing help.

Help for Haiti is nothing new to those concerned about impoverishment. Thousands of religious and humanitarian organizations have been addressing the suffering of the Haitian people for a considerable time and many with those groups incurred the recent loss of human life along with the Haitian people.

In 1982, the Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS) was conducting worker education classes at Kellwood Industries, a supplier to Sears of clothing and fabric items. At that time, Kellwood had a competing plant in Port-au-Prince and threatened West Virginia employees that production could be moved to Haiti, where workers were paid $2.40 per day, if they did not agree to a concessionary contract. As a result, SALS was involved in assisting with a major film about conditions in both Haiti and West Virginia based on the struggle for economic survival by workers in both locations. The film, titled Bitter Cane, went on to win second place as a document-tary in the Cannes International Film Festival and an edited version was shown nationally on PBS.

Economic conditions in Haiti during that period prompted many Haitians to flee the nation in rickety boats, with some making it to the Florida shore and others being washed ashore dead. Many Haitian women, who spoke a version of Creole, were rounded up and sent to the Federal Prison in Alderson, where they were employed sewing garments for U.S. soldiers. Many people from religious and humanitarian groups, in the quest for social justice, worked with these women and SALS even offered a English literacy program for them.


A brief history of the relationship between the U.S. and Haiti is worth noting. Haiti had a role in the birth of our nation, was an impetus for the American Civil War, and partnered in economic exploitation of both Haitian and West Virginia workers. Thousands of Haitians have been imprisoned as boat people in U.S. jails, including many women housed at the Federal Women's Prison in Alderson.

As many may know, times were not going well in 1779 for George Washington's Revolutionary Army. It was in that year that hundreds of Haitian soldiers came to our shores and fought with American and French soldiers against the British so that the United States of America could emerge as an independent nation.

Those Haitian soldiers returned to Haiti and inspired the independence movement in Haiti. In 1804, this resulted in the only independent nation formed by those brought to the New World as slaves from West Africa. The existence of Haiti was not comforting to the plantation owners in "The South" and fear of what could happen here contributed to the Civil War and rise of the confederacy in the U.S. As a result, Haiti was not recognized by the U.S. until the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. did not focus on Haiti until Frederick Douglas, the late African American scholar and orator, was appointed as the first U.S. Emissary in 1883.

Haiti at the time was a prosperous jewel in France's crown and independence from France came at a price of 150 million francs, a humongous sum in the day that was not paid in full until 1947 and basically bankrupted the country. The current value of what Haiti paid was over $208 billion. While France sent the Statue of Liberty to the U.S., it extracted immense wealth from the Haitians and contributed to the impoverishment of its people to this day.

The U.S. eventually replaced France in exploiting Haiti. This occurred first through raw materials and later through usage of a very cheap labor pool and tax-free imports. The U.S. marines occupied Haiti for several decades and the U.S. supported dictators such as "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier. Baby Doc, who has been living on the French Riviera for more than two decades, is currently in the news over the millions of absconded Haitian dollars he has squirreled in Swiss bank accounts.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former Catholic priest who espoused liberation theology, became the first democratically elected present in Haiti's history, but was overthrown within a year. In 1994, Aristide ran again for President, received a landslide vote, and continued his controversial policies including a demand for France to refund money extorted from Haiti between 1825 and 1885. A 2004 coup again moved him from office. Aristide is still in exile in South Africa.

(Readers interested in the connection between Haiti and West Virginia are invited to watch "Bitter Cane" available from the Southern Appalachian Labor School or through Film Collection with the WV Department of Culture and History.)