Race: Haiti and New Orleans

This week, we will look at some of the racial aspects of San Domingue (which were also carried over into Haiti). To make things more interesting, We will bring in Charles LeDoux, a New Orleans native, to talk about race in the Big Easy and in Haiti. These two areas are more similar than you would think…

                

                “Thank you, sirs. Well, people, the first thing that you must understand about this ‘race talk’ is that I’m talking about French-created racial lines. That is what Louisiana and Haiti share; the French once held both places and so the way racial lines developed was similar. Even after the Haitian revolution, the groups in Haiti are still pretty similar to the groups the French labeled oh so long ago.

               “The three basic racial groups that were labeled by the French on both of these locations are the Blacks, the Creoles, and the Whites. Now, there are other names for these groups, but the only one that might get people who don’t know about French racial lines mixed up is that word “Creole”. In some places, it meant somebody who was born in this [western] hemisphere. What it means in French racial language is a mixed person; a person who is part Black and part White. Way back when, this meant a person who was the result of a slave-master hookup (the slave being African and Black and the master being French and White).

               “Now, there are a lot of social classes which all evolve from this, but I’ll just keep it simple. Basically, when the French set up the race system back in the 1700s, the lighter your skin, the better off you are. That’s one reason why Creoles (part Black, part White) tended to be the freed Blacks, the landowners, ect. Toussaint L’Overture, The leader of the Haitian Revolution, was actually a creole. That’s the way it tended to go; I could point to Barack Obama, who in this light would be classified as a Creole, as evidence that this system still does affect even the United States to this day.

“Usually, Creoles tended to be better able to lead and orchestrate because of their higher status in French-influenced society. I read an article about a New Orleans mayoral election, and this rang true; the first Black mayor of New Orleans was, in fact, a Creole. The article talked about the original New Orleans race system and its categories: Black, Creole, and White. This began to change in the U.S. Civil Rights era to just Black and White (although it never has died completely), but it is interesting that New Orleans and Haiti shared a similar racial system.

“I could go on about this till I’m blue in the face, but let me finish this up by looking into each of the three categories (and explaining why there are just those three for the most part). Of the three categories, the most divided one would be the Black category. This was very true back in slavery times. Pretty much, the Africans who were brought over to this side of the Atlantic were members of differing and sometimes hostile tribes. Many different stories from that time could be referenced to show this, including one account of a Creole woman named Rebecca. This story actually happens on a different island, but it shows the disunity present in the Caribbean in general at that time. In Haiti, racial unity for the Black members of the country did not begin to show up until a bit after their Revolution. There was definite disunity, and this was one thing the slave owners used to keep the slaves from revolt.

“The Creoles were sort of…well, they were their own group. They were not as divided, because they shared a more common heritage of being children of slave/master unions. They also had it better than the slaves; they did not necessarily associate with the Blacks because they wanted to keep their superior status. In general, they had their own interests and they were also fairly alienated by the two other groups; they didn’t really mix with the Blacks, but the Whites would not let them be their equals, so they were a sort of ‘middle class’, if you will.

“The Whites, of course, had it best. Obviously, they made the system to keep their position as the top dogs (in the case of Haiti, however, this really backfired). They had the money, although Creoles did have a bit of economic power; they were the slave owners and the elites. Really, that says it all. They were also a minority, in New Orleans and in Haiti. This is why they were very intent on keeping the other two classes fragmented and otherwise powerless; if ever the Blacks united, or the Blacks and Creoles united, the Whites could kiss their superiority goodbye. That is what happened in the case of Haiti. New Orleans, of course, experienced the Civil War, but the old system was still there for a time afterwards.

“Honestly, if you think about the old system like a class system, you see it best. The Blacks are the poor, the Creoles the middle class, and the Whites the rich. The lighter the skin, the better your lot. Now if you noticed that I only really mentioned two races this whole time. The reason for this is because these two races make up most of the people in these areas. Pretty much, by the time the French really set up their racial systems in Haiti or in New Orleans, the Native American population was mostly wiped out, and other ethnic groups make up such small proportions of the people that they really are mostly outside of it. So the Blacks and the Whites are the only two major groups left. Well, anyway, that’s about it as far as race goes; nowadays the systems are different, but you can still see the legacy of the old systems of race in play even today. Thanks for having me on, guys.

We appreciate it, Chuck. Next time we will talk more about race, but we’ll throw in more of the money side of it. Until then, stay tuned, sports fans!

                                                             

                                                                Sources

 

Sensbach, Jon F. Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. Camebridge, MA: First University Harvard Press, 2005. Print.

 

Copeau, Steve. The History of Haiti. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008. Print.

Hirsch, Arnold R. "Fade to Black: Hurricane Katrina and the Disappearance of Creole New Orleans." The Journal of American History  (December 2007): 752-761. Organization of American Historians. PDF File.