a1697: Book review, The Haitian People (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: J.David <Jedidiah@lyalls.net>

I haven't seen this book reviewed, so I'll attempt a minimalist view of it.

I found this book in January, at the Bon Nouvel bookstore.
It was originally published in 1941. This version has a forward and historical comparison to today's Haiti
by Bryant  Freeman. I left the  book in latonnel and do not remember  the authors name.

[Corbett adds:  It is by James G. Leyburn and was originally published by
Yale University Press.]

This book has some very interesting analyses of haytian issues which I have not seen before.
The origin of Kreyol, for instance, is attributed to 'norman french' which the pirates of the Carib
apparently spoke. I did not realize that norman was significantly different from Parisian.
It is true, of  course, that England was Norman for centuries, and the current english language
is a creole of anglo-saxon ( called 'old english', mistakenly, in my view ) and Norman french.
Is Norman french a creole of Norwegian and gaulish latin? Normans were Northmen, or Norsemen
who stayed on in that corner of the crumbling pax roma.

So, norman pirates and english ( partially derived from norman french ) pirates, developed a pirate
lingo of the caribbean.

This is his analysis. Interesting to me,  and it makes  a lot of sense.

The author ( whose name I forgot, remember ) talks about the  development of country peasant culture
and their unwillingness to accept any need  for modernity or struggle to advance  economically.
This is not unusual in peasant societies,  altho americans found ( and find ) it very strange.
Russian and Chinese peasants were  famous for burning out  neighbors who become too successful.

This 'backwardness' does not seem strange or even regrettable to the author. Freedom  to  work as little
as necessary for  a comfortable life was a natural aspiration, and all attempts to  get people to work
sugar plantations, for instance, met resistance as  'slave' work.

He has an interesting analysis of the  contrasting economic  strategies employed by the two competing
haytian states of the early 19th century. The Toussaint/Christophe/Dessaline plan was forced labor
under a military dictatorship. Petion/Boyer are lambasted as "allowing" marronage and the breakup
of the  plantations. Obviously, that was exactly what the citizens wanted, altho permanent national
poverty was  the  result.

Actually, the Petion/Boyer governments enacted a sophisticated tax regime to try to encourage individual
free enterprise. An  Adam Smith revolution was  attempted. The details of these tax incentives escapes me
right now, but the promise of getting rich  through small scale enterprise never caught the imagination of the
rural agricultural workers.

The break up  of the plantations was actively discouraged thru the  legal limitation on breaking up platations.
A minimum plot size for legal recognition was attempted. Extra legal practice made  this moot.

The book mentions all of the forts which the  Dessaline plan directed to  be constructed in  the inner fastnesses
of  the country. Fort Compon above Leogane/latonnel is one of them,  specifically mentioned. This fort does not
appear on any current map that I have ever seen. The generals who  were in charge of constructing each one
are listed as well. No plaques to their enterprise exist at Fo Compon. Dokte Phillip is going to put up  a memorial
plaque at the spot of the brick works above latonnel. There bricks were made  from the clay for the  fort.
The  folk have  dug up a cannon  from the  spot. It may be  remounted now. A quadra  lingual memorial plaque
to the constructors of the fort is part of the plan.

So, I enjoyed this book immensely. One has to be a history buff to appreciate it.