The Devil Lives in Haiti

Abstract

This book explores the reversal of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, from the richest plantation colony in the world (roughly 1700-1791) to the poorest country in the Americas (modern-day). A profitable plantation economy based on coffee and sugar was disastrously abandoned by the new Republic of 1805 in favor of peasant agriculture. The resulting isolation from the world market squandered the rich resources that had made white (and non-white) planters the envy of the colonial world.

Where the hand of academic specialists points insistently to Haitian victimhood and powerlessness, Bennett Blunt dares to indicate the roads untraveled, the misguided strategies, and the landscape of missed opportunities through which post-colonial Haiti has arrived at its present state. What academic and media narratives suppress, Blunt exposes with scholarly fidelity to documented evidence. From the unrecognized leverage enjoyed by the Haitian state in the early years of independence, to the unrecognized contributions of American service workers in the era of occupation, to the opportunities rejected by President Aristide in the 1990’s, The Devil Lives in Haiti fills a yawning gap in the historiography of post-colonial Haiti. The oral history testimonies of Haitian citizens should resonate especially with journalists, historians, and students of diplomacy, economics, and environmental studies.

Among the many contributions of The Devil Lives in Haiti to environmental studies is its exploration of the cholera epidemic of 2010. Evidence of United Nations complicity in the epidemic is weighed against the evidence of indigenous sanitary neglect. The unreported achievements of colonial-era engineers in environmental management are at last given proper attention, as is the devastating price of post-colonial land mismanagement. To the student of world economics, this book will offer a satisfying reconstruction of the trans-Atlantic commodity markets through which colonial Haiti rose to the height of Atlantic affluence.

About the Author

From the clandestine prison plots in the year of the French Revolutionary Terror, to the plagues of Paris in the 19th century, Bennett Blunt’s master's work in history (University of Rhode Island, 2011) explored politics, crisis, and environmental conquest. A subsequent career in international teaching, of both history and language, has equipped him with the experience to approach the challenge of Haitian history, a richly documented but misunderstood subject of vital importance. To the Haitian question Blunt brings the skills of a teacher, the experience of an oral history interviewer, and the proficiency of a bilingual researcher.