Depending who you ask, last week our president 45 thought it would be a good idea to play politics during a meeting with select congressmen about a workable solution for DACA using either the term “shithole countries” or “shithouse countries” to refer to Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. He said we should instead of admitting these presumably brown folks from shit— nations, we should focus on Norway. These good hard-working, fair-skinned Nordic types are more our style!
First off, we shouldn’t have to convince anyone that even if these countries were shithole countries they still deserve a place her — you know: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me” and all that... The MAGA crowd fails to see that America was on her way to greatness because by accepting this hodgepodge of ethnic, religious, cultural and ideological diversity she was forging a new American identity that incorporated learning from all over to make us one of the greatest nations this planet has ever known — if not the greatest!
Nothwithstanding the above, Americans are known to repay our debts. We’re like the Lannisters of the New World. During the American Revolutionary War, a Frenchman — the Marquis de Lafayette — became an American hero. Lafayette’s efforts to help the new country rid itself of the shackles of British colonialism are the stuff of legend. Even today you cannot visit an American state where there is not a Lafayette street, or square or park. Visit old homes like the Owens-Thomas House in Savannah, Georgia and you will find bed chambers meticulously preserved from the time Lafayette stayed here and delivered an address “from this very window!”
When Lafayette died in France soil from Bunker/Breed’s Hill was brought to France so he would have a grateful American earthly bed on which to rest his dearly departed French head. It is said that Americans felt so indebted to France and Lafayette that upon arriving in France to Fight during World War I, an American officer exclaimed “Lafayette, nous sommes ici” — Lafayette, we are here!!!
When Lafayette died in France soil from Bunker/Breed’s Hill was brought to France so he would have a grateful American earthly bed on which to rest his dearly departed French head. It is said that Americans felt so indebted to France and Lafayette that upon arriving in France to Fight during World War I, an American officer exclaimed “Lafayette, nous sommes ici” — Lafayette, we are here!!!
No mention is made in grade school textbooks or Saturday morning cartoons of the Chasseurs Voluntaires de Dainte-Domingue. Most American adults have no idea who they were or what they did to help forge our American identity
On October 9, 1779, a group of between 500 and 1,000 free men of color came to Georgia to defend America from the British. Known as the “Chasseurs Volontaires de Saint-Domingue” these men fought a bloody battle in Savannah helping to provide nearly defeated American and French forces a path to retreat. Haitians fought not only in Savannah, but in Charleston and other towns. These men sacrificed much for the United States. When captured, they often were taken as prizes of war and sold into slavery. Fully cognizant of that risk to their freedom and very humanity they fought anyway for a country that wasn’t theirs, defending cities that were among the most brutal slave holding and trading markets in the world.
One of the men who fought that day in Savannah was young Henri Christophe. He was a 12 year-old-drummer who so relished the taste of freedom he got from fighting in America that he eventually rose to become the first king of Haiti after the Haitian Revolution. During that Revolution from 1791 through 1804 women and men of color in Haiti rose up against the French and overthrew the powerful Napoleonic army. I say men and women because women fought equally right beside the men.
Napoleon had intended to create a vast empire in the new world with his anchors in Haiti and the Louisiana territory. Unfortunately for the French, the revolutionary forces in Haiti mercilessly defeated Napoleon and forced him to withdraw his last remaining soldiers from there in 1803. The Louisiana territory became more of a burden now to Napoleon who sold it to Thomas Jefferson for a song effectively doubling the size of the United States. The remaining French Slaveholders and loyalists fled nearly certain slaughter in Haiti as the new nation would be called and found homes in Savannah and New Orleans helping to mold the American creole culture we see in those places today.
Napoleon had intended to create a vast empire in the new world with his anchors in Haiti and the Louisiana territory. Unfortunately for the French, the revolutionary forces in Haiti mercilessly defeated Napoleon and forced him to withdraw his last remaining soldiers from there in 1803. The Louisiana territory became more of a burden now to Napoleon who sold it to Thomas Jefferson for a song effectively doubling the size of the United States. The remaining French Slaveholders and loyalists fled nearly certain slaughter in Haiti as the new nation would be called and found homes in Savannah and New Orleans helping to mold the American creole culture we see in those places today.
But for the uprising in Haiti, the America we know today likely would not exist. Of course, Jefferson and subsequent presidents refused to acknowledge Haiti as a sovereign state. We obviously couldn’t condone a slave uprising or acknowledge in any way that Africans had the capacity (intellectual, physical or otherwise) to overthrow one of the world’s greatest powers.
In 1825 France threatened to again invade Haiti. They demanded reparations of 150 million francs which was later reduced to 90 million francs as compensation for lost slaves and land. For perspective — the US paid 68 million francs in cash and forgiven debt to France for the entire Louisiana territory. Haiti’s restitution debt to France including interest wasn’t paid off until 1947. That combined with US occupation and subsequent corruption from US-backed authoritarian leaders like Francois “papa doc” Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude “baby doc” left Haiti riddled with debt. Haiti bacame the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, without most Americans even having an inkling of understanding about the contribution that Haiti and it’s very existence made to the US becoming what it is today.
Before we refer to Haiti, Latin American, Caribbean and African nations as shit holes, take a moment to educate yourselves about the sacrifices people from these countries made to ensure the survival of our own democratic experiment. Take time to respect their contributions to our economy, society, technology and culture. Take time to acknowledge the enormous tragic worldwide toll taken by colonialism and the transAtlantic slave trade. Take time to understand the damage done to those countries though IMF and World Bank policies... and instead of calling them shit hole countries, just say sorry and thank you. #ShitHoleCountries #ShitHeadPresident
