HAITI HAITI

Haiti has constantly worked against dominant powers to claim its own narrative. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, a historian of the Haitian Revolution, argued that every step of the historical process allows for what he called “silences,’’ and Haiti is no different. Haiti, as a Black nation, needed to work hard to be taken as a legitimate nation post-revolution. They started as a slave colony for the French.

After an uprising and a successful revolution, Haiti became a nation of former slaves. Due to the racial makeup of Haiti, the global community turned its nose up at the new country. While in other Latin American countries nation-building delegitimized its indigenous and other minority groups, Haiti in its nation-building fought against delegitimization.

—JakeWinston

The memory of specific people can also be manipulated to alter how groups of people think of someone. In the second chapter of “Silencing the Past” by Michel-Rolph Trouillot, it is mentioned how Haitian rebel leader [JeanBaptiste] Sans Souci is viewed in multiple ways by different groups of people. Trouillot calls it the “Three faces of Sans Souci.”

In one instance, he can be viewed as a revolutionist who stood for a better government and gave his life fighting for Haitian independence. Sans Souci was a former slave but was one of the leaders in the Haitian Revolution and was viewed as a very successful general in the revolt.

However, many view Sans Souci in a different light, saying he was a disobedient soldier, which resulted in his own assassination by a fellow rebel leader. While this narrative leaves out much of Sans Souci’s stories, including the success he had and the people he helped free, it can still be the narrative that many think of when looking at Sans Souci. There is also a third context that can be thought of when hearing that name, a castle. The difference in all these perspectives showcases how indefinite history really is, and how easy it is to alter the narrative of something.

—JackJohnson

A good example of the effects of power from a top-down perspective can be found in the varying memorwwies that are seen within the narrative of twhe Haitian Revolution. Haitian history is often buried behind other revolts that occurred within the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The American Revolution in 1776 and The French Revolution in 1789 gave rise to a democratic governance system and are the more commonly acknowledged global histories. But the local narrative of the revolution is treasured by Haitians, as is evident in the way that what “[the palace of Sans Souci] might have been is not left entirely to the visitor’s imagination” and that soon enough a local would “force himself upon you and serve as your impromptu guide” while visiting.

There is a sense of pride in a palace “built for a black king” whose walls were meant to serve as “irrefutable evidence of the ability of the black race.” On a national scale, the memories of the Revolution stem from the knowledge of Henri Christophe [Haiti's only monarch] and the actions of the formerly enslaved Africans in claiming their independence from French colonialism.

Just between these two spheres, the narrative changes entirely, with the national sphere fighting to reclaim it as a fundamental piece of identity.

—Elena Lee

Built in the early 1900s following the Haitian Revolution, the palace of Sans Souci held King Henry I. He became king in 1804 following Haiti’s declaration of independence and quickly established a reputation for being “rich and ruthless.” The construction of Henry’s favorite residence, Sans Souci, would claim hundreds of Haitian lives due to the harsh and brutal conditions they were held in.

The palace, though in ruins today, still stands as a stern reminder of his reign and his involvement in Haiti’s history. Unfortunately, a revolutionary within King Henry’s story has nearly disappeared because of inequalities in historical narratives and physical sources. Colonel Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci played an instrumental role in the Haitian Revolution before he was executed by King Henry.

Sans Souci became the leader of a substantial army consisting of local Haitians and with other allies, they were able to reverse the military situation in the northern part of the country. Later in the revolution, Sans Souci would contest a new revolutionary hierarchy that the future King Henry supported. This tarnished their relationship, eventually leading to Sans Souci’s execution.

Due to King Henry’s power in Haiti, the disappearance of Sans Souci’s memory is a “concrete example of the interplay between inequalities in the historical process.” Henry’s power erased Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci from Haitian history, and the name of his palace serves as a barrier between King Henry’s narrative and the significance of Sans Souci’s role in Haitian history.

—WillKnight

The double historicity of subjects is seen straightaway between the palace and the revolutionary, as the dominant memory surrounding this name in Haiti is of the palace, but as Trouillot contests, the palace was named after the revolutionary to subsume his name into the monarchical reign of Henry. This is where a great example of the dual role in history subjects serve — as Sans Souci the revolutionary opposed the monarchical beliefs of Christophe, leading to his eventual assassination, and the ensuing construction of the historical narrative tying the name Sans Souci to the symbol of the only Haitian monarch.

—BlakeRamsey

The French, on the other hand, were able to write horrific stories of being overtaken by the enslaved. With that, the dominant narrative downplayed the struggle-turned-victory for the enslaved Haitians and instead focused on the unthinkable defeat of the French colonizers.

—JakeWinston

Europeans and white men resided at the top of the hierarchy while enslaved people from Africa and indigenous people from the Americas resided at the bottom of the hierarchy. Thus, both these groups weren’t seen as equal to the white Europeans, and it was this belief that led to many colonizers being unable to fathom a slave revolution in Haiti because, in their eyes, African slaves weren’t competent enough to revolt. Thus, the idea of a revolution was unthinkable. So, with the history of the Haitian Revolution being unthinkable at the time, due to cultural discrimination present, in the future this unthinkable history would be omitted from our historical memory of the era of revolt against colonization and the creation of new nation states in the Americas. At the time, it was unfathomable to think slaves could revolt and create their own state and thus now it has been omitted from our historical memory.

—Sam Wise

Sans Souci’s ideas were completely erased through Christophe’s and Souci’s roles in the sociohistorical process and the construction of narrative surrounding the name, as Christophe has the power and Souci’s opposition to his hegemony could be erased through the very thing he opposed, conflating anti-monarchical revolutionary sentiment to the monarchy itself.

—BlakeRamsey