The formerly enslaved Black people of Haiti paid for their freedom from the French in blood. But just a few years after driving colonizers from the island, the very people who colonized, exploited, and murdered Haitians showed up again. Armed with over 500 cannons, the colonizers came ready to attack. But why?
The French never recognized Haiti as its own nation. So they made an outrageous and dehumanizing demand. It was so outlandish that some historians refer to it as a “heist.”
The French demanded that the Haitians pay them in order to keep their independence! This “indemnity” was to compensate France for the loss of profits from enslavement.
Eventually Haiti got into a cycle of borrowing money from France to pay France. This was the ONLY time in history the formerly enslaved were forced to pay their colonizers! But it gets worse.
These payments to the French still impact Haiti today. It explains in part why the island remains one of the most impoverished in the world.
A culture that profits from oppressing us is NOT going to support our liberation easily. Haiti continues to fight for its liberation even though the French refuse to recognize its legacy of enslavement. This small nation reminds us to never give up fighting for what is rightfully ours.