Colonialism 16

Art. 3. There cannot exist slaves on this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free.
Art. 4. All men, regardless of colour, are eligible to all employment.
Art. 5. There shall exist no distinction other than those based on virtue and talent, and other superiority afforded by law in the exercise of a public function. The law is the same for all whether in punishment or in protection.

Constitution of Haiti (1801)

Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) was a formerly enslaved Haitian who led the resistance against France. These lines come from a letter Louverture wrote to Napoleon, to which he attached this constitutional text.

It began in 1791 with an uprising of 50,000 people: Haitians, most of whom were enslaved, fighting for their independence from France. In 1794, slavery was abolished. With the war of independence dragging on for several years, Napoleon threatened to reintroduce slavery. But the Haitians won and became the first Latin American country to become independent in 1804. However, a coalition of European states and the United States boycotted the country. Since the prosperity of colonial states was based on the plantation economy and therefore on the principle of slavery, they feared that the Haitian revolution could also inspire other oppressed peoples. As a result, Haiti was forced into isolation in terms of foreign policy and the new state was obliged to make vast compensation payments to former slave owners. In return for recognising Haiti as an independent state in 1825, France demanded compensation of 150 million francs. It was not until 1883 that Haiti was finally able to pay off this amount which it did with the help of loans (Ziegler 2010). The high national debt it was saddled with immediately after independence is often seen as marking the start of Haiti's economic dependence on the outside world. At the World Conference Against Racism in 2001, Haiti demanded compensation from France.

*Project in Haiti and the Domenican Republic where Youth work on the history of slavery and liberation. *Jean Ziegler (2010): Haiti und der Hass auf den Westen. In Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik.

1801