this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024
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The Haitians weren't without compromise; under l'ouverture they were prepared to have peace with France, but then the French tricked him arranging for a meeting and then took him hostage.
The French rejected l'ouverture's peace and got Dessaline instead. Me? I would've preferred if l'ouverture had been successful, but it's entirely on France that he didn't; and I ONLY favor l'ouverture because I wasn't there, if I was a Haitian myself I could easily imagine I wouldn't chance treachery by the French and would rather be lead by Dessaline from the get-go.
I saw a quote of the horrors the former slaves had endured and I don't doubt for a moment it still undersells the brutality they faced under the French. The quote was horrifyingly similar to a quote I read of people living under Batista's regime in Cuba, over a hundred plus years later. Luckily for the butchers of Cuba they didn't murder their l'ouverture and Castro even invited (the UN?) to bear witness to the trials after the revolution themselves (which of course they rejected).
No indigenous group is without compromise, in fact every indigenous group's history is filled to the brim with broken promises and broken treaties. Name a time when settlers were willing to honestly engage with indigenous people and not stab them in the back?
The French got Dessaline for a reason, and that's not something to attack the Haitians for, it's not like they're obligated to consider the safety of the French settlers and slavers.
If the French wanted their safety to be considered they should've considered the safety of the Haitians. They didn't, and the revolution went the way of eye for an eye (almost).
I absolutely do not condemn the Haitians or Dessaline (my guilty pleasure nickname for him that I didn't mention cause I thought it cheesy is the iron man); the oppression the slave owners gleefully visited on their victims solidly puts them in my eyes in the same place as Nazis, and I wish them a very and
However because they basically brought their children to the front lines of their slave holdings, and because the indigenous population themselves were amenable to peace I would have preferred l'ouverture had not been deceived and his attempts at peace not thrown out, but I acknowledge that that is solidly on the French. The very oppression and brutality they visited on their fellow man condemns them.