Haitians And African Americans: A Heritage Of Tragedy And Hope [Paperback]

In this well-documented and perceptively argued analysis, Leon D. Pamphile straightforwardly examines multifaceted aspects of the relations between African Americans and Haitians both at home and abroad and insightfully shows how these two subalternized groups have inscribed chunks of their histories inside the genealogies of each others life trajectories. Michel S. Laguerre, University of California, Berkeley

In this first comprehensive study of the relations between Haiti and black America from the colonial period to the present, Leon Pamphile shows how historical ties between these two communities of the African diaspora have affected their respective histories, cultures, and community lives.

Spanning some 200 years of relations between Haiti and African Americans, Pamphiles study is valuable for its thorough grounding in primary material, offering especially detailed treatments of 19th-century relations.? He examines perceptions of? Haiti in the United States during the debate over emancipation and slavery in the first half of that century and Haitis role as a model in the struggle for liberation and then an asylum for many escaping oppression in the United States.

His treatment of the decades from emancipation into the early 20th century, as descendants of African slaves struggled for legitimacy and respect in the post-slavery setting, is similarly meticulous. He highlights efforts to rehabilitate and elevate the black communities as well as dilemmas posed to African American leaders who defended Haitian independence during the U.S. occupation of 1915-34 and then sought to promote economic development on the island.? He also treats relations between Haitian Americans and African Americans in major U.S. cities such as Baltimore, New Orleans, Charleston, and Philadelphia and traces the changing view of African American leaders toward Haiti during the Duvalier and post-Duvalier period as well as the role played by African AmerlcF