"I argue that anti-Haitianism, a foundational hemispheric form of anti-Blackness, can be traced to the inception of Haiti and all that the creation of Haiti birthed. The founding of Haiti as the world’s first free Black Republic in 1804 occurred after a bloody and violent revolution (1791-1803), which, at the time, was unanticipated and unsuspected by the Saint-Domingue planter class, the political left of France and England, and other actors. The late anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot argued that the events of the Haitian Revolution were 'unthinkable' in the framework of Western thought. The Haitian Revolution inspired admiration, resistance and hope for Black people who were chattel slaves. It spawned unrest throughout the Caribbean region, in maroon communities in Jamaica and St. Kitts, and throughout the slaveholding South of the USA. And as historian Michael O. West and sociologist William G. Martin argue, the founding of Haiti gave birth to Black internationalism in the sense that Haiti served as a model of Black liberation for other enslaved Africans. Black internationalism is an ideology rooted in a consciousness of—and a commitment to—the global Black struggle for freedom.
... At its inception, Haiti was surrounded by white-led colonies and nations whose economic and societal functioning was based on the enslaved labor of Africans and threatened by the newly formed Black nation’s existence. And with good reason. The late historian Julius S. Scott shows with great detail how word of the Haitian Revolution was spread throughout the Atlantic world by runaway slaves, pirates, free people of color, market women, maroons, and other figures. The Haitian revolution also spawned unrest elsewhere, including inspiring Denmark Vesey and other enslaved Africans to agitate, conspire, organize, and plot towards freedom from bondage in Charleston, South Carolina. The revolution also influenced other Western Hemispheric liberation movements as essayist and political commentator Pascal Robert observes. Venezuelan military and political leader Simon Bolivar, for example, went to Haiti in late 1815 and early 1816, specifically visiting Haiti on December 28, 1815, and arriving again on January 1, 1816, seeking aid to fight Spanish colonial rule. Bolivar asked for military assistance and material support from Haiti’s then President Alexandre Petion. Bolivar then used those Haitian connections to liberate colonial territories from Spanish rule. Fear of Haiti exporting its revolution led the British and other powers to contain the fledgling Black nation."
