480 p., By the end of 1825, 6,000 African Americans had left the United States to settle in the free black Republic of Haiti. After arriving on the island, 200 immigrants formed an enclave in what is now Samaná, Dominican Republic. The Americans in Samaná continued to speak English, remained Protestant (in a country of devout Catholics), and retained American cultural practices for over 150 years. Relying on historical archaeological methods, this dissertation explores the processes of community formation, maintenance, and dissolution, while paying particular attention to intersections of race and nation.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
317 p., Includes descriptive ethnographies of Haitians in 19th century Jamaica, eastern Cuba, Detroit, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Paris, and Boston, and innovative scholarly work on non-geographic sites of Haitian community building.