African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
270 p, Contents: 1898 : hispanismo y guerra / Arcadio Díaz Quiñones -- 1898 : a new beginning or historical continuity / Reinhard R. Doerries -- American expansion : from Jeffersonianism to Wilsonianism / Ralph Dietl -- Columbus, the Spanish-Cuban-American War, and the advance of U.S. liberal capitalism in the Caribbean and Pacific region / Thomas Schoonover -- The German challenge to American hegemony in the Caribbean : the Venezuela crisis of 1902-03 / Ragnhild Fiebig-von Hase -- La crítica martiana del concepto del panamericanismo de James G. Blaine / Josef Opatrný -- Los trabajadores urbanos y la política colonial española en Cuba desde la Paz de Zanjón hasta la Guerra de Independencia (1878-1898) / Joan Casanovas Codina -- Cuba en el período intersecular : continuidad y cambio / Elena Hernández Sandoica -- The year 1898 in Puerto Rico : caesura, change, continuation? / Ute Guthunz -- Miles & more : 1898 and "caballeros líricos" : Luis Muñoz Rivera and José de Diego / Wolfgang Binder -- Fin de siglo en Colombia : la Guerra de los mil días y el contexto internacional / Thomas Fischer -- 1898 y Panamá : cesura, cambio o continuidad? / Alfredo Figueroa Navarro -- La inclusión de un estado caribeño en la doctrina de la "western hemisphere" : el caso de Haiti / Walther L. Bernecke
Throughout the year, UNESCO had organized many commemorative events in close cooperation with its member states" and governmental and non-governmental organizations, such as the launching of the research and information program "the Forgotten Slaves," an exhibit at the UNESCO's headquarters in Stockholm Sweden entitled "Lest We Forget: Triumph on Slavery," the Ceremony of the Award of Toussaint Louverture Prize, the International Conference on the theme "Issues of Memory: Coming to terms with the Slave Trade and Slavery," and the International Symposium on the Slave Trade Archives Project in Havana, Cuba, and so on. The worldwide, yearlong commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Haitian Slave Revolution Victory was very important for Haitians and Blacks all over the world. The 1791 revolution, which took place during the 18th Century, beside the American Revolution of 1774 and the French Revolution of 1789, was excluded for years from the pages of world history textbooks, despite its contribution to the abolition of slavery in the world.
In this issue, we'll see why [Frederick Douglass] believed Haiti not only worried but scared slave-holding Americans. We'll also discuss why he believed Haiti is a country of "firsts" and his answers to critics that the country is doomed due to its roots in voodo. His actual words will be in italics. While slavery existed amongst us, Haiti's example was a sharp thorn in our side and a source of alarm and terror.
[Frederick Douglass] lamented the fact that the U.S. continues to shun Haiti although it has enriched American merchants, farmers and the country overall. He acknowledged a common complaint of Americans at the time that Haiti was more friendly to France and other European countries than the U.S. However, he partly blamed the US for not reaching out to Haiti with respect and friendship. He also cited Haiti's many institutional and cultural connections to France - language, literature, laws and government - as reasons for its friendship with France. Still, Douglass asserted that the main reason for the United States' ambiguous attitude towards Haiti was racial. In discussing Haiti's geography, Douglass lavishly praises its climate; lofty mountains; strikingly beautiful valleys, lakes, rivers and plains; blue waters and the exquisite Bay of Portau-Prince and Mole St. Nicolas. Douglass noted that the U.S. wanted the Mole for a naval station in order to dominate the area's commercial market before and after the then anticipated Nicaragua Canal was completed. The U.S. was also considering taking the Mole by force, if necessary. However, Douglass warned them that Haiti would not peacefully give up the harbor and that it would cost too much to take it by force.
"They don't want any more 'niggers' in this country," stated Cora McAlpin, a 57-year-old Carpenter, Miss. resident who takes particular issue with U.S. policy on Haitian migrants. "Did you see the people putting the little girl over the side of the boat and little sister knew to swim when she hit the water swim darling, swim to shore and you'll be free. I cried when I saw that, but I soon realized they are going to send the child back to that hell hole." "That didn't materialize because they didn't want us to do it," [Kenneth Stokes] said. Calling Haitian refugee holding facilities in Miami "jails," Stokes explained that conditions in "those camps rival anything you'd find at Parchman.
