Charles Mackenzie on Haitian rule of Eastern Hispaniola

Just finished reading Charles Mackenzie's Notes on Haiti, his reflections on traveling around the island of Hispaniola in 1827 (find Volume 1 here, and Volume 2 should be on the same site). At the time, president Boyer of Haiti had only a few years previously unified the entire island, a process which too little is known yet so vital for forging  a "Dominican" national identity in response to over 20 years of Haitian unification. Since Mackenzie traveled throughout both the western and eastern divisions of the island, his copious notes can provide us some insight on this important period in Caribbean history. Indeed, the notion of Caribbean federations and unification arose again in the late 19th century, during the Cuban War of Independence, when some Cuban nationalists envisioned a strong federation of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, which comprise the two largest islands of the Caribbean with the greatest populations. This is an early experiment in such a pursuit, one with some legal and local support from colonial Santo Domingo and the nascent nationalist movement there in 1821, as well as precedents from Toussaint's unification of the entire island prior to French invasion.

Moving back to Mackenzie, a British man of color (yet clearly thinking of himself as 'white' and European), his notes on Haiti in the late 1820s reveal the following division of the island into multiple "military arrondissements of rank, usually a general, presides, and exercises both military and civil authority: he is the medium through which the government makes known its arrangements. The arrondissements are Aquin, Azua, Le Borgne, Cape Haitian, Les Cayes, Santo Domingo, Fort Liberte, Gonaives, Jeremie, Grande Riviere, Jacmel, San Juan, Leogane, Limbe, St. Mark, Marmelade, Cape Nicolas Mole, Monte Christi, Nippes, Port-au-Prince, Port de Paix, Port Plate Tiburon, La Vega, Mirebalais and St. Jago." The overall description of the east one gets from Mackenzie is an underpopulated region with a plethora of untouched land and little investment in schools, trade, and industries other than mahogany exports, tobacco, cattle, and small-scale agriculture. Unfortunately, Mackenzie's travels don't reveal too much how ordinary, subaltern peoples of the east conceived of Haitian unification of the island, but talks with local white elites, members of the clerical community in Santo Domingo and monastic communities, and some meetings with Haitian military officials do reveal some of the complexities of the "occupation." 

1. Let's start with discussions of how subaltern sectors conceived of Haiti. According to Mackenzie, while traveling into today's Dominican Republic, he states that even blacks of the region referred to Haitians as "aquellos negros," an early possible instance of proto-Dominican distancing from their fellow black neighbors (Mackenzie Volume 1, 215). Now, this occurred while traveling en route to Santo Domingo in a rural and small towns around the Cibao. We also learn of instances of fear of military attacks or theft, since Mackenzie's travel party later in their journey have to convince an old black woman and her grandson to trade with them, initially fearing soldiers attempting to rob them (242). Likewise, while in Bani, someone tells Mackenzie that the military are in the habit of never paying for supplies when traveling, another indication of the unpopular military taking advantage of rural areas (306). However, some of these colonels and generals overseeing different regions and towns were of Spanish descent or had Spanish names, so western Haitians cannot be blamed for all military excess or abuse (314). All this seems to suggest the chance of soldiers engaged in marauding the rural population, something Mackenzie describes occurring a few times in the western half of the island, since some commandants and military officials were persistent in their attempts to enforce Boyer's Code Rural or just take advantage of rural areas. On the question of slaves who were freed as a result of Haitian abolition, we get a mixed bag where some retained very close ties to their masters while others pursued the soldier path for Haiti. He states the following on the former slaves while in St. Jago (Santiago):

Since the revolution and the establishment of the republican government, great fidelity had been displayed by the former slaves to their masters. They had never been numerous, the discipline never very rigorous, nor had the labour exacted been ever severe. One of the old proprietors, who, from having no other resource, remained with his wife and family, informed me that not one of the former slaves on a small sugar property near to the town had left him; that they retained all the old customs, called him still "Amo," and asked his blessing on their knees whenever he visited them. I had been told that in other parts of Spanish Santo Domingo, the slaves, who had been equally well treated with those of St. Jago, had, on the first proclamation of freedom, abandoned their masters to become soldiers, as being a more luxurious life (214).

So, we know that some ex-slaves abandoned their masters and became soldiers, which implies serving in the Haitian military. We also have evidence that the blacks of Santiago distinguished themselves from Haitians, "aquellos negros," which may reflect the close relationship of slaves to their masters in that town and white dissatisfaction overall rather than any general resentment or anti-black social distancing. Memories of Christophe's alleged atrocities committed during an 1805 invasion may also play a role here (213). In addition, the decline of the cattle trade due to Haitian suppression of free communication may have contributed to anti-Haitian sentiments among Santiago's citizens, particularly in a region where the 'castes' were mostly friendly and lacked any anti-white bias, or so Mackenzie reports (215). Furthermore, the Haitian state's appointed teacher for Santiago, was incompetent so the only school in the area was unstaffed, which may have contributed to unhappiness and bitterness toward their western neighbors (233). This region, however, is important, since it comprised about 1/6 of the the entire population of the eastern part of Haiti, with about 11,056 inhabitants of Santiago and its environs. 

While traveling toward the Ozama river, Mackenzie also met an ignorant, lower-class man, whose race is not clearly stated, who he describes in the following manner:

It seems that he procured his provisions at some distance from his residence, and that he sought them only once a-week. Now, if he sold his weekly stock, he would be obliged to make another journey, which he did not choose to do, although he had leisure enough to make it each day in the week. Profoundly ignorant, my host could give no information on any subject ; yet he spoke of his western neighbours with contempt, as inferior to himself and his countrymen of the east (242).

2. As for elites and other sectors of eastern society, such as clerical authorities and monastic communities Mackenzie interviewed in Santo Domingo, we have some clear signs of opposition or indifference to Haitian rule. For instance, the archbishop never took an oath of allegiance to the new government nor did he accept the salary offered to him by the republic (252). The university was also defunct due to lack of funding and government support, unlike the Spanish crown, which financed universities in their colonies (253). According to Mackenzie, these clerical authorities and officials formerly connected to the university believed that "the object of the existing government is to keep the people in a state of ignorance and barbarism, in order to facilitate the management of them" (254). Such an impression is an apt one, and speaks to not only Spanish Santo Domingo but also western Haiti, where the only educated people Mackenzie encountered were either members of the mulatto or colored class and those in the north educated during Christophe's reign and often competent in English. To their credit, the Haitian government, through the commandant Borgella, who oversaw Santo Domingo and its environs, they did maintain two hospitals in the city and active printing presses (267).

Mackenzie's description of Santo Domingo's racial diversity and conflict between soldiers from the west and resident priests are also useful for painting a picture of social relations in Haitian Santo Domingo:

The population is very mixed, consisting of all the classes and castes that are to be seen in the other parts of the island. The number of foreigners is considerably smaller, however, than at Port-au-Prince, Cayes, or the Cape; while the proportion of native whites and coloured people considerably exceeds that of the blacks. There did not appear to me to exist to the same extent as elsewhere, the prejudices which form so inveterate an obstacle to the consolidation of the Haitians as a nation having only one common feeling. I chiefly remarked that there was a considerable dislike between the resident priesthood and the soldiery from the west ; the one party regarding the other as a band of men without religion or principle, while they were deemed a set of fanatic bigots. All outward show of rancour has been subdued by General Borgella's adroit management of very discordant materials (269).

This tells us that Santo Domingo's racial diversity did not seem lead to as much prejudice based on color, and Through it all, Mackenzie expressed a belief in the capabilities of General Borgella and the passage of time to remedy some of the issues facing Santo Domingo, such as labor shortages, lack of capital, and Spanish inhabitants' resistance to the government (282). The Haitian government also met some of the demands of white easterners through the creation of loopholes allowing for white ownership of land, despite the troubling constitutional article, something Mackenzie sees as a white bill of rights for the east (290). That could not address all grievances of the easterners, however, since military service wherein the son of a western Haitian was more likely to advance made military conscription unpopular and the imposition of French instead of Spanish unsurprisingly made things worse (291). Other grievances include the lack of compensation for emancipated slaves, property liquidations, and imposing some of the debt for the French indemnity in exchange for France's recognition on "disfranchised Spaniards," which contributed to local resistance where the state's response was banishment and violence (292).

Clearly, Mackenzie's account of Haiti in the 1820s provides interesting and useful commentary for analysts of the complexities of race, class, linguistic, urban, rural, religious, and military characteristics of both sides of the island. The voices of the ex-slaves and black and colored eastern Haitians are rather silenced in Mackenzie's account, yet we have acknowledgement and support on the part of many eastern Haitians for being part of the Haitian state. Where there is opposition to the Haitian state, it's often based on things the Haitian state did on both sides of the island, not any singular persecution or anti-white bias of Boyer's government. Indeed, Mackenzie comments on white, Spanish-descended colonels and representatives in the Haitian government, which contradicts any facile interpretation of this period as one of Haitian imperialist aggressors (though there definitely is contempt for western Haitians on the part of some segments or regions of the east, particularly in Santiago and among the clerical community.

I plan on reading more sources from this period to better reconstruct how the popular classes perceived their western neighbors, so watch out!