Haiti in the Last Years Under Boyer

It's refreshing to read John Candler's account of Haiti in the early 1840s. Unlike Brown and Franklin, with their white supremacist outlook and seemingly pro-slavery stance, ( by the way, Candler's Brief Notices of Hayti can be accessed here), Candler, a Quaker abolitionist who visits Haiti with his wife, offers an optimistic and positive view of the situation on the island. The following are some areas where Candler offers some important commentary or enlightening facts and figures on Haiti in the last years under Boyer.

The "aristocracy of the skin" lived on under independent Haitian governments. For instance, in certain areas of the country, such as Port-au-Prince, mulattoes nearly monopolized the under-funded schools of the city. Candler also describes a Haitian mulattress who speaks ill of blacks and wishes there was a way to compel them to labor. Overall, Candler does not describe too much colorism in Boyer's Haiti (while Jonathan Brown asserts that Boyer's regime did everything it could to prevent an ascendancy of blacks in the government), but it's clear that mulattoes were disproportionately powerful in the regime. On the question of social relations between blacks and mulattoes, there is mention of most mulatto women never marrying black men, since producing children with darker skin than themselves is not generally seen as a positive thing. Yet, while in Jacmel, Candler met a mulatto widow whose husband was a black man, so black-mulatto marriages were far from unheard of. On the other hand, whites still enjoyed special privileges in Haiti. Indeed, despite prohibitions on whites owning property in Haiti and citizenship rights, a white American became the mayor of the town of St. Marc!

On the question of the economy, Candler is more optimistic than most. Haiti, based on exports to the US, was the third largest exporter to the US economy at the time, and tobacco production, coffee, and mahogany/wood were the most important exports.  In defense of independent Haiti, we see that coffee production only went down by perhaps 12 million from its zenith in Saint Domingue, an example of Haitian economic success without slave labor. Based on his relationship with prominent Haitians in the government, such as Inginac, Candler was given official government documents and uses those to arrive at estimates for government revenues over the years. Based on Haiti's small population and the amount or value of exports, Candler comes to the conclusion that the reality of Haitian exports and commerce are actually quite impressive. On the question of Haitian peasants, he is more mixed than most, defending their liberty and autonomy more so than others, yet blaming heathenism, ignorance, the lack of education, and superstition (some of which is encouraged by Catholic priests, according to this Quaker writer) for languishing agriculture:

 

Candler is quite disturbed by public nudity of children, the absence of proper medical coverage and religious or moral instruction, and clearly is too focused on the export-oriented model of economic development. However, as a product of his time and eager to see a future of profitable but non-slave British colonies in the Caribbean, individuals such as Candler saw Haiti as an experiment on the possibility of free black labor in the hemisphere. Perhaps this may come into play in his seemingly admirable words on the relatively equal manners or relations between landholders and their workers in Haiti, proving that less hierarchical or unequal power relations in agriculture could still be workable or profitable. Therefore, profitable plantations and small estates tied with an export economy remained essential for proving the beneficial future of non-slave societies in the British West Indies. The following selection from Candler's text is quite illustrative of the profitability of Haiti and the importance of its exports to the United States:

The over-sized military budget and Boyer's agreement to compensate former French planters of Saint-Domingue were a great burden on the Haitian economy, however. The standing army was reduced to about 25,000 in 1840, but it was a constant drain on the budget. Candler urges for a further reduction of the military, since those men's labor could be used in agriculture or industry and therefore remove additional financial burdens on the state (and needless to say, the average Haitian soldier was not well-paid!). Out of a perhaps total population on the island of 850,000 (overwhelmingly on the western side), Candler estimates that nearly 1 out of 15 people were in some shape or form engaged or called up to be engaged in the military or guard of Haiti. 

In addition to problems with the military, Candler does not hesitate to criticize the weakness and incompetence of the courts, the military fueling petty crime and theft, and during an interview with Boyer, who emphasizes the youth of the Haitian nation, is defensive of the progress made in Haiti. Since he did not visit the Spanish-speaking provinces, Candler offers little commentary, but he does speak highly of the increased tobacco production and exports from the area around Santiago and of population increase in that part of the island. Thus, Candler's account of Haiti in 1841 is one that, though largely silent on the Spanish side, does reveal some admiration and appreciation of Haitian progress and abolition. As a Protestant, he is not too positive on Catholics, since some Catholic officials perpetuate superstition among the peasants or overcharge for services such as baptisms, and of course one would not expect Candler to be fond of Vodou. Yet, compared to Jonathan Brown, his account of Haiti is not racist and speaks to an optimism that much of the international abolitionist community believed. Indeed, while traveling in parts of Haiti, Candler, who also met two American abolitionists, comments on the hypocrisy of America and Great Britain for their practices of slavery yet proclaiming themselves the freest countries of humanity. 

Interestingly, like many other European and white travelers in Haiti at the time, we see a mulatto-centered history of Haiti emerge. Black leaders such as Dessalines and Christophe are disparaged, insulted, or seen as nothing but tyrants. Fortunately, unlike Mackenzie and others, Candler has a more nuanced version of that period in Haitian history, and speaks highly of the education system established by Christophe in Cap Haitien. Candler basically sees Haiti as an experiment on the moral necessity of abolition and human progress, in accordance with his Quaker sympathies. The Boyer regime must get it together by prioritizing funding for education (especially for girls) and many other things (infrastructure, reforming civil institutions, etc.), but Candler's account gives no prediction of the 1843 revolution.