Carnaval Dominicano: Carnival depicting the history of slavery and sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic

Deep Rooted Issues Between Haiti and Dominican Republic Still Exist

Haiti and the Dominican Republic:An Island divided

One of the main causes of issues between dominicanos and hatians: the hatian massacre led by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.

The Cultivation of Sugarcane Still a Big Business in Dominican Republic

The Fight to Sustain Freedom in Santo Domingo

         

     Hatian Revolutionary, Toussaint, abolished slavery in Santo Domingo when he had gained control of the island after all of Hispaniola came under French rule. He was focused on unifying the island to make sure that slavery stayed abolished throughout the entire island and to eliminate an advantageous location that the europeans could attack Haiti from. Although slavery was abolished in many cases the landowners would move to another colony with their slaves One of the problems he had with unifying the island was that even though technically the island was under french rule many of the people still considered themselves Spanish.Their national solidarity and way of life had already been established.

             Before the first abolishment of slavery the majority of people who lived on Santo Domingo relied on a livestock and subsistence agriculture based economy instead of the tobacco and sugar plantations on the other Caribbean islands. In efforts to improve the economy and to increase the wealth of the once spanish colony, Toussaint took steps to reform the agricultural system and the working habits of the people of Santo Domingo. He issued a number of limitations placed on the lands a new proprietor could be granted. According to Frank, "Toussaint ordered the inhabitants to work on lands already settled since it would be imprudent to start new settlements while the old ones decayed". Drawing from his experience in Haiti, he then wanted the landowners to produce the most profitable crops in the caribbean such as sugar, coffee, and tobacco for export.

             Therefore freedom for the slaves who lived on Santo Domingo meant that they would go from growing crops simply for subsistence and would be forced to work on these new sugar and coffee plantations. The slaves were faced with doing even more work than they had been doing before when they were supposed to be free just so that Santo Domingo could also compete in the world market and profit. As a result many slaves felt that that were back in slavery and that the forced work on the new plantations replaced slavery. As a result slave support for Toussaint had been weakened.

            Due to the fact that most of the population of Santo Domingo was creole, spanish, then black, when the French came to invade Santo Domingo many of them supported the french as they had not been too keen on the idea of receving orders from a black governor. The demographic of Santo Domingo also correlated with the majority of the spanish colonists supporting the notion of slavery and their support of the french against Tousaint and his army. In addition, slavery was resestablished in Santo domingo and then abolished again. The idea of freedom was uncertain when it came to the slaves and constantly changing as the colony was passed between france, spain, and later Haiti. Many of the colonists who had slaves fled to places such as Philadelphia where instead of being slaves, men, women, and children alike were signed on for the maximum number of years as indentured servants. The difference between the adults and the children was that the children could serve several periods of indentured servitude.

            Although after Santo Domingo gained independence they were able to sustainably and permanently abolish slavery, before doing so freedom was viewed as uncertain and fragile to the slaves. Even when slavery was abolished the first time the slaves were ordered to do more than they had been doing before they had attained their "freedom". Also, slaves were faced with becoming slaves again in the War of reconquest and becoming indentured servants on other colonies. Therefore freedom was not yet grasped and fully experienced by many Santo Domingo slaves until after a series of conquests and invasions.

Dunbar, Erica Armstrong. A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City. New Haven: Yale UP, 2008. Print.

Moya, Pons Frank. The Dominican Republic: a National History. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1998. Print.

The Journey to Make Slavery an Idea of the Past

            The effects of the French and Hatian Revolution rippled throughout all of Hispaniola and were experienced by colonists and slaves in Santo Domingo in that it led to the abolishment of slavery in Santo domingo as well as Haiti. In response to the French revolution, Spanish commanders helped slave rebels such as Toussaint in their fight against the french because they figured they would be able to get their lands back from the French. What actually happened was the slave rebels turned and fought against them in the name of France after slavery was abolished in Haiti.

              The end result of all of the Spanish and french conflict during this time was the Treaty of Basel which stated that Spanish had to give up Santo Domingo to the French and had a year to do so and could move to Havana. Since many of the Spanish colonists and religious leaders had property and revenues tied up in santo Domingo, they were very reluctant to leave and were further deterred from leaving upon hearing about how bad others were doing in Havana. In contrast, the Spanish did not agree with the french on the topic of slavery. According to Frank Pons, "The spanish knew that in December 1795 Governor Laveaux had declared the slaves found in the spanish colonies would be freed". This still did not speed up their delivery of Santo Domingo to the french.

            This resulted in Toussaint leading an army to push the spanish out of Santo Domingo so that the island could be united under french rule and in february 1801, the french flag replaced the spanish one. Then Toussaint completely abolished slavery across all of Hispaniola and took steps to solidify the union between santo domingo and saint domingue. In 1802, Napoleon sent french generals to oust Toussaint's troops and reinstitute slavery in Santo Domingo with the support of spaniards and creoles. This french rule of Santo Domingo lasted for some time, then eventually Haiti invaded Santo Domingo and abolished slavery once again.

            In conclusion, the main driving forces behind the end of slavery in Santo Domingo was the french revolution, Toussaint's vision to abolish slavery and untie the island, and the Hatian Revolution because of the strategic access Santo Domingo could give to european forces against Haiti. The Spanish did not want to end slavery in Santo Domingo and attempted to reinstate it several times, even going so far as helping the french to do so. In the end Hatian involvement abolished slavery in Santo Domingo.





Moya, Pons Frank. The Dominican Republic: a National History. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2010. Print.

Geggus, David Patrick. "Haitian Revolutionary Studies - David Patrick Geggus." Google Books. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=BAy4XwFE3AsC>.

The Hatian Revolution's Effect on Santo Domingo

               Due to the fact that Saint Domingue and Santo Domingo both shared the island of Hispaniola, the events of one of the colonies many times directly affected the other. Therefore in order to fully assess the Hatian Revolution's effect in Santo Domingo, one must delve back into the history of Hispaniola.

               Hispaniola was first colonized by Spain when Christopher Columbus arrived on the island which was inhabited by the native Tainos. Then the Tainos and some poor europeans were put to work in the gold mines. Soon after Spain utilized African slaves for labor since the Taino were dying in dramatic numbers due to disease and harsh conditions. Eventually the supplies of gold were being depleted which cause the worth of the island to the Spanish to diminish. Meanwhile, French buccaneers began to inhabit the northwest part of Hispaniola which was Tortuga and eventually began to colonize the western part of hispaniola, Since the Spainish's power was on a decline, the signed the Treaty of Ryswick which officially divided the island of hispaniola between the french (saint domingue) and spanish (santo domingo). Santo Domingo started off as a very profitable island but when the spanish lost interest in it, Saint Domingue rose as the most profitable Caribbean island because of its huge cultivation of sugar, cotton, and tobacco by the use of African slave and taino labor. Therefore slavery was the turning wheel and driving force behind the wealth of the island. The slaves worked day in and out under cruel and sick conditions they faced on the plantations. they were seen as property and nothing more. Many died, had deformities, or had faced cruel and harsh punishment while in slavery such as branding, cutting of one's foot or hamstring, whipping, sexual abuse, splitting up of families, and gelding. There was also a caste system and ranking due to skin color, freedom, heredity,religion, and race

                Therefore there were many slave revolts, espcially after the french revolution in France. Many slaves felt that they should also recieve liberte, egalite, and fraternite even though the Europeans did not even see the slaves as people. The Hatians, led by toussaint, fought for their freedom and slavery was eventually abolished. According to allempires, Toussaint led the fight for independence of saint domingue from the french and was succeeded by Dessalines. After Haiti became independent from the french they wanted to make sure that the europeans would not be able to colonize Haiti again so in order to ensure this they took over the whole island. This did not go over well with the Spanish who returned and brought Santo Domingo back under spanish rule. Then the spaniards tried to re establush slavery in santo domingo, while trying to bring hatians there to work as slaves, but the Hatian government took control of santo domingo again and abolished slavery on the whole island of hispaniola. The dominicans wanted their independence as well so they resisted the Hatians and offically became independent in 1844 and was then named the la republica dominicana.

                  Santo Domingo was directly affected by the Haitian revolution in that they were numerously taken control of by the french, Haiti, and the Spanish during that time. At first, Toussaint took over santo domingo under the name of the french, then the spanish took it back, then it was put under the rule of Haiti several times once they were independent in order to ensure their indepedence and to prevent the isle from having anymore slavery but the Spanish outsted them and tried to reestablish slavery only to be fought by Haiti again. Even though slavery was abolished, the rule of Santo Domingo constantly switched hands and they were never officially independent until 1844, 40 years after Haiti became independent. This also caused a rift in Haitian and Dominican relations due to events such as Haiti's constant attempts to rule Dominican Republic, the spanish trying to reestablish slavery, bringing hatians to Santo Domingo to work as slaves, and also the hatian massacre which occured years later by Dominican dictator Trujillo.

"Dominican Republic History by Hispaniola.com." Dominican Republic Travel Guide. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. http://www.hispaniola.com/dominican_republic/info/history.php.

"The Conflict Between Haiti and the Dominican Republic - All Empires." Web. 06 Nov. 2011. <http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=conflict_haiti_dominican>.