Review of Lothrop Stoddard The French Revolution in San Domingo
How Haiti started. History book; not anthropology. And non-revisionist. Leaves more questions than answers. February 7, 2014
The final sentence is: 'The white race had perished utterly out of the land, French San Domingo had vanished forever, and the black State of Haiti had begun its troubled history.'
Lothrop Stoddard became an anthropologist; but this 1914 book seems to have been a history PhD dissertation; I may be wrong about that. However, all the notes at the end are from French sources, some apparently from Harvard's library.
Unfortunately this book is in the tradition of excitement and derring-do and frightful massacres, the sort of thing rather easy to describe and copy. Note the date: 1914. Soon there were to be far more spectacular massacres. (Incidentally, I'd guess parts of the 'Bryce Report', propaganda to keep the Great War continuing, were taken from, or suggested by, Stoddard's book). The hidden aspects of money, trade in weapons, diplomatic promises made and broken, are largely omitted.
Lothrop Stoddard's book The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (First published in 1920) is not reviewed here.
Its population predictions are along the lines suggested by modernised medical techniques introduced into areas previously without them; it's something like a reversal of Malthus, presumably fairly temporary. But note that Stoddard had no idea of the parts played by Jews in the 'Great War', or their race-based supremacist 'chosen by G-d' outlook, which propels them into aggression. So his book is not of much use in practical action.
Its population predictions are along the lines suggested by modernised medical techniques introduced into areas previously without them; it's something like a reversal of Malthus, presumably fairly temporary. But note that Stoddard had no idea of the parts played by Jews in the 'Great War', or their race-based supremacist 'chosen by G-d' outlook, which propels them into aggression. So his book is not of much use in practical action.
Stoddard describes the history from the early 1600s to 1789 of this and other islands in the region; and has a chapter on the geography, social conditions, and connections mostly with France, but also with Spain (before) and Britain (after). The French part of the island (to the west) became Haiti; it's something like the size of Scotland, and no doubt more important as a myth than a fact.
Then we have four chapters on race; I'm not very familiar with Stoddard, but it seems possible this material caused him to move into anthropology.
We have whites: some from long-established French nobility; some poor white 'adventurers'; some soldiers and sailors. And also whites born there, called Creoles, looked down upon by the whites who sailed from France; bear in mind that travel in those days was slow and must have been expensive.
Then mulattoes: these were called 'free people of color' (in French!) at the time. It's stated that black women wanted to have mixed race children, in perhaps the hope of advancement. There were very fine grades in type of mulatto; and a great deal of 'abhorrence of miscegenation', somewhat like the feeling of shock and embarrassment at 'bastards' at the time and later in Europe. However, similarly to South Africa and South America, mulatto numbers grew. Note that whites were definitely white, with no negro 'blood' at all; when Stoddard writes that whites had 'perished utterly' he didn't refer to mulattoes.
Then we have blacks: Stoddard doesn't call his chapter 'Blacks', but 'The Slaves', for reasons beyond me. Unexpectedly, perhaps, they were not fast-breeding, and in fact tended to decline in numbers: there was for all this time more importation of slaves, and moreover from increasingly distant parts of Africa; eventually even as far as Madagascar. This is now known to have been a Jewish trade. The cost of ships, food, payments in Africa, captain, crew and other things cannot have been low, though of course less per head. Much of the French part of the island (Columbus patriotically named the whole island Hispaniola) seems to have been by the time under discussion planted with sugar cane. Or perhaps cane was there already, but then cultivated. The slaves did the work; the work's described as back-breaking and agonising, but without detail. But there seems agreement that slaves weren't interested, and were whipped to make them work. 'Marrons' (anglicised into 'maroons') were escaped slaves: the climate was hot all year round, and the soil productive, so they we able to live in mountainous forests, occasionally launching raids. Note that 'Vaudoux' ('that fetishism which appears to be the native African religion') is the word from which 'voodoo' came. There are some accounts of blacks, not usually flattering—remember that central Africa wasn't visited by whites until many years later.
Stoddard's book will remind many readers of other events: it sounds a bit like Ireland; presumably there was more money in sugar (and rum distilled from it; and tobacco) than potatoes, otherwise Ireland might have been flooded with blacks. The pure whites (many were absentee landlords) sound (A BIT!) like Jews; maybe 'pure Jews' will be wiped out in the future? And Africa: is it the case that black just can't organise things? Many anecdotes suggest this; surely some of these French people would have been happy to live in Paris most of the time, paying off a percentage to some administrator?
Anyway Stoddard's story revolves around events in France, which were decisive. If the 'French Revolution' had never happened, what might have happened in San Domingo? I don't know, but surely it's worth considering. Stoddard gives little information on trade and money; almost incredibly, after years of slaughter, parts of the island recovered, and with Spanish trade started to flourish again.
Worth reading, but the book leaves very many questions.