Haiti is not in debt, Haiti is a creditor, it is France which owes Haiti money

France has probably never forgiven Haiti for the tens of thousands of slaves who rose up in the armed uprising that led to history's first abolition of slavery resulting in the loss of revenue from its slave system and thousands of destroyed sugar and coffee plantations.


Haiti France Reparations Controversy

Haiti paid very dearly: in 1825, the country was forced to pay France 150 million gold francs (i.e. France's annual budget at the time) intended to "compensate" the former slave master colonists for loss of "ownership" in exchange for recognition of its existence as a nation-state.

The ransom was imposed under the threat of military invasion: on the 17th of April, 1825, a fleet of 14 warships were assembled in the bay of Port-au-Prince, ready to intervene, suggesting a possible restoration of slavery in the case of insubordination.

This ransom extorted from the Haitian people for "daring" to achieve independence, was renegotiated thirteen years later, in 1838, to 90 million following an agreement scandalously named "Traité de l'amitié" (Treaty of friendship).

With generations weighed down by the weight of an illegitimate debt, Haiti, which has struggled for years to emancipate itself from French tutelage and free itself from slavery, would pay, from 1825 to 1893, every last cent of the ransom to its former colonists.

For Louis-Georges Tin, president of the Representative council of black associations (Conseil représentatif des associations noires - Cran), "the money must return to the Haitian state and Haitian civil society.

The time has come to amend this double punishment suffered by the island, slavery then ransom. The destitution of Haiti is due to the payment of these 90 million gold francs, which forced the country to become indebted over decades".

Read the full article, Haiti: From trafficking to debt @ cadtm.org

What do you think about that?

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All Comments (2)

Goldstein says...

hello woodring,
i agree totally with your point of view
regarding the money france owes to haiti.

Reply  ... More

Tontonbob says...

Totally agree.

France should pay Haiti back the current value of that

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