Haitian Americans

Immigration History

The Haitian slaves who fought on the side of the U.S. revolutionary armies did not set roots in the United States. Soon after the end of the hostilities, they were returned to their masters in Saint Domingue. In 1791, at the onset of the Haitian Revolution, thousands of slaves from Saint Domingue were brought to Louisiana, New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia by their French masters to weather the impact of the uprisings and await Napoleon's victory over the insurrectionists. When the Haitian Revolution triumphed in 1804, and as the French colonists finally realized that they would not be returning to Saint Domingue, these immigrant slaves were retained in the United States, still attached to their French masters. Subsequent to the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, and on being freed at the end of the U.S. Civil War, the Haitian slaves and their progeny became part of the U.S. Black community, adopting an African American identity.

Later, as Haiti was occupied by the United States between 1915 and 1934, small numbers of Haitian intellectuals, artists, poets, and professionals settled in Harlem and, together with their African American counterparts, played significant roles in the Harlem Renaissance movement. A decade or so later, during the economic boom years that followed the end of World War II, Haitian workers (mostly females) were recruited by the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince to work in the garment manufacturing industry and in the service sector in cities and communities throughout the United States.

However, it was during the later years of the 1960s, as Haiti was reeling under Duvalier's iron rule, that Haitian migration to the United States began to surge at a very feverish pace to reach its all-time high levels. Duvalier, who ruled Haiti with U.S. consent and support between 1957 and 1971, indiscriminately imprisoned, murdered, and forced into exile many professionals, business people, students, and entrepreneurs—whether or not they were guilty of plotting against his autocratic regime. Other cadre professionals, fearing for their safety and that of their families, left on their own and went abroad in search of political security and improved economic opportunities. In addition, during the late 1960s, international organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States, along with countries such as Canada and France, recruited the remaining Haitian professionals and skilled workers and encouraged them to leave Haiti as well.

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