From owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu Fri Nov 15 13:15:27 2002
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 09:04:32 -0600 (CST)
From: Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>
To: Haiti mailing list <haiti@lists.webster.edu>
Subject: 13683: Stiddem: Did the Underground Railroad Lead to Haiti? (fwd)
Sender: owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu
Did the Underground Railroad Lead to Haiti?
A dialog from Bob Corbet's Haiti list, 15 November 2002
From: StiddemDavid@aol.com
I have heard that American slaves from the southern states, seeking
freedom through the so-called underground railroad
may in fact
have found their freedom in Haiti. Does anyone know of any
documentation on American slaves settling in Haiti? Know of any
present-day families or communities in Haiti descended from former
American slaves?
David R. Stiddem
StiddemDavid@aol.com
From owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu Sat Nov 16 09:09:33 2002
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 07:34:36 -0600 (CST)
From: Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>
To: Haiti mailing list <haiti@lists.webster.edu>
Subject: 13692: Krause: RE: 13683: Stiddem: Did the Underground Railroad
Lead to Haiti? (fwd)
Sender: owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu
From: Paul Krause <krause@interchange.ubc.ca>
Regarding African-Americans in Haiti in the 19th Century, the best overview is C. Dixon, African America and Haiti. Dixon himself did not go to Haiti to see if there are any descendants of the 3,000 or so emigrants who settled there from 1861-65. The overwhelming majority of these died or returned to the mainland. While in Haiti several years ago when I was doing research on one family who emigrated to the Artibonite in 1861, I did some digging regarding the question of contemporary descendants of the emigres. No luck.
From owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu Sat Nov 16 14:09:16 2002
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 12:09:43 -0600 (CST)
From: Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>
To: Haiti mailing list <haiti@lists.webster.edu>
Subject: 13704: Harvey: Re: 13692: Krause: Did the Underground Railroad
Lead to Haiti? (fwd)
Sender: owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu
From: sean harvey <seanharvey@juno.com>
You were probably unable to locate traces of the African-Americans who migrated to Haiti during the early 19th century because almost every single one of them wound up on the east side of the island, in what is now the Dominican Republic but at the time of the emigration was part of Haiti. Most of the migrants were shipped out to areas that were in need of economic development—notably the Samana Peninsula. You can stil find English-speaking descendants of these migrants in Samana, and they have an African Methodist Church which was erected there for them by donors from the US. Many of the younger generation have pretty much fully integrated into the Dominican culture at this point, but during the Trujillo era they persisted in maintaining their language and culture despite sustained persecution from that dictator.
Dr Martha Ellen Davis clarified to me once that these migrants were not escaped slaves but rather freemen from the northern US states who were sick of living in a slave-owning nation and had saved up money for the passage.
sean harvey