| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Cazale, Cap-Haïtien, Fond-des-Blancs, Jacmel, La Baleine, La Vallée-de-Jacmel, Port-Salut, Saint-Jean-du-Sud | |
| Languages | |
| Haitian Creole, French, Polish | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism, Haitian Vodou | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Polish diaspora |
Polish Haitians [lower-alpha 1] are Haitian people of Polish descent, dating to the early 19th century; a few may be Poles of more recent native birth that have gained Haitian citizenship.
Cazale, a small village in the hills about 30 kilometres (19 mi) away from Port-au-Prince, is considered the main center of population of the ethnic Polish community in Haiti; however, there are other villages with prominent Polish communities such as Les Cayes and Saint-Jean-du-Sud. [1] Cazale has descendants of surviving members of Napoleon's Polish Legionnaires [2] which were forced into combat by Napoleon but later joined the Haitian slaves during the Haitian Revolution. Some 400 to 500 of these Poles are believed to have settled in Haiti after the war. [3] They were given special status as Noir (legally considered to be black, not white despite actual race) and full citizenship under the Haitian constitution by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of an independent Haiti. [3]
In 1802, Napoleon dispatched a Polish legion of around 5,200 men to join the French forces in Saint-Domingue to suppress the Haitian slave rebellion. The Poles may have been hoping to receive French support in restoring Poland's independence from its occupiers—Prussia (later Germany), Russia, and Austria—which divided the country in the late 18th century. [4] Some were told that there was a revolt of prisoners in Saint-Domingue. After they arrived and began to be thrown into battle, the Polish platoon learned that the French were trying to suppress an uprising by enslaved Africans fighting white slaveholders for their freedom.
Both French and Polish soldiers had high mortality, with more dying because of yellow fever than being killed in warfare. It is estimated that 4,000 of the 5,200 Polish soldiers would die throughout the course of the war. [5] Surviving Polish soldiers admired their opponents, and some 500 or so of them would eventually turn on the French army and joined the rebelling Haitians. [6] Out of those Polish soldiers who remained alongside the French, some intentionally failed to properly follow orders and refused to murder captured prisoners. [7] The Poles would find kinship with the Haitians and many would come to believe that the former slaves were fighting for the same ideals of freedom and independence to which they, the Poles, aspired. [8]
In return, the Poles would find support from the people of Haiti who sympathized with their shared mistreatment at the hands of the French. [9] One fervent supporter of the Poles was Boisrond-Tonnerre. He would come to believe that both the Poles and the Haitians shared a history of fighting against tyranny. The shared value of liberty would lead Boisrond-Tonnerre to refer to the Poles as "the white negroes of Europe". [10] Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski, who was half-black, was one of the Polish generals but died of yellow fever soon after reaching Saint-Domingue. [11] [12] Polish soldiers are credited with contributing to the establishment of the world's first free black republic and the first independent Caribbean state.
After Haiti gained its independence, Dessalines recognized the Poles and spared them when he ordered the massacre of most French whites and many free blacks (mulattos) on the island. He granted the Poles classification as Noir (black), who constituted the new ruling class, and in the constitution granted them full Haitian citizenship. [13] Cazale became a center of their community. Descendants of Polish-Haitians were peasants like the great majority of most of the residents on the island. Cazale was sometimes called home of Zalewski, as many locals believed that was the source of the name. Zalewski is a common name, and the Haitian Creole word for home (kay) may also have been part of its history. [14]
Haiti's first head of state Jean-Jacques Dessalines would join Boisrond-Tonnerre in calling the Polish people "the White Negroes of Europe", which was then regarded a great honour, as it meant brotherhood between Poles and Haitians. About 160 years later, in the mid-20th century, François Duvalier, the president of Haiti who was known for his black nationalist and Pan-African views, used the same concept of "European white Negroes" while referring to Polish people and glorifying their patriotism. [15] [16]
In 1983, Pope John Paul II visited Haiti. He mentioned how the Polish contributed to the slave rebellion leading to Haiti's independence. For this visit, two Catholic priests went up to Cazale and asked a number of Polish Haitians (though historical sources cannot agree on how many were invited) to dress up in "traditional clothes" and attend the Papal speech and associated ceremonies. [3]
One of the most revered Polish religious symbols is the icon named the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. It is thought to have been absorbed by Haitian Voodoo as Erzulie, or Ezili Dantor. This image of a black Virgin Mary holding the dark-skinned Infant Jesus influenced the vision of one of the Haitian Loa spirits. [17] It is thought that Polish soldiers may have carried her image to Haiti during the Napoleonic Era.
To this day, Polish Haitians are mixed race and often identified by such European features as blonde or lighter and straighter hair, light eyes, and facial features. Of course, there were other Europeans on the island, including some who arrived after the war. Initially most Poles settled in Cazale, La Vallée-de-Jacmel, Fond-des-Blancs, La Baleine, Port-Salut and Saint-Jean-du-Sud, where they lived as peasants, along with their Haitian wives and families. [18]
The recorded history of Haiti began in 1492, when the European captain and explorer Christopher Columbus landed on a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. The western portion of the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti is situated, was inhabited by the Taíno and Arawakan people, who called their island Ayiti. The island was promptly claimed for the Spanish Crown, where it was named La Isla Española, later Latinized to Hispaniola. By the early 17th century, the French had built a settlement on the west of Hispaniola and called it Saint-Domingue. Prior to the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. After the war which had disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported indigo, cotton and 72 million pounds of raw sugar. By the end of the century, the colony encompassed a third of the entire Atlantic slave trade.
Henri Christophe was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was the first Haitian Emperor, leader of the Haitian Revolution, and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Initially regarded as governor-general, Dessalines was later named Emperor of Haiti as Jacques I (1804–1806) by generals of the Haitian Revolutionary army and ruled in that capacity until being assassinated in 1806. He spearheaded the resistance against French rule of Saint-Domingue, and eventually became the architect of the 1804 massacre of the remaining French residents of newly independent Haiti, including some supporters of the revolution. Alongside Toussaint Louverture, he has been referred to as one of the fathers of the nation of Haiti. Dessalines was directly responsible for the country, and, under his rule, Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery.
Saint-Domingue was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1697 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer specifically to the Spanish-held Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. The borders between the two were fluid and changed over time until they were finally solidified in the Dominican War of Independence in 1844.
Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski was a Polish military officer who served in the French Revolutionary Army during the Napoleonic Wars. He is the first known Polish general of African descent.
Èzili Dantò or Erzulie Dantor is the main loa or senior spirit of the Petro family in Haitian Vodou. Ezili Danto, or Èzili Dantò, is the "manifestation of Erzulie, the divinity of love." It is said that Ezili Danto has a dark complexion and is maternal in nature. The Ezili are feminine spirits in Haitian Vodou that personify womanhood. The Erzulie is a goddess, spirit, or loa of love in Haitian Voudou. She has several manifestations or incarnations, but most prominent and well-known manifestations are Lasirenn, Erzulie Freda, and Erzulie Dantor. There are spelling variations of Erzulie, the other being Ezili. They are English interpretations of a Creole word, but do not differ in meaning.
The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was the only known slave uprising in human history that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery and ruled by non-whites and former captives.
The Battle of Vertières was the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, and the final part of the Revolution under Jean Jacques Dessalines. It was fought on 18 November 1803 between the enslaved Haitian army and Napoleon's French expeditionary forces, who were committed to regaining control of the island.
The Danube Legion was a unit of Poles in the service of Napoleonic France. It was also known as the 3rd Polish Legion.
The Saint-Domingue expedition was a large French military invasion sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc in an attempt to regain French control of the Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, and curtail the measures of independence and abolition of slaves taken by the former slave Toussaint Louverture. It departed in December 1801 and, after initial success, ended in a French defeat at the Battle of Vertières and the departure of French troops in December 1803. The defeat forever ended Napoleon's dreams of a French empire in the West.
The Haitian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on 1 January 1804 in the port city of Gonaïves by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marking the end of 13-year long Haitian Revolution. The declaration marked Haiti becoming the first independent nation of Latin America and only the second in the Americas after the United States.
Joseph R. E. Bunel was a representative of the Haitian Revolutionary Government, who negotiated the first trade agreement between his nation and the United States, in 1799.
The 1804 Haiti massacre, also referred to as the Haitian genocide, was carried out by Afro-Haitian soldiers, mostly former slaves, under orders from Jean-Jacques Dessalines against much of the remaining European population in Haiti, which mainly included French people. The Haitian Revolution defeated the French army in November 1803 and the Haitian Declaration of Independence happened on 1 January 1804. From February 1804 until 22 April 1804, between 3,000 and 7,000 people were killed.
Jean Baptiste Brunet was a French general of division in the French Revolutionary Army. He was responsible for the arrest of Toussaint Louverture. He was promoted to command a light infantry demi-brigade at the Fleurus in 1794. He led the unit in François Joseph Lefebvre's division in the 1795, 1796 and 1799 campaigns. He was the son of French general Gaspard Jean-Baptiste Brunet who was guillotined in 1793.
Afro-Haitians or Black Haitians are Haitians who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. They form the largest racial group in Haiti and together with other Afro-Caribbean groups, the largest racial group in the region.
The Indigenous Army, also known as the Army of Saint-Domingue was the name bestowed to the coalition of anti-slavery men and women who fought in the Haitian Revolution in Saint-Domingue. Encompassing both black slaves, maroons, and affranchis, the rebels were not officially titled the Armée indigène until January 1803, under the leadership of then-general Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Predated by insurrectionists such as François Mackandal, Vincent Ogé and Dutty Boukman, Toussaint Louverture, succeeded by Dessalines, led, organized, and consolidated the rebellion. The now full-fledged fighting force utilized its manpower advantage and strategic capacity to overwhelm French troops, ensuring the Haitian Revolution was the most successful of its kind.
During the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), Haitian women of all social positions participated in the revolt that successfully ousted French colonial power from the island. The 1791 revolt of enslaved individuals in Saint-Domingue was the most extensive and prosperous slave rebellion in recent times. In spite of their various important roles in the Haitian Revolution, women revolutionaries have rarely been included within historical and literary narratives of the slave revolts. However, in recent years extensive academic research has been dedicated to their part in the revolution.
Saint-Domingue Creoles or simply Creoles, were the people who lived in the French colony of Saint-Domingue prior to the Haitian Revolution.
Independence Day in Haiti is celebrated annually as a public holiday on every 1st of January along with New Years Day, commemorating the nation's liberation from the French Empire. It also marks the birth of the world's first independent black republic, one achieved through an unprecedented successful slave revolt with the Haitian Revolution.
Haiti–Poland relations refer to the bilateral relations between Haiti and Poland. Contacts date back to the Polish contribution in the Haitian Revolution in the early 19th century, with diplomatic relations established after World War I. Both countries are members of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
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