Decolonial Dominicanidades: Haiti’s Early Black Internationalism across Hispaniola

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Description for Program

In the Spanish part of Ayiti, Africans and their descendants struggled toward the ideals of abolition since the first Black passage across the Atlantic. In 1822, Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer’s unification of the Spanish and French-speaking parts of the island achieved the resounding abolition of slavery. During Boyer’s administration, previously enslaved people across Dominican society gained access to civil liberties and land rights. Boyer then extended an invitation to all Black brethren across the hemisphere, promising them land and agricultural tools so they could help build up Haiti. Upwards of 13,000 African Americans transversed the Caribbean sea to Haiti in 1824, and many more soon followed. Through these policies, Boyer started the first Black internationalist land reform movement, transforming many Black Dominicans into land-owning people. Yet, Dominican national history completely ignores Boyer’s contributions, overlooking how many Black Dominicans supported Haitian Unification (1822-1844).

This roundtable strives to decolonize this narrative by tracing the impact and legacies of Black land ownership and early Black Internationalist politics during the Haitian Unification era. Panelists will collectively reflect on their work from the respective fields of Black Women’s Intellectual History, Maritime History, and Urban Planning. Sophia Monegro will share the histories of proto-Dominican women who supported the Haitian Unification and how Boyer’s policies improved and restricted daily life for citizens in the Spanish part of Unified Haiti. Matthew Alexander Randolph will trace the impact of Boyer’s internationalist call for Black migration through the African Americans who migrated from Baltimore to Samaná, a transnational tale that made the bays of the Chesapeake and the Caribbean much closer than geography might suggest. Elizabeth Milagros Alvarez will examine the legacies of Boyer’s land policies by mapping how land acquired during the Haitian Unification was passed down for generations until the mid-20th century.

Sub Unit

• ASWAD

Chair

• Sophia Monegro, Washington University in St. Louis

Presenters

• Matthew Alexander Randolph, University of Washington

• Elizabeth Alvarez, Columbia University