Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was 1st President to recognize Haiti

Joined
Nov 26, 2009
Location
Miami, FL
Abraham Lincoln Was The 1st President To Recognize Haiti

I'm listening to CNN as I'm writing on forums today (Martin Luther King Day), and they just included in their coverage of the Earthquake In Haiti, a brief history of the island nation. CNN reported that the African slave revolution received its Independence from France in 1804, but wasn't recognized by the United States Government until 58 years later in 1862. I think I knew that, but I forgot that Abraham Lincoln was the 1st US President to recognize the Nation of Haiti.

- Brad Watson, Miami, FL
author of 7 Score & 4 Years Later
 
So that's why today is an excuse for the federales to take the day off!

Ol' Abe wanted Haiti as a place to repratriate slaves. Thomas Jefferson rejected appeals from Haiti for recognition and U.S. guidance in self-governance.

It wouldn't hurt if a few of our marketers would design TVs or clothing to be made in Haiti but, until recently (and I could be wrong) the country has been raped and pillaged by a few who have simply taken the offered aid and used it to build palaces -- in other countries.

Of course, that's an oversimplification, but I don't see GE setting up a factory so that the current dictator could skim off a crippling percentage to feed the coffers.

Haiti has nothing to offer except cheap labor. But the conditions of using that cheap labor has been so hinky that no one was interested in the investment. There were jobs aplenty in that island that are now filled in China, Taiwan, SE Asia and Mexico. Its government was the snag. Pay to play. And now it is still smothered under decades of corrupt government.

Neglected. Cast off.

Just an observation.

Ole
 
Thomas Jefferson rejected appeals from Haiti for recognition and U.S. guidance in self-governance.
Do you know what his reasoning was? Fear of slave revolts in the US, I assume, but I don't know.
 
I don't know his reasoning either, Ms. Hale. Just that Haiti asked and he rejected it.

Now, someone is going to ask where I read that. I don't know. We have people who take notes and know exactly where they picked up a tidbit. I'm not one of those. I've been reading CW for about 40 years. Until I joined this board, I hadn't met anyone who actually kept notes about what and where someone said something.

So in that resource thingy, I'm lost. Fortunately, I can skate on the notes of others who are much more focussed and alert than I am.

Ole
 
Thomas Jefferson & slavery

Thomas Jefferson is one of those enigmas from history. A great man and intellectual, yet, a slave owner who apparently made no real effort to condemn slavery or to free his own slaves while he was alive.

Abraham Lincoln was always anti-slavery from when he first encountered it as a youth. As an expert lawyer and politician, Lincoln was not considered a 'true abolishinist'. He realized one had to appear to be a moderate to gain political office. And once Lincoln had gained his first federal office - US representative to Congress - he submitted a bill to abolish slavery in Washington, DC. The bill was defeated and this coupled with his opposition to the Mexican War caused him not to win reelection.

Lincoln's recognizing Haiti was one of many anti-slavery acts that showed him to be a 'closet abolishinist'.

- Brad Watson, Miami, FL
author of 7 Score & 4 Years Later
 
Ol' Abe wanted Haiti as a place to repratriate slaves. Thomas Jefferson rejected appeals from Haiti for recognition and U.S. guidance in self-governance. It wouldn't hurt if a few of our marketers would design TVs or clothing to be made in Haiti but, until recently (and I could be wrong) the country has been raped and pillaged by a few who have simply taken the offered aid and used it to build palaces -- in other countries. Of course, that's an oversimplification, but I don't see GE setting up a factory so that the current dictator could skim off a crippling percentage to feed the coffers. Haiti has nothing to offer except cheap labor. But the conditions of using that cheap labor has been so hinky that no one was interested in the investment. There were jobs aplenty in that island that are now filled in China, Taiwan, SE Asia and Mexico. Its government was the snag. Pay to play. And now it is still smothered under decades of corrupt government.
Neglected. Cast off. Just an observation. - Ole

Ole,

A very good observation. About the only thing I would add to your statement is that Lincoln recognized Haiti for an additional reason: it was the right thing to do. Whether that was his primary reason, well, I'm prejudiced in favor of Lincoln, so I'll say he recognized Haiti because it was the right thing to do and he looked at Haiti as a optional destination for newly freed blacks as a secondary reason for formally recognizing the country.

- Brad Watson, Miami, FL
author of 7 Score & 4 Years Later
 
Ol' Abe wanted Haiti as a place to repratriate slaves.

Just an observation.

Ole
I think you are correct too. Lincoln was still thinking about colonization in 1862. Haiti, a country who's slaves won its freedom from Napoleon's troops, would seem to have been an ideal colony for some freed US slaves after the Civil War ended. It was much closer to the US than Liberia.

"Bernard ****, "an anxious manipulator," immediately sent Lincoln a letter informing the president of the availability of L'lle a Vache, an island off the coast of Haiti. Despite containing greatly persuasive language, Lincoln was hesitant to fall into the same situation as with Chiriqui. Due to extensive lobbying, however, Lincoln was swayed to consider the island as a site for a black colony. After negotiating a contract with ****, the island was ready to receive the blacks.

In the summer of 1862 a group of four hundred deportees was transported to L'lle a Vache. The experiment failed miserably due to "poor leadership, inadequate planning, want of essentials, unemployment, and the opposition of the Haitians themselves." t was eventually concluded that Haiti was too dissimilar to the United States to provide an adequate site for colonization. The differences in language, education, religion, and government prompted Lincoln to disregard Haiti entirely for future prospects.

Because of the ludicrous distance to Liberia, the aborted Chiriqui project, the unsuitable demands of the European nations, and the failed Haiti attempts, Lincoln was left with no feasible locations for colonization. He had eliminated every suitable possibility and had checked into even nonsuitable locations. He was forced to abandon the cause because of the lack of sites for black colonization, not because he had tired of the idea"

http://www.lib.niu.edu/1997/ihy970228.html
 
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