From Dessalines To Duvalier Chapter Summary

Darien Wellman

Latin American History

Dr. Nadel

October 22, 2014

In the book, From Dessalines to Duvalier, author David Nicholls focused his attention on the two biggest elements that shaped Haiti’s history: class and race. He used the timeline between the Haitian Revolution of 1804 and the fall of the Duvaliers between 1970 and 1980. The author uses class and race as his biggest themes in order to show how these elements affected the lives of both the elite mulattoes and the black peasants. While the mulattoes had used the influence of French whiteness as their reasoning to separate themselves from the peasant class, blacks hated them for using the very same European influences that had lead to the famous revolution in Haiti. The author uses

a variety of different sources such as books, journals, letters, historical quotes and reviews in order to show how these two themes affected Haitians between two centuries.
The author first started with the 1800s and the series of events that took place.

After the revolution, the author discusses the changes in power in how leaders like Dessalines and Christophe both had tried to start the plantation system all over again. This was due to the fact that there was no other real source of income to rely on at the time other than the plantation system. Later on Haiti could create its first independent constitution which recognized guaranteed equal treatment to all residents of Haiti. However, this would soon change as legal and regional distinctions became evident which would lead to problems over distribution of land among mulattoes and blacks. This problem was recognized by revolutionary leader Dessalines who said in a historical quote (in Ibid VI) “The sons of the colonists’…have taken advantage of my poor blacks” (Nicholls

38).
As the issue became more persistent in the later years of the 1900s, the author then goes on to show how there was a new problem that emerged which was the American occupation of Haiti. During this period there would be hostile confrontations between Americans and the Haitian people. However, most of the resistance would come from the peasant class who did not want the Americans coming in to take control of their land. The author mentions the different resistance groups such as the Cacos who would become the marines’ main targets. As the occupation continued the author does mention how you begin to see the elites starting to join with the peasants in protest against the occupation. One of the biggest reasons was due to the fact that the Americans did not care if there was a mulattoe elite class in Haiti. To them they were still blacks just like the peasant class. The author uses examples in the book Le negre masque to back up this claim.
In the last sections, the author discusses Francois Duvalier during his reign and their effects on the class structure in Haiti.

Between his reign from 1957 to 1971, Francois Duvalier is known for being a ruthless dictator and oppressing anyone who he believed was against him. He even targeted opponents within the Catholic Church. Though, according to the author Duvalier was able to gain some favor “among the black middle class and among the peasants in the country” (Nicholls 237). In the case of the wealthy elite, the author says that many of them “were opposed to the government, though most of them were prepared to reach some kind of compromise when they became convinced that they could not overthrow it”(Nicholls 237). It is clear to see from the author that when it came to color, Duvalier made no

distinctions.
Overall, the book itself is an interesting read. It contains good solid summaries of all the historical events that occurred in Haiti over the past two centuries. The part I found interesting was learning about how class and race still continued to be an element that affected the politics and the lives of Haiti and its people. But what is even more remarkable is how even though the two sides did not like each other, they were times when they were able to put aside their differences whenever an outside force came to take over. They may have had different reasons and motives for joining in an unrecognized alliance, but it still happened. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of Haiti.