Doc Papa Comes to Power
-July 28, 1934 Haitians
celebrated both Stenio Vincents
election
Also the American withdrawal,
giving proof that they again
controlled their collective destiny.
Hundreds and thousands of landless, and
unskilled, chose to migrate to the richer
worlds of their Caribbean neighbors.
No matter the conditions they wielded their
machetes and cut cane.
1937 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista
expelled the Haitian can cutters.
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo had much hate
towards Haitians and took action by
beginning bloodletting, and filling the rivers
of blood that flowed of Haitians.
In a massacre unparalleled in the
Caribbean or North Am. Dominican
national Policy and army rounded up
Haitian men, women, and children and
systematically slaughtered them.
Dominican Vespers began October 2nd
and lasted 3 days
20,000-30,000 Haitians were Bludgeoned
and bayoneted. Brought to sea where the
sharks finished them off.
Few thousand escaped to die or recover
400 made it to cap Haitien Hospital, Am
journalist Quentin Reynolds interviewed
them, preserving the horror for history.
Dominican Vespers confirmed w/o
Americans that Haiti was at the mercy of
its neighbors, even little neighboring
The Vespers were the bloodiest single
paragraph in Haitis twentieth century
history.
QUESTIONS:
were the vespers merely a deadly racist
plot by light-skinned Dominicans and
Haitians to dispose of unwanted blacks?
Or were Trujillo and his henchmen
avenging their own ancestors cut down by
Henry Christophes men in Santo Domingo
of Feb 25, 1805?
December 24, 1939 Dr. Francois Duvalier
married Simone Ovide. Age 32 barely
surviving professionally.
-Shy, pedantic, poor, and black.
-Refused as a Army doctor b/c of poor eyesight
-Got salary from small medical consultant at the
-Emile Seguineau clinic.
-Ashamed of private sorrow of his own family life
-Resentful that his mother was a madwoman
Simone Ovide
Wife to be shared similar qualities
What Duvalier analyzed, Simone believed
What he studied, she practiced
What he hypothesized, she knew
They were a match made in heaven.
President Lescot: firmly in control of
crucial military and made the immensely
political move to declaring war on Japan,
Germany, and the axis five hours before
the U.S did.
Secure in power, he jailed Haitis wealthy
German and Italian merchants and
confiscated all their assets, including
businesses.
In may Eucharistic congress, churchmen
as a group threw themselves into
eradicating Vodou.
One weapon was a catechism (book of
instructions) that forced people into
eradicating Vodou they all believed in.
What is the name the boungans
give to Satan?
The name given to them are the Loas
(spirit), angels, saints of death, the scared
twin.
They take their names to deceive us more
easily.
Catholics were to swear they would never
attend a Vodou ceremony
Also destroy or be destroyed as soon as
possible all the fetishes and objects of
February 22, 1942
The defeat of the anti-Vodou vendetta
Unknown assimilations riddled a Catholic
Church with gunfire as its priest celebrated
an anti-Vodou mass
Haiti Land of Vodou, would remain
Vodouesque
Vodou
-Essentially cosmogonic, philosophic, and
spiritual.
-Symbols show cosmic forces, sciences
daily evolved towards an ever clearer
conception.
-Philosophic Provides concepts of both
material being and the soul.
-Spiritual because it proclaims the survival
of the soul in sanctifying the spirit of the
Duvaliers Interest in Vodou
Equally interested in what it could do.
Present days it perpetuated the African
Past
Inspired the slave to such an indomitable
pitch that it effectively caused Haitians
Independence.
Wanted to see what it could also do for
him.
Yams Death and Cures
Crippling tropical disease affecting 3
quarters of all Haitians, and highly
contagious.
Refer to page 55 first paragraph.
President Elie Lescot
U.S would support a military coup against
Lescot
Haitians rich/poor hundreds of thousands
expressed outrage and joined in a national
strike against him.
Respond furiously, taking most dramatic
measures to reestablish order
Days later Lescot was deposed 3 man
military junta replacing him until his
Dumarsais Estime
Slogan Un Noir au Pouvoir (A black man
in power)
Increase daily minimum wages from thirty
to seventy cents
More workers earned munificent salary,
encouraging local business to expand
foreign investors to come.
Creating tourist spots where they spent
money, which provided more jobs.
Contd
Relied on secretary for labor, Dr. Francois
papa Doc Duvalier, later public heath and
labor ministers.
In government office blacks now sat at
desks and were important, Haitians soon
understood that with black man in power
all blacks could rise up like cream to float
at the top.
But didnt last long.
Contd
Blacks in power were no less corrupt and
greedy than mulattoes, scandals erupted.
Hatred between blacks and mulattoes
resurfaced stronger then ever.
Mulattoes found an ally in black colonel
Paul Magloire. Wanted to grab power from
Estime
Mulattoes behavior
Devoted themselves entirely to A
snobbish attitude, Distinguished manner,
impeccable clothing, good birth, money,
risk and intrigue.
Fought social justice, dominated the
government, scorned the black masses
Estimes 1946 revolution had managed to
restrain them. He disliked white people
and hated mulattoes with all bitterness of
the disadvantaged black.
January 1, 1954
Gonaives, Magloire presided the
finest over moment, the one hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of Haitian
Independence.
Paul Magloire
Despised by Duvalier
He jailed peoples darling Port-au-prince
Deputy Daniel Fignole arrested all those
who he believed responsible for
distributing tract demanding that soldiers
against him.
Rounded up unfriendly journalists and
sought out and jailed all other opponents.
1965 Paul Magloire finished
term but fought ferociously to
Four candidates were power. him
remain in to replace
Clement Jumelle urban proletariats favorite
Daniel Fignole; the elite son
Louis Dejoie
Francois Papa Doc Duvalier
In may, students struck to demand his resignation
Malgloire clung to power no matter what, but later
American Ambassador and the papal nuncio united
Coverage of my Talking point.
French colonial city of Jeremie 2
main camps:
Black minority Duvalierist
Mulattoes elite Dejoieist
Jeremie was a microcosm of Haitian
society
Intermarriage between blacks
and mulattoes
For the most part it was acceptable, only if
blacks were successful males and the
mulatto a woman
No mulatto man dared disgrace his
familys name by darkening its blood with
a black wife.
Benefits of being a mulatto
Casual social intermingling was limited
Mulatto partied at the exclusive Excelsior
club
Politics especially was skin colored, with
Jeremines mulatto elite ruling the city ever
since Haitian Independence
Pros and Cons of being black
against mulattos
Aspiring blacks had no to be content with
the Essor club, recently founded by SaintAnge Bontemps
Dumarsias Estimes elected in 1946 the
Essor club had rejoiced
Black Haitians could hold up there heads
in pride after centuries of humiliation.
Estimes downfall
Proportionately devastating
Noiristes hated Magloire and saw his
regime as a betrayal of Estimes
Revolution.
Numa accused of distributing antiMagloire, were hanged from a beam and,
as their naked body hangs, they were
whipped until their flesh ran with blood and
became senseless
Antoine Jean-Charles
Joined the Bontemps and numas in prison
after his conviction for inciting the people
to rise up and torch the houses of the
hated mulattos bourgeoisie
Later Bontemps and Jean-Charles were
found guilty and sentenced to death
1957 election campaign
Long and deadly serious
4 candidates made their way throughout
Haiti, spreading promise and hope.
Fignole and Duvalier fought massive black
vote
Jumelle, and Magloire style racial
moderate, they wooed most blacks and
mulattos monolith that would otherwise
belong to mulatto Dejoie
Duvaliers campaign
An astute move was to endorse womens
vote to establish Faisceau Feminin or
feminine Torch a womens group devoted
to Duvaliers election
Young woman named Rosalie Bosquet
most intelligent workers
With Duvalier around she quickly would
gain notoriety
From the beginning Duvalier knew how to
attract and keep the kind of supporters
Contd
Duvalier new what to say, his organizers
did their homework.
Each speech reflected the specific
concerns of its audience.
He had absolute integrity and sincerity, no
trace of arrogance, and the common touch
of the hundred of thousands of people he
took care of with the Contagious Yams
disease.
Contd
Told people what they wanted to hear,
addressed main problems so that if his
words not oratory were irresistible.
People liberate themeselves from the
slavery installed 6 years ago by Paul
Eugene.
Duvaliers supporters
He appeared everywhere with his wife,
Simone at his side.
Father Duval
Madame Dumarsais Estime beside them
sometimes even his own young children
Jumelles campaign
More humanistic and modern, had the
support of some of the blacks and the
mulattos.
They appreciated his emphasis on efficient
administration and a technocratic approach to
government
But he was to closely related to Magloires
scandal riddled regime to have any significant
following.
Dejoies Campaign
He was considered the darling of the
farmers in certain rural areas
He was also a mulatto favorite
Universal suffrage only gave mulattos 10
percent
Many old mulatto families stayed neutral
during the whole campaign, observing with
great prudence how things would turn out.
September 22, 1957
Jumelle and Fignole had been eliminated
Duvalier faced only Dejoie
Story of their elimination is one of the first
indications of Duvaliers stunning ability to
diagnose his countrys politics and to jab
the right remedy in the right place
May 25th
Haiti was rocked by a mini civil war, to
delight of Port-au-Princes mob who
rushed to the battle ground to Carnival
As gunfire killed 17 and shattered scores
more Fignole deserted Dejoie and met
with Duvalier and Jumelle
A deal was struck between 3
Next day astonished Haitians learned that
new provisional leader was Daniel Fignole
Contd
This was not a smart move for Fignole
19 days Fignole was Haitis president
General Kebreau Betrayed Fignole having
him arrested. Page 67
People screamed and wanted their
Fignole back, but it was the machine guns
that ended their silence in the cities
March to free Fignole started and ended In
violence.
Contd
Crowd was angry. Tramped out of the city
they crushed cares with catapults
improvised from inner tubes powerful
enough, they need 4 men to operate
Shot out streetlamps, darkening the city,
set fires, cut the fire hose of trucks sent to
extinguish them
Police came and shot down thousands,
those who ran were chased down a killed.