Liberty, Fraternity, Exile

Abstract

This book presents a unique history of the major Caribbean countries of Haiti and Jamaica from the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century expressed through the connections in their histories. The book explores simultaneously the post-slavery evolution of two once wealthy islands in close proximity as well as their place in a world dominated by great powers that alternately neglected and asserted control over them. The book demonstrates that the connections between Haiti and Jamaica grew both deeper and more complicated as the nineteenth century wore on and helped to shape the futures of each of these two major Caribbean nations. The Caribbean's tumultuous nineteenth century—a period marked by civil wars, rebellions, intervention, and imperial tensions in the arena of the Atlantic—saw profound changes in populations, as thousands of Haitians were allowed to emigrate to Jamaica long before large-scale Haitian migration to the United States. The Haitians who settled in Jamaica often included former and future presidents and other powerful members of the Haitian elite. The book considers this element closely by following two generations of three Haitian-Jamaican families and their activities in major events in the political histories of each island. Refugees, exiles, politicians, transients, abolitionists, laborers, merchants, writers, travelers, diplomats, and families—in this world of change and connection, the book argues, the historical trajectories of Haiti and Jamaica long after the Haitian Revolution and after Jamaica's 1838 emancipation come alive.

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