"Socially, the last had become first."

Wow!!! As I read about the Haitian Revolution from 1791 - 1804 I wondered where I had been all this time since I had never heard of it before. After reading a few chapters I went to page 511 to look it up in the map, couldn't believe it was so small. I felt so proud of what they had done and the movement they had started.

I was impressed to read that Haiti, then known as Saint Domingue, produced 40% of world's sugar and half of world's coffee. As I read on I was saddened to read that although the previous sounded great, the labor was done by the native people who had become slaves. The numbers are unbelievable, yet true, there were 500,000 slave, 40,000 whites and only 30,000 free people of color, wow!

As I continued to read I found out that they;

"were only completely successful slave revolt in world history ...

second independent republic in Americas and

the first non-European state to emerge from Western colonialism.

( Ways of the World by Strayer page 509)"

After some reflection, of what a great victory these people had and being in awe of they achievement I continued my reading waiting to know more. I again felt saddened to hear that although they had become independent and although they were at once leaders in making sugar and coffee that it no longer was so. The book goes on to share that people were so afraid of another take over by slaves or the oppressed that they tightened up the rains because they didn't want to see that happen again.

I read this I was also thinking that since Europeans were in charge of goods and trade, that they wouldn't want to trade with Haiti. Then I was thinking that after the war, the land was destroyed so badly that they couldn't even produce as much. My thoughts went on to think about how they were psychologically, emotionally and physically. Then I went off to have many questions;

*Could these people just get up and start working the land like before?

*Would they relive their trauma as they worked the land and could they surpass it?

*What were their believes of the land?

*Did they want to continue to exploit the land and resource?

*What resources did they have to rebuild their lives?

* and my list of questions can go on

I went on to finish the chapter but kept thinking about Haiti. Before the reading, I had mainly heard about the country through the news when they were hit with the quake and then through a news report on missionaries helping out. I wanted to learn more but couldn't remember if I had watched the news report on Newsline, 20/20 or PBS. I decided to do a search to learn more.

For once, this book has truly gotten my attention and it has even gotten me look up more info :)