How France extorted Haiti for its independence

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Before departing for France in 1789, prior to the slave uprising, the marquis purchased 21 newly captured Africans. However, because he could not specify where they were employed, the commission assessed them at an average rate, down to the cent: 3,366.66 francs.

According to government announcements of the commission's rulings, it eventually gave Cocherel's daughter, a recently married marquise, average yearly payments of 1,450 francs, or approximately $280 in the 1860s, for dozens of years.

In 1863, coffee growers in Haiti earned roughly $76 per year, according to Edmond Paul, a Haitian economist and politician at the time – hardly enough to fund one meal each day of "the least substantive foods."

Money or war

The Haitian government quickly ran out of funds. It emptied its state coffers to complete its first payment, shipping it all to France aboard a French ship, wrapped in sacks within nailed crates reinforced with iron bands. That meant there was no money for public services. To collect the remainder, the French government used the war threat. 

In 1831 the French Foreign Minister wrote that “an army of 500,000 men is ready to fight,” to his consul in Haiti and added that “and behind this imposing force, a reserve of two million.”

In response, President Boyer signed legislation requiring all Haitians to be prepared to protect the country and constructed the lush neighborhood of Pétionville, out of cannon range.

Even French officials acknowledged that their threats had persuaded Haiti's government to invest in its military rather than surrender it to France.

A letter by a French diplomat in 1832 stated that “the fear of France, which naturally wants to be paid, does not allow it to reduce its military state."

Two French envoys arrived in Port-au-Prince in late 1837 with orders to establish a new contract and restart payments. The so-called independence debt was lowered to 90 million francs, and in 1838, another vessel returned to France with Haiti's second payment, which devoured a large portion of Haiti's income once more.

According to Victor Schoelcher, a French abolitionist writer and politician, the military vacuumed up another huge share. There was little left for hospitals, public works, and other parts of public welfare after that. Education had been allocated only 15,816 gourdes or less than 1% of the budget.

French authorities understood from the start how terrible the payments would be for Haiti. But they insisted on being paid, and for decades – with a few exceptions, most notably during moments of political instability – Haiti provided the funds.

The New York Times documented every payment Haiti made during a 64-year period, using hundreds of pages of historical data in France and Haiti, as well as scores of articles and books from the 19th and early 20th century, including one by the Haitian Finance Minister Frédéric Marcelin.

Haiti's payments to France drained more than 40% of the government's entire income in certain years.

After collecting a shipment of gold from Haiti in 1826, a French captain wrote to the Baron of Mackau, "They don't know which way to turn."

“After trying domestic loans, patriotic subscriptions forced donations, sales of public property, they have finally settled on the worst of all options,” the captain wrote, adding that 10 years of inflated taxes that were “so out of all proportion to the achievable resources of the country, that when each one sells all that he possesses, and then sells himself, not even half of the sums demanded will be collected.”