Istwa Nou

Bernadel's punishment shows how gender, social standing and the occupation's authority over the street worked together. The women went back to selling and the gendarme declined to stop them, which suggests that when they could, Haitian women refused to be changed by the paraphernalia of military authority. The gendarmerie carried out the daily business of the occupation. It collected vending taxes, settled disputes, attended accidents and made arrests. It was composed largely of Haitian nationals trained to fight their own fellow citizens and to impose laws written by foreigners, and it is arguably the longest lasting thing the occupation left behind. Recruits came from every sector of society and most of them were working class and peasant men. They were given a small wage, housing in barracks, and classes in literacy and artillery. That combination made the force one of the few routes out of poverty available at the time. Their relationship to the nation stayed tenuous, and Haitians were divided about the gendarmerie then and have remained divided about it since.