Istwa Nou

The documentary record of Haiti has been destroyed over and over. Fire, explosion and theft account for most of the loss. The National Palace blew up in 1869 and took its papers with it. The 1804 Act of Independence passed into the hands of foreign collectors and was missing for the better part of two centuries. Colonial officials removed what they wanted when they left, and later occupiers did the same. Anyone writing the history of the country therefore works largely out of the diplomatic archives of Washington, London and Paris, because that is where continuous series of reports about Haiti actually survive. The Heinls call this a Thucydidean problem, since the events are known chiefly through the accounts of outsiders who were interested parties. Every quarrel about Haitian history runs into it. Claims that cannot be checked against a surviving document turn into myth, and myth about Haiti has never been scarce. Sovereignty includes control of the record of what you did.