"... the fact of having in one's residence cabalistic objects serving to exploit the credulity or the naïveté of the public."

The United States Occupants have "take[en] advantage of [the] civil unrest,” and appointed themselves somewhat in control over Haitian commerce.

“Only one side of the story is heard abroad, that given by U.S. newspapers.”

Along with that most of the government is now being taken into the hands of US men of law who carry authority in the US as former judges supreme of the supreme  court, law professors, etc. These people stand for the US occupation in Haiti.

The US military also had big control over the access that the Haitian people had by taking control of the ports and imports of resources from other nations. 

They had religious control by making Christianity the main religion of the Island and banning any form of “superstitious practices”

The US military held a lot of power over their own personal.

They would send their troops out to find poor black people with little governmental power who they could use as “carovées”, which were the equivalent of a slave, and threaten to fire or demote their own people if they didn’t accomplish their task:

• “if [they] didn’t come back with at least thirty men, [US Marine] Lang would demote [them].”

Art. 5.: “The right to own real estate shall be given to foreigners residing in Haiti... for the purpose of residence, agricultural commercial, industrial or educational enterprises. “

What role did the part in the constitution about letting outside people use the land play in determining how the US could use Haitian land?

What larger role do you think Vodou played in the occupation era resistance, leading to your large emphasis on it?

How did resistance to each aspect of the US occupation (indirect through political meddling and treatises, and direct military intervention) manifest during the era, and how did they each impact Haitian independence from the US?

Vodou is an Afro-Haitian religion practiced by many Haitians. Vodou had and still has very discriminating connotations in the West. In America, people would associate Vodou with sorcery and only see the religion as harmful.

In reality, Haitians who practice Vodou believed in giving thanks to spirits and gods through community-based outlets, ie. dance, ritual, and prayer.

The economic development of Haiti was under The U.S.’s control. From 1915 to 1934, the U.S. implemented extreme measures to exert power over Haitian land and government.

They gained control by drafting and implementing a new constitution for the country. One notable change in the new constitution was allowing foreigners to own land in Haiti.

A specific power tactic that they used was forced labor and the Corvée system.

• Even after the abolishment of slavery during the Haitian Revolution, the Haitians were not free. The Corvée system, if not identical, was very similar to slavery.

French was the only acceptable language to be spoken when you weren’t in your home, and the lower class only spoke Krèyol or Creole. 

The mass illiteracy in the lower class was one of the barriers that barred them from understanding all of the systems and policies put into place by the United States during its occupation of Haiti.

Keeping them in the dark the entire time while their economy, government, and politics were being controlled entirely by the United States, making them pawns in their own country.

The illiteracy also stopped the lower-class Haitians from being able to fully expose the United States and the atrocities that it committed on the Haitian people and the Corvee labor they endured because they couldn’t document it or know the processes of reporting a government official. 

Social class played the most prominent role in Haiti’s economics, social, and political powers because the United States and the 5 percent of wealthy elites controlled everything from the economy to what languages were spoken.

After establishing itself using the treaty changing and constitution, the U.S. began to build the infrastructure of Haiti in a way that allowed it to gain as much as it could from Haiti.

To make trade and travel more accessible for U.S. commercial companies, they forced Corvee labor onto Haitians to fix and construct new roads, and if they didn’t, they were killed.

The U.S., while occupying Haiti, suppressed all and any political groups that were against them, like the Cacos, and to do that, they denounced them, killed their leader, and displayed his body in the open. 

The U.S. government worked with the Catholic Church in the suppression of Vodou and went through the countryside and destroyed religious artifacts. 

To make the already existing catholicism the dominant religion throughout all of Haiti and not just a religion primarily practiced by only the wealthy.

The upper class wanted to change the narrative that Haiti wasn’t civilized, so they banned voudou and any religious dances; only social vodou dances would be allowed, Resulting in imprisonment for six months if violated. 

All of what the U.S. does in Haiti is very similar, if not the same, as what the French did when Haiti was under colonial rule.

Control

• The control the foreign colonizers have over Haiti and the people either from Haiti or they brought to Haiti for slaves. Not only did they have control over the people but also the government. They were careful to create laws that would benefit them and not the Haitians or the slaves they had control over. "The repressive laws were not made for the colonists, and especially not for the big planters; everything was permitted them."(The Colonial System Unveiled)

Misinformation

• Misinformation being sent to other countries and the lack of actual information of what is going on in Haiti. Colonizers have been shown to have a way to cover up their actions with the power they hold and the people they are allied with. "[The historians who have written about the colonies] have entered into the greatest detail regarding crops, climate, the rural economy, but they have been careful not to rend the veil for crimes of their accomplices."(The Colonial System Unveiled)

  
  

Roumain was an influential writer and political activist and was one of the leading figures during the U.S. occupation

Roumain argued that although color prejudice was a reality in Haiti, the true problem hiding behind it was class warfare and the mass exploitation of middle and lower class Haitians

"Exposing the economic oppression that has a social and political ripple effect"