Mulatto Haitians

Mulatto, a term borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese, is often used to refer to the light-skinned Haitian elite. However, its use in academic sources is contested; Matthew J. Smith argues that the term "acknowledges phenotype but does not necessarily refer to social status". A multiplicity of terms are used in Haitian Creole to refer to light-skinned people beyond mulatto (e.g. Griffe, Marabou, Métif, Quarteronné, etc.).^[4] Some contemporary authors prefer use of the Kreyòl Milat to refer to the Haitian elite including but going beyond its light-skinned component; Smith invokes a quote attributed to Jean-Jacques Acaau, the black leader of the Piquet Rebellion of 1843: "Nèg rich se milat, milat pòv se nèg" (A rich black is a milat, a poor milat is a negro).^[5] In this article, mulatto is used to refer to light-skinned individuals in Haiti and the social class which they are often a part of.

Additionally, while the divide between mulattoes and black Haitians has been widely observed and discussed in academic sources, its formal invocation in Haitian politics has been at times frowned-upon, obfuscated, or outright denied. President Jean-Louis Pierrot, a black general himself perceived as a figurehead of the mulatto elite,^[6] introduced a "race relations act" in 1845 which criminalized "idle talk about color likely to spread dissension among Haitians and provoke one against another".^[2] Mulatto politicians in the mid-19th century justified their control of the state by claiming that the divide was one of competence, not race: Edmond Paul, an ideologue of the largely mulatto Liberal Party, made its slogan "power for those most capable" (as opposed to the National Party's slogan of "the greatest good for the greatest number").^[5]

Mulatto people in Haiti, who were definitionally Saint-Domingue Creoles due to their birth on the island of Hispaniola, first arose from the rape of female black slaves by their white, French enslavers in Saint-Domingue in the second half of the 17th century. Many were freed by their fathers at birth, while others bought their freedom. At the time of the Haitian Revolution, identification as mulatto was often synonymous with the class of gens de couleur libres lit. 'free people of color'. When free, mulattoes occupied a privileged position relative to the enslaved, black majority. They often worked as artisans, plantation managers, and soldiers, and tended to be educated and literate. An important forerunner to the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution was the abortive rebellion of Vincent Ogé, who was executed after demanding the right to a vote for gens de coleur in 1790. Deep fissures existed between mulattoes and black slaves, and the groups clashed in the first decade of the Haitian Revolution. However, many mulattoes, including notable figures such as Alexandre Pétion, André Rigaud, and Jean-Pierre Boyer eventually aligned themselves with the black revolutionaries after it became clear that a recapture of Saint-Domingue by Napoleonic France would lead not only to the reestablishment of slavery, but also a curtailing of the rights of gens de couleur.^[7]^[8]

After the French were expelled, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a black ex-slave, became the first leader of an independent Haiti in 1804. Mulatto discontent with his rule resulted in his 1806 assassination and the establishment of a northern state ruled by ex-slaves (the State and later Kingdom of Haiti) and a southern one ruled by mulattoes (the Republic of Haiti). The partition ended with the victory of the mulatto faction under Jean-Pierre Boyer in 1820. This mulatto victory heralded the beginning of a lengthy period of mulatto domination of Haitian politics and society, whereby mulattos often controlled the levers of state and trade while the overwhelming majority of black Haitians remained agricultural laborers.^[9]^[4] Under President Boyer, the stagnation of the economy led to the lines between mulatto and black Haitians sharpening, with the mulatto establishment becoming the undisputed elite of the republic. However, black Haitians chafed under the decades of mulatto rule under Boyer, necessitating the establishment of a tactic dubbed politique de doublure lit. 'politics of the understudy', whereby black figureheads were installed as leaders with mulatto sponsorship, often for very brief and tumultuous terms. The first such "understudy" was Philippe Guerrier. The system of politique de doublure mostly endured, with a notable interruption under the rule of Faustin Soulouque (1847-59), until the beginning of the US occupation of Haiti in 1915. Race relations continued to be defined by conflict between mulattos and black Haitians, particularly in the form of piquets and later cacos, rural black smallholders and tenants who periodically rose up in rebellion against the central, mulatto-dominated state. Additionally, after 1867, a two-party system emerged into a Liberal Party, which mostly represented the interests of the mulatto elite, and a National Party, which aligned itself with the black majority.^[10]^[11]^[2] Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave, a mulatto, became president upon the commencement of the US occupation, and his successors under American rule would also be mulattoes. Historians have identified the occupation as a retrenchment of mulatto power. However, mulattoes came to resent the occupation due to the paternalistic and racist attitudes of the occupying Marines, who treated mulattoes and blacks with equal disdain despite the distinct identities of each group (see one-drop rule).^[12]

The American occupation created the Gendarmerie of Haiti, which became the Garde d'Haïti upon the departure of US forces. The Garde, a professionalized military force which would become the Haitian army, was majority-black, but dominated by mulatto officers. Black elements of the Garde overthrew Élie Lescot, a mulatto promoted under the American occupation and friendly with Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, in 1946. The 1946 coup inaugurated a period of black ascendancy in Haitian politics. Dumarsais Estimé, who would succeed the black junta, established himself as the candidate of the growing black middle class, and promoted black culture, such as voudou, as a viable part of Haitian society in opposition to the Catholic mulatto elite.^[13] After Estimé's fall and the brief rule of Paul Magloire, mulatto candidate Louis Déjoie was decisively defeated by the populist, black former minister of labor, François Duvalier. Duvalier was an avowed enemy of the mulatto elite, and promoted négritude, an ideology promoting Haiti's black heritage and culture over the oft-europeanized culture of the mulatto elite. Despite this, he married a mulatto, Simone Duvalier, and official policy toward the mulatto elite under "Papa Doc" more reflected antipathy than persecution or hatred. Nonetheless, Duvalier's championing of the black middle class precipitated the introduction of black Haitians into the country's elite class, and thus a rupture in the highly calcified Haitian class system. Duvalier's son, Jean-Claude, also married a mulatto, Michèle Bennett, and his technocratic administration shied away from the more pro-black policies of his father.^[14]^[15] The salience of mulattoes in Haiti as an exclusive, distinct, and elite class has been challenged by the entry of black Haitians into the Haitian upper class since the end of the American occupation.^[5] Mulattoes remain prominent in Haitian society: recent mulatto heads of state include Raoul Cédras^[16] and Michel Martelly.^[17] Additionally, racial conflict remains a fixture of Haitian politics: Martine Moïse eulogized her slain husband as a fighter against the "mulatto oligarchy", while others classified President Moïse as yet another black "understudy" chosen by President Martelly.^[18]

Nomenclature and use

History

See also

References and footnotes

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