Confronting Black Jacobins by Horne Gerald;

Author:Horne, Gerald;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Published: 2015-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

9

The U.S. Civil War, the Spanish Takeover of the Dominican Republic, and U.S. Negro Emigrants in Haiti, 1860–1863

ACCORDING TO THE NOTED HISTORIAN Rayford W. Logan, the “voluntary submission” by Santo Domingo “to the restoration of Spanish sovereignty is probably unique in the history of modern colonialism.” This was just one of a number of startling events in the early 1860s, including the attempt by Jane and William Cazneau—who were foiled in their effort to forge a U.S. treaty with the Dominican Republic—to organize the “American West Indian Company” for the purpose of developing large cotton plantations on which they planned to deploy in Hispaniola enslaved Africans from the mainland—and elsewhere. Presumably, this could have meant that U.S. Negro emigrants now residing uneasily on the north side of the island might have found themselves trapped by what they thought they had escaped: bondage. An inauspicious signal emerged when the ruling Spanish authorities closed what were viewed as “heretical” Methodist churches, which catered to these emigrants.1

Not accidentally, as Fort Sumter was about to be assaulted, Puerto Plata too was about to come under siege. This bastion for U.S. Negro migrants was agog when in late March 1861 the British envoy there saw the Dominican flag “replaced by the Spanish flag,” so “that the Dominican Republic will cease or has ceased to exist” as an “independent nation and become an annexed province of Spain!” His view was that “the people” were neither “satisfied or contented” by this annexation and all were “rather apprehensive of an outbreak of the lower classes” with “disturbances” expected.2 For as the Spanish flag was hoisted throughout the land, there was not a cheer, not a groan, not a gun was fired; there was silence and melancholy and astonishment—though this turned out to be calm before the storm.3 Another British agent found that the “mass of the population” viewed “with great uneasiness the contemplated transfer” to Spain of the Dominican Republic He noted as well that an “attempt at rebellion” was inevitable not to mention a “threatened Haitian invasion.”4

The onset of the U.S. Civil War in early 1861 was a clear signal to Spain to take advantage of Washington’s preoccupations. By the following April, Washington found that “trouble is again brewing between Hayti and Spain” with the latter demanding the “ancient boundaries” of the Dominican Republic, i.e. more Haitian territory, and promising “grave trouble” if this did not occur. There was a “desire & intention to pick a quarrel with Hayti . . . bringing the whole island under either the Spanish or French rule”—but, ironically, this was a prod for the United States to recognize Haiti so as to foil rivals. Though the United States was amidst civil war, its emissary demanded that a “half dozen” warships be sent to Haitian waters immediately.5

What had prompted the Spanish takeover was what had been the obsession of Santo Domingo since secession in 1844—the fear of a Haitian takeover. Spain too found it hard to accept that numerous enslaved Africans continued

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