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Revolution on Hispaniola...

Hispaniola was plagued with violent rebellions throughout the eighteenth century, particularly on the French-held western side of the island, which had been partitioned with Spain in the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick. Saint Domingue, as the French side was called (now Haiti), was an immensely prosperous colony, particularly in terms of the sugar trade. On the eve of the French Revolution in 1788, Saint Domingue produced roughly three-quarters of the world’s sugar trade (and some forty percent of the world’s sugar crop), and the colony’s external trade was superior to that of the United States. Saint Domingue had a large and deeply stratified population of over 500,000 inhabitants, including 40,000 whites, 30,000 free people of color (Affranchis), and 450,000 slaves. This population was divided by the colonial system into three classes, the colonizers, the Affranchis, and the slaves, each with unique circumstances and freedoms. Race remained the primary determiner of social status, leaving the Affranchis, who frequently held comfortable positions as wealthy merchants, land owners and slave holders, free from any political power or equality with the white colonists. As the Affranchis economic power grew, they became increasingly demanding of political power on par with the white colonists. This was repeatedly denied. At first, the Affranchis were key components of the white colonists’ system of rule, staffing the militias and the army, and often hunting down escaped slaves for profit. But as the white colonists continued to horde power, even in the face of rapidly growing Affranchis and slave populations, the Affranchis switched sides. As the French Revolution in 1791-92 brought into the question the French practice of oppression versus equality for free colored peoples, so too did the issue of the rights of the Affranchis in the French colonies become increasingly pressing. White colonists of Saint Domingue strongly considered declaring independence from France, for fear of falling from power in the light of seemingly inevitable reforms within the French colonial system. Swept up in the wave of political emancipation that had begun transforming the French empire, the Affranchis rebelled against the white colonists, killing many, and were soon joined by the massive slave population, who rebelled massively on August 22, 1791. Out of the ensuing chaos that would at times involve both the English, who fought a proxy war against France via the slave and Affranchis armies, and the Spanish, who allied with the slaves from their holdings on the eastern side of the island, came the nation of Haiti on January 1st, 1804. Haiti holds the dual distinctions of being the only successful slave revolt in history, as well as being the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere after the United States.

The History of Haiti
Author: Coupeau, Steeve
Published: Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2008.

Narratives of Superiority...

On Christmas eve, 1492, while most of the crew of the Santa Maria were asleep, an inexperienced helmsman grounded the ship on a shoal. A cacique named Guacanagari from a nearby village helped in salvaging the wreck, and trust in his hospitality allowed Columbus to leave thirty-eight crewmembers behind while he sailed back east.
Guacanagari’s people came very quickly with a fleet of large canoes and ferried the cargo of the Santa Maria to shore. The Alguazil reported that Guacanagari wept on hearing the news and periodically through the night sent his relations and lieutenants weeping to Columbus to console him. The rescue was more effective than anything Columbus could have hoped for, and the contents of the Santa Maria were quickly shuttled to shore and piled on the beach. Guacanagari cleared out two very large houses in his village for the Spaniards use. Columbus was royally treated upon visiting Guacanagari’s village, with a feast, and the gift of a carved mask, with gold ornaments as eyes. Over the nest few days a "genuine and remarkable rapport" developed between the two men that would last for several years.
In part because of Columbus’ vulnerability after the sinking of the Santa Maria and in spite of their almost complete inability to communicate verbally, Guacanagari and Columbus relationship emerges as one of "near-parity and mutual respect and acceptance." In the rest of the brief contact period on Hispaniola, this kind of alliance was almost unknown.
Columbus returned east, leaving his detachment of 38 men behind at the new Spanish settlement. When he returned, they had been killed, and the settlement had been destroyed.
Guacanagari gave his account of the situation, as recorded by Pietro Martyr d’Anghiera: “There are on the island, which is very large, a number of kings, who are more powerful than Guacanagari; two of these, disturbed by the news of the arrival of the Spaniards, assembled considerable forces, attacked and killed our men and burned their entrenchments, houses and possessions; Guacanagari had striven to save our men, and in the struggle had been wounded by an arrow.”

Columbus and his fellow conquistadores were masters at displaying the superiority of Iberian civilization, through elaborate landing parties and rituals at each island they reached.
According to Las Casas, “The Admiral took weapons and went to shore in his armed boat, taking all the people it could hold. The Admiral took the royal banner, and the two captains carried banners with the green cross which they flew on their ships as their emblem—with an F which stood for king Don Fernando, and and I, for queen Dona Isabel, and above each letter a crown, one on one tip of the cross, one on the other.”
As for the Tainos, they too gave immediate indication of their future ability to resist conquest and conversion in their first impression on the Spanish.
Again according to Las Casas: “The Indians, who were present there in great numbers, were astounded watching all of these actions by the Christians, and were taken aback by their beards, white skin, and clothes.” As for the Indians, “...the Christians advanced to look at the Indians, no less amazed than the Indians were to look upon them; so great was their gentleness, simplicity, and confidence among people they had never known, despite their wild looks, and they could as easily have taken fright and fled from the Christians; it was marvelous how they walked among the Christians as if they were fathers and sons; how they walked about as naked as when their mothers had bore them, with such nonchalance and simplicity.”
Columbus describes the Tainos: “They do not have weapons, or even know about them, because when shown a sword they grabbed it by the blade and cut themselves out of ignorance. They do not have iron; their arrows are a kind without metal, and some of them have points made from the tooth of a fish. They are fairly tall and good looking, well made. They should be good and intelligent servants, and I believe that they could be converted into good Christians, for it does not appear that they have any other religion.”
References:
Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus
Author: Wilson, Samuel Meredith 1957-
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990

Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer:Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline Authors: Tink Tinker and Mark Freeland

A Few Fearless Warriors...

The Conquistadores of the island of Hispaniola were none other than Christopher Columbus and his crew, financed by the royal courts of Castille and Aragon. They were aboard three small ships, and sailed out of sight of land for about a month before arriving in the Caribbean. The Taino Indians were the first group that encountered the Europeans as they explored the New World, and Hispaniola was the first foothold for the Spanish colonization and remained the most important base of operations in the New World for thirty years. The Taino were therefore the first to taste the savage penchant for cruelty and disease brought by the Spanish Conquistadores.
After months at sea, the Spanish were dependent on the good will of the Taino caciques (Taino word for “chief” or “headman”) for their food and thus had to fit into the indigenous social structure, at least until they could sustain themselves through regular supplies from Spain. Accordingly, they studied the Taino society in great detail. While on later islands the Taino had some forewarning as to what might be expected of their European visitors (and thus also the Europeans had been primed as to what to expect from the Taino), Hispaniola represents a historically unique first encounter of two entirely alien cultures. Brutality against the Taino is well documented by Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas in his most famous work, Brevisima relacion de la destruccion de las Indias.
References:
Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus
Author: Wilson, Samuel Meredith 1957-
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990

Hispaniola's Native Population

The original inhabitants of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola were the Tainos. Hispaniola was the most developed and populated of the many islands settled by the Tainos. It served as the main hub for their suprisingly complex series of outposts and population centers, receiving salt and agricultural products from satellite villages according to a relatively complex logistics schedule. The Tainos used a caste system based upon the rule of regional chiefdoms, with both male and female Caciques, or chiefs, along matrilineal lines of succession, in order to weave the far flung outposts together into a cohesive society. This web was further strengthened by both male and female polygamy, sometimes including up to thirty spouses, whose heirs and heiresses sired massive extended families.
References:
Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus
Author: Wilson, Samuel Meredith 1957-
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990

The Chief Is Dead, Long Live . . . Who? Descent and Succession in the Protohistoric
Chiefdoms of the Greater Antilles
Authors: L. Antonio Curet, Field Museum of Natural History