This week a prominent white American cleric suggested that Haitians deserve the horror that they are enduring, because of their past sins.  Let’s examine:

After Christopher Columbus discovered the island, he installed his brother Bartolomeo as governor, who immediately wiped out the native Arawak population and replaced them with Spanish settlers.  The island then became a battleground between the French, Spanish and Dutch, with the French gaining control in 1664.  Over the next century, the French enslaved and imported approximately 10,000 African natives every year (at one point one-third of all slaves headed to the Americas went to Haiti.)  By the mid 1700’s, the colony contained one million slave laborers controlled by only 30,000 white overseers, who exercised control through flayings, crucifixion and boiling in cane syrup.  At its height the colony – roughly the size of Maryland – produced 40% of all sugar and 60% of all coffee consumed in Europe.  It was known as “The Pearl of the Antilles.”

Thousands of slaves fled into the mountains and established rebel communities.  As they had come from dozens of unrelated African tribes, they had different beliefs and spoke many different languages.  Their only common thread was their African religious roots, and in 1751 a one-armed voodoo priest named Mackandal united the rebels and began raiding the northern plantations.  The French Revolution threw the Empire into turmoil in 1789 and soon Haiti was in flames.  Over the next 10 years, former slaves gradually gained control of the island.  But in 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte sent his brother-in-law to recapture the colony, who terrorized the population with unspeakable horrors, including the use of primitive gas chambers.  But the Haitians prevailed, and in 1804, Haiti declared independence from France.

The United States did not recognize Haiti for 60 years, until it had endured its own struggle to eradicate slavery.  Since then, Haiti has been caught between the interests of the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Germany and even the Vatican.  There were six different Haitian presidents from 1911 to 1915, resulting in the United States invading and occupying the country until 1934.  The Americans, who occupied a stretch of Port-au-Prince known as “millionaire’s row,” created an elite political class of light-skinned Haitians who have since ruled the country with brutality.  The lower classes have been persecuted and most of the educated upper classes have fled the country, creating a brain-drain that has never been rectified.

Haiti is the world’s oldest black republic and the second-oldest republic in the Americas.  It is also the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.  So perhaps it has incurred the wrath of God.  Or perhaps this tragedy will finally bring Haiti the world’s recognition, compassion and sincere support.  And perhaps a prayer, instead of condemnation.