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Haiti Boyer: Expansion and Decline
Boyer shared Pétion's conciliatory approach to
governance,
but he lacked his stature as a leader. The length of
Boyer's rule
(1818-43) reflected his political acumen, but he
accomplished
little. Boyer took advantage of internecine conflict in
Santo
Domingo by invading and securing the Spanish part of
Hispaniola
in 1822. He succeeded where Toussaint and Dessalines had
failed.
Occupation of the territory, however, proved unproductive
for the
Haitians, and ultimately it sparked a Dominican rebellion
(see
Dominican Republic: Haiti and Santo Domingo
, ch. 1).
Boyer faced drastically diminished productivity as a
result
of Pétion's economic policies. Most Haitians had fallen
into
comfortable isolation on their small plots of land,
content to
eke out a quiet living after years of turmoil and duress.
Boyer
enacted a Rural Code (Code Rural), designed to force
yeomen into
large-scale production of export crops. The nation,
however,
lacked the wherewithal, the enthusiasm, and the discipline
to
enforce the code.
Boyer perceived that France's continued refusal to
settle
claims remaining from the revolution and to recognize its
former
colony's independence constituted the gravest threat to
Haitian
integrity. His solution to the problem--payment in return
for
recognition--secured Haiti from French aggression, but it
emptied
the treasury and mortgaged the country's future to French
banks,
which eagerly provided the balance of the hefty first
installment. The indemnity was later reduced in 1838 from
150
million francs to 60 million francs. By that time,
however, the
damage to Haiti had been done.
As the Haitian economy stagnated under Boyer, Haitian
society
ossified. The lines separating mulattoes and blacks
sharpened,
despite Boyer's efforts to appoint blacks to responsible
positions in government. The overwhelming rate of
illiteracy
among even well-to-do blacks foiled Boyer's intentions.
Still,
his government effected no substantial improvements in the
limited educational system that Pétion had established.
The
exclusivity of the social structure thus perpetuated
itself. Many
blacks found no avenues in the bureaucracy for social
mobility,
and they turned to careers in the military, where literacy
was
not a requirement
(see The Military in Haitian History
, ch. 10).
As Pétion's successor, Boyer held the title of
president-for-
life. The length and relative placidity of his rule
represented a
period of respite for most Haitians after the violence and
disorder that had characterized the emergence of their
nation.
Pressures gradually built up, however, as various groups,
especially young mulattoes, began to chafe at the
seemingly
deliberate maintenance of the political and social status
quo.
In the late 1830s, legislative opposition to Boyer
clustered
around Hérard Dumesle, a mulatto poet and liberal
political
thinker. Dumesle and his followers decried the anemic
state of
the nation's economy and its concomitant dependence on
imported
goods. They also disdained the continued elite adherence
to
French culture and urged Haitians to forge their own
national
identity. Their grievances against Boyer's government
included
corruption, nepotism, suppression of free expression, and
rule by
executive fiat. Banding together in a fraternity, they
christened
their organization the Society for the Rights of Man and
of the
Citizen. The group of young mulattoes called for an end to
Boyer's rule and for the establishment of a provisional
government.
The government expelled Dumesle and his followers from
the
legislature and made no effort to address their
grievances. The
perceived intransigence of the Boyer government triggered
violent
clashes in the south near Les Cayes. Forces under the
command of
Charles Rivière-Hérard, a cousin of Dumesle, swept through
the
southern peninsula toward the capital. Boyer received word
on
February 11, 1843, that most of his army units had joined
the
rebels. A victim of what was later known as the Revolution
of
1843, Boyer sailed to Jamaica. Rivière-Hérard replaced him
in the
established tradition of military rule.
Data as of December 1989
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