American Free Blacks and Emigration to Haiti

Abstract

This paper discusses the resettlement of American free blacks in Haiti in the period 1804-1830. In 1804 the government of Dessalines offered cash incentives to black refugees in the United States willing to return to Haiti. A decade later black Bostonian Prince Saunders devised an emigration scheme aimed at American-born free blacks.

In 1824 the administration of Jean-Pierre Boyer sponsored its own scheme. Boyer was aware of the fears of many white Americans about the growth of their free black population. He believed that by permitting American free blacks to immigrate, he would win United States recognition for his regime. Between 1824 and 1826 an estimated 8,000 free blacks accepted Boyer’s invitation to settle in Haiti. At least 2,000 returned to the United States where they spread reports of sickness and ill-treatment. However, settlers fortunate enough to have health and education prospered in their new homeland.

The emigration scheme ended in 1826, when Boyer refused to continue funding it. Although he gave as his reason fraud on the part of some of the emigrants, he had realized that United States recognition would not be forthcoming. Most black Americans who came to Haiti after 1826 were ex-slaves freed on the condition that they leave the United States.