"Let
the Land rejoice, for you have bought Louisiana for a Song." -Gen. Horatio
Gates to President Thomas Jefferson, July 18, 1803. The Louisiana
Purchase has been described as the greatest real estate deal in history.
In 1803 the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory
which stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Thirteen states were carved
from the Louisiana Territory. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the
size of the United States, making it one of the largest nations in the
world and making way for the annexation of texas in 1845 and conquest of
California and New Mexico in 1846.
What precipitated
Napoleon's
ceding
control of the Louisiana Territory to the US is his failure to subdue
the slave armies of Saint
Domingue and retake the colony for France in 1801. On
January 1, 1804 Dessalines proclaimed the independence of the colony at
Gonaives and gave it back its native name of Haiti. Hence, the first
republic in the world to be led by a person of African descent was born.
The explosion of
Haitian liberation sent tsunami waves of independence rushing upon Latin
American and North American soils. Starting in 1808 13 new Latin American
independent states were created by 1828. The
British Parliament also took note of the pending liability and in 1807
abolished
slave trade within the empire and in 1808,
the Congress of the United States made it illegal to bring more slaves
into the country although the smuggling of Africans as slaves into
the United States continued well into the mid 1800's (as the Amistad
slave incident happened in 1839).
On Jan. 1, 1863 (The
anniversary
of Haitian Independence), U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared free
all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal government.
This Emancipation
Proclamation actually freed few people. It did not apply to slaves
in border states fighting on the Union side; nor did it affect slaves in
southern areas already under Union control. Naturally, the states in rebellion
did not act on Lincoln's order. But the proclamation did show Americans,
and the world, that the Union/Confederate Civil war was now being fought
to end slavery AND the North did not start having decisive victories until
then.
A TEMPLATE FOR HAITI?
Sicily and Haiti
share the same passion for freedom and independence, have smaller populations
than New Jersey, by a few million, although all three are about the same
in land area. Haiti and Sicily share cultural proximity to Africa. They
were both ruled by France and Spain and they both experienced slave rebellions
and they are both Catholic so I think it's worth taking a closer look at
Sicily's history.
A revolt on 4 April
1860 set the scene for a man whose name you may have heard: Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Though the Piemontese annexation freed Sicily of Bourbon oppression, the
acute disadvantages of Garibaldi’s victory can be felt even today. After
Italy's full unification, Sicily was neglected by the central government
(and in many ways still is), and the island's economic and social problems
long remained unattended (and in many ways still are). From 1866 to 1894,
the island was in a sorry state. No wonder the mass exodus to America originated
at this time. And no wonder that Fascism also came into being. In April
1947 the first Sicilian parliament was elected, and on 26 February 1948
-- for the first time in the island's long, long history -- Sicily gained
its autonomy. But it still struggles. Though the Mafia is on the wane,
it has at times been a damaging force in Sicily. ( From: http://www.leonardociampa.com/SicilyArticle.html
)
Billy James Chandler
in his book, King of the Mountain, portrays Salvatore Giuliano as
a bandit who fought for the well-being of Sicily and its inhabitants. He
was a fair, courageous, strong, and intelligent leader for many Italians,
especially Sicilian peasants. Giuliano was respected for his use of violence
and fit their image of the perfect Sicilian. Salvatore was pushed into
being a bandit by Sicily's unfair and harsh police force. (Many of whom
were not even of Sicilian descent.) Giuliano was on a mission for independence
to separate Sicily from Italy. He hoped Sicily could become a state of
the United States. Sicily was closely related to the U.S. due to the great
number of Sicilian Americans. Even the U.S. army had many soldiers of Sicilian
descent. (Chandler 1988 pp 24-25)
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