Transcription
When people think of Haiti, they think of poverty and chaos in a country you should avoid. However, that wasn't always the case. After the Haitian Revolution, many African Americans were inspired to immigrate to the country, led by Prince Saunders and others. This became known as the Haitian Immigration Movement. King Henri Christophe, his rival Alexander Pétion, and his successor Jean-Pierre Boy wanted African Americans to help industrialize the country to fend off European powers. Louisiana Creoles and African Americans in the North would respond; between six thousand and thirteen thousand African Americans would immigrate between 1820 and 1830, known as the first wave. The second wave, led by James Theodore Holly, would come in the 1860s and after the Civil War. His descendants, such as his daughter Theodore Holly, would connect African American and Haitian women during the Garvey movement. As a result, many Haitians of African American descent, including Hold Last, Anxious Hargoth, Jones, Holly, Wainwright, Gordon, and Jackson, emerged.