Haitian History

   This book takes place in Haiti. It is during a time of war. While I was reading the book there were a few things that it reminded me off. One being that she writes about being in cramped rooms on a boat. Having no idea where they are going or what it is happening. This reminded me of the slave trade. When the slaves were shipped from continent to continent via boat. They too were left in very poor conditions and surrondings.
    All this is going on in Haiti that is already suffering from various situations. In the year 1937 there was something called the Parley Massacre. This was when the President of the Dominican Republic ordered the execution of the Haitian population living within the borderlines of Haiti. In a span of 5 days there were 20,000-30,000 killed. The signicance behind this is that it shows what was going on in Haiti during the authors life.
     Haitian Voodoo was based off of the merging of beliefs of the West African people. It was created by African slaves who still believed in African beliefs but were forced to convert. This is significant because it shows that people were forced to do many things they did not want to do. Just like in the novel she talks about how they had to do similiar things.
    The Massacre River is where the Parley Massacre took place. Is this the same river that she threw her baby into?
    Dutty Boukman was a slave who educated himself, he was born on the island of Jamica. He was sold by his slave master in Britain to the French after he was caught teaching the Jamicans how to read. This reminded me of Fredrick Douglass because he was teaching the slaves how to read. By doing so they would figure out what there masters were trying to do.
    Toussaint Louverture was the leader of the Haitian Revolution.
    Francois Duvalier was the President of Haiti until his death. He is responsible  for the 30,000 deaths from the revolt.
    Tonton Macoute became President of Haiti after the death of Duvalier.His name in creole literally meant "Uncle Gunnysack". He would kidnap unruly children and punsish them by consuming them at breakfast. This shows that no one was safe for what ever reason in Haiti.