British West Indians in Haiti in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Abstract

Using primarily Foreign Office records, this article examines the hitherto‐ignored West Indian immigrant community in Haiti in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It discusses their economic and political activities as well as their relations with the host society. It argues that in a black republic the successes or failures of these immigrants had less to do with the colour of their skins than with the political and economic problems of Haiti.