Haiti's Social Structure

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the social distance between the members of the small, privileged elite and the immense mass of barely subsisting peasants is tremendous, their lives and destinies are closely interwoven in the fabric of Haitian society. Membership in each of these social strata is determined more by birth than by personal achievement and there is a strict taboo on intermarriage. Racially, the two strata have the same general background except that the elite, more than the masses, have mixed with the white race. Marked social distinctions in Haiti antedate independence. The principal social categories prior to I804 were the French colonial officials, the white planters, employees of the colonials, free men of color, and slaves. The free men considered themselves superior to the slaves. In their original agitation for political and civil rights, the black masses were given no consideration. The successful termination of the Revolution brought freedom and small tracts of land to the masses and a new aristocracy came into existence. It was composed of the military chiefs with their legitimate and natural children, the free men of the old regime, and the mulatto descendants of displaced white proprietors. Despite the prodigious feats of Christophe and the good intentions of Petion, the emergence of this post-Revolutionary ruling class did not alter materially the situation of the peasant mass. The elite probably never has constituted more than three percent of the population. Today this means that a group of less than i5o,ooo persons (25 to 30,000 family heads) in a population of 3,000,000 control Haitian affairs and that actual rule is in the hands of a few hundred men-certainly not more than two thousand.' Although many in the elite own tracts of land in rural sections, most of these individuals live in the larger villages, the towns, and the cities. Divisions within the Elite. Subdivisions within the elite take the form of economic classes, political parties and factions, and cliques. The lines between the three economic groups, which for convenience we may designate as the prosperous, the comfortable, and the impoverished, are not sharply drawn. In the first category are those who have inherited estates of some