Mulatto Haitians
Mulatto is a term in Haiti that is historically linked to Haitians who are born to one white European parent and one black African parent, or two mulatto parents. As of 2016, people of mulatto or white descent constitute a minority of 5 percent of the Haitian population. Mulattoes have long been characterized as an elite class, aristocracy or even caste within Haitian society.
Nomenclature and use
Mulatto, a term borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese, is often used to refer to the light-skinned Haitian elite. However, its use in academic sources is contested; Matthew J. Smith argues that the term "acknowledges phenotype but does not necessarily refer to social status". A multiplicity of terms are used in Haitian Creole to refer to light-skinned people beyond mulatto '', and beyond pigmentation, a host of physical characteristics, including hair texture, facial features, and skin texture, can inform a person's perception as mulatto. This is not to mention the sociocultural factors which are instrumental to mulatto identity. Additionally, due to the demographic dominance of black Haitians, mulatto identity has shifted: many persons who may be considered mulattoes in the 21st century would be considered firmly black in 1791. Considering the nuances of mulatto identity, some contemporary authors prefer use of the Kreyòl Milat to refer to the Haitian elite including but going beyond its light-skinned component; Matthew Smith invokes a quote attributed to Jean-Jacques Acaau, the black leader of the Piquet Rebellion of 1843: "Nèg rich se milat, milat pòv se nèg". For the purposes of this article, mulatto'' is used to refer to light-skinned individuals in Haiti and the social class which they are often a part of.Additionally, while the divide between mulattoes and black Haitians has been widely observed and discussed in academic sources, its formal invocation in Haitian politics has been at times frowned-upon, obfuscated, or outright denied. President Jean-Louis Pierrot, a black general himself perceived as a figurehead of the mulatto elite, introduced a "Race Relations Act" in 1845 which criminalized "idle talk about color likely to spread dissension among Haitians and provoke one against another". Mulatto politicians in the mid-19th century justified their control of the state by claiming that the divide was one of competence, not race: Edmond Paul, an ideologue of the largely mulatto Liberal Party, made its slogan "power for those most capable". Denial of the "color line" has also occasionally been invoked by academic writers, Jacqueline Lamartiniere called the concept "metaphysical sophistry"; however, such views are within the minority of scholarship on race in Haiti.
As mulatto predominance in Haitian society could easily be attacked as analogous to the pre-revolutionary white supremacy practiced on Saint-Domingue, mulatto elites were extremely cautious with regards to the invocation of any formalized racial hierarchy, and often professed a paternalistic "respect" for the culture of the majority. Ultimately, it is important to note that, while the "color question" has long undergirded politics and governance in Haiti, the divide between Haitian mulattoes and blacks is not directly analogous to race relations in places with a sharper "color line", such as the United States or South Africa.
History
Mulatto people in Haiti, who were definitionally Saint-Domingue Creoles due to their birth on the island of Hispaniola, first arose from the rape of female black slaves by their white, French enslavers in Saint-Domingue in the second half of the 17th century. Many were freed by their fathers at birth, while others bought their freedom. At the time of the Haitian Revolution, identification as mulatto was often synonymous with the class of gens de couleur libres. When free, mulattoes occupied a privileged position relative to the enslaved, black majority; regardless, lighter skin was an advantage and viewed as more virtuous than black skin, which was at the bottom of any given colonial racial hierarchy. Mulattoes often worked as artisans, plantation managers, and soldiers, and tended to be at least minimally educated and literate. Some mulatto Creoles, including some of the most notable figures in early Haitian history, were sent to France to study or perform apprenticeships. An important forerunner to the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution was the abortive rebellion of Vincent Ogé, who was executed after demanding the right to a vote for gens de coleur in 1790. Deep fissures existed between mulattoes and black slaves, and the groups clashed in the first decade of the Haitian Revolution. Due to their smaller numbers, mulattoes suffered disproportionate casualties, and some fled upon the victory of the enslaved faction. However, many mulattoes, including notable figures such as Alexandre Pétion, André Rigaud, and Jean-Pierre Boyer eventually aligned themselves with the black revolutionaries after it became clear that a recapture of Saint-Domingue by Napoleonic France would lead not only to the reestablishment of slavery, but also a curtailing of the rights of gens de couleur.After the French were expelled, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a black ex-slave, became the first leader of an independent Haiti in 1804. Mulatto discontent with his rule resulted in his 1806 assassination and the establishment of a northern state ruled by ex-slaves and a southern one ruled by mulattoes. Mulatto governance, however, did not herald a return of white supremacy; Pétion and Boyer kept the law ensuring automatic black citizenship in place, and provided ample assistance to antislavery forces in the Americas. Regardless, partition ended with the victory of the mulatto faction under Jean-Pierre Boyer in 1820. This mulatto victory heralded the beginning of a lengthy period of mulatto domination of Haitian politics and society, whereby mulattoes often controlled the levers of state and trade while the overwhelming majority of black Haitians remained agricultural laborers. Mulatto ranks were reinforced by the immigration of mixed-race people from the United States, Cuba, Martinique, and elsewhere throughout the first half of the 19th century.
Under President Boyer, the stagnation of the economy led to the lines between mulatto and black Haitians sharpening, with the mulatto establishment becoming the undisputed elite of the republic. However, black Haitians chafed under the decades of mulatto rule under Boyer, necessitating the establishment of a tactic dubbed politique de doublure, whereby black figureheads were installed as leaders with mulatto sponsorship, often for very brief and tumultuous terms. The first such "understudy" was Philippe Guerrier. The system of politique de doublure mostly endured, with a notable interruption under the rule of Faustin Soulouque, until the beginning of the US occupation of Haiti in 1915. Race relations continued to be defined by conflict between mulattos and black Haitians, particularly in the form of piquets and later cacos, rural black smallholders and tenants who periodically rose up in rebellion against the central, mulatto-dominated state. Additionally, after 1867, a two-party system emerged into a Liberal Party, which mostly represented the interests of the mulatto elite, and a National Party, which aligned itself with the black majority. Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave, a mulatto, became president upon the commencement of the US occupation, and his successors under American rule would also be mulattoes. Historians have identified the occupation as a retrenchment of mulatto power, as politique de doublure was replaced with a brazen, visible American preference for light-skinned rule. However, mulattoes came to resent the occupation due to the paternalistic and racist attitudes of the occupying Marines, who still treated mulattoes with a similar disdain as the did blacks.
The American occupation was a catalyst for a sea change in Haitian race relations. Its administrative demands resulted in a slight influx of black professionals into the traditionally mulatto domain of governance in Port-au-Prince, which in turn planted the kernels of a black middle class. New entrants into Haiti's ruling quarters took note of, and fervently criticized, mulatto reference to European culture and denigration of black peasant culture. Prominent figures who emerged from this generation include Jean Price-Mars, who became a pioneer of indigenisme and noirisme. Also, the occupation created the Gendarmerie of Haiti, which became the Garde d'Haïti upon the departure of US forces. The Garde, a professionalized military force which would become the Haitian army, was majority-black, but dominated by mulatto officers. Black elements of the Garde, inspired by the new intellectual elevation of black Haitian culture, overthrew Élie Lescot, a mulatto promoted under the American occupation and friendly with Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, in 1946. The 1946 coup inaugurated a period of black ascendancy in Haitian politics. Dumarsais Estimé, who would succeed the black junta, established himself as the candidate of the growing black middle class, and promoted black culture, such as voudou, as a viable part of Haitian society in opposition to the Catholic mulatto elite. After Estimé's fall and the brief rule of Paul Magloire, mulatto candidate Louis Déjoie was decisively defeated by the populist, black former minister of labor, François Duvalier. Duvalier was an avowed enemy of the mulatto elite, and promoted négritude, an ideology promoting Haiti's black peasant heritage and culture over the europeanized culture of the mulatto elite. Despite this, he married a mulatto, Simone Duvalier, and official policy toward the mulatto elite under "Papa Doc" more reflected antipathy than persecution or hatred. Nonetheless, Duvalier's championing of the black middle class precipitated the introduction of black Haitians into the country's upper class as a rival elite, and thus a rupture in the highly calcified Haitian class system. Duvalier's son, Jean-Claude, also married a mulatto, Michèle Bennett, and his technocratic administration shied away from the more pro-black policies of his father.
The salience of mulattoes in Haiti as an exclusive, distinct, and elite class has been challenged by the entry of black Haitians into the Haitian upper class since the end of the American occupation. Nevertheless, mulattoes remain prominent in Haitian society: recent mulatto heads of state include Raoul Cédras and Michel Martelly. Additionally, racial conflict remains a fixture of Haitian politics: Martine Moïse eulogized her slain husband as a fighter against the "mulatto oligarchy", while others classified President Moïse as yet another black "understudy" chosen by President Martelly. Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and Laurent Saint-Cyr, who emerged as leaders from the unrest following Moïse's death, are also mulattoes.
Culture
Given their elite status within Haiti, mulattoes long held and, to a certain extent, continue to hold predominance within Haitian high culture. The sociocultural considerations of mulatto identity bear heavily on a perceived greater closeness to European whiteness. For much of its history, the mulatto ruling class professed strict adherence to Catholic orthodoxy, denigrating the Vodou frequently practiced among the black majority. Proper command of the French language was, and remains, a crucial shibboleth among Haiti's elite class, given the predominance use of kreyòl among black Haitians. The esteem in which mulatto elites hold European culture, however, was not an explicit indication of white supremacist sentiments, and elite cultural production has frequently referenced black culture and mores. Moreover, give their own proximity to blackness, mulatto elites elevated the perceived "natural and human warmth" which they experienced in Haiti, particularly if they lived or studied abroad.Among self-identifying mulattoes, a highly endogamous marriage culture was practiced. Considering the absence of any white immigrants, mulatto families self-selected for phenotypically mulatto traits. This is apparent from the perseverance of a mulatto 5% within the Haitian population, relatively unchanged from the mulatto share upon independence, despite the shifting phenotypical criteria of mulatto identity. A historical exception to this endogamy can be observed in Haiti's north, where Henri Christophe's promotion of a black military aristocracy resulted in a great number of unions between black men and mulatto women. However, according to Michel-Rolph Trouillot, this exception ended soon after it began, as Henri Christophe's landed aristocracy was quickly outcompeted by still-endogamous mulatto dominance in trade.