LEYBURN, JAMES G. The Haitian People. Pp. x, 342. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941. $4.00
| Published date | 01 May 1942 |
| Date | 01 May 1942 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271624222100155 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
216
necessary
corrective
in
the
light
of
the
work
done
by
the
younger
generation.
For
ex-
ample,
I
have
been
unable
to
find
any
reference
to
the
important
body
of
work
done
in
the
past
decade
by
Eugenio
Pereira
Salas,
who
has
published
many
illuminating
articles
on
the
history
of
Chile
in
the
early
part
of
the
nineteenth
century,
especially
on
its
relations
with
the
United
States.
Again,
the
articles
on
Barros
Arana
and
Irisarri
in
the
biographical
appendix
do
not
cite
the
capitally
important
studies
of
these
two
men
by
Ricardo
Donoso,
who
is
one
of
the
leading
Chilean
historians
of
the
present
generation.
Such
omissions,
however,
are
very
minor
defects
in
a
work
which
deserves
loud
and
prolonged
applause
in
so
many
other
respects.
ARTHUR
P.
WHITAKER
University
of
Pennsylvania
LEYBURN,
JAMES
G.
The
Haitian
People.
Pp.
x,
342.
New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press,
1941.
$4.00.
Professor
Leyburn
has
written
a
con-
vincing
and
sympathetic
essay
on
the
ori-
gins,
the
persistence,
and
the
evils
of
the
caste
system
in
the
first
Latin
American
nation
to
win
its
independence.
The
origins
date
from
the
colonial
period,
when
the
ruling
classes
were
white,
when
the
free
mulattoes
envied
the
whites
and
despised
the
blacks
and
were
hated
by
both
in
turn,
when
the
great
masses
of
slaves
were
black.
Although
Haiti
is
the
one
American
nation
in
which
Negroes
gained
control
as
a
result
of
its
revolution,
the
colonial
advantages
from
being
white
have,
during
the
greater
part
of
independent
Haiti’s
history,
accrued
largely
to
the
advantage
of
the
near-white
61ite.
&dquo;So
rigidly
are
the
class
lines
set,&dquo;
the
author
states,
&dquo;that
caste
is
the
only
word
to
describe
the
effective
separation
of
aristocrats
from
the
masses.
The
caste
system
is
a
vivid
fact,
for
it
regulates
a
per-
son’s
profession,
speech,
religion,
marriage,
family
life,
politics,
clothes,
social
mobility
-in
short,
his
whole
life
from
cradle
to
grave.&dquo;
This
conclusion
corresponds
closely
with
those
of
such
recognized
Haitian
au-
thorities
as
Dr.
Price-Mars
and
M.
Dant6s
Bellegarde.
Thus,
three
competent
observers
agree
that
there
are
divisions
among
the
Haitian
people.
The
real
nub
of
the
question,
which
is
more
than
a
mere
matter
of
termi-
nology,
is
the
extent
to
which
a
dark
color
prevents
a
Haitian
from
achieving
the
eco-
nomic,
social,
and
political
position
to
which
his
abilities
entitle
him.
One
is
immediately
tempted
to
make
a
comparison
with
the
difficulties
that
confront
the
Negro
in
the
United
States.
Here
the
problem
is
two-
fold :
the
first,
similar
to
that
in
Haiti,
namely,
class
and
caste
distinctions
among
Negroes
themselves;
the
second,
which
ob-
viously
does
not
exist
in
Haiti,
namely,
the
difficulties
that
any
Negro
encounters
in
his
competition
with
other
racial
elements.
The
recent
writings
of
Dollard,
W.
Lloyd
Warner,
Buell
Gallagher,
and
W.
Allison
Davis
have
given
some
scientific
basis
for
a
study
of
the
problem
in
the
United
States.
Cedric
Dover,
in his
vitriolic
Half
Caste,
has
revealed
the
difficulties
of
the
Eurasian
especially
in
England.
Considering
all
these
writings
and
adding
to
them
his
observa-
tions
in
most
of
this
nation,
in
Cuba,
Haiti,
and
Mexico,
this
reviewer
has
long
con-
cluded
that
this
thesis
of
caste
and
class,
based
in
considerable
measure
on
color,
ap-
plies
in
varying
degrees
to
all
the
twenty-
one
nations
of
the
Pan
American
Union.
For
historical
reasons
there
is
an
inevitable
nexus
between
race
and
class.
If
the
mon-
ist
Marxists
would
accept
this
nexus,
they
would
make
a
more
intelligent
approach
to
history
and
to
Latin
American
problems
than
they
do
when
they
seek
to
disregard
completely
the
racial
factor
in
history.
Similarly,
advocates
of
the
Good
Neighbor
Policy
must
not
be
blind
to
these
inexorable
facts.
Although
there
is
not
a
great
deal
that
is
new
in
this
practically
impeccable
pub-
lication,
the
author
is
fully
justified
in
say-
ing
that
there
was
&dquo;no
connected
story
of
the
growth
of
its
[i.e.,
Haiti’s]
social
insti-
tutions
out
of
the
backgrounds
of
slavery
and
colonial
life,
or
the
slow
shaping
of
these
institutions
through
the
nineteenth
century.&dquo;
The
general
reader
will,
there-
fore,
read
with
great
profit
this
connected
story,
told
with
great
sympathy
and
clear
discernment,
without
the
terminology
that
usually
clutters
the
pages
of
social
his-
torians
who
have
not
achieved
the
maturity
of
Professor
Leyburn.
For
the
reader
who
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