Haiti–United States of America: Ingratitude or Diplomatic Amnesia?
By La Rédaction · Port-au-Prince · · 3 min read · Updated 24 April 2026
Translated from French — AI-assisted and reviewed by the editorial team. The French version is authoritative. Read the original · About our translation policy
Haiti, the first Black Republic and a universal symbol of the fight against oppression, has marked contemporary history with concrete support for many peoples in search of freedom: from Greece to Latin America, from Congo to the Dominican Republic, including the United States of America. Yet, the latter seem today to adopt towards Haiti a stance oscillating between mistrust, humiliation, and a desire for isolation. A fundamental question thus arises: have the United States forgotten the decisive contribution of the Grenadiers and Volunteer Chasseurs of Saint-Domingue to their own independence?
A Determining Geopolitical Context
In 1779, while France militarily supported the insurgents of the thirteen English colonies against Great Britain, Saint-Domingue, the richest French colony in the world at the time, served as a strategic rear base in the Caribbean.
The colony's governor then organized a vast reinforcement operation intended to support the Franco-American campaign in the Southern United States. It was in this dynamic that two military units were raised in Saint-Domingue: the Corps of Volunteer Grenadiers, composed of whites, and the Corps of Volunteer Chasseurs, formed of mostly Black indigenous people, from the urban militias of Cap-Français, Port-au-Prince, and Les Cayes. This presence of Black soldiers, future Haitians, at the heart of a war for the freedom of another people, is not just a military fact: it constitutes a foundational moment in the transatlantic history of struggles for emancipation. The Georgia Expedition and the Battle of Savannah Placed under the command of Colonel Armand de Kerlern and integrated into the troops of the French General Charles Hector, Comte d’Estaing, the Volunteer Chasseurs, 1,030 men according to Louis Mercier, nearly 600 according to other sources, left Cap harbor on August 15, 1779, heading for Georgia. Among them was a twelve-year-old adolescent, a future giant of Haiti's history: Henri Christophe. On October 9, 1779, the Franco-American assault against Savannah, a strategic city in Georgia held by the British since 1778, began. The Saint-Domingue units formed the vanguard, executing a frontal assault against heavily fortified English positions. This episode constitutes one of the deadliest operations of the war. Testimonies concur: The Volunteer Chasseurs fought with exceptional bravery. Henri Christophe was gravely wounded there, but proudly shed his blood for the defense of liberty. The Saint-Domingue troops also distinguished themselves later at Pensacola and Yorktown, directly contributing to the final triumph against Great Britain. It was therefore not only a military engagement but an act of historical solidarity that played a role in the birth of the United States as the first independent state of the New World. Between Selective Memory and Geopolitical Ingratitude Given this undeniable contribution, one can question the current logic of American policy towards Haiti, marked by often clumsy interventionism, a recurrent tendency to dictate Haitian political choices, migratory measures against Haitians, diplomatic and economic pressures, and an implicit discourse that denies Haiti its full sovereignty. This attitude contrasts deeply with history. How can a country forget that the very soil of its freedom is soaked with the blood of those who would later become Haitians? It is not about claiming a “due,” but about recalling a historical truth that is too often obscured in official American narratives. The participation of Black soldiers from Saint-Domingue in the American War of Independence clearly demonstrates the antiquity of relations between the two nations, relations initially marked by cooperation and fraternity for freedom, before being distorted by the imperialist imperatives of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. While ingratitude can be debated, amnesia seems certain. However, recognizing this shared memory could constitute a starting point for re-establishing more balanced relations between Haiti and the United States. History teaches that peoples grow when they honor the truth. And the truth is simple: Haiti contributed to forging American freedom. Forgetting this amounts to denying an essential part of the very genesis of the United States. Pierre Josué Agénor Cadet
The colony's governor then organized a vast reinforcement operation intended to support the Franco-American campaign in the Southern United States. It was in this dynamic that two military units were raised in Saint-Domingue: the Corps of Volunteer Grenadiers, composed of whites, and the Corps of Volunteer Chasseurs, formed of mostly Black indigenous people, from the urban militias of Cap-Français, Port-au-Prince, and Les Cayes. This presence of Black soldiers, future Haitians, at the heart of a war for the freedom of another people, is not just a military fact: it constitutes a foundational moment in the transatlantic history of struggles for emancipation. The Georgia Expedition and the Battle of Savannah Placed under the command of Colonel Armand de Kerlern and integrated into the troops of the French General Charles Hector, Comte d’Estaing, the Volunteer Chasseurs, 1,030 men according to Louis Mercier, nearly 600 according to other sources, left Cap harbor on August 15, 1779, heading for Georgia. Among them was a twelve-year-old adolescent, a future giant of Haiti's history: Henri Christophe. On October 9, 1779, the Franco-American assault against Savannah, a strategic city in Georgia held by the British since 1778, began. The Saint-Domingue units formed the vanguard, executing a frontal assault against heavily fortified English positions. This episode constitutes one of the deadliest operations of the war. Testimonies concur: The Volunteer Chasseurs fought with exceptional bravery. Henri Christophe was gravely wounded there, but proudly shed his blood for the defense of liberty. The Saint-Domingue troops also distinguished themselves later at Pensacola and Yorktown, directly contributing to the final triumph against Great Britain. It was therefore not only a military engagement but an act of historical solidarity that played a role in the birth of the United States as the first independent state of the New World. Between Selective Memory and Geopolitical Ingratitude Given this undeniable contribution, one can question the current logic of American policy towards Haiti, marked by often clumsy interventionism, a recurrent tendency to dictate Haitian political choices, migratory measures against Haitians, diplomatic and economic pressures, and an implicit discourse that denies Haiti its full sovereignty. This attitude contrasts deeply with history. How can a country forget that the very soil of its freedom is soaked with the blood of those who would later become Haitians? It is not about claiming a “due,” but about recalling a historical truth that is too often obscured in official American narratives. The participation of Black soldiers from Saint-Domingue in the American War of Independence clearly demonstrates the antiquity of relations between the two nations, relations initially marked by cooperation and fraternity for freedom, before being distorted by the imperialist imperatives of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. While ingratitude can be debated, amnesia seems certain. However, recognizing this shared memory could constitute a starting point for re-establishing more balanced relations between Haiti and the United States. History teaches that peoples grow when they honor the truth. And the truth is simple: Haiti contributed to forging American freedom. Forgetting this amounts to denying an essential part of the very genesis of the United States. Pierre Josué Agénor Cadet
