American Haitians comprise the descendants of free blacks from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

in the early 19th century as well as recent immigrants and expatriates as well as their locally born descendants. At the time of the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

, there were about 45,000 US citizens living in Haiti.

History

19th century

During the

antebellum era In the history of the Southern United States, the Antebellum Period (from la, ante bellum, lit= before the war) spanned the end of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The Antebellum South was characterized by the ...

, many free blacks emigrated to Haiti. Although a few emigrants left for Haiti during the 1810s, it was not until 1824 that with the support of the Haitian President

Jean-Pierre Boyer Jean-Pierre Boyer (15 February 1776 – 9 July 1850) was one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and President of Haiti from 1818 to 1843. He reunited the north and south of the country into the Republic of Haiti in 1820 and also annex ...

that emigration from the United States increased. Several thousand free blacks left for Haiti in the summer of 1824 and the flow continued until 1826 when the Haitian government stopped paying and defraying the transportation costs.

20th and 21st centuries

U.S. occupation

On July 28, 1915, the United States occupied Haiti and about 330 US Marines landed at the capital,

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

on the authority of U.S. President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

to safeguard the interests of U.S. corporations. The occupation ended on August 1, 1934, after

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

reaffirmed an August 1933 disengagement agreement, and the last contingent of U.S. Marines departed on August 15, 1934.

The Duvalier era to present day

During the Duvalier dictatorship, many American businessmen came to Haiti with their families to start or run the assembly plants that sprang up there.Americans in Haiti Fear an Invasion
'The New York Times - World'', 30 July 1994. In recent years, many Americans came to the country to work for international aid and relief agencies on development projects, or at hospitals and feeding stations. Many

Haitian Americans Haitian Americans (french: Haïtiens-Américains; ht, ayisyen ameriken) are a group of Americans of full or partial Haitians, Haitian origin or descent. The largest proportion of Haitians in the United States live in Little Haiti to the South Flo ...

have also returned to the country. Hundreds of young children born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

to parents who fled Haiti under the Duvaliers and their successors have chosen to return. The American expatriate community live mostly in Port-au-Prince and maintain a system of neighborhood "wardens" to act as intermediaries with the American embassy in the capital.

Notable people

* Gene H. Bell-Villada - American literary critic, novelist, translator and memoirist. *

James Theodore Holly James Theodore Augustus Holly (3 October 1829 in Washington, D.C. – 13 March 1911 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) was the first African-American bishop in the Protestant Episcopal church, and spent most of his episcopal career as missionary bishop of ...

- Protestant Episcopal missionary bishop of Haiti. * Flo McGarrell - American artist, filmmaker, writer and arts administrator. * Kevin Pina - American journalist, filmmaker and educator. *

Prince Saunders Prince Saunders (1775– January 22, 1839) was an African American teacher, scholar, diplomat, and author who different sources say was born in either Lebanon, Connecticut, or Thetford, Vermont. During his life, Saunders helped set up schools for ...

- African-American teacher, scholar, diplomat, and author

References

{{Haitian people

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

Haiti–United States relations