ABSTRACT
One of the most characteristic features of Haitian political and economic life is the persistence over time of a series of governments that have in different ways created economic systems where the role of the common man has mainly been that of a source of forced labor a n d / o r a source of taxes. During the colonial period, the mass of black slaves constituted the b a c k b o n e of a p lan ta t ion e c o n o m y w h e r e they were opp re s sed and exploited by a white minority. When independence came, in 1804, it did not bring freedom. Instead, the ex-slaves were put back on the plantations to work in ifemage system which differed little from slavery. After the breakup of the large estates, beginning in 1809, political standards gradually began to decline in the country. During the second half of the nineteenth century, a predatory state was built up in which the citizen's mam function was to act as a source of taxation for the purpose of creating personal incomes for the groups in power.
