ABSTRACT
On a Venetian map dated 1436, there is a land called Antilla to the west of the Canary Islands, and to the north of this land an “Isola de la Man Satanaxio,” the island of the devil’s hand. From at least 1492 onward Haiti was a very productive country. It provided wealth to the buccaneers and the Spanish, and approaching 1804 had the distinction of being France’s most prosperous territory. From 1492 onward Haiti was also a desperately poor country. Most or all of the indigenous Caribs died within twenty years of Columbus’s arrival. The slaves from Africa that worked the land for the next 280 years, and their “liberated” descendants who worked at it and other things for another 195, did not live well. Imputation of normalcy to the behaviors of the political class means that the historical bankruptcy of the class was and remains a normal attribute of the class.
