24002: Benson: (reply) RE: 23993: Kathleen (response, ask) : 23984: Slavin: (news)

[corbetre@webster.edu]

(Response) From LeGrace Benson. A frequentl source cited for the US
Occupation period, 1915-1934 is Written in Blood, by Robert Heinl and his
wife Nancy Gordon Heinl. Heinel was chief of the U.S. Naval Mission to Haiti
from 1959 to 1963.  He made extensive use of US and Haitian documents.  He
does assert that many of the Marines were from the US South and had strong
racist proclivities.  (See also the same situation in the Panama Canal
digging period.)  Another source making use of documents and eyewitnesses is
Hans Schmidt's The United States Occupation of Haiti. Both books have recent
re-publication dates and should be easy to find.  I myself have interviewed
people who lived during the occupation, hearing a range of memories and
reactions. Nearly all were freighted with a sense of the indignity of the
situation. See also Jean Price-Mars's writings as a significant reaction to
this indignity.  My sample is small but ranges across income and education
as well as racial borders. Their characterizations were unmarked by
"fondness."