NOTES AND SOURCES ON MOLE ST. NICHOLAS

-Bob Corbett

Mole St. Nicola: U.S. or Other Foreign Interests

• From Barskett (1818) Columbus named Mole St. Nicholas on Dec. 6, 1492
• Nov. 11, 1865 Logan HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, says that was the first serious attempt to gain the Mole. Heinl p. 230. Cites Logan as authority on this issue.
• June 1868. (Logan, p. 106) Salnave, now president, offered Mole to secure himself.
• Heinl p. 245 cites an offer of the Mole by General Nissage-Saget. also p. 375 Heinl.
• Nov. 8, 1883. Salomon offered U.S. Mole. (Logan, p. 110) May 29, 1883 Solomon offered La Tortue for his own protection. (Heinl p. 291. Then in Nov. he offered Mole. President Arthur refused.
• 1891. Crisis of the Mole. See Douglass see Montague and Logan
• 1902. Leconte offered Mole to Germany.
• June, 1913. p. 187 Plummer. Sec. of State William Jennings Bryant sent Asst. Sec. of State, John Osborne to negotiate the purchase of the Mole. p. 188

  "...Osborne worked jointly with Furniss to achieve a compromise with Haitians whereby the United States would withdraw its request in exchange for assurances that Haiti would not sell, lease or rent the Mole St. Nicholas to other foreign powers or investors."

• Montague: p. 94. The acquisition of California turned the US toward Haiti. California required an isthmus, and U.S. would need to protect it. There were only three options in 1849 when U.S. was looking--Danish St. Thomas; Dominican Samana Bay and Mole St. Nicolas.
• From 1849 to 1860 Samana Bay was preferred.
• In 1860 the U.S. got the rights to deposit coal at Cap Haitien, but no property.
• P. 100. June 1868 Salnave's faltering government offered Mole + land around it to U.S. if they would assume French debt.
• 1869 Salnave wanted a loan of 2/3 million secured by Mole. Ebenezer Bassett knew Haitian sentiment against this.
• P. 104 of Bellegarde-Smith (1990) claims that in April 1961 Duvalier offered Mole as replacement for Guantanamo.
• Occupation: Heinl p. 518 footnote. Two politicians offered a base for a partition of Haiti.
• P. 540 Heinl, Lescot offered Mole, but it was considered no longer suitable.!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Duvalier: Heinl, p. 618. He offered the mole 4 different times to the U.S.
• From Hans Schmidt's book:

  P. 30: Mole St. N. "Despite its many advantages, both Johnson and Grant administrations declined repeated offers by Haitian revolutionaries to cede the Mole to the United States in return for assistance in Haiti's civil wars of 1866-69."

• P. 31. James G. Blaine in 1889-91 "...engaged in a number of intrigues with Haitian revolutionaries and maintained constant pressure on the Haitian government to cede the Mole to the United States."

  U.S. interested in:

  • More for base
  • More for no base for other nations.

  ---

• Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 17:21:29 -0700 (PDT)
  From Glenn Inghram:

  Two sources of information regarding Haiti and the Mole Affair, as it related to Frederick Douglass (US minister to Haiti, 1889-1891):

  1. William McFeely, "Frederick Douglass" 1991 Ch 25 "Port-au-Prince" & Ch 26 "Mole St. Nicolas" (overview of Frederick Douglass and this affair)
  2. North American Review (periodical) September, 1891 "Haiti and the US: Inside History of the Negotiations for the Mole St. Nicolas" October, 1891 - Part II of the above Both of these articles are by Frederick Douglass - as a defense of his role in the affair and his "forced" resignation by the US State Dept.

  Questions:

  1. Does anyone know of any existing photos of the Mole St. Nicolas? Are there any widely available books about Haiti which show a photo? I have not come across any, but would like to by next Friday, so as to use it in a classroom lecture.
  2. Does anyone know why, for a time, after the revolution, "Haiti" was spelled "Hayti" (up until about 1915+/-) I had always assumed it was a Africanized spelling, much like "Creole" is sometimes spelled "Kreyol" I have come across no discussions of this variation in spelling.

  Updates:

  Bob: for your chronology:

  This event was perhaps one of the more humorous of US/Haitian relations of the 19th c. In 1856, the Guano Islands Act stated that, "whenever a citizen of the US discovers a deposit of guano on any island... [uninhabited], and takes possession of, the island can be considered as appertaining to the US." (some paraphrasing here) In 1858, Haiti and the US came into conflict over this act with regard to the island of Navassa. A US businessman had sought to dig guano on this island and claimed rights for the US. The Haitian gov't soon sent its small Navy to remove him. He left, but soon the US gov't and Navy was involved. Official negotiations did not result in Haiti convincing the US that the island was a part of Haitian territory. The humorous part of the story is that guano is "sea fowl excrement" So, don't think sugar and rum was the only thing the US was after in the Caribbean... (actually this guano makes excellent fertilizer, though I can't see sailing to the Caribbean for fertilizer!)

  -Glenn Inghram

: Sources on Douglass and Mole St. Nicholas

I found the following sources in my own library. Most of these come up in my computer program as both Douglass and Mole. Some or the last few don't mention Douglass in my program, but may still have relevant material:

Reference from Bob Corbett's library on Mole St. Nicholas, especially relating to Frederick Douglass: