what two of the most powerful countries in the world did to Haiti requires a suspension of disbelief, because it is so absurd that it sounds like fiction. Two decades after Haiti gained its independence in 1804, France demanded that Haiti compensate former French slaveowners for the value of all those slaves who set themselves free. Yes, France essentially demanded reverse slave reparations. In 1825, France sent warships to Haiti and demanded 150 million francs. Not only did the United States agree with this, but it backed up France’s demands for the debt on the international stage, imploring
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Kidnappers forced their victims to pay them for their freedom and the United States supported it! And it took 122 years to pay for themselves? At the point they were finished paying, the enslaved people they were supposedly reimbursing the French for were long dead and so were the kidnappers who had taken them. It was just extortion. In what other war were the winners forced to pay the losers?
