• sudo@programming.dev
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    4 days ago

    Under the rule of Dessalines, Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery.

      • sudo@programming.dev
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        4 days ago

        Personal lifestyle choices are totally the same as the liberation of an entire nation of people from slavery.

        This is the least intellegent response I’ve gotten in a while.

    • Eldritch@piefed.world
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      4 days ago

      Oh so that makes it okay that they rounded up all the white polish etc minority on the island that had fought alongside them. And then exterminated them? That’s some moral relativism right there if I ever heard it.

      I differentiate between the people of Haiti and their first self-proclaimed emperor. My sympathies lie with the people of Haiti. After fighting one revolution for their freedom. They had to turn and cooperate with bad faith actors like the United States. To assassinate their own ruler so they could actually have it. Only to then be fucked by France and the United States for the next Century afterwards.

      • Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        the white polish etc minority

        Interesting you’d mention the one white group that was completely spared due to allying with the revolutionaries.

        • Jayjader@jlai.lu
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          4 days ago

          When one of the lead devs of the Lemmy backend names their online presence after the enactor/leader of said alleged genocide, it’s bound to come up at some point.

          • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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            4 days ago

            And I thought wiki holes were fun. Like I’ve seen that name before on here. I had no clue about the history of it. Lemmy drama is so interesting and tangentially informative.

          • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            I’m legit surprised it doesn’t come up more. Yeah, Dessalines the OG is a bit more obscure than Louverture, but the fediverse in general and lemmy in particular run heavy to folks that appreciate revolutionary history.

            Hell, I’m not even that into Haitian history, and I’ve read a little bit here and there. Been ages, but still enough to recognize the name when I saw it. When you also consider some of the drama around lemmy dessalines, that nobody looked it up is surprising too

      • sudo@programming.dev
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        4 days ago

        Oh so that makes it okay that they rounded up all the white polish etc minority on the island

        Famously the one group that was spared.

        Only to then be fucked by France and the United States for the next Century afterwards.

        The US and France had fucked over Saint Domingue long before Dessalines was overthrown. It was Dessalines who was forced to sign the treaty which indebted the entire nation as price for their freedom. It came with support from slaveholders like Jefferson who correctly, saw the Haitian Revolution as an existential threat to their way of life.

        The point is to highlight the concept of Critical Support. Dessalines isn’t someone to idolize like Toussant, he was a ruthless thug. But Napoleon rejected the alliance that Toussant offered. So faced with the choice of re-enslavement under Napoleon and Rochambeau, I would’ve taken Dessalines any day.