The central premise of this fascinating book is to show the interplay of the “shared experience” between various Caribbean histories. Smith uses the connection between Haiti and Jamaica as a case study to delineate the intertwining paths each “country” followed during the little-studied period following emancipation. Even if the focus of this book is on the writings and lives of elites, the plight of the poor is always at hand, as the thorny questions of race, equality, and social justice dominated much of the political-economic discourse that engaged politicians and humanitarians. Spanning the second half of the nineteenth century and closing with the US occupation of Haiti, this study shows the competing visions held by political leaders, intellectuals, and those fighting for social justice.
On the surface, integrating the histories of Haiti and Jamaica seems implausible, given that the two countries are separated by water, language, and imperial history. Further, Haiti, the black republic, was set adrift at independence (1804), with few allies, while Jamaica remained firmly tied to Great Britain. Yet, the two island countries were indeed connected to each other, by the flow of prominent exiles and economic migrants. This movement of people—along with each country's connection to tropical staple production—made it natural for commentators and policy makers to draw direct comparisons between Haiti and Jamaica.
Smith explains that migration from Haiti to Jamaica was driven primarily by political turmoil, with revolutions and coups d'état pushing exiles to Kingston. For many refugees, it was a short-term residency in Jamaica, as quickly changing political fortunes permitted their return to Haiti (while a new group Haitian political refugees would arrive in Kingston harbor to take their place). Smith provides detail of how the asylum carousel operated, but a primary theme of the book centers on how exiles were viewed and how their presence shaped the attitudes of Jamaica's elites. Among white Jamaicans, in particular, political exiles were held in suspicion and considered vectors for the rebellious contagion long associated with Haiti. Further, the simple presence of educated and prominent leaders-of-color implicitly challenged Jamaica's de facto racial hierarchy.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jamaicans who settled in Port-au-Prince were also viewed as problematic by their Haitian hosts. British West Indian subjects who moved to the republic did so primarily for economic reasons.
Smith's focus skews towards the entrepreneurial migrants who established themselves in Port-au-Prince as tradesmen, shop owners, and merchants. But in addition to professional and skilled migrants, we learn that large numbers of impoverished laborers, domestics, prostitutes, and even forced child workers made the Haitian capital their home. Some educated British West Indians—most notably the Rev. Joseph Robert Love—spoke out against the poor treatment of Jamaican laborers and, in doing so, earned the ire of powerful Haitians. But even professional expatriates found it increasingly difficult to navigate the political turmoil of Haiti during the 1890s. One Jamaican merchant summarized the dilemma facing foreigners in Haiti when he wrote that in “this country[,] if you are friendly with the government you are regarded as a spy, if you are friendly with those who are not members of government, you are charged as aiding and abetting conspiracies” (277).
Local tensions along the lines of governance, race, class, and national origin were further compounded by the racist literature produced by metropolitan visitors to the Caribbean at the end of the century. In responding to this outside critique of the West Indies, Haitian and Jamaican intellectuals engaged one another in a vigorous discussion, thus informing Smith's larger argument that Caribbean identity was not simply created within the confines of a single country or within a single empire, but was forged along multipolar dimensions. Smith indicates that Cuban exiles constitute another example of inter-island engagement and suggests that continued scholarship in this vein will further put into relief these important “threads of Caribbean national histories.”
