What is the Summer Program in Haiti?

Haiti conjures images of revolution and beauty, lush Caribbean paradise and political enigma. If you’re interested in understanding some of many mysteries that surround this island nation, join Tulane University this summer for three weeks of exploration and intrigue in Haiti. Haiti offers a culture and history as diverse as its rugged terrain – complete with mountains, deserts, beaches, rivers and waterfalls. Internationally renown for its innovations in art and the survival of its African spiritual system of Vodou, Haiti holds a special place in the American imagination. Creole characterizes Haiti’s eclectic population whose roots stretch into the New World from Africa, Spain and France to combine with the indigenous peoples who called this special place "Ayiti" – land of mountain after mountain.


In the 17th century the French invaded from their base on Tortuga and colonized what became known as Saint Domingue. The area was occupied by cattle hunting buccaneers and pirates, but Governor de Cussy, appointed in 1684, introduced legal trading and planting. By the eighteenth century it was regarded as the most valuable tropical colony of its size in the world and was the largest sugar producer in the West Indies. However, that wealth was based on slavery and the planters were aware of the dangers of rebellion. After the French Revolution, slavery came under attack in France and the planters defensively called for more freedom to run their colony as they wished. In 1791 France decreed that persons of colour born of free parents should be entitled to vote; the white inhabitants of Saint Domingue refused to implement the decree and mulattoes were up in arms demanding their rights. However, while the whites and mulattoes were absorbed in their dispute, slave unrest erupted in the north in 1791. Thousands of white inhabitants were slaughtered and the northern plain was put to the torch. Soon whites, mulattoes and Negroes were all fighting with shifting alliances and mutual hatred.