Constitution of Haiti

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: Toussaint-Louverture is regarded as a major figure in the quest to end slavery and the exploitation of colonies in the New World. Yet the constitution that appeared over his name is in many ways not a very democratic document. Additionally, it was a very short-lived document. How would you resolve this apparent inconsistency?
• 2.: Repeatedly, historians note that early cultures were marked by a system of social class or caste. Describe the caste system as it existed in Haiti in the eighteenth century. Why does it seem to have been inevitable that caste systems developed in cultures throughout the world?
• 3.: What role did the faraway French Revolution play in political developments in Haiti?
• 4.: In a document such as the Requerimiento of 1513, Catholicism was imposed on the native peoples of the New World. Interestingly, though, Catholicism seems to have taken root in Central and South America to the extent that nearly three hundred years later, Toussaint-Louverture constitutionally mandated that Catholicism would be Haiti's official religion. Why do you think Catholicism largely supplanted native religious beliefs in the New World?
• 5.: Compare this document with a document such as the Closed Country Edict, issued in Japan in 1635. How do the two documents illustrate how issues involving foreign trade could dominate politics in earlier centuries? What commodities continue to dominate political discussion between nations in the twenty-first century?