Scope and arrangement
This collection contains additional Haitian historical documents from Kurt Fisher. It complements the initial Kurt Fisher Haitian collection, also held in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Divsion. This collection consists mostly of diplomatic correspondence, government papers, and the papers of General Francois St. Surin Manigat.
The Kurt Fisher Haitian collection (additions) is arranged in three series:
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1856-1956
The Diplomatic correspondence pertains to Haiti's relations with the Dominican Republic, the United States, France, and other countries. Correspondents include Ebenezer Bassett, Louis Joseph Janvier, Thomas Madiou, and Stephen Preston. Also included are materials related to the Maunder claim, by which England sought to seize the island of Tortuga from Haiti in the 1870s; complaints by the German representative about negative stories in the Haitian press about Germany in 1940; complaints and measures involving Syrian merchants illegally engaged in the retail trade; and various documents related to the immigration status of foreign nationals in Haiti, the trades in which they engaged, police actions against them, and the protestations of their governments.
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1810-1957
The Government papers series comprises a file of autographed letters from Haitian heads of state ranging from 1810-1955; one 1816 financial ledger from the period of Henri Christophe's reign; a letter copybook from Haitian statesman Beaubrun Ardouin (1845-1846); legislative correspondence and a letter copybook from the Haitian Senate (1883-1884); and other government papers, including contracts and customs documents indicative of Haiti's import and export trade. The remainder of this series concerns various presidential administrations, including the "Ephemeral Governments" period of 1912-1915, and the U.S. occupation of Haiti in 1915-1934. Also included are documents of the Patriotic Union, an organization of Haitian intellectuals opposed to the U.S. occupation, and correspondence of its national coordinator, Perceval Thoby.
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1883-1898
This series consists of personal letters; correspondence related to the military campaign led by General Manigat against the Liberal insurrection of 1883; documents relating to Manigat's own insurgency against the Hyppolite government in 1892; and Manigat's diplomatic correspondence from 1897-1898.