Andrew Walker

This book tells the story of the making and unmaking of the 1822–1844 unification of Hispaniola, during which the former Spanish colony of Santo Domingo—modern Dominican Republic—was governed by the neighboring postrevolutionary Republic of Haiti. The book argues that the construction of the islandwide Haitian state depended on the participation of popular and elite groups in Santo Domingo, thus introducing a fundamental tension into the unification project. Portions of Santo Domingo’s Afrodescended majority invoked legal promises of immediate abolition, racial equality, and citizenship, preserving and even expanding Haitian antislavery and antiracism for new generations. At the same time, elite property holders from Santo Domingo became legislators and local administrators, exacting compromises from national leaders and helping to push the state towards export agriculture and draconian labor codes that posed new threats to the Afrodescended majority. The unification collapsed due to tensions between these groups’ visions for a post-slavery future, rather than national differences between “Haitians” and “Dominicans.”