Migration, Race, and Identity in the Dominican Republic

Catalog description

The history of Hispaniola, currently divided into the countries of Haiti and Dominican Republic, has remained pivotal to the development of the Caribbean and the Atlantic world. The two parts of the island evolved in unique ways, thus creating distinct but interconnected societies. In the east the plantation economy went into decline very early on, thus creating a remarkable rural society, the first in the Caribbean in which free people of African descent predominated; in the west, a brutal plantation regime ended in a spectacular slave revolt (The Haitian Revolution) that shook the foundations of the Atlantic world. Students will explore the Dominican-Haitian relationship from colonial times to present and highlight the ways that the DR and Haiti are interconnected and ways in which they have developed differently.