Tribute to African-Americans in Samana

Dolores1

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Thanks to Cid Wilson, of Dominican American Round Table, who sent us the information for this brief on this important tribute that took place in Samana on Wednesday.


A group of Dominican-Americans traveled to Samana this week to honor and pay tribute to the descendants of the African-American community living in Samana, on the country?s northeastern coast.
In 1824, at least 6,000 African-Americans who were freed from slavery migrated from the United States to Samana, Dominican Republic. Today, it is estimated that 80% of the population in Samana is of African-American descent.
The event took place on Wednesday, 22 February in the city of Samana. Hostos Community College of the City University of New York, the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo and the Association of Dominican American Supervisors and Administrators (ADASA) organized the visit.
The trip was organized as a result of the US documentary film "Dominican Identity & Migration To Hispaniola," produced by Nestor Montilla, associate director of international programs for Hostos Community College and a board member of the Dominican American National Roundtable. Ana Garcia-Reyes, vice president of Hostos Community College, commissioned the film. Both attended the ceremony.
Also attending were Hugo Morales, CUNY trustee; Wilson Forshue, governor of Samana; Irma Nicasio, sociology professor from UASD; Adriano Espaillat, New York State Assemblyman from Washington Heights section of Manhattan; Jose Peralta, New York State assemblyman from Queens, NY; Cid Wilson, president of the Dominican-American National Roundtable (DANR) in Washington, D.C., Jeanne Mulgrave, Commissioner for the City of New York?s Department of Youth & Family Services; Robert Mercedes, president of ADASA, Carlos Sierra of the CUNY student senate; Fred Price, dean of public relations for Medgar Evers College.
The delegation honored Martha Willmore Kelly, Reverend Benito Jones of the AME Episcopal Church, Reverend Nemiah Willmore, and Franklyn Willmore for their leadership in preserving the culture of the African American community in Samana. An estimated 200 guests took part in the recognition ceremony. The timing of the event was significant as February is Black History Month as well as Dominican Heritage Month in the United States.
 

Ricardo900

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It's very nice to know that the Dominican Republic open their borders to ex-slaves from the US for a better life and as they did the Jews in Sosua during WWII.
 

Dolores1

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Caribbean reporter, John Collins writes to praise the event as "the diaspora bounce back!"

"Regardless of the motive this is very welcome attention to a long overlooked group," he writes. But also comments that unfortunately it overlooks many of the historical facts associated with the community. Apparently there is a doctoral thesis written by a Florida Atlantic University student on the community's origins. The PhD candidate got a Guggenheim grant & took a group of her students to Samana to trace the evolution of the group.

John recalls, off the tip of his head, that there were originally 67 families & all of their surnames could be traced through 11 or 12 generations from 1825 when they were brought there by the Haitian government at the time of the occupation! He said that old timers in the community he interviewed in 1974 told him how the Haitians "wanted to raise the color on the Dominican side by bringing in ex-slaves from Philadelphia."

He mentions that several thousand were brought in but only the Samana community survived and that the rest could not adjust to the tropics and fell victims to disease or were not farmers. He explains that a whole folk lore has developed regarding them. While he says they now number several thousand, only a few are knowledgable to speak about their history. His source at the time was an old English teacher called Copeland who has since died & with her the name disappeared because there were no males in the line.

Collins writes that those who came and their descendents were very religious Wesleyan Methodists who later became AME, when referring to all of the other communities around the DR. He has heard there were 11 or 12 settlements that have disappeared over the years.

He says that when he first met them they spoke early 19th century English with numerous religious expressions like "bless thee," etc.

Collins tells that his interviewee told him that the early members, while grateful to the Haitian occupation authorities for granting them the opportunity to make a new life in a new country, were shocked at the racist character of the Haitian military. For example, several told me that they cut off the white heads of statues in the churches! Collins comments that he couldn't help recall this when he sat in the cathedral in Port au Prince in 91 at Aristide's inauguration and saw that all of the statues including the baby Jesus were black! He mentions that it's a forgotten chapter in DR history & is largely overlooked. He hopes to return to Samana later this year & make a concerted effort to salvage some of this valuable information.

Meanwhile, "I'm glad to the Dominicanos in NY for resurrecting this valuable part of the mosaic."
 
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Dolores1

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This is interesting. Now, what I wonder is why would they invite settlers from the US to raise the color of Dominicans, if there were so many Haitians already on the island. So there must have been other stronger motives.

Will be interesting to locate this doctoral thesis and get more insights into this. Probably John Collins will do some more interviewing.

What is a fact, though, is that as has occurred with all the many groups of immigrants that have made the DR their home, the new settlers were truly welcomed and blended in intermarrying with those who had come earlier, and the Philadelphia settlers made their definite mark on Samana.
 

NALs

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Dolores said:
This is interesting. Now, what I wonder is why would they invite settlers from the US to raise the color of Dominicans, if there were so many Haitians already on the island. So there must have been other stronger motives.

Will be interesting to locate this doctoral thesis and get more insights into this. Probably John Collins will do some more interviewing.

What is a fact, though, is that as has occurred with all the many groups of immigrants that have made the DR their home, the new settlers were truly welcomed and blended in intermarrying with those who had come earlier, and the Philadelphia settlers made their definite mark on Samana.
A guess would be not enough Haitians to fully populate both sides of the island.

Remember, the populations of either DR or Haiti were extremely low. For most of history under 1 million! In addition, in those times the only areas with significant populations in the DR was the vega real triangle (Santiago-San Francisco-La Vega area), and that area has historically been the most european in composition from any other area of the entire island. As if that was not enough, the east was virtually empty, since San Pedro and La Romana only came into existence as full fledge towns in the early 1900s due to American investment in Sugar estates and the south has never had a significant population, despite being a signifcant part of the country geographically speaking.

-NALs
 

Dominicanidentity

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Tribute to the African American of Samana, Dom. Rep.

I am glad to see your responses about Feb. 22, 2006 Samana event to recognize the African American community.

As the producer of New York City University's Hostos Community College's study abroad documentary "Dominican Identity and Migrations to Hispaniola," I will also be glad to share with you more background information about the story of the African Americans and several other sizeable migratory groups that settled in Hispaniola.

Mr. Cid Wilson, the President of the Dominican American National Roundtable, saw the documentary at Hostos Community College in the Bronx , NY on Feb 16 this year and expressed interest in undertaking a Dominican identity tour throuhought the United States to feature the documentary everywhere to help broaden understanding about Dominican culture and the diversity of the Dominican people.

It will be an interesting opportunity to share thoughts with different audiences and discuss issues about the true identity of the Dominicans.

The documentary was produced for educational purpose only. It's not for sale and its viewing should be free and open to the general public.

One of its chapters about the Haitian Migration to the Dom. Rep. includes the testimonials of Solange Pierre, a Dominican women of Haitian descent who firmly believes both, Dominican and Haitian cultures, have salient common characteristics in music, religion, food and other aspects.

An elderly Dominican of Haitian descent reveals he lives in fear of being deported back to Haiti, although he wan't born in the Dominican Republic. In this respect, please consider excerpts of his remarks in Spanish (acentuacion omitida),

"Yo naci en eta tierra; no conoco otra bandera. Solamente conoco la bandera dominicana. He vito otras banderas, pero me siento ser dominicano".

"Si me agarran y me mandan pa Haiti, pa donde me van a manda?"

Mejor "que no metan a todito en un corral y no afusilen. Por que, pa donde no van a manda? Yo no se donde queda la frontera.

"Y un hombre de 75 a?os que lo dio todo...TODO por ete pai...TODO dede chiquitico con un saco al hombro, un pico, una azada, chapeando potreros, tirando ca?a con una carreta con sei bueye, vagoniando, carreteando entre el ingenio, haciendo de todo. Y hoy no pueden menopreciame y deci que me van a agarra y me van a tira como cuando lo bueye no pueden hace na y tirarme en un potrero".

More information forthcoming.

Nestor Montilla
 

Dolores1

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Let us keep this thread on the topic of the freed slaves to Samana. What does modern day Haitian immigration have to do with it. This thread is about Samana's history, not modern day Haitian immigration topics. We are not talking about the Dominican identity here.

Let us keep this thread exclusively on the story of the freed slaves to Samana, not Haitian migration. If you want to discuss Haitian migration, as part of Dominican identity -- definitely they are part of our identity -- please start another thread.

There is a very interesting thesis out there on the subject of American migration to Samana by E. Valerie Smith who is on the faculty of social and behavioral sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University.

What we would like to get is a copy of that thesis. I understand the professor interviewed several of the Americans in Samana.
 
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Hillbilly

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Boyer sent emisaries to Philadelphia where the American Colonization Society had a headquarters. Thes was a strongly anti-slavery group whose modus-operandi was to purchase slaves or rescue escaped slaves from the south and ship them back to Africa. These "returnees" in turn enslaved the local inhabitants and created the country of Liberia, whose capital, Monrovia, conmemorates President James Monroe.

The group that came down here was headed by pastor Peter Vanderhorst. I enterview his granddaughter in 1968--Miss Alice.

The Willmores, the Coplins, Hamiltons, Greens, and a flock more, were the survivors.

They spoke a variety of what is now identified as "Black English". In there homes, in 1968, an outsider like myself could not understand a word. If they wanted me to understand what they were saying they spoke more clearly.

Lack of funding cut short my studies, but there have been some studies on the English of Saman?..

HB :D:D
 

Dolores1

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Who paid for their transportation to Samana? The American Colonization Society? When you talk about the Wilmores, Coplins, Hamiltons, Greens as survivors... what survival are you referring to? Not being sent back to Africa?
 

Ken

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Dolores, it appears you didn't read all the articles and "Samana Notes" in the Santo Domingo News in the late 80s and early 90s. (-;

To practice Spanish is those days, I went almost daily to Barrio Willmore to the home of Lu?s Sim?n Lake, the husband of one of the Willmore descendents, for Spanish conversation. Among the many subjects we talked about were the Americans coming to Saman? and they shared with me documents they had. Those documents indicated that Boyer, the ruling figure in Haiti at that time, was interested in populating relatively unpopulated areas with black people who had a farming background. To attract the blacks from the US, he offered land for them to live and grow crops on.

There were groups that went to other parts of the island, but the Samana group was the most successful. Many of those who went to other parts of the island got sick and died while others soon became disenchanted with the "heathen" customs of the Haitians and returned to the US.

One reason the Samana colony prospered was because the settlers did not mix with the Haitians. They stayed together, had their own protestant church, own school with classes taught in English, they married wiithin their group, and the kept English as their language. In fact, it wasn't until Trujillo's days, when they were forced to use Spanish, that many of them did. But even then they continued to talk among themselves in English. Even today their are barrios outside the city of Samana where "English" is the primary language. Lacking opportunities to read and converse widely in Englis, the language they speak isn't much different than what was spoken by the freed slaves who settled their in the 1800s.

To this day, many of the people in Samana consider themselves Americans because they descended from this group of slaves. And there are others, like Luis Simon Lake who consider themselves English because they descendend from one of the black families that migrated to Samana from the British islands of the Caribbean.

In recent years, the young people wanted to fit into the larger community and were ashamed of their parents speaking English. Of course, many of them are now kicking themselves today because they know they could have better jobs if they had learned English as a child. And today's descendents are marrying outside the group, so the identity of the group is being lost. But it certainly is an interesting history and it is a pleasure to talk with those people about their past.
 
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Dolores1

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Would be worthy of compiling those notes to put together the story. Do you have them?

Between what John Collins is coming up with, what Hillbilly may have from his own research, and what you have, there should be enough to put together a small online book on this chapter of Dominican history.

Do you have the dates of those Samana Notes?
 

Ken

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Dolores said:
Would be worthy of compiling those notes to put together the story. Do you have them?

Between what John Collins is coming up with, what Hillbilly may have from his own research, and what you have, there should be enough to put together a small online book on this chapter of Dominican history.

Do you have the dates of those Samana Notes?

Dolores, I saved copies of everything I wrote thinking I might do something with it some day and feel sure that even after moving off the boat and into our condo that it is somewhere in the apartment. I'm not quite as sure that I saved the resource material on Samana, but hope I can find it, too.

Regarding dates, unless I find the copies I saved I won't be able to give you dates.
 

Ken

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We are in luck!

I found my copy of the document "Historical Outline of the Landing of Afro-Americans Immigrants on the Island of Santo Domingo" written by Rev. Nehemiah Willmore. Here is a brief quote that relates to what what was being discussed earlier in this thread:

"The historical outlines of the landing of the Afro-American emigrants on the island of Santo Domingo is as follows: In the year 1822, President Peter Boyer, who ruled both countries, withich is Haiti and Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo being situated in the extreme eastern part of the country, and Haiti in the extreme northeastern piart of the country.

President Boyer's desire was to bring thousands of these colored people, as themselves, to this country to cultivate the land and plant crops of various kinds, principally cotton, sugar cane, tobacco and vegetables. These people were found at the time principally in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jersey City and Maryland, etc. (We also want our readers to know that at this time the slave trade was not yet broken up as yet; but those who managed to make their escape from down south were well protected in these cities.

In the year 1822, President Boyer sent J. Granville to the U.S.A., who contacted on the 25th of May a colored emigration organization from Philadelphia and offered them the privilege of enjoying civil and political rights. And in the month of November, on the 29th of said month of the same year, six thousand colored emigrants parted on said date and another group on the 4th of December, and were sheltered in an old Convent, called "Las Mercedes", which they finally used as a Methodist Church; being the first group of Protestants to bring Protestantism to this country.

They were very unfortunate, because shortly after they arrived, they were hit with typhoid, which greatly diminished their number. Many of those who survived the fever became disgusted with the customs of the Haitians, which they considered to be a continual threat to their familes, and decided to return to America.

Those that remained, greatly distinguished themselves by their well organized families and society, as well as by thier good neighborly customs and treatment. They were given land to carryon their agricultural pursuits. Many of those who remained atSanto Domingo afterwards decided to come over to join their brethren at Samana, which finally proved to be the most progressive group and the only ones who had kept together and retained their original customs and language through intermarriages.

The land here at the time was very fertile, and yielded abundantlyi. And as the years went by, and they used to reap their big rice and corn fields, they got into the custom of making united gatherings to plant and reap these fields, and then to husk the corn and thresh the rice; and in all these gatherings they used to sing the old anthems that they brought with them from the United States, and this they kept up until abut 30-409 years ago when they finally dropped them; and that is because their work in all departments is greatly mixed with Spanish-speaking people with whom lots of them are also marrying."

Talking about the way English is spoken by many, he says, "The improper way in which most of our unlearned people in the U.S. spoke in former years can be detected in the most of them until now: just like the ones over there (such as: am guine, set down for sit; in place of for me to be able to do this, that, or the other they will say: for me te cin, my mame, my papey, her a said, we want to, and the light).
 

Ken

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From a Letter from an Emigrant on Arrival in Santo Domingo

We arrived in the morning of the 27th of November, 1824, and were received in this city of Santo Domingo with salvos of artilery shot from the fort, and high offcials of the government came on board and welcomed us and escorted us to land, and from there to the government house, and there they registered us as immigrants, and we were treated with much cordiality and love, more as brothers than as strangers. In fact, the reception that was given us was identical or superior to what was given General Lafayette when he visited the United States. We received personal salutes from each one of the solders of the fort and many citizens of the locality.
 

Mirador

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Many years ago, I had a very close relationship with a woman from Samana. She was a judge then, and she told me that her family owned half of all the land in Las Terrenas. She was a beautiful black woman, and her last name was Vanderhorst. She told me that she new very little of her ancestors, except that they must have had some connection with the Netherlands. I read recently that Portugal has decided to give citizenship to all who can claim Portuguese descent up to the third generation wherever they were born. I wonder if Samana descendents from US slaves can claim US citizenship?
 

Quisqueya

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Hmmm!!!!!

Many of those who survived the fever became disgusted with the customs of the Haitians, which they considered to be a continual threat to their familes, and decided to return to America.


I smell antihaitianismo brewing!!!!!!!!!!! Many people tend to forget that most of the haitians that went to Spanish Haiti (present day DR) were soldiers and not citizens of the Republic of Haiti.

Another fallacy is that Boyer was trying to darken the eastern side. For one Boyer was a mulatto who wanted the island to be a haven for all people & not necessarily black..His philosophy was that the island of Espaniola would be the mecca for people against oppression & colonialism..

His downfall was that he tried to turn the eastern side of the island into an agricultural based economy which plummeted the present day DR besides not pulling his soldiers from present day DR caused many frictions among the few elite that stayed. And J.P. Duarte an elite creole dissident and some elite haitians not satisfied with their share plotted to overthrow his (Boyer's) government..

Another note I don't african americans wanted to return back to USA at that present time..unless they preferred being hung on Oak trees. Although the people that settled Samana were not accustomed to the island they managed to build there own community.
 

Quisqueya

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Mirador said:
Many years ago, I had a very close relationship with a woman from Samana. She was a judge then, and she told me that her family owned half of all the land in Las Terrenas. She was a beautiful black woman, and her last name was Vanderhorst. She told me that she new very little of her ancestors, except that they must have had some connection with the Netherlands. I read recently that Portugal has decided to give citizenship to all who can claim Portuguese descent up to the third generation wherever they were born. I wonder if Samana descendents from US slaves can claim US citizenship?


That's a far far stretch Mirador and would never happen in a million years. Besides, USA is becoming anti-immigrant...Besides, they can't even take care of their own people in Nouvelle Orleans what makes you think they would do for blacks in Samana (who are indeed dominicans)that are actually african descendants and were not even americans yet.

Portugal only did that because their country is now poor and the people that migrated obtained wealth in their new land and wanted them to bring that resource back to Portugal..I am quite sure they were not giving native Angolans or native Brazilians portuguese citizenship...
 

Ken

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Mirador said:
Many years ago, I had a very close relationship with a woman from Samana. She was a judge then, and she told me that her family owned half of all the land in Las Terrenas. She was a beautiful black woman, and her last name was Vanderhorst. She told me that she new very little of her ancestors, except that they must have had some connection with the Netherlands. I read recently that Portugal has decided to give citizenship to all who can claim Portuguese descent up to the third generation wherever they were born. I wonder if Samana descendents from US slaves can claim US citizenship?

Mirador, the names of the black families that settled Samana mean nothing in terms of relationships because they took the names of the people who owned them in the US. Most of them, or their parents, were blacks living in Africa that were brought to the US in sailing ships as slaves. The owner of this woman's ancestors may well have been a Dutchman or a descendent from Dutch people, because Vanderhorst does sound like a Dutch name., But I can assure you that her ancestors when in Africa were not named Vanderhorst.

As far as these people claiming US citizenship, they lost their chance when the US Senate during the administration of President Grant voted against buying Samana so that the Bay of Samana could be used as a US Navy base.
 

NALs

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Ken said:
Mirador, the names of the black families that settled Samana mean nothing in terms of relationships because they took the names of the people who owned them in the US. Most of them, or their parents, were blacks living in Africa that were brought to the US in sailing ships as slaves. The owner of this woman's ancestors may well have been a Dutchman or a descendant from Dutch people, because Vanderhorst does sound like a Dutch name., But I can assure you that her ancestors when in Africa were not named Vanderhorst.

As far as these people claiming US citizenship, they lost their chance when the US Senate during the administration of President Grant voted against buying Samana so that the Bay of Samana could be used as a US Navy base.
Ken,

What you are saying appears to be on the mark and makes perfect sense.

However, slaves and free blacks and mulatto's in the United States counted as 1/3 (+ or -) citizen, compared to whites who were 100% citizens. This is interesting, because despite being slaves and despite the law recognizing each slaves 2/3 non-human practically, the law still recognized them as 1/3 American citizens. If this is correct, then descendants of former American slaves living in Samana could claim American citizenship, if and only if, the US pledges to recognize citizenship to descendants of former American citizens.

Whether descendants of former American citizens can claim US citizenship this boils down to legal technicalities, much how the designation of 1/3 citizenship to slaves and afro-Americans handicapped their ability to vote, since a person need full citizenship to do that and only white men had that privilege at that time.

This reminds me of a practice the colonizers used.The slaves captured and/or bought by the Europeans baptized each and every single African prior to being shipped across the Atlantic. During the baptism, those Africans would be given Christian or "European" names. I am not sure if the would be slaves were given European surnames prior to the journey, I will further look into this matter.

-NALs
 
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