Restavek's Modern Day Slavery: The Haitian Revolution

Haiti’s modern day slavery start with children. The specific term is “Restavec” or “staying with” as a translation in French. The use of Restavek takes children away from their homes and force them into solitude in a rural neighborhood unlike their own. However, slavery existed over 200 years ago as Haiti was a site for free slaves but contemporary slavery still exists.
The Haitian revolution gave Haiti independent in 1804. The Code Noir or black code was to prevent slaves from pertaining freedom - which was issued by Louis XIV to all french colonies in 1685. In Article 44, it says “ slaves were restricted from participating in any civil legal action or initiating criminal matters and their status, including the specification that they were …show more content…
Toussaint Louverture was the first to apprehend the law and rebel against it. He used the idea that slaves and people of color should be free in his new regime to take down France and its law. The Code Noir was a spark for the Haitian Revolution that took place in the 1791 to 1804 when Haiti finally gained its independence from the French. As a colony, Haiti produced “profitable coffee , sugar , cotton, dyewoods and hardwoods.” 2 However, there was an intense bloody civil war that started with slaves to gain freedom. With Toussaint as General, he would take over Haiti and push the France back to gain the freedom Saint-Domingue needed. After the revolt, the ‘free-soil policy’ gave slaves the right to be free on Haitian ground. This policy became a turning point in Haitian history - it gave rights to already existing slaves to become a citizen of haiti. “Between …show more content…
Conducted by NGOs in Port-au-Prince uses this study to express the differences in Restavek victims such as age or development, to gather information about mental health issues that the children have and addressing the future of these childrens as they continue to live a normal life. Between the two studies - each had both adults and youth who have been through the process of Restavek and volunteered to speak up. The first study consisted of 32 adults and 4 youth. The process of interviewing is Free listing and key informants that both are open-ended for specific interviewing questions. The first question of FL, What are the problems of children who have been in restavek? Answered ranged from economic problems to being not fed or clothed property to malalèz, which translates to emotional discomfort like mental issues. 5 This also brought up “Risks” from being in Restavec such as doing drugs or living in the streets. Question number two stated what happens when the child returns home from Restavec, what problems occur? The number one answer was unwelcomed by family because the family has no economic means to take care of them. Thus, this study broke out into topics: Mental health, experience post- Restavec and being unwelcomed once home. Children who have been in Restavec have been studied to show “sadness and bad memories”, while also exhibiting