e privileged elite and the impoverished masses of Haiti never ended. In the 100 years following its independence from France in 1803, 18 of its 22 civilian and military presidents were either assassinated or overthrown (Denson, 1994, p. 7).
Recognition of an independent Haiti by Great Britain and France was not immediately followed by recognition by the United States, despite the fact that Haitian-American trade by the 1820s amounted to $4.5 million. U.S. Secretaries of State John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay ardently opposed American recognition of a free Haiti. It was not until Abraham Lincoln's 1862 emancipation of slavery that the United States was willing to recognize Haitian independence (Bellegarde-Smith, 1990, p. 52).
The United States was soon to renege on its pledge for Haitian independence. Potential foreign enemies to American interests, especially Germany, were steadily exploiting Haiti's social malaise and began penetrating the country's economic and political institutions. On July
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