Haiti Fights Back

Winner of the 2021 Haitian Studies Association Book Prize Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Pralte is the first US scholarly examination of the politician and caco leader (guerrilla fighter) who fought against the US military occupation of Haiti. The occupation lasted close to two decades, from 1915-1934. Alexis argues for the importance of documenting resistance while exploring the occupations mechanics and its imperialism. She takes us to Haiti, exploring the sites of what she labels as resistance zones, including Praltes hometown of Hinche and the nations large port areas--Port-au-Prince and Cap-Hatien. Alexis offers a new reading of U.S. military archival sources that record Haitian protests as banditry. Haiti Fights Back illuminates how Pralte launched a political movement, and meticulously captures how Haitian women and men resisted occupation through silence, military battles, and writings. She locates and assembles rare, multilingual primary sources from traditional repositories, living archives (oral stories), and artistic representations in Haiti and the United States. The interdisciplinary work draws on legislation, cacos letters, newspapers, and murals, offering a unique examination of Praltes life (1885-1919) and the significance of his legacy through the twenty-first century. Haiti Fights Back offers a new approach to the study of the U.S. invasion of the Americas by chronicling how Caribbean people fought back.