The Parsley Massacre

By: Marc Johnson

 A genocide in which approximately

20,000-30,000 Haitians were killed in the Dominican Republic

 This genocide occurred on the

borderlands of The Dominican Republic and Haiti

 The Genocide started on October

2nd, 1937 and ended on October 8th, 1937, lasting about five days

 Two Reasons:  Border issues  Agricultural issues

   



Haiti covers only one third of the island whereas The Dominican Republic covers two thirds Haiti has a larger population The Dominican Republic has a large amount of farming land near the border Haitians started to migrate over to The Dominican Republic to start farming Haiti could try to claim the Haitian populated area in the Dominican as their own

The Haitians were farming land and therefore stealing profits from Dominicans  Haitians were also stealing cattle and crop from the Dominicans 



Dominican President Rafael Trujillo started the genocide.

 Dominican troops, civilians and local

political authorities used guns, machetes, clubs and knives  Haitians were separated from the Dominicans by the way they pronounced Parsley, hence the name, “The Parsley Massacre”

Rafael Trujillo tried to blame Dominican citizens for the killings, but US proved otherwise  Trujillo developed the land near the border  New laws restricted the immigration of Haitians  The Haitian and American government sought reparations of $750,000. Only $525,000 was paid. 

 Of the $30 per victim,

only 2 cents were given to survivors

In 1915, a Haitian revolution occurred in which the president was killed  Nearby American naval ships came in to stop the fighting  The USA did not like the President that the Haitians wanted, so the US picked a President and forced him to sign into office  They stayed for 19 years, and all but one ship left in 1937 

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http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/haitian-invasions-and-occupation-santodomingo-1801-1844 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley_Massacre http://tamarasiuda.com/2011/10/07/remembering-the-cutting-1937s-parsleymassacre/ http://haitiforever.com/windowsonhaiti/wucker1.shtml http://nineteenthirtyseven.wordpress.com/the-parsley-massacre/ http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/gphr/index.php?1937 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo http://thegermansmakegoodstuff.blogspot.ca/2011/10/brief-history-ofimperialist-interests.html http://www.batayouvriye.org/English/Positions1/dr.html http://fowomouvriye.org/Bulletins/001/70YearsAgo.html http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/forum/living-in-the-dr/generalinfo/2046/Dictator-Rafael-Trujillos-Haitian-Bloodline http://www.pastforward.ca/publications/pf06/WRM%20Chapter%202%20ph otographs.htm http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08haiti19 15.htm