For this post, share something about the time period and situation of this novel.
Look up anything: the General, the conflict, the island itself...and share what you learn with your classmates. Please read at least three posts of your peers.
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Wassup y'all :). So after I read the back of the book, I noticed that in the summary, it mentions "a wave of genocidal violence, driven by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, leads the slaughter of Haitian workers". When I saw this, it made me think of something I searched up and found about it earlier, and revisit that event. This was the Parsley Massacre, which was a mass killing that took place in October 1937 (the same date the book is taking place in the present) against Haitians living in the Dominican Republic's northwestern frontier. This resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Haitians. And here’s something that blew my mind. Remember in the beginning of the book that had the bible verse? It stated a conflict between Gilead and Ephraim, similar between Dominicans and Haitians. Here, it mentioned how whenever an Ephraimite asked to “cross over”, the men of Gilead asked if they were an Ephraimite. If not, they had them pronounce the word “Shibboleth”. If he said “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they would capture and kill him. This is a direct reference to the massacre and how it got its name. Here, Dominican soldiers would carry a sprig of parsley and asked suspected Haitians to pronounce the Spanish word for parsley: perejil. Because of the language being Haitian Creole, if they couldn’t pronounce correctly, they were killed.
ReplyDeleteWe learned about the Haitan Revolution and Toussaint L'ouverture in AP World last year. The Haitian slaves overthrew the French, led by L'ouverture, but what we didn't learn was that the revolution and the fighting continued in the side controlled by Spain, the DR. The Haitian fighters liberated the DR, but then occupied and controlled it for 22 years. Much of the tensions between the two nations trace back to that period of occupation.
ReplyDeleteLogan
DeleteThe hurricane that hit Haiti and the DR (and killed Amabelle's and Sebastien's parents) is considered to be the fifth deadliest hurricanes recorded in Atlantic history. By the time it reached Santo Domingo in the DR, the hurricane had already reached category 4. The estimated number of deaths is around 2000-8000 or higher. Most, if not all, of the roads were flooded, and crops were destroyed. The overall damage done cost about $50 million USD.
ReplyDelete- Joyce Koo, pd. 2
Amera Mohamed 5: I did some research on the relationship between Haiti and DR and one article really explained the current situation well. The river that Amabelle and her family were crossing was called the Massacre River and most Haitians cross it to sell and buy on Dominican soil. The main reason for this constant crossing of the border is because the Dominican Republic has a more prosperous economy and less poverty compared to Haiti. Haiti has been hit by a lot of natural disasters and economic failures so the people look for work in a more prosperous economy which happens to be their neighbor DR. The Haitian people do the jobs that Dominicans don’t really want and that is why their economy is growing. As for the race relations it is clear that Haitians embrace their blackness, while many Dominicans ignore theirs. Amabelle’s story is set in the 1930s but I still know people in 2019 who are Dominican and distance themselves from their clearly African heritage. I wonder why it is still so unwanted to admit you have African in you?
ReplyDeleteIn the novel of the farming of bones, the setting is the island of Dominican Republic and Haiti. This takes place during a time period where Dominican Republic has a poor government and economy and there has been civil war here. Times are hard for laborers as people have had to work low jobs at the time such as working in fields and be sugarcane pickers. Even old people much continue to work hard in fields to maintain. Ultimately Amabelle and her family and friends are attempting to leave the Dominican Republic as it is not a good place to stay here. They are going to have to sneak out the country as people aren’t allowed to leave with the state of the government at the time and they are must dodge soldiers and be in dangerous situations to be able to escape.
ReplyDeleteAlex Dessin
Rafael Trujillo came to power through hash measures (torture and political manipulation) in 1930. In his early life, he had worked as an overseer/ police officer on a sugar plantation (I thought that was interesting considering the book). He also, once in power, would destroy rural communities to create sugar plantations. Trujillo started his ascent to power by joining the military, where he rose through the ranks. He fostered the anti-Haitian and anti-immigrant, going so far as to order the massacre of thousands of Haitians in 1937, like Will-Josh talks about at the top of this board. It seems a lot of this prejudice and violence came both from a difference of culture, but also from a deep rooted racism. This was meant to be a genetic cleansing and was meant to lighten the population, skin tone wise. Trujillo remained in power, though sometimes in different forms, until his assassination in 1961.
ReplyDeleteKatie Brockmeyer
***fostered the anti-Haitian and anti-immigrant sentiment
DeleteChristine Gomes, Period 5 :)
ReplyDeleteAccording to History.com, Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo ordered the Parsley Massacre in 1937 after there were reports of Haitians stealing cattle and crops from Dominicans along the northwest border. There were disputes filled into the air already between the Haitians and the Dominican Republic, but this is the thing that crossed the line for him. It’s like Trujillo used every bit of dirty information he had on the Haitians to convince his people that these humans who just wanted land and life were their greatest nightmare (as every dictator does). All they did was take some cattle and Trujillo created them to be monsters. He grew up closer to the lower class with thirteen other siblings and worked as a telegraph operator and a guard on a sugar plantation after elementary school. He had several things in common with the Haitians, but he hated the simple difference in culture more. He knew what it’s like to be working (especially at a young age) to survive yet he didn’t hesitate to kill thousands of people that lived like how he used to live. Another thing is that the number of Haitians killed because of the massacre isn’t known to be accurate since some of the bodies ended up at sea or in mass graves which has a small connection to the title of the book. The title “The Farming of Bones” looks like it gives a attribute to those Haitians whose bones were too deep among dirt and other Haitian bones to be found and remembered. In addition, U.S. legation informants reported that some of the armed forces confessed to being “blind drunk” to manage gruesomely killing the Haitians. I don’t think Señor Pico had to be blind drunk to hurt the Haitians the way he did; not because he seemed perfectly sober in the novel, but because he has this mindset that mirrors the mindset of the Generalissimo. You can see from the beginning of the novel that he has this hatred toward the Haitians. He felt like he was actually doing the country a favor by doing what he was ordered to do. It’s also repeated in the book that Señor Pico would do anything to become the president, and you can really get a taste of that right when he shouts “I have no cane for you to cut now” (page 154).
Ella Gatlin Pd 5
ReplyDeleteI wanted to learn more about Haiti in general. I found out that currently, 80% of the Haitian population lives in poverty. Also, Haiti is the second oldest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere (after the United States). I find this very interesting when you consider the differences in success of each nation. The U.S. is considered a World superpower and Haiti is often considered one of the most impoverished nations in the world. Why might this be? Could Haiti's neighbors in the Dominican Republic have anything to do with their struggle for economic growth? My guess would be yes. Also, while looking for info about Haiti I found this thing called The World Fact Book (maybe i'm just late and everyone knows about it) which has awesome information about every country. Looking at population graphs on there is really cool!
The story takes place in the Dominican Republic during the conflict between Haitians and Dominicans. The president Rafael Trujillo reacted to the the reports of Haitians stealing cattle and crops from Dominican borderland residents. He commanded to kill all Haitians with machetes. As a Hispanic with knowledge in the culture, killing someone with a machete on purpose instead of a gun makes their deaths worthless. The other purpose of that is to make their deaths slower and way more painful. In the story the "machete" is mentioned a lot so it drew my attention and I wanted to add that little detail.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book, the setting takes place in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic and Haiti had conflict as the same time period in, "Farming of Bones." The Dominican Republic and Haiti split the island of Hispaniola and did create the Parsley Massacre. The Parsley Massacre was a brutal fight between Dominican Republic and Haiti which lasted five to eight days and killed over 20,000 people by the orders of the dictator; Rafael Trujillo.
ReplyDeleteI am very familiar with the history surrounding this book since it hits a little close to home. My father was born and raised in Dominican Republic before he decided to move here, so I know about how disgusting Rafael Trujillo really was. In all honestly, the United States played a huge part in worsening the conflict between Haiti and Dominican Republic. When the US was occupying both parts of the island to help keep peace and install secure governments, the military met Haitians with a brutally racist nature which was enough to spread this idea of racial discrimination throughout the country of Dominican Republic. Rafael Trujillo used this mentality to support the murder of thousands of primarily Black Haitians. He justified it by saying it was for the safety of the country’s farmers and the government blocked any sort of media attention on the killings. This was one of many disgusting acts on Trujillos ledger. He was responsible for the rapes of various women, jailed or killed anyone who he perceived as a threat to his power, and censored the public to feel like he was “respected”.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the novel, it's said Amabelle has recurring dreams which involve drowning, and that her lover, Sebastien is there to comfort her. This is likely because both of the pair had lost their parents in the hurricane.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to go deeper into the details of the hurricane itself. From the location and time period, I figured that the hurricane referred to is most likely the Jérémie hurricane. It took place in 1935, and affected Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras and North Nicaragua. The storm was, at it's peak, a category 1 hurricane. It destroyed bridges, farms and buildings causing a total of roughly $16 million in combined damages. People were left without power, water and their homes. The biggest part of this disaster was in Haiti. Towns on the Tiburon Peninsula were devastated by flooding after days of torrential rains. This took out not just livestock and crops, (which caused fears for an impending famine), but an estimated 2,000 Haitian people. This was the highest recorded number of deaths for the affected countries, and it is possible it was actually even higher, as some of the deceased likely had been washed away before their body could be recovered.
This book appears to happen in the Dominican Republic. The situation this book takes places is a battle between Haitians and Dominicans, where Haitians are not respected. This results with the massive killings of Haitians. The general, Rafael Trujillo is responsible for the Haitians and Dominicans divide.
ReplyDeleteThe novel takes place in the Dominican Republic in the 1930s, and Amabelle is a young haitian girl that works for a family. I decided to look deeper into the relationship between the DR and Haiti, and found that there's been a long conflict going on between the two countries specifically over the island of Hispaniola. In 1937, Rafael Trujillo ordered an attack, Parsley Massacre, on the border, slaughtering tens of thousands of Haitians. The second I learned of the Parsley Massacre I immediately made the connection to the motif of parsley. Trujillo's power grew immensely, and it showed many how far he was willing to go after the Parsley Massacre.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think is interesting is the difference in languages between Haiti and the DR. Generally, I feel like I hear a lot of people, especially in my French class, talk about how French is spoken a lot in Haiti. However they also speak creole which is mentioned in the book. It is interesting to me, since I am reading in the “race and identity lens,” that the Haitians all learn Spanish and know how to speak both languages, but the people from the Dominican Republic don’t know how to speak creole. The racial tensions are obviously very high in this novel, but I think it is important to know the linguistic differences between the two groups of people.
ReplyDeleteDuring the time the book takes place, there was much political unrest in Haiti. This led to US troops occupying the country from 1915-1934. Due to this, many Hattians migrated to the Dominican Republic. Under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, the policies in place were discriminatory against Hattians. This is evident in the book as the plantation workers do not have access to their citizenship papers to prove where they are from. This issue has had lasting effects. In around 2013 a court ruling declared families that arrived in the country after 1929 and can't document their status, are not citizens. This led to deportation and continuity of "anti-Hatianismo".
ReplyDeleteThe story takes place in the Dominican Republic in the 1930s, during the era of Trujillo. Raphael Trujillo was the dictator of the DR, responsible of thousands of deaths particularly in Haiti in a massacre known as the Parsley Massacre. Tension between the DR and Haiti rose when Trujillo believed Haiti was harboring enemies.The book tells of Annabelle, a girl whose parents were killed during a hurricane, who lived during the time of the two countries' conflicts.
ReplyDeleteVickie Tu
Period 2
Amabelle*
DeleteEven before the books were handed out, I did some research on the book and found that a lot of the people and events were factual. I though that the whole book was based on a true story and after doing some research, I learned that it wasn't but a lot of content was real. The general for instance being one of them. Trujillo, known as the generalissimo in the book, seized power in the military revolt against Pres. Horacio Vásquez in 1930. From that time until his assassination 31 years later, Trujillo remained in absolute control of the Dominican Republic through his command of the army, by placing family members in office, and by having many of his political opponents murdered. He served officially as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952. Haitians living in the Dominican Republic also suffered acutely. Trujillo encouraged anti-Haitian prejudice among Dominicans, and in 1937 he ordered the massacre of thousands of Haitian migrants. This hate against Haitians can be seen in the Senora Valencias' husband for instance.
ReplyDeleteLast year in AP Lang, I remember discussing racism and how the dynamics of it and its execution varies in different countries. In oppose to America where it's usually between African americans and white Americans. Haiti and the Dominican republic was brought into the discussion. There was a student from the DR who explained her experience in only seeing those who are lightskin and wealthy surrounding her. Verses in Haiti where it is more impoverished and habited by darker skinned people. That concept is evident in the book with the distinctions of class. It was fascinating to read a novel that follows historical events yet contains a message so valide for relations between Haiti and the DR even today. The book even takes place in the 30s, a time where prejudice and tensions were amplified by the dictator of that time.
ReplyDeleteThe book is set in the 1930s in the Dominican Republic. During this time, DR was under the dictatorship of Trujillo. Tensions between the DR and Haiti were very high and the root of most of that tension was based on racism and social class. In the book when the twins were born, one had fair skin and one had darker skins, representing the two countries. Trujillo was responsible for many many deaths and was large part part in the conflict between the two countries.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1930's under Rafael Trujillo's rule it was very rigorous and brutal. He hired a secret police force to murder people who were against him. Thus in the novel creating a tension that invites the reader to be more intrigued in the novel. A character that gives off this sort of tension in my opinion is senior Pico. Which adds to many aspects of the book overall.
ReplyDeleteThe wave of genocidal violence that forced Amabelle to leave the Dominican Republic and go back to Haiti, which she doesn't remember, is probably the same story for many other black Haitians that were living in the DR during this conflict.
ReplyDeleteRafael Trujillo, El Jefe, was the dictator of the Dominican Republic in the 1930s. His government was known for the brutal oppression imposed on the people of Dominican Republic. Trujillo started the massacre against Haiti where in between 20,000-30,000 people were killed.
ReplyDeleteIn the events of the book its takes place during the famous 1937 Parley massacre. It is the most dangerous time in the Dominican republics. Many Hattian laborers such as Anabelle and Sabastian are in danger. Making the book have a tension atmosphere around it.
ReplyDeleteThe Parsley massacre is an actual event that occurred where a lot of people were killed, specifically Haitians living in Dominican Republic and along that region. In the book, there are rumors of soldiers coming to kill Haitians and many Haitians who are trying to escape but some are caught by Dominican Army Troops. It is named the Parsley massacre because soldiers carried around parsley and asked people to pronounce the spanish word for it. If they mispronounced it, the soldiers would know they're Haitian and capture them. Language is a huge factor that plays in uniting people or separating them. Language is what divided the Haitians the Dominican Republicans even more. About 12 to 35 thousand people were killed in the Parsley massacre that was ordered by the Generalissimo Rafael L. Trujillo, who is mentioned in the book. Also, many of those who have worked and still work in the sugarcane fields in Dominican Republic, are Haitian. The Dominican Republic take advantage of the Haitian's poor economic status by stimulating Haitian migration so that the government can have cheap labor costs. However, Haitian immigrants have no basic rights and are not always guaranteed a full stay after their work has been done in the fields.
ReplyDeleteShannon Lee Pd. 2
Hey Guys Ishia here.
ReplyDeleteSo i read Will Josh's post as well as Kat's post and found both of their posts very interesting and got a lot of insight from reading it. My historical event of interest that many people do not discuss or know about is the war in Sierra Leone. There had been some tension going on in Sierra Leone and its neighboring country Liberia. Liberian government had a very violent private army of people called,"the rebels." So one day this group marched into sierra leone and went into the embassy demanding to speak to the head of state. After a dispute occurring the attacked the city of the capital, Freetown. This attack had led to the lives of many people being lost as well as their homes.
Ishia Sillah Pd. 6
DeleteThe thing I looked up from the time period of 1930s in the Dominican Republic was under the rule of Trujillo who kept the public in constant fear from the the murderers that work for him
ReplyDeleteThis was posted by Christian Harris.
DeleteI looked up what was going on in the Dominican Republic during the time period. I found out that they were under a dictatorship who was Rafael Leonid or better known as Trujillo Molina in the 1930s. Which resulted in a sense of fear from characters and constantly hinted actions of soldiers and violence throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteI did some research between DR and Haiti, and it seems that relations between the two have long been complex due to the substantial ethnic and cultural differences. Over the centuries, the border between them has been the site of revolutions, wars, and even a bloody massacre. The living standards in the Dominican Republic are considerably higher than those in Haiti.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, I have found quite depressing the level of violence and the magnitude of the atrocities committed. Learning that these events-- while not necessarily these exact ones due to the book being fictional-- actually occurred and occurred so recently at that is somewhat unsettling to me. On this subject, I was curious how parsley related to all of this. It appears that one of the major historical events this book seems to be referencing is the parsley massacre that killed an estimated 20,000 hatians, although the exact number is not known due to the degradation of the corpses. I thought this mentioning of parsley repeatedly was a creative way of adding historical oomph and truly making the novel feel more immersive.
ReplyDeleteIn my history classes I learned a bit about the successful Haitian Revolution but I never heard of the Parsley Massacre. I love this book because of this new historical event that I have learned about. I did some research and found that Dominican Anti-Haitianism began since colonial times due to their linguistic, cultural, and racial differences. DR was under Spanish rule while Haiti was under French rule. According to some sources, anti-haitianism has increased since the Parsley Massacre where the death toll isn’t fully accurate. It is said to be between 12,000 to 35,000.
ReplyDelete-Keyli Portillo
Period 5
Within the time period of this book, General Rafael Trujillo was the dictator of the Domican Republic. He was responsible for the Parsley Massacre, an anti-Haitianism-driven program that was supposedly initiated to "end thievery caused by Haitians", resulting in the deaths of around 35,000 Haitians.
ReplyDeleteDictator Trujillo assumed all political control of the Dominican Republic and used said power to repress, massacre and devastate the neighboring Haitians via the Parsley massacre
ReplyDeleteThis book took place during the parsley massacre where the general organized a genocide of Haitians in the 1930s
ReplyDeleteThe Farming of Bones (1937) takes place during the political reign of Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo. In the book, Amabelle works to escape the government's plan of “cleansing the country," as mentioned by Katy, by removing Haitians from the DR. To do so, she travels as far as the Massacre River, bordering the Dominican Republic and Haiti. While travelling through the Dominican Republic, Amabelle faces violence that's manifestations of the brutal sentiments towards Haitians (at the time). In my research, I found that, "prior to the tensions ramping up to a peak in 1937, there was a time in which the borderlands between Haiti and the Dominican Republic were a more peaceful place. Dominicans and Haitians had worked together, socialized together, and even inter-married before the conflict. When Rafael Trujillo took over the government in 1930, there was an intense poverty in the country and Trujillo worked to end the financial crisis at the cost of taking away many rights from the citizens, especially the Haitian migrant workers."
ReplyDeleteSource (s): 1. Munro, Martin. Edwidge Danticat : A Reader’s Guide. University of Virginia Press, 2010. EBSCOhost
Delete2. The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, edited by Michael Kazin, Princeton University Press, 1st edition, 2010. Credo Reference
I am genuinely sorry for the late response, it completely slipped my mind
ReplyDeletethe novel main events are fueled by a form a discrimination called antihatianismo. this is essentially the "prejudice or social discrimination against Haitians in the Dominican Republic". Tensions have been forming between the Dominican republic and Haiti since Haiti occupied the Dominican republic in the 1800s. originally, spain and france shared control of the island, the france had complete control, but the toussant louverture led a rebellion and united hispanola, then the Dominicans rebelled, but then haitians reclaimed the entire island, leading to the occupation. some scholars believe that american ideals of "white is prime" and jim crow helped fuel institutionalized racism in the Dominican Republic towards Haitians. this eventually led to the massacre of between 9,000 and 30,000 people in the name of whitening the Dominican republic under the command of Rafael Trujillo. this antihaitianismo fueled massacre was entitled the parsley massacre. people who were even suspected as being Haitian or of Haitian descent were rounded up, beaten, and killed. this is prejudice fueled by history and outside forces, leading to the deaths of thousands of people.