The Burden of Independence Debt

In 1791, enslaved Haitians did the seemingly impossible. They ousted their French masters and created the first free Black nation in the Americas.

But France made Haitians pay for that freedom.

A team of reporters from The New York Times looked at the extent and effect of the ensuing payments.

Guest: Catherine Porter, the Toronto bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The first people in the modern world to free themselves from slavery and create their own nation were forced to pay for their freedom. A Times investigation explores Haiti’s reparations to France.

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