1869–1888: (The Systematic Destruction of National Memory): The historical record of Haiti suffered catastrophic physical losses during the late 19th century…

1869–1888: (The Systematic Destruction of National Memory): The historical record of Haiti suffered catastrophic physical losses during the late 19th century, starting with the explosion of the National Palace in 1869. This was followed by a devastating fire in 1879 that wiped out the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic files, forcing the state to request treaty copies from the U.S. State Department. The “Semaine Sanglante” in 1883 caused a paroxysm of destruction that consumed nearly all government bureaus and archives in the capital. In 1888, the reconstituted national archives were again entirely lost when the archive building burned to the ground. These repeated events created a “Thucydidean” challenge for historians, who must now verify Haiti’s story through the surviving archives of foreign powers.