1905–1941: Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau

1905–1941: (Sylvain-Bouchereau’s Littéralement Transformée — Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau Born July 5 1905 into a Distinguished Family in the Famous Black Republic, Ten Years Old When the US Military Arrived, Her Parents Eugénie and Georges Sylvain Leaders of the Antioccupation Union Patriotique): In 1941, seven years after the official withdrawal of the US military, Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau, first president of the LFAS, took stock of the passage and pacing of time for women under the occupation. Born July 5, 1905, into a “distinguished family in the famous Black Republic,” she was ten years old when the US military arrived. Her parents, Eugénie and Georges Sylvain, were leaders of the antioccupation Union Patriotique. At Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work outside Philadelphia, she wrote what would become Haiti et ses femmes (1951), spanning the precolonial era of Ayiti through the revolution and ending in the 1950s. In the “brief and incomplete” 250-page tome, she compiled surveys, ethnographic studies, and histories, most frequently citing her sisters’ research. She identified the US occupation as a catalyst for the Haitian women’s movement, maintaining that before the foreign invasion, “Feminism was unknown in Haiti. Although women played a considerable role in Haiti, they never thought to come together around a collective action for the revindication of their rights.” She concluded: “In analyzing these facts, we see that the Haitian woman was literally transformed. She evolved, more educated, often economically independent, accepting her social responsibilities.” Yet as LFAS member Maud Desvarieux later communicated, even for those who experienced political revitalization, “the American occupation of 1915–1934 was a demoralizing agent.” Other women were grieved and harmed in physical, emotional, and socioeconomic ways that did not afford an evident postoccupation renaissance.