1920: (Women’s Deaths — Simultaneously Inevitable and Impossible — Knapp Reminded That Deaths Were “Unavoidable” Then Concluding That as Far as Women and Chi…

1920: (Women’s Deaths — Simultaneously Inevitable and Impossible — Knapp Reminded That Deaths Were “Unavoidable” Then Concluding That as Far as Women and Children Are Concerned the Answer Is No, Allowing That Women May Possibly Have Been Shot During Action When in the Company of Bandit Bands but Such Cases Were Accidents Not the Result of Intent, Claiming to Have Heard of No Case Whatsoever Where Children Have Been Killed, Yet Military Records Reflecting That Soldiers Saw Women Close to the Cacos as an Equal Threat and Intentionally Brutalized and Killed Them — Less Proximity to Cacos Did Not Diminish Women’s Endangerment, the Physical Harm and Deaths of Estrea Jean Gilles Eleanor Charles and Adirenng Senatus Simultaneously Inevitable and Impossible in the Senate Testimonies): As Knapp accounted for what he deemed necessary deaths, he reminded his interviewer that casualties were unavoidable, then concluded with a declaration that defied the very archive his military had produced: as far as women and children were concerned, the answer was no. He allowed that women may possibly have been shot during action when in the company of bandit bands, but such cases were accidents incident to the campaign and not the result of intent. He claimed to have heard of no case whatsoever where children had been killed. Yet military records reflected that soldiers viewed women close to the cacos as an equal threat and intentionally brutalized and killed them. Less proximity to caco forces did not diminish women’s endangerment — women on the roads, in the markets, and in their homes were subjected to violence regardless of their political affiliations. Most strikingly, according to Admiral Knapp’s conclusions, the physical harm and deaths of Estrea Jean Gilles, Eleanor Charles, and Adirenng Senatus were simultaneously inevitable and impossible. Women’s and young girls’ injuries and deaths did not exist in the Senate testimonies. Even as military officials recorded these women’s often fatal physical injuries, officials were unwilling to publicly account for this harm. The simultaneous vivid documentation of injury and silence of that injury communicated Haitian women’s disposability under the occupation.