L'Ouverture was captured by France and eventually froze to death in the mountain prison they kept him in. After the revolution both France and the United States, aghast at the notion of a "black republic," refused to acknowledge the new government of Haiti. Haiti was forced to pay 90 million gold francs in "compensation" to French plantation owners for properties and investments they lost as a result of the liberation. It took Haiti almost 100 years to pay off the debt. On the 200th anniversary of L'Ouverture's death President Aristide asked France to repay the money, which would amount to over $20 billion today. This didn't win him many friends in Paris. The United States has an equally shameful history of exploiting Haiti. The U.S. government aided France's attempt to crush the slave revolt. American investors and multinational corporations have a long history of cooperation with Haitian dictators. In 1915 Woodrow Wilson began a U.S. military occupation of Haiti that would last 19 years. The U.S. helped create the Haitian army during this time. The Army became the main instrument by which the poor masses of Haiti were kept in line by whichever autocratic regime happened to be in power. The Army brutally suppressed and intimidated labor unions and dissidents. This continued until President Aristide bravely disbanded the Army in 1995.
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