Polish Haitians

Polish Haitian
Regions with significant populations
Cazale, Cap-Haïtien, Fond-des-Blancs, Jacmel, La Baleine, La Vallée-de-Jacmel, Port-Salut, Saint-Jean-du-Sud
Languages
Haitian Creole, French, Polish
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Haitian Vodou
Related ethnic groups
other Polish diaspora

Polish Haitians[a] are Haitian people of Polish descent, dating to the early 19th century; a few may be Poles of more recent native birth that have gained Haitian citizenship.

Cazale, a small village in the hills about 30 kilometres (19 mi) away from Port-au-Prince, is considered the main center of population of the ethnic Polish community in Haiti; however, there are other villages with prominent Polish communities such as Les Cayes and Saint-Jean-du-Sud.[1] Cazale has descendants of surviving members of Napoleon's Polish Legionnaires[2] which were forced into combat by Napoleon but later joined the Haitian slaves during the Haitian Revolution. Some 400 to 500 of these Poles are believed to have settled in Haiti after the war.[3] They were given special status as Noir (legally considered to be black, not white despite actual race) and full citizenship under the Haitian constitution by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of an independent Haiti.[3]


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  1. ^ Pachonski, Jan (1986). Poland's Caribbean Tragedy: A Study of the Polish Legions in the Haitian War of Independence. Boulder: East European Monographs. p. 311.
  2. ^ Edmunds, Weronika (2022-10-24). "The 9th Generation of Poles… in Haiti". 3 Seas Europe. Archived from the original on 2022-12-04. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  3. ^ a b Rypson, Sebastian (2008). Being Poloné in Haiti: Origins, Survivals, Development, and Narrative Production of the Polish Presence in Haiti. Warsaw: academia.edu. ISBN 978-83-7545-085-9. Retrieved 16 June 2021.

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