La Solidarité

A prominent political figure of Port-au-Prince in the early decades of the 20th century, Constantin Mayard was also a founding member of a long-lasting mutual aid society, La Solidarité. Formed sometime after his pronouncement at a Masonic lodge, De la solidarité; conférence prononcée à la Loge [de] la Vérité, le 9 juin 1918, this organizations appears to have outlasted other mutual aid societies in Port-au-Prince. For example, Georges Jacob's mutualist organization created in 1917, which presumably drew from artisans and laborers associated with the Maison Centrale, does not appear to have lasted very long. Mayard's project, however, was drawn on the principles of social solidarity he promoted in the 1918 brochure. According to Le Matin, Mayard disseminated the following opinions: solidarity as the essence of any organization, it was formed through worker associations, a nation, or humanity as a whole, Haitians were a race within themselves, neither Africa or France, and blaming the failure of Haiti on the entirety of the population, not the elites. 

The mutualist ideology promoted here sounds something like the promotion of the "spirit of association" spoken of by Justin Bouzon in 1892, as well as the inter-class collaboration of Odette Roy Fombrun's konbitisme. Needless to say, the US Occupation of Haiti at the time likely created some degree of solidarity or camaraderie between urban artisans and workers and the upper classes, although historians such as Michel Hector point out the limited nature of Occupation-era labor parties, unions, or confederations as actual labor power. From what can be gleamed from newspapers such as Le Matin and Le Nouvelliste, Solidarité was eventually presided over by a president, Bosq, and Lelio Joseph, who were probably lawyers or similar like-minded reformist professionals eager to bridge the social divide in Haiti and strengthen social solidarity at a time when US Marines ruled Haiti. Their meetings were held at the lodge of the Grand Orient d'Haiti in the 1920s, suggesting some base in Freemasonry or at least overlapping members, like the Coeurs-Unis des Artisans of Cap-Haitien. Notices for their meetings in the major Port-au-Prince papers indicate the general topics of of conversation revolved around general savings fund, interests, and correspondence, at least according to one 1930 notice. Presumably, funds used by the organization went to pay for illness, funerals, healthcare, and other predicaments. 

By the 1920s, Solidarité was involved in celebrating the growth of Haitian national industry, and promoting labor interests. One article from 1924 contains the words of a meeting in honor of Pantaleon Guilbaud, who launched a major cigarette company which employed over 100 workers. Celebrated as an example of a Haitian who, through industriousness, skill, and intelligence, launched a major Haitian-owned enterprise, he was seen as a role model for artisans and workers since he started his career as a mechanic. Other notices for meetings of Solidarité also indicate topics such as the experience of bakers as well as urging members to attend Mass on the feast of St. Joseph, since the special mass was said in honor of workers. So, presumably the organization brought together various types of artisans and laborers, while also uniting some lawyers, middle-class professionals, and politicians together in an inter-class organization that lasted for most of the US Occupation (if not longer). 

Although politically not an ostensibly radical organization like the Communist party which emerged in the 1930s, or even anti-imperialist like Jolibois fils and his circle, the longevity of La Solidarité, the fact that it was recognized as a public utility in 1925, and its success in bringing together various strata of Port-au-Prince society suggest an importance for mutual aid societies and urbanization. Of course, various forms of mutual aid existed in the countryside, but their evolution in Haitian towns captures elements of social formation quite well. Perhaps a further exploration into the lives, activities, and social impact of these mutual aid societies on Port-au-Prince and other towns during the US Occupation could shed light on the anti-Occupation forces and the eventual rupture in the nationalist movement?

The Formation of the Parti National Travailliste

Although there remains a lot more digging in archives and newspapers to be done, Antoine Pierre-Paul and the formation of the Parti National Travailliste is deserving of some attention. As the first official labor party in Haitian history, it's formation is intimately linked with the US Occupation of Haiti and the rising numbers of the working-class. It's formation symbolizes the convergence of an incipient working-class and the middle-class and elites also opposed to the US Marines. And while it may not have been a Communist party, to the chagrin of the US Daily Worker, the Parti National Travailliste did possess a larger political platform than simple opposition to US imperialism. The party very well might indicate a greater degree of inter-class solidarity during the US Occupation, in addition to providing background to the later growth of labor, Marxism, and noirisme in Haiti during the 1940s.

Combing through articles from Le Matin and Le Nouvelliste in the 1920s and early 1930s reveals the appearance of a number of labor organizations or associations. However, as correctly noted by Hector, many of these organizations were not unions, and it's questionable to what extent the typographers and chauffeurs really did have a syndicat in the 1920s, but the growing number of worker associations fueled the eventual rise of a political party geared towards labor. The Union Patriotique and Joseph Jolibois fils certainly sensed the importance of cross-class collaboration against imperialism, and we already know Jolibois fils had a following among workers in Port-au-Prince. Jolibois fils launched his own labor confederations, represented Haiti at a labor congress in Santo Domingo, and traveled across Latin America, thereby engaging with anti-imperialist, socialist, and nationalists across the hemisphere. Others, such as Perceval Thoby, sought to resist dispossession of peasants in their Union Nationaliste. Opposition to the US Occupation might not have been an effective inter-class collaborative effort, but there were attempts to bridge the gap, labor and peasant interests being one.

The youth, coming of age under the US Occupation, turned to new notions of Haitian identity, culture, and racism, especially through Haitian indigenist thought. Students, particularly those who launched a strike at Damien in 1929, later sparked a series of protests and solidarity strikes that eventually brought an end to the presidency of Louis Borno. These students, in addition to others who experienced the Occupation for the entirety of their youth, launched their own patriotic associations, journals, and, in some cases, embraced radical politics. Jacques Roumain and Georges Petit, for instance, rose to prominence for their journalism, activism, and experience of imprisonment at the behest of the US-controlled Haitian government. As one can see, the students were poised to play a major role as a spark in some type of social conflagration. 

Let's look at Antoine Pierre-Paul. Born in Les Cayes in 1880, he was a lawyer, businessman, and associate of former president Antoine Simon. He was also part of an attempted coup against Dartiguenave in 1916, which establishes his nationalist credentials against the US-appointed government. Moreover, Pierre-Paul participated in the Union Patriotique in the 1920s, after the armed insurrections of the cacos failed. Another organization he appears to have been a member of or affiliated with, the Association Fraternelle des Travailleurs, appears to be the link between his later involvement in labor politics and Haitian labor organizations prior to the 1929 demonstrations. According to Le Matin, this association was already calling for strikes against the US Occupation in 1921. This aforementioned article indicates the group consisted of some 100 or so members, including patrons and workers. Significantly, Ernest Gauchier, a member of the Association Fraternelle, later appeared as a member of the Parti National Travailliste. Thus, Pierre-Paul and the Parti National Travailliste inherited a history of cross-class collaboration, labor solidarity, and anti-Occupation tactics.

The party officially formed in November 1929, in the midst of the student strike at Damien and the later massacre of peasant protesters at Marchaterre. Its early membership likely consisted of artisans, such as Charles Mervilus, a carpenter, and other urban laborers. According to documents written by Pierre-Paul himself, published in Le Nouvelliste in October, the political party saw itself as representing the majority of the nation. The working-class, Pierre-Paul argued, experienced worsening conditions under US Occupation. Furthermore, the party sought to identify the cause of workers with peasants because of the close familial bonds between the two and, presumably, rural to urban migration. Clearly, Pierre-Paul was linking the cause of peasants and workers, not just urban workers and artisans. Whether or not the party was ever successful at organizing rural residents, it did develop a following in Port-au-Prince and near Les Cayes, where the Marchaterre massacre occurred.

The party's political platform, at least in November 1929, consisted of a series of administrative, economic, and legislative reforms. Protections for national industry, the creation of an industrial and agricultural credit and banking institutions, restrictions on foreign ownership of land, labor legislation on the length of the working day and minimum wages, savings funds for workers, and reorganization of night schools. While certainly not a socialist party calling for class war, it pursued a series of pro-labor reforms and economic agendas that would have improved conditions for the working-class, peasants feeling a crunch from US agro-industrial companies, and promote the national bourgeoisie instead of foreign capitalists. These reformist views bring to mind 19th century Haitian reformers and intellectuals like Edmond Paul and Louis-Joseph Janvier, not to mention subsequent Marxists who also sought to develop the local bourgeoisie and protect national industry. 

In terms of the party's impact on the anti-Occupation movement, it developed a following in Les Cayes (possibly due to Pierre-Paul's family ties and political connections there) and entered a pact of organizations also opposed to the occupiers. Gesner Guillou, the head of the regional committee of the Parti National Travailliste in Les Cayes, participated during the December 1929 demonstrations in the same city, when US Marines fired upon protesters. Pierre-Paul later claimed it was Marchaterre that finished Borno and brought the Forbes Commission to Haiti. To what extent the Parti National Travailliste can claim credit for organizing peasant and urban protests in 1929 is unclear at the moment, but the party did play a major role in consolidating a mass movement opposed to Borno's new taxes and the Occupation. 

As for the longevity of the party and its larger social significance after 1929, it appears throughout the 1930s and again, in 1946. Pierre-Paul was a presidential candidate on his party's ticket. He represented Haiti at the 1933 Montevideo Conference, challenging the Occupation. It's unclear to what degree the party actually existed independently of Pierre-Paul, who would later serve as a minister of labor under Francois Duvalier, but one article suggests the party possessed thousands of adherents by January 1930. Nonetheless, it seems like the party was probably limited to Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes, and it lacked the characteristic traits of a large political party like Fignole's Mouvement Paysan Ouvrier, which published its own journal, established locals, and appears to have developed from greater leadership of working-class members than the Parti National Travailliste. Nor did the Parti National Travailliste connect with Jolibois fils's labor ephemeral labor confederation, which did endeavor to build a labor movement connecting rural and urban Haiti.

It would take another democratic movement in 1946 to cement the conditions more favorable for legally recognized labor rights, middle-class political power, and the development of radicalism in Haitian politics. However, the Parti National Travailliste serves an as early precursor to these later developments, indicating the extent to which a labor party was both strengthened yet limited by the socio-economic and political conditions of Occupation. More work must be done to assess critically the political party's daily operations, its relationship with members inside and outside the capital, as well as its transformations in the 1930s and 1940s. But hopefully it serves to indicate the importance of a nascent working-class on the movement against the Occupation.

Works Consulted

Haiti; 1919-1920. Blue Book of Haiti. A Pictorial Review of the Republic of Hayti. New York: Klebold Press, 1920.

Hector, Michel. Crises et mouvements populaires en Haïti. Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Presses Nationales d'Haïti, 2006.

McPherson, Alan L. The Invaded: How Latin Americans and Their Allies Fought and Ended U.S. Occupations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Millet, Kethly. Les paysans haïtiens et l'occupation américaine d'Haïti, 1915-1930. La Salle, Québec: Collectif Paroles, 1978.

Schmidt, Hans. The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995.

PCS Workers on Strike

Although it remains difficult to find primary source materials from the voices of workers in the early moments of Haitian labor history, the Port-au-Prince paper, Le Matin, provides a few examples. In early September 1908, the mechanics, drivers, and employees in the workshops of the German Compagnie des Chemins de fer de la Plaine du Cul-de-Sac went on strike for higher wages. According to Le Matin and Le Nouvelliste, service for the train was discontinued in Port-au-Prince for a few days, until the strike was resolved by the eighth day of the month. 

What, however, makes this brief strike of industrial workers important or memorable? First, this may have been the first strike to unite different types of workers, instead of the previous strikes of workers or artisans of a specific trade. Unfortunately, in this PCS employee strike, those working in the ateliers ended the strike before the mechanics and drivers, a strike of this nature may be a portent of future solidarity strikes and walk-outs and major foreign-owned companies, such as HASCO. This can also be distinguished from the walkout of shoemakers at Tannerie Continentale, where the tanners remained. 

Last, but certainly not least, the striking workers sent a letter to the director of PCS, Tippenhauer, who shared it with Le Matin, providing some idea of how the strikers saw themselves, who they were, their specialized jobs, and their names. Unfortunately, the letter, as reproduced in Le Matin, is too short, but still a valuable document on an early company strike in Haiti. Although additional research must be conducted into the history of the PCS and subsequent labor actions and unions among drivers and railway workers in Haiti, perhaps these incipient labor actions involving foreign industries in Haiti shed light on the process of working-class formation. 

1907 Cordonnier Walk Out and Urban Labor

Le Nouvelliste (September 20, 1907)

Although much remains to be done in tracking class formation and the conditions of urban labor in Haiti on the eve of the first US Occupation, this captures the voice of shoemakers in a large establishment in 1907 quite well. The establishment, Cordonnerie Continentale, was part of the Tannierie Continentale et Fabrique des Chaussures. An article from the International Bureau of the American Republics (1908) reported on this factory, based on US Consul John B. Terres. According to this report, the establishment employed a total of about 200 people, with a weekly output of 1500 pairs of shoes weekly, according to the Monthly Consular and Trade Reports. It also possessed a contract to supply the government with shoes for soldiers, was foreign-owned, imported most of the machinery, trimmings, and dyes from the US, and must be a great example of the few large-scale industrial workshops in Haiti at the time. 

However, this very same establishment experienced a strike in September 1907, as the shoemakers staged a walk-out when the owner, Marcou, accused them of stealing. Auguste Magloire wrote about visiting the site afterwards in Le Matin, and it would seem in 1907, Marcou was able to replace the strikers with new workers. According to the 1908 US Consul report, the business must have been doing well to employ 200 workers and enter into a contract with the government (although Magloire's visit would indicate about 80 workers in the shoe workshop area of the establishment). 

Nonetheless, the above notice, published in Le Nouvelliste, in the voice of the cordonniers themselves, indicates something, perhaps, of a nascent class consciousness. The workers express a sense of respect, dignity, and understanding of themselves as the ones who produce the shoes and oppose their alienation from the product of the labor. Indeed, a reference to slavery and their assertion of their intelligence and collaboration might indicate something beyond a mere camaraderie between workers in the same trade. Of course, more information must be located about this specific establishment and, if possible, the shoemakers employed there. Moreover, Ethéart (presumably Emmanuel), a lawyer affiliated with the Ecole Libre Professionnelle in the 1890s, would have had exposure to artisans and workers in Port-au-Prince. Thus, in spite of his name attached to the notice, it reads as if written by the shoemakers themselves, "pour les ouvriers."

Association Ouvrière

Michel Hector's chronology of Haitian labor history includes a reference to a mutualist association founded in July 1894, Association Ouvrière, in Port-au-Prince. Details about this early worker association in Haiti are scarce, but I uncovered the following.

Founded in July 1894, the short-lived organization included a bureau of M Laforest (Maximilian?), president, Stanislaus Madour (cabinetmaker whose work was displayed at the 1893 fair in Chicago), vice-president, P. Errié, secretary, I. Vieux (Isnardin), adjoining secretary. L'echo d'Haiti newspaper (associated with Etienne Mathon) reported on the foundation of the Association Ouvrière in July and August 1894.

 

Joseph Jérémie, writer, politician, and intellectual, was also tied to early attempts at worker organization and education in Port-au-Prince in the 1890s. He was involved with Association Ouvrière and, according to Maurice Ethéart (in Revue de la Ligue de la jeunesse haïtienne), he was a pivotal figure in the origin of Association Ouvrière.
 

Maurice Ethéart references Joseph Jérémie for evidence of the Association Ouvrière attracting nearly 200 workers (not defined, but presumably artisans and skilled workers in Port-au-Prince) to the organization's meetings. This indicates something of the appeal of the mutualist society to the workers of Port-au-Prince of the 1890s. Coeurs-Unis des Artisans, a society founded in 1870, cannot be brought into discussion of an earlier history of worker associations due to the limited knowledge available at the moment to the author, although it presumably reflects a previous interest in mutual aid and labor among Haitian artisans in Cap-Haitien.

 

However, the large numbers of people drawn to the organization's meetings and fears of socialism and anarchism, led to its eventual demise. Ethéart alludes to fears of this sort, plus L'Echo d'Haiti likewise alludes to Capoix Belton's exaggerated fears of socialism and anarchism as a threat to the social order ,which Association Ouvrière supposedly represented, despite its mutualist aims and goals.
 

Although certainly not radical, the rise of mutual aid societies among workers in Port-au-Prince by the 1890s indicates a certain incipient class consciousness, as well as the beginning of a search for common interests and social solidarity between different artisans and workers in the capital. One can likely assume most of the workers attracted to such an organization were tailors, shoemakers, barbers, printers, government functionaries, and other skilled and probably educated workers in Port-au-Prince of the era (and, one supposes, not the numerous laborers of the West Indian migrant population or other foreign skilled workers in the Republic at this time).

 

Although members of the Haitian political class and press supported the mutualist organization, one cannot help but wonder if it reflects self-movement of skilled workers in Port-au-Prince of the time. For instance, Michel Hector's chronology references a 1891 strike among coiffeurs in the city. Perhaps this, plus the founding of a night school in 1892 (associated, again, with Joseph Jérémie), reflect a burgeoning interest in mutual aid societies, craft associations, and common identification among skilled workers in late 19th century Port-au-Prince. If Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic are any indication, Haiti certainly would not have been alone if gremios, night schools, and worker associations begin to proliferate near the end of the 19th century in urban areas of Cuba, PR, and the DR.

 

Possible influence of Freemasonry and socialist or anarchist ideology is something that may also explain how and why Haitian intellectuals and workers may have supported some of these mutualist ventures. For example, much has been made of the impact of Cuban immigration on skilled trades in Haiti (especially tailors and shoemakers), and perhaps Cubans and other foreigners in Haiti may have assisted in the spread of socialist, union, and radical ideology beyond mutual aid societies among the Haitians they took on as apprentices or employees and colleagues in period between 1868-1898. More work must be done to explore this possibility, but Cubans were definitely an important influence on Haitian artisans of the late 19th early and early 20th century, if Fleury Fèquiére can be trusted. Certainly, Haitian intellectuals and politicians were aware of debates in France and elsewhere around Europe on capitalism, socialism, labor, and syndicalism, which may also have shaped the larger discourse among artisans in urban areas who interacted with the upper classes in Masonic lodges or other institutions.

However, given the important role of upper-class patrons and organizers within Association Ouvrière, and their own belief on the role of education in inculcating proper moral values and appreciation of labor's importance, they may also have limited the scope of the organization by opposing it against trade unions and class consciousness. Jérémie and other like-minded intellectuals also saw the danger of a large unemployed urban population without labor and other distractions, and may have supported workers organizations of a mutualist type as reformism without advocating for unions or self-emancipation of laboring masses.

 

Until further sources and newspapers of the era are consulted, one cannot say with any certainty what Association Ouvrière represented in Haitian labor history or its larger significance. Yet, it certainly speaks to a burgeoning embryonic proletariat and its gradual political assertion of itself in the affairs of Port-au-Prince. It also speaks to the limits of mutual aid societies and the focus on moral uplift of the toilers without class struggle. However, if events of Haiti were comparable to corresponding trends in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, Haiti's economic structure limited the potential growth of radical and militant labor formation among the nascent working-class. If the works of Angel Quintero-Rivera, Joan Casanovas, Martinez-Vergne, Cassá and Kirwin Shaffer are any indication, events in Haiti probably resembled to a smaller degree trends among artisans and proletarianization in the region. Moreover, Haiti had, already by the 1860s, experienced the role of popular classes in political transition, and reformist elites could support mutual aid societies, night schools, and worker clubs to redirect the weak urban pre-proletariat from action against the upper-class. 

Cœurs-Unis des Artisans

Auguste, member of a prominent Cap-Haitien family, participated in the activities of Cœurs-Unis des Artisans while reporting on their activities in a local newspaper. By the 1890s, when he joined, government employees and other non-artisans were involved.

One of the most difficult aspects of tracing the early moments in Haitian labor history is reconstructing the origins of the Cœurs-Unis des Artisans. Mentioned by Michel Hector as an association founded in 1870, it grew and by the 1890s, expanded further to include artisans, intellectuals, and workers. Unfortunately, Hector's Syndicalisme et socialisme en Haïti: 1932-1970 does not examine the organization in detail. But, as an association of artisans founded in 1870, it would appear to resemble similar developments in Latin America and the Caribbean where artisans were also coming together in mutual aid societies or organizations. Other secondary sources that allude to Cœurs-Unis des Artisans include Laurent Dubois's Haiti: The Aftershocks of History,  Marc Péan's tomes on Cap-Haitien history, Luc-Joseph Pierre's Haïti: les origines du chaos and a chapter by Alex Bastien in Max Manigat's Cap-Haïtien : excursions dans le temps: au fil de nos souvenirs. Most of the secondary sources heavily rely on Marc Péan, who appears to be the sole historian to look in the archives and read some of the writings of Jules Auguste and other members of the association in Le Réveil, an important newspaper of the 1890s. 

Nonetheless, as the earliest known labor association (outside the rural world of Haiti and various forms of "peasant" associations), Cœurs-Unis merits further inquiry. Described by Luc-Joseph Pierre as a coterie of Freemasons who held meetings, processions, and banquets, which could not expand into a real movement during the zenith of firminisme, the association appears to be much more (Pierre 112). First of all, Cœurs-Unis was not a Masonic lodge, although several members were members of lodges, according to Alex Bastien (Bastien 27). Further, Bastien presents compelling evidence for Cœurs-Unis functioning as a mutual aid society and community institution. Its space served as a center for a chapel devoted to the Lady of Immaculate Conception, drawing worshipers and prayers from all social classes (Bastien 20). Moreover, Cœurs-Unis persisted well into the 20th century, and some of its later leadership (Jean Marquez Valbrun, an administrator of the association) lived long enough to impact Bastien and future generations. One of the usual functions of the group's local was a funeral salon, suggesting members saw it primarily as a mutual aid society for supporting similar artisans and laborers in the city (Bastien 27). 

Moreover, a plaque celebrating the centennial of the organization in 1970 describes its goal as "secours mutuels," indicating how the group's self-definition expressed mutualist aims (Bastien 26). However, Bastien's analysis of the group and its role in Cap-Haitien labor history is based on a much later incarnation of the organization. If one is searching for it's 19th century roots and ideology, only Péan becomes useful. Indeed, the three pivotal figures mentioned by Bastien were Etienne Leonce Bariento, Jean Marquez Valbrun, and Paul Emile Laguerre, none of whom appear in Péan's series on Cap-Haitien. However, their occupations give some sense of the reformist, progressive, and artisan base of the organization: Bariento was a lawyer, Laguerre a cabinetmaker (Bastien 18). Bastien also cites a book by Valbrun, which praised the labor solidarity of Cœurs-Unis des Artisans, presumably a value of the earlier moments in its foundation (Bastien 24). Sadly, Bastien does not cite any definitive proof of the organization involving itself in any labor conflicts, but he alludes to other possible mutualist acts of the organization.

In terms of the earlier development of Cœurs-Unis des Artisans, Péan's L'échec du firminisme comes closest to providing a full portrait. According to him, the organization was founded in 1870, after the civil wars of the Salnave years, to promote fraternity among Haitian artisans. Also useful, Mathurin's Assistance sociale en Haïti, 1804-1972 claims a committee of 20, presided over by Joseph Sourroir, founded the association. This implies that Haitian shoemakers, tailors, etc. were already involved in the political affairs of the country, supporting one faction or another. However, Péan suggests that it was only in the 1880s when the organization became institutionalized through its monthly meetings, processions, banquets, and events (Péan 102). Péan additionally describes the conditions of industry and trades in the city of the late 19th century, but most learned a trade through an apprenticeship with a master artisan, including some who ran workshops of their own and were also members of Cœurs-Unis des Artisans, such as master-masons Godard Phaeton and Alcime Balthazar (Péan 103). Elsewhere, Péan names other members: William Dugue, Ocean Mompoint, Belotte, laywers like Jean Chrysostome Arteaud, the judge Cassius Daniel, intellectuals like Jules Auguste, and other artisans, such as Etienne Almajor. Péan claims most of the city's artisans were tied to Cœurs-Unis, but does not cite numbers or to what extent master artisans dominated the organization. 

Intriguingly, this mutualist organization survived for several decades, while the the Association Ouvriere in Port-au-Prince formed in July 1894 was short-lived. Even though Cœurs-Unis was suppressed during the failure of firminisme, since its members supported Firmin's message of reform, progress, and rational organization of finance and labor, somehow the organization continued to exist and exert a large influence on part of Cap-Haitien society. Perhaps the organization's longevity was due to the limited nature of industrialization in Cap-Haitien, where, despite the growth of a few small-scale industries employing between a dozen and 50 persons, the degree to which guild-like production faced challenges were limited (L'illusion héroïque: 25 ans de vie capoise, 1890-1915 describes in great detail changes in industry and the ideology of progress among would-be industrialists of the city) .

Thus, the organization did not seek to pursue unions or militant labor actions beyond mutualist concerns, since artisans and individual craft production faced fewer challenges there than in Port-au-Prince? Or perhaps the distance from the capital and the history of autonomy made it easier for artisans and workers to maintain a certain degree of independence in Cap-Haitien than in Port-au-Prince? Did the impact of Firminisme show an early example of labor and progressive politics coming together in Haiti for a social program? Why did the Coeurs-Unis not spread to the countryside? Were its members who received formal education or frequented the literary salons of the middle and upper classes sharing the same presumptions about the peasantry as the elite? To what extent did trade unions, class consciousness, or socialist ideology permeate the organization? The answer to these questions requires tackling the primary sources to move beyond conjecture.