Infrastructural Violence And The Afterlives Of Road Building: Creating A Haitian Space In 20th Century Occupied Haiti

Abstract

The U.S Occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) marked a transition in the internal flow of resources within Haiti and its relation with other states. During this period U.S. investments flooded the country, precipitated by the construction of large-scale road projects that connected the previously isolated countryside (both physically and politically) to the port city of Port-au-Prince. This period of centralization coincides with dependency on the U.S. and the resurgence of plantations and forced labor. This thesis reflects on the historical geography of transportation infrastructure and the spatial organization of labor in Haiti. I explore how U.S. Marines utilized road building as a technology of rule, demonstrating the coupling of violent forced labor and racist rhetoric implicated in road construction as a spatial logic that excludes and subordinates black bodies. The legacies of these infrastructure projects continue to resonate in contemporary urban planning and disaster reconstruction in Haiti.Master of Art