Income and Land Distribution in Haiti: Some Remarks on Available Statistics

The logical starting point for an investigation on distributional issues in Haiti is James Leyburn’s 1941 classic, The Haitian People,1 which divides the Haitian population into two distinct classes: the elite and the peasant masses. This division cannot be based on any single scale of measurement; several criteria must be employed. According to Leyburn,2 the following are the most important distinctions: the elite do not perform manual labor, are educated, speak French, live in towns, are formally married, practice Roman Catholicism, and are (predominantly but not necessarily) light-skinned. The peasants, on the other hand, are manual workers, illiterate speak nothing but Creole, live in the countryside, practice common-law marriage and voodoo, and are black. More importantly, especially as concerns the focus of the present work, the two groups differ dramatically in economic terms: Since the maintenance of a high standard of living is costly, it is obvious that another source of caste3 distinction lies in the inequalities of wealth and property. Wealth is a relative term, however, and the Haitian peasant is so poor that by contrast a few hundred dollars’ income a year will seem like riches. The elite live economically by American standards, yet even parsimonious spending of many may, when governed by a consciousness of social distinctions, make the peak of aristocracy unassailable.4 Even though Leyburn was exaggerating the extent of the cleavage between Haitian societies by referring to a ‘caste system’5 he was, nevertheless, pointing out a fundamental economic fact: the separation of the rich from the poor. Haiti had a patent problem with income distribution.