Dantès Bellegarde
{{Short description|Haitian historian and diplomat (1877–1966)}}
Dantès Bellegarde (18 May 1877 – 16 June 1966) [http://www.agh.qc.ca/genea/index.jss?lang=fr&action=liste&lettre=BELLEGARDE Association de Genealogie d'Haiti] was a Haitian historian and diplomat. He is best known for his works Histoire du Peuple Haïtien (1953), La Résistance Haïtienne (1937), Haïti et ses Problèmes (1943), and Pour une Haïti Heureuse (1928–1929).
Early years
Bellegarde was born in Port-au-Prince to a poor mulatto family. His impoverished but small bourgeoisie background descended from several historical figures in Haiti's history. His maternal great-grandfather Jacques Ignace-Fresnal was an officer in the army and Haiti's first Minister of Justice, and founder of Haitian Freemasonry. His paternal grandfather, General Jean-Louis Bellegarde, was a former Governor of Port-au-Prince.{{cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/gah/bellegarde-dantes-1877-1966#sthash.d1fnE5eb.dpuf |title=Bellegarde, Dantès (1877-1966) |date=22 September 2009 |publisher=Black Past |access-date=14 March 2015}}
The Second Pan-African Congress proposed that Bellegarde be added as a member of the Permanent Mandates Commission, but the colonial powers that dominated the Commission did not name him to the Commission.{{Cite book |last=Pedersen |first=Susan | author-link = Susan Pedersen (historian) |url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570485.001.0001/acprof-9780199570485 |title=The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-957048-5 |pages=60–61 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570485.001.0001}}
He was an Assembly delegate for Haiti.{{Cite book |last=Pedersen |first=Susan |url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570485.001.0001/acprof-9780199570485 |title=The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-957048-5 |pages=84 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570485.001.0001}} On 8 September 1922, Bellegarde highlighted a massacre of the Bondelswarts (a poor pastoral tribe) in South West Africa, which was a League mandate at the time.{{Cite book |last=Pedersen |first=Susan |url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570485.001.0001/acprof-9780199570485 |title=The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-957048-5 |pages=112 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570485.001.0001}}
Bellegarde was part of a panel of experts on the League of Nations's Temporary Commission on Slavery in 1924. It was the first time that the League of Nations had a black person as an expert on a commission. On the commission, Bellegarde was the strongest critic of colonialism and forced labor.{{Cite journal |last=Sánchez Román |first=José Antonio |date=2023 |title=Abolitionism and Self-government. Dantès Bellegarde's Participation in the Temporary Commission on Slavery of the League of Nations |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2023.2224369 |journal=The International History Review |volume=45 |issue=6 |pages=865–883 |language=en |doi=10.1080/07075332.2023.2224369 |s2cid=259390031 |issn=0707-5332|url-access=subscription }}
Career
Bellegarde served as Minister Plenipotentiary to Paris in 1921 and to Washington, D.C., in 1930.
Honours
He was bestowed by France as commander of the Legion of Honour and was holder of the Office of Public Instruction.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTiEe2g56d4C&q=Fran%C3%A7ois+Fournier+de+Pescay&pg=PA553 |title=World's Great Men of Color, Volume 2 |author= Rogers, J.A. |page=555 |publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company |year=1996 |isbn=9780684815824|access-date=14 March 2015}}
References
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External links
- [http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/bellegarde-dantes-1877-1966 Biography of Dantès Bellegarde]
- {{cite book | last = Schutt-Ainé | first = Patricia | title = Haiti: A Basic Reference Book | publisher = Librairie Au Service de la Culture | year = 1994 | location = Miami, Florida | isbn = 0-9638599-0-0 | page = 100 }}
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Category:Ambassadors of Haiti to the United States
Category:20th-century Haitian historians
Category:People from Port-au-Prince
Category:Ambassadors of Haiti to France
Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Category:20th-century Haitian male writers
Category:20th-century diplomats
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