Veteran's Day November 11, 2007
Savannah, Georgia 31401
Veteran’s Day Honoring of Haitian-American Louis Noisette of the 33rd United States Colored Troops
Laurel Grove Cemetery South, Dedicate first African American Civil War Gravestone in Savannah 9am
First Bryan Baptist Church, Veteran's Day Service, Welcome to Noisette Descendents who are 6-8th Generation Haitian Americans in church their Great Grand Father Louis Noisette worshipped in, 11am
Asa H. Gordon Library Lecture at Savannah State University by Asa Gordon, Secretary-General Sons & Daughers of the USCT, Mayor of Savannah, Haitian Ambassador, 3pm
Official Website: http://www.humanamity.org/youn/veteransday.htm
Added by lexmusta on January 23, 2007
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lexmusta
1861 – Seizing upon the example of Toussaint as proof that Africans were not inferior to Europeans but were instead quite capable of freedom. Africans in America began organizing to also fight for their own liberation:
"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters `US,' let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States."
Frederick Douglass future United States Minister to the Republic of Haiti
1865 – Louis Noisette, the grandson of Haitian Manding, enlists in the United States Colored Troops, 33rd Regiment in South Carolina following Charleston’s liberation by African Descent soldiers from the 21st, 54th, 55th and 33rd USCT.
1865 – 82 years after Henri Christopher played freedom’s drum for the African Soldiers in Savannah, Louis Noisette drummed for the 33rd USCT from March 8 thru June 6th in winning the freedom of all Africans still enslaved in America.
1881 – Louis Noisette is buried in a now-unmarked grave in Laurel Grove Cemetery South in Savannah, Georgia.
1893 – Lauretta Noisette remarries with another USCT veteran George Gregory, and their children Louis George Gregory and Harrison Leroy Noisette become brothers. They live in Charleston until 1929, when they moved to Harlem. The Noisette family held a reunion at the Broadway performance of “From Haiti to Harlem” in February 2006 with Louis Noisettes Great and Great-Great Grandchildren (7th Generation Haitian-Americans) in attendance. Their house in Charleston is now a museum, The Louis George Gregory Baha’i Museum in honor of his promotion of human amity.
lexmusta
1893 - Frederick Douglass former United States Minister to the Republic of Haiti speaks of the Haitian-American Oneness or Youn:
“Until she spoke no Christian nation had abolished negro slavery. Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian nations of the world, and our land of liberty and light included.”
"The freedom of Haiti was not given as a boon, but conquered as a right! Her people fought for it. It is well said that a people to whom freedom is given can never wear it as grandly as can they who have fought and suffered to gain it. "
"Haiti has grandly served the cause of universal human liberty. We should not forget that the freedom you and I enjoy to-day; the freedom that has come to the colored race the world over, is largely due to the brave stand taken by the black sons, of Haiti ninety years ago. When they struck for freedom, they builded better than they knew. They were linked and interlinked with their race, and striking for their freedom, they struck for the freedom of every black man in the world.”
“Her proximity; her similar government and her large and increasing commerce with us, should alone make us deeply interested in her welfare, her history, her progress and her possible destiny."
"I predict that out of civil strife, revolution and war, there will come a desire for peace. Out of division will come a desire for union; out of weakness a desire for strength, out of ignorance a desire for knowledge, and out of stagnation will come a desire for progress. I will not, I cannot believe that her star is to go out in darkness, but I will rather believe that whatever may happen of peace or war Haiti will remain in the firmament of nations, and , like the star of the north, will shine on and shine on forever.”
haiti_savannah
The final program will include a service by Rev. Ellis at Brayn Baptist Church which Louis Noisette attended as a young man in Savannah in the 1870s.
Also the Mayor of Savannah will speak at Savannah State University as will the Secretery General of the Sons and Daughters of the United States Colored Troops
Events are detailed at www.humanamity.org/youn
lexmusta
American Revolution led to Haitian Revolution led to United States Colored Troops Helping Win the Civil War
Our History Is One, Now We Shall Progress As One, Youn!
1783 - 5000 Soldiers of African Descent served in the Continental Army fighting for the United States in its War of Independence. The Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) were the largest unit of men of African descent to fight in the American Revolution, numbering 500. They assisted in the taking of Savannah, Georgia in 1779. One of the drummers in the unit was Henri Christopher, who became inspired to go on to be the commander of the Haitian army and later King of Haiti with United States ideals of self-government.
1791 – The most successful rebellion of enslaved people in history began. It culminated in the founding of the second independent nation in the Western hemisphere and its first African-Descent goverened republic. But more than this, the Haitian Revolution was a turning point in history, the repercussions of which extended far beyond the small island nation. Perhaps nowhere was its impact greater than in the United States, where haiti’s enslaved revolt figured directly in two of the most significant events in the United States history: the Louisiana Purchase and the American Civil War. With the loss of the crown jewel of its planned Western empire, France sold off the vast Louisiana territory to the United States on April 30, 1803.
1792 – The Noisette family including Manding Noisette move to Charleston, South Carolina from Haiti; a family of Europeans and Africans united.
1802 – Denmark Vesey inspired by and in communication with Haiti, leads a revolt of enslaved Africans in Charleston, South Carolina