I commend to your reading the 1995 book by Michel-Rolph Troullot, Haitian born professor at John Hopkins, titled “Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History.” Among other things it provides a brief but well written account of the early history of Haiti, but more important, it explores how the academy in dominant cultures silences the past in the process of writing their own histories. No doubt every culture, whether dominant or not, practices silencing the past, but it is the academy in the dominant western cultures that has written the authoritative story of civilization. In view of all the Haitian commentary surfacing these days, it will be worth your time.