Student uncovers Haiti founding document

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Student uncovers Haiti founding document
It could be only copy left of the country's Declaration of Independence
By EMERY P. DALESIO
Associated Press Writer
updated 2 hours, 5 minutes ago

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/100401-gaffield-hmed-1p.hmedium.jpg

Duke University graduate student Julia Gaffield found what
is believed to be the only surviving printed copy of Haiti's
Declaration of Independence.

RALEIGH, N.C. - For years, Haiti's government has sought out the pamphlets on which the country's founders declared that they had thrown off their colonial masters, ended slavery and created the world's first black republic. Now historians say a graduate student has found what could be the only copy left.

The leaders of Haiti's revolution sent their Declaration of Independence to other governments in the days after the island country's 1804 birth. But copies from that original printing have been lost in the centuries since, and the country's national archivist said he's traveled abroad looking for any that might have survived.

Duke University said Thursday a graduate history student found what could be the only surviving copy. Julia Gaffield made the discovery in February while combing through early 19th Century correspondence collected in Great Britain's National Archives in London, the archives and Duke said.

The director-general of Haiti's National Archives, Wilfrid Bertrand, said that he was not aware of any surviving official originals of the declaration, not even in the possession of the government in Port-au-Prince. An original copy had been rumored to exist in London, Bertrand said, but he could not find it when he went looking himself about 10 years ago.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36138349/ns/world_news-americas/

[Cirque du So-What]

1. And to think...

I always beat myself up for misplacing a receipt or invoice, and this document goes missing for over 200 years; now I don't feel quite so bad! Congratulations to this young lady for mad scavenging skills, which will serve her well in that profession.

[ck4829]

2. Will the right wing call this a forgery unless the document includes a pact with Satan?

[bergie321]

4. Satan obviously signed it

We just need to compare it to Cheney's signature to authenticate it.

[kestrel91316]

3. Oh, how wonderful!

[Warpy]

5. Great news for Haiti

especially now that they need something like that so desperately. Yes, a simple document that they could take pride in can alleviate some of the misery, if only for a moment.

It's especially fortuitous that this discovery has come after the big quake and not before it, when the document might have been lost.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Absolutely right. The timing is astounding. It can be a real morale lifter, for sure. n/t

[applegrove]

7. You really have to hope that the news actually reaches the people living in parks right now. But I

doubt it will.