August 23, 2025

Press Contact: media@haitianbridge.org , info@haitianbridge.org

SAN DIEGO, CA— Haitian Bridge Alliance reaffirms the foundational role of the Haitian Revolution—the only successful slave uprising in human history—in dismantling chattel slavery and reshaping global conceptions of freedom. On the night of August 22–23, 1791, enslaved people in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) rose up, igniting a revolutionary struggle that ultimately abolished slavery, established Haiti as the first Black republic in 1804, and delivered a devastating blow to the transatlantic slave trade . Yet, while formal slavery was subsequently eradicated in the United States and other parts of the world, its legacies persist: today, modern slavery—including forced labor, human trafficking, and debt bondage—ensnares  millions of people worldwide, a disproportionate share of whom are migrants fleeing violence, climate breakdown, and state abandonment. These conditions echo the racialized exploitation of centuries past, unless confronted within a framework rooted in global solidarity and reparative justice.

Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, Guerline Jozef, released the following statement: 

“Haiti’s uprising was a beacon—where the enslaved seized freedom for all. Yet today, migrants from Haiti and beyond are forced into precarious shadows, just as our ancestors dared to stand in the light. The same systems that trafficked human beings then now criminalize their desperate movement. Honoring the past means dismantling borders as walls of exclusion, not lines of wealth extraction and racial governance.”

HBA calls on progressive movements, legislators, and international actors to recognize that migration crises are not aberrations—they are byproducts of enduring structures born of colonial and racial capitalist violence. To truly honor Haiti’s rebel legacy, we must abolish modern slavery, decriminalize migration, restore legal protections—especially for asylum seekers and TPS holders—and mobilize urgent investment in communities shaped by centuries of coerced labor and dispossession.

ABOUT HAITIAN BRIDGE ALLIANCE

Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), also known as “The Bridge”, is a grassroots community organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies, foreign policy, and provides migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, legal, and social services, with a particular focus on Black migrants, the Haitian community, women and girls, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses. HBA also seeks to elevate the issues unique to Black migrants and builds solidarity and collective movement toward policy change. Anpil men chay pa lou (“Many hands make the load light”). Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @haitianbridge