While American aid joins the river of dollars flowing into Haiti following the disastrous earthquake Jan. 12 it might be news to you that at one time Haitian aid flowed to America.

Some 545 Haitian soldiers came with the French army and fought with American “rebels” trying to wrest the city of Savannah from British control in October 1779.  They represented the largest military unit on either side that day, in what is considered the second bloodiest battle of the Revolutionary War. The allies failed to oust the British but their efforts had positive repercussions in war developments down the road.

A memorial to the Haitians’ participation in the war was dedicated last October in Savannah, after a long effort by Haitian-Americans to claim recognition for their contribution. By tradition, the Haitian drummer in Savannah -- depicted in the memorial – was Henri Christophe who became Haiti's first president after it won independence.

``This is a testimony to tell people we Haitians didn't come from the boat,'' said Daniel Fils-Aime, chairman of the Miami-based Haitian American Historical Society during the memorial’s dedication.

I worked with the Haitian-American Historical Society and the Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah at the beginning of the project years ago while I was a capital funds consultant. They bristled with pride over their involvement in America’s war of independence.

``We were here in 1779 to help America win independence,” Fils-Aime said. “That recognition is overdue.''

What followed the return home of the Haitian veterans, though, may do as much to explain why Haiti, despite favorable climate, soil and ports, has set the standard for poverty and futility as a nation ever since. It barely functions with none of the standard infrastructure normally associated with modern societies. It was chaos before the earthquake with a constant history of corruption, its people victimized by corrupt, toothless governments that provided no services or systemic infrastructure.

After returning home from America, Haitian Revolutionary War veterans soon led their own rebellion to win Haiti's independence from France in 1804. But it was a horrible, brutal war in which French soldiers and colonialists competed with native Haitians to establish new standards of brutality. They outdid one another in atrocities, the worst of which are too heinous even to write here.

The native uprising was basically a slave rebellion, according to Scott Smith, a historian in Savannah, and director of the Coastal Heritage Society. Every slave holding nation was struck numb with the realization that their worst fear was coming true in Haiti – the uprising of slaves against their colonial masters.

Because of that cruel beginning and the fear it inspired, other nations did not quickly recognize Haiti’s status as only the second nation to throw off its colonial rulers in the western hemisphere, suffocating its economic development while in the womb. Abraham Lincoln was the first American president to send an ambassador in 1862.

France did not recognize Haitian independence until 1838 and then only in exchange for a financial indemnity of 150 million francs that kept Haiti bent beneath a debt yoke for 50 years. By comparison, the United States bought Louisiana from the French for $15 million.

In 1915 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ordered U.S. Marines to occupy Haiti and establish control over customs-houses and port authorities. The U.S. controlled every aspect of Haiti’s public life, except education. The U.S. forces withdrew from Haiti in 1934, leaving the Haitian Armed Forces in place throughout the country.

Before the Jan. 12 earthquake an estimated 2,000 Christian organizations operated in Port-au-Prince. But they can make little headway in a nation that cannot even collect its own garbage.

And now the earthquake has destroyed even the illusion of infrastructure, presenting insurmountable obstacles to rescue and restoration.  

President Obama has declared Haiti will not be abandoned. Although it’s been long forgotten, one of the reasons America reaches out to Haiti is that when we were in our birth throes, Haitians reached out to us.