Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American

African slaves in Haiti emancipated themselves from French rule in 1804 and created the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere. But they reinstituted slavery for the most vulnerable members of Haitian society-the children of the poor-by using them as unpaid servants to the wealthy. These children were-and still are-restavecs, a French term whose literal meaning of "staying with" disguises the unremitting labor, abuse, and denial of education that characterizes the children's …