Over at The Root today, Henry Louis Gates Jr. surveys the U.S.'s long, manipulative history with Haiti, from Thomas Jefferson to Pat Robertson:

By 1804, Jefferson told John Quincy Adams that he was determined to end trade with Haiti. Having helped the Haitians gain their freedom, he then sought to strangle the new-born nation. He sought to quarantine the island and opposed official trade because that would mean recognizing its independence. And that could inspire slave insurrections throughout the American South. The embargo on Haiti remained in force until the spring of 1810; trade fell from $6.7 million in 1806 to $1.5 million in 1808. Non-recognition of the republic remained official American policy until 1862.

Abraham Lincoln signed the bill to recognize Haiti, at long last (and Liberia, too, by the way) in June 1862. The bill passed both houses of Congress only after long and heated debate. James Redpath, the head of the Haitian emigration bureau and an abolitionist, had pressed Massachusetts statesman Charles Sumner to introduce this legislation, for one reason: to encourage the emigration of freed slaves and free blacks to both countries, which remained a dream of Lincoln’s even a month before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

And in lighter Root: "The Blackest White Folks We Know," starring James Carville, jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, poet/playwright Danny Hoch, and... Ken Burns?

He's 56 and looks 40, but, hey, they say black don't crack! Plus, Burns has chronicled jazz and Jack Johnson, not to mention that bridge into Brooklyn. His narrator of choice is Keith David, and he's a generous donor to the Democratic Party. Brotherman is certified, for sure!

Well. Congratulations, Mr. Burns.