Manuel is undertaking a PhD in history at Sidney Sussex College, supervised by Hank Gonzalez and Christopher Clark. Manuel is interested in the German economic and strategic presence in the Caribbean basin. His PhD project will investigate German slaveholders in Cuba and Puerto Rico in the 19th century. Previously, Manuel graduated from the University of Oxford with an MA in Global and Imperial History. His MA dissertation, supervised by Professor Faisal Devji, examined German attitudes towards India during WWII. Before coming to the UK, Manuel trained as a teacher and graduated from the University of Heidelberg with a state examination in History, English and Theology.

Crossing Racial Boundaries: German-Haitian Intermarriages and the Diplomatic Landscape Before WWI

This study examines the phenomenon of German merchants in 19^th and early 20th-century Haiti who strategically intermarried with members of the black elite to gain Haitian citizenship, a requirement for conducting trade. This practice was part of a calculated German approach, using both economic incentives and political pressure (“carrot and stick”) to expand influence in smaller states. The analysis will focus on how these unions were perceived internationally, particularly through the lens of race and diplomacy, rather than on the social history of the intermarriages themselves.

Primary sources, including newspapers and diplomatic correspondences from the U.S. National Archives and the U.K. National Archives, will be used to examine American and European perspectives on these unions. U.S. consular reports reveal a critical view, reflecting both racial anxieties and political concerns over Germany’s growing presence in the Caribbean. This disapproving perception underscores the potential threat the United States saw in German influence in the region, especially within a racially charged context that crossed conventional boundaries.

A similar phenomenon occurred in West African nations like Liberia, where German merchants and settlers also employed similar strategies to establish economic influence. This study will explore how these practices in both Haiti and West Africa were perceived by foreign powers, shedding light on how German merchants’ crossing of racial boundaries in free black republics shaped international relations in the 19th century.