Dominican troops massacred an estimated 20,000 Haitians in 1937, nearly eliminating the Haitian population from the Dominican frontier.
Key Facts
- Estimated death toll
- ~20,000 (range: 14,000–40,000)
- Date
- October 1937
- Ordered by
- Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo
- Haitian population in 1935
- 60,517 foreign black residents recorded
- Key geographic feature
- Dajabón River dividing Haiti and Dominican Republic
- Name origin
- Alleged shibboleth test using word 'perejil' (parsley)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the elimination of Haitian settlers occupying land in the country's northwestern frontier and parts of the Cibao region. Anti-Haitian ideology and disputes over land and labor in the borderlands drove his decision to use military force against the civilian Haitian population.
In October 1937, Dominican Army troops systematically killed Haitian men, women, and children throughout the northwestern frontier. Soldiers pursued fleeing victims into the Dajabón River, causing it to run with blood. Bodies were disposed of at sea or in mass graves, and an alleged shibboleth pronunciation test using the word 'perejil' was reportedly used to identify Haitians.
The massacre virtually eliminated the Haitian population from the Dominican frontier, forcing survivors to flee across the border. The exact death toll remains uncertain, but scholars broadly accept approximately 20,000 killed. The Dominican government later agreed to pay Haiti a modest indemnity, and the event remains a defining atrocity in Dominican-Haitian relations.