In 1803, the Haitian revolutionaries’ revival of the Tainos’ name for their most important settlement betokened above all a rejection of Europe and its colonial claims. It was a legitimizing link with the pre-Columbian American past, of which all Haitians could approve and which resonated with people of all social levels.
David Geggus, “The Naming of Haiti,” New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids (1997)