In 1789, France's National Constituent Assembly made the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. [1] [2] In 1791, the enslaved Africans of Saint-Domingue began the Haitian Revolution, aimed at the overthrow of the colonial reign.
For more than one thousand years, Arawak and Taino people inhabited what was later known as Hispaniola. The name Haiti (or Hayti) comes from the indigenous Taíno language and was the native name [3] [4] given to the entire island of Hispaniola to mean "land of high mountains." [5] [6] Christopher Columbus arrived on the island on December 5, 1492 and claimed it for the Spanish Empire, after which it became known as Hispaniola. Later, under French colonial rule, the Caribbean island was known as Saint-Domingue (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃.dɔ.mɛ̃ɡ] ) and was a French colony from 1659 to 1804. [7]
Early on, enslaved people on the island began resisting captivity and fighting to restore their freedom. Examples of this resistance include the uprising of Padrejean in 1676 and the uprising of François Mackandal in 1757. [8] [9]
The French Revolution began in 1789. On June 21st, 1791, King Louis XVI and his family attempted to flee Paris, but the plan failed due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations, and poor judgments. [10] Louis was officially arrested on August 13th, 1792, and sent to the Temple, an ancient fortress in Paris used as a prison. On September 21st, the National Assembly declared France to be a republic, and abolished the monarchy. Louis was stripped of all his titles and honors, and from then on was known as Citoyen Louis Capet.
News of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen reached Hispaniola's inhabitants and inspired them to reclaim their rights. On the night of August 14th, 1791, representatives of people enslaved on local plantations gathered in the woods near Le Cap to participate in a secret ceremony. During the ceremony, Dutty Boukman and priestess Cécile Fatiman prophesied that Georges Biassou, Jeannot, and Jean-François Papillon would lead the revolution. Months later, they killed the plantation owners who had enslaved them. [11]
Among the many leaders of the Haitian revolution were Macaya, François Capois, Romaine-la-Prophétesse, Jean-Baptiste Belley, Magloire Ambroise, Nicolas Geffrard (general), and Étienne Élie Gerin. The battles of the revolution include:
The Haitian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on January 1st, 1804, in the port city of Gonaïves by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marking the end of the 13-year-long Haitian Revolution. With this declaration, Haiti became the first independent Black nation in the Western Hemisphere. [12] [13]
Jean-Jacques Dessalines became the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. He was Governor-General of Haiti from January 1st, 1804, to September 2nd, 1804, and Emperor of Haiti from September 2nd, 1804, to October 17th, 1806.
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda, was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture first fought and allied with Spanish forces against Saint-Domingue Royalists, then joined with Republican France, becoming Governor-General-for-life of Saint-Domingue, and lastly fought against Bonaparte's republican troops. As a revolutionary leader, Louverture displayed military and political acumen that helped transform the fledgling slave rebellion into a revolutionary movement. Along with Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Louverture is now known as one of the "Fathers of Haiti".
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was the first Haitian Emperor, and leader of the Haitian Revolution, and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Initially regarded as governor-general, Dessalines was later named Emperor of Haiti as Jacques I (1804–1806) by generals of the Haitian Revolutionary army and ruled in that capacity until being assassinated in 1806. He spearheaded the resistance against French massacres upon Haitians, and eventually became the architect of the 1804 Haitian Massacre against the remaining French residents of Haiti, including some supporters of the revolution. Alongside Toussaint Louverture, he has been referred to as one of the fathers of the nation of Haiti.
Saint-Domingue was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1697 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer specifically to the Spanish-held Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. The borders between the two were fluid and changed over time until they were finally solidified in the Dominican War of Independence in 1844.
Divisional general Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc was a French Army officer who served during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was the husband of Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon. In 1801, Leclerc was sent to Saint-Domingue, where invasion forces under his command captured and deported Haitian leader Toussaint Louverture to France as part of an unsuccessful attempt to reassert French control over Saint-Domingue and reinstate slavery in the colony. Leclerc died of yellow fever during the campaign.
Alexandre Sabès Pétion was the first president of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death in 1818. One of Haiti's founding fathers, Pétion belonged to the revolutionary quartet that also includes Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and his later rival Henri Christophe. Regarded as an excellent artilleryman in his early adulthood, Pétion would distinguish himself as an esteemed military commander with experience leading both French and Haitian troops. The 1802 coalition formed by him and Dessalines against French forces led by Charles Leclerc would prove to be a watershed moment in the decade-long conflict, eventually culminating in the decisive Haitian victory at the Battle of Vertières in 1803.
Artibonite (French) or Latibonit is one of the ten departments of Haiti located in central Haiti. With an area of 4,887 km2 it is Haiti's largest department. As of 2015, its estimated population was 1,727,524. The region is the country's main rice-growing area. The main cities are Gonaïves and Saint-Marc. In February 2004 an insurgency tried unsuccessfully to declare Artibonite's independence.
Nord (French) or Nò is one of the ten departments of Haiti and located in northern Haiti. It has an area of 2,114.91 km2 (816.57 sq mi) and a population of 1,067,177 (2015). Its capital is Cap-Haïtien.
The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti.
Jean-François Papillon was one of the principal leaders in the Haitian Revolution against slavery and French rule. He led the initial uprising of enslaved workers and later allied with Spain against the French.
George Biassou was an early leader of the 1791 slave rising in Saint-Domingue that began the Haitian Revolution. With Jean-François and Jeannot, he was prophesied by the vodou priest Dutty Boukman to lead the revolution.
The Battle of Vertières was the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, and the final part of the Revolution under Jean Jacques Dessalines. It was fought on 18 November 1803 between the enslaved Haitian army and Napoleon's French expeditionary forces, who were committed to regaining control of the island.
The War of Knives, also known as the War of the South, was a civil war from June 1799 to July 1800 between the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture, a black ex-slave who controlled the north of Saint-Domingue, and his adversary André Rigaud, a mixed-race free person of color who controlled the south. Louverture and Rigaud fought over de facto control of the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the war. Their conflict followed the withdrawal of British forces from the colony earlier during the Haitian Revolution. The war resulted in Toussaint taking control of the entirety of Saint-Domingue, and Rigaud fleeing into exile.
Jean-Baptiste Belley was a Saint Dominican and French politician. A native of Senegal and formerly enslaved in the colony of Saint-Domingue, in the French West Indies, he was an elected member of the Estates General, the National Convention, and the Council of Five Hundred during the French First Republic. He was also known as Mars.
The Saint-Domingue expedition was a large French military invasion sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc in an attempt to regain French control of the Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, and curtail the measures of independence and abolition of slaves taken by the former slave Toussaint Louverture. It departed in December 1801 and, after initial success, ended in a French defeat at the Battle of Vertières and the departure of French troops in December 1803. The defeat forever ended Napoleon's dreams of a French empire in the West.
The Haitian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on 1 January 1804 in the port city of Gonaïves by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marking the end of 13-year long Haitian Revolution. The declaration marked Haiti becoming the first independent nation of Latin America and only the second in the Americas after the United States.
France–Haiti relations are foreign relations between France and Haiti. Both nations are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, United Nations, and the World Trade Organization.
The Indigenous Army, also known as the Army of Saint-Domingue was the name bestowed to the coalition of anti-slavery men and women who fought in the Haitian Revolution in Saint-Domingue. Encompassing both black slaves, maroons, and affranchis, the rebels were not officially titled the Armée indigène until January 1803, under the leadership of then-general Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Predated by insurrectionists such as François Mackandal, Vincent Ogé and Dutty Boukman, Toussaint Louverture, succeeded by Dessalines, led, organized, and consolidated the rebellion. The now full-fledged fighting force utilized its manpower advantage and strategic capacity to overwhelm French troops, ensuring the Haitian Revolution was the most successful of its kind.
The French revolutionary government granted citizenship and freedom to free people of color in May 1791, but white planters in Saint-Domingue refused to comply with this decision. This was the catalyst for the 1791 slave rebellion, a key event for the Haitian Revolution with which the new citizens demanded their granted rights.
Independence Day in Haiti is celebrated annually as a public holiday on every 1st of January along with New Years Day, commemorating the nation's liberation from the French Empire. It also marks the birth of the world's first independent black republic, one achieved through an unprecedented successful slave revolt with the Haitian Revolution.
Jean-Louis Ferrand was a French general and military commander. He made some campaigns in France at the beginning of the French Revolution, and took part in the failed expedition into Saint-Domingue. Unwilling to accept defeat, he widthdrew to Santo Domingo. As governor, he dealt with intense conflicts with Haitian Emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who enacted a failed siege of the colony in 1805. By 1808, his rule, as well as other ongoing conflicts in Europe, triggered anti-French uprisings and a desire for a return to Spanish rule. These conflicts would erupt into the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo, which ended in his suicide on November 7, 1808, in the Battle of Palo Hincado led by the Dominican Criollo leader, Juan Sánchez Ramírez.