Scarce Large Andre Dimanche Haitian Artist Sculptor Wood Signed 1955

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US, Item: 176277810570 SCARCE LARGE ANDRE DIMANCHE HAITIAN ARTIST SCULPTOR WOOD SIGNED 1955. A VERY LARGE AND HEAVY DETAILED WOOD SCULPTURE BY ANDRE V DIMANCHE OF HAITIAN LEADER HENRI CHRISTOPH APPROX 25 X11 X 10 WITH OUT FINIAL ON TOP WHICH HAS COME OFF (SEE PICS.. STILL PRESENT) OTHERWISE TALLER COME WIH AN ORIGINAL APPRAISAL FROM 1974 ALONG WITH A VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO OF THE ARTIST IN HIS STUDIO WITH THE ARTWORK IN 1955... THE YEAR THE ARTWORK WAS PRODUCED


André V. Dimanche (1901-1988) We are fortunate that the eminent scholar of Haitian art, Gerald Alexis, has permitted us to reprint this memoir of André Dimanche, published in Le Nouvelliste on May 3, 2017: La sculpture en Haïti au XXe siècle : André V. Dimanche, sculpteur intuitif  The sculpture in Haiti in the twentieth century: André V. Dimanche, an intuitive sculptor In Haiti, wood was mostly used to produce lacey fretwork and balusters, particularly at the turn of the century, in Gingerbread houses.   Bas-relief motifs were also sculpted to ornate furniture. While still having a decorative function, in the 1950s, wood became an important material for the manufacture of household items.  It also became a major material for sculptures. Haitian artists, particularly painters associated with the Centre d’art, had their work shown in the Fine Arts Pavilion of the 1949 exhibition celebrating the Bicentenary of the city of Port-au-Prince. Some have even participated in minor projects decorating, among other places the Pavillon of Tourism. These projects were celebrated for their excellence.  It is in that context that an agricultural superintendent, also an amateur sculptor from the southern city of Jeremie, received an award for one of his pieces. His name: André V. Dimanche (1901-1988). Dimanche’s introduction to the artistic community of Port- au Prince was supported by Albert Mangones, who later was celebrated for his sculpture "The Maroon Slave".  Jason Seley, an American sculptor, then in residence at the Art Center, was also fascinated by the work of this modest man. We must remember that, at the time, talent scouts of the Centre d’art were discovering the aesthetic qualities of Haitian popular paintings, then coined primitive or naïve. Sculptures carved by André V. Dimanche, who had only a short training in woodworking and carpentry, were a revelation. His creations were thus seen as part of what was, at the time, called the ''miracle". When he began sculpting, André V. Dimanche was in charge of a ficus plantation, these trees producing a milk like substance used to make rubber.  He was thus all day out of the city, with a unique chance to contemplate nature.  In terms worthy of a man from the city of poets (out of Jemerie came several great Haitian poets), Dimanche’s friend Numa Chassagne, wrote: "nature is a magnet for those who have an artistic soul, it liberates their latent feelings. Few can perceive its silent language for "They have the intuitive vision.""   The idea of an "intuitive vision" is key in understanding the art of André V. Dimanche. Coming across "a tree broken by the wind, a branch of almond trees which, struck by lightning, was detached from the trunk" André V. Dimanche simply listened to the emotions, the feelings, the impressions and sensations that caused this encounter. This is the intuitive vision that, in the eyes of many, make artists appear to be original, even strange in their behavior.  They accept what is intangible, inexplicable and mysterious. They have something that looks like a sixth sense. Eddy Cavé, in his book "Memoire d’un Jeremien", quotes Jean, the son of André V. Dimanche: ".. .to an American journalist who wanted to know how he works, André replied:  "very simple! I take a tree trunk and I remove what is in excess"."  It was his way of saying that he was simply guided by the original form suggested by the material: the root of a tree or one of its branches. He approached the section of a tree establishing with it a relationship that is both physical and sensual. Carving directly, he revealed the raw shapes.  He did not seek to repress the material but to highlight the beauty that it suggests. The result is that, of these pieces of wood, figures of a stunning presence are revealed. Oddly, there was little interest in his intuitive vision. Less concerned by the "what", critics tried to understand the "how". In various texts that deal with his work, one can find a detailed inventory of the tools that he used: a knife, a machete, a razor blade, a little hammer, brushes, and sponges.  Instead of focusing on the tools, they could have concentrated on this magic, this sensitivity that emerged and still emerges from his sculptures. Deciding to make sculpture a professional career, André V Dimanche moved to Port-au-Prince. He had the good fortune to find patrons who supported him. Grateful for this opportunity, he offered in turn advice and training to young people who wanted to follow his footsteps.   Although by living in the capital city he no longer had access to the forest, the material was readily available. He sculpted more than he ever did preferring making sometimes larger pieces. Approaching the material with secure and measured movements his sculptures slowly came to be. This process often took a month or more. Collectors who, from abroad, had commissioned works were told that they had to wait. Moving to the city made Dimanche open to various influences. In his sculptures, changes were noticeable in both form and content.  His sculptures therefore did not escape the modernist atmosphere that prevailed in the time. In various projects he expressed his passion for the human body. Forms were stretched, at times coming close to images of artists like Modigliani.  The truth is that being self-taught, Dimanche, never felt constraint to comply to academic rules of the anatomy.  He was all the more free that the material, more block like, he had access to had ceased to impose its forms.  Without abandoning the folklore as a source of inspiration, he began exploring other themes. He expressed a certain revolt in a work like "negritude". I personally knew some of his works commissioned by a religion congregation for its chapels at the St. Martial College.  It may seem trivial today, but it’s important to know that at the time, this was quite extraordinary since it was a commission from a Catholic institution to an artist who has made images of voodoo deities: Baron Samedi, Erzulie and Damballah. Although André V. Dimanche had limited support from the Haitian government, he had to fight a daily battle against all kinds of difficulties.  Fortunately, he was a man who, like the philosopher and Norwegian ecologist Arne Naess, thought that "if anything can happen, there is reason to hope".  He was a sensitive, courageous and optimistic individual who is remembered with pride by his children and who, in our collective memory, must find his place. Dimanche, André. (b. Haiti; active Haiti, 1986)   Bibliography and Exhibitions MONOGRAPHS AND SOLO EXHIBITIONS: GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS: CHRISTENSEN, ELEANOR INGALLS. The Art of Haiti. Cranbury: A. S. Barnes and Thomas Yoseloff, London, 1975. 76 pp. plus 48 pp. illustrations (37 b&w illus., 36 color plates), biographies of over 100 artists, bibliog., index. Foreword José Gomez-Sicre. Important early reference work on Haitian art. Images for 21 artists: Castera Bazile, Rigaud Bénoit, Wilson Bigaud, Sisson Blanchard, Murat Brierre, André Dimanche, Roland Dorcély, Préfète Duffaut, Jacques Enguerrand Gourgue, Hector Hyppolite, Desrivieres Ismeus, Antonio Joseph, Jasmin Joseph, Luckner Lazard, Georges Liautaud, Joseph Louisjuste, Philomé Obin, Seneque Obin, Fernand Pierre, Jason Seley, Robert St. Brice, Micius Stéphane. Many others included. 4to (31 x 23 cm.), yellow cloth, pictorial d.j. First ed. MAHWAH (NJ). Ramapo College of New Jersey. A Journey into the Spirit World: Selections From the Heloise and Martin Ruskin Collection. February 1-March 2, 2012. Group exhibition of self-taught and folk art work from a Montclair NJ collection. Curated by Steven Perry. Includes: Andre Dimanche, et al. RODMAN, SELDEN. Where Art is Joy: Haitian Art: The First 40 Years. New York: Ruggles De Latour, 1988. 236 pp., 106 color plates, 241 b&w illus., index to artists illustrated, general index. The most comprehensive survey of Haitian art to date, covering the span of work from Hector Hyppolite and Philomé Obin to the artists of Saint Soleil. Includes: Montas Antoine, Gesner Armand, Toussaint Auguste, E. Pierre Augustin, Pierre Augustin, Castera Bazile, Rigaud Bénoit, Gabriel Bien-Aimé, Wilson Bigaud, Roland Blain, Saint-Louis Blaise, Murat Brierre, Bourmond Byron, Dieudonné Cédor, Jacques-Richard Chéry, Numa Desroches, André Dimanche, Wilmino Domond, G. E. Ducasse, Préfète Duffaut, Odilon Duperrier, Pierre Edugene, Levoy Exil, Célestin Faustin, Lafortune Félix, Gerard Fortune, Enguerrand Gourgue, Merius Henry, Hector Hyppolite, Edger Jean-Baptiste, Jean-Rene Jerome, Serge Jolimeau, Antonio Joseph, Jasmin Joseph, Nacius Joseph, Wesner LaForest, Fritzner Lamour, Georges Laratte, Lyonel Laurenceau, Adam Leontus (as Leontis), Penius Leriche, Gabriel Leveque, Georges Liautaud, Ramphis Magloire, Stivenson Magloire, Antoine Obin, Henri-Claude Obin, Michel Obin, Philomé Obin, Seneque Obin, Roland Olivier, Dieuseul Paul, Gerard Paul, Salnave Philippe-Auguste, André Pierre, Fernand Pierre, Prosper Pierre-Louis, Dieudonné Pluviose, Ernst Prophète, Camy Rocher, Robert St. Brice, Lionel St. Eloi, Louisiane St. Fleurant, Toussaint St.-Pierre, Bernard Séjourne, Emilcar Simil, Michel Sinvil, Denis Smith, Micius Stéphane, Tchiali, Buffon Thermidor, (Josapha) Tissaint, Luce Turnier, Gerard Valcin, Favrange Valcin II, Pauleus Vital. 4to (31 cm), cloth, d.j. First ed. Henri Christophe[1] (French pronunciation: ​[ɑ̃ʁi kʁistɔf]; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti. Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa.[2] Beginning with the slave uprising of 1791, he rose to power in the ranks of the Haitian revolutionary military. The revolution succeeded in gaining independence from France in 1804. In 1805 he took part under Jean-Jacques Dessalines in the capturing of Santo Domingo (now Dominican Republic), against French forces who acquired the colony from Spain in the Treaty of Basel. After Dessalines was assassinated, Christophe retreated to the Plaine-du-Nord and created a separate government. On 17 February 1807, he was elected president of the State of Haiti, as he named that area. Alexandre Pétion was elected president in the south. On 26 March 1811, Christophe created a kingdom in the north and was later proclaimed Henry I, King of Haïti. He also created a nobility and named his legitimate son Jacques-Victor Henry as prince and heir. He is known for constructing Citadel Henry, now known as Citadelle Laferrière, the Sans-Souci Palace, the royal chapel of Milot, and numerous other palaces.[3] Under his policies of corvée, or forced labor bordering on slavery,[4] the Kingdom earned revenues from agricultural production, primarily sugar; but the Haitian people resented the system. He reached an agreement with Great Britain to respect its Caribbean colonies in exchange for their warnings to his government of any French naval activity threatening Haiti. In 1820, unpopular, ill and fearing a coup, he died by suicide. Jacques-Victor, his son and heir, was assassinated 10 days later. Afterwards, General Jean-Pierre Boyer came to power and reunited the two parts of Haiti. Early life Claims about Henri Christophe's place of birth and life before coming to prominence have been contested since the early nineteenth century. Born Christophe Henry, probably in Grenada but perhaps St Kitts[5] the son of a slave mother and Christophe, a freeman, he was brought as a slave to the northern part of Saint-Domingue. In 1779 he may have served with the French forces as a drummer boy in the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, a regiment composed of gens de couleur (mixed-race residents of Saint-Domingue), and fewer black residents. The regiment fought at the Siege of Savannah, a battle during the American Revolutionary War.[6] It is claimed that Christophe was wounded in this battle.[7] As an adult, Christophe may have worked as a mason, sailor, stable hand, waiter, or billiard marker; if so, most of his pay would have gone to his master.[8] One popular story claims that he worked in and managed La Couronne, a hotel restaurant in Cap-Français, the first capital of the French colony of Saint-Domingue and a major colonial city. There, the legend goes, he became skilled at dealing with the grand blancs, as the wealthy white French planters were called. However, none of the hotel's sales records support this claim. He was said to have gained his freedom from slavery as a young man, before the slave uprising of 1791. Sometime after he had settled in Haiti, he brought his sister Marie there; she married and had children. The political skills he learned as a hotelier also served him well when he later became an officer in the military and leader in the country.[citation needed] Beginning with the slave uprising of 1791, Christophe distinguished himself as a soldier in the Haitian Revolution and quickly rose to be a colonel during the revolutionary years. He fought for years with Toussaint Louverture in the north, participating in numerous battles during the revolution, and eventually rising to the rank of commander-in-chief at Cap-Français. By 1802, Louverture had promoted him to general.[citation needed] Independent Haiti The French deported Toussaint Louverture to France, and brought in more than 20,000 new troops under the Vicomte de Rochambeau in an effort to regain control of the colony and re-establish slavery. Jean Jacques Dessalines led the fight to defeat the French forces. The French withdrew their 7,000 surviving troops in late 1803. As leader, Dessalines declared the independence of Saint-Domingue with its new name of Haïti in 1804.[9] Christophe was in charge of the northern section of the country, where he notably supervised the first steps of the construction of Citadelle Laferrière. In 1805, General Nicolas Geffrard, commander in the south, approached Christophe with a plot to kill Dessalines, the self-proclaimed emperor of Haiti; Christophe did not warn Dessalines. Christophe's influence and power in the north was such that Dessalines, though aware of opposition brewing against him in the highest circles of power, found himself unable to strike against his general.[10] The conspiracy involved the majority of Dessalines's senior officers, including his minister of war and navy Etienne Elie Gérin, General Alexandre Pétion, commander-in-chief of the second division in the west, General Nicolas Geffrard and many others. On 16 October 1806, they signed a proclamation entitled "Resistance to Oppression", declaring the necessity to overthrow Dessalines's government, and proclaimed Christophe head of the provisional Haitian government.[11] Dessalines was assassinated on 17 October 1806. Failed military invasion of 1805 Main articles: Siege of Santo Domingo (1805) and Beheadings of Moca In 1805, French troops were still posted on the eastern part of the island (mainly in Santo Domingo), where they were led by the French officer Marie-Louis Ferrand. He mobilized his troops and ordered them to seize all black children of both sexes below the age of 14 years to be sold as slaves. Learning of this action, Dessalines was outraged and decided to invade Santo Domingo, with his forces looting several towns, such as Azua and Moca, and finally laying siege to the city of Santo Domingo, the stronghold of the French. Henry Christophe (referred to as Enrique Cristóbal in Spanish-language accounts), under Dessalines, attacked the towns of Moca and Santiago. The barrister Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo wrote, "40 children had their throats cut at the Moca's church, and the bodies found at the presbytery, which is the space that encircles the church's altar..."[12] This event was one of several documented accounts of atrocities perpetrated by General Christophe under the orders of Dessalines; they retreated from the Spanish-ruled side of the island after their failed invasion attempt. On 6 April 1805, having gathered all his troops, General Christophe took all male prisoners to the local cemetery and proceeded to slit their throats, among them Presbyter Vásquez and 20 more priests. Later he set on fire the whole town along with its five churches. On his way out he took along, fashioned like a herd, 249 women, 430 girls and 318 boys, a steep figure considering the relatively low population of the town at that time. Alejandro Llenas wrote that Christophe took 997 from Santiago alone, and "Monte Plata, San Pedro and Cotuí were reduced to ashes, and their residents either had their throats slit or were taken captives by the thousands, like farm animals, tied up and getting beaten on their way to Haiti."[12] Before leaving Santo Domingo, Dessalines "gave the order to... commanders posted in conquered communities, to round up all dwellers and subdue them to prison, and thus, at first command, have them stomped by mules and other beasts upon arriving to the Haitian side."[13] State and Kingdom of Haiti Haitian gourde coin with portrait of Henry I in the style of a Roman solidus, minted c. 1820.[a] Following a power struggle with Pétion and his supporters in the south, Christophe retreated with his followers to the Plaine-du-Nord of Haiti, the stronghold of former slaves, and created a separate government there. Christophe suspected he was also at risk of assassination in the south. In 1807 he declared himself "président et généralissime des forces de terre et de mer de l'État d'Haïti'" (English: President and Generalissimo of the armies of land and sea of the State of Haïti).[14] Pétion became President of the "Republic of Haïti" in the south, where he was backed by General Jean-Pierre Boyer, a personne de couleur who controlled the southern armies. In 1811, Christophe declared the northern state of Haïti a kingdom and had himself crowned by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Brelle, the archbishop of Milot. The 1 April 1811 edict gave his full title as Henry, par la grâce de Dieu et la Loi constitutionelle de l'État Roi d'Haïti, Souverain des Îles de la Tortue, Gonâve, et autres îles adjacentes, Destructeur de la tyrannie, Régénérateur et bienfaiteur de la nation haïtienne, Créateur de ses institutions morales, politiques et guerrières, Premier monarque couronné du Nouveau-Monde, Défenseur de la foi, Fondateur de l'ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Henri. Henry, by the grace of God and constitutional law of the state, King of Haiti, Sovereign of Tortuga, Gonâve, and other adjacent islands, Destroyer of tyranny, Regenerator and Benefactor of the Haitian nation, Creator of her moral, political, and martial institutions, First crowned monarch of the New World, Defender of the faith, Founder of the Royal Military Order of Saint Henry.[14] He renamed Cap-Français as Cap-Henry (later renamed as Cap-Haïtien).[15] Christophe named his legitimate son Jacques-Victor Henry heir apparent, giving him the title of Prince Royal of Haïti.[8] His second son was a colonel in his army.[citation needed] Christophe built six châteaux, eight palaces and the massive Citadelle Laferrière, on a mountain near Milot. With the remains of the Sans-Souci Palace, it has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nine years later, at the end of his monarchy, Henry increased the number of designated nobility from the original 87 to 134.[16] The two parts of Haiti struggled to increase agricultural production to recover from the expensive and damaging wars. The United States had only recently ended its arms and goods embargo against Haiti, and began war with Great Britain in the War of 1812. Christophe had to choose whether to enforce a version of the slave plantation system to increase agricultural production, or to subdivide the land into parcels for peasants' subsistence farming. The latter was the policy of President Pétion in the south. King Henry chose to enforce corvée plantation work, a system of forced labor, in lieu of taxes, but also began his massive building projects. During his reign, Northern Haiti was despotic, but the sugar cane economy generated revenue for government and officials. He made an agreement with Britain that Haiti would not threaten its Caribbean colonies; in return the Royal Navy would warn Haiti of imminent attacks from French troops. In 1807, the Parliament of Great Britain passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807 to abolish the importation of slaves into British possessions. Because of increased bilateral trade with Britain, Christophe's government earned an enormous sum of British pounds for his treasury. By contrast, Petion's southern Haiti became much poorer because the land-share system reduced agricultural productivity, and exports fell.[17] Nobility and heraldry Coat of Arms of the First Haitian Empire 1811-1820 In this portrait executed by Johann Gottfried Eiffe, a German artist in the Royal Court, Henry wears the grand cross of the Royal and Military Order of St. Henry (Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint Henry) As king, Christophe created an elaborate Haitian peerage (nobility), originally consisting of four princes, eight dukes, 22 counts, 40 barons, and 14 knights ("chevaliers"). Christophe founded a College of Arms to provide armorial bearings for the newly ennobled. For his personal coat of arms, Christophe chose a crowned phoenix rising from flames, and the motto ‘Je renais de mes cendres’ (‘I rise from my ashes’), presumably referring to the rebirth of Cap Henry after he burned it in 1802 to repel the invading French army.[citation needed] Some Europeans mocked his creation. The titles of the Duc de Limonade (Julien Prévost, Christophe's secretary of state) and Duc de Marmelade (Jean-Pierre Richard, governor of Cap Henry) were considered particularly comic by those unaware that they were actually derived from place names given by the previous French colonists.[14] French attempt to regain Haiti After Napoleon abdicated in April 1814, King Louis XVIII attempted to take back St Domingue.[18] The Treaty of Paris, ratified on 30 May, gave Spanish San Domingo back to newly restored Bourbon France, and granted an extra five years of slave trade in which to recoup losses entailed by abolition of slavery. In October 1814, Henry I's ministers made public evidence of French schemes to try and recover its former colony, in the form of letters carried by French agents captured on the island.[19] In the ensuing uproar, the nation mobilized for the expected French invasion and began an international public relations campaign. From November on, reprints of Haitian pamphlets, newspapers and open letters appeared in print media across the Atlantic world.[20] Such broadsides and editorial interventions were accompanied by critical theoretical texts on race and colonialism such as Pompée Valentin Vastey's The Colonial System Unveiled (Le Système colonial dévoilé).[21] Simultaneously, Henry opened up communication with the most prominent English abolitionists: his letter to William Wilberforce arrived on 5 January 1815, and began a new level of engagement between Great Britain and the Kingdom of Haiti.[20] End of reign The pistol used in Henri Christophe's suicide Pierre Nord Alexis, 17th President of Haiti Michèle Bennett. Despite promoting education and establishing a legal system called the Code Henry,[22] King Henry was an unpopular, autocratic monarch. His realm was constantly challenged by Petion's government of the south, in which gens de couleur held power. Toward the end of Christophe's reign, public sentiment opposed what many considered his feudal policies of forced labor, which he intended to use to develop the country.[23] Ill and infirm at age fifty-three, King Henry died by suicide by shooting himself with a silver bullet rather than risk a coup and assassination.[8] His son and heir were assassinated 10 days later. He was buried within the Citadelle Laferriere.[24] His descendants continued to be among the powerful of Haiti. Pierre Nord Alexis, President of Haiti from 1902 to 1908, was Christophe's grandson.[25] Michèle Bennett, who married Jean-Claude Duvalier and was First Lady of Haiti during his administration (1980 to 1986), is Christophe's great-great-great-granddaughter.[26][ The Haitian Revolution (French: révolution haïtienne French pronunciation: ​[ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ a.i.sjɛn]; Haitian Creole: revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt began on 22 August 1791,[2] and ended in 1804 with the former colony's independence. It involved black, biracial, French, Spanish, British, and Polish participants—with the ex-slave Toussaint Louverture emerging as Haiti's most prominent general. The revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery (though not from forced labour)[3] and ruled by non-whites and former captives.[4] The successful revolution was a defining moment in the history of the Atlantic World[5][6] and the revolution's effects on the institution of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. The end of French rule and the abolition of slavery in the former colony was followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former slaves had won, and with the collaboration of already free people of color, of their independence from white Europeans.[7][8][9] Haiti at the beginning of the Haitian revolution in 1791 The revolution was the largest slave uprising since Spartacus' unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier,[10] and challenged long-held European beliefs about alleged black inferiority and about slaves' ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. The rebels' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories that shocked and frightened slave owners in the hemisphere.[11] Background Slave economy in Saint-Domingue Much of Caribbean economic development in the 18th century was contingent on Europeans' demand for sugar. Plantation owners produced sugar as a commodity crop from cultivation of sugarcane, which required extensive labor. The colony of Saint-Domingue also had extensive coffee, cocoa, and indigo plantations, but these were smaller and less profitable than the sugar plantations.[12] The commodity crops were traded for European goods. Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production. By the 1740s, Saint-Domingue, together with the British colony of Jamaica, had become the main suppliers of the world's sugar. Production of sugar depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans. An average of 600 ships engaged every year in shipping products from Saint-Domingue to Bordeaux, and the value of the colony's crops and goods was almost equal in value to all of the products shipped from the Thirteen Colonies to Great Britain.[13] The livelihood of 1 million of the approximately 25 million people who lived in France in 1789 depended directly upon the agricultural imports from Saint-Domingue, and several million indirectly depended upon trade from the colony to maintain their standard of living.[14] Saint-Domingue was the most profitable French colony in the world, indeed one of the most profitable of all the European colonies in the 18th century. Slavery sustained sugar production under harsh conditions; diseases such as malaria (brought from Africa) and yellow fever caused high mortality, thriving in the tropical Caribbean climate. In 1787 alone, the French imported about 20,000 slaves from Africa into Saint-Domingue, while the British imported about 38,000 slaves total to all of their Caribbean colonies.[13] The death rate from yellow fever was such that at least 50% of the slaves from Africa died within a year of arriving, so while the white planters preferred to work their slaves as hard as possible, providing them only the bare minimum of food and shelter, they calculated that it was better to get the most work out of their slaves with the lowest expense possible, since they were probably going to die of yellow fever anyway.[15] The death rate was so high that polyandry—one woman being married to several men at the same time—developed as a common form of marriage among the slaves.[15] As slaves had no legal rights, rape by planters, their unmarried sons, or overseers was a common occurrence on the plantations.[16] Demographics The planters and their families, together with the petite bourgeoisie of merchants and shopkeepers, were outnumbered by slaves by a factor of more than ten on Saint-Domingue. The largest sugar plantations and concentrations of slaves were in the north of the islands, and whites lived in fear of slave rebellion.[17] Even by the standards of the Caribbean, French slave masters were extremely cruel in their treatment of slaves.[13] They used the threat and acts of physical violence to maintain control and suppress efforts at rebellion. When slaves left the plantations or disobeyed their masters, they were subject to whipping or to more extreme torture such as castration or burning, the punishment being both a personal lesson and a warning for other slaves. King Louis XIV of France passed the Code Noir in 1685 in an attempt to regulate such violence and the treatment of slaves in general in the colony, but masters openly and consistently broke the code. During the 18th century, local legislation reversed parts of it.[18][page needed] In 1758, the planters began passing legislation restricting the rights of other groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. Most historians classify the people of the era into three groups: The first group were white colonists, or les blancs. This group was generally subdivided into the plantation owners and a lower class of whites who often served as overseers or day laborers, as well as artisans and shopkeepers. The second group were free people of color, or gens de couleur libres, who were usually mixed-race (sometimes referred to as mulattoes), being of both African and French descent. These gens de couleur tended to be educated and literate, and the men often served in the army or as administrators on plantations. Many were children of white planters and enslaved mothers, or free women of color. Others had purchased their freedom from their owners through the sale of their own produce or artistic works. They often received education or artisan training, and sometimes inherited freedom or property from their fathers. Some gens de couleur owned and operated their own plantations and became slave owners. The third group, outnumbering the others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of mostly African-born slaves. A high rate of mortality among them meant that planters continually had to import new slaves. This kept their culture more African and separate from other people on the island. Many plantations had large concentrations of slaves from a particular region of Africa, and it was therefore somewhat easier for these groups to maintain elements of their culture, religion, and language. This also separated new slaves from Africa from creoles (slaves born in the colony), who already had kin networks and often had more prestigious roles on plantations and more opportunities for emancipation.[18] Most slaves spoke a patois of the French language known as Haitian Creole, which was also used by island-born mulattoes and whites for communication with the workers.[19] The majority of the slaves were Yoruba from what is now modern Nigeria, Fon from what is now Benin, and Kongo from the Kingdom of Kongo in what is now modern northern Angola and the western Congo.[20] The Kongolese at 40% were the largest of the African ethnic groups represented amongst the slaves.[15] The slaves developed their own religion, a syncretic mixture of Catholicism and West African religions known as Vodou, usually called "voodoo" in English. This belief system implicitly rejected the Africans' status as slaves.[21] Social conflict Saint-Domingue was a society seething with hatred, with white colonists and black slaves frequently coming into violent conflict. The French historian Paul Fregosi wrote: "Whites, mulattos and blacks loathed each other. The poor whites couldn't stand the rich whites, the rich whites despised the poor whites, the middle-class whites were jealous of the aristocratic whites, the whites born in France looked down upon the locally born whites, mulattoes envied the whites, despised the blacks and were despised by the whites; free Negroes brutalized those who were still slaves, Haitian born blacks regarded those from Africa as savages. Everyone—quite rightly—lived in terror of everyone else. ...Haiti was hell, but Haiti was rich".[22] — The French historian Paul Fregosi Many of these conflicts involved slaves who had escaped the plantations. Many runaway slaves—called maroons—hid on the margins of large plantations, living off the land and what they could steal from their former masters. Others fled to towns, to blend in with urban slaves and freed blacks who often migrated to those areas for work. If caught, these runaway slaves would be severely and violently punished. However, some masters tolerated petit marronages, or short-term absences from plantations, knowing these allowed release of tensions.[18] The larger groups of runaway slaves who lived in the hillside woods away from white control often conducted violent raids on the island's sugar and coffee plantations. Although the numbers in these bands grew large (sometimes into the thousands), they generally lacked the leadership and strategy to accomplish large-scale objectives. The first effective maroon leader to emerge was the charismatic Haitian Vodou priest François Mackandal, who inspired his people by drawing on African traditions and religions. He united the maroon bands and established a network of secret organizations among plantation slaves, leading a rebellion from 1751 through 1757. Although Mackandal was captured by the French and burned at the stake in 1758, large armed maroon bands persisted in raids and harassment after his death.[17][23] Slavery in Enlightenment thought French writer Guillaume Raynal attacked slavery in his history of European colonization. He warned, "the Africans only want a chief, sufficiently courageous, to lead them on to vengeance and slaughter".[24] Raynal's Enlightenment philosophy went deeper than a prediction and reflected many similar philosophies, including those of Rousseau and Diderot. Raynal's admonition was written thirteen years before the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which highlighted freedom and liberty but did not abolish slavery. Jean-Baptiste Belley, as depicted by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson In addition to Raynal's influence, Toussaint Louverture, a free black who was familiar with Enlightenment ideas within the context of European colonialism, would become a key "enlightened actor" in the Haitian Revolution. Enlightened thought divided the world into "enlightened leaders" and "ignorant masses";[25] Louverture sought to bridge this divide between the popular masses and the enlightened few by striking a balance between Western Enlightened thought as a necessary means of winning liberation, and not propagating the notion that it was morally superior to the experiences and knowledge of people of color on Saint-Domingue.[26][27][page needed] Louverture wrote a constitution for a new society in Saint-Domingue that abolished slavery. The existence of slavery in Enlightened society was an incongruity that had been left unaddressed by European scholars prior to the French Revolution. Louverture took on this inconsistency directly in his constitution. In addition, he exhibited a connection to Enlightenment scholars through the style, language, and accent[further explanation needed] What is the "accent" of a text? of this text.[28][page needed] Like Louverture, Jean-Baptiste Belley was an active participant in the insurrection. The portrait of Belley by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson depicts a man who encompasses the French view of its colonies, creating a stark dichotomy between the refinement of Enlightenment thought and the reality of the situation in Saint-Domingue, through the bust of Raynal and the figure of Belley, respectively. While distinguished, the portrait still portrays a man trapped by the confines of race. Girodet's portrayal of the former National Convention deputy is telling of the French opinion of colonial citizens by emphasizing the subject's sexuality and including an earring. Both of these racially charged symbols reveal the desire to undermine the colony's attempts at independent legitimacy, as citizens of the colonies were not able to access the elite class of French Revolutionaries because of their race.[29] Situation in 1789 Social stratification In 1789, Saint-Domingue produced 60% of the world's coffee and 40% of the sugar imported by France and Britain. The colony was not only the most profitable possession of the French colonial empire, but it was the wealthiest and most prosperous colony in the Caribbean.[13] The colony's white population numbered 40,000; mulattoes and free blacks, 28,000; and black slaves, an estimated 452,000.[30] This was almost half the total slave population in the Caribbean, estimated at one million that year.[31] Enslaved blacks, regarded as the lowest class of colonial society, outnumbered whites and free people of color by a margin of almost eight to one.[32] Two-thirds of the slaves were African born, and they tended to be less submissive than those born in the Americas and raised in slave societies.[33] The death rate in the Caribbean exceeded the birth rate, so imports of enslaved Africans were necessary to maintain the numbers required to work the plantations. The slave population declined at an annual rate of two to five percent, due to overwork, inadequate food and shelter, insufficient clothing and medical care, and an imbalance between the sexes, with more men than women.[34] Some slaves were of a creole elite class of urban slaves and domestics, who worked as cooks, personal servants and artisans around the plantation house. This relatively privileged class was chiefly born in the Americas, while the under-class born in Africa labored hard, and often under abusive and brutal conditions. Among Saint-Domingue's 40,000 white colonists, European-born Frenchmen monopolized administrative posts. The sugar planters, or grands blancs (literally, "big whites"), were chiefly minor aristocrats. Most returned to France as soon as possible, hoping to avoid the dreaded yellow fever, which regularly swept the colony.[35] The lower-class whites, petits blancs (literally "small whites"), included artisans, shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Saint-Domingue's free people of color, or gens de couleur libres, numbered more than 28,000. Around that time, colonial legislations, concerned with this growing and strengthening population, passed discriminatory laws that required these freedmen to wear distinctive clothing and limited where they could live. These laws also barred them from occupying many public offices.[12] Many freedmen were also artisans and overseers, or domestic servants in the plantation houses.[36] Le Cap Français (Le Cap), a northern port, had a large population of free people of color, including freed slaves. These men would become important leaders in the slave rebellion and later revolution.[18] Regional conflicts Saint-Domingue's Northern province was the center of shipping and trading, and had the largest population of grands blancs.[37] The Plaine-du-Nord on the northern shore of Saint-Domingue was the most fertile area, having the largest sugar plantations and therefore the most slaves. It was the area of greatest economic importance, especially as most of the colony's trade went through these ports. The largest and busiest port was Le Cap, the former capital of Saint-Domingue.[18] Enslaved Africans in this region lived in large groups of workers in relative isolation, separated from the rest of the colony by the high mountain range known as the Massif du Nord. The Western province, however, grew significantly after the colonial capital was moved to Port-au-Prince in 1751, becoming increasingly wealthy in the second half of the 18th century. The Southern province lagged in population and wealth because it was geographically separated from the rest of the colony. However, this isolation allowed freed slaves to find profit in trade with Jamaica, and they gained power and wealth here.[18] In addition to these interregional tensions, there were conflicts between proponents of independence, those loyal to France, and allies of Britain and Spain—who coveted control of the valuable colony. Effects of the French Revolution Further information: French Revolution After the establishment of the French First Republic, the National Assembly made radical changes to French laws and, on 26 August 1789, published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, declaring all men free and equal. The Declaration was ambiguous as to whether this equality applied to women, slaves, or citizens of the colonies, and thus influenced the desire for freedom and equality in Saint-Domingue. White planters saw it as an opportunity to gain independence from France, which would allow them to take control of the island and create trade regulations that would further their own wealth and power.[12] However, the Haitian Revolution quickly became a test of the new French republic, as it radicalized the slavery question and forced French leaders to recognize the full meaning of their stated ideology.[38] The African population on the island began to hear of the agitation for independence by the planters, who had resented France's limitations on the island's foreign trade. The Africans mostly allied with the royalists and the British, as they understood that if Saint-Domingue's independence were to be led by white slave masters, it would probably mean even harsher treatment and increased injustice for the African population. The planters would be free to operate slavery as they pleased without the existing minimal accountability to their French peers.[37] Saint-Domingue's free people of color, most notably Julien Raimond, had been actively appealing to France for full civil equality with whites since the 1780s. Raimond used the French Revolution to make this the major colonial issue before the National Assembly. In October 1790, another wealthy free man of color, Vincent Ogé, demanded the right to vote under the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. When the colonial governor refused, Ogé led a brief 300-man insurgency in the area around Le Cap, fighting to end racial discrimination in the area.[39] He was captured in early 1791, and brutally executed by being "broken on the wheel" before being beheaded.[40] While Ogé was not fighting against slavery, his treatment was cited by later slave rebels as one of the factors in their decision to rise up in August 1791 and resist treaties with the colonists. The conflict up to this point was between factions of whites, and between whites and free blacks. Enslaved blacks watched from the sidelines.[17] Leading 18th-century French writer Count Mirabeau had once said the Saint-Domingue whites "slept at the foot of Vesuvius",[41] suggesting the grave threat they faced should the majority of slaves launch a sustained major uprising. 1791 slave rebellion Main article: 1791 slave rebellion Further information: Slavery in Haiti Part of a series on North American slave revolts Haitian Revolution.jpg The Haitian Revolution Context Before 1700 18th century 19th century Notable leaders vte Onset of the revolution Guillaume Raynal attacked slavery in the 1780 edition of his history of European colonization. He also predicted a general slave revolt in the colonies, saying that there were signs of "the impending storm".[42] One such sign was the action of the French revolutionary government to grant citizenship to wealthy free people of color in May 1791. Since white planters refused to comply with this decision, within two months isolated fighting broke out between the former slaves and the whites. This added to the tense climate between slaves and grands blancs.[43] Raynal's prediction came true on the night of 21 August 1791, when the slaves of Saint-Domingue rose in revolt; thousands of slaves attended a secret vodou ceremony as a tropical storm came in—the lighting and the thunder were taken as auspicious omens—and later that night, the slaves began to kill their masters and plunged the colony into civil war.[44] The signal to begin the revolt had been given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves, and Cecile Fatiman during a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman on the night of 14 August.[45] Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in an unprecedented slave revolt. Whites kept control of only a few isolated, fortified camps. The slaves sought revenge on their masters through "pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death".[46] The long years of oppression by the planters had left many blacks with a hatred of all whites, and the revolt was marked by extreme violence from the very start. The masters and mistresses were dragged from their beds to be killed, and the heads of French children were placed on pikes that were carried at the front of the rebel columns.[44] In the south, beginning in September, thirteen thousand slaves and rebels led by Romaine-la-Prophétesse, based in Trou Coffy, took supplies from and burned plantations, freed slaves, and occupied (and burned) the area's two major cities, Léogâne and Jacmel.[47][48][49][50] The planters had long feared such a revolt, and were well armed with some defensive preparations. But within weeks, the number of slaves who joined the revolt in the north reached 100,000. Within the next two months, as the violence escalated, the slaves killed 4,000 whites and burned or destroyed 180 sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations.[46] At least 900 coffee plantations were destroyed, and the total damage inflicted over the next two weeks amounted to 2 million francs.[51] In September 1791, the surviving whites organized into militias and struck back, killing about 15,000 blacks.[51] Though demanding freedom from slavery, the rebels did not demand independence from France at this point. Most of the rebel leaders professed to be fighting for the king of France, who they believed had issued a decree freeing the slaves, which had been suppressed by the colonial governor. As such, they were demanding their rights as Frenchmen which had been granted by the king.[52] Slave rebellion of 1791 By 1792, slave rebels controlled a third of Saint-Domingue.[53] The success of the rebellion caused the National Assembly to realize it was facing an ominous situation. The Assembly granted civil and political rights to free men of color in the colonies in March 1792.[46] Countries throughout Europe, as well as the United States, were shocked by the decision, but the Assembly was determined to stop the revolt. Apart from granting rights to free people of color, the Assembly dispatched 6,000 French soldiers to the island.[54] A new governor sent by Paris, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, abolished slavery in the Northern Province and had hostile relations with the planters, whom he saw as royalists.[55] The same month, a coalition of whites and conservative free blacks and forces under French commissaire nationale Edmond de Saint-Léger put down the Trou Coffy uprising in the south,[49][56][57] after André Rigaud, then based near Port-au-Prince, declined to ally with them.[58] Britain and Spain enter the conflict Meanwhile, in 1793, France declared war on Great Britain. The grands blancs in Saint-Domingue, unhappy with Sonthonax, arranged with Britain to declare British sovereignty over the colony, believing that the British would maintain slavery.[55] The British prime minister, William Pitt the Younger, believed that the success of the slave revolt in Saint-Domingue would inspire insurrections in the British Caribbean colonies. He further thought that taking Saint-Domingue, the richest of the French colonies, would be a useful bargaining chip in eventual peace negotiations with France, and in the interim, occupying Saint-Domingue would mean diverting its great wealth into the British treasury.[59] Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, who was Pitt's Secretary of State for War, instructed Sir Adam Williamson, the lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Jamaica, to sign an agreement with representatives of the French colonists that promised to restore the Ancien Régime, slavery and discrimination against mixed-race colonists, a move that drew criticism from abolitionists William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson.[60][61] The American journalist James Perry notes that the great irony of the British campaign in Saint-Domingue was that it ended as a complete debacle, costing the British treasury millions of pounds and the British military thousands upon thousands of dead, all for nothing.[62] Spain, which controlled the rest of the island of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), also joined the conflict and fought with Britain against France. The proportion of slaves was not as high in the Spanish portion of the island. Spanish forces invaded Saint-Domingue and were joined by the rebels. For most of the conflict, the British and Spanish supplied the rebels with food, ammunition, arms, medicine, naval support, and military advisors. By August 1793, there were only 3,500 French soldiers on the island. On 20 September 1793, about 600 British soldiers from Jamaica landed at Jérémie to be greeted with shouts of, "Vivent les Anglais!" from the French population.[63] On 22 September 1793, Mole St. Nicolas, the main French naval base in Saint-Domingue, surrendered to the Royal Navy peacefully.[64] However, everywhere the British went, they restored slavery, which made them hated by the mass of common people.[65] French declare slavery abolished To prevent military disaster, and secure the colony for republican France as opposed to Britain, Spain, and French royalists, separately or in combination, the French commissioners Sonthonax and Étienne Polverel offered freedom to the slaves who would agree to fight alongside them. Then, under pressure, they gradually emancipated all the slaves of the colony. On 29 August 1793, Sonthonax proclaimed the abolition of slavery in the northern province. On 31 October, Polverel did the same in the other two western and southern provinces.[66] Sonthonax sent three of his deputies, namely the colonist Louis Duffay, the free black army officer Jean-Baptiste Belley and a free man of color, Jean-Baptiste Mills, to seek the National Convention's endorsement for the emancipation of slaves near the end of January 1794.[67] On 4 February, Dufay gave a speech to the convention arguing that abolishing slavery was the only way to keep the colony in control of the French, and that former slaves would willingly work to restore the colony.[67] The convention deputies agreed and made the dramatic decree that "slavery of the blacks is abolished in all the colonies; consequently, it decrees that all men living in the colonies, without distinction of color, are French citizens and enjoy all the rights guaranteed by the constitution".[67][68] The National Convention abolished slavery by law in France and all its colonies, and granted civil and political rights to all black men in the colonies. The French constitutions of 1793 and 1795 both included the abolition of slavery. The constitution of 1793 never went into effect, but that of 1795 did; it lasted until it was replaced by the consular and imperial constitutions under Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite racial tensions in Saint-Domingue, the French revolutionary government at the time welcomed abolition with a show of idealism and optimism. The emancipation of slaves was viewed as an example of liberty for other countries, much as the American Revolution was meant to serve as the first of many liberation movements. Georges Danton, one of the Frenchmen present at the meeting of the National Convention, expressed this sentiment: Representatives of the French people, until now our decrees of liberty have been selfish, and only for ourselves. But today we proclaim it to the universe, and generations to come will glory in this decree; we are proclaiming universal liberty ... We are working for future generations; let us launch liberty into the colonies; the English are dead, today.[69] In nationalistic terms, the abolition of slavery also served as a moral triumph of France over England, as seen in the latter half of the above quote. Yet Toussaint Louverture did not stop working with the Spanish Army until sometime later, as he was suspicious of the French. The British force that landed in Saint-Domingue in 1793 was too small to conquer the colony, being capable only of holding only few coastal enclaves. The French planters were disappointed as they had hoped to regain power; Sonthonax was relieved, as he had twice refused ultimatums from Commodore John Ford to surrender Port-au-Prince.[64] In the meantime, a Spanish force under Captain-General Joaquín García y Moreno had marched into the Northern Province.[55] Louverture, the ablest of the Haitian generals, had joined the Spanish, accepting an officer's commission in the Spanish Army and being made a knight in the Order of St. Isabella.[70] The main British force for the conquest of Saint-Domingue under General Charles Grey, nicknamed "No-flint Grey", and Admiral Sir John Jervis set sail from Portsmouth on 26 November 1793, which was in defiance of the well-known rule that the only time that one could campaign in the West Indies was from September to November, when the mosquitoes that carried malaria and yellow fever were scarce.[71] After arriving in the West Indies in February 1794, Grey chose to conquer Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Guadeloupe. Troops under the command of John Whyte did not arrive in Saint-Domingue until 19 May 1794.[72] Rather than attacking the main French bases at Le Cap and Port-de-Paix, Whyte chose to march towards Port-au-Prince, whose harbour was reported to have forty-five ships loaded with sugar.[73] Whyte took Port-au-Prince, but Sonthonax and the French forces were allowed to leave in exchange for not burning the sugar-loaded ships.[74] By May 1794, the French forces were severed in two by Toussaint, with Sonthonax commanding in the north and André Rigaud leading in the south.[70] Spanish depart Saint Domingue In May 1794, Toussaint suddenly joined the French and turned against the Spanish, ambushing his allies as they emerged from attending mass in a church at San Raphael on 6 May 1794.[70] The Haitians soon expelled the Spanish from Saint-Domingue.[70] Toussaint proved to be forgiving of the whites, insisting that he was fighting to assert the rights of the slaves as black French people to be free. He said he did not seek independence from France, and urged the surviving whites, including the former slave masters, to stay and work with him in rebuilding Saint-Domingue.[75] Rigaud had checked the British in the south, taking the town of Léogâne by storm and driving the British back to Port-au-Prince.[70] During the course of 1794, most of the British forces were killed by yellow fever, the dreaded "black vomit" as the British called it. Within two months of arriving in Saint-Domingue, the British lost 40 officers and 600 men to yellow fever.[62] Of Grey's 7,000 men, about 5,000 died of yellow fever while the Royal Navy reported losing "forty-six masters and eleven hundred men dead, chiefly of yellow fever".[62] The British historian Sir John Fortescue wrote, "It is probably beneath the mark to say that twelve thousand Englishmen were buried in the West Indies in 1794".[62] Rigaud failed in attempt to retake Port-au-Prince, but on Christmas Day 1794, he stormed and retook Tiburon in a surprise attack.[70] The British lost about 300 soldiers, and Rigaud's forces took no prisoners, executing any British soldier or sailor who surrendered.[76] British "great push" At this point, Pitt decided to launch what he called "the great push" to conquer Saint-Domingue and the rest of the French West Indies, sending out the largest expedition Britain had yet mounted in its history, a force of about 30,000 men to be carried in 200 ships.[70] Fortescue wrote that the aim of the British in the first expedition had been to destroy "the power of France in these pestilent islands ... only to discover when it was too late, that they practically destroyed the British army".[62] By this point, it was well known that service in the West Indies was virtually a death sentence. In Dublin and Cork, soldiers from the 104th, 105th, 111th, and 112th regiments rioted when they learned that they were being sent to Saint-Domingue.[77] The fleet for the "great push" left Portsmouth on 16 November 1795 and was wrecked by a storm, before sending out again on 9 December.[78] The overall forces in St Domingue was at that time under the command of the lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, Sir Adam Williamson.[79] He was optimistically given the title "Governor of St Domingue", and among his British forces were Jamaican "Black Shot" militias.[80] General Ralph Abercromby, the commander of the forces committed to the "great push", hesitated over which island to attack when he arrived in Barbados on 17 March 1796. He dispatched a force under Major General Gordon Forbes to Port-au-Prince.[78] Forbes's attempt to take the French-held city of Léogâne ended in disaster. The French had built a deep defensive ditch with palisades and Forbes had neglected to bring along heavy artillery.[81] The French commander, the mulatto General Alexandre Pétion, proved to be an excellent artilleryman, who used the guns of his fort to sink two of the three ships-of-the-line under Admiral Hyde Parker in the harbour, before turning his guns to the British forces; a French sortie led to a rout of the British, and Forbes retreated back to Port-au-Prince.[81] As more ships arrived with British troops, more soldiers died of yellow fever.[81] By 1 June 1796, of the 1,000 from the 66th Regiment, only 198 had not been infected with yellow fever; and of the 1,000 men of the 69th Regiment, only 515 were not infected with yellow fever.[81] Abercromby predicted that at the current rate of yellow fever infection, all of the men from the two regiments were dead by November.[81] Ultimately, 10,000 British soldiers arrived in Saint Domingue by June, but aside from some skirmishing near Bombarde, the British remained in Port-au-Prince and other coastal enclaves, while yellow fever continued to kill them all off.[81] The government attracted criticism in the House of Commons about the mounting costs of the expedition to Saint-Domingue. In February 1797, General John Graves Simcoe arrived to replace Forbes with orders to pull back the British forces to Port-au-Prince.[82] As the human and financial costs of the expedition mounted, people in Britain demanded a withdrawal from Saint-Domingue, which was devouring money and soldiers, while failing to produce the expected profits.[83] On 11 April 1797, Colonel Thomas Maitland of the 62nd Regiment of Foot landed in Port-au-Prince, and wrote in a letter to his brother that British forces in Saint-Domingue had been "annihilated" by the yellow fever.[82] Service in Saint-Domingue was extremely unpopular in the British Army owing to the terrible death toll caused by yellow fever. One British officer wrote of his horror of seeing his friends "drowned in their own blood" while "some died raving Mad".[83] Simcoe used the new British troops to push back the Haitians under Toussaint, but in a counter-offensive, Toussaint and Rigaud stopped the offensive. Toussaint retook the fortress at Mirebalais.[82] On 7 June 1797, Toussaint attacked Fort Churchill in an assault that was as noted for its professionalism as for its ferocity.[82] Under a storm of artillery, the Haitians placed ladders on the walls and were driven back four times, with heavy losses.[82] Even though Toussaint had been repulsed, the British were astonished that he had turned a group of former slaves with no military experience into troops whose skills were the equal of a European army.[82][84] British withdrawal In July 1797, Simcoe and Maitland sailed to London to advise a total withdrawal from Saint-Domingue. In March 1798 Maitland returned with a mandate to withdraw, at least from Port-au-Prince.[82] On 10 May 1798, Maitland met with Toussaint to agree to an armistice, and on 18 May the British left Port-au-Prince.[85] The British forces were reduced to only holding the western peninsular towns of Mole St Nicholas in the north and Jeremie in the south. The new governor of Jamaica, Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, urged Maitland not to withdraw from Mole St Nicholas. However, Toussaint sent a message to Balcarres, warning him that if he persisted, to remember that Jamaica was not far from St Domingue, and could be invaded.[86] Maitland knew that his forces could not defeat Toussaint, and that he had to take action to protect Jamaica from invasion.[87] British morale had collapsed with the news that Toussaint had taken Port-au-Prince, and Maitland decided to abandon all of Saint-Domingue, writing that the expedition had become such a complete disaster that withdrawal was the only sensible thing to do, even though he did not have the authority to do so.[85] On 31 August, Maitland and Toussaint signed an agreement whereby in exchange for the British pulling out of all of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint promised to not support any slave revolts in Jamaica.[85] Rigaud took control of Jeremie without any cost to his forces, as Maitland withdrew his southern forces to Jamaica. In the end of 1798, Maitland withdrew the last of his forces from Mole St Nicholas, as Toussaint took command of the fortress.[88] Maitland disbanded his "Black Shot" troops, and left them in St Domingue, fearing they might return to Jamaica and start a revolution to overthrow slavery in the British colony. Many of them joined Toussaint's army.[89] Between 1793 and 1798, the expedition to Saint-Domingue had cost the British treasury four million pounds and 100,000 men either dead or permanently disabled from the effects of yellow fever.[90] Toussaint consolidates control After the departure of the British, Toussaint turned his attention to Rigaud, who was conspiring against him in the south of Saint Domingue.[91] In June 1799, Rigaud initiated the War of Knives against Toussaint's rule, sending a brutal offensive at Petit-Goâve and Grand-Goâve. Taking no prisoners, Rigaud's predominantly mulatto forces put blacks and whites to the sword. Though the United States was hostile towards Toussaint, the U.S. Navy agreed to support Toussaint's forces with the frigate USS General Greene, commanded by Captain Christopher Perry, providing fire support to the blacks as Toussaint laid siege to the city of Jacmel, held by mulatto forces under the command of Rigaud.[92] To the United States, Rigaud's ties to France represented a threat to American commerce. On 11 March 1800, Toussaint took Jacmel and Rigaud fled on the French schooner La Diana.[92] Though Toussaint maintained he was still loyal to France, to all intents and purposes, he ruled Saint Domingue as its dictator.[93] In the early 21st century, historian Robert L. Scheina estimated that the slave rebellion resulted in the death of 350,000 Haitians and 50,000 European troops.[94] According to the Encyclopedia of African American Politics, "Between 1791 and independence in 1804 nearly 200,000 blacks died, as did thousands of mulattoes and as many as 100,000 French and British soldiers."[95] Yellow fever caused the most deaths. Geggus points out that at least 3 of every 5 British troops sent there in 1791–1797 died of disease.[96][97] There has been considerable debate over whether the number of deaths caused by disease was exaggerated.[98] Leadership of Louverture General Toussaint Louverture Toussaint Louverture Toussaint Louverture, although a self-educated former domestic slave, was one of the most successful black commanders. Like Jean François and Biassou, he initially fought for the Spanish crown. After the British had invaded Saint-Domingue, Louverture decided to fight for the French if they would agree to free all the slaves. Sonthonax had proclaimed an end to slavery on 29 August 1792. Louverture worked with a French general, Étienne Laveaux, to ensure that all slaves would be freed. Louverture abandoned the Spanish Army in the east and brought his forces over to the French side on 6 May 1794 after the Spanish refused to take steps to end slavery.[99] Under the military leadership of Toussaint, the former slaves succeeded in winning concessions from the British and expelled the Spanish forces. In the end, Toussaint essentially restored control of Saint-Domingue to France. Louverture was very intelligent, organized and articulate. Having made himself master of the island, however, Toussaint did not wish to surrender too much power to France. He began to rule the country as an effectively autonomous entity. Louverture overcame a succession of local rivals, including: the Commissioner Sonthonax, a French white man who gained support from many Haitians, angering Louverture; André Rigaud, a free man of color who fought to keep control of the South in the War of Knives; and Comte d'Hédouville, who forced a fatal wedge between Rigaud and Louverture before escaping to France. Toussaint defeated a British expeditionary force in 1798. In addition, he led an invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo (December 1800), and freed the slaves there on 3 January 1801. In 1801, Louverture issued a constitution for Saint-Domingue that decreed he would be governor-for-life and called for black autonomy and a sovereign black state. In response, Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched a large expeditionary force of French soldiers and warships to the island, led by Bonaparte's brother-in-law Charles Leclerc, to restore French rule.[93] They were under secret instructions to restore slavery, at least in the formerly Spanish-held part of the island. Bonaparte ordered that Toussaint was to be treated with respect until the French forces were established; once that was done, Toussaint was to be summoned to Le Cap and arrested; if he failed to show, Leclerc was to wage "a war to the death" with no mercy and all of Toussaint's followers to be shot when captured.[100] Once that was completed, slavery would be ultimately restored.[93] The numerous French soldiers were accompanied by mulatto troops led by Alexandre Pétion and André Rigaud, mulatto leaders who had been defeated by Toussaint three years earlier. Napoleon invades Haiti The French arrived on 2 February 1802 at Le Cap with the Haitian commander Henri Christophe being ordered by Leclerc to turn over the city to the French.[101] When Christophe refused, the French assaulted Le Cap and the Haitians set the city afire rather than surrender it.[101] Leclerc sent Toussaint letters promising him: "Have no worries about your personal fortune. It will be safeguarded for you, since it has been only too well earned by your own efforts. Do not worry about the liberty of your fellow citizens".[102] When Toussaint still failed to appear at Le Cap, Leclerc issued a proclamation on 17 February 1802: "General Toussaint and General Christophe are outlawed; all citizens are ordered to hunt them down, and treat them as rebels against the French Republic".[103] Captain Marcus Rainsford, a British Army officer who visited Saint-Domingue observed the training of the Haitian Army, writing: "At a whistle, a whole brigade ran three or four hundred yards, and then, separating, threw themselves flat on the ground, changing to their backs and sides, and all the time keeping up a strong fire until recalled…This movement is executed with such facility and precision as totally to prevent cavalry from charging them in bushy and hilly country".[103] Haitian resistance and scorched-earth tactics In a letter to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint outlined his plans for defeating the French: "Do not forget, while waiting for the rainy reason which will rid us of our foes, that we have no other resource than destruction and fire. Bear in mind that the soil bathed with our sweat must not furnish our enemies with the smallest sustenance. Tear up the roads with shot; throw corpses and horses into all the foundations, burn and annihilate everything in order that those who have come to reduce us to slavery may have before their eyes the image of the hell which they deserve".[103] Dessalines never received the letter as he had already taken to the field, evaded a French column sent to capture him and stormed Léogâne.[103] The Haitians burned down Léogâne and killed all of the French with the Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James writing of Dessalines's actions at Léogâne: "Men, women and children, indeed all the whites who came into his hands, he massacred. And forbidding burial, he left stacks of corpses rotting in the sun to strike terror into the French detachments as they toiled behind his flying columns".[103] The French had been expecting the Haitians to happily go back to being their slaves, as they believed it was natural for blacks to be the slaves of whites, and were stunned to learn how much the Haitians hated them for wanting to reduce them back to a life in chains.[103] A visibly shocked General Pamphile de Lacroix after seeing the ruins of Léogâne wrote: "They heaped up bodies" which "still had their attitudes; they were bent over, their hands outstretched and beseeching; the ice of death had not effaced the look on their faces".[103] Leclerc ordered four French columns to march on Gonaives, which was the main Haitian base.[104] One of the French columns was commanded by General Donatien de Rochambeau, a proud white supremacist and a supporter of slavery who detested the Haitians for wanting to be free. Toussaint tried to stop Rochambeau at Ravine-à-Couleuvre, a very narrow gully up in the mountains that the Haitians had filled with chopped down trees.[104] In the ensuring Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres, after six hours of fierce hand-to-hand fighting with no quarter given on either side, the French finally broke through, albeit with heavy losses.[104] During the battle, Toussaint personally took part in the fighting to lead his men in charges against the French.[104] After losing 800 men, Toussaint ordered a retreat.[104] Crête-à-Pierrot fortress The Haitians next tried to stop the French at a British-built fort up in the mountains called Crête-à-Pierrot, a battle that is remembered as a national epic in Haiti.[104] While Toussaint took to the field, he left Dessalines in command of Crête-à-Pierrot, who from his fastness could see three French columns converging on the fort.[104] Dessalines appeared before his men standing atop of a barrel of gunpowder, holding a lit torch, saying: "We are going to be attacked, and if the French put their feet in here, I shall blow everything up", leading his men to reply "We shall die for liberty!".[104] The first of the French columns to appear before the fort was commanded by General Jean Boudet, whose men were harassed by skirmishers until they reached a deep ditch the Haitians had dug.[104] As the French tried to cross the ditch, Dessalines ordered his men who were hiding to come out and open fire, hitting the French with a tremendous volley of artillery and musket fire, inflicting heavy losses on the attackers.[104] General Boudet himself was wounded and as the French dead and wounded started to pile up in the ditch, the French retreated.[104] The next French commander who tried to assault the ditch was General Charles Dugua, joined shortly afterwards by the column commanded by Leclerc.[104] All of the French assaults ended in total failure, and after the failure of their last attack, the Haitians charged the French, cutting down any Frenchmen.[104] General Dugua was killed, Leclerc was wounded and the French lost about 800 dead.[105] The final French column to arrive was the one commanded by Rochambeau, who brought along heavy artillery that knocked out the Haitian artillery, though his attempt to storm the ditch also ended in failure with about 300 of his men killed.[105] Over the following days, the French kept on bombarding and assaulting the fort, only to be repulsed every time while the Haitians defiantly sang songs of the French Revolution, celebrating the right of all men to be equal and free.[105] The Haitian psychological warfare was successful with many French soldiers asking why they were fighting to enslave the Haitians, who were only asserting the rights promised by the Revolution to make all men free.[105] Despite Bonaparte's attempt to keep his intention to restore slavery a secret, it was widely believed by both sides that was why the French had returned to Haiti, as a sugar plantation could only be profitable with slave labour.[citation needed] Finally after twenty days of siege with food and ammunition running out, Dessalines ordered his men to abandon the fort on the night of 24 March 1802 and the Haitians slipped out of the fort to fight another day.[105] Even Rochambeau, who hated all blacks was forced to admit in a report: "Their retreat—this miraculous retreat from our trap—was an incredible feat of arms".[105] The French had won, but they had lost 2,000 dead against an opponent whom they held in contempt on racial grounds, believing all blacks to be stupid and cowardly, and furthermore, that it was shortages of food and ammunition that forced the Haitians to retreat, not because of any feats of arms by the French army.[105] After the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot, the Haitians abandoned conventional warfare and reverted to guerrilla tactics, making the French hold over much of the countryside from Le Cap down to the Artibonite valley very tenuous.[105] With March, the rainy season came to Saint-Domingue, and as stagnant water collected, the mosquitoes began to breed, leading to yet another outbreak of yellow fever.[105] By the end of March, 5,000 French soldiers had died of yellow fever and another 5,000 were hospitalized with yellow fever, leading to a worried Leclerc to write in his diary: "The rainy season has arrived. My troops are exhausted with fatigue and sickness".[105] Capture of Toussaint On 25 April 1802, the situation suddenly changed when Christophe defected, along with much of the Haitian Army, to the French.[105] Louverture was promised his freedom if he agreed to integrate his remaining troops into the French army. Louverture agreed to this on 6 May 1802.[105] Just what motivated Toussaint to give up the fight has been the subject of much debate with most probable explanation being that he was just tired after 11 years of war.[106] Under the terms of surrender, Leclerc gave his solemn word that slavery would not be restored in Saint-Domingue, that blacks could be officers in the French Army, and that the Haitian Army would be allowed to integrate into the French Army. Leclerc also gave Toussaint a plantation at Ennery.[105] Toussaint was later deceived, seized by the French and shipped to France. He died months later in prison at Fort-de-Joux in the Jura Mountains.[23] Shortly afterwards, the ferocious Dessalines rode into Le Cap to submit to France and was rewarded by being made the governor of Saint-Marc, a place that Dessalines ruled with his customary cruelty.[106] However, the surrender of Christophe, Toussaint, and Dessalines did not mean the end of Haitian resistance. Throughout the countryside, guerrilla warfare continued and the French staged mass executions via firing squads, hanging, and drowning Haitians in bags.[106] Rochambeau invented a new means of mass execution, which he called "fumigational-sulphurous baths": killing hundreds of Haitians in the holds of ships by burning sulphur to make sulphur dioxide to gas them.[106] War of independence Battle at "Snake Gully" in 1802 Rebellion against reimposition of slavery See also: Polish Legions (Napoleonic period) § The Haitian campaign For a few months, the island was quiet under Napoleonic rule. But when it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery (because they had nearly done so on Guadeloupe), black cultivators revolted in the summer of 1802. Yellow fever had decimated the French; by the middle of July 1802, the French lost about 10,000 dead to yellow fever.[107] By September, Leclerc wrote in his diary that he had only 8,000 fit men left as yellow fever had killed the others.[106] In 1802, Napoleon added a Polish legion of around 5,200 to the forces sent to Saint-Domingue to fight off the slave rebellion. However, the Poles were told that there was a revolt of prisoners in Saint-Domingue. Upon arrival and the first fights, the Polish soldiers soon discovered that what was actually taking place in the colony was a rebellion of slaves fighting off their French masters for their freedom.[108] During this time, there was a familiar situation going on back in their homeland as these Polish soldiers were fighting for their liberty from the occupying forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria that began in 1772. Many Poles believed that if they fought for France, Bonaparte would reward them by restoring Polish independence, which had been ended with the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.[107] As hopeful as the Haitians, many Poles were seeking union amongst themselves to win back their freedom and independence by organizing an uprising. As a result, many Polish soldiers admired their opponents, to eventually turn on the French army and join the Haitian slaves. Polish soldiers participated in the Haitian revolution of 1804, contributing to the establishment of the world's first free black republic and the first independent Caribbean state.[108] Haiti's first head of state Jean-Jacques Dessalines called Polish people "the White Negroes of Europe", which was then regarded a great honor, as it meant brotherhood between Poles and Haitians. Many years later François Duvalier, the president of Haiti who was known for his black nationalist and Pan-African views, used the same concept of "European white negroes" while referring to Polish people and glorifying their patriotism.[109][110][111] After Haiti gained its independence, the Poles acquired Haitian citizenship for their loyalty and support in overthrowing the French colonialists, and were called "black" by the Haitian constitution.[112] Dessalines and Pétion join Haitian forces Dessalines and Pétion remained allied with France until they switched sides again, in October 1802, and fought against the French. As Leclerc lay dying of yellow fever and heard that Christophe and Dessalines had joined the rebels, he reacted by ordering all of the blacks living in Le Cap to be killed by drowning in the harbour.[113] In November, Leclerc died of yellow fever, like much of his army.[23][114] His successor, the Vicomte de Rochambeau, fought an even more brutal campaign. Rochambeau waged a near-genocidal campaign against the Haitians, killing everyone who was black.[113] Rochambeau imported about 15,000 attack dogs from Jamaica, who had been trained to savage blacks and mulattoes.[113] (Other sources suggest the dogs may have been dogo cubanos sourced in their hundreds from Cuba rather than Jamaica.)[115] At the Bay of Le Cap, Rochambeau had blacks drowned. No one would eat fish from the bay for months afterward, as no one wished to eat the fish that had eaten human flesh.[113] Bonaparte, hearing that most of his army in Saint-Domingue had died of yellow fever and the French held only Port-au-Prince, Le Cap, and Les Cayes, sent about 20,000 reinforcements to Rochambeau.[113] France's Leclerc Expedition to Haiti in 1804 Dessalines matched Rochambeau in his vicious cruelty. At Le Cap, when Rochambeau hanged 500 blacks, Dessalines replied by killing 500 whites and sticking their heads on spikes all around Le Cap, so that the French could see what he was planning on doing to them.[113] Rochambeau's atrocities helped rally many former French loyalists to the rebel cause. Many on both sides had come to see the war as a race war where no mercy was to be given. The Haitians burned French prisoners alive, cut them up with axes, or tied them to a board and sawed them into two.[106] The rebels finally managed to decisively defeat the French troops at the Battle of Vertières on 18 November 1803, leading the first-ever group of slaves to successfully create an independent state through a slave revolt.[116] Having sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in April 1803, Napoleon accepted defeat in his failing ventures in the Western Hemisphere. Dessalines won a string of victories against Leclerc and Rochambeau, becoming arguably the most successful military commander in the struggle against Napoleonic France.[117] Napoleon then turned his attention towards France's European enemies such as Great Britain and Prussia. With that, he withdrew a majority of the French forces in Haiti to counter the possibility of an invasion from Prussia, Britain, and Spain on a weakened France. War between France and Britain Further information: Blockade of Saint-Domingue With Napoleon's inability to send the requested massive reinforcements after the outbreak of war on 18 May 1803 with the British, the Royal Navy immediately despatched a squadron under Sir John Duckworth from Jamaica to cruise in the region, seeking to eliminate communication between the French outposts and to capture or destroy the French warships based in the colony. The Blockade of Saint-Domingue not only cut the French forces out from reinforcements and supplies from France, but also meant that the British began to supply arms to the Haitians.[113] Trapped, engaged in a vicious race war, and with much of his army dying of yellow fever, Rochambeau fell to pieces. He lost interest in commanding his army and as James wrote, he "amused himself with sexual pleasures, military balls, banquets and the amassing of a personal fortune".[113] The Royal Navy squadrons soon blockaded the French-held ports of Cap Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the Northern coast of the French colony. In the summer of 1803, when war broke out between the United Kingdom and the French Consulate, Saint-Domingue had been almost completely overrun by Haitian forces under the command of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. In the north of the country, the French forces were isolated in the two large ports of Cap Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas and a few smaller settlements, all supplied by a French naval force based primarily at Cap Français. On 28 June, the squadron encountered a French convoy from Les Cayes off Môle-Saint-Nicolas, capturing one ship although the other escaped. Two days later an independently sailing French frigate was chased down and captured in the same waters. On 24 July another British squadron intercepted the main French squadron from Cap Français, which was attempting to break past the blockade and reach France. The British, led by Commodore John Loring gave chase, but one French ship of the line and a frigate escaped. Another ship of the line was trapped against the coast and captured after coming under fire from Haitian shore batteries. The remainder of the squadron was forced to fight two more actions on their return to Europe, but did eventually reach the Spanish port of Corunna. Battle of Vertières in 1803 On 8 October 1803, the French abandoned Port-au-Prince as Rochambeau decided to concentrate what was left of his army at Le Cap.[113] Dessalines marched into Port-au-Prince, where he was welcomed as a hero by the 100 whites who had chosen to stay behind.[118] Dessalines thanked them all for their kindness and belief in racial equality, but then he said that the French had treated him as less than human when he was a slave, and so to avenge his mistreatment, he promptly had the 100 whites all hanged.[118] On 3 November, the frigate HMS Blanche captured a supply schooner near Cap Français, the last hope in supplying the French forces. On 16 November 1803, Dessalines began attacking the French blockhouses outside of Le Cap.[118] The last battle on land of the Haitian Revolution, the Battle of Vertières, occurred on 18 November 1803, near Cap-Haïtien fought between Dessalines' army and the remaining French colonial army under the Vicomte de Rochambeau; the slave rebels and freed revolutionary soldiers won the battle. By this point, Perry observed that both sides were "a little mad" as the pressures of the war and yellow fever had taken their toll, and both the French and the Haitians fought with a reckless courage, seeing death in battle as preferable to a slow death by yellow fever or being tortured to death by the enemy.[118] Haitian victory Rochambeau, seeing defeat inevitable, procrastinated until the last possible moment, but eventually was forced to surrender to the British commander—by the end of the month the garrison was starving, having reached the conclusion at a council of war that surrender was the only way to escape from this "place of death".[118] Commodore Loring, however, refused the French permission to sail and agreed terms with Dessalines that permitted them to safely evacuate provided they had left the port by 1 December. On the night of 30 November 1803, 8,000 French soldiers and hundreds of white civilians boarded the British ships to take them away.[118] One of Rochambeau's ships was almost wrecked while leaving the harbour, but was saved by a British lieutenant acting alone, who not only rescued the 900 people on board, but also refloated the ship. At Môle-Saint-Nicolas, General Louis de Noailles refused to surrender and instead sailed to Havana, Cuba in a fleet of small vessels on 3 December, but was intercepted and mortally wounded by a Royal Navy frigate. Soon after, the few remaining French-held towns in Saint-Domingue surrendered to the Royal Navy to prevent massacres by the Haitian army. Meanwhile, Dessalines led the rebellion until its completion, when the French forces were finally defeated by the end of 1803.[23] On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves, Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence, renaming it "Haiti" after the indigenous Arawak name. Although he lasted from 1804 to 1806, several changes began taking place in Haiti. The independence of Haiti was a major blow to France and its colonial empire, but the French state would take several decades to recognize the loss of the colony. As the French retreated, Haiti, which had once been called the "Pearl of the Antilles", the richest French colony in the world, was impoverished, as its economy was in ruins after the revolution. Haiti struggled to recover economically from the war.[119] The Haitians had paid a high price for their freedom, losing about 200,000 dead between 1791 and 1803, and unlike the majority of the European dead, who were killed by yellow fever, the majority of the Haitian dead were the victims of violence.[44] Free republic See also: Haitian Declaration of Independence On 1 January 1804, Dessalines, the new leader under the dictatorial 1805 constitution, declared Haiti a free republic in the name of the Haitian people,[120] which was followed by the massacre of the remaining whites.[121] His secretary Boisrond-Tonnerre stated, "For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!"[122] Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion. The country was damaged from years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce nonexistent.[123][124] The country, therefore, had to be rebuilt. To realise this goal, Dessalines adopted the economic organisation of serfdom.[125] He proclaimed that every citizen would belong to one of two categories, laborer or soldier.[125] Furthermore, he proclaimed the mastery of the state over the individual and consequently ordered that all laborers would be bound to a plantation.[125] Those that possessed skills outside of plantation work, like craftsmanship and artisans, were exempt from this ordinance. To avoid the appearance of slavery, however, Dessalines abolished the ultimate symbol of slavery, the whip.[125] Likewise, the working day was shortened by a third.[125] His chief motivator nonetheless was production, and to this aim he granted much freedom to the plantations' overseers. Barred from using the whip, many instead turned to lianes, which were thick vines abundant throughout the island, to persuade the laborers to keep working.[125] Many of the workers likened the new labor system to slavery, much like Toussaint L'Ouverture's system, which caused resentment between Dessalines and his people. Workers were given a fourth of all wealth produced from their labor. Nevertheless, he succeeded in rebuilding much of the country and in raising production levels, thus slowly rebuilding the economy.[125] Dessalines paid large sums of money to liberate slaves on slave ships near the Haitian coast. He paid for the expenses of the returns of the thousands of Haitian refugees that left during the revolution. Fearing a return of French forces, Dessalines first expanded and maintained a significant military force. During his reign, nearly 10% of able-bodied men were in active service resulting in a military force of up to 37,000 men.[126] Furthermore, Dessalines ordered the construction of massive fortifications throughout the island, like the Citadelle Laferrière, the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere. Cities and commercial centers were moved to the interior of the country, while less important ones were kept to the coast, so they could be burnt down completely to discourage the French; many commentators believe that this over militarization contributed to many of Haiti's future problems.[126] In fact, because young fit men were the most likely to be drafted into the army, the plantations were thus deprived of the workforce needed to function properly.[126] There was growing frustration between the workers, the elites, and Dessalines. A conspiracy led by the mulatto elites ultimately led to Dessalines assassination and two separate sovereign states of Haiti. 1804 massacre of the French Main article: 1804 Haiti massacre An 1806 engraving of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. It depicts the general, sword raised in one arm, while the other holds a severed head of a white woman. The 1804 massacre was carried out against the remaining white population of French colonists[127] and loyalists,[128] both enemies and traitors of the revolution,[129] by the black population of Haiti on the order of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared the French as barbarians, demanding their expulsion and vengeance for their crimes.[130][131] The massacre—which took place in the entire territory of Haiti—was carried out from early February 1804 until 22 April 1804. During February and March, Dessalines traveled among the cities of Haiti to assure himself that his orders were carried out. Despite his orders, the massacres were often not carried out until he personally visited the cities.[132] The course of the massacre showed an almost identical pattern in every city he visited. Before his arrival, there were only a few killings, despite his orders.[133] When Dessalines arrived, he first spoke about the atrocities committed by former French authorities, such as Rochambeau and Leclerc, after which he demanded that his orders about mass killings of the area's French population be carried out. Reportedly, he also ordered the unwilling to take part in the killings, especially men of mixed-race, so that blame would not rest solely on the black population.[114] Mass killings then took place on the streets and on places outside the cities. In parallel to the killings, plundering and rape also occurred.[114] Women and children were generally killed last. White women were "often raped or pushed into forced marriages under threat of death".[114] By the end of April 1804, some 3,000 to 5,000 people had been killed[134] practically eradicating the country's white population. Dessalines had specifically stated that France is "the real enemy of the new nation." This allowed certain categories of whites to be excluded from massacre who had to pledge their rejection to France: the Polish soldiers who deserted from the French army; the group of German colonists of Nord-Ouest who were inhabitants before the revolution; French widows who were allowed to keep their property;[131] select male Frenchmen;[135] and a group of medical doctors and professionals.[132] Reportedly, also people with connections to Haitian notables were spared,[114] as well as the women who agreed to marry non-white men.[134] In the 1805 constitution that declared all its citizens as black,[135] it specifically mentions the naturalizations of German and Polish peoples enacted by the government, as being exempt from Article XII that prohibited whites ("non-Haitians;" foreigners) from owning land.[127][134][130] Post-Revolution era An independent government was created in Haiti, but the country's society remained deeply affected by patterns established under French colonial rule. As in other French colonial societies, a class of free people of color had developed after centuries of French rule here. Many planters or young unmarried men had relations with African or Afro-Caribbean women, sometimes providing for their freedom and that of their children, as well as providing for education of the mixed-race children, especially the boys. Some were sent to France for education and training, and some joined the French military. The mulattoes who returned to Saint-Domingue became the elite of the people of color. As an educated class used to the French political system, they became the elite of Haitian society after the war's end. Many of them had used their social capital to acquire wealth, and some already owned land. Some had identified more with the French colonists than the slaves. Many of the free people of color, by contrast, were raised in French culture, had certain rights within colonial society, and generally spoke French and practiced Catholicism (with syncretic absorption of African religions.) Following Dessaline's assassination, another of Toussaint's black generals, Henri Christophe, succeeded his in control of the north, while Alexandre Pétion presided over mulatto rule in the south. There were large differences in governance between Petion's republic, and what would eventually become Christophe's kingdom. While the southern republic did not have as much focus on economic development, and put more attention on liberal land distribution and education, the northern kingdom went on to become relatively wealthy, though wealth distribution was disputed. As a result of temporary trade agreements between Christophe, the United States, and British colonies, Christophe was able to rebuild the northern region. There were large investments in education and public works, military infrastructure, and many chateaux, the most notable being the Sans Souci palace in Milot. However, much like his predecessors, this was achieved through forced labor which ultimately led to his downfall. Contrarily, Petion was beloved by his people, but despised by his northern counterpart. A major effort by Christophe to take Port-au-Prince in mid–1812 failed. The mulattoes were harassed by a pocket of black rebellion in their rear from February 1807 to May 1819. A black leader named Goman kept alive the angry spirit of Dessalines in the southern mountains of the Grand-Anse, resisting several mulatto punitive expeditions. Finally, in 1819, the new mulatto leader, Jean-Pierre Boyer, sent six regiments into the Grand-Anse to ferret out Goman. The black rebel was trapped and shot off a 1,000-foot-high cliff. In 1820, the island nation was finally reunified when Christophe, ill and surrounded by new rebellions, killed himself. Boyer with 20,000 troops marched into Cap-Haïtien, the northern capital, shortly afterward to establish his power over all of Haiti. Not too long after, Boyer was able to secure cooperation with the general of the neighboring Spanish Haiti, and in February 1822 began a 22 year long unification with the eastern state.[136] Independence debt Main article: Haiti indemnity controversy The nascent state's future was hobbled in 1825 when France under Charles X forced it (with French warships anchored off the coast during the negotiations[137]) to pay 150 million gold francs in reparations to French ex-slaveholders—as a condition of French political recognition and to end the newly formed state's political and economic isolation.[138] By an order of 17 April 1825, the King of France renounced his rights of sovereignty over Santo Domingo, and recognized the independence of Haiti.[139][140][141] President Jean-Pierre Boyer believed that the constant threat of a French invasion was stymieing the Haitian economy and thus felt the need to settle the matter once and for all.[137] Though the amount of the reparations was reduced to 90 million francs in 1838, Haiti was unable to finish paying off its debt until 1947. The indemnity bankrupted the Haitian treasury and left the country's government deeply impoverished, causing long-term instability. Haiti was therefore forced to take out a loan from French banks, who provided the funds for the large first installment,[114] severely affecting Haiti's ability to prosper. Influence on other abolitionist and post-colonial movements While Haiti suffered major economic setbacks during the early years of the post revolutionary era, the ideals of freedom and anti-colonialism never ceased to be part of the Haitian consciousness. Citizenship was offered to any slave or oppressed person that made it to Haiti's shores as mandated by Dessaline's constitution. All four of Haiti's earlier rulers, Dessalines, Christophe, Petion, and Boyer all had programs that involved swaying African Americans to resettle there and assure their freedom. Slave boats that were captured and brought to Haiti's shores resulted in the liberation and integration of all captives on board into Haitian society. On one occasion, President Alexandre Petion protected Jamaican slaves from re-enslavement after they escaped their plantation and landed in the southern city of Jérémie.[142] On multiple occasions, Haiti's leaders offered asylum to liberal revolutionaries globally. One of the more notable examples of this included Haiti's involvement with Gran Colombia, where Dessalines and Petion both offered aid, ammunitions, and asylum to Francisco de Miranda and Simón Bolívar, who even went as far as to credit Haiti for the liberation of his country.[citation needed] Dessalines offered citizenship and assistance to slaves in Martinique and Guadeloupe so that they could start their own uprisings.[143] Mexican nationalists, Francisco Javier Mina and José Joaquín de Herrera took asylum in Les Cayes and were welcomed by Petion during Mexico's War of Independence.[144] The Greeks later received support from President Boyer during their fight against the Ottomans. The end of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 marked the end of French colonialism on the island. However, the social conflict cultivated under slavery continued to affect the population for years to come. Mulatto domination of politics and economics, and urban life after the revolution, created a different kind of two-caste society, as most Haitians were rural subsistence farmers.[124] The affranchi élite, who continued to rule Haiti while the formidable Haitian army kept them in power. France continued the slavery system in French Guiana, Martinique, and Guadeloupe.[145] Influence on slavery in the Americas See also: Haitianism and United States and the Haitian Revolution Historians continue to debate the importance of the Haitian Revolution. David Geggus asks: "How much of a difference did it make?" A limited amount, he concludes, for slavery flourished in the western hemisphere for many more decades.[146] In the opposing camp, African American historian W. E. B. Du Bois said that the Haitian Revolution was an economic pressure without which the British parliament would not have accepted abolitionism as readily.[147] Other historians say the Haitian Revolution influenced slave rebellions in the U.S. as well as in British colonies. The biggest slave revolt in U.S. history was the 1811 German Coast uprising in Louisiana. This slave rebellion was put down and the punishment the slaves received was so severe that no contemporary news reports about it exist.[148] The neighboring revolution brought the slavery question to the forefront of U.S. politics, and though inspiring to the enslaved themselves[149] the resulting intensification of racial divides and sectional politics ended the idealism of the Revolutionary period.[150] The American President Thomas Jefferson—who was a slaveholder himself—refused to establish diplomatic relations with Haiti (the United States did not recognize Haiti until 1862) and imposed an economic embargo on trade with Haiti that also lasted until 1862 in an attempt to ensure the economic failure of the new republic as Jefferson wanted Haiti to fail, regarding a successful slave revolt in the West Indies as a dangerous example for American slaves.[151] Saint-Domingue slave revolt in 1791 Beginning during the slave insurrections of 1791, white refugees from Saint-Domingue fled to the United States, particularly to Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Charleston. The immigration intensified after the journée (crisis) of 20 June 1793, and soon American families began to raise money and open up their homes to help exiles in what became the United States' first refugee crisis. While some white refugees blamed the French Revolutionary government for sparking the violence in Haiti, many supported the Republican regime and openly expressed their support of the Jacobins.[152] There is also some historical evidence suggesting that displaying solidarity with the French Revolution was the easiest way for the refugees to earn the support and sympathy of the Americans, who had just recently lived through their own revolution.[153] American slaveholders, in particular, commiserated with the French planters who had been forcibly removed from their plantations in Saint-Domingue. While the exiles found themselves in a peaceful situation in the United States—safe from the violence raging in both France and Haiti—their presence complicated the already precarious diplomatic relations among Britain, France, and the U.S. Many of the whites and free people of color who left Saint-Domingue for the United States settled in southern Louisiana, adding many new members to its French-speaking, mixed-race, and black populations. The exiles causing the most alarm were the African slaves who came with their refugee owners. Some southern planters grew concerned that the presence of these slaves who had witnessed the revolution in Haiti would ignite similar revolts in the United States.[154] Other planters, however, were confident they had the situation under control.[155] In 1807, Haiti was divided into two parts, the Republic of Haiti in the south, and the Kingdom of Haiti in the north. Land could not be privately owned; it reverted to the State through Biens Nationaux (national bonds), and no French whites could own land. The remaining French settlers were forced to leave the island. Those who refused were slaughtered. The Haitian State owned up to 90% of the land and the other 10% was leased in 5-year intervals. Since the resistance and the murderous disease environment made it impossible for Napoleon to regain control over Haiti, he gave up hope of rebuilding a French New World empire. He decided to sell Louisiana to the U.S. The Haitian Revolution brought about two unintended consequences: the creation of a continental America and the virtual end of Napoleonic rule in the Americas.[156] There never again was such a large-scale slave rebellion. Napoleon reversed the French abolition of slavery in law, constitution, and practice, which had occurred between 1793 and 1801, and reinstated slavery in the French colonies in 1801–1803—which lasted until 1848. Relationship between the French and Haitian Revolutions Reason for revolution The Haitian Revolution was a revolution ignited from below, by the underrepresented majority of the population.[157] A huge majority of the supporters of the Haitian revolution were slaves and freed Africans who were severely discriminated against by colonial society and the law.[158] Brutality Despite the idealist, rational and utopian thinking surrounding both uprisings, extreme brutality was a fundamental aspect of both uprisings. Besides initial cruelty that created the precarious conditions that bred the revolution, there was violence from both sides throughout the revolution. The period of violence during the French Revolution is known as the Reign of Terror. Waves of suspicion meant that the government rounded up and killed thousands of suspects, ranging from known aristocrats to people thought to oppose the leaders. They were killed by guillotine, "breaking at the wheel", mobs and other death machines: death toll estimates range from 18,000 to 40,000.[159] Total casualties for the French Revolution are estimated at 2 million.[160] In the Caribbean, total casualties totaled approximately 162,000.[161] Violence in Haiti was largely characterized by military confrontations, riots, killing of slave owners and their families, and guerrilla warfare.[162] Lasting change The Revolution in Haiti did not wait on the Revolution in France. The call for modification of society was influenced by the revolution in France, but once the hope for change found a place in the hearts of the Haitian people, there was no stopping the radical reformation that was occurring.[163] The Enlightenment ideals and the initiation of the French Revolution were enough to inspire the Haitian Revolution, which evolved into the most successful and comprehensive slave rebellion in history.[163] Just as the French were successful in transforming their society, so were the Haitians. On 4 April 1792, The French National Assembly granted freedom to slaves in saint-Domingue.[162] The revolution culminated in 1804; Haiti was an independent state solely of freed peoples.[164] The activities of the revolutions sparked change across the world. France's transformation was most influential in Europe, and Haiti's influence spanned every location that continued to practice slavery. John E. Baur honors Haiti as home of the most influential revolution in history.[165] Historiographical debates While acknowledging the cross-influences, most contemporary historians[who?] distinguish the Haitian Revolution from the French Revolution. Some[who?] also separate it from the earlier armed conflicts by free men of color who were seeking expansion of political rights for themselves, but not the abolition of slavery. These scholars show that if the agency of the enslaved blacks becomes the focus of studies, the Revolution's opening and closing dates are certain. From this premise, the narrative began with the enslaved blacks' bid for freedom through armed struggle and concluded with their victory over slavery powers and the creation of an independent state. In April 1791, a massive black insurgency in the north of the island rose violently against the plantation system, setting a precedent of resistance to racial slavery. In cooperation with their former mulatto rivals, blacks ended the Revolution in November 1803 when they decidedly defeated the French Army at the Battle of Vertières. The French had already lost a high proportion of their troops to yellow fever and other diseases.[114] After acknowledging defeat in Saint-Domingue, Napoleon withdrew from North America, agreeing to the Louisiana Purchase by the United States. Although the series of events during these years is known under the name of "Haitian Revolution", alternative views suggest that the entire affair was an assorted number of coincidental conflicts that ended with a fragile truce between free men of color and blacks.[166][failed verification] Historians debate whether the victorious Haitians were "intrinsically [a] revolutionary force".[167] One thing is certain: Haiti became an independent country on 1 January 1804, when the council of generals chose Jean-Jacques Dessalines to assume the office of governor-general. One of the state's first significant documents was Dessaliness' "Liberty or Death" speech, which circulated broadly in the foreign press. In it, the new head of state made the case for the new nation's objective: the permanent abolition of slavery in Haiti.[168] The role of women in the Haitian Revolution was for a long time given little attention by historians, but has in recent years garnered significant attention.[169][170][171] Contemporary press response The revolution of African slaves brought many fears to colonies surrounding Haiti and the Caribbean. Prominent wealthy American slave owners, reading about the revolution, also read speculation about what might come in their own states. Anti-abolitionist critics of the revolution dubbed it "the horrors of Santo Domingo".[172] However, newspapers like the Columbian Centinel took extra steps to support the revolution, comparing it to the American Revolution.[173] The French media also played an important role in the Haitian Revolution, with contributions that made many French upstarts quite interested in the young, passionate Toussaint's writings of freedom. There were many written discussions about the events in Haiti during the revolution in both France and England, however, they were generally written by anonymous authors. These texts also generally fell into two camps—one being proslavery authors who warned of a repetition of the violence of St. Domingue wherever abolition occurred; and the other being abolitionist authors who countered that white owners had sown the seeds of revolution.[174] However, all was not simple in the press. A top critic who significantly drove Toussaint into fear of backlash from France was Sonthonax, who was responsible for many outlooks of Haiti in the French newspapers.[175] Yet Sonthonax was one of the few contenders who truly pushed for the independence of the African slaves and became a major factor in Toussaint's decision of declaring independence from France. In popular culture This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Haitian Revolution" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier's second novel, The Kingdom of This World (1949), (translated into English 1957), explores the Haitian Revolution in depth. It is one of the novels that inaugurated the Latin American renaissance in fiction beginning in the mid-20th century. Madison Smartt Bell wrote a trilogy called All Souls' Rising (1995) about the life of Toussaint Louverture and the slave uprising. C. Richard Gillespie, former Towson University professor, wrote a novelization of Louverture's life in the Revolution titled Papa Toussaint (1998). Though not referred to by name, Haiti is the backdrop for the 1990 Broadway musical Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. The musical, based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, describes the social stratification of the island, and contains a song that briefly outlines the history of the Haitian Revolution. In 2004, an exhibition of paintings entitled Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804 by artist Kimathi Donkor, was held in London to celebrate the bicentenary of Haiti's revolution.[176] In 2010, author Isabel Allende wrote a historical novel entitled Island Beneath the Sea, which documents the Haitian Revolution through the eyes of a slave woman living on the island. William Dietrich set his 2012 novel, The Emerald Storm during the Haitian Revolution. The television mini-series The Feast of All Saints features the Haitian Revolution in its opening scene. Philippe Niang directed the 2012 French two-part television film Toussaint Louverture, with Jimmy Jean-Louis playing the title role. The film Top Five refers to a fictional film within the film called "Uprize", ostensibly about this revolution. The role of Bois Caiman, Boukman, and Vodou generally, would become the subject of a controversial, discredited neo-evangelical theology in the 1990s that insisted that Haiti was pledged to the devil during the Revolution.[177] Jacobin, an American socialist periodical, uses an image of Toussaint Louverture for its logo. Literature about the Haitian Revolution An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President Bug-Jargal The Crime of Napoleon The Black Jacobins See also Cécile Fatiman Charles Rivière-Hérard Dédée Bazile End of slavery in Haiti Faustin Soulouque Jean-François Papillon Joseph Balthazar Inginac Lamour Desrances Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére Marie-Louise Coidavid Marie-Madeleine Lachenais Pauline Bonaparte Peace of Basel Philippe Guerrier Pompée Valentin Vastey Quasi War Suzanne Simone Baptiste Louverture Sanité Bélair War of the Knives Women in the Haitian Revolution The Kingdom of Haiti[1] (French: Royaume d'Haïti;[2][3] Haitian Creole: Wayòm an Ayiti) was the state established by Henri Christophe on 28 March 1811 when he proclaimed himself King Henri I after having previously ruled as president of the State of Haiti, in the northern part of the country. This was Haiti's second attempt at monarchical rule, as Jean-Jacques Dessalines had previously ruled over the First Empire of Haiti as Emperor Jacques I from 1804 until his assassination in 1806. San-Souci Palace. During his reign, Henri built six castles, eight palaces (including the Sans-Souci Palace), the Royal Chapel of Milot, and the Citadelle Laferrière, built to protect the Kingdom from possible French invasions. He created a noble class and appointed four princes, eight dukes, 22 counts, 37 barons, and 14 chevaliers. After suffering a stroke and with support for his rule waning, Henri I committed suicide on 8 October 1820. He was buried at the Citadelle Henry. His 16-year-old son and heir, Jacques-Victor Henri, Prince Royal of Haiti, was murdered 10 days later at the Sans-Souci Palace by rebels. Following the assassination of Emperor Jacques I, the country was split. Parallel with the government of Christophe in the north, Alexandre Pétion, a free person of color, ruled over the south of the country as President of the Republic of Haiti until his death in 1818. He was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Boyer, who reunited the two parts of the nation after the deaths of Henri I and his son in 1820. History Background From 1791 to 1804, the Haitian revolution against the French colonists raged. After the failure of the French expedition of 1803, General Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haiti's independence. On 8 October 1804, Dessalines was crowned emperor in Cap-Haïtien under the name of Jacques I. But very soon, some generals, ambitious to seize power, organized a plot against the emperor, who was finally assassinated by the men of General Alexandre Pétion in an ambush on 17 October 1806, at Pont-Rouge (at the entrance of Port-au-Prince), betrayed by one of his battalion chiefs. Afterwards, his generals marched on the capital, abolished the Empire and expelled the imperial family, which had to go into exile. Alexandre Pétion proclaimed the Republic and became president. But another general, Henri Christophe, broke away and took control of northern Haiti, where he established a separatist government, the State of the North. President of the Republic of the North, then president for life and generalissimo, Henri Christophe wanted to legitimize his power as Dessalines had done by re-establishing the empire. In conflict with the southern republic of Pétion, he succeeded, after several battles, in securing the borders of his new state. Once some stability was established, Christophe established a constitutional monarchy with himself as monarch. He became king of Haiti on 28 March 1811, under the name of Henry I. On 2 June 1811, he was crowned by Grand Archbishop Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Brelle. Conflict with the Republic of the South Since Haiti was divided in 1807, tensions arose between the Haitians of the north and the south. This led to a veritable civil war. The tension with the southerners was further intensified with the establishment of the kingdom of the North. Alexandre Pétion, as president of the Republic of the South, declared to represent the struggle against tyranny, which would be represented by King Henri. From 1807 to 1820, neither of the two armies managed to cross the border between the two nations. As for King Henri, he denigrated Pétion by asserting that Pétion embodied the false democracy that masks tyranny. This declaration was borne out when Pétion proclaimed himself president for life of the South, with the right to designate his successor. The Revolution of the North Reasons for the revolt In 1818, after Pétion's death, it was his aide-de-camp Jean-Pierre Boyer who succeeded him at the head of the South. King Henri then proposed to Boyer to join him in exchange for the title of marshal. But, as expected, he refused. He even sent several spies to different cities in the North to stir up the population. At first, this attempt seemed to have no effect on the northern population. But after a last battle fought on the north–south border, in which the king ordered to shoot all the southern officers who were prisoners, republican ideas circulated more and more in the kingdom. Boyer then sent several great orators from the South to the North with the aim of creating a revolutionary movement. Moreover, in 1820, the harvests were bad and taxes were increasing, a situation favorable to revolutions. Uprising and fall During the summer of 1820, several riots broke out in the North, and the government then launched a violent repression. As for the king, he suffered a stroke in August 1820, which left him partially paralyzed and considerably weakened his health and disturbed his thinking. In September 1820, a new insurrection broke out in Cap-Haïtien, provoking an almost general revolt in the country. The revolution quickly broke out in the North, the richest city of the kingdom, Cap-Haïtien, fell under revolutionary control. In October, the revolutionaries marched on Milot's Sans Souci palace. Suffering from paralysis and seeing that the situation was slipping away from him, the king committed suicide on 8 October 1820, by shooting himself in the heart with a silver bullet during a mass in a church he had built. He is buried in the Citadelle Laferrière. After his death, his son, Crown Prince Victor-Henry, was proclaimed king by his followers under the name of Henry II. However, Milot was seized by the insurgents and the new king was hanged on 18 October 1820. Queen Marie-Louise Coidavid and her daughters went into exile in Italy. Boyer took advantage of the revolution to send his army, present on the border, to the center of the northern kingdom. On 20 October, Boyer had imposed himself by arms, and proclaimed that the north would be joined with the south on 26 October. Finally, he proclaimed himself president for life and then "supreme chief" of the whole island. Sans-Souci Chapel Posterity After the episode of the reign of Henri Christophe, no other true monarchy arose in Haiti until the Second Empire of Faustin Soulouque (Faustin I) in 1849–1859. There have been attempts to re-establish the monarchy, however. One such case was that of Pierre Nord Alexis, grandson of the former King Henri, who took power in 1902. An authoritarian, he declared himself president for life and even ended up proposing a new constitutional monarchy with himself as king. But this project provoked a last revolt that turned into a new revolution and forced Nord Alexis to go into exile in 1908. He died two years later, in 1910, at the age of 89. Government Difficult beginnings In 1811, the North became a hereditary monarchy. It was there that it entered into war with the South even though the fighting did not go beyond the borders. In the beginning, Henri was not a popular monarch, he was seen as an ambitious soldier who had become a dictator. Moreover, in January 1812, he had to face a revolt by liberal groups demanding the establishment of a parliament and a fairer constitution. To put an end to his troubles, the king established the "Code Henri", which was composed of a set of laws and promoted education. The Henri Code thus established a so-called royal constitution that sought to appease the opponents of the monarchy. In addition, the king set up a cabinet composed of various ministers to help him administer the kingdom. Stability then returned in the North, and Henri was recognized as king by the northern population. Organization of power According to the "Henri Code", the king held the bulk of power. However, he would also be assisted by a cabinet of six ministers, the foremost of whom was a chancellor appointed by the king. When he became king, Henry appointed Joseph Rouanez as chancellor, and also granted him the title of Duke de Morin. Rouanez died in 1812, and was subsequently replaced by Julien Prévost, who served as chancellor until the fall of the regime. The power of the king was much higher than that of the chancellor; the monarch was thus the true head of the government, and the chancellor only his personal advisor. Nobility system With an edict dated 5 April 1811, King Henry proclaimed a noble class whose titles, ecu, and currencies were intended to be transmitted hereditarily. This nobility system was largely inspired by British institutions, but it also showed some French influence; for instance, like Napoleon's nobility, it did not include marquis or viscount. The conferred titles mostly corresponded to majorates, which in this case were vast territories. Citadelle Laferrière. Work The king used the "agrarian caporalism" that he promoted to develop the island's economy. As a result, the North accumulated wealth faster than the South. Henri built the Sans Souci palace in Milot and the Belle-Rivière palace in Petite Rivière de l'Artibonite and created a nobility distributing titles, pensions, and decorations. Work on the Sans Souci palace was completed in 1813. In addition to the main body, a chapel with a large cupola was also built, as well as numerous annexes: barracks, a hospital, ministries, a printing shop, a mint, a school, an art academy, and abfarm, etc. King Henri, his wife Queen Marie-Louise, and their children – including Victor-Henry Christophe – lived in the palace, along with their staff and the various councillors and ministers, until the fall of the monarchy on 18 October 1820. The king owned nineteen other plantations and had other residences and forts built throughout his kingdom, including the La Ferrière citadel, which was located a few kilometers from the palace and armed with 200 cannons. The geographical location of this royal residence and the citadel was chosen for strategic purposes, i.e. it was both central and elevated, as well as concealed and perfectly autonomous. Furthermore, it allowed the sovereign to control his territory and to protect himself from his internal and external enemies, including the French, who still sought to retake their former colony. In fact, the French made an attempted landing on Haiti in 1814–1815 as ordered by King Louis XVIII,[4] sending three commissioners to Haiti, which were quickly rebuked by King Henry I of Haiti. The State of Haiti[1][2] (French: État d'Haïti;[3] Haitian Creole: Leta an Ayiti) was the name of the state in northern Haiti.[4] It was created on 17 October 1806 following the assassination of Emperor Jacques I and the overthrow of the First Empire of Haiti. The northern State of Haiti was ruled by Henri Christophe originally as Provisional Chief of the Haitian Government from 17 October 1806 until 17 February 1807 when he became President of the State of Haiti. The 1807 constitution for the State of Haiti made the post of president a position for life with the president having the power to appoint his successor. On 28 March 1811 President Henri was proclaimed King Henri I, thereby dissolving the State of Haiti and creating the Kingdom of Haiti. Following the assassination of Emperor Jacques I, the country was split. Parallel with the government of Christophe in the north, Alexandre Pétion, a free person of color, ruled over the south of the country as President of the Republic of Haiti until his death in 1818. He was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Boyer, who reunited the two parts of the nation after the deaths of Henri I and Henri I's son, Jacques-Victor Henry, in 1820. History From 1791 to 1804, the Haitian revolution against the French colonists raged. After the failure of the French expedition of 1803, General Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haiti's independence. On 8 October 1804, Dessalines is crowned emperor in Cap-Haitian under the name of Jacques I. But very quickly, some generals, ambitious to take power, set up a plot against the emperor who was finally killed by General Alexandre Pétion's men in an ambush on 17 October 1806, at the Pont-Rouge (at the entrance to Port-au-Prince), betrayed by one of his battalion leaders. After that, his generals marched on the capital, abolished the Empire and drove out the imperial family, which had to go into exile. Alexandre Pétion proclaims the Republic and becomes president. But another general, Henri Christophe, seceded and took control of northern Haiti where he established a separatist government, the Northern State. President of the Northern Republic, then president and generalissimo of the land and sea forces of the State of Northern Haiti from 1807, Henri Christophe wanted to legitimize his power as Dessalines had done by re-establishing the empire. In conflict with the southern republic of Pétion, he managed, after several battles, to secure the borders of his new state. During this period, the French who remained in the eastern part of the island were defeated by the Hispanic-Creole inhabitants, under the command of Juan Sánchez Ramírez, at the battle of Palo Hincado on 7 November 1808. The French surrender in the eastern part of the island took place in Santo Domingo on 9 July 1809. The authorities then re-established the Spanish colony. Having established a certain stability, Christophe established a constitutional monarchy with him as monarch. He became King of Haiti on 28 March 1811, under the name of Henry I. On 2 June 1811, he was crowned by the Grand Archbishop Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Brelle. Haiti (/ˈheɪti/ (listen); French: Haïti [a.iti]; Haitian Creole: Ayiti [ajiti]), officially the Republic of Haiti (French: République d'Haïti; Haitian Creole: Repiblik d Ayiti),[13] and formerly known as Hayti,[b] is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island which it shares with the Dominican Republic.[19][20] To its south-west lies the small Navassa Island, which is claimed by Haiti but is disputed as a United States territory under federal administration.[21][22] Haiti is 27,750 km2 (10,714 sq mi) in size, the third largest country in the Caribbean by area, and has an estimated population of 11.4 million,[23][24] making it the most populous country in the Caribbean. The capital is Port-au-Prince. The island was originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people, who originated in South America.[25] The first Europeans arrived on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.[26] Columbus subsequently founded the first European settlement in the Americas, La Navidad, on what is now the northeastern coast of Haiti.[27][28][29][30] The island was claimed by Spain and named La Española, forming part of the Spanish Empire until the early 17th century. However, competing claims and settlements by the French led to the western portion of the island being ceded to France in 1697, which was subsequently named Saint-Domingue. French colonists established lucrative sugarcane plantations, worked by vast numbers of slaves brought from Africa, which made the colony one of the richest in the world. In the midst of the French Revolution (1789–99), slaves, maroons, and free people of color launched the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), led by a former slave and the first black general of the French Army, Toussaint Louverture. After 12 years of conflict, Napoleon Bonaparte's forces were defeated by Louverture's successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines (later Emperor Jacques I), who declared Haiti's sovereignty on 1 January 1804—the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the second republic in the Americas, the first country in the Americas to eliminate slavery, and the only state in history established by a successful slave revolt.[31][32] Apart from Alexandre Pétion, the first President of the Republic, all of Haiti's first leaders were former slaves.[33] After a brief period in which the country was split in two, President Jean-Pierre Boyer united the country and then attempted to bring the whole of Hispaniola under Haitian control, precipitating a long series of wars that ended in the 1870s when Haiti formally recognized the independence of the Dominican Republic. Haiti's first century of independence was characterized by political instability, ostracism by the international community, and the payment of a crippling debt to France. Political volatility and foreign economic influence in the country prompted the United States to occupy the country from 1915 to 1934. Following a series of short-lived presidencies, François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier took power in 1956, ushering in a long period of autocratic rule continued by his son, Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, that lasted until 1986; the period was characterized by state-sanctioned violence against the opposition and civilians, corruption, and economic stagnation. After 1986, Haiti began attempting to establish a more democratic political system. Haiti is a founding member of the United Nations, Organization of American States (OAS),[34] Association of Caribbean States,[35] and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. In addition to CARICOM, it is a member of the International Monetary Fund,[36] World Trade Organization,[37] and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Historically poor and politically unstable, Haiti has the lowest Human Development Index in the Americas, as well as widespread slavery. Since the turn of the 21st century, the country has endured a coup d'état, which prompted U.N. intervention, as well as a catastrophic earthquake that killed over 250,000 people and a cholera outbreak. With its deteriorating economic situation, as well as recent calls by the IMF to cut fuel subsidies,[38] Haiti has been experiencing a socioeconomic and political crisis marked by riots and protests, widespread hunger, and increased gang activity.[39] As of February 2023, Haiti has no remaining elected government officials and has been described as a failed state.[40][41] Etymology Haiti (also earlier Hayti)[b] comes from the indigenous Taíno language, in which it means "land of high mountains"[42] and named[c] the entire island of Hispaniola. The name was restored by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines as the official name of independent Saint-Domingue, as a tribute to the Amerindian predecessors.[46] In French, the ï in Haïti has a diacritical mark (used to show that the second vowel is pronounced separately, as in the word naïve), while the H is silent.[47] (In English, this rule for the pronunciation is often disregarded, thus the spelling Haiti is used.) There are different anglicizations for its pronunciation such as HIGH-ti, high-EE-ti and haa-EE-ti, which are still in use, but HAY-ti is the most widespread and best-established.[48] In French, Haiti's nickname means the "Pearl of the Antilles" (La Perle des Antilles) because of both its natural beauty[49] and the amount of wealth it accumulated for the Kingdom of France.[50] In Haitian Creole, it is spelled and pronounced with a y but no H: Ayiti. Another theory on the name Haiti is its origin in African tradition, in Fon language one of the most spoken by the bossales (Haitians born in Africa), Ayiti-Tomè means: From nowadays this land is our land. In the Haitian community the country has multiple nicknames: Ayiti-Toma (as its origin in Ayiti Tomè), Ayiti-Cheri (Ayiti my Darling), Tè-Desalin (Dessalines' Land) or Lakay (Home). History Main article: History of Haiti Taino history The five caciquedoms of Hispaniola at the time of the arrival of Christopher Columbus The island of Hispaniola, of which Haiti occupies the western three-eighths,[19][20] has been inhabited since about 5000 BC by groups of Native Americans thought to have arrived from Central or South America.[22] Genetic studies show that some of these groups were related to the Yanomami of the Amazon Basin.[25][51] Amongst these early settlers were the Ciboney peoples, followed by the Taíno, speakers of an Arawakan language, elements of which have been preserved in Haitian Creole. The Taíno name for the entire island was Haiti, or alternatively Quisqeya.[52] Main article: Chiefdoms of Hispaniola In Taíno society the largest unit of political organization was led by a cacique, or chief, as the Europeans understood them. The island of Hispaniola was divided among five 'caciquedoms': the Magua in the north east, the Marien in the north west, the Jaragua in the south west, the Maguana in the central regions of Cibao, and the Higüey in the south east.[53][54] Taíno cultural artifacts include cave paintings in several locations in the country. These have become national symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions. Modern-day Léogâne, started as a French colonial town in the southwest, is beside the former capital of the caciquedom of Xaragua.[55] Colonial era Spanish rule (1492–1625) Main articles: Columbian Viceroyalty, New Spain, and Captaincy General of Santo Domingo Artist's impression of Christopher Columbus landing on Hispaniola, engraving by Theodor de Bry Navigator Christopher Columbus landed in Haiti on 6 December 1492, in an area that he named Môle-Saint-Nicolas,[56] and claimed the island for the Crown of Castile. Nineteen days later, his ship the Santa María ran aground near the present site of Cap-Haïtien. Columbus left 39 men on the island, who founded the settlement of La Navidad on 25 December 1492.[22] Relations with the native peoples, initially good, broke down and the settlers were later killed by the Taíno.[57] The sailors carried endemic Eurasian infectious diseases, causing epidemics that killed a large number of native people.[58][59] The first recorded smallpox epidemic in the Americas erupted on Hispaniola in 1507.[60] Their numbers were further reduced by the harshness of the encomienda system, in which the Spanish forced natives to work in gold mines and plantations.[61][57] The Spanish passed the Laws of Burgos (1512–1513), which forbade the maltreatment of natives, endorsed their conversion to Catholicism,[62] and gave legal framework to encomiendas. The natives were brought to these sites to work in specific plantations or industries.[63] As the Spanish re-focused their colonization efforts on the greater riches of mainland Central and South America, Hispaniola became reduced largely to a trading and refueling post. As a result piracy became widespread, encouraged by European powers hostile to Spain such as France (based on Île de la Tortue) and England.[57] The Spanish largely abandoned the western third of the island, focusing their colonization effort on the eastern two-thirds.[64][22] The western part of the island was thus gradually settled by French buccaneers; among them was Bertrand d'Ogeron, who succeeded in growing tobacco and recruited many French colonial families from Martinique and Guadeloupe.[65] In 1697 France and Spain settled their hostilities on the island by way of the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, which divided Hispaniola between them.[66][22] French rule (1625–1804) Main articles: Saint-Domingue and French West Indies France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue, the French equivalent of Santo Domingo, the Spanish colony on Hispaniola.[67] The French set about creating sugar and coffee plantations, worked by vast numbers of slaves imported from Africa, and Saint-Domingue grew to become their richest colonial possession.[66][22] The French settlers were outnumbered by slaves by almost 10 to 1.[66] According to the 1788 Census, Haiti's population consisted of nearly 25,000 Europeans, 22,000 free coloreds and 700,000 African slaves.[68] In contrast, by 1763 the white population of French Canada, a far larger territory, had numbered only 65,000.[69] In the north of the island, slaves were able to retain many ties to African cultures, religion and language; these ties were continually being renewed by newly imported Africans. Some West African slaves held on to their traditional Vodou beliefs by secretly syncretizing it with Catholicism.[22] The French enacted the Code Noir ("Black Code"), prepared by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and ratified by Louis XIV, which established rules on slave treatment and permissible freedoms.[70] Saint-Domingue has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies; one-third of newly imported Africans died within a few years.[71] Many slaves died from diseases such as smallpox and typhoid fever.[72] They had low birth rates,[73] and there is evidence that some women aborted fetuses rather than give birth to children within the bonds of slavery.[74] The colony's environment also suffered, as forests were cleared to make way for plantations and the land was overworked so as to extract maximum profit for French plantation owners.[22] Saint-Domingue slave revolt in 1791 As in its Louisiana colony, the French colonial government allowed some rights to free people of color (gens de couleur), the mixed-race descendants of European male colonists and African female slaves (and later, mixed-race women).[66] Over time, many were released from slavery and they established a separate social class. White French Creole fathers frequently sent their mixed-race sons to France for their education. Some men of color were admitted into the military. More of the free people of color lived in the south of the island, near Port-au-Prince, and many intermarried within their community.[66] They frequently worked as artisans and tradesmen, and began to own some property, including slaves of their own.[22][66] The free people of color petitioned the colonial government to expand their rights.[66] The brutality of slave life led many slaves to escape to mountainous regions, where they set up their own autonomous communities and became known as Maroons.[22] One Maroon leader, François Mackandal, led a rebellion in the 1750s; however, he was later captured and executed by the French.[66] Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) Main article: Haitian Revolution General Toussaint Louverture Inspired by the French Revolution of 1789 and principles of the rights of man, the French settlers and free people of color pressed for greater political freedom and more civil rights.[70] Tensions between these two groups led to conflict, as a militia of free-coloreds was set up in 1790 by Vincent Ogé, resulting in his capture, torture and execution.[22] Sensing an opportunity, in August 1791 the first slave armies were established in northern Haiti under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture inspired by the Vodou houngan (priest) Boukman, and backed by the Spanish in Santo Domingo – soon a full-blown slave rebellion had broken out across the entire colony.[22] In 1792, the French government sent three commissioners with troops to re-establish control; to build an alliance with the gens de couleur and slaves commissioners Léger-Félicité Sonthonax and Étienne Polverel abolished slavery in the colony.[70] Six months later, the National Convention, led by Maximilien de Robespierre and the Jacobins, endorsed abolition and extended it to all the French colonies.[75] The United States, which was a new republic itself, oscillated between supporting or not supporting Toussaint Louverture and the emerging country of Haiti, depending on who was President of the US. Washington, who was a slave holder and isolationist, kept the United States neutral, although private US citizens at times provided aid to French planters trying to put down the revolt. John Adams, a vocal opponent of slavery, fully supported the slave revolt by providing diplomatic recognition, financial support, munitions and warships (including the USS Constitution) beginning in 1798. This support ended in 1801 when Jefferson, another slave-holding president, took office and recalled the US Navy.[76][77][78] With slavery abolished, Toussaint Louverture pledged allegiance to France, and he fought off the British and Spanish forces who had taken advantage of the situation and invaded Saint-Domingue.[79][80] The Spanish were later forced to cede their part of the island to France under the terms of the Peace of Basel in 1795, uniting the island under one government. However, an insurgency against French rule broke out in the east, and in the west there was fighting between Louverture's forces and the free people of color led by André Rigaud in the War of the Knives (1799–1800).[81][82] More than 25,000 surviving free people of color left the island as refugees.[83] Battle between Polish troops in French service and the Haitian rebels. The majority of Polish soldiers eventually deserted the French army and fought alongside the Haitians. After Louverture created a separatist constitution and proclaimed himself governor-general for life, Napoléon Bonaparte in 1802 sent an expedition of 20,000 soldiers and as many sailors[84] under the command of his brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, to reassert French control. The French achieved some victories, but within a few months most of their army had died from yellow fever.[85] Ultimately more than 50,000 French troops died in an attempt to retake the colony, including 18 generals.[86] The French managed to capture Louverture, transporting him to France for trial. He was imprisoned at Fort de Joux, where he died in 1803 of exposure and possibly tuberculosis.[71][87] The slaves, along with free gens de couleur and allies, continued their fight for independence, led by generals Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Alexandre Pétion and Henry Christophe.[87] The rebels finally managed to decisively defeat the French troops at the Battle of Vertières on 18 November 1803, establishing the first nation ever to successfully gain independence through a slave revolt.[88] Under the overall command of Dessalines, the Haitian armies avoided open battle, and instead conducted a successful guerrilla campaign against the Napoleonic forces, working with diseases such as yellow fever to reduce the numbers of French soldiers.[89] Later that year France withdrew its remaining 7,000 troops from the island and Napoleon gave up his idea of re-establishing a North American empire, selling Louisiana (New France) to the United States, in the Louisiana Purchase.[87] It has been estimated that between 24,000 and 100,000 Europeans, and between 100,000 and 350,000 Haitian ex-slaves, died in the revolution.[90] In the process, Dessalines became arguably the most successful military commander in the struggle against Napoleonic France.[91] Independent Haiti First Empire (1804–1806) Main articles: First Empire of Haiti and 1804 Haiti massacre Pétion and Dessalines swearing allegiance to each other before God; painting by Guillon-Lethière The independence of Saint-Domingue was proclaimed under the native name 'Haiti' by Jean-Jacques Dessalines on 1 January 1804 in Gonaïves[92][93] and he was proclaimed "Emperor for Life" as Emperor Jacques I by his troops.[94] Dessalines at first offered protection to the white planters and others.[95] However, once in power, he ordered the massacre of nearly all the remaining white men, women, children; between January and April 1804, 3,000 to 5,000 whites were killed, including those who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population.[96] Only three categories of white people were selected out as exceptions and spared: Polish soldiers, the majority of whom had deserted from the French army and fought alongside the Haitian rebels; the small group of German colonists invited to the north-west region; and a group of medical doctors and professionals.[97] Reportedly, people with connections to officers in the Haitian army were also spared, as well as the women who agreed to marry non-white men.[98] Fearful of the potential impact the slave rebellion could have in the slave states, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson refused to recognize the new republic. The Southern politicians who were a powerful voting bloc in the American Congress prevented U.S. recognition for decades until they withdrew in 1861 to form the Confederacy.[99] The revolution led to a wave of emigration.[100] In 1809, 9,000 refugees from Saint-Domingue, both white planters and people of color, settled en masse in New Orleans, doubling the city's population, having been expelled from their initial refuge in Cuba by Spanish authorities.[101] In addition, the newly arrived slaves added to the city's African population.[102] The plantation system was re-established in Haiti, albeit for wages; however, many Haitians were marginalized and resented the heavy-handed manner in which this was enforced in the new nation's politics.[87] The rebel movement splintered, and Dessalines was assassinated by rivals on 17 October 1806.[103][Link to precise page][87] State of Haiti, Kingdom of Haiti and the Republic (1806–1820) Main articles: State of Haiti and Kingdom of Haiti Citadelle Laferrière, built 1805–1822, is the largest fortress in the Americas, and is considered locally to be an eighth wonder of the world.[104] After Dessalines' death Haiti became split into two, with the Kingdom of Haiti in the north directed by Henri Christophe, later declaring himself Henri I, and a republic in the south centered on Port-au-Prince, directed by Alexandre Pétion, an homme de couleur.[105][106][107][108][87] Christophe established a semi-feudal corvée system, with a rigid education and economic code.[109] Pétion's republic was less absolutist, and he initiated a series of land reforms which benefited the peasant class.[87] President Pétion also gave military and financial assistance to the revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar, which were critical in enabling him to liberate the Viceroyalty of New Granada.[110] Meanwhile, the French, who had managed to maintain a precarious control of eastern Hispaniola, were defeated by insurgents led by Juan Sánchez Ramírez, with the area returning to Spanish rule in 1809 following the Battle of Palo Hincado.[111] Unification of Hispaniola (1821–1844) Main articles: Republic of Haiti (1820–1849) and Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo Jean-Pierre Boyer, ruler of Haiti 1818–1843 Beginning in 1821, President Jean-Pierre Boyer, also an homme de couleur and successor to Pétion, reunified the island following the suicide of Henry Christophe.[22][112] After Santo Domingo declared its independence from Spain on 30 November 1821, Boyer invaded, seeking to unite the entire island by force and ending slavery in Santo Domingo.[113] Struggling to revive the agricultural economy to produce commodity crops, Boyer passed the Code Rural, which denied peasant laborers the right to leave the land, enter the towns, or start farms or shops of their own, causing much resentment as most peasants wished to have their own farms rather than work on plantations.[114][115] Starting in September 1824, more than 6,000 African Americans migrated to Haiti, with transportation paid by an American philanthropic group similar in function to the American Colonization Society and its efforts in Liberia.[116] Many found the conditions too harsh and returned to the United States. In July 1825, King Charles X of France, during a period of restoration of the French monarchy, sent a fleet to reconquer Haiti. Under pressure, President Boyer agreed to a treaty by which France formally recognized the independence of the nation in exchange for a payment of 150 million francs.[22] By an order of 17 April 1826, the King of France renounced his rights of sovereignty and formally recognized the independence of Haiti.[117][118][119] The enforced payments to France hampered Haiti's economic growth for years, exacerbated by the fact that many Western nations continued to refuse formal diplomatic recognition to Haiti; Britain recognized Haitian independence in 1833, and the United States not until 1862.[22] Haiti borrowed heavily from Western banks at extremely high interest rates to repay the debt. Although the amount of the reparations was reduced to 90 million in 1838, by 1900 80% of Haiti's government spending was debt repayment and the country did not finish repaying it until 1947.[120][87] Loss of the Spanish portion of the island Main article: Dominican War of Independence After losing the support of Haiti's elite, Boyer was ousted in 1843, with Charles Rivière-Hérard replacing him as president.[22] Nationalist Dominican forces in eastern Hispaniola led by Juan Pablo Duarte seized control of Santo Domingo on 27 February 1844.[22] The Haitian forces, unprepared for a significant uprising, capitulated to the rebels, effectively ending Haitian rule of eastern Hispaniola. In March Rivière-Hérard attempted to reimpose his authority, but the Dominicans inflicted heavy losses.[121] Rivière-Hérard was removed from office by the mulatto hierarchy and replaced with the aged general Philippe Guerrier, who assumed the presidency on 3 May 1844. Guerrier died in April 1845, and was succeeded by General Jean-Louis Pierrot.[122] Pierrot's most pressing duty as the new president was to check the incursions of the Dominicans, who were harassing the Haitian troops.[122] Dominican gunboats were also making depredations on Haiti's coasts.[122] President Pierrot decided to open a campaign against the Dominicans, whom he considered merely as insurgents; however, the Haitian offensive of 1845 was stopped on the frontier.[121] On 1 January 1846 Pierrot announced a fresh campaign to reimpose Haitian suzerainty over eastern Hispaniola, but his officers and men greeted this fresh summons with contempt.[121] Thus, a month later – February 1846 – when Pierrot ordered his troops to march against the Dominicans, the Haitian army mutinied, and its soldiers proclaimed his overthrow as president of the republic.[121] With the war against the Dominicans having become very unpopular in Haiti, it was beyond the power of the new president, General Jean-Baptiste Riché, to stage another invasion.[121] Second Empire (1849–1859) Main article: Second Empire of Haiti Faustin I, from The Illustrated London News, 16 February 1856 On 27 February 1847, President Riché died after only a year in power and was replaced by an obscure officer, General Faustin Soulouque.[22] During the first two years of Soulouque's administration the conspiracies and opposition he faced in retaining power were so manifold that the Dominicans were given a further breathing space in which to consolidate their independence.[121] But, when in 1848 France finally recognized the Dominican Republic as a free and independent state and provisionally signed a treaty of peace, friendship, commerce and navigation, Haiti immediately protested, claiming the treaty was an attack upon their own security.[121] Soulouque decided to invade the new Republic before the French Government could ratify the treaty.[121] On 21 March 1849, Haitian soldiers attacked the Dominican garrison at Las Matas. The demoralized defenders offered almost no resistance before abandoning their weapons. Soulouque pressed on, capturing San Juan. This left only the town of Azua as the remaining Dominican stronghold between the Haitian army and the capital. On 6 April, Azua fell to the 18,000-strong Haitian army, with a 5,000-man Dominican counterattack failing to oust them.[79] The way to Santo Domingo was now clear. But the news of discontent existing at Port-au-Prince, which reached Soulouque, arrested his further progress and caused him to return with the army to his capital.[123] Emboldened by the sudden retreat of the Haitian army, the Dominicans counter-attacked. Their flotilla went as far as Dame-Marie, which they plundered and set on fire.[123] After a second Haitian campaign, Britain and France intervened and obtained an armistice on behalf of the Dominicans, who declared independence as the Dominican Republic.[123] The sufferings endured by the soldiers during the campaign of 1855, and the losses and sacrifices inflicted on the country without yielding any compensation or any practical results provoked great discontent.[123] In 1858 a revolution began, led by General Fabre Geffrard, Duke of Tabara. In December of that year, Geffrard defeated the Imperial Army and seized control of most of the country.[22] As a result, the Emperor abdicated his throne on 15 January 1859. Faustin was taken into exile and General Geffrard succeeded him as president. Late 19th century–early 20th century German Captain Thiele of the Charlotte handing over the German Ultimatum on 6 December 1897 during the Lüders Affair The period following Soulouque's overthrow down to the turn of the century was a turbulent one for Haiti, with repeated bouts of political instability. President Geffrard was overthrown in a coup in 1867,[124] as was his successor, Sylvain Salnave, in 1869.[125] Under the Presidency of Michel Domingue (1874–76) relations with the Dominican Republic were dramatically improved by the signing of a treaty, in which both parties acknowledged the independence of the other. Some modernisation of the economy and infrastructure also occurred in this period, especially under the Presidencies of Lysius Salomon (1879–1888) and Florvil Hyppolite (1889–1896).[126] Haiti's relations with outside powers were often strained. In 1889 the United States attempted to force Haiti to permit the building of a naval base at Môle Saint-Nicolas, which was firmly resisted by President Hyppolite.[127] In 1892 the German government supported suppression of the reform movement of Anténor Firmin, and in 1897, the Germans used gunboat diplomacy to intimidate and then humiliate the Haitian government of President Tirésias Simon Sam (1896–1902) during the Lüders Affair.[128] In the first decades of the 20th century, Haiti experienced great political instability and was heavily in debt to France, Germany and the United States. A series of short lived presidencies came and went: President Pierre Nord Alexis was forced from power in 1908,[129][130] as was his successor François C. Antoine Simon in 1911;[131] President Cincinnatus Leconte (1911–12) was killed in a (possibly deliberate) explosion at the National Palace;[132] Michel Oreste (1913–14) was ousted in a coup, as was his successor Oreste Zamor in 1914.[133] United States occupation (1915–1934) Main article: United States occupation of Haiti U.S. Marines and guide in search of Haitian Cacos fighters against the U.S. occupation of Haiti, c. 1919 Germany increased its influence in Haiti in this period, with a small community of German settlers wielding disproportionate influence in Haiti's economy.[134][135] The German influence prompted anxieties in the United States, who had also invested heavily in the country, and whose government defended their right to oppose foreign interference in the Americas under the Monroe Doctrine.[22][135] In December 1914, the Americans removed $500,000 from the Haitian National Bank, but rather than seize it to help pay the debt, it was removed for safe-keeping in New York, thus giving the United States control of the bank and preventing other powers from doing so. This gave a stable financial base on which to build the economy, and so enable the debt to be repaid.[136] In 1915, Haiti's new President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam sought to strengthen his tenuous rule by a mass execution of 167 political prisoners. Outrage at the killings led to riots, and Sam was captured and killed by a lynch mob.[135][137] Fearing possible foreign intervention, or the emergence of a new government led by the anti-American Haitian politician Rosalvo Bobo, President Woodrow Wilson sent U.S. Marines into Haiti in July 1915. The USS Washington, under Rear Admiral Caperton, arrived in Port-au-Prince in an attempt to restore order and protect U.S. interests. Within days, the Marines had taken control of the capital city and its banks and customs house. The Marines declared martial law and severely censored the press. Within weeks, a new pro-U.S. Haitian president, Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave, was installed and a new constitution written that was favorable to the interests of the United States. The constitution (written by future US President Franklin D. Roosevelt) included a clause that allowed, for the first time, foreign ownership of land in Haiti, which was bitterly opposed by the Haitian legislature and citizenry.[135][138] The body of caco leader Charlemagne Péralte on display after his execution by US forces; the image was counterproductive, with the resemblance to the deposition of Jesus gaining Péralte the status of national martyr. The occupation improved some of Haiti's infrastructure and centralized power in Port-au-Prince.[135] 1700 km of roads were made usable, 189 bridges were built, many irrigation canals were rehabilitated, hospitals, schools, and public buildings were constructed, and drinking water was brought to the main cities.[citation needed] Agricultural education was organized, with a central school of agriculture and 69 farms in the country.[139][incomplete short citation] However, many infrastructure projects were built using the corvée system that allowed the government/occupying forces to take people from their homes and farms, at gunpoint if necessary, to build roads, bridges etc. by force, a process that was deeply resented by ordinary Haitians.[140][135] Sisal was also introduced to Haiti, and sugarcane and cotton became significant exports, boosting prosperity.[141] Haitian traditionalists, based in rural areas, were highly resistant to U.S.-backed changes, while the urban elites, typically mixed-race, welcomed the growing economy, but wanted more political control.[22] Together they helped secure an end to the occupation in 1934, under the Presidency of Sténio Vincent (1930–1941).[22][142] The debts were still outstanding, though less due to increased prosperity, and the U.S. financial advisor-general receiver handled the budget until 1941.[143][22] The U.S. Marines were instilled with a special brand of paternalism towards Haitians "expressed in the metaphor of a father's relationship with his children."[144] Armed opposition to the US presence was led by the cacos under the command of Charlemagne Péralte; his capture and execution in 1919 earned him the status of a national martyr.[145][22][135] During Senate hearings in 1921, the commandant of the Marine Corps reported that, in the 20 months of active unrest, 2,250 Haitians had been killed. However, in a report to the Secretary of the Navy, he reported the death toll as being 3,250.[146] Haitian historians have claimed the true number was much higher, but this is not supported by most historians outside Haiti.[147] Post-occupation era (1934–1957) After US forces left in 1934, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo used anti-Haitian sentiment as a nationalist tool. In an event that became known as the Parsley Massacre, he ordered his army to kill Haitians living on the Dominican side of the border.[148][149] Few bullets were used – instead, 20,000–30,000 Haitians were bludgeoned and bayoneted, then herded into the sea, where sharks finished what Trujillo had begun.[150] President Vincent became increasingly dictatorial, and resigned under US pressure in 1941, being replaced by Élie Lescot (1941–46).[151] In 1941, during the Second World War, Lescot declared war on Japan (8 December), Germany (12 December), Italy (12 December), Bulgaria (24 December), Hungary (24 December) and Romania (24 December).[152] Out of these six Axis countries, only Romania reciprocated, declaring war on Haiti on the same day (24 December 1941).[153] On 27 September 1945,[154] Haiti became a founding member of the United Nations (the successor to the League of Nations, of which Haiti was also a founding member).[155][156] In 1946 Lescot was overthrown by the military, with Dumarsais Estimé later becoming the new president (1946–50).[22] He sought to improve the economy and education, and to boost the role of black Haitians; however, as he sought to consolidate his rule he too was overthrown in a coup led by Paul Magloire, who replaced him as president (1950–56).[22][157] Firmly anti-Communist, he was supported by the United States; with greater political stability tourists started to visit Haiti.[158] The waterfront area of Port-au-Prince was redeveloped to allow cruise ship passengers to walk to cultural attractions. Duvalier dynasty (1957–1986) Main article: Duvalier dynasty "Papa Doc" Duvalier in 1968 In 1956–57 Haiti underwent severe political turmoil; Magloire was forced to resign and leave the country in 1956 and he was followed by four short-lived presidencies.[22] In the September 1957 election Dr. François Duvalier was elected President of Haiti. Known as 'Papa Doc' and initially popular, Duvalier remained President until his death in 1971.[159] He advanced black interests in the public sector, where over time, people of color had predominated as the educated urban elite.[22][160] Not trusting the army, despite his frequent purges of officers deemed disloyal, Duvalier created a private militia known as Tontons Macoutes ("Bogeymen"), which maintained order by terrorizing the populace and political opponents.[159][161] In 1964 Duvalier proclaimed himself 'President for Life'; an uprising against his rule that year in Jérémie was violently suppressed, with the ringleaders publicly executed and hundreds of mixed-raced citizens in the town killed.[159] The bulk of the educated and professional class began leaving the country, and corruption became widespread.[22][159] Duvalier sought to create a personality cult, identifying himself with Baron Samedi, one of the loa (or lwa), or spirits, of Haitian Vodou. Despite the well-publicized abuses under his rule, Duvalier's firm anti-Communism earned him the support of the Americans, who furnished the country with aid.[159][162] In 1971 Duvalier died, and he was succeeded by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed 'Baby Doc', who ruled until 1986.[163][159] He largely continued his father's policies, though curbed some of the worst excesses in order to court international respectability.[22] Tourism, which had nosedived in Papa Doc's time, again became a growing industry.[164] However, as the economy continued to decline, Baby Doc's grip on power began to weaken. Haiti's pig population was slaughtered following an outbreak of swine fever in the late 1970s, causing hardship to rural communities who used them as an investment.[22][165] The opposition became more vocal, bolstered by a visit to the country by Pope John Paul II in 1983, who publicly lambasted the president.[166] Demonstrations occurred in Gonaïves in 1985 which then spread across the country; under pressure from the United States, Duvalier left the country for France in February 1986. In total, roughly 40,000 to 60,000 Haitians are estimated to have been killed during the reign of the Duvaliers.[167] Through the use of his intimidation tactics and executions, many intellectual Haitians had fled, leaving the country with a massive brain-drain from which it has yet to recover.[168] Post-Duvalier era (1986–2004) Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to Haiti following the U.S.-led invasion in 1994 designed to remove the regime installed by the 1991 Haitian coup d'état Following Duvalier's departure, army leader General Henri Namphy headed a new National Governing Council.[22] Elections scheduled for November 1987 were aborted after dozens of inhabitants were shot in the capital by soldiers and Tontons Macoutes.[169][22] Fraudulent elections followed in 1988, in which only 4% of the citizenry voted.[170][22] The newly elected president, Leslie Manigat, was then overthrown some months later in the June 1988 Haitian coup d'état.[22][171] Another coup followed in September 1988, after the St. Jean Bosco massacre in which approximately 13 to 50 people attending a mass led by prominent government critic and Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide were killed.[171][172] General Prosper Avril subsequently led a military regime until March 1990.[22][173][174] In December 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president in the Haitian general election. However, his ambitious reformist agenda worried the elites, and in September of the following year he was overthrown by the military, led by Raoul Cédras, in the 1991 Haitian coup d'état.[22][175] Amidst the continuing turmoil many Haitians attempted to flee the country.[159][22] In September 1994, the United States negotiated the departure of Haiti's military leaders and the peaceful entry of 20,000 US troops under Operation Uphold Democracy.[159] This enabled the restoration of the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president, who returned to Haiti in October to complete his term.[176][177] As part of the deal Aristide had to implement free market reforms in an attempt to improve the Haitian economy, with mixed results.[178][22] In November 1994, Hurricane Gordon brushed Haiti, dumping heavy rain and creating flash flooding that triggered mudslides. Gordon killed an estimated 1,122 people, although some estimates go as high as 2,200.[179][180] Elections were held in 1995 which were won by René Préval, gaining 88% of the popular vote, albeit on a low turnout.[181][182][22] Aristide subsequently formed his own party, Fanmi Lavalas, and political deadlock ensued; the November 2000 election returned Aristide to the presidency with 92% of the vote.[183] The election had been boycotted by the opposition, then organized into the Convergence Démocratique, over a dispute in the May legislative elections. In subsequent years, there was increasing violence between rival political factions and human rights abuses.[184][185] Aristide spent years negotiating with the Convergence Démocratique on new elections, but the Convergence's inability to develop a sufficient electoral base made elections unattractive.[citation needed] In 2004 an anti-Aristide revolt began in northern Haiti. The rebellion eventually reached the capital, and Aristide was forced into exile.[184][22] The precise nature of the events are disputed; some, including Aristide and his bodyguard, Franz Gabriel, stated that he was the victim of a "new coup d'état or modern kidnapping" by U.S. forces.[184][186][187] These charges were denied by the US government.[188][184] As political violence and crime continued to grow, a United Nations Stabilisation Mission (MINUSTAH) was brought in to maintain order.[189] However, MINUSTAH proved controversial, since their periodically heavy-handed approach to maintaining law and order and several instances of abuses, including the alleged sexual abuse of civilians, provoked resentment and distrust among ordinary Haitians.[190][191][22] Boniface Alexandre assumed interim authority until 2006, when René Préval was re-elected President following elections.[189][22][192] Post-Aristide era (2004–present) Amidst the continuing political chaos, a series of natural disasters hit Haiti. In 2004 Tropical Storm Jeanne skimmed the north coast, leaving 3,006 people dead in flooding and mudslides, mostly in the city of Gonaïves.[193] In 2008 Haiti was again struck by tropical storms; Tropical Storm Fay, Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Hanna and Hurricane Ike all produced heavy winds and rain, resulting in 331 deaths and about 800,000 in need of humanitarian aid.[194] The state of affairs produced by these storms was intensified by already high food and fuel prices that had caused a food crisis and political unrest in April 2008.[195][196][22] The Haitian National Palace, located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, heavily damaged after the earthquake of 2010. This was originally a two-story structure; the second story completely collapsed. On 12 January 2010, at 4:53 pm local time, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake. This was the country's most severe earthquake in over 200 years.[197] The earthquake was reported to have left between 160,000 and 300,000 people dead and up to 1.6 million homeless.[198][199] It is one of the deadliest earthquake ever recorded.[200] The situation was exacerbated by a subsequent massive cholera outbreak that was triggered when cholera-infected waste from a United Nations peacekeeping station contaminated the country's main river, the Artibonite.[189][201][202] In 2017, it was reported that roughly 10,000 Haitians had died and nearly a million had been made ill. After years of denial the United Nations apologized in 2016, but as of 2017, they have refused to acknowledge fault, thus avoiding financial responsibility.[203] General elections had been planned for January 2010 but were postponed due to the earthquake.[22] Elections were held on 28 November 2010 for the senate, the parliament and the first round of the presidential elections. The run-off between Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat took place on 20 March 2011, and preliminary results, released on 4 April, named Michel Martelly the winner.[204][205] In 2011 both former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti; attempts to try Duvalier for crimes committed under his rule were shelved following his death in 2014.[206][207][208][204] In 2013, Haiti called for European nations to pay reparations for slavery and establish an official commission for the settlement of past wrongdoings.[209][210] Meanwhile, after continuing political wrangling with the opposition and allegations of electoral fraud, Martelly agreed to step down in 2016 without a successor in place.[204][211] After numerous postponements, partly owing to the effects of devastating Hurricane Matthew, elections were held in November 2016.[212][213] The victor, Jovenel Moïse of the Haitian Tèt Kale Party, was sworn in as president in 2017.[214][215] The 2018–2021 Haitian protests began on 7 July 2018, in response to increased fuel prices. Over time these protests evolved into demands for the resignation of president Moïse.[216] On 7 July 2021, President Moïse was assassinated in an attack on his private residence, and First Lady Martine Moïse was hospitalized.[217] Amid the political crisis, the government of Haiti installed Ariel Henry as prime minister.[218][219] In August 2021, Haiti suffered another huge earthquake, with many casualties.[220] The earthquake has also damaged Haiti's economic conditions and led to a rise in gang violence and other violent crimes in the country.[221][222] As of March 2022, Haiti still had no president, no parliamentary quorum, and a dysfunctional high court due to a lack of judges.[218] In 2022, protests against the government and rising fuel prices intensified.[223][224] Geography Main article: Geography of Haiti Topographical map of Haiti Haiti forms the western three-eighths of Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Greater Antilles. At 27,750 km2 (10,710 sq mi) Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean behind Cuba and the Dominican Republic, the latter sharing a 360-kilometer (224 mi) border with Haiti. The country has a roughly horseshoe shape and because of this it has a disproportionately long coastline, second in length (1,771 km or 1,100 mi) behind Cuba in the Greater Antilles.[225][226] Haiti is the most mountainous nation in the Caribbean, its terrain consists of mountains interspersed with small coastal plains and river valleys.[21] The climate is tropical, with some variation depending on altitude. The highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 meters (8,793 ft).[26][21][22] The northern region or Marien Region consists of the Massif du Nord (Northern Massif) and the Plaine du Nord (Northern Plain). The Massif du Nord is an extension of the Cordillera Central in the Dominican Republic.[22] It begins at Haiti's eastern border, north of the Guayamouc River, and extends to the northwest through the northern peninsula. The lowlands of the Plaine du Nord lie along the northern border with the Dominican Republic, between the Massif du Nord and the North Atlantic Ocean. The central region or Artibonite Region consists of two plains and two sets of mountain ranges. The Plateau Central (Central Plateau) extends along both sides of the Guayamouc River, south of the Massif du Nord. It runs from the southeast to the northwest. To the southwest of the Plateau Central are the Montagnes Noires, whose most northwestern part merges with the Massif du Nord. Haiti's most important valley in terms of crops is the Plaine de l'Artibonite, which lies between the Montagnes Noires and the Chaîne des Matheux.[22] This region supports the country's longest river, the Riviere l'Artibonite, which begins in the western region of the Dominican Republic and continues for most of its length through central Haiti, where it then empties into the Golfe de la Gonâve.[22] Also in this valley lies Haiti's second largest lake, Lac de Péligre, formed as a result of the construction of the Péligre Dam in the mid-1950s.[227] Saint-Marc Arrondissement, Artibonite Department The southern region or Xaragua Region consists of the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac (the southeast) and the mountainous southern peninsula (also known as the Tiburon Peninsula). The Plaine du Cul-de-Sac is a natural depression that harbors the country's saline lakes, such as Trou Caïman and Haiti's largest lake, Étang Saumatre. The Chaîne de la Selle mountain range – an extension of the southern mountain chain of the Dominican Republic (the Sierra de Baoruco) – extends from the Massif de la Selle in the east to the Massif de la Hotte in the west.[22] Haiti also includes several offshore islands. The island of Tortuga (Île de la Tortue) is located off the coast of northern Haiti. The arrondissement of La Gonâve is located on the island of the same name, in the Golfe de la Gonâve; Haiti's largest island, Gonâve is moderately populated by rural villagers. Île à Vache (Cow Island) is located off the southwest coast; also part of Haiti are the Cayemites, located in the Gulf of Gonâve north of Pestel. La Navasse (Navassa Island), located 40 nautical miles (46 mi; 74 km) west of Jérémie on the south west peninsula of Haiti,[228] is subject to an ongoing territorial dispute with the United States, who currently administer the island.[229] Climate Köppen climate types of Haiti Haiti's climate is tropical with some variation depending on altitude.[21] Port-au-Prince ranges in January from an average minimum of 23 °C (73.4 °F) to an average maximum of 31 °C (87.8 °F); in July, from 25–35 °C (77–95 °F). The rainfall pattern is varied, with rain heavier in some of the lowlands and the northern and eastern slopes of the mountains. Haiti's dry season occurs from November to January. Port-au-Prince receives an average annual rainfall of 1,370 mm (53.9 in). There are two rainy seasons, April–June and October–November. Haiti is subject to periodic droughts and floods, made more severe by deforestation. Hurricanes are a menace, and the country is also prone to flooding and earthquakes.[21] Geology Saut-d'Eau waterfall There are blind thrust faults associated with the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system over which Haiti lies.[230] After the earthquake of 2010, there was no evidence of surface rupture and geologists' findings were based on seismological, geological and ground deformation data.[231] The northern boundary of the fault is where the Caribbean tectonic plate shifts eastwards by about 20 mm (0.79 inches) per year in relation to the North American plate. The strike-slip fault system in the region has two branches in Haiti, the Septentrional-Oriente fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault in the south. A 2007 earthquake hazard study, noted that the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone could be at the end of its seismic cycle and concluded that a worst-case forecast would involve a 7.2 Mw earthquake, similar in size to the 1692 Jamaica earthquake.[232] A study team presented a hazard assessment of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system to the 18th Caribbean Geologic Conference in March 2008, noting the large strain. The team recommended "high priority" historical geologic rupture studies, as the fault was fully locked and had recorded few earthquakes in the preceding 40 years.[233] An article published in Haiti's Le Matin newspaper in September 2008 cited comments by geologist Patrick Charles to the effect that there was a high risk of major seismic activity in Port-au-Prince;[234] and duly the magnitude 7.0 2010 Haiti earthquake happened on this fault zone on 12 January 2010. Haiti also has rare elements such as gold, which can be found at The Mont Organisé gold mine.[235] Haiti has no currently active volcanoes. "In the Terre-Neuve Mountains, about 12 kilometers from the Eaux Boynes, small intrusions at least as late as Oligocene and probably of Miocene age are known. No other volcanic activity of as late a date is known near any of the other warm springs."[236] Environment Main articles: Environment of Haiti and Deforestation in Haiti Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic in 2002, showing the extent of deforestation on the Haitian side (left) The soil erosion released from the upper catchments and deforestation have caused periodic and severe flooding in Haiti, as experienced, for example, on 17 September 2004. Earlier in May that year, floods had killed over 3,000 people on Haiti's southern border with the Dominican Republic.[237] Haiti's forests covered 60% of the country as recently as 50 years ago, but that has been halved to a current estimate of 30% tree cover, according to more recent environmental analysis. This estimate poses a stark difference from the erroneous figure of 2% which has been oft-cited in discourse concerning the country's environmental condition.[238] Haiti had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.01/10, ranking it 137th globally out of 172 countries.[239] Scientists at the Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and the United Nations Environment Programme are working on the Haiti Regenerative Initiative an initiative aiming to reduce poverty and natural disaster vulnerability in Haiti through ecosystem restoration and sustainable resource management.[240] Biodiversity Main article: Wildlife of Haiti The endangered Hispaniolan solenodon, endemic to the island Haiti is home to four ecoregions: Hispaniolan moist forests, Hispaniolan dry forests, Hispaniolan pine forests, and Greater Antilles mangroves.[241] Despite its small size, Haiti's mountainous terrain and resultant multiple climatic zones has resulted in a wide variety of plant life.[242] Notable tree species include the breadfruit tree, mango tree, acacia, mahogany, coconut palm, royal palm and West Indian cedar.[242] The forests were formerly much more extensive, but have been subject to severe deforestation.[22] Most mammal species are not native, having been brought to the island since colonial times.[242] However, there are various native bat species, as well as the endemic Hispaniolan hutia and Hispaniolan solenodon.[242] Various whale and dolphin species can also be found off Haiti's coast. There are over 260 species of bird, 31 of these being endemic to Hispaniola.[243] Notable endemic species include the Hispaniolan trogon, Hispaniolan parakeet, grey-crowned tanager and the Hispaniolan Amazon.[243] There are also several raptor species, as well as pelicans, ibis, hummingbirds and ducks. Reptiles are common, with species such as the rhinoceros iguana, Haitian boa, American crocodile and gecko.[244] Government and politics Main article: Politics of Haiti Jovenel Moïse was the President of Haiti until he was assassinated on 7 July 2021. The government of Haiti is a semi-presidential republic, a multiparty system wherein the president of Haiti is head of state and elected directly by popular elections held every five years.[22][245] The prime minister of Haiti acts as head of government and is appointed by the president, chosen from the majority party in the National Assembly.[22] Executive power is exercised by the president and prime minister who together constitute the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the National Assembly of Haiti, the Senate (Sénat) and the Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des Députés).[22][21] The government is organized unitarily, thus the central government delegates powers to the departments without a constitutional need for consent. The current structure of Haiti's political system was set forth in the Constitution of Haiti on 29 March 1987.[21] Haitian politics have been contentious: since independence, Haiti has suffered 32 coups.[246] Haiti is the only country in the Western Hemisphere to undergo a successful slave revolution; however, a long history of oppression by dictators such as François Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude Duvalier has markedly affected the nation. Since the end of the Duvalier era Haiti has been transitioning to a democratic system.[22] Administrative divisions Main article: Administrative divisions of Haiti Administratively, Haiti is divided into ten departments.[21] The departments are listed below, with the departmental capital cities in parentheses. Departments of Haiti Nord-Ouest (Port-de-Paix) Nord (Cap-Haïtien) Nord-Est (Fort-Liberté) Artibonite (Gonaïves) Centre (Hinche) Ouest (Port-au-Prince) Grand'Anse (Jérémie) Nippes (Miragoâne) Sud (Les Cayes) Sud-Est (Jacmel) The departments are further divided into 42 arrondissements, 145 communes and 571 communal sections. These serve as, respectively, second- and third-level administrative divisions.[247][248][249] Foreign relations Main article: Foreign relations of Haiti Haiti is a member of a wide range of international and regional organizations, such as the United Nations, CARICOM, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, International Monetary Fund, Organisation of American States, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, OPANAL and the World Trade Organization.[21] In February 2012, Haiti signaled it would seek to upgrade its observer status to full associate member status of the African Union (AU).[250] The AU was reported to be planning to upgrade Haiti's status from observer to associate at its June 2013 summit[251] but the application had still not been ratified by May 2016.[252] Military Main article: Defence Force of Haiti Haiti has a strong military history dating to the pre-independence struggle. The Indigenous Army is essential in the construction of the state the management of land and public finances. Up to the 20th century, every Haitian president was an officer in the army. During the US intervention, the army was remodeled as Gendarmerie d'Haiti and later on as Force Armée d'Haiti (FAdH). In the early '90s, the army was unconstitutionally decommissioned and replaced by the Haitian National Police (PNH). In 2018, Président Jovenel Moise reactivated the FAdH. Haiti's Ministry of Defense is the main body of the armed forces.[253] The former Haitian Armed Forces were demobilized in 1995; however, efforts to reconstitute it are currently underway.[254] The current defense force for Haiti is the Haitian National Police, which has a highly trained SWAT team, and works alongside the Haitian Coast Guard. In 2010, the Haitian National Police force numbered 7,000.[255] Law enforcement and crime Main articles: Haitian National Police and Crime in Haiti Members of the Haitian National Police Force marching band stand at parade The legal system is based on a modified version of the Napoleonic Code.[256][22] Haiti has consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index.[257] According to a 2006 report by the Corruption Perceptions Index, there is a strong correlation between corruption and poverty in Haiti. The nation ranked first of all countries surveyed for levels of perceived domestic corruption.[258] It is estimated that President "Baby Doc" Duvalier, his wife Michele, and their agents stole US $504 million from the country's treasury between 1971 and 1986.[259] Similarly, after the Haitian Army folded in 1995, the Haitian National Police (HNP) gained sole power of authority on the Haitian citizens. Many Haitians as well as observers of the Haitian society believe that this monopolized power could have given way to a corrupt police force.[260] Similarly, some media outlets alleged that millions were stolen by former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.[261][262][263][264] The BBC also described pyramid schemes, in which Haitians lost hundreds of millions in 2002, as the "only real economic initiative" of the Aristide years.[265] Conversely, according to the 2013 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, murder rates in Haiti (10.2 per 100,000) are far below the regional average (26 per 100,000); less than  1 / 4  that of Jamaica (39.3 per 100,000) and nearly  1 / 2  that of the Dominican Republic (22.1 per 100,000), making it among the safer countries in the region.[266][267] In large part, this is due to the country's ability to fulfil a pledge by increasing its national police yearly by 50%, a four-year initiative that was started in 2012. In addition to the yearly recruits, the Haitian National Police (HNP) has been using innovative technologies to crack down on crime. A notable bust in recent years[when?] led to the dismantlement of the largest kidnapping ring in the country with the use of an advanced software program developed by a West Point-trained Haitian official that proved to be so effective that it has led to its foreign advisers to make inquiries.[268][269] In 2010, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) sent a team of veteran officers to Haiti to assist in the rebuilding of its police force with special training in investigative techniques, strategies to improve the anti-kidnapping personnel and community outreach to build stronger relationships with the public especially among the youth. It has also helped the HNP set up a police unit in the center of Delmas, a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.[270][271][272][273] In 2012 and 2013, 150 HNP officers received specialized training funded by the US government, which also contributed to the infrastructure and communications support by upgrading radio capacity and constructing new police stations from the most violent-prone neighborhoods of Cité Soleil and Grande Ravine in Port-au-Prince to the new northern industrial park at Caracol.[271] Haitian penitentiary system Port-au-Prince penitentiary is home to half of Haiti's prisoners. The prison has a capacity of 1,200 detainees but as of November 2017 the penitentiary was obliged to keep 4,359 detainees, a 454% occupancy level.[274] This leads to severe consequences for the inmates. The inability to receive sufficient funds has caused deadly cases of malnutrition, combined with the tight living conditions, increases the risk of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.[274] Haitian law states that once arrested, one must go before a judge within 48 hours; however, this is very rare. In an interview with Unreported World, the prison governor stated that around 529 detainees were never sentenced, there are 3,830 detainees who are in prolonged detained trial detention. Therefore, 80% are not convicted.[275] Unless families are able to provide the necessary funds for inmates to appear before a judge there is a very slim chance the inmate would have a trial, on average, within 10 years.[276] In confined living spaces for 22–23 hours a day, inmates are not provided with latrines and are forced to defecate into plastic bags and leave them outside their cells. These conditions were considered inhumane by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2008.[277] Economy Main article: Economy of Haiti Historical GDP per capita development A proportional representation of Haiti exports, 2019 Haiti has a highly regulated, predominantly state-controlled economy, ranking 145th out of the 177 countries given a "freedom index" by the Heritage Foundation.[278] Haiti's per capita GDP is $1,800 and its GDP is $19.97 billion (2017 estimates).[21] The country uses the Haitian gourde as its currency. Despite its tourism industry, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, with corruption, political instability, poor infrastructure, lack of health care and lack of education cited as the main causes.[21] Unemployment is high and many Haitians seek to emigrate. Trade declined dramatically after the 2010 earthquake and subsequent outbreak of cholera, with the country's purchasing power parity GDP falling by 8% (from US$12.15 billion to US$11.18 billion).[4] Haiti ranked 145th of 182 countries in the 2010 United Nations Human Development Index, with 57.3% of the population being deprived in at least three of the HDI's poverty measures.[279] Following the disputed 2000 election and accusations about President Aristide's rule,[280] US aid to the Haitian government was cut off between 2001 and 2004.[281] After Aristide's departure in 2004, aid was restored and the Brazilian army led a United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti peacekeeping operation. After almost four years of recession, the economy grew by 1.5% in 2005.[282] In September 2009, Haiti met the conditions set out by the IMF and World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries program to qualify for cancellation of its external debt.[283] More than 90 percent of the government's budget comes from an agreement with Petrocaribe, a Venezuela-led oil alliance.[284] Foreign aid Further information: Foreign aid to Haiti Haiti received more than US$4 billion in aid from 1990 to 2003, including US$1.5 billion from the United States.[285] The largest donor is the US, followed by Canada and the European Union.[286] In January 2010, following the earthquake, US President Barack Obama promised US$1.15 billion in assistance.[287] European Union nations pledged more than €400 million (US$616 million).[288] Neighboring Dominican Republic has also provided extensive humanitarian aid to Haiti, including the funding and construction of a public university,[289] human capital, free healthcare services in the border region, and logistical support after the 2010 earthquake.[290] The United Nations states that in total US$13.34 billion has been earmarked for post-earthquake reconstruction through 2020, though two years after the 2010 quake, less than half of that amount had actually been released, according to UN documents. As of 2015, the US government has allocated US$4 billion, US$3 billion has already been spent, and the rest is dedicated to longer-term projects.[291] Trade According to the 2015 CIA World Factbook, Haiti's main import partners are: Dominican Republic 35%, US 26.8%, Netherlands Antilles 8.7%, China 7% (est. 2013). Haiti's main export partner is the US 83.5% (est. 2013).[292] Haiti had a trade deficit of US$3 billion in 2011, or 41% of GDP.[293] Energy Main article: Electricity sector in Haiti Haiti electricity production by source In 1925, the city of Jacmel was the first area in the Caribbean to have electricity and was subsequently dubbed the City of Light.[294] Today, Haiti relies heavily on an oil alliance with Petrocaribe for much of its energy requirements. In recent years, hydroelectric, solar and wind energy have been explored as possible sustainable energy sources.[295] Power plant in Port-au-Prince As of 2017, among all the countries in the Americas, Haiti is producing the least energy. Less than a quarter of the country has electric coverage.[296] Most regions of Haiti that do have energy are powered by generators. These generators are often expensive and produce a lot of pollution. The areas that do get electricity experience power cuts on a daily basis, and some areas are limited to 12 hours of electricity a day. Electricity is provided by a small number of independent companies: Sogener, E-power, and Haytrac.[297] There is no national electricity grid within the country.[298] The most common source of energy used is wood, along with charcoal. In Haiti, about 4 million metric tons of wood products are consumed yearly.[299] Like charcoal and wood, petroleum is also an important source of energy for Haiti. Since Haiti cannot produce its own fuel, all fuel is imported. Yearly, around 691,000 tons of oil is imported into the country.[298] On 31 October 2018, Evenson Calixte, the General Director of energy regulation (ANARSE) announced the 24 hour electricity project. To meet this objective, 236 MW needs to installed in Port-au-Prince alone, with an additional 75 MW needed in all other regions in the country. Presently only 27.5% of the population has access to electricity; moreover, the national energy agency l'Électricité d'Haïti (Ed'H) is only able to meet 62% of overall electricity demand.[300] Personal income A market in Cap-Haïtien Haiti suffers from a shortage of skilled labor, widespread unemployment, and underemployment. Most Haitians in the labor force have informal jobs. Three-quarters of the population lives on US$2 or less per day.[301] Remittances from Haitians living abroad are the primary source of foreign exchange, equaling one-fifth (20%) of GDP and more than five times the earnings from exports as of 2012.[302] In 2004, 80% or more of college graduates from Haiti were living abroad.[303] Occasionally, families who are unable to care for children financially may send them to live with a wealthier family as a restavek, or house servant. In return the family are supposed to ensure that the child is educated and provided with food and shelter; however, the system is open to abuse and has proved controversial, with some likening it to child slavery.[304][305] Real estate In rural areas, people often live in wooden huts with corrugated iron roofs. Outhouses are located in back of the huts. In Port-au-Prince, colorful shantytowns surround the central city and go up the mountainsides.[306] The middle and upper classes live in suburbs, or in the central part of the bigger cities in apartments, where there is urban planning. Many of the houses they live in are like miniature fortresses, located behind walls embedded with metal spikes, barbed wire, broken glass, and sometimes all three. The houses have backup generators, because the electrical grid in Haiti is unreliable. Some even have rooftop reservoirs for water, as the water supply is also unreliable.[306] Agriculture Further information: Agriculture in Haiti Rows of cabbage, Haiti Haiti is the world's leading producer of vetiver, a root plant used to make luxury perfumes, essential oils and fragrances, providing for half the world's supply.[307][308][309] Roughly 40–50% of Haitians work in the agricultural sector.[21][310] However, According to soil surveys by the United States Department of Agriculture in the early 1980s, only 11.3 percent of the land was highly suitable for crops. Haiti relies upon imports for half its food needs and 80% of its rice.[310] Haiti exports crops such as mangoes, cacao, coffee, papayas, mahogany nuts, spinach, and watercress.[311] Agricultural products constitute 6% of all exports.[293] In addition, local agricultural products include maize, beans, cassava, sweet potato, peanuts, pistachios, bananas, millet, pigeon peas, sugarcane, rice, sorghum, and wood.[311][312] Currency Main article: Haitian gourde The Haitian gourde (HTG) is the national currency. The "Haitian dollar" equates to 5 gourdes (goud), which is a fixed exchange rate that exists in concept only, but are commonly used as informal prices.[citation needed] The vast majority of the business sector and individuals in Haiti will also accept US dollars, though at the outdoor markets gourdes may be preferred. Locals may refer to the USD as "dollar américain" (dola ameriken) or "dollar US" (pronounced oo-es).[313] Tourism Main article: Tourism in Haiti Labadee, a cruise ship destination The tourism market in Haiti is undeveloped and the government is heavily promoting this sector. Haiti has many of the features that attract tourists to other Caribbean destinations, such as white sand beaches, mountainous scenery and a year-round warm climate. However, the country's poor image overseas, at times exaggerated, has hampered the development of this sector.[22] In 2014, the country received 1,250,000 tourists (mostly from cruise ships), and the industry generated US$200 million in 2014.[citation needed] Several hotels were opened in 2014, including an upscale Best Western Premier,[314][315] a five-star Royal Oasis hotel by Occidental Hotel and Resorts in Pétion-Ville,[316][317][318] a four-star Marriott Hotel in the Turgeau area of Port-au-Prince[319] and other new hotel developments in Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes, Cap-Haïtien and Jacmel.[citation needed] Caracol Industrial Park On 21 October 2012, Haitian President Michel Martelly, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Richard Branson, Ben Stiller and Sean Penn inaugurated the 240-hectare (600-acre) Caracol industrial park, the largest in the Caribbean.[320] Costing US$300 million, the project, which includes a 10-megawatt power plant, a water-treatment plant and worker housing, is intended to transform the northern part of the country by creating 65,000 jobs.[320] The park is part of a "master plan" for Haiti's North and North-East departments, including the expansion of the Cap-Haïtien International Airport to accommodate large international flights, the construction of an international seaport in Fort-Liberté and the opening of the $50 million Roi Henri Christophe Campus of a new university in Limonade (near Cap-Haïtien) on 12 January 2012.[321] South Korean clothing manufacturer Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd, one of the park's main tenants, has created 5,000 permanent jobs out of the 20,000 projected and has built 8,600 houses in the surrounding area for its workers. The industrial park ultimately has the potential to create as many as 65,000 jobs once fully developed.[322][323] Infrastructure Transportation Main article: Transport in Haiti Rail map as of 1925 Haiti has two main highways that run from one end of the country to the other. The northern highway, Route Nationale No. 1 (National Highway One), originates in Port-au-Prince, winding through the coastal towns of Montrouis and Gonaïves, before reaching its terminus at the northern port Cap-Haïtien. The southern highway, Route Nationale No. 2, links Port-au-Prince with Les Cayes via Léogâne and Petit-Goâve. The state of Haiti's roads are generally poor, many being potholed and becoming impassable in rough weather.[22] The port at Port-au-Prince, Port international de Port-au-Prince, has more registered shipping than any of the other dozen ports in the country. The port's facilities include cranes, large berths, and warehouses, but these facilities are not in good condition. The port is underused, possibly due to the substantially high port fees. The port of Saint-Marc is currently the preferred port of entry for consumer goods coming into Haiti. Reasons for this may include its location away from volatile and congested Port-au-Prince, as well as its central location relative to numerous Haitian cities. In the past, Haiti used rail transport; however, the rail infrastructure was poorly maintained when in use and cost of rehabilitation is beyond the means of the Haitian economy. In 2018 the Regional Development Council of the Dominican Republic proposed a "trans-Hispaniola" railway between both countries.[324] Airports Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport Main article: List of airports in Haiti Toussaint Louverture International Airport, located ten kilometers (six miles) north-northeast of Port-au-Prince proper in the commune of Tabarre, is the primary transportation hub regarding entry and exit into the country. It has Haiti's main jetway, and along with Cap-Haïtien International Airport handles the vast majority of the country's international flights. Cities such as Jacmel, Jérémie, Les Cayes, and Port-de-Paix have smaller, less accessible airports that are serviced by regional airlines and private aircraft. In 2013, plans for the development of an international airport on Île-à-Vache were introduced by the Prime Minister.[325] Bus service A "tap tap" bus in Port-Salut Tap tap buses are colorfully painted buses or pick-up trucks that serve as share taxis. The "tap tap" name comes from the sound of passengers tapping on the metal bus body to indicate they want off.[326] These vehicles for hire are often privately owned and extensively decorated. They follow fixed routes, do not leave until filled with passengers, and riders can usually disembark at any point. The decorations are a typically Haitian form of art.[327] Communications Main articles: Telecommunications in Haiti and Television in Haiti In Haiti, communications include the radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet. Haiti ranked last among North American countries in the World Economic Forum's Network Readiness Index (NRI) – an indicator for determining the development level of a country's information and communication technologies. Haiti ranked number 143 out of 148 overall in the 2014 NRI ranking, down from 141 in 2013.[328] Water supply and sanitation Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Haiti Haiti faces key challenges in the water supply and sanitation sector: Notably, access to public services is very low, their quality is inadequate and public institutions remain very weak despite foreign aid and the government's declared intent to strengthen the sector's institutions. Foreign and Haitian NGOs play an important role in the sector, especially in rural and urban slum areas. Demographics Main article: Demographics of Haiti Haiti's population (1800–2021) In 2018, Haiti's population was estimated to be about 10,788,000.[21] In 2006, half of the population was younger than age 20.[329] In 1950, the first formal census gave a total population of 3.1 million.[330] Haiti averages approximately 350 people per square kilometer (~900 per sq mi), with its population concentrated most heavily in urban areas, coastal plains, and valleys. People in Port-au-Prince Most Haitians are descendants of former black African slaves, including Mulattoes who are mixed-race.[21] The remainder are of European or Arab descent, the descendants of settlers (colonial remnants and immigration during the era of the two World Wars).[331][332] Millions of Haitian descent live abroad in the United States, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Canada (primarily Montreal), Bahamas, France, the French Antilles, the Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana. There were an estimated 881,500 people of Haitian ancestry in the United States in 2015,[333] while in the Dominican Republic there were an estimated 800,000 in 2007.[334] There were 300,000 in Cuba in 2013,[335] 100,000 in Canada in 2006,[336] 80,000 in Metropolitan France (2010),[337] and up to 80,000 in the Bahamas (2009).[338] In 2018, the life expectancy at birth was 63.66 years.[339] Racial discrimination Main article: Gens de couleur Under colonial rule, Haitian mulattoes were generally privileged above the black majority, though they possessed fewer rights than the white population. Following the country's independence, they became the nation's social elite. Numerous leaders throughout Haiti's history have been mulattoes. During this time, the slaves and the affranchis were given limited opportunities toward education, income, and occupations, but even after gaining independence, the social structure remains a legacy today as the disparity between the upper and lower classes have not been reformed significantly since the colonial days.[340] Making up 5% of the nation's population, mulattoes have retained their preeminence, evident in the political, economic, social and cultural hierarchy in Haiti.[341] As a result, the elite class today consists of a small group of influential people who are generally light in color and continue to establish themselves in high, prestigious positions.[342] Religion Main article: Religion in Haiti Religion in Haiti according to the Pew Research Center (2010)[343]   Catholicism (56.8%)   Protestantism (29.6%)   Unaffiliated (10.6%)   Other (3%) The 2017 CIA Factbook reported that around 54.7% of Haitians professed to being Catholics while Protestants made up about 28.5% of the population (Baptist 15.4%, Pentecostal 7.9%, Seventh-day Adventist 3%, Methodist 1.5%, other 0.7%). Other sources put the Protestant population higher than this, suggesting that it might have formed one-third of the population in 2001.[344] Like other countries in Latin America, Haiti has witnessed a general Protestant expansion, which is largely Evangelical and Pentecostal in nature.[345][346][347] Haitian Cardinal Chibly Langlois is president of the National Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church. Vodou, a religion with West African roots similar to those of Cuba and Brazil, is practiced by some Haitians today. It originated during colonial times in which slaves were obliged to disguise their loa (lwa), or spirits, as Catholic saints, an element of a process called syncretism. Due to the religious syncretism between Catholicism and Vodou, it is difficult to estimate the number of Vodouists in Haiti.[348][349] The religion has historically been persecuted and misrepresented in popular media; nevertheless, in 2003 the Haitian government recognized the faith as an official religion of the nation.[21] Many Catholics and Protestants in Haiti denounce Vodou as devil worship, but do not deny the power of such spirits. Instead, they regard them as adversaries who are "evil" and "satanic", which they are often encouraged to pray against. Protestants view Catholic veneration of saints as idol worship, and some Protestants would often destroy statues and other Catholic paraphernalia.[350] Minority religions in Haiti include Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Judaism, and Buddhism.[4] Languages The two official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole. French is the principal written and administratively authorized language (as well as the main language of the press) and is spoken by 42% of Haitians.[351][352] It is spoken by all educated Haitians, is the medium of instruction in most schools, and is used in the business sector. It is also used in ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations and church Masses. Haiti is one of two independent nations in the Americas (along with Canada) to designate French as an official language; the other French-speaking areas are all overseas départements, or collectivités, of France, such as French Guiana. Haitian Creole is spoken by nearly all of the Haitian population. French, the base language for Haitian Creole, is popular among the Haitian elite and upper classes. French is also popular in the business sector, and to a far lesser degree, English due to American influence. Spanish is spoken by some Haitians who live along the Haitian-Dominican border.[353] English and Spanish may also be spoken by Haitian deportees from the United States and various Latin American countries. Overall, about 90–95% of Haitians only speak Haitian Creole/French fluently, with over half only knowing Creole.[354] Haitian Creole,[355] which has recently undergone a standardization, is spoken by virtually the entire population of Haiti.[356] Haitian Creole is one of the French-based creole languages. Its vocabulary is 90% derived from French, but its grammar resembles that of some West African languages. It also has influences from Taino, Spanish, and Portuguese.[357] Haitians often colloquially call Haitian Creole Kreyòl.[358] Haitian Creole is related to the other French creoles, but most closely to the Antillean Creole and Louisiana Creole variants. Emigration Main article: Haitian diaspora There is a large Haitian diaspora community, predominantly based in the US and Canada, France, and the wealthier Caribbean islands. Emigrants from Haiti have constituted a segment of American and Canadian society since before the independence of Haiti from France in 1804.[359][360] Many influential early American settlers and black freemen, including Jean Baptiste Point du Sable and W. E. B. Du Bois, were of Haitian origin.[361][362][363][364] Education Main article: Education in Haiti The Universite Roi Henri Christophe in Limonade The educational system of Haiti is based on the French system. Higher education, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education,[365] is provided by universities and other public and private institutions.[366] More than 80% of primary schools are privately managed by nongovernmental organizations, churches, communities, and for-profit operators, with minimal government oversight.[367] According to the 2013 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report, Haiti has steadily boosted net enrollment rate in primary education from 47% in 1993 to 88% in 2011, achieving equal participation of boys and girls in education.[368] Charity organizations, including Food for the Poor and Haitian Health Foundation, are building schools for children and providing necessary school supplies. According to the 2015 World Factbook, Haiti's literacy rate is now 60.7% (est. 2015). Many reformers have advocated the creation of a free, public and universal education system for all primary school-age students in Haiti. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that the government will need at least US$3 billion to create an adequately funded system.[369] Upon successful graduation of secondary school, students may continue into higher education. The higher education schools in Haiti include the University of Haiti. There are also medical schools and law schools offered at both the University of Haiti and abroad. Presently, Brown University is cooperating with L'Hôpital Saint-Damien in Haiti to coordinate a pediatric health care curriculum.[370] Health Main article: Health in Haiti In the past, children's vaccination rates have been low – as of 2012, 60% of the children in Haiti under the age of 10 were vaccinated,[371][372] compared to rates of childhood vaccination in other countries in the 93–95% range.[373] Recently there have been mass vaccination campaigns claiming to vaccinate as many as 91% of a target population against specific diseases (measles and rubella in this case).[374] Most people have no transportation or access to Haitian hospitals.[375] The World Health Organization cites diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, meningitis, and respiratory infections as common causes of death in Haiti.[376] Ninety percent of Haiti's children suffer from waterborne diseases and intestinal parasites.[377] HIV infection is found in 1.71% of Haiti's population (est. 2015).[378] The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in Haiti is more than ten times as high as in the rest of Latin America.[citation needed] Approximately 30,000 Haitians fall ill with malaria each year.[379] Most people living in Haiti are at high risk for major infectious diseases. Food or water-borne diseases include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, typhoid fever and hepatitis A and E; common vector-borne diseases are dengue fever and malaria; water-contact diseases include leptospirosis. Roughly 75% of Haitian households lack running water. Unsafe water, along with inadequate housing and unsanitary living conditions, contributes to the high incidence of infectious diseases. There is a chronic shortage of health care personnel and hospitals lack resources, a situation that became readily apparent after the January 2010 earthquake.[380] The infant mortality rate in Haiti in 2019 was 48.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.6 per 1,000 in the United States.[381] After the 2010 earthquake, Partners In Health founded the Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, the largest solar-powered hospital in the world.[382][383] Largest cities Further information: List of cities in Haiti    Largest cities or towns in Haiti geonames.org Rank Name Department Pop. Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince Cap-Haïtien Cap-Haïtien 1 Port-au-Prince Ouest 1,234,742 Carrefour (in Metro P.P.) Carrefour (in Metro P.P.) Delmas (in Metro P.P.) Delmas (in Metro P.P.) 2 Cap-Haïtien Nord 534,815 3 Carrefour (in Metro P.P.) Ouest 442,156 4 Delmas (in Metro P.P.) Ouest 382,920 5 Pétion-Ville (in Metro P.P.) Ouest 283,052 6 Port-de-Paix Nord-Ouest 250,000 7 Croix des Bouquets (in Metro P.P.) Ouest 229,127 8 Jacmel Sud-Est 137,966 9 Léogâne Ouest 134,190 10 Les Cayes Sud 125,799 Culture Main article: Culture of Haiti Haiti has a lasting and unique cultural identity, consisting of a blend of traditional French and African customs, mixed with sizable acquirements from the Spanish and indigenous Taíno cultures.[384] Haiti's culture is greatly reflected in its paintings, music, and literature. Art Main article: Haitian art Swearing-in ceremony of Haitian Diaspora GwètòDe Haitian art is distinctive, particularly through its paintings and sculptures.[384][385][386] Brilliant colors, naïve perspectives, and sly humor characterize Haitian art. Frequent subjects in Haitian art include big, delectable foods, lush landscapes, market activities, jungle animals, rituals, dances, and gods. As a result of a deep history and strong African ties, symbols take on great meaning within Haitian society. Many artists cluster in 'schools' of painting, such as the Cap-Haïtien school, which features depictions of daily life in the city, the Jacmel School, which reflects the steep mountains and bays of that coastal town, or the Saint-Soleil School, which is characterized by abstracted human forms and is heavily influenced by Vodou symbolism.[citation needed] In the 1920s the indigéniste movement gained international acclaim, with its expressionist paintings inspired by Haiti's culture and African roots. Notable painters of this movement include Hector Hyppolite, Philomé Oban and Préfète Duffaut.[387] Some notable artists of more recent times include Edouard Duval-Carrié, Frantz Zéphirin, Leroy Exil, Prosper Pierre Louis and Louisiane Saint Fleurant.[387] Sculpture is also practiced in Haiti; noted artists in this form include George Liautaud and Serge Jolimeau.[388] Music and dance Further information: Music of Haiti Haitian music combines a wide range of influences drawn from the many people who have settled here. It reflects French, African and Spanish elements and others who have inhabited the island of Hispaniola, and minor native Taino influences. Styles of music unique to the nation of Haiti include music derived from Vodou ceremonial traditions, Rara parading music, Twoubadou ballads, mini-jazz rock bands, Rasin movement, Hip hop kreyòl, méringue,[389] and compas. Youth attend parties at nightclubs called discos, (pronounced "deece-ko"), and attend Bal. This term is the French word for ball, as in a formal dance. Compas (konpa) (also known as compas direct in French, or konpa dirèk in creole)[390] is a complex, ever-changing music that arose from African rhythms and European ballroom dancing, mixed with Haiti's bourgeois culture. It is a refined music, with méringue as its basic rhythm. Haiti had no recorded music until 1937 when Jazz Guignard was recorded non-commercially.[391] Literature Main article: Haitian literature Haiti has always been a literary nation that has produced poetry, novels, and plays of international recognition. The French colonial experience established the French language as the venue of culture and prestige, and since then it has dominated the literary circles and the literary production. However, since the 18th century there has been a sustained effort to write in Haitian Creole. The recognition of Creole as an official language has led to an expansion of novels, poems, and plays in Creole.[392] In 1975, Franketienne was the first to break with the French tradition in fiction with the publication of Dezafi, the first novel written entirely in Haitian Creole; the work offers a poetic picture of Haitian life.[393] Other well known Haitian authors include Jean Price-Mars, Jacques Roumain, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Pierre Clitandre, René Depestre, Edwidge Danticat, Lyonel Trouillot and Dany Laferrière. Cinema Haiti has a small though growing cinema industry. Well-known directors working primarily in documentary film-making include Raoul Peck and Arnold Antonin. Directors producing fictional films include Patricia Benoît, Wilkenson Bruna and Richard Senecal. Cuisine Main article: Haitian cuisine Haiti is famous for its creole cuisine (which related to Cajun cuisine), and its soup joumou.[394] Architecture Sans-Souci Palace, National History Park, Haiti See also: List of World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean Monuments include the Sans-Souci Palace and the Citadelle Laferrière, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1982.[395] Situated in the Northern Massif du Nord, in the National History Park, the structures date from the early 19th century.[396] The buildings were among the first built after Haiti's independence from France. The Citadelle Laferrière, is the largest fortress in the Americas, is located in northern Haiti. It was built between 1805 and 1820 and is today referred to by some Haitians as the eighth wonder of the world.[104] The Institute for the Protection of National Heritage has preserved 33 historical monuments and the historic center of Cap-Haïtien.[397] Jacmel, a colonial city that was tentatively accepted as a World Heritage Site, was extensively damaged by the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[396] Museums Santa María's anchor on display The anchor of Christopher Columbus's largest ship, the Santa María now rests in the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien (MUPANAH), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[398] Folklore and mythology Main article: Haitian mythology Haiti is known for its folklore traditions.[399] Much of this is rooted in Haitian Vodou tradition. Belief in zombies is also common.[400] Other folkloric creatures include the lougarou.[400] National holidays and festivals Further information: Public holidays in Haiti The Haitian Carnival has been one of the most popular carnivals in the Caribbean. In 2010, the government decided to stage the event in a different city outside Port-au-Prince every year in an attempt to decentralize the country.[401][402] The National Carnival – usually held in one of the country's largest cities (i.e., Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haïtien or Les Cayes) – follows the also very popular Jacmel Carnival, which takes place a week earlier in February or March.[401] Rara is a festival celebrated before Easter. The festival has generated a style of Carnival music.[403][404] Sports Main article: Culture of Haiti § Sports Haiti national football team training in Port-au-Prince, 2004 Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Haiti with hundreds of small football clubs competing at the local level. Basketball and baseball are growing in popularity.[405][406] Stade Sylvio Cator is the multi-purpose stadium in Port-au-Prince, where it is currently used mostly for association football matches that fits a capacity of 10,000 people. In 1974, the Haiti national football team were only the second Caribbean team to make the World Cup (after Cuba's entry in 1938). They lost in the opening qualifying stages against three of the pre-tournament favorites; Italy, Poland, and Argentina. The national team won the 2007 Caribbean Nations Cup.[407] Haiti has participated in the Olympic Games since the year 1900 and won a number of medals. Haitian footballer Joe Gaetjens played for the United States national team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, scoring the winning goal in the 1–0 upset of England.[408] See also Index of Haiti-related articles Outline of Haiti Portals: flag Haiti map Caribbean map Latin America map Caribbean Notes  The National Assembly currently has zero members, with all 30 seats in the Senate and all 119 seats in the Chamber of Deputies vacant since all previous members have served their terms as prescribed by the Haitian Constitution and no election has been held to fill those vacated seats.  The nation was officially founded as Hayti in its Declaration of Independence (and early prints),[14][15] constitutions,[16] and imperial declarations.[17] Published writings of 1802–1919 in the United States commonly used the name Hayti (e.g. The Blue Book of Hayti (1919), a book with official standing in Haiti). By 1873 Haiti was common among titles of US published books as well as in US congressional publications. In all of Frederick Douglass' publications after 1890, he used Haiti. As late as 1949, the name Hayti continued to be used in books published in England (e.g. Hayti: 145 Years of Independence—The Bi-Centenary of Port-au-Prince published in London, England in 1949) but by 1950, usage in England had shifted to Haiti.[18]  The Taínos may have used Bohío as another name for the island.[43][44][45]
  • Condition: Used
  • Format: Statue
  • Handmade: Yes
  • Production Technique: Carving
  • Size: Large
  • Material: Wood
  • Time Period Produced: 1950-1959
  • Year of Production: 1955
  • Signed: Yes
  • Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
  • Theme: Art
  • Type: Sculpture

PicClick Insights - Scarce Large Andre Dimanche Haitian Artist Sculptor Wood Signed 1955 PicClick Exclusive

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