Haiti’s 1816 Constitution reaffirms abolition

Louverture died at Fort de Joux after being deported and imprisoned by the French state. His death became a symbol of the violence used to destroy Haitian autonomy. The revolution continued under...

Jean-Jacques Dessalines’s forces defeated the French army at Vertières, the last major battle of the expedition. The victory made restoration of French colonial authority and slavery militarily...

Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed independence at Gonaïves and named the country Haiti, drawing on the Indigenous name Ayiti. The declaration explicitly rejected the prospect of re-enslavement and...

The 1805 constitution stated that slavery was forever abolished. It entrenched the victory of the revolution in the new state’s founding law. Emancipation did not mean full control over work: the...

The expedition sailed from Los Cayos, Haiti, on 31 March 1816 to renew the independence struggle in Spanish America. Haitian authorities and communities provided refuge, logistical support, and...

On 9 February 1822, Haitian president Jean-Pierre Boyer issued a proclamation announcing the union of the eastern departments of Cibao and Ozama with the Republic of Haiti. It stated that “on this...

A municipal record from 29 June 1822, discussed by historian Quisqueya Lora from the Dominican National Archive, describes the “freedom of the cultivators who were formerly enslaved.” Formerly...

Charles X’s ordinance recognized Haiti’s independence while requiring Haiti to pay 150 million francs in five annual installments to compensate former colonists for property losses. The ordinance...

On 8 July, President Boyer accepted the French terms while requesting revisions; the Senate registered the commitment on 11 July. A French squadron carrying hundreds of cannon had threatened a...

The Code Rural, issued at the National Palace on 6 May 1826, sought to bind cultivators to plantation production through contracts and rural policing. Later scholarship documents penalties for...