The 1843 Constitution reasserts republican rights

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...

The treaty signed in Port-au-Prince on 12 February 1838 recognized Haiti as a free, sovereign, and independent state while restructuring the indemnity imposed in 1825. Its first article fixed the...

On 27 February 1844, Dominican independence was proclaimed, ending the 1822 political union with Haiti. The break followed years of political and social conflict, including disputes over...

The Constitution dated 14 November 1846 stated in Article 8 that slavery was forever abolished and in Article 9 that any debt contracted to acquire people was extinguished forever. These provisions...

A Haitian law dated 27 August 1860 established an immigration program for people of African or Indigenous descent, including Black people in the United States facing slavery and racial violence. The...

On 18 March 1861, Dominican president Pedro Santana proclaimed annexation to Spain. The return to colonial rule raised fears among abolitionists in the Atlantic world because Spain still maintained...

Following the assassination of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, U.S. Marines landed in Haiti on 28 July 1915. The occupation brought U.S. control over Haitian finances and later created the...