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 renewed Haiti’s antislavery constitutional tradition and rejected the conversion of human beings into property or collateral. They also form a striking legal counterpoint to the international indemnity imposed in 1825 on Haiti for the loss of enslaved labor and colonial property.
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...
Promulgated on 30 December 1843, the constitution followed a revolution against Jean-Pierre Boyer and attempted to reorganize republican government. It belongs to a period of repeated constitutional...
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...
👉 Haiti’s Constitution declares slavery forever abolished and cancels slave-purchase debts
Current
14 November 1846
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...
Charlemagne Péralte, a Haitian nationalist leader of the Caco resistance to U.S. occupation, was killed by U.S. Marines overnight on 31 October–1 November 1919. Sources differ in whether they date his...
At Marchaterre near Les Cayes, U.S. Marines opened fire on a peaceful peasant demonstration on 6 December 1929, killing between 12 and 22 people according to the Sciences Po Mass Violence and...
