Haitian Culture Curriculum Guide

one of the two Generals of Division, the other was Clairveaux, a mulatto. By some, Dessalines was
thought to excel Toussaint in military genius although he learned to sign his name quite late in life.
In May 1803, Alexandre Petion suggested some formal act of unification that could secure the
allegiance and effective collaboration of the congo chiefs. The generals and the chieftains met on
May 14. With Christophe, Petion, and Clerveaux beside him, Dessalines stressed the need for
unity. Up to this moment, the rebels had fought under the flag of France. On May 18, the last day
of what later was called the Congress of Archaie, all participants swore allegiance to Dessalines.
Seizing the French Tricolor which draped the table at which he stood, Dessalines ripped out the
white band and handed the blue and red ones to stitch to Catherine Flon, goddaughter of his wife.
The revolutionaries now had their own flag.
Dessalines governed the territories under his command with an iron rod, and in spite of limited
constructive capacity for government, he had a shrewdness and ruthless determination that were of
service to his people. He mobilized the courage and bravery of his officers and soldiers into a
common love for liberty and an eagerness for independence.
In the early morning of November 18, 1803, Dessalines sent General Capois to take position on the
hills of Charrier, between Haut-du-Cap and Cap-Francais. The approach to Charrier ran up a long
ravine under the guns of Vertières, occupied by the French army. Capois lost his hat to a grapeshot,
and then his horse went down. Capois picked himself up, drew his sword, told his soldiers to go
forward, and began to lead them again.
This was the ultimate battle of the war for independence. The following morning, captain general
Rochambeau sent his assistant to negotiate the terms of a surrender. On January 1, 1804,
Dessalines, along with Christophe, Petion, and thirty generals and superior officers, proclaimed the
independence of Saint Domingue, which they renamed Haiti. They established the second republic
in the Americas, the first independent black republic in the world. Haiti and its people had begun a
new era in history.
References
Fouchard, Jean. The Maroons: Liberty or Death. Out of Print.
Heinl, Robert Debs. Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492-1995. Washington,
D.C.: University Press of America, 1996.
James, Cyril Lionel Robert. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo
Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
Leyburn, James Graham. The Haitian People. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Publishing Group,
1980.
Schoelcher, Victor. The Life of Toussaint Louverture. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Publishing
Group, 1953.
7