Caribbean Beat — May/June 2018 (#151)

discover
Uncovering
a kingdom
The ruined palace of Sans-Souci near
Haiti’s north coast is one of the Caribbean’s
most momentous historical sites — and
surprisingly little is known about life there
under King Henri Christophe in the early
nineteenth century. But now a multinational
team of archaeologists are using high-tech
tools to completely resurvey the site, and
potentially rewrite a chapter of Haitian
history. Erline Andrews finds out more
Image courtesy Katie Simon, Centre for Advanced Spatial Technology,
University of Arkansas
Haiti may have the most
intriguing history of all
the Caribbean islands.
Evidence of this is
in the ruins of lavish
architecture — a palace
and a fortress — strewn across the landscape
of its far north, near the city of Cap-Haïtien.
The Sans-Souci palace stretches
along rolling hills above the town of
Milot. It’s one of nine palaces built by
Henri Christophe, the second of three
post-Revolution Haitian monarchs in the
nineteenth century, who fought alongside
Haitian liberator Toussaint L’Ouverture
before establishing the State of Haiti
in the north after the country was split
by civil war. (The Republic of Haiti in
the south was governed by his nemesis
Alexandre Pétion.)
Christophe — or Henri I, as he renamed
himself — set up a feudal system with
its own nobility, and amassed immense
wealth for himself and his kingdom, before
a stroke weakened his ability to maintain
his iron-fist control and he committed
suicide in 1820.
During Christophe’s short reign,
Sans-Souci was the site of elaborate
gardens decorated with opulent fountains
and Grecian statues, magnificent balls
attended by splendidly dressed people,
wide and winding staircases, expansive
terraces, ornate furnishings, a large
library with tens of thousands of books
(even though it’s said that Christophe was
illiterate), a prince’s residence, a network
of administrative buildings, stables, a
hospital, and a prison. They were all the
elements one would have seen in the
royal palaces of Europe. But most of the
residents of Sans-Souci were black.
Much has been written about
Christophe and post-revolutionary Haiti.
He was the subject of the first play written
by Derek Walcott. But many facts remain
disputed, and there’s still a lot to learn.
“It’s a surprisingly poorly understood
period of Haiti’s history,” says Professor
J. Cameron Monroe of the University of
California, Santa Cruz. “I say surprising
because it’s the moment right after the
Revolution — the most momentous event
in the history of the Western hemisphere.”
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