History: Haiti

Sources for this page

Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.

1. 1.

   Claim: An uprising of enslaved people in Saint-Domingue beginning in August 1791 developed into a prolonged war for independence against France; Toussaint Louverture led the colony as Governor-General from 1797 until his 1802 arrest and deportation to France, where he died in captivity in April 1803, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines led the movement to victory. Published casualty estimates vary widely: some cite roughly 345,000-350,000 total deaths, including about 200,000 among enslaved and formerly enslaved Haitians, while another commonly cited estimate puts deaths at 100,000 of 500,000 Black Haitians and 24,000 of 40,000 white colonists; deaths from disease, including yellow fever and smallpox epidemics, are included in these figures alongside combat and massacre deaths.

   • Estimated death toll in Haitian Revolution (Statista) link, data compilation. Source record
2. 2.

   Claim: At Gonaïves on 1 January 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines read a declaration, drafted by Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, recording the resolution "to render the country independent, and to enjoy the liberty consecrated by the blood of the people of this island," with the assembled generals having "sworn before eternity and before the entire universe to forever renounce France and to die rather than live under its domination," and concluding with a call to "swear, finally, to pursue forever the traitors and enemies of your independence."

   • Boisrond-Tonnerre, Louis and Dessalines, Jean-Jacques, The Haitian Declaration of Independence (January 1, 1804) (Encyclopedia Virginia, 1 January 1804) link, declaration text. Source record
3. 3.

   Claim: Between early February and 22 April 1804, following the declaration of Haitian independence, Jean-Jacques Dessalines ordered the killing of the remaining white population of Haiti.

   • 1804 Haitian massacre (Wikipedia) link, article text. Source record
4. 4.

   Claim: On 17 April 1825, King Charles X of France issued a Royal Ordinance stating that the inhabitants of the former French colony "shall pay ... in five annual instalments, the first one due on 31 December 1825, the sum of one hundred and fifty millions of francs, in order to compensate the former colonists who may claim an indemnity," and that "under these conditions we grant, by the present Ordinance, to the present inhabitants of the French part of Saint-Domingue the full independence of their Government." The ordinance was delivered by the diplomat Baron de Mackau accompanied by a French naval squadron, and accepted by Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer.

   • Wikipedia contributors, Haitian independence debt (Wikipedia) link, article text quoting the ordinance. Source record Consulted via a secondary reproduction of the ordinance's text, not the original French document.
5. 5.

   Claim: The 150-million-franc indemnity imposed by the 1825 Royal Ordinance was reduced to 90 million francs in 1838; payments related to the indemnity continued until 1947.

   • Wikipedia contributors, Haitian independence debt (Wikipedia) link, Reduction and later payments sections. Source record