Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758 - 1806)

Wed Sep 20, 1758

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Image: A portrait of Jean-Jacques Dessalines by Louis Rigaud [Wikipedia]

Jean-Jacques Dessalines, born on this day in 1758, was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Dessalines was assassinated by rebels in 1806, leading directly to civil war.

Dessalines was born to an enslaved Congolese family in 1758. He adopted the name Dessalines after escaping from a free black landowner who had purchased him.

In 1794, Dessalines’s military skill and leadership were vital to L’Overture’s success in capturing the Spanish-controlled eastern half of the island, and in return, L’Overture made him governor of the south.

After L’Overture’s betrayal and death in 1802-03, Dessalines became a key leader of the Haitian Revolution, helping the colony achieve the new nation’s independence in 1804.

In 1804, Dessalines appointed himself emperor for life and ordered mass killings of all the French colonizers remaining on the island, leading to the deaths of 3000-5000 French people of all ages and sexes. He declared “I have saved my country. I have avenged America.”

The 1805 Constitution established by Dessalines’ government made Haiti the first country in history to abolish slavery. The Constitution also guaranteed equality under the law, freedom of religion, and protected property rights, with an exception - “No whiteman of whatever nation he may be, shall put his foot on this territory with the title of master or proprietor, neither shall he in future acquire any property therein”.

In 1806, Dessalines was assassinated by rebels outside Port-au-Prince, leading directly to civil war on the island.