Haitian Declaration of Independence

Haitian Declaration of Independence
Haitian Declaration of Independence poster, 1804
Created	1804
Location	The National Archives, Kew, UK

The Haitian Declaration of Independence (French: Acte de l'Indépendance de la République d'Haïti) was proclaimed on 1 January 1804 in the port city of Gonaïves by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marking the end of 13-year long Haitian Revolution. The declaration marked Haiti becoming the first independent nation of Latin America and only the second in the Americas after the United States.^[1]

Notably, the Haitian declaration of independence signalled the culmination of the only successful slave revolution in history.^[2] Only two copies of the original printed version exist. Both of these were discovered by Julia Gaffield, a Duke University postgraduate student, in the UK National Archives in 2010 and 2011.^[2] They are currently held by The National Archives, Kew.

The declaration itself is a three-part document. The longest section, "Le Général en Chef Au Peuple d’Hayti", which is known as the "proclamation," functions as a prologue. It has one signatory, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the senior general and a former slave. Due to Dessalines being illiterate and unable to speak French, his secretary Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre then read out the proclamation, followed by the act of independence, which were both written by the latter.^[3] This declaration was later followed by an independence day speech from Dessalines—recited in Haitian Creole—in which he denounced France.^[4]

In particular, the declaration demands vengeance against the French White Creoles, who committed atrocities against the African-Haitian population. Dessalines claimed that:

"It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries; … We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth; we must take any hope of re-enslaving us away from the inhuman government …. In the end we must live independent or die."^[5]

These words presaged the 1804 Haiti massacre, which was supervised by Dessalines.

Philippe Girard, a Guadeloupean academic, has noted that the document is multi-layered with references to six different audiences: "the French, Creoles, Anglo-Americans, Latin Americans, mixed-race Haitians, and black Haitians".^[6] Moreover, the Haitian declaration was important because it marked the end of a revolution, not the beginning, unlike most revolutionary struggles prior to the mid-twentieth century. Also, the primary motive behind this revolution was not independence, but rather racial equality and emancipation.^[1]

Although the declaration repeatedly alluded to "freedom from slavery", there was no mention of "republican rights" within the text. As a result, the new nation under Dessalines came to be known as the l’État d’Haïti (The State of Haiti), rather than the Haitian Republic. Following independence, Dessalines accorded all power to himself as the "head of state", which was made possible by the support of the 17 senior officials that signed the third section of the declaration.^[1]