Haitian Declaration of Independence
At Gonaïves, General Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the independence of the former French colony of Saint-Domingue under the name of Haiti, the first independent state in Latin America, where slavery had been destroyed by the rebel slaves themselves.
- Date
- 1 January 1804exact date
- Place
- Gonaïvestoday: Gonaïves, Haiti · Latin America
- Participants
- Jean-Jacques Dessalines
- Threads
- The world in the Age of Revolution
Haiti became the second independent state in the Americas, after the United States. The declaration was read out by Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, Dessalines’s secretary; soon afterward Dessalines, who had concentrated all power in his own hands, proclaimed himself emperor.
Fearing slave revolts at home, the United States refused to recognize the new state and imposed a trade embargo on it, while France recognized Haiti’s independence only in 1825, after demanding a huge indemnity.
Connections
Part of
- Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804 · Latin America
Adjacent events in the thread
- Battle of Assaye23 September 1803 · South Asia
- Balmis Expedition30 November 1803 – 14 August 1806 · Latin America
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Napoleonic Code (French Civil Code)21 March 1804
- Coronation of Napoleon2 December 1804
Eastern Europe
- First Russian circumnavigation26 July (7 August) 1803 – 7 (19) August 1806
Balkans and Anatolia
- First Serbian Uprising14 February 1804 – 7 October 1813
Africa
- Jihad of Usman dan Fodio21 February 1804 – 1808
South Asia
- Battle of Assaye23 September 1803
East Asia
- Rezanov’s embassy to Japan26 September (8 October) 1804 – April 1805
- White Lotus Rebellionbetween 1794 and 1796 – 1804
North America
- Louisiana Purchase30 April – 20 December 1803
- Lewis and Clark Expedition14 May 1804 – 23 September 1806
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Haitian Declaration of Independence
- Wikipedia (Russian): Декларация независимости Гаити
- Dubois L. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. — Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004.
- Wikidata: Q17502440