By Julia Gaffield
This post is a part of the 2026 Selected Papers of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, which were edited and compiled by members of the CRE’s board alongside editors at Age of Revolutions.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a leader of the Haitian Revolution, he was the man who declared Haitian independence, and he was Haiti’s first head of state.[1] His life is remarkable because he was enslaved from the time he was born, but he and his fellow revolutionaries established the first nation to permanently ban slavery. They secured their freedom by waging war against the French colonists and fought for their independence when it became clear that their lives and their freedom were not secure under French rule. Dessalines and his fellow revolutionaries were trailblazers in the global fight to abolish slavery, and their success changed the course of modern history.
Because of his radical and violent fight for freedom, during his lifetime and in the centuries after his death, Dessalines’s enemies framed him as ferocious and barbaric to undermine his leadership and undermine Haiti as a country. These people imagined a narrative of Dessalines’s revolutionary life as one whose sole purpose was violence for violence’s sake, rather than one driven by any ideological or political commitments. These misconceptions overwhelmed the historical record and chroniclers and historians—primarily those who were observing and writing from outside of Haiti—repeated them, minimizing the evidence presented by the Haitian revolutionaries themselves.
But through a comprehensive study of the available evidence, a different portrait of Dessalines emerges. Dessalines was an effective military leader, and he achieved renown on the battlefield. His demi-brigade was nicknamed the sans-culottes, after the radical, militant lower class of the French Revolution. They earned this powerful name both because most of them had previously been enslaved and because they engaged in no-holds-barred fighting. A phrase that is popularly associated with Dessalines is “koupe tet boule kay” (cut off their heads, burn down their houses). But my research shows that he was also a strategic diplomat who prioritized his country’s sovereignty, and that he was patient and calculated in his decision-making. He surrounded himself with a group of loyal soldiers and friends and together they reimagined a future in which they and their people were free.
In telling his story, I hope to challenge readers to understand the racism embedded in “Enlightenment” principles like “liberty” and “equality” and to see how these forms of exclusion are foundational to the nation-state system that continues to shape the world we live in today. But, at the same time, I want to show that people like Dessalines challenged this discrimination and articulated and enacted alternative versions of freedom and statehood—and that these stories provide valuable lessons for the 21st century.
***
Dessalines was enslaved when the revolution started in 1791 and he first secured his freedom fighting for the Spanish on the eastern side of the island. Within two years of the start of the revolution, however, the revolutionaries had forced the French the abolish slavery on the western side of the island. In 1794, Dessalines became an officer in the French colonial army (fighting on behalf of the French republic)—and, for the second half of the 1790s, Dessalines fought for France and was celebrated by the French for his victories.
After the turn of the century, Dessalines was (arguably) Toussaint Louverture’s second-in-command and right-hand man. Louverture became governor-general-for-life under his 1801 colonial constitution—a document that many interpreted as a declaration of independence and that provoked Napoleon Bonaparte to send the infamous “Leclerc expedition” to Saint-Domingue.
The Leclerc expedition was horrifically violent and the leading generals, Charles Leclerc and Donatien Rochambeau, assumed that the only way to regain control of the colony was to “exterminate” the population. “Here is my opinion on this country,” Leclerc wrote in a letter to Bonaparte on October 7, 1802 “we must destroy all of the black people in the mountains — men and women — and spare only children under twelve years of age. We must destroy half of those in the plains and must not leave a single person of color in the colony who has worn an epaulette.”[2]
Dessalines’s unyielding commitment to the abolition of slavery, however, is what propelled him to oppose the Leclerc expedition and to lead the war for independence. The Haitian revolutionaries succeeded and forced the French to evacuate in late 1803.
Then, on January 1, 1804, Dessalines issued the world’s second successful Declaration of Independence, and in doing so, he established the first nation to permanently ban slavery. He and his follow revolutionaries named the country “Hayti,” the name that the Indigenous people called the island before Columbus invaded.
In the Declaration of Independence, Dessalines and his generals announced to their citizens and to the world—to the universe even—their freedom and independence. The fear of another French attack shaped the content of the Declaration of Independence and Dessalines’s actions afterward. The problem now, Dessalines argued, was that their “assassins,” these “tigers still covered with their blood,” were still in the country. He implored his countrymen to, “remember that you want your remains to rest near those of your fathers, when you have driven tyranny out; will you descend into their tombs without having avenged them? No, their bones would repulse yours.”[3]
Dessalines’s commitment to avenging the deaths of so many Haitians was not only out of respect for the ancestors, but it was also protection for his new nation. From then on, Dessalines claimed, the war with France would be “eternal” and he counseled his citizens to “swear at last, to pursue forever the traitors and the enemies of your independence.”
In reflecting on his revolutionary fight in the Declaration of Independence, Dessalines told his people to: “Remember that I have sacrificed everything to fly to your defense, parents, children, fortune, and now I am rich only with your freedom; [remember] that my name has become a horror to all those who want slavery, and that despots and tyrants never utter it unless to curse the day that I was born.”[4] A statement that rings true even today.
When the French had evacuated in late 1803, they had not conceded defeat. Instead, a contingent of soldiers landed in the city of Santo Domingo on the eastern side of the island and began harassing the newly declared Haitian state by sea. They threatened foreign merchants who traded with Dessalines’s new nation, and they assured anyone who would listen that reinforcements from France were arriving to support a reinvasion.
They never did reinvade, but the possibility loomed large and for the next two and a half years, Dessalines led a nation at war. Typically, people date the Haitian Revolution as 1791 to 1804, but, in 1804, it wasn’t clear that the war was over and that freedom and independence were secure or guaranteed. This ongoing French threat shaped Dessalines’s diplomatic communications and negotiations (especially with the British), and it shaped his internal policies.
***
In the months after the declaration of independence, in the context of the ongoing threats from France, Dessalines ordered the execution of some of the white French colonists who remained in the country. These people posted a threat to national security and, Dessalines claimed, he ordered their executions as punishment for the crimes they had committed before the revolution (the crimes of colonialism and slavery) and the crimes they committed during the recent Leclerc expedition (the attempted “extermination” of the Black population).
Dessalines argued after he ordered these executions, that “finally, the hour of vengeance has rung, and the implacable enemies of the rights of man have suffered the punishment due for their crimes.”[5] He held the French accountable for their fate and claimed that the Haitians had done what was necessary. “Yes, we have retaliated against these true cannibals,” he claimed, “war for war, crime for crime, outrage for outrage.” He then reflected on his own leadership and concluded: “Yes, I have saved my country—I have avenged America.”[6]
Dessalines rhetorically situated Haiti’s freedom struggle in the broader history of colonialism and slavery in the Americas. Thinking about Dessalines as an “avenger,” emphasizes his own actions, but simultaneously recognized that his actions were in response to the wrongdoings of the French. His revolutionary violence was a response to the violence of slavery and colonialism.
These executions—at the time they were called “massacres,” and often still are today—affected Dessalines’s reputation during his lifetime and in the centuries since. French people who claimed to have witnessed these executions wrote hyperbolic and exaggerated accounts, claiming that Dessalines had killed “innocent citizens” (not acknowledging the wrongs of slavery and colonialism or the horrors of the Leclerc expedition) and they claimed that Dessalines had killed every single white person, including women and children—claims that the evidence simply doesn’t uphold (hundreds of white people lived in early nineteenth century Haiti and they were naturalized as Haitian citizens). But these alleged eye-witness accounts, however fictional, have had a lasting impact on his reputation and legacy.
***
In 1804, Dessalines consolidated power and land and mimicked the strict hierarchy of his military background in his government, establishing the “Empire of Hayti,” in October. “The title of Governor general, heretofore referring to the citizen Jean-Jacques Dessalines, does not fulfill, in a satisfying manner, the general will,” declared the document that nominated him to the position of Emperor, “because it supposes an outside power, dependence on a foreign authority, whose yoke we have forever thrown off.”[7] In two short pages, Dessalines’s advisors, on behalf of the nation, argued that the most effective method of governing was to have but one ruler. “Let us give to the citizen Jean-Jacques Dessalines,” they concluded, “the title of EMPEROR OF HAYTI and the right to choose and name his successor.” In a brief reply, Dessalines accepted the nomination.
“If any considerations can justify in my eyes,” Dessalines announced, “the august title that your confidence awards me, it is no doubt my zeal to see the salvation of the empire and my hearty desire to consolidate our enterprise, an enterprise which will allow us to give, to the nations least friendly to freedom, not the impression of a bunch of slaves, but one of men who preferred their independence.”
Dessalines recognized that this was not an easy task since Haitians were “the artisans of their own freedom,” and they had not “had to beg for foreign help to break the idol to which we are sacrificing.” He understood that there might be skeptics within Haiti and abroad, but he explained, “if sober passions make common men, halfway measures halt the rapid progress of revolutions.” He emphasized that Haiti was still at war and that the country needed a soldier to lead it, but that in becoming emperor he was also becoming the “father of my fellow citizens, of whom I was the defender, but the father of a family of warriors never puts down his sword.”[8]
The decision to make Dessalines emperor was not made lightly. Indeed, it was part of a broader strategic plan to deal with domestic unrest and foreign pressure. In mid-1804, the picture was dire. Negotiations with the British for a trade treaty had deadlocked, meaning, the Haitians could not count on Great Britain for aid. Meanwhile, the French soldiers remained encamped in Santo Domingo, and continued to threaten Haitian independence. Other foreign governments simply refused to recognize Haitian independence.[9]
At the coronation celebration on October 8, 1804, C. Cezar Télémaque, the inspector of the North, sang a song dedicated to Jacques I (set to the popular tune of the vaudeville in Le Devin de Village, a famous play by Jean-Jacques Rousseau):
He is the one who punishes the arrogance
Of the French, our true enemies
His name, his valor, his courage,
Make all the conspirators tremble;
Enemy of vile slavery;
he only sees us as his children.[10]
The tune highlighted Dessalines’s core values and reminded the nation of his accomplishments. Their freedom was guaranteed by his victory over the French and would continue to be secure, all because of his vigilance.
Dessalines’s 1805 national constitution reaffirmed the empire and Dessalines’s role as both emperor and commander-in-chief of the army. Here, as in 1801, the leader of the country maintained both political and military power. The highly military structure that developed in Haiti was seen by political leaders as necessary for several reasons. Haiti was a Black, independent nation of formerly enslaved people in a region otherwise characterized by colonialism and slavery. As such, pro-slavery nations viewed the country with apprehension or hostility.[11] These threats to Haitian independence made a strong military necessary during the early years of independence, and so each of the early constitutions asserted state sponsorship of strong military forces.[12] Furthermore, Haiti was still actively at war with France.
The constitution also valued national unity over internal dissent. In the creation of a new country, the constitution called for allegiance in times of crisis and valued the idea of one national community above local or regional affiliations, a recognition of the continued factionalism within the country.
During his rule, Dessalines replicated the labor policies that the French had enacted after they conceded to abolishing slavery and that Toussaint Louverture had continued under his governorship. These policies limited the freedoms of the people who had previously been enslaved with the goal of reviving the plantation economy that was focused on exporting cash crops.
By late 1806, Dessalines’s centralized rule had inspired resistance among the leading generals—particularly the republicans of the Southern peninsula. They revolted in October and as Dessalines went to put an end to the rebellion, he was ambushed and assassinated on October 17, 1806 near Pont Rouge, just outside of Port-au-Prince.
The republican factions in the South of Haiti, still reeling from the declaration of the Haitian Empire, were further antagonized by the 1805 constitution and legal codes. Internal political opposition to Dessalines’s rule was growing, and instead of consolidating power within the country, the constitution created an unbridgeable divide between factions.
***
At the moment that Haitians first rose up in 1791, the pro-slavery and pro-colonialism powers of Europe and the Americas had a special interest in ensuring that Haiti failed. Both then and now, targeting Dessalines supported their goal. But excluding him from the ideological and political history of the Age of Revolution and the Enlightenment highlights the ongoing effects of nineteenth-century propaganda that championed racist definitions of freedom and equality. About Dessalines, the 19th-century Haitian historian Thomas Madiou, wrote this: “Despite his despotism after the expulsion of our oppressors, we must forgive him, honor him deeply, love his memory, set aside his role as sovereign, and think of him only as the glorious warrior and the immortal founder of the independence of Haiti.” I think it’s a bit more complicated than that—he was more than a “glorious warrior.”
And, while I have written a biography of Dessalines, I am reminded of the words of the Haitian historian Louis-Joseph Janvier, who argued in 1902 that, “It is not only childish, but grotesque to claim that one can pass definitive judgements on Dessalines.”[13]
Dessalines seemed to foresee the judgement of future generations. In early 1804, he addressed a proclamation not to his fellow Haitians, but again to the “inhabitants of the Universe.” “Do not, unheard, accuse us of cruelty,” he pleaded with the international community. “Remember our past sufferings, and you will judge less severely our present acts of necessity—of despair.”[14] In another speech, he confessed to “mortals and gods” that he had “avenged America.” This defiant act was his “pride and glory.” “What does it matter how present and future races will judge me?” Dessalines demanded. “I have done my duty, I know my worth; that is enough for me.”[15]
Julia Gaffield is a historian of Haiti and the early-modern Atlantic world and an Associate Professor of History at William & Mary. A Canadian, she earned an MA at York University in 2007 and her Ph.D. in History from Duke University in 2012, then taught for eight years at Georgia State University before joining W&M’s Harrison Ruffin Department of History in 2022.
Title Image: Jean Jacques Dessalines. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Endnotes:
[1] Portions of this essay are drawn from my book I Have Avenge America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom (Yale University Press, 2025). Thank you to Lynn Hunt for organizing our panel and for Rosemarie Zaggari and Janet Polaski for their participation in this exciting panel.
[2] Leclerc to Bonaparte, October 7, 1802, Cap-Français, in Paul Roussier, Lettres du général Leclerc (Paris: Société de l’histoire des colonies française, 1937), 256.
[3] Armée Indigène, “Liberté ou la Mort,” January 1, 1804, an premier de l’indépendance, TNA, CO 137/111/1 and TNA, MFQ 1/184.
[4] Armée Indigène, “Liberté ou la Mort,” January 1, 1804, an premier de l’indépendance, TNA, CO 137/111/1 and TNA, MFQ 1/184.
[5] Dessalines, “Proclamation aux Habitans d’Haïti,” Cap, April 28, 1804, l’an premier de l’indépendance.
[6] Dessalines, “Proclamation aux Habitans d’Haïti,” Cap, April 28, 1804, l’an premier de l’indépendance.
[7] “Nomination de l’Empereur D’Hayti,” TNA, CO 137/113, f. 32.
[8] “Nomination de l’Empereur D’Hayti,” TNA, CO 137/113, f. 32.
[9] Price-Mars, La République d’Haïti, Tome I, 66.
[10] “Couplets, Chantés et présentés à Sa Majesté JACQUES 1er, Empereur d’Haïti; Par C. Cezar Télémaque, contrôleur du département du Nord.” Gazette Politique et Commerciale d’Haïti, numéro 2, November 22, 1804.
[11] Mats Lundahl, “Defense and Distribution: Agricultural Policy in Haiti During the Reign of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, 1804-1806.” Scandinavian Economic History Review 32, no. 2 (1984): 82.
[12] Article 30, Constitution d’Haïti, May 20, 1805; Paton and Scully claim that the constitution limited voting to men, however, the constitution does not include any specifics about who could vote: Diana Paton and Pamela Scully, editors. Gender and Slave Emancipation in the Atlantic World, (Duke University Press, 2015), 10-11; Vaval, “Le Gouvernement de Dessalines,” 69.
[13] Louis-Joseph Janvier, “Notes sur Dessalines et Toussaint Louverture, Guerre de l’Indépendance, Mort de Dessalines,” October 6, 1902, Manuscript, Courtesy of La Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Spiritains, Haïti, 16-17.
[14] The article was published in translation in The Times, London, and I have not located an original copy; “Proclamation of Dessalines,” [May 2, 1804], The Times, London, September 26, 1804, page 3.
[15] Dessalines, “Proclamation aux Habitans d’Haïti,” Cap, April 28, 1804, l’an premier de l’indépendance, (Au Cap, Chez P. Roux, imprimeur du Gouvernement), TNA, CO 137/113, f. 138.
Leave a Reply