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Here is a letter written by Haitian President Alexandre Petion in 1816

Alexandre Sabès Pétion (April 2, 1770 -March 29. 1818) is remembered by the Haitians as one of the greatest independence leaders, a liberal ruler and the first President (1807) of the Republic of Haiti till his death. He was born as Anne-Alexandre Sabes. According to Dantes Bellegarde, a Haitian historian, "Petion", was a nickname given to him. He is also remembered by the Latin Americans (Venezuela, Colombia and other countries in South America) for his support and sanctuary offered to the Venezuelan military and political leader Simón Bolívar during his struggle for independence from Spain in 1815.

Alexandre Pétion was born in Port-au-Prince to a wealthy French and a Mulatresse Haitian mother and studied at the Military Academy in Paris, but came back to take part in the expulsion of the British (1798-99) from Saint-Domingue. He served the French colonial army before the French Revolution. Thereafter, before joining the force of mulatto general André Rigaud, he joined the revolutionary troops of Toussaint Louverture. André Rigaud had much respect for Toussaint Louverture as the leading general of the former black slaves of the North but did not want to concede power in the South to him.

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