ADVERTISEMENT


History

The 14-year-old drummer boy, Henri Christophe in Savannah battle

The 14-year-old drummer boy, Henri Christophe in Savannah battle

Here is a picture of the Statute to Honor Haitian Soldiers in the battle of Savanah, Georgia. The statute includes the 14-year-old drummer boy, Henri Christophe.

Even before his days of fame began in the Haitian Revolution, Haiti's one-time king, Henri Christophe, was featured in another battle, this time at the age of only 14, the Savannah battle. Part of the American Revolution, the battle was fought by American soldiers along with some 750 free Haitian men whose contribution had been ignored for a long time after. In 2002, officials in North Miami took steps to commemorate the Haitian soldiers with a monument of the former Haitian king. Behind him were placed figures of the other soldiers present in the battle.

Permalink | Comments

Henri Christophe as Henri I, King of Haiti

Henri Christophe as Henri I, King of Haiti

On 26 March 1811, Henri Christophe became King of Haiti by creating a kingdom in the North and had himself proclaimed Henry I, King of Haïti.

While it is only speculated, the idea that Haiti's King Henri I, Henri Christophe, was not even from the country (scholars think he was from Grenada), has long prevailed. Whatever his origins, he would become ruler of Haiti after working as a sailor, a waiter, a mason, and in other, various fields of manual labor. It was during the Haitian Revolution that he rose like the proverbial cream, when he became the brigadier general for the revolution's hero, Toussaint L'Ouverture, in 1802.

Permalink | Comments

The ruins of the residence of President Fabre Nicolas Geffrard - Anse -a -Veau .

The ruins of the residence of President Fabre Nicolas Geffrard - Anse -a -Veau .

Here is a picture of the ruins of the residence of Former Haitian President President Nicolas Fabre Geffrard at Anse -a -Veau.

During his time in office Geffrard had some modest accomplishments in the spheres of administration, justice, the economy, education, finance, agriculture, and the military. He supported trade agreements and increased exports with the opening of ports in Aquinas, Miragoane, and Saint Marc. He also updated the political infrastructure of the government. An adept negotiator he was instrumental in helping the Dominican Republic retain its sovereignty.

In 1858 he was asked by the military to lead an insurrection against Faustin I and was successful, establishing his claim to the presidency in Gonaives. Geffrard stayed in office for eight years, before he was ousted by Sylvain Salnave, whom the country now favored. Although he had decreed himself president for life, his successor, Salnave, was elected to replace him. Geffrard resigned without protest and retired to Kingston, Jamaica where he died in 1878.

Permalink | Comments

Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard

Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard

Here is a picture of President Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard. He was a mulatto general in the Haitian army and President of Haiti from 1859 until his deposition in 1867

Fabre Geffrard, born September 19, 1806, ruled as president of the Republic of Haiti from 1859â€'1867. His first act in office was to resurrect the Constitution of 1846 thereby making him president for life. Prior to assuming the presidency he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Army during Emperor Faustin I Soulouque's reign.

Using his powerful position as a stepping stone, he forced the abdication of Soulouque when Geffrard moved to establish the Republic of Haiti in Gonaïves. The country rallied behind him and Faustin I surrendered the presidency to Geffrard when he realized he had lost the support of the populace.

Permalink | Comments

Champ-de-Mars Port-au-Prince during the government of Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard

Champ-de-Mars Port-au-Prince during the government of Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard

Here is a picture of Champ-de-Mars in Port-au-Prince during the government of Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard.

After being made president, Geffrard's first duty was to cut the nation's army in half, leaving it 15,000 strong. Following this, he formed his personally-trained presidential guard, calling them Les Tirailleurs de la Garde. Later he would bring back the Boyer-founded Medical School and start his own, the National Law School. There was undoubtedly a great thrust in education under his rule, with many lycea being hauled into the then present and also built from the ground up under his regime.

Following the outbreak of guerilla war between Spain and Santa Domingo, which put Haiti in an awkward position, President Geffrard lost some of the people's esteem when he surrendered to the demands of the Spanish. There were many attempts at a coup against him, but it wasn't until 1865, when an ill-fought war with Major Sylvain Salnave and his Northern troops left the president and his administration in financial and political ruin, that he fled, with his family under disguise, to Jamaica, where he would remain until his death in 1878.

Permalink | Comments

Mary Magdalene, companion of Alexandre Petion

Mary Magdalene, companion of Alexandre Petion

Here is a picture of Mary Magdalene. She was thecompanion of Haitian President Alexandre Petion.

Alexandre Pétion was a moderate mixed-race revolutionary leader. After the death of Dessalines, Alexandre Pétion was elected as the president of southern Haiti in 1807 and reelected in 1811 and fearing a lack of political power, he turned his post into President for Life in 1816. He seized the commercial lands from rich gentry and distributed that to his supporters in small plots. However, this resulted huge loss in export revenues from the agricultural commodities and the farmers became full subsistence farmers. His outlook was influenced by the ideals of French liberalism, he believed in the importance of education in human life. Today, we can see his portrait on the Haitian 500 gourdes currency.

He joined the French army to reconquer the colony, but became one of the first Haitian officers to revolt against the French. He revolted against the rule of Jean-Jacques Dessalines who played a major role in ousting the French. Dessalines was a black nationalist ruler and

Permalink | Comments

NAACP criticized by GOP for ignoring Mia Love's Historic win

NAACP criticized by GOP for ignoring Mia Love's Historic win

The historic win of the Haitian-America Mia Love to become the first Haitian-American in US Congress and also the First Black Woman elected as a GOP to congress has created some joy for her fans. However this win has also created some discomfort among some long standing organizations.

NAACP has been criticized by GOP for ignoring Mia Love's Historic win.

Republican official Raffi Williams is harshly criticizing the NAACP for not hailing the notable wins of Haitian-American Mia Love to a Republican seat in Congress, and African-American senator Tim Scott's Republican win for South Carolina.

Love is the first Haitian-American and woman senator-elect, and Scott the first African-American to win since Reconstruction.

Williams vented his frustration over the NAACP's snub by tweeting a number of times, complaining they ". . . won't celebrate black republicans."

Permalink | Comments

Fort de Joux in France in Honor of Toussaint Louverture with Haitian Flag

Fort de Joux in France in Honor of Toussaint Louverture with Haitian Flag

Here is a picture of Fort de Joux in France where Toussaint Louverture spent his list few years in prison under harsh condition. This day, it is another story all together. He is now considered a hero and both Haitians and French want to claim him.

Toussaint Louverture was known to his contemporaries as "the Black Napoleon". To abolish slavery from Haiti he fought against the best-trained European forces, including armies from France, England and Spain and France. He is the only successful revolutionary slave leader in modern history and the first Black to become the governor of a colony. He allied with France and became a dominant political and military leader in the French colony; ruled Saint Dominque as an independent state. When he drafted a constitution emphasizing abolition of slavery, he earned the ire of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was captured and on August 25, 1802, sentenced to a cold, isolated cell in the French mountain prison at Fort de Joux so that he would be forgotten from his countrymen behind his secluded prison. He died of pneumonia in his solitary cell within his seven months of captivity on April 7, 1803. He wrote a memoir during his confinement where he compared Napoleon's plan of forceful limiting him with phrases as--"cut out one's tongue and tell him to talk","bury a man alive". On October 29, 2014, the Haitian President Michel Martelly paid tribute before the statue of this Haitian independence hero at Fort de Joux in France and placed a Haitian flag in his honor.

Permalink | Comments

Toussaint Louverture's Statue With French and Haitian Flag at Fort de Joux

Toussaint Louverture's Statue With French and Haitian Flag at Fort de Joux

Here is a statue of the Haitian hero Toussaint Louverture standing proudly in Fort de Joux in France With French and Haitian Flag.

Francis Domenica Breda or Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) as he was more popularly known, is one of the great leaders in the history of the Haitian revolution. He was born in a slave family and the first Black to become the governor of a colony. Toussaint was a self educated revolutionary who defeated Europe's best-trained forces, including armies from France, England and Spain and France. After securing its independence, Toussaint renamed St. Domingue as "Haiti" and his policy on abolition of slavery eventually aroused the ire of Napoleon Bonaparte. On June 7, 1802, He was captured in Saint Domingue by an act of deceit by a French General of Division named Jean Baptiste Brunet. Toussaint, who had never remained far from his warm sea-level Caribbean life, was transported to Fort de Joux in France by ship and sentenced to a cold solitary cell measuring 6,50 x 3,90 meters. He was one of the fort's most noted prisoner. He suffered from loneliness and died in the prison out of a certain malady of the lung. Today, the fort is a tourist site, tourists come to pay tribute to his statue at Fort de Joux gifted by Haiti to mark the bicentenary of his death. The statue has French and Haitian flags on both sides.

Permalink | Comments

Michel Martelly, paid tribute at Fort de Joux - Toussaint Louverture

Michel Martelly, paid tribute at Fort de Joux - Toussaint Louverture

Here is a picture of the Haitian President Michel Martelly on October 31, 2014 in France as he was paying tribute at Fort de Joux to the Haitia Hero Toussaint Louverture.

Martelly Honors Memory of Louverture

President Martelly is the first Haitian head of state serving, who has ever visited the cell of General Toussaint Louverture at Fort de Joux, who died nine months before Haiti's liberation in January 1804.

Louverture has been honored with symbolic, commemorative, and institutional remembrances ever since his death.

President Martelly has called Louverture Haiti's "black Spartacus". First Lady Sophia described Louverture as ". . . one of the greatest humanists the world has ever known."

Permalink | Comments