Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Emperor of Haiti
Died when: 48 years 27 days (576 months)Star Sign: Virgo
Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Haitian Creole: Jan-Jak Desalin; French pronunciation: ?[??~ ?ak d?salin]; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution.
Under Dessalines, Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. Initially regarded as governor-general, Dessalines was later named Emperor of Haiti as Jacques I (1804–1806) by generals of the Haitian Revolution Army and ruled in that capacity until being assassinated in 1806.
He has been referred to as the father of the nation of Haiti. Dessalines served as an officer in the French army when the colony was fending off Spanish and British incursions.
Later he rose to become a commander in the revolt against France. As Toussaint Louverture's principal lieutenant, he led many successful engagements, including the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot.
After the capture of Toussaint Louverture in 1802, who died in prison in France, Dessalines became the leader of the revolution and Général-Chef de l'Armée Indigène on May 18 1803.
He defeated a French army at the Battle of Vertières on November 18, 1803. Declaring St-Domingue independent on November 29 1803 and Haiti an independent nation on January 1 1804, Dessalines was chosen by a council of generals to assume the office of governor-general.
He ordered the genocidal 1804 Haiti massacre of remaining whites, including former slave owners, in Haiti, many of whom were not willing to live in peace with the new Haitian regime, resulting in the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people.
He excluded surviving Polish Legionnaires, who had defected from the French legion to become allied with the enslaved Africans and the Germans who did not take part of the slave trade.
He granted them full citizenship under the constitution and classified them as Noir, the new ruling ethnicity. Tensions remained with the minority of mixed-race or free people of color, who had gained some education and property during the colonial period.
In September 1804, Dessalines was proclaimed emperor by the Generals of the Haitian Revolution Army. He ruled in that capacity under the Imperial until being assassinated in 1806 by opponents who resisted his autocratic rule.