Haitian Declaration of Independence

The 1804 proclamation that established Haiti as an independent state after the defeat of French forces. Issued in Gonaïves, it announced the former colony’s break with France.

Haitian Revolution: A revolution in Saint-Domingue from 1791 to 1804 that ended French colonial rule and slavery, founding Haiti. The revolution’s military victory made the declaration possible.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines: A Haitian revolutionary general who became the country’s first ruler after independence in 1804. As commander-in-chief, he proclaimed independence and delivered its accompanying address.
Haitian Act of Independence: The 1804 document proclaiming Haiti’s independence from France and setting out the new state’s break with colonial rule. Its text formally announced the separation that the declaration commemorated.
Recognition of Haitian independence: The diplomatic acceptance of Haiti as a sovereign state, achieved by France in 1825 and by the United States in 1862. The proclamation declared sovereignty decades before major powers recognized it.
French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: The 1789 French statement of individual and civic rights, initially silent on ending slavery in the colonies. Haiti’s proclamation demanded freedoms that revolutionary France withheld from enslaved people.
Battle of Vertières: The November 1803 battle in which Haitian forces defeated the French expeditionary army near Cap-Français. This decisive defeat cleared the way for independence to be proclaimed.
Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre: A Haitian writer and revolutionary associated with drafting the 1804 declaration of independence. He is traditionally credited with composing the declaration’s text.
Haitian Declaration of Independence address: Jean-Jacques Dessalines’s accompanying 1804 speech, which denounced French violence and urged Haitians to defend independence. The address supplied the declaration’s forceful argument for permanent separation.
Haitian indemnity: The payments imposed by France on Haiti in 1825 in exchange for recognition of its independence. France’s price for recognition burdened the independence proclaimed in 1804.
Napoleon’s 1802 slavery decree: Napoleon’s 1802 measure restoring slavery in French colonies where it had been abolished. The decree embodied the imperial policy the declaration’s separation rejected.

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