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Constitution Monument in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. A total of 22 constitutions have been promulgated throughout Haiti's history, [1] before the first constitution, a colonial constitution was promulgated under the short-lived government of then-Governor-General in 1801 Toussaint Louverture, who had become one of the leaders of the revolutionary forces in the Haitian Revolution.
In order to maintain French control, in 1801 Napoleon Bonaparte sent an invasion force, but all attempts failed. On January 1, 1804, Jean Jacques Dessalines, leader of the rebels, declared independence from France.
On 1 January 1804, Dessalines, the new leader under the dictatorial 1801 constitution, declared Haiti a state in the name of the Haitian people. Dessalines' secretary Boisrond-Tonnerre stated, "For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet ...
The Republic of Haiti is located on western portion of the island Hispaniola in the Caribbean. Haiti declared its independence from France in the aftermath of the first successful slave revolution in the Americas in 1804, and their identification as conquerors of a racially repressed society is a theme echoed throughout Haiti's history.
In March 1801, Louverture appointed a constitutional assembly, composed chiefly of white planters, to draft a constitution for Saint-Domingue. He promulgated the Constitution on 7 July 1801, officially establishing his authority over the entire island of Hispaniola. It made him governor-general for life with near absolute powers and the ...
Article 3 of L'Ouverture's 1801 Haitian Constitution stated: "Slaves cannot exist on this territory; servitude is abolished forever. All men are born, live and die free and French." But, as the threat from Napoleon Bonaparte loomed, this provision seems to have been ignored:
On Tuesday, a former president of the Haitian Senate, Simon Dieusel Desras confirmed to the Herald that he narrowly escaped a gang attack when his car was riddled with bullets and his driver ...
Toussaint defeated a British expeditionary force in 1798. In addition, he led an invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo (December 1800), and freed the slaves there on 3 January 1801. In 1801, Louverture issued a constitution for Saint-Domingue that decreed he would be governor-for-life and called for black autonomy and a sovereign black state.