On The 1804 Haitian Declaration of Independence

"Despots and tyrants curse the day that I was born." ~Jean-Jacques Dessalines

Dessalines says that the Haitian people fought for 14 years for Freedom. "In the end, we must live independent or die. Independence or death . . . let these sacred words unite us and be the signal of battle and of our reunion."

Free or Die. Independence or Death. That's just like Patrick Henry's "Liberty or Death!"

Jean-Jacques Dessalines verbally dictated what he wanted written down in the Haitian Declaration of Independence to his secretary Boisrond-Tonnerre (1804). Dessalines was illiterate, so he wasn't able to write anything down. Tonnerre is the actual author of the 1804 Haitian Declaration of Independence.

It's rumored that Boisrond-Tonnerre got the job of writing the Haitian Declaration of Independence from Dessalines for suggesting that "we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!"

For Dessalines (Boisrond-Tonnerre), Independence is the main solitary single primary focus of the Haitian Declaration of Independence. Dessalines wants to make sure that the Haitian people always have hatred in their hearts for the French, forever & ever. France is a "nation of executioners", & are "not our brothers. They never will be, & if they find refuge among us, they will plot again to trouble and divide us."

LeClerc would eventually die of Yellow Fever in Haiti, but even when all seemed lost, LeClerc suggested to Napoleon to exterminate all of the Black Haitians, & importing some new Afrikan slaves, who had clean slates, to begin France's slave colony experiment anew.

Dessalines wants to "frighten all those who would dare try to take Ayiti Cheri from us again; let us begin with the French. Let them tremble when they approach our coast, if not from the memory of those cruelties they perpetrated here, then from the terrible resolution that we will have made to put to death anyone born French whose profane foot soils the land of liberty."

Dessalines called himself & his merry men "revolutionary firebrands". He wants peace for his neighbors (Carribean, US, etc), but for the French: "Anathama to the French name! Eternal hatred of France!"

"Let us walk down another path; let us imitate those people who, extending their concern into the future, and dreading to leave an example of cowardice for posterity, preferred to be exterminated rather than lose their place as one of the world's free peoples."

Dessalines had all of his generals sign the Declaration of Independence. "...each of the assembled generals take a vow to forever renounce France, to die rather than live under its domination, and to fight for independence until their last breath."

Dessalines (Boisrond-Tonnerre) acknowledges there's many similarities b/t the Haitian people & the French: "our laws, our habits, our towns, everything still carries the stamp of the French." Dessalines even recognizes France as a major world power, saying that France "has fought all the nations, but has never defeated those who wanted to be free." That's one way to see how proud of a nation is of themselves: attempt to conquer them. If they resist, then they like themselves. If they do not, then they were ready to be invaded by somebody else anyways.

Dessalines tries to shame the Haitians who did not fight for their Independence struggle: ... "their assassins, these tigers still dripping with their blood, whose terrible presence indicts your lack of feeling and your guilty slowness in avenging them." Dessalines adds some voodoo shit, saying that the bones of the dead fathers of the cowards who did not fight w/ Dessalines will reject the coward's bones, meaning that they're not worthy of being laid to rest w/ their fathers' bones.

"Koupe tèt, brule kay."

On January 1, 1804, the Declaration of Haitian Independence did not mention Black, nor white, nor mulatto. Dessalines hatred was laser-focused upon France. Dessalines said he had no ill will towards his neighbors, including other islands occupied by foreign powers, & the US, who had lots of Englishmen who owned slaves, who were terrified of what Dessalines was showing the Black man the world over.

In the 1804 Declaration of Independence, Dessalines doesn't show himself having an articulate political perspective on instituting liberal democratic republics. Dessalines doesn't mention democracy, nor 3 branches of government, nor the rule of law. Dessalines doesn't mention the peaceful turnover of power, of establishing a government of, by, & for the people, with individual freedoms being protected by a Bill of Rights. For Dessalines, he was establishing that Independence meant exclusively freedom from the French oppressors, but not freedom from his own oppression: "you will sustain the liberty that you cherish and support the leader who commands you".

Dessalines did not have the ambition to exporting his revolution to other nations. Dessalines believed in having his Revolution in his 1 country. Revolution for 1, like Stalin. Not like Trotsky. Trotsky wanted the world to experience perpetual Revolutions. Dessalines did not care that there were Black slaves oppressed in the US & in other Caribbean islands.

American slaveowners were no doubt terrified of Dessalines, but they didn't have any rhyme or reason to be so terrified. Dessalines didn't even want to help other Caribbean islands, let alone start an invasion, or a propaganda campaign in Etazini.

"Diktatè yo ak tiran yo madichon jou a ke mwen te fèt."

"La Dessalinienne" is "The Dessalines Song". Haiti's national anthem is the "Dessalines Song".

"M'ap degaje mwen kon Mèt Jean-Jacques."