The following appears as an appendix in my edited volume The Haitian Declaration of Independence: Creation, Context, and Legacy (UVA, 2016), pages 239-247. It is a transcription of the Haitian Declaration of Independence according to the official printed copies held at The National Archives of the United Kingdom as well as a translation that was produced The Declaration has three parts. In the first part, the Generals of the Haitian army sign their names to an oath swearing to renounce the French yoke or die rather than to live under French domination. In part two, General-in-Chief Jean-Jacques Dessalines addresses the Haitians in an impassioned defense of independence. A translation of the Haitian Declaration of Independence by Laurent Dubois and John Garrigus as published in: Slave Revolution in the Caribbean 1789 – 1804: A Brief History with Documents. See the original document. The Haitian Declaration of Independence, 1804 The Commander in Chief to the People of Hayti Citizens, It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land The memory of the quasi-genocidal policies of the French during the 1802–1803 war for independence shaped the Haitian declaration and the future policies of the Haitian government. Let us vow to ourselves, to posterity, to the entire universe, to forever renounce France, and to die rather than live under its domination; to fight until our last breath for the independence of our country. Editor’s Note: On January 1, 1804, after a protracted war with forces sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to quell its uprising, Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue) declared its independence from France. It became the second colony in the Americas, following the United States, to make a formal break with its ruling country. There are several similarities and differences between the American and Haitian Declarations of Independence. The Haitian Declaration of Independence seems to focus primarily on freeing themselves from the French’s influence and slavery. Several times throughout the document, the French are referred to as a tyranny. The Haitian Declaration of Independence (French: Acte de l'Indépendance de la République d'Haïti) was proclaimed on 1 January 1804 in the port city of Gonaïves by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marking the end of 13-year long Haitian Revolution. The Commander in Chief to the People of Haiti Citizens: It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries; it is not enough to have restrained those ever-evolving factions that one after another mocked the specter of liberty that France dangled before you. We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the The Haitian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on January 1st, 1804, in the port city of Gonaïves by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marking the end of the 13-year-long Haitian Revolution. Part Two, “Haitian Independence and the Atlantic,” locates the Haitian independence movement within the Atlantic revolutionary context. Jeremy D. Popkin addresses the connections between the Declaration and violence against the French who remained in postindependence Haiti. The Haitian Declaration of Independence points out the motive for the Declaration is to abolish slavery. Even though every Declaration argues for liberty, each has its own meaning of freedom. Capitalism is a large reason for the Revolutions during this period of time. The American Revolution is just the beginning of the Revolutionary Era. Haitian Declaration of Independence and the will of Monsieur de la Martinier mentioning key Haitian revolutionaries. The Rubenstein Library holds two documents from the papers of Jean Baptiste Pierre Aime Colheux de Longpré, a French colonizer of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Two hundred and ten years ago, on 1 January 1804, Haiti formally declared its independence from France at the end of a bitter war against forces sent by Napoléon Bonaparte. This was only the second time, after the United States in 1776, that an American colony had declared independence, so the event called for pomp and circumstance. In The Haitian Declaration of Independence: Creation, Context, and Legacy, Julia Gafield has gathered a diverse collection of essays that both engage with extant historiography on the Haitian Revolution and, crucially, push discussions forward into state making after 1804. Few Atlantic schol-ars are unaware of the flourishing scholarship on the course and impact of the revolutionary ighting The Declaration has three parts. In the first part, the Generals of the Haitian army sign their names to an oath swearing to renounce the French yoke or die rather than to live under French domination. In part two, General-in-Chief Jean-Jacques Dessalines addresses the Haitians in an impassioned defense of independence. I found this translation of the Haitian Declaration of Independence in the Admiralty Records from the Jamaica Station (ADM 1/254) (it was next to the paper that noted that the broadside copy had been removed and recataloged). I think it's interesting to read translations like this because it reveals how contemporaries interpreted the text. One The Haitian Revolution or revolting of slaves in France (1791–1804) was a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Republic of Haiti. Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), series of conflicts between Haitian slaves, colonists, the armies of the British and French colonizers, and a number of other parties. Through the struggle, the Haitian people ultimately won independence from France and thereby became the first country to be founded by former slaves. This declaration by the army of black Haitians, of liberty from French colonial rule or death, made on 1 January 1804, carries strong echoes of the rhetoric of the American Revolution some thirty years earlier.
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