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Haiti Christophe's Kingdom and Pétion's Republic
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Artist's rendering of Henri (Henry) Christophe's palace,
Sans Souci at Cap-Haïtien
Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Many candidates succeeded Dessalines, but only three
approached his stature. Most Haitians saw Henry Christophe
as the
most logical choice. He had served as a commander under
Toussaint
and could therefore claim the former leader's mantle and
some of
his mystique. Christophe was black like Dessalines, but he
lacked
Dessalines's consuming racial hatred, and he was much more
pragmatic in this regard. His popularity, especially in
the
north, however, was not strong enough to offset the
mulatto
elite's growing desire to exert control over Haiti through
a
leader drawn from its own ranks. The mulattoes had two
other
candidates in mind: Gérin and Pétion, the presumed authors
of
Dessalines's assassination.
In November 1806, army officers and established
anciens
libres (pre-independence freedmen) landowners--an
electorate
dominated by the mulatto elite--elected a constituent
assembly
that was given the task of establishing a new government.
Members
of the assembly drafted a constitution that established a
weak
presidency and a comparatively strong legislature. They
selected
Christophe as president and Pétion as head of the
legislature,
the earliest attempt in Haiti to establish what would
later be
known as the politique de doublure (politics by
understudies). Under this system, a black leader served as
figurehead for mulatto elitist rule.
The only defect in the mulattoes' scheme was Christophe
himself, who refused to be content with his figurehead
role. He
mustered his forces and marched on Port-au-Prince. His
assault on
the city failed, however, mainly because Pétion had
artillery and
Christophe did not. Indignant, but not defeated,
Christophe
retreated to north of the Artibonite River and established
his
own dominion, which he ruled from Cap Haïtien (which he
would
later rechristen Cap Henry). Periodic and ineffectual
clashes
went on for years between this northern territory and
Pétion's
republic, which encompassed most of the southern half of
the
country and boasted Port-au-Prince as its capital.
The northern dominion became a kingdom in 1811, when
Christophe crowned himself King Henry I of Haiti. Unlike
Dessalines, who as emperor declared, "Only I am royal,"
Christophe installed a nobility of mainly black supporters
and
associates who assumed the titles of earls, counts, and
barons.
Below this aristocratic level, life in the northern
kingdom
was harsh, but not nearly so cruel as the conditions that
had
prevailed under Dessalines. Laborers remained bound to
their
plantations, but working hours were liberalized, and
remuneration
was increased to one-fourth of the harvested crop.
Christophe was a great believer in discipline. He
brought
African warriors from Dahomey (present-day Benin), whom he
dubbed
Royal Dahomets. They served as the primary agents of his
authority. Incorruptible and intensely loyal to
Christophe, the
Dahomets brought order to the countryside.
Many people were dissatisfied with the strictness of
Christophe's regime. As productivity and export levels
rose,
however, the quality of their lives improved in comparison
with
revolutionary and immediately post-revolutionary days.
In the more permissive southern republic, where Pétion
ruled
as president-for-life, people's lives were not improving.
The
crucial difference between the northern kingdom and the
southern
republic was the way each treated landownership.
Christophe gave
ownership of the bulk of the land to the state and leased
large
tracts to estate managers. Pétion took the opposite
approach and
distributed state-owned land to individuals in small
parcels.
Pétion began distributing land in 1809, when he granted
land to
his soldiers. Later on, Pétion extended the land-grant
plan to
other beneficiaries and lowered the selling price of state
land
to a level where almost anyone could afford to own land.
Pétion's decision proved detrimental in the shaping of
modern
Haiti
(see
Growth and Structure of the Economy
, ch. 8).
Smallholders
had little incentive to produce export crops instead of
subsistence crops. Coffee, because of its relative ease of
cultivation, came to dominate agriculture in the south.
The level
of coffee production, however, did not permit any
substantial
exports. Sugar, which had been produced in large
quantities in
Saint-Domingue, was no longer exported from Haiti after
1822.
When the cultivation of cane ceased, sugar mills closed,
and
people lost their jobs. In the south, the average Haitian
was an
isolated, poor, free, and relatively content yeoman. In
the
north, the average Haitian was a resentful but
comparatively
prosperous laborer. The desire for personal autonomy
motivated
most Haitians more than the vaguer concept of contributing
to a
strong national economy, however, and defections to the
south
were frequent, much to the consternation of Christophe.
Pétion, who died in 1818, left a lasting imprint upon
his
homeland. He ruled under two constitutions, which were
promulgated in 1806 and 1816. The 1806 document resembled
in many
ways the Constitution of the United States. The 1816
charter,
however, replaced the elected presidency with the office
of
president for life.
Pétion's largely laissez-faire rule did not directly
discriminate against blacks, but it did promote an
entrenched
mulatto elite that benefited from such policies as the
restoration of land confiscated by Dessalines and cash
reimbursement for crops lost during the last year of the
emperor's rule. Despite the egalitarianism of land
distribution,
government and politics in the republic remained the
province of
the elite, especially because the control of commerce came
to
replace the production of commodities as the focus of
economic
power in Haiti. Pétion was a beneficent ruler, and he was
beloved
by the people, who referred to him as "Papa Bon Coeur"
(Father
Good Heart). But Pétion was neither a true statesman nor a
visionary. Some have said that his impact on the nations
of South
America, through his support for rebels such as Simón
Bolívar
Palacios and Francisco de Miranda, was stronger and more
positive
than his impact on his own impoverished country.
Although Christophe sought a reconciliation after
Pétion's
death, the southern elite rejected the notion of
submission to a
black leader. Because the president-for-life had died
without
naming a successor, the republican senate selected
Pétion's
mulatto secretary and commander of the Presidential Guard
(Garde
Présidentielle), General Jean-Pierre Boyer, to fill the
post. In
the north, King Henry committed suicide in October 1820,
after
having suffered a severe stroke that caused him to lose
control
of the army, his main source of power. The kingdom, which
had
been ruled by an even narrower clique than the republic,
was left
ripe for the taking. Boyer claimed it on October 26 at Cap
Haïtien at the head of 20,000 troops. Haiti was once again
a
single nation.
Data as of December 1989
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