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79-489: Jean-Jacques Dessalines ( Haitian Creole : Jan-Jak Desalin ; French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʒak dɛsalin] ; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was the first Haitian Emperor , leader of the Haitian Revolution , and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution . Initially regarded as governor-general, Dessalines was later named Emperor of Haiti as Jacques I (1804–1806) by generals of

158-564: A "tool of education". The Constitution of 1987 names both Haitian Creole and French as the official languages, but recognizes Haitian Creole as the only language that all Haitians hold in common. French is spoken by only a small percentage of citizens. Even without government recognition, by the end of the 19th century, there were already literary texts written in Haitian Creole such as Oswald Durand 's Choucoune and Georges Sylvain 's Cric?   Crac! . Félix Morisseau-Leroy

237-447: A daily basis and is often heard in ordinary conversation. There is a large population in Haiti that speaks only Haitian Creole, whether under formal or informal conditions: French plays no role in the very formal situation of a Haitian peasant (more than 80% of the population make a living from agriculture) presiding at a family gathering after the death of a member, or at the worship of

316-546: A job. Dessalines was married to Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur from the city of Léogane . The wedding celebration took place in St-Marc Church and Toussaint Louverture was the witness. Marie-Claire was empress under the 1805 Constitution, and she has been credited with the concoction of the soup lendepandans or Pumpkin Independence Soup, now a UNESCO Patrimoine. She was older than her husband and died when she

395-577: A lieutenant in Papillon's army and followed him to Santo Domingo , occupying the eastern half of the island, where he enlisted to serve Spain's military forces against the French colony of Saint-Domingue. In that period, Dessalines met the rising military commander Toussaint Bréda (later known as Toussaint Louverture ), a mature man also born into slavery. He was fighting with Spanish forces on Hispaniola . These men wanted above all to defeat slavery. In 1794, after

474-499: A local rebel leader to lay down his arms per the recent ceasefire agreement, he immediately wrote Leclerc to denounce Louverture's conduct as 'extraordinary'." For this action, Dessalines and his spouse received gifts from Jean Baptiste Brunet . Louverture and a hundred members of his inner circle were arrested by Brunett on 7 June 1802, and deported to France. Louverture was imprisoned at Fort-de-Joux in Doubs, where he died on 7 April 1803, at

553-474: A result would try to learn French to communicate with one another, though most were denied a formal education. With the constant trafficking and enslavement of Africans, the language became increasingly distinct from French. The language was also picked up by other members of the community and became used by the majority of those born in what is now Haiti. In Saint-Domingue , people of all classes spoke Creole French . There were both lower and higher registers of

632-462: A sabre's blow and he was finally stabbed three times with a dagger, with the crowd shouting "the tyrant is killed". The mob desecrated and disfigured Dessalines' remains, which were abandoned on Government Square. There was resistance to providing him with a proper burial, but Défilée ( Dédée Bazile ), a black woman from a humble background, took the mutilated body of the Emperor and buried it. A monument at

711-560: A similar pronunciation. Many towns, places or sites have their official name being a translation of the Taino word. Haitian Creole developed in the 17th and 18th centuries in the colony of Saint-Domingue , in a setting that mixed speakers of various Niger–Congo languages with French colonists. In the early 1940s under President Élie Lescot , attempts were made to standardize the language. American linguistic expert Frank Laubach and Irish Methodist missionary H. Ormonde McConnell developed

790-467: A standardized Haitian Creole orthography . Although some regarded the orthography highly, it was generally not well received. Its orthography was standardized in 1979. That same year Haitian Creole was elevated in status by the Act of 18 September 1979. The Institut Pédagogique National established an official orthography for Creole, and slight modifications were made over the next two decades. For example,

869-534: A white Frenchwoman for a wife. Tell her, if you please. We won't kill anymore whites, brothers, friends, and camarades of ours. Your son hugs you, my dear mother. Congo, free and independent Haitian, at Trou-Salé. Haitian Creole and French have similar pronunciations and also share many lexical items. However, many cognate terms actually have different meanings. For example, as Valdman mentions in Haitian Creole: Structure, Variation, Status, Origin ,

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948-554: Is a French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12   million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it is the native language of the vast majority of the population. Northern, Central, and Southern dialects are the three main dialects of Haitian Creole. The Northern dialect is predominantly spoken in Cap-Haïtien , Central is spoken in Port-au-Prince , and Southern in

1027-642: Is also spoken in regions that have received migration from Haiti, including other Caribbean islands, French Guiana , Martinique , France , Canada (particularly Quebec ) and the United States (including the U.S. state of Louisiana ). It is related to Antillean Creole , spoken in the Lesser Antilles , and to other French-based creole languages. The word creole comes from the Portuguese term crioulo , which means "a person raised in one's house" and from

1106-423: Is not mutually intelligible with standard French, and it also has its own distinctive grammar. Some estimate that Haitians are the largest community in the world to speak a modern creole language , others estimate that more people speak Nigerian Pidgin . Haitian Creole's use in communities and schools has been contentious since at least the 19th   century. Some Haitians view French as inextricably linked to

1185-400: Is often considered the high language and Haitian Creole as the low language in the diglossic relationship of these two languages in society. That is to say, for the minority of Haitian population that is bilingual, the use of these two languages largely depends on the social context: standard French is used more in public, especially in formal situations, whereas Haitian Creole is used more on

1264-425: Is similar in phonetic structure. The phrase-structure is another similarity between Haitian Creole and French but differs slightly in that it contains details from its African substratum language. Both Haitian Creole and French have also experienced semantic change : words that had a single meaning in the 17th century have changed or have been replaced in both languages. For example, " Ki jan ou rele? " ("What

1343-419: Is your name?") corresponds to the French " Comment vous appelez‑vous ? ". Although the average French speaker would not understand this phrase, every word in it is in fact of French origin: qui "who"; genre "manner"; vous "you", and héler "to call", but the verb héler has been replaced by appeler in modern French and reduced to a meaning of "to flag down". Lefebvre proposed

1422-549: The Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot . In 1802, Louverture was betrayed and captured, and sent to prison in France, where he died. Thereafter, Dessalines became the leader of the revolution and Général-Chef de l' Armée Indigène on 18 May 1803. His forces defeated the French army at the Battle of Vertières on 18 November 1803. Saint-Domingue was declared independent on 29 November and then as the independent Republic of Haiti on 1 January 1804, under

1501-655: The Cayes area. The language emerged from contact between French settlers and enslaved Africans during the Atlantic slave trade in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti ) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although its vocabulary largely derives from 18th-century French, its grammar is that of a West African Volta-Congo language branch, particularly the Fongbe and Igbo languages. It also has influences from Spanish, English, Portuguese, Taíno, and other West African languages. It

1580-526: The Central Tano languages , and Bantu languages from Central Africa. Singler suggests that the number of Bantu speakers decreased while the number of Kwa speakers increased, with Gbe being the most dominant group. The first fifty years of Saint‑Domingue 's sugar boom coincided with emergent Gbe predominance in the French Caribbean . In the interval during which Singler hypothesizes the language evolved,

1659-628: The Latin creare , which means "to create, make, bring forth, produce, beget". In the New World , the term originally referred to Europeans born and raised in overseas colonies (as opposed to the European-born peninsulares ). To be "as rich as a Creole" at one time was a popular saying boasted in Paris during the colonial years of Haiti (then named Saint-Domingue ), for being the most lucrative colony in

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1738-402: The hyphen (-) is no longer used, nor is the apostrophe. The only accent mark retained is the grave accent in ⟨è⟩ and ⟨ò⟩ . The Constitution of 1987 upgraded Haitian Creole to a national language alongside French. It classified French as the langue d'instruction or "language of instruction", and Creole was classified as an outil d'enseignement or

1817-522: The multigraphs ⟨ch⟩ , ⟨ou⟩ , ⟨oun⟩ , and ⟨ui⟩ ). The Haitian Creole alphabet has no ⟨q⟩ or ⟨x⟩ ; when ⟨x⟩ is used in loanwords and proper nouns, it represents the sounds /ks/ , /kz/ , or /gz/ . (or à before an n) Victoria Montou Toya is believed to have been born in the Kingdom of Dahomey , in present-day Benin. Some sources indicate that she

1896-490: The sugarcane fields as a laborer, Dessalines rose to the rank of commandeur , or foreman. He worked on Duclos's plantation until he was about 30 years old. Still enslaved, Jean-Jacques was bought by a man with the last name of Dessalines, an affranchi or free man of color , who assigned his own surname to Jean-Jacques. From then on he was called Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines kept this name after he gained his freedom. He worked for that master for about three years. When

1975-407: The 17th century, French and Spanish colonizers produced tobacco , cotton , and sugar cane on the island. Throughout this period, the population was made of roughly equal numbers of engagés (white workers), gens de couleur libres (free people of colour) and slaves. The economy shifted more decisively into sugar production about 1690, just before the French colony of Saint-Domingue

2054-531: The Declaration of Independence in 1804, and declared himself emperor. On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves , Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence and renamed it " Ayiti " after the indigenous Taíno name. He had served as Governor-General of Saint-Domingue since 30 November 1803. After the declaration of independence, Dessalines named himself Governor-General-for-life of Haiti and served in that role until 22 September 1804, when he

2133-525: The Fongbe language, is a modern Gbe language native to Benin , Nigeria and Togo in West Africa . This language has a grammatical structure similar to Haitian Creole, possibly making Creole a relexification of Fon with vocabulary from French. The two languages are often compared: There are a number of Taino influences in Haitian Creole; many objects, fruit and animal names are either haitianized or have

2212-634: The French declared an end to slavery as a result of the French Revolution, Toussaint Louverture switched allegiances to the French. He fought for the French Republic against both the Spanish and British, who were trying to get control of the lucrative colony of Saint-Domingue. Dessalines followed, becoming a chief lieutenant to Toussaint Louverture and rising to the rank of brigadier general by 1799. Dessalines commanded many successful engagements, including

2291-475: The French legion to become allied with the enslaved Africans, as well as the Germans who did not take part in the slave trade. He granted them full citizenship under the constitution and classified them as black , along with all other Haitian citizens. Tensions remained with the minority of mixed-race or free people of color , who had gained some education and property during the colonial period. Jean-Jacques Duclos

2370-419: The French troops under his command. The brutal tactics of Leclerc's successor, Rochambeau , helped to unify rebel forces against the French. The rebels achieved a series of victories, culminating in the last major battle of the revolution, the Battle of Vertières . On 18 November 1803, black and mulatto forces under Dessalines and Pétion attacked the fort of Vertières, held by Rochambeau, near Cap-Français in

2449-560: The Gbe population was around 50% of the kidnapped enslaved population. Classical French ( français   classique ) and langues d'oïl ( Norman , Poitevin and Saintongeais dialects, Gallo and Picard ) were spoken during the 17th and 18th centuries in Saint‑Domingue , as well as in New France and French West Africa . Slaves lacked a common means of communication and as

Jean-Jacques Dessalines - Misplaced Pages Continue

2528-576: The Haitian Revolution. After the expulsion of French forces during the last phase of the Haitian Revolution, Dessalines ordered all remaining Europeans (overwhelmingly French people) in the new Republic of Haiti to be killed, men, women and children, including those who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population. Many free people of color were also killed. Yet, after declaring himself Governor-for-Life in 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines took his old master Dessalines into his house and gave him

2607-476: The Haitian Revolutionary army and ruled in that capacity until being assassinated in 1806. He spearheaded the resistance against French rule of Saint-Domingue , and eventually became the architect of the 1804 massacre of the remaining French residents of newly independent Haiti, including some supporters of the revolution. Alongside Toussaint Louverture , he has been referred to as one of the fathers of

2686-588: The South of Saint-Domingue, an area where wealthy gens de couleur were concentrated in plantations. Toussaint Louverture's forces had defeated them three years earlier. After the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot , Dessalines defected from his long-time ally Louverture and briefly sided with Leclerc, Pétion, and Rigaud. Several historians attribute Dessalines with being at least partially responsible for Louverture's arrest, as did Louverture's son Isaac. On 22 May 1802, after Dessalines "learned that Louverture had failed to instruct

2765-485: The age of 59. When it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery on Saint-Domingue, as they had on Guadeloupe , Dessalines and Pétion switched sides again in October 1802, to oppose the French. By November 1802, Dessalines had become the leader of the alliance with the blessing of Pétion, the most prominent of the affranchis , or free men of color. Leclerc died of yellow fever , which also killed many of

2844-2219: The blow from the hurricane put me in the position of getting it refitted again. The Entrepreneur. Is it taking on a lot of water? The Captain. The first days after the storm, we took on thirty six inches in twenty four hours; but in clear weather I made them take as much of it out as I was able, and attached it the best we possibly could; we're presently taking on not even thirteen inches. Haïti, l'an 1er, 5e, jour de l'indépendance. Chère maman moi, Ambassadeurs à nous, partis pour chercher argent France, moi voulé écrire à vous par yo, pour dire vous combien nous contens. Français bons, oublié tout. Papas nous révoltés contre yo, papas nous tués papas yo, fils yo, gérens yo, papas nous brûlées habitations yo. Bagasse, eux veni trouver nous! et dis nous, vous donner trente millions de gourdes à nous et nous laisser Haïti vous? Vous veni acheter sucre, café, indigo à nous? mais vous payer moitié droit à nous. Vous penser chère maman moi, que nous accepté marché yo. Président à nous embrassé bon papa Makau. Yo bu santé roi de France, santé Boyer , santé Christophe , santé Haïti, santé indépendance. Puis yo dansé Balcindé et Bai chi ca colé avec Haïtienes. Moi pas pouvé dire vous combien tout ça noble et beau. Venir voir fils à vous sur habitation, maman moi, li donné vous cassave, gouillave et pimentade. Li ben content si pouvez mener li blanche france pour épouse. Dis li, si ben heureuse. Nous plus tuer blancs, frères, amis, et camarades à nous. Fils à vous embrasse vous, chère maman moi. Congo, Haïtien libre et indépendant, au Trou-Salé. Haiti, 1st year, 5th day of independence. My dear mother, Our ambassadors left to get money from France, I want to write to you through them, to tell you how much we are happy. The French are good, they forgot everything. Our fathers revolted against them, our fathers killed their fathers, sons, managers, and our fathers burned down their plantations. Well, they came to find us, and told us, "you give thirty million gourdes to us and we'll leave Haiti to you? (And we replied) Will you come buy sugar, coffee, and indigo from us? You will pay only half directly to us." Do you believe my dear mother, that we accepted

2923-468: The captures of Jacmel , Petit-Goâve , Miragoâne and Anse-à-Veau . In 1801, Dessalines quickly ended an insurrection in the north led by Louverture's nephew, General Moyse. Dessalines gained a reputation for his " take no prisoners " policy, and for burning homes and entire villages to the ground. The rebellious slaves were able to restore most of Saint-Domingue to France, with Louverture in control. The French initially appointed him as governor-general of

3002-662: The colonialists. Many white colonialists planters and merchants, in addition to free people of color, had already fled the island as refugees, going to Cuba, the United States, and France. Between February and April 1804, Dessalines ordered a massacre of the remaining colonists in Haiti, an event that came to be called the 1804 Haiti massacre . In the Haitian Constitution of 1805, Dessalines declared Haiti to be an all-black nation and forbade white colonists from owning property or land there. Property that belonged to white colonists

3081-489: The colony. Louverture wanted Saint-Domingue to have more autonomy. He directed the creation of a new constitution to establish that, as well as rules for how the colony would operate under freedom. He also named himself governor-for-life, while still swearing his loyalty to France. The French government had been through changes after the Revolution and was by then led by Napoleon Bonaparte . His wife, Josephine de Beauharnais ,

3160-458: The convoy. The names of few women soldiers who served in the Haitian army during the revolution have been remembered. Toya is amongst the very few exceptions, alongside Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière and Sanité Belair . Toya is also remembered for her role in raising and teaching Dessalines. Kersuze Simeon-Jones writes that "For her lasting influence on Dessalines, Abdaraya Toya shall be remembered as

3239-465: The country's newly instated "Creole Day". Haitian Creole writers often use different literary strategies throughout their works, such as code-switching, to increase the audience's knowledge on the language. Literature in Haitian Creole is also used to educate the public on the dictatorial social and political forces in Haiti. Although both French and Haitian Creole are official languages in Haiti , French

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3318-537: The deal? Our President hugged the good papa Makau (the French ambassador). They drank to the health of the King of France , to the health of Boyer , to the health of Christophe , to the health of Haiti, to independence. Then they danced Balcindé and Bai chi ca colé with Haitian women. I can't tell you how much all of this is so beautiful and noble. Come see your son at his plantation, my mother, he will give you cassava, goyava, and pimentade. He will be happy if you can bring him

3397-404: The earthquake in 2010, basic education became free and more accessible to the monolingual masses. In the 2010s, the government has attempted to expand the use of Creole and improve the school system. Haitian Creole has a phonemic orthography with highly regular spelling, except for proper nouns and foreign words. According to the official standardized orthography, Haitian Creole is composed of

3476-599: The eastern part of the island, reaching Santo Domingo before retreating in the face of a French naval squadron. In declaring Haiti an independent country, Dessalines also confirmed the abolition of slavery in the new country. Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. Dessalines tried to keep the sugar industry and plantations running and producing without slavery. After having served enslaved under colonialists masters for 30 years, as well as having seen many atrocities, Dessalines did not trust

3555-411: The education system has been French-dominant. Except the children of elites, many had to drop out of school because learning French was very challenging to them and they had a hard time to follow up. The Bernard Reform of 1978 tried to introduce Creole as the teaching language in the first four years of primary school; however, the reform overall was not very successful. The use of Creole has grown; after

3634-449: The family lwa or voodoo spirits, or contacting a Catholic priest for a church baptism, marriage, or solemn mass, or consulting a physician, nurse, or dentist, or going to a civil officer to declare a death or birth. In most schools, French is still the preferred language for teaching. Generally speaking, Creole is more used in public schools, as that is where most children of ordinary families who speak Creole attend school. Historically,

3713-814: The following 32 symbols: ⟨a⟩ , ⟨an⟩ , ⟨b⟩ , ⟨ch⟩ , ⟨d⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨è⟩ , ⟨en⟩ , ⟨f⟩ , ⟨g⟩ , ⟨h⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨j⟩ , ⟨k⟩ , ⟨l⟩ , ⟨m⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , ⟨ng⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ò⟩ , ⟨on⟩ , ⟨ou⟩ , ⟨oun⟩ , ⟨p⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨s⟩ , ⟨t⟩ , ⟨ui⟩ , ⟨v⟩ , ⟨w⟩ , ⟨y⟩ , and ⟨z⟩ . The letters ⟨c⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are always associated with another letter (in

3792-702: The fort up should the French break through. The defenders inflicted extensive casualties on the attacking army, but after a 20-day siege, they were forced to abandon the fort due to a shortage of food and munitions. The rebels forced their way through the enemy lines and into the Cahos Mountains, with their army still largely intact. The French soldiers under Leclerc were accompanied by mulatto troops led by Alexandre Pétion and André Rigaud , free gens de couleur from Saint-Domingue. Pétion and Rigaud, both sons of wealthy white fathers, had opposed Louverture's leadership. They had tried to establish separate independence in

3871-585: The grandmother, mother, and aunt-figure who helped prepare the Liberator of African descendants enslaved throughout the Americas". In 2023, she was one of the figures featured at the Panthéon , in Paris , in a double art and history exhibition highlighting little-known personalities who contributed to the abolition of the slave system. This Haitian biographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This biographical article related to

3950-463: The island, an army and ships led by General Charles Leclerc . Louverture and Dessalines fought against the invading French forces, with Dessalines fighting them at the battle for which he is most famous, Crête-à-Pierrot . During the 11 March 1802 battle, Dessalines and his 1,300 men defended a small fort against 18,000 attackers. To inspire his troops at the start of the battle, he waved a lit torch near an open powder keg and declared that he would blow

4029-916: The language, depending on education and class. Creole served as a lingua franca throughout the West Indies . L'Entrepreneur. Mo sorti apprend, Mouché, qué vou té éprouvé domage dan traversée. Le Capitaine. Ça vrai. L'Entr. Vou crére qué navire à vou gagné bisoin réparations? Le C. Ly té carené anvant nou parti, mai coup z'ouragan là mété moué dan cas fair ly bay encor nion radoub. L'Entr. Ly fair d'iau en pile? Le C. Primié jours aprés z'orage, nou té fair trente-six pouces par vingt-quatre heurs; mai dan beau tem mo fair yo dégagé ça mo pu, et tancher miyor possible, nou fair à présent necqué treize pouces. The Entrepreneur. I just learned, sir, that you garnered damages in your crossing. The Captain. That's true. The Entrepreneur. Do you believe that your ship needs repair? The Captain. It careened before we left, but

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4108-481: The leadership of Dessalines, chosen by a council of generals to assume the office of governor-general. He ordered the 1804 Haitian massacre of the remaining French population in Haiti, resulting in the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people, including women and children, and an exodus of thousands of refugees. Some modern historians classify the massacre as a genocide due to its systemic nature. Notably, he excluded surviving Polish Legionnaires , who had defected from

4187-442: The legacy of colonialism and language compelled on the population by conquerers, while Creole has been maligned by francophones as a miseducated person's French. Until the late 20th   century, Haitian presidents spoke only standard French to their fellow citizens, and until the 21st century, all instruction at Haitian elementary schools was in modern standard French, a second language to most of their students. Haitian Creole

4266-409: The light-skinned elite, as gens de couleur were most likely to have been educated. Disaffected members of Dessalines's administration, including Alexandre Pétion and Henri Christophe , began a conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor. Dessalines was assassinated north of the capital city, Port-au-Prince , at Larnage (now known as Pont-Rouge), on 17 October 1806, on his way to fight the rebels. His body

4345-414: The momentous meeting at Bois Caiman in 1791. During the slave rebellion and civil war, she fought as a soldier in active service; on at least one documented occasion, she commanded soldiers in action during battle. At the head of about fifty slaves, there was Toya, with a scythe in her hand, a hoe on one shoulder and an indigo knife hanging from the belt of her jacket. Under Toya's command, one group

4424-472: The most prominent mulatto figure, but Pétion refused under the pretext that she was in a relationship with Chancy, one of Toussaint's nephews. Euphémie Daguile, one of his best known concubines , was the choreographer of the Karabiyen dance known also as Jacques' favorite dance. It is still danced by Haitian families all over the country. Dessalines had two brothers, Louis and Joseph Duclos, who also later took

4503-511: The nation of Haiti. Dessalines was directly responsible for the country, and, under his rule, Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. Dessalines served as an officer in the French army when Saint-Domingue was fending off Spanish and British incursions. Later he rose to become a commander in the revolt against France. As Toussaint Louverture 's principal lieutenant, he led many successful engagements, including

4582-555: The nation. His forces were strict in enforcing this, to the extent that some blacks felt as if they were again enslaved. Dessalines also believed in the tight regulation of foreign trade, which was essential for Haiti's sugar and coffee -based export economy. Like Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines encouraged merchants from Britain and the United States over those from France. For his administration, Dessalines needed literate and educated officials and managers. He placed in these positions well-educated Haitians, who were disproportionately from

4661-466: The north. Rochambeau and his troops surrendered the next day. On 4 December 1803, the French colonial army of Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered its last remaining territory to Dessalines's forces. This officially ended the only slave rebellion in world history which successfully established an independent nation. In the process, Dessalines became arguably the most successful military commander in Haiti's struggle against Napoleonic France. Dessalines promulgated

4740-640: The northern entrance of the Haitian capital marks the place where the Emperor was killed. This assassination did not solve the tensions within the Haitian government. His murder left a power vacuum and civil war ensued. Pétion and Christophe temporarily partitioned Haiti between them, with Pétion controlling the South, where there were more gens de couleur libre. Haitian Creole Haitian Creole ( / ˈ h eɪ ʃ ən ˈ k r iː oʊ l / ; Haitian Creole: kreyòl ayisyen , [kɣejɔl ajisjɛ̃] ; French: créole haïtien , [kʁe.ɔl a.i.sjɛ̃] ), or simply Creole (Haitian Creole: kreyòl ),

4819-516: The other, helped by a few more soldiers who arrived in time, took Toya prisoner. In 1804 Dessalines became Emperor of Haiti , and he gave Toya the title of Duchess. When Toya was dying, the emperor urged his doctor to save her life, stating that she was his aunt who had shared his sufferings and emotions since before the revolution. She was given a state funeral with a procession of eight sergeants and Empress Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite dressed in black between two non-commissioned officers led

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4898-545: The slave uprising of 1791 began, it spread across the Plaine-du-Nord . This was an area of very large sugar cane plantations, where the mass of enslaved Africans lived and worked. Mortality was so high that French colonial planters continued to buy more enslaved people from Africa during the eighteenth century. Dessalines received his early military training from a woman whose name was either Victoria Montou or Akbaraya Tòya. Dessalines became increasingly embittered toward both

4977-410: The surname Dessalines. Two of his brothers' sons became high-ranking members of the post-Revolutionary Haitian government. In 1791, along with thousands of other enslaved persons, Jean-Jacques Dessalines joined the slave rebellion of the northern plains led by Jean François Papillon and Georges Biassou . This rebellion was the first action of what would become the Haitian Revolution. Dessalines became

5056-415: The theory of relexification , arguing that the process of relexification (the replacement of the phonological representation of a substratum lexical item with the phonological representation of a superstratum lexical item, so that the Haitian creole lexical item looks like French, but works like the substratum language(s)) was central in the development of Haitian Creole. The Fon language , also known as

5135-497: The traditions of African diasporic kinship, rather than a direct biological link. Toya introduced Jean-Jacques Dessalines to hand-to-hand combat and knife throwing. Plantation owner Duclos was wary of their closeness, and decided to transfer Victoria Montou to the Déluger dwelling, selling Jean-Jacques to a black freedman named Dessalines. Toya was reportedly a skilled warrior, midwife and healer, who organised several rebellions before

5214-542: The whites and gens de couleur libres (the mixed-race residents of Saint-Domingue) in the years of conflict during the revolution. Haitian insurgents fought against French colonists and foreign troops in Saint-Domingue. During the years of warfare and changing rule, these included French, British, and Spanish forces. All three European nations had colonies in the Caribbean , where their control and revenues were threatened by

5293-422: The word for "frequent" in French is fréquent ; however, its cognate in Haitian Creole frekan means 'insolent, rude, and impertinent' and usually refers to people. In addition, the grammars of Haitian Creole and French are very different. For example, in Haitian Creole, verbs are not conjugated as they are in French. Additionally, Haitian Creole possesses different phonetics from standard French; however, it

5372-502: The world. The noun Creole , soon began to refer to the language spoken there as well, as it still is today. Haitian Creole contains elements from both the Romance group of Indo-European languages through its superstrate , French , as well as influences from African languages . There are many theories on the formation of the Haitian Creole language. One theory estimates that Haitian Creole developed between 1680 and 1740. During

5451-449: Was 100 years old. She was referred to as the adopted wife of the Nation in a letter by Pétion after the Emperor's assassination. The couple had or adopted a total number of 16 children including Jacques' from the previous relationship. Innocent, one of his sons, has a fort named in his honor. Dessalines offered one of his daughters to Pétion in an attempt to relieve racial tensions, as Pétion was

5530-438: Was a soldier there. It is unclear precisely when she was abducted and enslaved, or when she arrived in Haiti. Before the revolution, Toya worked alongside Dessalines as a slave on the estate of Henry Duclos. She was described as intelligent and energetic, and shared a close relationship with Dessalines and the same hatred toward slavery. Dessalines called her his aunt, which may have reflected their closeness as expressed within

5609-462: Was another influential author of Haitian Creole work. Since the 1980s, many educators, writers, and activists have written literature in Haitian Creole. In 2001, Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry was published. It was the first time a collection of Haitian Creole poetry was published in both Haitian Creole and English. On 28 October 2004, the Haitian daily Le Matin first published an entire edition in Haitian Creole in observance of

5688-496: Was born into slavery on Cormier, a plantation near Grande-Riviere-du-Nord , Saint-Domingue. His enslaved father had adopted the surname from his owner Henri Duclos. The names of Jean-Jacques's parents, as well as their region of origin in Africa , are not known. Most slaves trafficked to Saint-Domingue were from west and central West Africa. He later took the surname Dessalines, after a free man of color who had purchased him. Working in

5767-453: Was declared to be "by incontestable right confiscated to the benefit of the state." Dessalines enforced a harsh regimen of plantation labor, described by the historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot as caporalisme agraire (agrarian militarism). As had Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines demanded that all blacks work either as soldiers to defend the nation or as laborers on the plantations, in order to raise commodity crops for export and to help sustain

5846-719: Was dismembered and mutilated. His body was picked up by Marie-Sainte Dédé Bazile and buried in the Cimetière intérieur of Church Ste-Anne and a tomb was raised by Étienne Gérin's wife with the inscription: Ci-git Dessalines, mort à 48 ans (Here lies Dessalines, died at 48 years old). His body was later moved to the Autel de la Patrie (Altar of the Nation) in the Champs-de-Mars alongside Alexandre Pétion's body. The exact circumstances of Dessalines' death are uncertain. Some historians claim that he

5925-485: Was from a slave-owning family. But many white and mulatto planters had been lobbying the government to reimpose slavery in Saint-Domingue. Napoleon was committed to restoring slavery in Saint-Domingue in an effort to restore the basis of the labor to cultivate and process the great sugar crops. Saint-Domingue generated the highest profits of any of the French colonies prior to the Revolution in 1791. The French dispatched an expeditionary force in 1802 to restore French rule to

6004-413: Was killed at Pétion's house at Rue l'Enterrement, after a meeting to negotiate the power and the future of the young nation. Some reports say that he was arrested and was dealt a deadly blow to the head. Another report says he was ambushed and killed at first fire. Yet another account recalls a brutal attack on Dessalines by his men. It says he was shot at twice and hit once. Then his head was split open by

6083-490: Was officially recognized in 1697. The sugar crops needed a much larger labor force, which led to an increase in slave trafficking . In the 18th century an estimated 800,000 West Africans were enslaved and brought to Saint-Domingue. As the slave population increased, the proportion of French-speaking colonists decreased. Many African slaves in the colony had come from Niger-Congo -speaking territory, and particularly speakers of Kwa languages , such as Gbe from West Africa and

6162-432: Was proclaimed Emperor of Haiti by the generals of the Haitian Revolutionary army. He was crowned Emperor Jacques I in a coronation ceremony on 6 October in the city of Le Cap (now Cap-Haïtien ). On 20 May 1805, his government released the imperial constitution, naming Jean-Jacques Dessalines emperor for life with the right to name his successor. In 1805, after crowning himself Emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines invaded in

6241-420: Was sent to deforestation, another to plowing, others to harvest grain and put it in large baskets. She had a strong voice, and she issued commands like a general.... A small number of rebels, under the command of Toya, was quickly surrounded and taken prisoner by the regiment. During the battle, Toya escaped, pursued by two soldiers. A struggle took place between them and Toya; she injured one of them seriously, but

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