Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806)

August 01, 2007 
/ Contributed By: Deborah McNally

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Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Louis Rigaud

Public domain image

Reviled for his brutality yet honored as one of the founding fathers of Haiti, Jean-Jacques Dessalines was second in command under Toussaint Lโ€™Overture during the Haitian Revolution and was the general who emerged after Lโ€™Overtureโ€™s capture to lead the insurgents in declaring Haitian independence on January 1, 1804.

Like Lโ€™Overture, Dessalines was born into slavery in the French colony of Saint Dominque. Born to Congolese parents, Dessalines was originally given the name Duclos, after the plantationโ€™s owner.ย  He later adopted the surname Dessalines after the free black landowner who purchased him and from whom he escaped. Unlike Lโ€™Overture, Dessalines was treated harshly as a slave and violence became a way of life that marked him throughout his military and brief political career contributing both to his success on the battlefield and to his eventual downfall.

Unable to read or write, Dessalines was nonetheless a quick study under Lโ€™Overture earning the nickname โ€œthe Tigerโ€ for his fury in battle.ย  In 1794 Dessalinesโ€™s military skill and leadership were vital to Lโ€™Overtureโ€™s success in capturing the Spanish-controlled eastern half of the island, and in return, Lโ€™Overture made him governor of the south.

For a brief period after Lโ€™Overtureโ€™s capture in 1802 Dessalines appeared to be siding with the French, but the move was nothing more than a ruse designed to trick the French into trusting Dessalines so that he could regroup the insurgents and continue the fight for independence.ย  It was successful.ย  When Dessalines proclaimed Saint Dominqueโ€™s independence, he chose the name Haiti for his country, the name used by the islandโ€™s aboriginal inhabitants.

Independence, however, did not bring peace, and from January 1804 until his death two years later, Dessalines โ€œgoverned with terror.โ€ย  Like Lโ€™Overture, Dessalines had himself appointed governor โ€œfor life.โ€ย  He later changed his title to emperorโ€”emulating Napoleonโ€”and crowned his wife, Claire-Heureuse, empress.ย  Fearing a French resurgence and the reinstatement of slavery that would accompany it, he ordered the massacre of approximately 5,000 of the islandโ€™s white men, women, and children declaring โ€œI have saved my country. I have avenged America.โ€ย  It was a move that two of Dessaline’s most influential generals, Alexandre Pรฉtion and Henri Christophe, could not countenance and one that spoke to the growing political instability of the new government.

On August 17, 1806, Dessalines met a violent death at the hands of his lieutenants when he was ambushed; his body was dragged through the streets before it was dismembered. The example of the Haitian Revolution and leaders such as Lโ€™Overture and Dessalines has become both an inspiration and a warning about the โ€œpossibilities and dangers of revolution.โ€

About the Author

Author Profile

Deborah McNally received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2013 and currently teaches courses on Everyday Life in Nineteenth-Century America and Salem Witchcraft in Colonial New England at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests include slavery, race, gender, and womenโ€™s history.Her dissertation, โ€œWithin Patriarchy: Gender and Power in Massachusettsโ€™s Congregational Churches, 1630-1730,โ€ explores the relationship between gender and power in the religious culture of Massachusettsโ€™s Congregational churches during the seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. It demonstrates that within a decidedly patriarchal culture, women were both key participants in and patrons of their individual congregations and shapers of both their and their familyโ€™s religious experience throughout the seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries.

Debbie served as the webmaster of Blackpast.org from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2009 to 2013.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

McNally, D. (2007, August 01). Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/dessalines-jean-jacques-1758-1806/

Source of the Author's Information:

Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Universityย  Press, 2004); Martin Ros, Night of Fire: The Black Napoleon and the Battle for Haiti (New York: Sarpedon, 1994).

Further Reading