Royaume d'Hayti. Déclaration du roi.
Author: Henri Christophe, King of Haiti, 1767-1820
Place of Publication: Au Cap-Henry , i.e. Cap-Haïtien
Publisher: Chez P. Roux, imprimeur du roi.
Publication Date: [1816]
Physical Description: 16, 30 p. ; 27 cm. (4to)
Description:
Henri Christophe led a colorful life before he even arrived in Saint-Domingue. Unlike Toussaint, Dessalines and Ogé, he was born on the island of Saint Christopher, the son of a freeman from the island of Grenada. There is some speculation that he may have been of mixed race. Nevertheless, he was sold into slavery and brought to Saint-Domingue to work in plantations in the northern part of the island. He may have served with the French forces as a drummer boy in the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, a company comprised of 800 foot soldiers, whose purpose was to aid the American colonists in their revolution against the British. If he was part of this company, he almost certainly would have fought at the Siege of Savannah, a series of campaigns from September 16, 1779 to October 18, 1779 intended to recapture the town from Great Britain. When he was older, he apparently managed a hotel restaurant in Cap-Français, which might have prepared him politically when he entered the army and achieved the rank of officer. Even before the Revolution, he supposedly obtained his freedom. By 1802 he was a general under the command of Toussaint. In 1811 he became King of Haiti. This pamphlet, dated 20 novembrs [sic] 1816, l'an treizième de l'indépendance, has a grand engraved armorial coat of arms with two crowned lions holding a shield; the shield itself is crowned and beneath it is a phoenix with scroll reading "Je renais de mes cendres" or "am reborn from my ashes" and another scroll underneath the lions reading "Dieu ma cause et mon epée" or "God my cause and my sword." The royal declaration represents a protest against
Notes: 1-SIZE E816 .H521r