"Henri Christophe"(Who chose for himself an anglicized name Henry Christopher) (October 61776-October 81820)

Was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution,which succeeded in gaining independence from France in 1804.On February 17 1807,after the creation of a separate nation in the north of Haiti,Christophe was elected President of the State of Haiti on March 26 1811,he was proclaimed  Henry I,King of Haiti.He is also known for constructing the Citadelle Laferriere.Born Christopher Henry,probably in Grenada,the son of Christophe, a freeman, he was brought to Saint-Domingue as a slave in the northern region.In 1779 he may have served with the French forces as a drummer boy in the American Revolution in the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Dominigue,a regiment composed of gens de couleur (mixed-races residents of Saint-Domingue).They fought at the Siege of Savannah.As an adult he worked as a mason,sailor,stable hand,waiter,and billiard maker.Henri worked in and managed a hotel restaurant in Cap-Francais,the capital of the French colony of Saint-Domingue,where he became skilled at dealing with the grand blancs,as the wealthy white white French planters were called.The political skills he learned at this time also served him well when he became an officer in the military and leader in the country.He was said to have obtained his freedom as a young man,before the Slave Uprising of 1791.Sometime after he had settled in Haiti he brought his sister Marie,there, where she married.Beginning with the slave uprising of 1791,Henri distinguished himself in the Haitian Revolution and quickly rose to be and officer.He fought for years with Toussaint Louverture in the north,helping defeat the French,the Spanish,British,and finally French national troops.By 1802 he was a general under Toussaint Louverture.French troops posted on the eastern part of the island (mainly in Santo Domingo),led by French Marie Louis Ferrand,started mobilizing.Marie ordered his troops to seize all black children of both sexes below the age of 14 years old to be sold as slaves.This provoked Dessalines,who decided to invade the eastern side,looting several towns like Azua and Moca and finally launching a siege to the city of Santo Domingo,the stronghold of the French.The Santo Domingo towns of Moca and Santiago witnessed some of the most barbaric acts of the passing of Haitian general Henri Christophe.One account of the era,(Memoirs of my leaving the island of Santo Domingo the 28th of April 1805)contemporary barrister Gaspar de Arredonodo y Pichardo,reveals that "40[Dominican] children had their throats cut at the Moca's church,and the bodies found at the presbytery,which is the space that encircles the church's altar...This tragedy,without peer in the history of the island,was just of many documented accounts of the genocide perpetrated against the Dominicans by General Christophe,under the orders Jean,who was on retreat from the Spanish side of the island after their bloody (and failed) invasion attempt of 1805.On April 6 1805,having gathered all his troops,General Christophe took all of the male prisoners to the local cemetery and proceeded to slit their throats,among them Presbyter Vasquez and 20 more priest.Later he set on fire the whole town along with its five churches.On his way out he took along,fashioned like a herd,249 women,430 girls,and 318 boys,a steep figure considering the relatively low population of the town at that time.Accounts by Alejandro Lienas report that,besides the 997 prisoners he took from Santiago alone, some other towns where not so fortunate,since "Monte Plata,San Pedro and Cotui were reduced to ashes,and their residents either had their throats slit or were taken captive by the thousands,like farm animals,tied up and getting beaten on their way to Haiti."After failing to capture the strategically important city of Santo Domingo,which was garrisoned by the French army,Jean suffered a huge setback from this military failure (Santo Domingo being his main objective of the whole incursion),and was forced to retreat back to Haiti.Before he left,and quoted from his own military gazette,"he gave the order to its commanders posted in conquered communities,to round up all dwellers and subdue  them to prison,in so,at first command,have them stomped by mules and other beasts upon arriving to the Haitian side.After the French deported Toussaint Louverture France,and fighting continued under the Vicomte de Rochambeau,Jean Jacques Dessaliness recognized that the French wanted to re-enslave the local black population.He led the the fight to defeat French forces.As leader,Jean declared the independence Saint-Domingue with its new name of Haiti in 1804.In 1806 Henri was aware of a plot to kill Jean;seeing an opportunity to seize power for himself,he did not warm the self-proclaimed Emperor The plot was said to involve Alexandre Petion,a competing "gens de couleur"as a half -white,Alexandre held a weak position among the majority of black leaders and population and possibly viewed assassination as the surest way of removing Jean.This allegation has not been proven;other sources clear him from the plot and say that he has been tied to it only on the basis of such conjectures.In any case,Jean assassinated, and Christophe was elected to the newly-created position of presidents,but without any real power.Felling insulted,he retreated with his followers to the Plaine-du-Nord of Haiti and created a separate government there.Christophe had suspected that he would be next to be assassinated.In 1807 he declared himself president and Generalissimo of the armies of land and sea of  the State of Haiti.Alexandre became President of the "Republic of Haiti"in the south backed by General Jean Pirre Boyer,who had control of the southern armies.In 1811 Henri made the northern state of Haiti a Kingdom and had himself crowned by Corneil Breuil,archbishop of Milot.An edict April 1 1811 gave him his full title as Henri ,by the grace of God and constitutional law of the state,King of Haiti,Sovereign of Tortuga ,Gonave,and other adjacent islands,Destroyed of tyranny,Regenerator and Benefactor of the Haiti nation,Creator of her moral,political,and martial institutions,first crowned monarch of the New World,Defender of the faith,Founder of the Royal Military Order of Saint Henry.He renamed his legitimate son Jacques-Victor Henry heir apparent with the title Prince Royal of Haiti.Even in documents written in French,the king's name was usually give an English spelling.He had another son was a colonel in his army.Henri built for his own six chateaux,eight palaces and massive Citiadelle Laferriere,still considered one of the wonders of the era.Nine years later,at the end of his monarchy,he increased the number of designated nobility from its original 87 to 134.One of his first acts as king was to create and elaborate Haitian peerage (nobility) of his own design,originally consisting of 4 Princes,8 Dukes,22 Counts,40 Barons,and 14 Knights("chevaliers").Henri also founded a College of Arms to provide armorial bearings for the newly ennobled.This provoked mocking in Europe,where the term "Haitian nobility"became a synonym for improvised aristocracy created by an upstart government.Despite his efforts to promote education and establish a legal system called the Code Henry,King Henri was an unpopular autocratic monarch.In addition,his realm was constantly challenged by that of the South,which was ruled by gens de couleur.Toward the end of Henri reign,public sentiment was sharply against what many perceived to be his feudal policies,which he intended to use to develop the country.And infirm at age fifty-three King Henri shot himself with a silver bullet rather than face the possibility of a coup.He was buried within the Citadelle Laferriere.