JEAN JACQUES

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution.

Under Dessalines, Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. 🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹

Upon declaring independence after defeating the British, Spanish, and the French, Haiti claimed a singular place in world history. Haiti became the first modern state to abolish slavery, the first state in the world to be formed from a successful revolt of the lower classes (in this case slaves), the first independent nation in the Caribbean, the first Black republic in the world, and the second republic in the Western Hemisphere–only twenty-eight years behind the United States.

Haiti is literally still paying for securing their freedom, as the French crown "extorted" 90 million gold francs (the equivalent of $21 billion U.S.) for losses in slaves and property and “illegitimately forced a people who had won their independence in a successful slave revolt, to pay again for their freedom.”