Cold Open

It’s early March 1802, at Fort Crête-à-Pierrot, in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean.

43-year-old General Jean-Jacques Dessalines squints against the sun as he peers through a gap in the fort’s whitewashed walls. Several hundred yards away, thousands of French soldiers stand in neat lines, ready to attack. General Dessalines has no intention of surrendering the fortress his fellow rebels now hold. But when he turns to his men, he sees doubt etched on their faces.

General Dessalines seizes a torch and holds it high above his head. His voice booms across the courtyard as he reminds his troops that they are fighting not just for the fort, but for their freedom. If the French attackers make it inside, those rebels who survive will be in chains before morning.

All the men in the fort, including Dessalines, were once enslaved. But ten years ago, a rebellion broke out in Saint-Domingue — and ever since, they’ve been fighting a brutal war of independence against the French empire.

Now, as their enemy closes in, the rebels roar in approval of their commander’s words.

But almost as if the French hear their defiance, the artillery outside opens fire.

General Dessalines doesn’t flinch amid the bombardment. He stands tall, despite the explosions and shrapnel flying through the air. Because he’s determined to lead his people to freedom from their colonial masters — or die trying.

Unfortunately for the rebels in the fort, bravery alone cannot repel cannon fire. After resisting as long as he can, General Jean-Jacques Dessalines will have to retreat. But his struggle will continue, and soon, the rebels will proclaim the defeat of the French and the birth of a new nation: Haiti. General Dessalines’ fortunes will rise with it — until he meets his own downfall at the hands of his own people, on October 17th, 1806.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is October 17th, 1806: The Assassination of the Emperor of Haiti.

Act One: The Black Jacobins

It’s May 1802, in rural Saint-Domingue, two months after the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot.

General Jean-Jacques Dessalines rides a half-starved horse along a dusty road. His uniform is worn and filthy after weeks of hiding in the mountains.

Dessalines pulls on the reins, and his horse comes to a stop. Waiting at the roadside is 58-year-old Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the rebellion.

General Dessalines dismounts and salutes his old friend, but Louverture responds only with a weary nod. He’s exhausted too, and he motions to a wooden table under the shade of a mahogany tree — the location for a makeshift council of war.

General Dessalines has been fighting alongside Louverture for eleven years, ever since enslaved laborers first rose in rebellion. Both men quickly became leaders of the rebellion against French colonial rule, and after a decade of brutal war, they finally won victory. Louverture named himself Governor of Saint-Domingue, with Dessalines as his chief general.

But the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte refused to accept defeat. He dispatched an expeditionary force led by his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc. He was to retake Saint-Domingue from the rebels. And faced with overwhelming French firepower, the rebels had to abandon their strongholds and melt into the mountains. Now, General Dessalines and Louverture are meeting in secret to discuss their next moves.

Dessalines wants to fight on, no matter the cost. So, he’s shocked when Louverture declares that the war is already lost. The rebels are exhausted after ten years of fighting, and Louverture has agreed to a peace deal with General Leclerc. He’s going to surrender—and as part of the deal, General Dessalines’ soldiers will be folded into the French army.

Dessalines shakes his head, astonished that Louverture has betrayed the cause in this way. But he has no choice. He follows orders, surrenders his army, and swears an oath to serve the French.

General Leclerc wastes no time in testing Dessalines’ pledge. He orders him to arrest his former commander, Toussaint Louverture. Dessalines always thought Louverture was a fool to trust the French, and this new order proves it. But it also leaves Dessalines in a difficult position. Arresting his old commander will destroy his reputation among his own men. So, he responds to General Leclerc’s orders with a compromise. He won’t arrest Louverture himself—but he won’t do anything to stop it either.

Within days, Louverture is detained and deported to a prison in France. General Dessalines and his soldiers are then sent into the mountains to round up any rebels who have not yet surrendered. And after being taken into custody, dozens of rebels are executed, with others put to work on sugar plantations.

But General Dessalines is walking a tightrope of deception. While feigning loyalty to the French, he’s secretly plotting against them. So, on his hunt for rebels, he only targets men when he doubts their loyalty to him. And as he marches his troops through Saint-Domingue’s mountains, General Dessalines also hides weapons and ammunition in secret caches, so they’ll be ready for him when the time comes.

And after three months, Dessalines gets the opportunity he’s been waiting for. Word spreads that the French intend to reintroduce slavery to Saint-Domingue. The people of the island are horrified and angry, and all at once, the rebellion is rekindled.

With a new insurrection on his hands, General Leclerc panics. Paranoid and afraid, he orders the arrest of many former rebel soldiers now serving in his army. Almost a thousand of them are loaded onto ships, taken out to sea, and thrown overboard.

But one former rebel avoids Leclerc’s purge. General Dessalines continues to fake loyalty to the French crown. He even persuades Leclerc to send him more arms and supplies to fight the rebels in the mountains. But when the munitions arrive, Dessalines finally reveals his hand. He switches sides, takes control of several French-held cities, and rallies more men to the rebel cause.

Eventually, General Dessalines assembles an army of 27,000 men and marches toward the last French stronghold in the north of the country. There, at the Battle of Vertières, he shatters the French army and forces its surrender.

With the French expeditionary force defeated, Saint-Domingue will be an independent nation once again. But with Toussaint Louverture now wasting away in a French prison, there is no one that outranks General Dessalines —and he’ll soon take full advantage. He’ll transform himself from a leader of a revolution into an emperor. And from a hero into a villain.

Act Two: The Pursuit of Happiness

It’s the afternoon of January 1st, 1804, in Gonaïves, Saint-Domingue, two months after the Battle of Vertières.

In the city’s central square, 45-year-old Jean-Jacques Dessalines steps onto a wooden stage. Confetti fills the air, and the sound of drums and firecrackers echo in the streets. Flanked by fellow officers, Dessalines raises a parchment. With a voice that carries across the crowd, he declares what many have only dreamed though for the past decade. Having finally defeated the French on the battlefield, the people of Saint-Domingue are no longer colonial subjects. Instead, they are now citizens of a new and independent nation: Haiti.

After winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Vertieres, General Dessalines was rewarded with a new title: Governor-General for Life. The remnants of the French army were allowed to leave in defeat, and under Governor Dessalines’ rule, Haiti has became the first country in the Americas to formally abolish slavery.

But Dessalines has been careful not to give his newly liberated subjects too much freedom. He is determined to keep a tight grip on Haiti, and he has set up a highly centralized government in which all power flows through him.

As the crowds gathered in the city square depart, Governor Dessalines returns to his residence, trailed by his senior generals. But he doesn’t intend to remain in the new capital for long. Over the next few months, he conducts a tour of Haiti’s major cities. It’s not just an opportunity to take the independence celebrations nationwide. Dessalines also wants to identify and weed out opponents. In every town and city he visits, his soldiers hunt down suspected enemies and publicly execute hundreds of white people accused of siding with France. Dessalines insists that the deaths are necessary to protect the revolution, but as the bloodshed continues, fears spread among the former rebels that the killings will provoke another French intervention.

These concerns deepen when Napoleon Bonaparte sends an expeditionary force to neighboring Santo Domingo, which is still under French control. With the threat of another invasion looming, Dessalines takes drastic action to increase his power: he crowns himself Emperor Jacques of Haiti, formalizing his supremacy in the new country.

Then, over the next few months, Emperor Jacques drafts thousands into his army. He orders the invasion of French-held territory in Santo Domingo and lays siege to its capital. But although the Haitians prevent the French soldiers from leaving the city, they can’t stop French ships from sailing into the harbor to resupply the trapped garrison. The situation descends into a stalemate, and eventually, the Haitian army is forced into a humiliating retreat.

Meanwhile, the strain of maintaining such a vast army has drained the countryside. With so many pulled into military service, fields lie fallow and food production plummets. To prevent famine, Emperor Jacques seizes agricultural land and rebuilds large-scale plantations. He then imposes a system of forced work on the government-owned sugar and coffee estates. And for many Haitians, it feels like a cruel betrayal—the return of slavery to their country in all but name.

By the second anniversary of Haitian independence, Emperor Jacques is in a precarious position. The French are still threatening to invade, and he has few friends in other nations either: U.S. President Thomas Jefferson has banned American merchants from trading with Haiti, apparently fearing that the revolution might inspire enslaved people in the States to rise up as well.

But it’s at home that Emperor Jacques faces the greatest threat. Many of the soldiers and generals who stood with him when he proclaimed Haitian independence are now plotting against him.

Opposition coalesces around 35-year-old General Alexandre Pétion. Unlike many Haitians, Pétion was born a free Black man and educated in France. There, he witnessed the outbreak of the French Revolution and became committed to its ideals of political freedom and liberalism. Emperor Jacques’ swift transformation from a revolutionary hero to dictator has disturbed Pétion, and he decides that he must take radical action.

But given Emperor Jacques’ power, the conspirators must tread carefully. A single letter in the wrong hands could cost them their lives. The rebels know their chance will come only when the emperor is away from the capital, during one of his tours of the state plantations. And it's there, on the road, far from the security of home, that they will strike—and end the rule of the first Emperor of Haiti once and for all.

Act Three: Liberty or Death

It’s the morning of October 17th, 1806, just north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

A young soldier crouches in a field of sugarcane. Hidden among the tall, green stalks, he grips his musket and watches his comrades patrol the road ahead. His orders are clear: to stay concealed while the others block the road. Only then should he and his fellow soldiers emerge to carry out their bloody mission—to kill Emperor Jacques.

The soldier hears the clattering of horses’ hooves, and he risks a peek through the sugarcane. He spies his target riding on horseback, flanked by guards.

As the soldier watches, Emperor Jacques reins in his horse, confusion flickering across his face as he sees the road blocked. But his bewilderment quickly turns to rage when one of the men in front of him orders him to surrender. The emperor’s guards raise their weapons, ordering the traitors to stand down. Only then does the hidden soldier and his comrades burst out of the cane fields, their own guns drawn. The emperor is surrounded and outnumbered.

But Emperor Jacques has no intention of giving up. Outraged at this betrayal, he pulls out his pistol and shoots one of the soldiers in the chest. Chaos erupts as muskets crack, and the road becomes a blur of shouting and gunfire. The young soldier fires into the haze, unsure of who or what he’s shooting at.

Then finally, when the gunfire subsides, the young soldier cautiously advances, his weapon at the ready. As the gun smoke clears, he spots the emperor’s horse lying on its side, breathing heavily. Pinned beneath it is Jacques. His uniform is soaked in blood, and his body riddled with bullets. The Emperor of Haiti is dead.

Without ceremony, the soldiers tie the emperor’s body to the back of a horse. They then drag it to Port-au-Prince and dump his corpse in the city’s main square for all to see.

Then, in the power vacuum that follows the assassination, chief plotter Alexandre Pétion moves quickly to take control in Haiti. But unlike Emperor Jacques, Pétion does not seek power for himself. He condemns the emperor’s tyrannical rule and attempts to turn Haiti into a republic. But peace does not last, and the young nation will soon spiral into civil war and political upheaval that will last for much of the 19th century.

As one of Haiti’s founding fathers, Emperor Jacques’ reputation has been rehabilitated in more recent years. He is now remembered best for throwing off the shackles of colonialism and paving the way for the abolition of slavery across the globe. But those achievements came at a bloody cost, and it was his dictatorial rule that led to his assassination by the very people he helped to free, on October 17th, 1806.

Outro

Next on History Daily. October 20th, 1973. After 14 years of construction, Queen Elizabeth II officially opens The Sydney Opera House.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Angus Gavan McHarg.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.