Convention in February, 1794.^143 As historian David Nicholls notes, “complete independence
became the goal of the black and mulatto generals fighting under the leadership of
Dessalines.”^144 Dessalines’ glory is encapsulated in this history, a word which the poem
specifically includes, of Revolution and Independence.
The poem does not make a distinction between Dessalines as the founder and ruler of theHaitian Republic in 1804 and the Emperor title he adopted a year later. Though no specific
hypothesis for this move on Dessalines’ part seems to have been put forth by historians, the title
nonetheless conveys supremacy beyond that of king and is one which would match that of
Napoleon whom Dessalines had just defeated. The poem’s mention of this detail may also serve
to emphasize Dessalines’ unrealized ambitions to establish an empire, ideally political but at the
very least ideological: the self-declared “avenger of America” made a brief incursion into the
eastern part of the island and abolished slavery there and is known to have regretted the inability
to extend abolition to other French Caribbean colonies.^145 Moreover, Dessalines’ 1805
constitution defined the scope of Haiti’s “Empire,” which included islands of the Haitian coast
and the eastern half of Hispaniola.^146 As the next part of the poem more fully illustrates, Haiti’s
national struggle is framed and defined within the larger context of freedom from the institution
of slavery which Haitians even into the 1830s still wished to export. Articles in L’Union
(^143) It should be pointed out, however, that lieutenant-governor of Saint-Domingue abolished slavery in the island
colony in August 1793, several months before the Parisian decree. Attempts to reinstate slavery in the other French
Caribbean colonies were successful. A significant but ultimately unsuccessful revolt occurred in Guadeloupe in
1803.
(^144) Nicholls 33.
(^145) The well-document quote by Dessalines “I have avenged America” is one of the opening quotes in Laurent
Dubois’ historical study Avengers of the New World (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard, 2004). Referring
to Martinique, Dessalines is known to have said “I am not able to fly to your assistance and break your chains. Alas,
an invincible obstacle separates us...But perhaps a spark from the fire which we have kindled will spring forth in
your soul...” Nicholls 35.
(^146) Fischer 276.