Constitution of Haiti

Audience

The constitution's chief audience was, of course, the Haitian people. Like any constitution, this one laid out principles of governance, the structure of the government, and similar matters. Historians generally focus on three elements of the constitution that are noteworthy: its abolition of slavery, its establishment of Catholicism as the nation's religion, and its naming of Toussaint-Louverture as governor for life.

A second audience was Napoléon Bonaparte, the first consul of France. Toussaint-Louverture sent the constitution to Napoléon with a letter that is said to have begun with the words, “From the first of the blacks to the first of the whites” (qtd. in Hochschild, p. 291). Napoléon, despite the 1799 Proclamation on Saint Domingue, was not amused and in response dispatched an expeditionary force—the largest overseas force in French history to that time—to reclaim the colony and reinstitute slavery.

A third audience was the people of the Western Hemisphere, including the United States. Just a generation earlier, the American colonies revolted against Great Britain, establishing the first modern independent nation in the Western Hemisphere; Haiti was the second. Americans watched events in Haiti with great interest, for the rebellion and consequent constitution abolished slavery—an ongoing institution in the United States. It was Alexander Hamilton who recommended that Toussaint-Louverture be named governor-general for life. At the time, the French maintained colonies in North America, and Americans were interested in the effects that Haiti's break with France would have in those colonies—with good reason, for Napoléon concluded that he was unable to defend France's interests in North America. The result was the Louisiana Purchase under President Thomas Jefferson, who, at a cost of about three cents an acre, doubled the size of the United States.