Constitution of Haiti

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The language of the constitution of 1801 is simple and straightforward. It resembles other constitutions in that it establishes a system of laws and government for the colony in thirteen titles and seventy-seven articles. At the same time, it vests considerable authority in the hands of the colony's governor.

Title I: On the Territory

Title I, consisting of two articles, defines the extent of Saint Domingue, which included the mainland and several islands. This title also indicates that the colony was to be divided into departments, arrondisements, and parishes. These terms reflect the administrative organization of France. A department was analogous to a state, a parish was analogous to a county (the same designation used in Louisiana, where it is likewise an indication of past French control), and an arrondisement was analogous to a precinct or district in a city. All were administrative subdivisions. Particularly noteworthy is that the constitution does not proclaim complete independence. It defines Saint Domingue as a colony and part of the French Empire.

Title II: On Its Inhabitants

Article 3 is a core element of the constitution, declaring that there could be no slaves in the territory. The title goes on to grant freedom of employment and to eliminate distinctions based on skin color. All persons living in the colony were not only “free” but also “French.” Again, the constitution does not declare independence from France.

Title III: On Religion

Toussaint-Louverture was a lifelong Catholic, and since he identified himself as a Frenchman, it is not entirely surprising that he would impose Catholicism—specifically Roman Catholicism—on the colony. He was also opposed to Vodou. (In Haitian Vodou, various deities, called loa, are subordinate to Bondyè, a greater god who does not intervene in human affairs. Worship is therefore directed to the loa. Vodou also places great value on ancestor worship and avoidance of evil witchcraft.) The constitution calls for the maintenance of the Catholic Church in each parish and notes that resources would be directed to its support.

Title IV: On Morals

This title addresses marriage and children. It promotes marriage, which “tends to the purity of morals.” Consistent with Catholicism, the constitution forbids divorce. It also provides for the passage of laws designed to protect the welfare of children and family ties. The constitution specifies children “born through marriage,” suggesting that different laws could apply to children born as a result of sexual misconduct (for example, involving white planters and their black or mulatto employees).

Title V: On Men in Society

Title V, along with Titles IX and XIII, is as close as the constitution comes to issuing a bill of rights. Two essential rights are recognized. Article 12 “guarantees individual freedom and safety” and states that a person could be arrested only “by virtue of a formally expressed order, issued by a functionary who the law gives the right to arrest and detain.” Article 13 protects property rights, calling property “sacred and inviolable.” This provision protected landowners from having their land seized illegally by the government, and it had the effect of protecting the rights of plantation owners to their property.

Title VI: On Cultivation and Commerce

A chief reason why Toussaint-Louverture wanted to protect property rights was that he wanted to protect commerce. He recognized that Saint Domingue depended on agricultural production and trade, and for that reason, he did not wish to permit “the least interruption in its labor and cultivation.” The constitution goes on to note that “every habitation is a manufactory that demands a gathering together of cultivators and workers.” It also asserts that changes in the habitation of cultivators would bring the ruin of farming, and it refers to the “introduction of cultivators indispensable to the re-establishment of planting.” These are key provisions of the constitution, for essentially they tied black workers to the plantations where they worked. Toussaint-Louverture opposed slavery and mandated its abolition, but these provisions in the constitution limited the mobility of black workers in an attempt to ensure that Saint Domingue would remain a profitable French colony. Title VI shows other evidence of the constitution's authors' desire to assert their connection with France as well: It uses French revolutionary dating (“20 Vendémiaire” rather than October 11 and “19 Pluviôse” [“Pluviose” in the document]” rather than February 7).

Title VII: On Legislation and Legislative Authority

Title VII turns to the specifics of government. It provides for an assembly and specifies rules for membership in the assembly, election procedures, meetings of the assembly, and similar practical matters. It is noteworthy that all bills passed by the assembly have to have been proposed by the governor. Further, the assembly functions largely in an advisory capacity: “It expresses its wishes on the regulations made and on the application of laws already made, on the abuses to be corrected, on the improvements to be undertaken.”

Title VIII: On Government

The constitution places control of the colony firmly in the hands of Toussaint-Louverture and his successors. The governor “directly corresponds with the government of the metropole,” a word used in France, England, and other European countries to refer to the mother country, independent of its colonies. The title goes on to praise Toussaint-Louverture for his services to the colony and to lay out provisions for him to name his successor. The constitution mandates that succeeding governors remain loyal to the French government. It puts the governorship in the hands of the highest-ranking general in the event that a governor died without naming a successor. Articles 34 through 40 specify the powers of the governor, giving him command of the military, oversight of the colony's finances, censorship authority, command of the colony's agricultural activities, and other authority as well. Historians have noted that the constitution was not a particularly democratic document, for it vested considerable control in the governor, particularly Toussaint-Louverture.

Title IX: On Tribunals

Title IX protects the right to a fair trial. It reflects the French judicial system by establishing tribunaux de première instance, meaning “courts of first instance,” or trial courts, and also appeals courts. Additionally, it provides for a tribunal de cassation, otherwise known as a “court of error.” This court—a court of final appeal—was analogous to the U.S. Supreme Court and to the tribunal de cassation established in France in 1790. Military tribunals were to be under the authority of the island's governor.

Title X: On Municipal Administration

Title X turns to practical matters of administration in the cities, specifying that each was to have a mayor and administrators. The municipal administration was to be responsible for policing the area under its jurisdiction, administering funds, and similar basic functions.

Title XI: On the Armed Force

The constitution places the armed forces under the command of the governor. It divides the armed forces into a paid regular army and an unpaid “national guard.” The latter could operate only within its parish except in cases of emergency. The constitution specifies that the police (gendarmerie) were to be considered part of the armed forces.

Title XII: On Finances and Goods Seized from Vacant Domains

After specifying the colony's sources of revenue, the constitution turns to one of the problems that arose from the Haitian Revolution: what to do about the properties of landowners who had lost their lives during the conflict and what to do about the contracts (fermages) between landowners and tenants. While the language of Title XII is in places obscure, essentially it grants the colonial administration power to seize goods and vacant lands but also obligates the administration to return those goods and lands with the restoration of peace between France and its adversaries.

Title XIII: General Dispositions

As “General Dispositions” suggests, this title addresses a number of miscellaneous matters. It functions in part as a bill of rights by stating that “every person's home is an inviolable asylum,” that citizens were protected from arbitrary arrest, and that they could petition the government. Patent rights are protected, as is the right to form schools. A uniform system of weights and measures is mandated. Citizens had the obligation to come to the defense of the colony. The obligations of leases are protected. The general dispositions also provide for the payment of “warriors” and forbid “seditious gatherings.”

The constitution concludes with a statement from Toussaint-Louverture, who approves it after—as he somewhat disingenuously claims—having learned of it. He also states, perhaps naively, that he has passed it on to the French government for its approval. Napoléon declined to approve the constitution and invaded the colony.