1802

January 29

Napoleon Bonaparte sends an expeditionary fleet to St-Domingue under the command of his brother-in-law, General Leclerc.  The fleet anchors in Samana Bay with the mission to defeat the black generals and restore slavery.

February 1

French vessels arrive off the harbor of Cap-Francais.

February 4

Henri Christophe sets Cap-Francais on fire to resist against the French troops.

February 23

Toussaint Louverture is defeated at the Battle of Ravine a Couleuvres by the army of Napoleon.

March 11

To resist French invasion at the Battle of La Crete-a-Pierrot, Dessalines gathers his troops.  Then by swaying a lighted torch near the powder magazine he fiercely declares that he would blow up the fortress should the French troops invade it.

  End of March

Toussaint Louverture is defeated by the army of Napoleon.

May 6

Toussaint Louverture arrives in the city of Cap to surrender to the French army and to negotiate his submission.

June 7

Toussaint Louverture is arrested through treachery by the French general, Leclerc.  He is first embarked on the vessel La Creole, then sent to France on the vessel Le Heros.  He is incarcerated in the jail of Fort de joux, located in the apex of the icy jura mountains of France.

 

October 13

Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Alexandre Petion meet in the Haut-du-Cap to organize the independence war under the command fo the appointed Commander-in-Chief Dessalines.

November 1-2 (night)

The French general, Leclerc, brother-in-law of Napoleon, dies of yellow fever in St-Domingue.  His remains are sent back to France.

1803

April 7

Approaching his 60^th birthday, Toussaint Louverture dies of ill treatment in France, in the Fort de Joux prison.

May 18

The Haitian flag is created at l’Arcahaie during a meeting between Dessalines and Petion.  They tear off the white middle section of the blue, white and red French flag and join the blue and red pieces symbolizing the unity of blacks and mulattoes. The flag is sewn by Catherine  Flore.

November 18

The Battle of Vertieres, the final battle for independence. Blacks and mulattoes led by Dessalines and Petion  defeat the army of Napeleon Bonaparte and win the war for independence.

November 19

Rochambeau, the French general succeeding Leclerc, signs a convention to surrender his troops and evacuate St-Domingue.

November 29

Dessalines arrives triumphantly in the city of Cap with his army. Christophe and Clerveaux issue a preliminary proclamation of independence.  Rochambeau is prisoner of the British.

December 4

The French army cedes Mole Saint-Nicolas to the army of Dessalines.  The fight for independence of the colony is officially terminated.

1804

 January 1

Dessalines officially proclaims the independence of the colony in the city of Gonaives and becomes Governor-General.  To expunge the era of slavery in St-Domingue, he renames it with its original name:  Haiti. Haiti, the second country to win independence in the American continent is the first Black Nation of the New World and the first Black Republic of the World.

September 22

Upon recommendations of his advisors, Dessalines proclaims himself Emperor of Haiti.

October 6

Dessalines is crowned Emperor in the city of Cap as Jacques I.

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