Jean-Pierre Boyer (February 28, 1776 – July 9, 1850), Haïtian soldier and President of Haïti (1818-1843), born a free mulatto in Port-au-Prince, and educated in France. He fought with Toussaint L'Ouverture and then joined André Rigaud, also a mulatto, in the latter's abortive insurrection against Toussaint. He returned in 1802 with the French army of Charles Leclerc, but later joined the patriots under Alexandre Pétion, who chose him as his successor.

Haïti, which gained its independence in 1804, was split north–south two years later following the overthrow of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines into two separate realms, belonging to Henri Christophe and Pétion. Boyer was made the successor of Pétion and took control of the south following his death in 1818. When Christophe committed suicide in 1820, Boyer secured the northern Kingdom of Haiti. When Spanish Santo Domingo became independent in late 1821 Boyer was quick to invade and thereby unite the entire island by February 9, 1822. Boyer ruled the entire island of Hispaniola until 1843 when he lost the support of the ruling elite and was ousted.[1]

Boyer received an education in France at a military school, due to the influence of his father. After that he joined the French Republican Army and after short period of time his status grew to that of a battalion commander. Next he joined up with the French Commissioners and returned to Haiti to take part in the fight against the white people and royalists in Haiti. Shortly after this, Haiti was invaded by the English. After this event Boyer went to Jacmal where "he joined forces with the mulatto leader, General Riguad." While all of the mulattos were surrendering to Toussaint Louverture in southern Haiti, Boyer and his new found friend Ruguad went to France.

On his way to France Boyer stopped in the United States for his first and last time. He only visited the United States that one time but "he always remembered it vividly." After that visit Boyer stated that he had a high regard for the Quakers and their charitable ways which they showed to him throughout his stay in America.

Shortly after this the Franco-American crisis ended, Boyer returned traveled to Paris where he stayed until 1801. Next, he returned to Haiti to protest Toussaint Louvetures newly gained independence. During this time it was uncovered that the French were planning on taking away the mulatto’s rights and beginning slavery once again in Haiti. Boyer was not going to just sit back and watch this happen. "The collaboration of Negroes and mulattos brought an end to French domination."

Haiti Invasion of Dominican Republic

On the eastern side of Hispaniola, the Spanish side, the Dominicans, led by José Núñez de Cáceres had just declared independence from Spain (December 1, 1821) and founded the new nation in a period that would later be referred as the "La Independecia Efímera" (Ephemeral Independence). Boyer wouldn't allow its neighbors independence, so he quickly trampled the resistance and entered Santo Domingo just two months after the declaration of independence. At that time, the Dominican Republic had a small population of 80,000 people (1/10th the population of Haiti), no armed forces and greatly deprived public administration that sought it's affiliation to the new Gran Colombia nation founded by Simon Bolivar.

Purchase of Haiti from France

Internationally, Boyer was anxious to remove the threat of France and opened negotiations. An agreement was reached on July 11, 1825, when with fourteen French warships off Port-au-Prince, Boyer signed an indemnity, stating that in return for 150 million francs paid within five years, France would recognize Haïti as an independent country. While this sum was later reduced to 60 million francs (1838), it was a crushing economic blow to Haïti, and cruelly Boyer had to negotiate a loan from France of 30 million francs in order to pay the first part of the indemnity. The Haïtian population meanwhile was retreating into an agricultural subsistence pattern, defying the initial plan of Boyer to enforce the semi-feudal fermage system.

The people of Haïti were aggrieved at their situation and in order to placate them, Boyer resurrected a land distribution program, attempted and then abandoned during the initial revolution. The large plantations were broken up and the land distributed, the rural population were tied to their smallholdings and given production quotas.

Boyer's rule lasted until 1843 when the poor economic situation was worsened by an earthquake, and the disadvantaged rural population rose up under Charles Riviere-Hérard in late January. On February 13, Boyer fled Haïti to nearby Jamaica before eventually settling in exile in France, dying in Paris. Descendants of Boyer live in the impoverished Haïti to this day.

Haitian independence was claimed on January 1st, 1804, under the rule of the soon to be known, Emperor Jacques I. The Emperor was then killed in 1806. This caused Alexandre Petion to become President of the Republic of Haiti in the South. This is when Jean Pierre Boyer came to be the "republican heir." He helped Petion to create a Republican Constitution very similar to that of the United States. During his presidency Petion set up many precedents and basically showed his successor what to do and what not to do. During this time Petion really won over the hearts of his people and grew to be the most liked out of any leader. After creating the Constitution in 1806 and amending it in 1816, it was stated that the President would be able to choose his successor. This would have obviously been Boyer. Petion died in 1818 and the Senate met immediately to approve his choice. Then Boyer was elected.

Boyer believed it was necessary for Haiti to be acknowledged as an independent nation, but realized this could only be established by cutting a deal with France, so he did. On July 11, 1825 Boyer signed an indemnity saying he would pay France a certain amount of money in order to be recognized as independent.

Haiti’s motto is "in unity there is strength" and apparently the same went for Boyer. As soon as he came to power he was faced with a very large hurdle. He had to go up against the leader of the north, Henri Christophe, who was an extreme threat to the south. This was a difficultly though, because of the great "fortress" that was built up in the north, compared to the smaller one Boyer himself was ruling. Boyer did not really have to worry about getting rid of Christophe however; his next move did this for him. He had two women put to death for praying that he would die which created havoc and caused people of all classes to unite against him. His soldiers began to rebel against him in 1820, and Christophe ended up killing himself, making Boyer a conqueror without fighting a single battle.

Welcoming Freed Americans

Boyer began encouraging freed Americans to emigrate back to the Republic of Haiti. The way in which he went about promoting this was by advertising in newspapers and by "promising free land and political opportunity to black settlers". This was not to benefit them however; this was to get skilled laborers to Haiti to benefit Jean Pierre Boyer. Haiti was treated as a "pariah" or as an outcast by other nations. It was feared that President Monroe would have been forced to "take action" against Haiti for not only agreeing to take in rebel slaves but suggesting and promoting it.

Pierre Boyer had actually made the effort to contact people within the United States of America, who had claimed that they wanted to work with the Haitian government to bring the displaced African Americans there. Boyer had sent agents to the black communities to convince them that Haiti was a sovereign state, which was open to all that looked to be truly free.

These actions were noticed by the American Colonization Society, who were looking to send and in the beginning processes of colonizing Liberia in Africa for the former slaves. Prior to learning about Boyer’s enthusiasm about emigrating other "lost" blacks in other countries, the organization had been trying to use a voluntary system, in which they would try to persuade former slaves to leave voluntarily. Loring Dewey had toured around the east coast in 1817, starting in New York. This process was ultimately a failure for both the organization and Dewey, who had figured that he would be able to remove close to 100,000 freed blacks within a 10 year span. With calculation continuing, they came to the conclusion that should they continue to remove freed and enslaved Africans, they would obliterate the African American population in America.

Dewey had abandoned the idea of colonization for emigration in his travels in New York. Meeting with a Haitian citizen, who argued that Haiti was ideal for emigration due to its weather conditions and the independent Negro government which governed the island, Dewey began to think of the idea of using Haiti to send the free blacks. Dewey began writing to Boyer at this time, asking if he was still interested in emigrating freed slaves to Haiti, posing them as an "unhappy lot". Almost immediately, Boyer had begun corresponding to Dewey, with the interest of his unhappy brothers and sisters in mind.

Boyer received a list of question to the regards of the Haitian government and its support of the incoming migrates from the A.C.S. He was confident that his government would be able to receive these people, but also saw that Dewey was trying to sneak in a few requests that Boyer smoothly responded to. One of these request concerned the finances of transporting the families to the Haiti, in which Dewey seemed to try and get Haiti to pay for most or all the transportation fees, which Boyer responded that the government would pay for those who cannot afford it, but the American Colonization Society would have to take care of the rest of the finances. This was a smart move since Haiti was already in debt to the French who were making the Haitian basically pay for their independence. Spending the millions of dollars to transport all of the families would have put the already in debt Haitians into further debt.

Dewey also requested a colony to be put on the island that would be separate from the rest of the island with its own laws, legislature, etc. This idea of the colony showed both that America was beginning to show interest in expanding in to the Caribbean and to colonize the recently freed Latin American territories. Boyer was fully against the idea of having an American colony on the island since the Haitians had already experienced the threat of re-colonization from the French. He responded to Dewey stating that the laws of the Haitian government were general and no particular laws can exist.

All other requests though were about opportunities for the freed slave in regards to land, money, education and government support. Boyer had pleasant answers for all these questions claiming that there was plenty of land for the people to call their own, money to be made through the import and export of goods, school were found in almost every community and the government was more than willing to help the migrates settle into their new surroundings.

Exile and Death

He left Haiti on February 13th, went to Jamaica then he was exiled to France. He died in 1850 and was succeeded by Charles Riviere-Herard.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 February 2008 )

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