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Faustin Soulouque, Emperor of Haiti His Character and His Reign

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John E. Baur
John E. Baur*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles, Cal.
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Extract

The nations of the free New World have produced but seven sovereigns; all have been deposed. Some were ridiculous and cruel, but Haiti’s third and last monarchical attempt was the most ludicrous and probably the bloodiest of them all. This drama of strangely mingled comedy and tragedy was directed by an equally paradoxical man, Faustin Soulouque.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , October 1949 , pp. 131 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1950

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References

1 H. P. Davis, Black Democracy, The Story of Haiti (New York, 1929), 120.

2 Columbus gave the name “Española” to the whole island of Santo Domingo. The name “Santo Domingo” was later used by the Spanish. When the French took over what is now Haiti, they employed the French equivalent, “Saint Domingue.” After independence was achieved, Jean Jacques Dessalines adopted the aboriginal name for the new nation, “Haiti.” Until final independence was won in 1844, “The Spanish Part” (of Santo Domingo) was the popular title for the area still under Spanish influence. After 1844, it was called the “Dominican Republic,” as it still is. In this paper, “Haiti” refers only to the “French Part,” unless otherwise stated. The term “Dominicans” refers only to the inhabitants of the East.

3 Davis, op. cit., 120. Davis presents a good sketch of the political situation upon the death of President Riche.

4 Sir Spencer St. John, Hayti, or the Black Republic (London, 1889), 92.

5 Antoine Michel, Avènement du Général Fabre Nicolas Geffrard à la Présidence d’Haiti (Port-au-Prince, 1932), 57–58.

6 William R. Manning, Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Inter-American Affairs, 1831–1860 (Washington, 1925), VI. 92–93.

7 John Bigelow, Retrospections of an Active Life (New York, 1913, 5 vols.), I, 146. Bigelow visited Haiti in 1853–1854 to inspect this example of Negro development and self-government. He noted Soulouque’s fondness for pomp, but especially was in terested in the Emperor’s delight in literature. Soulouque had just had Uncle Toirìs Cabin read to him twice, and wrote a letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe telling her of the pleasure he had derived from her novel. For another incident in this vein, see James G. Leyburn, The Haitian People (New Haven, 1941), 92.

8 Gustave d’Alaux, “L’Empereur Soulouque et son Empire, II,” La Revue des Deux Mondes, VIII, 1044. D’Alaux (1816–1885) was born and died in Paris, but he spent the early 1850’s in Haiti where he gathered material for his several articles on Soulouque.

9 St. John, op. cit., 94.

10 D’Alaux, “L’Empereur Soulouque et son Empire, III,” op. cit., IX, 334.

11 Philadelphia Public Ledger, September 9, 1848.

12 Ibid., September 18, 1848.

13 D’Alaux, “L’Empereur Soulouque et son Empire, IV,” op. cit., IX, 526.

14 St. John, op. cit., 101–102.

15 London Times, October 4, 1849.

16 De Bow’s Review (New Orleans, 1858), XXIV, 206.

17 London Times, October 8, 1849.

18 Ibid., October 4, 1849.

19 For a text of the republican constitution, see British and Foreign State Papers, XLVII, 734 ff. See also D’Alaux, op. cit., IX, 542.

20 Samuel Hazard, Santo Domingo, Fast and Present, with a Glance at Hayti (London, 1873), 428.

21 Gentleman’s Magazine (London, 1850), XXXIII, 69.

22 Michel, op. cit., 40–41.

23 De Bow’s Review, loc. cit.

24 Philadelphia Public Ledger, July 13, 1857.

25 Ibid., May 7, 1849.

26 Harper’s Weekly (New York, 1858), II, 359. Emperor Faustin had ordered 3,000 regimental uniforms, but the goods were sent in two different shipments, the pantaloons arriving three weeks before the jackets, and, “Soulouque, who had fixed on a grand review, had his troops drawn up in coatless array; harranguing his brave army with a promise of jackets by the next packet. Had the jackets come first, he would, no doubt, have turned out his men in the costume of sansculottes.”

27 Manning, op. cit., VI, 101.

28 “Soulouque and the Dominicans,” United States Democratic Review (New York, 1852), XXXI, 210.

29 Littell’s Living Age (Boston, 1850), XXVII, 127. The Haitian navy was typical of Latin American sea forces of that day: “four or five vessels of light burden and one small steamer. The vessels are poor, the sailors ignorant, and undisciplined, and against a well-organized and determined invasion would afford no protection whatever” (De Bow’s Review, XXIV, 203–211).

30 Philadelphia Public Ledger, January 28, 1856.

31 For example, one of these claims grew out of a grievance over the Imperial Government’s seizing a ship from the United States, for it was carrying logwood, a government monopoly. According to the report of American merchantmen, some sailors had gone ashore to fetch a few sticks for cooking (Philadelphia Public Ledger, June 15, 1850).

32 Ibid. Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk was long an able diplomat in the British service. He was born in Silesia, but, interested in natural history, he went to the West Indies in 1830 to explore and survey. In British Guiana, he stimulated the lengthy Anglo-Venezuelan-Brazilian boundary dispute. Sir Robert, knighted in 1841, served as British Consul to the Dominican Republic from 1848 to 1857, thus becoming involved in the Soulouque affair.

33 There are several excellent works which deal in part with Haitian foreign affairs, among which are Rayford W. Logan, The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with Haiti, 1776–1891 (Chapel Hill, N. C, 1941); L. L. Montague, Haiti and the United States, 1714–1938 (Durham, N. C, 1940); and J. N. Leger, Haiti, Her History and Her Detractors (New York, 1907).

34 Gustave d’Alaux, “La République Dominicaine et l’Empereur Soulouque, I,” La Revue des Deux Mondes, XI, 195.

35 Manning, op. cit., 61.

36 Ibid., 61.

37 St. John, op. cit., 97. St. John relates that Soulouque decided that his dignity could be served if all who passed the imperial palace would raise their hat. It was done. However, an employee of the Spanish consulate refused to comply. Soulouque insulted the Spaniard, and it was some time before Hispanic-Haitian affairs were completely cordial again. See Logan, op. cit., 254, for further attacks on Soulouque quoted from the New York Herald. The Congressional Globe, John C. Rives, ed. (Washington, 1862), Session II, 37th Congress, 1806, contains an example of the amusement with which a United States senator could view Soulouque: “… clothes and all, he is worth $1,000.” Not all American observers, however, were so intolerant. Henry J. Coke in his A Ride over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon and California (London, 1852), after describing the tatters and “multiform apparel” of the Emperor’s soldiers, said of the Haitian government: “However, the experiment is worthy of the age. There is no reason why the black man should” not be his own master….” (p. 20).

38 The American Emigration Society insisted that the Haitian government encourage immigrants to settle by giving them land; granting civil rights, religious freedom and equality; exempting them from military duty for seven years; exempting ministers, lawyers, physicians and teachers permanently from military service; building sugar refineries, and grist and saw mills for the immigrants; exempting from customs duties all materials, tools and furniture imported by the newcomers for their labor; granting the immigrants citizenship after one year’s residence on taking an oath of allegiance; and by appointing a Haitian commissioner to reside in the United States to cooperate with the National Board of the Emigration Society in supervising the embarkation of emigrants. See The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written during the Crisis, 1800–1860, Carter G. Woodson, ed. (Washington, 1926), 497.

39 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, VIII, Series 3 (London, 1860), 66–67. Three years later, in 1859, the republican government that had just replaced the Empire, looked enthusiastically, but too idealistically, upon such a project. The Haitian Secretary of Justice and Public Worship invited his fellow Negroes from the north. He said that Haiti was now willing to provide food and lodging for a few days for immigrants and that the government would grant citizenship after a year’s residence. The immigrants would be exempted from military duty, but their children would not be.

40 De Bow’s Review, XIV, 277.

41 Philadelphia Public Ledger, January 21, 1853.

42 Ibid., January 21, 1853.

43 Missionary Magazine (Boston, 1851),XXXI, 150 and 371.

44 D’Alaux, “L’Empereur Soulouque et son Empire, III,” op. cit., IX, 349–350.

45 D’Alaux, “La République Dominicaine et l’Empereur Soulouque, I,” op. cit., XI, 206–207.

46 Philadelphia Public Ledger, December 3, 1855.

47 Faustin had sent to the New” York Crystal Palace, America’s first world’s fair, in 1853, specimens of many of Haiti’s natural resources. These included “chocolate nuts,” the fruit of the brama cacao, and “a ricinus communis, or Palma Christi” (De Bow’s Review) XVI, 37.

The financial situation is revealed by the statement of the American commercial magazine: “No one knows the amount of paper money in circulation, as the late emperor [1859] and his ministers made secret issues.” Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine (New York, 1859), XLI, 343. Damien Delva, the clever but unscrupulous head of the Treasury, had been entrusted with delivery of the payments of the French debt. He pocketed great sums. With his gleanings, he grew wealthy enough to live well in Paris after the fall of the Empire.

48 Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 11, 1850.

49 Ibid., December 22, 1857.

50 Ibid., July 18, 1850.

51 D’Alaux, “L’Empereur Soulouque et son Empire, IV,” op. cit., IX, 526.

52 D’Alaux, “La Revolution Haitienne de 1859,” La Revue des Deux Mondes, XXIII, 355. Jean Jacques Dessalines (1804–1806) introduced the song.

53 Ibid., 356–358.

54 Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 29, 1851.

55 Ibid., May 5, 1851.

56 Ibid., May 3, 1851.

57 St. John, op. cit., 99.

58 Michel, op. cit., 3–4.

59 lbid., 7.

60 Philadelphia Public Ledger,March 3, 1859.

61 Michel, op. cit., 30.

62 Harper’s Weekly, III, 119.

63 Michel, op. cit., 49–50.

64 Harper’s Weekly, III, 119.

65 Michel, op. cit., 74–75.

66 Ibid., xxxviii.

67 D’Alaux, “La Revolution Haitienne…,” op. cit., 377–383.

68 Michel, op. cit., 88.

69 Ibid., 88. See also Anthony Trollope, The West Indies and the Spanish Main (London, 1859). Trollope dedicates one chapter to Soulouque and therein gives a semi-serious firsthand account of the ex-Emperor’s arrival at Kingston and the reactions of his mulatto opponents there who surrounded his carriages “with a dusky cloud, and received the fugitives with howls of self-congratulation at their [the royal family’s] abasement.”

70 Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 14, 1859.

71 Ibid., March 3, 1859.

72 British and Foreign State Papers, William Ridgway, ed., (London, 1867), XLIX, 775.

73 Faustin I was entitled “By the Grace of God and the Will of the People, Emperor of Haiti.” The bracketed phrase is the writer’s.