Haiti Declares Independence

January 1, 1804

At Gonaives, Jean-Jacques Dessalines tore the white from the French tricolor and proclaimed the first Black republic in the Americas. Haiti - the richest slave colony on earth - had beaten Napoleon's veterans and yellow fever in a war of terrifying cruelty. The New World never forgave it. France demanded an indemnity of 150 million francs for lost property; Haiti paid it off over a century, crippling its economy.