150 Years Later

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Erin Zavitz’s post reminded me of a document that Patrick Tardieu shared with me a few years ago. It seems as though the Haitian government was not successful in finding a document in 1903 since they were still looking for it for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of independence. On Dec 31, 1952 Edmond Mangones wrote to La Commission des Sciences Sociales du Tricinquantenaire de l’Independance (The Commission of Social Sciences for the 150th Anniversary of Independence) to report on an original of the Acte de l’Independance and “ce que je pense au suject de sa disparition” (what I think on the subject of its dissapearance). Both the 1903 (from Zavitz’s post) and the 1952 reports suggest that a document might exist in the British Library/Museum (although neither could find one) but the printed versions that I found were at The National Archives of the United Kingdom. Mangones appears to be looking for a handwritten and signed original. Has anyone looked for versions in the British Library?

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100 Years Later

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To frame Julia Gaffield’s photos of the declaration here are several images and articles from the centennial. The first three are articles from the Port-au-Prince paper Le Soir. In preparing for the centennial Haiti’s intellectuals realized an original copy of the declaration could not be found in the National Archives. Thus, they made a call to locate it. These articles trace their research.

The fourth image is the final installment of a count down to 1 January 1904. Copies of Le Soir are at FIC Bibliothèque Haïtienne in Port-au-Prince.

28 Jan. 1903

28 Jan. 1903

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The Declaration of Independence in Rainsford

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Below are images of the Haitian Declaration of Independence from Marcus Rainsford’s 1805 An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti from the collection at the John Carter Brown Library. Paul Youngquist and Gregory Pierrot have recently published an edited version of Rainsford’s book.

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First Publication of the Acte D’Independance in an American Newspaper

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According to Deborah Jenson’s research, this is the first publication of part of the Declaration of Independence in any American newspaper. See: Deborah Jenson, “Dessalines’s American Proclamations of the Haitian Independence,” Journal of Haitian Studies, (2009) 15(1): 89.

Evening Post - March 7

Transcription of the Declaration of Independence at the Archives Nationales, Paris

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This document is at the Archives Nationales in Paris. Thank you to Silyane Larcher for taking the pictures! The call number is AB/XIX/3302/15.

Transcription at the National Library of Jamaica

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This document is a transcription of the Declaration of Independence from the records of Governor George Nugent of Jamaica. It is at the National Library of Jamaica in Kingston. In a conversation with Deborah Jenson, we concluded that because of this document, along with the cover letter that mentioned that the enclosed document had arrived from a press, somewhere in the Jamaican records there might be a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence. The call number is MS 72.

Printed Declaration of Independence (broadside)

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Here is the broadside version of the Haitian Declaration of Independence. This one is also held at The National Archives of the United Kingdom and the call number is either MFQ 184 or MFQ1/184 (the catalog lists the first call number but their ordering system won’t accept it without the additional 1/). The document was removed from the Admiralty records and cataloged as a map. It is cataloged “government documents 1804.”

Rear-Admiral John Thomas Duckworth of the Jamaica station acquired the document on his patrols around and to Haiti. He then sent the document back to London.

HDOI - Broadside mfq1_184_003

Printed Declaration of Independence (pamphlet)

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Here are the images of the printed pamphlet version of the Haitian Declaration of Independence. The document can be found at The National Archives of the United Kingdom. The original call number was CO 137/111 but the document has been removed from the Jamaica papers and relocated to a special rare documents room (only viewable for special reasons like watermarks etc).

Edward Corbett, the British Agent for Haiti, brought the document back to Jamaica in the third week of January 1804. He gave the document to Governor George Nugent who sent it with a packet of other documents to the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in London.

CO137-111 (113)p1

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