Ian Thomson

Henri Christophe, King of Haiti, was not such a ridiculous figure

He certainly had delusions of grandeur, but his ambition to educate a people newly emerged from slavery showed a true visionary spirit

Portrait of Henry Christophe, King of Haiti, by Richard Evans, 1816. [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 28 January 2023
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  • Black Crown: Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean’s Forgotten Kingdom

    Paul Clammer

    Hurst, pp. 392, £14

In January 1804 the West Indian island of Saint-Domingue became the world’s first black republic after the slaves toiling in the sugar fields rose up against their French masters and, at the end of a 13-year insurgency, proclaimed independence. Saint-Domingue was renamed Haiti (an aboriginal Taino-Arawak Indian word meaning ‘mountainous land’) and the Haitian flag created when the white band was solemnly removed from the French tricolore.

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