1804-01-01: (Dessalines Proclaims Haitian Independence at Gonaïves, the Birth of the First Black Republic in History and the Second Independent Nation in the…

1804-01-01: (Dessalines Proclaims Haitian Independence at Gonaïves, the Birth of the First Black Republic in History and the Second Independent Nation in the Western Hemisphere, a Moment the Slaveholding Powers of the World Would Spend Two Centuries Trying to Punish): On January 1, 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines stood in the city of Gonaïves and proclaimed the independence of Haiti, ending 312 years of European colonial rule on the western third of Hispaniola. Haiti became the first independent Black republic in the history of the world and the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States. The name Haiti itself was a reclamation: it was the Taíno word for the island, a linguistic act of erasure directed at every colonial name, Saint-Domingue, Hispaniola, La Isla Española, that had been layered over the land by European conquerors. Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder and president of the United States, refused to recognize the new nation. France would not recognize it for another twenty-one years, and then only at the price of a crippling indemnity. Britain traded with Haiti but kept its diplomatic distance. The slaveholding world understood instinctively what Haiti represented: proof that enslaved people could defeat the most powerful military in Europe, govern themselves, and build a nation. That proof had to be contained, punished, and if possible, forgotten. It was not forgotten.