1804, January 1: (The Declaration of Independence and the Birth of Haiti): On the first day of 1804, at Gonaïves, the generals of the revolution gathered to …

1804, January 1: (The Declaration of Independence and the Birth of Haiti): On the first day of 1804, at Gonaïves, the generals of the revolution gathered to formally proclaim the independence of what the world would call the first Black republic. Boisrond-Tonnerre, the young secretary to Dessalines, famously drafted the declaration, allegedly stating that to write the act of independence, they needed the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, and his blood for ink. The name “Saint-Domingue” was officially discarded in favor of “Haiti,” the original Arawak name for the island, symbolizing a total rejection of European colonial nomenclature. Jean-Jacques Dessalines was invested with the title of Governor-General for life, a position that granted him absolute executive and military authority. This historic moment marked the conclusion of fourteen years of battering by the French Revolution and the only successful insurrection of the enslaved in human history.