1804-Oct.: Dessalines issues two ordinances designed to prevent residents from leaving the country by ship.

1804-Oct.: Dessalines issues two ordinances designed to prevent residents from leaving the country by ship. The emperor sought to maintain the nation’s population and labor force to ensure its future survival. The new state maintained large-scale plantation production through military supervision to preserve export revenue. Significance: Demonstrates continuity between revolutionary military organization and post-independence labor control. Nuance:Fick stresses that many formerly enslaved people preferred small landholding autonomy to plantation labor. This tension between peasant aspirations and state economic policy marked the beginning of post-independence structural conflict.