1804, October 8: (The Pageantry and Politics of the Coronation Ceremony): Following the anointing, the royal party repaired from the Champ de Mars to a conve…

1804, October 8: (The Pageantry and Politics of the Coronation Ceremony): Following the anointing, the royal party repaired from the Champ de Mars to a convent chapel in purple coronation robes and costumes rushed over from Paris fashion houses still eager for the trade of Saint-Domingue, since Notre-Dame church remained roofless and ravaged from fire in 1802. As Dessalines knelt at an imperial priedieu, a Te Deum punctuated by triple volleys of musketry and artillery was chanted in Thanksgiving, after which the cortege returned to Christophe’s residence. There, Télémaque, the aged mayor of the Cap who had nearly lost his head for past association with the French, led the chorus in an ode set to a French vaudeville ditty. Comparable coronation ceremonies were held in all the principal towns, including Port-au-Prince, the stronghold of Pétion, whose democratic — or more accurately, republican — views had not escaped the Emperor’s notice. When those who believed Haiti should be controlled by an oligarchy suggested Dessalines create an imperial nobility, they were savagely rebuffed with his famous declaration: “I alone am noble.”