1805, May 20: (The Devil Himself Has Burst His Chains: Haiti’s First Constitution): Even while the Haitian army invested Santo Domingo, Boisrond and Chanlatt…

1805, May 20: (The Devil Himself Has Burst His Chains: Haiti’s First Constitution): Even while the Haitian army invested Santo Domingo, Boisrond and Chanlatte were drafting a constitution, and by the time the campaign was over in April, their text had been approved by the Emperor and was being circulated to the generals for signature. As usual, Dessalines was in a hurry, and the generals were equally quick to oblige; on May 20, 1805, the Emperor formally ratified Haiti’s first constitution as a free nation. In the tradition of Toussaint’s constitution, this one was despotic: all power — life, death, war, peace, punishment, and legislation — belonged to the Emperor, who was to choose his own successor. Administration was carried out by two councils — a Council of State composed of all general officers, and a Privy Council made up of the imperial secretariat — with only two Ministers: one of War and Marine, the other of Finance and Interior, and none for Foreign Affairs. Taking the very words from Dessalines’s April 1804 proclamation, the constitution barred white men from possessing property or domain on Haitian soil, and Article 5 added that should the French return, “at the first shot of the warning gun, the towns shall be destroyed and the nation will rise in arms.”