1816 (Contextualizing the Conflict): Prince Sanders included these 1802 military letters in his 1816 collection to prove to the British public that the Hayti…

1816 (Contextualizing the Conflict): Prince Sanders included these 1802 military letters in his 1816 collection to prove to the British public that the Haytian state was founded by men of high intellectual and moral character. He argued that the “decency of manners” and “industry” observed in 1816 were the natural results of the principled stand taken by leaders like Christophe during the revolution. The papers contrast the “pacific spirit” of the current Haytian government with the aggressive and deceptive tactics used by the French in the past. Sanders used these archives to validate the Haytian struggle as a legitimate movement for self-determination against colonial tyranny. By presenting the actual words of the “black chiefs,” he aimed to dismantle the racist tropes that characterized the Haytian people as incapable of sophisticated governance.