1846-03-00: (Pierrot Overthrown by the Mulatto Elite and Replaced by Jean Baptiste Riché, the Third Black Figurehead President in Two Years, a Pattern of Rac…
1846-03-00: (Pierrot Overthrown by the Mulatto Elite and Replaced by Jean Baptiste Riché, the Third Black Figurehead President in Two Years, a Pattern of Racial Manipulation That Would Continue Until Soulouque Broke the Mold): In March 1846, the mulatto elite orchestrated the overthrow of Jean-Louis Pierrot and installed Jean Baptiste Riché as president. Riché was the third Black military officer elevated to the presidency in less than two years, following Guerrier and Pierrot, and like his predecessors he was selected because the mulatto elite believed he could be controlled. Born in 1780 in northern Haiti, the son of a free Black man who served in the colonial militia, Riché had served under Christophe during the Revolution and had been one of his most trusted military advisors. Upon assuming the presidency, Riché restored the 1816 constitution, which had been supplanted by the 1843 constitution. He died in office on February 28, 1847, and was replaced by another Black military officer, Faustin Soulouque. The mulatto elite had no idea what they had just done. Unlike Guerrier, Pierrot, and Riché, Soulouque could not be controlled.