The road to Marchand. Festival of Independence: races, dances, the oath, the review and the ball; 20,000 people in a town of 1,200

Meanwhile there arrived in every town of the State of Haiti the order for all the high civil and military officials to repair to Marchand to attend the second anniversary of Independence (1 January 1805). At the same time the minister of finance summoned all the administrators and directors of the domains to Les Gonaïves for the last days of December, so that they might render account of their operations for the year 1804 before the festival of 1 January. Throughout Haiti there was a great stir; officials were met on every highway, making their way toward Marchand; and in every town preparations were being made for festivities. The principal administrators and the directors of the domains, gathered at Les Gonaïves at the end of December, were warmly received by Vernet; the inhabitants of that town offered them a frank hospitality. At that time there were very few houses at Les Gonaïves; none were being built, because a new French invasion was expected any day; the population lodged either in huts, thatched with straw, their walls wattled and plastered, or in ajoupas. The feasts that were frequently given there were held under tents put up for the purpose. When a house contained a large bed, an armchair or a mahogany wardrobe, it was a luxury. In general one found in the huts and ajoupas camp beds supported on stakes; but the inhabitants had good mattresses and fine bed, table and body linen. They kept their clothes in trunks that could easily be carried into the interior. For the rest, Les Gonaïves had the look of all the towns of the North and of the Artibonite that had been burned in 1802, on the arrival of the French. In the second division of the West and in the South one still found the same furnishings as under the old regime, because the towns of those districts had not been given over to the flames. On 29 December 1804 the civil and military authorities from every point of the empire were assembled at Marchand. The town had at that moment the look of a vast camp. Some twenty carreaux of land in extent, it was perfectly kept. One saw there, at short distances, great age-old trees that the revolution had spared, and some twenty fine houses newly built, most of them roofed with tiles; many others were rising rapidly. More than three thousand ajoupas had been put up around the town to receive all who had come to attend the second anniversary of Independence. Marchand, a town of only 1,200 souls, held within it more than 20,000 persons. The garrison, made up of the 4th and some other troops, occupied part of these ajoupas, together with numerous workmen of every trade who had been at work on the new buildings since the beginning of 1804. In every street there were vast arbors adorned with broad leaves, made ready for the dances and the feasts.

From daybreak on 31 December numerous fine horses were seen arriving at Marchand, which were to run several races under the emperor’s eyes. Dessalines had a passion for such sports. The races, begun at nine in the morning, did not end until two in the afternoon. They had been run in such confusion that it had been almost impossible to establish which had been the best horses. As each man claimed that it was his own, Dessalines, in high good humor, gave no prize. At four o’clock, 400 drums and as many fifes beat the general assembly: the noise was deafening. The 4th demi-brigade, which alone at that time had a band, played patriotic airs at the imperial palace. Meanwhile Dessalines went about the town, entered the ajoupas, joked with everyone, and urged all to pleasures of every kind. At half past five, two hundred heavy guns, placed in the forts as well as in the town, began firing at once to announce the second anniversary of Independence. This cannonade lasted half an hour.

As soon as the retreat had been beaten, African dances of every kind began to be performed, under the tents as well as in the open field; the dance of the vaudoux alone was forbidden. The whole night passed in festivities and banquets; the sound of the drums did not cease until toward daybreak.

At seven in the morning on 1 January 1805, five thousand men, cavalry, infantry and artillery, were drawn up on a vast square prepared for the ceremony. The soldiers and junior officers were variously dressed. Some were very well clothed, others very badly and almost naked; some wore shoes or boots, others went barefoot; some had hats, others were bareheaded. But the gleam of their arms was admirable, and the deepest silence reigned on every side. In the center of the square rose the altar of the fatherland, surmounted by the throne of His Majesty the Emperor.

At eight o’clock Dessalines came out of his palace surrounded by the officers of his staff and by all the generals of the empire, among whom one could make out Capoix, Toussaint Brave, Vernet, Clervaux, Gabart, Pétion, Geffrard, Férou and Jean-Louis François. He wore a red coat embroidered with gold, epaulettes covered with seven diamond stars, and a gold-laced hat topped with red and blue plumes; at his side hung a scimitar, and in his hand he held a gold-headed cane. General Henry Christophe stood at his right and General Bazelais at his left. Then came, a short distance behind, the Empress, full of majesty, tall of stature, whose countenance expressed all the goodness of her heart.* She wore a gown of sky-blue satin, bordered with gold and silver and strewn with bees; she was accompanied by twelve ladies of honor and four of the Emperor’s aides-de-camp.

When Dessalines reached the altar of the fatherland, General Christophe left his side and went to the center of the square to have the honors rendered to His Majesty. He commanded: “Present arms, knee to the ground!” At once the troops presented arms and knelt; the crowd, though astonished by this last movement, prostrated itself as well. Then the cannon, the drums, the fifes, the trumpets and the band of the 4th resounded on every side, and for an hour the new capital was filled with the thunder of 200 pieces of cannon. The smoke was so thick that no one could make out his neighbor. When the cannon ceased to roar, the crowd, still kneeling, heard a speech delivered with vehemence by Boisrond-Tonnerre, who had mounted the altar of the fatherland alone with Dessalines. While Boisrond recalled the cruelties of the French and the great deeds of the Indigenous armies, Dessalines was stirred by an ardor hard to describe; his eyes shone and his gestures were quick. As soon as Boisrond had finished speaking, the Emperor himself pronounced in a loud voice the oath to live free and independent or to die. The Empress and her ladies of honor knelt as the oath was spoken.