Today in Haiti's history/ Bataille De Vertiere

 Today is a holiday in Haiti! Since this day played a crucial point in our independence. It used to be called the Day of the Army as well since the army was dissolved it is just Battle of Vertière. Vertière is just a place 
The battle of Vertière, the last large battle of the Haitian Revolution (Haitian war of independence) was fought between Haitian rebels and French expeditionary forces on November 18, 1803 at Vertières.
Haitians led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines attacked a strong French-held fort of Vertierre, near Cape Français (to the north of Haiti) and won a decisive victory over French colonial army under General Comte de Rochambeau and forced him to capitulate the same night. Haitian Ninth Brigade under François Capois played a crucial role in the victory.
As a result, independent Republic of Haiti was proclaimed on December 1, 1804.
November 18 has been widely celebrated since then as a Day of Army and Victory in Haiti.

Now... Let's go deeper in the history for those of you who are more inquisitive:

The Battle of Vertieres (Kreyòl: Batay Vètyè; French: Bataille de Vertières), a defining campaign in the Haitian revolution, took place on November 18, 1803. In this clash, south of Le Cap Haitians led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Alexandre Pétion ultimately defeated the French troops under General Rochambeau.

The last and defining Battle of the Haitian Revolution

Image of François Capois 'La Mort'

This last large battle of the Haitian Revolution, the Haitian War of Independence, was fought between Haitian rebels and French expeditionary forces. This decisive blow was a major loss for France and it's colonial empire. Haitians led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and François Capois attacked a strong French-held fort of Vertières, near Cap François (in the north of Haiti) and won a decisive victory over French colonial army under General Comte de Rochambeau and forced him to capitulate the same night.
The Haitian Ninth Brigade under François Capois played a crucial role in the victory and caused Napoléon's troops to abandon their stronghold. This battle occurred less than two months before Dessalines declaration of independence (On January 1, 1804) and delivered the final blow to the French attempt to re-institute slavery, as had been the case in the other Caribbean possesions, and to stop the Haitian Revolution.
Another leader of the fight at Vértieres was Louis Michel Pierrot, the husband of the mambo Cécile Fatiman who had led the vodou ceremonies at Bois Caïman on August 14, 1791 together with Boukman.

The first major defeat of Napoléon's army

Napoléon Bonaparte, who had come to power three years prior to the Battle of Vertières (Through a coup d'etat on November 11, 1799), was given his first major defeat when he lost this crucial battle against the Haitian revolutionary forces. The French lost many experienced troops in the last year of fighting (1803) in Saint-Domingue and after the Battle of Vertières, their military and political strength in the Western Hemisphere was significantly weakened.
Even though Napoléon had mobilized about 30.000 troops that, in 1802, sailed in huge fleets from France to re-establish slavery in it's most profitable colony [Saint-Domingue], and had given up control over much of the territory he controlled in the Americas (see: The Haitian Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase), the Haitian troops commanded by Toussaint Louverture and later Jean-Jacques Dessalines won the war, culminating in the Battle of Vertiéres. This defeat, the French troops fled for France soon after loosing the final battle, was a major blow to the French empire, having been cut of from it's biggest source of income: the profits of plantation slave labor in Saint-Domingue.
For the Haitians, who would soon declare independence, the outcome of the battle of Vertiéres signaled the final defeat of the cruel treatment they had to suffer from the hands of the French colonizers. Rochambeau's defeat is still seen as a milestone in the fight against slavery and paved the way for the abolition of slavery in other countries, although Haiti was the first black republic in the hemisphere and the first nation to rid themselves from the terrors inflicted by the European colonialists.
The Battle of Vertières is a monument to Haiti's achievements as well as that of it's outstanding military leader at the time: Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Toussaint Louverture, who had died in April of 1803 in French captivity at Fort de Joux, had laid the groundwork for the defeat of France. It was Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who carried on as the leader of the Haitian troops and united the revolutionary forces, that made the win over the cruel General Rochambeau a possibility.
"[Rochambeau's] ferocious and sanguinary spirit was too much for the kind heart of Toussaint, or the gentlemanly bearing of Christophe. His only match was Dessalines." (Wells Brown p. 111)

Battle of Vertières' Day

November 18 has been celebrated since then as the Bataille de Vertières day (Battle of Vertières' Day) this day also used to be Armed Forces Day (French: Jour Des Forces Armées) in Haiti. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide abolished the Haitian army in the early 1990's.





(source haitianmedia.com, thelovertureproject.org)

National Anthem Singing contest update!

We have teamed up with Haitian Treasures since they do a good job promoting Haiti. Please buy they products and visit their website. More info about the National Anthem singing contest ! If you have a website please promote this event for the sake of our country and pass it on to your friends and family, your church, youth group, this can also be a school project! The possibilities are endless!

We are all waiting for you!

New Haiti PM promises to focus on investment

By JONATHAN M. KATZ (AP)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's new prime minister was inaugurated Wednesday and promised to attract more investment and create jobs, while forging good relations with lawmakers who have ousted two heads of government in as many years.

Jean-Max Bellerive, the sixth person to hold the post since 2004 in this politically unstable Caribbean nation, said he will work closely with lawmakers in Haiti's Parliament, who recently fired his predecessor in part for sticking too closely to international development plans.

"We will take care of putting (members of Parliament) more in accordance with what we are doing," Bellerive told The Associated Press as the just-fired former prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, drove away from the hilltop mansion that is now Bellerive's headquarters.

"It's the same program, basically. We have the same priorities" as the previous government, he said.
Bellerive, 51, officially took power as Haiti's No. 2 in Wednesday ceremonies. He has served in a wide variety of Haitian administrations, including those of former populist President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the military junta that once ousted Aristide.

Bellerive was sworn in by President Rene Preval, who praised an orderly transition that took little more than 12 days from the ouster of one prime minister to the swearing-in of her replacement.
That is a sharp contrast from last year, when Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis was fired after a week of violent food riots that left at least seven dead. Months of political deadlock followed before Pierre-Louis took power in the midst of hurricanes whose destruction laid out the most immediate challenges for her administration.

International focus on Haiti shifted early this year to increasing foreign investment, an effort spearheaded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who was named U.N. Special Envoy to the country where 80 percent of people live on less than $2 a day.

During the Oct. 30 debate that ended with the firing of Pierre-Louis, lawmakers accused her of unimaginatively following international development plans, which focus largely on improving infrastructure and building up a garment assembly sector to produce goods for the U.S. market under a preferential trade deal.
But Bellerive said Wednesday he intends to see those plans through — and, in fact, speed some investment deals along by continuing in his previous role as minister of planning and external cooperation.

"I hope that we can continue to work with President Clinton in the same manner, in the same commitment that he has with the former government and with President Preval," he told reporters. "The only way that we are going to change Haiti is through private investment, through creating jobs in Haiti."

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)