Everything about Alexandre P Tion totally explained
Alexandre Sabès Pétion (
April 2,
1770 –
March 29,
1818) was President of the southern Republic of
Haiti from 1806 until his death.
Pétion was born in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti to a black mother and a
French father. He was sent to
France in 1788 to study at the Military Academy in Paris. He returned to take part in the expulsion of the British (1798–99). His
mulatto heritage meant that when tensions arose between blacks and mulattoes he supported the mulatto faction. He allied with General
André Rigaud and
Jean Pierre Boyer against
Toussaint L'Ouverture in the failed rebellion, the so-called War of Knives, which began in June 1799. By November the rebels were pushed back to the strategic southern port of
Jacmel; the defence was commanded by Pétion. The town fell in March 1800 and the rebellion was effectively over. Pétion and other mulatto leaders went into exile in France.
He returned in February 1802 with Boyer, Rigaud and the 12,000-strong French army commanded by
Charles Leclerc. Following the treacherous treatment of Toussaint and the renewed struggle, Pétion joined the nationalist force in October 1802 following a secret conference at Arcahaie and supported
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the general who had captured Jacmel. The capital was taken on October 17, 1803, and independence was declared on January 1, 1804. Dessalines was made ruler for life and had himself crowned emperor on October 6, 1804.
Post-Revolution
Following the
assassination of Dessalines on
October 17 1806, Pétion championed democracy and clashed with
Henri Christophe. Christophe was offered a democratic presidency, but this failed. The country divided between them and the tensions between the blacks and mulattoes were reignited. After the inconclusive struggle dragged on until
1810, a peace was agreed and the country was split in two. While Christophe made himself king of the northern
Kingdom of Haiti, Pétion had himself elected President of the southern part of Haiti in 1806. Initially a supporter of democracy, he found the constraints imposed on him by the senate onerous and suspended the legislature in 1818. In
1816 he turned his post into President for Life.
He was active in seizing the commercial plantations and divided the land thus gained amongst his supporters and the peasantry, earning himself the nickname
Papa Bon-Cœur ("good-hearted daddy"). The land grab dealt a serious blow to the economy of the country, and most of the population did little more than subsistence farming. He started the Lycée Pétion in Port-au-Prince. He gave sanctuary to
Simón Bolívar in
1815 and provided him with material support.
Boyer was made the successor of Pétion and took control following the death of Pétion through
yellow fever in 1818.
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