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Henri ChristopheHenry Christophe spelled his first name with a 'y,' and official court documents followed the same convention, as is evidence notably in the Almanach Royal d'Hayti. This is not, as is often assumed, the English spelling, but rather a traditional spelling notably adopted by eponymous French kings. See for example the signature of King Henry IV of France. (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti.
Born in the British Caribbean, Christophe was possibly of descent. (2025). 9781787387799, Hurst Publishers. ISBN 9781787387799 Beginning with the slave uprising of 1791, he rose to power in the ranks of the Haitian revolutionary military. The revolution succeeded in gaining independence from France in 1804. In 1805 he took part under Jean-Jacques Dessalines in the capture of Santo Domingo (now Dominican Republic), against French forces who acquired the colony from Spain in the Treaty of Basel.
After Dessalines was assassinated, Christophe retreated to the Plaine-du-Nord and created a separate government. On 17 February 1807, he was elected president of the State of Haiti, as he named that area. Alexandre Pétion was elected president of the Republic of Haiti in the south. On 26 March 1811, Christophe created a kingdom in the north and was later proclaimed Henry I, King of Haïti. He also created a nobility and named his legitimate son Jacques-Victor Henry as prince and heir.
He is known for constructing Citadel Henry, now known as Citadelle Laferrière, the Sans-Souci Palace, the royal chapel of Milot, the Palais de la Belle Rivière and numerous other palaces. (2025). 9783422074668, Deutscher Kunstverlag. ISBN 9783422074668 Under his policies of corvée, or forced labor bordering on slavery, the Kingdom earned revenues from agricultural production, primarily sugar, but the Haitian people resented the system. He reached an agreement with the United Kingdom to respect its Caribbean colonies in exchange for their warnings to his government of any French naval activity threatening Haiti. In 1820, unpopular, ill and fearing a coup, he committed suicide. Jacques-Victor, his son and heir, was assassinated 10 days later. Afterwards, General Jean-Pierre Boyer came to power and reunited the two parts of Haiti.
As an adult, Christophe may have worked as a mason, sailor, stable hand, waiter, or billiard marker; if so, most of his pay would have gone to his master. One popular story claims that he worked in and managed La Couronne, a hotel restaurant in Cap-Français, the first capital of the French colony of Saint-Domingue and a major colonial city. There, the legend goes, he became skilled at dealing with the grand blancs, as the wealthy white French planters were called. However, none of the hotel's sales records support this claim. He was said to have gained his freedom from slavery as a young man, before the slave uprising of 1791. On 15 July 1793 he married Marie-Louise Coidavid, (2025). 9781787387799, Hurst Publishers. ISBN 9781787387799 a member of the free black community of Cap-Français. The political skills he learned as a hotelier also served him well when he later became an officer in the military and leader in the country.
Beginning with the slave uprising of 1791, Christophe distinguished himself as a soldier in the Haitian Revolution and quickly rose to be a colonel during the revolutionary years. He fought for years with Toussaint Louverture in the north, participating in numerous battles during the revolution, and eventually rising to the rank of commander-in-chief at Cap-Français. By 1801, Louverture had promoted him to brigadier-general. (2025). 9781787387799, Hurst Publishers. ISBN 9781787387799
Accessed 23 Oct. 2019.
Christophe was in charge of the northern section of the country, where he notably supervised the first steps of the construction of Citadelle Laferrière. In 1805, General Nicolas Geffrard, commander in the south, approached Christophe with a plot to kill Dessalines, the self-proclaimed emperor of Haiti; Christophe did not warn Dessalines. Christophe's influence and power in the north was such that Dessalines, though aware of opposition brewing against him in the highest circles of power, found himself unable to strike against his general. The conspiracy involved the majority of Dessalines's senior officers, including his minister of war and navy Étienne Élie Gerin, General Alexandre Pétion, commander-in-chief of the second division in the west, General Nicolas Geffrard and many others. On 16 October 1806, they signed a proclamation entitled "Resistance to Oppression", declaring the necessity to overthrow Dessalines's government, and proclaimed Christophe head of the provisional Haitian government. Dessalines was assassinated on 17 October 1806.
Christophe (referred to as Enrique Cristóbal in Spanish-language accounts), under Dessalines, attacked the towns of Moca and Santiago. The barrister Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo wrote, "40 children had their throats cut at the Moca's church, and the bodies found at the presbytery, which is the space that encircles the church's altar..."Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo, Memoria de mi salida de la isla de Santo Domingo el 28 de abril de 1805 (Memoirs of my leaving the island of Santo Domingo 28 April 1805) This event was one of several documented accounts of atrocities perpetrated by Christophe under the orders of Dessalines; they retreated to Haiti after Dessalines lifted the siege of Santo Domingo.
On 6 April 1805, having gathered all his troops, Christophe took all male prisoners to the local cemetery and proceeded to slit their throats, among them Presbyter Vásquez and 20 other priests. Later he Scorched earth the whole town along with its five churches. On his way out he took along, fashioned like a herd, 249 women, 430 girls and 318 boys, a steep figure considering the relatively low population of the town at that time. Alejandro Llenas wrote that Christophe took 997 from Santiago alone, and "Monte Plata, San Pedro and Cotuí were reduced to ashes, and their residents either had their throats slit or were taken captives by the thousands, like farm animals, tied up and getting beaten on their way to Haiti."
Before leaving Santo Domingo, Dessalines "gave the order to... commanders posted in conquered communities, to round up all dwellers and subdue them to prison, and thus, at first command, have them stomped by mules and other beasts upon arriving to the Haitian side."
In 1811, Christophe declared the northern state of Haïti a kingdom and had himself crowned by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Brelle, the archbishop of Milot. The 1 April 1811 edict gave his full title as
He renamed Cap-Français as Cap-Henry (later renamed as Cap-Haïtien).
Christophe named his legitimate son Jacques-Victor Henry heir apparent, giving him the title of Prince Royal of Haïti.Monfried, Walter, " The Slave Who Became King: Henri Christophe", Negro Digest, Volume XII, Number 12, October, 1963. His second son was a colonel in his army.
Christophe built six châteaux, eight palaces and the massive Citadelle Laferrière, on a mountain near Milot. With the remains of the Sans-Souci Palace, it has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nine years later, at the end of his monarchy, Henry increased the number of designated nobility from the original 87 to 134.Cheesman, 2007, p. 10.
The two parts of Haiti struggled to increase agricultural production to recover from the expensive and damaging wars. The United States had only recently ended its arms and goods embargo against Haiti, and began war with United Kingdom in the War of 1812. Christophe had to choose whether to enforce a version of the slave plantation system to increase agricultural production, or to subdivide the land into parcels for peasants' subsistence farming. The latter was the policy of President Pétion in the south. King Henry chose to enforce corvée plantation work, a system of forced labor, in lieu of taxes, but also began his massive building projects. During his reign, Northern Haiti was Despotism, but the sugar cane economy generated revenue for government and officials.
He made an agreement with Britain that Haiti would not threaten its Caribbean colonies; in return, the Royal Navy would warn Haiti of imminent attacks from French troops. In 1807, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Slave Trade Act 1807 to abolish the importation of slaves into the British Empire. Because of increased bilateral trade with Britain, Christophe's government earned an enormous sum of Pound sterling for his treasury. By contrast, Petion's southern Haiti became much poorer because the land-share system reduced agricultural productivity, and exports fell.Griggs and Prator, James.
Some Europeans mocked his creation. The titles of the Duc de Limonade (Julien Prévost, Christophe's secretary of state) and Duc de Marmelade (Jean-Pierre Richard, governor of Cap Henry) were considered particularly comic by those unaware that they were actually derived from place names given by the previous French colonists.
His descendants continued to be among the powerful of Haiti. Pierre Nord Alexis, President of Haiti from 1902 to 1908, was Christophe's grandson. Michèle Bennett, who married Jean-Claude Duvalier and was First Lady of Haiti during his administration (1980 to 1986), is Christophe's great-great-great-granddaughter.
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