Jean Pierre Boyer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean-Pierre Boyer

Jean-Pierre Boyer (possibly February 15, 1776 – July 9, 1850), Haïtian soldier and President of Haïti (1818-1843), born a free mulatto in Port-au-Prince, and educated in France. He fought with Toussaint L'Ouverture and then joined André Rigaud, also a mulatto, in the latter's abortive insurrection against Toussaint. He returned in 1802 with the French army of Charles Leclerc, but later joined the patriots under Alexandre Pétion, who chose him as his successor.

Old French Haïti split north–south in 1806 following the overthrow of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines into two separate realms of Henri Christophe and Pétion. Boyer was made the successor of Pétion and took control of the south following his death in 1818. When Christophe committed suicide in 1820, Boyer secured the northern portion of the country. When Spanish Santo Domingo became independent in late 1821 Boyer was quick to invade and thereby unite the entire island by February, 1822.

Internationally, Boyer was anxious to remove the threat of France and opened negotiations. An agreement was reached on July 11, 1825, when with fourteen French warships off Port-au-Prince, Boyer signed an indemnity, stating that in return for 150 million francs paid within five years, France would recognize Haïti as an independent country. While this sum was later reduced to 60 million francs (1838), it was a crushing economic blow to Haïti, and cruelly Boyer had to negotiate a loan from France of 30 million francs in order to pay the first part of the indemnity. The Haïtian population meanwhile was retreating into an agricultural subsistence pattern, defying the initial plan of Boyer to enforce the semi-feudal fermage system.

The people of Haïti were aggrieved at their situation and in order to placate them, Boyer resurrected a land distribution program, attempted and then abandoned during the initial revolution. The large plantations were broken up and the land distributed, the rural population were tied to their smallholdings and given production quotas.

Boyer's rule lasted until 1843 when the poor economic situation was worsened by an earthquake, and the disadvantaged rural population rose up under Charles Riviere-Hérard in late January. On February 13, Boyer fled Haïti to nearby Jamaica before eventually settling in exile in France, dying in Paris. Descendants of Boyer live in the impoverished Haïti to this day.