Fabre Geffrard
Encyclopedia
Fabre-Nicholas Geffrard was a general in the Haiti
an army
and President of Haiti
from 1859 until his deposition in 1867. After collaborating in a coup to remove Faustin Soulouque from power in order to return Haiti back to social and political control of the colored elite, Geffrard was made president in 1859. To placate the peasants he renewed the practice of selling state-owned lands and ended a schism with the Roman Catholic Church
which then took on an important role in improving education. After surviving several rebellions, he was overthrown by Major Sylvain Salnave in 1867.
In June 1859, Geffrard founded the National Law School and reinstituted the Medical School that Boyer
began. His ministers of Education, Jean Simon Elie-Dubois and François Elie-Dubois modernized and established many lycea
in Jacmel
, Jérémie
, Saint-Marc
, and Gonaïves
. On October 10, 1863, he reintroduced the colonial law that required the roads to be built and maintained. He also followed Jean-Jacques Dessalines
, Alexandre Pétion
and Boyer
policy of recruiting African Americans to settle in Haiti. In May 1861, a group of African Americans, led by James Theodore Holly, settled east of Croix-des-Bouquets
. However, by 1862, Geffrard began to examine the constitution and eliminated the legislature to his own benefit. He first gave himself a raise, 2 plantation
s, and paid his personal luxury with hospital funds and army funds.
Geffrard was a Catholic, which made him renounce any form of the Voodoo faith. He gave orders to demolish altars, drums, and any other instruments used in ceremonies. In 1863, a six-year-old girl was killed by Voodoo practitioners in a gruesome fashion. Geffrard ordered a deep investigation and a public execution was held. This case became the famous Affaire de Bizoton, which was featured in a British minister's best-selling book.
In 1859, Geffrard made the first attempt in negotiating with the Dominican Republic
under the regime of Pedro Santana
. Unfortunately, in March 1861, Pedro gave his country back to Queen Isabella II of Spain, thus making Haitian officials nervous of a European power back on their borders. In May of that year, guerilla war broke out in Santo Domingo
against Spain. Geffrard sent his personal guards and men to help out the rebels against Spanish troops but in July 1861, Spain gave Haiti an ultimatum for participating and supporting the Dominican rebels. In the end, Geffrard agreed to surrender to Spain requests and dropped all intervention within Spain territory in the east. This episode left many Haitians humiliated and angry at Geffrard because he backed down to a European nation while Faustin Soulouque would have never accepted it.
Geffrard, like all Haitians, supported the abolitionist movement in the U.S., holding a state funeral for John Brown
. With the secession of the slave-owning Southern states in the American Civil War
, Haiti was granted diplomatic recognition by the United States. During the war, Spanish and British colonial officials in Cuba
, the Bahamas
and neighboring Santo Domingo
openly sided with the Confederacy
, harboring Confederate commerce-raiders and blockade-runners. By contrast, Haiti was the one part of the Caribbean (with the exception of Danish St. Thomas
) where the U.S. Navy was welcome, and Cap-Haïtien
served as the headquarters of its West Indian Squadron, which helped maintain the Union blockade in the strategically invaluable Florida Straights. Haiti also took advantage of the war to become a major exporter of cotton to the United States, and Geffrard imported gins and technicians to increase production. However, the crops failed in 1865 and 1866, and by that point the U.S. was again exporting cotton.
By the 8th month of Geffrard's presidency, Faustin Soulouque's minister of interior, Guerrier Prophete, began to lay out his plan to overthrow Geffrard. Fortunately for Geffrard, his plan was picked up by Geffrard's guards and Prophete was exiled. On September 1859, Geffrard's daughter Madame Cora Manneville-Blanfort was assassinated by Timoleon Vanon. In 1861, General Legros
tried to take over the weaponry storage but was detained by government forces. In 1862, Etienne Salomon tried to rally the rural community to revolt against Geffrard but was instead shot and killed. In 1863, Aime Legros gathered troops to overthrow Geffrard but his troops betrayed him and was shot. In 1864, the elite community in Port-au-Prince
tried to take over the weaponry storage but was later prosecuted and sentenced to jail.
In 1867, Geffrard's bodyguards, Tirailleurs, betrayed him and tried to assassinate him inside the national palace.
began his takeover of the North and Artibonite part of Haiti
. By May 15, both Geffrard and his government troops clashed with Salnave Northern troops. After using the Royal Navy
for gunboat diplomacy with Salnave, Geffrard regime was in ruins, especially financially. He reopened old wounds between North, West, and South Haiti
ans and brought foreigners into domestic affairs. In 1866, a huge fire engulfed hundreds of houses and business. In March 1867, Geffrard and his family disguised themselves and fled to Jamaica
, where he died in Kingston
in 1878.
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an army
Military of Haiti
The country of Haiti currently has no regular military. The former Haitian Armed Forces were demobilized.Haiti's current forces consist of the Haitian National Police, which has several paramilitary units, a highly trained and equipped SWAT team, and the Haitian Coast Guard...
and President of Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
from 1859 until his deposition in 1867. After collaborating in a coup to remove Faustin Soulouque from power in order to return Haiti back to social and political control of the colored elite, Geffrard was made president in 1859. To placate the peasants he renewed the practice of selling state-owned lands and ended a schism with the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
which then took on an important role in improving education. After surviving several rebellions, he was overthrown by Major Sylvain Salnave in 1867.
Presidency
His first act as president was to cut the army in half from 30,000 to 15,000. He also formed his own presidential guards called the Les Tirailleurs de la Garde, who were trained under him personally.In June 1859, Geffrard founded the National Law School and reinstituted the Medical School that Boyer
Jean Pierre Boyer
Jean-Pierre Boyer , a native of Saint-Domingue, was a soldier, one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and President of Haiti from 1818 to 1843. He reunited the north and south of Haiti in 1820 and also invaded and took control of Santo Domingo, which brought all of Hispaniola under one...
began. His ministers of Education, Jean Simon Elie-Dubois and François Elie-Dubois modernized and established many lycea
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
in Jacmel
Jacmel
Jacmel, also known by its indigenous Taíno name of Yaquimel, is a town in southern Haiti founded in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est and has an estimated population of 40,000, while the municipality of Jacmel had a population of 137,966 at the 2003 Census.The buildings are...
, Jérémie
Jérémie
Jérémie is the capital city of the department of Grand'Anse, in Haiti, with a population of about 31,000 . It is almost isolated from the rest of the country...
, Saint-Marc
Saint-Marc
Saint-Marc is a coastal port town in western Haiti in the Artibonite Department. Its geographic coordinates are . At the 2003 Census the municipality had 160,181 inhabitants....
, and Gonaïves
Gonaïves
Gonaïves is a city in northern Haiti, the capital of the Artibonite Department. It has a population of about 104,825 people . The city's name derives from the original Amerindian name of Gonaibo. It is also known as Haïti's "independence city"...
. On October 10, 1863, he reintroduced the colonial law that required the roads to be built and maintained. He also followed Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1801 constitution. Initially regarded as Governor-General, Dessalines later named himself Emperor Jacques I of Haiti...
, Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Sabès Pétion was President of the Republic of Haiti from 1806 until his death. He is considered as one of Haiti's founding fathers, together with Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and his rival Henri Christophe.-Early life:Pétion was born in Port-au-Prince to a Haitian...
and Boyer
Jean Pierre Boyer
Jean-Pierre Boyer , a native of Saint-Domingue, was a soldier, one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and President of Haiti from 1818 to 1843. He reunited the north and south of Haiti in 1820 and also invaded and took control of Santo Domingo, which brought all of Hispaniola under one...
policy of recruiting African Americans to settle in Haiti. In May 1861, a group of African Americans, led by James Theodore Holly, settled east of Croix-des-Bouquets
Croix-des-Bouquets
Croix-des-Bouquets is a city in the Ouest Department of Haiti. It is located to the northeast of Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince. Originally located on the shore, it was relocated inland after the 1770 Port-au-Prince earthquake. Due to this fact, it was not as badly affected in the 2010...
. However, by 1862, Geffrard began to examine the constitution and eliminated the legislature to his own benefit. He first gave himself a raise, 2 plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
s, and paid his personal luxury with hospital funds and army funds.
Geffrard was a Catholic, which made him renounce any form of the Voodoo faith. He gave orders to demolish altars, drums, and any other instruments used in ceremonies. In 1863, a six-year-old girl was killed by Voodoo practitioners in a gruesome fashion. Geffrard ordered a deep investigation and a public execution was held. This case became the famous Affaire de Bizoton, which was featured in a British minister's best-selling book.
In 1859, Geffrard made the first attempt in negotiating with the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
under the regime of Pedro Santana
Pedro Santana
Pedro Santana y Familias was a wealthy cattle rancher, soldier, politician and dictator of the Dominican Republic. He was born in the community of Hinche, which was part of the Colony of Santo Domingo. Currently, Hinche is a border town part of Haiti...
. Unfortunately, in March 1861, Pedro gave his country back to Queen Isabella II of Spain, thus making Haitian officials nervous of a European power back on their borders. In May of that year, guerilla war broke out in Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
against Spain. Geffrard sent his personal guards and men to help out the rebels against Spanish troops but in July 1861, Spain gave Haiti an ultimatum for participating and supporting the Dominican rebels. In the end, Geffrard agreed to surrender to Spain requests and dropped all intervention within Spain territory in the east. This episode left many Haitians humiliated and angry at Geffrard because he backed down to a European nation while Faustin Soulouque would have never accepted it.
Geffrard, like all Haitians, supported the abolitionist movement in the U.S., holding a state funeral for John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
. With the secession of the slave-owning Southern states in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Haiti was granted diplomatic recognition by the United States. During the war, Spanish and British colonial officials in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, the Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
and neighboring Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
openly sided with the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, harboring Confederate commerce-raiders and blockade-runners. By contrast, Haiti was the one part of the Caribbean (with the exception of Danish St. Thomas
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...
) where the U.S. Navy was welcome, and Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien is a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord...
served as the headquarters of its West Indian Squadron, which helped maintain the Union blockade in the strategically invaluable Florida Straights. Haiti also took advantage of the war to become a major exporter of cotton to the United States, and Geffrard imported gins and technicians to increase production. However, the crops failed in 1865 and 1866, and by that point the U.S. was again exporting cotton.
By the 8th month of Geffrard's presidency, Faustin Soulouque's minister of interior, Guerrier Prophete, began to lay out his plan to overthrow Geffrard. Fortunately for Geffrard, his plan was picked up by Geffrard's guards and Prophete was exiled. On September 1859, Geffrard's daughter Madame Cora Manneville-Blanfort was assassinated by Timoleon Vanon. In 1861, General Legros
Legros
Legros or LeGros is a surname and may refer to the following people:* Alphonse Legros , French painter and etcher* Fernand Legros , French art dealer* James LeGros , American film and television actor...
tried to take over the weaponry storage but was detained by government forces. In 1862, Etienne Salomon tried to rally the rural community to revolt against Geffrard but was instead shot and killed. In 1863, Aime Legros gathered troops to overthrow Geffrard but his troops betrayed him and was shot. In 1864, the elite community in Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
tried to take over the weaponry storage but was later prosecuted and sentenced to jail.
In 1867, Geffrard's bodyguards, Tirailleurs, betrayed him and tried to assassinate him inside the national palace.
Overthrow
In 1865, Major Sylvain SalnaveSylvain Salnave
Sylvain Salnave was a Haïtian general. He was the President of Haïti from 1867 to 1869. In 1867 he was elected president after he led the overthrow of President Fabre Geffrard. During his term there were constant civil wars between the various factions.-Footnotes:...
began his takeover of the North and Artibonite part of Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. By May 15, both Geffrard and his government troops clashed with Salnave Northern troops. After using the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
for gunboat diplomacy with Salnave, Geffrard regime was in ruins, especially financially. He reopened old wounds between North, West, and South Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
ans and brought foreigners into domestic affairs. In 1866, a huge fire engulfed hundreds of houses and business. In March 1867, Geffrard and his family disguised themselves and fled to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, where he died in Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
in 1878.