Nord is one of the ten departments

Departments of Haiti

The Communes of Haiti are the third-level divisions of Haiti. The 10 departments have 42 arrondissements which are divided into 140 communes.-Artibonite Department:*Dessalines Arrondissement**Desdunes**Dessalines**Grande Saline...

 (French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

: départements) 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...

. It has an area of 2,106 km² and a population of 872,200 (2002). Its capital is 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...

.

Arrondissements

The department is divided into seven arrondissements:

1. L'Acul-du-Nord Arrondissement
2. Borgne Arrondissement
   Borgne Arrondissement
   Borgne is an arrondissement in the Nord Department of Haiti.It has 83,823 inhabitants.Postal codes in the Borgne Arrondissement start with the number 15.The arondissement consists of the following municipalities:* Borgne* Port-Margot...
   
   
3. Cap-Haïtien Arrondissement
   Cap-Haïtien Arrondissement
   Cap-Haïtien is an arrondissement in the Nord Department of Haiti.It has 240,708 inhabitants.Postal codes in the Cap-Haïtien Arrondissement start with the number 11.The arondissement consists of the following municipalities:...
   
   
4. Grand-Rivière-du-Nord Arrondissement
5. Le Limbé Arrondissement
6. Plaissance Arrondissement
7. Saint-Raphaël Arrondissement
   Saint-Raphaël Arrondissement
   Saint-Raphaël is an arrondissement in the Nord Department of Haiti.It has 117,530 inhabitants.Postal codes in the Saint-Raphaël Arrondissement start with the number 14.-Communes:...
   
   

History

In 1789 the Nord Department on the northern shore was the most fertile area with the largest sugar plantations. It was an area of vast economic importance. Here most of the slaves lived in relative isolation, separated from the rest of the colony by a high mountain range known as the Massif. This area was a stronghold of the wealthy planters who wanted greater autonomy for the colony, especially economically, so they could do as they pleased.

Although the slaves were not expected to participate in a rebellion, suddenly on August 22, 1791, a great slave uprising plunged the country into civil war. Thousands of slaves in the fertile Nord Department region rose up to take vengeance on their masters and to fight for their liberty. Within the next ten days slaves had taken control of the entire northern province in an unprecedented slave revolt that left the whites controlling only a few isolated fortified camps. Within the next two months as the violence escalated, the rebelling slaves killed 2,000 whites and burned or destroyed 280 sugar plantations. Within a year the island was in revolutionary chaos. Slaves burnt the plantations where they had been forced to work, and killed masters, overseers and other whites. This was the beginning of the Haitian Revolution

Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...

.

In 1804, Haiti declared itself a free republic but civil war broke out in the north under the leadership of Henri Christophe

Henri Christophe

Henri Christophe was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution, winning independence from France in 1804. On 17 February 1807, after the creation of a separate nation in the north, Christophe was elected President of the State of Haiti...

. Christophe declared the northern dominion a kingdom in 1811 and crowned himself King Henry I of Haiti.
In 1820, King Henry committed suicide after suffering a stroke that resulted in his lose control of the army and therefore his power. The kingdom was claimed by Jean Pierre 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...

, then the appointed president of Haiti, on October 26, 1820 after he captured Cap Haïtien by military force. Haiti became a single nation again.

Footnotes