Empire and Kingdom of Haiti

[Toledo]

I was doing a basic search in Haiti's royal history, the first nation in the Americas that eliminated slavery and did not found a separated RF thread that some interesting links could be posted in. Hope anyone here researching for curious or short-lived monarchies in the present or future take advantage of the links.

The Empire of Haiti: Jean-Jacques Dessalines - Wikipedia

What was the Kingdom of Haiti: Kingdom of Haiti - Wikipedia

Many, like the second one, would be a great source of inspiration if you are doing a master's thesis or any form of degree on a subject rarely tackled.

My first ever approach to Haiti's royal history was as a kid, reading a book published in Cuba in 1949, and owned by my grandmother in Spain, titled El Reino de Este Mundo. That is The Kingdom of This World. As a kid I was mesmerized by the narrative and my favorite part was the story telling of the visit of Napoleon's sister, Pauline, to the island.

The great paragraph that was the section that named the titled of the book using a biblical reference because The Kingdom of This World refers to the Bible's line Kingdom on Earth. I even remember the first lines because I memorized the paragraph, too: (paraphrased from my memory of the lines I read 50-55 plus years ago!) the greatness of men does not reside in the kingdom of heaven but on their deeds on the kingdom on Earth.

Here's more on the book and I bet is also available in Kindle or PDF our there
link: The Kingdom of This World - Wikipedia

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Notes:

1. The life of King Henry Christophe was distorted, re-adapted and portrayed in the play and movie Emperor Jones. The premise of the Eugene O'Neal play is at parts very prejudicial and lacks the information to tie this fantasy play to the extraordinary events that happened in Haiti.

Play adapted into a Movie: Emperor Jones:

2. The Christophe royal family remained in power even after the end of the monarchy:

His grandson Pierre Nord Alexis was the president of Haiti in 1902 Pierre Nord Alexis - Wikipedia and King Henri's great-great-great granddaughter Michèle Bennett (born 15 January 1950) was the former First Lady of Haiti/ ex‑wife of former President of Haiti, Jean‑Claude Duvalier.

This is a great source of free information about royal titles in the kingdom of Haiti. Haiti's version of Almanach Gotha. The royal family starts on page 21 and the rest is all nobility titles created and the list of responsibilities or areas of these new aristocrats.

The book can be downloaded for free and let us know if anyone in the Royal Forums wants to consider it as a great research project for school or for re-publishing it!

The book is available online and free to read. to move the pages just mouse-click on the right side of the screen:
the Almanach Royal d'Hayti

Almanach royal d'Hayti pour l'année ... : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

v. ; 18-20 cm

archive.org

 

[Toledo]

Yesterday I finished reading again, using my new Kindle's Text to Speech setting, the book El Reino de Este Mundo/The Kingdom on this World by Alejo Carpentier. This book is about the life in Haiti during the independence years that ran parallel to the French Revolution aftermath and the rise and fall of Napoleon.

I read this book, first print was in 1949, over 50-54 years ago from my grandmother's library. I think her copy was the 1971 reprint because I still have it with me here in the USA along with the other book from the 'series' in Haiti during the French Revolution titled The Age of Enlighten. I'll be using text to speech on this one again now that I found these rare books available in Kindle both in English and Spanish.

I use the Spanish text to speech setting and with the Spain's Spanish voice since it's the one familiar to me that the other two options, a horrible USA Spanish neutral voice and a third option is the Mexican accent voice that I find a bit cartoonish intense considering that when I see Mexican movies in Spanish in YouTube the accent is beautiful and neutral.

Back to the book, The Kingdom of This World is a fictional novel from the perspective of one character from start to end that narrates how his life became intertwined with that of Haiti's king Henri Christophe, and during exile with his wife the Queen and her royal daughters as well as other historical characters like Napoleon's sister Paulina when she visited the island.

So, if you are curious about the little-known monarchies in America, like Haiti that was a monarchy on three separate occasions, start with this book that covers the lead character 50-60 years before, during and after the revolution and the Haitian monarchies:

1. First Empire of Haiti 1804-1806 - Jaques I
2. Kingdom of Haiti 1811-1820 - Henri Cristophe I
3. Second Empire of Haiti 1849 -1859 Faustin Soulouque I

Bonus link: the First Empire of Haiti 1804-1806 First Empire of Haiti - Wikipedia
and The Second Empire from 1849-1859 Faustin Soulouque - Wikipedia

Bonus link 2
The flag and National anthem of the Kingdom of Haiti

The Sans Souci Royal Palace and the Citadelle Castle