The Battle of Vertière

Emmanuel Sainsilus

The Battle of vertière

Emmanuel Saincilus

Haiti Friends Collection

The Battle of Vertière, on November 18, 1803, marked the final major battle of the Haitian revolution.  The victory led to Haiti becoming the first country to stage a successful slave Revolution and the first postcolonial free state in Latin America.  Every year, on November 18th, the whole country celebrates with multiple patriotic events. 

From 1625 to 1803, Haiti was France’s most profitable colony supplying the world with sugar and coffee from plantations dotting the island and worked by thousands of enslaved people from Africa.  By the end of the 18th century, however, slaves began rebelling against the exploitation of their French plantation owners.  After many skirmishes, a deadly yellow fever epidemic, and reignited tensions with Britain, France lost ground. On November 18, 1803, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and François Capois led a persistent and fierce attack on a strategic French Fort, Vertières, in Northern Haiti which forced the French army to abandon their position and surrender. Two months later, Haiti declared its independence from France.