President of Haiti from 1859 to 1867
Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Fabre_Geffrard%2C_pr%C3%A9sident_d%27Ha%C3%AFti.jpg/220px-Fabre_Geffrard%2C_pr%C3%A9sident_d%27Ha%C3%AFti.jpg) Geffrard in 1866
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In office
15 January 1859 ? 13 March 1867
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Preceded by
| Faustin I of Haiti
(as
Emperor of Haiti
)
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Succeeded by
| Nissage Saget
(provisional)
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Born
| Guillaume Fabre Nicolas Geffrard
(
1806-09-23
)
23 September 1806
Anse-a-Veau
, Haiti
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Died
| 31 December 1878
(1878-12-31)
(aged 72)
Kingston
, British Jamaica
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Spouse
| Marguerite Lorvana McIntosh
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Profession
| Military
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Guillaume Fabre Nicolas Geffrard
(
French pronunciation:
[?ijom
fab?
nik?la
??f?a?]
; 23 September 1806
[1]
– 31 December 1878) was a
mulatto
[2]
general in the
Haitian army
and President of
Haiti
from 1859 until his deposition in 1867. On 18 April 1852,
Faustin Soulouque
made him Duke of Tabara. After collaborating in a coup to remove
Faustin Soulouque
from power in order to return Haiti to the 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.
[3]
Life prior to presidency
[
edit
]
Geffrard was a son of
Nicolas Geffrard
, a general of the
Armee indigene
during the Haitian Revolution and a signatory of the
Haitian Declaration of Independence
who was assassinated a few months before Fabre's birth. Fabre Geffrard was then adopted by his uncle, Colonel Fabre. Geffrard left the college in the town of Cayes in 1821 and enlisted in the army. When General
Charles Riviere-Herard
launched a rebellion against dictator
Jean-Pierre Boyer
in 1843, Geffrard joined him and was appointed lieutenant-colonel. He was then sent to the town of
Jeremie
where he defeated Boyer's troops, who he then pursued as far as the Tiburon peninsula. After this military triumph he was elevated to the rank of brigadier general in 1844. The new president,
Jean-Baptiste Riche
, feared Geffrard's popularity, and had him arrested to try to bring him to justice, but the court martial acquitted him for misconduct. In 1849, under the reign of
Soulouque
, Geffrard commanded an expedition against the
Dominican Republic
during which he was wounded at the
Battle of Azua
. He held the highest positions in the army under the government of Faustin Soulouque and under the Empire. In 1849 Soulouque became Emperor Faustin I and appointed Geffrard to command a division of the army during the first war against Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic), in which he gained fame by his victory at
La Tabarra
. During the second war against Santo Domingo (1856) General Geffrard distinguished himself on several occasions, in particular thanks to the skillful direction of the artillery in
Banico
. He was thus titled Duke of Tabarre for his military success. But as this regime became unpopular, Geffrard was threatened by Emperor Faustin I. Arrested, he escaped and organized a revolt, which led to the fall of the Empire. On 15 January 1859, minutes after the abdication of Emperor Faustin I, he proclaimed the Third Republic and was elected president.
Presidency
[
edit
]
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
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
began. His ministers of Education, Jean Simon Elie-Dubois and Francois Elie-Dubois, modernized and established many
lycea
in
Jacmel
,
Jeremie
,
Saint-Marc
, and
Gonaives
. On 10 October 1863, he reintroduced the colonial law that required roads to be built and maintained. He also revived the policy of former rulers
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
,
Alexandre Petion
and
Jean-Pierre Boyer
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
plantations
, and paid for his personal luxuries with hospital funds and army funds. In 1863, he reformed the monetary system to that of the present day.
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 1864, a twelve-year-old girl was allegedly killed by Voodoo practitioners in a gruesome fashion and cannibalized. Geffrard ordered a deep investigation and a public execution was held. This case became the famous
Affaire de Bizoton
, a sensationalized account of which was featured in British minister Sir Spenser St. John's best-selling book,
Hayti, or the black republic.
[4]
The eight
Voodoo
devotees found guilty in 1864 of the murder and eating of a 12-year-old girl.
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 about having 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, following the execution of
Francisco del Rosario Sanchez
, Spain gave Haiti an ultimatum for participating and supporting the Dominican rebels. In the end, Geffrard agreed to surrender to Spanish demands and dropped all intervention within Spanish 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 many Haitians, supported the
abolitionist
movement in the United States and held a state funeral for the abolitionist
John Brown
, who was hanged for leading an armed insurrection against the United States government in 1859. 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
which was occupied by Spain, passively 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 United States Navy was welcome, and
Cap-Haitien
served as the headquarters of its West Indian Squadron, which helped maintain the Union blockade in the
Florida Straits
[
citation needed
]
. 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 United States was again exporting cotton.
Failed coups against Geffrard
[
edit
]
Cora Geffrard, daughter of President Geffrard of Haiti assassinated in 1859.
By the eighth 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. In September 1859, Geffrard's daughter Madame
Cora Manneville-Blanfort
was assassinated
[
why?
]
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 he was shot. In 1864, the elite community in
Port-au-Prince
tried to take over the weaponry storage, but the conspirators were later prosecuted and sentenced to jail.
In 1867, Geffrard's bodyguards,
Tirailleurs
, betrayed him
[
why?
]
and tried to assassinate him inside the national palace.
[
citation needed
]
Overthrow
[
edit
]
In 1865, Major
Sylvain Salnave
began his takeover of the North and Artibonite part of
Haiti
. By 15 May both Geffrard and his government troops clashed with Salnave's Northern troops. After using the
Royal Navy
for gunboat diplomacy with Salnave, the Geffrard regime was in ruins, especially financially. He re-opened old wounds among North, West, and South Haiti and brought foreigners into domestic affairs. In 1866, a huge fire engulfed hundreds of houses and businesses
[
where?
]
. In March 1867, Geffrard and his family disguised themselves and fled to
Jamaica
, where he died in
Kingston
in 1878.
[
citation needed
]
Family
[
edit
]
Geffrard, with his wife Marguerite Lorvana McIntosh, had several children:
- Laurinska Madiou
- Celimene Cesvet
- Cora Manneville-Blandfort (d. 1859)
- Marguerite Zeila Geffrard
- Claire Geffrard
- Angele Dupuy
- Charles Nicholas Clodomir Fabre Geffrard (1833-1859)
- ^
William Wells Brown (1874).
The Rising Son: Or, The Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race
. A. G. Brown.
ISBN
978-0-598-57805-1
.
- ^
Pamphile, Leon Denius (2001).
Haitians and African Americans: A Heritage of Tragedy and Hope
. University Press of Florida.
ISBN
9780813031071
. Retrieved
4 March
2014
.
- ^
Rogozinski, Jan (1999).
A Brief History of the Caribbean
(Revised ed.). New York: Facts on File, Inc. p.
220
.
ISBN
0-8160-3811-2
.
- ^
Webb, Jack Daniel. “Hayti, or, the Black Republic.” Haiti in the British Imagination: Imperial Worlds, 1847-1915, Liverpool University Press, 2020, pp. 139?88. JSTOR,
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1b4gv6g.8
. Accessed 28 Oct. 2023.
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