Letter to Thomas Jefferson from Jean Jacques Dessalines
Read this letter that Dessalines sent to Thomas Jefferson. Think about the words he used to appeal to the president of the United States. How do you think Jefferson, who helped draft the U.S. Constitution but enslaved 600 people during his lifetime, received this letter? How do you think Jefferson's conflicting views may have complicated Haiti's situation?
Headquarters, Frère plantation,
Cul-de-Sac plain
23 June 1803
Mister President,
The American schooner The Federal, under Captain Nehemiah Barr, forced by our patrol boats to enter the port of Petit-Goâve, provides me the honor of informing you of the events that have occurred on our unfortunate island since the arrival of the French and the revolution caused in France by the tyranny of their oppressive government.
The people of Saint-Domingue, tired of paying with our blood the price of our blind allegiance to a mother country that cuts her children's throats, and following the example of the wisest nations, have thrown off the yoke of tyranny and sworn to expel the torturers.
Our countryside is already purged of their sight. A few cities are still under their domination but have nothing further to offer to their avid rapacity.
Commerce with the United States, Mister President, offers a market for the huge harvests we have in storage and the even more abundant ones that are now growing. Your country's shippers are calling for it. Your nation's long-standing relations with Saint-Domingue are evidence of the loyalty and good faith that await your ships in our ports.
The return of the schooner The Federal will prove to your country our current disposition.
Please be sure, Mister President, of the eagerness with which I will exert all my authority for the safety of the United States' ships and the benefits they will reap from trading with us.
Accept, Mister President, the expression of my highest consideration.
Source: Jean-Jacques Dessalines, https://cowlatinamerica.voices.wooster.edu/archive-item/to-thomas-jefferson-from-jean-jacques-dessalines-23-june-1803/
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