Haitian Flag Creation

The creation of the Haitian flag is remembered as the act of removing the white band from the French tricolor and joining the remaining blue and red into a new national emblem, an event traditionally placed at Arcahaie. According to oral tradition, Dessalines tore out the white and Catherine Flon sewed the first flag. Jean Casimir notes how the flag narrative reflects urban elite definitions of national identity that partially occlude the role of the broader revolutionary population. The 1805 Imperial Constitution codified state colors, while Ardouin records that Dessalines changed blue to black in 1805 and later regimes continued revising the palette and motto to express competing political projects.