Also known as: Dessalines labor ordinance 1804, Ordinance of 20 January 1804, post-independence labor regulations, Ordinance on Labor and Migration Restrictions (20 January 1804)
Last updated: April 16, 2026
Issued twenty days after Haitian independence, this ordinance by Dessalines as Governor-General required plantation laborers — especially young Creole women who had fled to cities to work as market vendors — to obtain certificates of means before leaving agriculture. Discovered by Julia Gaffield in the same British archival collection as the Declaration broadside, it was accompanied by a companion ordinance cancelling all plantation leases on January 2. Together these two documents reveal Dessalines's twin priorities at independence: seize the land, then ensure the labor to work it.
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Jean-Jacques Dessalines. "Ordinance on Labor and Migration Restrictions (20 January 1804)." 1804. Rasin.ai, https://rasin.ai/connections/sources/dessalines-labor-regulations-1804. Accessed 2026-05-05.