Source

The Haitian Declaration of Independence: Creation, Context, and Legacy

Also known as: Julia Gaffield, Gaffield Declaration, The Haitian Declaration of Independence: Creation, Context, and Legacy

Author: Julia Gaffield
Year: 2016
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Type: secondary

Last updated: April 16, 2026

The strongest single source for treating the Haitian Declaration of Independence as both a political event and a material document, growing out of Gaffield's 2010 discovery of the only known surviving official printed copies in British archives. The volume reconstructs the declaration as a layered act of sovereignty: a ceremony at Gonaives in Kreyol and French, a three-part official document (generals' oath, naming of Dessalines as governor-general, and address to the people), a printed object aimed at multiple audiences, and a founding statement whose afterlife shaped diplomacy and commemoration long after 1804.

Connections · 3

Persons · 3

DESCRIBED_IN
Juste Chanlatte
DESCRIBED_IN
Louis Boisrond Tonnerre
declaration — Julia Gaffield (ed.) — Haitian Declaration, especially John Garrigus chapter "'Victims of Our Own Credulity and Indulgence': The Life of Louis Félix Boisrond-Tonnerre"
DESCRIBED_IN
Louis Félix Boisrond-Tonnerre

How to Cite

If you use rasin.ai data or findings in your research, please cite us:

Chicago

Julia Gaffield. "The Haitian Declaration of Independence: Creation, Context, and Legacy." University of Virginia Press, 2016. Rasin.ai, https://rasin.ai/connections/sources/gaffield-declaration. Accessed 2026-05-05.