Catherine Flon is the figure around whom the founding tradition of the Haitian flag crystallized.
The tradition holds that she sewed the first Haitian flag at the Congress of Arcahaie on May 18, 1803, after Dessalines tore the white band from the French tricolor and joined the remaining blue and red together. Whether every detail of this account can be verified through documentary evidence is less important than what the tradition accomplishes: it inserts a woman's labor, a Black woman's labo...
TimelineAcross the historical record.
- 1803
Haitian Flag Creation
flag-creation — Event/memory cluster where Flon appears.
- 1804-01-01
Independence 1804
1804 — Political independence as the culmination of the symbolic arc begun at Arcahaie.
- 1804-01-01
Haitian Declaration of Independence
declaration-of-independence — Broader independence-symbolism context.
- 1805-05-20
1805 Constitution
constitution — Post-independence constitutional codification of national symbols.