Republic of Haiti (1806–1820)

The first Republic of Haiti governed the southern part of the country from 1806 to 1820, while the north was ruled first by Henri Christophe as president and then as King Henri I. The republic was proclaimed in October 1806, after the assassination of Emperor Jacques I ended the First Empire. Alexandre Pétion, a free man of colour and a leading revolutionary general, became president in 1807 and governed until his death in 1818; he amended the constitution to make the presidency a life appointment, suspended the Senate, and distributed confiscated plantation land to soldiers and peasants. His patronage of Simón Bolívar, who received men and supplies in 1815, proved important for the liberation of Spanish America. Pétion died of yellow fever in 1818 and was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Boyer. When Christophe killed himself and his heir was murdered in 1820, Boyer crossed into the north and reunited Haiti under a single republic, which he then ruled until 1843. The southern republic's capital was Port-au-Prince.