Henri Christophe was a military leader in the Haitian Revolution as well as president and later king of the young nation. Born into slavery in 1767, Christophe was brought to French colonial Haiti, known as Saint Domingue, most likely from Kitts. There he worked a wide variety of posts including sailor, mason, bartender, and billiard marker. Like many slaves and free people of color in Saint Domingue, Christophe was familiar with military matters from a young age, having accompanied the French expedition to Savannah, Georgia in 1779. By his early twenties, Christophe was able to purchase his freedom and joined the growing class of free blacks. Spurred on by the revolution in France, a conflict between the colony’s free factions erupted in 1791 into a full-blown slave revolt lead by Toussaint L’Ouverture. Christophe would side with the slaves despite his free status and serve as one of L’Ouverture’s most important generals for most of the conflict, along with the freed slave Jean-Jacques Dessalines. By 1802, Christophe had been placed in command of the port town of Le Cap.  When a French expeditionary force under Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc arrived in Le Cap in February of that year, Christophe led the … Continue reading Henri Christophe (1767-1820)