🇭🇹 Haiti
Dessalines Day commemorates Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the revolutionary commander who led Haiti to independence and became its first ruler. Held in Haiti on October 17, it falls on the anniversary of his death in 1806. Its French name, Anniversaire de la mort de Dessalines, makes that purpose plain.
Dessalines Day is a nationwide public holiday in Haiti, fixed on October 17 each year. Because the date recalls the day he died rather than the day he was born or a military victory, the holiday is a day of remembrance more than of festivity. It is known in French as Anniversaire de la mort de Dessalines, and it sits among the civic holidays that Haitians use to reflect on the nation's founding figures and the struggle that produced the country.
Born into slavery on a plantation in Saint-Domingue, Dessalines rose to become the principal lieutenant of Toussaint Louverture and, after Louverture was captured in 1802, the leader of the revolution. His forces defeated the French army at Vertières in November 1803, and independence was proclaimed under his leadership on January 1, 1804. Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. He is regarded alongside Louverture as a father of the nation, and he was assassinated in 1806, which is the event this day recalls.
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