Polish Haitians
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Polish Haitians are Haitian people of Polish descent, dating to the early 19th century; a few may be Poles of more recent native birth that have gained Haitian citizenship, such as refugees fleeing th
19th-century painting by January Suchodolski of Polish troops in Saint-Domingue
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
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Jean-Jacques Dessalines was the first Haitian Emperor, leader of the Haitian Revolution, and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Initially regarded as governor-general
Polish Haitians
…black people, who were then the only ones able to hold Haitian citizenship, despite being white) and full citizenship under the Haitian constitution by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of an independent Haiti. In May 1802, Napoleon dispatched the 3rd Polish Half-Brigade of around 5,200 men to join French forces in…
Portrait by Louis Rigaud, 1878
A posthumous depiction of Dessalines in The Oath of the Ancestors (1822)
Dessalines' coronation
Dessalines holding a white woman's head