Free coloured artillery officer who defended Jacmel, joined Dessalines in 1802 and became the first president of the Republic of Haiti
Born in Port-au-Prince in 1770 to a French father and a free mulatto mother, he was sent to the Military Academy in Paris in 1788. Returning to fight the British, he drove them off at Léogâne with his guns in 1796. In the War of the South of 1799 he sided with Rigaud, commanded the defence of Jacmel and went into exile in France in 1800. He returned with Leclerc's expedition in 1802, but after Toussaint's deportation backed Dessalines at the secret conference of Arcahaie in October and joined the rebels. He took part in the conspiracy against Dessalines, was elected president of the southern Republic of Haiti in 1807 and made himself president for life in 1816. He redistributed the plantations to the peasantry, earning the name Papa Bon-Cœur, gave Bolívar sanctuary and troops in 1815 and died of yellow fever in 1818.
Also known as: Alexandre Sabès Pétion · Anne Alexandre Sabès · Alexandre Petion
Activities and affiliations
- 1807–1818 Political and party leadership
- 1802–1803 Military command
- 1796–1800 Military command · French First Republic state institutions
Career Timeline
- 1788Student at the Military Academy in Paris
- 1796Artillery commander who repulsed the British at Léogâne
- 1799–1800Commanded the defence of Jacmel for Rigaud in the War of the South
- 1802–1803Commander against the French alongside Dessalines
- 1807–1818President of the Republic of Haiti, for life from 1816