Faustin Soulouque

Monarchy and royalism 1782–1867 ○ Natural causes

President of Haiti who made himself Emperor Faustin I in 1849 and created a nobility wholesale

Born a slave at Petit-Goâve in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1782, he was freed by the emancipation decree of 1793. He joined the revolutionary army in 1803 and fought in the war of independence, then rose as an officer of the Haitian army through President Pétion's Horse Guards to supreme commander of the presidential guard. When President Riché died in 1847 the ruling elite made him president as a pliable puppet, but he soon raised a private militia, killed and drove out opponents, mulattoes above all, and took absolute power. In August 1849 the legislature proclaimed him emperor; in 1852 he was crowned in a ceremony copied from Napoleon I's coronation, and he created dukes, counts and barons by the hundred. Repeated failed attempts to reconquer the Dominican Republic eroded his support, and he was forced out by General Geffrard in 1859.

Also known as: Faustin-Élie Soulouque · Faustin I