

Governor-General of Haiti
In office 1 January 1804 – 2 September 1804
Preceded by	Toussaint Louverture (Saint-Domingue)
Succeeded by	None (position abolished) (succeeded himself as Emperor)

Jean-Jacques Dessalines (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʒak dɛs.salin]; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Initially regarded as governor-general, Dessalines later named himself Emperor Jacques I of Haiti (1804–1806). He is regarded as a founding father of Haiti.

Dessalines served as an officer in the French army, when the colony was fending off Spanish and British incursions. Later he rose to become a commander in the revolt against France. As Toussaint Louverture's principal lieutenant, he led many successful engagements, including the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot.

After the betrayal and capture of Toussaint Louverture in 1802, Dessalines became the leader of the revolution. He defeated a French army at the Battle of Vertières in 1803. Declaring Haiti an independent nation in 1804, Dessalines was chosen by a council of generals to assume the office of governor-general. He ordered the 1804 Haiti massacre of the white Haitian minority, resulting in the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people, between February and April 1804. In September 1804, he proclaimed himself emperor and ruled in that capacity until being assassinated in 1806.

Dessalines was born in Cormier, a plantation near Grande Riviere du Nord, as a slave. Dessalines was a slave on a plantation in the Plaine-du-Nord in Cormiers (now known as Cormier), near the town of Grande-Rivière-du-Nord, where he was born as Jean-Jacques Duclos, the name of his father, who adopted it from his owner. The identity of his parents, as well as his region of origin in Africa, are not known, but most slaves trafficked to Haiti came from west and central West Africa.

Dessalines had two brothers, Louis and Joseph Duclos, who also took the name Dessalines. The first was the father of Maréchal de Camp Monsieur Raymond Dessalines, created 1st Baron de Louis Dessalines on 8 April 1811, aide-de-camp to King Henry I, privy councilor, secretary-general of the Ministry of War between 1811 and 1820 and member of the Royal Chamber of Public Instruction between 1818 and 1820, who received the degree of Knight of the Order of St. Henry on 1 May 1811 and was killed by the revolutionaries at Cap-Henri on 10 October 1820. The second was the father of Maréchal de Camp Monsieur Dessalines, created 1st Baron de Joseph Dessalines in 1816, chamberlain to Prince Jacques-Victor Henry, the Prince Royal of Haiti, and major of the Grenadiers de la Garde, who received the degree of Knight of the Order of St. Henry on 28 October 1815.

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