Haiti 1805 Constitution

I found the 1805 Constitution of Haiti printed in The New York Evening Post on July 15, 1805 to be similar to the previous primary source we read on the Third Estate of Dourdan. Both of the primary sources presented a list of statements that the people proposed to the king, or to the Emperor in this case. One statement that I found similar was, “Property is sacred, its violation shall be severely prosecuted” (H. Christophe). This made me think of the Third Estate grievances because I remember that primary source stating that the property of citizens should not be infringed upon. I also noticed they shared the same ideology about equality. In the second constitution of Haiti it stated that, “Slavery is forever abolished” (H. Christophe). The Third Estate also promoted the same idea because they also wanted equal status for all citizens but on different terms. While Haiti was focused primarily on slavery, the Third Estate was more concerned with their voice in government. Although the primary …show more content…
This made me question what happened to their first constitution and if it was similar to this one. My thought process was that the French influenced their first constitution, and perhaps now that Haiti was independent they decided to create a constitution of their own. I also had a few questions regarding the Preliminary Declaration statements themselves. Statement number seven said, “The quality of citizen of Hayti is lost by emigration and naturalization…” (H. Christophe). I was not sure exactly what the primary source was trying to say here. I came across a similar issue in number thirteen when it mentioned naturalizing. I was confused on what it meant to be “naturalized” by the government. Statement number eight was another statement that I am not sure I interpreted correctly. Is it saying that the quality of a person is based on their bankruptcies and