Elected president of Haiti thanks to American backing in toppling François Légitime’s regime supported by France, Hyppolite is remembered for the longevity of his regime (7 years) amid Haiti’s greatest period of political instability in the late nineteenth century.
Hyppolite is equally famous for having refused to cede Haiti’s Môle-Saint-Nicolas (an elevated peninsula in the north-western coast of Haiti) to the United States as they were interested in converting it into a naval base. Unaffected by pressure from the likes of charismatic African American minister to Haiti Frederick Douglass, Hyppolite’s government refused to accept that US support in the war against Légitime forced it into accepting a lease granting American control to the
Hyppolite is equally famous for having refused to cede Haiti’s Môle-Saint-Nicolas (an elevated peninsula in the north-western coast of Haiti) to the United States as they were interested in converting it into a naval base. Unaffected by pressure from the likes of charismatic African American minister to Haiti Frederick Douglass, Hyppolite’s government refused to accept that US support in the war against Légitime forced it into accepting a lease granting American control to the