Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was second in command under Toussaint Louverture during the Haitian Revolution and was the general who emerged after Louverture was captured to lead the insurgents in declaring Haitian independence on January 1, 1804.
Like Louverture, Dessalines was born into slavery in the French colony of Saint Dominque. Born to Congolese parents, Dessalines was originally given the name Duclos, after the plantation’s owner. He later adopted the surname Dessalines after the free black landowner who purchased him and from whom he escaped. Unlike Louverture, Dessalines was treated harshly as a slave and violence became a way of life that marked him throughout his military and brief political career contributing both to his success on the battlefield and to his eventual downfall.

Unable to read or write, Dessalines was nonetheless a quick study under Louverture earning the nickname “the Tiger” for his fury in battle. In 1794 Dessalines’s military skill and leadership was vital to Louverture’s success in capturing the Spanish-controlled eastern half of the island, and in return, L’Overture made him governor of the south.