Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a commander of the Haitian rebels against the French during their war for independance. He was placed as governor of the island by the French after commanding in the army during the war against the Spanish and British for control of the island. After the French won the war, Dessalines remained loyal until Napoleon announed his intention to reestablish slavery. Dessalines and other leaders then drove the French army off the island and declared independance. Upon declaring independance, Dessalines was declared governor-general. He then ordered the genocide of all remaining French on the island, including women and children, and then instituted an economic policy similar to serfdom. He attempted to keep the plantations running by dividing the male population of the island into laborers and warriros, and forcing the laborers to work on the plantations. He was greatly unpopular among the people for his authoritarian dictatorship, and was assassinated in October 1806 by the mixed-race elites of former colonial Haiti, who the divided the nation between themselves.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Jean-Jacques Dessalines." Britannica.com, June 16, 1998, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Jacques-Dessalines.
"A Brief History of Dessalines from 1825 Missionary Journal." Webster.edu, Jan 15, 2006, https://web.archive.org/web/20060115070055/http://www.webster.edu/~corb….