Boyer Jean Pierre

Boyer, Jean Pierre (1776-1850), patriot and President of the republic of Hayti. He was born of a negress and a Creole father, and was one of the first to take arms in defence of negro enfranchisement. In the struggle between Toussaint l'Ouverture and Rigaud he took part with the latter, and followed him after his defeat to France. Later he took part as captain under General Leclerc in the St. Domingo expedition, but when, on the submission of Toussaint-l'Ouverture, Leclerc showed that it was his intention to revive slavery, Boyer left him and, like Petion, joined his brother negroes. Under Petion's presidency he was successively colonel and general of division. In 1818, on Petion's death, he became president, and in 1820 he united the kingdom of King Christophe to the republic, and in 1823 he took possession of the Spanish port of St. Domingo. He also obtained the recognition of the independence of Hayti by France, on payment of a large sum. He was an enemy of all reform, and was not a popular president, being credited with a wish to advance his own personal views rather than to seek the good of the country. A revolution in 1843 drove him from his seat, and he retired to Paris, where he passed the rest of his life.