Background
Faustin Soulouque was bom to slave parents who had newly arrived from Africa just before his birth on 15 August 1788 in Haiti.
Faustin Soulouque was bom to slave parents who had newly arrived from Africa just before his birth on 15 August 1788 in Haiti.
Soulouque was illiterate, superstitious, and widely recognized to be almost totally incompetent.
He managed to move up in the predominantly black army to become general of the Palace Guard of his predecessor. General Riche.
Soon, Soulouque made it clear that he was nobody's pawn. He named his own council of advisers and staffed the army with his own loyal black generals. He organized a secret police and a system of personal tyranny to ensure loyalty among his advisers and to suppress organized opposition. The mulattoes, realizing their mistake, soon made an effort to get rid of him by revolution, which was brutally quashed. Most prominent mulattoes were either executed or lorced to go into exile.
On September 20, a new Constitution was approved in Haiti, declaring him Emperor Faustin 1. Black generals, eager for prestige, were provided with peerages, mostly in exchange for a fee: 4 princes, 59 dukes, 2 marquises, 90 counts, 215 barons and 30 chevaliers.
In December 1858 he was deserted by one of his most trusted ministers, Fabre Nicholas Geffrard, who pronounced an end to the empire, made Soulouque a virtual prisoner, and was made president by acclamation. Soulouque and his family, after his signing an Act of Abdication, left for Jamaica. He returned to Haiti in 1867 and lived there until his death.
With potential and actual opposition neutralized. Soulouque turned his attention to reestablishing Haitian domination of the Dominican Republic, which had declared its independence from Haiti in 1844. He invaded on March 9, 1849, but his forces were defeated and had to retreat, leaving a path of pillage and destruction in their wake.
Despite the defeat, Soulouque declared the invasion a succcess and began a campaign to make himself emperor, declaring it the will of God.
Voodoo, tolerated by his predecessors, was openly practiced and encouraged by Soulouque and his wife, Adelina. Voodoo priests were installed in his household, and voodoo beliefs and practices became one of the pillars of the emperor’s power.
Soulouque, always intent on recapturing Santo Domingo, engaged in frequent unsuccessful but costly invasions. There was also enormous expenditure on court rituals and royal pomp. Corruption and graft were rampant. Soulouque’s printing of money greatly devalued Haitian currency. Revenue was also raised through state monopolization of exports and imports, steep increases in import duties, and heavy taxes on capital.
With a world depression during 1857-1858 hitting prices of coffee and cotton particularly hard, with corruption running rampant, a bankrupt treasury, and escalating international debt, Soulouque found himself isolated from his former supporters.
