Haut-du-Cap (English: Upper Cape) is a communal section located in the city of Cap-Haïtien. It represents the second section of the city and is notable for housing Fort Vertières. The Bréda estate, where Toussaint Louverture was born, is located in this region. Additionally, Sylvain Salnave, who served as the president of Haiti from 1867 to 1869, was also born in Haut-du-Cap. Furthermore, this area is recognized as the birthplace of General Moïse, who was the adopted nephew of Toussaint Louverture.
Neighboring sections
North
1re Bande-du-Nord |
Northeast ↗️ | |
---|---|---|
⬅️ West
1re Morne-Rouge, PDN |
Cap-Haïtien |
East
3e Petit-Anse |
South
2e Basse Plaine, PDN |
Southeast
3e Génipailler, MIL |
Locations[]
2e HCP | 150,176 |
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Barière-Bouteille, Bréda, Camp-Fort, Charrier, Fort-Durocher, La Coupe Brada, La Voûte, Patasson, Vertières. |
A photograph now lost represented a mass at Haut du Cap, officiated for the Government army by Father Degerine, chaplain.
The Lefevre locality, situated in Cap Haitien's Haut du Cap rural area was noted for its steam factory owned by Mr. Thaïes Manigat.
History[]
In 1840, there were six well-cultivated plantations growing coffee and food, twenty-five with gardens, and fifty-two that were left empty.
• On December 4, 1792, freedmen from the Cape sought refuge in Haut-du-Cap following a conflict with the local white population. They were on the verge of organizing groups of rebellious slaves to attack the city when they were met by Pinchinat, who led them into the Cape. Sonthonax and Rochambeau met them there. This pivotal day marked a significant victory for the freedmen against the white class.
• In October 1801, Christophe had successfully dispersed the group that had left Moïse and were advancing towards Cap-Haïtien.
• On April 26, 1802, at 11 a.m., Christophe engaged in a meeting at Haut du Cap with General Leclerc, to whom he expressed his allegiance. Leclerc received him with the utmost courtesy, allowing him to retain his position as brigadier general. Following this brief discussion, Christophe proceeded to La Grande Rivière and Marmelade, where Toussaint Louverture had established his headquarters. He urged Toussaint to refrain from resuming hostilities and assured him that France would treat him with dignity and grandeur following his submission. Toussaint criticized him for meeting with Leclerc without prior consent and commanded him to return to his superior. Subsequently, General Christophe returned to Haut-du-Cap, leading a contingent of 800 men who pledged their loyalty to France.
• Following Toussaint Louverture's arrest in Gonaïves, Pétion urged Clerveaux and Christophe to join him in retreating into the woods. The first duo departed from Haut-du-Cap on September 14, 1802, and Dessalines soon followed their lead.
• On the October 14, 1802, when Pétion initiated his rebellion against the French forces in the Upper Cape, he seized a howitzer at the Welche Bridge, which guarded French interests.
• On the night of October 14 to 15, 1802, Pétion rallied his forces against the French in Haut-du-Cap, uniting the 10th and 13th colonial troops to join the fight for independence. They advanced on three vulnerable posts manned by just 100 white soldiers. Surrounded by 1,800 native fighters, these soldiers surrendered without a fight. The natives captured a howitzer positioned on the bridge, along with two 4-pound cannons. Had Pétion possessed greater faith in his troops, he could have seized the Cape and potentially captured Leclerc, along with the French generals themselves. The insurgents formed a defensive square, placing their supplies and the entire population of Haut-du-Cap at the center, and marched towards Morne Rouge. In response to this uprising, 400 to 500 natives detained in Cape Town by Leclerc were brutally executed—stabbed, shot, and discarded into the sea. On the morning of October 28, the valiant forces launched an attack against the French, successfully overthrowing them and securing their position in Haut-du-Cap, despite facing intense fire from the forts. D'Henry, gravely injured, retreated in disarray with his cavalry. Meanwhile, General Leclerc, on his deathbed, instructed General Clausel to hold a strict defensive stance, limiting their occupation to the city walls. During Dessalines' assault on Cap-Haitien, the native troops astonished their adversaries with their bravery, ultimately leading to Rochambeau's surrender.
• In 1803, the Jeantot habitation functioned as a crucial defensive outpost on the western slopes of the mountains. It provided protection for the Breda blockhouse, strategically situated along the route from Limbe to Cape Town. Travelers embarking from Jeantot could conveniently avoid Forts Breda, Pierre-Michel, Charrier, and Vertières, which lie along their journey. However, they might unexpectedly encounter Fort Belair and the town of Au Cap. Notably, General Romain managed to seize this post from the French in February 1803.
Picard[]
The Picard plantation was situated at Morne Bélair, within the Haut-du-Cap region. On February 19, 1803, the French forces achieved victory over the independence fighters under the command of the local general Romain. In 1865, amid the Salnave insurrection in Cap-Haïtien, the insurgents seized control of a fort in this area, which was subsequently disarmed following the government's success.
Charrier[]
• The Charrier plantation was a significant settlement in the region. Positioned on a plateau, the Charrier Ravine served as a natural defense for Fort Vertières. Butte Charrier lies along the route from Limbé to Cap-Haïtien, situated to the left side of the road and slightly nearer to the Cape. A small bridge spans the swift waters of the Charrier Ravine, which flows to the right of the road and merges into the river of the Cape, passing by Fort Vertières—a plantation and fortress strategically located at the entrance of the path, on a mornet. The fort is naturally defended by the torrent of the Ravine Charrier. The French had stationed 12 cannons there. In 1803, General Rochambeau, who led the French forces, sent a caparaçonnéd horse to Capoix, the commander of the native forces, as a token of admiration for its battlefield prowess. Capoix earned great acclaim during the assault on this fort on November 18, 1803.
At the attack of this fort, in 1803, Dessalines understood that the success of the battle depended on the removal of the Butte Charrier. "I look," he cried to his soldiers, "all the year to fall brigade by brigade, that the Haitian drapeau floats on the summit of Charrier before half an hour". At these words, Galien el. Jean-Philippe Daut, dashed with two bataillons in the alley that stretched along the ravine. The French directed all their blows on the small column which always advanced through the projectiles at the pace of charge without being shaken. Finally they settled on the plateau, and from there thsy answered the Vertières fire, at the foot of which Capoix was doing prodigies of valor. On the narrow plateau of Charrier, the three demi-brigades which had seized it found no shelter, for the projectiles launched from Vertières had demolished the residences of the habitation. Daut had entrenchments built there. The native soldiers fight-shoot with so much vigor that they excited Rochambeau's admiration. It was at Charrier that Dessalines told Clerveaux, who had lost one of his epaulettes, these memorable words: "You are now the commander of my generals." The French evacuated Vertières the next day, after setting it on fire.
"I finally see, delighted, the proud legions of the Adige and the Rhine, from the summit of Vertières, Clap their hands to. our successes! And I hear Rochamheau, whose star is declining, before the victorious Capoix order that we bow ... The illustrious French flag!" .. [Tertullien Guilbaud] ..
The Haitian poet, Massillon Coicou, in his Poésies Nationales Pages 73-81 devotes a piece of admirable verse to this immortal feat of arms. On June 5, 1865, during the insurrection of Salnave in the Cape, Fort Vertières was occupied by rebels. General Leon Montas, at the head of the corps of infantrymen of the guard, seized it and made the adjutant general Pyrrhus Michel prisoner there. Alexandre Madiou had composed a small painting in pencil called Bataille de Vertières.
• In 1803 General Claparède was in command of the Haut-du-Cap Power Line. He made the fortresses tend the gardens of the Verdiers habitation. Seeing among them working under the baton, the son of Colonel Medard; a black youth named Pounoute, whose father had been hanged at the Cluny Market by Rochambeau, after the attack of Romain, he took pity on him, sent for with several of his companions, made the chains which bound them to each other, and favored their escape by telling them that he was tearing them away from certain extermination.
• Mr. Henri Etienne owned a steam factory on the Vaudreuil habitation, located in the rural section of Haut du Cap not far from Vertières. This habitation is also where the wounded of the native army were transported during the attack on Cap-Haïtien by Dessalines in 1803. There had been entrenchments. On June 10, 1860 President Gerrard visited this habitation which belonged to Monsieur Constant. On February 6, 1803, the native Roman general beaten by the French at Bousmat and Métayer, retired on the Vaudreuil habitation with his troops. The next day General Claparede was launched against him with 2,500 men. Assailed on all sides, Romain presented everywhere a formidable front. Claparede, after several efforts to remove the retreating camp, pretended to beat in retribution, in order to attract the natives to the open country outside their lines. Romain, believing that the French were on the point of fleeing, sprang up over his entrenchments, to break them. Claparede immediately turned, opened his ranks, and the light artillery vomited the grape shot into the native battalions. Brigadier Neterwood immediately charged the head of the cavalry with the guard of honor. Roman returned to his position. Neterwood, carried away by his usual ardor, stopped only at the foot of the entrenchments, where he was greeted by a sharp fusillade. The two armies remained in presence. The natives lost 200 men the French as much. On the following night, General Romain withdrew to his headquarters at Limbé.
• H. E. M. de François Jean-Joseph was the Count of Haut-du-Cap in 1849 during the Second Empire.
• In 1865, at the onset of the Salnave insurrection, Guerrier Prophet valiantly defended the Pont du Haut du Cap with three cannons, successfully resisting the Government troops who struggled to dislodge him. Eventually, the Government forces took control of Haut-du-Cap and encircled the Cape, initially led by General Luberisse Barthélemy, who was wounded in the conflict and later succumbed to his injuries in St. Marc. Following him was General Nissage Saget, who would later become President of Haiti. Barthélemy entered Haut du Cap on June 2, 1865, where the rebels offered him the presidency, a proposal he declined. He then established his command at the Pous habitation on the 3rd, strategically positioned to the right of the main road, where he and his men were shielded by a bend in the road from the fire of the entrenched battery that the rebels had constructed at the Haut-du-Cap bridge, which they ultimately abandoned in favor of seeking refuge behind Forts Vertières and Bélair.
• In 1865, Salnave supporters took control of Fort Saint-Pierre, which was situated below Fort Bélair and above the Saint-Pierre redoubt and Barière Bouteille. On November 9th at 5pm, the government took control of Fort Saint-Pierre. It was disarmed when the rebellion ended.
• On June 20, 1877, the government opened a 50-meter iron bridge over the Haut du Cap River, also known as the Galiffet River, to improve communication between the city and its hinterlands. The bridge's builders charged a toll, but in 1887, the government transferred the bridge to free use, disregarding the interests of the builders, represented by Mr. Henri Etienne. Prior to this development, an inconvenient ferry service had been the only means of crossing the river.
References[]
Haut-Du-Cap - Lynx Desir, Local guide [1]