Plaisance (Kreyol: Plezans, English: "Pleasure") is a municipality in Haiti's Northern Department and seat of the Plaisance Arrondissement. Around 70,000 people inhabit the place as indicated by the 2015 estimates. During the colonial times, the French considered Plaisance a favorite destination for relaxation and rest.
Location in Haiti
History[]
Buccaneers lived here in large numbers, hunting oxen and wild pigs. This commune was also the refuge of maroons, such as Jean-François, Biassou and Scylla, during the War of Independence.
• Plaisance surrendered to the Spaniards in 1793. On June 22, 1793, Polverel, with a division of freedmen summoned by Antoine Chanlatte, took Plaisance without firing a shot.
The same year, during the proclamation of general freedom in 1793, the workshops of Plaisance, misled by the royalist colonists, took up arms, and assaulted Chanlatte; Sonthonax managed to get away.
At the end of the same year, Toussaint Louverture took possession of Plaisance in the name of Spain. Porchet, commander of the village, not wishing to surrender, withdrew in good order with the French troops at Port-de-Paix.
• In 1794, Plaisance was reconquered from the Spaniards by the French.
• In October 1801, supporters of the Moise conspiracy had moved away from Plaisance. Colonel Vernet marched against them from Gonaïves. At his approach, the rebels abandoned the town after overwhelmed. When Dessalines passed there, he terrified the cultivators who were massacred in large numbers; these unfortunate people were killed with sabers and bayonets. The soldiers dissolved a quarter of the population with the edge of the sword. They stabbed all the prisoners who were taken to Dessalines. After having reestablished order there by a dreadful extermination, Dessalines broke off in pursuit of Moise who was roaming the North, stirring the cultivators into revolt.
• On February 18, 1802, General Desfourneaux, dispatched from the Cape by Captain General Leclerc, against Toussaint Louverture in Gonaïves, settled near Plaisance. The commander of this town, Pierre Dumesvil, a black officer, instead of burning the town at the approach of the French, followed the instructions of Toussaint and met General Leclerc with 300 infantry and 200 cavalry, and made him his submission. The next day Desfourneaux entered Plaisance without striking a blow;
When the Leclerc expedition arrived, Sylla was fighting in the heights of Plaisance for Toussaint with a rare intrepidity. The ex-governor resolved to take the town from Desfourneaux in order to enter into communication with Maurepas, of which he was unaware of the Port-de-Paix submission. He ordered Adjutant General Fontaine to attack a fort erected on the Bidourète estate. A lively fight ensued between General Desfourneaux and Toussaint over the Laforestrie habitation in front of the fort occupied by the natives.
After Toussaint's submission, commanders Sylla and Jasmin, who had retired to the heights of Plaisance, refused to recognize the government of Leclerc. The latter wrote to Toussaint from Tortue and begged him to use the influence he exercised on Sylla to convince him to lay down his arms.
• In September 1802, the insurgents called independents closely surrounded Plaisance, which was occupied by the 13th Colonial, under the orders of Adjutant General Pétion. General Brunet ordered Pétion to drop the pursuit of the insurgents. The soldiers of the 13th were hardly out of town when they discovered along a hill a string of black and yellow corpses hanged from tree branches by the French. The European garrison evacuated Plaisance and surrendered in Gonaives. It was exterminated.
• In January 1803, Plaisance followed the example of Dondon, rebelling against Dessalines, after the assassination of the Sans-Souci Grandpré bands by Christophe.
• Under King Christophe, the Duke of Plaisance was General Magny, whom his troops took prisoner and took over. Port-au-Prince was the seat of this city in 1812.
• In 1824, President Boyer had a large number of emigrant black American cultivators there.
• Monsignor Joseph Desbordes was Duke of Plaisance under the Empire, in 1849.
• On June 2, 1865, Plaisance who had made a pact with Salnave against Geffrard, submitted to General Normil at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
At its creation by the decree of July 10, 1889 of the provisional government, the commune of Plaisance contained 16 sections;
| 1e La Trouble, 2e Laville, 3e Grande Riviére, 4e Mapou,
5e Bassin, 6e Colline Gobert, 7e Champagne, 8e Haut Martineau, |
Eventually, the 9th through the 16th were set off to become the commune of Pilate.
Environment[]
Plaisance, Haiti
The region is rich in flora and fauna, a large number of rivers flow here and the climate is nice and cool. The place has been inhabited by a large number of buccaneers who raised feral pigs and cattle. A large number of livestock thrives here. This region is home to a large number of natural sights, such as waterfalls and caves.
Geography[]
Plaisance is located at 19.5986° N, 72.4717° W. According to the IHSI, this commune has a total land area of 121.52 square kilometers (46.92 square miles), of which 107.17 km² (88%) is rural, 12.04 km² (10%) is suburban, and 2.31 km² (2%) is urban. The commune of Plaisance has eight communal sections. It is bordered on the northwest by the town of Pilate, on the north by the city of Borgne, on the northeast by the city of Limbé, on the southeast by the city of Marmelade, and on the west by the Artibonite Department municipalities of Ennery and Gonaïves. It is an inland commune, consisting primarily of mountains and a healthy climate that is said at times to be foggy and cold. On average, Plaisance sees 2,163 mm (85 inches) of rain per year.
The law of November 20, 1821 fixed the precise distance from this commune to the capital at 47 leagues.
Demography[]
Its inhabitants call themselves Placentin or Plaisancais/e.
| Year | Population | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1890 | 10,000 | |
| 1950 | 30,716 | +207% |
| 1971 | 48,841 | +59% |
| 1982 | 45,415 | -10% |
| 1998 | 65,750 | +45% |
| 2009 | 63,278 | -4% |
| 2015 | 69,583 | +10% |
Commune map of Plaisance, Nord, Haiti
Neighborhoods
| PLS | Plaisance | 69,583 | Localities | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPL | Ville de Plaisance | Urban | 19,997 | ||
| GOB | 1ère Section Gobert (ou Colline Gobert) | Rural | 8,325 | Bellevue, Bertin, Maguimbo, Maillète. | |
| CPA | 2ème Section Champagne | Rural | 3,717 | Catalogne, Champagne, Delbes, Fond Lerisse, Jimbi, La Fleur, Ligrin, Nan Poudré. | |
| HMT | 3ème Section Haut Martineau | Rural | 2,854 | Martino, Masouco, Tiréle. | |
| MPO | 4ème Section Mapou | Rural | 6,266 | Bassin, Bois Rouge, Depe, Duvivier, Lorguesse, Pica, Pilote. | |
| LTB | 5eme Section La Trouble | Rural | 6,358 | Bassin Pois Doux | |
| LVV | 6eme Section La Ville | Rural | 6,159 | Carber, Fessac, Haut Bassin, Nan Ti Fond, Platon Duricie, Section la Trouble. | |
| BAS | 7eme Section Bassin | Rural Section | 4,125 | Bassin, Bassin Laurent, Brévin, Despagnes, Dimini, L'Ilet, Matiaca, Moreau, Nan Claire, Ovré, Paquio, Poudrière, Vaset, Villard. | |
| GRR | 8eme Grande Rivière | Rural | 11,782 | Bélizaire, Bellevue, Benjamin, Bernard, Bois d'Homme, Bois d'Orme, Bois Noir, Bois Pignon, Carrefour Bois d'Homme, Chatard, De Chaye, Demoitier, Fond Grande Rivière, Galbo, L'Etang, Nan Blain, Ti Place, Vieux-Dépot. |
Economy[]
Plaisance produces very beautiful coffee in a soil that is eminently clean. Other productions include palma christi oil, tobacco, wood for the navy and the framework, and food of all kinds. Geologic resources include copper, iron, sulfur, ruby, jasper, porphyry, orphite, granite quarries, marble, stone rubble, plaster, red, yellow and greenish ochres, tuffal, schists, slates, and shells. Several streams near Plaisance carry golden sand, among others the Trois Riviéres.
Agriculture and trade are the main activities of this municipality. Subsistence crops are raised by the people to make a living. Depots, shops, building materials and food supply centers form the main commercial establishments. In addition, two pharmacies, a gas station and two photocopy services were counted in the municipality. For the economic and financial infrastructures, the municipality is almost without it, there is a credit union and nine marketing cooperatives.
To look for work or to sell goods, people have to travel down the mountains to reach places in and around Port-au-Prince.
Charcoal is made by cutting down the few trees that remain now. The best thing about the inhabitants of Plaisance is that they are hard core survivors and courageous. Even though the area was hit hard by the 2010 earthquake and hurricanes that took place recently, the people have courageously taken up the challenge of survival. People live with amazing dignity and the classic hospitality of the Haitian people.
Children in Plaisance
Infrastructure[]
Living In Plaisance[]
Transportation
Plaisance Town Hall
The road infrastructure to Plaisance is in fairly good condition and able to support traffic of large trucks year-round. Route Nationale 1 runs through the center of the town and also the 8th communal section. Plaisance is a remote destination and is not a very easy destination to live or reach. Roads leading to some locations are mountainous and rocky road for up to 3 miles from the paved highway.
Education
The Ministry of the National Education for Youth and Sports is represented by a school district office. There is a private kindergarten, about a dozen primary public schools and several private in the commune of Plaisance. At the secondary level, there are six schools of which three are public and three private. Four vocational schools were counted.
Praiseworthy efforts have been made in the field of education. The Wesleyan Church, runs a vocational school where they teach plastic arts, macramé, cutting and sewing. There is also a computer school, the Saint-Michel, and the Saint Vincent de Paul professional schools. The Plaisance high school is housed in Chatard and the National School for Girls is housed in a kind of plywood hut, built in 1995 by the MINUAH, and looks like anything but a school. Plaisance has a CLAC, Center for Reading and Cultural Activities, managed by the Ministry of Culture. It operates Monday through Saturday.
Health
Medical center in Plaisance
The Ministry of Public Health and Population is represented by a local district office. Under-equipped, its restful appearance is enough to dissuade anyone from falling ill. There are four facilities providing the healthcare service of the area with dozens of technicians and a medical team consisting of matrons, lab technician, Doctors, dentists, a nurse and some auxiliaries.
Nutrition and healthcare is not too good here. Maternal, childhood and infant mortality rates are quite high.
Utilities
With respect to the availability of water, the commune of Plaisance has a River, two dozen Springs and about a dozen public fountains. The municipality has a brownfield microgrid with a diesel generator. Some of the businesses and households are connected to the grid, which runs for approximately 4 hours per day, 2 days per week.
Security
City Hall
The garrison consisted of 27th Infantry line regiment of administrative police, the national guard on foot and horse and of the rural police.
Culture[]
Religion
In the area of religion, many faiths were counted in the commune. Twenty five Adventist temples, Fourteen Catholic churches (including chapels), and eighteen Baptist churches, for the most important, were inventoried in the commune.
Communication
This commune has a telephone service and a Postal Service. Three radio stations animate the cultural and recreational life of the community: Radio Saint Michel (Catholic), Radyo Wva Pèp La (community) and Radio Zèb Ginen.
Organizations
The presence of NGOs in Plaisance is scarce, but some are reportedly active and work in sectors including education, roads, coppicing, and sanitation.
Foundation Guillaume positively impacts the lives of those in the community, particularly those who are living in poverty. Its aim to provide the community of Plaisance with programs that foster education, development and quality of life.
Leisure
As for leisure, the municipality has no library, museum, nor cinema room. However, the parish hall, although small, serves as a theatre room. There are three nightclubs and many gaguères. The sports practiced in the commune of Plaisance are football (soccer), basketball, athletics and karate. With regard to monuments and sites, the commune of Plaisance has a Fort, two falls and a cave.
Sightseeing[]
Located nearby, is a peak called Morne Bedoret at a height of 543 meters. Fort Bedourete is located here. The city has several sites and monuments. They include La Poudrière, La Provence, and the old chapel of the Virgin Miracles of Gobert where Jean-Jacques Dessalines met Pétion in 1803 before launching the final assault against Cap-Français.
You get to see a single walled local Catholic church. Basic shelter in the church is created by using anchor tarps by the parishioners. Now this church serves as a school, chapel and clinic.
It is also home to several natural sites including the Yacuba cave and falls, the falls on the Robillard and Ilet rivers, and the Poreux cave, located between Plaisance and Limbé.
References[]
Microgrid Development Assessment - [1]
Plaisance, Haiti - [2]
Le plaisir d'être à Plaisance - Le Nouvelliste [3]
Plaisance, Haiti, yon bèl ti paradi ki kache nan Nò peyi a, la ou jwenn bon Yanm ak po [4]
Michael Vedrine