Every Oct. 17, Haiti celebrates Dessalines Day, commemorating the assassination in 1806 of the country’s first head of state postindependence, Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
One of the founding fathers in the struggle for Haitian independence, alongside Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines has a mixed legacy: celebrated at home for his role in ending slavery and overthrowing French colonial rule, but often condemned internationally for his violent tactics and the 1804 killing of white French people in independent Haiti.
