Henri Christophe - Early Life

Early Life

Born Christopher Henry, probably in Grenada, the son of a slave mother and Christophe, a freeman, he was brought as a slave to the northern part of Saint-Domingue. In 1779 he may have served with the French forces as a drummer boy in the American Revolution in the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Dominigue, a regiment composed of gens de couleur (mixed-race residents of Saint-Domingue). They fought at the Siege of Savannah.

As an adult, Christophe worked as a mason, sailor, stable hand, waiter, and billiard maker; most of his pay went to his master. He worked in and managed a hotel restaurant in Cap-Français, the first capital of the French colony of Saint-Domingue and a major colonial city. There he became skilled at dealing with the grand blancs, as the wealthy white French planters were called. He was said to have gained his freedom from slavery as a young man, before the Slave Uprising of 1791. Sometime after he had settled in Haiti, he brought his sister Marie there; she married and had children. The political skills he learned as a hotelier also served him well when he later became an officer in the military and leader in the country.

Beginning with the slave uprising of 1791, Christophe distinguished himself as a soldier in the Haïtian Revolution and quickly rose to be an officer. He fought for years with Toussaint Louverture in the North, helping to defeat the French colonists, the Spanish, British, and finally French national troops. By 1802 Louverture had promoted him to general.