Jean Pierre Boyer - Payment of Indemnity To France

Payment of Indemnity To France

Boyer was anxious to eliminate the threat from France and opened negotiations. An agreement was reached on 11 July 1825, when (with fourteen French warships off Port-au-Prince) Boyer signed an indemnity treaty. It stated that France would recognize Haiti as an independent country in return for 150 million francs paid within five years. While this sum was later reduced to 90 million francs (in 1838), it was a crushing economic blow to Haiti, which essentially had to buy its independence after having defeated French forces.

Boyer had to negotiate a loan from France of 30 million francs to pay the first part of the indemnity. Most of the largely rural Haitian population meanwhile was retreating into an agricultural subsistence pattern. He tried to enforce the semi-feudal fermage system in order to increase agricultural productivity on the island, but the people resisted being tied to other people's lands. The people of Haiti were distressed at their situation. With the Rural Act, Boyer resurrected a land distribution program. He broke up some of the large plantations and distributed land to the small farmers. To try to produce enough products for export to generate revenue, the government "tied" the rural population to their smallholdings and established production quotas.

Boyer's rule lasted until 1843, when the poor economic situation was worsened by an earthquake. The disadvantaged majority rural population rose up under Charles Rivière-Hérard in late January. On 13 February 1845, Boyer fled Haiti to nearby Jamaica. He eventually settled in exile in France, where he died in Paris. Descendants of Boyer still live in Haiti.