Haiti pays for its freedom

Haiti, whose population is almost entirely descended from enslaved Africans, won independence from France in 1804. On 17 April 1825, with French warships off its coast, it agreed to pay 150 million gold francs to compensate the former colonists (cut in 1838 to 90 million in all), borrowed from French banks to pay it, and settled the resulting debt only in 1947.

The mechanism

THE CLOCK

How it was checked

• EvidenceT5 INDEPENDENT SECULAR; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
• Letter eraTHE SEAT MOVES TO THE BENCH 1713 to 1945
• SourcesRECORD — UN News, 'How Haiti paid for its freedom – twice over' (April 2025); The New York Times, Haiti's double-debt data set (GitHub); Britannica, 'Jean-Pierre Boyer' · checked 19 September: UN News, 'How Haiti paid for its freedom - twice over' (April 2025); Britannica (read in a browser; WebFetch is refused by the site), 'Jean-Pierre Boyer'; The New York Times, haiti-debt data set README (GitHub)