Even before the devastating earthquake which struck the capital of Haiti last week the country was widely recognized as the poorest in the Western world.
But, just two hundred years ago Haiti was a thriving example of success.
The country, once known as Hispaniola, began as a French colony in which hundreds of thousands of African slaves worked the sugar plantations under horrific conditions. Many of them were literally worked to death. The news of the French revolution would ignite a bloody revolution and the loss of Haiti led to Napoleon giving up a vast portion of North America in what is known as the Louisiana Purchase.
What is not so widely known, is the important part Haiti played in the liberation of South America, and the spread of the Scottish Rite in France in 1804. The key players in this Masonic history were Estienne Morin, originator of what we know today as the Morin Rite, Alexandre Francois Auguste Comte de Grasse, and Jean Baptiste Delahogue (two of the eleven co-founders of the Scottish Rite), Simon Bolivar, (Freemason and Liberator of Columbia, Panama, Peru, and Bolivia), and a Haitian who would become the first President of a United and Free Haiti, by the name of Jean Pierre Boyer.
Estienne Morin, who had been involved in high degree Masonry in Bordeaux, France since 1744, founded an "Ecossais" lodge (Scots Masters Lodge) in the city of Le Cap Francais, on the north coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1747. Around 1763 Morin compiled a Masonic Rite consisting of twenty-five degrees known as "The Rite of the Royal Secret," or "Morin's Rite." This Rite became quite popular in the New World and its Degrees would be incorporated into the 33 Degree Scottish Rite in 1801.
Jean Baptiste Delahogue, a French Plantation owner in Haiti, who would become Comte de Grasse’s father-in-law, and Haitian born Jean Pierre Boyer were practitioners of the Morin Rite.
De Grasse, arrived in Haiti in 1789 just in time to witness the opening battles of the Haitian revolution. Both he and his family, including Delahogue, were forced to flee the island for Charleston, S.Carolina four years later in 1793. For the next few years he was forced to bide his time while he waited for an opportunity to rejoin the battle.
By 1799 news of the arrival from France of General Hedouville in Haiti reached de Grasse and he volunteered his services and immediately set sail for the island. Upon his arrival in Santo Domingo he was informed that the General had been driven off the island and de Grasse was taken captive and cast into prison shackled hand and foot. Only the intervention of the American Consul prevented his death and he was released on the condition he return directly to Charleston.
The next year the French Schooner, la Vengeance arrived in Norwich from Haiti. An 1856 article written in the Magazine of American History Vol. 13, entitled “An Old Masonic Charter”, describes the Masonic regalia and documents found on a young prisoner on board. The following is a short except from that article.
“Among the prisoners sent to Norwich was a mulatto who had been a lieutenant under Rigaud. His name was Jean Pierre Boyer, a native of Port-au-Prince . . . In his possession, at the time of his capture, were found a complete set of the regalia and jewels of a Masonic Lodge and a variety of Masonic documents, such as forms for admission to the Fraternity, catechisms of the various degrees from an Entered Apprentice up to Perfect Master, communications from the Grand Orient at Paris, and a Warrant, or Charter, (for the Morin Rite) signed by none other than Estienne Morin . . . Boyer made his way to France, where he was well received by Napoleon, then First Consul, and from whom he obtained a commission in General LeClerc's expedition, which sailed for St. Domingo in January, 1802.”
In February 1802, General Charles Leclerc arrived with tens of warships and 12,000 French troops to bring Saint-Domingue under more control. Gens de couleur Petion, Boyer and Rigaud returned with him in the hope of securing power in the colony.
At the same time, de Grasse was appointed the Grand Inspector General and Grand Commander of the French West Indies for the Scottish Rite with his father-in-law serving as Deputy. Within 30 days de Grasse, now under orders from General LeClerc, sailed for Haiti once more.
For about eight months Boyer and de Grasse fought along side each other but in October, Petion, Boyer, and Rigaurd, joined with the nationalist forces. In 1803 the few remaining French were forced to surrender and de Grasse was again facing death. However, someone in the Petion regime spared his life and allowed him free passage to France. The candidates for granting such clemency in Haiti in 1803 are few indeed and the most likely would have been Boyer.
In 1804 Haiti was actually a divided country with two presidents. Six years later however, most of the country was loyal to Petion with Boyer as his aid and heir.
Enter Simon Bolivar, Freemason and freedom fighter.
On July 5, 1810 Civil War broke out in Venezuela; the long awaited fight for freedom was underway. It would eventually cost Bolivar his family’s fortune and his life. When the revolt failed, Bolivar was forced to take to the jungle to avoid capture by the royalists. He made his way to London and pleaded for help from the British but had to settle for vague promises. Undaunted he returned home and took command of the revolutionary forces for a year. He held on to Caracas only to be ousted once more by the Royalists. This time he reversed his direction and followed the rivers into Columbia and captured Bogota. By now he was low on men and arms and had to flee to the coast and take refuge in Haiti. By now Boyer was the Vice President under Petion and it was undoubtedly his influence which resulted in Bolivar obtaining the supplies and men he needed on nothing more than a promise to set free any slaves he encountered.
This was the turning point of the campaign. He landed in Venezuela in 1816, and took Angostura (now Ciudad Bolivar). There he was named President of Venezuela. Events continued to unfold in his favor and three years later he marched into Columbia and defeated the Spaniards in the city of Boyar, liberating the territory of Colombia. He then returned to Angostura and led the congress that organized the original republic of Colombia.
On February 16, 1812, New York Prince Hall Freemasons named both their first Lodge (and later a Grand Lodge) after the very popular Jean Pierre Boyer. In 1818 Petion died and two years later the self-styled King Henry Christopher in the north committed suicide leaving Boyer as the first President of a unified Haiti. One can only wonder what might, or might not, have happened if de Grasse and Bolivar had not run into Boyer when they did.