Pétion and Bolívar: how Haiti helped free South America

At the end of 1815, Simón Bolívar was a general without an army. Spain had retaken Venezuela, and he had fled from island to island looking for help. He found it in the young Republic of Haiti.

A welcome in Les Cayes

President Alexandre Pétion received Bolívar and the refugees who came with him. Haiti was then the only free republic in the Caribbean, itself only twelve years old and surrounded by slaveholding colonies.

Ships, arms, and a promise

Pétion gave Bolívar what he needed to try again: ships, muskets, powder, supplies, and Haitian volunteers. He asked for one thing in return. Bolívar must free the enslaved people in every land he liberated. Bolívar sailed from Les Cayes in 1816. When that expedition failed, he came back, and Pétion helped him a second time.

What came of it

Bolívar issued his first decree against slavery in 1816 and went on to lead the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. He called Pétion “the author of our liberty.” It is one of the least told chapters of the Americas: the first Black republic helped free a continent.