Haiti's Flag,
See the Major Changes...

Did you know the Haitian flag went through many changes before the version we have today? You probably did. And it's quite a story.

In fact, the national banner's journey is so interesting that we wanted to take a closer look at the details...

Haiti's Flag of 1803

It's reported that in 1803, Dessalines tore the middle color out of the French banner and joined the blue and red stripes to make our new flag.

mmh mmh.. Are you feeling the patriotic current running down your spine at this very moment? you can probably sense it, no matter your nationality.

Now, let's get back to the flag's journey...

The Flag of the 1805 Empire

Jean-Jacques Dessalines made himself emperor in 1805 and changed the Haitian banner after the self-proclamation. Haiti adopted the vertical, black and red stripes. One possible reason for the choice is the revolution  slogan: "Freedom or Death"

(and there's minimum doubt about the right position for the stripes)

Unfortunately, Dessalines was assassinated on october 17, 1806.
The country became divided and General Alexandre Pétion brought back the blue and red colors, along with the coat of Arms (with the "There's Strength in Unity" motto).


Then came the need to go back to the 1805 spirit...

Papa Doc's Flag

Under the dictatorship of Francois Duvalier, the flag was changed in 1964 to black and red.

And what do we have today?

The Haitian Flag Today

In February 1986, the Duvalier regime was overthrowned. The banner became two horizontal bands -blue on top, red at bottom- with the coat of arms still present.

Now there's a lot of debate around the different Haiti flags. We leave the discussions over the challenged versions to the historians and stick to what most people have a consensus on.

Now, can you tell which version you prefer?  We'll leave that up to you.

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