Dantès Bellegarde (18 May 1877 – 16 June 1966) was a

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an historian and diplomat. He is best known for his works ''Histoire du Peuple Haïtien'' (1953), ''La Résistance Haïtienne'' (1937), ''Haïti et ses Problèmes'' (1943), and ''Pour une Haïti Heureuse'' (1928–1929).

Early years

Bellegarde was born in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

to a poor mulatto family. His impoverished but small bourgeoisie background descended from several historical figures in Haiti's history. His maternal great-grandfather Jacques Ignace-Fresnal was an officer in the army and Haiti's first Minister of Justice, and founder of Haitian Freemasonry. His paternal grandfather, General Jean-Louis Bellegarde, was a former Governor of Port-au-Prince. The Second Pan-African Congress proposed that Bellegarde be added as a member of the Permanent Mandates Commission, but the colonial powers that dominated the Commission did not name him to the Commission. He was an Assembly delegate for Haiti. On 8 September 1922, Bellegarde highlighted a massacre of the

Bondelswarts The Bondelswarts are a Nama ethnic group of Southern Africa living in the extreme south of Namibia, in an area centred on the town of Warmbad.''Big Swords, Jesuits, and Bondelswarts'', John S. Lowry, p.64 History They rose up against German co ...

(a poor pastoral tribe) in South West Africa, which was a League mandate at the time. Bellegarde was part of a panel of experts on the League of Nations's Temporary Commission on Slavery in 1924. It was the first time that the League of Nations had a black person as an expert on a commission. On the commission, Bellegarde was the strongest critic of colonialism and

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

Career

Bellegarde served as

Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1921 and to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, in 1930.

Honours

He was bestowed by

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

as commander of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

and was holder of the Office of Public Instruction.

References

External links

Biography of Dantès Bellegarde
* 1877 births 1966 deaths Ambassadors of Haiti to the United States 20th-century Haitian historians People from Port-au-Prince Ambassadors of Haiti to France Recipients of the Legion of Honour 20th-century Haitian male writers 20th-century diplomats {{Haiti-historian-stub