BOYER, Jean Pierre, President of the republic of Haiti: b. Port-au-Prince, 28 Feb. 1776; d. Paris, 9 July 1850. He was a mulatto by birth but came early to Europe, where he obtained a European education. In 1792 he entered the army and joined the blacks, who had risen against the French. After the Com missioners of the French Convention had pro claimed the freedom of the blacks in Haiti (1793) he fought with distinction against the English in San Domingo but was nevertheless obliged to evacuate the island, to which he did not return till 1802. At first he acted as leader of the mulattoes in the war against the negroes, but afterward effected a union between these in order to prepare the way for the complete independence of the island. When Potion es tablished a free state in the western part of the island, Boyer undertook the command of the troops which were concentrated in Port-au Prince. After the death of Potion, Boyer was
elected president in 1818. By his skilful mili tary operations, not less than by his adroit diplomacy, he finally succeeded in uniting the eastern part of the island with the republic and thus effecting the complete separation of the island from France and Spain in 1825. He also purified the internal administration, raised the financial condition of the republic and be stowed particular care upon its educational in stitutions. The contest between mulattoes and negroes, however, still went on and in the end the latter rose in rebellion against him and compelled him to leave the island in 1843. He never returned to the place of his birth and of his long-continued activity, but lived for the rest of his life, first in Jamaica and afterward in Paris.