Sources
- Vaval, Duraciné. “Le Roi d’Haïti Henri Christophe,” in Revue de la Societé d’Histoire et de Géographie d’Haïti. June 1931.
- Leyburn, James G. The Haitian People. 1942.
Summary
- The Code Henry was promulgated to n January 30, 1812.
- It is structured into seven parts: Civil, Commercial, Shipping and Maritime, Civil Process, Agriculture, and Military.
- In general, the Code followed French precedent, except for the Agriculture section.
- The Agriculture section was a unique invention of Henry Christophe, unparalleled in his time.
- The Agriculture parts of the Code Henry was something to behold, according to some of the King’s contemporaries at the time.
- Christophe devised a social order comprised of nobles and serfs and integrated those roles into a plantation economy based on money crops.
- His Agricultural Law regulated the duties of proprietors and cultivators in an integrated fashion.
- Slackering/laziness was literally against the law. Industriousness was the parent of virtue, idleness the source of vice and punishable.