Aux Cayes

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Aux Cayes (also Les Cayes or Cayes; Kreyòl: Okay) (8°12'N 73°45'W) is a southern port town in Haiti in the department Sud (South). It is the birthplace of André Rigaud (1761) a mulatto leader, who fought the War of Knives against Toussaint Louverture.

In 1796 rioting against European colonial settlers erupted in Aux Cayes, killing many.

Toussaint Louverture wrote in his autobiographical notes: "...When I returned to Cayes, after the departure of Gen. Rigaud, the treasury was empty..." (Beard p. 323)

At a meeting in July of 1803 at Camp Gérard, near the town of Les Cayes, the Generals of the southern army under Geffrard, formed an alliance with Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

Simón Bolívar's stay in Aux Cayes

In 1815, the South American liberator Simón Bolívar first landed in Aux Cayes. Bolívar left Haiti on April 10, 1816 for Venezuela, but returned in mid September of that year to this Haitian coastal town after lost battles in South America. Resupplied by the Haitian President Pétion he sailed again from Haiti on December 28, 1816, this time to successfully conclude his struggle for South American liberation from colonialism.

See also

References

  • Beard, J. R. (John Relly) (1863). Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography. Chapel Hill, NC: Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH. Online Publication
  • Extrait du rapport addressé au Directoire executif par le citoyen Toussaint Louverture, general en chef des Forces de la République française a Saint-Domingue. (1797) Chez P. Roux, imprimeur. Cap-français, n.d. [1797].
  • Les Cayes. The Columbia Gazetteer of North America, edited by Saul B. Cohen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. [1]. [Accessed on 1/30/2006].