Pierre Nord Alexis (1820 – May 1, 1910) was
President of
HaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago...
from December 21, 1902 to December 2, 1908. The son of a high-ranking official in the regime of Henry Christophe, Alexis joined the army in the 1830s, serving President
Jean-Louis PierrotJean-Louis Pierrot was a career officer and general in the Haïtian Army. He became president of Haïti on April 16, 1845. During the first Haïtian Kingdom, Henry I promoted Pierrot to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Army and granted him the hereditary title of Prince. As President of Haïti,...
, his father-in-law as an aide-de-camp. In the ensuing years, he had a tumultuous career: he was exiled in 1874, but returned to Haiti a few years later by President Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal. During the presidency of
Lysius SalomonLysius Salomon was the President of Haiti from . Salomon is best remembered for instituting Haiti's first postal system, and his lively enthusiasm to modernize the country.....
, he was a vocal leader of the opposition, enduring several jail sentences before Salomon was finally ousted in a revolt. The new president,
Florvil HyppoliteLouis Mondestin Florvil Hyppolite was the President of Haiti from 17 October, 1889 to 31 March, 1896. He was a career soldier, a general. He was installed as president by a constitutional council. He died of a heart attack while in office....
, gave him an important military position in the north, but when President
Tirésias Simon SamTirésias Augustin Simon Sam was the President of Haiti from 31 March 1896 to 12 May 1902. He abdicated the presidency just before completing his six-year term. A likeness of Simon Sam has been featured on several Haitian postage stamps...
resigned, he joined
Anténor FirminJoseph-Anténor Firmin , better known as simply Anténor Firmin, was a Haitian anthropologist, journalist, and politician. Firmin is best known for his book De l'Égalité des Races Humaines , which was published as a rebuttal to French writer Count Arthur de Gobineau's work Essai sur l'inegalite des...
in a march on
Port-au-PrincePort-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti.The city of Port-au-Prince faces the Gulf of Gonâve, at . The bay on which the city lies, which acts as a natural harbor, has sustained economic activity since the civilizations of the Arawaks...
in an effort to seize control of the government.
The new president, however, was his old ally, Boisrond-Canal, who had returned him from exile some twenty years earlier. Canal defused the tension by appointing Alexis as his Minister of War, driving a wedge between him and Firmin. Troops loyal to Firmin were finally defeated in
Port-au-PrincePort-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti.The city of Port-au-Prince faces the Gulf of Gonâve, at . The bay on which the city lies, which acts as a natural harbor, has sustained economic activity since the civilizations of the Arawaks...
, leaving only two strongholds, St. Marc and
GonaïvesGonaïves is a city in northern Haiti, the capital of the Artibonite Department. It has a population of about 104,825 people . The city's name derives from the original Amerindian name of Gonaibo. It is also known as Haïti's "independence city"...
, opposed to the new government of Canal and Alexis. Alexis took advantage of the situation by negotiating with the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and declaring himself in support of American interests in the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
. The U.S. responded by imposing a naval blockade on the two centers still loyal to Firmin, paving the way for Alexis to seize control of the government for himself.
He did this on December 21, 1902, by leading troops loyal to him into the country's Chamber of Deputies and forcing the legislators to declare him president. Alexis managed to hold on to power for the next six years, though his regime was plagued by rebellion, and the government he presided over was frequently accused of corruption. In January 1908, Alexis, already in his eighties, decided to have himself proclaimed president for life. This reunited the supporters of Firmin, who launched a new revolt against Alexis. While the revolt was crushed, it exacerbated the country's existing economic problems. A famine in the south that same year led to violent food riots and a new rebellion, this time from the south, led by General
Antoine SimonAntoine Simon . He was a shoemaker at Rue des Cordeliers in Paris. A member of the Club of the Cordeliers, representative of the Paris Commune, he was designated to watch over Louis XVII at the Temple. However, he cruelly tortured and physically and mentally abused Louis XVII...
. Ousted from power on December 2, Alexis went into exile in
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, where he died in 1910.