Liberty or Death by Jean Jacques Dessalines was a proclamation that addressed the issues of slavery during the 17th century. Jacques Dessalines, governor-general of Hayti claimed that the concept of the Tree of Liberty was an absurd representation of what the common people of France were fighting for when they themselves oppressed others. Furthermore Dessalines described the inhumane conditions and treatment of slaves as “a cannibalistic consumption of fellow human beings” (36). Dessalines hatred of Europeans stemmed from the cruelties committed by the colonist such as when he states “It is necessary, in order to strengthen these ties, to recall to your remembrance the catalogue of atrocities committed against our species; the massacre of the entire population of this island, meditated in the silence and sang froid of the cabinet” (38).

Dessalines felt justified in killing the European colonist on Hayti for the enslavement of his people who were forced to work the land and all the lucrative resources that were siphoned out of Haiti that were distributed between the European countries and all of the crimes committed on the natives. Dessalines understood that the cruelties and immorality of the colonist had no limits as he was forced to kill his oppressors and free his people from subjugation. Although near the end of his proclamation he expresses the need for a new beginning, he also recognized that the Europeans would always be a threat and that the people of Hayti had to be ready.