La Citadelle of Haiti: Haiti and the the Citadelle, Citadel, Haiti

The fortress's 365 cannons and 10,000 rounds, along with a
massive stone cistern, were designed to allow the permanent
garrison of several thousand men to resist almost indefinitely. It took
up to three months for a single cannon to be moved from the coast
to the fortress.

Built directly on the stone, with no separate foundation, the hewed
rock is held by a mortar made of limestone, molasses and cow's
blood.

The Citadelle, wrote one historian, "was the ultimate impregnable
stronghold to which the king would retreat with his personal guard
and continue to fight against the worst the white man could send
against him."

But there were no invasions, only attempts to isolate Haiti
economically, because the colonial powers feared the slave revolt
there could inspire similar uprisings across the Caribbean and in
the United States.

In 1805, French foreign minister Charles Talleyrand wrote to then
secretary of state James Madison that "the existence of a Negro people
in arms, occupying a country it has soiled by the most criminal acts, is
a horrible spectacle for all white nations." In solidarity with Europe, the
United States banned trade with Haiti from 1806 to 1810.

Historian Patrick Bellegarde-Smith says in "The Breached Citadel" that
France's inability to defeat the slave revolts in Haiti led directly to
Napoleon's decision to sell French holdings in North America to the
United States in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

Christophe and his fortress are an integral part of Haitian lore as well
as its history. In a culture with widespread belief in the supernatural,
the stories often contain elements that leave outsiders skeptical.

Napoleon Dupin, an oral historian and tour guide, regaled visitors last week with tales of Christophe's magical flights from the
Sans Souci palace to the top of Citadelle. "Christophe was a great man with great magic," he said. "His spirit is still seen here at
night, when he walks lonely, looking for his soldiers."

After his brother-in-law died in an explosion at the Citadelle, Christophe was said to be so angry that he pointed his biggest
cannon skyward and challenged God to fight.

Historian Delatour said that according to the legend, Christophe fired the cannon toward heaven. But instead of the cannonball
rising, the cannon sank into the ground. Now, when especially strong magic is needed, the story goes, the cannon rises from the
ground inside the fortress.

While attending a Mass at the nearby town of Limonade in July 1820, Christophe suffered a stroke that left him virtually paralyzed.
According to Dupin and local legend, Christophe was struck down in the church by the spirit of a priest he had imprisoned and
killed.

Christophe never recuperated and, with his troops restless and in revolt, he used a special pistol with a silver bullet to shoot
himself through the heart on Oct. 8, 1820. His body was taken to the Citadelle, and a large lump of limestone set in an interior
courtyard is believed to be his grave. The Citadelle was abandoned shortly afterward.

Christophe's two predecessors and fellow heroes of independence, Toussaint L'Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, had
been imprisoned and killed by their enemies -- with Christophe a co-conspirator in the latter's assassination.

His suicide "was the ultimate way to refuse to be enslaved again," Delatour said. "It was the ultimate act of control of his own
destiny because he knew history was very ungrateful."