Philippe Guerrier


Jean-Jacques Louis Philippe Guerrier,Duke of L'Avance,Counte de Mirebalais was a career officer and general in the Haitian Army who became President of Haïti on May 3, 1844. He died in office on April 15, 1845.
A respected soldier, Guerrier had successfully commanded the southern black army during the Haitian Revolution. After Haiti became independent, he retired from active service and became a plantation owner. King Henry I gave him the hereditary title of Duke of l'Avancé and Counter of Mirebalais.
In 1844, discontent erupted among rural farmers and cultivaters over economic conditions within the country. These disaffected groups formed bands of armed men known as "piquets". The piquets were gradually brought under the command of a former army officer, Louis Jean-Jacques Acaau, who used them to disrupt government control over the south of Haiti. Eventually with their increasing success, the piquets acquired political aspirations. The foremost of these were the dismantling of mulatto power over the government and a return to black rule. These goals were believed to have been met when in May 1844, President Rivière-Hérard was removed from office by the mulatto hierarchy and replaced with the aged black general Philippe Guerrier, who assumed the presidency on May 3, 1844. Guerrier held office for only 11 months before he died on April 15, 1845.