Editing Henri Christophe (section)

==Failed military invasion of 1805==
{{Main|Siege of Santo Domingo (1805)|Beheadings of Moca}}

In 1805, French troops still controlled Santo Domingo, where they were led by General [[Jean-Louis Ferrand]]. He ordered his troops to seize all black children of both genders below the age of 14 years to be sold into slavery. Learning of this action, Dessalines said he was outraged, and decided to use this a pretext to invade Santo Domingo, with his forces [[looting]] several towns, such as [[Azua, Dominican Republic|Azua]] and [[Moca, Dominican Republic|Moca]], and finally laying [[siege]] to the city of [[Santo Domingo]], the stronghold of the French.

Christophe (referred to as '''Enrique Cristóbal''' in Spanish-language accounts), under Dessalines, attacked the towns of Moca and [[Santiago de los Caballeros|Santiago]]. The barrister Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo wrote, "40 children had their throats cut at the Moca's church, and the bodies found at the presbytery, which is the space that encircles the church's altar..."<ref name="auto">Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo, ''Memoria de mi salida de la isla de Santo Domingo el 28 de abril de 1805'' (Memoirs of my leaving the island of Santo Domingo 28 April 1805)</ref> This event was one of several documented accounts of atrocities perpetrated by Christophe under the orders of Dessalines; they retreated to Haiti after Dessalines lifted the siege of Santo Domingo.

On 6 April 1805, having gathered all his troops, Christophe took all male prisoners to the local cemetery and proceeded to slit their throats, among them Presbyter Vásquez and 20 other priests. Later he [[Scorched earth|set on fire]] the whole town along with its five churches. On his way out he took along, fashioned like a herd, 249 women, 430 girls and 318 boys, a steep figure considering the relatively low population of the town at that time. Alejandro Llenas wrote that Christophe took 997 from Santiago alone, and "[[Monte Plata]], [[San Pedro de Macorís|San Pedro]] and [[Cotuí]] were reduced to ashes, and their residents either had their throats slit or were taken captives by the thousands, like farm animals, tied up and getting beaten on their way to Haiti."<ref name="auto"/>

Before leaving Santo Domingo, Dessalines "gave the order to... commanders posted in conquered communities, to round up all dwellers and subdue them to prison, and thus, at first command, have them stomped by mules and other beasts upon arriving to the Haitian side."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newsglobaldaily24hours.com/2012/01/la-verdad-de-la-historia-del.html |title=La verdad de la Historia del autoproclamado Rey Henri Christophe, o Henri I de Haití y Jean Jacques Dessalines |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727065545/http://www.newsglobaldaily24hours.com/2012/01/la-verdad-de-la-historia-del.html |archive-date=27 July 2013 |newspaper=Noticias Globales Diarias |date=13 January 2012 |language=es |access-date=29 August 2018}}</ref>