Historic Discovery: Newspaper Article of Santiago´s Massacre in 1805

Until now there has never been found a single news article on the widespread massacres committed by Dessalines in the invasion of 1805.

The most well known reference is the memories written by Gaspar Arredondo Pichardo, a native of Santiago and one of only a handful of Santiagueros that survived the massacre in Santiago. Arredondo Pichardo´s memories were discovered in Cuba in the early 20th century and sent to Santo Domingo for Dominican historians to use. Until then, his memories were meant to be for his descendants to know the part of their family history that he lived. Other than that there are several mentions of the event in various historical books, including books published by respected Haitian historians, and the countless oral stories passed down through the generations in various Dominican families.

Despite that the massacre was widespread, the most famous events are those that took placein Santiago and in Moca, mainly because Mr Arredondo Pichardo´s memories mention those two towns.

Now for the first time ever a news article of the event, specifically of the episode in Santiago, has resurfaced. This is the first article in a newspaper of the era where any mention of El degüello de Santiago is made.

The article was published on April 25, 1805 (the invasion of the Spanish part of the island took place earlier that year) in The Ostego Herald from Cooperstown, New York.

Image of the page where the article appears (if can´t see the entire page, right-click and then click on ‘open image in new tab’;or if using an ipad or tablet tap and hold on the image until you can pick ‘open in new tab’):



An upclose image of the article mentioning Santiago can be found here: Primer artículo periodístico del degüello de Santiago de 1805

In case anyone is wondering, there is not a single building from that era left in Santiago. For example, the main church in thehistoric center of Santiago has been rebuilt multiple times and the current building dates from the 1880´s or 1890´s. The only thing that still exists from that era is the street grid and the spaces where the plazas used to be, today those plazas are covered in parks with the main plaza today occupied by Parque Duarte.

While you can´t stroll through the historic center of Santiago and attempt to imagine what it was like during the massacre by using buildings of the era as references, the street grid itself is the only thing left untouched and, in essence, many of the victims were killed on the streets.