About this picture: Flag of Haiti
The flag of Haiti was adopted on February 25, 1987. The flag is divided into two horizontal rectangles.
The top half is blue and the bottom is red. Since 1843 the flag for official and state use has had the coat of arms of Haiti on a white panel in the center.
The coat of arms depicts a trophy of weapons ready to defend freedom, and a royal palm for independence.
The palm is topped by the Cap of Liberty.
The national motto is on a white scroll reading L'Union Fait La Force ("Unity Makes Strength").
The civil flag and ensign lacks the emblem.
The blue and red of the Haiti flag were retained after a French Tricolore was torn up by the revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1803. The two parts were stitched together horizontally to make a new flag.
Historically, students in Haiti learn that on May 18, 1803, in a congress held at Arcahaie, a township located about fifty miles north of Port-au-Prince, Dessalines created the country’s first flag. Ripping apart a French one — blue, white and red, he threw away the white portion that was in the center and asked Catherine Flon, a young girl of the area, to sew the remaining ones.
Having stitched together those two pieces of cloth, he mounted them horizontally on a staff as Haiti’s new national symbol.
By this gesture, he publicly designated that this country no longer wanted to be recognized as a French territory and that the people who lived on this land preferred to be dead rather than be slaves.
"Liberté ou la Mort!" meaning "Liberty or Death" had become the new motto as it had already been embraced at the Vodoun ceremony known as "Ceremony of Bwa Kayiman" held on August 14, 1791. This motto can be seen on all the official documents signed by Dessalines.
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The flag of Haiti was adopted on February 25, 1987. Historically, students in Haiti learn that on May 18, 1803, in a congress held at Arcahaie, a township located about fifty miles north of Port-au-Prince, Dessalines created the country’s first flag. Ripping apart a French one
