Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicitée Bonheur, Empress
Marie-Claire Bonheur (Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicitée Bonheur) , born in Léogâne on February 3, 1758 and died in Gonaïves on August 9, 1858, is Empress of Haiti (1804-1806), as the wife of Jean - Jacques Dessalines, Emperor of Haiti under the name of Jacques I.
Born into a poor but free family, she was the daughter of Guillaume Bonheur and Marie-Sainte Lobelot; she was educated by her aunt Élise Lobelot, governess of a religious order. She married Pierre Lunic, master wheelwright in the service of the brothers of Saint John of God, a hospital religious order, and became a widow in 1795.
During the siege of Jacmel in 1800 , she became known for her work on behalf of the wounded and starving, and convinced Dessalines, who was one of the besiegers, to allow some roads to be opened so that the wounded in the city could receive help. She provided the women and children with food, clothing, and medicine that she was able to bring to the city, then cooked food for them in the streets.
On April 2, 1800, she married Jean-Jacques Dessalines at the Sainte-Rose-de-Lima parish church in Léogâne . She was described as kind, merciful and natural, with manners that were both elegant and warm, and quite unlike her husband showed kindness towards people of all colors. She legitimized her partner's bastard children. Very opposed to her husband's policy towards the white French of Haiti, she provided for the needs of the prisoners, and she did not hesitate to save a large number of them, despite the fury of her husband, who had planned to massacre them: it is said that she fell on her knees before him to beg him to spare them. She allegedly went so far as to hide one of them, Descourtilz , under her own bed. She is cited for having protected the two orphaned little girls from Cape Town, Hortense and Augustine de Saint-Janvier , and for having organized their repatriation to France. She was made empress in 1804.
Claire Heureuse was a valiant fighter by day and nurse by night, caring for wounded soldiers during the war; she was a “ poto-mitan ”, a key element and the emblematic face of Haitian women who fought for independence. However, in the story, we talk more about Dessalines, her husband, which means that she survived in his shadow for many years. We cannot talk about the independence of Haiti without mentioning the traditional meal, “joumou soup ”, a recipe consumed for the first time by Haitians on January 1, 1804, prepared by Claire Heureuse.