Born on September 20, 1758, Jean-Jacques Dessalines was transported to Saint-Domingue as a slave. The exact origin of his family is unknown, but his parents are likely to come from West and Central West Africa. Other historians, however, reported that Dessalines was born instead in Grande-Rivière-du-Nord.

As it was a common practice during slavery period, most african slaves in Saint-Domingue receive the last name of their masters. Jean-Jacques Dessalines was first known as Jean Jacques Duclos as he was first own by a Frenchman named Henry Duclos. He became Jean-Jacques Dessalines after he was bought by a free black man named Dessalines.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines worked as slave on a plantation in Plaine du Nord, located near Cap-Haitian until he was thirty years old. Starting as a sugar field Labor, he became a foreman in a relatively short period of time. He was later purchased by Dessalines, a free Black or as they were named back during the colonization period in Saint-Domingue, "Afranchie". There, he worked only for three years as a slave before joining the Slave Revolution in 1791 in "Plainr du Nord" which was headed by Jean François Papillon and Georges Biassou.

History reported that Jean-Jacques Dessalines was anything but stable in his military career. After France declared an end to slavery, he served as a French army officer in Spanish and British confrontation. He became Toussaint L'Ouverture's principal  lieutenant while serving in the French military.

After the capture of Toussaint Louverture in 1802. Dessalines took over the Haitian Revolution until Haiti became the first Black Independent Nation in 1804. The Battle of Vertières in 1803, proved to be the deciding factor of the Haitian Revolution when Jean-Jacques Dessalines defeated the French government of Napoléon Bonaparte and the powerful French army led by General Charles Leclerc.

Considered to be the founding father of Haiti, Dessalines promulgated the Declaration of Independence, restore the original name of the country of Haiti and named himself Emperor Jacques I for life with the right to name his successor. Dessalines also declared Haiti an all-black nation where whites were not allowed to own any property or land.

Dessalines was assassinated on October 17, 1806 at Pont Pont-Rouge.  It was reported that a black woman by the name of Defilee took the body of Dessalines and berry him at cemetery of Port-au-Prince.

Cincinnatus Leconte who was President of Haiti from 1911 to 1912, was the great-grand son of  the founding father of Haiti, Jean-Jacques Dessalines