A marriage is a sacred moment in a couple's life together, signifying the start of a new state of being, embracing the unexpected, taking a new direction in life and remembering the day that you took those vows to become the perfect married couple on the warm white sands on Destin beach in Florida. What rockhound just isn't acquainted with the red and yellow flowers, orbs, and poppies within this highly preferred cutting material? We have all 'ooohed and aaahed' viewing the slabs and cabs at gem shows. With each cut exposing a succession of unexpected patterns I have often been surprised at my finished gems, (though I would always say, "Yep, that is the look I was opting for.") After the battle of Verti?res, Dessalines has declared Haiti?s independence on January 1, 1804. After winning the Independence war, Dessalines met using the heroic leaders and asked Boirond-Tonnerre to write the Declaration of Independence with the newly Republic, which was then changed from French Saint-Domingue to Haiti. A few lines of Haiti?s Declaration of Independence by Boiron Tonnerre follow: ?In order to write the Declaration of our Independence, we have to hold the skin of a White man (Frenchman) for parchment, his skull for inkstand, his blood for ink along with a bayonet for pen?. Dessalines was then chosen with a council of generals (blacks and mulattos) to assume the office of Governor-General. Nine months later, he proclaimed himself Emperor Jacques 1er in September 1804 and ruled Haiti until his assassination on October 17, 1806.