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- The Beheadings of Moca (Spanish: Degüello de Moca; Haitian Creole: Masak nan Moca; French: Décapitation Moca) was a massacre that took place in Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) in April 1805 when the invading Haitian army attacked civilians as ordered by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe, just a year after the 1804 Haiti massacre. The event was narrated by survivor Gaspar Arredondo and Pichardo in his book Memoria de mi salida de la isla de Santo Domingo el 28 de abril de 1805 (Memory of my departure from the island of Santo Domingo on April 28, 1805), which was written shortly after the massacre. This massacre is part of a series of Haitian invasions to Santo Domingo and is part of Siege of Santo Domingo (1805). Haitian historian Jean Price-Mars wrote that the troops killed white, black and mixed inhabitants of Santo Domingo. This event has been portraited in Haiti as a fight against slavery. The raids, carried out by 40,000 Haitian soldiers, were headed by Henri Christophe and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who were present during the action. Municipalities of Santo Domingo (Monte Plata, Cotuí, La Vega, Santiago, Moca, San Jose de las Matas, Monte Cristi, and San Juan de la Maguana) were reduced to ashes and troops killed Dominicans, including 40 children who were beheaded in a church in Moca, (hence where the infamous name of the massacre comes from), during a failed attempt to overthrow Jean-Louis Ferrand. Ferrand was later overthrown and beheaded, ironically by the father of future Dominican President Pedro Santana, on November 7, 1808 after the defeat in the Battle of Palo Hincado, that definitively put an end to the presence of any French rule on the island. The inhabitants of the Spanish-speaking side of the island inherit the Dominican national name, which is derived from the country Santo Domingo, since the early 17th century. (en)
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