Louverture’s constitution made Catholicism the sole public religion under his control

Evidence

The 1801 constitution built on this earlier decree by declaring that the only “publicly professed” religion was to be Catholicism. The constitution, as Louverture declared, supported “the reign of good habits and the divine religion of Jesus Christ in our climates.” Louverture, however, kept direct control over the “extent” of each priest’s “spiritual administration.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 866

Categorization

• XREF: Anti-Vodou religious policing parallels the earlier decree banning nocturnal dances and connects to postemancipation moral regulation across the Caribbean.