Letters Patent signed at Port-au-Prince on 14 May 1851 by Emperor Faustin I of Haiti nominating Henry Delafield (1792–1875) as Trade Representative of the Empire of Haiti in New York City. The certificate was countesigned by the Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Louis Dufrêne, 1st Duke of Tiburon. Delafield, an affluent merchant, served as Trade Representative in New York City from 1851 to 1859, continuing briefly under President Fabre-Nicolas Geffrard, who led the insurrection that dethroned Faustin I and re-established the republic. Geffrard had been ennobled by Faustin I as Duke of Tabarre to honor his victory during the 1856 invasion of the Dominican Republic, which he commanded. Although Haiti won independence from France in 1804 — becoming, after the United States, the second independent nation in the Americas — the world's first independent Black republic was not recognized by the United States until 1862. Interestingly, in 2012 the Delafield family donated a ceremonial sword of Emperor Faustin I to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
