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'{{Short description|President of Haiti (1859–1915)}} {{more citations needed|date=December 2009}} {{Infobox officeholder | name =Vilbrun Guillaume Sam | image =Vilbrun Guillaume Sam portrait.jpg | imagesize = | smallimage = | caption = | order = | office =[[List of heads of state of Haiti|24th]] [[President of Haiti]] | term_start =25 February 1915 | term_end =28 July 1915 | primeminister = | predecessor =[[Joseph Davilmar Théodore]] | successor =[[Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave]] | office2 =Minister of War and Navy | term_start2 =13 December 1897 | term_end2 =12 March 1902 | president2 =[[Tirésias Simon Sam]] | predecessor2 =Septimus Marius | successor2 =[[Pierre Nord Alexis]] | birth_name =Jean Simon Guillaume | birth_date ={{birth date|df=yes|1859|3|4}} | birth_place =[[Ouanaminthe]], [[Haiti]] | death_date ={{death date and age|df=yes|1915|7|28|1859|3|4}} | death_place =[[Port-au-Prince]], Haiti | nationality = | party = | spouse =Lucie Parisien | relations = | children = | residence = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = Military officer | religion = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam''' (4 March 1859 – 28 July 1915) was [[List of Presidents of Haïti|President]] of [[Haiti]] from 4 March to 27 July 1915. He was a cousin of [[Tirésias Simon Sam]], Haiti's president from 1896 to 1902. ==Presidency== Sam was the commander of Haiti's Northern Division when he led the revolt that brought President [[Cincinnatus Leconte]] to power. He later headed the revolt that toppled President [[Oreste Zamor]]. Sam was proclaimed president when his predecessor, [[Joseph Davilmar Théodore]], was forced to resign on 25 February 1915, when he was unable to pay the militiamen (called "Cacos") who had helped him overthrow Zamor. As the fifth president in five turbulent years, Sam was forced to contend with a revolt against his own regime, led by Dr. [[Rosalvo Bobo]], who opposed the government's expanded commercial and strategic ties with the United States. The President of France during that that in 1914 Raymond Poincarre had signed signed a deal political deal with Russia, Great Britain and called the the Triple Intent which would reduce the amount of debt for France if the Great War that would eventually between France and Germany.Germany had been a major source of buying Haitian agricultural goods at the the turn of the century, and the United States wanted to show Germany that their power was limited to Europe, and that they were the leader in American afffairs. Fearing that he would share the same fate as his predecessors, Sam acted harshly against his political opponents, particularly the better educated and wealthier [[mulatto]] population. The culmination of his repressive measures came on 27 July 1915, when he ordered the execution of 167 political prisoners, including former president Zamor, who was being held in a [[Port-au-Prince]] jail. This infuriated the population, which rose up against Sam's government as soon as news of the executions reached them. Sam fled to the French consulate , where he received asylum. The rebels' mulatto leaders broke into the embassy and found Sam. They dragged him out and beat him senseless, and then threw his limp body over the embassy's iron fence to the waiting populace, who then ripped his body to pieces and paraded the parts through the capital's neighborhoods. For the next two weeks, the country was in chaos. News of the murder soon reached the [[United States Navy|American Navy]] ships anchored in the city's harbor. President [[Woodrow Wilson]], who was wary about the turn of events in Haiti, and especially the possibility that Bobo would take power, [[United States occupation of Haiti|ordered American troops to seize the capital]], claiming that the unrest might precipitate a [[German Empire|German]] invasion of the country. They landed the next day, on 28 July, and continued to occupy the country for nineteen years, until August 1934. ==Legacy== *His chief of police Charles Oscar Etienne, who cleaned out the jails by executing his political opponents, inspired the boogeymen Haitian carnival disguises known as "Chaloska". ==In fiction== [[Eugene O'Neill]] stated that Sam was the inspiration for his 1920 play ''[[The Emperor Jones]].''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wi3ws_31MvAC&q=emperor+jones+sam&pg=PA154|title=Critical Companion to Eugene O'Neill: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work|first=Robert M.|last=Dowling|date=4 March 2018|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9781438108728|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|jstor=2929605|title=Black Power on Stage: Emperor Jones and King Christophe|first=Ruby|last=Cohn|date=4 March 1971|journal=Yale French Studies|issue=46|pages=41–47|doi=10.2307/2929605}}</ref> Sam is the main figure in [[Arthur J. Burks|Arthur J. Burks's]] short story "Thus Spake the Prophetess" (''[[Weird Tales]]'', November 1924). Sam appears as a supporting character in the 1993 [[Doctor Who]] novel ''[[White Darkness (novel)|White Darkness]]'' which is set during his presidency.<ref>McIntee, D. A. "White Darkness". Virgin Publishing, 1993</ref> The novel takes several liberties with history, having Sam committing suicide rather than being murdered by the rebels as was actually the case. ==References== {{reflist}} {{Heads of state of Haiti}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Sam, Jean Vilbrun Guillaume}} [[Category:1859 births]] [[Category:1915 deaths]] [[Category:Presidents of Haiti]] [[Category:Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Haiti)]] [[Category:Assassinated Haitian politicians]] [[Category:People from Nord-Est (department)]] [[Category:Deaths by beating]] [[Category:People of the Banana Wars]]'