Jean-Baptiste,  Jean Claude. (February 2006) "Black Like Me," Center for Youth Studies. 

              As Abraham, the father of the faith, I consider life like a long pilgrimage, and after him I would say the years of my pilgrimage are 55 years. I was born in Haiti, the city of Gonaives, the third largest of the country, located about 200 miles north of the capital Port-Au-Prince.  Gonaives is proudly called the city of independence because the declaration of Independence was written and proclaimed there on January 1, 1804, after 3 years of bloody war between the indigenous people and the French army.