BORGELLA, Jerome-Maximilien, president of Hayti, born in Port au Prince, 6 May 1773; died in September 1842. His mother being a colored woman, Borgella could not legally use the name of his father, who was white; but he obtained that right on the proclamation of equality, 4 April 1792. After receiving some education he entered a carpenter's shop to learn that trade in 1786, and three years later joined the mulatto insurgents and fought against the Negroes and the whites; but the Negroes under Toussaint prevailed, and Borgella suffered persecution. When Napoleon I. sent troops to Hayti to put down the insurrection, Borgella served in the French army for some time, but returned to the revolutionary party and distinguished himself by his bravery and his generosity toward the vanquished, many of these being saved by him when Dessalines ordered the slaughter of the whites, tie took an active and important part in the civil wars during the early period of the republic, of which he was appointed president by the assembly as successor of Rigauld, who died 18 September 1811. Borgella afterward filled the highest offices in the army, in the chambers, and in several departments of the government, during Boyer's administration.