In November 1918, a Caco rebellion, led by Charlemagne Peralte, erupted, mainly to protest the occupation by the American military and especially the corvee, an ancient law requiring
five days a year of forced labor by the peasants to maintain the roads. Multiple acts of abuse were committed and numerous farmers were killed.
On November 1, 1919, Charlemagne Peralte, the most popular leader of the opposition to the American occupation of Haiti, was murdered by an American marine. Betrayed by one of his officers, Charlemagne Peralte was assassinated by U.S. Captain Herman H. Hanneken who disguised himself as one of Peralte's followers.
In a final act of brutality reminiscent of the lynchings of the American Ku Klux Klan, Peralte's corpse was strung up and exhibited in a public square on All Saints' Day, an event remembered by the Haitian people as a "crucifixion".
Benoit Batraville, who replaced Charlemagne Peralte as head of the armed anti-occupation movement, was killed on May 1920.
The Charlemagne Peralte guerilla galvanized Haitian patriotism. In Port-au-Prince, George Sylvain, launched the Union Patriotique to fight peacefully against the occupation.
