Dessalines (French pronunciation: [dɛsalin]; Haitian Creole: Desalin) usually referred to as Marchand-Dessalines (Haitian Creole: Machan Desalin), is a commune in the Artibonite department of Haiti.

It is named after Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler and emperor of independent Haiti.

During the Haitian revolution, Dessalines organized most of his troops from the town of Petite Riviere de Artibonite.

Dessalines asked Pétion to lay a plan for a new city that would become the capital of free Haiti over the habitation Marchand.

[citation needed] The commune lay in the Artibonite Valley, on the north shore of the river at the bottom of the Montagne Noir mountain range.