Saint-Domingue, August 1791: The Uprising Begins
Focus on the opening uprising in northern Saint-Domingue rather than the entire Haitian Revolution. Explore plantation slavery, Boukman, Cécile Fatiman, the memory of Bois Caïman, and the revolutionary arguments over freedom and citizenship; separate later traditions from contemporary evidence.
Connections9
Toussaint Louverture: people, places, and context for the episode.
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda, was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution.
Atlantic slave trade: people, places, and context for the episode.
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people to the Americas. This trade was operated by slave ships from both Europe and the New World.
Vincent Ogé: people, places, and context for the episode.
Vincent Ogé was a Saint-Domingan merchant, military officer and revolutionary who had a leading role in a failed uprising against French colonial rule in the colony of Saint-Domingue in 1790.
Code noir: people, places, and context for the episode.
The Code noir was a decree passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685, defining the conditions of slavery in the Antilles, then also Louisiana, and served as the code for slavery conduct in the French colonies up until 1789, the year marking the
Haitian Vodou: people, places, and context for the episode.
Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Catholicism.
Bois Caïman: people, places, and context for the episode.
Bois Caïman was the site of the first major meeting of enslaved Africans during which the first major slave insurrection of the Haitian Revolution was planned.
Cécile Fatiman: people, places, and context for the episode.
Cécile Fatiman was a Haitian Vodou priestess and revolutionary.
Dutty Boukman: people, places, and context for the episode.
Dutty Boukman was a leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born to a Muslim family in Senegambia, he was initially enslaved in Jamaica.
Saint-Domingue: people, places, and context for the episode.
Saint-Domingue was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803.