Haitian revolution

Haitian Independence Day on January 1, 1804 celebrates the declaration of independence of the only nation to free itself from human slavery.

In 1791, Cecile Fatiman presided over a ceremony with Dutty Boukman. An animal was sacrificed, an oath taken, and they exhorted listeners to seek revenge against their French oppressors, to "Cast aside the image of the God of the oppressors." A week later, 1800 plantations had been destroyed and 1000 slaveholders killed. Fatiman was married to Louis Michel Pierrot, a general in the Haitian revolutionary army and later president. She is reported to have lived to age 112.

Dutty Boukman (Also known as "Boukman Dutty") (died 7 November 1791) was an early leader of the Haitian Revolution, enslaved in Jamaica and later in Haiti. He is considered to have been both a leader of maroons and Vodou hougan (priest). Boukman alongside Cécile Fatiman, a Vodou mambo, presided over the religious ceremony at Bois Caïman, in August 1791, that served as the catalyst to the 1791 slave revolt which is usually considered the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

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"Dessalines Ripping the White From the Flag" (1995). Madsen Mompremier (b. 1952, Gonaïves). Oil on canvas. Fowler Museum at UCLA. Image credit: University of California