Women in the Haitian Revolution
By Kirthi Jayakumar
Source: PublicBooks
The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint Domingue, now Haiti (Taber 2015; Popkin 2011). Beginning on August 22, 1791, it ended in 1804, culminating in Haiti’s independence. Known for being the only slave uprising in the world to culminate in the founding of a sovereign state, the Haitian Revolution ended with the state of Haiti emerging free from slavery, to be ruled entirely by non-white and former captives (Knight 2000). The success of the revolution produced major impacts throughout the Americas, and marked a major milestone in the Atlantic region. It challenged long-held beliefs among Europeans on alleged black inferiority and slaves’ ability to achieve, maintain, and keep their freedom (Kaisary 2008; Popkin 2011). Haiti became the first Black Republic in the world, and the second nation after the US in the west to defeat a European power for its independence (Kasel n.d.).
Women played a significant role in resisting French colonial rule during the Revolution, mobilizing across multiple lines to support the overthrow of the colonial government.
Women under Colonial Rule
Black women who were enslaved in Saint-Domingue suffered gendered violence, abuse, and mistreatment. Rape and sexual abuse was common, oftentimes perpetrated out of the logic of control as enslaved women were considered the property of their owners and thus treated as sex objects (Boisvert 2001). Desirable women were sought as prizes marking a man’s status in colonial society (Girard 2009). Enslaved women were prevented from engaging in monogamous family relationships, and instead subject to sexual slavery as objects of reproduction to address the low fertility rates and high infant mortality rates among the colonizers (Boisvert 2001). This put several women at risk of disease, injury, and in several cases, suicide (Boisvert 2001). Women were subject to transaction sex to obtain money, arms, intelligence, resources, and even mercy (Girard 2009).
Women in the Movement
Stepping up to address the colonial oppression, women joined the rebel movement and participated in a variety of tactics, and at all levels of the revolt. Enslaved women who were forced to engage in labour decided to mobilize and organize on the mills they worked on. They refused to engage in any form of life-threatening work, including working with heavy machinery in the dark during night shifts (Boisvert 2001).
Another site of subversion was the practice of Vodou – which fast became a tool in the Haitian Revolution. Women practiced Vodou regularly until colonization led to the imposition of French Catholicism. Any practice of Vodou thereafter was considered a rejection of French Catholicism, and met with punishment. Resisting this, women who escaped slavery became Vodou mambos (priestesses), and began using this practice as a site for organizing their liberation movement (Boisvert 2001). Equipped with traditional knowledge that included herbal medicine, the women were able to weaponize the use of poisons and remedies against French slave owners and their families (Boisvert 2001). With time, the image of a Haitian Vodou priestess came to symbolize the inspiration to resist colonization in pursuit of liberation – both in life and from a spiritual perspective.
Women also participated actively in combat, serving in the anti-colonial military at all levels (Fumagalli 2015). They participated in active combat, supported in carrying arms, cannons, and ammunition, and served as healers and herbal medicine practitioners to support the injured (Girard 2009). They worked as spies, pretending to be sex workers and traders, and gained and delivered information on the French. However, for their engagement in the revolution, women were not spared the impact of colonial rule and its brutal response. Several of them were captured and executed, and even subject to gendered punishments (Dayan 1995). Women played a significant role in attacking fortification – carrying fascines to cover trenches and causing the loss of over a thousand men for the colonial forces (Brandstetter 2015).
Subverting systems
The participation of women in Haitian Revolution is an important story of subversion and resistance to colonialism. By treating the sites in which they were oppressed as avenues for organization, and by using mechanisms that colonization tried to erase as tools to assert their agency, Haitian women questioned settler colonial oppression and dominance. Most of the women who were enslaved in Saint Domingue were born in Africa, and had been brought into the territory by the colonial rulers. They often brought their cultures along with them (Brandstetter 2015). Their use of traditional knowledge and practices such as Vodou was a means to affirm its continuation in the face of colonial erasure. Women also made full use of their agency as women within their communities: Relying on mobility as an avenue to mobilize and organize across lines, and to build networks to pass information, food, and resources. The birth of Haiti as a nation after overthrowing French colonial rule is every bit the victory of the women who fought in the revolution.
References
Boisvert, Jayne (2001). "Colonial Hell and Female Slave Resistance in Saint-Domingue". Journal of Haitian Studies. 7 (1): 63.
Brandstetter, T. (2015). “Women Combatants in the Haitian Revolution.” https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/women-combatants-in-the-haitian-revolution/
Dayan, Joan (1995). Haiti, History, and the Gods. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Franklin W. Knight (February 2000). "The Haitian Revolution". The American Historical Review. 105 (1): 103–115.
Fumagalli, Maria Cristina (2015). On the Edge: Writing the Border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Girard, Philippe (2009). "Rebelles with a Cause: Women in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802-1804". Gender and History. 21 (1): 69.
Kaisary, Philip James (2008). The Literary Impact of the Haitian Revolution, PhD dissertation. University of Warwick.
Kasel, A. (n.d.). The Women of the Haitian Revolution. https://www.feminists.co/discover/womenofhaitianrevolution
Popkin, Jeremy D. (2011). A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution (2011)
Taber, Robert D. (2015). "Navigating Haiti's History: Saint-Domingue and the Haitian Revolution". History Compass. 13 (5): 235–250.
