AHPC X - 25mm Haitian Commanders

Only a small post today, consisting of three Command figures for the Haitian Revolution.

All figures are from Trent Miniatures Revolutionary Wars range.

From L to R we have Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére,  Toussaint Louverture (Haitian Commander) and Dutty Boukman.

Toussaint Louverture was a Haitian general and best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution. He was a leader of the growing resistance. His military and political acumen saved the gains of the first black insurrection in November 1791. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Great Britain; and finally, he fought on behalf of Saint-Domingue in the era of Napoleonic France. He helped transform the slave insurgency into a revolutionary movement.

Louverture began his military career as a leader of the 1791 slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue; he was by then a free man and a Jacobin. Initially allied with the Spaniards of neighbouring Santo Domingo (modern Dominican Republic), Louverture switched allegiance to the French when the new government abolished slavery. He gradually established control over the whole island and used political and military tactics to gain dominance over his rivals. Throughout his years in power, he worked to improve the economy and security of Saint-Domingue. Worried about the economy, which had stalled, he restored the plantation system using paid labour, negotiated trade treaties with the United Kingdom and the United States, and maintained a large and well-disciplined army.

After defeating leaders among the free people of colour, in 1801, he promulgated an autonomist constitution for the colony, which named him as Governor-General for Life. In 1802 he was invited to a parley by a French general, Jean-Baptiste Brunet, under false pretences and arrested. He was deported to France and jailed, dying of pneumonia in 1803

Dutty Boukman (Also known as "Boukman Dutty") (died 7 November 1791) was an early leader of the Haitian Revolution. Originally born in Senegambia (present-day Senegal and Gambia), he was captured, enslaved and transported to Jamaica. He eventually ended up in Haiti, where he became a leader of the Maroons and a vodou priest.

According to some contemporary accounts, 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.

Boukman was a key leader of the slave revolt in the Le Cap‑Français region in the north of the colony. He was killed by the French planters and colonial troops on 7 November 1791, just a few months after the beginning of the uprising. The French then publicly displayed Boukman's head in an attempt to dispel the aura of invincibility that Boukman had cultivated. The fact that French authorities had to do this illustrates the impact Boukman made on the views of Haitian people during this time.

Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére (fl. 1802), known in history only as Marie-Jeanne, was a Haitian soldier, woman of color, and reportedly a "dazzling beauty." She served in the Haitian army during the Haitian Revolution, which was a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule. It took place 1791-1804.

Marie-Jeanne served at the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot (4 March to 24 March 1802) with her husband Louis Daure Lamartinière. She fought in a male uniform standing along the fort's ramparts bearing both a rifle and a sword. She made a great impression with her fearlessness and courage, and was said to use the long rifle to snipe on the wounded French soldiers below with "a skill all the men applauded." It is said to have boosted the morale of her colleagues with her bravery.

When not fighting, Marie-Jeanne nursed her injured comrades. When describing her allocation of her scarce water supply to parched and dying troops, Bell states,

"Marie-Jeanne gave water with a silver serving spoon that hung from her sash on a fine chain. From the gourd she carried as she filled the spoon just short of the brim and slipped between the jaws of [the patient]." ... [A doctor noticed] "the short knife which rode in her sash between the spoon chain and her sword. Two days before she'd slit the throat of a man so maddened by thirst he'd tried to snatch the water gourd from her — done it as neatly as any peasant woman letting blood from a hog or snapping the head off a chicken. It had been a mercy killing, for the others of the garrison would surly have torn the offender limb from limb."