https://www.fanmrebel.com/en/home daily 1.0 2019-11-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1573162316568-W9AHN6L9M7J1E4XJ70RO/Andre+-+Lady+Liberty+2017.jpg Home https://www.fanmrebel.com/en/about daily 0.75 2025-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1573251667514-OI1UT5BYUXXG2NIXDYD9/L%C3%A9onice+L%C3%A9gros+%28S%C3%A9jour+L%C3%A9gros%29.jpg About - About Portrait of Léonice Legros by Séjour Legros (n.d.), courtesy of the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien https://www.fanmrebel.com/gallerydata daily 0.75 2025-03-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589565295596-P2SGMHLYA7W94W2SDG9V/Catherine+Flon+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2011.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Catherine Flon' (2011). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Patricia Brintle is a Haitian-born artist who is now resident in Whitestone, NY. This painting, depicting the purported ‘god-daughter’ of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the nurse and seamstress Catherine Flon, forms part of a series of acrylic paintings by Brintle articulating the stories of Haitian women revolutionaries. Brintle’s caption reads as follows: Catherine Flon was a seamstress and the god-daughter of Jean Jacques Dessalines, the leader of the Haitian revolution. During the Congress of Arcahaie (May 14 to May 18, 1803) in the town of Arcahaie, two essential points were agreed upon by Dessalines and Petion, the two principal leaders of Haiti at that time: The establishment of a revolutionary army under the supreme authority of Dessalines and the adoption of a flag for that army. On the last day of the Congress, May 18, 1803, Dessalines removed the white band from the French flag and gave the remaining blue and red portions to Catherine Flon who sewed them and turned the bands to their side. The Haitian flag was born. Once it was sewn, the generals of the Haitian Revolution solemnly swore a pledge of allegiance to liberty or death on the flag. This oath was to lead the slaves to victory and freedom. That pledge is called the Oath of the Ancestors. Since then, May 18 has been observed as the Haitian Flag Day. It is a major national holiday and an occasion for parades, marches and pageants. Catherine Flon is regarded as one of the great heroines of the Haitian revolution and independence. In this artwork, the artist depicts the moment when, a year after the creation of the flag, Petion sought the help of Catherine to sew the arms of the republic on the bicolor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1573684275835-NO18JX5T2UQY05QP1CDI/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Image Of Lady Some lasy stuff https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589565295596-P2SGMHLYA7W94W2SDG9V/Catherine+Flon+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2011.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Catherine Flon' (2011). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Patricia Brintle is a Haitian-born artist who is now resident in Whitestone, NY. This painting, depicting the purported ‘god-daughter’ of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the nurse and seamstress Catherine Flon, forms part of a series of acrylic paintings by Brintle articulating the stories of Haitian women revolutionaries. Brintle’s caption reads as follows: Catherine Flon was a seamstress and the god-daughter of Jean Jacques Dessalines, the leader of the Haitian revolution. During the Congress of Arcahaie (May 14 to May 18, 1803) in the town of Arcahaie, two essential points were agreed upon by Dessalines and Petion, the two principal leaders of Haiti at that time: The establishment of a revolutionary army under the supreme authority of Dessalines and the adoption of a flag for that army. On the last day of the Congress, May 18, 1803, Dessalines removed the white band from the French flag and gave the remaining blue and red portions to Catherine Flon who sewed them and turned the bands to their side. The Haitian flag was born. Once it was sewn, the generals of the Haitian Revolution solemnly swore a pledge of allegiance to liberty or death on the flag. This oath was to lead the slaves to victory and freedom. That pledge is called the Oath of the Ancestors. Since then, May 18 has been observed as the Haitian Flag Day. It is a major national holiday and an occasion for parades, marches and pageants. Catherine Flon is regarded as one of the great heroines of the Haitian revolution and independence. In this artwork, the artist depicts the moment when, a year after the creation of the flag, Petion sought the help of Catherine to sew the arms of the republic on the bicolor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592408117336-3KEPW3VYB2KMB5UHTPIZ/Marie+Jeanne+Lamartiniere+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2012.jpg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere' (2012). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 26 in. This painting, from Patricia Brintle’s series on Haitian revolutionary women, depicts Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière (thought to have been the companion of Louis Daure Lamartinière) who is recounted as having fought among the troops during the conclusive revolutionary battle at Crête-à-Pierrot in March 1802. Brintle’s caption reads: Marie Jeanne Lamartiniere is considered one of the heroines of the Haitian revolution. Little is known of her except that she fought valiantly during the battle of the Crete-a-Pierrot next to her husband, Brigade Commander Louis Daure Lamartiniere. She could be seen over the fortifications, carbine in hand, saber at her side, distributing ammunitions, lighting canons, and constantly encouraging the soldiers to keep fighting. The fort was besieged by the French and all seemed lost when word came from Dessalines that the fort was to be evacuated immediately. That same night, on March 24th, 1802, most escaped when the besieged rebels fought their way through more than 10,000 French troops. This withdrawal was a remarkable feat and won Lamartiniere a name among the heroes of Haiti’s independence. We do not know for sure what became of Marie Jeanne after the retreat from the Crete-a-Pierrot, but it is her bravery, fearlessness and intrepid boldness that make her unforgettable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592413266148-6N0A8T594R3SVSF3IZ8E/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'DEDEE BAZILE also known as DEFILEE LA FOLLE' (2008). Acrylic on masonite, 24 x 36 in. This painting - the first in the series of revolutionary women to be created by Brintle - depicts Dédée Bazile, so-called ‘Défilée la folle’. According to the historical narrative, Bazile served as a sutler and led a battalion in Dessalines’ revolutionary army. It is thought that her nickname derives in part from her battle-charge ‘Defilez, defilez!’ (March, march!) After Dessalines was ambushed and assassinated at Pont-Rouge in 1806, Bazile is purported to have recovered his dismembered body parts and carried them to his final resting place. This image evocatively tells that story of grief and re-assembly. Brintle’s caption reads as follows: We do not know why Defilee was given the surname of La Folle (the madwoman); in fact, not very much is known of Defilee, yet her actions are the epitome of the Corporal Works of Mercy. She was born near Le Cap of slave parents and worked as a peddler. It was said that she so greatly admired Jean Jacques Dessalines that she followed his troops wherever they went. It is this constant admiration that would put Defilee in the proximity of Dessalines when on October 17, 1806 he was ambushed (supposedly by Petion and Christophe) and assassinated at the Pont Rouge, just north of Port-au-Prince. His mutilated body was thrown about. Diligently and without a word, Defilee gathered the remains of her hero in a burlap sack and placed him on one of the tombs inside the cemetery in Port-au-Prince. President Petion subsequently sent two corporals to clandestinely bury Dessalines without official ceremony. Later, a tomb was erected on the remains by Mrs. Iginac which carries the inscription: “Here Lies Dessalines - Dead at 48.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678189523436-1EYZUEELURNOB2SG7I7G/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Uncommon Warrior' (2020). Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in. From Patricia Brintle’s artistic book project exploring the Thirteen Years of the Haitian Revolution, this image celebrates the struggles of the numerous and nameless women who participated in the revolutionary cause through acts of diversion, subterfuge and sagacity. Such women were essential vectors, facilitating the gains made by Haiti’s gwò nègs on the revolutionary battlefield. Brintle notes of such women that ‘The part [they] played in the revolution was vital, yet not as noted as that of men because their roles were not so much on the battleground as in the background of the battles. They were the support group without whom the revolution would not have been successful. They were the ones to bind the wounds and feed the troops; they were the spies, the couriers, the cooks, and the nurses; they were the business managers, the store keepers, the hôtelières and the entertainers; and they were the ones raising the children who would grow up to be the future of this proud nation.’ Brintle’s caption for this artwork reads as follows: This proud woman sits elegantly with her legs crossed. She wears the colors of the Haitian flag. On her lap she carries a basket of fruit and some bread. On her side is a table with a bowl and some dishes. She waits patiently for a tired and hungry soldier from the French army to trade ammunitions - see the guns under her basket and pistols under her belt and foot. The Haitian revolution is in full swing but the French soldiers are ill equipped to fight under the hot sun. Many, like General Leclerc, succumb to yellow fever; they are hot, hungry and discouraged. These brave women from the plantations trade food for ammunition with the French soldiers and give those to the indigenous army thereby doing their part to win the war. Victory came on December 4, 1803 when Jean Jacques Dessalines won over French forces under the command of General Rochambeau during the battle of Vertieres, near Cap Francais in the north of Haiti. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678195994827-ATY35BX0JR1NI1MY7CEQ/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Madame Dessalines (Merciful Intercession)' (2019). Acrylic on Canvas, 40x30 in. Another artwork from Brintle’s Thirteen Years series, this image depicts Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur, who, as the wife of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, became the first ‘first woman’ (and later, Empress) of Haiti. Renowned anecdotally as a woman of kindness and compassion, as a nurse and caregiver invested in the idea of educational uplift, she is remembered in the memoirs of the French physician and natural historian Michel Étienne Descourtilz for interceding in his execution ordered by Dessalines. She is represented here in a domestic setting, with a tall, white head wrap tied neatly around her head. Together with her white shawl and cross pendant, her clothing and adornments converge to convey an image of modesty, virtue and devotion. That she wears the colours associated with the Haitian bicolore (curiously not the red and black of the Dessalinian imperial flag but the red and blue of the flag avowedly sewn together by Catherine Flon at the Congress of Arcahaie that became symbolic of the indigènes’ claim to independent statehood) is indicative of her symbolic importance as a woman who helped to shape a sovereign Haiti, free from colonial rule. Dessalines is only figured synecdochically - in the representation of his military uniform, sabre and boots, arranged neatly by the door, and of his bicorne, which Marie-Claire rests upon her lap. By gesturing to Dessalines’s presence ‘beyond the frame’ of this artwork and centring Marie-Claire, Brintle significantly shifts the focus of conventional revolutionary narratives that privilege the accomplishments of military men and gesture only fleetingly to the contributions of their companions. Brintle’s caption reads: Here we see the wife of Dessalines, Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite, at dawn waiting for her husband to dress. His uniform is ready, boots are clean and shiny, and she holds his bicorn on her lap. She is a very pious woman and is known for interceding with Dessalines to allow her to feed hungry Haitians during the siege of Jacmel. Following the victory at Vertieres, French General Rochambeau was given ten days to leave with his troops. It was agreed that Dessalines would send the wounded and prisoners back to France. But she knows the fierceness of her husband and wants to plead for the life of the prisoners and ask they be allowed, as promised, to France. History tells us that Dessalines did not listen to her pleas. Instead, he ordered the death of all French and French Creoles from January to April 1804 which resulted in the massacre of close to 5,000 people. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678207198741-G1BDBLK28RJKG1XSXHK8/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Victoria and Jean Jacques' (2020). Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in. This image from Patricia Brintle’s series of paintings for Thirteen Years depicts Victoria ‘Toya’ Montou alongside Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Said to have been Dessalines’s aunt, the little we know of Toya’s contribution to the revolutionary cause comes to us from a few lines in the memoir of a physician named Jean-Baptiste Mirambeau. According to Mirambeau’s narrative, Montou commanded a small regiment of rebel soldiers during the revolutionary conflict. Dessalines, who attended Montou on her deathbed in 1805, is claimed to have said to her nurse, ‘This woman is my aunt, take care of her as you would have taken care of me myself, she had to undergo like me all the sorrows, all the emotions during the time that we were condemned side by side to work in the fields.’ Depicted here in sumptuous garments of red and gold, Montou’s appearance is almost regal, greatly overshadowing the figure of Dessalines, who is envisioned in the plain and commonplace garments that he would have worn as an enslaved field labourer prior to the revolution. In this way, we see that the histories of Haiti’s great military men extend beyond the military moment, and comprise, above all, the stories of others - of families both real and forged in adversity, of communities, elders and mentors, and of the women so vital to those networks. Brintle’s caption reads: The scene finds a young Jean Jacques Dessalines in deep conversation with his aunt Gran Toya. Victoria Montou, also known as Adbaraya Toya was a female soldier and freedom fighter in the army of Jean Jacques Dessalines. Before the revolution Toya worked alongside Dessalines as a slave. Intelligent and energetic she fought as a soldier in active service and even commanded soldiers during battle. She had great influence on many who fought in the revolution. She was from Dahomey, now Benin, where she served as a member of the council of women in the kingdom known as the Dahomey Amazons who fought to protect the kingdom. She was a healer and worked on the Cormier plantation where she became close to Marie Elisabeth, the mother of Dessalines who entrusted her son to her before she died. Toya was Dessalines counsellor in all affairs and when she died, she was given a state funeral. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742895525585-9VQ5INT8TGME2OWDG5TB/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Catherine Flon' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. This interpretation of Catherine Flon by Patricia Brintle shows her wearing an ornately embellished, sleeveless yellow dress—a perhaps more modern style than the one worn by the Catherine Flon of Brintle’s earlier series of revolutionary women. Her head wrap, or madra, is piled high upon her head and tied in a bow. Its decorative function is enhanced by accessories which include gold earrings and a gold necklace and bracelet. Like the women of colonial Saint-Domingue who demonstrated creativity and defiance in the face of sumptuary laws, Brintle’s Catherine Flon channels a similar defiance and ingenuity as she stitches together the Haitian bicolore. Though this symbolic act is believed to have taken place at the Congress of Arcahaie, which saw the unification of revolutionary forces under the military leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Brintle makes Catherine Flon the protagonist of this saga by showing her in isolation, removed from the scene of military diplomacy. By placing her in the natural surroundings of Ayiti’s mountains, she is also rendered a temporally indeterminate figure, which is compounded by the indeterminate periodicity of her clothing. Catherine Flon is thus seen as both a woman of the past—whose creativity stretches back into the colonial imaginary—and also a woman of now—whose skills remain integral to the fabric of Haitian society. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742896556501-RGIJD2FD08W46LXAD7KZ/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Cecile Fatiman' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. This painting depicts Cecile Fatiman, a manbo who, along with Boukman, is said to have presided over the Vodou ceremony at the elusive Bwa Kayiman that cemented the plans for rebellion among the enslaved rebels that took part in the uprisings across the Plaine du Nord in August 1791. Her bright red and orange dress gestures symbolically to the flames that would engulf the plantations set ablaze by the insurgents. Though Brintle’s Fatiman appears far removed from the ceremonial festivities of Bwa Kayiman—a solitary figure flanked by verdant mountains—she carries the paraphernalia that root her in the historical moment: the head of a creole pig—who was sacrificed and whose blood was drunk during the Vodou ceremony—and a drinking vessel displaying the veve, or symbol, of Ogoun—the Vodou lwa associated with fire, often credited with fomenting rebellion in the minds of the enslaved. Like Brintle’s 2021 depiction of Catherine Flon, her representation of Cecile Fatiman is both timeless and modern. Though Fatiman’s existence and the veracity of the ceremony over which she presided have been disputed by some scholars, she thus cements herself as an icon whose symbolic importance in the Haitian popular imagination transcends the limits of conventional historical narratives governed by white colonialist epistemologies. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742896842472-ES6M4VEW3PZFQLT04BAK/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. Like Patricia Brintle’s 2012 representation of Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere, her 2021 interpretation of Marie-Jeanne shows her at the very heart of the scene of military encounter, waving a battle flag and carrying the accoutrements of battle, which include her sword and rifle. Unlike Brintle’s earlier depiction, however, this Marie-Jeanne stands defiantly astride a cannon on top of the ramparts and her banner bears the Kreyòl slogan ‘ABA ESKLAVAJ’: ‘Abolish slavery’. The iconography of Brintle’s painting echoes various historical representations of Marie-Jeanne, including those of Bellegarde, Madiou and Dorsainvil, who all depict her as a sabre-wearing, rifle-brandishing warrior who showed herself to be vital at the decisive battle of Crête-à-Pierrot in the Haitian campaign for independence. Curiously, neither of Brintle’s representations of Marie-Jeanne depict her in the mameluke/mamluk style costume with sirwal/saroual (harem) pants that she is described to have worn by Bellegarde. Instead, she wears a long skirt whose flowing fabric billows in the wind like a flag - an analogy that is compounded by the predominance of red and blue, which evokes the colours of the bicolore. The banner that she brandishes and the political message that it communicates roots her within a historical tradition of protest and activism whose branches extend into the present. That this painting was produced in 2021 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movements and the popular movement against corruption and impunity in Haiti following the Petrocaribe scandal lends weight to this notion. Like the other women in her more recent series of revolutionary women, Brintle’s Marie-Jeanne is shown to be a woman of the past and the present: a woman worthy of historical recognition and restitution, and a source of sustenance and resilience for the fight ahead. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742900269847-7I3WWD2SANQ32CZ1GHNB/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Sanite Belair' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. Though rooted Black vernacular aesthetics, Brintle’s depiction of Sanité Belair references the neoclassical and resonates strikingly with Anne-Louis Girodet’s 1797 portrait of Haitian revolutionary Jean-Baptiste Belley. Like the Belley of Girodet’s painting, Sanité leans against a column—a common motif of neoclassical paintings. Unlike in Girodet’s painting, however, Brintle’s Sanité is not placed in conversation with a tradition of white bourgeois intellectualism. Whereas Girodet’s painting—which shows the Abbé Raynal mounted on top of the plinth on which Belley leans—can therefore be seen as a meditation on the abolition of slavery as a project of the Enlightenment, Brintle’s painting pays exclusive tribute to Haitian militarism, creativity and defiance. In this way, Haiti is thrust into the foreground as a protagonist in the universal campaign for abolition as the first nation to universally and permanently abolish slavery. Moreover, by transposing the figure of Sanité onto that of Belley, Brintle reinforces the importance of women’s stories of insurgency. Though she is depicted in full military regalia, complete with epaulettes and bicorn hat as in Richard Barbot’s representations, her androgynous appearance is undercut with allusions to her femininity, such as her gold earrings, her madra and the calla lily which she holds in her right hand. A flower native to the southern African continent, the calla lily also references the circuitous and historic routes taken by Haitian women and women in the Haitian dyaspora. However, the abundance of vegetation, especially the sprawling shrub which reaches up from the ground and brushes against Sanité’s hand, reinforces her rootedness in the Haitian popular imagination. Executed on the orders of Dessalines, Sanité did not get to write her own story; Brintle and others have rehabilitated her in the present. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1573684275822-AKT1UL48PQ2WN372LZI5/image-asset.octet-stream Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418043346-ZNSJWYPNB0T7JLJSTQ4X/2+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC8_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 2 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture is a series of watercolour paintings on paper created by Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid OBE in 1987. It consists of 15 works in total, each exhibiting a diptych of two images in conversation with each other. Inspired heavily by C. L. R. James’s seminal text The Black Jacobins, the series celebrates the heroism of revolutionary general Toussaint Louverture. However, it also thrusts into the foreground the unexplored, under-acknowledged and undocumented histories of revolutionary women and the myriad ways that they contributed to the revolutionary saga. In her co-authored book Inside the Invisible: Memorialising Slavery and Freedom in the Life and Works of Lubaina Himid, Himid observes of the series ‘I wanted children to know about this extraordinary episode in the politics of the black diaspora and painted in a way that I hoped would appeal to publishers. In a way, the work resembled a graphic novel with minimal text and was to be read in a linear way. The paintings were done in soft and gently colourful watercolour, sending out friendly and accessible information about ordinary days in the life of an exceptional man.’ In this diptych, the second image in the series, Louverture is shown in repose, reclining on a cot, his discarded clothes and the paraphernalia of war strategy strewn about the space that he inhabits. The captions on the images read ‘An afternoon snooze / who cooked the midday meal?’ and ‘who will do the laundry?’ In asking these questions, Himid not only signifies the absented and undocumented female figure that grand historical narratives so often occlude in their emphasis on military heroism but also gestures to the importance of domestic and emotional labour undertaken largely by women both at home and on the battlefront. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417939081-JUCJV3HHGJQ4CBEB4LMX/4+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC12_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 4 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. In this diptych, the fourth in Lubaina Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series, Himid engages with the themes of fugitivity and marronage. The first image shows a woman in joyous, rhythmic motion, as if in flight, limbs stretching beyond the parameters of the frame, presumably dancing to the sounds of the bamboula drum generated by the synecdochic hand that reaches into the image from beyond the frame. The caption reads ‘The people danced, there was drumming’. The second image in the diptych shows the mountainous terrain that concealed many maroon communities in Saint-Domingue prior to the revolution. Signs of community and rebellious strategies of communication are gestured in the fires that spring up from the hillsides. The caption reads: ‘There were signs across the country from plantation to plantation’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417977829-QY1C7KGR6AJNQ99HU2NP/5+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC9_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 5 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. The fifth diptych in Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series depicts Toussaint in the domestic setting of his home plantation with his wife Suzanne. In the first image of the pairing, Suzanne is shown wearing an orange dress and head wrap seated at a table opposite Toussaint. A map has been spread across the table and several coffee beans, which presumably serve as figurative pawns, are clustered at the edge of the map. The caption reads: ‘Toussaint’s wife lived on a plantation in the interior, and devoted herself to the cultivation of coffee. Whenever Toussaint could escape from his duties he went there.’ The second images focuses in on a single open hand holding a coffee bean, gesturing to the possibility of collaboration and the many ‘hands’ that contributed to revolutionary strategy, but speaking specifically, here, to the strategic contributions of Suzanne. The caption asks: ‘Did she help him with strategy?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418093887-3J9UGL7232IE0VL75VQ5/7+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC13_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 7 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. The images in the seventh diptych from Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture form a mirror to one another. We see, on one side, Toussaint seated at a desk in full military regalia, presumably writing a letter to Suzanne, who is shown in the second image writing back. The lone candlestick serves to highlight the solitude of her environment and signals her foremost importance within the household in Toussaint’s absence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418157159-BJNOXI6V2FTUPYO223OQ/9+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC6_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 9 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. In this diptych, the seventh in the series of Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture we are introduced, once again by way of a synecdochic hand, to another occluded female figure in the saga of Toussaint’s life: that of his mother. The caption to the first image in the diptych, which shows a variety of flora and a collection of grooming implements and vials reads: ‘because of his knowledge of herbs Toussaint was made Physician to the Armies of the King by Biassou - vice-roy of the Conquered Territories.’ The second image shows two hands juxtaposed with one another: one larger and, we are led to infer, representing Toussaint’s absented mother and the other representing the childlike hand of Toussaint. Each hand is shown cupping the natural components that, we are led to assume, form the basis of one of the healing concoctions that line shelf that floats above the scene. The caption reads ‘did his mother teach him everything he knew?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592491894532-UTQF1QNIQE92WKAT8QIT/15+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC5_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 15 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. This diptych, the fifteenth in Himid’s Scenes of the Life series, explores the challenges confronting military wives and mothers and the general strain of military life on domestic normality as we are introduced, for the first time, to Louverture’s adult sons Isaac and Placide. The caption to the first image reads: ‘His own son Isaac declared for France / but L’Ouverture made him stay’. The caption to the second image reads: ‘Placide the son of Mme. L’Ouverture promised to fight for Freedom and was given command of a battalion.’ The diptych is unique, however, in that, in addition to the individual image captions, a single overarching caption unites the two images amplifying a nondescript voice of parental authority. It reads: ‘France or San Domingo, my children make your choice / whatever it is I shall always love you’. Though the mention of ‘his own son’ in the caption to the first image might lead us to assume that this ‘voice’ represents the voice of Toussaint, the presence of Suzanne in this same image unsettles any simplistic correlation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975371428-3OAISMW5PXDVUD37ZFUC/20200716_141747.jpg Gallery - Richard Barbot, 'Sanité Bélair' (2019). Acrylic and oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. © Richard Barbot. Born in Port-au-Prince in 1961, Richard Barbot now lives in Montreal. An artist and illustrator, he was commissioned in 2004 by the Banque de la République d’Haïti to produce a bust of Sanité Bélair for the 10 gourdes banknote issued in commemoration of the bicentenary of Haiti’s independence (reproduced below). Sanité remains a figure of interest for Barbot, as reflected in this more recent work, which shows her in full military regalia, complete with epaulettes and a bicorn hat. Barbot describes Sanité as ‘one of the most symbolic heroines of Haiti’s independence. In the face of betrayal and death she demonstrated unmatched bravery and strength.’ Her furrowed brows encode a story of strain and strife, reminding us that, like many other women who contributed to the revolutionary saga, she made epic sacrifices. Speaking of his motivation behind the painting, Barbot observed ‘History tends to erase the traces of women who have played an important role in the past. I find it important to represent them so that their memory will last.’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597163097736-YMYDA8D0CZKDOVPYGJTX/Belair4_Pluto_Forsdick.jpg Gallery - Kimathi Donkor, 'Charles and Sanite Belair' (2002). Oil on canvas, 13cm x 13cm. © Kimathi Donkor. Based in London, Kimathi Donkor is a contemporary artist of Ghanaian, Jamaican and Anglo-Jewish heritage. Many of his artworks recreate historical scenes of Black Atlantic heroism, often striving to amplify stories elsewhere invisibilised and occluded in white, colonialist histories. Several of his works focus on figures from the Haitian revolutionary saga. This image features as its protagonists Charles and Sanité Belair, who are shown nestled in a clifftop clearing between island and sea, surrounded by wild tobacco, cotton, sugar and indigo - the lucrative crops of colonial slavery. Capturing a rare moment of tranquility and solitude, it presents a vision of Sanité that contradicts the character envisioned by historical chroniclers such as Madiou, who describes her as a ‘brigande’ and imagines her as the protagonist of violent atrocities avowedly committed by the renegade indigènes with whom she was associated. While she is so often depicted in artistic renderings in military regalia, she is here depicted wearing a delicate blue empire-line gown with a kerchief or madra in a matching hue tied around her head, emphasising her femininity. She is shown in the loving embrace of her husband, their limbs interlocking and their hands interlaced around a musket as if in anticipation of impending assault. By envisioning her thus, Donkor humanises and renders fallible the woman immortalised in public history as a ‘tigress’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597849728362-1KUAPWX924RAC0H0OE8R/Mme+Cheruxis.jpg Gallery - Anonymous, Dame Eléonore Cheruxi (Richeux) de la Roche Asnière. Oil on canvas. Collection Maryse/Alex Von Lignau Dame Cheruxi was a lady-in-waiting in the company of Marie-Louise Christophe during the era of the Haitian Kingdom (1811-1820). She was also Marie-Louise’s purported goddaughter. Accorded the court name ‘Coeur enflammé’, Dame Cheruxi was born in 1803 to a woman of colour named Marie-Augustine Langlois and a Frenchman by the name of Richeux de la Roche Asnière (Cheruxi is an anagram of Richeux) who left Saint-Domingue for a brief period around this time owing to the revolutionary unrest. At the time of her birth, interracial marital unions were still legally forbidden, but Richeux left a notarised document acknowledging his paternity. He returned to Haiti in 1806 but died shortly afterwards from Tetanus. The descendants of Dame Cheruxi have preserved a number of items from her personal collection, including (in addition to this portrait), hair clips, jewellery, and a dress donated in 2015 to the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien (MUPANAH). She is depicted here in a rare nineteenth-century portrait by an unknown artist wearing a chemise gown with gathered sleeves, tapered waist and exposed décolletage similar to the chemise gown now in MUPANAH’s collection. It is edged with lace fringe and she is shown to be wearing a string of pearls and gold earrings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594226912057-S7BQOM6MSLZCCKS646V1/Sc+C71+%3A+YT+PA72+150+Ans.jpg Gallery - 1954 Stamp, 150ème Anniversaire de l'Indépendance Nationale (1804-1954), Sc C71 / YT PA72 © The Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, produced as part of a series for the 150th anniversary of Haiti’s independence in 1954, depicts a scene from the siege of Crête-à-Pierrot, a decisive battle in the Haitian Revolution. The illustration used for the series commemorates the heroic deeds of Marie-Jeanne, a female soldier said to have been the wife of Louis Daure Lamartinière, who is shown flanking her on the right. While Marie-Jeanne represents an enigmatic figure whose story has been highly mythologised by the chroniclers of Haitian history, the circulation of her image via stamps and coinage at significant moments of national remembrance has nevertheless served to rehabilitate within the national imaginary acts of female heroism that have been largely undocumented, marginalised and neglected. In this illustration, Marie-Jeanne is shown wearing a long tunic with a kerchief or madra on her head. Her arms are raised at her side as if to form a protective shield against the insurgent French army. In her right hand she holds a sword and a rifle is slung over her back. This representation echoes imagery that we find in Bellegarde, where she is described in these exact terms. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235066793-Z759HMSJSHKZR8R2Z4MU/Sc+C292+%3A+YTPA366.jpg Gallery - 1968 Stamp, Cérémonie du Bois Caïman - 14 Août 1791, Sc C292 / YTPA366 © Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, issued in 1968, features artwork produced by the Haitian painter Raoul Dupoux (1906-1988) depicting the Vodou ceremony at Alligator Wood (Bois Caïman or Bwa Kayiman) led by the houngan Boukman and the manbo Cécile Fatiman in August 1791. The event is believed to have triggered the slave rebellion that broke out on August 23 and led to a series of insurgencies across the northern territory of Saint-Domingue thereafter. Much like the ceremony itself, the story of Cécile Fatiman is highly contentious, some anecdotal accounts suggesting that she may have been a sister of Marie-Louise Christophe (conflating her history, it would seem, with that of Généviève Coidavid Pierrot). In this image by Dupoux, Fatiman is depicted in a white dress (white has a special ceremonial significance in Vodou) and a red head kerchief or madra. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235094759-DJ2D25OFOG0YA3AY731D/Sc+852+%3A+YT+PA663+200+Ans.jpg Gallery - 1991 Stamp, 200 Ans du Soulèvement Général des Esclaves, Sc 852 / YT PA663 © Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, issued in 1991 in commemoration of the bicentenary of the slave insurgency that marked the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, features another image of the Bois Caïman/Bwa Kayiman ceremony. The image chimes with many popular accounts which hold that the ceremony was marked by the sacrifice of a kreyòl pig. Cécile Fatiman is shown at the centre of the image, standing next to a kneeling Boukman in a white tunic and bandana or madra, with the sacrificial pig at her feet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310585323-N821372ENDIE9YZJ1K45/1820+Coin+R.png Gallery - Une Gourde (Revers), Kingdom of Haiti (1820), (KM) Pn 37, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade This 1 Gourde coin from the collection of Joseph Guerdy Lissade was minted in 1820 by the Kingdom of Haiti. It is unique in that the reverse-side of the coin is inscribed not only with the initials of Henry (H), but also of Marie-Louise (ML) Christophe (the M and L interlaced). Marie-Louise was the only woman to have lived through the revolution to be recognised on official Haitian coinage in the period of early sovereignty and remains one of only several identifiable women in Haiti’s history to be recognised on state-issued coinage at all. It bears the familiar motif from Christophe’s coat of arms of a phoenix rising from the flames encircled by the words ‘EX CINERABUS NASCITUR’ (Je renais de mes cendres/I am reborn from my ashes). The central motif and both sets of initials are topped with the emblem of a crown. The outer rim bears the motto ‘DEUS CAUSA ATQUE GLADIUS MEUS’ (‘Dieu, ma cause et mon épée/God, my cause and my sword). The obverse bears the bust of Henry I crowned in a laurel wreath in military uniform overlaid with a classical-style chiton with the motto ‘HENRICUS DEI GRATIA HAITI REX’ (Henry roi d’Haïti par la grâce de Dieu/Henry king of Haiti by the grace of God). See Joseph Guerdy Lissade, Henricus Dei Gracia Haiti Rex: Monnaies et Médailles de l’Etat d’Hayti, 1807-1811 et du Royaume d’Hayti, 1811-1820 (Grissom Company, 2007), pp. 20, 71. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310584591-XG6QQOEKQYRZFUQ5X5TM/thumbnail_KM%23+69+Marie+Jeanne+1970+100gdes+OR+avers.jpg Gallery - Commemorative 100 Gourdes Non-Circulating Coin (Avers), 1970, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade This commemorative 100 gourdes coin, minted in 1970 during the reign of François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, is inscribed on the obverse with the name and bust of Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière. As in the 1954 commemorative stamp, Marie Jeanne is depicted wielding a sabre or machete with a bandana or madra on her head, her hair trailing defiantly out of the sides (once again recalling the vision of Bellegarde, who describes her ‘bonnet’ which ‘emprisonnait son opulente chevelure dont les mèches rebelles débordaient de la coiffure’). The reverse bears the Haitian coat of arms and a banner inscribed with the motto ‘L’UNION FAIT LA FORCE’ (Strength in Unity). The outer rim is inscribed with the words ‘LIBERTÉ ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975121473-OSWCT0LF2ZNFCV1HCD8B/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - 10 Gourdes Banknote, Bicentenaire de l'Indépendance d'Haïti/Bisantè Endepandans Dayiti, Collection Richard Barbot This commemorative 10 gourdes banknote was issued in 2004 to mark the bicentenary of Haitian independance, proclaimed by Jean-Jacques Dessalines on 1 January 1804. It features an artistic reconceptualisation of Suzanne ‘Sanité’ Bélair, produced by Haitian artist Richard Barbot. Sanité, described by Thomas Madiou only as ‘la femme’ of General Charles Bélair, is recounted as having fought at his side during the Haitian revolutionary conflict. Often unforgiving, the chroniclers of Haitian history have emphasised ‘les barbaries’ committed at the hands of Sanité who, along with Bélair, broke from Dessalines and other revolutionary compatriots still then fighting under the banner of the French flag. Along with a handful of other renegades, they led a failed insurgency, subsequent to which Sanité was captured. According to Madiou, Bélair, unable to bear his separation from Sanité, gave himself up to French colonial forces. The prisoners were granted no clemency by their captors and were sentenced to death on 5 October 1802 (Bélair by firing squad, in recognition of his rank as a brigadier general, and Sanité by decapitation). As Madiou recounts, Sanité demanded that she, too, be granted a soldier’s execution. Purportedly refusing a blindfold, she heeded her husband’s entreaty to die bravely. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597850150820-XZ5WO2P1VCBB44VREM16/Cheruxi+Dress+01.jpeg Gallery - Robe longue en mousseline de coton blanc (c. 1830). Collection Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien. This dress, donated to MUPANAH in 2015 and formerly in the collection of Maryse Von Lignau, belonged to Dame Cheruxi, once lady-in-waiting in the royal court of Christophe. Painstakingly restored in Paris by textile restorer Ségolène Bonnet, it is described as a white cotton muslin gown. It is held together at the back with metal fastenings and has a bodice reinforced by whalebone. It features a wide hem and fine floral embroidery which forms a garland around the width of the skirt. Such a piece was likely to have been manufactured in Europe - a clear indicator of wealth and status. Though it has many of the features of cotton chemise gowns that were popular in the French Atlantic (both in the metropole and in the colonies) from the late eighteenth century onwards (including the gathered sleeves that were made iconic by Marie-Antoinette) and was initially described as a ‘robe Empire’, the lower waistline is indicative of the fact that the dress is probably from a slightly later period, according to Bonnet (around 1830). Such material artefacts offer rich, personalised insights into the lives of women so often obscured and occluded in colonialist archives, bearing witness to the creative strategies used by women to make meaning in the age of slavery and beyond. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600381586889-CT3GOKSU6JZP6OTE8TTY/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Armes de la Reine, College of Arms MS J.P. 177, Armorial General du Royaume d'Hayti, fol. 2r. Reproduced by permission of the Kings, Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms Queen Marie-Louise Christophe (née Coidavid) was the only woman from the court of Henry Christophe to be honoured with her own heraldic arms. As an elite woman of colour, Marie-Louise left more indelible traces than the numerous and nameless women who contributed vitally to Haiti’s revolutionary founding who have nevertheless been occluded from the archives and, subsequently, marginalised in written history. Forged in the fires of anticolonial revolution, Haiti became the first independent Black republic in 1804 and was the first country in the world to permanently, unequivocally and universally abolish slavery. For some, Christophe’s Kingdom of Haiti (established in 1811) represents a betrayal of its revolutionary values and its radical founding. However, within the context of a hostile, white-supremacist, colonialist North Atlantic world, the Kingdom of Haiti represented the very apotheosis of Black radicalism. The Queen’s arms mirror those of the King’s with a phoenix rising from the flames against a field of blue surrounded by a semy of bees and a banner bearing the motto for the Kingdom, ‘JE RENAIS DE MES CENDRES’ (I am reborn from my ashes). The field is upheld by two crowned lions and encircled by a garland of roses (in place of a chain and pendant of the royal and military Order of St Henry which features in the King’s arms). They are poised on a banner bearing the Queen’s motto ‘DIEU PROTE!GE LE ROI’ (God save the King). A more detailed account of the heraldic symbolism of these and other arms can be found in the College of Arms’s manuscript on The Armorial of Haiti: Symbols of Nobility in the Reign of Henry Christophe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599132996633-WMXL5AMM0T49LWYV8C4Z/J+Clarke+Sans+Souci+Engraving.png Gallery - J. Clarke, engraving of Sans Souci Palace, from Charles Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti made during a residence in that republic, H. Colburn and R. Bentley (1830), Volume II. There remain only a handful of artworks and engravings of Sans Souci palace, the principal royal residence of Henry and Marie-Louise Christophe, that show its structure intact prior to the earthquake that precipitated its destruction in 1842. Located in Milot, approximately 5 miles from the mountaintop fortress Citadelle Laferrière (Citadelle Henry), the palace was completed between 1811 and 1813. Though Sans Souci, like the Citadelle, became for some early chroniclers of Haitian history a symbol of Christophe’s ruthlessness and tyranny (an indeterminate number of labourers were conscripted to work on its construction), it serves as a monumental reminder of the lengths to which Christophe went to cultivate a spirit of refinement and sovereign pride for the nascent Black kingdom. During Christophe’s reign, Sans Souci bore witness to a number of feasts and public celebrations and hosted a number of international dignitaries who later recalled the splendour of the palace in their memoirs and correspondence. One of the most widely publicised events to take place at Sans Souci was the ‘fête de la reine’: the 12-day feast held in honour of Queen Marie-Louise’s birthday that began on August 14 1816 recounted by Christophe’s ‘spin doctor’, Baron Pompée Valentin Vastey in his ‘Relation de la fête de … la Reine’. Though it is difficult to precisely determine Marie-Louise’s influence on Sans Souci from the ruined fragments that remain, and from the scattered documents that, owing to political upheavals after the fall of the kingdom, were subject to neglect and displacement, a handful of accounts remain that offer revealing snapshots. European newspaper accounts, for example, reveal that Marie-Louise made ‘large purchases … in Bremen, and other Hanseatic cities … of services for the table, brilliants, pearls, &c.’ which were paid for ‘in ready money, at high prices’. Similar accounts give detailed insights into court dresses manufactured in Europe for the queen and princesses. Beyond her influence on the material objects that contributed to the refinement of Sans Souci, historical accounts reveal that she also oversaw a ceremonial troop of all-female ‘Amazones’ who paraded on feast days. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589561340221-7C97TVDRJYF5MX0XVE1C/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Henry Davy, Playford Hall (1841). Etching. © The Trustees of the British Museum. This 1841 etching shows the front entrance to Playford Hall, as approached from the drive. Playford Hall was the Suffolk residence of the Clarkson family, and became a haven for Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters after they fled Haiti for England in 1821. They stayed there for several months, passing the winter with the Clarksons, before settling in a house in Blackheath, Kent. The caption reads: Playford Hall, Suffolk, the Residence of Thomas Clarkson Esq. M. A. One of the first and greatest Advocates for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This Hall was the Seat of Thomas Felton, Bar. (Comptroller of the Household to Queen Anne;) whose sole Daughter & Heir Elizabeth married to John first Earl of Bristol, 1695. it is now the property of the Marquis of Bristol. it is said to have had four sides surrounding a Court-yard, with a Draw-bridge on the East & Gallery on the South: Drawn Etched & Published by Henry Davy, Globe Street, Ipswich May 26, 1841. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599141476622-LYH2200BYS99BEZNCM5I/FCO+Historical+Collection+FOL+F1924+HEN+King%27s+College+London.jpg Gallery - Coloured print of Sans Souci, the palace of Henry Christophe. From: Henri Christophe, King of Haiti. Copie de lettres [manuscript] 1805-6 [FCO Historical Collection FOL. F1924 HEN]. This coloured print from 1822 shows the palace of Sans Souci two years after the fall of the Kingdom of Hayti. Beside Sans Souci to its left sits the church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which would have been a familiar vista to the Christophes and is identifiable by its distinctive duomo which has been restored on several occasions throughout its life-cycle. Despite the damage it has sustained in the last 200 years, the church had been one of the best preserved relics of the period of early Haitian sovereignty up until April 2020 when the church was engulfed by fire and the duomo was completely destroyed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600374586857-H9Z153GYFTF16TDV1NZE/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - 49 Weymouth Street (formerly 30 Weymouth Street), Marylebone, London This was the last known English residence of Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters. They lived at this address until September 1824, when they departed for Europe, never to return again to England. Their residency in Weymouth Street is confirmed in a letter that was sent by Marie-Louise to Catherine Clarkson shortly before her departure and in her last will and testament. The specific location of the address at number 30 (now number 49) is verified by an advertisement posted in the London papers for the sale of ‘Madame Christophe’s’ household property and also by the rate books for the Parish of St Marylebone for the period of 1824. Built between 1789-1790 as part of the Portland Estate development, this Georgian townhouse remains largely unaltered, despite the substantial shelling to which the area was subjected during the Blitz. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600375424271-ZH6E8IFKNHCOUTSOOBV6/IMG_0170.JPG Gallery - 5 Exmouth Place (formerly Exmouth Cottage), West Hill, Hastings Marie-Louise Christophe, together with her daughters, Améthisse and Athénaïre, stayed at this house for at least several weeks in October 1822. Listed in the Hastings Guide of 1822 as one of two holiday lets owned by a Mr Fagg (the second being the adjacent Exmouth House). Both houses were built as a speculation, the former being completed in 1821, several years after the completion of the latter in 1817. As such, Marie-Louise would’ve been among the first guests of the newly-built house in a fashionable, emerging seaside spa. A letter sent to Catherine Clarkson by Athénaïre on 26 October 1822 offers a detailed account of this stay. During their stay, they were visited by the ‘demoiselles Thornton’, the daughters of the abolitionist Henry Thornton and later wards of Sir Robert Inglis, who recalled a journey to London from Hastings with one of the Christophe daughters in his 1840 travel diaries after a chance encounter with Marie-Louise in Pisa. The letter testifies that the women found the seaside climate of Hastings to be much milder and much more accommodating than at Blackheath, helping to alleviate the effects of Marie-Louise’s rheumatism. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678362525571-7E9SQQ9OC3R34X9DSG7U/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Villa Ducale (Casa Bolongaro), Stresa The photograph shows the façade of the Villa Ducale, or Casa/Palazzo Bolongaro, once home to the writer and philosopher Antonio Rosmini and now home to the Centro Internazionale di Studi Rosminiani. Nestled on the shore of Lake Maggiore in Stresa, Piemonte, it was here that, in 1839, Marie-Louise Christophe sought solace at the invitation of Anna Maria Bolongaro after the sudden death of her daughter Athénaïre. Though little is known about the exact details of Athénaïre’s tragic and unexpected passing (anecdotal accounts suggest that she suffered a fall in the mountains), the parochial archives, held in the Chiesa Parrocchiale just adjacent to the villa, hold her sparse and incomplete death record. Anna Maria Bolongaro, widowed in 1818, established a reputation as a benefactor of the arts, education and the church (much like Marie-Louise). She welcomed many notable personages to her home, including Antonio Rosmini, who became a firm friend and later heir to the Villa Ducale. It is in the letters of Gustavo Filippo Benso, Marquis of Cavour (province of Turin), who, like Anna Maria Bolongaro, was a close associate of Antonio Rosmini, that we learn of Marie-Louise’s sense of indebtedness to Anna-Maria. Writing to Rosmini from Turin in December 1839, he observed that: ’Quando veda in Stresa la Sig.a Bolongaro mi farebbe piacere dicendole chevedo ben sovente qui la disgraziata ex-regina di Haiti, che è vivamente compresa di riconoscenza verso questa Signora per le gentilezze e benefizi ricevutine quest’autunno … L’antica Regina di Haiti partendo dal Piemonte ove forse non, avrà occasionedi ritornare, m’incarica di fare pervenire a Madama Bolongaro i suoi riconoscenti saluti coll’assicurazione ch’essa non dimenticherà mai i benefizi ricevuti daquest’ottima signora; essa manda pure distinti complimenti all’Abate Branzini.’ ’When I see Madam Bolongaro in Stresa, I would be pleased to tell her that I very often see the unfortunate ex-Queen of Haiti here, who is deeply grateful to this Lady for the kindnesses and benefits received from her this autumn … The former Queen of Haiti, leaving from Piemonte, where perhaps she will not have the opportunity to return, instructs me to send Madam Bolongaro her grateful greetings with the assurance that she will never forget the benefits received from this excellent lady; she also sends distinguished compliments to Abbot Branzini.’ Given the depth of Marie-Louise’s avowed gratitude towards Anna Maria Bolongaro, we might imagine that she found some comfort in the company of like-minded people at the Villa Ducale, despite the immensity of her loss. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1602590226405-6FKBOSCM161FQW0N7VH7/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Melissa Joseph, "De Nos Jeunes Princesses", from Juste Chanlatte, L’Éntrée du Roi, en sa capitale (1818). De nos jeunes Princesses L’esprit, les heureux dons Répandent leur ivresse Sur notre nation. Tout nous dit que les grâces Ont changé de séjour, On le voit à leurs traces Ornements de la Cour. Reflections from Henry Stoll “De nos jeunes Princesses” is the sixth song in L’Éntrée du Roi, en sa capitale (1818), a one-act opéra comique by Juste Chanlatte, secretary under Henry Christophe. In the opera, La Limonadière, played by Sophie Araud, discovers, while searching her pockets, that she has lost the song she intended to sing. Damis, played by Chanlatte himself, seizes upon this opportunity to hand her “De nos jeunes Princesses,” exclaiming “I would be well pleased if the merits of this work could equal the zeal with which I had composed it.” Finding herself familiar with the tune—“Ah! Ah! It’s to the tune: Généreuse Lisette”— La Limonadière proceeds to sing the praises of the young princesses, Améthyste and Athénaïre. Easy to sing, and with a wistful lilt, the melody comes from “Ô ma tendre Musette,” a romance with music by Pierre-Alexandre Mosigny and words by Jean-François de La Harpe. In L’Éntrée du Roi, en sa capitale, it is rather identified as “Généreuse Lisette,” referring to a parody by Louis Jules Mancini Mazarini, the Duke of Nevers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1602591269127-GFR5NF7S8Q72KYZR6KN6/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Melissa Joseph, "Dans le Coeur de Marie", from Juste Chanlatte, L’Éntrée du Roi, en sa capitale (1818). Dans le cœur de Marie Les aimables vertus Ont fixé leur patrie, Leurs nobles attributs. Idoles de ces beaux climats Les bienfaits naissent sur ses pas; Par sa présence La bienfaisance Sait acquérir un nouveau prix: Célébrer cet objet chéri, N’est-ce pas célébrer Henry? (bis.) Auguste et tendre mère De son sexe ornement, Du trône ange prospère D’Henry soutien charmant ; Elle ajoute à ses verts lauriers L’éclat des tendres oliviers ; Illustre vigne! Son jet insigne Pousse des rejetons fleuris: Célébrer cet objet chéri, N’est-ce pas célébrer Henry? (bis.) Reflections from Henry Stoll “Dans le cœur de Marie” is the fifth song in L’Éntrée du Roi, en sa capitale (1818), a one-act opéra comique by Juste Chanlatte, a Haitian man of letters who authored poems, treatises, songs, plays, and operas for the Kingdom of Haiti. In the opera’s third scene, Damis, performed by the playwright himself, pulls a song from his portfolio and presents it to L’Hotesse, adding “may it be to your liking!” Thanking him, L’Hotesse, played by Madame David, proceeds to sing. A paean to Queen Marie-Louise of Haiti, the song praises her “comely virtues” and “nobles attributes,” asking “To celebrate this cherished one / is it not to celebrate Henry?” The melody is derived from “In diesen heil’gen Hallen,” an aria from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (1791) and originally scored for bass. Chanlatte, however, refers to the tune as “Dans ce séjour tranquille” from Les mystères d’Isis (1801), a French adaptation of Die Zauberflöte by Bohemian composer Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith. It is in this adapted form that Mozart’s final opera was introduced to France and in which it was familiar to Chanlatte. Mozart’s music, however, was a rarity in early Haiti, eclipsed by that of French composers such as André Grétry, Nicolas Dalayrac, and Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1602591706597-Z48XC5NHUXCN0D9JFGWM/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Melissa Joseph, “Quoi la trompette a résonné !”, or “Chant du Corps Royal des Amazones de la Reine”. Words by Juste Chanlatte. Quoi la trompette a résonné! … Debout, magnanimes guerrières! L’heure des combats a sonné … Allons, volons à nos bannières: (bis.) Voyez-vous flotter le signal? Il part d’une Reine intrépide; Déjà le cri d’un autre Alcide Est jeté par le Général. Aux armes ! braves Corps! Aux accents de Marie Combattons (bis.) pour le Trône, Et vengeons la Patrie. (bis.) Vive Marie et vive Henry Restaurateurs du Nouveau Monde! Vive le Général chéri Sur lequel notre espoir se fonde! (bis.) Vive le jeune Colonel Qu’ont adopté les Amazones! Que l’univers encense et prône Son nom, son courage immortel! Aux armes ! braves Corps! Aux accents de Marie Combattons (bis.) pour le Trône, Et vengeons la Patrie. (bis.) Reflections from Henry Stoll “Quoi la trompette a résonné !” is by Juste Chanlatte, a Haitian man of letters who authored poems, treatises, songs, plays, and operas for the Kingdom of Haiti. In it, Chanlatte pays homage to Queen Marie-Louise and her guard of Amazons, a corps of sixty female warriors charged with the protection of the Queen and Princesses. According to a French consul to Haiti, the Amazons wore a tunic of blue silk, large satin trousers with gold or silver garters below the knee, and a gold and silver helmet with plumes of ostrich feathers. Each day, two Amazons stood guard at the palace for which they were armed with a lance and a bow and arrow. The melody comes from the French national anthem or the Marseillaise, written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de L’isle and familiar to all members of the Haitian court. A spirited battle cry, Chanlatte’s refrain goes: “To Arms, braves Corps! / To the strains of Marie / Let us fight for the throne / And avenge the country!” The text proceeds to condemn the French—these “contemptible tyrants,” this “iniquitous race”—and urges the Amazons to strike down Haiti’s oppressors. The song ends triumphantly, exclaiming “Long live Marie and Henry / The Restorers of the New World.” Melissa sings only the first and last verses in this recording, transcribed above. https://www.fanmrebel.com/archive daily 0.75 2020-05-14 https://www.fanmrebel.com/archive/obituary-of-franoise-amthisse-christophe-november-5-1831 monthly 0.5 2020-05-15 https://www.fanmrebel.com/archive/account-of-marie-louise-christophe-in-pisa-1840 monthly 0.5 2020-01-21 https://www.fanmrebel.com/archive/last-will-and-testament-of-marie-louise-christophe monthly 0.5 2020-01-21 https://www.fanmrebel.com/network-gallery daily 0.75 2025-03-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1633013150693-1VW5XZY6YLJTQVDKCACZ/IMG_7034.jpeg Network Gallery - Dr Nicole Willson (PI) Nicole Willson is Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow in the Institute for Black Atlantic Research at the University of Central Lancashire and is Principal Investigator on the Fanm Rebèl project. Her research is situated at the intersection of Black Studies, Haitian Studies and American and Caribbean Cultural Studies, focusing largely on the transgenerational legacies of the Haitian Revolution and, more broadly, on articulations of resistance across the Black Atlantic from the age of slavery to the present. She is interested, in particular, in excavating and amplifying the forgotten, silenced and mediated stories of revolutionary women. After completing her PhD at the University of East Anglia in 2016, Nicole worked at the Universities of Greenwich and Kent and, from 2018-2019, served as the Postdoctoral Research Associate on the AHRC-funded project Our Bondage and Our Freedom: Frederick Douglass and Family (1818-2018) at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely in Comparative American Studies, Kalfou: a Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, Journal of American Studies, Slavery and Abolition,Women’s Studies International Forum and Atlantic Studies: Global Currents. Nicole’s research on Marie-Louise Christophe’s time in Britain has featured in the world-leading history magazine, History Todayand on Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast, the UK’s number one history podcast. In 2022, she spearheaded campaigns to have two blue plaques mounted at Marie-Louise’s former UK residences and was honoured by the Haitian Embassy on International Women’s Day. Together with Dr M. Stephanie Chancy, she co-coordinated the three-day international conference Rasanblaj Fanm: Stories of Haitian Womanhood, Past, Present and Future. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1633013150693-1VW5XZY6YLJTQVDKCACZ/IMG_7034.jpeg Network Gallery - Dr Nicole Willson (PI) Nicole Willson is Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow in the Institute for Black Atlantic Research at the University of Central Lancashire and is Principal Investigator on the Fanm Rebèl project. Her research is situated at the intersection of Black Studies, Haitian Studies and American and Caribbean Cultural Studies, focusing largely on the transgenerational legacies of the Haitian Revolution and, more broadly, on articulations of resistance across the Black Atlantic from the age of slavery to the present. She is interested, in particular, in excavating and amplifying the forgotten, silenced and mediated stories of revolutionary women. After completing her PhD at the University of East Anglia in 2016, Nicole worked at the Universities of Greenwich and Kent and, from 2018-2019, served as the Postdoctoral Research Associate on the AHRC-funded project Our Bondage and Our Freedom: Frederick Douglass and Family (1818-2018) at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely in Comparative American Studies, Kalfou: a Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, Journal of American Studies, Slavery and Abolition,Women’s Studies International Forum and Atlantic Studies: Global Currents. Nicole’s research on Marie-Louise Christophe’s time in Britain has featured in the world-leading history magazine, History Todayand on Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast, the UK’s number one history podcast. In 2022, she spearheaded campaigns to have two blue plaques mounted at Marie-Louise’s former UK residences and was honoured by the Haitian Embassy on International Women’s Day. Together with Dr M. Stephanie Chancy, she co-coordinated the three-day international conference Rasanblaj Fanm: Stories of Haitian Womanhood, Past, Present and Future. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589229144883-0EG5F9EK3ZACDO3LKUE0/DSC_0066.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Grégory Pierrot Grégory Pierrot is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Connecticut at Stamford. He is a Black Studies scholar with specific interests in the cultural impact of the Haitian Revolution throughout the Atlantic world. Pierrot authored The Black Avenger in Atlantic Culture (UGA Press, 2019) and co-edited with Paul Youngquist An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti by Marcus Rainsford(Duke, 2013). With Marlene L. Daut and Marion Rohrleitner, he co-edited and translated texts for the upcoming Anthology of Haitian Revolutionary Fictions (UVA, 2021). He is co-creator with Tabitha McIntosh of the Néhri digital humanities project and assisted with the transcription of Marie-Louise Christophe’s will. Follow him on Twitter @wwJJDdo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1677770443879-RKB5K0KT9WAUR5NASFCQ/Paul+Clammer+%28Haiti%29.jpg Network Gallery - Paul Clammer Paul Clammer is a writer and independent scholar. He is the author of Black Crown: Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean's Forgotten Kingdom (Hurst Publishers, 2023) as well as Haiti (Bradt Travel Guides, 2016), the only dedicated English-language guidebook to the country and is the lead author on Lonely Planet's Jamaica and Caribbean Islands titles. As part of the Fanm Rebèl project he assisted with the transcription of Marie-Louise Christophe’s will. Follow him on Twitter @paulclammer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1679589659592-84MN7NKRV8A9NW877ROI/IMG_2349.JPG Network Gallery - Joseph Guerdy Lissade Joseph Guerdy Lissade is a lawyer by profession and a passionate collector. As an independent scholar, he specialises in the monetary history of Haiti. He is currently Vice-President of the Haitian Society of History, Geography and Geology. He has written several books on Haitian numismatics and given various conferences on the subject both in Haiti and abroad. He is behind the creation of the money museum of the Central Bank of Haiti and his scholarship has uncovered the riches of numismatics and enhanced this area of Haitian history. He founded the Collection Monnaies et Médailles d’Haïti® (Coins and Medals of Haiti), institutionalising a private collection in order to make it available for the public benefit, especially to those interested in researching Haitian coinage. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1581093013183-LNV0QVHIOMXDPLBHIAH9/DSCN1749-3.JPG Network Gallery - Marie-Lucie Vendryes Marie-Lucie Vendryes, actuellement retraitée, est détentrice d’un baccalauréat en histoire de l’art et d’une maîtrise en muséologie de l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Elle a complété ses études de muséologie à l’Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France) où elle a obtenu un D.E.A. Elle a rempli différentes fonctions au sein d’institutions patrimoniales haïtiennes, par exemple comme directrice du Musée du Panthéon National Haitien (MUPANAH) et à titre de muséologue indépendante comme chef d’équipe de sauvetage d’œuvres d’art et d’objets ethnographiques au Centre de sauvetage de biens culturels (CSBC) en 2010. Elle a mis en place un cursus de muséologie au sein du programme de maîtrise en Histoire, Mémoire et Patrimoine à l’Université d’État d’Haiti où elle a enseigné. Elle est l’autrice d’articles divers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592407138753-X5DIN6R4GFZ3M3854B31/image-asset.jpeg Network Gallery - Dr Jonathan Michael Square Jonathan Michael Square is a writer and historian specialising in fashion and visual culture of the African Diaspora. He has a PhD in history from New York University, a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and B.A. from Cornell University. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design, and currently at Harvard University. A proponent in the power of social media as a platform for radical pedagogy, he founded and runs the digital humanities project Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom, which explores the intersection of fashion and slavery. Together with Siobhan Marie Meï, he recently launched Rendering Revolution, a project that documents the significant role that fashion and clothing played in constructing visions of freedom during and after the Haitian Revolution. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1581092406973-OLBF4XFYTFKYGMANWR6Z/siobhan_headshot.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Siobhan Mei Siobhan Meï is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Women and Gender Studies. Her dissertation project, "Refashioning History: Women as Sartorial Storytellers" explores the radical possibilities of fashion as a storytelling strategy in women’s historical fiction. Siobhan's research on the relationship between self-fashioning and authorship as embodied praxes of feminist resistance centers the work of Haitian women authors such as Marie Chauvet and Évelyne Trouillot, who powerfully, and vividly, recreate the material-social worlds of Saint Domginue in their historical fiction about the Haitian Revolution. With Jonathan Michael Square, Siobhan co-directs Rendering Revolution, a digital humanities project and educational tool that documents the significant role that fashion and clothing played in constructing visions of freedom during and after the Haitian Revolution. Combining colonial visual and textual archives with contemporary art and fiction, Rendering Revolution offers a picture of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century sartorial culture, focusing on the confluence of European and West African fashions in Haiti. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592319055337-C8DIMFJTUGP37DNNMLAG/IMG_9588.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Henry Stoll Henry Stoll is Assistant Professor in the Department of Music and postdoctoral fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan. He is a musicologist who specialises in the cultural history of Haiti and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French Atlantic. His first book project, The Unsung Revolution, examines how the nation of Haiti, having fundamentally altered its Atlantic world, used music to express the joys, concerns, desires, and ambitions of its people. As part of the Fanm Rebèl network, he is interested in Haitian social dance, the music education of Haitian women and girls, and the musical lives of Marie-Louise Christophe and her two daughters https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592404983197-P8NKE7XT35SH1CX4XX1D/Brintle%2Bheadshot%2B-%2BHi%2BRes.jpg Network Gallery - Patricia Brintle Born and raised in Haiti, Patricia Brintle is a self-taught artist whose vibrant works recall the cultural memory of her homeland, shining a spotlight, in particular, on the often marginalised histories of revolutionary women. Her artworks also tackle themes such as nuclear disarmament, the Holocaust and the Haitian earthquake. Several of her paintings have been featured in movies and have been reproduced on the covers of books, magazines and other publications. She belongs to several art organisations and exhibits internationally. Brintle is also the president of From Here to Haiti, Ltd. (FHTH), a non-profit all-volunteer charity contributing to the reconstruction effort in Haiti. Since its formation in the aftermath of the earthquake of 2010, FHTH has completed over 55 projects, installing and repairing roofs, latrines, wells, church bells and more. Brintle donates most of the proceeds from the sale of her artworks to FHTH. Brintle’s artworks feature prominently in the Fanm Rebèl Gallery and she exhibited and spoke about a number of these artworks at the Rasanblaj Fanm: Stories of Haitian Womanhood, Past, Present and Future conference at the University of Central Lancashire in July 2024. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594068675464-1P9M11I218K6LEJE0FI8/image-asset.jpeg Network Gallery - Dr Jasmine Claude Narcisse Jasmine Claude-Narcisse's research encompasses the rhetoric of the self in Francophone literature, Francophone Caribbean autobiography, and recalibrating the contours of Francophone literature. Among her publications, Mémoire de Femmes (1997), an account of research, interviews, and oral histories of and on Haitian women history remains an important work of reference in the field. For over twelve years, she led the Haitian Book Centre and the annual Haitian Book Day in New York. As an assistant to the director and then a member of the Henri Peyre French Institute Board of Directors, she has spearheaded the Institute’s continuous programming on Haiti, including the Haiti Rencontres series in 2012, curating its three-day conference Impunity, Responsibility and Citizenship – HAITI, in March 2016. As a professional educator in the field of second-language acquisition and French/Francophone literatures, she was a full-time visiting instructor at York College and Queensborough Community College and has taught at multiple campuses of CUNY, developing the Creole Language Program at York. She now works in secondary education. She is actively involved in the work of the collective Jean-Claude Charles which aims to revisit and promote this groundbreaking Haitian author through conferences, symposia and publications of a critical apparatus of his oeuvre. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1602249249218-E7QVR3WUTQX8ISEZYN1S/Melissa+Joseph.jpg Network Gallery - Melissa Joseph First-generation Haitian-American soprano, Melissa Joseph graduated from Georgia State University with both a Bachelor and Master of Music in Vocal Performance. Most recently, she performed the role of Musetta in La Bohême by Puccini with Peach State Opera. Her collegiate work includes Pamina (Die Zoberflöte), Peep-Bo (The Mikado), Sandman (Hansel and Gretel), and Micaëla (Carmen) with the Georgia State University Opera. She has also placed in several competitions both regionally and nationally. In 2019, Melissa was a finalist in three national competitions and won first place at the National Association of Negro Musicians New York District auditions. In addition, she was also awarded the Kristin Lewis Foundation Artist Development Award in Conway, Arkansas, and was named a semifinalist in the 2018 FAVA Grand Concours Vocal Competition. In conjunction with the Fanm Rebèl project, she is collaborating with Henry Stoll to reconstruct a series of songs from the royal court of the Kingdom of Hayti dedicated to the Queen and Princesses. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1633012790027-J0UOY2AZ6N8881GBUGW6/IMG-20210712-WA0000+2.jpg Network Gallery - Danielle Dorvil From Pétion-Ville, Haiti, Danielle M. Dorvil is a PhD candidate in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests are in Caribbean and Latin American cultural productions from the nineteenth century to the present, with special focus on Brazil, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In conjunction with the Fanm Rebèl project, she also collaborates as a translator in Rendering Revolution, a digital humanities project co-directed by Dr Jonathan Michael Square and Siobhan Mei. She is the sole translator of all Kreyòl content on the Fanm Rebèl site. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1679497201811-RTSS54IRW4CNYWRRBUOF/Glenn_Photo.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Carrie Glenn Carrie Glenn is an Assistant Professor of History at Niagara University. Her research uncovers the ways that entrepreneurial women in the Atlantic world traded goods and forged lasting,  international commercial and kinship networks in the wake of the Haitian Revolution. Her book project explores the short- and long-term, local and far-reaching reverberations of the Haitian Revolution from the perspective of Marie Rose Poumaroux (a marchande de couleur) and Elizabeth Beauveau (a white itinerant American). Women, she finds, were crucial architects of the French Atlantic during the Haitian Revolution and afterwards as part of diaspora communities throughout the Atlantic basin. Together with Camille Cordier (Université Lumiere Lyon), she is working on a digital humanities project that will map Cap Français using the rich nominative cadastre records for the city held at the French national archives in Aix-en-Provence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1677770757137-CB6J5U6H3RHFYKQKWZNP/uWjqAq2K.jpg-large.jpeg Network Gallery - Dr Robin Mitchell Robin Mitchell is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at California State University, Channel Islands. She is a 19th century French historian, specializing in discourses about race, gender, and sexuality. Much of her work focuses on the white colonial fantasies, scandals, and crime imposed upon Black women’s bodies and voices when they are in metropolitan French spaces. Mitchell has published numerous published journal articles, and her first book, Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France (University of Georgia Press, 2020), was named by the African American Intellectual History Society to its “The Best Black History Books of 2020.” Mitchell is currently writing the biography of Suzanne Simone Baptiste, wife of Haitian Revolutionary Toussaint Louverture (under contract with Princeton University Press). Follow her on Twitter @ParisNoire. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678184534030-0NIZVXFITO45XKIE2NYN/1_ZM_08062018_DinnerHS_1127_color.jpg Network Gallery - Guilaine Brutus MSc Guilaine Brutus has an MSc in Migration, Mobility and Development. She is the Founder of The Haitian Heritage Group UK (HHG). HHG is a community interest company, whose purpose is to promote a positive image of Haitian culture, art, and history, and encourage young people to work towards leaving positive legacies in their respective communities. Together with members of the Haitian Heritage Group, Guilaine has organised “Our Black History is World History” events for Black History month on women in the Haitian Revolution and the Kingdom of Henry Christophe, along with events for important cultural festivals in the Haitian calendar such as Haitian Independence Day and Haitian Flag Day. She was one of the principal speakers at the unveiling of a blue plaque dedicated to Queen Marie-Louise Christophe at her former residence in Hastings in October 2022. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1697017580066-IFR34O3APZOZUXMGH5J5/blu.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Miriam Franchina Miriam Franchina is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Trier, Germany with a project funded by the German Research Foundation. She studies how Africans and Afro-descendants in colonial, revolutionary and early independent Haiti may have used Catholicism — a religion that endorsed slavery and colonialism — to challenge their status as enslaved individuals and to forge a common identity on the global stage. Inspired by Fanm Rebèl and alongside Fraternità Haitiana, she coordinated the installation of two historical markers in Pisa, where Queen Marie-Louise, her daughters, and her sister are buried. In collaboration with with Fanm Rebèl, she hopes to uncover more archival traces and artifacts to reconstruct the transfer of people and ideas between Haiti and her native Italy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1697018916764-MJCBI42OBIS7WRLZTKPW/NathanDize-Professional+Headshot.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Nathan Dize Nathan H. Dize is an Assistant Professor of French at Washington University in Saint Louis. His research is situated at the crossroads of French Caribbean literary and intellectual history, cultural studies, translation studies, and the digital humanities. Nathan teaches courses about French Caribbean, with a specific focus on recovering the lives and works of women from Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe. He is a founding member of the Kwazman Vwa collective, a member of the digital networks of Fanm Rebèl and Rendering Revolution: Sartorial Approaches to Haitian History, and a founding editor of the digital history project, A Colony in Crisis: The Saint-Domingue Grain Shortage of 1789. He is currently working on two book projects, Resting Places: Haitian Literature and the Practice of Mourning and The Hidden Legacies of Black Translators of Francophone Literature. Nathan is also an accomplished translator of Haitian literature. His translations include: The Immortals and L’Empereur by Makenzy Orcel, I Am Alive by Kettly Mars, and Antoine of Gommiers by Lyonel Trouillot. He has also translated works French and Haitian Creole (Kreyòl) by Jean D’Amérique, James Noël, and Évelyne Trouillot. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1698942884752-LNR4U0V2NF15YJPT72H7/MStephanieChancyHeadShot.jpg Network Gallery - Dr M. Stephanie Chancy M. Stephanie Chancy is the Caribbean Partnerships Librarian, Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) Operational Lead and Director of Digital Scholarship at the University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Libraries. At dLOC, an open access cooperative digital library, she works with partners based in the Caribbean, Europe, Canada and the United States to preserve and make Caribbean research resources available to users. She received her Ph.D. in History from Florida International University and her Master of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Miami. Stephanie’s research focuses on Black Atlantic Material Cultures, especially the cultural and artistic exchanges between the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States. Stephanie taught U.S. History and Art History courses at the undergraduate level for over a decade, and, prior to her academic career she worked in non-profit arts administration. Together with Dr Nicole Willson, she co-coordinated the three-day international conference Rasanblaj Fanm: Stories of Haitian Womanhood, Past, Present and Future. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1699461631755-3HBOJMTJ0CFQ2H27JZVU/ASheadshot001.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall (Ph.D., Stanford) is Professor of History at California State University – San Marcos. She is a specialist in Haitian and French history; her publications include The Abbé Grégoire and the French Revolution: The Making of Modern Universalism (UC Press, 2005; paperback, 2021), Haitian History: New Perspectives (Routledge, 2012), and Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games (Mississippi, 2021). She has long been interested in gender in Haitian history, as well as in film and video games. She is a past winner of CSUSM’s Brakebill Outstanding Professor Award as well as the statewide Wang Award for Outstanding Faculty Teaching, the top honor for a faculty member in the California State University system. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1699461869203-LBDPKPJVI0N3GWJSMVQ7/Portrait_Dr_R_Hoermann_Formal.jpg Network Gallery - Dr Raphael Hoermann Dr Raphael Hoermann holds an MA in German, English and American Literature (University of Constance) and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Glasgow. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Black Atlantic Research (IBAR) and Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). He is a Deputy-Director of UCLan’s Research Centre for Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX). His main expertise lies in Haitian Revolutionary, Black Atlantic Studies and Transatlantic Radicalism. He is the author of the study Writing the Revolution: German and English Radical Literature, 1819-1849/9 (Zurich: Lit, 2011) and co-editor (together with Gesa Mackenthun) of Human Bondage in the Cultural Contact Zone: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Slavery and Its Discourses (Münster: Waxmann, 2010). He has published several articles and book chapters in these fields, including on the ‘Haitian Gothic’, the figure of the zombie and the Haitian Revolution, on the genealogy of Black Jacobins trope and on the intersectional, transatlantic revolutionary discourse of the Black Atlantic ninetieth-century radical Robert Wedderburn. He has recently completed the manuscript for his second monograph, entitled: Politics of Terror: Narratives of the Haitian Revolution between Demonisation and Liberation. https://www.fanmrebel.com/media daily 0.75 2023-11-02 https://www.fanmrebel.com/media/cfp-rasanblaj-fanm-stories-of-haitian-womanhood-past-present-and-future monthly 0.5 2023-12-20 https://www.fanmrebel.com/media/hastings-blue-plaque-unveiling-for-marie-louise-christophe monthly 0.5 2023-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678293837215-5DMBZVCKJTHM08N5949M/IMG_3810.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678293851946-US7PH8I2X0HNUTRVDP3Q/IMG_3799.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678293856730-9IBRNX00USK7HLKKI7A0/IMG_3794.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294254235-BV7KHHN1TE8XUUM5O7HX/IMG_3819.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294254111-DJH9L7EZFTKCPDSOWU3J/IMG_3774.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294268504-X133PIY5IYHIHELXJYPB/IMG_3767.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294265586-5CRLYQGW4MSXZAJJTASJ/IMG_3847.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294288880-GKY31OSHMPFQ3PPA96QV/IMG_3772.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294282511-036W8A4RXEY4EFVKBX01/IMG_3864.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294294079-3NP65L0U4A3YZH2H88MD/IMG_3880.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678293837104-0UOJBKQ5HTSLZBNW5U6X/IMG_3956.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294303898-46OYZDLXRWNFQ07RW22A/IMG_3929.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294307607-JJAJ9RNE6Q10R8DGMQ8F/IMG_3945.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294316516-1FJ0JFF9DADT7Z4JCJKH/IMG_3977.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294323231-ND1QAEMF3VOODX8CAJX0/IMG_3983.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294327443-E50IQJDFRGVJA8NXKEZK/IMG_3988.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294339885-K2X6PMPWUHQNC6LF4ON8/IMG_4002.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294341090-LERG6USA4OSQIAKI9DW4/IMG_4045.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294352751-M810PLFF7MOCGP04VPHL/IMG_4074.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294356997-11FFQR5NEW1OCJ6PMZWH/IMG_4085.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294364812-FS02SF8D21DYEKT4TNFR/IMG_4131.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294370030-BFZ10R3LGLYR38FHC1V4/IMG_4187.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294380741-TPQ8SY2I8YTU0I8S2T5A/IMG_4244.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294382258-PEG9MTT2I5WYD5Q0OJ3G/IMG_4276.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294503438-1Z8HORMU8JSQWTZZYUP7/IMG_4293.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294504071-TE1RD36T68N3JIXZ1DVA/IMG_4208.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294521728-0R8TP2TG9GO5Z88FLOAN/IMG_4178.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678294516341-20Z5J6GGV85IM7ZIQMJV/IMG_4161.jpeg Media - Hastings Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe https://www.fanmrebel.com/media/london-blue-plaque-unveiling-for-marie-louise-christophe monthly 0.5 2023-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289236106-G7U14I6ASX9HP5TQMRS0/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228041.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289250520-Q4THXRM22ZQFMRYQBA5P/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228624.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289235725-3EFON6OFJMM1AX4MMN0L/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228091.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289244112-B8UTCMWEBMNZQNZM1Y7W/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228196.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289246264-L33RATEW6FPOKAIWGTYM/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228535.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289253777-YRK09GU6U42NUI352TPL/Picture+1.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289255604-6W4GZO1QAQYVRKML4811/Picture+2.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289261971-54U0B013JUVBPW5HZ5MM/Picture+3.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678289263298-ARUN6DU4Z1ODW079ZHX7/Picture+4.jpeg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355779897-54VK0KAA3I07390SXAW5/BP_MLC-20220207-_P227937.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355779982-VR89MJHJJCCO7B3QKQ9H/BP_MLC-20220207-_P227948.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355786851-PNHBKBL6CDA257BN3HJ5/BP_MLC-20220207-_P227964.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355794813-B8OHVN04EDTUAWDKXV81/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228022-SharpenAI-Motion.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355802151-PGT38Q0SQ3HMMSG02EWQ/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228137-SharpenAI-Motion.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355802376-CKIFK3ZKA9E68BC63WO1/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228374.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355809600-YH7HPCKBNMHZL3GWOPFF/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228430.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678356195944-RB5JRSFARX46Q3BR329P/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228609.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355809709-EF7D7CIR1HPHKKD96LUC/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228547.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355816761-UA4PA1JI4LY98VUL9AGT/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228605.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355817818-ST4K7AFPHD2YYC8V7ELH/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228627.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355823328-DV0N7GWL64CE4PX0VVLA/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228644.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355824662-NFYDM35DGINK57OH14EU/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228674.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678355827097-4CJDCE4AXH4GXX4NDA88/BP_MLC-20220207-_P228726.jpg Media - London Blue Plaque Unveiling for Marie-Louise Christophe Image ©PALAssociates https://www.fanmrebel.com/media/case-studies-dr-nicole-willson monthly 0.5 2021-09-30 https://www.fanmrebel.com/media/marie-louise-christophe-a-haitian-queen-in-great-britain-documentary monthly 0.5 2021-01-05 https://www.fanmrebel.com/media/afterlives-of-the-kingdom-of-haiti-1820-2020-webinar monthly 0.5 2020-10-08 https://www.fanmrebel.com/media/dr-nicole-willson-on-dan-snows-history-hit-podcast-1 monthly 0.5 2023-03-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1574204126605-IQ1UITJ9Q6TS1NWU2SRK/cover-image-jvfbgqe2-hh-new.png Media - Dr Nicole Willson on Dan Snow's History Hit Podcast - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.fanmrebel.com/ht/akey daily 0.75 2021-09-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1573162316568-W9AHN6L9M7J1E4XJ70RO/Andre+-+Lady+Liberty+2017.jpg Akèy https://www.fanmrebel.com/ht/de-kisa-n-ap-pale daily 0.75 2021-09-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1573251667514-OI1UT5BYUXXG2NIXDYD9/L%C3%A9onice+L%C3%A9gros+%28S%C3%A9jour+L%C3%A9gros%29.jpg De Kisa N Ap Pale - About Portrait of Léonice Legros by Séjour Legros (n.d.), courtesy of the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien https://www.fanmrebel.com/galridata daily 0.75 2021-09-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589561340221-7C97TVDRJYF5MX0XVE1C/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Henry Davy, Playford Hall (1841). Etching. © The Trustees of the British Museum. This 1841 etching shows the front entrance to Playford Hall, as approached from the drive. Playford Hall was the Suffolk residence of the Clarkson family, and became a haven for Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters after they fled Haiti for England in 1821. They stayed there for several months, passing the winter with the Clarksons, before settling in a house in Blackheath, Kent. The caption reads: Playford Hall, Suffolk, the Residence of Thomas Clarkson Esq. M. A. One of the first and greatest Advocates for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This Hall was the Seat of Thomas Felton, Bar. (Comptroller of the Household to Queen Anne;) whose sole Daughter & Heir Elizabeth married to John first Earl of Bristol, 1695. it is now the property of the Marquis of Bristol. it is said to have had four sides surrounding a Court-yard, with a Draw-bridge on the East & Gallery on the South: Drawn Etched & Published by Henry Davy, Globe Street, Ipswich May 26, 1841. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589561340221-7C97TVDRJYF5MX0XVE1C/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Henry Davy, Playford Hall (1841). Etching. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Ofò sa, ki te fèt nan lane 1841, montre antre prensipal Playford Hall la, ke nou ka wè lè nou parèt sou lari a. Playford Hall te rezidans fanmi Clarkson nan nan Sufflock. Li vin tounen yon refij pou Mari Lwiz Kristòf ak pitit fi li yo apre yo te kite Ayiti pou yo te enstale kò yo ann Angletè nan lane 1821. Yo te rete nan pwopriyete sa pandan plizyè mwa. Yo te konn pase ivè yo avèk fanmi Clarkson nan, anvan yo t al viv nan yon kay nan Blackheath, Kent. Soutit la di konsa: Playford Hall, Suffolk, rezidans Thomas Clarkson Esq. M.A. Youn nan premye ak pi gran defansè abolisyon trafik esklav la. Chato sa te sièj Thomas Felton, Bar. (Kontwòlè lakay Rèn Anne nan;) ke sèl pitit fi ak erityè li, Elizabeth, te marye ak Jonh first Earl of Bristol nan lane 1695. Kounye a, chato a pwopriyete Maki Bristol la. Yo di ke li gen 4 kote ki antoure yon lakou avèk yon pon nan zòn lès la ak yon galri sou bò sid la: Henry Davy desine epi pibliye li nan Globe Street, Ipswich jounen 26 me 1841. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589565295596-P2SGMHLYA7W94W2SDG9V/Catherine+Flon+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2011.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Katrin Flon' (2011). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Patricia Brintle se yon atist ayisyèn k ap viv kounye a nan Whitesone, NY. Penti sa k ap montre Katrin Flon--sipoze fiyèl Jan Jak Desalin nan ki te enfimyè ak koutiryè--fè pati de yon seri penti akrilik atis la. Seri penti Brintle la gen bi atikile istwa fanm revolisyonè ayisyèn yo. Soutit Brintle la di konsa: Katrin Flon te yon koutiryè ak fiyèl Jan Jak Desalin, youn nan chèf Revolisyon Ayisyèn nan. Pandan Kongrè Akayè a (ki te fèt nan jounen 14 me rive 18 me 1803) nan vil Akayè a, Desalin ak Petyon--de chèf prensipal ann Ayiti nan epòk sa--te mete tèt yo ansanm sou de pwen esansyèl: etabli yon lame revolisyonè ki ta pral travay sou otorite siprèm Desalin nan avèk adopsyon yon drapo pou lame sa. Nan dènye jou Kongrè a, nan jounen 18 me 1803, Desalin retire mòso blan nan drapo franse a epi li bay Katrin Flon pati ble ak wouj yo pou li te ka koud li yo nan sans orizontal la. Se konsa drapo ayisyen an te fèt. Yon fwa ke li te koud, chèf Revolisyon Ayisyèn nan jire solènman pou yo goumen pou libète oswa lanmò sou tèt drapo a. Sèman sa pote esklav yo viktwa ak libète. Sèman sa rele Sèman Zanzèt yo. Depi jou sa, jounen 18 me a vin tounen fèt drapo ayisyen an. Se yon gwo fèt nasyonal avèk yon okasyon pou fè parad, defile ak konkou de bote. Ayisyen yo sonje Katrin Flon tankou youn nan pi gwo eroyn revolisyon ak endepandans ayisyèn nan. Nan travay a sa, atis la montre moman lè, yon lane apre kreyasyon drapo a, Petyon te chèche Katrin pou li te ka koud zam repiblik la sou drapo dekoulè a. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592408117336-3KEPW3VYB2KMB5UHTPIZ/Marie+Jeanne+Lamartiniere+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2012.jpg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Mari Jan Lamatinyè' (2012). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 26 in. Penti sa ki sòti nan seri Patricia Brintle sou fanm revolisyonè ayisyèn yo montre Mari Jàn Lamatinyè (anpil moun panse ke li te konpay Lwi Dò Lamatinyè). Anpil ayisyen gen tandans sonje Mari Jàn Lamatinyè tankou yon fanm ki te goumen nan mitan lame a nan moman konklisif batay revolisyonè a nan Crête-à-Pierrot nan mas 1802. Soutit Brintle la li konsa: Mari Jàn Lamatinyè se youn nan eroyn Revolisyon Ayisyèn nan. Nou pa gen anpil enfòmasyon sou li esepte ke li te goumen avèk raj nan batay Crête-à-Pierrot a bò kote mari li, kòmandan brigad Lwi Dò Lamatinyè. Yo te konn wè li bò fòtifikasyon yo, karabin nan men li ak sab sou kote li, ap distribye aminisyon avèk limyè kanon ap ankouraje sòlda yo pou yo te kontinye goumen. Franse yo te sène yo de tou pa nan fò a. Li te sanble ke lame revolisyonè ayisyèn nan ta pral pèdi lè Desalin mande pou yo evakye fò a brit sou kouman. Nan menm nuit sa, nan 24 mas 1802, prèske tout moun te rive chape pandan ke rebèl ki te sène yo te goumen kont plis pase 10.000 troup franse. Retrè sa te yon fèt remakab. Li mete non Lamartinière nan nan mitan ero endepandans ayisyèn nan. Nou pa konnen egzakteman ki sa Mari Jàn fè ak lavi li apre retrè Crête-à-Pierrot a men se bravou, kouray ak efwontri entrepid li ki fè ke nou paka pa sonje li. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592413266148-6N0A8T594R3SVSF3IZ8E/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'DEDE BAZIL also known as DEFILEE LA FOLLE' (2008). Acrylic on masonite, 24 x 36 in. Penti sa ki premye nan seri fanm revolisyonè a pa Brintle montre Dede Bazil, anpil moun te konn rele li ‘Défilée la folle’. Dapre naratif istorik la, Bazil te sèvi tankou yon kantinyè epi li te chèf yon pati lame revolisyonè Desalin nan. Anpil moun panse ke tinon li sòti nan chan batay li “Défilez, défilez!” (Mache, mache!). Apre yo te pieje ak asasinen Desalin nan Pon Wouj lan an 1806, anpil moun di ke Bazil te rekipere kò demanbre jeneral la epi li te pote li rive nan dènye kote li te ka repoze a. Imaj sa, nan yon fason evokatris, rakonte istwa sa sou doulè ak mete tout ansanm. Soutit Brintle la li konsa: Nou pa konnen pou kisa yo te bay Defile tinon La Folle (moun fou). An reyalite, nou pa gen anpil enfòmasyon sou Defile, men zak li yo te yon enkanasyon Travay Kòporal Mèsi yo. Li te fèt bò zòn okap, paran li yo te esklav epi li te travay tankou yon ti machann. Yo di ke li te si tèlman admire Jan Jak Desalin ke li te konn suiv troup li yo tout kote yo te konn pase. Se admirasyon konstan sa ki te mete Defile nan proksimite Desalin nan jounen 17 oktòb 1806 lè yo te pieje li (sipozeman pa Petyon ak Kristòf) epi asesine li nan Pon Wouj lan, jis nan nò Pòtoprens. Yo te jete kò demanbre Desalin nan lari a. Avèk asidite epi san yon mo, Defile te ramase rès ero li a nan yon sache an twal epi li te depoze li nan youn nan sèkèy nan simetyè Pòtoprens lan. Prezidan Petyon apre sa te voye de solda kache pou yo te ka antere Desalin san yon seremoni ofisyèl. Apre, Madam Igniac te fè yon sèkèy sou rès yo epi li te grave enskripsyon ki te di “Men ki kote Desalin ap repoze- Li te mouri lè li te genyen 48 lane”. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418043346-ZNSJWYPNB0T7JLJSTQ4X/2+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC8_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti: 2 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti se yon seri penti akarèl sou papye ke Lubaina Himid OBE kreye nan lane 1987. Atis sa te genyen pri Turner la. Seri li a gen 15 penti, chak youn nan yo montre yon diptik sou de imaj k ap pale youn ak lòt. Seri a pran ensiprasyon li nan yon liv enpòtan ke C.L.R. James te ekri ki rele The Black Jacobins. Seri a selebre eroysm jeneral revolisyonè a, Tousen Louvèti. Sepandan, li fòse nou tou pou nou gade istwa fanm rebèl yo ki pa eksplore, rekoni oswa dokimante pou nou ka wè tout fason medam sa yo te kontribye nan saga revolisyon an. Nan liv ke li ekri an kolaborasyon avèk yon lòt moun, Inside the Invisible: Memorialising Slavery and Freedom in the Life and Works of Lubaina Himid, Himid fè komantè sila sou seri yo: “Mwen te vle ke ti moun yo konnen epizòd ekstraòdinè sa nan politik diaspora nwa a. Mwen te penn seri a nan yon fason pou li te ka rele atansyon editè yo. Nan yon sans, seri a sanble yon roman grafik ki gen yon tèks minim epi ke nou ka li nan yon sans lineè. Mwen te fè penti yo avèk yon akarèl swa ak dou pou mwen te ka voye yon enfòmasyon amikal ak aksesib sou lavi de toulèjou nan egzistans eksepsyonèl nonm sa. Nan diptik sa, dezyèm imaj nan seri yo, nou wè Tousen k ap repoze zo do li. Li kouche sou yon matla, rad li deboutenen epi akoutreman estrateji lagè a gaye nan espas kote li ye a. Soutit imaj yo li konsa ‘Yon ti kabicha nan apremidi/ kiyès ki te kwit manje midi a?’ ak ‘kiyès ki pral fè lesiv la?’ Lè l ap poze kesyon sa yo, Himid non sèlman aksantye absans fanm nan gwo naratif istorik yo, ki byen souvan pa dokimante prezans medam yo pou yo ka pale sou eroysm militè mesye yo, men li montre tou enpòtans travay domestik ak emosyonèl ki te fè an grann pati pa medam yo andedan lakay yo ak sou chemen lagè a. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417939081-JUCJV3HHGJQ4CBEB4LMX/4+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC12_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti: 4(1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. Nan diptik sa, katryèm nan nan seri Lubaina Himid, Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti, Himid jwe sou tèm fijitivite ak mawonaj. Nan premye imaj la, nou wè yon fanm nan yon mouvman jwaye ak ritme tankou nan yon goumen, manm li yo etire epi yo depase paramèt kad la. Se tankou fanm sa t ap danse sou son tanbou banboula a ki pwojete yon imaj ki depase kad la, ki ta ka fè nou panse ak yon sinekdòk. Soutit la li konsa ‘Moun yo t ap danse, te gen tanbou’. Dezyèm imaj nan diptik la montre yon teren ak anpil montay k ap kache yon pakèt kominote nèg ak negès mawon nan Sen Domeng anvan revolisyon an. Nou ka wè siy kominote a ak estrateji kominikasyon nan dife yo k ap sòti anlè mòn yo. Soutit la li konsa: ‘Te gen siy alawonbadè, nan tout plantasyon peyi a’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417977829-QY1C7KGR6AJNQ99HU2NP/5+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC9_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti: 5 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. Senkyèm diptik Himid la nan seri li Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti montre Tousen alèz nan lakou lakay plantasyon li ak madanm li, Sizàn. Nan premye imaj mouche ak madanm nan, nou wè Sizàn ki mete yon wòb oranj ak yon foula mare nan tèt li. Li chita anfas Tousen bò tab la. Gen yon kat ki gaye sou tab la epi nou ka wè anpil grenn kafe sanble nan yon kwen kat la. Sipozeman grenn kafe yo te reprezante esklav yo. Soutit la li konsa: ‘Madan Tousen te viv nan yon plantasyon andeyò epi li te devue tèt li pou li te ka kiltive kafe. Depi Tousen te ka kite sa l t ap fè a, li te vin la’. Dezyèm imaj la montre yon grenn men louvri k ap pote yon grenn kafe. Li ensinye posibilite yon kolaborasyon ak lòt ‘men’ yo ki te kontribye nan estrateji revolisyonè a. Men la, imaj la ap pale espesifikman sou kontribisyon estratejik Sizàn yo. Soutit la li konsa: ‘Èske li te ede li nan estrateji a?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418093887-3J9UGL7232IE0VL75VQ5/7+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC13_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 7 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. (Copy) The images in the seventh diptych from Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture form a mirror to one another. We see, on one side, Toussaint seated at a desk in full military regalia, presumably writing a letter to Suzanne, who is shown in the second image writing back. The lone candlestick serves to highlight the solitude of her environment and signals her foremost importance within the household in Toussaint’s absence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418157159-BJNOXI6V2FTUPYO223OQ/9+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC6_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 9 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. (Copy) In this diptych, the seventh in the series of Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture we are introduced, once again by way of a synecdochic hand, to another occluded female figure in the saga of Toussaint’s life: that of his mother. The caption to the first image in the diptych, which shows a variety of flora and a collection of grooming implements and vials reads: ‘because of his knowledge of herbs Toussaint was made Physician to the Armies of the King by Biassou - vice-roy of the Conquered Territories.’ The second image shows two hands juxtaposed with one another: one larger and, we are led to infer, representing Toussaint’s absented mother and the other representing the childlike hand of Toussaint. Each hand is shown cupping the natural components that, we are led to assume, form the basis of one of the healing concoctions that line shelf that floats above the scene. The caption reads ‘did his mother teach him everything he knew?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592491894532-UTQF1QNIQE92WKAT8QIT/15+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC5_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti: 15 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. Diptik sa, kenzyèm nan nan seri Himid la, Sèn sou lavi Tousen Louvèti, eksplore defi madam ak manman militè yo te konbat poutèt presyon jeneral ki vini ak lavi militè a nan nòmalite domestik la. Se premye fwa ke Himid prezante nou Isak ak Plasid, de jènjan Tousen yo. Soutit premye imaj la li konsa: ‘Pwòp pitit gason li, Isak, te deklare li pou Lafrans/ men Tousen fè li rete’. Soutit dezyèm imaj la li konsa: ‘Plasid, pitit gason madan Tousen pwomèt pou li goumen pou Libète epi yo te bay li komand yon batayon’. Diptik la inik, poutan, paske sou tèt soutit endividyèl chak imaj yo, yon lòt soutit ini de imaj yo pou li ka anplifye yon vwa ak yon otorite patènèl ke Himid pa idantifye. Li li konsa: ‘Lafrans oswa San Domingo, pitit mwen yo fè chwa nou/ nenpòt sa nou chwazi mwen pral toujou renmen nou’. Malgre mansyon ‘pwòp pitit gason li’ nan soutit premye imaj la te ka fè nou panse ke ‘vwa’ sa se te vwa Tousen, prezans Sizàn la nan menm imaj la anpeche nou fè yon korelasyon senplistik konsa. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597163097736-YMYDA8D0CZKDOVPYGJTX/Belair4_Pluto_Forsdick.jpg Galri - Kimathi Donkor, 'Chal ak Sanit Belè' (2002). Oil on canvas, 13cm x 13cm. © Kimathi Donkor. Kimathi Donkor se yon atis kontanporen ganeyen ak jamayken ki gen yon eritaj anglo-juif. Atis la ap viv a Lond. Anpil objè travay li yo rekonstwi sèn istorik sou eroysm Atlantik Nwa a pou yo ka anplifye istwa ki pa vizib oswa pa enkli nan istwa kolonyalis blan yo. Anpil nan travay li yo ap mete aksè sou pèsonaj nan saga revolisyon ayisyèn nan. Imaj sa gen pou pwotagonis Chal ak Sanit Belè. Nou wè yo k ap damou anwo yon falèz ki nan mitan yon zile ak lanmè a. Taba, koton, sik ak endigo--rekolt ki te pote kòb nan esklavaj kolonial la--ap antoure yo. Imaj sa kaptire yon moman trankilite ak solitid ki te difisil pou yo te ka jwenn nan epòk sa. Nou wè yon imaj de Sanit ki diferan de karaktè k istoryen tankou Madyou te ekri sou li. Madyou te dekri li tankou yon ‘brigande’ epi li te imajine li tankou yon moun ki te trè vyolan avèk tout antouraj li. Malgre ke yo gen tandans montre li nan rad militè li yo, nan imaj sa Sanit mete yon rad long ble avèk yon foula nan menm ble a, k ap montre feminite li. Nou wè li k ap bay mari li yon bèl ti bo, manm yo youn sou lòt epi men yo fè youn pandan ke y ap kenbe yon mouskè, se kòm si yo te ka atake yo nenpòt ki lè. Nan fason ke li montre Sanit, Donkor imanize li epi li fè fanm sa ki imòtalize nan istwa piblik la tankou yon ‘tigrès’ vin tounen yon fanm ki gen feblès. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975371428-3OAISMW5PXDVUD37ZFUC/20200716_141747.jpg Galri - Richard Barbot, 'Sanit Belè' (2019). Acrylic and oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. © Richard Barbot. Richard Barbot fèt Pòtoprens nan lane 1961. L ap viv kounye a Monreyal. Se yon atis ki fè desen ke Bank Repiblik D’Ayiti a te mande li fè yon pwatrin Sanit Belè sou biyè 10 goud la nan lokazyon selebrasyon de san zan endepandans peyi a (nou ka wè li anba). Sanit rete yon pèsonaj enteresan pou Barbot. Nou ka wè sa nan travay resan atis la ki montre Sanit ki abiye tankou yon militè avèk epolèt ak chapo bikòn li yo. Barbot dekri Sanit tankou ‘youn nan eroyn pi senbolik nan endepandans Ayiti a. Nan vizaj trayzon ak lanmò, Sanit te montre yon bravou ak fòs ki te san parèy.’ Fontèn ride li transmèt yon istwa presyon ak konfli. Li fè nou sonje ke, tankou anpil fanm ki te kontribye nan saga revolisyonè a, Sanit te fè anpil sakrifis. Lè li t ap pale sou motivasyon li pou li te ka penn imaj sa, Barbot obsève ke ‘Istwa gen tandas efase tras medam ki te jwe yon wòl enpòtan nan pase nou. Mwen panse ke li enpòtan pou nou reprezante yo pou nou ka konsève yo nan memwa nou.’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597849728362-1KUAPWX924RAC0H0OE8R/Mme+Cheruxis.jpg Galri - Anonim, Dame Eléonore Cheruxi (Richeux) de la Roche Asnière. Oil on canvas. Collection Maryse/Alex Von Lignau Dam Cheruxi te yon dam donè nan konpani Mari Lwiz Kristòf nan epòk Wayom D’Ayiti a (1811-1820). Anpil moun di ke li te sipoze fiyèl Mari Lwiz tou. Lakou a te bay li tinon ‘Cœur enflammé.’ Dam Cheruxi te fèt nan lane 1803. Manman li te yon fanm de koulè ki te rele Mari Ogistin Langlwa epi papa li te yon franse ki te rele Richeux de la Roche (Cheruxi se yon anagram Richeux) ki te kite Sen Domeng pandan yon ti moman nan epòk sa ki t ap dwe nan ajitasyon revolisyonè a . Nan menm epòk kote li te fèt la, yo te entèdi maryaj ant moun ki pat gen menm koulè. Men Richeux te kite yon dokiman nan menm notè li a kote li te rekonèt patènite li a. Li tounen ann Ayiti nan lane 1806 men mouri yon ti tan apre paske li te vin pran Tetanis. Pitit ak pitit pitit Dam Cheruxi yo konsève yon pakèt bagay ki te sòti nan koleksyon pèsonèl li a. Nan objè sa yo, nou ka wè (sou tèt penti a) pens cheve, bijou ak yon wob ke yo fè kado Mize Pantenon Nasyonal Ayisyen (MUPANAH) an nan lane 2015. Nou wè Cheruxi nan yon imaj ki difisil pou jwenn nan diznevyèm syèk la. Imaj sa te fèt pa yon atis ke nou pa konnen. Cheruxi pote yon pijama, manch li yo repliye, senti a pi etwat epi dekolte li a fè nou sonje pijama a ki nan koleksyon MUPANAH a. Nan kwen pijama a, nou wè bretèl ki te gen franj. Cheruxi ap pote tou yon kolye ki fèt avèk pèl ak zanno an lò. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594226912057-S7BQOM6MSLZCCKS646V1/Sc+C71+%3A+YT+PA72+150+Ans.jpg Galri - Tenb 1954, san senkantyèm anivèsè endepandans nan (1804-1954), Sc C71 / YT PA72 © The Haiti Philatelic Society Tenb sa ki te pwodwi nan yon seri pou san senkantyèm anivèsè endepandans Ayiti a nan lane 1954, montre yon sèn ki sòti nan atak Crête-à-Pierrot a, yon batay desizif nan Revolisyon Ayisyèn nan. Imaj ke yo itilize nan seri yo selebre zak eroyk Mari Jàn yo, yon solda fi ke anpil moun di ki te marye ak Lwi Dò Lamatinyè, ke nou ka wè k ap kenbe li sou bò dwat li. Mari Jàn se yon pèsonaj enigmatik paske istoryen ayisyen yo mitifye istwa li a anpil. Poutèt sa, sikilazyon imaj li a nan tenb ak pyas yo nan moman enpòtan komemorasyon nasyonal la sèvi pou mete ankò andedan imaj nasyonal yo zak eroysm feminen ki pa byen dokimante, majinalize ak neglije. Nan imaj sa, Mari Jàn mete yon tinik long ak yon foula mare sou tèt li. Zam li yo kanpe bò kote li kòm si yo te fòme yon bouklye pou pwoteje li kont lame franse a. Nan men dwat li, l ap kenbe yon zepe epi li mete yon fizi nan do li. Reprezantasyon sa raple nou imaj ke nou jwenn nan penti Bellegarde la, kote li dekri Mari Jàn ak menm mo sa yo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235066793-Z759HMSJSHKZR8R2Z4MU/Sc+C292+%3A+YTPA366.jpg Galri - Tenb 1968, Seremoni Bwa Kayman - 14 Août 1791, Sc C292 / YTPA366 © Haiti Philatelic Society Tenb sa, ke yo te pase nan lane 1968, montre yon objè ki te fèt pa pent ayisyen an, Raoul Durproux. Li montre seremoni Vodou nan Bwa Kayiman an ki te fèt pa ougan Boukman ak manbo Sesil Fatiman ann out 1791. Anpil moun kwè ke evènman sa deklanche rebelyon esklav yo ki komanse 23 out la epi ki lakoz yon pakèt lòt rebelyon ki fèt nan nò teritwa Sen Domeng lan apre sa. Menm jan ak seremoni a, anpil moun diskite sou istwa Sesil Fatiman an. Kèk resi di konsa ke li te sè Mari Lwiz Kristòf (konbine istwa li a, li sanble, ak sa Jenvyèv Koidavid Pierrot). Nan imaj Duproux a, Fatiman mete yon wob blan (koulè blan an gen yon enpòtans espesyal nan relijyon Vodou a) avèk yon foula wouj mare nan tèt li. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235094759-DJ2D25OFOG0YA3AY731D/Sc+852+%3A+YT+PA663+200+Ans.jpg Galri - Tenb 1991, de san zan Soulèvman jeneral esklav yo, Sc 852 / YT PA663 © Haiti Philatelic Society Tenb sa, ke yo te pase nan lane 1991 nan lokazyon selebrasyon de san zan revolt esklav yo ki te make komansman Revolisyon Ayisyèn nan, montre yon lòt imaj seremoni Bwa Kayiman an. Imaj sa raple nou anpil resi popilè ki di konsa ke seremoni a te make avèk yon sakrifis yon kochon kreyòl. Nou wè Sesil Fatiman nan sant imaj la, li kanpe bò kote Boukman ki mete li ajenou nan yon tinik blan ak yon foula, avèk kochon ke yo te sakrifye a devan pye li. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310585323-N821372ENDIE9YZJ1K45/1820+Coin+R.png Galri - Yon goud, Wayom D’Ayiti (1820), (KM) Pn 37, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade Pyas 1 goud sa sòti nan koleksyon Joseph Guerdy Lissade. Wayom D’Ayiti a te frape li nan lane 1820. Pyas la inik nan sans ke, nan do li, yo te grave non sèlman inisyal Anri yo (H), men pa Mari Lwiz (ML) Kristòf yo tou (M ak L la mele). Mari Lwiz te sèl fanm ki te viv pase revolisyon an ke yo rekonèt nan pyas ayisyèn ofisyèl yo nan debi epòk Wayom nan. Li rete youn nan yon anpil medam ke istwa ayisyèn nan idantifye epi rekonèt nan pyas ke leta a frape. Pyas la gen yon motif, yon feniks k ap sòti nan dife ki nan mitan yon wonn ki pote mo sila--EX CINERABUS NASCITUR (y ap toujou kontinye pale de mwen menm lè mwen mouri), ke nou konn wè nan eleman rad zam Kristòf yo. Senbòl yon kouwòn anlè motif sentral ak de inisyal yo. Wonn andeyò imaj sa gen sigl sa ‘DEUS CAUSA ATQUE GLADIUS MEUS’ (Bondye, lakoz ak epe mwen). Lòt fas pyas la montre nou pwatrin Anri pandan ke yo t ap mete yon kouwòn lorye sou inifòm militè li a. Inifòm nan te kouvri ak yon mouslin an swa nan stil klasik avèk sigl sa ‘HENRICUS DEI GRATIA HAITI REX’ (Anri wa d’Ayiti nan lagras Bondye). Si w vle plis enfòmasyon, vizite Joseph Guerdy Lissade, Henricus Dei Gracia Haiti Rex: Monnaies et Médailles de l’Etat d’Hayti, 1807-1811 et du Royaume d’Hayti, 1811-1820 (Grissom Company, 2007), pp. 20, 71. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310584591-XG6QQOEKQYRZFUQ5X5TM/thumbnail_KM%23+69+Marie+Jeanne+1970+100gdes+OR+avers.jpg Galri - 5 Selebrasyon pyas 100 goud, 1970, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade Yo te frape pyas selebrasyon 100 good sa sou rejim François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier. Pwatrin ak non Mari Jàn Lamatinyè grave nan do pyas la. Menm jan ak nan tenb selebrasyon 1954 la, nou wè Mari Jàn k ap kenbe yon sab oswa machèt nan men li epi li gen yon foula mare sou tèt li, cheve li yo ap sòti nan koutpenn li an defi (yon fwa anko, sonje vizyon Bellegarde la ki te dekri ‘bonè’ Mari Jàn nan tankou yon bagay ki te anprizone bèl kantite cheve li yo, kote yon pati nan cheve a te gaye’). Lòt fas pyas la montre eleman rad zam ayisyen an ak yon drapo kote yo te grave sigl ‘L’UNION FAIT LA FORCE’ (Men anpil chay pa lou). Andeyò imaj sa yo grave mo ‘LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975121473-OSWCT0LF2ZNFCV1HCD8B/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Pyès 10 goud, Bisantnè endepandans Ayiti a, Collection Richard Barbot Yo te frape biyè selebrasyon 10 goud sa nan lane 2004 pou make de san zan endepandans ayisyèn nan, ke Jan Jak Desalin te pwoklame jounen 1 janvye 1804. Li montre yon rekonseptyalizasyon atistik Sizan ‘Sanit’ Belè ke atis ayisyen Richard Barbot te fèt. Toma Madiou te dekri Sanit tankou sèlman ‘madanm’ jeneral Chal Belè. Poutan, Sanit te patisipe nan anpil goumen bò kote mari li nan konfli revolisyonè ayisyen an. Istoryen ayisyen yo gen tandans pa renmen padone fanm sa paske yo renmen anfatize ‘babari’ ke Sanit te komèt ak men li yo, malgre li menm ak mari li te kite Desalin avèk lòt konpatryòt revolisyonè yo lè yo t ap goumen nan bò drapo franse a. Sanit, Chal avèk yon pwayen renegad te fè yon rebelyon ki pat gen siksè epi ki te lakoz yo te vinn kaptire Sanit an apre. Dapre Madiou, Belè pat kapab reziste ke yo te separe li de Sanit. Kidonk, li bay tèt li nan fòs kolonyal franse yo. Franse yo pat padone prizyonye yo epi yo kondane yo a lanmò nan jounen 5 oktòb 1802 (yo te mete Belè nan yon masife poutèt li te yon jeneral brigad epi yo te koupe tèt Sanit). Madiou rakonte ke Sanit te mande pou yo te touye li menm jan ak mari li. Li refize ke franse yo te mare je li yo pou li te ka tande priyè mari li a epi mouri bravman. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597850150820-XZ5WO2P1VCBB44VREM16/Cheruxi+Dress+01.jpeg Galri - Wob long an mouslin (c. 1830). Collection Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien. Yo te fè kado wob sa bay MUNAPAH nan lane 2015. Li te sòti nan koleksyon Maryse Von Lignau, malgre mèt li te Dam Cheruxi, yon dam donè nan lakou wayal Kristòf la. Madanm k ap ranje rad, Ségolène Bonnet, te pran tann li pou li te ka koud wob sa lè li te Pari. Yo dekri wob sa tankou yon wob long blan an koton ak mouslin. Yon zip an metal kenbe wob la nan do li epi yon fanon bay kosaj la yon ti fòs. Wob la gen yon gran woulèt ak yon bwodri an flè byen fen ki fòme yon kouwòn flè nan jip la. Yon pyès konsa te probableman fèt ann Ewop, yon siyal klè richès ak estati. Malgre genyen anpil siy ke pijama an koton te popilè nan Lafrans Atlantik lan (nan metwopol ak koloni yo) ki komanse nan fen dizuityèm syèk lan (li menm genyen manch replye yo ke Marie-Antoinette te fè vini yon bagay ke nou pral toujou sonje) epi yo te dekri li inisyèlman tankou yon ‘wob ke yo te konn mete souvan nan Anpir lan’, senti pi ba a montre ke wob sa te pwobableman fèt nan yon lòt epòk, dapre Bonnet (nan zòn 1830). Objè materyèl sa yo bay nou yon lide rich ak pèsonalize sou lavi fanm sa you, ke achivis kolonyal yo gen tandans kache epi bloke. Yo montre estrateji ke fanm sa yo te itilize pou defann tèt yo nan epòk esklavaj la epi nan tan ki vini apre li. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599132996633-WMXL5AMM0T49LWYV8C4Z/J+Clarke+Sans+Souci+Engraving.png Galri - J. Clarke, Gravi sou Palè San Sousi a, from Charles Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti made during a residence in that republic, H. Colburn and R. Bentley (1830), Volume II. Pa gen apil objè da ak gravi sou palè San Sousi a, rezidans wayal prensipal Anri ak Mari Lwiz Kristòf, ki rete epi ki montre strikti li a san okenn enpak anvan tranblemandtè ki te presipite destriksyon li nan lane 1842. Palè a sitye nan Milot, apeprè 8 kilomèt de fotrès Citadelle Laferrière (Sitadèl Anri) a. Yo te fin konstwi li ant 1811 ak 1813. Malgre anpil istoryen ayisyen vin wè San Sousi ak Sitadèl la tankou yon senbol kriyote ak tirani Kristòf yo (yo te fòse yon nonm endetèminab travayè pou yo te ka konstwi li), palè a sèvi tankou yon rapèl enpòtan de tout sa ke Kristòf te oblije fè pou li te ka kiltive yon espri refinman ak yon fyète souvren pou wayom nwa a ki te fèk fèt. Sou rèy Kristòf la, Palè San Sousi a temwaye anpil fèt avèk selebrasyon piblik epi li te akeyi anpil moun enpòtan ki, ann apre, te sonje bote palè a nan memwa ak korespondans yo.Youn nan evènman ki te pi byen pibliye epi ki te fèt nan palè San Sousi a te ‘fèt rèn nan’. Baron Pompée Valentin Vastey, konseyè kominikasyon Kristòf la, rakonte nan ‘Relation de la fête de … la Reine’ li a ki jan yo te selebre fèt rèn Mari Lwiz la pandan 12 jou komanse jounen 14 out 1816. Malgre li difisil pou nou detèmine egzakteman ki enfliyans Mari Lwiz te genyen nan palè San Sousi a nan mòsi ki rete de palè sa, epi nan dokiman gaye ke yo te neglije ak deplase poutèt ajitasyon politik ki te fèt ann apre chit wayom nan, kèk resi ofri nou yon apèsi ki revele anpil pawòl sou sijè sa. Resi jouno ewopeyen yo, pa egzanp, revele nou ke Mari Lwiz te fè ‘gran acha … nan Bremen, ak lòt vil Hanseatic yo … pou ajantri, klere, pèl, etc.’ ke li te peye “ak kòb rapid, a gran pri.’ Resi konsa tou bay nou apèsi detaye sou wob lakou yo ke yo te voye fèt ann Ewop pou rèn ak prensès yo. Anplis enfliyans li sou objè materyèl yo ki te kontribye nan refinman palè San Sousi a, resi istorik yo revele ke Mari Lwiz te responsab yon lame solda fanm ki te rele ‘Amazòn’ ki te defile nan jounen festif yo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599141476622-LYH2200BYS99BEZNCM5I/FCO+Historical+Collection+FOL+F1924+HEN+King%27s+College+London.jpg Galri - Tiraj an koulè palè San Sousi a. From: Henri Christophe, King of Haiti. Copie de lettres [manuscript] 1805-6 [FCO Historical Collection FOL. F1924 HEN]. Tiraj an koulè sa, ki te fèt nan lane 1822, montre palè San Sousi a de zan apre chit Wayom D’Ayiti a. Sou men goch palè San Sousi a, nou ka wè legliz Notre Dame de l’mmaculée Conception. Fanmi Anri Kristòf la te konn admire panorama sa anpil. Nou ka idantifye legliz la nan stil katedral italyèn li ke yo te ranje an plizyè okasyon nan sik lavi li. Malgre dega ke li andire nan dènye de san zan li yo, legliz la se youn nan relik ki pi byen konsève nan peryòd debi souvrèyte ayisyèn nan rive avril 2020 lè dife te pran nan legliz la epi katedral la te detwi konplètman. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600374586857-H9Z153GYFTF16TDV1NZE/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Ri Weymouth, 49, Marylebone, London Se te dènye rezidans anglèz Mari Lwiz Kristòf ak pitit fi li yo. Yo te rete nan kay sa rive septanm 1824, lè yo te vin pati pou ale ann Ewop, pou yo pat janm tounen ankò ann Angletè. Nou ka konfirme pasaj yo nan rezidans ri Weymouth la nan yon lèt ke Mari Lwiz te voye bay Catherine Clarkson yon ti tan anvan li te pati epi tou nan dènye testaman li a. Nou verifye lokalizasyon egsak adrès sa nan nimewo 30 (kounye a nimewo 49) nan yon anons piblisitè ke yo te pibliye nan jouno Lond yo pou vann pwopriyete lakay ‘Madan Kristòf’ epi tou nan liv pawas St. Marylebone yo ki te difisil pou nou jwenn nan tan 1824 lan. Yo te bati kay sa ant 1789 ak 1790 nan yon pati devlopman Eta Portland nan. Poutan, kay stil jòjyen sa pa vreman chanje, malgre bonm ki te tonbe sou li nan epòk Biltz lan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600375424271-ZH6E8IFKNHCOUTSOOBV6/IMG_0170.JPG Galri - Plas Exmouth, 5, West Hill, Hastings Mari Lwiz Kristòf, ansanm avèk pitit fi li yo, Améthisse ak Athénaïre, te rete nan kay sa pandan omwen anpil semèn nan mwa oktòb 1822. Kay sa parèt nan lis gid Hastings 1822 an tankou youn nan pwopriyete misye Fragg t ap lwe pou vakans yo (dezyèm pwopriyete a te bò kote kay Exmouth lan). Yo te konstwi tou de kay yo nan yon konjekti. Yo te fin konstwi Plas Exmouth nan nan lane 1821, anpil lane apre yo te fin konstwi kay Exmouth nan nan lane 1817. Kidonk, Mari Lwiz te ka youn nan premye envite nan kay ki te fèt konstwi a nan yon spa chik ak emèjan. Yon lèt ke Catherine Clarkson voye bay Athénaïre nan jounen 26 oktòb 1822 bay nou yon resi detaye sou ti vakans tou kout sa. Pandan ti vakans tou kout sa yo, ‘manmzél Thornton’, pitit fi defansè abolisyon an, Henry Thornton, ki vin ann apre pipil Misye Robert Inglis, te vizite yo. Inglis sonje yon vwayaj sòti Hastings rive Lond ak youn nan pitit fi Kristòf yo nan jounal entim vwayaj 1840 li, apre li te rankontre Mari Lwiz nan Pisa. Lèt la temwaye ke medam yo te jwenn klima bò lanmè Hastings lan pi leje ak konsilyan pase sa Blackheath lan, sak fè li te ede redwi efè rimatism Mari Lwiz yo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600381586889-CT3GOKSU6JZP6OTE8TTY/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Zam rèn yo, College of Arms MS J.P. 177, Armorial General du Royaume d'Hayti, fol. 2r. Reproduced by permission of the Kings, Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms Rèn Mari Lwiz Kristòf (non jèn fi li se te Coidavid) te sèl fanm nan lakou Anri Kristòf ke yo te onore ak pwòp eleman rad zam li yo. Yon milatrès nan elit la, Mari Lwiz kite plis tras ioublyab pase anpil lòt fanm san non ki te kontribye anpil nan fondasyon revolisyonè Ayiti a men ki malerezman pa parèt nan achiv yo epi ki majinalize nan istwa ekri a. Sòti nan dife revolisyon antikolonyal la, Ayiti vin tounen premye repiblik nwa nan lane 1804 epi premye peyi nan lemonn ki koupe fache nèt, definitivman epi tou patou, avèk esklavaj la. Pou de twa moun, Wayom D’Ayiti Kristòf la (etabli nan lane 1811) reprezante yon trayzon valè revolisyonè ak fondasyon radikal yo. Sepandan, nan kontèks monn ostil sa, kote blan yo panse ke yo se yon pakèt afè nan kolonyalis Nò Atlantik lan, Wayom D’Ayiti a te montre ke Nwa yo te kapab menm jan avèk blan yo. Depi ou te konnen zam wa yo, ou te ka wè k pa rèn yo te menm bagay. Toulède montre yon feniks k ap sòti nan dife kont yon teren ble ki antoure pa yon pakèt abèy avèk yon drapo ki pote sigl Wayom nan ‘JE RENAIS DE MES CENDRES’ (Y ap kontinye pale de mwen menm lè mwen mouri). De lyon kouwone ap kenbe teren an ki nan mitan yon wonn kouwòn woz (nan plas yon chèn ak kolye wayal ak militè Lòd Sen Anri an ki montre zam wa yo). Yo poze sou yon drapo ki montre sigl rèn nan ‘DIEU PROTÈGE LE ROI’ (Bondye sove wa a). Si w bezwen plis enfòmasyon sou senbolism bagay sa ki fè nou toujou pale de li, zam sa yo ak lòt tankou yo, vizite maniskri College of Arms nan ki rele The Armorial of Haiti: Symbols of Nobility in the Reign of Henry Christophe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1602590226405-6FKBOSCM161FQW0N7VH7/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Melissa Joseph, "De nos jeunes princesses" (Sou jèn prensès nou yo), from Juste Chanlatte, L’Éntrée du Roi, en sa capitale (1818). De nos jeunes Princesses L’esprit, les heureux dons Répandent leur ivresse Sur notre nation. Tout nous dit que les grâces Ont changé de séjour, On le voit à leurs traces Ornements de la Cour. Refleksyon Henry Stoll “Sou jèn prensès nou yo” se sizyèm mizik Antre Wa a, nan kapital li (1818), yon pyès opera komik ekri pa Jis Chanlat, sekretè Anri Kristòf la. Nan opera a, Sofi Awo entèprete wòl La Limonadière. Pandan ke l ap chèche nan pòch li yo, li dekouvri ke li te pèdi mizik ke li ta pral chante. Damis, yon pèsonaj nan opera a ke Chanlat entèprete, tou profite sityasyon sa pou bay La Limonadière mizik “Sou jèn prensès nou yo,” epi li di li konsa “Mwen ta byen kontan si merit travay sa te ka egal ak zèl ke mwen te itilize lè mwen t ap konpoze mizik sa.” Poutèt li te gen tan konn melodi--“A! A! Se menm melodi ak Jenerez Lizèt”--La Limonadière tou pwofite chante epi fè lwanj jèn prensès yo, Améthyste ak Athénaïre. Fasil pou chante, avèk yon ritm nostaljik, melodi a sòti nan woman “Ô ma tendre Musette.” Pierre-Alexandre Mosigny fè mizik la epi Jean-François de la Harpe ekri pawòl yo. Nan Antre Wa a, nan kapital li, yo idantifye melodi a sou non “Jenerez Lizèt,” ki fè yon referans ak parodi ke Louis Jule Mancini Mazarini te fè ki rele the Duke of Nevers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1602591269127-GFR5NF7S8Q72KYZR6KN6/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Melissa Joseph, "Dans le cœur de Marie" (Andan kè Mari a), from Juste Chanlatte, L’Éntrée du Roi, en sa capitale (1818). Dans le cœur de Marie Les aimables vertus Ont fixé leur patrie, Leurs nobles attributs. Idoles de ces beaux climats Les bienfaits naissent sur ses pas; Par sa présence La bienfaisance Sait acquérir un nouveau prix: Célébrer cet objet chéri, N’est-ce pas célébrer Henry? (bis.) Auguste et tendre mère De son sexe ornement, Du trône ange prospère D’Henry soutien charmant ; Elle ajoute à ses verts lauriers L’éclat des tendres oliviers ; Illustre vigne! Son jet insigne Pousse des rejetons fleuris: Célébrer cet objet chéri, N’est-ce pas célébrer Henry? (bis.) Refleksyon Henry Stoll “Andan kè Mari a” se senkyèm mizik Antre Wa a, nan kapital li (1818), yon pyès opera komik ekri pa Jis Chanlat, yon ayisyen ki te ekri poèm, trete, mizik, teyat ak opera pou Wayom D’Ayiti a. Nan twazyèm sèn opera a, Damis, yon pèsonaj ke Chanlat te entèprete, sòti yon mizik nan potfolio li, i li montre li bay L’Hotesse epi li tou di li “mwen espere ke ou pral renmen li!” Lè l ap di li mèsi, L’Hotesse, yon pèsonaj ke Mandan David entèprete, komanse chante mizik la. Yon konpliman pou Rèn D’Ayiti a, Mari Lwiz, mizik la lwe “bèl kalite” ak “atitid nòb,” li yo lè li di konsa ke “selebre yon bagay ke ou renmen anpil se kòm si w ap selebre Anri.” Melodi a sòti nan “In diesen heil’gen Hallen,” yon pyès opera ki rele Die Zauberflöte ke Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart te konpoze nan lane 1791 pou bas yo. Sepandan, lé Chanlat ap fè referans sou melodi sa, li rele li “Dans ce séjour tranquille” ki sòti nan Les mystères d’Isis, yon adaptasyon franse Die Zauberflöte ke konpozitè boyemen Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith te fèt nan lane 1801. Se te nan dènye fòm adaptasyon sa ke Lafrans te vin aprann opera final Mozart la. Se te vèsyon sa ke Chanlat te konnen. Poutan, yo pat konnen mizik Mozart la nan peyi a. Nan plas li, ayisyen yo te konn tande konpozitè franse André Grétry, Nicolas Dalayrac ak Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1602591706597-Z48XC5NHUXCN0D9JFGWM/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Melissa Joseph, “Quoi la trompette a résonné !”, or “Chant du Corps Royal des Amazones de la Reine” (Chan Kò Wayal Amazòn yo). Words by Juste Chanlatte. Quoi la trompette a résonné! … Debout, magnanimes guerrières! L’heure des combats a sonné … Allons, volons à nos bannières: (bis.) Voyez-vous flotter le signal? Il part d’une Reine intrépide; Déjà le cri d’un autre Alcide Est jeté par le Général. Aux armes ! braves Corps! Aux accents de Marie Combattons (bis.) pour le Trône, Et vengeons la Patrie. (bis.) Vive Marie et vive Henry Restaurateurs du Nouveau Monde! Vive le Général chéri Sur lequel notre espoir se fonde! (bis.) Vive le jeune Colonel Qu’ont adopté les Amazones! Que l’univers encense et prône Son nom, son courage immortel! Aux armes ! braves Corps! Aux accents de Marie Combattons (bis.) pour le Trône, Et vengeons la Patrie. (bis.) Refleksyon Henry Stoll yo “Twonpèt la sonnen!” se yon mizik ke Jis Chanlat te ekri. Chanlat te yon ayisyen ki te ekri poèm, trete, mizik, teyat ak opera pou Wayom D’Ayiti a. Nan mizik sa, Chanlat lwe lwanj pou Rèn Mari Lwiz ak gad Amazòn li yo, yon lame swasant fanm ki te gen misyon pwoteje Rèn nan ak Presensès li yo. Dapre yon konsil franse ann Ayiti, Amazòn yo te mete yon tinik ble saten, pantalon long, swa ble saten avèk jartèl an lò oswa an ajan anba jenou yo ak yon kask an lò ak an ajan ki te gen plim otrich sou li. Chak jou, de Amazòn te kanpe tankou de solda devan palè a. Yo te pote yon lans avèk yon flèch ak zak. Melodi a sòti nan im nasyonal franse a, La Marseillaise, ke Claude Joseph Rouget de L’isle te ekri nan lane 1792. Tout manm lakou ayisyèn nan te konnen l. Yon chan laguè anime, refren Chanlat la di konsa: “Men zam yo! grav kò!/ Avèk vwa Mari yo/ Fòk nou batay (bis.) pou twòn nan/ Pou nou vanje patri a.” Tèks la kondane franse yo—‘tiran meprizab yo’, ‘ras enjis’ sa —epi li ankouraje Amazòn yo pou yo fini ak moun ki t ap oprese Ayiti yo. Mizik la fini avèk anpil bat bravo lè li di konsa “Viv Mari viv Anri/ Restavèk Nouvo Monn yo!”. Melissa chante sèlman premye ak dènye vèsè yo nan anrejistreman sa ke ou ka jwenn pi wo. https://www.fanmrebel.com/events daily 0.75 2024-01-18 https://www.fanmrebel.com/events/rasanblaj-fanm monthly 0.5 2024-07-02 https://www.fanmrebel.com/contact daily 0.75 2020-05-13 https://www.fanmrebel.com/network daily 0.75 2020-07-31 https://www.fanmrebel.com/en/gallery daily 0.75 2020-10-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589565295596-P2SGMHLYA7W94W2SDG9V/Catherine+Flon+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2011.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Catherine Flon' (2011). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Patricia Brintle is a Haitian-born artist who is now resident in Whitestone, NY. This painting, depicting the purported ‘god-daughter’ of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the nurse and seamstress Catherine Flon, forms part of a series of acrylic paintings by Brintle articulating the stories of Haitian women revolutionaries. Brintle’s caption reads as follows: Catherine Flon was a seamstress and the god-daughter of Jean Jacques Dessalines, the leader of the Haitian revolution. During the Congress of Arcahaie (May 14 to May 18, 1803) in the town of Arcahaie, two essential points were agreed upon by Dessalines and Petion, the two principal leaders of Haiti at that time: The establishment of a revolutionary army under the supreme authority of Dessalines and the adoption of a flag for that army. On the last day of the Congress, May 18, 1803, Dessalines removed the white band from the French flag and gave the remaining blue and red portions to Catherine Flon who sewed them and turned the bands to their side. The Haitian flag was born. Once it was sewn, the generals of the Haitian Revolution solemnly swore a pledge of allegiance to liberty or death on the flag. This oath was to lead the slaves to victory and freedom. That pledge is called the Oath of the Ancestors. Since then, May 18 has been observed as the Haitian Flag Day. It is a major national holiday and an occasion for parades, marches and pageants. Catherine Flon is regarded as one of the great heroines of the Haitian revolution and independence. In this artwork, the artist depicts the moment when, a year after the creation of the flag, Petion sought the help of Catherine to sew the arms of the republic on the bicolor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592408117336-3KEPW3VYB2KMB5UHTPIZ/Marie+Jeanne+Lamartiniere+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2012.jpg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere' (2012). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 26 in. This painting, from Patricia Brintle’s series on Haitian revolutionary women, depicts Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière (thought to have been the companion of Louis Daure Lamartinière) who is recounted as having fought among the troops during the conclusive revolutionary battle at Crête-à-Pierrot in March 1802. Brintle’s caption reads: Marie Jeanne Lamartiniere is considered one of the heroines of the Haitian revolution. Little is known of her except that she fought valiantly during the battle of the Crete-a-Pierrot next to her husband, Brigade Commander Louis Daure Lamartiniere. She could be seen over the fortifications, carbine in hand, saber at her side, distributing ammunitions, lighting canons, and constantly encouraging the soldiers to keep fighting. The fort was besieged by the French and all seemed lost when word came from Dessalines that the fort was to be evacuated immediately. That same night, on March 24th, 1802, most escaped when the besieged rebels fought their way through more than 10,000 French troops. This withdrawal was a remarkable feat and won Lamartiniere a name among the heroes of Haiti’s independence. We do not know for sure what became of Marie Jeanne after the retreat from the Crete-a-Pierrot, but it is her bravery, fearlessness and intrepid boldness that make her unforgettable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592413266148-6N0A8T594R3SVSF3IZ8E/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'DEDEE BAZILE also known as DEFILEE LA FOLLE' (2008). Acrylic on masonite, 24 x 36 in. This painting - the first in the series of revolutionary women to be created by Brintle - depicts Dédée Bazile, so-called ‘Défilée la folle’. According to the historical narrative, Bazile served as a sutler and led a battalion in Dessalines’ revolutionary army. It is thought that her nickname derives in part from her battle-charge ‘Defilez, defilez!’ (March, march!) After Dessalines was ambushed and assassinated at Pont-Rouge in 1806, Bazile is purported to have recovered his dismembered body parts and carried them to his final resting place. This image evocatively tells that story of grief and re-assembly. Brintle’s caption reads as follows: We do not know why Defilee was given the surname of La Folle (the madwoman); in fact, not very much is known of Defilee, yet her actions are the epitome of the Corporal Works of Mercy. She was born near Le Cap of slave parents and worked as a peddler. It was said that she so greatly admired Jean Jacques Dessalines that she followed his troops wherever they went. It is this constant admiration that would put Defilee in the proximity of Dessalines when on October 17, 1806 he was ambushed (supposedly by Petion and Christophe) and assassinated at the Pont Rouge, just north of Port-au-Prince. His mutilated body was thrown about. Diligently and without a word, Defilee gathered the remains of her hero in a burlap sack and placed him on one of the tombs inside the cemetery in Port-au-Prince. President Petion subsequently sent two corporals to clandestinely bury Dessalines without official ceremony. Later, a tomb was erected on the remains by Mrs. Iginac which carries the inscription: “Here Lies Dessalines - Dead at 48.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678189523436-1EYZUEELURNOB2SG7I7G/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Uncommon Warrior' (2020). Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in. From Patricia Brintle’s artistic book project exploring the Thirteen Years of the Haitian Revolution, this image celebrates the struggles of the numerous and nameless women who participated in the revolutionary cause through acts of diversion, subterfuge and sagacity. Such women were essential vectors, facilitating the gains made by Haiti’s gwò nègs on the revolutionary battlefield. Brintle notes of such women that ‘The part [they] played in the revolution was vital, yet not as noted as that of men because their roles were not so much on the battleground as in the background of the battles. They were the support group without whom the revolution would not have been successful. They were the ones to bind the wounds and feed the troops; they were the spies, the couriers, the cooks, and the nurses; they were the business managers, the store keepers, the hôtelières and the entertainers; and they were the ones raising the children who would grow up to be the future of this proud nation.’ Brintle’s caption for this artwork reads as follows: This proud woman sits elegantly with her legs crossed. She wears the colors of the Haitian flag. On her lap she carries a basket of fruit and some bread. On her side is a table with a bowl and some dishes. She waits patiently for a tired and hungry soldier from the French army to trade ammunitions - see the guns under her basket and pistols under her belt and foot. The Haitian revolution is in full swing but the French soldiers are ill equipped to fight under the hot sun. Many, like General Leclerc, succumb to yellow fever; they are hot, hungry and discouraged. These brave women from the plantations trade food for ammunition with the French soldiers and give those to the indigenous army thereby doing their part to win the war. Victory came on December 4, 1803 when Jean Jacques Dessalines won over French forces under the command of General Rochambeau during the battle of Vertieres, near Cap Francais in the north of Haiti. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678195994827-ATY35BX0JR1NI1MY7CEQ/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Madame Dessalines (Merciful Intercession)' (2019). Acrylic on Canvas, 40x30 in. Another artwork from Brintle’s Thirteen Years series, this image depicts Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur, who, as the wife of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, became the first ‘first woman’ (and later, Empress) of Haiti. Renowned anecdotally as a woman of kindness and compassion, as a nurse and caregiver invested in the idea of educational uplift, she is remembered in the memoirs of the French physician and natural historian Michel Étienne Descourtilz for interceding in his execution ordered by Dessalines. She is represented here in a domestic setting, with a tall, white head wrap tied neatly around her head. Together with her white shawl and cross pendant, her clothing and adornments converge to convey an image of modesty, virtue and devotion. That she wears the colours associated with the Haitian bicolore (curiously not the red and black of the Dessalinian imperial flag but the red and blue of the flag avowedly sewn together by Catherine Flon at the Congress of Arcahaie that became symbolic of the indigènes’ claim to independent statehood) is indicative of her symbolic importance as a woman who helped to shape a sovereign Haiti, free from colonial rule. Dessalines is only figured synecdochically - in the representation of his military uniform, sabre and boots, arranged neatly by the door, and of his bicorne, which Marie-Claire rests upon her lap. By gesturing to Dessalines’s presence ‘beyond the frame’ of this artwork and centring Marie-Claire, Brintle significantly shifts the focus of conventional revolutionary narratives that privilege the accomplishments of military men and gesture only fleetingly to the contributions of their companions. Brintle’s caption reads: Here we see the wife of Dessalines, Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite, at dawn waiting for her husband to dress. His uniform is ready, boots are clean and shiny, and she holds his bicorn on her lap. She is a very pious woman and is known for interceding with Dessalines to allow her to feed hungry Haitians during the siege of Jacmel. Following the victory at Vertieres, French General Rochambeau was given ten days to leave with his troops. It was agreed that Dessalines would send the wounded and prisoners back to France. But she knows the fierceness of her husband and wants to plead for the life of the prisoners and ask they be allowed, as promised, to France. History tells us that Dessalines did not listen to her pleas. Instead, he ordered the death of all French and French Creoles from January to April 1804 which resulted in the massacre of close to 5,000 people. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678207198741-G1BDBLK28RJKG1XSXHK8/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Victoria and Jean Jacques' (2020). Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in. This image from Patricia Brintle’s series of paintings for Thirteen Years depicts Victoria ‘Toya’ Montou alongside Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Said to have been Dessalines’s aunt, the little we know of Toya’s contribution to the revolutionary cause comes to us from a few lines in the memoir of a physician named Jean-Baptiste Mirambeau. According to Mirambeau’s narrative, Montou commanded a small regiment of rebel soldiers during the revolutionary conflict. Dessalines, who attended Montou on her deathbed in 1805, is claimed to have said to her nurse, ‘This woman is my aunt, take care of her as you would have taken care of me myself, she had to undergo like me all the sorrows, all the emotions during the time that we were condemned side by side to work in the fields.’ Depicted here in sumptuous garments of red and gold, Montou’s appearance is almost regal, greatly overshadowing the figure of Dessalines, who is envisioned in the plain and commonplace garments that he would have worn as an enslaved field labourer prior to the revolution. In this way, we see that the histories of Haiti’s great military men extend beyond the military moment, and comprise, above all, the stories of others - of families both real and forged in adversity, of communities, elders and mentors, and of the women so vital to those networks. Brintle’s caption reads: The scene finds a young Jean Jacques Dessalines in deep conversation with his aunt Gran Toya. Victoria Montou, also known as Adbaraya Toya was a female soldier and freedom fighter in the army of Jean Jacques Dessalines. Before the revolution Toya worked alongside Dessalines as a slave. Intelligent and energetic she fought as a soldier in active service and even commanded soldiers during battle. She had great influence on many who fought in the revolution. She was from Dahomey, now Benin, where she served as a member of the council of women in the kingdom known as the Dahomey Amazons who fought to protect the kingdom. She was a healer and worked on the Cormier plantation where she became close to Marie Elisabeth, the mother of Dessalines who entrusted her son to her before she died. Toya was Dessalines counsellor in all affairs and when she died, she was given a state funeral. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742895525585-9VQ5INT8TGME2OWDG5TB/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Catherine Flon' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. This interpretation of Catherine Flon by Patricia Brintle shows her wearing an ornately embellished, sleeveless yellow dress—a perhaps more modern style than the one worn by the Catherine Flon of Brintle’s earlier series of revolutionary women. Her head wrap, or madra, is piled high upon her head and tied in a bow. Its decorative function is enhanced by accessories which include gold earrings and a gold necklace and bracelet. Like the women of colonial Saint-Domingue who demonstrated creativity and defiance in the face of sumptuary laws, Brintle’s Catherine Flon channels a similar defiance and ingenuity as she stitches together the Haitian bicolore. Though this symbolic act is believed to have taken place at the Congress of Arcahaie, which saw the unification of revolutionary forces under the military leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Brintle makes Catherine Flon the protagonist of this saga by showing her in isolation, removed from the scene of military diplomacy. By placing her in the natural surroundings of Ayiti’s mountains, she is also rendered a temporally indeterminate figure, which is compounded by the indeterminate periodicity of her clothing. Catherine Flon is thus seen as both a woman of the past—whose creativity stretches back into the colonial imaginary—and also a woman of now—whose skills remain integral to the fabric of Haitian society. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742896556501-RGIJD2FD08W46LXAD7KZ/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Cecile Fatiman' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. This painting depicts Cecile Fatiman, a manbo who, along with Boukman, is said to have presided over the Vodou ceremony at the elusive Bwa Kayiman that cemented the plans for rebellion among the enslaved rebels that took part in the uprisings across the Plaine du Nord in August 1791. Her bright red and orange dress gestures symbolically to the flames that would engulf the plantations set ablaze by the insurgents. Though Brintle’s Fatiman appears far removed from the ceremonial festivities of Bwa Kayiman—a solitary figure flanked by verdant mountains—she carries the paraphernalia that root her in the historical moment: the head of a creole pig—who was sacrificed and whose blood was drunk during the Vodou ceremony—and a drinking vessel displaying the veve, or symbol, of Ogoun—the Vodou lwa associated with fire, often credited with fomenting rebellion in the minds of the enslaved. Like Brintle’s 2021 depiction of Catherine Flon, her representation of Cecile Fatiman is both timeless and modern. Though Fatiman’s existence and the veracity of the ceremony over which she presided have been disputed by some scholars, she thus cements herself as an icon whose symbolic importance in the Haitian popular imagination transcends the limits of conventional historical narratives governed by white colonialist epistemologies. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742896842472-ES6M4VEW3PZFQLT04BAK/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. Like Patricia Brintle’s 2012 representation of Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere, her 2021 interpretation of Marie-Jeanne shows her at the very heart of the scene of military encounter, waving a battle flag and carrying the accoutrements of battle, which include her sword and rifle. Unlike Brintle’s earlier depiction, however, this Marie-Jeanne stands defiantly astride a cannon on top of the ramparts and her banner bears the Kreyòl slogan ‘ABA ESKLAVAJ’: ‘Abolish slavery’. The iconography of Brintle’s painting echoes various historical representations of Marie-Jeanne, including those of Bellegarde, Madiou and Dorsainvil, who all depict her as a sabre-wearing, rifle-brandishing warrior who showed herself to be vital at the decisive battle of Crête-à-Pierrot in the Haitian campaign for independence. Curiously, neither of Brintle’s representations of Marie-Jeanne depict her in the mameluke/mamluk style costume with sirwal/saroual (harem) pants that she is described to have worn by Bellegarde. Instead, she wears a long skirt whose flowing fabric billows in the wind like a flag - an analogy that is compounded by the predominance of red and blue, which evokes the colours of the bicolore. The banner that she brandishes and the political message that it communicates roots her within a historical tradition of protest and activism whose branches extend into the present. That this painting was produced in 2021 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movements and the popular movement against corruption and impunity in Haiti following the Petrocaribe scandal lends weight to this notion. Like the other women in her more recent series of revolutionary women, Brintle’s Marie-Jeanne is shown to be a woman of the past and the present: a woman worthy of historical recognition and restitution, and a source of sustenance and resilience for the fight ahead. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742900269847-7I3WWD2SANQ32CZ1GHNB/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Patricia Brintle, 'Sanite Belair' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. Though rooted Black vernacular aesthetics, Brintle’s depiction of Sanité Belair references the neoclassical and resonates strikingly with Anne-Louis Girodet’s 1797 portrait of Haitian revolutionary Jean-Baptiste Belley. Like the Belley of Girodet’s painting, Sanité leans against a column—a common motif of neoclassical paintings. Unlike in Girodet’s painting, however, Brintle’s Sanité is not placed in conversation with a tradition of white bourgeois intellectualism. Whereas Girodet’s painting—which shows the Abbé Raynal mounted on top of the plinth on which Belley leans—can therefore be seen as a meditation on the abolition of slavery as a project of the Enlightenment, Brintle’s painting pays exclusive tribute to Haitian militarism, creativity and defiance. In this way, Haiti is thrust into the foreground as a protagonist in the universal campaign for abolition as the first nation to universally and permanently abolish slavery. Moreover, by transposing the figure of Sanité onto that of Belley, Brintle reinforces the importance of women’s stories of insurgency. Though she is depicted in full military regalia, complete with epaulettes and bicorn hat as in Richard Barbot’s representations, her androgynous appearance is undercut with allusions to her femininity, such as her gold earrings, her madra and the calla lily which she holds in her right hand. A flower native to the southern African continent, the calla lily also references the circuitous and historic routes taken by Haitian women and women in the Haitian dyaspora. However, the abundance of vegetation, especially the sprawling shrub which reaches up from the ground and brushes against Sanité’s hand, reinforces her rootedness in the Haitian popular imagination. Executed on the orders of Dessalines, Sanité did not get to write her own story; Brintle and others have rehabilitated her in the present. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418043346-ZNSJWYPNB0T7JLJSTQ4X/2+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC8_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 2 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture is a series of watercolour paintings on paper created by Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid OBE in 1987. It consists of 15 works in total, each exhibiting a diptych of two images in conversation with each other. Inspired heavily by C. L. R. James’s seminal text The Black Jacobins, the series celebrates the heroism of revolutionary general Toussaint Louverture. However, it also thrusts into the foreground the unexplored, under-acknowledged and undocumented histories of revolutionary women and the myriad ways that they contributed to the revolutionary saga. In her co-authored book Inside the Invisible: Memorialising Slavery and Freedom in the Life and Works of Lubaina Himid, Himid observes of the series ‘I wanted children to know about this extraordinary episode in the politics of the black diaspora and painted in a way that I hoped would appeal to publishers. In a way, the work resembled a graphic novel with minimal text and was to be read in a linear way. The paintings were done in soft and gently colourful watercolour, sending out friendly and accessible information about ordinary days in the life of an exceptional man.’ In this diptych, the second image in the series, Louverture is shown in repose, reclining on a cot, his discarded clothes and the paraphernalia of war strategy strewn about the space that he inhabits. The captions on the images read ‘An afternoon snooze / who cooked the midday meal?’ and ‘who will do the laundry?’ In asking these questions, Himid not only signifies the absented and undocumented female figure that grand historical narratives so often occlude in their emphasis on military heroism but also gestures to the importance of domestic and emotional labour undertaken largely by women both at home and on the battlefront. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417939081-JUCJV3HHGJQ4CBEB4LMX/4+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC12_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 4 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. In this diptych, the fourth in Lubaina Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series, Himid engages with the themes of fugitivity and marronage. The first image shows a woman in joyous, rhythmic motion, as if in flight, limbs stretching beyond the parameters of the frame, presumably dancing to the sounds of the bamboula drum generated by the synecdochic hand that reaches into the image from beyond the frame. The caption reads ‘The people danced, there was drumming’. The second image in the diptych shows the mountainous terrain that concealed many maroon communities in Saint-Domingue prior to the revolution. Signs of community and rebellious strategies of communication are gestured in the fires that spring up from the hillsides. The caption reads: ‘There were signs across the country from plantation to plantation’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417977829-QY1C7KGR6AJNQ99HU2NP/5+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC9_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 5 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. The fifth diptych in Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series depicts Toussaint in the domestic setting of his home plantation with his wife Suzanne. In the first image of the pairing, Suzanne is shown wearing an orange dress and head wrap seated at a table opposite Toussaint. A map has been spread across the table and several coffee beans, which presumably serve as figurative pawns, are clustered at the edge of the map. The caption reads: ‘Toussaint’s wife lived on a plantation in the interior, and devoted herself to the cultivation of coffee. Whenever Toussaint could escape from his duties he went there.’ The second images focuses in on a single open hand holding a coffee bean, gesturing to the possibility of collaboration and the many ‘hands’ that contributed to revolutionary strategy, but speaking specifically, here, to the strategic contributions of Suzanne. The caption asks: ‘Did she help him with strategy?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418093887-3J9UGL7232IE0VL75VQ5/7+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC13_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 7 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. The images in the seventh diptych from Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture form a mirror to one another. We see, on one side, Toussaint seated at a desk in full military regalia, presumably writing a letter to Suzanne, who is shown in the second image writing back. The lone candlestick serves to highlight the solitude of her environment and signals her foremost importance within the household in Toussaint’s absence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418157159-BJNOXI6V2FTUPYO223OQ/9+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC6_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 9 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. In this diptych, the seventh in the series of Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture we are introduced, once again by way of a synecdochic hand, to another occluded female figure in the saga of Toussaint’s life: that of his mother. The caption to the first image in the diptych, which shows a variety of flora and a collection of grooming implements and vials reads: ‘because of his knowledge of herbs Toussaint was made Physician to the Armies of the King by Biassou - vice-roy of the Conquered Territories.’ The second image shows two hands juxtaposed with one another: one larger and, we are led to infer, representing Toussaint’s absented mother and the other representing the childlike hand of Toussaint. Each hand is shown cupping the natural components that, we are led to assume, form the basis of one of the healing concoctions that line shelf that floats above the scene. The caption reads ‘did his mother teach him everything he knew?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592491894532-UTQF1QNIQE92WKAT8QIT/15+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC5_1988+copy.jpg Gallery - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 15 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. This diptych, the fifteenth in Himid’s Scenes of the Life series, explores the challenges confronting military wives and mothers and the general strain of military life on domestic normality as we are introduced, for the first time, to Louverture’s adult sons Isaac and Placide. The caption to the first image reads: ‘His own son Isaac declared for France / but L’Ouverture made him stay’. The caption to the second image reads: ‘Placide the son of Mme. L’Ouverture promised to fight for Freedom and was given command of a battalion.’ The diptych is unique, however, in that, in addition to the individual image captions, a single overarching caption unites the two images amplifying a nondescript voice of parental authority. It reads: ‘France or San Domingo, my children make your choice / whatever it is I shall always love you’. Though the mention of ‘his own son’ in the caption to the first image might lead us to assume that this ‘voice’ represents the voice of Toussaint, the presence of Suzanne in this same image unsettles any simplistic correlation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975371428-3OAISMW5PXDVUD37ZFUC/20200716_141747.jpg Gallery - Richard Barbot, 'Sanité Bélair' (2019). Acrylic and oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. © Richard Barbot. Born in Port-au-Prince in 1961, Richard Barbot now lives in Montreal. An artist and illustrator, he was commissioned in 2004 by the Banque de la République d’Haïti to produce a bust of Sanité Bélair for the 10 gourdes banknote issued in commemoration of the bicentenary of Haiti’s independence (reproduced below). Sanité remains a figure of interest for Barbot, as reflected in this more recent work, which shows her in full military regalia, complete with epaulettes and a bicorn hat. Barbot describes Sanité as ‘one of the most symbolic heroines of Haiti’s independence. In the face of betrayal and death she demonstrated unmatched bravery and strength.’ Her furrowed brows encode a story of strain and strife, reminding us that, like many other women who contributed to the revolutionary saga, she made epic sacrifices. Speaking of his motivation behind the painting, Barbot observed ‘History tends to erase the traces of women who have played an important role in the past. I find it important to represent them so that their memory will last.’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597163097736-YMYDA8D0CZKDOVPYGJTX/Belair4_Pluto_Forsdick.jpg Gallery - Kimathi Donkor, 'Charles and Sanite Belair' (2002). Oil on canvas, 13cm x 13cm. © Kimathi Donkor. Based in London, Kimathi Donkor is a contemporary artist of Ghanaian, Jamaican and Anglo-Jewish heritage. Many of his artworks recreate historical scenes of Black Atlantic heroism, often striving to amplify stories elsewhere invisibilised and occluded in white, colonialist histories. Several of his works focus on figures from the Haitian revolutionary saga. This image features as its protagonists Charles and Sanité Belair, who are shown nestled in a clifftop clearing between island and sea, surrounded by wild tobacco, cotton, sugar and indigo - the lucrative crops of colonial slavery. Capturing a rare moment of tranquility and solitude, it presents a vision of Sanité that contradicts the character envisioned by historical chroniclers such as Madiou, who describes her as a ‘brigande’ and imagines her as the protagonist of violent atrocities avowedly committed by the renegade indigènes with whom she was associated. While she is so often depicted in artistic renderings in military regalia, she is here depicted wearing a delicate blue empire-line gown with a kerchief or madra in a matching hue tied around her head, emphasising her femininity. She is shown in the loving embrace of her husband, their limbs interlocking and their hands interlaced around a musket as if in anticipation of impending assault. By envisioning her thus, Donkor humanises and renders fallible the woman immortalised in public history as a ‘tigress’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597849728362-1KUAPWX924RAC0H0OE8R/Mme+Cheruxis.jpg Gallery - Anonymous, Dame Eléonore Cheruxi (Richeux) de la Roche Asnière. Oil on canvas. Collection Maryse/Alex Von Lignau Dame Cheruxi was a lady-in-waiting in the company of Marie-Louise Christophe during the era of the Haitian Kingdom (1811-1820). She was also Marie-Louise’s purported goddaughter. Accorded the court name ‘Coeur enflammé’, Dame Cheruxi was born in 1803 to a woman of colour named Marie-Augustine Langlois and a Frenchman by the name of Richeux de la Roche Asnière (Cheruxi is an anagram of Richeux) who left Saint-Domingue for a brief period around this time owing to the revolutionary unrest. At the time of her birth, interracial marital unions were still legally forbidden, but Richeux left a notarised document acknowledging his paternity. He returned to Haiti in 1806 but died shortly afterwards from Tetanus. The descendants of Dame Cheruxi have preserved a number of items from her personal collection, including (in addition to this portrait), hair clips, jewellery, and a dress donated in 2015 to the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien (MUPANAH). She is depicted here in a rare nineteenth-century portrait by an unknown artist wearing a chemise gown with gathered sleeves, tapered waist and exposed décolletage similar to the chemise gown now in MUPANAH’s collection. It is edged with lace fringe and she is shown to be wearing a string of pearls and gold earrings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594226912057-S7BQOM6MSLZCCKS646V1/Sc+C71+%3A+YT+PA72+150+Ans.jpg Gallery - 1954 Stamp, 150ème Anniversaire de l'Indépendance Nationale (1804-1954), Sc C71 / YT PA72 © The Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, produced as part of a series for the 150th anniversary of Haiti’s independence in 1954, depicts a scene from the siege of Crête-à-Pierrot, a decisive battle in the Haitian Revolution. The illustration used for the series commemorates the heroic deeds of Marie-Jeanne, a female soldier said to have been the wife of Louis Daure Lamartinière, who is shown flanking her on the right. While Marie-Jeanne represents an enigmatic figure whose story has been highly mythologised by the chroniclers of Haitian history, the circulation of her image via stamps and coinage at significant moments of national remembrance has nevertheless served to rehabilitate within the national imaginary acts of female heroism that have been largely undocumented, marginalised and neglected. In this illustration, Marie-Jeanne is shown wearing a long tunic with a kerchief or madra on her head. Her arms are raised at her side as if to form a protective shield against the insurgent French army. In her right hand she holds a sword and a rifle is slung over her back. This representation echoes imagery that we find in Bellegarde, where she is described in these exact terms. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235066793-Z759HMSJSHKZR8R2Z4MU/Sc+C292+%3A+YTPA366.jpg Gallery - 1968 Stamp, Cérémonie du Bois Caïman - 14 Août 1791, Sc C292 / YTPA366 © Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, issued in 1968, features artwork produced by the Haitian painter Raoul Dupoux (1906-1988) depicting the Vodou ceremony at Alligator Wood (Bois Caïman or Bwa Kayiman) led by the houngan Boukman and the manbo Cécile Fatiman in August 1791. The event is believed to have triggered the slave rebellion that broke out on August 23 and led to a series of insurgencies across the northern territory of Saint-Domingue thereafter. Much like the ceremony itself, the story of Cécile Fatiman is highly contentious, some anecdotal accounts suggesting that she may have been a sister of Marie-Louise Christophe (conflating her history, it would seem, with that of Généviève Coidavid Pierrot). In this image by Dupoux, Fatiman is depicted in a white dress (white has a special ceremonial significance in Vodou) and a red head kerchief or madra. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235094759-DJ2D25OFOG0YA3AY731D/Sc+852+%3A+YT+PA663+200+Ans.jpg Gallery - 1991 Stamp, 200 Ans du Soulèvement Général des Esclaves, Sc 852 / YT PA663 © Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, issued in 1991 in commemoration of the bicentenary of the slave insurgency that marked the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, features another image of the Bois Caïman/Bwa Kayiman ceremony. The image chimes with many popular accounts which hold that the ceremony was marked by the sacrifice of a kreyòl pig. Cécile Fatiman is shown at the centre of the image, standing next to a kneeling Boukman in a white tunic and bandana or madra, with the sacrificial pig at her feet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310585323-N821372ENDIE9YZJ1K45/1820+Coin+R.png Gallery - Une Gourde (Revers), Kingdom of Haiti (1820), (KM) Pn 37, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade This 1 Gourde coin from the collection of Joseph Guerdy Lissade was minted in 1820 by the Kingdom of Haiti. It is unique in that the reverse-side of the coin is inscribed not only with the initials of Henry (H), but also of Marie-Louise (ML) Christophe (the M and L interlaced). Marie-Louise was the only woman to have lived through the revolution to be recognised on official Haitian coinage in the period of early sovereignty and remains one of only several identifiable women in Haiti’s history to be recognised on state-issued coinage at all. It bears the familiar motif from Christophe’s coat of arms of a phoenix rising from the flames encircled by the words ‘EX CINERABUS NASCITUR’ (Je renais de mes cendres/I am reborn from my ashes). The central motif and both sets of initials are topped with the emblem of a crown. The outer rim bears the motto ‘DEUS CAUSA ATQUE GLADIUS MEUS’ (‘Dieu, ma cause et mon épée/God, my cause and my sword). The obverse bears the bust of Henry I crowned in a laurel wreath in military uniform overlaid with a classical-style chiton with the motto ‘HENRICUS DEI GRATIA HAITI REX’ (Henry roi d’Haïti par la grâce de Dieu/Henry king of Haiti by the grace of God). See Joseph Guerdy Lissade, Henricus Dei Gracia Haiti Rex: Monnaies et Médailles de l’Etat d’Hayti, 1807-1811 et du Royaume d’Hayti, 1811-1820 (Grissom Company, 2007), pp. 20, 71. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310584591-XG6QQOEKQYRZFUQ5X5TM/thumbnail_KM%23+69+Marie+Jeanne+1970+100gdes+OR+avers.jpg Gallery - Commemorative 100 Gourdes Non-Circulating Coin (Avers), 1970, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade This commemorative 100 gourdes coin, minted in 1970 during the reign of François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, is inscribed on the obverse with the name and bust of Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière. As in the 1954 commemorative stamp, Marie Jeanne is depicted wielding a sabre or machete with a bandana or madra on her head, her hair trailing defiantly out of the sides (once again recalling the vision of Bellegarde, who describes her ‘bonnet’ which ‘emprisonnait son opulente chevelure dont les mèches rebelles débordaient de la coiffure’). The reverse bears the Haitian coat of arms and a banner inscribed with the motto ‘L’UNION FAIT LA FORCE’ (Strength in Unity). The outer rim is inscribed with the words ‘LIBERTÉ ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975121473-OSWCT0LF2ZNFCV1HCD8B/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - 10 Gourdes Banknote, Bicentenaire de l'Indépendance d'Haïti/Bisantè Endepandans Dayiti, Collection Richard Barbot This commemorative 10 gourdes banknote was issued in 2004 to mark the bicentenary of Haitian independance, proclaimed by Jean-Jacques Dessalines on 1 January 1804. It features an artistic reconceptualisation of Suzanne ‘Sanité’ Bélair, produced by Haitian artist Richard Barbot. Sanité, described by Thomas Madiou only as ‘la femme’ of General Charles Bélair, is recounted as having fought at his side during the Haitian revolutionary conflict. Often unforgiving, the chroniclers of Haitian history have emphasised ‘les barbaries’ committed at the hands of Sanité who, along with Bélair, broke from Dessalines and other revolutionary compatriots still then fighting under the banner of the French flag. Along with a handful of other renegades, they led a failed insurgency, subsequent to which Sanité was captured. According to Madiou, Bélair, unable to bear his separation from Sanité, gave himself up to French colonial forces. The prisoners were granted no clemency by their captors and were sentenced to death on 5 October 1802 (Bélair by firing squad, in recognition of his rank as a brigadier general, and Sanité by decapitation). As Madiou recounts, Sanité demanded that she, too, be granted a soldier’s execution. Purportedly refusing a blindfold, she heeded her husband’s entreaty to die bravely. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597850150820-XZ5WO2P1VCBB44VREM16/Cheruxi+Dress+01.jpeg Gallery - Robe longue en mousseline de coton blanc (c. 1830). Collection Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien. This dress, donated to MUPANAH in 2015 and formerly in the collection of Maryse Von Lignau, belonged to Dame Cheruxi, once lady-in-waiting in the royal court of Christophe. Painstakingly restored in Paris by textile restorer Ségolène Bonnet, it is described as a white cotton muslin gown. It is held together at the back with metal fastenings and has a bodice reinforced by whalebone. It features a wide hem and fine floral embroidery which forms a garland around the width of the skirt. Such a piece was likely to have been manufactured in Europe - a clear indicator of wealth and status. Though it has many of the features of cotton chemise gowns that were popular in the French Atlantic (both in the metropole and in the colonies) from the late eighteenth century onwards (including the gathered sleeves that were made iconic by Marie-Antoinette) and was initially described as a ‘robe Empire’, the lower waistline is indicative of the fact that the dress is probably from a slightly later period, according to Bonnet (around 1830). Such material artefacts offer rich, personalised insights into the lives of women so often obscured and occluded in colonialist archives, bearing witness to the creative strategies used by women to make meaning in the age of slavery and beyond. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600381586889-CT3GOKSU6JZP6OTE8TTY/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Armes de la Reine, College of Arms MS J.P. 177, Armorial General du Royaume d'Hayti, fol. 2r. Reproduced by permission of the Kings, Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms Queen Marie-Louise Christophe (née Coidavid) was the only woman from the court of Henry Christophe to be honoured with her own heraldic arms. As an elite woman of colour, Marie-Louise left more indelible traces than the numerous and nameless women who contributed vitally to Haiti’s revolutionary founding who have nevertheless been occluded from the archives and, subsequently, marginalised in written history. Forged in the fires of anticolonial revolution, Haiti became the first independent Black republic in 1804 and was the first country in the world to permanently, unequivocally and universally abolish slavery. For some, Christophe’s Kingdom of Haiti (established in 1811) represents a betrayal of its revolutionary values and its radical founding. However, within the context of a hostile, white-supremacist, colonialist North Atlantic world, the Kingdom of Haiti represented the very apotheosis of Black radicalism. The Queen’s arms mirror those of the King’s with a phoenix rising from the flames against a field of blue surrounded by a semy of bees and a banner bearing the motto for the Kingdom, ‘JE RENAIS DE MES CENDRES’ (I am reborn from my ashes). The field is upheld by two crowned lions and encircled by a garland of roses (in place of a chain and pendant of the royal and military Order of St Henry which features in the King’s arms). They are poised on a banner bearing the Queen’s motto ‘DIEU PROTE!GE LE ROI’ (God save the King). A more detailed account of the heraldic symbolism of these and other arms can be found in the College of Arms’s manuscript on The Armorial of Haiti: Symbols of Nobility in the Reign of Henry Christophe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599132996633-WMXL5AMM0T49LWYV8C4Z/J+Clarke+Sans+Souci+Engraving.png Gallery - J. Clarke, engraving of Sans Souci Palace, from Charles Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti made during a residence in that republic, H. Colburn and R. Bentley (1830), Volume II. There remain only a handful of artworks and engravings of Sans Souci palace, the principal royal residence of Henry and Marie-Louise Christophe, that show its structure intact prior to the earthquake that precipitated its destruction in 1842. Located in Milot, approximately 5 miles from the mountaintop fortress Citadelle Laferrière (Citadelle Henry), the palace was completed between 1811 and 1813. Though Sans Souci, like the Citadelle, became for some early chroniclers of Haitian history a symbol of Christophe’s ruthlessness and tyranny (an indeterminate number of labourers were conscripted to work on its construction), it serves as a monumental reminder of the lengths to which Christophe went to cultivate a spirit of refinement and sovereign pride for the nascent Black kingdom. During Christophe’s reign, Sans Souci bore witness to a number of feasts and public celebrations and hosted a number of international dignitaries who later recalled the splendour of the palace in their memoirs and correspondence. One of the most widely publicised events to take place at Sans Souci was the ‘fête de la reine’: the 12-day feast held in honour of Queen Marie-Louise’s birthday that began on August 14 1816 recounted by Christophe’s ‘spin doctor’, Baron Pompée Valentin Vastey in his ‘Relation de la fête de … la Reine’. Though it is difficult to precisely determine Marie-Louise’s influence on Sans Souci from the ruined fragments that remain, and from the scattered documents that, owing to political upheavals after the fall of the kingdom, were subject to neglect and displacement, a handful of accounts remain that offer revealing snapshots. European newspaper accounts, for example, reveal that Marie-Louise made ‘large purchases … in Bremen, and other Hanseatic cities … of services for the table, brilliants, pearls, &c.’ which were paid for ‘in ready money, at high prices’. Similar accounts give detailed insights into court dresses manufactured in Europe for the queen and princesses. Beyond her influence on the material objects that contributed to the refinement of Sans Souci, historical accounts reveal that she also oversaw a ceremonial troop of all-female ‘Amazones’ who paraded on feast days. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589561340221-7C97TVDRJYF5MX0XVE1C/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Henry Davy, Playford Hall (1841). Etching. © The Trustees of the British Museum. This 1841 etching shows the front entrance to Playford Hall, as approached from the drive. Playford Hall was the Suffolk residence of the Clarkson family, and became a haven for Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters after they fled Haiti for England in 1821. They stayed there for several months, passing the winter with the Clarksons, before settling in a house in Blackheath, Kent. The caption reads: Playford Hall, Suffolk, the Residence of Thomas Clarkson Esq. M. A. One of the first and greatest Advocates for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This Hall was the Seat of Thomas Felton, Bar. (Comptroller of the Household to Queen Anne;) whose sole Daughter & Heir Elizabeth married to John first Earl of Bristol, 1695. it is now the property of the Marquis of Bristol. it is said to have had four sides surrounding a Court-yard, with a Draw-bridge on the East & Gallery on the South: Drawn Etched & Published by Henry Davy, Globe Street, Ipswich May 26, 1841. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599141476622-LYH2200BYS99BEZNCM5I/FCO+Historical+Collection+FOL+F1924+HEN+King%27s+College+London.jpg Gallery - Coloured print of Sans Souci, the palace of Henry Christophe. From: Henri Christophe, King of Haiti. Copie de lettres [manuscript] 1805-6 [FCO Historical Collection FOL. F1924 HEN]. This coloured print from 1822 shows the palace of Sans Souci two years after the fall of the Kingdom of Hayti. Beside Sans Souci to its left sits the church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which would have been a familiar vista to the Christophes and is identifiable by its distinctive duomo which has been restored on several occasions throughout its life-cycle. Despite the damage it has sustained in the last 200 years, the church had been one of the best preserved relics of the period of early Haitian sovereignty up until April 2020 when the church was engulfed by fire and the duomo was completely destroyed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600374586857-H9Z153GYFTF16TDV1NZE/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - 49 Weymouth Street (formerly 30 Weymouth Street), Marylebone, London This was the last known English residence of Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters. They lived at this address until September 1824, when they departed for Europe, never to return again to England. Their residency in Weymouth Street is confirmed in a letter that was sent by Marie-Louise to Catherine Clarkson shortly before her departure and in her last will and testament. The specific location of the address at number 30 (now number 49) is verified by an advertisement posted in the London papers for the sale of ‘Madame Christophe’s’ household property and also by the rate books for the Parish of St Marylebone for the period of 1824. Built between 1789-1790 as part of the Portland Estate development, this Georgian townhouse remains largely unaltered, despite the substantial shelling to which the area was subjected during the Blitz. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600375424271-ZH6E8IFKNHCOUTSOOBV6/IMG_0170.JPG Gallery - 5 Exmouth Place (formerly Exmouth Cottage), West Hill, Hastings Marie-Louise Christophe, together with her daughters, Améthisse and Athénaïre, stayed at this house for at least several weeks in October 1822. Listed in the Hastings Guide of 1822 as one of two holiday lets owned by a Mr Fagg (the second being the adjacent Exmouth House). Both houses were built as a speculation, the former being completed in 1821, several years after the completion of the latter in 1817. As such, Marie-Louise would’ve been among the first guests of the newly-built house in a fashionable, emerging seaside spa. A letter sent to Catherine Clarkson by Athénaïre on 26 October 1822 offers a detailed account of this stay. During their stay, they were visited by the ‘demoiselles Thornton’, the daughters of the abolitionist Henry Thornton and later wards of Sir Robert Inglis, who recalled a journey to London from Hastings with one of the Christophe daughters in his 1840 travel diaries after a chance encounter with Marie-Louise in Pisa. The letter testifies that the women found the seaside climate of Hastings to be much milder and much more accommodating than at Blackheath, helping to alleviate the effects of Marie-Louise’s rheumatism. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678362525571-7E9SQQ9OC3R34X9DSG7U/image-asset.jpeg Gallery - Villa Ducale (Casa Bolongaro), Stresa The photograph shows the façade of the Villa Ducale, or Casa/Palazzo Bolongaro, once home to the writer and philosopher Antonio Rosmini and now home to the Centro Internazionale di Studi Rosminiani. Nestled on the shore of Lake Maggiore in Stresa, Piemonte, it was here that, in 1839, Marie-Louise Christophe sought solace at the invitation of Anna Maria Bolongaro after the sudden death of her daughter Athénaïre. Though little is known about the exact details of Athénaïre’s tragic and unexpected passing (anecdotal accounts suggest that she suffered a fall in the mountains), the parochial archives, held in the Chiesa Parrocchiale just adjacent to the villa, hold her sparse and incomplete death record. Anna Maria Bolongaro, widowed in 1818, established a reputation as a benefactor of the arts, education and the church (much like Marie-Louise). She welcomed many notable personages to her home, including Antonio Rosmini, who became a firm friend and later heir to the Villa Ducale. It is in the letters of Gustavo Filippo Benso, Marquis of Cavour (province of Turin), who, like Anna Maria Bolongaro, was a close associate of Antonio Rosmini, that we learn of Marie-Louise’s sense of indebtedness to Anna-Maria. Writing to Rosmini from Turin in December 1839, he observed that: ’Quando veda in Stresa la Sig.a Bolongaro mi farebbe piacere dicendole chevedo ben sovente qui la disgraziata ex-regina di Haiti, che è vivamente compresa di riconoscenza verso questa Signora per le gentilezze e benefizi ricevutine quest’autunno … L’antica Regina di Haiti partendo dal Piemonte ove forse non, avrà occasionedi ritornare, m’incarica di fare pervenire a Madama Bolongaro i suoi riconoscenti saluti coll’assicurazione ch’essa non dimenticherà mai i benefizi ricevuti daquest’ottima signora; essa manda pure distinti complimenti all’Abate Branzini.’ ’When I see Madam Bolongaro in Stresa, I would be pleased to tell her that I very often see the unfortunate ex-Queen of Haiti here, who is deeply grateful to this Lady for the kindnesses and benefits received from her this autumn … The former Queen of Haiti, leaving from Piemonte, where perhaps she will not have the opportunity to return, instructs me to send Madam Bolongaro her grateful greetings with the assurance that she will never forget the benefits received from this excellent lady; she also sends distinguished compliments to Abbot Branzini.’ Given the depth of Marie-Louise’s avowed gratitude towards Anna Maria Bolongaro, we might imagine that she found some comfort in the company of like-minded people at the Villa Ducale, despite the immensity of her loss. https://www.fanmrebel.com/resources daily 0.75 2025-03-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1596215878143-IBRMVW8A8TQLYZCL9P66/403990_408758289134918_1405335091_n.jpg Resources https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1596216428097-4SX2SQLHUPTJDFBNHESM/picture1-3.jpg Resources https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597145348614-7GBBSK20AYJHGNU6R0A3/image0.jpeg Resources https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1596213988340-PPOJPCC9Y8G8WO3H8EEP/coll.jpg Resources https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1596214711098-GPQ0HI4VZ8ECD2772IHW/marronnage-0beb1.jpg Resources https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599146884652-OK1R4M7D3XKJNIKSVOMK/1_01.png Resources https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1596214190143-KWC7RANNYVTG94W4GGPX/Screenshot+2020-07-31+at+17.49.20.png Resources https://www.fanmrebel.com/ht/galri daily 0.75 2021-09-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589565295596-P2SGMHLYA7W94W2SDG9V/Catherine+Flon+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2011.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Catherine Flon' (2011). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in. Patricia Brintle is a Haitian-born artist who is now resident in Whitestone, NY. This painting, depicting the purported ‘god-daughter’ of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the nurse and seamstress Catherine Flon, forms part of a series of acrylic paintings by Brintle articulating the stories of Haitian women revolutionaries. Brintle’s caption reads as follows: Catherine Flon was a seamstress and the god-daughter of Jean Jacques Dessalines, the leader of the Haitian revolution. During the Congress of Arcahaie (May 14 to May 18, 1803) in the town of Arcahaie, two essential points were agreed upon by Dessalines and Petion, the two principal leaders of Haiti at that time: The establishment of a revolutionary army under the supreme authority of Dessalines and the adoption of a flag for that army. On the last day of the Congress, May 18, 1803, Dessalines removed the white band from the French flag and gave the remaining blue and red portions to Catherine Flon who sewed them and turned the bands to their side. The Haitian flag was born. Once it was sewn, the generals of the Haitian Revolution solemnly swore a pledge of allegiance to liberty or death on the flag. This oath was to lead the slaves to victory and freedom. That pledge is called the Oath of the Ancestors. Since then, May 18 has been observed as the Haitian Flag Day. It is a major national holiday and an occasion for parades, marches and pageants. Catherine Flon is regarded as one of the great heroines of the Haitian revolution and independence. In this artwork, the artist depicts the moment when, a year after the creation of the flag, Petion sought the help of Catherine to sew the arms of the republic on the bicolor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592408117336-3KEPW3VYB2KMB5UHTPIZ/Marie+Jeanne+Lamartiniere+48x36+Acrylic+on+canvas+2012.jpg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere' (2012). Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 26 in. This painting, from Patricia Brintle’s series on Haitian revolutionary women, depicts Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière (thought to have been the companion of Louis Daure Lamartinière) who is recounted as having fought among the troops during the conclusive revolutionary battle at Crête-à-Pierrot in March 1802. Brintle’s caption reads: Marie Jeanne Lamartiniere is considered one of the heroines of the Haitian revolution. Little is known of her except that she fought valiantly during the battle of the Crete-a-Pierrot next to her husband, Brigade Commander Louis Daure Lamartiniere. She could be seen over the fortifications, carbine in hand, saber at her side, distributing ammunitions, lighting canons, and constantly encouraging the soldiers to keep fighting. The fort was besieged by the French and all seemed lost when word came from Dessalines that the fort was to be evacuated immediately. That same night, on March 24th, 1802, most escaped when the besieged rebels fought their way through more than 10,000 French troops. This withdrawal was a remarkable feat and won Lamartiniere a name among the heroes of Haiti’s independence. We do not know for sure what became of Marie Jeanne after the retreat from the Crete-a-Pierrot, but it is her bravery, fearlessness and intrepid boldness that make her unforgettable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592413266148-6N0A8T594R3SVSF3IZ8E/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'DEDEE BAZILE also known as DEFILEE LA FOLLE' (2008). Acrylic on masonite, 24 x 36 in. This painting - the first in the series of revolutionary women to be created by Brintle - depicts Dédée Bazile, so-called ‘Défilée la folle’. According to the historical narrative, Bazile served as a sutler and led a battalion in Dessalines’ revolutionary army. It is thought that her nickname derives in part from her battle-charge ‘Defilez, defilez!’ (March, march!) After Dessalines was ambushed and assassinated at Pont-Rouge in 1806, Bazile is purported to have recovered his dismembered body parts and carried them to his final resting place. This image evocatively tells that story of grief and re-assembly. Brintle’s caption reads as follows: We do not know why Defilee was given the surname of La Folle (the madwoman); in fact, not very much is known of Defilee, yet her actions are the epitome of the Corporal Works of Mercy. She was born near Le Cap of slave parents and worked as a peddler. It was said that she so greatly admired Jean Jacques Dessalines that she followed his troops wherever they went. It is this constant admiration that would put Defilee in the proximity of Dessalines when on October 17, 1806 he was ambushed (supposedly by Petion and Christophe) and assassinated at the Pont Rouge, just north of Port-au-Prince. His mutilated body was thrown about. Diligently and without a word, Defilee gathered the remains of her hero in a burlap sack and placed him on one of the tombs inside the cemetery in Port-au-Prince. President Petion subsequently sent two corporals to clandestinely bury Dessalines without official ceremony. Later, a tomb was erected on the remains by Mrs. Iginac which carries the inscription: “Here Lies Dessalines - Dead at 48.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678189523436-1EYZUEELURNOB2SG7I7G/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Uncommon Warrior' (2020). Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in. From Patricia Brintle’s artistic book project exploring the Thirteen Years of the Haitian Revolution, this image celebrates the struggles of the numerous and nameless women who participated in the revolutionary cause through acts of diversion, subterfuge and sagacity. Such women were essential vectors, facilitating the gains made by Haiti’s gwò nègs on the revolutionary battlefield. Brintle notes of such women that ‘The part [they] played in the revolution was vital, yet not as noted as that of men because their roles were not so much on the battleground as in the background of the battles. They were the support group without whom the revolution would not have been successful. They were the ones to bind the wounds and feed the troops; they were the spies, the couriers, the cooks, and the nurses; they were the business managers, the store keepers, the hôtelières and the entertainers; and they were the ones raising the children who would grow up to be the future of this proud nation.’ Brintle’s caption for this artwork reads as follows: This proud woman sits elegantly with her legs crossed. She wears the colors of the Haitian flag. On her lap she carries a basket of fruit and some bread. On her side is a table with a bowl and some dishes. She waits patiently for a tired and hungry soldier from the French army to trade ammunitions - see the guns under her basket and pistols under her belt and foot. The Haitian revolution is in full swing but the French soldiers are ill equipped to fight under the hot sun. Many, like General Leclerc, succumb to yellow fever; they are hot, hungry and discouraged. These brave women from the plantations trade food for ammunition with the French soldiers and give those to the indigenous army thereby doing their part to win the war. Victory came on December 4, 1803 when Jean Jacques Dessalines won over French forces under the command of General Rochambeau during the battle of Vertieres, near Cap Francais in the north of Haiti. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678195994827-ATY35BX0JR1NI1MY7CEQ/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Madame Dessalines (Merciful Intercession)' (2019). Acrylic on Canvas, 40x30 in. Another artwork from Brintle’s Thirteen Years series, this image depicts Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur, who, as the wife of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, became the first ‘first woman’ (and later, Empress) of Haiti. Renowned anecdotally as a woman of kindness and compassion, as a nurse and caregiver invested in the idea of educational uplift, she is remembered in the memoirs of the French physician and natural historian Michel Étienne Descourtilz for interceding in his execution ordered by Dessalines. She is represented here in a domestic setting, with a tall, white head wrap tied neatly around her head. Together with her white shawl and cross pendant, her clothing and adornments converge to convey an image of modesty, virtue and devotion. That she wears the colours associated with the Haitian bicolore (curiously not the red and black of the Dessalinian imperial flag but the red and blue of the flag avowedly sewn together by Catherine Flon at the Congress of Arcahaie that became symbolic of the indigènes’ claim to independent statehood) is indicative of her symbolic importance as a woman who helped to shape a sovereign Haiti, free from colonial rule. Dessalines is only figured synecdochically - in the representation of his military uniform, sabre and boots, arranged neatly by the door, and of his bicorne, which Marie-Claire rests upon her lap. By gesturing to Dessalines’s presence ‘beyond the frame’ of this artwork and centring Marie-Claire, Brintle significantly shifts the focus of conventional revolutionary narratives that privilege the accomplishments of military men and gesture only fleetingly to the contributions of their companions. Brintle’s caption reads: Here we see the wife of Dessalines, Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite, at dawn waiting for her husband to dress. His uniform is ready, boots are clean and shiny, and she holds his bicorn on her lap. She is a very pious woman and is known for interceding with Dessalines to allow her to feed hungry Haitians during the siege of Jacmel. Following the victory at Vertieres, French General Rochambeau was given ten days to leave with his troops. It was agreed that Dessalines would send the wounded and prisoners back to France. But she knows the fierceness of her husband and wants to plead for the life of the prisoners and ask they be allowed, as promised, to France. History tells us that Dessalines did not listen to her pleas. Instead, he ordered the death of all French and French Creoles from January to April 1804 which resulted in the massacre of close to 5,000 people. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678207198741-G1BDBLK28RJKG1XSXHK8/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Victoria and Jean Jacques' (2020). Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in. This image from Patricia Brintle’s series of paintings for Thirteen Years depicts Victoria ‘Toya’ Montou alongside Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Said to have been Dessalines’s aunt, the little we know of Toya’s contribution to the revolutionary cause comes to us from a few lines in the memoir of a physician named Jean-Baptiste Mirambeau. According to Mirambeau’s narrative, Montou commanded a small regiment of rebel soldiers during the revolutionary conflict. Dessalines, who attended Montou on her deathbed in 1805, is claimed to have said to her nurse, ‘This woman is my aunt, take care of her as you would have taken care of me myself, she had to undergo like me all the sorrows, all the emotions during the time that we were condemned side by side to work in the fields.’ Depicted here in sumptuous garments of red and gold, Montou’s appearance is almost regal, greatly overshadowing the figure of Dessalines, who is envisioned in the plain and commonplace garments that he would have worn as an enslaved field labourer prior to the revolution. In this way, we see that the histories of Haiti’s great military men extend beyond the military moment, and comprise, above all, the stories of others - of families both real and forged in adversity, of communities, elders and mentors, and of the women so vital to those networks. Brintle’s caption reads: The scene finds a young Jean Jacques Dessalines in deep conversation with his aunt Gran Toya. Victoria Montou, also known as Adbaraya Toya was a female soldier and freedom fighter in the army of Jean Jacques Dessalines. Before the revolution Toya worked alongside Dessalines as a slave. Intelligent and energetic she fought as a soldier in active service and even commanded soldiers during battle. She had great influence on many who fought in the revolution. She was from Dahomey, now Benin, where she served as a member of the council of women in the kingdom known as the Dahomey Amazons who fought to protect the kingdom. She was a healer and worked on the Cormier plantation where she became close to Marie Elisabeth, the mother of Dessalines who entrusted her son to her before she died. Toya was Dessalines counsellor in all affairs and when she died, she was given a state funeral. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742895525585-9VQ5INT8TGME2OWDG5TB/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Catherine Flon' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. This interpretation of Catherine Flon by Patricia Brintle shows her wearing an ornately embellished, sleeveless yellow dress—a perhaps more modern style than the one worn by the Catherine Flon of Brintle’s earlier series of revolutionary women. Her head wrap, or madra, is piled high upon her head and tied in a bow. Its decorative function is enhanced by accessories which include gold earrings and a gold necklace and bracelet. Like the women of colonial Saint-Domingue who demonstrated creativity and defiance in the face of sumptuary laws, Brintle’s Catherine Flon channels a similar defiance and ingenuity as she stitches together the Haitian bicolore. Though this symbolic act is believed to have taken place at the Congress of Arcahaie, which saw the unification of revolutionary forces under the military leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Brintle makes Catherine Flon the protagonist of this saga by showing her in isolation, removed from the scene of military diplomacy. By placing her in the natural surroundings of Ayiti’s mountains, she is also rendered a temporally indeterminate figure, which is compounded by the indeterminate periodicity of her clothing. Catherine Flon is thus seen as both a woman of the past—whose creativity stretches back into the colonial imaginary—and also a woman of now—whose skills remain integral to the fabric of Haitian society. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742896556501-RGIJD2FD08W46LXAD7KZ/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Cecile Fatiman' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. This painting depicts Cecile Fatiman, a manbo who, along with Boukman, is said to have presided over the Vodou ceremony at the elusive Bwa Kayiman that cemented the plans for rebellion among the enslaved rebels that took part in the uprisings across the Plaine du Nord in August 1791. Her bright red and orange dress gestures symbolically to the flames that would engulf the plantations set ablaze by the insurgents. Though Brintle’s Fatiman appears far removed from the ceremonial festivities of Bwa Kayiman—a solitary figure flanked by verdant mountains—she carries the paraphernalia that root her in the historical moment: the head of a creole pig—who was sacrificed and whose blood was drunk during the Vodou ceremony—and a drinking vessel displaying the veve, or symbol, of Ogoun—the Vodou lwa associated with fire, often credited with fomenting rebellion in the minds of the enslaved. Like Brintle’s 2021 depiction of Catherine Flon, her representation of Cecile Fatiman is both timeless and modern. Though Fatiman’s existence and the veracity of the ceremony over which she presided have been disputed by some scholars, she thus cements herself as an icon whose symbolic importance in the Haitian popular imagination transcends the limits of conventional historical narratives governed by white colonialist epistemologies. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742896842472-ES6M4VEW3PZFQLT04BAK/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. Like Patricia Brintle’s 2012 representation of Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere, her 2021 interpretation of Marie-Jeanne shows her at the very heart of the scene of military encounter, waving a battle flag and carrying the accoutrements of battle, which include her sword and rifle. Unlike Brintle’s earlier depiction, however, this Marie-Jeanne stands defiantly astride a cannon on top of the ramparts and her banner bears the Kreyòl slogan ‘ABA ESKLAVAJ’: ‘Abolish slavery’. The iconography of Brintle’s painting echoes various historical representations of Marie-Jeanne, including those of Bellegarde, Madiou and Dorsainvil, who all depict her as a sabre-wearing, rifle-brandishing warrior who showed herself to be vital at the decisive battle of Crête-à-Pierrot in the Haitian campaign for independence. Curiously, neither of Brintle’s representations of Marie-Jeanne depict her in the mameluke/mamluk style costume with sirwal/saroual (harem) pants that she is described to have worn by Bellegarde. Instead, she wears a long skirt whose flowing fabric billows in the wind like a flag - an analogy that is compounded by the predominance of red and blue, which evokes the colours of the bicolore. The banner that she brandishes and the political message that it communicates roots her within a historical tradition of protest and activism whose branches extend into the present. That this painting was produced in 2021 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movements and the popular movement against corruption and impunity in Haiti following the Petrocaribe scandal lends weight to this notion. Like the other women in her more recent series of revolutionary women, Brintle’s Marie-Jeanne is shown to be a woman of the past and the present: a woman worthy of historical recognition and restitution, and a source of sustenance and resilience for the fight ahead. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1742900269847-7I3WWD2SANQ32CZ1GHNB/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Patricia Brintle, 'Sanite Belair' (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 30 in. Though rooted Black vernacular aesthetics, Brintle’s depiction of Sanité Belair references the neoclassical and resonates strikingly with Anne-Louis Girodet’s 1797 portrait of Haitian revolutionary Jean-Baptiste Belley. Like the Belley of Girodet’s painting, Sanité leans against a column—a common motif of neoclassical paintings. Unlike in Girodet’s painting, however, Brintle’s Sanité is not placed in conversation with a tradition of white bourgeois intellectualism. Whereas Girodet’s painting—which shows the Abbé Raynal mounted on top of the plinth on which Belley leans—can therefore be seen as a meditation on the abolition of slavery as a project of the Enlightenment, Brintle’s painting pays exclusive tribute to Haitian militarism, creativity and defiance. In this way, Haiti is thrust into the foreground as a protagonist in the universal campaign for abolition as the first nation to universally and permanently abolish slavery. Moreover, by transposing the figure of Sanité onto that of Belley, Brintle reinforces the importance of women’s stories of insurgency. Though she is depicted in full military regalia, complete with epaulettes and bicorn hat as in Richard Barbot’s representations, her androgynous appearance is undercut with allusions to her femininity, such as her gold earrings, her madra and the calla lily which she holds in her right hand. A flower native to the southern African continent, the calla lily also references the circuitous and historic routes taken by Haitian women and women in the Haitian dyaspora. However, the abundance of vegetation, especially the sprawling shrub which reaches up from the ground and brushes against Sanité’s hand, reinforces her rootedness in the Haitian popular imagination. Executed on the orders of Dessalines, Sanité did not get to write her own story; Brintle and others have rehabilitated her in the present. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418043346-ZNSJWYPNB0T7JLJSTQ4X/2+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC8_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 2 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture is a series of watercolour paintings on paper created by Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid OBE in 1987. It consists of 15 works in total, each exhibiting a diptych of two images in conversation with each other. Inspired heavily by C. L. R. James’s seminal text The Black Jacobins, the series celebrates the heroism of revolutionary general Toussaint Louverture. However, it also thrusts into the foreground the unexplored, under-acknowledged and undocumented histories of revolutionary women and the myriad ways that they contributed to the revolutionary saga. In her co-authored book Inside the Invisible: Memorialising Slavery and Freedom in the Life and Works of Lubaina Himid, Himid observes of the series ‘I wanted children to know about this extraordinary episode in the politics of the black diaspora and painted in a way that I hoped would appeal to publishers. In a way, the work resembled a graphic novel with minimal text and was to be read in a linear way. The paintings were done in soft and gently colourful watercolour, sending out friendly and accessible information about ordinary days in the life of an exceptional man.’ In this diptych, the second image in the series, Louverture is shown in repose, reclining on a cot, his discarded clothes and the paraphernalia of war strategy strewn about the space that he inhabits. The captions on the images read ‘An afternoon snooze / who cooked the midday meal?’ and ‘who will do the laundry?’ In asking these questions, Himid not only signifies the absented and undocumented female figure that grand historical narratives so often occlude in their emphasis on military heroism but also gestures to the importance of domestic and emotional labour undertaken largely by women both at home and on the battlefront. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417939081-JUCJV3HHGJQ4CBEB4LMX/4+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC12_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 4 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. In this diptych, the fourth in Lubaina Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series, Himid engages with the themes of fugitivity and marronage. The first image shows a woman in joyous, rhythmic motion, as if in flight, limbs stretching beyond the parameters of the frame, presumably dancing to the sounds of the bamboula drum generated by the synecdochic hand that reaches into the image from beyond the frame. The caption reads ‘The people danced, there was drumming’. The second image in the diptych shows the mountainous terrain that concealed many maroon communities in Saint-Domingue prior to the revolution. Signs of community and rebellious strategies of communication are gestured in the fires that spring up from the hillsides. The caption reads: ‘There were signs across the country from plantation to plantation’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592417977829-QY1C7KGR6AJNQ99HU2NP/5+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC9_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 5 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. The fifth diptych in Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series depicts Toussaint in the domestic setting of his home plantation with his wife Suzanne. In the first image of the pairing, Suzanne is shown wearing an orange dress and head wrap seated at a table opposite Toussaint. A map has been spread across the table and several coffee beans, which presumably serve as figurative pawns, are clustered at the edge of the map. The caption reads: ‘Toussaint’s wife lived on a plantation in the interior, and devoted herself to the cultivation of coffee. Whenever Toussaint could escape from his duties he went there.’ The second images focuses in on a single open hand holding a coffee bean, gesturing to the possibility of collaboration and the many ‘hands’ that contributed to revolutionary strategy, but speaking specifically, here, to the strategic contributions of Suzanne. The caption asks: ‘Did she help him with strategy?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418093887-3J9UGL7232IE0VL75VQ5/7+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC13_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 7 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. The images in the seventh diptych from Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture form a mirror to one another. We see, on one side, Toussaint seated at a desk in full military regalia, presumably writing a letter to Suzanne, who is shown in the second image writing back. The lone candlestick serves to highlight the solitude of her environment and signals her foremost importance within the household in Toussaint’s absence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592418157159-BJNOXI6V2FTUPYO223OQ/9+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC6_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 9 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. In this diptych, the seventh in the series of Himid’s Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture we are introduced, once again by way of a synecdochic hand, to another occluded female figure in the saga of Toussaint’s life: that of his mother. The caption to the first image in the diptych, which shows a variety of flora and a collection of grooming implements and vials reads: ‘because of his knowledge of herbs Toussaint was made Physician to the Armies of the King by Biassou - vice-roy of the Conquered Territories.’ The second image shows two hands juxtaposed with one another: one larger and, we are led to infer, representing Toussaint’s absented mother and the other representing the childlike hand of Toussaint. Each hand is shown cupping the natural components that, we are led to assume, form the basis of one of the healing concoctions that line shelf that floats above the scene. The caption reads ‘did his mother teach him everything he knew?’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1592491894532-UTQF1QNIQE92WKAT8QIT/15+HIMID%2C+Lubaina+ACC5_1988+copy.jpg Galri - Lubaina Himid, Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: 15 (1987), watercolour and pencil on paper, 39.5 x 50 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Lubaina Himid. This diptych, the fifteenth in Himid’s Scenes of the Life series, explores the challenges confronting military wives and mothers and the general strain of military life on domestic normality as we are introduced, for the first time, to Louverture’s adult sons Isaac and Placide. The caption to the first image reads: ‘His own son Isaac declared for France / but L’Ouverture made him stay’. The caption to the second image reads: ‘Placide the son of Mme. L’Ouverture promised to fight for Freedom and was given command of a battalion.’ The diptych is unique, however, in that, in addition to the individual image captions, a single overarching caption unites the two images amplifying a nondescript voice of parental authority. It reads: ‘France or San Domingo, my children make your choice / whatever it is I shall always love you’. Though the mention of ‘his own son’ in the caption to the first image might lead us to assume that this ‘voice’ represents the voice of Toussaint, the presence of Suzanne in this same image unsettles any simplistic correlation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975371428-3OAISMW5PXDVUD37ZFUC/20200716_141747.jpg Galri - Richard Barbot, 'Sanité Bélair' (2019). Acrylic and oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. © Richard Barbot. Born in Port-au-Prince in 1961, Richard Barbot now lives in Montreal. An artist and illustrator, he was commissioned in 2004 by the Banque de la République d’Haïti to produce a bust of Sanité Bélair for the 10 gourdes banknote issued in commemoration of the bicentenary of Haiti’s independence (reproduced below). Sanité remains a figure of interest for Barbot, as reflected in this more recent work, which shows her in full military regalia, complete with epaulettes and a bicorn hat. Barbot describes Sanité as ‘one of the most symbolic heroines of Haiti’s independence. In the face of betrayal and death she demonstrated unmatched bravery and strength.’ Her furrowed brows encode a story of strain and strife, reminding us that, like many other women who contributed to the revolutionary saga, she made epic sacrifices. Speaking of his motivation behind the painting, Barbot observed ‘History tends to erase the traces of women who have played an important role in the past. I find it important to represent them so that their memory will last.’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597163097736-YMYDA8D0CZKDOVPYGJTX/Belair4_Pluto_Forsdick.jpg Galri - Kimathi Donkor, 'Charles and Sanite Belair' (2002). Oil on canvas, 13cm x 13cm. © Kimathi Donkor. Based in London, Kimathi Donkor is a contemporary artist of Ghanaian, Jamaican and Anglo-Jewish heritage. Many of his artworks recreate historical scenes of Black Atlantic heroism, often striving to amplify stories elsewhere invisibilised and occluded in white, colonialist histories. Several of his works focus on figures from the Haitian revolutionary saga. This image features as its protagonists Charles and Sanité Belair, who are shown nestled in a clifftop clearing between island and sea, surrounded by wild tobacco, cotton, sugar and indigo - the lucrative crops of colonial slavery. Capturing a rare moment of tranquility and solitude, it presents a vision of Sanité that contradicts the character envisioned by historical chroniclers such as Madiou, who describes her as a ‘brigande’ and imagines her as the protagonist of violent atrocities avowedly committed by the renegade indigènes with whom she was associated. While she is so often depicted in artistic renderings in military regalia, she is here depicted wearing a delicate blue empire-line gown with a kerchief or madra in a matching hue tied around her head, emphasising her femininity. She is shown in the loving embrace of her husband, their limbs interlocking and their hands interlaced around a musket as if in anticipation of impending assault. By envisioning her thus, Donkor humanises and renders fallible the woman immortalised in public history as a ‘tigress’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597849728362-1KUAPWX924RAC0H0OE8R/Mme+Cheruxis.jpg Galri - Anonymous, Dame Eléonore Cheruxi (Richeux) de la Roche Asnière. Oil on canvas. Collection Maryse/Alex Von Lignau Dame Cheruxi was a lady-in-waiting in the company of Marie-Louise Christophe during the era of the Haitian Kingdom (1811-1820). She was also Marie-Louise’s purported goddaughter. Accorded the court name ‘Coeur enflammé’, Dame Cheruxi was born in 1803 to a woman of colour named Marie-Augustine Langlois and a Frenchman by the name of Richeux de la Roche Asnière (Cheruxi is an anagram of Richeux) who left Saint-Domingue for a brief period around this time owing to the revolutionary unrest. At the time of her birth, interracial marital unions were still legally forbidden, but Richeux left a notarised document acknowledging his paternity. He returned to Haiti in 1806 but died shortly afterwards from Tetanus. The descendants of Dame Cheruxi have preserved a number of items from her personal collection, including (in addition to this portrait), hair clips, jewellery, and a dress donated in 2015 to the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien (MUPANAH). She is depicted here in a rare nineteenth-century portrait by an unknown artist wearing a chemise gown with gathered sleeves, tapered waist and exposed décolletage similar to the chemise gown now in MUPANAH’s collection. It is edged with lace fringe and she is shown to be wearing a string of pearls and gold earrings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594226912057-S7BQOM6MSLZCCKS646V1/Sc+C71+%3A+YT+PA72+150+Ans.jpg Galri - 1954 Stamp, 150ème Anniversaire de l'Indépendance Nationale (1804-1954), Sc C71 / YT PA72 © The Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, produced as part of a series for the 150th anniversary of Haiti’s independence in 1954, depicts a scene from the siege of Crête-à-Pierrot, a decisive battle in the Haitian Revolution. The illustration used for the series commemorates the heroic deeds of Marie-Jeanne, a female soldier said to have been the wife of Louis Daure Lamartinière, who is shown flanking her on the right. While Marie-Jeanne represents an enigmatic figure whose story has been highly mythologised by the chroniclers of Haitian history, the circulation of her image via stamps and coinage at significant moments of national remembrance has nevertheless served to rehabilitate within the national imaginary acts of female heroism that have been largely undocumented, marginalised and neglected. In this illustration, Marie-Jeanne is shown wearing a long tunic with a kerchief or madra on her head. Her arms are raised at her side as if to form a protective shield against the insurgent French army. In her right hand she holds a sword and a rifle is slung over her back. This representation echoes imagery that we find in Bellegarde, where she is described in these exact terms. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235066793-Z759HMSJSHKZR8R2Z4MU/Sc+C292+%3A+YTPA366.jpg Galri - 1968 Stamp, Cérémonie du Bois Caïman - 14 Août 1791, Sc C292 / YTPA366 © Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, issued in 1968, features artwork produced by the Haitian painter Raoul Dupoux (1906-1988) depicting the Vodou ceremony at Alligator Wood (Bois Caïman or Bwa Kayiman) led by the houngan Boukman and the manbo Cécile Fatiman in August 1791. The event is believed to have triggered the slave rebellion that broke out on August 23 and led to a series of insurgencies across the northern territory of Saint-Domingue thereafter. Much like the ceremony itself, the story of Cécile Fatiman is highly contentious, some anecdotal accounts suggesting that she may have been a sister of Marie-Louise Christophe (conflating her history, it would seem, with that of Généviève Coidavid Pierrot). In this image by Dupoux, Fatiman is depicted in a white dress (white has a special ceremonial significance in Vodou) and a red head kerchief or madra. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594235094759-DJ2D25OFOG0YA3AY731D/Sc+852+%3A+YT+PA663+200+Ans.jpg Galri - 1991 Stamp, 200 Ans du Soulèvement Général des Esclaves, Sc 852 / YT PA663 © Haiti Philatelic Society This stamp, issued in 1991 in commemoration of the bicentenary of the slave insurgency that marked the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, features another image of the Bois Caïman/Bwa Kayiman ceremony. The image chimes with many popular accounts which hold that the ceremony was marked by the sacrifice of a kreyòl pig. Cécile Fatiman is shown at the centre of the image, standing next to a kneeling Boukman in a white tunic and bandana or madra, with the sacrificial pig at her feet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310585323-N821372ENDIE9YZJ1K45/1820+Coin+R.png Galri - Une Gourde (Revers), Kingdom of Haiti (1820), (KM) Pn 37, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade This 1 Gourde coin from the collection of Joseph Guerdy Lissade was minted in 1820 by the Kingdom of Haiti. It is unique in that the reverse-side of the coin is inscribed not only with the initials of Henry (H), but also of Marie-Louise (ML) Christophe (the M and L interlaced). Marie-Louise was the only woman to have lived through the revolution to be recognised on official Haitian coinage in the period of early sovereignty and remains one of only several identifiable women in Haiti’s history to be recognised on state-issued coinage at all. It bears the familiar motif from Christophe’s coat of arms of a phoenix rising from the flames encircled by the words ‘EX CINERABUS NASCITUR’ (Je renais de mes cendres/I am reborn from my ashes). The central motif and both sets of initials are topped with the emblem of a crown. The outer rim bears the motto ‘DEUS CAUSA ATQUE GLADIUS MEUS’ (‘Dieu, ma cause et mon épée/God, my cause and my sword). The obverse bears the bust of Henry I crowned in a laurel wreath in military uniform overlaid with a classical-style chiton with the motto ‘HENRICUS DEI GRATIA HAITI REX’ (Henry roi d’Haïti par la grâce de Dieu/Henry king of Haiti by the grace of God). See Joseph Guerdy Lissade, Henricus Dei Gracia Haiti Rex: Monnaies et Médailles de l’Etat d’Hayti, 1807-1811 et du Royaume d’Hayti, 1811-1820 (Grissom Company, 2007), pp. 20, 71. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594310584591-XG6QQOEKQYRZFUQ5X5TM/thumbnail_KM%23+69+Marie+Jeanne+1970+100gdes+OR+avers.jpg Galri - Commemorative 100 Gourdes Non-Circulating Coin (Avers), 1970, Collection Joseph Guerdy Lissade This commemorative 100 gourdes coin, minted in 1970 during the reign of François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, is inscribed on the obverse with the name and bust of Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière. As in the 1954 commemorative stamp, Marie Jeanne is depicted wielding a sabre or machete with a bandana or madra on her head, her hair trailing defiantly out of the sides (once again recalling the vision of Bellegarde, who describes her ‘bonnet’ which ‘emprisonnait son opulente chevelure dont les mèches rebelles débordaient de la coiffure’). The reverse bears the Haitian coat of arms and a banner inscribed with the motto ‘L’UNION FAIT LA FORCE’ (Strength in Unity). The outer rim is inscribed with the words ‘LIBERTÉ ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1594975121473-OSWCT0LF2ZNFCV1HCD8B/image-asset.jpeg Galri - 10 Gourdes Banknote, Bicentenaire de l'Indépendance d'Haïti/Bisantè Endepandans Dayiti, Collection Richard Barbot This commemorative 10 gourdes banknote was issued in 2004 to mark the bicentenary of Haitian independance, proclaimed by Jean-Jacques Dessalines on 1 January 1804. It features an artistic reconceptualisation of Suzanne ‘Sanité’ Bélair, produced by Haitian artist Richard Barbot. Sanité, described by Thomas Madiou only as ‘la femme’ of General Charles Bélair, is recounted as having fought at his side during the Haitian revolutionary conflict. Often unforgiving, the chroniclers of Haitian history have emphasised ‘les barbaries’ committed at the hands of Sanité who, along with Bélair, broke from Dessalines and other revolutionary compatriots still then fighting under the banner of the French flag. Along with a handful of other renegades, they led a failed insurgency, subsequent to which Sanité was captured. According to Madiou, Bélair, unable to bear his separation from Sanité, gave himself up to French colonial forces. The prisoners were granted no clemency by their captors and were sentenced to death on 5 October 1802 (Bélair by firing squad, in recognition of his rank as a brigadier general, and Sanité by decapitation). As Madiou recounts, Sanité demanded that she, too, be granted a soldier’s execution. Purportedly refusing a blindfold, she heeded her husband’s entreaty to die bravely. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1597850150820-XZ5WO2P1VCBB44VREM16/Cheruxi+Dress+01.jpeg Galri - Robe longue en mousseline de coton blanc (c. 1830). Collection Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien. This dress, donated to MUPANAH in 2015 and formerly in the collection of Maryse Von Lignau, belonged to Dame Cheruxi, once lady-in-waiting in the royal court of Christophe. Painstakingly restored in Paris by textile restorer Ségolène Bonnet, it is described as a white cotton muslin gown. It is held together at the back with metal fastenings and has a bodice reinforced by whalebone. It features a wide hem and fine floral embroidery which forms a garland around the width of the skirt. Such a piece was likely to have been manufactured in Europe - a clear indicator of wealth and status. Though it has many of the features of cotton chemise gowns that were popular in the French Atlantic (both in the metropole and in the colonies) from the late eighteenth century onwards (including the gathered sleeves that were made iconic by Marie-Antoinette) and was initially described as a ‘robe Empire’, the lower waistline is indicative of the fact that the dress is probably from a slightly later period, according to Bonnet (around 1830). Such material artefacts offer rich, personalised insights into the lives of women so often obscured and occluded in colonialist archives, bearing witness to the creative strategies used by women to make meaning in the age of slavery and beyond. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600381586889-CT3GOKSU6JZP6OTE8TTY/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Armes de la Reine, College of Arms MS J.P. 177, Armorial General du Royaume d'Hayti, fol. 2r. Reproduced by permission of the Kings, Heralds and Pursuivants of Arms Queen Marie-Louise Christophe (née Coidavid) was the only woman from the court of Henry Christophe to be honoured with her own heraldic arms. As an elite woman of colour, Marie-Louise left more indelible traces than the numerous and nameless women who contributed vitally to Haiti’s revolutionary founding who have nevertheless been occluded from the archives and, subsequently, marginalised in written history. Forged in the fires of anticolonial revolution, Haiti became the first independent Black republic in 1804 and was the first country in the world to permanently, unequivocally and universally abolish slavery. For some, Christophe’s Kingdom of Haiti (established in 1811) represents a betrayal of its revolutionary values and its radical founding. However, within the context of a hostile, white-supremacist, colonialist North Atlantic world, the Kingdom of Haiti represented the very apotheosis of Black radicalism. The Queen’s arms mirror those of the King’s with a phoenix rising from the flames against a field of blue surrounded by a semy of bees and a banner bearing the motto for the Kingdom, ‘JE RENAIS DE MES CENDRES’ (I am reborn from my ashes). The field is upheld by two crowned lions and encircled by a garland of roses (in place of a chain and pendant of the royal and military Order of St Henry which features in the King’s arms). They are poised on a banner bearing the Queen’s motto ‘DIEU PROTE!GE LE ROI’ (God save the King). A more detailed account of the heraldic symbolism of these and other arms can be found in the College of Arms’s manuscript on The Armorial of Haiti: Symbols of Nobility in the Reign of Henry Christophe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599132996633-WMXL5AMM0T49LWYV8C4Z/J+Clarke+Sans+Souci+Engraving.png Galri - J. Clarke, engraving of Sans Souci Palace, from Charles Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti made during a residence in that republic, H. Colburn and R. Bentley (1830), Volume II. There remain only a handful of artworks and engravings of Sans Souci palace, the principal royal residence of Henry and Marie-Louise Christophe, that show its structure intact prior to the earthquake that precipitated its destruction in 1842. Located in Milot, approximately 5 miles from the mountaintop fortress Citadelle Laferrière (Citadelle Henry), the palace was completed between 1811 and 1813. Though Sans Souci, like the Citadelle, became for some early chroniclers of Haitian history a symbol of Christophe’s ruthlessness and tyranny (an indeterminate number of labourers were conscripted to work on its construction), it serves as a monumental reminder of the lengths to which Christophe went to cultivate a spirit of refinement and sovereign pride for the nascent Black kingdom. During Christophe’s reign, Sans Souci bore witness to a number of feasts and public celebrations and hosted a number of international dignitaries who later recalled the splendour of the palace in their memoirs and correspondence. One of the most widely publicised events to take place at Sans Souci was the ‘fête de la reine’: the 12-day feast held in honour of Queen Marie-Louise’s birthday that began on August 14 1816 recounted by Christophe’s ‘spin doctor’, Baron Pompée Valentin Vastey in his ‘Relation de la fête de … la Reine’. Though it is difficult to precisely determine Marie-Louise’s influence on Sans Souci from the ruined fragments that remain, and from the scattered documents that, owing to political upheavals after the fall of the kingdom, were subject to neglect and displacement, a handful of accounts remain that offer revealing snapshots. European newspaper accounts, for example, reveal that Marie-Louise made ‘large purchases … in Bremen, and other Hanseatic cities … of services for the table, brilliants, pearls, &c.’ which were paid for ‘in ready money, at high prices’. Similar accounts give detailed insights into court dresses manufactured in Europe for the queen and princesses. Beyond her influence on the material objects that contributed to the refinement of Sans Souci, historical accounts reveal that she also oversaw a ceremonial troop of all-female ‘Amazones’ who paraded on feast days. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1589561340221-7C97TVDRJYF5MX0XVE1C/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Henry Davy, Playford Hall (1841). Etching. © The Trustees of the British Museum. This 1841 etching shows the front entrance to Playford Hall, as approached from the drive. Playford Hall was the Suffolk residence of the Clarkson family, and became a haven for Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters after they fled Haiti for England in 1821. They stayed there for several months, passing the winter with the Clarksons, before settling in a house in Blackheath, Kent. The caption reads: Playford Hall, Suffolk, the Residence of Thomas Clarkson Esq. M. A. One of the first and greatest Advocates for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This Hall was the Seat of Thomas Felton, Bar. (Comptroller of the Household to Queen Anne;) whose sole Daughter & Heir Elizabeth married to John first Earl of Bristol, 1695. it is now the property of the Marquis of Bristol. it is said to have had four sides surrounding a Court-yard, with a Draw-bridge on the East & Gallery on the South: Drawn Etched & Published by Henry Davy, Globe Street, Ipswich May 26, 1841. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1599141476622-LYH2200BYS99BEZNCM5I/FCO+Historical+Collection+FOL+F1924+HEN+King%27s+College+London.jpg Galri - Coloured print of Sans Souci, the palace of Henry Christophe. From: Henri Christophe, King of Haiti. Copie de lettres [manuscript] 1805-6 [FCO Historical Collection FOL. F1924 HEN]. This coloured print from 1822 shows the palace of Sans Souci two years after the fall of the Kingdom of Hayti. Beside Sans Souci to its left sits the church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which would have been a familiar vista to the Christophes and is identifiable by its distinctive duomo which has been restored on several occasions throughout its life-cycle. Despite the damage it has sustained in the last 200 years, the church had been one of the best preserved relics of the period of early Haitian sovereignty up until April 2020 when the church was engulfed by fire and the duomo was completely destroyed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600374586857-H9Z153GYFTF16TDV1NZE/image-asset.jpeg Galri - 49 Weymouth Street (formerly 30 Weymouth Street), Marylebone, London This was the last known English residence of Marie-Louise Christophe and her daughters. They lived at this address until September 1824, when they departed for Europe, never to return again to England. Their residency in Weymouth Street is confirmed in a letter that was sent by Marie-Louise to Catherine Clarkson shortly before her departure and in her last will and testament. The specific location of the address at number 30 (now number 49) is verified by an advertisement posted in the London papers for the sale of ‘Madame Christophe’s’ household property and also by the rate books for the Parish of St Marylebone for the period of 1824. Built between 1789-1790 as part of the Portland Estate development, this Georgian townhouse remains largely unaltered, despite the substantial shelling to which the area was subjected during the Blitz. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1600375424271-ZH6E8IFKNHCOUTSOOBV6/IMG_0170.JPG Galri - 5 Exmouth Place (formerly Exmouth Cottage), West Hill, Hastings Marie-Louise Christophe, together with her daughters, Améthisse and Athénaïre, stayed at this house for at least several weeks in October 1822. Listed in the Hastings Guide of 1822 as one of two holiday lets owned by a Mr Fagg (the second being the adjacent Exmouth House). Both houses were built as a speculation, the former being completed in 1821, several years after the completion of the latter in 1817. As such, Marie-Louise would’ve been among the first guests of the newly-built house in a fashionable, emerging seaside spa. A letter sent to Catherine Clarkson by Athénaïre on 26 October 1822 offers a detailed account of this stay. During their stay, they were visited by the ‘demoiselles Thornton’, the daughters of the abolitionist Henry Thornton and later wards of Sir Robert Inglis, who recalled a journey to London from Hastings with one of the Christophe daughters in his 1840 travel diaries after a chance encounter with Marie-Louise in Pisa. The letter testifies that the women found the seaside climate of Hastings to be much milder and much more accommodating than at Blackheath, helping to alleviate the effects of Marie-Louise’s rheumatism. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/1678362525571-7E9SQQ9OC3R34X9DSG7U/image-asset.jpeg Galri - Villa Ducale (Casa Bolongaro), Stresa The photograph shows the façade of the Villa Ducale, or Casa/Palazzo Bolongaro, once home to the writer and philosopher Antonio Rosmini and now home to the Centro Internazionale di Studi Rosminiani. Nestled on the shore of Lake Maggiore in Stresa, Piemonte, it was here that, in 1839, Marie-Louise Christophe sought solace at the invitation of Anna Maria Bolongaro after the sudden death of her daughter Athénaïre. Though little is known about the exact details of Athénaïre’s tragic and unexpected passing (anecdotal accounts suggest that she suffered a fall in the mountains), the parochial archives, held in the Chiesa Parrocchiale just adjacent to the villa, hold her sparse and incomplete death record. Anna Maria Bolongaro, widowed in 1818, established a reputation as a benefactor of the arts, education and the church (much like Marie-Louise). She welcomed many notable personages to her home, including Antonio Rosmini, who became a firm friend and later heir to the Villa Ducale. It is in the letters of Gustavo Filippo Benso, Marquis of Cavour (province of Turin), who, like Anna Maria Bolongaro, was a close associate of Antonio Rosmini, that we learn of Marie-Louise’s sense of indebtedness to Anna-Maria. Writing to Rosmini from Turin in December 1839, he observed that: ’Quando veda in Stresa la Sig.a Bolongaro mi farebbe piacere dicendole chevedo ben sovente qui la disgraziata ex-regina di Haiti, che è vivamente compresa di riconoscenza verso questa Signora per le gentilezze e benefizi ricevutine quest’autunno … L’antica Regina di Haiti partendo dal Piemonte ove forse non, avrà occasionedi ritornare, m’incarica di fare pervenire a Madama Bolongaro i suoi riconoscenti saluti coll’assicurazione ch’essa non dimenticherà mai i benefizi ricevuti daquest’ottima signora; essa manda pure distinti complimenti all’Abate Branzini.’ ’When I see Madam Bolongaro in Stresa, I would be pleased to tell her that I very often see the unfortunate ex-Queen of Haiti here, who is deeply grateful to this Lady for the kindnesses and benefits received from her this autumn … The former Queen of Haiti, leaving from Piemonte, where perhaps she will not have the opportunity to return, instructs me to send Madam Bolongaro her grateful greetings with the assurance that she will never forget the benefits received from this excellent lady; she also sends distinguished compliments to Abbot Branzini.’ Given the depth of Marie-Louise’s avowed gratitude towards Anna Maria Bolongaro, we might imagine that she found some comfort in the company of like-minded people at the Villa Ducale, despite the immensity of her loss. https://www.fanmrebel.com/publications daily 0.75 2023-03-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/12041b68-c9ae-42bf-9f46-1050b3354b2f/Figure+3.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/a0971f87-b7c6-4df4-a1be-c2a8daefa5b3/Ame%CC%81thisse%2C+Athe%CC%81nai%CC%88re+and+Jacques-Victor.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/16612720-bf71-455e-8c41-2bd8f2d79cff/Brunias+Linen+Market.jpg Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc48c2931eef72b776e6581/6c88216a-a50b-41cb-bbe8-6ced9c01142d/Figure+4.jpg Publications - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.