Haiti Rebellion: 1803: It has ended, more than enough blood has been shed for our rights. We've won Vertieres, we've pushed the French back. Saint Dominigue is rightly ours, we are our own people now. I've been told to harbor the remains of the battle, seeing te cost of independance can shake a man. It can shake his whole being, we are truly savages in want of freedom. Dessalires has led us well, God bless his being as well as his fallen brother, Toussaint L'Overture, our former leader. Without his guidance we would have never been able to accomplish as much as we have. Yet the cost, as i said, is to great for human eyes to see. I was told that we've captured an enemy amongst the fight, a prisoner of war. He was brought to me as i covered the remains of a fallen brother. They shoved him in front of me, his hands were bound, his face ridden with earth and blood. "Watch over the brute, we will consult with Dessalires over the actions that should be taken wth this man," they told me as he slowly positioned himslef up right. He wasn't one of the French it seemed, nor of the British. He had the face of a naitive, perhaps a part of the Petit Blancs, or an owner of a plantation. Nethertheless, he had the scold of a souless man. I continued placing the coats of my bretherens over their faces until he spoke, "Damn you and your kind," he uttered, his voice as ugly as the words he spoke. "You've won the battle, but they will take what's theirs. We will take what is ours." I paid no attention to the man, pre-occupied with other duties. Yet he continued, as if he were speaking to his own. "Cowards, you may seem like a soldier, but you always be a slave. Nothing more, it runs through your thick blood like poison. The French shall return and claim their own, enjoy your freedom while it lasts ever so shortly. You here me slave!?" "Yes sir i do," i answered, "i hear your clearly. Though i find falsness in your words. We are no different from you, we deserve our rights as everyman should. This rebellion has gone long enough. Even before the French had their own, we have fought. Now God has given what is right." I began to dig their final rest as the sun began to inflict it's light on my neck. He laughed, and spit onto one of the corpses. "You and i will never be the same. Yes, the rebellion went for too long, but that's all they'll ever be. Small rebillions. The French had their revolts, their 'Decleration of Rights of Man' appearing to have much impact amongst you. But you are not as strong as you are ever misguided to believe. We have out down much of your uprisings, such as that of Oge, he never stood a chance."
I continued to dig, "Yes its true, Oge died from your hands. Yet we kept fighting, we believed in man, not in us, but in humanity. The French Revolution showed us that the freedom man deserve can be obtained. We've become pawns for everyone for too long, we are much more than we appear." "What about the rest, those Petit Blancs, the artisans, middle class and such. They were unjust as you, but more deserving. Our voices in the French Parliment were never acknowledged, we were never more than a nation that serves nly France. The Legislation of France wrongly gave rights of voice to all the wrong people. You have not been the only kind that has been wronged." I stopped digging, "We all have been wronged. The French have opressed us for too long, all of us. L'Overture acted out of right and neccessity. He conquered Saint Dominigue breifly, but Napoleon had him captured and he died with a clear sould. Dessalires acted in his fallen brother's honor. Slavery is abolished, we have done what was needed. Many have died, both ours and yours. The French and British tried, but by God's will we've fought them off. We have what we all deserve." He was quite, i continued to dig. "Savages," he uttered quitely. "your thirst for blood, your kind. Savages." I made as if i have not heard, but i quitely muttered in response. "Aren't we all."
The year was 1794, I remember it significantly, because it was the year my son turned 13, and that's when they first took him away from me. The fireball in the sky beat down on the back of my dark, delicate neck. My back ached with the burden I had been carrying for years. I peered down at my hands, they were encrusted with clay and mud from digging. There was a warm, trickling sensation running down the back of my left calf. I threw down my shovel, and looked around. Is this what our lovely island has come to? The home I have loved for my entire life? The pride of my once comfortable island home welled up behind my tired eyes in the form of tears. Careful to keep away from the angry white man on the edge of the plain, I cautiously walked towards my family digging in the sugar cane field. I longed to free my children, and my wife from this life of chains, I would give anything; Gladly throw away my own life for the freedom for them to live theirs. Anger welled up inside of me, and consumed my entire being. To avoid exploding, I screamed at the top of my lungs, to release some of the frustration pent up inside of me. I rushed to the Jean-Jacques Dessaliens, a true friend of mine, who was sifting plants in the field, and explained the anger I held. I briefly heard my wife, Zelime, scream at me in French, "Toussaint! Please... Don't do that!". I ignored her. I knew what I needed to do. At the end of our secret meeting, we called for nothing short of the intruders' flithy blood.
For ten years afterwards, we fought to the bitter end against the upper class societies that looked down upon them from their moral high horses. Just because they are a different color, they feel more superior in more ways then one. Well, guess what? Us Haitians really showed them. Although we have lost countless brother along the way, our fight still remained strong through the entire rebellion. The love of our nation carried us through the more difficult times of battle. This bloody war was the bitter fight for our freedom. We wanted our individual rights, that we should have been promised when we were born. Such unalienable rights were promised to my family and I, and the moment when the final blow was struck, the cheers inside of my body could not be explained. Looking back on these moments, were the highlights of my life. Knowing that I fought for the freedom of my country, and to restore it to what it once was. My desperate attempt to conserve what culture was left in Haiti, my homeland, my childhood, was finally, in 1804, was all worth it. I was able to watch my children grow up, and actually gain a proper education here, in the peaceful lands of Haiti. And on this warm, November night, I'm able to feel the cool breeze brush across my calloused skin, as I remain motionless, and relaxed.
I did the revolution of France and I noticed you mentioned France in your story about the Haiti Revolution and I was wondering how the two related and what were some more conflicts that happened between the two countries. I like the fact that you made your story as a person ranting but you were able to give facts within his rant.
Kim, I liked how you showed the nationalistic views that the Haitians felt when they wanted to restore the old ways of their land. Then how they fought through the countless loosing battles but never stopped their hunger for a better life for their families.
Jose, I really like how you brought religion into your story. Like we talked about in class, serving your country meant serving God, so the Haitians fought for independence as if they were fighting for their religion. Also, it states in the Bible that all men are created equal, so they were defending their God-given right to be free people. This way, they were fighting for God and their country at the same time, and that most likely made their determination even stronger. Kim, You’re character said at one point, “I longed to free my children, and my wife from this life of chains, I would give anything; Gladly throw away my own life for the freedom for them to live theirs.” That’s a really touching statement and important to remember, because a lot of those men fighting for their country were also fighting for their families, and that was another important driving force for them, and probably caused them to fight harder than they normally would have.
Overall, I like how both stories brought personal matters into the mix, not just a nationalistic point of view.
Both of your posts were extremely well written and I could really capture the emotion. I did the revolution in France also, and I loved the French Revolution, so I was interested in the connection between France and the Haitian Revolution, also. The French Revolution kind of kicked off a domino effect, a chain of revolutions, and it created a model for other places like Haiti to work off of and be inspired by. In this case, a landowner named Vincent Oge was interested in what was going on in France at the time, and he decided to start something of his own in Haiti. I did some research on the Haitian Revolt and I watched this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz5zFzvbib4 (which is really helpful by the way, Avary, because it shows the relationship between France and the Haitian Revolution.) I found it interesting how the revolution could have ended so much earlier if Oge hadn't limited who he supported to just the mixed race landowners. He could have gathered the white and they could have overpowered, or he could have gathered the slaves and they could have overpowered, but because he only gathered the 28,000 mixed race landowners, they failed in their stand against the 540,000 slaves and white proprietors, and this first attempt ended with Oge's execution.
I agree that both of your posts truly captured the emotion of the people in Haiti during the time of revolt and revolution. Jose, I really liked how you tied Haiti to France. The one fact that I picked up on was the influence of the French Revolution on other countries across Europe. Since it happened in France, many people feared that revolutions would spring up everywhere, and they did. Haiti is a good example of one of the bloodiest revolutions of the time. I picked up on the true brutality of the revolution, and what effect it had on the people. People were fighting for what they believed in, but as always, there was a cost. All revolutions seem to end up like this. You have a weaker force of men who have something to fight for, who are up against a stronger force solely seeking more power. Sound familiar?
We can look back at U.S. history and see that this happened a lot. Take the patriots and the red coats, or the loyalists. You had the patriots who were fighting for their freedom on their own turf, and you had the British who were trying to take away their land and rights. Despite how the odds were against the patriots, they fought hard, and proved that freedom was worth fighting for.
Jose and Kim, you both did a terrific job describing the details of their emotions, and the pain that they had to suffer through. Jose I ejoyed how you related the haitian revolution to the french. It was very interesting to be able to view not only the effects that the French Revolution had on other countries, but the precautions that these countries took in order to attepmt another FR revolution. I also found it interesting that like Jackie said how the hatian people fought for their country as if they were fighting for their beliefs and faith that pertained to their religon. God was what gave these people strength to prove their nationalism and fight for something they believed in. They fought as one,and if they became divided in reason, faith, and pride, than diveded they would fall. This reminds me of WWII when the nazis were fighting to preserve the earth and rid it of the unjustly people, and how its opposing forces faught to gain the freedom back of these people as well as their alienable rights to live. They were born with the right to live, and even amoungst the power that Hitler had with his forces, we were able to take him and the Nazis down in order to prove that our cause was the best reason to fight for. We fought for liverty and justice, while the hatians fought for their nation created under God.
Kim well done in an expression of nationalism. we spoke in class about those who felt pro's and con's of this pride and independence as a nation. Their need for independence was key in earning it at their nationalism gave them the hunger to earn it. This is much like the american revolution. The americans, like the haitians, were fed up with the motherland. So much so that they needed to break off. Their unity was a major driving force in their success. the two are very similar.
Jose I enjoyed your journal as it expressed how the Haitians in total faught for causes that were justified like liberation from slavery as well as fighting for a voice in the government, as the French failed to voice the ideas of the Haitian people in total. It was interesting as you contrasted the two as the loyalist seemed to be very arrogant, while the slave was very humble and honest. Although bitter enemies it was interesting to see the likeness in their own fighting causes in your post. It was also interesting to hear the loyalist's perspective on the revolution, as he believed it was essentially a wasted cause. But in actuality the revolts were indeed sucessful in liberating Haiti. In total the piece was very well written and did not fail to express the pain, and emotion felt during such unstable times.
Haiti Rebellion:
ReplyDelete1803:
It has ended, more than enough blood has been shed for our rights. We've won Vertieres, we've pushed the French back. Saint Dominigue is rightly ours, we are our own people now. I've been told to harbor the remains of the battle, seeing te cost of independance can shake a man. It can shake his whole being, we are truly savages in want of freedom. Dessalires has led us well, God bless his being as well as his fallen brother, Toussaint L'Overture, our former leader. Without his guidance we would have never been able to accomplish as much as we have. Yet the cost, as i said, is to great for human eyes to see.
I was told that we've captured an enemy amongst the fight, a prisoner of war. He was brought to me as i covered the remains of a fallen brother. They shoved him in front of me, his hands were bound, his face ridden with earth and blood.
"Watch over the brute, we will consult with Dessalires over the actions that should be taken wth this man," they told me as he slowly positioned himslef up right. He wasn't one of the French it seemed, nor of the British. He had the face of a naitive, perhaps a part of the Petit Blancs, or an owner of a plantation. Nethertheless, he had the scold of a souless man. I continued placing the coats of my bretherens over their faces until he spoke,
"Damn you and your kind," he uttered, his voice as ugly as the words he spoke. "You've won the battle, but they will take what's theirs. We will take what is ours." I paid no attention to the man, pre-occupied with other duties. Yet he continued, as if he were speaking to his own.
"Cowards, you may seem like a soldier, but you always be a slave. Nothing more, it runs through your thick blood like poison. The French shall return and claim their own, enjoy your freedom while it lasts ever so shortly. You here me slave!?"
"Yes sir i do," i answered, "i hear your clearly. Though i find falsness in your words. We are no different from you, we deserve our rights as everyman should. This rebellion has gone long enough. Even before the French had their own, we have fought. Now God has given what is right." I began to dig their final rest as the sun began to inflict it's light on my neck. He laughed, and spit onto one of the corpses.
"You and i will never be the same. Yes, the rebellion went for too long, but that's all they'll ever be. Small rebillions. The French had their revolts, their 'Decleration of Rights of Man' appearing to have much impact amongst you. But you are not as strong as you are ever misguided to believe. We have out down much of your uprisings, such as that of Oge, he never stood a chance."
I continued to dig, "Yes its true, Oge died from your hands. Yet we kept fighting, we believed in man, not in us, but in humanity. The French Revolution showed us that the freedom man deserve can be obtained. We've become pawns for everyone for too long, we are much more than we appear."
ReplyDelete"What about the rest, those Petit Blancs, the artisans, middle class and such. They were unjust as you, but more deserving. Our voices in the French Parliment were never acknowledged, we were never more than a nation that serves nly France. The Legislation of France wrongly gave rights of voice to all the wrong people. You have not been the only kind that has been wronged."
I stopped digging, "We all have been wronged. The French have opressed us for too long, all of us. L'Overture acted out of right and neccessity. He conquered Saint Dominigue breifly, but Napoleon had him captured and he died with a clear sould. Dessalires acted in his fallen brother's honor. Slavery is abolished, we have done what was needed. Many have died, both ours and yours. The French and British tried, but by God's will we've fought them off. We have what we all deserve."
He was quite, i continued to dig. "Savages," he uttered quitely. "your thirst for blood, your kind. Savages." I made as if i have not heard, but i quitely muttered in response. "Aren't we all."
The year was 1794, I remember it significantly, because it was the year my son turned 13, and that's when they first took him away from me. The fireball in the sky beat down on the back of my dark, delicate neck. My back ached with the burden I had been carrying for years. I peered down at my hands, they were encrusted with clay and mud from digging. There was a warm, trickling sensation running down the back of my left calf. I threw down my shovel, and looked around. Is this what our lovely island has come to? The home I have loved for my entire life? The pride of my once comfortable island home welled up behind my tired eyes in the form of tears. Careful to keep away from the angry white man on the edge of the plain, I cautiously walked towards my family digging in the sugar cane field. I longed to free my children, and my wife from this life of chains, I would give anything; Gladly throw away my own life for the freedom for them to live theirs. Anger welled up inside of me, and consumed my entire being. To avoid exploding, I screamed at the top of my lungs, to release some of the frustration pent up inside of me. I rushed to the Jean-Jacques Dessaliens, a true friend of mine, who was sifting plants in the field, and explained the anger I held. I briefly heard my wife, Zelime, scream at me in French, "Toussaint! Please... Don't do that!". I ignored her. I knew what I needed to do. At the end of our secret meeting, we called for nothing short of the intruders' flithy blood.
ReplyDeleteFor ten years afterwards, we fought to the bitter end against the upper class societies that looked down upon them from their moral high horses. Just because they are a different color, they feel more superior in more ways then one. Well, guess what? Us Haitians really showed them. Although we have lost countless brother along the way, our fight still remained strong through the entire rebellion. The love of our nation carried us through the more difficult times of battle. This bloody war was the bitter fight for our freedom. We wanted our individual rights, that we should have been promised when we were born. Such unalienable rights were promised to my family and I, and the moment when the final blow was struck, the cheers inside of my body could not be explained. Looking back on these moments, were the highlights of my life.
ReplyDeleteKnowing that I fought for the freedom of my country, and to restore it to what it once was. My desperate attempt to conserve what culture was left in Haiti, my homeland, my childhood, was finally, in 1804, was all worth it. I was able to watch my children grow up, and actually gain a proper education here, in the peaceful lands of Haiti. And on this warm, November night, I'm able to feel the cool breeze brush across my calloused skin, as I remain motionless, and relaxed.
Jose,
ReplyDeleteI did the revolution of France and I noticed you mentioned France in your story about the Haiti Revolution and I was wondering how the two related and what were some more conflicts that happened between the two countries. I like the fact that you made your story as a person ranting but you were able to give facts within his rant.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKim,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you showed the nationalistic views that the Haitians felt when they wanted to restore the old ways of their land. Then how they fought through the countless loosing battles but never stopped their hunger for a better life for their families.
Jose,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you brought religion into your story. Like we talked about in class, serving your country meant serving God, so the Haitians fought for independence as if they were fighting for their religion. Also, it states in the Bible that all men are created equal, so they were defending their God-given right to be free people. This way, they were fighting for God and their country at the same time, and that most likely made their determination even stronger.
Kim,
You’re character said at one point, “I longed to free my children, and my wife from this life of chains, I would give anything; Gladly throw away my own life for the freedom for them to live theirs.” That’s a really touching statement and important to remember, because a lot of those men fighting for their country were also fighting for their families, and that was another important driving force for them, and probably caused them to fight harder than they normally would have.
Overall, I like how both stories brought personal matters into the mix, not just a nationalistic point of view.
Both of your posts were extremely well written and I could really capture the emotion. I did the revolution in France also, and I loved the French Revolution, so I was interested in the connection between France and the Haitian Revolution, also. The French Revolution kind of kicked off a domino effect, a chain of revolutions, and it created a model for other places like Haiti to work off of and be inspired by. In this case, a landowner named Vincent Oge was interested in what was going on in France at the time, and he decided to start something of his own in Haiti. I did some research on the Haitian Revolt and I watched this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz5zFzvbib4 (which is really helpful by the way, Avary, because it shows the relationship between France and the Haitian Revolution.) I found it interesting how the revolution could have ended so much earlier if Oge hadn't limited who he supported to just the mixed race landowners. He could have gathered the white and they could have overpowered, or he could have gathered the slaves and they could have overpowered, but because he only gathered the 28,000 mixed race landowners, they failed in their stand against the 540,000 slaves and white proprietors, and this first attempt ended with Oge's execution.
ReplyDeleteI agree that both of your posts truly captured the emotion of the people in Haiti during the time of revolt and revolution. Jose, I really liked how you tied Haiti to France. The one fact that I picked up on was the influence of the French Revolution on other countries across Europe. Since it happened in France, many people feared that revolutions would spring up everywhere, and they did. Haiti is a good example of one of the bloodiest revolutions of the time. I picked up on the true brutality of the revolution, and what effect it had on the people. People were fighting for what they believed in, but as always, there was a cost. All revolutions seem to end up like this. You have a weaker force of men who have something to fight for, who are up against a stronger force solely seeking more power. Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteWe can look back at U.S. history and see that this happened a lot. Take the patriots and the red coats, or the loyalists. You had the patriots who were fighting for their freedom on their own turf, and you had the British who were trying to take away their land and rights. Despite how the odds were against the patriots, they fought hard, and proved that freedom was worth fighting for.
Jose and Kim, you both did a terrific job describing the details of their emotions, and the pain that they had to suffer through. Jose I ejoyed how you related the haitian revolution to the french. It was very interesting to be able to view not only the effects that the French Revolution had on other countries, but the precautions that these countries took in order to attepmt another FR revolution. I also found it interesting that like Jackie said how the hatian people fought for their country as if they were fighting for their beliefs and faith that pertained to their religon. God was what gave these people strength to prove their nationalism and fight for something they believed in. They fought as one,and if they became divided in reason, faith, and pride, than diveded they would fall. This reminds me of WWII when the nazis were fighting to preserve the earth and rid it of the unjustly people, and how its opposing forces faught to gain the freedom back of these people as well as their alienable rights to live. They were born with the right to live, and even amoungst the power that Hitler had with his forces, we were able to take him and the Nazis down in order to prove that our cause was the best reason to fight for. We fought for liverty and justice, while the hatians fought for their nation created under God.
ReplyDeleteKim well done in an expression of nationalism. we spoke in class about those who felt pro's and con's of this pride and independence as a nation. Their need for independence was key in earning it at their nationalism gave them the hunger to earn it. This is much like the american revolution. The americans, like the haitians, were fed up with the motherland. So much so that they needed to break off. Their unity was a major driving force in their success. the two are very similar.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJose I enjoyed your journal as it expressed how the Haitians in total faught for causes that were justified like liberation from slavery as well as fighting for a voice in the government, as the French failed to voice the ideas of the Haitian people in total. It was interesting as you contrasted the two as the loyalist seemed to be very arrogant, while the slave was very humble and honest. Although bitter enemies it was interesting to see the likeness in their own fighting causes in your post. It was also interesting to hear the loyalist's perspective on the revolution, as he believed it was essentially a wasted cause. But in actuality the revolts were indeed sucessful in liberating Haiti. In total the piece was very well written and did not fail to express the pain, and emotion felt during such unstable times.
ReplyDelete