First Successful Slave Revolution for Freedom

When a singular group of brave, pioneering Haitian men and women took part in a fight for their freedom in Haiti August 14 and 15 of 1791, they sparked a movement that would ignite in other Caribbean countries a fervor to do what they did, liberate their people from the shackles of bondage and slavery.

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At that time in history, the enslaved African, kidnapped and deposited on foreign land, set to work in tobacco, cotton and sugar plantations, was an accepted staple of life. Since the original reaping initiated by the Portuguese in the 1400's, monarchs, the aristocracy and plantation owners dealt in the business of owning, trading and bequeathing slaves. The practice was so ingrained, and apparently sanctioned by The Bible, in Leviticus 25, that the flagrant kidnapping, disenfranchisement and genocide was allowed by states and backed by state finances, and also written and talked about in well-regarded literary tomes and in religious forums heard by millions around the world.

Then, in Haiti on that faithful evening, the Bwa Kay Iman Ceremony took place, bringing together those of a like mind who sought to end slavery and bring freedom to those of the twenty-one African nations displaced by slavery. It is from this meeting that revolutionaries like Boukman, the first acknowledged liberation theologian, become introduced.

Where Boukman and Cecile Fatiman began, a maroon army would later follow, under the leadership of those such as L'Ouverture, Dessalines, Petion and Christophe. They took back their right to freedom and would later turn the European enemies out of Haiti.

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Read more: History, Slave, Dutty Boukman, Revolution, Freedom, Slavery, Haitian Revolution, History

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