Mackandal - Haiti Observer Blog

Visitors to Cap-Haitian Cathedral in the town of the same name will discover the history of Haiti, before it became the first black-led republic in the world. Located on the main plaza, the church, now known as the Cathedral of Our Lady, is a well-maintained edifice that seems displaced in the garbage-strewn and dirty rest of town.

A piece of Haiti's slave history is remembered with the statue of revolutionary slave leader, Mackandal, situated on the cathedral site. He led a contingent of black slaves that had fled plantations, where they had labored cutting down sugar cane. The slaves fighting under Mackandal were called Maroons, a reference to the blood they shed while hewing sugar cane. Mackandal was killed on the plaza in 1758, 46 years before Haiti won its freedom from the French.

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