Avengers of the New World Quotes

“By creating a society in which all people, of all colors, were granted freedom and citizenship, the Haitian Revolution forever transformed the world. It was a central part of the destruction of slavery in the Americas, and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere. In this sense we are all descendents of the Haitain Revolution, and responsible to these ancestors.”
― Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

“Early in the colonys history, he argued, the European men who came to the colonies "burning with the desire to make a fortune" but "weakened by the heat of the climate, often sick, and deprived of the aid wives of their own color could have given them," turned to "African women." These slave women cared for them assiduously, hoping to gain "the greatest recompense, their liberty." "These first whites," Raimond explained, "lived with these women as if they were married" and had children with them. Some freed the women and married them, as the Code Noir stipulated whites who had children with slaves should do. Many whites left land and slaves to their partners and children. Indeed it was generally expected that they would do so, and Saint-Domingue whites resisted royal attempts to institute laws outlawing such bequests. As a result, a class of property-owning free people of color emerged in the colony.s”
― Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

“drawn from the African idiom, their profession, or color." (The family of Julien Raimond complied grudgingly by switching from the "Raymond" of their French father to "Raimond.") A 1779 regulation made it illegal for free people of color to "affect the dress, hairstyles, style, or bearing of whites," and some local ordinances forbade them to ride in carriages or to own certain home furnishings. By the time of the Revolution free-coloreds were subjected to a variety of laws that discriminated against them solely on the basis of race.4”
― Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

“served as a catalyst for later, more radical, and more successful insurrections”
― Laurent Dubois , Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

“In his bid to secure the loyalty of such ex-slaves, Sonthonax announced in late February that the National Convention had abolished slavery in all the French colonies.”
― Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

“The National Convention declares that slavery is abolished throughout the territory of the Republic; in consequence, all men, without distinction of color, will enjoy the rights of French citizens."37”
― Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution

“And then another conquest began-that of the British.”
― Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution