The Virgin Mary and revolution in Saint-Domingue: The charisma of Romaine-la-Prophétesse

Journal of Historical Sociology

Volumn 11, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 341-369

  Rey, Terry ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0032221618     PISSN: 09521909     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-6443.00067     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Ott, Thomas 1970 The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804, Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Tennessee, p. 7.
2. Fick, Carolyn E. 1990 The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution from Below, Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, p. 62.
3. Fick, p. 61.
4. Fick, p. 63.
5. Etymologically the word Vodou derives from the African Fon language's Vodou, which means sacred object or spirit. From among a litany of various spellings, with Leslie Desmangles and others I choose Vodou "because it is phonetically more correct, and because it corresponds to the nomenclature used by Haitians themselves for heir own religion." (1992 The Faces of the Gods. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, p. xi-xii.).
6. Fick, p. 93.
7. Worsley, Peter 1968 The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of Cargo Cults in Melanesia, New York: Schocken Books, p. xvii.
8. In a groundbreaking study on the Lemba drum of affliction cult in Kongo and "New World" cultures, John M. Janzen argues that scholarly overfocus on the West African influences on Haitian Vodou have obscured the Kongo, or Bantu, influence "as adapted to, or subordinated itself within, the West-African system of ritual symbols and deities. However, there is reason to suspect the finality of such scholarly judgments, since Congo and Bantu influences have not until recently been the subject of thorough scholarly inquiry..." 1982 Lemba, 1650-1930: A Drum of Affliction in Africa and the New World, New York & London: Garland Publishing Co., p. 274-5.
9. Worsley, p. 38.
10. The first specific locale "discovered" by the Columbus expedition on the island of Hispaniola in December of 1492 was named for the Virgin Mary. Although Puerto Maria would later be renamed La Baie de Mole, we may pinpoint this bay on Haiti's north coast as the entry point of Marianism into the Hispaniolan religious field. The second bay the expedition chanced upon was also named for the Virgin: Puerto de la Concepción. Its name too would be changed by the French to La Baie des Moustiques - in reference to a much more worldly reality.
11. Gebara, Ivone, and Marian Clara Bingemer 1989 Mary: Mother of God, Mother of the Poor, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, p. 129.
12. Perry, Nicholas, and Loreto Echeverría 1988 Under the Heel of Mary, New York: Routledge, p. 31.
13. Although French Catholic missionaries first arrived in Hispaniola with the establishment of the first French settlement in 1626, and increasing numbers of French Dominicans and Capuchins were to follow, it was not until after the Treaty of 1697 that land grants were made to French Catholic missions. Until then, French missionary activity had only marginal effect on religious life on the island. This changed significantly with arrival in 1704 of the Jesuits, who would within a few decades be evangelizing to over half of the colony's slaves, and the Les Filles de Notre Dame in 1713. The Jesuits were expelled, however, in 1763 for allegedly conspiring with rebel slaves and maroons, while those among the Filles who chose to remain during mounting danger as the revolution stirred were slaughtered by rebel slaves led by Biassou in 1791.
14. "The crowned Virgin, sublime symbol of feudal European order, in effect was consecrated patron saint of France by Louis XIII, king of France from 1601 to 1643, as much the father of slavery as promoter of the cult of Our Lady of the Assumption." Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique 1991 L'Ancienne Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri Deschamps, p. 14.
15. Spanish colonists in Hispaniola hailed mostly from the Estremadura and Andalucia provinces of Spain, where Our Lady of Guadeloupe and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Queen Isabella's Mary of choice, were respectively the dominant Marian cults; as such, they would become the principal Marian cults early in Spanish American history. The Estremaduran Guadeloupe, whose cult dates back to a fifteenth century apparition, is not to be confused with the patron saint of Mexico, whose cult originally evolved around a series of apparitions in Mexico City beginning in 1531.
16. Enrique Dussel "Popular Religion as Oppression and Liberation: Hypothesis on its Past and Present in Latin America," in Norbert Greinacher and Norbert Mette, eds. 1986 (August) Concilium: Popular Religion, 186: 82-94, p. 88.
17. Writing on his experience as a missionary in the French colony of Martinique, Father Jean-Baptiste DuTerte found it noteworthy that "a number of (slaves) wear the rosary around their necks..." Commenting on difficulties in transmitting the Christian faith to slaves, Liliane Chauleau cites as one impediment the predominance of "the wearing of certain 'ways'(moyens): icons, medals, rosaries, crosses..." See Jean-Baptiste DuTerte, Histoire Générale des Antilles, as cited by Liliane Chauleau, "Le Baptême à la Martinique au XVIIe Siècle," in Hurbon, ed. 1989 Le Phénomène Religieux dans la Caraibe, Montréal: Editions CIDIHCA, p. 28.
18. Writing on his experience as a missionary in the French colony of Martinique, Father Jean-Baptiste DuTerte found it noteworthy that "a number of (slaves) wear the rosary around their necks..." Commenting on difficulties in transmitting the Christian faith to slaves, Liliane Chauleau cites as one impediment the predominance of "the wearing of certain 'ways'(moyens): icons, medals, rosaries, crosses..." See Jean-Baptiste DuTerte, Histoire Générale des Antilles, as cited by Liliane Chauleau, "Le Baptême à la Martinique au XVIIe Siècle," in Hurbon, ed. 1989 Le Phénomène Religieux dans la Caraibe, Montréal: Editions CIDIHCA, p. 28.
19. Worsley, The Trumpet Will Sound, p. xxxix; likewise Pierre Bourdieu. "Legitimation and Structured Interest in Weber's Sociology of Religion." In Sam Whimster and Scott Lash, eds. 1987 Max Weber, Rationality, and Modernity, London: Allen and Unwin, p. 126.
20. Worsley, The Trumpet Will Sound, p. xxxix; likewise Pierre Bourdieu. "Legitimation and Structured Interest in Weber's Sociology of Religion." In Sam Whimster and Scott Lash, eds. 1987 Max Weber, Rationality, and Modernity, London: Allen and Unwin, p. 126.
21. Weber, Max 1963 The Sociology of Religion, Boston: Beacon Press, p. 46.
22. Weber, p. 2.
23. Weber, p. 2.
24. Talcott Parsons, "Introduction," in Weber, The Sociology of Religion, p. xxx.
25. Weber, p. 9.
26. Parsons, p. xxxiii.
27. Weber, p. 2.
28. Worsley, p. xxxviii.
29. Bourdieu 1987 "Legitimation and Structured Interest in Weber's Sociology of Religion." In Sam Whimster and Scott Lash, eds. Max Weber, Rationality, and Modernity, London: Allen and Unwin, p. 129.
30. Bordieu, p. 131.
31. Bordieu, p. 126.
32. Bordieu, p. 126.
33. Bordieu, p. 131.
34. Worsley, p. xviii.
35. Worsley, p. xiv.
36. See Odette Mennesson Rigaud 1958 (fév-mai) "Le Role du Vaudou dans l'indépendence d'Haiti." Présence Africaine, 17/18, 43-67; and Michel Laguerre 1973 "The Place of Voodoo in the Social Structure of Haiti," Caribbean Quarterly, 19(3): 10-24.
37. See Odette Mennesson Rigaud 1958 (fév-mai) "Le Role du Vaudou dans l'indépendence d'Haiti." Présence Africaine, 17/18, 43-67; and Michel Laguerre 1973 "The Place of Voodoo in the Social Structure of Haiti," Caribbean Quarterly, 19(3): 10-24.
38. For a detailed catalogue of the various African ethnic groups among slaves brought to Saint-Domingue, see Jean Fouchard 1981 Les Marrons de la Liberté, Port-au-Press: Editions Deschamps, p. 143-181.
39. Price-Mars' Ainsi parla l'oncle, Paris: Imprimerie de Compiègne, 1928, is arguably one of the most influential texts ever produced by a Caribbean author, and represents something of a canonical texts for the négritude and panafricanist movements. Initially published in 1928, it was the first attempt to explain Vodou ethnographically and to counter the racist portrayal of Haiti's popular religion that is still in vogue even in some Haitian circles.
40. Neréstant, Micial M. 1994 Religions et Politique en Haiti, Paris: Karthala, p. 80.
41. See the twelfth chapter of Leon François Hoffmann 1992 Haiti: Lettres et l'etre, Toronto: CREF.
42. The celebrated ceremony at Bois Caiman is believed to have taken place on August 14, 1791, led by Boukman Dutty, a Vodou priest and commandeur, who later became a carriage driver, which position afforded him uncommon mobility and hence occasion to reach a wide range of followers. Drawing from several accounts, mostly based on legend, the ceremony is said to have involved the ritual sacrifice of a black pig, whose blood the participants drank, all before the dramatic backdrop of a thunderstorm. Michel Laguerre (1981 Voodoo and Politics in Haiti, New York: St. Martins, p. 62) has translated the climax of Boukman's sermon as follows: The God who created the sun which gives us light, Who rouses the waves and rules the storm, Though hidden in the clouds, he watches us. He sees all that the white man does. The God of the white man inspires him with crime, But our God calls upon us to do good works. He will direct our arms and aid us. Throw away the symbol of the God of the whites Who has so often caused us to weep, And listen to the voice of liberty, which speaks in the hearts of us all.
43. Fick, p. 244.
44. Métraux, Alfred 1972 Voodoo in Haiti, New York: Schocken Books, p. 42-3.
45. The French word Vodouisant designates a practitioner of Vodou, which strikes me as far more eloquent that the English "Voodooist." It is also used throughout the present text as the adjectival form of the noun Vodou, since Vodouisant is to Vodou, grammatically, what Christian is to Christianity. I follow Leslie Desmangles in such a preference. See note 5 above.
46. Fick, p. 244.
47. The term "in active opposition" is from Antonio Gramsci, who, moving beyond the classical Marxist understanding, felt that popular religion itself possesses revolutionary potential insofar as it represents a worldview that is confrontational to hegemonic culture. For a presentation of this thesis see John Fulton 1987 "Religion and Politics in Gramsci: An Introduction," Sociological Analysis, 48:197-216.
48. Madiou, Thomas 1989 Histoire d'Haïti, Tome I: 1492-1799, Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri Deschamps, p. 127. While Madiou was writing some fifty years after Romaine's activities, he nonetheless had access to living witnesses of the revolution, and his accounts thereof are generally respected as reliable. To my knowledge, only two scholars, Jean Fouchard and Carolyn Fick, have uncovered earlier primary sources referring to Romaine. Romaine is mentioned briefly in Garran-Coulon, Jean Philippe, Rapport Sur les Troubles de Saint-Domingue; Commission des Colonies; Paris: Imp. Nationale, 1797-99. Other primary source references to Romaine are found in declarations written or dictated by Marie-Jeanne Haring (30 March 1792), the widow of another rebel slave leader, and free black Mathurin Dubreuil (28 March 1792). Contemporary municipal and parish documents from Jacmel also refer to Romaine's activities. These documents are preserved in the Archives Nationale (series DXXV) in Paris, where Fouchard has also uncovered a series of letters addressed to Abbé Gregoire, evidentially written and signed by Romaine himself (see note 28 below).
49. Madiou, Thomas 1989 Histoire d'Haïti, Tome I: 1492-1799, Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri Deschamps, p. 127. While Madiou was writing some fifty years after Romaine's activities, he nonetheless had access to living witnesses of the revolution, and his accounts thereof are generally respected as reliable. To my knowledge, only two scholars, Jean Fouchard and Carolyn Fick, have uncovered earlier primary sources referring to Romaine. Romaine is mentioned briefly in Garran-Coulon, Jean Philippe, Rapport Sur les Troubles de Saint-Domingue; Commission des Colonies; Paris: Imp. Nationale, 1797-99. Other primary source references to Romaine are found in declarations written or dictated by Marie-Jeanne Haring (30 March 1792), the widow of another rebel slave leader, and free black Mathurin Dubreuil (28 March 1792). Contemporary municipal and parish documents from Jacmel also refer to Romaine's activities. These documents are preserved in the Archives Nationale (series DXXV) in Paris, where Fouchard has also uncovered a series of letters addressed to Abbé Gregoire, evidentially written and signed by Romaine himself (see note 28 below).
50. George Eaton Simpson 1965 Religious Cults of the Caribbean: Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti, Caribbean Monograph Series, 15, San Juan: University of Puerto Rico, p. 235. Most mention of Romaine in scholarly literature is brief and refers merely to Madiou's short discussion, in which he indeed does refer to Romaine as a "grif espagnol" (a Spanish quadroon). Simpson evidently takes this literally and assumes that Romaine was truly a Spaniard. However, it is common in Haiti to hear any native speaker of Spanish as being a Spaniard. In Creole, in fact, a Dominican is simply called panyòl, which is the Creole mutation of the French espagnol, or Spaniard. It is thus likely that Madiou's reference to Romaine as a Spaniard indicates that he was originally from the Spanish side of the island, and hence a native Spanish speaker, one commonly referred to as a Spaniard. Mention of Romaine's "Spanish origins" may not, in effect, designate any direct or filial Spanish heritage whatsoever, and may be no more than a linguistic definition.
51. Woodson, Drexel G. "Which Beginning Should be Hindmost?: Surrealism in Appropriations of Facts About Haitian 'Contact Culture.'" Unpublished manuscript, cited with author's permission, p. 47-48.
52. See Fick, p. 307 n.41.
53. The mountains around the Dominican town of Bahoruco were home to one of the longest-standing and most seditious maroon communities on the island of Hispaniola. This community was founded by an escaped slave named Enrique (Cacique Henry) before 1520, and, like many maroon communities, was comprised of native Hiapaniolindians as well as escaped slaves. Enrique himself was probably an indigenous Taino chief, as would be indicated by his title of cacique. His original band led a rebellion throughout the surrounding area that lasted for fourteen years and ended "only after humiliating cease-fires that the Spanish negotiated painstakingly, which were forced upon them by the looming threat of an independent Bahoruco state and incessant (maroon) raids that extended as far as Caracol in the north of Saint-Domingue." Fouchard, Les Marrons de la Liberté, p. 371-2.
54. Fick, p. 307 n.45.
55. th edition, vol. 5, p. 476.) Gregoire's correspondence with Romaine is typical of his activism from abroad. Fouchard's Les Marrons du Syllabaire (Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1988) includes several plates depicting letters written by Romaine la Prophétesse to Gregoire. They are fairly legible in these reproductions. The letters are written in a tone of almost pompous respect for "Monsieur l'Abbé," and usually thank him for his advise, request further advice, and/or inform him of Romaine's most recent and next move. Each letter is closed in the same fashion: "Your most humble and most obedient servant, Romaine Rivière, La Prophétesse, Commandant Générale." One can only wonder what the "schismatic abbé" made of Romaine's predilection for calling himself Prophétesse, a title hardly reflective of Christian humility. Equally intriguing is the question as to whether Gregoire was aware of Romaine's radical appropriation of the symbol of the Virgin Mary.
56. The Magnificat is perhaps the most forceful statement in favor of social revolution articulated in the New Testament. Since it is spoken by Mary, it has become something of an anthem for mariologically-inclined liberation theologians, such as Leonardo Boff and Virgil Elizondo: And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats [thrones], and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. Luke 1:46-53 (King James Version)
57. Warner, Marina 1976 Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary, New York: Knopf, p. 304-5.
58. Dussel, Enrique "Popular Religion as Oppression and Liberation: Hypothesis on its Past and Present in Latin America" Concilium: Popular Religion, p. 82-94; p. 88.
59. Beauvoir-Dominique L' Ancienne Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, p. 65.
60. Rigaud, Milo 1953 La Tradition Vaudou et Vaudou Haïtien: Son Temple, ses Mystères, sa Magie, Paris: Niclaus, p. 66.
61. Dayan, Joan 1993 Haiti, History, and the Gods, Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 52.
62. "Symbiosis by ecology" refers to Roger Bastide's notion of "syncretism in mosaic" (Bastide 1967 Les Amériques Noires: Les Civilisations Africaines dans le Nouveau Monde, Paris: Payot), which manifests itself in two paradigms: on the one hand, in the spatial juxtaposition of Vodou (or diverse African-derived) elements and Catholic symbols in the ounfò [Vodou temple]... "the geographical proximity of a church to a ounfò constitutes the spatial juxtaposition of the two traditions." Desmangles, Leslie 1992 The Faces of the Gods, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, p. 8.
63. Garran-Coulon, Jean-Philippe, as cited in Beauvoir-Dominique, L'Ancienne Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, p. 64.
64. Trouillot, Henock 1983 Introduction à une Histoire du Vaudou, Port-au-Prince: Fardin, p. 64.
65. The term "religious capital" is adopted from Pierre Bourdieu, who describes the "religious field" as an arena of struggle, wherein orthodoxy and heretical movements compete over the consumership of the laity. What precisely, it needs to be asked, are the forms of religious capital over which agents deem worth struggling, and whose legitimate production and administration religious institutions and specialists endeavor to monopolize? The legitimization of the social order (or of the struggle to change it), the sanction of wealth and power (or of the struggle to redistribute it), and the sense of meaning religion brings to one's life certainly all rank among the most highly coveted forms of religious capital. Yet the forms of religious capital to which Bourdieu most often refers are "the goods of salvation' (les biens du salud), paramount among which stand the sacraments and that officially recognized membership with an ecclesial community that is considered requisite to salvation. See Bourdieu, Pierre 1971 (jul.-sep.) "Genèse et structure du champs religieux" Revue française de sociologie, 12(3): 294-334.
66. Fick, p. 127.
67. "We can judge the backwardness of the western slaves at the beginning of the revolution from the fact that both Hyacinthe, and another men [sic], Romaine the prophetess, fortified their authority with divine attributes, while Jean François and Biassou in the North from the very beginning aimed at social revolution." C.L.R. James 1963 The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, New York: Vintage Books, p. 108. In field research that I conducted in Haiti in the early nineties it was common among those Haitians who knew of Romaine to accuse him of "fanaticism," a designation few Haitian would dare make in regards to Boukman.
68. Fick, p. 138.
69. "Theodicy of compensation" is Weber's term for what he sees as a key component of the "religion of non-privileged classes," a category into which Romaine's followers obviously fit. "Resentment is a concomitant of that particular ethic of the disprivileged which, in the sense expanded by Nietzsche and in direct inversion of the ancient belief, teaches that the unequal distribution of mundane goods is caused by the sinfulness and illegality of the privileged, and sooner or later God's wrath will overtake them." (my italics). Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion, p. 110.
70. Fick, p. 127.
71. Serge Larose 1977 "The Meaning of Africa in Haitian Vodu," in I. M. Lewis, ed., Symbols and Sentiments, New York: Academic Press, p. 85-116; p. 111-12.
72. Métraux, Alfred 1972 Voodoo in Haiti, New York: Schocken Books, p. 47.
73. Fick, p. 128.
74. Rigaud, La Tradition Vaudou et Vaudou Haïtien, p. 66. Laguerre, in "The Place of Vodou in the Social Structure of Haiti," informs his brief mention of Romaine with Rigaud's. His translation of her term "coq rangé" is, however, incorrect and misleading. Laguerre states that Romaine "always carried on his saddle-horse a rangé chicken (one having magical powers)," whereas coq should be translated as "cock" or "rooster," and certainly not as "chicken." The difference is significant, for in Vodou the cock is seen as embodying power and virility, whereas the chicken, as far as I know, is symbolically empty. The powerful symbolism of the cock was not lost on Jean-Bertrand Aristide, incidentally, who effectively employed it by choosing it as the emblem of his political party FNCD (Front Nationale pour le Changement et la Démoratie) during Haiti's 1990 presidential election, which Aristide won by a landslide.
75. Woodson, "Which Beginning Should be Hindmost?" p. 47-48.
76. See Larose, "The Meaning of Africa in Haitian Vodu," p. 111; and Beauvoir-Dominique, L'Ancienne Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, p. 64. Although it is plausible that Romaine may have orchestrated Petro rituals, there is nothing in the sources that clearly suggests that he did. Were we to have concrete evidence, however, it would strengthen the thesis that he may have been Kongolese, since the "rightful source" of Petro rituals, as Janzen notes, is a "north-Kongo healing cult (Lemba)." Lemba, 1650-1930, p. 280. Pending further investigation of the matter, however, it would be unscientific to use the Petro connection as a premise for our thesis.
77. See Larose, "The Meaning of Africa in Haitian Vodu," p. 111; and Beauvoir-Dominique, L'Ancienne Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, p. 64. Although it is plausible that Romaine may have orchestrated Petro rituals, there is nothing in the sources that clearly suggests that he did. Were we to have concrete evidence, however, it would strengthen the thesis that he may have been Kongolese, since the "rightful source" of Petro rituals, as Janzen notes, is a "north-Kongo healing cult (Lemba)." Lemba, 1650-1930, p. 280. Pending further investigation of the matter, however, it would be unscientific to use the Petro connection as a premise for our thesis.
78. See Larose, "The Meaning of Africa in Haitian Vodu," p. 111; and Beauvoir-Dominique, L'Ancienne Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince, p. 64. Although it is plausible that Romaine may have orchestrated Petro rituals, there is nothing in the sources that clearly suggests that he did. Were we to have concrete evidence, however, it would strengthen the thesis that he may have been Kongolese, since the "rightful source" of Petro rituals, as Janzen notes, is a "north-Kongo healing cult (Lemba)." Lemba, 1650-1930, p. 280. Pending further investigation of the matter, however, it would be unscientific to use the Petro connection as a premise for our thesis.
79. Laguerre, Michel 1981 Voodoo and Politics in Haiti, New York: St Martins, p. 34.
80. Fick, p. 128.
81. Fick, p. 307-8, n. 47.
82. Fick, p. 128.
83. Cited in Fick, p. 128-9.
84. Fick, p. 129.
85. Fick, p. 139.
86. Thornton, John K. 1993 "I am the Subject of the King of Congo: African Political Ideology and the Haitian Revolution" Journal of World History, 4(2): 181-214, p. 183.
87. Bourdieu, "Legitimation and Structured Interest in Weber's Sociology of Religion," p. 129.
88. Thornton, "I am the Subject of the King of Congo," p. 185.
89. Cited in Thornton, 'I am the Subject of the King of Congo," p. 181.
90. Thornton, "I am the Subject of the King of Congo," p. 189.
91. Thornton, John K. 1983 The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Transition 1641-1718, Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, p. 107.
92. Thornton, John K. The Kingdom of Kongo. Thornton translates nganga as "a religious figure, ideally engaged in private activities for pay," and itomi as "a religious figure, in charge of territorial spirits," p. 177.
93. MacGaffey, Wyatt 1977 "Cultural Roots of Kongo Prophetism," History of Religions, 17(2): 177-193, p. 179.
94. MacGaffey, p. 192.
95. MacGaffey, p. 190.
96. Thornton, "I am the Subject of the King of Congo," p. 199.
97. Thornton, "I am the Subject of the King of Congo," p. 199.
98. Thornton, "I am the Subject of the King of Congo," p. 203.
99. See note 45 above.
100. This is not to suggest, however, that a proclivity to commit atrocities was more prevalent among Bosals than Creoles, as there are "innumerable atrocity stories that fill whole cartons in the archives and were the stock trade of travelers, journals, and analysts of the time." Thornton, "I am the Subject of the King of Congo," p. 207.
101. Elsewhere Thornton discusses various features of Kongolese military culture, such as the employment of swords versus bayonets and the "use of cover, both from terrain and from woods and tall grass," which raises another possible avenue for comparing Romaine and Macaya. We know little of Romaine's military strategy, save that he used a sword and that upon terminating a raid he and his band retreated to a mountain outpost that served as something of a natural fortress. Further research would be required to move beyond speculation as concerns this comparison, although had Romaine in fact been Kongolese, chances are that he had gained military experience while a youth or young man in the Kongo civil wars, which, as Thornton demonstrates, was an upheaval that generated a large influx of Kongolese slaves for Saint-Domingue. (Thornton, John, K. 1991 "African Soldiers in the Haitian Revolution" The Journal of Caribbean History, 25: 58-80, p. 67). Thornton's thesis in this article, which is to be taken seriously, in my judgement, is that "African soldiers may well have provided the key element of the early success of the revolution. ... Looking at the rebel slaves of Haiti as African veterans rather than as Haitian plantation workers may well prove to be the key that unlocks the mystery of the success of the largest slave revolt in history." (p. 74).
102. See Fouchard, p. 279.
103. Weber, p. 2.
104. Weber, p. 110.