Dutty Boukman

Today marked the 228 anniversary of the first meeting between Dutty Boukman and rebel slaves, to plane what is now known as the “Haitian Slave Revolution.”

The Jamaican leader in Haiti.
Dutty Boukman 🇯🇲🇪🇹🇯🇲🇪🇹🇯🇲

The Jamaican slave who was instrumental in the slave rebellion in Haiti.

Dutty Boukman, was a slave from Jamaica, and were likely to be of the Akan tribe descendant in Africa. After he was caught attempting to teach other slaves how to read, he was sold to a French plantation owner in Haiti. His French name came from his English nickname, “Book Man”, a term used to describe slaves who was able to read.

Boukman brought his West Central African religion of Kumina to Haiti, and there he also learnt the practices of vodou/obeah, the Fon and Ewe religion of the West African slaves in Haiti, with his spiritual knowledge he became a Houngan, a male vodou priest.

In August 14th, 1791, he organized a meeting with a group of slaves in the mountains of the north plain of Haiti. This meeting took the form of a vodou ceremony in the Bois Caiman (‘Alligator Woods’), on the plantation of his owner Lenormand de Mezy. It was raining heavily, and the assembled slaves lamented their condition.

On August 22nd, 1791, the slaves of the North entered into a rebellion, killing the white slave masters, and setting the plantations on fire. In November 1791 the French captured Bouckman and beheaded him, bringing the rebellion under control. Bouckman had inspired the slaves with the belief that he was invincible, so the French displayed his head on a spike in Le Cap’s square, to convince them he was really dead.

After Boukman died the slaves did not give up, they continued to fight with the French. By 1804 they had succeeded in ending not just slavery but French control over the colony.