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Dutty Boukman

Leader of the 1791 slave revolt that sparked the Haitian Revolution.

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On 7 November 1791, Dutty Boukman, a figure who led the Haitian Revolution, died.[1] His origins were in Senegambia, within a Muslim family, and after enslavement in Jamaica he eventually arrived in Haiti.[1] Boukman played a key role in organizing the northern colony's slave revolt, specifically in the Le Cap‑Français area.[2]

Key facts and history

Boukman was born around 1767 in Senegambia, where he was a Muslim cleric.[3] The French publicly displayed his head with the inscription "The head of Boukman, leader of the rebels".[4] Seized and enslaved, he was taken first to Jamaica and then to Saint-Domingue, where he served as a Vodou houngan priest.[3] "Zamba" Boukman was a name used by some of his followers.[3]

His role as a coach driver let Boukman move among plantations, which enabled him to spread messages and promote resistance.[5] Boukman encountered Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and the two developed close ties that assisted their planned uprising.[5][6] While protecting a rebel stronghold at Fond Bleu during November 1791, French soldiers killed Boukman.[4]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Dutty Boukman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tickner, "Claiming the International", Routledge, 2013, p. 147; Edmonds, "Caribbean Religious History: An Introduction", NYU Press, 2010; Geggus, "Marronage, voodoo, and the Saint Domingue slave revolt of 1791", Proceedings of the Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society, 1992, p. 22–35 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Dutty Boukman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Girard, "Encyclopedia of African American History", ABC-CLIO, 2010; Poujol-Oriol, "Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience", Oxford University Press, 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Dutty Boukman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tickner, "Claiming the International", Routledge, 2013, p. 147; Fick, "The Making of Haiti", The University of Tennessee, 1990 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Dutty Boukman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fick, "The Making of Haiti", The University of Tennessee, 1990; James, "The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution", New York: Vintage Books, 1989, p. 96 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Dutty Boukman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fick, "The Making of Haiti", The University of Tennessee, 1990 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Dutty Boukman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Garrigus, "A Secret among the Blacks", Harvard University Press, 2023; Garrigus, "A Secret among the Blacks", Harvard University Press, 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Dutty Boukman (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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