Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Charles Belair

1960; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 2; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/165202

2326-4047

Maurice de Young,

Caribbean and African Literature and Culture

To students of the West Indies, the Negro in the New World, the French Revolution, or Haiti, the name of Jean-Jacques Dessalines appears with alarming frequency. Alarming, because it is so difficult to reconcile the deed of the successful organization and culmination of more than a decade of revolutionary struggle with the character presented by the classical historians. Chief lieutenant of the heroic and tragic Toussaint L'ouverture, he was, on the submission of the colonial army, reduced to command of a small force, although officially “General of Division,” on the right bank of the isolated Artibonite River Valley. Then, if we are to accept the interpretation of B. Ardouin, St.—Remy (Les Cayes), Madison, Stoddard, and other leading authorities on the period, after the particularly cruel and selfish act of betrayal, followed by the execution of Charles Belair, the nephew of Toussaint, Dessalines was offered the leadership of the consolidated revolutionary forces.