The Tigress of Haiti: A Lesson in Resistance

​It’s 1791. 

French colonizers, mirroring their British and Spanish counterparts, have invaded North America and the Caribbean, touting liberty and equality while simultaneously slaughtering Indigenous civilizations and mass-enslaving Africans. The colony of Saint-Domingue, a hellish island network of 800 plantations built on the backs of Black slaves, holds special status as the world’s foremost sugar producer, generating immense wealth for the French crown. Just west of the Dominican Republic, she is home to nearly half a million enslaved people—the largest enslaved population in any colony in the Americas.

While the French Revolution preaches the same hypocritical stories the U.S. founding fathers are pushing, slaves of Saint-Domingue conspire to claim liberty for themselves. 

On August 21, 1791, a coordinated rebellion erupts in the northern part of the colony. Enslaved Africans rise up in the night, attacking plantations and killing white owners and their families. 

This desperate act of self-determination sparks what we know today as the Haitian Revolution, a brutal 12-year conflict that culminated in the establishment of the first Black republic ever: Haiti.

Many heroes emerged during the Haitian Revolution, including the iconic Toussaint Louverture, but most accounts overlook Lieutenant Sanité Bélair, a decorated warrior who was born free (affranchi) in L’Artibonite and led the Haitian resistance in the western region of Saint-Domingue.
Known as “the Tigress” for her ferocity, Sanité saw the brutality inflicted upon her homeland and took up arms. She ignited rebellions across L’Artibonite, turning the tide against French domination and forcing the colonizers to flee.

Napoleon Bonaparte saw the threat of the Tigress, and caught and executed Sanité in 1802. But her sacrifice had already ignited a movement. The Haitian people wanted freedom—and not the false version preached by the French or American revolutions. Haiti resisted and became the first Black republic on January 1, 1804.