Fantastically Terrible Podcast Ep16: How a Dahomey Amazon helped lead the First Successful Slave Revolution

Fantastically Terrible Podcast Ep16: How a Dahomey Amazon helped lead the First Successful Slave Revolution in Haiti

Abdaraya Toya: a Dahomey Amazon in Haiti

Today’s discussion is about a remarkable woman named Abdaraya Toya, or Victoria Montou (c. 1739-1805). She was an elite Dahomey warrior in Kingdom of Dahomey (modern Benin), and freedom fighter in the army of Jean-Jacques Dessalines during the Haitian Revolution.

When the Dahomean Kingdom was annexed and colonized by the French, Abdaraya Toya was one of many who were kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Caribbean island of Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti), a French colony from 1659 to 1803 under brutally harsh chattel slavery.

Abdaraya Toya’s warrior blood had other plans. She helped to train a young boy named Jean-Jacques Dessalines who grew up to be a leader in the revolution against France. Although in her 60s, she fought as a soldier and commanded troops in action against her old enemy. The Haitian War of Independence is one of the only known slave rebellions in human history which led to the founding of a state and ruled by those formerly held in bondage. When Dessalines finally declared Haiti’s independence in 1804, he gave Abdaraya Toya the title of Duchess. When she died a year later, her life and contributions were celebrated with a state funeral. She is one of the great heroes of the Haitian revolution.

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Haitian War of Independence

While the American and French Revolutions purported to follow the ideal that all men were equal and deserving of freedom, slavery was protected in the new United States of America, while France abolished slavery in 1794, until Napoleon re-introduced slavery in 1802 and made himself emperor.

Even before the French Revolution, many voices argued against the slave trade. The Society of the Friends of the Blacks (Société des amis des Noirs or Amis des noirs) formed in 1788 and was dedicated to abolishing slavery in the French colonies and end their involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Enslaved people yearned for freedom and the philosophy of Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité brought hope. When Napoleon betrayed the Revolution in a coup d’état (Coup of 18 Brumaire), one of the first things he did was to reinstate slavery and reestablish France’s colonial holdings. The one place he could not regain control of was Saint-Domingue (later Haiti), which had 500,000 slaves fighting for their freedom.

The leader of the slave revolt turned revolution was Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803), an exceptional man who was born into slavery and rose to become the Black Spartacus. He and other brave self-liberated enslaved people managed to overthrow the French, Spanish and British empires, secure their independence and establish the first modern and independent Black state. They changed the name of their island from Saint Domingue to the Republic of Haiti (indigenous name: Ayiti). One can say that L’Ouverture and the Haitian patriots remained loyal to the ideals of the French Revolution, even after Napoleon betrayed it.

Haiti was founded by formerly enslaved Africans, who threw off the shackles of French rule. Haiti became the first nation to permanently abolish slavery in 1804, three decades before Great Britain, over four decades before France, and more than six decades before the US. It was Haitian revolutionaries that inspired other European countries to do the same, including England which only followed Haiti’s lead in 1807.

In May 1807, the Haitian statesman Juste Chanlatte declared that slavery was “a crime against humanity,” in an article he wrote for Haiti’s official newspaper, the Official Gazette of the State of Hayti (La Gazette Officielle d’Hayti):

“What could be more glorious, indeed, than to banish the infamous and barbaric practice of trafficking in human beings? How can one even conceive that this shameful practice could have persisted until now, after such a flood of learning and philosophy has been poured over the face of the earth! That man, no doubt, had been suckled at birth by a tigress, into whose brain this diabolical conception could have entered; how ferocious was that people who dared to teach others to tolerate such a crime against humanity!

The nation that, first among all, avenged humanity by healing one of its most cruel wounds, has brought fortune to its flag and expanded the reach of its influence and industry; it has only one more step to take (a necessary consequence of the first it has just taken) to forge a swift and inexpensive path toward the conquest of the treasures of the West Indies…”

Character of the week

The Fantastically Terrible Character is none other than the legendary Bessie Stringfield! At the tender age of 16, Bessie taught herself how to ride. In the 1930s, she made several road trips across the US. She became the first black woman to ride solo through all 48 US mainland states, including the Jim Crow south. Later, during World War II, Bessie served as a civilian courier for the US Army, carrying documents between army bases across the country, encountering plenty of racism along the way. Eventually, she became a nurse and settled in Miami, Florida, where she established the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club, earning her the knick name ‘The Motorcycle Queen of Miami.’ [Read more…]

Deep dive…

Learn more…

★ Meet the warrior woman from Dahomey who trained Haitian revolutionary hero Dessalines
★ Dahomey’s Women Warriors (Smithsonian)
★ Dahomey Amazons (wiki)
★ There’s a True Story Behind Black Panther’s Strong Women. Here’s Why That Matters
★ Get to know the Dora Milaje, Black Panther’s mighty women warriors
★ Bessie Stringfield (1911-1993)
★ Clotel by William Wells Brown

Haitian War of Independence

★ “The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution” by C.L.R. James, 1938 (pdf)
★ “Juste Chanlatte article for La Gazette Officielle d’Hayti” by Juste Chanlatte, Mai 7, 1807
★ “How C. L. R. James Wrote the Definitive History of the Haitian Revolution” by Rachel Douglas, January 4, 2021.
★ “Jefferson and the Nonrecognition of Haiti” by Tim Matthewson, March 1996.

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