history

How a Dahomey Amazon helped lead the First Successful Slave Revolution. Abdaraya Toya, or Victoria Montou (c. 1739-1805) was an elite warrior in the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern Benin). When her country was colonized by the French, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Caribbean island of Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti), under brutally harsh chattel slavery. But Abdaraya Toya’s had other plans. Although in her 60s, she fought as a soldier and commanded fellow freedom fights in the Haitian War of Independence. It is one of the only slave rebellions in human history which led to the founding of a free Republic.