"The extraordinary life of Henry Christophe, King of Haiti" Topic

… from 1811 to 1820.

"The life of Henry Christophe – King of Haiti from 1811 until his death in 1820 – is crying out for a modern dramatisation. It follows a steep and spectacular arc, intersecting with explosive historical events. Paul Clammer brings this extraordinary story to life in his deeply researched biography of Christophe, the first to appear in decades. Clammer, who has lived in Haiti, has been in conversation about this project for years with scholars of the island (full disclosure: I am one of them). He has been doggedly chipping away in his search for sources and the result is a detailed and rewarding read.

As with so many people born into slavery, there is a scant paper trail of Christophe's early life. It is generally accepted that he was not from the French colony of Saint-Domingue that he would help liberate, but instead the island of Grenada, then a British colony. It is thought that French troops took him to Saint-Domingue after the Battle of Grenada in 1779. From there the young Henry found himself en route to the British colony of Georgia with the Chasseurs Volontaires, a regiment of 550 free black soldiers from Saint-Domingue, who aided the patriot rebels in the American Revolutionary War. Afterwards, he returned to Saint-Domingue, to the bustling northern port city of Cap Français (today's Cap-Haïtien). It is unclear when exactly he obtained his freedom, but by the time the French Revolution of 1789 began to spill into the colony, he was working at an inn auspiciously named the Couronne (crown)…"

Main page

link

Armand

De man met de witte tulband: Roestam de Mammeluk, de oosterse bediende van Napoleon

link

Armand