The widow of the unfortunate Toussaint has just landed upon our continent. Her account of her own and her husband’s sufferings, from Bonaparte’s tyranny, would be incredible, were they not already equaled by the Corsican’s former atrocities.
“An Account of the Wife of Toussaint L’Ouverture,” The Christian Observer (1804)
Josephine Dessalines is humane, good-natured, and unaffected. She has saved a number of white people from being murdered by the blacks, and she has procured many others their property, and means to escape with it to France or America, with the same indifference as if she had only done an ordinary action.
Lewis Goldsmith, “Josephine Dessalines: The Empress of Haiti,” The female revolutionary Plutarch: containing biographical, historical and revolutionary sketches, characters and anecdotes (1806)
4 Comments
I would like to have more information on the image posted on 8 March 2010, Haiti: Madame Toussaint, such as the artist (if known), date, owner, dimensions, media, etc. From the file information, it appears that the work is at the Musee du Quai Branly, Paris. I would like to include this work in our archive, The Image of the Black in Western Art Project, WEB Du Bois Institute, Harvard University. Thank you very much for your help.
Sheldon Cheek
The image is listed as “Silhouette d’une négresse habillée à la mode du Premier Empire”. N° d’inventaire : PP0182459 on the musée du quai Branly website. We found it here: http://bit.ly/jocuYq
Madame Toussaint + Empress Dessalines: http://t.co/00vzIy9C #haiti
“@public_archive: Madame Toussaint + Emperatriz Dessalines: http://t.co/9CCuTCsN Haiti #8deMarzo #8M
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[…] Never fear! The Public Archive, a digital archive founded after January 12, 2010 and dedicated to serving “as an accessible clearinghouse of historical and archival sources for the Vanderbilt University community and the public at large,” features Madame Louverture in one of its recent posts: […]