1802: Sanite Belair, tigress
October 5th, 2016 Headsman
On October 5, 1802, Haitian soldier Suzanne Bélair, called Sanité Bélair, was shot with her husband by the French.
This “tigress” is the most famous of the Haitian Revolution’s numerous female protagonists. A free black woman, she married Charles Belair, the nephew and aide of the man who in the 1790s established pre-eminence on Saint-Domingue — Toussaint L’Ouverture.
L’Ouverture tragically vacillated when the French made their move in 1802 to reverse the revolution’s gains and re-establish slavery, but the tigress rallied General Belair to take the field in resistance — and not only rallied him, but fought alongside him as a regular in his army, attaining the rank of Lieutenant.
It’s said that at her capture, when threatened with beheading, she successfuly asserted the right to an honorable soldier’s death by musketry, and standing before their muzzles cried “Viv libète! Anba esclavaj!” (“Long live freedom! Down with slavery!”)
On this day..
- 1546: Jorge Robledo, Popayan conquistador - 2020
- 1866: The Richard Burgess gang, for the Maungatapu Murders - 2019
- 1822: General Berton - 2018
- 1737: Five Johns - 2017
- 1736: Herry Moses, Jewish gangster - 2015
- 610: Phocas, "will you rule better?" - 2014
- 1943: 1,196 Jewish children from Bialystok - 2013
- 1900: Coleman Gillespie - 2012
- 1816: Camilo Torres, Manuel Rodriguez, and other leaders of independent New Granada - 2011
- 1922: C.C. Stassen, white miner - 2010
- 1949: Yoshio Kodaira, soldier turned serial killer - 2009
- 2007: A factory manager in a packed stadium - 2008
Entry Filed under: 19th Century,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,Famous,France,Haiti,History,Occupation and Colonialism,Revolutionaries,Shot,Soldiers,Treason,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1800s, 1802, charles belair, haitian revolution, october 5, sanite belair
