Boukman’s death in mid-November 1791 removed the uprising’s figurehead.

Evidence

By late November Jean-François and Biassou were the most important insurgent leaders in the northern plain. They had survived as other leaders had fallen. Jean-Baptiste Cap, who was elected king of Limbé and Port- Margot in late August, had been captured trying to recruit slaves on a plantation and broken on the wheel. And in mid-November Boukman was surrounded by a troop of cavalry and gunned down during a battle. He was decapitated, his body burned by the French troops in view of the insurgent camps, and his head displayed on a stake in the main plaza of Le Cap. The man who killed him was awarded the large bounty promised to anyone who brought in the “heads of the different chiefs of the rebels.” The death of the man who had set the uprising in motion made a deep impression in the rebel camps, where insurgents launched into a three-day calenda— dance—during which they taunted white prisoners (whom some wanted to put to death in revenge for their leader’s death) and told stories of their exploits in the war. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 421

Categorization

• XREF: The calenda dance and mourning rituals connect to the cultural/religious dimensions of the revolution, which is a running theme of the book.