Boukman’s rhetoric reframed liberty as a divinely sanctioned call to violence.

Evidence

At the ceremony Boukman apparently proclaimed: “The god of the white man calls him to commit crimes; our god asks only good works of us. But this god who is so good orders revenge! He will direct our hands; he will aid us. Throw away the image of the god of the whites who thirsts for our tears and listen to the voice of liberty that speaks in the hearts of all of us.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 341

Categorization

• XREF: The Bois-Caïman ceremony joins other instances of religious oaths sealing rebellion — resonates with the pact sealed by blood in royal-we references, and with the role of sacred invocation in many revolutionary movements.