European writers predicted a black liberator decades before any revolution

Evidence

In his 1771 fable of time travel, Louis Sebastien Mercier imagined waking up after a 672-year nap and finding himself in a changed and perfected world. In one plaza he saw on a pedestal “a negro his head bare, his arm outstretched, with pride in his eyes and a noble and imposing demeanor.” Under the statue were the words “To the Avenger of the New World!” Mercier learned that “this surprising and immortal man” had delivered the world “from the most atrocious, longest, and most insulting tyranny of all.” He had “broken the chains of his compatriots” and transformed those “oppressed by the most odious slavery” into heroes. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 208

Categorization

• XREF: The book is titled after this prophecy; noticing the source of the title strengthens the reader’s sense of narrative build-up toward fulfillment.
• CANDY: A French utopian sci-fi novel from 1771 predicted a black avenger of the New World — a striking conversation fact.