Haitian revolutionary leaders were venerated across the Americas as icons of black freedom

Evidence

Images of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution were an inspiration to people of African descent throughout the Americas. In Rio de Janeiro in 1805, soldiers of African descent wore “medallion portraits of the emperor Dessalines.” In Cuba a free black named José Antonio Aponte, who was accused of conspiring to revolt in 1812, had portraits of Henri Christophe, Toussaint Louverture, Jean-François, and Dessalines in his home. Rebels who conspired with Aponte described having been shown these images “in what probably amounted to lessons in the history of the Haitian Revolution.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 1072

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s stated interest in connecting the Haitian Revolution to the wider Atlantic world, and builds on prior chapters about Dessalines, Toussaint, and Christophe.
• ADDENDUM: The imagery of revolutionary leaders carried across the Atlantic parallels how the earlier pieces trace symbolic meaning traveling through material objects like bark cloth or dress.