Saint-Marc planters defied colonial terminology to assert local self-rule

Evidence

When the assembly met in the port town of Saint-Marc in April 1790, the motto hanging in the meeting hall declared, “Notre union fait notre force.” (This motto, “Our unity is our strength,” would one day be adopted by the Haitian Republic.) The group chose the title General Assembly, pointedly refusing the term “Colonial.” Many of those who sat in the Saint- Marc assembly were planters involved in coffee or indigo production who depended on contraband trade and were particularly eager to see an end to the constraints of the monopoly regulations. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 273

Categorization

• CANDY: The Haitian Republic later adopted the colonial assembly’s motto ‘Our unity is our strength.’