By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 2nd 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of Haiti\u2019s Founding Fathers. Anne-Alexandre Sab\u00e9s (better known as P\u00e9tion). However, the quadroon (what was known as a quarter-caste at the time) as his mother, Ursula, was a mixed-race free woman and his father a white French settler, Pascal Sab\u00e8s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, the black blood in him, diluted or not, marked him as a Mulatto \u2013 a derogatory term for mixed-race people. This meant that although he was born into limited white privilege, it was made clear that he was not the political or social equal of his father, but he was \u2018superior\u2019 to blacks, slave or free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young P\u00e9tion (Little Man) could not wear the same clothes, work the same jobs, enjoy the same political and social rights as his father, or even bear his name. However, like many of his race and class his education was paid for and he was trained for a future. Pascal would not allow Alexandre to use his surname, but he was not totally abandoned (see above).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is fitting that Pascal Sab\u00e8s is now a minor footnote in history, remembered, if at all, only for being P\u00e9tion\u2019s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he was approaching his 21st birthday \u2013 after he had had a military education in France, a turning point in young P\u00e9tion\u2019s life occurred. Champions of mixed-race rights in Saint-Domingue, later Haiti, Vincent Og\u00e9 and Jean-Baptiste had tried and failed to secure equality for their race by political means and the by armed struggle. Both Chavannes and Og\u00e9 died brutally in February 1791, paying the price for Og\u00e9\u2019s refusal to ally with blacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the Haitian Revolution, future Presidents of Haiti, P\u00e9tion and Jean-Pierre Boyer fought under General Andr\u00e9 Rigaud on both the right and wrong side of history. After defeat in the brutal War of Knives, both P\u00e9tion and Boyer returned to Saint-Domingue, believing they were there to secure a share of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deceitful capture and transportation of first Toussaint Louverture and then Rigaud convinced Toussaint\u2019s Generals, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe and P\u00e9tion to bury their differences. P\u00e9tion\u2019s decision helped ensure the final victory against the French forces led by the Vicomte de Rochambeau at the Battle of Verti\u00e8res in November 1803.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haiti declared independence on January 1st 1804. Dessalines became Emperor later that year and ruled until he was assassinated in October 1807.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A split between P\u00e9tion and Christophe led to a civil war and an uneasy peace in 1811 \u2013 Christophe ruling the North as King Henry I and P\u00e9tion becoming President of the South. As President of Haiti, P\u00e9tion was staunch in his support of independence struggles against Spanish colonialism in the Americas. He supported liberation struggles in the USA as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were few more implacable opponents of slavery than P\u00e9tion. The only condition he added to the aid that he provided to the \u2018Liberator\u2019 Sim\u00f3n Jos\u00e9 Antonio de la Sant\u00edsima Trinidad Bol\u00edvar y Palacios Ponte-Andrade y Blanco was that in every territory he liberated, Bol\u00edvar had to abolish slavery. President P\u00e9tion died on March 29th 1818. He was succeeded by Boyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 2nd 2020) Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[696],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1856,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions\/1856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}