1804–1946: (Women’s Bodies as Territories of Colonial Conquest — LFAS Women Declaring Themselves the Symbol of Haitian Patriotism Imprisoned Shot Drowned Han…

1804–1946: (Women’s Bodies as Territories of Colonial Conquest — LFAS Women Declaring Themselves the Symbol of Haitian Patriotism Imprisoned Shot Drowned Hanged Martyred Next to Their Brothers for the Ideal of Liberty, Women’s Bodily Injury in the National Liberation Project Not Equal or Materially Acknowledged, the Interrogation of the Regime Laying Bare the Scripts of Violence Against Women as Integral to the Nation’s Formulation, the Women Wondering If Their Capacity to Shape the Souls of Revolutionaries Despite Being Mistreated and Fondled by Their Masters Earned Them Citizenship, Echoing Régine Michelle Jean-Charles’s Argument That Rape Plays a Role in the Creation of Nation and That Women’s Bodies Are Understood as Territories of Colonial Conquest, Revolution Serving as a Placeholder for Promise and Deep Love of Nation but the Terms Upon Which Women Could Claim Revolutionary Citizenship Being Often Dire): LFAS women still rhetorically connected themselves to revolutionary heroism, declaring women “the symbol of Haitian patriotism: the women who were imprisoned, shot, drowned, hanged, martyred next to their brothers for the ideal of liberty, and the conquest of the homeland.” But women’s bodily injury in the national liberation project was not equal or materially acknowledged, prompting women’s rights activists to query the relationship between women’s corporeal sacrifice and sovereignty. The interrogation of the regime laid bare the scripts of violence against women as an integral component of the nation’s formulation. The women wondered if their capacity to shape the souls of revolutionaries despite being mistreated and fondled by their masters earned them citizenship — pointing to the stories in Haitian cultural memory that sacrificed women for the liberties of the nation, echoing Haitian feminist scholar Régine Michelle Jean-Charles’s argument that rape plays a role alongside other forms of violence in the creation of nation and national identity, and that women’s bodies are understood to be territories of colonial conquest. The terms upon which women could claim revolutionary citizenship were often dire. Revolution was referential for women activists — a placeholder for the promise and their deep love for the nation. As Caribbean theorist Sylvia Wynter might argue, they were navigating two conflicting premises: the egalitarian premise of the one person vote at the level of the political, and the premise of inequality and subordination based on ascriptions of race and wealth at the social and economic levels.