1917-09-05: (The Maiming of Adirenng Senatus — A Market Woman from Jacmel Carrying a Basket of Fruit and a Package Near the Open Market in Port-au-Prince Ste…

1917-09-05: (The Maiming of Adirenng Senatus — A Market Woman from Jacmel Carrying a Basket of Fruit and a Package Near the Open Market in Port-au-Prince Stepped from Behind a Sprinkler Wagon and Was Struck by a Quartermasters Mortar Truck Driven by Private Sterling R. Hold USMC, Adirenng Suffering a Six-Inch Laceration Above Her Left Knee a Twelve-Inch Deep Laceration of Her Lower Left Leg Contusions of Her Left Foot and a Contusion Under Her Right Eye, Hold Testifying He Was Driving Carefully and Slowly and That the Accident Was Unavoidable, the Court Agreeing — But in the Context of Other Road Accidents Her Injury and Eventual Death Exposing US Officials’ Beliefs About Haitians’ Capacity to Govern Their Own Bodies and Movement): On Tuesday, September 5, 1917, Adirenng Senatus from Jacmel attempted to cross the street near the open market in Port-au-Prince, carrying a basket of fruit and a package. She stepped from behind a sprinkler wagon and was struck by a Quartermasters mortar truck driven by Private Sterling R. Hold of the USMC. She remembered nothing after the impact until she woke in the hospital. Her body had been violently remade: a six-inch laceration above her left knee externally, a twelve-inch deep laceration of her lower left leg internally, numerous contusions of her left foot, and a contusion under her right eye. Hold testified that he had not seen her and was driving carefully and slowly; Adirenng herself stated she had no reason to believe he struck her intentionally. The court ruled the accident unavoidable and absolved Hold of carelessness. But Adirenng’s maiming was not singular — it belonged to a pattern in which the collision between occupied and occupier provided subtle revelations about the meaning of the occupation for Haitian women. The record of road accidents offers an image of the bodily injury that altered women’s physical reality, and Adirenng’s injury and eventual death exposed US officials’ beliefs about Haitians’ capacity to render their own bodies and move through the world — as well as Haitian women’s refusal of those beliefs.