Romaine-la-Prophétesse: Difference between revisions
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'''Romaine-la-Prophétesse''' ("Romaine the Prophetess") was born around 1750 in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, [[Sexes#Assigned_male_at_birth|assigned male at birth]], and originally named either '''Romaine''' or '''Romain Rivière'''<ref name="Taber">Robert D. Taber, ''[//ageofrevolutions.com/2016/01/06/the-mystery-of-marie-rose-family-politics-and-the-origins-of-the-haitian-revolution/ The Mystery of Marie Rose: Family, Politics, and the Origins of the Haitian Revolution]'', January 6, 2016</ref> or possibly '''Román Rivera'''.<ref>Terry Rey, ''The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World'' (2017, ISBN 978-0190625849), pp. 27-28, 48 (discussing the lack of clarity over whether ''Romain(e) Rivière'', given in French records, is Romaine's exact birth name or only a gallicization), 50-51, 232</ref><ref name="Heywood">Terry Rey, "Kongolese Catholic Influences on Haitian Popular Catholicism", in Linda M. Heywood (editor), ''Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora'' (2002), pp. 270-271</ref> Romaine moved to the French colony of Saint-Domingue and became a free black coffee plantation owner and an influential figure there.<ref>Rey (2017), pp. 30, 137</ref> | '''Romaine-la-Prophétesse''' ("Romaine the Prophetess") was born around 1750 in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, [[Sexes#Assigned_male_at_birth|assigned male at birth]], and originally named either '''Romaine''' or '''Romain Rivière'''<ref name="Taber">Robert D. Taber, ''[//ageofrevolutions.com/2016/01/06/the-mystery-of-marie-rose-family-politics-and-the-origins-of-the-haitian-revolution/ The Mystery of Marie Rose: Family, Politics, and the Origins of the Haitian Revolution]'', January 6, 2016</ref> or possibly '''Román Rivera'''.<ref>Terry Rey, ''The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World'' (2017, ISBN 978-0190625849), pp. 27-28, 48 (discussing the lack of clarity over whether ''Romain(e) Rivière'', given in French records, is Romaine's exact birth name or only a gallicization), 50-51, 232</ref><ref name="Heywood">Terry Rey, "Kongolese Catholic Influences on Haitian Popular Catholicism", in Linda M. Heywood (editor), ''Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora'' (2002), pp. 270-271</ref> Romaine moved to the French colony of Saint-Domingue and became a free black coffee plantation owner and an influential figure there.<ref>Rey (2017), pp. 30, 137</ref> | ||
In 1791, as the Haitian Revolution began, Romaine and his wife Marie-Roze Adam gathered supporters at their Trou Coffy | In 1791, as the Haitian Revolution began, Romaine and his wife Marie-Roze Adam gathered supporters at their plantation (Trou Coffy) to defend it from armed whites nearby,<ref>Rey (2017), pp. 27-31</ref> and led an uprising of thousands of slaves, who took weapons and supplies from and sometimes burned plantations and businesses across southern Haiti, and freed other slaves there.<ref>Rey (2017), pp. 32-35, 44, 48-49</ref> At the same time, Romaine began to identify as a prophetess,<ref name="Heywood"/><ref name="Rey-2014-119">Terry Rey, ''Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy'' (2014, Routledge, {{ISBN|9781317490883}}), pp. 119-120</ref> dressed like a woman,<ref name="Albanese"/><ref>Maria Cristina Fumagalli, ''On the Edge: Writing the Border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic'' (2015), p. 111</ref><ref>Maria Cristina Fumagalli et al. (eds.), ''The Cross-Dressed Caribbean: Writing, Politics, Sexualities'' (2014), p. 11</ref> and spoke of being possessed by a female spirit,<ref name="Heywood"/><ref name="Popkin-51">Jeremy D. Popkin, ''A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution'' (2011), p. 51</ref> but also reportedly identified as a godson of the Virgin Mary,<ref>Rey (2017), pp. 58-59</ref> intended (according to one critic) to become "king of Saint-Domingue",<ref name="Fick 1990 128">Carolyn E. Fick, ''The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below'' (1990), p. 128</ref> and reportedly used masculine pronouns to refer to himself in letters he dictated. Romaine has therefore been interpreted as perhaps [[genderfluid]]<ref name="R52">Rey (2017), pp. 52-53</ref> or [[transgender]],<ref name="R52"/><ref name="Albanese">Mary Grace Albanese, "Unraveling the Blood Line: Pauline Hopkins's Haitian Genealogies", in ''J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists'', volume 7, number 2, Fall 2019, p. 234</ref> or might have been [[bigender]]. | ||
For a time, Romaine controlled much of the countryside | For a time, Romaine controlled much of the countryside of southern [[Haiti]], and two of its main cities, Léogâne and Jacmel.<ref>Rey (2017), pp. 14, 30, 39-43, 52, 137, 152</ref><ref name="Palmer">Colin A. Palmer, ''Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History'' (2006), p. 1972</ref><ref name="Middell">Matthias Middell, Megan Maruschke, ''The French Revolution as a Moment of Respatialization'' (2019), p. 71</ref><ref name="Fick 1990 128"/> In 1792, however, a coalition of whites and conservative free blacks<ref>Rey (2017), p. 137</ref><ref name="Popkin-51"/> and French forces defeated the Trou Coffy uprising, although Romaine escaped capture and disappeared from history.<ref>Rey (2017), p. 137, 157-159</ref> Romaine-la-Prophétesse appears in Victor Hugo's novel ''Bug-Jargal'', and Mayra Montero's fiction ''In the Palm of Darkness''.<ref>Rey (2017), p. 219</ref><ref>Persephone Braham, ''From Amazons to Zombies: Monsters in Latin America'' (2015), p. 160</ref> | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaine-la-Prophétesse Wikipedia article] | * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaine-la-Prophétesse Wikipedia article] | ||
* [http://nonbinaryq.blogspot.com/2020/06/romaine.html "Romaine-la-Prophétesse and Marie-Roze: the black trans woman and her wife who led the early Haitian Revolution"] | |||
==References== | ==References== |
Revision as of 01:53, 22 June 2020
Date of birth | circa 1750 |
---|---|
Place of birth | Santo Domingo |
Date of death | unknown, after March 1792 |
Nationality | Haitian |
Pronouns | reportedly masculine pronouns |
Gender identity | possibly genderfluid, transgender, or bigender |
Occupation | coffee planter |
Known for | leading a slave uprising that controlled much of southern Haiti |
Romaine-la-Prophétesse ("Romaine the Prophetess") was born around 1750 in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, assigned male at birth, and originally named either Romaine or Romain Rivière[1] or possibly Román Rivera.[2][3] Romaine moved to the French colony of Saint-Domingue and became a free black coffee plantation owner and an influential figure there.[4]
In 1791, as the Haitian Revolution began, Romaine and his wife Marie-Roze Adam gathered supporters at their plantation (Trou Coffy) to defend it from armed whites nearby,[5] and led an uprising of thousands of slaves, who took weapons and supplies from and sometimes burned plantations and businesses across southern Haiti, and freed other slaves there.[6] At the same time, Romaine began to identify as a prophetess,[3][7] dressed like a woman,[8][9][10] and spoke of being possessed by a female spirit,[3][11] but also reportedly identified as a godson of the Virgin Mary,[12] intended (according to one critic) to become "king of Saint-Domingue",[13] and reportedly used masculine pronouns to refer to himself in letters he dictated. Romaine has therefore been interpreted as perhaps genderfluid[14] or transgender,[14][8] or might have been bigender.
For a time, Romaine controlled much of the countryside of southern Haiti, and two of its main cities, Léogâne and Jacmel.[15][16][17][13] In 1792, however, a coalition of whites and conservative free blacks[18][11] and French forces defeated the Trou Coffy uprising, although Romaine escaped capture and disappeared from history.[19] Romaine-la-Prophétesse appears in Victor Hugo's novel Bug-Jargal, and Mayra Montero's fiction In the Palm of Darkness.[20][21]
Further reading
- Wikipedia article
- "Romaine-la-Prophétesse and Marie-Roze: the black trans woman and her wife who led the early Haitian Revolution"
References
- ↑ Robert D. Taber, The Mystery of Marie Rose: Family, Politics, and the Origins of the Haitian Revolution, January 6, 2016
- ↑ Terry Rey, The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World (2017, ISBN 978-0190625849), pp. 27-28, 48 (discussing the lack of clarity over whether Romain(e) Rivière, given in French records, is Romaine's exact birth name or only a gallicization), 50-51, 232
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Terry Rey, "Kongolese Catholic Influences on Haitian Popular Catholicism", in Linda M. Heywood (editor), Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora (2002), pp. 270-271
- ↑ Rey (2017), pp. 30, 137
- ↑ Rey (2017), pp. 27-31
- ↑ Rey (2017), pp. 32-35, 44, 48-49
- ↑ Terry Rey, Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy (2014, Routledge, Template:ISBN), pp. 119-120
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Mary Grace Albanese, "Unraveling the Blood Line: Pauline Hopkins's Haitian Genealogies", in J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, volume 7, number 2, Fall 2019, p. 234
- ↑ Maria Cristina Fumagalli, On the Edge: Writing the Border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic (2015), p. 111
- ↑ Maria Cristina Fumagalli et al. (eds.), The Cross-Dressed Caribbean: Writing, Politics, Sexualities (2014), p. 11
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Jeremy D. Popkin, A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution (2011), p. 51
- ↑ Rey (2017), pp. 58-59
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below (1990), p. 128
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Rey (2017), pp. 52-53
- ↑ Rey (2017), pp. 14, 30, 39-43, 52, 137, 152
- ↑ Colin A. Palmer, Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (2006), p. 1972
- ↑ Matthias Middell, Megan Maruschke, The French Revolution as a Moment of Respatialization (2019), p. 71
- ↑ Rey (2017), p. 137
- ↑ Rey (2017), p. 137, 157-159
- ↑ Rey (2017), p. 219
- ↑ Persephone Braham, From Amazons to Zombies: Monsters in Latin America (2015), p. 160