Suzanne Bélair, called Sanité Belair, (1781 - 5 October 1805), was an Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an Freedom fighter and revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

ary, sergeant

Sergeant

Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

 in the army of Toussaint Louverture.

Born an affranchi

Affranchi

"Affranchi" is a former French legal term denoting a freedman or emancipated slave. It is used in English to describe the class of freedmen in Saint-Domingue and other slave-holding French territories, who held legal rights intermediate between those of free whites and enslaved people of color...

, she married Brigade

Brigade

A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...

 commander and later general

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Charles Bélair in 1796. When she was taken captive by general Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc

Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc was a French Army general and husband to Pauline Bonaparte, sister to Napoleon Bonaparte.-To 1801:...

, her husband turned himself over as well to avoid being separated from her. Both sentenced to death, her spouse was to be executed by fire squad and she by decapitation

Decapitation

Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...

 because of her sex. She watched Belairs execution, were her calmly asked her to die bravely, and went to he rown execution as calm as he, refusing to wear a blindfold.

Sanite Bélair is considered as one of the heroes of the Haitian revolution

Haïtian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...

.

Litterature

• Jomini, Antoine-Henri. (1842). Histoire critique et militaire des guerres de la Révolution. Brussels.

External links

• Mémoire de Femmes: Sannite Bélair - (in French)

Image

• Charles And Sanite Belair - Painting by Kimathi Donkor (2002).