Sanité Bélair - The Tigress of the Haitian Revolution

“Viv Libète aba esklavaj!”

(“Live Liberty, Down with slavery!”)

Sanité Bélair (born Suzanne Bélair), was a Haitian freedom fighter and revolutionary during the Haitian Revolution. Jean-Jacques Dessalines described her as “a tigress,” It is believed that Sanité Bélair was born in 1781, in what is now known as L’Artibonite. Sanité was born a Gens de Couleur (free person of color). Gens de Couleur, which included black and mixed-race people of Saint Domingue, had many restrictions but were allowed to receive some education and own land. In 1796 at the age of 15, she married Charles Belair, the nephew and lieutenant under the leader of the Haitian revolution, Toussaint Louverture. Sanité was already a soldier.

Sanité became a sergeant and later a lieutenant during the conflict with French troops of the Saint-Domingue expedition and commanded male and female troops under her. Her exact reason for joining the revolutionary army was never explicitly stated but it is understood that she wanted to help Haiti claim its independence. Together, she and her husband were responsible for the uprising of almost the entire enslaved population of L’Artibonite against their enslavers.

Fighting bravely in her last assault, Sanité was hounded by the French army into retreat and was captured. Upon hearing of her capture, her husband Charles handed himself over to the French army, not wanting to be separated from her.

On October 5th, 1802, they both received the death sentence; Sanité was sentenced to death by decapitation, a merciful way to execute female prisoners of war, and Charles by firing squad. She refused to die by decapitation and demanded to be executed in the manner of a soldier, just like her husband, whom she had witnessed being executed by firing squad.

Photo: Actress Tico Armand in Sanite Bélair

Sanité Bélair featured on the 10-gourde banknote

Reportedly, she walked to her death with bravery and defiance, refusing to wear a blindfold. She shouted to the people “Viv Libète anba esklavaj!” (“Live Liberty, Down with slavery!”), who of course was forced to watch the scene, in an attempt to dispel the idea of continuing the revolution. Their deaths however did not deter the revolutionaries, who continued fighting. Sanité was 21 and her husband Charles 24 at the time of their death.

Sanité is formally recognized by the Haitian Government as a National Heroine of Haiti. In 2004, she was featured on the 10-gourde banknote of the Haitian currency for the “Bicentennial of Haiti” Commemorative series. She was the only woman depicted in the series, and the second woman ever (after Catherine Flon) to be depicted on a Haitian banknote.