Skip to main content

Primary sourcePainting1805

The mode of exterminating the Black Army, as practised by the French

1805

An 1805 engraving showing French soldiers throwing Black soldiers overboard from a ship, depicting atrocities during the Haitian Revolution Dessalines led.

Shows French atrocities against revolutionary forces during the war Dessalines led to Haiti's independence.

Ask Jean-Jacques Dessalines about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Black and white engraving of a ship's deck with a French tricolor flag. A uniformed officer in a cocked hat holds a Black man by the collar while others are thrown or pushed overboard into rough water. Other figures struggle in the sea, and a distant ship and smoke appear at right. Caption below reads: The Mode of exterminating the Black Army, as practised by the French.
The mode of exterminating the Black Army, as practised by the French, engraving, 1805. Library of Congress.

About this source

What it is

This engraving, made in 1805, is titled 'The Mode of exterminating the Black Army, as practised by the French.' It shows a French officer and soldiers throwing Black men overboard from a ship into the sea. It is held in the Library of Congress collection.

Why it matters

Made during Jean-Jacques Dessalines's rule over independent Haiti, this print documents how French forces treated captured Black soldiers during the revolutionary war. It shows the violence that shaped the world Dessalines and his fellow revolutionaries fought against and later governed.

Look closer

  • What does the French flag in the image suggest about who is responsible for this act?
  • Why might this scene have been published and circulated at the time?
  • What questions does this image raise that it does not answer?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Jean-Jacques Dessalines on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Jean-Jacques Dessalines sources

Meet the AI Jean-Jacques Dessalines →
Scan of a printed broadside headed 'Armée Indigène' with 'Liberté ou la Mort' above. It has three columns of French text, a signature block of names including Dessalines, and a footer reading 'Au Port-au-Prince, de l'imprimerie du gouvernement'.Document

Primary source

Haitian Declaration of Independence

Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre · 1 January 1804

Title page of the 1805 Constitution of Hayti, printed in French with the heading 'CONSTITUTION D'HAYTI' over a list of names and preamble text, with red library stamps in the upper area. Page is aged and tan-colored.Document

Primary source

Constitution of Hayti

Jean-Jacques Dessalines · 1805

Black-and-white engraving titled DESALINES. A man in a tricorn hat with feathers raises a curved sword in one hand and holds a severed head with curly hair in the other. A woman's body lies on rocks at right, with tents and figures in the background.Painting

Secondary source

Desalines

Manuel López López · 1806

Large painting of two uniformed men standing either side of a stone tablet inscribed with text, hands on it, under a radiant figure of an old bearded God with outstretched arms in clouds above, with the Hebrew letters of the divine name. Chains lie on the ground at their feet; a battle scene and crowd fill the background.Painting

Secondary source

The Oath of the Ancestors

Guillaume Guillon-Lethière · 1822

Front cover of a worn, dark red leather-bound book, shown against a pale background. The cover is scuffed and faded, with a small lighter mark near the center and a raised spine edge on the left side. No title or text is visible.Book

Secondary source

La vie de J.J. Dessalines, chef des noirs révoltés de Saint-Domingue

Louis Dubroca · 1804

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Jean-Jacques Dessalines now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions