26. A Brutal Turning of the Tables
Across Haiti, armed slaves burst into their masters’ mansions. They brought with them fire and blood and visited revenge upon their owners with pillage, rape, torture, and death. The slaves slaughtered the enslavers, and torched their owners’ dwellings, cane fields, and sugar houses. As with the extreme violence and brutality that marked Haitian slavery and kept the slaves in bonds, the backlash when the slaves finally rose was extremely violent and brutal from the outset.
When the tables were turned, overseers, masters, and mistresses, were dragged from their beds, and the lucky ones were butchered on the spot. The unlucky ones were tortured to death, frequently utilizing the same torture implements and techniques that had been used upon the slaves. The severed heads of European children were often placed on spikes, and carried at the head of advancing slave columns.
