Christophe and his Sans Souci

I decided to write my post on tomorrow's readings in Silencing the Past. As I was reading I became enthralled with Henry I (Christophe) and the significance of Sans Souci. Intended as a symbol of a successful revolution, Sans Souci was more than that. I found it a bit ironic, too. For one, Trouillot comments on how Christophe employed Haitians night and day to build this elaborate palace, some even dying from the intense labor. After such a brutal war, why cause more death at such a trivial expense? Christophe was consumed by wealth and creating visual and concrete structures for the West to interpret as Haiti's progression. He put palaces over people; the very people he was fighting for in the revolution.

Some historians believe Sans Souci is a French term meaning 'no worries.' Others believe Christophe named his palace after a man that he murdered during the revolution, named Sans Souci. This would follow more with his supposed nature. The fact that the most renowned structure in Saint Domingue after the revolution was named after someone Christophe murdered is something else entirely. It puts the revolution in a whole different light, for me. It shows how it was shaded by those, like Christophe, who sought power rather than equality. Power he sought, most of the time, at the expense of other black soldiers like him. Trouillot talks about the 'war within a war,' that pitted native island blacks against congo-born blacks. I didn't know that there was an internal struggle during the Haitian revolution. It reminded me of a quote by Abraham Lincoln: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."