Dutty Boukman was born about 1767 in Senegambia (present-day Senegal and Gambia) and became a Muslim cleric. He was captured and enslaved in Saint-Domingue, modern-day Haiti, became a Haitian Vodou houngan priest, and tried to teach other enslaved people how to read. He was placed as a coach driver, which gave him the opportunity to travel between plantations and facilitate communication and encourage resistance aoung enslaved people. Around this date in 1791 he presided over a series of meetings to organize a slave revolt. As reported by Haitian Poet and Politician Hérard Dumesle in 1824, Boukman said, in part: "This God who made the sun, who brings us light from above, who raises the sea, and who makes the storm rumble. ... He watches us, he sees all that the whites do! ... the God who is so good orders us to vengeance. ... Throw away the image of the God of the whites who thirsts for our tears. Listen to the liberty that speaks in all our hearts." The night after the last meeting, Boukman gathered enslaved people from neighboring sugar plantations, who elected him as their leader and commander. He led them in setting fire to plantations and sugar refineries and killing and capturing plantation owners and their families. Their force grew to around 15,000 people, and they lay siege to the city of le Cap. The slave revolt led into the Haitian Revolution. Boukman was killed by French soldiers in November 1791 while defending a rebel base at Fond Bleu. The French displayed his head over the inscription, "The head of Boukman, leader of the rebels." But the rebellion carried on. The Haitian Revolution ran for another twelve years and was one of the only slave rebellions in history that led to the founding of a state which was free from slavery and ruled by former enslaved people. Credit: https://w.wiki/BXuH Photo: Voodo Banner by Haitian Artist Georges Valris, 2005, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike https://w.wiki/TkjA My first ride on the Domane for months! It sure felt different, after so many miles on my steel gravel bike! After the big tours in New York, I didn't do any riding until today. The long drives across the continent amd the bike tours, where I was mostly off-grid, made me fall well behind my regular work. So I've been working hard every day to get caught up. Together with minor surgery on Monday, it's unlikely I'll be ready for the the Tour de Fuzz century coming up in two weeks. I'll probably drop back to the metric century, especially since I think I enjoy metric century rides more than centuries. Today I rode out and back on the new rail trail north along the coast. I felt good going faster than I generally do, perhaps because I used the higher cadence I got accustomed to on the tours. I find it feels easier to spin at 90 rpm, where before I tried to stay at 80 rpm. Probably also the much lighter carbon road bike. Or maybe I got a little stronger riding 650 miles on the heavy gravel bike.