Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière

alt=A woman in a dress and a man in a uniform posing in front of troops.

Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière was a Haitian revolutionary, soldier, and nurse. Described as a Mulatto, she was raised on a plantation in Port-au-Prince. Marie-Jeanne received formal education before marrying , an officer of the Armée Indigène. In 1802, she fought alongside him and his army against French forces in the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot. Her attire and weaponry were noted, and she was described as courageous. After a bombardment by the French, Marie-Jeanne retreated with Louis and his army, and after his death, she had relationships with two other army officers. Though little is known about Lamartinière, she is popular across Haiti and was printed on a postage stamp and coin.

Biography Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière is described as a Mulatto and was born in Port-au-Prince. She was likely born to an enslaved African woman and her white French master. She may have also had Taíno ancestry. Lamartinière was raised on a slave plantation and received formal education from teachers specializing in Haitian Vodou and African culture.

Marie-Jeanne eventually married , an officer of color of the Armée Indigène, a belligerent in the Haitian Revolution. He served as a superior officer during the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot in March 1802. Reportedly inseparable from him, Marie-Jeanne fought alongside Louis and his army of enslaved men to protect the fort from French forces. Her attire drew comparisons to Mamluk uniforms. or wearing a long white dress. Marie-Jeanne also wore a red bonnet, though some of her black hair overflowed. She hung a rifle over her shoulder and attached a scarf and cutlass to her steel belt.

Marie-Jeanne crossed the ramparts of the fort to hand out cartridges or load cannons. When the battle intensified or French forces approached, she ran to the frontlines and shot her rifle with "wild enthusiam", as characterized by the historian Thomas Madiou. She was printed on a 100-gourde coin and a 1954 postage stamp. For the 1967 revision of his play Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History, C. L. R. James loosely based the character Marie-Jeanne around Lamartinière. James depicted her in battle, and otherwise rewrote her as an enslaved woman whose light skin and mastery of European culture grant her higher status and a servant. Toward the end, Marie-Jeanne reluctantly marries Dessalines. Lamartinière is celebrated in works by the authors Edwidge Danticat, Madison Smartt Bell, and Patricia Brintle. A painting by the Haitian artist François Cauvin that depicts Lamartinière was exhibited between February and June 2025 in a Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition.

Lamartinière is one of the few named women in the Haitian Revolution. Still, little is known about her, especially her early life, and in contrast to modern characterizations of the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot, the historian Jasmine Claude-Narcisse believes she would have wished to blend in and remain anonymous. The sociologist Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau considers Lamartinière a Haitian symbol of the female soldier, and the historian Dantès Bellegarde compared her to Joan of France, Joan of Arc, and Jeanne Hachette in bravery. She is popularly referred to as "Haiti's Joan of Arc" and is well known across the country.