![]() When the enslaved people rose up, Toya, ever the warrior, was at the forefront of the rebellion that changed the course of history. ![]() ![]() Among the motherless children she helped raise was a man who would become the revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Betrayed by an enemy, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, Toya wound up in the French colony of Saint Domingue, where she became a force to be reckoned with on its sugar plantations: a healer and an authority figure among the enslaved. Gran Toya: Born in West Africa, Abdaraya Toya was one of the legendary minos-women called “Dahomeyan Amazons” by the Europeans-who were specially chosen female warriors consecrated to the King of Dahomey. Acclaimed author of Island Queen Vanessa Riley brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |