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, though it is uncertain whether their relationship was unconsensual or one of subsistence. 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. On the frontlines, Marie-Jeanne is said to have become a possessed by
Ogou, a spirit of courage, and when a wounded man on the ground shouted of this spirit, she carried him to shelter. She then nursed him and gave him a rifle. Marie-Jeanne also once urged the other men to hide under a collapsed part of the fort. After three unsuccessful assaults, the French forces had received 1,500 casualties, and the fort was left defended by 1,200 men.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines commanded repairs to the fort and the construction of a
redoubt on a nearby hill. Louis headed the redoubt, where Marie-Jeanne remained by his side. On its walls, she shouted motivation to the men. On March 22, the French forces launched a bombardment that killed one hundred men and depleted the fort's resources. Spies for the Armée Indigène then delivered Dessalines's ring to Louis, a secret code ordering them to evacuate. Nearly half of the remaining army snuck out at night. Marie-Jeanne followed Louis, who was traveling to Cahos, and nursed him when he fell sick in a cane field. Louis was killed in an ambush in November 1802. He was fond of Marie-Jeanne and attributed beauty, courage, and youth to her. Marie-Jeanne then reportedly became the mistress of Dessalines, who proclaimed
Haiti's independence in 1804. Later, she began a relationship with an officer she had fought alongside, who had the surname Larose. == Legacy ==