Haigis, Stephanie Suzanne
ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the influences and roles of Vodou and marronage in the Haitian
Revolution and early independent Haiti. The first chapter explores the prevalence of Vodou and
marronage in the motivational Bois Caïman ceremony and the 1791 slave insurrection that
sparked the beginning of the Haitian Revolution. The second chapter highlights the influence of
African military techniques and organization in addition to maroon band tactics and organization
on insurgent bands in the 1791 slave insurrection and afterward as the Revolution progressed. It
also depicts how Vodou rites and rituals continued to be used by insurgents to motivate them
before a battle and intimidate their enemies. The third chapter emphasizes the ongoing
importance of Vodou and marronage as means of mass resistance to the new plantation labor
regimes established on the island after 1793. Once Hati gained its independence, the maroon-like
independent farming lifestyle for self-sustenance merged into the rural egalitarian agricultural
society known as the lakou, through which former slaves expressed their maroon and African
ancestral ties. The lakou became the way the Haitian peasantry was able to become small-scale
independent landowners focused on self-sustenance farming within a communal setting. Over the
course of the Haitian Revolution and beyond, Vodou and marronage were used by slaves and
then insurgents and laborers, to resist slavery, reoccurring plantation labor systems, and to
reconstruct their desired maroon-like and African-influenced lifestyle in the lakou system.
ABSTRACT: The city of Rome underwent radical changes during the pontificate of Sixtus V. Felice Peretti
ascended to the throne of St Peter in 1585, and reigned for 5 years. A genius urban reformer, he
erected some of the city’s most iconic monuments and boulevards. His enormous contributions
to the Counter Reformation are still visible today, as he utilized public space to ideologically
counter the schism that Martin Luther spawned. Traditional historiography has long portrayed
Sixtus as an ascetic outsider who selflessly reformed the city, curtailing lawless brigands and
returning Rome to an era of peace and justice. But this popular conception of Sixtus V is not the
result of actual achievements, but the result of his ability as a propagandist. He utilized his
numerous public works and monuments to craft a powerful public persona, one which would
endure in Roman folk tales of “giustizie” for centuries. This paper will first analyze the political,
religious, and economic motivations behind his major public works, before then examining the
ways in which he utilized these works to craft a personal mythology that drew upon a myriad of
past figures, both historical and mythological.
