composer Occide Jeanty sometime in the late nineteenth century.^236 This poem recounts the
incredible transformation of Haiti’s ancestors who fought against oppression for their own
freedom. In the telling of the epic independence story, this poem emphasizes various players and
their prominent roles. Nameless black slaves fight with legendary black heroes such as
Toussaint Louverture and Dessalines. Equally important are the efforts by mulatto leaders like
Chavannes and Ogé who appealed to Paris legislatures for mulatto rights in colonial Saint-
Domingue. In reality, mulatto leaders, many of whom owned slaves, were not typically
concerned with the rights of blacks. These two groups only came together in the last phases of
the Haitian Revolution to defeat Napoleon’s plan to reoccupy Saint-Domingue and reinstitute
slavery, a move which may also have restricted mulatto liberties. “Chant national” strategically
elides these differences to emphasize this final unity without which this defining moment of the
birth of a nation might never have taken place. Memory of the revolution will thereby recreate a
sense shared of identity, giving meaning to the past battles as well as to struggles of the present
time:
A l’œuvre donc, descendants de l’Afrique
Jaunes et noirs, fils du même berceau
L’antique Europe et la Jeune Amérique
Nous voit de loin tenter le rude assaut.
Bêchons le sol qu’en l’an mil huit cent quatre
Nous ont conquis nous aïeux au bras fort.
C’est notre tour à présent de combattre
Avec ce cri: “Le progrès ou la mort!”(53-60)Within the space of the poem, mulattos are not an opposing political party or elite groupin control of Haitian affairs but rather partners in preserving Haitian heritage and national
strength. The common thread which binds these two diverse groups is their shared African
ancestry which also made them the common target of all racist policies in colonial Saint-
(^236) Durand and Pompilus, Poésies choisies 18.