Hello everybody, my name is Robius and today I present to you the fifteenth episode in
the renewed iteration of Assassin's Creed the Real History.
This video will be part of the sub-series I started a few weeks back in which I chronologically
explore the time periods chosen as the backdrops for the various Assassin's Creed titles,
giving you a review of their major historical events, discussing any gaps in the history
left by the games, and introducing you to the individuals who actually existed.
In that vein, today's episode will be concentrating on the period depicted in the Assassin's
Creed IV dlc-turned standalone title, Freedom Cry.
For that reason, please be aware of story spoilers throughout the entire video.
However, before I begin I'd like to clarify a few components.
When approaching this subject, I was met with a conundrum.
Technically speaking, although the events of Freedom Cry are definitely influenced by
the struggles of the Maroons during that century, they are not indicative of any set event per
say.
Instead it would be more accurate to state that Adéwalé's story is one that takes
inspiration and overall represents elements from various conflicts involving the Maroon
movement, without necessarily being based on a single one.
Since many of the story's elements tie-into the later Haitian Revolution, I almost chose
that as the topic for this episode, however upon further evaluation it didn't necessarily
seem like the right decision since that revolt occurred nearly six decades after the ending
of this game.
It was for that reason that I purposefully chose the title of "The Maroon Rebellion"
for this video, as my intention is to first briefly discuss the origin of the movement,
then touch on its portrayal in the game, and finally give you a review of its later developments
in the following decades.
Now that I've explained that, I'd like to properly begin this video by providing
you with some background on this period before the start of Freedom Cry in 1735.
To start, the Maroons are generally identified as individuals from Africa, or from African-descent
that escaped their slavery while living in the Americas, ultimately going on to establish
their own autonomous settlements.
The term Maroon wasn't limited to any colony in particular, and through much of their initial
years they represented an abundance of independent communities, as opposed to a single unified
faction.
Some of the oldest records have various Maroon settlements being established in the early
1500s within different colonies.
For the sake of this video, we will primarily be concentrating on the Maroons who lived
within the then-French colony of Saint-Domingue.
As slaves were continuously imported due to high death rates, the French began to witness
increasing levels of resistance throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.
As became a pattern for most Maroon communities in the Caribbean, the slaves of Saint-Domingue
who succeeded in escaping their imprisonment traditionally sought out isolated and well-hidden
areas to establish their settlements.
Thereafter, endeavours were usually made to create an agricultural system capable of supporting
their people.
Evidently, slavers and local military authorities would often make attempts to re-capture their
escapees, or simply wipe out the settlements altogether.
Sometimes they would succeed, but in other instances the Maroons would prove too capable.
It is said many of these factions demonstrated themselves to be efficient fighters in terms
of guerilla warfare, thus allowing them to protect their continued independence.
In fact, certain sizeable Maroon communities developed a habit of not only hiding, but
also occasionally attacking local plantations and freeing other slaves.
This led to a few circumstances in which the regional government would actually sign peace
treaties with these settlements, promising to respect their land and independence, in
exchange for an end to plantation attacks and a guarantee that any further runaway slaves
would be returned to their owners.
However, it should be recognized that these treaties frequently fell apart.
Throughout these years a large assortment of such communities would rise and fall as
they fought for their independence and liberty.
With this general understanding of the Maroons' earlier years, we can move on to the events
of Freedom Cry, which as I said were technically fictionalized to a large extent, but do represent
an amalgamation of various struggles encountered by the Maroons throughout the period.
This game begins its invented narrative with the Assassin Adéwalé pursuing a French Templar
target off the coast of Saint-Domingue.
After killing the Admiral and recovering a valuable package, Adéwalé's ship sailed
into a storm in hopes of escaping the French fleet.
Unfortunately, his vessel was wrecked in that storm and Adéwalé was washed ashore just
outside the town of Port-au-Prince in Saint-Domingue.
Once conscious, the Assassin began to track down the intended recipient of the package
he stole from the Templars.
This investigation led him to discover the whereabouts of Bastienne Josèphe, who certain
sources list historically as being a free woman of colour that owned a brothel in that
region.
Unwilling to immediately trust her, Adéwalé instead visited a nearby Maroon settlement
to confer with its fictional leader Augustin Dieufort and deliver him a letter from Bastienne.
Continuing with this invented plot, Adéwalé eventually reached the Maroon settlement,
but realized that the small community was under attack.
Joining the fight, the Assassin was able to turn the tide and kill the slavers before
they could escape and communicate the location of the Maroons to their allies.
Thereafter, Adéwalé delivered the letter to Augustin who revealed it was from Pierre,
Marquis de Fayet, the Governor-General of Saint-Domingue.
The Maroon leader expressed his disbelief that the letter was part of their continued
peace negotiations, which the governor had sent while also dispatching his men in an
attempt to wipe out his distracted adversaries.
Now, although the entirety of the plot up until this point was technically fictionalized,
it really embodied the type of turmoil experienced by Maroon communities.
As I stated earlier, Augustin's fabricated encampment was a fair representation of real
Maroon settlements, as it was hidden in a cave within the jungle, which Adéwalé only
found through the aid of their underground contact network.
Furthermore, the negotiations depicted between the Governor and the Maroons, in terms of
establishing a peace to ultimately decrease the amount of armed conflicts, was also reflective
of the actual history, as was its rapid deterioration.
Nevertheless, the fictional plot continued by having Adéwalé temporarily align himself
with the Maroons.
He then helped free slaves from imprisonment, thus gathering new combatants while further
building their community.
Thereafter, the Assassin stole a French vessel and used it to successfully intercept an incoming
slave ship, thus liberating all of its captives and once again bolstering the Maroons' numbers.
As Adéwalé returned to meet with Bastienne, she gave him a task that led to the main historical
event featured in the game.
On her request, Adéwalé disguised himself as a slave and infiltrated the grounds of
Governor de Fayet's mansion with hopes of discovering what had been keeping him pre-occupied
as of late.
Incidentally, the Assassin overheard a conversation between the Governor and the French astronomer
Louis Godin, as they discussed details concerning the so-called Spanish-French Geodesic Mission.
Still unclear on all the details, Adéwalé departed, but not before hearing an argument
between the men in which de Fayet accused Godin of wasting the expedition's money
on one of Bastienne's girls at the brothel.
Regardless, the scientist still convinced de Fayet to provide further funding after
promising that the results of the expedition would ensure that fewer slave ships would
be lost on their way to Saint-Domingue.
Historically, this argument is recorded as occurring, although certain elements involved
were instead brought up by Louis Godin's French contemporaries, who were furious that
he wasted their money on his adulterous ventures.
In the game, after this initial intelligence was gathered, Adéwalé investigated further,
finally coming to understand the full extent of this expedition.
Reporting back to Bastienne, he explained that the Geodesic Mission represented a joint-scientific
venture between Spain and France.
Its goal was to determine the roundness of the Earth, while comparing the Earth's circumference
at its poles to that at the Equator.
Perceiving this as a unique opportunity for the Assassins and Maroons to gain a potential
navigational advantage over their rivals, Adéwalé made plans to use this expedition
to their benefit.
This was accomplished in the game by exchanging the three slaves who were historically purchased
to provide support to the scientists during the expedition with three of Adéwalé's
Maroon allies who would join the mission and report back on their findings upon its completion.
The game also made a few mentions of Godin's intentions to perhaps conduct some smuggling
during the expedition and how this idea was complicated by the presence of their Spanish
chaperones.
In reality, one of these chaperones, who wasn't technically portrayed in this game but did
appear elsewhere in the franchise was the Spanish scientist and later Governor of Louisiana,
Antonio de Ulloa.
After their successful, albeit fictionalized infiltration of the Geodesic Mission, Adéwalé
and his Maroon allies were warned by Bastienne that their acts of rebellion had translated
into harsher conditions for slaves still in captivity, cautioning that the governor threatened
further retaliation.
However, the Maroons insisted on not losing their momentum, as they felt they were nearing
a revolution.
Unfortunately, during their next attempt to free a slave ship, when the battle seemed
lost to the French, they turned their cannons on the slave ship and sunk it.
Although Adéwalé tried to save as many of the imprisoned as possible, most among them
drowned.
In the game's final act, Adéwalé insisted the Maroons never abandon their goal of independence
and then explained that he would kill the governor as punishment for his crimes.
Reaching de Fayet's mansion, Adéwalé interrupted him while he tortured a captured Maroon and
proceeded to kill the man.
Ultimately, this led the Assassin to flee Saint-Domingue since his notoriety would prove
detrimental to the Maroon movement he helped establish and which he hoped would soon attain
its independence.
This would represent the end of Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry, with de Fayet's death
occurring in July of 1737.
As I stated earlier, since the events of Freedom Cry were predominantly a fictional amalgamation
of various anecdotal records of the period, instead of simply ending the video here, I
would like to briefly discuss the history following the Assassin's Creed game, so
that you may have a better idea of how these later stages of rebellion led to the eventual
Haitian Revolution decades later.
Unfortunately this does mean that this portion of the video will overlap with other historical
periods I intend on covering in upcoming episodes, but for the sake of being thorough I think
it will be worth the minor mix-up.
Anyways, historically, although minor rebellions did occur during and preceding the timeframe
of Freedom Cry, it wasn't until years later that certain Maroon communities escalated
the intensity of their counter-attacks.
The first major example of this would have been the actions of François Mackandal, who
again wasn't portrayed in the game, but did serve as the inspiration for one of his
fictionalized students that was depicted elsewhere in the franchise.
Thought to have been a voodoo priest, Mackandal ascended to a role of leadership among the
Maroons of Saint-Domingue and proved himself capable of uniting many of their communities,
while also creating a large communication network between his various allies and the
still-imprisoned slaves occupying various plantations.
In certain circles, Mackandal is considered to have been among the first revolutionary
Maroon leaders, as he launched a series of increasingly effective and bloody attacks
using guerilla warfare against the French colonists, freeing their slaves, burning down
their plantations and killing the slavers.
In fact, some accounts state that he even coordinated with slaves living on plantations,
passing along poison which they could use to kill their owners.
Overall, this violent campaign which had begun in 1751 led to a strong French response in
which Mackandal was eventually captured in 1758 and thereafter publicly burned at the
stake in an attempt to dissuade further rebellion.
Nevertheless, armed Maroon resistance continued to a lesser extent despite the loss of their
leader.
However, the next major shift in the status quo took place in 1789.
Following the early onset of the French Revolution, and the publication of the Declaration of
the Rights of Man, important questions were raised about Saint-Domingue's future.
One faction sought independence from France, so that the slavers could operate their island
without restrictions, whereas the other faction lobbied for the newly established Rights of
Man to be applied to all men, no matter their race.
Within the following two years, tensions continued to rise with minor outbreaks of fighting which
lead to the August 21st, 1791 slave revolt.
Under Maroon leadership, the slaves attacked on an unprecedented scale, leading to months
of fighting and thousands of deaths between both sides.
The provisional French government tried to secure control over Saint-Domingue after they
only offered rights to free people of color, but they were held back by the revolutionary
slaves who were now supported by Great Britain and Spain.
This led the National Convention, under the command of Maximilien de Robespierre to finally
abolish slavery on February 4th, 1794, thus providing legal rights to all former slaves.
This act led some of the rebel leadership, like Toussaint Louverture to terminate their
alliance with the British and Spanish and instead align themselves with France, eventually
being victorious in ousting the other nations from Saint-Domingue and re-establishing French
rule.
By 1801, most of the island had come under the command of Louverture who sought to rule
the colony as an autonomous state separate from France.
In response to hearing this intention, Napoléon Bonaparte, at that point the First Consul
of France, dispatched a military expedition with the purpose of re-establishing French
rule in Saint-Domingue.
Louverture was eventually imprisoned and although Saint-Domingue entered a period of brief peace,
when it became clear that the French under Bonaparte intended on re-establishing slavery,
the rebellion once again quickly gained momentum.
The next year and a half saw extensive fighting, with multiple French allies defecting to the
rebel forces, ultimately leading to a French defeat at the end of 1803.
On January 1st 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the current leader of the rebel forces declared
Saint-Domingue an independent republic and had it renamed Haiti.
Although I've evidently skimmed through this very influential period, and there is
definitely a ton more to talk about concerning the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath,
I feel that for the sake of the video this brief summary serves as a reasonably condensed
explanation of how the earlier Maroon rebellions played a role in leading up to their eventual
independence.
For that reason, I feel that we can now move on to the final chapter of the video and review
everything we've learned today while comparing its depiction in the game to the actual history.
To start, given the nature of Freedom Cry as more of a game inspired by decades of historical
occurrences, as opposed to a single event or period, I'm going to take a more liberal
stance and say that the only component in the game solely rooted in fiction was the
Assassin vs Templar battle for the Precursor box.
Having said that, please realize that the vast majority of this game was fictionalized,
however in this next section I intend to break down how its portrayal of a two year stretch
from 1735 to 1737 was actually heavily influenced by the decades of conflicts that the Maroons
faced.
When discussing the portions of the game that were inspired by real historical events, the
first point which comes to mind is Adéwalé's joint effort with the Maroons to actively
attack plantations with the goal of freeing other slaves to build their community.
Although this was a far less common occurrence during the game's time period, one need
only look at the later actions of Mackandal to see that a more offensive approach was
eventually adopted by certain Maroons, who decided to retaliate instead of hiding and
simply trying to survive.
When looking at the fictional Augustin Dieufort, it is easy to see how he was written in a
way that took inspiration from future Maroon leaders who would fight for the independence
of their people decades later.
The next point was the use of a vessel to intercept incoming slave ships with the goal
of freeing its captives.
Although it only occurred after they attained their independence, there are records of Haitian
vessels being used ambush and seized foreign slave ships, ultimately liberating the individuals
within.
Next, we can talk about the French response to the increased Maroon activity.
Although I had trouble finding any example in which they purposefully sunk a slave ship,
what I did find was many parallels with the game in terms of the slavers increasing the
punishment and the abusive conditions towards their slaves in an attempt to dissuade further
rebellion in such periods of revolt.
Lastly, the final component of the story in which Ubisoft manipulated the recorded history
to fit the game's story was Governor de Fayet's death.
Although he is recorded as dying in 1737, I was hard-pressed to find any details related
to his cause of death, thus leaving it open for the writers to fill the gap by having
Adéwalé kill him.
Taking all of this information into consideration, we can now contemplate whether this period
of Maroon Rebellion was fairly depicted in Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry.
As I've stated multiple times, despite it not technically being a realistic depiction
of a revolutionary Maroon movement occurring from 1735 to 1737, when looking at it as a
representation of the decades of struggles to come, I personally believe that Freedom
Cry gave players a rather authentic look at the brutality of slavery in the period and
the people who would come to fight against it.
The portrayal of the hidden Maroon communities, the failed attempts to negotiate peace agreements
with the colonists, and the subsequent retaliatory raids on plantations as part of the larger
battle for independence and freedom were all part of compressed story which truly summarized
to a small extent the evolution of this movement over the decades that followed.
By simply looking at how close Adéwalé felt their revolution was coming in 1737, when
it reality it wouldn't technically begin until 1791, it gives players a brief glimpse
of how long and drawn out this process was, as it took strong leaders and a specific set
of circumstances to finally light the revolutionary fuse.
As a final note, I'd like to also quickly add that the inclusion of the Spanish-French
Geodesic Mission as the main historical event in the story was interesting, because although
in reality it didn't tie-into the Maroons' struggle at all, the game portrayed many of
its components in a rather accurate manner.
Nevertheless, with that final thought we have reached the end of today's video.
If you enjoyed the content, please share this series with your friends and be sure to explore
our other episodes.
For now, I intend to continue covering the franchise's time periods, but feel free
to leave me your topic requests for future videos in the comments.
As always, my sources used for making this video will be in the description bar below.
Thank you for watching.
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