17998: Bell: question on the War of Knives

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Bob Corbett prefaces:

I received a number of replies, each saying they just didn't think
such a duel ever took place.  Madison Smartt Bell give an argument which
makes sense to me.

From: madison bell <mbell@goucher.edu>

Dessalines-Rigaud duel never happened.  The scene from the play (and
lithograph) sounds like an allegorical representation to me... Since
Dessalines was the scourge of the mulattoes in the South during and
especially after the civil war.  Dessalines-Rigaud duel would symbolize
the
conflict, etc.

msb