This page was created by Andre John Adams. The last update was by Anne Paxton.
The Capture
Left: Toussaint Captured Marmelade, held by Vernet, a mulatto, 1795 (1937) / Right: The Capture (1987)
Relatively faithful to the original painting, The Capture depicts the moment when General Toussaint L'Ouverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution, and his forces overrun the town of Marmelade--held by French Republicans. L'Ouverture succeeded in capturing Marmelade after convincing mixed-race soldier André Vernet to change sides, later joining Toussaint’s forces to victory. Appearing through the thick sugarcane grasses, Toussaint L'Ouverture and his riders clench their stirrups as they capture the town of Marmelade. The ever-encroaching sugarcane eating away at the picture frame is a consistent motif throughout Lawrence’s print series representing the slave labor rooted at the center of the Haitian Revolution. Faced with the painful restraint of the center white horse, Jacob Lawrence creates a visually capturing scene as he illustrates the intensity behind pivotal events of the Haitian Revolution. Using muted colors and bold, angular shapes Lawrence creates strong contrasts between light and dark emphasizing the emotional gravity of the war.
*Note, a mulatto, an outdated term, meant someone of mixed-race (usually Black-white) heritage. For instance, the acclaimed French author Alexandre Dumas, the son of Thomas Alexandre Dumas (Haitian), and Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret (white-French), was a mulatto.
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