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Haiti to Harlem: Toussaint L'Ouverture & Jacob Lawrence Main Menu Jacob Lawrence: The Storyteller Paintings to Prints The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture in Print Contextualizing The Prints Curating the Exhibition Imprints and Impact Highlights the impact of the Jacob Lawrence prints in relation to both Lawrence's life and the history of global POC liberation. About the Curators Meet the Fall 2024 Curatorial Class! Select Bibliography

To Preserve their Freedom

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Left: Napoleon's attempt to restore slavery in Haiti was unsuccessful. Desalines, Chief of the Blacks, defended LeClerc. Black men, women, and children took up arms to preserve their freedom (1937) / Right: To Preserve Their Freedom (1988) 

To Preserve Their Freedom is based on the thirty-eighth painting in the original painting series, depicting the Haitian revolutionaries who took up arms to fight for their freedom against their French oppressors. L'Ouverture's revolutionary influence inspired the Haitian people even after he was captured. Lawrence utilizes bright bold colors and simple geometric shapes to portray these five revolutionaries. The simplistic nature of their dynamism emphasizes the determined nature of their movements. The sugar cane motif in the foreground reminds us of the historical context of the Haitian Revolution. The addition of the bright red wound on the central figure truly captures the raw militaristic and often brutal nature of revolution.

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