William Duke Smither

Passage (s) to Saint-Domingue William Duke Smither

Passage(s) to Saint-Domingue is the sequel to Backroads to 'Bethlehem' and second book in the Trilogy on Western Hemispheric Marronage. It unfolds around 1742, in the wake of guerrilla warfare against British forces in Jamaica. Jakobe's life begins in the militaristic Maroon village of Akrafena, from nearly cradle to teen, with childhood shenanigans and wagering hi-jinks near the docks of Kingston Harbor. Jakobe's Journey gathers momentum as a seaman-apprentice and "powder monkey" aboard the Sea Serpent, a lightly-armed, two-masted merchant ship used for smuggling. At 20, on the lam in the revenge killing for his father's death, Jakobe takes flight to the Island of Hispaniola. In Saint-Domingue, his unique seafaring skills accrue to the benefit of his new family, as well as mountain Maroons. During the run-up to the island's successful insurrection, Jakobe finds himself with well-heeled connections to black-marketing circles and a secret network of abolitionists. As a close friend and confident of General Toussaint L'Ouverture, he was assigned tactical-and-munitions liaison duties under General Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Then, as vultures gather during the hushed but historic victory of the enslaved over the French at the Battle of Vertieres, Jakobe confronts the meaning of life once more. Six weeks later, on January 1, 1804, Dessalines proclaimed the island's independence, renaming it as "Ayiti," the indigenous Taino name.