On September 10, 1779, a group of free Black and enslaved Haitian soldiers fought alongside American revolutionaries at the Siege of Savannah — the bloodiest single engagement of the American Revolution. Among them were women. Their names were not systematically recorded.

The Haitian Revolution began formally in 1791. It was the only successful slave revolution in history, producing the world's first Black republic. The women who organized it are largely missing from the historical record.

Sanité Bélair was born around 1781 in the Artibonite Valley of Saint-Domingue, the French colony that became Haiti. She was a free woman of color who joined the revolution as a soldier, fighting alongside her husband Charles Bélair under the command of Toussaint Louverture. When Toussaint was captured by the French in 1802 and Napoleon attempted to restore slavery, she continued fighting. She was captured by French forces in September 1802, court-martialed, and executed by firing squad. She was approximately twenty-one years old. By multiple accounts, when offered a blindfold, she refused it.

Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité was the wife of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared Haitian independence in 1804 and became Emperor Jacques I. She is documented as having hidden escaped slaves from French forces in her home during the revolution and having repeatedly interceded with her husband to prevent massacres of civilians. He executed the massacre of 1804 anyway.

The independence declaration names forty signatories. None of them are women.