Victoria Montou

Victoria "Abdaraya Toya" Montou (died 1805) was a Dahomey in the Benin tribe (female soldier) and freedom fighter in the army of Jean-Jacques Dessalines during the Haitian Revolution. She was reportedly Dessalines's aunt. Toya Montou was not the only woman to serve in the Haitian army during the revolution. While most of the names of the female soldiers are forgotten, exceptions are Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére, who served at the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot, that took place from 4 March until 24 March 1802, and Sanité Belair.

Part of a series on
Slavery
Contemporary Child labour Child soldiers Conscription Debt Forced marriage Bride buying Wife selling Forced prostitution Human trafficking Peonage Penal labour Contemporary Africa 21st-century Islamism Sexual slavery Wage slavery
Historical Antiquity Ancient Rome Ancient Greece Asia Babylonia Medieval Europe The Muslim World Byzantine Empire Ottoman Empire Topics and practices Atlantic slave trade Middle Passage Arab slave trade Ghilman Mamluk Saqaliba Harem Ottoman slave trade Circassian beauties Devshirme Millet system Imperial Harem Odalisque Barbary slave trade Barbary corsairs The Barbary Coast Turkish Abductions Aztec Blackbirding Coolie Corvée labor Field slaves in the United States House slaves Kholop Panyarring Thrall Serfs History Russia Slave market Slave raiding Child soldiers Naval Galley slave Impressment Pirates Shanghaiing Slave ship
By country or region Sub-Saharan Africa Contemporary Africa Slave Coast Angola Chad Ethiopia Mali Mauritania Niger Somalia South Africa Sudan Seychelles North and South America Americas indigenous U.S. Natives Brazil Lei Áurea Canada Caribbean Barbados Code Noir Cuba Haiti revolt Restavek Latin America (Encomienda) Puerto Rico Trinidad United States colonial maps female partus penal labor Slave codes interregional Human trafficking Virgin Islands East, Southeast, and South Asia Human trafficking in Southeast Asia Bhutan China Booi Aha Laogai penal system India Debt bondage Chukri System Japan comfort women South Korea Yankee princess North Korea Vietnam Australia and Oceania Blackbirding Human trafficking in Australia Slave raiding in Easter Island Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea Blackbirding in Polynesia Europe and North Asia Sex trafficking in Europe Britain Denmark Dutch Republic Germany in World War II Malta Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Spain colonies Sweden North Africa and West Asia Iran Libya Human trafficking in the Middle East Yemen
Religion Slavery and religion Bible Christianity Catholicism Mormonism Islam 21st century Mukataba Ma malakat aymanukum Judaism Bahá'í Faith
Opposition and resistance Abolitionism U.K. U.S. Anti-Slavery International Blockade of Africa U.K. U.S. Colonization Liberia Sierra Leone Compensated emancipation Freedman manumission Freedom suit Abolitionists Slave Power Underground Railroad songs Slave rebellion Slave Trade Acts International law Third Servile War 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom
Related Common law Indentured servitude Unfree labour Fugitive slaves laws Great Dismal Swamp maroons List of slaves owners Slave narrative films songs Slave name Slave catcher Slave patrol Slave Route Project Treatment in U.S. breeding court cases Washington Jefferson Adams Lincoln 40 acres Freedmen's Bureau bit Emancipation Day

Before the revolution, Montou had worked alongside Dessalines as a slave. She was described as intelligent and energetic, and shared a close relationship with Dessalines and the same hatred toward slavery. During the slave rebellion and civil war, she fought as a soldier in active service; on at least one documented occasion, she commanded soldiers in action during battle. In 1804, Dessalines became emperor and Dessalines gave her the title of Duchess . When Montou was dying, the emperor demanded the doctor to treat her as he would him, and stated that Toya was his aunt who had shared his feelings since before the revolution. She was given a state funeral with a procession of eight sergeants and Empress Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite.