The Priest and the Prophetess
Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World
Terry Rey
Reviews and Awards
"Rey raises important questions about who scholars and Haitians should include in the country's pantheon of national heroes and why." - Erica Johnson Edwards, Associate Professor, Department of History, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC, USA, Journal of Early American History
"The Priest and the Prophetess offers a fascinating glimpse into an understudied figure in Haitian Revolutionary history. Along the way, Rey manages to augment and helpfully complicate narratives of the Haitian Revolution and portrayals of Haitian religion.... The Priest and the Prophetess makes a compelling case for the centrality of Catholicism in the Haitian Revolution." - Reading Religion
"By illumining the Haitian Revolution through Catholic people, ritual, and ideology, Rey has restored a key perspective generally missing from most historical interpretations of this period. The Priest and the Prophetess is an engaging, fresh, and thoughtprovoking read." - Sue Peabody, New West Indian Guide
"The Priest and the Prophetess offers a rich and fascinating story, evocatively told, that gives us new insight into the spiritual, cultural and political meanings of the Haitian Revolution. Through the carefully reconstructed life of the remarkable Romaine Rivière, Rey illuminates a key moment in the religious history of Haiti and the Afro-Atlantic world." - Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution
"Tracing the collaboration and divergence of two remarkable figuresone a defrocked French priest, the other an African-descended prophetessTerry Rey brilliantly illuminates the role of popular Catholicism as an intellectual force in the revolutionary Atlantic world. Along the way, Rey resurrects little-known life histories of the Haitian Revolution. Deeply researched and engagingly written, this is micro-history at its very best." - James H. Sweet, University of Wisconsin, Madison