While reading Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ Liberty or Death I felt a ball of passion develop in my chest. For a second, I actually wished I was an oppressed Haitian in that time so I can run down the streets with my friends and family yelling. I imagined the crowd of people just swarming down on all the officials and stabbing them. Whether, this scene excites me because of my recent addiction to Breaking Bad or an undiscovered psychological problem, I do not know.
Dessalines uses such powerful, yet violent words and phrases that I do not see how one would not want to run and rebel for their liberty. The feeling that I got while reading this was similar to the feeling I used to get on my way to my high school’s pep rallies. It was the feeling of coming together and feeling united in the same cause. Maybe that’s what patriotism feels like?
