How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The French and then the Americans are his successors—and they more than equal him in cruelty and injustice. But we do not bear their yoke lightly! For five hundred years they have robbed us, but for five hundred years we have defied them! (1.85)
Power to the people—there's been too much injustice. That's the gist of Aristide's speech at least. He goes on and on about the justice system, and he's absolutely right. There's a lot of injustice in Haiti. Here's the problem, though: Talking a big game doesn't bring justice to the people.
Quote #2
The philosophers agreed that liberty was a right that could not be taken away, except as punishment for criminal acts. So could they not simply rise up, with justice in their hearts, and take their freedom by force? Was it necessary that they cement their alliance with this superstitious ceremony? (2.53)
Annoyed that they have to have a lavish ceremony with a houngan, Toussaint rolls his eyes at every corner. Why can't they just get on with it? He points out that they are fighting for what is right—freedom—and that shouldn't require some fancy ceremony and magic tricks for people to support it.
Quote #3
He asked himself why he was rebelling, then, but he already knew the answer. He himself was free—as free as he needed to be, anyway. He enjoyed satisfying employment and lived with his son, Isaac, in a cottage with a vegetable garden behind it. But others were not free. Every day he saw them sold and exchanged and raped and murdered. (4.14)
For Toussaint, it's not about getting freedom for himself; he wants to fight for justice for everyone. He's not doing this for selfish reasons, since he already has a lot of power and autonomy—this is one of the ways we know he's legit. Toussaint is more interested in fighting for what is right than he is in saving his own neck.
Quote #4
One: we weren't just children. There's no such thing as children in Site Solèy, only smaller starving people, only smaller dead people. (5.81)
Shorty's dad gets mad at Manman because Shorty and Marguerite are just kids. We think he means that they deserve a childhood free from violence and gangs and with extra justice and opportunity. We couldn't agree more. Shorty fills us in on the fact, though, that there is no justice in the Site. In fact, there aren't even kids. Everyone has to grow up fast there.
Quote #5
When you keep hurting someone, you do one of three things. Either you fill them up with hate, and they destroy everything around them. Or you fill them up with sadness, and they destroy themselves. Or you fill them up with justice, and they try to destroy everything that's bad and cruel in this world. (5.120)
Shorty tells us he's in the first group. Translation? He hates people and has no trouble showing it. We don't need to be reminded of that. But we also notice that Toussaint is in the third group (which searches for justice). Maybe that part of the slave leader will rub off on Shorty after a while. One can only hope.
Quote #6
He was filled with an overwhelming desire not for vengeance, but for justice. He saw a world that crushed people beneath its wheels, and he determined to take its reins and steer it onto sweeter ground. (6.36)
Toussaint is a level-headed dude who makes decisions based on what is right and fair, not what he feels. In short, he's always after justice. Even when it's not popular among his fellow slaves, Toussaint begs them to show integrity and mercy to slave-owners and their country. Otherwise, they might regret it one day.
Quote #7
It seemed to him, lying there, that there were three kinds of slaves, three kinds of people. […] The third kind of person, though, was filled by their experience with a fierce longing for justice, a fierce desire to make things right in the world, to redress the balance. (6.37)
Is it just us, or does this sound an awful lot like what Shorty says about gangsters? It's clear that both groups have people who got into the posse for different reasons. Even Toussaint and Shorty approach life differently. No matter what the attitude of the gangster or slave, it's always centered around justice (either for or against).
Quote #8
I'm not a gangster, said Biggie. People come here, they call me a gangster, but they don't know s*** about the Site. No moun want to help with the education here, no moun want to give out food—apart from us. People here got anyen to eat, anyen to drink, but they got guns. What you expect gonna happen? (17.22)
Here's a tip: Don't go throwing the "g" word in Biggie's face. Stephanie learns that one the hard way—after she calls him a gangster, Biggie flips out. Mainly, this is because he can't stand when people judge him from the outside looking in. Why don't they walk a mile in his shoes before they judge?
Quote #9
He was respected by all: by the soldiers, who appreciated his fairness and even, to his surprise, his harsh justice; by the whites; by the mulats. In his view, the constitution should not have been controversial. (18.29)
Thinking about himself, Toussaint realizes that so many people support him because he's on the right side of the debate. He proves that some things are inherently good or bad. Or, to put it another way, that slaves deserve justice, too.
Quote #10
They think they're helping, she said. They think they're helping to keep the Site free of crime.— If they want to do that, they should pay for some schools, create jobs. Then people wouldn't want drugs. (21.8)
Stephanie and Shorty talk about justice and we can tell that they don't appreciate the U.N. coming in there and telling them how to run things. They think it's unfair for some big shot to order the people in the Site around when they don't give them any resources to get out of the cycle of poverty and violence they are in.